It Came from the Lightbox: Night Goblins

(I prefer “Night Goblins” to “Gloomspite Gitz.”)

First off, I painted up the Gobbapalooza, because it seems like they’re incredibly useful and common to see in Destruction warbands in Warcry. They came, of course, in a box with a bunch of other Goblin models… so I moved on and painted most of those, too.

Gobbapalooza

Other Night Goblins

Legions Imperialis Token Holder

I was immediately frustrated by the tokens that come packed in the Legions Imperialis box. They look fine: they’re a bit small, but I could trivially punch them out and bubble sticker them like any other respectable Infinity player… but half of them are double-sided!

GW can’t seem to QC their way out of having two departments working on a thing to mutually exclusive ends. Orders are chosen secretly and placed by the unit. Double-sided tokens defeat that purpose. It’s also super weird that only half of them are double-sided.

So: I can fix this.

I’d just had a breakthrough with multicolor printing. This isn’t a new thing, but it was new to me. Nothing fancy: not a multi-material printer… just swapping filaments at the appropriate layer.

Designing the tokens was pretty easy. But how to store them?

I started with a cylinder. Magnets on the bottom to hold it in place, magnets on the top to hold the lid down. I think it’s pretty cool… but with a game where 99% of the models are less than an inch tall it quickly became clear it was impractical.

Settled on a tray, which is quite a bit shallower.

I printed off 25 of each token and made a tray that holds them. Also magnets on the top and bottom as with the cylinder.

I’ve only gotten a ton of positive feedback on them, and have had a couple of commissions to print them for other folks. 25 is too many, so I’ve been running off subsequent trays with 20 tokens.

This is the most recent one I’ve printed (I haven’t dropped it off, which is why I have it to photograph).

It Came from the Lightbox: Xandire’s Truthseekers

It Came from the Lightbox: Gremlins!

I painted these as my Christmas minis (Gremlins is a Christmas movie); wrapped them up shortly afterwards. These are from Crooked Dice.

Backdrops

I’ve been jealous of folks who take photos over a blackdrop: every time I try, it comes out terribly. So, while ordering some flourescent pigments a month or so back, I threw in a Maxx Darth backdrop from Greenstuff World. I’ve noodled around with it a bit.

I’m not sure how it would compare if I ran out to the fabric store and just bought some, but it’s basically just black velvet.

Hangar 18 vs. Maxx Dark

I’ve been using a Hangar 18 (out of business, sadly) backdrop for years untold at this point. I love it: it’s got a great 90’s school photo backdrop vibe, but it works.

Royal Beastflayers in front of Hangar 18 backdrop
Royal Beastflayers in front of Maxx Darth backdrop

So it’s obviously a little smaller and I clearly need to plan around that a bit better. It does really make the minis jump out, which is cool. Things are brighter (good) and yellower (not great), which is interesting.

Lights vs no Lights

I’ve been using a lightbox longer than I’ve had the backdrop. I could probably go back and figure out when I started using it, but feel safe ballparking that at like 15 years.

It came with two little halogen lamps that I normally shine on the subject through the sides of the lightbox to diffuse the light. I’ve got whatever lightbulbs are in my ceiling fan on, my light arch, and lights in my display case (to the left of each mini) on in addition to the side halogen lights. Given the yellowness of the photo above, I tried taking the photo with those lights off.

Skabbik’s Plaguepack with sidelamps on
Skabbik’s Plaguepack with sidelamps off

Wow! I was unprepared for how much of a difference those lamps were making. The bottom photo might as well be “with ambient light” and it looks a lot better. It’s a little cooler than I’d like, but the top photo is entirely too warm.

I need to consider getting some smaller side lamps that aren’t quite so bright, or just not, and taking photos without the side lights at all. I also need to see what results I get with my old backdrop without them, for that matter.