Adhesive Guide for Resin Parts

The following is a guide of sorts, actually more of an account of my use with the various adhesives / glues with regard to their use upon resin parts.

The resin I use is the "quick cast" resin from Tap Plastics. This resin is a tan resin when dry so I also use tap plastics black super pigment to produce a nice gray resin. I use this resin for casting my own design of "field stone" and "cut stone" dungeon pieces. I use those pieces to construct modular dungeons and other structures.

There were a few criteria that I was looking for when searching for the "right" adhesive / glue for use with resin pieces. These included:

Ioun Stone - A Complete Guide, History of, and Props for use as an Ioun Stone

Over at d20 Resource Jonathan Drain has an article on his investigations into origins of the fabled ioun stone.  The article was an interesting read but what I found more useful was the fact that Johnathan had a "complete guide", so to speak,  of all the references to ioun stones he's been able to find over the years throughout the various publications.  This "Ioun Stone Complete Guide" is a gold mine for DM's/GM's of Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder role playing games.  I have a character in my current campaign who has a pink rhomboid ioun stone but is always forgetting he has it. Using a prop has helped with remembering.

You can get as creative as you want, or not, when making a prop, accessory, or other game aid to use as a stand in for an ioun stone, but just the addition of a prop, any prop, seems to help greatly in reminding the character (and DM/GM) of the little stone flying about their characters head.  Below are a couple of examples of props you could make for an ioun stone to hand out to the players on the cheap:

• Make a LED Throwie with a colored LED of the color of the ioun stone, if you can manage it.  Or you could make one with a blinking LED or a color shifting LED.  You can google LED throwie and you'll find lots of info on creating them or just click on the link above for an instructibles article on how to make one.  One of the more interesting and creative, but I'm not sure how well it would shine in the bright light of the gameboard, but putting a LED inside a ping-pong balls is also a novel idea! LED's rule!

• A Polished Rock / Stone from a craft store or Diddiams/Party America(USA), etc. If you've got one, even a fancy crystal would do! I have a large chunk of polished amethyst that I found on the streets of San Jose, CA while walking back to work from lunch one day. However its MY precious, so I doubt I'd give it to my players as an ioun stone.  If you have a friend, grandfather, or perform the hobby of tumbling rocks yourself then you've got plenty of "ioun stone fodder" to choose from!

• Glass or acrylic decorative beads from Michaels / Hobby Lobby.  You can find in all sorts of shapes, I have a few that are broken crystal shapes and I use them for a multitude of games from nexus ops board game, used as crystals for points so I have neon green and red ones, to clear and frosted white ones for use with pirates of the Spanish Main as little icebergs! The ones pictured are shaped like chandelier ornaments so if you're going for a more "fancy" or refined ioun stone, then those would be perfect!

There are many other things you could use as a prop for an ioun stone, you could create a playing card / mtg card similar to the cards I've created for use with my campaign, just something to alert the character that they have something that they can use to their benefit, or is in constant use and spinning about their head, etc.  You can always remind them too with a bit of role playing! Having the local guard or their new love interest intently watching them as if there were something unique about the character.  The character with think its their charm and charisma that has woo'd or calmed the npc, but then have the npc widely swing at the ioun stone flying around their head as if trying to swat it away, and then inquire about the character of his personal hygiene. "You've got glowing bugs flying around yer head!" hehe.

Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!

Build Your Own Hyper Pulse Generator (model)!

Build A HPG Station

Today's post is of a build I did for a recent Classic Battletech game which takes place in 3028.  Video of the entire build after the jump...

To give you a quick overview of the situation, the merc company hired by House Steiner is on garrison duty on a far flung world bordering the Periphery and the Draconis Combine.  It is a pretty backwater planet and the planet only broadcasts to the HPG Network infrequently(monthly or every 3 months).

Extinct Volcano Mountain-top
HPG Station Location

After some initial battles, which the merc garrison troops were on the loosing end, it was found out that "the Baron" was working with pirates to harass and drive out the garrison troops and cause shortages in goods and necessities in hopes that the populace rise up and secede from House Steiner to either the Draconis Combine or become an independent world amongst the Periphery Kingdoms.  A Steiner Advisor was sent to aid the merc garrison troops as they were a "green" unit and House Steiner was wavering in their hiring of this unit after the losses suffered at the hands of the pirates.  However the first skirmish with the pirates after the advisor arrived, the advisor was killed by the Baron!  The Baron strode into the fray with his custom 100 T Atlas Mech and thought he had the merc garrison troops at his mercy!  It was 
then the baron was killed as he tried to flee, with back to back headshots to his Atlas! (The baron's atlas was actually one hex from going off the map and escaping! It was an awesome set of shots!) The victory went to the merc garrison troops!  

So for this scenario it turns out that battle with the baron was holovideo'd, and the supporters of the baron and the Pirates heavily edited a copy, thus spinning the killing of the baron and the advisor as if our heroes were the actual murders and the baron was not a turncoat!  So the "race" between the merc garrison troops and the pirates to the HPG station was ON!  Now the HPG rested on a extinct volcano mountain top with only a winding road snaking to the sumit, and whom ever got their first and transmitted their side of the story were going to be the victors!

Bow Of The Ages

The orc chieftain pried the bow from the fingers of the dead rangers body. The bow crackled with electrical energy up and down its bow string, it made the chieftain jump back slightly.  Only moments ago this bow unleashed bolt after bolt of electrified terror upon himself and his people.  It was by shear luck that his throwing axe caught the ranger square between the eyes, killing him outright!   The Chieftain's body guards already were dragging the human corpse toward the stew pot.  His people would eat well tonight! As the orc chieftain began to experiment with the bow trying to unleash its power as the human had, something caught the orc's eye near the grip...

Eyes of the Doppelganger

The rogue lay flat on his back, the last swing from the fighter, opposite him, had nearly decapitated him.  "I guess this guy isn't a simpleton after all!", thought the rogue.  The rogue quickly rose to a sitting position only to have the fighter brandishing the well used sword in the rogues face, "Now i'm going to show you WHO not to steal from! You daft twit!", snarled the fighter.  The rogue attempted to reason with the brute by throwing three cabochons at the fighter, "Please take these as payment as well as my apologies for any misunderstanding! Please just spare my life, I beg of you!", pleaded the rogue.  

The fighter looked down upon the whimpering figure and raised his sword readying for the killing blow.  "Stop! Put down that weapon!", heard the fighter...