Miniature Monday #3

This week's featured miniature is a Sorcerer with a conversion from the original. As you can see from the following picture, this guy has had a staff upgrade (done by our good friend Keith Unger) and has grown a beard since he left the production line at Reaper miniatures.

Miniature Painting Tip #3 - Selecting your color scheme

When painting miniatures for gaming purposes, sometimes your color scheme is chosen for you by the game - chapter colors for 40K Space Marines, for example. In RPGs you often have more freedom to paint the model as you choose.

The color scheme of the commissioned miniature above was generally based on a painting - which is a great way to find colors that appeal to you. If you don't have a starting reference, however, a good place to start is a color wheel.

One common approach when painting miniatures is to use complementary colors to create visual appeal and contrast. There are many other ways to produce harmonious color schemes from the color wheel as well that are worth learning. For a brief overview of color theory and introduction to color harmony, click here. Keep in mind you will want high contrast to bring out the details of the miniature.

Painted miniature and Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Fun with Science Friday: Building Your own Wind Turbine for Your Home

Following our earlier Fun with Science Friday post about building your own wind turbine on a small scale, we started doing some research into building a real, working wind turbine to help power your home. We found a lot of companies selling wind turbines for home use, as well as a lot of ebooks and manuals for sale on how to build your own. And then we found this free site which shows step-by-step, with pictures, how one man built a wind turbine for $140.62!

For an overview of the benefits of channeling the power of wind energy for home use and determining if it is practical for you, read this.

Fun Fact: Texas accounts for nearly 25% of the total installed wind power capacity in the U.S., with 10,085 MW of installed capacity. (source)

Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Miniature Monday #2

This week's featured mini is a Space Marine Scout from Games Workshop that has been painted for use as a gang leader in the game of Necromunda - a fun tabletop skirmish game that we at GeektGear.com highly recommend.

Miniature Painting Tip #2 - Use the right type of paint!

You will want to paint your miniatures in acrylic paint, NOT enamels. You also want to make sure you are not using high-gloss acrylics. Fortunately, gaming companies have taken a lot of the guesswork out of choosing the right kind of paint. Many carry their own line of paints that have been specially formulated to have a good flow that won't glob on your miniature, while providing good coverage with one to two coats.

Here are some of the more popular brands of paints for miniatures we have used: Vallejo, Citadel, Reaper, and Formula P3. Each line has varying pros and cons as they are manufactured by different companies. Ultimately, you can either choose a brand and learn to work with it to get the results you want, or you can try the different brands and find which suits your painting style best. For a great review of acrylic paints for miniatures, click here.

Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Fun with Science Friday: Naked Eggs & Flying Potatoes

When it comes to making science fun, there is no doubt Steve Spangler is the perfect guy for the job. His latest book, Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes, is filled with easy and inexpensive science experiments guaranteed to amaze and entertain while you learn about the secrets of science behind the reactions. And the best part is you can do these experiments without complicated lab equipment or impossible-to-find chemicals! Most of the items needed will be readily available in your household.

Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Miniature Mondays

GeektGear.com is happy to announce the start of a new blog posting series called "Miniature Mondays" featuring gaming minis painted by artist (and GeektGear Co-Owner) Alisha K. Ard with tips on painting miniatures. To kick off this series, here are some pictures of 3 minis she was recently commissioned to paint for Tim Brannan.

Miniature Painting Tip #1: A Good Base Coat

Whether you are painting plastic or metal miniatures, you are going to have to give them a base coat of primer. Primer is a paint product designed to adhere to surfaces and create a binding layer between the surface you are painting and the finishing paint.

There are different options when it comes to priming your minis. You can choose between brushing on a primer (such as this one by Reaper Miniatures) or using a spray paint primer. There is much debate over whether it is best to use a black primer or white primer, and we'll tackle this topic in a later post. For now, we are going to focus on what makes a good base coat.

1.) Make sure you are using a primer - not regular paint. You will find, especially on metal miniatures, that regular paint will not adhere to the surface very well. It will bubble up or run into the crevices. Which leads us to point #2.

2.) Don't gunk up your miniature with a thick base coat. These are small figures with fine details. You don't want the crevices full of paint or the eyes filled in solid with primer. If you are using spray paint primer it is important not to just point the can at the mini and spray it directly. Instead, spray it in sweeping passes. If the base coat appears too thin in areas or you missed places, turn the mini and spray from a different angle in another sweeping pass. If your miniature does lose a lot of detail because the primer is applied too thick, strip the miniature and start again. No painting technique is going to make the finished mini look good if the base coat is too thick.

If you have additional tips for priming your miniatures you would like to share, or questions about painting miniatures, we welcome your comments!

Painted miniatures and Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Visual Frequency - Fun with Science Friday

Ok, we are giving you fair warning - you will want to turn the sound DOWN for this one! Watch the incredible patterns and shapes created by the vibrations of the frequencies in the sound waves at varying pitches. Interesting to note that they get more complex as the pitch increases.

Article by:  Alisha K. Ard

Fun with Science Friday - Build Your Own Wind Turbine! (on a small scale)

Whether you are looking to teach about alternative energy sources, searching for a gift for a science-loving kid (recommended for ages 8+), or you just like the idea of building your own wind turbine (there was no upper limit in the age group, after all) - this looks like a lot of fun!

Product description from the Thames & Kosmos website:

"Build wind-powered generators to energize your electric vehicles and charge your rechargeable batteries! The wind spins the turbine, which turns an electric generator, which in turn charges your rechargeable AA batteries (not included). You can then use those wind-charged batteries to power the model vehicles you build. The six models include a glider, sail car, jet car, tractor, racecar, and tricycle."

Wind Power 2.0 kits are available to purchase online (with FREE shipping) through Amazon.com. To locate a local place to pick up one of these great science kits click here. And here is a link for more great alternative energy and environmental science kits (you know, in case you prefer solar or hydropower to wind).

Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Millennium Con 12+1, 2010 in Pictures

Millennium Con 12+1 proved to be a fun-filled, game-packed weekend for all who attended. In addition to the people there for gaming, we met a lot of great vendors as well: Splintered Light Miniatures, 2 Hour Wargames, Combat Painter Studios,  Battle Mart, & Reaper Miniatures.

Reaper hosted a paint-&-take through-out the convention, offering the chance to try out their paints on a Reaper miniature that you could then take home for free. Bryan and Shannon were gracious enough to let us paint a couple of our own Reaper minis to try out their paints. (This also provided the opportunity to paint a couple of our gaming group's adventurers for our Warhammer Quest party - a double bonus!)

Having primarily used Citadel paints from Games Workshop to paint miniatures, the quality of Reaper paints offered a pleasant surprise. It also seems the design of their bottles would prevent some of the issues with drying out that Citadel paint pots have - which means less wasted paint in the long run.

Featured miniatures painted by GeektGear.com Co-Owner, Alisha K. Ard

Fun with Science Friday - Self-Folding Robotic Paper

 

Thanks to Engineers at Harvard and MIT, you are looking at an honest-to-goodness Transformer. Sure, it only transforms into the origami shapes of a paper airplane or a boat, not a sporty automobile that can double as a guardian and friend, but you have to admit it's impressive. Unfortunately, Hasbro has the copyrights on the name "Transformer," so they are calling it "Shape-Shifting Sheets" and "programmable matter by folding," which are not nearly as catchy.

All joking aside, this is amazing to watch. It will be interesting to see what develops in the future from this noteworthy achievement. Read about the programmable matter here.

Movie credit: Robert Wood, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Daniela Rus, MIT

Article by: Alisha K. Ard

Getting Ready for Millenniumcon 12 + 1

Friday is the start of Millenniumcon 12+1, and we will be there! Millenniumcon offers a variety of miniature gaming, board games, card games and tournaments. Lone Star Historical Miniatures will be hosting the historical miniatures and board gaming events, while the RPGA events will be hosted by local RPGA volunteers.

The Flames of War Tournament kicks off Millenniumcon 12+1 on Friday afternoon, with check-in at 12:00 PM, first round starting at 1:00 PM. This is a no-holds-barred Late War Qualifier for the 2011 Nationals in Austin. Here is one of the first chances to qualify! 1750 points.

Convention pre-registration is now closed, but you can still register at the door:

   3-Day Pass can choose from all game slots - $30

   Friday Pass chooses only from Friday Games - $10

   Saturday Pass chooses from all four Saturday time slots - $20

   Sunday Pass chooses only from Sunday games - S10.

GeektGear.com will have a booth in the Dealer's room, where we will be selling our T-shirts, Geekt Buttons and Geekt Magnets. There will also be opportunities to win a free GeektGear T-shirt for some of the lucky winners of game matches or tournaments. You can find us there at the following times:

Friday:         7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Saturday:     8:00 AM - 9:00 PM
Sunday:       8:00 AM - 12:00 PM

It's all happening at the Wingate Inn, 1209 N I-35, in Round Rock, TX 78664. Here's a complete list of the games being played this weekend. This is guaranteed to be a fun-filled weekend - we hope to see you there!

Article by: Alisha K. Ard