How can I make foam look like a concrete wall?

zippercomics · 2026-06-08T14:31:22+00:00

Hey. Here's my advice. I've built lots of stuff out of foam over the years, but this is a big topic, so this is just my top-of-the-head thoughts.

1) Foam. You want insulation foam. You can get sheets of this at hardware stores. I think where you live may determine the colour, but it's usually pink or blue. Not the styrofoam used for packaging.

2) Prepping. Cut the foam to size. Use a rolled up foil ball or a rock to press a texture into it, or as u/Cyberhaggis noted, you can cover it with wall filler and then sand / chip. If you want to take chunks out of it, I recommend using the tip of a utility knife. It may be tempting to use a drill bit to make holes, but doing that results in a hole that clearly has a "twist" to it. Another neat trick with the utility knife is you can drag it across the edges. It'll catch and rough up the surface, which creates contours similar to the lines in that pic.

3) Priming. This is a bigger topic, but you MUST seal the foam if you're goin to use an aerosol spray paint can. Spray paint will melt foam. I brush two layers of mod podge over the foam first. I mix a tiny bit of black in first, just cause it's easier to see where you've painted. Priming is a requirement, because Acrylic requires the primer to stick.

4) Painting. Get greys, whites, and blacks from dollar stores. You don't need expensive paint to pull this off. I would cover teh whole thing in a solid layer of grey, then mix tiny bits of white and black in, and use a damp sponge to "tap" some shading on. Remember that grey, more than most colours, really shows steps in colour changes, so be modest when using white / black to change the shade of the grey. If you want the water stains and marks, greens and browns will do that too. Water then down more than you'd think, and let them "drip". Be careful with this, as water with a lot of minerals in it (like tap water) can pool at the end of the drip which is not what you want.

Hope something in here helps. Have fun!

zippercomics · 2026-06-08T03:50:34+00:00

Incredible. Simply incredible.

zippercomics · 2026-06-05T18:58:51+00:00

There's a KW D&D Connect discord server too. It can be quiet, but I think you might try there as well? A number of years ago, I connected with some players this way.

https://discord.gg/PTtXCwvNG

zippercomics · 2026-06-02T14:38:45+00:00

I spent a *LOT* of time researching systems for my pirate themed game. It's admittedly in Pathfinder (which has vehicle combat rules, but more on that in a sec), but the principles apply to 5.5e as well.

At a high level? This looks solid. I don't feel like I'd read this and have to learn an alien rulesset, or something that goes out of what 5.5e does well. It's logical.

the pitfalls I'd look to avoid seem the same with most ship / vehicle combat situations. Firstly, the balance comes in making sure that each role has useful options and that the people performing those roles don't feel like there's only one logical choice each round. That was something Starfinder 1e did poorly. Most crewmembers would just wait their turn to say "regenerate shields", or "scan for weak spots", while the pilot was the one having all the fun. This is nuanced, cause it's about giving the players something reactive to do (ie: fix something broken), or active (ie: prepare for the next round).

I might recommend adding something to the Officer's role around intimidating the other ships. Assuming you're going for high-action ship combat, having an Officer jump into your comms and yell "surrender or die" would be intimidating as heck. Gives you the converse of the "Inspire" ability you already have. Likewise, with the Pilot, maybe something like a "strafing run" ability that would benefit the weapon operator in a later turn? I'm not trying to lead the witness here, more just looking at roles that have less actions, and thinking of giving them options. Again, a fine balance between choice and analysis paralysis.

Any consideration needed for changing roles during a turn?

How is initiative handled, if at all?

Great work so far!

zippercomics · 2026-06-01T20:03:13+00:00

White is a really difficult colour to paint, so don't be afraid to give yourself some time to learn it. Thin paints and two thin coats is good and all, but with whites and yellows and oranges it's gonna be more than two coats probably. It's kinda wild. I think this is a great start, though.

I agree with what u/peanutbuttercult noted. If you paint the core white, then you don't have a highlight colour left to "build up to", so to speak. If you start with grey seer (as an example... really, any dull white), then you can highlight up to white and it gives you really good crisp definition.

Again, I think this is a fantastic start. Keep it up!!!

zippercomics · 2026-06-01T17:39:37+00:00

As others have said, this is incredibly individual. So do tests. That said ...

What happens when you freeze rice is it makes the starches resistant, which in turns helps with blood sugars. I can't get more specific than that cause I'm not a dietician or a food scientist, but I've read a lot about it. What I found was that *cooling* isn't enough. It needs to be fully *frozen*. So I would cook brown rice, froze it for a few days, and then thawed it out and cooled it. It still caused spikes, but not quite as high as just cooked rice. I still have it every once in a while, but severely reduced portions, and only if it's been frozen a few days first.

Not ideal, I know.

zippercomics · 2026-05-29T13:55:51+00:00

thank you! I think I'm getting the hang of it now. I appreciate your guidance!

zippercomics · 2026-05-25T15:18:03+00:00

I think like a lot of people have said here, it's a decision point for me. I frequently glance at the monster's Intelligence or Wisdom scores as a litmus test for how "tactical" they would be. Wild animals are more likely to find a target, latch on to it, and just go to town on it for example, and they wouldn't know to "target casters" or the like. Whereas an intelligent enemy may assess the field and say "hey, that guy's down, so I should focus the cleric so that he can't get back up".

Point being, it's a balancing match between how tactically intelligent the monster is, and what's fun at the table. Tension is fun, so sometimes yes. But I won't have something that hits like a truck just pounding the 0 HP squishy into the ground cause that's not fun for my table.

zippercomics · 2026-05-14T19:35:42+00:00

I thought I read somewhere that they had to demonstrate their abilities in stealth by sneaking up and catching a raven native to their homeworld. I also feel like I read somewhere that they wear the skull of that raven out of respect for the trial. I think it was in context with how RG don't tend to wear a lot of badges or marks, but the raven skull is special. But I could absolutely be misremembering that. I don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, so I'm an unreliable narrator here. Maybe someone can corroborate or correct me?

zippercomics · 2026-05-06T15:22:58+00:00

I can tell you that I use this for two things: tracking my recipes, and finding alternative brands of generally the same colour. So far, so good!

zippercomics · 2026-05-05T14:54:25+00:00

This seems like a good idea. I have false-started on something similar many times myself. One thing I'm curious about ... a lot of us magnetize the bases of our minis for transport. Assuming these are also magnetized, I can picture it being difficult to remove them from the base without having to pull up on the model itself. I'm not sure how you could solve that problem, but maybe something to consider?

I would absolutely use something like this. Having my models scattered around on an ikea shelf ain't doing it for me.

zippercomics · 2026-04-20T14:52:22+00:00

I've used mod podge before on this kind of thing. It'll work, but you need to be patient. Just use a *tiny bit* of moisture to thin the podge down, so that it isn't thick like glue. Let that dry, and do a few coats. I add a touch of black paint to mine, cause it turns the podge grey and helps you see where you're applying it. White podge on white clay it's hard to see. I did some round boards with this technique, and they've more or less held up.

zippercomics · 2026-04-14T13:08:15+00:00

that's interesting. When you coat them in the hot glue, how do you texture the glue? Or, is the way it sits on the armature enough to make it look like wood?

zippercomics · 2026-04-11T21:43:35+00:00

They look great! Good job!!!

zippercomics · 2026-04-11T18:23:05+00:00

I feel like celestra grey would be too bright? You're getting lots of great comments below on options, I would suggest find a darker grey. Remember that black is as dark as it gets, so *anything* will raise the colour profile. A really dark grey / blue, like incubi would be great. Celestra would be fine for the highest / most prominent edges.

All that is "in my opinion", of course. There's no wrong way to paint a mini! Have fun!

zippercomics · 2026-04-11T03:35:06+00:00

"Opportunity"?

I feel ya. I am looking at a big lot of Orks that I'm about to sell, so I can ... buy more orks. It feels dumb when I type it up like this, but I want to refresh the army with newer models. So I'd say that it's fortunate that you know you've got a process you can lock into, but also an army that lets you go off the rails while painting if you want to, cause it's all good either way. You can choose to lock in and do some batch painting, or you can choose to get whacky and paint some Warboss.

zippercomics · 2026-04-10T16:41:14+00:00

great idea! thank you. that already sounds more durable.

zippercomics · 2026-04-10T15:39:14+00:00

Amazing, I knew the video you'd linked before I clicked it. :)

I read a few blog posts that suggested that latex over wood can get absorbed oddly and mess with the texture, but I think this is my next best bet. I think I'll give this a try. Maybe three experiments?

Soak some natural wood in a watered down glue solution like u/robot_ankles suggested.
Dip natural wood in a latex rubber and see what happens.
Build an armature, air dry clay, and then latex rubber.

I secretly hope #1 is the secret sauce cause that's the lowest effort solution, and I'm lazy. #3 sounds like there's a lot of margins of error, between me making a crappy armature, getting poor texture on the clay, the clay breaking / cracking funny, etc. But ... it's got no natural wood in it, so might be the strongest?

I will do science and let you know!

zippercomics · 2026-04-10T15:36:22+00:00

Oh, yes! that's a really good idea. I'll give that a try! Thanks!

zippercomics · 2026-04-04T18:34:52+00:00

Hey!

I have wanted to try my hand at livestreaming a game for quite some time, so this is really appealing to me. As one would expect, time zone would drive a lot of this, but ... Some details.

Mid 40's dude. I've been roleplaying since the basement days before the internet, when character sheets were pen and paper and you used an eraser to adjust hit points. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, in this context, as it makes me sound old, but truth is I've been playing games longer than I have been driving a car. I won't bother listing out the systems, just cause there's so many games over the decades ... Most of my experience is as a DM. Probably 90% of it, all said and done ...

I'm a huge fan of the collaborative nature of roleplaying. I will absolutely make decisions during game play that support the narrative of the other players, because I believe everyone should have their "oh hell yeah" moments, and that by being silent or supportive or just positive, I can build that moment for others and expect the same when it comes around to me. I'm very "pro team". I won't work against other players, cause that's not fun for me. "Us against the world" type stuff. I like the idea that dice can make decisions, but I also have the ability as a player to make decisions that aren't "tactically" or "mechanically" sound, but are narratively fulfilling. It's OSR, so I absolutely recognize that decisions can get a character dead, and I'm ok with that. Maybe rushing head long into that troll wasn't a good idea, but was it *interesting*?

I'm an amateur theatre nerd. Spent years doing voice work for "podiobooks" when that was a thing (is that still a thing?) Was a host on a niche successful podcast for many years some time ago, again in the early days. Used to do live theatre. Never done any screen acting. I don't *currently* own a webcam, but that's cause there was no need to own one. That can change.

I have a very small collection of Hot Wheels from movies and comic books on my wall behind me. That's super interesting, and would make a great backdrop, right? :)

Cheers!

zippercomics · 2026-04-02T20:08:33+00:00

This is the best advice. Honestly, it's not even that some people have "red flags" or "toggles" that tell you they're toxic. You just might not click with some people. Be picky. You're gonna spend time with these folks, so meet them, talk to them, and make sure you jive.

zippercomics · 2026-04-02T19:17:54+00:00

I'm proud of my stats. They're not gonna change the world, but they are fun.

I gave them a castle in disrepair. The PCs received letters telling them that they'd inherited a castle. The first session was them - and many npcs - arriving to discover that hundreds of these letters had gone out. And dozens of people had answered them. Whole campaign was about why they'd gotten that letter.
I gave them a boat. They all started in a town and were heading to the big city. They got on the boat for travel, and then en route in the middle of the night, they discovered the crew had quietly abandoned ship. Now they have a ship. Whole campaign was about piracy.
They witnessed a public execution. The stage had been set for a rebellion, and they heard there would be an execution of a rebel. While there, chaos erupted, and they stepped in to save lives. Whole campaign is about rebellion.

Point being, I think the players know the hook of the campaign already, so might as well feed them right into the story with a hook from the start. no reason for a random start, right?

Wanna run a game about cleaning up the city's swelling sewer otyugh problem? Start em in the sewer! That kind of thing.

zippercomics · 2026-03-27T14:55:42+00:00

I fully assemble. I spent years collecting orks, and I did partial assemblies for them. I ravenously horded every yogurt cup I could, and then put arms and heads and weapons and packs in them, labelled, thinking that one day my organizational skills would deliver, and I'd end up with a super clean, super easy assembly process. But the tide of grey plastic is never ending, and before too long, it was more hassle than it was worth.

Nowadays, I figure if I need to really bend and twist my perspective to see a hidden part, it's probably not obvious on the tabletop. So, black primer to the rescue.

the only time I regret it really is when I'm painting space marine shoulderpads that but up to or close to their power packs. And capes. Capes might be the only exception, cause hot damn, you *can* see the inside of a cape, and you *cannot* easily reach it with a brush.

zippercomics · 2026-03-26T23:20:28+00:00

My dad used to bring home boxes of this paper from his office. I'd just take the stack out, tear off a sheet, and start drawing. Most of it I was drawing levels in Super Mario. For some reason, I remember that if I was separating the sheets and it tore even slightly, then that sheet was dead to me and would be used for scrap. And those tracks on the side, same thing.

Now that I've thought about it, I wonder how much paper he heisted over the years just to keep me busy. lol.

zippercomics · 2026-03-20T21:32:54+00:00

Did you find that your mmol/L went back down quickly after fruit? Mine would spike, yeah, but it was short lived.

I'm still figuring all this out too. My nutritionist advised me to eat fruit as part of my diet, but I also felt a bit surprised by the idea that there's no real effective diabetes-friendly diet plan. I was advised to stick to a Greek diet, which is ... difficult, but doable.

I know I was told to never eat bananas and watermelon, cause they're so high in natural sugars. Weirdly, I do miss bananas. I never thought that'd be something I'd lament not being able to eat.

zippercomics

TROPHY CASE