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Tools Needed
*I use Games Workshop paints and Armory Spray Sealer for my minis. Mostly this is due to what is available to me locally. Any paints meant for miniature painting will do though, use what you are comfortable with. The colors I useed on this project are all bright hues (i.e. 'Blood' Red is not as good as a plain old Red paint in this case, etc.) and if you use the Gloss Sealer, it should be the paint-on kind.
This miniature modification uses an electric drill and a sharp hobby knife. Drills and knives can cause injury if not used properly!
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
I take absolutely no responsibility for any injuries resulting from people attempting this project.
DoD Mod: Fixing the Flame Snake
The D&D miniature Flame Snake from the Desert of Desolation set is a nice mini for a common, but the one thing that bothered me when I first saw it in-hand was the solid black area in the center of the snake's coils. It looks like the sculptor was either being lazy and didn't finish sculpting the mini, or ran into a deadline and didn't have time to finish it up. Either way, it really made me rethink what I had thought was a great looking common mini when I had seen the gallery pictures. The other night though, I came to the conclusion that I could simply drill the excess plastic out and do a repaint. I'd been meaning to repaint the mini anyways so it worked out well. Here is what I did:
STEP #1 - Preparing the snake for drilling:
The first thing I do when attempting this modification is to get the snake's head out of the way. I use heat to soften the plastic, bend the mini to where I want it to be and then use cold to 'set' the plastic. There are many ways of doing this ranging from boiling water on a stove to running a blowdryer on the mini to heat the plastic. Cold tapwater works fine for cooling it down. Some folks even use ice or place the mini in the freezer as well. Personally, I boil water and soak the mini for about 30 seconds to a minute and then use cold tapwater to fix the plastic where I want it to be. The hot/cold water trick works well for this and can be done again to reset the snake's head after drilling. Do be careful using any kind of heat though. Use common sense and caution. I will take no responsibility for other people getting injured attempting this step either!
STEP #2 - Drilling the hole:
Take a metal pin, thumbtack, or (if you have one) a center punch and mark the center of the area on the snake that you wish to drill. This will help keep the drill centered where you want it when you start drilling. Make sure you have plenty of lighting and a flat firm surface to drill on. DO NOT drill on any surface that you don't want damaged. Nothing will get you in trouble faster with your fellow housemates than putting a large hole in the dining room table by accident! Using the 1/4 inch drill *carefully* drill the center out of the snake. You don't want to drill too deeply, or too fast. In fact, you can even use the drillbit without the electric drill. It takes more time, but simply using your hands to work the plastic out with the bit can provide you with more control over the depth and placement of the hole. Pause often with either method to check the depth. You can always drill out a bit more, but once you drill too deep you can't undo the damage.
STEP #3 - Cleaning up the hole:
Take your hobby knife and carefully remove any extra bits of plastic that the drill left behind. Alternately you can hand-work the drill bit into the hole a little to clear away that extra plastic as well. Then, carefully use your hobby knife to carve away small bits of plastic around the edges of the hole. The goal here it to make the edge look like the bumpy 'skin' of the snake as much as possible and less like a hole in the middle of your mini. I also carved away a little bit around the snake's neck where it rises up to make the definition between the coils and the neck stand out a little bit better. Take your time. You want this area to blend in seamlessly with the mini. The one nice thing that works well about this is that there is no real pattern other than a slightly rough dimond-type shape on the skin of the snake. It is fairly easy to cut out bits of plastic to emulate this look. Be sure that you don't leave little bits of extra plastic still attached the mini.
STEP #4 - Spray primer and begin painting:
Once you get the plastic cut the way you want it to look you can start the job of painting the mini. Be sure to do the hot/cold fix again to bend the neck back to the position it should be in before you start painting. *A NOTE: You will want to make sure that the mini is completely dry before spraying the primer on* I use white primer as a base since I want the 'magma' inside the snake to look bright and glowing. Alternately, since the mini is mostly black you can simply drill it out and call it good. Painting is very optional here.
The first couple coats of paint I apply are bright yellow. Yellow tends to be a somewhat transparent color, so you'll want to make sure that the figure is well covered with primer and has a couple coats of yellow on it to start with.
STEP #5 - Drybrushing with Orange:
OK, this step is fairly simple...drybrush the mini with a bright orange paint. Drybrush the hell out of it! You want only a little yellow to show through. However, be careful to use paint sparingly and apply several coats of orange rather than one heavy drybrush coat. Where you want the yellow to show through is in the 'deep' detail areas of the snake. Applying a drybrush with a heavy orange coat will often wipe out areas with shallow details. Take your time and apply the orange paint carefully! It will be worth it in the end. Trust me though, you will want to make sure that most of the 'surface' yellow is obscured. I've done a few fire/magma type repaints on minis now and having the mini show up with too much yellow in the cracks and crevices is not as nice looking as one with a lot more orange color showing.
STEP #6 - Painting with Black:
This step can be done in many ways. From a simple drubrushing of black to hit the highlights quickly to painstakingly painting each patch of black you can add as much or as little detail as you want. I've done both for various painted magma minis. I like painting the areas a little bit better. It looks cleaner to me and also because at this point it can be easy to ruin the mini if you drybrush too much black on it and wind up obscuring the detail too much. The important thing is to take your time! Also, this is a common mini we are using here so don't feel too bad about experimenting! You can always pick up another and start again if you don't like the finished product.
If you have any comments, feel free to email me.
