tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46356843214221148992024-03-14T01:33:30.260-05:00Utini's WorkshopOh I've been sweatin' in the glue mine...Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-32190502323372862462014-04-12T01:09:00.001-05:002014-04-12T01:09:59.484-05:00Etsy StoreI have an Etsy store now:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/UtinisWorkshop?ref=l2-shopheader-name
Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-70027663631163010652010-10-19T10:36:00.002-05:002010-10-19T10:39:44.982-05:00Video ProjectsOK, I'm still working on pics from DragonCon 2010, so at some point I'll finish that and post them. I still haven't rolled a dice in anger in months, so no new gaming news to speak of. But I've gotten the movie making bug again, so to go with that I've posted up some older projects.First up is this piece, shot at DragonCon 2005. I never really finished it, but now its done, because I say Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-27595019353711586102010-08-10T12:34:00.004-05:002010-08-10T12:42:30.463-05:00P.O.C. DiveI can't believe I forgot to post these... the diving helmet made a big splash at PlayOn Con, where it successfully made its first public dive with all the paint on.It was a ton of fun, but one glairing design flaw remains: the air pump is just too weak. Even with all the seals in place and the hose very firmly attached (no leaks) the pump I'm using just can't push hard enough to offset more thanUtini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-56702883306072793602010-07-13T11:11:00.004-05:002010-07-13T11:26:13.075-05:00PlayOn Con 2010Birmingham played host to PlayOn Con again this past weekend, and I finally had a chance to put the diving helmet through its paces in front of a live studio audience. PlayOn's more of a gaming and party convention than a costuming convention, so there wasn't quite as much camera work for me at this as there are at some other shows. But it was a good time, and I totally got to show off.I don'tUtini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-68711890169170812872010-07-09T10:27:00.005-05:002010-07-09T11:28:18.062-05:00SteamPunk Diving HelmetSo, I got the nutty idea in my head to make a diving helmet, and I just sorta ran with it...Thing is, I didn't want to make a costume helmet, I wanted to make a working helmet. I'm not trying to show BP how to fix things, but I did want to be able to play with it in a swimming pool. I wasn't really sure how to do that -- I have NO dive training or experience -- but I just sorta got in there Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-550459424916879472010-07-07T15:44:00.002-05:002010-07-07T16:07:11.138-05:00Hero Friends -- Halloween 2009Well, this post wasn't too long in the making...This one is a pure gallery post. These shots were taken at our "Zombie Prom" themed Halloween party in 2009, then processed in the GIMP. We staged most of the action in front of a blue plastic tarp, thinking this would make composting easier. Alas, this turned out not to be the case, and the texture of the tarp and blue-tinted reflected light Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-68969882520197744042010-05-28T10:44:00.008-05:002010-05-28T20:40:07.857-05:00ImagiCon 2010The con season continues, with Birmingham playing host to its local party, ImagiCon. Now, this con has some issues, not least of which being its trying to play in freain' Birmingham, and this town sucks. A friend of mine says Birmingham has an identity crisis, and there may be some truth to that. I do know its got some pretty disparate groups of people, and they really don't care for each Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-74920906813221120502010-05-25T23:00:00.009-05:002010-05-26T09:43:53.227-05:00North Eastern Exploration pt.2 - New YorkMondayThis was it. The Big Apple.Never been there.Well, I have now.We did the whole damn show, dude. Got up early, put on our marching boots (well, Nate wore old sneakers) and got on a train.We actually went through Penn Station much later in the day, but it illustrates the point.Since it was close, and kinda the thing you do, we walked from the station under Madison Square Garden to Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-90833017904112580582010-05-25T16:21:00.019-05:002010-05-26T09:44:53.790-05:00North Eastern Exploration pt.1 - New Jersey and PennsylvaniaSo, I didn't got to New Jersey just for a con. I went up there to visit some of my oldest friends in the world. And man, I gotta say, they know how to host! Nate took time off work to hang out and show me the sights, so passing them along here is the least I can do. Here's the good pics, with a daily run down of the adventure.ThursdayThursday was mostly a travel day. All told, it was about 7Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-59884271720581127872010-05-24T12:19:00.006-05:002010-05-24T13:39:18.509-05:00The SteamPunk Worlds FairThe convention season, it has begun!Just over a week ago (I know, posting way too slow) I took an adventure to New Jersey. Nate and Brooke, some of my oldest, closest friends moved up there a while back, and I finally got around to planning a visit. And, since we were just picking a date out of the hat, why not go on a con weekend? Thus I found myself able to attend the SteamPunk Worlds FairUtini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-26366963760998348612010-05-11T22:26:00.002-05:002010-05-11T22:39:30.772-05:00Reverse Engineered Alien Arc ReactorI'm about to go off and get my summer convention season started, which pretty much means little fiddly stuff is going on the back burner. Fortunately, I managed to get a few projects wrapped up before the shift. As a for instance, there was this little project I was working on, something with paratroopers, and its finally done, wrap, fine, completed. Even took pics of them all, I just haven't Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-22930453767785382142010-04-05T13:48:00.002-05:002010-04-05T14:01:13.574-05:00City FightA few weeks ago, Dylan and I played us a city fight. Here are some pics.Here's Dylan!Tactically speaking, this game played about like you'd expect a city fight to go. I made ready to advance up either side of the table, with a good punch extra on one side with my Shermans, matched on that same side by his Panzer IVs.You can see here the Shermans getting into position to support the infantry Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-1173801043531388262010-03-29T21:16:00.009-05:002010-03-30T08:34:43.147-05:00Terminators 1Squad LorenzoI've got some other stuff I've been meaning to post, recent games and tomfoolery and the like, but I've been working on these long enough that I'm really anxious to get 'em up here. So, finally, here's my first "real" platoon of Terminators from the new Space Hulk. I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with them. I wanted to go all-out on these guys, and see what I could really do on a Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-12036234450125749652010-03-11T08:44:00.003-06:002010-03-11T10:16:15.600-06:00The Great Flood of 2010Well, that sucked.Flooded my mother fucking game room!It could have been worse, but it sure as hell coulda been better. When I got there it was standing about 1.5 inch deep. We don't keep too much shit on the floor that isn't in a plastic tub or raised up on metal shelves, and the floor is rather uneven, which saved my book cases from the worst of it. So I get down with the shop vac and Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-15886968893886409932010-03-09T13:34:00.003-06:002010-03-09T14:07:30.050-06:00FoW - Walt Assaults EndorI ran another teaching game of Flames of War in the basement this past weekend, this time with my old buddy, Walt. I didn't put quite as much time into the table for this one, so its not quite as fancy, but it sure was dense! Probably a little too dense, but hay, he's the one who out out all the tree stands. We played "No Retreat," from the Firestrom: Bagration book. I did a good bit of Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-38918357343179108092010-03-08T13:37:00.005-06:002010-03-08T14:17:46.424-06:00LiquitexArtists Acrylics for WarGamersThis is something of an expanded answer to a question from the local game forum, where someone asked me which of their bewildering array of products I used as the basis for mud on vehicle fenders. Since I use a decent handful of their products, I figured I'd comment on a few of them and how they might be useful for the wargamer and miniature painter. Liquitex has Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-61072128663570096672010-03-03T12:36:00.004-06:002010-03-03T13:16:51.199-06:00Airborne AssaultMy buddy, DJ Dildonic, has taken an interest in Flames of War, and we've been playing a few little games, but it was finally time to roll it all out and play big. So we went all out on the table lay out, and he pushed around my Panzergrenadiers while I got some advanced training in parachute assaults. We played using whatever they call the Airborne assault mission in D-1, "Seize and Hold," or Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-13620588534102436432010-03-02T08:24:00.012-06:002010-03-02T12:08:58.527-06:00New Music --- Viking MetalOK, so right off the top, some folks call this kind of thing "Folk Metal," but I'm going with the more generic and open term "Viking Metal," by which I mean heavy riffs and heavy armor, the sort of band best suited to the nexus between metal and LARP.I'm personally not too into the lighter Epic Metal, stuff like Blind Guardian -- too much hair metal in there, not enough brutality. It is nice Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-19751383949276206382010-03-01T12:23:00.018-06:002010-03-02T12:09:34.907-06:00New Music --- METAL!I haven't kept up with music like I used to since I got out of school -- the Rave thing was dieing out, Industrial was stuck in a rut, and NuMetal sucked, so for a while there I just kept listening to the same old CDs. I eventually got bored with them and music listening kind of petered out over all, aside from my habit of picking up a new Goth band at every big convention I go to (I always did Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-87362053006448073372010-02-02T09:17:00.003-06:002010-02-02T09:23:59.824-06:00Space Hulk test figuresAs promised, Space Hulk test figures. These are me trying to remember how to paint red, only this time so it looks good (not like when I'd try and paint colorful shit in highshool). I always did my own colors back in the day, but for this go around on Space Hulk I wanted pure, as per the fluf, GW Approved Blood Angel Space Marines, just like on the box cover. So here we go, First Edition SpaceUtini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-5516025642371923362009-12-28T14:08:00.003-06:002009-12-28T14:25:14.050-06:00South Eastern SteamPunk Meet Up #1Hay, I found pictures!I took these back in the summer at the meet up at Ex Libris's place. I meant to post them then, and well... I'm posting them now! I took some others, but for whatever reasons (mostly them just being snapshots of dubious quality) these are the ones I felt like sharing. I've got a group shot, random folks, a good batch of the Huntsville crew, and I even show up in a few Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-19641952855702391852009-12-18T11:48:00.002-06:002009-12-18T11:55:34.951-06:00I call her EuniceThis here's the big one... I call her Eunice, after my cantankerous old grandmother.Its a modded Nerf Vulcan, but I think I've gone a bit beyond the typical repaint -- and dear god, did this project involve a lot of masking! The metallic color of the main gun parts was "air mixed" onto the gun, meaning I held a can of spray paint in each hand, one of them a purple metallic and the other copper, Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-27231426317124515692009-12-16T12:52:00.002-06:002009-12-16T12:55:05.716-06:00PEM BombsThe newly discovered technology of the pulsating electronic magnet, or PEM, has offered us another tool to use in the control and containment of otherwise rogue automaton and other mechanical and electrical devices -- an issue of growing importance as these contraptions are employed an an ever increasing rate.Simply pull the pin and toss the device (called a "PEM bomb" by the boys in the field) Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-64368174542828718252009-12-15T16:43:00.002-06:002009-12-15T16:50:33.833-06:00Leather HolstersOver the summer I started playing around with making holsters and such from raw leather. These were the first ones I made (after the holster that goes with the Duck Hunt gun).My process is as simple and intuitive as can be. I make a prototype loosly shaped like the gun in paper, and transfer that to the leather with plenty of room to spare. Then I rivet the whole thing together -- I just don'tUtini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635684321422114899.post-17826169057353055702009-12-11T13:50:00.002-06:002009-12-11T13:55:15.321-06:00Steamy Travel TrunkI came up on an ugly, beat up old foot locker at a thrift store for $5. It was fugly... blue and purple fake leather... but it had promise. After buffing off all the crud from the metal fittings, and recoating the old ugly fake leather with new less ugly fake leather, I printed up a bunch of old hotel luggage tags and travel stickers and the like. A quick dip in some milk a run through the Utini420http://www.blogger.com/profile/16606250842681561181noreply@blogger.com3