So I find that I am throwing 1-2 of these things in the recycling every month, and every time I do I think to myself that there must be something more useful I can do with them:
The obvious idea was to turn them into big hats, but they’re too large for chorf infantry in my book. Here’s one with a Mantic Immortal for scale reference:
(Yes, I know I said I wasn’t buying any CDs until my squats were painted but I have no willpower)
They might be about the right size to sit on a bull centaur, though I don’t have one here to compare size against.
But it seems to me that the hat idea is the most obvious use, but perhaps it isn’t the smartest one. It’s a well engineered little doohickie, it has this nice patterned texture and these interesting cutouts and I’m sure SOMETHING interesting could be made from it. Maybe a brazier or something?
So I thought I’d mine other people’s imaginations, since a lot of you here seem to have magical vision when it comes to this sort of thing.
So what would you guys do with it? Part of a mini? A component for terrain? Stop overly analysing everything and just throw it in the recycling? If any of you have any ideas, let me know, because at the moment I’m just hoarding trash with no particular purpose in mind.
Maybe a BIG big hat, on a golem, slave giant, ogre or something along these lines? Depends on the particular mini, of course, but could work nicely with some bits and/or putty
Edit: Or artillery, perhaps. Perfect shape for a mortar barrel. The current Artisan’s Contest will certainly provide tons of inspiration in that direction.
1-2 a month? If you gather them in a box, you can use them for a pillared hall or palace wall filled with columns later on. Use those things as part of the pillar capital (head) or foot.
A brazier or cauldron for molten metal could also work. Just remember that repetition is key if you get a lot of them, and pillars are certainly repetitive.
Thanks! You might be on to something with the artillery barrel thing, it wouldn’t be too tricky to fill the cutouts. I think I’d probably need to extend the length a bit, but it could certainly be an option. I’ll be watching the Artisan entries with interest, I’m always slightly in awe of the inventiveness on show.
If you play 40k or Necromunda, they look like they would make good air vents or somesuch, a bunch of them would be useful scatter terrain.
I like Admiral’s idea of using them as cauldrons, you could stick a bunch on an axle and make a very cool foundry/forge terrain piece.
As Antenor says, they would be perfect for mortars too. A very useful little doodad. I often find myself looking at things I’m throwing away and thinking “that must be useful for something hobbyish”.
Another set of good ideas there @Admiral , much obliged.
My original idea was actually a combination of the hat and brazier ideas; I had this vague idea about a sorcerer with a brazier-hat full of hot coals that could perhaps be somehow used as a casting focus; I was considering having flames and smoke billowing out of the cutouts and the top. Silly, I know, but the idea of putting something on fire on your head amused me (slightly inspired by the Spirit of Jazz from the Mighty Boosh).
Well if my current rate of hobby progress continues @Freakshow668 , I’ll have at least 20 before I do anything with them. If I end up with an unnecessarily large number of them, I’m happy to share the “wealth”.
I’m not playing 40k or necromunda at the moment though I am about to start playing epic again…at that scale it could certainly be part of some sort of huge industrial chimney or air conditioning system. Admittedly at that scale it works out as being 6m high so it would have to be VERY large.
Having taken in all the suggestions so far, I’m leaning towards the brazier idea; my group are planning to use the WAP 9th edition rules for WHFB, and I’ve been working out ideas to build an Altar of Hashut. One of these as a brazier on each corner of the platform could help to add details to the thing. My sculpting skills are non-existent but I’m sure I can throw together a simple platform if I can find enough appropriate clutter to fill it up with other than the daemonsmith.
Anyone got a good source for an altar/lectern style piece for the centre? I haven’t come across anything so far.
Yeah I mean I’m going to be honest, I bought them mostly because they were shockingly cheap and I felt like I needed something disposable to get my eye in with the painting stuff. Having put them together I don’t really like the models, the kit was a bit janky and didn’t fit together well at all but for 16 quid for 20 models they’re still pretty good value for money.
I’ll probably paint them, then strip them again and chop them up for spare parts. I like some of the heads at least. I think I’ll probably try russian alternative next.
Unfortunately I seem to struggle to get an idea of whether I’m going to like a miniature just from a few pictures.
It’s It’s coil from a vape pen. Stainless steel, there’s some cotton mesh inside and a few wires to heat the thing up. But after the cotton gets a bit burnt or the wires oxidise a bit they need replacing, so I’ve just been throwing them away but the hoarder/hobbyist in me just said “It’s a pain in the arse modelling perfect cylinders and it has a nice textured pattern, find a use for it!”
i’d say:
small artillery, like 3d ed mortar upgraded
industrial hellcannon shell
just a metal bit from a larger terrain (trust me, it doesnt have to make sense to make sense i nthe end)
a metal barrel
the bottom part can be a manhole from the street/sewer system
the belly from the classic plastic ogres, just edit one and give him a cannon in his stomach
biggest hat
then again, if you start to combine 2 of them, usually something interesting takes place, when you start to notice some new shapes you didnt see before.
it could be a pipe leaking sewage/magma from a wall
put 2 together and you can make a cement pillar, like those contruction pipes with holes in the middle where tony hawk used to skate in it lol
cmon, do something!
you didnt learn anything from my gaslands thread. BUUUUUUHHH!
The good value for money makes them excellent conversion fodder, too. I especially like the Immortal Guard torsos with the demon faces on their breastplates. Still have a regiment of these guys sitting in the drawer. Their time will come…
Funny - I like most things about Mantic’s Dwarfs (Abyssal or otherwise) except the heads.
@Loidral the exhausted teacher: “Come on, kids, do you even listen to anything I say in here?”
I get the impression that he would have been the cool art teacher though. The one that you meet when you’ve decided to sneak out of school to have a smoke somewhere discrete, but they don’t say anything because they have also sneaked out of school for a crafty pint at lunchtime.
(Thanks for all the suggestions there @Loidrial , I was hoping that you’d throw in a few ideas)
