This week I created a hot air balloon model for use in a tabletop miniatures game called Turnip28, a strange little setting that’s essentially post-apocalyptic-Napoleonic warfare with a heaping dose of pointy-nosed helms, root vegetables and mutations. I really adore the artwork and the imagination that has gone into developing the world.
The model is scratch built, with the only manufactured plastic components being the barrel in the gondola, the two figures, and a styrene support rod hidden within the cotton-ball smoke. The balloon is made of papier-mâché that was formed around a 5″ latex balloon; the gondola is balsa with a skin of paper towel soaked in diluted PVA. The banner is made from a piece of an aluminum can. The ropes on the gondola are speaker wire, while the rigging is painted embroidery floss. The netting on top of the balloon was cut from a produce bag that once held avocados, and the ring to which it is attached is simple paper. The whole assembly is mounted on a wire coat hanger, bent into shape to suggest a dangling rope.
It took the better part of two days to complete, and has already seen action on the tabletop. Yes, it has stats and can move and do things in-game!
I’ve also been using my design skills to create some reference cards for use when playing the game. While I’ve arranged the layout and made some minor edits to the text, the artwork is not my own; it’s been lifted from the PDF rulebook. The typeface is of course Calson Antique, a very well-known typeface used in everything from classic Warhammer tomes to the credits in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. I debated using it for the body text on the cards, as a simpler serif font would improve readability, but ultimately stuck with it for flavor’s sake.
I’m still working on cards for all of the different “Cults” that players can choose, but once they’re finished I’ll post a link here for folks to download the cards to print for personal use.
Finally, in amassing content for my portfolio, I found myself dredging the depths of old audio project files and stumbled upon a ten-year-old recording of some tape loops that never got used for anything. I spent one morning arranging the bits and it resulted in an 11-minute track I’ve titled “No More Blue Tomorrows,” a name inspired by a recent viewing of David Lynch’s 2006 film Inland Empire.
The track is available as a pay-what-you-want download, find it below.
The title “Blue Tomorrows” sounded familiar, and it didn’t take me long to realize that Rafael Anton Irisarri used the title on his brilliant 2009 album The North Bend (which I’ve listened to probably hundreds of times by now). It gets a big recommendation from me.
As always, feel free to comment or reach out at bryan@bryanruhe.com if you have any questions, feedback, or just want to say hello.
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Follow Bryan Ruhe on WordPress.comUntil next time… Keep on creating!
– Bryan
