Arnica: Lights, Camera... Bubbling Rubber!

I've been busy this week on all things Arnica Real Estate. Not only did I get the new mold for the Boardwalks made, I also made a replacement mold for the side walls to the board & batten buildings. These molds got ripped to shreds last Christmas. One wall went because of malfunctioning mold release agent and the other went due to an error mixing resin. Mostly, though, they went because they were old and had outlived their capacity.

While I was making that mold, I whipped out my trusty camera phone and shot a short video of what the rubber looks like while we're sucking the air out of it in the vacuum chamber. It's not much of a video (just 2 minutes), but I think you'll all get a kick out of watching the rubber bubble around as it "came alive."

If you'd like to watch it over at YouTube, Click Here.

More About Molds

You see, molds don't last forever. As they age they get brittle and lose the slickness that is necessary for the easy removal of the cured resin. Without this slickness, the mold fails and tears when you pull out the finished piece. One question that's been asked a lot is, "How long do these molds last?"

The Arnica Work Table

Well, pilgrim, there ain't no good answer for that. You see, we use different types of silicone mold rubber and they each have different properties. As you can see in this picture, we use three types of rubber: purple, green and yellow.

Yeah, I know it's more of a teal or a turquoise or soa foam... I'm a guy working with chemicals and power tools. Right now, I'm just going to call it "green."

Each of these is slightly different. The yellow is made by a major company called Alumilite. We use their Quick Set Mold Silicone which sets in about half an hour (and completely solidifies in 4 hours). This is a good, fairly stiff rubber that is good for holding details and is justly famous for its long-life and durability. It's a bit expensive (the boardwalk mold had 410 grams of rubber and cost about $20 to make). That might not sound like much, but when you consider we've got 40+ molds... well, it adds up. We also have to be careful of that stiffness, as it can make it harder to de-mold smaller parts.

A look at the pump and the pot (vacuum chamber)

The Green is the 2125 from MPK Enterprises. The company is run by a guy by the name of Mike, and he's one of the nicest and most helpful guys out there. You can reach him through his site at www.hobbysilicone.com. This particular silicone rubber is very flexible which makes it ideal for small parts like the awning posts you can see in the photo above. It also has the advantage of holding details very well. In addition to small pieces, we use it for some of the roofs, as the flexibility makes it easy to de-mold the large flat panels. Finally, it only runs about $10 a pound, so it's less expensive than the Alumilite. 

The purple is the pleased spiritualist -- er, I mean "happy medium" between the two. We use MPK's Extra-Firm 135 because it's more flexibile than the Alumilite, but more rugged than the green. If I had to pick just one rubber to use for all occasions, I would choose the purple. Fortunately, I don't have to pick just one. As with any job, you need to use the right tool for the task at hand. Figuring out which rubber matches which mold master is a bit of an art, but I'm getting better at it.

Just as there are different molds for different situations, we use different resins for different applications. Come back next week and we'll talk more about why sometimes we use white resin and sometimes we use tan.

See ya then, amigos!

Arnica Store (briefly) open...

Howdy from Arnica!

You’re getting this email because you have ordered from us in the past or you have asked to be placed on our mailing list.  If you’re the former, thanks amigo! If you’re the latter, then welcome aboard!

I wanted to let you know that we’ve opened the shop for a few days to clear out some inventory (we made some buildings for a convention that we wound up canceling), so we have some pieces ready. We’re also ready to buy some more rubber so we can cast some new molds. Our plan is to duplicate the existing molds and ship them to Murphy so he and I can share the workload and, thus get more buildings out there. Plus, if he’s filling orders then I can focus on getting new stuff ready. This process is long overdue

The shop is open right now to accept orders. Every available item has a “Buy Now” button in front of it.

FAIR WARNING: There’s nothing new from the last time you ordered (sorry, but there are no adobe buildings available yet). I just wanted to give you first crack at ordering before we announce it to the general public.

Mike Mitchell
Hawgleg/Arnica
www.arnicarealestate.com

PS: If you have a discount coming to you from a previous order, please do NOT use the shopping cart to check out. Just send me a list of what you want and I will then send you a custom invoice from PayPal. It’s the best way for me to include your discount.

Gutshot Rotgut: Our Annual April Fools Joke

Yesterday was April Fools Day, and as I explained last week, I enjoy creating pranks for the holiday. Since 2006, Hawgleg Publishing has honored the spirit of the day by announcing the release of a fake product.

This year, our product was gaming-themed whiskey. That is to say, a boutique line of whiskey with a 25mm Western miniature in each bottle. We release the story at our Website (www.hawgleg.com) and TheMiniaturesPage. The story is a bit naughty, but for the most part it's workplace safe -- and it was a BIG hit at TMP. In fact, since April 1 fell on a Sunday, we were apparently the only company that took the time to create a joke (some years at TMP, there are easily a dozen fake products, but this year we were the sole provider, which actually helped us pull the wool over people's eyes more effectively than usual).

I also think the quality of our artwork helped sell the joke:

I created this image in Strata 3D, which is a 3D illustration program I've been working with for a long time (probably more than 10 years). It's a powerful, but lesser-known tool with a lot of horsepower there waiting to be unleashed -- as I hope you can see in these images.

I think this time I came very close to achieving photo realism with these images. They're not quite 100% perfect, but they definitely do a good job of looking like real product artwork. I also got several complements on the quality of the label:

I even had a few people ask for a full-size label so they could print it out and put it on their own whiskey bottle. As one guy said, he wanted to see if anyone would notice. If you'd like to see the full-size label, you can get it by clicking here. I wish I could take all the credit for the label, but I did start off with an existing label from a Chivas Regal bottle. You can compare them by clicking here to see what I started with.

See ya Thursday!

Gutshot Rules: Behind our random Initiative

As a game designer, I think one of the most important things you can do is to impose a sense of balance into the game mechanics. For every plus, there must be a minus. For everything that gives you power, there must be something to counteract it. From time to time I'm going to use this blog to explain some of the behind-the-scenes thinking that went into fine tuning some of the rules in Gutshot.

For example, here's a question I get asked at conventions a lot:

"Why do you guys use random initiative? Why not just roll dice or draw cards and let everyone go in order?"

A fair question, and one with a very simple answer. But first, for those of you who are not that familiar with our game, here's an explanation of how initiative works in Gutshot:

• Each player creates a character and fills out a Character Sheet. Every character must have a name (sorry, but "Cowboy #1 in yellow shirt" is not a name)
• Each player writes the character's name on three slips of paper
• All the slips are placed into a hat or other suitable container (I actually had to stop using my cowboy hat because name slips kept getting caught under the rim -- nowadays I use the old gamer standby: the Crown Royal bag)
• One at a time, a name is pulled from the hat/bag: the character named then takes his action (usually movement and shooting at someone)
• This goes on, one at a time, until the hat/bag is empty. When that happens it is the End of the Turn.
• Refill the hat/bag with the names of surviving characters and keep on repeating until the end of the game.

Every Gamer's Friend

Now, even a quick reading of that should make it apparent that your name is going to be pulled out in a completely random manner. You might even have two Actions in a row... or all three at the end of the Turn. Critics of this system argue that this cuts down a LOT on planning and coordination because you can't easily predict exactly when a character is going to have his name drawn. And that, saddle pals, is exactly what we like about it!

Let me go back in time and set the stage for you...

Way back in 1999 and 2000 when Mike Murphy sent me the first drafts for this game, I was NOT impressed by the initiative system he described. I came from a long and checkered past as an RPGer (D&D, Vampire, etc.) and I was used to the simple: "roll dice and let's go in order" method of doing things. Murph strongly suggested I playtest it the way he wrote it... and I did. And I wasn't super impressed for a few reasons, the main one being that it was possible for me to die without ever firing a shot or moving to defend myself. So, naturally, I tried it again with a simple, orderly initiative system. And it worked... but too well.

Now that the players knew who was going when -- and more importantly, that everyone would only get one Action in a row), they suddenly started using modern combat tactics like advancing in waves and securing entry/exit points. It was highly efficient... and not at all a Western. That type of initiative was just too predictable, which is why we went back and figured out how to fix the I-never-even-got-to-move-before-I-died problem.  This improvement would end up being The Retaliation Shot...

And we'll talk more about that next week.

S&S Voting Report

This weekend we passed the halfway point in our month-long Showdowns & Shootouts Jury Prize selection process. So far, response has been about what I expected it to be with about 50 people voting so far. What I did not expect was that there would be one runaway leader at this point. One of the entries has an almost 2-to-1 lead over its nearest competition.

After these two big leaders, there are several other adventures racking up impressive voting. In fact, every single adventure has received at least one vote (and no, it's not just from the author).

I'm not going to taint the results by publishing who the leaders are, but I will publish the top five at this time (and they are listed in order of their publication number, which does not coincide with who's leading):

• SS001 - Ambush at Coyote Canyon! by Al Theobald
• SS002 - Bullets for Breakfast! by Ross Edwards
• SS003 - 1,000 Horses for Helen! by Carmen Cerra
• SS004 - Hurrahin' the Sky Pilot! by Dan Hash
• SS005 - Holed Up! by Lance Gamble

If you don't see your favorite adventure up there, it's time to vote or stat campaigning to convince your friends and family to agree with your choice and get them to cast a vote, too.

You can read the adventures here: http://www.hawgleg.com/2007_contest_winner.asp
You can cast your vote here: http://www.hawgleg.com/polls_vote.asp?PollID=1

By the way, remember that everyone cast a a vote is eligible to win a saddlebag full of cool prizes!

Voters’ Drawing Prize (valued at about $60) Randomly selected from everyone who votes Whitewash City Starter CD ($15 value)  One item from the Gutshot General Store (approx. $20 value)  One copy of the collected S&S paperback book (approx. $20 value) Gutshot miniature: ($5 value)

See yuh back here on Thursday fer our next, 

regularly scheduled pow wow.

Showdowns & Shootouts: Vote Now to Pick a Winner

As I said Tuesday, the time has finally come, mi amigos. We have finally opened the voting for the second-place prize in our long-running and much-delayed Showdowns & Shootouts Adventure Writing Contest. The details are all over on our Website, so you really should mosey over there and read it in detail.

Here's a relatively short version of what's going on:

• Back in 2007 we started a contest where people would send us ideas for adventures suitable for use with Gutshot. Some were real short (set-up and some loose ideas), others were real detailed with character names, stats, and detailed maps and game objectives. The contest is, of course, called Showdowns & Shootouts.
• We selected 12 of them, rewrote them into a standard format and posted them online as free PDFs for people to download for free.
• We got some of our gaming buddies to help sponsor the contest: Arnica Montana, Hotz Game Mats, Whitewash City, Knuckleduster Productions, and Scale Creep Miniatures all donated prizes... in fact, all told we've got more than $500 in prizes! Again, check out the main site for a list of all the goodies.
• Back in last summer (yup, summer 2010) we finally printed the last adventure. Yeah... there was a HUGE delay, which I'm gonna talk about shortly. Then in Summer 2011 we finally got around to decided who won the Grand Prize (we call it the Judge's Prize). It was awarded to Tom Reed for his adventure, "The Great Dry Gulch Bank Robbery!"
• Now it's time to select the second prize, which we call the Jury's Prize. This one will be selected by the general public at the Hawgleg Website. It's a contest that's open to anyone who will (hopefully) take the time to read the adventures and pick the best of the group (not counting Tom's two entries -- he's already earned one prize). You can get the adventures for free here:  http://www.hawgleg.com/2007_contest_winner.asp
• The author who receives the most votes will win the Jury's Prize and get more goodies than he can fit in his saddle bags (again, hit the main site for a full list).
• Now, here's the cool part, everyone who votes in this contest is eligible to win a $60 prize package. Yup, just for taking the time to vote, you could cash in on some cool stuff!

Everyone who casts a vote in this contest will be eligible for a special Voter’s Prize package valued at about $60. The Voter’s Prize includes: Whitewash City Starter CD ($15 value) One item from the Gutshot General Store (T-shirt, mug, etc. approx. $20 value) One copy of the collected S&S paperback book (approx. $20 value) Gutshot miniature: ($5 value)

Not bad, eh? To vote in the contest, just head on over to the Hawgleg Website, kick back and read some great adventures, and then cast your vote for the one you like best.

You know, what, folks? It's late, I'm more than a little tuckered out from getting things ready (wrote the news story at the Website, created that graphic you see above, and even cleaned up a few coding errors I found in the back-end software that tracks your votes). So, I'm gonna sit back and finish my beer and we can palaver about the contest and why it took so danged long to finish during the next blog update on Tuesday.

Thanks fer yer patience, I'm beholdin' to ya. See ya Tuesday.

Showdowns & Shootouts: Get ready to vote!

As ya'll know, the Showdowns & Shootouts adventure writing contest took a LOT longer than anyone ever thought it would. You know, we had the usual delays... work, family, hospitalizations and hurricanes. But even still, we had no idea we'd lollygag so long on this contest.

Still, in spite of the long delay, it's actually been a big success in that it did exactly what we wanted it to do: We got some great ideas for Gutshot adventures. We collected about 50 submissions that are all fantastic. Honestly, there isn't a dud in the bunch. We had no problems at all selecting 12 adventures to develop into complete, printable material. You can find them here on the Winners page at our Website.

We finally printed the last adventure and selected the winner last summer. It was Tom Reed who won by penning The Great Drygulch Bank Robbery! It was a classic blend of cowhands, outlaws and a sheriff desperate to keep the peace. All in all, just the sort of thing that -- if it had been a classic Western movie -- might have starred Gary Cooper as the man with the tin badge. As the Judge's Prize Winner, Tom won a whole slew of goodies:

• Whitewash City 6 x 4 feet felt game mat (approx. $40 value)
• $60 Gift Certificate to Scale Creep Miniatures
• 25mm painted stagecoach with team from Knuckleduster ($80 value)
• Arnica, Montana resin Main Street Starter (5 buildings: $40 value)
• Whitewash City Starter CD ($15 value)
• One item from the Gutshot General Store (approx. $20 value)
• One copy of the Showdowns & Shootouts collected book (approx. $20 value)
• Gutshot miniature: ($5 value)

With the adventure finished, the last thing we had to do to finally put a bow on this thing was to have the readers vote on which was their favorite adventure. But there was one thing that had been holding us back. The survey software. I know this sounds minor, but we just couldn't find the right software. As sad as it sounds, we just didn't find the right software to collect the info we wanted. Okay, that's not true. For $25 a month (minimum) we could do it. But... we're cheap. Um, scratch that... we're frugal. We just didn't think it was a good time to dump a bunch of money into something that, in the long run, isn't going to be used that often.

So, I finally sat down and wrote it myself. I finally got it finished (well, except for one or two cosmetic things I may or may not address at this time). And I need to write a reporting module to tabulate the results. But, again, that's a back-end piece that I can do later, or just tabulate the results by hand.

So, at long last, the Voting is open to the public. The voting will open Thursday on March 1, 2012. At that time, I will add a link to this blog, and to the regularly scheduled update on Thursday.

You can cast your vote until midnight March 31, 2012. Oh, and did I mention that there is a prize being given to everyone who votes in this? We'll talk about that on Thursday.

Deadwood: Names for types of zombies?

Good news on multiple points. First, we have been setting up google docs so that we can more easily collaborate on material behind the scenes. As soon as Ole Doc Murphy gets his Internet connection back up and working, we're going to get him set up, too. That should really streamline or productivity.

In the meantime, Paul and I have been discussing some details about zombies. Specifically, what are we going to call them in the new game. Up until now we've been calling them Shamblers, Revenants, and Rage Zombies. All of these is a descriptive, they don't have the right ring to it.

Awhile back on TMP, someone suggested we use the name "Skeeters" for the fast zombies. Although it does have a nice ring to it (especially when you say it like Gaby Hayes: "Goldarnit, them Skeeters just ate the school marm's face!"), it just isn't what were looking for.

So, we have a short list of names that we are using internally. But... We thought maybe we would open to discussion up here again. Any ideas or suggestions? If we use your idea you will get credit in the book, thus earning you immortality among the pantheon of gamers.

Started working on new material...

I, for one, am very excited that my "day job" schedule has changed enough that I will be able to shift energy back to the various Hawgleg projects we've had sitting on the back burner.

Upcoming work includes:

• Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood
• Showdowns & Shootouts
• Draw RPG

Coupled with some upcoming changes to our back-end practices (scheduling, accounting, etc.), things are definitely looking up to make 2012 a very exciting year for us. Keep checking here, and at our website, for more updates.

www.hawgleg.com

Getting ready for OwlCon...

Here it is on Tuesday night and I'm starting to gear up for OwlCon this weekend. Has it really been 13 years that I've attended?  Well... at least 12. I think I missed on year because I was ill. However, I'm not 100% sure about that.

Last night I worked on cleaning up my "craft room" so I could sit down and start painting again. I've got about 10-15 minis primed, based and partially painted, just waiting for me to finish painting them. I'd like to bring a few new women characters this year, along with some more "character zombies." The latter are definitely necessary, as I will be running a new game this year: Last THING Standing.

I'm looking forward to giving this a shake-down -- it's a variation of the old "Last Man Standing" game where everyone tries to shoot everyone else. Only this time, half of the players will be running zombies! I hope this is a fun change of pace for everyone (and me).

My game will be at 8 pm, Friday Feb. 3, 2012 at Rice University.

Even though my game says it's filled up, I always leave room for 2-3 "walk-ins," so feel free to swing by and see if I can fit you in.

http://owlcon.com/2012/events_minis.php#Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood

Arnica: Vacuum Chamber Report

As many of you may recall, we recently bought a 3-gallon vacuum chamber for degassing resin and silicone rubber. I just thought I'd give you a quick report and let you know that I'm VERY happy with this purchase.

RESIN
We're using both 5-minute and 10-minute curing resin, and so far I'm thrilled with the results. I can mix as aggressively as I want without fear of working air into the mix. Once it's all mixed (and looking quite milky), I pop it in the chamber and in less than 3 minutes it rises (bubbling ferociously), then collapses back down. Then it quickly starts a rolling boil (this happens when the chamber achieves a complete vacuum registering -30 inches), at which point I turn it off and slowly let the air vent back in. I remove the lid and my resin looks like crystal clear honey. I'm amazed at how clear it is. I pour it into the molds, run a thin stick or blade through some very tight spots (the cross bar on windows, deep & thin areas around door frames) and then sit back and watch it quickly cure. When I demold, there are no bubbles against the surface, and very seldom any on the back.

SILICONE
The resin is nice, but this is what I really bought it for. I'd been having lots of trouble with bubbles in my silicone. Right now I'm using silicone with a 45-minute pot life, so I've got plenty of time to pour, mix, and pour on the master, and mix more if I need it. Again, I can mix as aggressively as I like. I've tried using an electric mixer, but have not been satisfied with the results.

Now, the resin only doubles in size during the degassing process, so I can really do a lot if I want to (but I don't because I like to take my time pouring). But the silicone more than triples its size. Since I'm using 16-oz disposable plastic cups right now, I've found that I can put in about 130-140 grams of rubber and catalyst. More than that risks a serious mess because the rubber would overflow the container. Even at this amount I've occasionally had to vent the chamber (open the valve to let in a little air) to keep it from overflowing.

I'll tell ya, when the silicone is degassing, it's incredible to watch. It looks like some sort of mutant alien sponge that throbs and pulses with something that looks like it's got a heartbeat. It's really creepy looking, but in a cool way. If I were filming a movie, this is exactly what I would use for some sort of alien life form.

When it's degassed, I add I carefully pour it into the corner of the prepared mold box. Following a variety of advice I've received (including Michael over at www.moldmakingsilicone.com), I take the time to carefully brush the rubber over the master, pushing the rubber into thin and tight spaces. I also work it up in corners and other tight locations. Once I'm sure I've done a good job of pushing the rubber into the details, I think add more rubber. Because I'm using 45-minute pot life rubber, I can easily pour a second (or third) cup of rubber, degas it and then add it to the mold box. This helps me get the proper thickness I want for each mold.

So far, the molds have been amazingly bubble free. In fact, I've only seen three bubbles so far, and I know they came from me pouring the rubber too fast.

I know many of you have not had problems with bubbles, and there's been some speculation that I'm getting them because I live in a very humid part of Texas. I also know that $400 is an expensive tool for anyone's budget. But the fact remains, so far I'm thrilled with the vacuum chamber we bought and I fully believe it will pay for itself by helping prevent bad molds and bad resin pours.

By the way, if you're interested in looking at the vacuum chamber we bought, here's a link to the seller on ebay:
http://shop.ebay.com/pvac-1526/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

Day 1, Post 1

Howdy, ya'll. What we got here is yet another way for us to reach out and spend some virtual time with our friends and fans. Already this year we've moved added Facebook to our repertoire of new media, and now here we are on Blogger.

I strongly suspect that there will be some crossover between what we discuss on Facebook and this here blog. In general, though, you should still focus on using the Hawgleg Forums as your main venue for posting rules questions and discussing specific aspects of our games.

Now, I reckon you might be wondering why you should check our blog if the the Hawgleg site is still our main soapbox. Frankly, I don't blame you for scratchin' yer heads about that. Truth be told, we ain't 100 percent sure ourselves! After all, blogging is something new to us.

For the short term, I'll probably do the same thing I do over at facebook, which is post small updates about what I'm personally working on at the moment. For example, the last few weeks I've actually been working on some fiction that ties into our upcoming game, Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood. Some of it has been posted in the Lounge over at theminiaturespage.com, but that's only available to folks who are supporting members of TMP. Hey, we're not trying to be elitist or nothin' -- we just wanted to float a few short scenes by a smaller audience until we get 'em polished up and edited a little. The stuff at TMP is all very rough at the moment. Once it's cleaned up, we'll post the material here or at the Hawgleg site so you can all read it.

In the meantime, I've got to get back to work. Gotta whole slew of stuff to do and, as my grand pappy used to say, "We're burning daylight here."