Pixelastic Painting Log

Craft Log #4: Old Resin and Stubborn Plastic

Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to craft tonight, so I squeezed in a few 5-minute breaks during the day, between two tasks while waiting on my computer. I used them to keep digging through my box of plastic stuff, documenting ideas for what I already have.

Plastic finds, continued

Craft Log #3: Plastic Toys, Future Ruins

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I had resin work planned for the evening, but had some free time during the day. So I pulled out the big box of random plastic objects I’ve been hoarding from yard sales and toy sets, looking for anything I could repurpose as terrain for Mordheim.

Crossbow & Catapult Walls

First find: pieces from the Crossbow & Catapult board game (Arbalète et Catapulte in French). These show up at yard sales all the time.

Craft Log #2: Garage Sale Loot and Cutting Bricks

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s session was a mix of things: a yard sale find, a long foam brick cutting session, some online orders, and demolding the silicone mold I poured yesterday.

Yard Sale Find

I picked up an Angry Birds board game at a yard sale for 1 euro. I don’t care about the game itself, but the plastic pieces inside have real potential for scatter terrain.

Craft Log #1: Dungeon & Lasers Wall Molds

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’m building modular terrain for Frostgrave and Mordheim, and the first step is creating elevation blocks. I defined a set of standard sizes: 30x30, 30x15, 15x15, and 15x7.5cm, all 5cm tall. Instead of cutting everything from scratch, I went looking for plastic boxes that already match these dimensions and could serve as solid bases.

I found these rectangular boxes that are pretty close to the 15x7.5cm target. They’re actually 15x8cm, slightly off and slightly tapered, but very solid. I validated them despite the small size difference. The cardboard templates with the exact target dimensions are visible in front.

Lava Bases

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first time I made lava bases and I think it turned out well, so I want to document the process for future reference.

I started by making my bases as usual with a mixture of filler paste, gravel, and glue that looks a bit like mud. Originally I had planned to make normal bases, so I started like that.

Burning Coals

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is a terrain piece I made to create a bed of burning coals, embers, or lava. It could work in a fire temple or as a carnival attraction where participants walk across burning coals, and it was actually used in a scenario at a desert wedding where characters had to walk through flames.

Fire Wizard

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is a BBEG my players fought: a fire mage in the desert trying to raise a buried citadel from beneath the sands. They battled him in his manor and barely escaped alive. I reused a Heroclix miniature I’d painted a long time ago, but the paint job wasn’t very good, so I decided to repaint it. Up close and zoomed in like this, it doesn’t look great, but it was good enough on the game table.

Hobgoblins

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hobgoblins appear frequently in RPG scenarios. They’re a step above orcs and goblins, with the ferocity of orcs but the military discipline of a well-organized army, without the tribal savagery. They’re the main antagonists in Red Hand of Doom, an excellent D&D 3.5 campaign I’ve read and would like to run someday, and they’re also major antagonists in Kobold Press’s Scarlet Citadel megadungeon. Since I might run that one day too, I painted them with those campaigns in mind. I know these aren’t hobgoblin miniatures at all, but I figured they could work well as hobgoblins in my world.

Magnetic Tiles

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

These are magnetic tiles for dungeon layouts that I made from baby toy pieces. My daughter has been playing with these since she was 3 years old. I didn’t want to take away her toys, but I realized they would make really practical terrain. They’re magnetized in the corners, so they snap together well. The square format has exactly the right dimensions. I’ve wanted to build this for a long time, and I finally got to make it happen.

Qadira Desert Houses

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My players are crossing the desert of Qadira in Golarion, and I needed some terrain for the desert city encounters ahead. I built several modular houses that can stack on each other, along with stairs and small walls. The result is solid and durable.

The buildings shown here are modular and can stack on each other. I tried two color schemes: the pinkish one was my first attempt and didn’t work well, so I switched to a paler version that looks much better.

Troglodytes

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I found these miniatures really interesting. I believe they are Games Workshop miniatures, the goblins from Moria, with slightly deformed heads that work well for dark goblins. They’re quite affordable because you get a lot of them in the box, they’re all plastic, and each sculpt is different. Since I had a scenario where players might encounter Troglodytes, I decided to paint them as such. They’re deformed creatures that live underground and don’t see much daylight. They could also work as Mongrelmen or many low-level monsters that level 1 players can fight without too many moral questions.

Base Texture