1/72 Giant Spiders Construction

I wanted a set of giant spiders to use as nuisance monsters.  I was not wanting really giant bugs, but for my first set some thing about the same size as my giant rats and bats.  I checked a lot of miniature sites and just could not find a set of spiders that would work as 1/72 nuisance monsters.  Every set I found was just way too big.   

I was about to give up and move on when I noticed some charms in the bead section of a craft store, and I wondered if the internet had any spider charms that I might use.  I went to eBay and searched for pewter spider charms and I found these little fellows. 

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I thought a quick snip to remove the loop on its back side and I would have my spiders.  I am still hoping to find a use for the spider webs.  After searching for a while to find the best price I ordered 12 of the little guys.  The charms survived the surgery from take them from jewelry to miniature with no complications.

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The next step was to glue some cork to the washer with PVA/white glue.  I allowed the glue to dry  and then shape it into a piece of rock with an razor blade knife.

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I took a pair of pliers and adjusted the spiders arms to give the models some variety and then glued the spiders to the cork.  The last touch was to add some sand to the bare spots on the washers and I was done.  

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After an about face you get the view from the figures from the other side.  I think that adjusting the arms and placing them in different locations on their respective boulders has taken one figure and given it a lot of variety.

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They are now ready to prime and paint.  I will be showing pictures of the completed colony/swarm/cluster/nest and individual spiders in my next post.  Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...

Copyright © Ron Hamilton 2013, All Right Reserved.

1/72 Giant Rats (Nuisance Monsters) Completed

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Name:        Rat Swarm, Rat Swarms

Manufacturer:        Splintered Light Miniatures

Poses:        2 poses, (the single rat figure can be repositioned to give variety)

Figure material:         metal

Ability to Take Paint:        excellent

Pose Quality:        it looks quite rat like and the tail and front leg can be bent to create different poses

Sculpting:        excellent, for such small creatures the detail is well done

Mold Lines:        little to none

Created:        2009ish

These models were fun and easy to paint.  The rat swarm proper has a lot of character, and the single rats can be used as separate models, as I chose to do, or around the swarm model to make it larger and add some variety.  I think these models could be used from 10mm up to 28mm, I mean a giant rat could be anything from a foot long to the size of a small car.  All that is needed for fantasy figures to work well is to match the pictures in your mind.

You cannot go wrong with large numbers of easy to slay monsters to slow down adventurers and maybe give them the creeping crude.  The creeping crude will force them to seek out Cedric the Cleric leading to even more problems and/or adventures.

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As usual, Friar Tuck (an Airfix Robin Hood set figure) and Conan (a Caesar Miniatures Adventures set figure) make their appearance for scale.

Next up will be articles on Splintered Lights Giant Bats, the number two batch of different nuisance monsters I have completed.

Thanks for reading...

Copyright © Ron Hamilton 2012, All Right Reserved.

1/72 Giant Rats Construction

I purchased three Splintered Light Miniature's Rat Swarms.  A rat swarm comes in five pieces, a big swarm of rats and 4 single rats to customize the swarm or use how ever you see fit.  I decided to base these single rats individually so that I could use them as nuisance monsters with the rest of my 1/72 fantasy figures. 

I started by using # 10 washers and filling the empty spaces with pieces of plastic card.  Except for the smaller size washer, it is the same  same procedure I always use when basing with washers.

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The next step was to glue some cork to the washer with PVA/white glue.  I allowed the glue to dry  and then shape it into a hill with an razor blade knife.

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I then covered the cork with sanded latex grout(fancy caulk).  I simply smeared on enough to cover the mound and bring the caulk out to the edge of the washer.

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After the caulk had dried, I drilled a small hole in the mound.  The individual rats came with a spike or pin sticking strait down out of their undersides and their tails were designed to be poseable. I put super glue on the pin and the hole on the base.  I then forced the pin into the previously drilled hole.  I then held the figure in place and adjusted the tails to add some character.

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Here is a view of the rats from the other side so that you can see the posing of the tails from the other side.

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They are now ready to prime and paint.  I will be showing pictures of the completed swarm and individual rats in my next post.  Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...

Copyright © Ron Hamilton 2012, All Right Reserved.