Let me tell you about Minis.

I've just recently made an even greater discovery. Living in the loft with access to an even wider range of tools has given me the opportunity to try even more techniques and an even broader range of materials.

My favourite social pastime since first playing in High School is playing fantasy role play games. Compared to the obsessive details that go into my other model making activities, tabletop terrain and miniatures is child's play. The focus is on fun and games.

Now, with access to a forge and spin casting equipment as well as injection molding I decided to make some miniature figures for our games: Dragons and monsters of all sorts. 

The gamers I play with are so impressed that they are constantly begging me to make custom minis of their characters. 

The first few I made were pretty basic but they were impressed enough that I made a few more with more detail.

Hank begged me to do one of him. Not his character but an actual miniature of himself. 

This April, the shop was slow and I had a weekend to do what I liked without anyone else around. So I had Hank come in early on a Saturday to get things done.

Hank is a great subject. Although he's usually a gregarious motor mouth, he knows that I like to work in silence. He quietly posed and followed my instructions as I carefully carved his likeness into stiff wax. He watched over me as I put his wax likeness in silicone to make a mold. He got excited when I lit the forge and melted the bits of bronze in a crucible, and watched with awe when I clamped the mold in the centrifugal spin caster and carefully poured the molten bronze. 

I prepared all my paints and brushes as the figurine cooled in its silicone womb. I carefully cut open the silicone mold and pulled out the still warm figurine. Then I cut away the chanels and carefully grinded and polished the figurine. Following that I gave it a quick shot of primer. Then I set to work with my tiny paint brushes and little pots of paint. Hank sat very still as I painted and he followed my orders as I told him to lift his chin or tilt his head. I fell into the zone and wanted to get every freckle on his face just right. Hank's hair is a rusty red that has the texture of dry straw. I tease him that it looks like he cut it himself without the aid of a mirror. Holding his miniature self in my left hand I took my last brush stroke with my right. His image started swimming before my eyes and I started ‘hearing’ his thoughts as the miniature chilled my fingertips. I saw me looking at him through his eyes. Saw me looking back at him with a glazed stare. Felt both of us panic and freak out with both of our minds running in different directions while our bodies remained still.

Both our heads began to throb and I thought "Uh, buddy….  I think that I just created a portal into your brain!"

"Ya think?!" He thought back at me.

In shock I dropped his ice cold mini, both of us collapsed to the floor panting…

I started to laugh maniacally and he called me an evil genius and we both crawled to my bed and passed out from exhaustion. 

We woke up some hours later on the Sunday morning totally famished. It's amazing that we didn't choke to death as we shoveled food into our mouths and talked excitedly about what happened at the same time. We experimented a bit. The Hank portal got cold in his hand but didn't do anything else. In my hands, I could contact him and converse with him but I was careful not to go through the portal and 'step into his brain'...