Dremel love

My wife bought me a stylus Dremmel today after she caught me pining over one in Bunnings hardware. Its been a ritual of mine- a pilgrimage to the display cabinet to pick up the samples and poke them at imaginary miniatures and, well, occasionally pretend its a laser gun. Pchoo pchoo!



Having inherited a perfectly good dremmel I could never justify the purchase. But oh, how wrong I was. I CAN justify it.
The stylus dremmel is absolutely brilliant.
First thing I noticed was no chord- that, combined with a light weight body instantly made it far, far easier to use. Clunky tools tend to sit on a desk as they are more bother to set up than its worth especially if you have to bugger about with cords. This baby has a docking station charger so its always charged and at arms reach, and I can keep my fave tips and spanner on it.
Within a few hours of receiving the gift I has used it to hollow out a toad miniature, make a zoat fit together, polish a c28 giant, sculpt the edge onto a resculpted c28 giants blade and make twisted rope wire for its handle.
I am totally gobsmacked how it has become my must have tool in one day!
Oh, and I made myself a new main double sided sculpting tool by grinding and polishing some brass rod and strip. Though brass is softer than steel, I wont have to sand back the rust to get a clean surface. I will give it a go and see if its better.
Back in mini land and it seems the imperial space marines and space farers from last month face a new foe....




Myfanwy the Cat vs. spacefarers. Whats her special attack move?




Yep, she sat on them. Kate took pictures of the carnage, lots of pictures. I guess she was too busy laughing to think about rescuing the minis.... Oh no, never mind the hours of painting I... Oh wait, she bought me an awesome Dremmel... Uh, carry on dear.




Deese wittle peeepol got no noms. Me punish dem fur deir insolence.

Flesh and Windex

My buy/paint ratio is looking bad at the moment, and I realized some drastic action needed to be taken. Yes, dear reader, I needed to take a bite out of the lead pile to show it who is boss!
Recently I found myself with a hour to kill and scoured my shelves for something I could knock out quickly, and after a couple of laps I realized the flaw in my thinking. I was categorizing figures into a 'want to do justice' pile. In other words, things I will do later when I have time to make them really good. Aka, wont happen because I am too busy.
What to do?
I have been kicking around that thought for a week or so like a baby in a sick joke, when I came to the conclusion that...

a: I would rather my collection painted to some basic standard rather than bare metal.
B: as I game with them, a brighter, more contrasted paint job would help my models 'read' better on the tabletop.
C: my current layering up from darks to lights using thin layers takes ages and has too many steps to completion. This puts me off tackling figures.
D: Carob is no substitute for chocolate.

In order to get revving I would have to adjust my paint style to a more traditional method of hitting the mid tone, then shading both down to shadow and up to highlight. Rather than murky glazed layers, a crisp, clean, even foundation base for each color would be a great start.

I formed the strategy that if I took a base color, say flesh or leather brown, then applied it to every single mini in a sitting, in a few weeks I would have the majority of my figures flat colored.

The fun bit for me has always been shading, and having a load of base coated figures ready to roll would mean I could just grab a few and start finessing.

I kicked this strategy off at lunch today by 'retiring the skin job'. 54 figures got their skin knocked out using a mix of tallarn flesh, bugmans glow, windex and flow aid. Thats right, windex.
You know, that blue stuff people other than yourself clean windows wiv.
Windex contains alcohol and ammonia, so promptly evaporates leaving pigment behind. Airbrush artists have been using it to thin acrylics for donkeys years, and no, the blue color does not effect the paint color.
So using it instead of water to thin foundation/ base acrylic means a fast evaporating thin matt layer is left.
Flow aid helps break the surface tension, allowing everything to mix and flow off the brush.
Load your brush, then wick off excess moisture onto a tissue before brushing. 3 quick coats was enough for a flat and thanks to mr windex, by the time you have done the front of a leg, the back is dry enough for the next coat. Thin, even, unclogged and hella fast.
The result? 54 figures skin in a lunchbreak. Admittedly lots of these where just face and hands, but the technique is proven and I look forward to the next few sessions. I think reds next. :)
Finally reading airbrush blogs and magazines paid off!
The downside is nothing to show for a while, but after that period is up you should see an explosion of productivity from me!

Good luck with your own windex experiments. Just dont lick your brushes.
Post your Baby kicking windex jokes below.

Sniped!

I woke up this morning in a sunny mood, wondering which wonders I won on Ebay.
Nuthin'.
I got slaughtered! Sniped, steam rolled or shilled out into the cold.
Now I could find this depressing, maybe call the wwaaaaambulance but no! No, I take this as a jolly good sign that the euro economy is looking up. Think about it- I am bidding true blue, Vegemite stained, Australian dollars against pounds, dollars, euro and greek i.o.u.s and there are more people who can afford cabbage and still splash out on miscellaneous odds and ends from the early era of citadel minis.
I wonder how those poor wall street traders are holding up? Poor chaps. Makes your heart...
Heres a some miniatures...


Kevin Adams zombies (with help from a base of blue moon zombies) attack citadel militia in a Skulldred showdown. (Preslotta citadel wizard reading his financial times scroll in the backdrop). Unfortunately these chaps get no reinforcements this week.

Spawn ate my post

Phoomph! Or foomp! Or blib!
Gone! My post vanished like Bill the Pony midway through a Rings book (fair call to JRRT- I always forget pack animals and hireling npcs too). Only my post did not suddenly come back after I lost Gandalf. Er... I could try loosing my Gandalf from my 1980's fellowship boxed set but I doubt that posts coming back.
My suspicions turn to the iphone app I have been posting with lately. I am staring at it all squinty eyed like a circus freak in a Tom Waits tale. Hey thats two pop culture references, two similes and only one miniature reference.
On a side note, My favorite quote is...
"Similes. They are like metaphors."

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, as I cannot remember the content I have a squinty eyed carnies suspicion that it wasnt very interesting and probably deserved its death. I think it did feature this picture though...


This is one of the two early chaos spawn, both of which had boobies. The first spawn ever? Maybe, but I would give a suspicious Waitsian carney squint at the three legged crab mutant from Asgard as a possible first. Answers on a postcard to....
This was the first figure I found that used the 'spawn' moniker (I used a Moniker once- she kept calling me for weeks after).
It is reasonably rare on ebay, but it is rare to find one with its eyestalks intact. This one was broken but cheap, so I decided to adopt it and macguyver it back into shape. Similies... Like metaphors... Get it?
It has been that sort of a hobby month- I restored the first chaos demon,( a kind of insect woman with boobies and claws), by carefully hollowing out the shattered legs, segment by segment and running fine stiff wire through. Worth the effort, as it is technically complete and very rare indeed.

My latest binge on spacefarers arrived this week, getting me closer to my mega retro laserburn project. I was surprised, after my post talking about how rare the loose parts where to win a full set of weapons with an uncontested bid!
Having shaved 20 dollars off the average price of Ral Partha Catleoblepas and rendered worthless the spacefarers bitz, I really should do the collectors community a favor and do an article on how rare the McDeath family is. You know, to get them below 300 bucks. No, before anyone asks I am not bidding on that Sandra Prangle thats up at the moment.
:)

They came from SPACE... ACE... ace... ace

Something special

Something special for you this edition, as Kingsminis takes you back to the very beginnings of Warhammer 40k, pops some lasers in a toaster oven and forgets about them.

LASERBURN!!!!

Yes, back before the dawn of Rogue Trader, Bryan Ansel wrote Laserburn.  It introduced us to a few Games Workshop regulars... Power Gloves, Force Blades, Flamers, Dreadnought Armour, Bolt Pistols, Needlers, Conversion beams (sadly lost after Rogue Trader), The Empire and The Inquisition and Lord Knights, who each have a detchment of Imperial Marines.  Familliar huh?
Laserburn has more in common with Games Workshop's Inquisitor game than 40k itself.  The game is based on the concept of campaign stories, often using a games master to control the play.  The system is percentile, has hit locations and enough tables to keep Gary Gygax amused for a short while.
Citadel released a small range of figures to go with the game called The Spacefarers.  I have been collecting these for a while now, and since I had enough to play Laserburn with, I decided to track down a copy on ebay.

Complete with coffee stains.  I hope thats coffee.

Laserburn introduced The Red Redemption, who would later surface in Warhammer as The Red Redemption cult of Khorne and later as The Redemptionists in Necromunda.
What you may not know is that The Red Redemption where created by french fantasy master Druillet, appearing in his Lone Sloan comic in the 1970s.  A play on the word Redemption meaning both to pay up, and to be saved.  Hence an order of monks who stalk a future las vegas world who firebomb anyone who does not pay their tithe.  Brilliant stuff, considering how The Church made its living during the dark ages.  Interestingly enough, the costume Loan Slone wears as he kicks their ass looks to have been the inspiration for Han Solos getup.  Sci fi was a smaller world back then.

Pchoo, Pchoo!  Dark Disciples get ready to Redeem stuff.

The Laserburn Imperium was run by the High Lords of the Imperium and there was a miniature of the Emperor- a cheerful chap in a visor and robes.  The concept of the immortal emperor which appeared in Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader game seems to have been modelled after Emperor Huon from Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon novel The Jewel in the Skull,who has an all powerful, ancient being trapped in his throne chamber by the machine that kept him alive, little more than a twisted embryo fed by tubes. Hmmm.

The Laserburn book does have a rather non PC attitude, but remember this is the seventies and the world was a different place.  Boobs of the future tend to pop out a bit, and The Dark Worlds are populated maintly by 'African' and 'near eastern' races who follow The Red Redemption in the worship of Allah, 'Lord of The Firey Hells' instead of The Emperor under the prophet Zandrig.  Can you imagine anyone publishing that these days?
These days, everyone takes the Star Trek route of using aliens as metaphors to replace Earth cultures in PC times.  Its probably would not surprise you if I point out that the Imperium is clearly The Catholic Church, Chaos is their Protestant enemy (Burn the heretics and witches), Eldar/Tau step in for what was once called 'The Yellow Peril' (following in Mekons footsteps.... or, uh, hover tracks) and Orcs are clearly 'ignorant tribal savages' painted green (or football hooligans, I get confused).  Its funny that miniatures wargaming, which is usually about reinacting bloody race, country and religious wars evolved into fantasy gaming which is actually much more PC as it disguises its sources.  Ironically, its fantasy gaming that cops the unPC flack... remember the publicity 'Dungeons and Dragons' copped in the 1980s?
 Aaaaaaanyway, pushing unPCness of the universe aside, the Spacefarer figures are all pretty charmingly old school.  Scanners are strapped to arms, tape drive backpacks and flight suits mingled with slashed puffed sleeves (blake 7 anyone) and space scooters- you get a real taste of what science fiction was back then.  Yes... budget BBC.

I chose to paint my dark disciples white, as I imagine them played by the sort of extras and stuntmen the BBC would use for Blake7 and Doctor Who.  I painted their weird helmet to look like judges wigs, as it gave them a bit more of a Pink Flloyd touch.  The red redemptionist fanatic got a yellow chequer to give a John Blanchy touch, and I went with the classic Druillet look.

S44 Giant Android Law Enforcer.
Bzzt...Go ahead punk.  Clickm... Make my millenium.

 I decided to do all my spacefarers in NMM, as metallic flakes look too big on such small figures.  I decided to base them all on flat acrylic 25mm lasercut bases as they where cut by frikkin lasers, and had a coin like feel, without the metal wear and tear.

Hey, are you Johnny Alpha?  Citadel Spacefarers
S5 Bounty Hunter, S22 Merchant, S36 Marine firing Autolaser

 I painted my interplanetary merchant purple to give him a pre-rubber forehead science fiction alien feel.  His forehead was either damaged, or there is something on it that I cannot make out.  I painted a third eye symbol on it to cover it up.  The imperial marines got the kill team charlie scheme.

S21 Interplanetart Scout + Bolt gun
S8 adventurer with machine pistol and power glove

The interplanetary scout is one of the few Citadel models blessed with a moustache, which died out during the 1980s.  Elves also had moustaches before Jes Goodwin pushed them to be more like American Indians with mohawks, war dancers and beardless faces.  With the MO in place, I wanted to call him 'Dirty' Sanchez Addams... so I ended up downplaying the detail by painting the mo light grey and blending it into a 5oclock shadow.  All equipment I left beige, and worked as much orange is as I could stomach. 

A band of adventurors sneak up on a marine.

Collecting Space Farers

Before you rush off an drop some hard earned on a set of these, you have to be aware of a few things.  Firstly, these I categorise as skilled collectors miniatures.  The figures are extremely rough and require a lot of fine filling and sanding to make them paintable by modern standards, and this is made worse by their age- and often are quite deteriorated.  Noses are almost always flat, weapon shafts are thin and break off easily, and much of the detail needs to be fixed up a bit as the miniatures seem to have been made in quite a hurry.  Often flash is pretty much all the detail you get and you have to carve out whole areas of face and rebuild with putty.  The bikes, in particular, require a great deal of remodelling, unless you plan to just paint them dark metal colors.

The second reason I class these as collectors figures, is that they are tiny by modern comparison, being true 25mm scale figures.  Sadly the only thing that scales up against space farers are space farers and Citadel Startrek figures... check out the following pic.

Marines across the decades.
Modern Citadel, pre 40k C100 marine and earlier Spacefarer marine

There are 53 spacefarer codes with 2 additional figures from the Star Trek range that appear in the Space Farer range in a trade catalogue, so it will keep you hunting for a while, especially the vehicles, which have seven or eight peices, some of which are fragile and easily lost.  You will have to bid hard to get those.  Codes 47 and 48 contain loose guns and jetpacks, which are pretty much impossible to find.

Fixing a needler

Farers guns often need replacing, especially needle rifles.  No point trying to patch them-  snip off the whole shaft and replace.  To do this, drill a deep hole into the gun.  To make the barrel use a stiff, but flexible wire, such as paperclip wire that you have sanded a little to make rough.  Pinch the end with pliers to give something for the milliput to cling to, and place a small ball of milliput that has had fifteen minutes to dry on it.  Once set, sand the new tip down to your liking.  Snip the new shaft to length and fix with superglue to the model.  You can also find brass tubing that will fit snugly over your wire to make a nozzle if your prefer.  This is also easy to sand into shape, and you automatically get a hole for the blast to come out.  If you use a pin or needle, you stand a chance of hurting yourself if you drop the figure.  Clipped pins snap easily and ping off with great force- certainly enough to catch one in the eye.  Better to have a slightly bendy barrel than that.


Well thats it from me... I hope you enjoyed this trip back into the future.

Restraint rant

I am not collecting space orks.I am not collecting space orks.I am not collecting space orks.I am not collecting space orks.I am not collecting space orks.I am not collecting space orks.

Sigh... it seems my lead addiction is worsening, as I have started eyeballing figures from ranges I am not yet collecting. Thats bad. Thats very, very bad. One space Ork and booph! Next thing you know I have a shelf load of the buggers. And I am not collecting space Orks!
Its bad enough that right now I am on a Realm of Chaos era binge, Greater demons... Sorry Daemons... are not cheap,and like pringles you cant stop at just one right?
I dont like space orks. Do I? But then again I didnt like Ral Partha figures and look what happened!
Heck, am I going to wake up one day and start wanting Marauder minis? I want it on record that I hate the look of marauder figures, no sense of weight, strange faces and clinically smooth without any surprising little details to hold the eye. Mind you, it did not help that they arrived at the moment everything in white dwarf went to garish clashing colors- sickening orange and green, blue and red - complimentary colors at full saturation fighting for attention on stiff looking figures.... Good god the 1990s where an eyesore.
Add to that horrific changes like Gary Morleys undead who where all posed like Terrance and Phillip replacing Kev Adams characterful zombies, and Kev himself stopped making characterful goblinoids with rich and varied faces and started churning out cookie cutter night goblins and orcs with the same symmetrical, tiny toothed faces, fluffy 3 spiked helmets, painted that frikkin cranked up orange-red and full bore green... Uhg, I was OUT of there and over to Warzone before the dust settled on the first box of primary colored single pose empire troops. Bad citadel- go to your room!
Anyway, I digress. I dont collect first release space Orks- even though they represent the last great Adams goblinoid phase... Uhg... Maybe just one then... Now should it be Evilgrin ironbonce or smiler rogit?
Hmmm.

Next prog... Something painted from Space... space.... pace... ace....

New citadel paints

Ahh the paints are dead, long live the paints.

Yes, so the big, big buzz at the moment is the new citadel paints.
Well, I am actually quite happy by the addition of more shades of washes and foundations, but the renaming of old lines bugs me a bit.  I won't be rushing out to replace my paints any time soon, but if I happen to pass a GW in a few months will definately grab some choice picks to explore.

What confuses me is that John Blanche uses a 50-50 mix of Gryphonne Sepia and Devlan Mud on all his figures- which is something I do as the former is too garish, the latter too dull.  It would have been nice to see these adjusted or perhaps an intermediate one added.  Never mind, Windsor and Newton Nut brown plus matte medium and flow aid is pretty close.

I am really loving my Taucept Ocre (or whatever its called now)- as an undercoat for yellow.  Finally, yes finally I painted something yellow that looked good.  I think your gonna like this!

Bitz box bashing and the dawn of the great rebasing

Whilst I sculpt miniatures I like to have a couple of conversions on the go to use up scrap putty or pass time whilst waiting for the right set on the putty to allow fine detailing.
Right now I am wrapping up the fiddly fine details on ten Lead Adventure mutants, so had time to try cobbling together some figures using a few sprues of laser weapons from the ever awesome Hasslefree Miniatures. Victoria Lamb recommended them to me and I can see why. Dead handy.



The parts come from what I believe where marauder figures, the previous owner had converted them into super hero figures. I got them in a lot just to grab a rare imperial assassin figure, and always figured I would find something to use them on. Now they are perfect as perps for Judge Dredd, Rogue Trader or future wars!
The girl on the right's face is from a quite uncheerful Jez Goodwin elf cheerleader. Two broken ones lurk in my bitz box, so she may reappear in another build!
Having those hasslefree guns means any miniature can be repurposed into a John Blanchesque dystopian future figure in no time. Two thumbs up from me Kev and Sal!

My hobby time this week was eaten up by the arrival of one big assed bag of 30mm lipped bases.

Armed with my trusty tin snips, sand and about a pint of superglue, I started the strangely satisfying task of hacking off and remounting the majority of figures on my shelves.

Here be one batch awaiting sand.


As discussed in a recent post its amazing the difference these bases make to the presence of each figure, and I have a new rush of painty juju flowing up the inspirational pipe, encouraging me to get stuck into finishing up a few new warbands from many I rebased, ready for some hardcore Skulldred skirmish sessions!
Rebase a figure you are sick of looking at and voila! Painty juju.


I decided to kick off the basing exploits with some undead and chaos thug figures that have been hanging around the lead pile for too long gathering mental cloggyness. Using a production line mentality, I based, primed, undercoated, ambient blue overbrushed and sea grey / white drybrushed pre shaded the whole damn lot on two wooden batons.
I found it really surprising just how empowering transitioning lead pile long timers to 'ready to paint'. It means any time I like I can just pick up a figure and go for it.
I can't wait to slap some lime green on that tentacle thug. Classic!

Ode to lead

You open the package and a small, heavy ball falls into your palm, tightly bound in bubble wrap and tape. You look at it, trying to determine its contents by pure shape alone. A chaos knight? Maybe a rare sorceress? Your mind flits back to your ebay buyers history, but time has passed and you have looked at an endless precession of miniature mugshots.
Shaking the packet a plastic base tumbles to the table. Gritty, caked in garish green paint applied by a kid with a brush he bought from a dusty rack at his local newsagents. A thick smell of humbrol enamel paint wafts up. You toss the base at the bin, knowing it would only join the hundreds you have stored up somewhere just in case.
You fumble for the scissors, knowing from experience a letter opener could rip the weapon arm off the figure. You picture yourself a surgeon, masterfully cutting the tissue without harming the patient. Your nose wrinkles as The smell of pipe smoke wafts up from the bubble wrap. Tolkien had a lot to answer for.
Half way through now, and you see a leg and instantly you know what treasure lurks within. Your mind reels back to a time, an image, maybe upon the battlefield in your friends garage, maybe in your game stores window display, or maybe from that magazine article you read again, and again and again 'til its silhouette burned deep into your mind.
Your grinning now. The figure is revealed in full. Here it is. That one. That very one. An almost audible click, and a jigsaw piece somewhere in your being falls into place. That hole you never really was aware of filled. You rush to your shelf that holds its fellows, and hold the figure up, almost like you are showing it the collection it will reside. See? Your new home! You will be painted like this! You will be saved from your casing of revell gunk. Join your fellows, here they await you!
There, placed next to its brethren you step back to admire the set as it becomes ever more complete. Your eyes drink in the togetherness, the unity, the rightness of it all. Then, only then you realize the truth.

"You muppet. You already have that one."

I kill prices!

The Catoblepas from last episode fell in price to 14 bucks on ebay, proof of my amazing painty skillz damaging the reputation of miniatures!
Great news for collectors of preslotta beastmen and broo, for surely my next efforts will drive their price down too!

Weather has held up both spraying and casting new bases, so I consoled myself by assembling a Ral Partha Chimera, and mounting a chaos warrior (faceless bell ringer, winner of the White Dwarf design a miniature competition in the early 90s) on a Reaper hunting cat.
I dusted off my 'figures that need bits pinned back on' and 'mounted figures I can't be bothered with assembling' tub in case of wet weather come my next hobby session. Some nice things lurk within, but the whole tub stinks of indifference.
Fortunately I sourced some wagons this week that will mean the wagon raid project can reappear!

Catoblepas, Hydra, Bugbears- oh my!

Welcome to a new episode of Kingsminis- a heart warming coming of age story, where a nameless protagonist (academy award un-nominee, Dave King) sets about curing the world of unpainted lead. Guest starring Rose Byrne (as girl accidentally ran into in bar) and Anthony Head (as actor accidentally walked into in London).

Hey folks. It is true, I have a strange habit of colliding with famous people. I missed Keanu Reeves by a few inches but nearly flattened poor Giles from Buffy one evening in Leister Square. Ms Byrne is, believe it or not, more gorgeous in real life. Probably the pout she gave me after nearly loosing her tray of beers on my manly chest.

Where was I? Oh yes, miniatures.

So what do you get when you cross a warthog with a brontosaur and give it a petrifying gaze?

A Catoblepas of course.








I saw this Ral Partha figure in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Battlesystem Skirmishes book and instantly fell in love. What a gloriously dated and damned ugly figure, said I. I must get one!

I livened mine up by reposing the neck and tail, the original is straight and flat, adding to its dullness.
I decided to kick this one up a notch by painting it based on the AD&D 2nd ed monster manual cover paintings. They had such a dream like quality, blending purples, blues and reds that jumped out from the white backdrop. Awesome stuff.





Next up is a work in progress of the 1980's classic Hydra from Citadel. I decided to go natural snake colors instead of the bright green everyone normally reaches for, including my younger self back in the 1980s.
Not entirely happy with the color choice, but hey gotta try these things.
Needs a little more edging, glazes here and there and some base decorations, plus I have to fix up some of the damaged teeth.

I have a spare of this figure, thinking of using it for some crazy Pete Townsend type Chaos Conversions!

Now what else have I got in my magic bag....





Its a Reaper demon from my massive Reaper Haul. I have a diabolic warband planned in these colors, sort of scorched looking with blue glows. This one is based on a plasticard disc cut using a hole cutting drill attachment.




I used this bad boy to make a dock-able display tray for my wifes amazons, and recently had a spate of making super slim bases using it. I am back to modern lipped based now, as they are cheaper and take less time and effort. I will swap this one over at some point.




And finally a work in progress Bugbear and an Amazon from Reaper. I love the two bugbear minis- so much character, and great fun to paint- I highly recommend them. I will also be rebasing these when I get a chance.

Links. Warmallet 60,000 and the Missing Links.

Skarsnik just made me realise that I missed off a links section to all the blogs I follow- you can now find them on my sidebar.  Happy browsing, and send me a message if you want linkage loving!

I also found a widget for page counts, and look at that... I am rocking up to 60,000 views.  How about that?   I was going to post up a whole heap of Rogue Trader pics ready for 40,000... you know, but it slipped me by.

Rogue Trader minis, with a Paranoia Troubleshooter (purple hair)
Citadel 80'

So here is my Warmallet 60,000 (hits).

[ It took 20 thousand years after someone accidentally pulled the plug on the Emperors throne, and mankind freed from his psyonic opression cheered the hell up, allowed women equal rights and stopped pissing around with Catholic Church Iconography... the Eldar then started to respect humans as intellectual equals instead of a dirty, pipe ridden mob of skull worshipping cultists and a new age was formed where everyone, you know... mostly get along.    Turns out the Astonomicon was like a dog whistle to the orcs and what has making the more or less peaceful orcs go a bit loopy.  The Necrons turned out where just escaped animatronic Terminators from James Cameron Theme Park World that got a virus and went a bit squiffy in a freak video programming without instructions incident.  Easily turned off once you had new battereis in the remote.  Zoats showed back up (still eating Zoatybix) - they had been off on this great party planet with some insanely good pineapple and cheese on sticks.  They appologised for being late, but did bring along some pretty awesome Kryomek... sorry...  Zerg... sorry... Tyranid repellant (same formula as Bat shark Repellent funnily enough)  - turns out the Tryanid where attracted to cabling plastics used in power armor all along- just like how cockroaches are drawn to the wiring in my bloody microwave.  Humans suddently realised they could take the Eldar and Necron antigrav technology thats been laying around for decades actually was better than tank tracks, and switched over.
Anyhoo- everyone gets back to some space pirate shooty explory space adventure action!
 No one ever did find out what the little venty, jetpacky nozzles where for on the Marines backpacks.
 In the future there is only war whatever you like! ]

I am basing all my paranoia, 2000ad and Dredd figures on 30mm resin Sulaco bases and giving them all a 'lit by neon' in the dark blue future cities look.  Vibrant feature colors on drab base tones, so every single scifi figure I own is compatible in style for gaming.  I am daydreaming of building a cool game table to play it on in the distant future once I have space.  Oh, for a garage.

Jumping in my blue box we hurtle back in time to the early 1980's and after defeating a nasty outbreak of Sontarans using a jellybaby we arrive in time to photograph some of Citadel's first releases- Fiend Factory and Fantasy Adventurers (aka FA and FF to us collector types).

Fiend Factory Gnome Theif, Wraith, Medusa and Fantasy Adventurer Dwarf

 I have been slowly collecting these since I discovered the joy of ressurecting old school lead using modern painting and finishing techniques.
I have decided to base them all on 30mm modern with moody, torchlit dungeon lighting.  The monsters are all lit brighter and warmer at the front, as if caught in the adventurers torchlight, and lit by the eerie blue glow all dark places appear on TV.

I think these need a bit more work, but I am just so excited by my new photographic lightbox (and the fact I now have photoshop again) that I wanted to take some pics of SOMETHING.  Something Like this...

Lord Aquila from Citadels Heroic Fighters Boxed Set

 This is actually one of the first miniatures I finished painting at the time I started this blog.  I recently rebased him onto a 30mm lipped base from his original hex base.  I find the base makes him feel really proud and draws focus to the model.  I guess psychologically it suggests a little display plinth.
  It was a practical move, since the main reason I switched was it gives extra support and protection to my Skulldred skirmish games.  All this box set brethren, some Paladins, 'Battle Lords' and 'Big Fighters' all recently got the base switch, and its amazing how much more character they seem to have.  They have been on my shelves for ages and I barely look at them... but pop them on chunky decorative bases and whoomp- they get some presence.
Though not entirely happy with the paint job, I feel I should preserve him so I can see how far my work has progressed over the last two years.  At some point I may decorate his base with some 80s mushrooms, but for now I think he is good to go.


For those of you who are eagerly waiting some new Bederken releases, you may be happy to know this little blog photo session was squeezed on the back end of photographing the new models.  Yep.  Pics soon.
Well I have to go back to the land of work-work-work.  Webstores and miniatures do not build themselves.

A Desk! A desk! My Kingdom for a Desk!

I am exhausted but have a grin across my face only the Joker could top.  For the last few years I have been working on a makeshift desk, cunningly crafted from my student drawing board layed upon two filing cabinets with blue tac to act as a cushion.  The cabinets gave me no leg room, so I worked with a twisted back, and the drawing table itself had sharp metal ridges that gathered particles of epoxy, wire and epoxy and lead filings.  Not very healthy.
Kate and I decided to throw out the cabinets, shifting everything into storage boxes and buy me a proper desk...  and boy, its a thing of beauty.

Dave now makes stuff here!

I now have leg room, a dust free working space and finally room to work on a few scenic items and have a few to one side drying.  I am just so incredibly happy to finally have a dedicated space.  Bless Ikea. Creative energy flows around the room on the gentle breeze that bloweth on my straightened knees!

It took six hours of hard work to clean out the study, refile everything into 24 interlocking plastic storage tubs and make room for the desk,  as I blog this (and drink that coffee there), Kate is still busy refiling her paperwork into a storage folder.  The house is chaos!  Once she is done I will take over to do mine.  It is staggering how much crap can build up in a room if you let it.  The final joy is going to be dragging the grey, sombre, tin filing cabinets out to the road to be picked up by the council waste truck.  Begone foul soul sucking, knee cramping fiends!

One of the fun things I did today with the project was go through every one of my sketch books and remove any miniature designs, placing them into plastic flip folders for easy access.  I had about fifty sketch books, so it took most of the day to do.  I ended up with two A4 folders full of designs, which reportedly hold around 250 pages- giving 1000 a4 pages all up, with an average of 5 figure doodles on each page.  Thats well over 5000 miniature sketches.  That should keep me busy for a while.  :)




The first thing onto my desk was one of my new Dwerg Burrowguard troops and an Arcane Asgard Creature of Chaos Elephant Man to match the one that appears in Aly Morrisons 'Eavy Metal article in White Dwarf 80.

WIP Viking Forge Creature of Chaos (Aly Morrison Asgard Original Inset)

Colors matches in real life, but the photo changes it quite a bit.  As you can see, the two figures vary..  For starters, the weapon is cast lower down and has bandages wrapped around, I suspect to avoid breakages.  I am not sure if the original had a seperate weapon- which some of the Asgard figures do (never a good idea in my book), or if Aly converted it.  If anyone has an original I would be pleased to find out (and buy one).


Mine came from Viking forge, who have most of the Asgard molds.  I found quite a few little variations.  The model is surprisingly small, and seems to have warped quote a bit over its very long life.  The face is longer, the eye flatter, the trunk thinner near the bend, the shield rougher on the inside, the whole body feels squished horizontally and the front leg is about half as thick as it is wide.  Weather this is a casting issue or the original sculpt was poorly proportioned, its hard to say.  I was so delighted that this figure was still available that I grabbed two.
Mine has a belt and a roughly torn kilt, but Alys appears beltless and smooth all the way to the hip.  I suspect he has filled it with milliput to allow for decoration, as he definately did with the Skaven Plague monk from the same article.  I filled mine with liquid green stuff, just to check out how it performed really.  Not as good as milliput but more convenient.


  The White Dwarf 80 article has long fascinated me, and I have been eagerly collecting all the figures it showcases.  You may remember the copy I made of his Skaven plague lord from the same article.  I have most of the figures now, and trying to work out what bits are what for the converted models.  I would love to have a showcase featuring them all.

Well, I am now going to take my new found creative energies and put them into finishing off some more sculpts.  Have fun.

Go paint something.

Monster Paint Set and a New Coat D'arms paint stockist

Hey folks,


Sorry in advance, but I will be getting a little bit commercial for this episode.  Hopefully by the time you finish reading this entry you will forgive me, as it is totally about rocking the retro.
 First I am just going to whip out something that came in the mail from the land of Ebay a couple of weeks ago.

Citadel Monster Paint Set

 Ahh. That's right folks, it's the Monster Paint Set from the 1980's.  Check out that lovely painting by Bob Naismith on the cover!  Thats what the Golden Demon looked like in the 80s, by the way... before he got all crusty and angry.  I remember that fateful day when I discovered a department store in Southend stocked miniatures.  I walked away with a snotling pump wagon (never assembled), spikey bondage minotaur lord, chaos sorcerers, a giant scorpion, the monster starter set, creature and monster paint sets.  That night I dunked my snotlings in a thick layer of green paint.  It had begun!

Mmmm... Still fresh!

I was surprised to find the paints where still in great shape; though unfortunately not the original colors that are supposed to be in the box, but I knew that when I bid.  I was more concerned about getting the box to be honest and perhaps having a sniff of the paints!    It holds great nostalgia for me.  What a great day that was back in the 80's!

Okay, now the commercial bit.

Remember I was ranting about the orange when I painted the Chaos Sorcerer?  The next picture shows an original 1980s citadel pot next to the modern Coat D'arms paint.  See?  How awesome is that?

Citadel original Orange next to Modern Coat D'arms orange

So that brings me to my big news...

There is a new stockist in Australia for Coat D'arms paints!






Me.








That's right.  I love the paints so much I decided to import them.


In a couple of weeks you will be able to get your hands on the entire Coat D'arms Fantasy Range direct from my new sleek, sexy, easy to use e-commerce site.  Retroliciousness in a few clicks!
Yep, all 77 clasic colors in those fat, perky little 18ml pots.  You can forget the dark days paying 8 Australian Dollars for a measley 12ml.

I will also be stocking decent, sturdy empty dropper bottles for those of you who, like me, prefer squirting to dunking.  Switching your entire collection of paints over to droppers will be really affordable now.  I am excited.  You excited?

Anyway, here is more paint pron.

Mmmm.  Paint.

Okay, commercial over.  And hey, I vaguely promise to not drag on and on about these paints in future articles.  Heres the gist.  They rock.

So next episode I will be back to showing off more retro stuff.  Painting the Skulldred contributor minis has taken up a lot of my painting time allotment but rest assured, there is old lead begging to be painted and blogged.

Anyhoo... Goodnight children, whatever you are.


(Coat D'Arms rocks.)

Cote D'arms in Australia

A couple of folk have asked who sells Cote D'arms paint in Australia.  The Answer is Olympian Games!


Kinda.

It is not listed on their site, which merrily asks you to suggest things to put on the site.  My first suggestion would be some contact details.

Cote D'arms you say?

Hopefully someone will slip them a message via smoke signal or messenger pidgeon so they can pop up an email or phone number so we can get our hands on those delicious paints!

CANCON booty

A great cancon haul for me. I got a whole bunch more kryomek figures in a bargain bin, including aliens, chunky cyclos and swat. Cannot wait to paint those to match my rogue trader stuff!

I also scored myself a Steampunk Dorothy from Guild of Harmony, a pack of silurids for Malifaux then wrapped up my spree with a ten pack of cote d'arms paints so I can sniff my way back to the 1980s once more.
Add that to yesterday's haul and I had one full boot on the way home!
Anyone get any good stuff?

Cancon day 1

Finally, finally, I rocked up to the bring and buy sale in time to get some bargains! Usually I am digging through piles of plastic high and dark elves and goblins looking for something decent.
I am now the proud owner of some Cryomek aliens, plastic rat ogres and some first edition Eldar scouts.
Met a guy fielding two 1980's hobgoblin rocket launchers in his chaos dwarf army (props), and found an Aussie cote d'arms stockist. Finally!
Exciting but frantic mood today. Looking forward to chillaxing Sunday.

Here's a picture of an Asgard Dragon lizard tyrant facing off against a Grenadier giant by mark copplestone in the first ever Skulldred convention game!

Cancon

Hey folks, I am in Canberra tomorrow for cancon. You will find me lurking at the eureka miniatures stand doing live sculpting demos. If your interested in how minis are made, want to pick up some green stuff pushing tips, wanna shoot the lead breeze or want to just give me money for no reason stop on by!
If space is permitting, I also have with me a skulldred demo board, so may get some games in if you rock up with a small warband.
See you at the show!
Oh and I will be selling bederken blister packs too!

Storage tip: Chinese food containers

A quick tip, take away containers flipped over make great storage stackers for minis. I blue tac the figures to a bit of stiff card.

Happy birthday - heres diffusing

Never drink and blog. I somehow typed 1979 instead of 1976. Unfortunately the tardis could not take me back to change the date of my birth to comply with my blog as I had already visited that timeline and would cause a world ending paradox.
Instead I have to post a correction instead. Thus stealing away the smug satisfaction of correcting someone on the Internet for my dear readers!
Though being a horse would be kinda cool (works for sarah Jessica parker) I am still a rabbit.
Mind you, the dreaded beast of Antioch was a rabbit too.

So I rewarded myself yesterday with a day off to sit and paint something and kinda discovered a neat new painting technique that I will be using a great deal from here on in.
It's getting pretty steamy here in Sydney, so I dragged out the retarder to keep my paint from drying on the brush. I decided to make up a batch of some ready mix retarded, flow improved matte medium- elsewhere I think its known as gunk. I can't remember the link- battle bunker perhaps.
Anyway, I thought I would use this to practice wet blending. Normally I use a glaze technique to build up layers of shading, but this can take a bit of time. I never nailed blending before- its always eluded me.
Normally you either go wet onto wet, a highlight onto mid tone for example, or wet next to wet and use a damp brush to transition. Both can cause hard edged if you stray too much into the shadow portion of your models, or if you lift off too much paint with your brush work. I decided to try wet on wet, and it occurred to me that what I really needed to do was just diffuse the brush strokes edges. Imagine the difference drawing an ink line on two sheets of paper- a dry one and a wet one. The ink line on the wet one would diffuse as the edges dilute.
So here's what I did. Load and wipe one brush with retarded paint. Then load and wipe another brush with water/flow aid/retarder/matte medium.
Stroke brush 2 over the surface to moisten in, the apply brush 1 on the highlight. The paint edges blur!
A little coaxing with brush 2 will soften the edge further, then whilst you wash brush 2 and reload it, the strokes are dry. The matte medium helps the damp brush liquid stick to the surface, the retardant stops the whole thing evaporating and the flow aid breaks the paint tension and lets the paint diffuse.

Apart from avoiding the hard edges, this technique makes hard edging really nice and blended!
I looked around but this does not seem to be a discussed technique, so I am calling it diffusing.
Pics once I master the technique.