Spartans and Gators on the way
 

Hi,

Tonight I fixed some figures and complete my ironman teams for solitaire 2011 event.

Here's some pics.

As you see, it's standardized. 11men +2 option figures. Qbs are fully playable both ways offense and defense.


All my next college or "minor league/semi pro" teams (japan xleague, european) will be built that way. thmbsp$ I believe, not only speaking of solitaire play (where the advantages of that type of setup is obvious), that it can be a good way to promote the hobby here : on a beginner budget aspect first, but also for education and football rules learning. Giving a full roster to a beginner on a demo play is not a good idea. Limited options for limited complexity, and limited budget for limited wallet :D


My 30+ players setups will be reserved for pro football only (UFL, NFL). If I can (need to see if the new board setup is compatible) I'll keep the college teams in 3.2grams limit also.


The teams will be painted and detailed thuesday, certainly. You'll see that I can also paint fast :rtfl:


Then I'll have to find those bases:D

GOOD DEAL
 

FRENCH GUY

GOOD DEAL, looking foward to seeing them both. Logo for the league coming shortly !!!! its going to be fun.

.mantaraydre

standardized teams
 

Tonight I making the last touches before tommorow painting thmbsp$

I'm also thinking about standardization. I want my teams as equal as possible, for solitaire play of course, but also for 1vs1 gaming. Why ?

Because in France, on french forums, I saw that the 30 or more rosters with ultra specialized athletes was frightning for most of the guys.

Remember also that when I'm lucky enough to find a kind friend to play with the weird Dimitri and his little plastic men :D , it's very difficult to make fair games since I know the teams, not them.

The other thing is budget. If I want to build a lot of teams for my solitaire leagues and to share them for demo play or casual 1sv1 gaming, I need to keep a simple and straight objective. Cheapest figures, cheapes bases. Minimal roster (11+2).

The last team is time. Discussing with a friend recently, telling me he has all the nfl teams for miniature football in 4 or 5 versions, I realized that in more than one year, I built just two incomplete pros teams :eek: So I need to find a fast technic to make more teams.

So my idea is to put standards in team building. Like in a chess play, each piece can move one way. So I can explain anyone how to play his team in 5 minutes.

here's the scheme (all on the cheapest miggle rookie base available). Remember also that my ruleset allows and encourage pivots and angles on most situations (formation setting, passing play, snap, fumbles, interceptions)

starting squad offense / (defense position)
QB: mixed speed/strenght, straight run / (defense : LB)
RB (hb) : speed, straight run / (defense : safety)
RB (fb) : mixed speed/strenght, straight run./ (defense : LB)
WR1 : speed, straight run/ (defense : CB)
WR2 : speed, straight run / (defense : CB)
TE : mixed speed/strenght, straight run. / (defense : LB)
linemen : pure strenght / (defense : DE, NT, LB)

fastest athlete : kick returner

options players :

RB2 : speed, looper / (defense : blitzer)
WR3 : speed, looper / (defense : blitzer)

With that scheme, I keep playability, easy to explain, low budget and less time to complete the teams.

The figures are ready for painting.

The only customizing I did is adding a towel on quarterbacks, for easier recognizing.

Here's some pics of it. I'll continue the painting process details on painting section thmbsp$

painting process
 

Hi,

Today I started the paint, I'm a bit late on my schedule since I had a family lunch, and then I had some problems with white pants (4 coats for each figure, painting white on grey is a pain), but the work is progressing :D

Enough for today !

I did not progress as far I wanted, but I painted all the basic colors. It took multiple coats to obtain the result I wanted.

I also added basic shades on jerseys, and keep the green helmets slightly metallic.

Here's a pic of the 26 figures !

Here's some pics of the last work I did before I go to work :

Hi,

I almost completed the helmets. Now I'll varnish them (only the helmets)

Next step : finish the skins effects.

TOmmorow : black stripping to add details, finish the pants strips, design the decals sheet thmbsp$

FRENCH IS ON THE MOVE.
 

French g,

Man your on the move, you dont waste time. Your teams are looking good and starting to take shape. keep up the good work !!!!! It's going to be a great league. Im glad you decided to be a part of it.

Thanx again for joining

mantaraydre

You're welcome thmbsp$


Here's the last improvements for tonight. I'll continue tommorow after work !

wow, they already look great. ppls$

thank you ! thmbsp$

Today after work I went to a shop similar to your wall mart, and bought a high resolution (2megapixels) webcam, wich includes also white led lighting. I paid about 30USD for it thmbsp$

I made a few testing with it, the quality is really impressive for this price. Of course it's not HD or as good as DV video, but really cool.

THe light works great, with linux I can make real time effects too.

SO stay tuned for future first french miniature football television :D

Here's a picture of the camera, and a screenshot of the current video I can obtain out of box (just rough shot, no special settings or nothing else...Very promising). I can almost do macro shooting :eek:

creating details where's no details
 

I could not resist and created detailed muscles and face. All without any sculpting, only painting and inking effects. I'm having a lot of fun detailing those little things. It's slightly diferent than painting very detailed figures with sculpted details. You have to "cheat" and make your brain believe there is some edges and hollows, or diferent parts on the figure, where it's just flat.

Now I'm working on black lining (I already started on the Spartans players, you can see it on the jersey bottoms and colars) and then I'll add the eyes.

I made the light brown skin tones, I also have to make the dark tones and white tones.

Last pics for today !

Sorry, night dark and satured pics only...I'll do better ones tommorow.

Tommorow I'll finisht the spartans painting for sure, maybe the gators also.

I also have to do the decals sheets, and install my video system and permanent wired internet access in the gameroom.

Dimitri

spartans completed
 

Hi,

I just finished the spartans. Now I have to make the decal sheet for it, but the painting process is finished (even if I'll certainly add painted chinstraps after the decals pose).

On special effects, you can see painted chinstrap first part, fake painted faces to simulate sculpting and volume, eyes, fake gloves on skill players, shadings on pants (can't see them on bright pics, but the weather is ugly today, I'll not be able to make better pics for now),fake helmet fixations (you know the white stuff on front and rear side of the helmet), and fake detailed muscles. No sculpting on these figs (except the towel on the multi purpose QB/MLB/NT figure), just a cut of the stock factory plastic face mask molding (on several photos you can see the light revealing the flat faces).

Here's some pics. I'm happy with the funny faces they have :D on the first two individuals, they seem to say "oh my god what I'm doing here?" :rtfl:

thanks thmbsp$

I finalized then printed my decal sheet. With an open source legal and free vector software, a personal 50USD printer + a 2usd decal sheet, you can obtain really cools results.

Plain bright colors (even if the pic is not good), sharp details. "michigan state" words are about 1 or maybe 2mm high. :eek:

HEY FRENCH
 

FRENCH,

Your a genius ! Your teams a turning out great. I have 1 question. How the heck do you paint the HELMET STRIPES so they look so clean and straight ?

Thanx
mantaraydre

15years painting figures :D I'm not saying I'm a great painter (believe me, there is a lot of miniatures painters -historic, fantasy- way better than me), I'm just saying that with the experience, I learned some "gesture" helping to do those painting jobs. No magic trick or tips on that particular technic.

One important thing in miniature painting is to never be satisfied by your technic level. Always try to do better, learn, read books and tutorials. If you keep that in mind, you will progress regularly. If you think your painting level is OK, and always do the same way, you'll not progress. Simply as that ;)

The only thing I can say, is that you first need very good brushes, and paint wich is diluted just the right way. Too diluted, it will loose the opacity, too thick you will never be able to make a straight line. I use a brush just the right size I want to make the stripe. Then, with a 45°angle I paint my strip in 2 or 3 moves maximum. Trying to apply the same pressure on brush and apply the same amount of paint. If it's not perfect, I take a 3/0 brush (or even a 5/0) and re-do the outlines from the inside to the outside of the stripe. Once again, think about the brush pressure and paint amount.

You also have to think about your breath. Apnea during precise painting helps, it's the same tips sharp shooters use with...guns :D

Last thing, be stable on your table. the hand holding the fig should not move, and the painting hand either. you can pose your arms on the table, for example.

Looking great! Why MSU?

Why not ? :rtfl:

I don't know, Dre told me "take michigan", I googled it and found those spartans...Here we go with spartans :D

I will not pretend I know anything in college football...Just found the logo and uniform cool.

Great choice! Go Green Go White!

This morning before going to work I made some first tries for the decals.

I expected to have to make some adjustements (with white paper, you always have to make paint adjustements to hide the white outlines and fix color matching, since it's difficult to find the exact paint tone), and it was a little worst than I thought :D

Maybe I didn't varnish the decal sheet enough, I don't know. But it's OK, it's easily fix-able with a little paint addition. The 2nd pic give a good idea of the final result and real color I did.

On the pics, you can see a figure I already fixed and another one I just posed the decals and need to fix tonight.

Last tip about making decals on white paper : if you have a scanner, brush a little paint on a paper sheet, the paint you used for the figures you want to decal.

Then, scan it. On the file you obtain, with the graphics software tool (in french "pipette", I don't know the name in english...it's the tool used to pick the color code of something), pick the color and note the RGB code (or save it if you work in CMYK).

Then, when you make your decal background, use the color you picked. It's the best way I found to make decent colors matchings. You can see on the figure that the result is not too bad thmbsp$

outstanding!!!!!!!!!

I will have to get with you on the decals...I like the start...

I do have a printer that prints all the colors of the spectum...including white, sliver, gold.......

faces are too cool!!!!


BTW - redskins will be ready this week......

Thank you K-lo ! thmbsp$

Great thmbsp$ It will be a way easier to make custom decals, on clear decal paper. So you will not have to make fixes like I do. thmbsp$ If you need any advice, I'll help you, just ask.


ltsplbll ltsplbll ltsplbll

great job... really good Spartans


Benster from north of the border

thanks !

I made 2 more figures (remains 7 to do), the 4 firsts are dry, and waiting for the helmets decals and facemasks :

Dude!!!!
 

Dude!!!! drl$$ drl$$ You're really good! Very talented! Mad Skillzzzzzzzz. What you did to those little plain figures is rediculous! SICK!!! ppls$

WOW!!! I love looking at your threads and drl$$

Love the font you used for the jersey numbers and the names. Care to share? ppls$ drl$$

Ed wnnrcgr shkthbx:

For the font, I'll see what I used (can't remember the exact name). For what I know, they are not perfectly accurate for that team. The real team fonts are pure sans serif ones, these ones' got some serif on several numbers (like "7").


Thanks for the comments, guys thmbsp$

For the faces, I had that idea seeing LEGO figures. 2 eyes, one mouth, and really expressive finally. Same concept used here (flat faces, face basic face painting : eyes, nose, mouth).

To draw that details I used some ink darker than the skin tone but similar.

drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ drl$$ thmbsp$ thmbsp$ thmbsp$ thmbsp$ thmbsp$ thmbsp$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ ppls$ :rllngs: :rllngs: :rllngs: :rllngs: :rllngs: :rllngs: :rllngs:


I wish I could send you all my old figures/teams to just get the faces and arm details!!!

k-lo

thanks !


IN fact to do that type of details, you don't need to know sculpting. The arms and faces are flat, I made no modification on figures except remove the molded facemask and helmet edges ;) it's just painting and inking !

Morning work !

I did the decals on helmets. On the first pic, the figures are almost finished (just have to varnish the helmets again, and make the fake chinstraps).

On the 2d pic, the figures stills in progress, fixing the decals outline with paint, as I explained before.

Tonight it will be finished. So tommorow morning I'll be able to put the facemasks on them.

Then, I'll work on the gators, my plan is to have them finished sunday.

Hi,


the figures are completed. Now the varnish is drying, then I'll install the facemasks tonight.

Here's some (dark) pics of the team. The chinstraps are painted. A easy and cheap way to make them : make a thin black line, than a thinner white line in it. For me it's the best way to make chinstraps. I even prefer that way more than my first sculpted chinstraps attempts. It give a result more on correct scale.

It's also a good way to hide some helmet logos defects.

Wow Dimitri! The dirt marks on the players are a great touch. ppls$

dirt ? :D On my immaculate white pants ??? :confused: mgngcrz :rtfl:

Here's some preview pics of the final starting squad. Tommorow I'll do the plateforms with modelling flock etc...

I really enjoyed building a miniature football team "the classic way". My favorite stills Florida Gators, I'll finish them during the week end.

I'm also in ordering process for unpainted figs, hundreds of bases, etc... To build my solitaire league. ltsplbll

Dimitri ,Great work as usual

french guy
 

french,

Your an incredible artist. You went from not knowing much about college football to creating a masterpiece. You have definitely changed the game. coaches are going to want details on how to make there fab five figures/haiti repros look like that.

EXCELLENT WORK AS USuaL.

thanx again for joining

mantaraydre

thank you both for the comments.

Making these little figures was really fun. First, because of the scale. These figures are significantly smaller than the other ranges of figs. That's make the job slightly diferent.

Creating details the fast way : I saw that for that type of figures, painting effects are good enough. That squad side to one of my "steroid" 4.0g team is not ridiculous speaking of detail level, especially when you think about the time I saved not sculpting everything this time.

Finally, these teams will be funny to play on solitaire, but also for demo/casual gaming guests. in a game of figures, one important part of the fun is the "mise en scène" of the figures, to help players imagination to believe in the situation they are simulating (football, war, whatever).


Now...I'll finish the plateforms, and it will be Gators time !





edit : here's the last pic of the spartans. This morning I added the sawdust, tonight I'll finish them, so this week end I'll be able to work on the Gators !


A very important point when you make detailed plateforms is to not paint directly the saw dust (or modelling flock) once it's dry. YOU FIRST NEED TO PUT A COAT OF DILUTED (water) PVA (white glue for wood craft, for example) GLUE on the modelling flock/sawdust !

Then it will be sturdy as rock, and easier to paint. Once it's perfectly dry, paint it in green or whatever color, make a drybrush if you want to (lighter color, for example yellow on green) then VARNISH IT with liquid matte acrylic medium or acrylic varnish.

I wanted to notice that because I readed some guys complaining about modelling flock going of the plateforms because of the bases clips thmbsp$

Spartans completed
 

Here's the final team, just drying on the desk. But they are 100% completed.

I'm also working on the computer side of that league ambitions. I'm installing a fast (xubuntu 10 LTS) linux based operating system on an old p4 PC I've got. I choosed linux for all my personal computers a long time ago, for the reliability and performances it offers. Depanding of the machine I install linux on, I move from a distribution (=same linux "core", but diferent "skin", even if it's a not a perfect shortcut to explain) to another one, more adapted to what I want to do or the power possibilities I have.

For people who likes Macs but can't afford it, a linux PC system is quite similar to a OSX system.