The Styrene Gyrene Post #1
Welcome to the Styrene Gyrene! I built my first model about seven years ago and haven’t looked back. The hobby has led me down numerous rabbit holes; from photo-etch to…
Designing and Printing the Fantastic Robo-Jarv Part 1
For the past few months, I’ve been getting to know my resin 3D printer. Using 3D printed parts in conjunction with model kits is an awesome “combined arms” approach to…
Designing and Printing the Fantastic Robo-Jarv Part 2
Support up! Well, I had the first setback. The body of the robot failed to print. Looks like there wasn’t enough supports to hold the body to the build plate. …
Designing and Printing the Fantastic Robo-Jarv Part 3
I finally got the body to print. I had another print failure since the last post before figuring out what the problem was. Long story short, I had to change…
Designing and Printing the Fantastic Robo-Jarv Part 4
How does this sound? Robotic Jump Assisted Recon Variant, or Robo JARV for short. I’m going with that for now. If you missed the first post, TinkerCad assigned the randomly…
The Glu-sual Suspects
I looked up from the workbench and noticed I’ve collected an entire shelf of different glues. How did this happen? What are they all for? If you’ve been in the…
Review – Sheperd Paine’s “How to Build Dioramas”
My adoring fans often ask me, “What inspires you to build dioramas?” and “Did you remember to turn off the hot wire foam cutter?”. Well, I always forget to turn…
Hare o’ the Bear Part 1
The idea for my current project hit me as I was playing around on HeroForge. If you aren’t familiar, HeroForge is a website where you can build figures typically used…
Hare o’ the Bear Part 2
The Honey Pot As I get close to completing this piece, I thought I’d double back and go over how I achieved some of the effects used. I’m still getting…
The Last Stop Part 1
I decided to break out the spare parts boxes and give the 3D printer a rest. The weather has gotten chilly here and that messes with the resin out in…
Interview With a Prop Master
I was browsing Reddit, waiting for glue or paint to dry, and stumbled across this amazing diorama. If the internet is good for anything, it’s for showing you people that…
Wood Grain Techniques
Scaled wood grain is a solid way to impart realism into a model or diorama. You can create convincing wood using a few different materials; not the least of which…
The M113 and the Never Ending PE
Building model kits going a little too smoothly for you? Finally decoded all the symbols in the directions? Honed your build order to the maximum efficiency? Well, why not try…
The M113 Part 2
When we last left, our hot dog-fingered protagonist was trying to super glue tiny metal shavings onto a hunk of plastic. Did he succeed? What is he doing now? What’s…
The M113 Part 3
I’m waiting on the Ukrainian postal service to send me the figures that will complete this project. As a result, this will be the last post for awhile concerning the…
The Dogan Part 1
This project is a work in progress, tying together 3D printing, a model kit, and base building. It is a dark future that takes place in this world or one…
Heavy Freight Part 1
I am slightly modifying a 1/35 German kitchen trailer from MiniArt. I’m dumping the kitchen equipment and replacing it with a balsa wood trailer. You’ll find out what’s going on…
An Ancient Terrible Tower – Part 1
This venture was recommended to me by a friend. He’s looking for a dice tower to use while playing Ancient Terrible Things. I’ve never played it, but the artwork looks…
Spare Parts Bin
I thought I’d throw together something real quick. It’s been a couple of weeks of hectic work and I missed my self-imposed weekly deadline. I’ve started going back to school…
Stranski Girl
My next project is on the bench. I’ve been drooling over some of these kits for awhile and I finally pulled the trigger. I picked it up from Industria Mechanika…
‘Hammer Bashin’ Wif da Boys Part 1
Ok, this is pretty fun. I’ve got my brother in town for a few days and he came bearing gifts. He filled a suitcase full of Warhammer sprues. He’s got…
ZBrush Core Tabletop Miniature Creation
I wanted to call this article something like “The Pantless Chap” or “Professor Cheeks” but I figured that wouldn’t hit right with the search engine optimization algorithms. Consider one of…
Completed – An Ancient and Terrible Dice Tower
Welcome back, folks! I’m glad to have this dice tower wrapped up! It provided a lot of challenges and required me to use materials and techniques that were new to…
A Scale of a Tale
Nothing ruins a diorama faster than an out of scale item (except a turpentine spill!). The immersion is spoiled, and the out of sorts item becomes the focus of the…

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures
Take a look at some of the builds I’ve put together. Some are build-alongs and some are stand alone articles on things that I find useful. I’ll also stash reviews and interviews in this section.
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