Monday, January 4, 2016
Kargi of Kalamar
Pixel Sagas specializes in producing fonts from tabletop RPGs, geek friendly media, and video games. Kargi is their take on the goblin language used in the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, itself inspired by Persian cuneiform.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
The Sigil of the Gate
An amulet bearing the Sigil of the Gate from the Simon Necronomicon. A wonderful sculpt and patina finish from the hands of S. D. Williams.
Saturday, January 2, 2016
After the Bomb
The talented Mark Cordory returns to our pages with another of his excellent post-apocalyptic costumes. Those caked on layers of rust and grime are actually....
...super glue spritzed with water. The moisture causes the glue to set up instantly, producing a very grainy rust texture. I've seen scale modelers produce a similar effect by sprinkling CA glue with baking soda.
...super glue spritzed with water. The moisture causes the glue to set up instantly, producing a very grainy rust texture. I've seen scale modelers produce a similar effect by sprinkling CA glue with baking soda.
Friday, January 1, 2016
The Closing of the Year
I had meant to post something marking the new year earlier, but I've been the unfortunate victim of the flu. Which is pretty ironic considering I was vaccinated on Monday. Apparently I was already infected, but wasn't showing symptoms until Wednesday.
Personally, 2015 was a rough year for Propnomicon. A family crisis back in April saw the blog shut down for over a month. On the bright side, once I was posting again I was able to catch up pretty quickly. By the end of 2015 I'd hit the magical 365 posts for the year and maintained the average of one post a day. It's hard to believe I've been doing this for going on nine years now.
Thanks for being part of it.
Personally, 2015 was a rough year for Propnomicon. A family crisis back in April saw the blog shut down for over a month. On the bright side, once I was posting again I was able to catch up pretty quickly. By the end of 2015 I'd hit the magical 365 posts for the year and maintained the average of one post a day. It's hard to believe I've been doing this for going on nine years now.
Thanks for being part of it.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
The Un-Wounding Blades
These primitive-style knives from Sander Propworx are gorgeous. What makes them even more impressive is that they're LARP-safe cast foam.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
"Masks of Nyartathotep" Meltdown, Part Deux
Over the Christmas holiday I had a chance to get together with some old gaming friends and the subject of the disastrous "Masks of Nyarlathotep" prop set came up. Just out of curiosity, has anyone actually run the numbers for the project? As in taken a crack at figuring out just how much it would have cost to do everything that was promised? I've Googled around a bit, but couldn't find anything along those lines.
I know that of the $74,000 total 8%, $5920, went to Kickstarter and Amazon for their fees. An additional .20 is charged for each pledge. With 507 backers that's $101. The total loss to processing is $6021. That leaves $67,979.
Casually comparing the packages that were promised with what it would cost to print those items, as well as ship them from the printers, seems to show there was going to be trouble from the start. From personal experience I can say that print shipping charges can be a huge hidden expense. All those nifty little items have to be packed in reinforced cardboard printer's boxes to prevent damage, and that extra weight adds up fast.
Another thing working against the project was the number of backers. 500 is one of the break points for most discount printers, with 1000 the next tier. With 500 backers you have to make allowances for losses and damage, forcing you to go with 1000.
Two of the extras caught my eye as being unrealistic to produce. The "Fog Spawn Larvae" would have been a huge undertaking, requiring a major effort for a garage caster. The custom slides would also have been a huge expense.
The more I look at it the more it appears Mr. Patey was caught in a trap of promising too much without taking into account actual production costs and the ever escalating shipping cost of all those goodies.
I know that of the $74,000 total 8%, $5920, went to Kickstarter and Amazon for their fees. An additional .20 is charged for each pledge. With 507 backers that's $101. The total loss to processing is $6021. That leaves $67,979.
Casually comparing the packages that were promised with what it would cost to print those items, as well as ship them from the printers, seems to show there was going to be trouble from the start. From personal experience I can say that print shipping charges can be a huge hidden expense. All those nifty little items have to be packed in reinforced cardboard printer's boxes to prevent damage, and that extra weight adds up fast.
Another thing working against the project was the number of backers. 500 is one of the break points for most discount printers, with 1000 the next tier. With 500 backers you have to make allowances for losses and damage, forcing you to go with 1000.
Two of the extras caught my eye as being unrealistic to produce. The "Fog Spawn Larvae" would have been a huge undertaking, requiring a major effort for a garage caster. The custom slides would also have been a huge expense.
The more I look at it the more it appears Mr. Patey was caught in a trap of promising too much without taking into account actual production costs and the ever escalating shipping cost of all those goodies.
Glowing Eyes
Propmaker Bill Doran has a great video tutorial on creating glowing eyes. The effect is extremely creepy and would be a great edition to all kinds of costumes.
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