Today was mostly keeping up with playing catch-up. I knocked off some more to-do’s (including some stuff I needed to do for this blog), sent some backlogged emails, and tried a few “Astral Nudges” at people I’ve been waiting to hear back on.
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I also had recently picked up a big bottle of Fiji water, and after sterilizing them all, I added the corresponding gemstones back to my little water jars for Health (tourmaline and carnelian), Strength (kyanite and fire agate) and Peace (amethyst and emerald). I also refilled the Abundance water bottle that Soror Q.I.P. had returned to me after the ritual. It still had an inch or so of water left in it still, and contained all the original gemstones from the ritual, so I gave the new water bottle a few clockwise swirls (to energetically reset it) and then filled up the Abundance water bottle with it. The theory is that it’s like adding plain water to ink, the ink diffuses throughout and “energetically (in this case) harmonizes” it all. My little jar gemstones were positively bursting as well (having been out of circulation for a while now), so now the jars and bottles are all stacked nicely in my south-facing window.
And recently I’d mentioned a little idea of mine to Frater Enlil Ka Ahk concerning the Facebook Group Uranus in Scorpio: The Generation of Magicians, and how that particular Astrological placement might explain certain magickal aptitudes among those of our generation. Anyway, It’s a closed group for those natural-born magickal folk sharing the good fortune of having been born under Uranus’s exaltation in Scorpio 11/21/74 – 5/1/75 and again from 9/8/75 – 2/17/81. So, if that’s you, come join us.
Uranus in Scorpio: The Generation of Magicians
But, this evening I thought I’d just play around a bit. I’d just received my order of Oxid Paste by Vallejo which I’d recently seen recommended by another professional miniature painter (I’d been poking around of miniature painting sites and Facebook groups lately as I’m trying to get ideas for a big relaunching of Blackspire Studios. Anyway, this guy does beautiful work, and I particularly love his custom bases… and he swears by the stuff, so I decided to give it a shot.
I’d also been inspired by another painter who’d created a beautiful yet realistic coloring pattern on a dinosaur figure she’s recently posted to the Reaper FB group, and I was so inspired in fact… I’m totally going to steal it when I paint the below wyvern for our B.R.U.W. group…
This miniature is really old skool. If I can remember it correctly it’s one of the old AD&D figures (from the 90’s I’d guess), which means the sculpt isn’t the most detailed perhaps, but there is a good chance this guy is still made from lead rather that pewter (I don’t think so, but this was right around the time I remember those changes were happening). However, as it’s “from another time”, that also means its base was way to small for today’s modern battle-mat, so I glued it to a simple 2″ plastic base and went to work with the Oxid Paste…
…and I immediately fell in love. It’s got a nice, malleable consistency that stays wet for quite a while, but dries in a hard rubbery shell that leaves a very finely textured grainy surface. It’s absolutely perfect for both simulating dirt and mud, as well as fine gravel, and I can see why others use it.
So… I went digging through my various bags of stones, gravel, and cracked shells, and picked out some ones I liked and began building up the wyvern’s mound of stones there.
I really wanted to go for like something you might see in the Scottish highlands or something… ancient cracked stones than have been long worn down and overgrown. Naturally, in the final I plan to build up grasses and moss around and atop the stones to complete the look.
It took a lot of careful placement, but I generally liked the final rock configurations, so left it like this for now to dry and harden. The final I think will look very cool, especially once all the stones are painted the same color with the green grass and moss interspersed.
If you’re wondering about the wyvern’s red wings, I’d actually used them once for a half-dragon villain in a long-ago campaign, but she (and that campaign) are long dead, so I rescued the wings back and have “re-purposed them” for their original intended figure.
A figure, as you’ll eventually see, that will be just the mount for an NPC ally who I will also eventually paint. Not in a rush, but I think it’ll be fun.
Sunday 6/26/16-
Sun: Gemini-
Moon: Pisces-
For my disclosure on this or any of my post or pages… please visit my Disclosure page.