Tutorial: making mini paints from artist tubed acrylics

Admit it, you have looked at those tubes and priced them up, right?  And I am guessing you may have tried to use them with what one could call 'mixed' results.  Today I am sharing a formula for turning top quality artist acrylics into useful mini paints.

First up, picking your paints.  Don't go for cheap student paints or craft paints (Jo Sonja)- you want the maximum star permanency rated paint... which means its tested to not fade over time. Squeeze the tube a littel between your fingers and it will feel firm, not runny.  Next you need to check the opacity rating.  Like citadel foundation paints, heavy density paint does not let much light through- its pigment rich- not as rich as foundation, sadly, but that stuff is really heavy on the pigment.  Lower graded paints are unavoidably translucent- colours such as lemon yellow are commonly so.  It does not matter which you get, but be aware that translucent paints do not need as much medium added later on.

Your going to need some more ingredients.  Liquitex flow aid (aka flow improver), de-mineralised water (from your laundry section of the supermarket), Liquitex Matte Medium and industrial talc (not perfumed bathroom talc!)  That last item can be found at casting and moulding suppliers.

I use reaper dropper bottles, but do my mixing in larger squeezy bottles, as you need room to modify and tune the mix.

First, you need to get your mix right.  On a palette, take a small squeeze of  paint and call this ten units.  You need to make this runny, so we need to add flow aid / de-mineralised water mix (1:20 ratio) until it just starts to break down into a gooey fluid.  Count your drops whilst you stir.
Next you want to extend and add body to the paint, so matte medium is required.  Start with about 1 or 2 units, and stir this in.  Next add a small amount of industrial talc.  Adding talc gives a solidity and glow to the paint you may find familiar.  Back in the 1990s, a white dwarf article mentioned that talc is used in citadel paints, so having talc on your models was not going to effect the paint job much- this clued me into trying it out, and it makes a big difference to some mixes.
Finally test your paint on a crappy mini.  Put some mini paint side by side and compare feel, flow and coverage.  Add more de-mineralized water and medium until it feels right.  If its too gluggy, use flow aid.  Be careful not to add too much, or you will get a fuzzy surface.  If your into wet blending, you will like having more flow aid in your mix- drying times are extended and its easier to work... just like Reaper master series.  However personally I find its better to add this post mix whilst painting, so the paint can be used as a base.
Once your paint is behaving nicely on your miniature, its time to carry your mix data over to your big bottle.


Mark a half way point on your bottle, then half this again and again.  This gives you a good measuring indicator.  Start by squeezing paint into the bottle.  Leave it for a while with the lid on and it will settle, giving you a good measurement to apply your ratios.  Always leave a good amount of room in your bottle so you can adjust medium and water later on.  Shake well between tests, and remember to discharge what is in the nozzle before testing, as this is unlikely to have changed between adjustments.

Finally, once your happy with the mix, port it over to your reaper dropper bottles.  Pop in the bead, snap on the cap and screw on the lid.  Lastly, apply a label that notes the colour, manufacturer and ratios for later mixes.

Now every paint mix will be different.  Some work well, some not so.  I found liquitex reds are really vibrant.  Windsor and Newton make good stuff, and some one Derwents paints can be handy... I used the Matisse antique blue to give a more realistic, toned down Crimson Fist space marine base colour.

If you want custom mixed colours to hold you over for a whole army, I suggest first mixing the medium/water/flow aid/talc mix for each colour seperately, then once they behave well, working out a mix ratio of these.  Syringes can then be used to get exact ratios.  Make up a big bottle of this and refill your small dropper bottles or cleaned out citadel pots when you need them.  That way you guarantee the right color for your whole army for years.

Anyway, hope that helps.  if anyone has discovered other great formulas for this mix, or any vital ingredients I am missing (I have been looking at rubbing alcohol as an ingredient in washes for example) then post a comment below!

Happy mixing.

Casting up the Sci fi bases

Been casting and mould making today... got a half dozen or so of the squad bases casted up.  That and drinking beer, cooking gourmet sausages, making tiramisu and swimming in the sea to get away from the heat.  Sydney is a great place for summer weekends.

The cast up deep dish base I made works a treat- the caps pop in and hold nicely- plus I discovered the caps fit perfectly on to a regular round plastic base.  The deep dish bases can be picked up even with a heavy marine on it, just like I planned.  Chuffed to bits!  So eager to paint them I forgot all about the tiramasu in the fridge.  Oh well, miniatures over calories is a good thing I guess.




So the first six are based, though the paint job is a while off being finished, and already I am feeling the glow of a project coming together.  I cannot wait to sit back and look at the whole team finished now.  Quite a bit of work to go, but damn its a fun project!

I am thinking of getting some 3D models printed for resin casting now.  Hell, since I am a 3d artist on one hand and a miniature sculptor on the other I probably should make some 3d sculpted miniatures or busts at some stage.

I also find myself toying more with ideas for a science fiction figure range after I finish my current batch of comissioned sculpts.  Sort of NASA at war, rather than anything that would fit in the 40k universe... besides IP issues, its either 40k gothic, pulp era retro, Aliens or manga... that leaves a gaping hole of 70's and early 80's sci fi.  Space opera stuff.  Taking a bit of Chris Foss inspiration to bed to flick through.


Anyway, pics shortly.

Kill Team Charlie recruits

Kill Team Charlie - Reaper Chronoscope bot, Hasslefree female marine
Citadel C100 space marines and Rogue Trader Adventurers Assasin

Okay, so my favourite project just got a shot in the arm after this weeks Stripathon.  Here is a family pic of the team, missing the six dudes rocking out in a jar of dettol right now.  Yay.  More scrubbing.

C100 ultra rare Female Marine, C100 Marine

Okay, I am just messing with you... there was no female marine in the c100 line.  But there is now, thanks to the wonders of green stuff.  The model on the left was made by taking the model on the right and carefully whittling out the torso and head section.  the key word here is whittle - only work with a brand new blade and peel away thin layers at a time, like scraping off tin foil- never apply force, as your knife will snap and probably take out an eye.  Always cut away from you and use safety goggles.  A round blade is safer than a pointed xacto for this job.  A dremmel is better!
Anyway, the face and torso was scratch built using greenstuff over a bent paperclip.  I widened her hips too, to give a better female proportion.  I also added some more tech and wires to break up the model a bit more- I have several of these figures that need to look different.  I will start the next one with correcting the pressed down nose cone... it looks like the master was not reinforced and got squished a bit in vulcanizing... all the other marines masks are sharp and pointy.

C100 marines

Not sure you can see it, but her face is pink and scarred on one side from a laser burn.  Forget bullets in THIS universe!

Converted Rogue Trader Assassin, Hasslefree Libby female marine

Two more recruits are Libby, from Hasslefree and a broken Assasin from the Rogue Trader Adventurers.  She is actually quite rare, but arrived in a bitz lot - so languished in my bits box for a long while.  The original owner had converted her to be a superhero by shaving off her backpack and shuriken.  What better job than joining a Rogue Trader inspired team!  I fixed up her damaged torso with GS and upgraded her arsenal.  I also improved her weaponry (boom tish).  Note her arm weapon is a copy of the one built onto the captain figure from the c100 range.  A cool weapon that should have stayed in 40k!

The Hasslefree conversion is a no brainer... anyone can stick a back pack on her and she is a great stand in 40k model.  However I wanted to go a bit deeper into the conversion, trying to integrate her into the look and feel of the c100 range.  Kevs sculpt is so clean and crisp, and just aching for smooth shading!  (Do grab yourself one, its a great figure).  As you can see I took the chainsaw arm from a c100 death guard and am currently constructing a C100 style 'wobbly' backpack and another cool fist mounted weapon arm.  A little bit more work to go on her before she joins the team, but you can see the gist of it coming along.  Note the under support layer I am building is a mix of milliput and green stuff - giving a rock solid support so the arm is nice and solid for gameplay.  Mixing the two putties allows you to file and drill the result well.  Great for armour.

See ya!

Daves Blue and Orange Period

Dwarf Adventurers - Three breasted, Chaos, Zombie, Ninja, Demon Dwarf.
Cyclops mutant Orc

You know how it is, you have a bunch of colours on your wet palette and you start looking around for other things to use up the paint.  This week it was blue and orange.

One tip today is the brilliance on Flow Improver.  A 20:1 mix water to Liquitex Flow improver dropped into citadel paint will make it instantly fluid and stop it clinging to your brush!  You know how when you do fine details it just likes your brush better than your model?  Flow Improver.

  Too much, however and your surface will become fuzzy as the paint fails to grab itself and cracks...  some accuse reaper master series of having too much flow improver because of this effect.  I never basecoat with Reaper Master Series, instead going with VMC or Citadel.  (For shading glazes, they are brilliant though because of the huge range of colours).

Failing that, use dish soap instead.  It had the added benefits of being cheap and helping intermix citadel and VMC paints effortlessly.  I use a 1:20 or higher ratio of washing up liquid in a reaper dropper bottle.

Monster Starter Set Lesser Goblin

As you can see, my labour of love Monster Starter set has gotten a little attention.  I got the empty box off EBAY this week - sent all the way from Germany.  Its great as a reference for colours- not a green orc or goblin in sight!

Fantasy adventurers and White Dwarf Personalities attack the Gazebo

In 1982 Citadel was producing 'preslotta' figures in a line called fantasy adventurers for PCs and fiend factory for baddies.  Everything was totally geared towards role playing, because at that time GW was an importer of Dungeons and Dragons.  The idea that wargames with rules that require lots of figures sells lots of figures had not yet dawned.

I picked up a few figs from the line that I fancied, and quickly realised that they where not as bad as I first thought, and many had oodles of charm.  Whilst the fiend factory floundered around with dodgy looking monsters, fantasy adventurers was scoring home run after home run.

FA18-2 Female Cleric with Mace

This figure, apart from the bug eyes (which as you can see I am having trouble getting to look natural) has oodles of character and is, as you can see, just perfect for classic old school dungeon bashes.  You may also note that the character carries two crude wooden crucifixes.  Christian uproar against D&D was hitting a peak at this point, and shortly after the crucifix was replaced by an Anhk... most famously in the dungeon starter set, which not only was released with the crucifix holding priest replaced by one with an ahnk, but the box art was crudely adjusted too!  Good luck finding those collectors items!

Anyway, at this point in history, GW was totally down with JC, he even appears on the shields of some of the paladins of this era.  Speaking of which...

Paladins, Lawful knights and Clerics.  Gain Hymn attack +3.

These are a few work in progress pics of whats floating around my painting table.

Goodly Knight of Law, and converted paladin

The figure on the right (neither are finished) had his crucifix removed and smoothed to allow me to paint a design upon it.  I chose a naked depiction of justice, as I pictured the character as a black knight who does the right things, but in wrong ways.  I replaced his tonsure with a Brian Blessed beard and hair.  The sword is from Reaper weapons packs (which I always think are expensive but damn it, they are so convenient that it pays for itself in no time).

Anyway, I am having a blast collecting and restoring this range, though I am in no hurry... the set is quite extensive and having a resurgence in popularity on ebay.  If you have some tucked away, now is a good time to sell.  Especially to me.  You at least get to see pictures of them here, right?

White Dwarf Personalities boxed set (and doubles)

Speaking of ebay, you know those bidding wars that go crazy, then, for no reason at all, another identical item pops up like a few days later and no one bids... well... this is my lucky strike right here.  The two figures to the left are GW founder, Eidos owner (Lara cha-ching Croft) and writer of Fighting Fantasy books- Ian Livingstone himself.  The goblin and his mate need no introduction I am sure.  Well, after months of trying to track down the set bit by bit, watching bidding wars go crazy over two of the figures, I landed a whole mint condition, never painted box of the buggers for small change.  Go figure.  These need neutralizing, polishing and priming ASAP, after many years in a cardboard box, lead rot is a threat here.  Right down the front you can see The original White Dwarf himself.

Just goes to show you bargains do slip through the net.

Oh yes, I will be flogging off my cleaned and doubles of these soon on Ebay.  I will post when.

Last nights strip show

Last night I plucked up the courage to empty out my stripping jars and scrub clean everything.  Its been months since I did this, so I had no idea what lurked within.  After many hours I finally ended up with 160 shiny  miniatures and a few surprises.  It was like christmas!

First up, Jiff.  Yes, Jiff cream cleaner.

You know that black, sticky gunge that sticks to all your tools whilst your cleaning minis and forms a film over everything?  Jiff.  Instantly lifts the gunge and removes the dettol smell.  Secondly, since its alkaline, it works on the figures too- neutralising any acids and halting lead rot.  Its helps remove the stickiness and last scraps of paint.  It also renders your kitchen sink use-able again!  You heard it here first peeps.  Give them a good rinse in clean water afterwards to remove any lingering chemicals before priming though!

Emerging from the primordial soup was a complete adventurer starter set to compliment my monster starter set, a bunch of new recruits for C100 space marine Kill Team, Jes Goodwins Manticore, Griffon and Ogres, a fist full of Kev Adams Goblins, Ral Partha Cyclops and enough preslotta adventurers to fill a D&D manual.  My first talisman toad (armoured) and three copies of the same orc creature from the white dwarf personality boxed set.  Doh.  Off to ebay for you sonnies.

One big surprise.  A really ugly figure covered in enamel from a job lot cleaned up to reveal itself to be a gem.  A Citadel Fantasy Specials peg legged dungeon torturess!  Boo-yaaaa!

Its still hideous.

So my fingers are worn to stumps from copper brushing, but I can rest now that one more thing that's been hovering on my to do list is done!  Of course, the problem with this is that its just created 150 new to paint items and 10 to ebay off items.  Sigh.  This hobby just takes and takes.

Next entry (as soon as I get my camera back) I will be showing off some polished turds as I turn my brush in the goodly direction of a few great fantasy special clerics, female clerics and knights of law!  Plus, them Red orcs are back... and this time they have brought mates.... and Vordak from lone Wolf pops up in a conversion.

Later leadheads!

Convert or die! Chaos Bertha, Modernised Red Goblin, Kill Team Charlie and the Hyperbole Base

First up today is a couple of conversions...

Left. Vintage Chaos warrior.  Right.  Big Bertha.

I always loved the figure to the left, but by the time I was in the hobby he was a faint memory in a citadel journal.  I was rubbing my hands together with glee when I finally found one on ebay.  I was horrified when it arrived badly broken.  Fortunately another appeared in a job lot chaos army I rescued.  Then Big Bertha made the pain all go away with a relaxing night at the sculpting block.

I love converting figures.  I always start with the best intentions.  Fix a weapon, add a little hood... but I always end up going a teensy bit over the top.  I have some converted figures that it would have been just as quick to scratch build.

Kev Adamsified red goblin

This classic fiend factory red goblin (see previous posts) was too near my brand new sculpting block I have made when I needed something to test sculpting on it.  I decided to fix it up a bit.
  I started by grinding off the shield boss to make space for a decorative shield.  To give him a more stooped look I sliced off the head (easy with this old soft alloy) and pinned it further down the chest.  Its amazing how this little change stops the models head looking too long.  A hood was added to exaggerate the hunch.
  I then filed back the fingers and toes slightly and added freshly mixed green stuff putty.  After leaving it to set for a while I poked in the fingers with a dremmel blunted and rounded off xacto knife- my 'Tom Meier tool'.  The blade was filled with milliput so later it can be filed to a flat, sharp blade.  Finally I added the missing eyes and lip, some belt string and a strap for his shield.  The whole job took about ten minutes of actual work, and turned a few cents of figure into a perfectly good dungeon critter!

Converted citadel Fiend Factor Red Orc

Pre-Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40k 1st ed)  C100 Space marines
And the Dave King Hyperbole base.

I was going to call my next trick the Dave king awesome base of utter brilliant awesomeness, but shortened it to the hyperbole base instead.  My new motto for this year is if it is broke, quit winging and fix it, and one thing I whine on about is how lipped bases are great, but impossible to pick up during a game.  This leads to sticky fingers on models, and that just ain't cricket.  But oohh, they look pretty, and the extra size makes for more stable models with more protection against scratching.  Whine, whine, whine.

So I fixed the damned things by making my own.  Taking a regular base, I extended the depth down using plasticard and bevelled this to create a rounded lip just big enough for fingers to find purchase on and fingernails to roll under as you lift.  I then sanded and polished the whole thing shiney smooth and hollowed out the base to create a deeper, wider bowl.

  The deep dish allows for integral bases to sit inside, flush with the lip, deeper scenic features and cappers.  Since I only had a few lipped bases, I decided to cast the cappers separately.  That also means I can make a couple of cappers that have slots already cut, so all I have to do is just fill in the gap.  Rather than cut out custom discs and sculpting the cap onto this, I widened the dish so it would accept Australian 10c coins.  Whenever I feel like making a new cap, I just work on a 10c coin and know its going to fit.  Nice.

The final change was to glue a 10c coin to the bottom of the master to act as a pouring spout.  This means the lip of the base is perfect without having to grind flat.  A quick adventure with Pinkysil and Easycast (Barnes casting supplies) and my first test base was ready a half hour later..

My pre-rogue trader c100 space marine team, (Kill Team Charlie) are my first victims.  I am basing them up for corridor sci-fi skirmish gaming.  I have a few more in the post, and some in the dettol at the moment, and have bravely decided to convert some of my doubles.  I am toying with the idea of making a second team to go up against them using more of my old Rogue Trader, Judge Dredd and Paranoia minis.  However I think these guys may need some retro alien scum to blast away instead.

Well thats me for today.  Later lead heads!

Dave finally gets a Chaos Army together

Prepping my HotT army and hunting around for figures it struck me that I had a damn lot of classic Realm Of Chaos minis that I have yet to get around to painting.  I realised I was being a doofus not making an army with them.  A single paint scheme would mean fast strip painting, and would be a glorious thing on the shelf.
The thought boiled around in my head for a while.  The problem is I do not like square bases, and wanted something really different.  I am not a joiner, a fanboy or a conformist.

Some of my old chaos figures.  Preslotta to the front, third compendium slottabase to the back

Frother Spikehead solved it for me. (cheers) He posted up some of Fraser Greys brilliant, gob smackingly good pictures on the Citadel Archive Thread, and I saw how Fraser (who totally was my painting god in the 1990s because of his super smooth style) did his orcs on little raised clumps. I realised I could do the whole army on individual diorama like chunks, mounted on old school plasticard squares- like people did with mdf and card back in pre-slotta days.  The chunk would act like a plinth, so when the figure is on its own attention is drawn to it as an individual piece.  Together, it would move as an army and be tournament legal.  (Not that I ever plan to play.)  It would also mean I could keep all the tabs intact on all the archive figures.


The other problem is that I do not like the mainstream chaos colours, and wanted a non denominational 'chaotic' army.  I already have a red army - my Sisters of Battle.  I also have a lime green shelf of old orcs, and felt that I had done that to death too.  I did not want a pastel army or a neutral metallic one.  I wanted something different...

Here are some pics I have already posted earlier on at my first attempts at the really old stuff.  Again, I wanted non- denominational, but the results where not striking.

Classic Chaos Warriors

Later that day the colour scheme then fell into place.  After a few hours look through old White Dwarf mags with no luck my eye fell on the Eavy Metal Chaos Warrior himself  (the one I lovingly repainted for my blog logo).  Magenta and Blueish green.  Not quite Nurgle, Not quite Khorne, the pinky magenta a little of Slaanesh, the turquoise spot colours a little of T'zeench (Gesundheit.).  Non conformist and old school all in one go!

So here is the test model, backed by some speed painted troops.  This is the least favourite of the chaos warriors, which is why he went first.  That helmet.... uhg.  I will go in and do an NMM style green metal on all of them (starting at the front ranks) and more lavishing of detail when I have time, but I wanted them all mostly done so I had a sense of achievement and could get a feel for how it looks.  I like it so far!

Citadel 1980s Chaos Warrior and his mates

Citadel Chaos Warriors, Champions, Lords and shield maiden.
Mostly Jes Goodwin & Bob Naismith 'Realm of Chaos' Era Citadel
With a few much older ones.

The army is going to be fielded with John Blanche yellow-white demons of all types- bloodletters, Daemonettes and scratch built things.  The banners will all be 1980s style too, and the shields heavy on old school style symbols - swastikas, ying-yang, demon faces, evil moons and so on.

It also gives me an excuse to cut up some old broken chaos warriors and do some Realm of Chaos mutation stupidity!
My lovely wife got me some mounted Chaos Champions and knights from GW for Christmas (how damned nice are those horse!, so they will have to be converted to crapola too!

Now I am daydreaming of having an army consisting of every single chaos warrior ever released.  Can you imagine that?  Hobby heaven!

HotT on the trail: Succubaen Nunnery continues

Stand 1:  Warlord BattleNuns (Reaper)
Stand 2 Converted Warlord figs (Reaper), familiar (Rackham?), 10mm Chaos Beastman (Eureka)
Stand 3, Citadel Dark Elf Prisoner, Anti-Paladin (Reaper), Familiar (Reaper?)

The HotT army continues slowly, as I now need to convert a great deal of the remaining figures to polearms and bows.  Still, I toyed around with a couple of new stands.  I want the army to feel like the Fae world is rupturing through, so I am using 10mm beastmen as tiny little imps running amok around the legs of the wanton devil nuns and their sexy slaves.  I am thinking of switching out those reaper battle nun blades for red hot demonic pokers, complete with braziers strapped to their sides, scorched rips in their clothing and skins.

A motley Crew, Asgard Black Dwarf and friendsElf

Some poncy Elf, Nob the Mercenary, Bird Thing (Chaos Familiar)
The Black Dwarf (Asgard), CP2 -Bryan Ansell's Heroic Adventurers boxed set Cleric
FF5-2 Demon with sword and whip

I thought I would go back to doing some mixed group shots this year.  What a motley crew.

Starting on the left is an experimentation piece, starting with white and working down using thin washes.  Yawn.  I also tried out some NMM since I was trying out new stuff.

Nob got a polish- I worked up flesh tones, but still have not got around to doing his clothes.  He is a citadel mercenary- a variant of the militia figures-  you will find a few with the same body in that line.  Both ranges go for moderately high prices now a days.  You want old school character, this range was a high tide point.

Bird thing is one of my favourite figures of all time.  A classic Jes Goodwin sculpt.

Next up is a real joy for me.  White Dwarfs great cousin, The Black Dwarf.  He is from Asgard miniatures, and from a series of probably the coolest dwarf proportions from that time.  I spotted him back in the 1980s in an 'eavy Metal article by Aly Morrison.  I took the red and black chequered hood and tiger fur from his pic, but went in a different direction with the rest.  God how I loved that figure and poured over that article!  I have about 80% of the figures from that display now, some of which I have painted in the same way to fulfil a childhood whim.  The converted figs may have to be scratch built.  :)

Asgards Black Dwarf- so ahead of its time its breathtaking

This guy is the grand daddy of all Chaos Dwarves.  Look at the poise, the brooding nature, the expression and detail on the shield and that unusual weapon!  Whoever sculpted it (answers in the comments if you know) should be really proud.

Hans - Citadel C26 Feudal  work in progress

I have never really  loved the feudal range to be honest, but am starting to see the character in them now.  This one needs a bit more work, but I like the atmosphere of the piece so far.  All my peasants are getting the drunken Brughel, Gilliamesque 'oh look Dennis theres a lovely bit of filth over here' treatment.

Red Orc Restoration, C29 Creepy Crawlies, Heroquest Undead

Original, cleaned and fully restored painted FF24 Red Orc (aka Red Goblin)

Happy new year lead freaks!
Over the holiday season I got a few nice emails encouraging me to do a lot more stuff this year.  Get that!
So with that in mind I wanted to start the year with a tute.

During the holidays I got stuck into the lead pile and knocked off a few jobs that where bugging me.One of which was some sexily bad Citadel Red Goblins!  That clever son of a gun Beepie (bpi) painted some of these last year so well that it encouraged me to hunt them down on evilbay and get me some retro badness.  The elongated heads and faint eyes make these models look bad to begin with, but as you can see a little love and pow!  Its like Gygax & Dave A. are still alive and rolling up stats.

These old figures can be restored with a dunk in bicarb soda water to halt any potential lead rot, and a gentle working over with a copper brush.   Wear a mask.  I had my lead levels checked this week by my GP, and came up clear.  Yay for me.  Anyway, find a soft copper brush- mine is a cheap BBQ scrubber from the supermarket.  Test it with some gentle brushes and look for scratches, then go for all holy hell.

As usual, I use diluted grey-green miliput brushed on with a cheap brush to fill minute surface cracks.  A quick smooth off with fine sand paper, and a polish with bluetac and you will have a lovely painting surface.

Beepie sanded off his shield bosses so he could paint some insanely small insignia on the shields, and looking at the models I think that's a great idea.  This brings me to my next subject.  Augmentation.

Converting old miniatures feels a bit naughty, I tend to only do this to broken ones, but there is no harm in using a little putty to fix up a figure to modern tastes right?  I call this augmentation, because I am not really converting the figure at all, but it would be wrong to say they are perfect archive pieces.  The orc to the right is my faithful archive model.  The next batch (these figures are dirt cheap because, damn, they are ugly) I am augmenting.

To give an example, the models sword is battered and wonky.  Great for an orc, but most figures from this era suffer the same problem.  Applying freshly mixed milliput grey-green with a moistened card and carving a smooth, sharp edged blade is a great augmentation.  Fingers of this era are often just lines, lacking the comic book knuckles that the early eighties brought that beg for highlighting.  A small amount of greenstuff mixed 8:1 with sculpey a black clay shaper and a little patience can make all the difference.  Speaking of which...

C29 creepy crawlies (beetles, scorpion, unknown chaosy two headed  lizard thing and giant tick)

These bad boys are mostly C29 creepy crawlies.  They have been modernised by gluing on slotta bases and then very carefully sculpting a dungeon floor surface using procreate to hide their integral bases.
Any help identifying the mysterious two headed, one winged chaos snake thing is most welcome!  Really early chaos familiar perhaps?

MB Heroquest plastics.  Yay.

Continuing on the old dungeon theme, I found a bag of unloved Heroquest figures in a flea market a few months back.  By some strange twist of fate, a few months before I discovered a shrink wrapped mint Heroquest box in an bric-a-brac and antiques store not one hundred paces from the same spot!  Tenner.  Bargain.  Its now in my vault...  will be selling that on ebay soon, once the Aussie dollar drops a bit.

I converted the minis by carefully shaving off the plastic base with a razor.  I say carefully, because the plastic used for these is much harder than modern citadel plastics, so does not take stress well.  If you try this, dont cut with something like tin snips, you will get white stress tears and odds are the leg will snap off.  A fresh scalpel and some patience payed off, and I had these, two zombies and five goblins prepped for a little mid week old school insomnia indulgence.
I plan to go back and do some sexy blending later on these, pick out the teeth then varnish the ever living crap out of them for sticky pizza fingered gaming in the near future.  I googled heroquest to see if anyone else had painted their figures recently and to see what they did, and I was really surprised how big a community it still has!  You go Heroquest fans!

Merry Christmas!

Well, a big Merry Christmas to all my readers!  Thanks for following my Blog this year and for all the comments.

I have just not been able to crank out the paint jobs I wanted this month, but its been for a great reason.  My miniature company Bederken is taking up a lot of my time right now- with a Christmas rush and solid days of sculpting for my January product release.


My new years resolution.  Finish that monster starter set, and paint my existing leadpile to within an inch of its life.  Yes sir, the pledge is every damned figure is going DOWN next year, or my names not Gertrude McPoppinflaps.

I wish all of you a great new year!

HotT upgrade

Last night I managed a marathon session and got four stands converted and based up.  Grabbed some before and after pictures, but a dinner party is cutting into my time right now, so have to just type.

Its been great digging through my reaper lead pile for this- even if I dont get to play, having completed a converted custom army is giving me good vibes.  My love of Reaper battlenuns (I posted previously on my 40k conversions of these) had surfaced again, this time their are being all sexied up as Corrupted Sisters of Seduction!   Slannesh has nothing on these gals.

The fun thing about this army, I am discovering is just how many figures are a slight modification to take their absurb fantasy costumes into dark seducers.  :)   Later!

HotT Succubus army

Adding some Green stuff to I-KORE celts and Classic Citadel Chaos Thugette

HotT demoness blades stand.  One slap of paint later...

So I have been messing around with a succubus infested Hordes of The Things Army as you may well know, and I have just wrapped up my first stand to try out the look.  After spending some time staring at it, I will then know if I want to go ahead and make a whole army to match.

I don't usually use flock on my bases, as I find its a dust trap and looks tired quickly, but for HotT I liked the idea of little dioramas making up an army.

Now the figure to the right is a Chaos Thug (aka chaos Marauder) from the 1980's Realm of Chaos era.  As you can see from the picture of the green stuff sculpt, I gave her a more feminine look by building up her lips, adding a John Blance-esque bow and extended her hair to hide the eye patch.  I also sculpted on a skull onto her shoulder guard to give her another focal point.  For this conversion I did not to trim back the metal, so the model is unharmed by the process.  Later I can peel off the green stuff and restore her.  I do this to quite a few of my citadel classics if I need them for, say, an AD&D game.

Hordes of the Things!  One of Blue Moons zombie boxed sets

Until I get the chance to build up a succubus force properly, I decided to re-base some Blue Moon zombies for my hordes units.  I speed painted these months ago for an AD&D game.  God Bless Tamiya Clear Red!
I had doubts buying the boxed set- the packaging is so garish and cheap and the sample paint jobs do not really do the figures justice.  I was very pleased when I got them out.  The integral bases are soft and clip away easily, they assemble in interesting ways, and I had the whole lot put together in one night.  I only had to do a little filling, and was happy with the results.  Since then I have picked up a lot more blue moon figures- their villagers are very handy!  I hope some day they shift to slotted bases and better packaging art one day though.  Clashing bright Red on Blue- uhg.

Reaper Bone Caller, Blue Moon Zombies

Summoning my zombies into battle is my sorceress (Reaper Bone Caller)- a wonderful figure that slots right in to my theme.  Here she is just undercoated and given a badab black wash.

I am tempted, since I am putting a bit of effort into making a HotT army, to perhaps sculpt a few succubus chaosettes for my Bederken range!  Semi-Naked demon girls... what's not to like?

A couple of stands made up of Hasslefree Kalee's converted would do great things to the eyeballs too.

Monster Starter Set Dark Elf and warrior maiden

C01 warrior maiden and BC2 Evil Dark Elf Captain (monster starter set)

Two citadel minis tonight.  On the left is the C01- yes, C01warrior maiden- from the very first 'C' series.  Looking at the sketches in the catalog (no photos sadly) the warrior maidens where a seriously nice range of the early citadel figures and I now look forward to hunting them all down.  Of course, now I have pointed you lot at them, I probably have driven bidding up haven't I?
  I forget who the trader was on E-Bay, but he used the line 'yes, you didnt know you had to have her until you saw her'.  He was right.
Like all early citadel she is true 25mm scale, making her look like a little naked teenager next to the later Amazon models.  The fine strap holding on the underwear is missing on one side, I do not know if its a casting fault or a previous owner has tried to trim it off, but for archive sake I left it missing and painted on the line.  Its always a juggling act how much you repair or trim away things on vintage stuff... quite often I leave on some flash in order to preserve the figure.  I am guessing its a perry sculpt, as back then they where the only employees.

So as you can see, after last nights discussion about how to do the darned dark elf, I went with an albino look and kept him white and blue.  I love the monster starter set, and will shortly have them all done and ready to display.  Looking at the squeezed face I would guess its an Aly or Trish Morrison sculpt- purely because its reminiscent of the Talisman elf faces.

Twas Brillig...

 Hey folks, welcome to another instalment of Julie/Julia.  This week we take a break from cooking french cuisine and instead focus on old miniature painting.
  Since I started this blog I have fallen in love with restoring these really old figures- the uglier the better.  I have an Asgard she-ogre on the go which is probably the ugliest model ever made- and I am having a lovely time trying to make the paint job sell her as art.  Tough job, as you may see soon.  But kicking off this episode is...

FS6-3 Dungeon Torturess variant

Yes, the brilliantly politically incorrect FS Torture set by citadel featured naked women wot are being tortured like.  Lots of proud giggling tweens in the eighties had these.  Pre-internet we had to get our boobie fix elsewhere.  I think it was either Lee Chinnery or Gareth Parrys elder brother (hello!)  who showed me his 'naked girl on a cross' model back in 1989, and I was instantly hooked on the idea.  Sadly, I missed the boat, as by then Citadel where more politically correct and the figures impossible to find.  I had to wait till I had grey hair to start buying them up- they are very expensive and highly sought collectors items now.  Dammit.

   Less collectable and far less rare seems to be this variant of the whip mistress- from the Fantasy Specials line.  You can frequently snap her up for a couple of bucks from evil-bay.
  One word of advice, with all miniatures from this era you will find the surface very uneven.  A couple of brushes full of watered down Milliput grey-green and a quick sand makes all the difference.  I left the weapon and shield pitted for effect, but you can see just how rough the surface was all over.
  She got a lick of Vallejo model colour paints using thinned layers of model color matte medium tinted with the highlight colors of red, purple and flesh.  I gave her a more Mediterranean skin tone, as she seemed to step straight out of a harem in some Conan adventure.  I glazed a little green into the recesses too.
  Its hard to make out in the photo, but I sculpted a snake slithering on her base between her legs-  this gave an element of Orientalism and danger.  Of course, the between the legs thing is also a metaphor.  I too was an adolescent boy once.

Now, burbling as it came, is the C29 Jabberwock with eyes aflame.  This Lewis Carol homage hailed from the Spring 1985 Citadel Journal.  I have wondered about this figure since I saw his head poking out a moat, devouring zombies in John Blanches fantastic undead diorama.  Getting hold of one was an exciting day for me.  I know, I know.  Sad bastards, line on the left.  Owners of the original Warhammer Fantasy Role Play can find this chap in the bestiary section.  He seemed to be discontinued by the time the 1989 catalog appeared.  I hear rumour there is a standing one too, but have not encountered it.  Probably the Ral Partha one.


I had an hour to spare last night, so knocked this guy out really quickly- simple yellow-green matte medium tinted glazes over a catachan green base, followed by really thin red and turquoise glazes for variety.  The photo doesnt catch the contrast in the yellows sadly- he really pops in real life.  I may sculpt some stuff on his base later on... such as a sign pointing to Tulgey woods or a few gilliam-esque severed limbs.

C29 Young Dragon 'Jabberwock'

Now a confession.  I know I have been promising to finish that monster starter set, but I have been dragging my heels over the Dark Elf.  I don't know why, but I just dislike citadel Dark Elves- especially when they are painted purples and blues.  GURPS Illustrator and awesome Artist Simon Lissaman painted me a great dark elf female for my 21st birthday, and he went with a pale flesh skin tone and green clothes- it looked great- sort of an edgy elf.  However I am torn- since its a classic set, should I go with the classic look... hmmm?

Answers on a postcard... or alternatively, in the comments section below.

Next episode...  more stuff.

Multi basing for HotT

A friend of mine recently invited me to join in their 28mm scale Hordes Of The Things games and it drew me to exploring multi-basing, or diorama units.  The idea had always appealed to me, but in all my years I have yet to stick two figures on one base.  Go figure.
If you haven't tried multibasing, I really suggest giving it a bash.  The moment you place two or more figures on a base, you have relationships, and if you do it right, a narrative.  That's not often possible with one figure alone.  Suddenly, it opens up a whole exploration of what figures go together, how they interact and what does it all mean.  Deep stuff.

WIP.  Two I-KORE amazons and a Citadel Chaos Thug

Pictured above is a quickly assembled test piece for my HotT Army, to see if I liked the look and theme.  Because HotT is very loose and unrestricted with no army lists, I decided to take the opportunity to steer away from mainstream fantasy army choices and do something completely different.    Its going to be made up of evil hot chicks.

My army is going to be a coven of witches and succubi led into battle by a legendary Sorceress, her corrupted heathens, demons, fae, familiars and perverted nuns.  Basically a more Dark Ages or perhaps Conan style take on Slannesh.  Raiding my lead pile has uncovered a LOT of evil hot chicks.  My hordes base options are probably going to be zombies crawling out of swamps... because that's just plain cool.

BASES

First off, HotT recommends 20mm deep bases for blades units at 28mm and that just does limit what is possible for modern figures.  To give myself maximum freedom, I went with 30mm instead, so that two ranks forms a square block 60mm x 60mm.  Nice and neat multiples.

After exploring cutting MDF boards, which gave ragged looking to the bases, I tried using double ply plasticard- and this is the method I will be using from here on in.  To cut thick plasticard, you just need to run a blade along it and you can snap it like chocolate cubes.  When you have to make twenty or so bases, this is a blessing.  MDF requires a lot more dedication and patience, and I do not think looks as good.  Once cut, I glued two layers together and filed down the sides for a good, clean sturdy base.



The paint job here is just grey spray, badab black wash followed by matte medium heavy tints of purple, ocre flesh and snow shadow.  Everything else is just washed in blue, until I have time to do proper shading and detailing.  About ten minutes each to get it this far.  Now I can sit back, look at the colors and decide if I am going to dedicate some time to this.  I think the black/blue equipment vs pastel unwell skin colors is the way to go.

A blast of insomnia last night also produced two Slannesh figs...

Original Citadel Daemonette and converted modern Kroot

  Again, the Paint jobs are nothing fancy - just a few matte medium heavy glazes over a grey base, built up over about eight quick passes.
The Kroot demon was made with a simple Tyranid arm swap, blended together with some green stuff at the shoulders.  The head also was converted by slicing two kroot heads in half, and blending the join with a 6:1 mixture of greenstuff and supersculpey.  The sculpey in the mix helps you blend the GS into the plastic- but without effecting the setting.  You don't need to bake it in these proportions.  A nose and tongue was also added.

Insomnia can be useful.

Polish my knob(blar)

Actually its a lizardman, but I love a pun.

Blu-tac to the rescue

Here is a wonderful old Lizardman model I picked up from Ebay.  Blackened with age, its ideal to show off just how good blu-tac is for cleaning tarnish.  I set aside a chunk of tac that I only use for cleaning minis- because you dont want this crap on your wallpaper.  Its not effortless, but the results are great.

Monster Starter Set and other work in progress

Finally had some time to hit both the green stuff and the leadpile. All these are works in progress, but I figure you wont care- nostalgia and miniatures is a potent drug.  Enjoy!

Work In Progress - Citadel C23 Ogre by Jes Goodwin

Jes Goodwins amazing Ogres really set the standard for me- there has not been a single Ogre from Citadel to compare to his range.  I am most of the way through the collection- having landed my rare mutant Ogre and most recently a pair of Skragg The Slaughterers.  I love this range because, much like 50mm figures- you have room to shade and play.  No rush on this one, I plan to take my time and enjoy.

Work in Progress BC2 Monster Starter Set Chaos Warrior and Ogre, and CH2 Mighty Zog Arkwright

The monster starter set continues- here you can see on my bottlecaps the warrior of chaos and the ogre- to be honest one of the worst ogres of the era- but one I have grown to love.  He looks so stiff and characterless to the modern miniature eye- I am guessing an early Aly or Trish Morrison (anyone know?)- since it seems more at home with the Talisman range.
On the right is the one and only Mighty Zog Arkwright- one of the definitive 1980s chaos warriors (Bob Naismith perhaps?).

C06 Dwarf Assasin, C09 Elf,  RuneQuest Troll Mistress Race Troll (RQ3)

There is a particular joy in taking an old figure and painting it up shiney and new- these early Eigthies Pre-Slotta C series miniatures appear only as line drawings in the catalog because photos where expensive to print back then!  The Dwarf assasin was this mornings coffee and cerial paintjob- all of these are works in progress.

I'll be Baak  Tom Miers classic Baakesh Va about to trample a classic Jes Goodwin Citadel mini

Everytime I went to my local Game Store in the 80's (Warlords in Southend- hello!)  I always picked up the Baakesh Va boxed set and put it down due to lack of pocket money and the knowledge that at home there was several examples of why I shouldn't be put near multi-part models.  A snotling pump wagon (pump pile), a Dwarf Gyrocopter and a Manticore- limply held together with Araldite.  Fortunately, not only have Darksword rereleased the model, I now am armed with ninja like pinning skillz.

I just wanted to note that I contacted Darksword about a miscast issue I had and they emailed me back almost immediately offering a full refund.  Great stuff.  However I had already reconstructed the damaged areas, so eager was I after all these years to push on and make this bitch sing for its supper.  If thats a laboured mixed metaphor then I am a monkeys barrels chance in a snowstorm.

Baaks a Tom Miers sculpt, and interestingly he has chosen to change the proportions and pose quite a bit from the Larry Elmore original painting- the head is nearly twice the size, for example.  I am curious as to why- since Tom is such a master of proportion.

This is a great model for master hobbyists to show off- pinning, filling, gap resculpting and rebasing- and at the end look at those wonderful surfaces to paint on.

So also on my slab right now is a bunch of Rogue Trader figures - New kill Team Charlie recruits, a complete chainsaw warrior set (including the timescape one) and of course Bederken Dwergs...  Yes "when they are done" draws ever closer...

I got the black lung pop

Well I have been sick, again.  AGAIN.  I notice the new flu vaccine appeared shortly after a double bout of particularly bad flu was going around.  Coincidence or conspiracy- you decide.

Anyway, feeling better today.  Unlike my last flu, I didnt write any new skirmish rules- I just lay around being all deathly with a machine gun cough because I had no choice.

I just have one work project to clear up and I am back at my sculpting desk.  Yay Bederken.  Then, once they are off to the mould makers I am going to take a holiday.

Still, whilst I have been ill I have received some lovely classic figures- Aly Morrison hobgoblins and a few of Ruglugs armoured orcs.  May have to do an binge paint session to catch up with Thantsants wonderful collection.