Melbourne roadtrip!

Roadtrip!

Work often takes me off on adventures, and today I am reporting from Melbourne- Australia's cultural, if not official, capital. The one thing I can definitely say about Melbourne is it takes care of its geeks. Sydney, now bereft of any miniature shops other than GW should take note!

So after a wonderful day of site seeing (including the must see minotaur store), the call of the hobby summoned me to Mind Games where I had a good go at emptying their shelves of Bob Ridolfi minis and other Reaper shiny things.



Naturally I had to open them and have a improvised game of pchoo, pchoo in the hotel with my new dollies! Bob Ridolfi's aptly named incredible woman is just breathtaking as is his Allura Succubus. I grabbed some chronoscope figures and microsrt tech crates for Stardred too...


Sadly my holiday spirit was cut short by food poisoning, so I am currently surviving all alone in my hotel with nothing but gastrolyte, poweraid and hotel priced toast.

I am accepting sympathy comments below... and donations of miniatures ;)

Anyway, the thing I really wanted to blog about is, whilst there, a young kidlet was taking his first steps into warhammer hobby (learning how to pester his dad into paying for GW products by getting really excited and waving one expensive and one really, stupidly expensive option so the day would pick the cheaper option- bravo kid!)
Dad, however, won my respect by using the exact same tactic back on him - resulting in the kid happily buying a goblin starter paint set). I can just imagine the lad getting home, racing through his homework (the dad reminded him in an admirably firm and yet nurturing way about that responsibility) and proceeding to dunk and splatter his way to his first wrecked brush and that wonderful thing that is 'my first mini!'
I wanted to give him sooooo much advice, but giddy from what I suspect is an acute, super hybrid mutation of manflu and salmonella (I dub thee manellazilla-rex) I could only grin and think of the night I dunked my first snotling into a pot of goblin green and tried to paint eyes on with a 60p newsagent nylon watercolor brush. No advice can compare to making your first mistakes, and I really hope he keeps those goblins for years to come.

So I got thinking about what advice I would give a boy with a boys attention span. What are those, lets say, five golden tips to get you started.

Mine would have to be...
1:hey kid- undercoat- dont skip this! A thin, even undercoat is like a clean sheet of paper to work on.

2: hey kid- aim to just get everything neatly colored in before moving onto learning to shade- and do this on all your figures in the box before you buy any more!

3: hey kiddo- less paint on brush=more control! Only put a little paint on your brush, scrape off blobs onto the lip inside the pot and touch the brush to kitchen towel to soak up excess moisture that could flood your models details. You tell the paint where to go... Not the other way around!

4: hey Kid- to steady your hands put elbows on table, lock palms together, breathe out and hold your breath as you slowly stroke the brush. Dont forget to breathe afterwards.

5: kidster- hey dont worry if you make a mess and it does not look anywhere as good as the eavy metal ones... You can always strip the paint off with dettol and try again and again til your happy!

What would your five tips be?

How to get ahead

Hey folks, just a quickie to show off my latest arrival... One eighth of The Citadel Giant!



I have him here next to a C28 giant head for scale. Solid lead alloy- It is really, really heavy!
I picked him up on a whim from ebay seller DaveT. Cheers Dave!

I was tempted to base a dwarf on his head, but considering there are less than 1000 of these on the planet I cannot bring myself to drill pin holes in him. I think I will paint him and make a fancy display mount for it to rest on- that is, until I gather all the other pieces.



Oh and five boxes of various and sundry fender washers arrived since last post. Nearly bust a gut lugging these from the post office. Very pleased with them- they are super thin and have tiny holes- I could not resist basing up a Bob Olley Ral Partha ghoul and am greatly satisfied. Probably more satisfied with a washer than any man in history now I think about it.

Enjoy the head.

Zzap! Blanchitsu

Ah, dear readers- fancy meeting you all you here. Well, while I have you have a peek at these...



Citadel, sister of battle, nurgle marine and early chaos broo.


Its just a quick iphone pic, I am rejigging the room to include a permanent light box above my desk, hopefully better images after thats done.
So as you can see they are a liiiiiiitle bit inspired by John Blanche. It was killer fun to loosen up and treat the surface like a canvas- scrunching and scratching thinned paint with a little retarder to get the dirty look we so love about Blanchitsu.



All this early JB miniature reference has really opened up some new doors for me- its okay to be whacky and make things from pure fantasy and whim. I am enjoying the hobby again after a little downturn!
Cheers JB!



Oh, and I also made one of these tonight, its a static grass applicator made from an electric fly swat. It works a treat. Search on youtube for instructions (and safety warnings) and takes twenty minutes to make.
I am going to make a couple of tweaks- a nylon screw cup with a protective ridge to stop any chance of contact.
I made some tufts using weldbond and a metallic sheet. Easy!

Prime time

Aha! After a dreadfully overcast week a single hour of clear skies allowed me a quick priming session. I thought you all might enjoy picking through the pictures to see whats there!



Its a real mixed bag of beauties from Ral Partha, Guild of Harmony, Hasslefree, Grenadier, Reaper and of course lovely, lovely citadel classics!
A big shout out to ebay seller partytree whose friar you can see at the top right- very cool to finally get this piece after a few years of hunting!

Speaking of shout outs, check out the awesome new blog...

http://www.thecitadelcollector.co.uk/

Its full of blanchey goodness and lead wisdom. Like this stuff...









Looooooooovvvvvvvveeeee!

Check it out!

Blanchead progress

Okay some crappy iphone pictures via blogpress will have to suffice, but here is some of the stuff I was talking about yesterday.
First a total and utter homage on John Blanched Psychotic head monster... I did a smaller version using a Reaper Hooked Horror and Orc.


This is a WIP of the uber rare citadel Chaos Demon which I reconstructed by rethreading each joint with wire. Took ages but... look, a seven dollar rarity!
I ripped the colors directly from the six amazingly characterful chaos spawn Steve posted.

Next up, Snow white and the seven chaos dwarves- mid way through rebasing and repainting to the metallic blues and cold flesh on The Master of Madness. Here is a closer look at his work in progress, along with a chaos sorceress and a really old ral partha figure.

I am really loving how the muted but warm soil colors pop the color out, I flecked in tints of other colors to add interest like Frank Frazetta and started to add puddles of foul water and twisted roots - this could be my new themes!
Lots more crazy chaos spawn and John Blanche homages on the table, but right now its time for bed!

Back to base-ics

Greeting Lead Pilers. After an exhausting week I decided to treat myself to a little free form hobby time. Lately what with sculpting commissions and Bederken back end stuff during working hours, an hour on Skulldred per day and blocking color or rebasing my leadpile I was getting a little burnt out.
I realized I had not had a chance for creativity or exploration for a while. I dont do factory robot well. Time to recharge a bit!
With last weeks John Blanche mini bonanza fresh in mind, I kicked off my minijazz jam doing a few totally whacky conversions by raiding the broken lead pile and slicing up a fair few reaper doubles/triples laying about. Real realm of chaos stupidity- but I loved it! I want to paint them in his style and perhaps do some banners before I post so you get maximum impact!

I also experimented with basing using washers to give an even more old school feel. Coins in australia have grooves around the outside making them a little unsightly without a damn good filing, so I went with fender washers (we call them mudguard washers downunder).
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed washer basing, and love the low profile looks. Placed side by side, the 30mm lipped slottas on magnet stickers look terribly huge and clunky, especially when placed on terrain.
That puts me in a bit of a quandary. Do I rebase?

Well, I decided the best thing to do was base up a warband or two that I had not based yet to give myself a feeling of progression. Rebasing a twice-rebased model is a bit like being stuck in a hobby limbo. This way I could play around with the style and have two new warbands to play skulldred with.

Having read everything google coughed up on the subject of washer basing I found a few techniques I prefer and modified them using my choice of materials.

Daves kooky experiments and resulting tips:

First, I found paint adhered better if I attacked the edges with a sanding block first. I suspect oil and the nickel coating.

Second, I tried pre priming the washers with several coats of car body black gloss enamel spray can gave a tougher finish than acrylic. It would not be good for priming minis, so I did this before basing.

Third, stretching thin black insulation tape across the bottom of the base before gluing stuff on top with superglue worked well- if you leave it on it protects the underside and table surfaces from scratching, looks neat when you flip the model on its side and does not alter the profile or magnetics.

Fourth, adding baking soda to my scatter gives finer texture, acts like a filler and helps cement the model in. Makes the model seem more in scale than my previous grit! Thanks to Mr Blanche for that top tip!

Fifth, 5 minute cure epoxy is brilliant for filling washer holes and blending figures into base. I use shelleys knead it but procreate stick putty is also great. Wear gloves! No overnight cure and waaaay cheaper than kneadatite- plus you can build up raised rocks, trees stumps, ruins and it carves easily. No good for fine sculpting, but its my new best friend for blocking stuff in!

Six, 30mm fender washers occupy the same space as a 30mm lipped base, but you can fit a bigger range of figures on them- for example, Bob Olley's Fireteam crusaders with long stances fit perfectly, reaper trolls that would usually need 40mm bases often fit.

Seven. Take a magnet to the hardware store to check the washers. I had a mixed batch and a few needed more iron in their diet.

Eight. There is no tip number eight.

Nine. Good pliers are a must for slotta tags. Craft store ones bend too much to exert pressure to crush the tab, but my 'good' pliers let me crush the tab and bend it til it forms the a flat base to attach the model!

Tip eleventy. Washer basing forces you to varnish your models well!

Pics next time! Anyone else got washer tricks and tips?

My god... its full of Blanche...

Thanks so far for the Blanch-athon, and its turning up GOLD.  GOLD I tells Ye.  Keep them coming everyone, and I will do plenty of homage minis!

Here is some direct links to Steve Caseys Photos for you all to worship- I posted these first because many have not been seen before.  Some appear in Ratspike and WD, but at different angles.  Mr Casey, your mission is to photograph the rest!

I will now attempt to ID some of the parts and tell you where to get them!

Converted Asgard Dragon Lizard (Available from Viking Forge)

Aly Morrison Samurai Conversion

Citadel Dwarf Sorcerer

I am pretty sure the torso and legs are from Ral Partha Ogre with club (here)

 I

I See body a from a Ral Partha demon (here) and a face from a Ral Partha Jabberwock (Here)

Ral Partha Cyclops  (Buy here)

Space ranger (I have this guy) plus wolf- please ID the wolf and I will do this conversion!

Super smooth blending!  Awesome.

Run away!!!  Fantastic planet.

No idea.

Frikkin awesome alien!!!

Possibly some trolls in there?

Uh... tail looks familliar.... anyone?

Unknown

Unknown

Ral Partha Frost Giant

Ral Partha 13-002 Hill giant?  Foundry Elephant?

Rogue Trader Dreadnought

Citadel FF Balrog

Citadel George The Giant

Defies... uh... what was I saying?  What?

I uh... what was I saying... Oh look!  Boobs.  Uh....

Now fans of this diorama may like what I am cooking up here- I have hunted down most of the figures and am constructing warbands painted to match.  Yep.
Anyway, Thantsants wanted to know what the sorcerer blasting the door was... and no, he is not a citadel miniature.  He is actually a Ral Partha (now Iron Wind Metals) Wraith sculpted by Tom Meier.  You can still buy it here along with some mates...

Wraith (blasting door)
Samurai Liche (halfway across diorama)

Guys on hill- Citadel Chaos Warriors, not undead!
Bottom right, FA Antipaladin.  FT skeletons and mummies from FFfor the most part.

Now the guy on the hill is a tricky one.  He is actually a preslotta chaos warrior from citadel, as is his general lower down on the hill.  You will also find a Ral Partha rip off of that character (here), it has a weaker pose, less detail and different sleeves, but is close enough!



As promised, the links from other images...

Tears of Envy
Gothic Punk
Marienburg Gazette
Spyglassasylum

From world of Zhu- Converted LOTR Orc

Well more minis from me next week- in the meantime, keep yur blanchy links coming and I will post them up for everyone to oogle.

Ciao

John Blanche minis

God I just love his painterly mini style and twisted conversions! I have been collecting images lately and just cannot seem to find enough. I have ratspike, Heroes for wargames, blachitsu pdf on orc bikers, skaven imperial guard book, inquisitor and white dwarfs from the 1980s and have googled like mad to find more. What I really want is black library to do a Blanchitsu book just showing grids of picture after picture of JB works from 1980 through to today and do a video time lapse of him working!
Shall we start a petition?

Here are some I have gathered so far- apologies for not crediting the sources and linking back- I will correct that shortly when I have a moment to refind them but for now I am on my iphone and it does not let me store data with each... enjoy.






















I have lots more, but if anyone can point me to WD issues with his work, sites etc I would love it!


Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lahmian medium

Ah hell no. A GW product thats worth the money?
Yep.
Lahmian medium is my new best friend. And I LOVE mediums. My additives tub is fit to bursting with six types of matt medium, varnished, glaze mediums etc. And I have been mixing my own special sauces for a while using windex, talc and other household items... But this is great right out of the bottle.
It allows layered glazing without gloss, and dulls shine like dullcoat. Exactly as it sez on da bottle. At six bucks australian, its still pretty pricey, but the convenience is worth the dollars I think.
I experimented using it to mix with windsor &newtown inks and they matt down like old citadel washes, leaving a pleasant tint.

I blasted through a night horror devils shading tonight thanks to the stuff and am surprised by just how much I like it.
As far as the new paint range here is my thoughts...
Dry: cute, Necron metal is extremely good- very fine metal grains make it brush on finer than most metallics.
If you want to save some cash, I found if I mixed a fat load of industrial talc into regular acrylics I got something similar in performance.

Bases: bluhg! Too glossy. Loved foundation paints with all my heart for their smooth opaque matt finish. Every one in the batch I had dried shiny. No good for base coating :(
However, I fixed mine by adding lots of industrial talc as a matting agent, a little dish soap to break surface tension and windex to thin and make it evaporate and dry on the model quickly but not on the brush.
Layers: medium thinned paints. Not bad for out of the bottle painters -I can see what they where thinking, but for more serious painters... Hmmm.
I am sticking with coat darms, p3 and vallejo model color, and thinning and adding medium myself.
Textured paint? Not very effective for the size and price. I ended up make my own using sandy paste, heavy structure gel, grits, talus, flock and ink. Much better and I get it bulk.

One last word on mediums. I recommend grabbing a bottle of Jo Sonjas magic mix. Its a matt finish medium with flow aid and retarder in juuuuust the right mix for blending types to go ga ga over.
Pics of that night horror next issue!

Trolling Lichemaster

Following the death of my Fantasy Tribes era Necromancer, a package arrive with these damned sexy minis!  Just in time to cheer me up after the death of the other necromancer, the trollolo guy. Cheers Luke!

Citadel's Mikael Jacsen & Heinrich Kemmler
Terror of the Lichemaster Deal Set

I wasn't planning on collecting the Lichemaster scenario figures, as scenario packs can get expensive real quick.  I decided I would only pump lolly, dosh and readies into a McDeath set.  Which, by the way is just 4 figures to go.  Naturally these are the expensive ones.  Oh well.  Economic crash may help there.
I am looking forward to painting these again- my last licks of paint on Heinrich where in 1990- where he got thickly painted green outfit.  This time I think I will go more with the 'week old corpse' description in the game book and a drabber outfit.  His exposed legs always sat wrong to me amongst the renaisance figures of that time.




My new 'paint one base color on everything in one go' discipline has paid its first dividends with my orc warband nearing completion. Having all the bases done for orc flesh, fur, leather and mail meant that a it did not take a lot of motivation to shade them in.  Its a bad photo, but I think I will do a proper studio pic once I finish them and add shields.  I am thinking of going a bit Paul Benson and a Frazer Gray on the shields.  Anyway, here is the progress...

WIP:  Orcs from ages past.  Mainly Perry Twins with some Kev Adams sculpts.

I am finding starting with a flat upper mid tone and shading first down, then up is a much faster technique to my normal shading up from dark.  Being confronted by a dark figure and knowing its going to take a while to build up to a basic look is a bit of a motivation crusher.  I am enjoying this way because after the initial dark shading washes (and by washes I mean tissue tapped glazes, sort of like an aimed wash), the model looks 'tabletop standard', and every pass I do adds a little more spice.  The other way only gives results near completion.

For my next load of figures I am also going for more color and contrast so they read better on the table, plus switching to lighter, more neutral earth tones rather than my normal mossy green for the base, as it makes the model pop out a little more, and I like using dark greens on my figures.

Trollolo guy died today. Trolling saruman was my favorite internet meme.  How about we Troll Lichemaster...

Lo lo lo, ha ha ha... trollo.. lol.. summon troll...