Drop that can of Boing, Perp Judge Anderson

Judge Anderson from the 1980s citadel range.  A charming range with lots of quirk.  I think Aly Morrison was responsible for the majority of figures, I have a photo of him at his desk with Judge Dredd reference art pinned to the wall, and most of the figures have similar cartoonish faces to the Talisman range.
  Experimented with painting neon light colors on her.  Not sure if it worked really.  My wife asked why she was half blue.  Will try the next batch in stronger, more cartoon effect with dark edging.

Asgard Owl Bear

Okay, I have NO idea what went through my mind when I purchased this hunk of lead.  But I like him.  I really like him.  He go boo.

Asgard owlbear

Asgard was the training ground for a lot of infamous Citadel sculptors- though I dont actually know who sculpted this one.  They probably wouldnt be keen to put their hand up either.  However I do have the Dwarfs from the series and they are brilliant.  My fave has to be the Black Dwarf, as he appeared in an article by Aly Morrison in White Dwarf.  I am also keen to grab some of the chaos monsters from that range.

Hope you like him.  He go boo.

Fluffy the Chaos Hound

One of the original 1980's Citadel Chaos Hounds.  This bicephalous mutt  got bundled into the McDeath deal, thus sealing his fate as a collectors item.  This one arrived thick with tarnish and had a cracked tail, however as you can see, he came up quite good in the end.  A few more passes of paint to go.

Chaos Hound "Fluffy"

Unlike some of the Mcdeath figures, Fluffy comes up quite a bit and often sells for under a tenner.  Its a really hefty model, much bigger than the later chaos hounds of the Realm of Chaos Era.  As you can see, he is pretty much a horse.  Perhaps if I get another I may do a mounted conversion.

In the painting by John Blanche, Fluffy has a spiked mace tail.  I was tempted to put one on since the tail was already damaged, however I felt restoration would be better in the end.  Enjoy!

Reaper cuties

This pic is a converted Succubus from Reaper minis.  I resculpted her back to hide the wing joint, so that she could be a human sorceress for my wifes sexy amazon SOBH army.  Fantastic cheesecake curves.on this model and a great expression to boot.

Converted Reaper Succubus

Next up is another Reaper mini- part of a two pack of Cave Girls.  The other figure in the pack is absolutely perfect, very 2000 BC.  This one has a strange, almost comical face with bowled forehead- rather than resculpt it, I simply used a dark colored band of color across the face to help minimise it, and drew the attention to the hip using a tatoo.  I went from disliking the model to finding her rather charming.

Reaper Cave Girl

Basing part 2- a how to guide.

I got asked how I do my bases.  It surprises me cause I think mine are pretty much functional and crappy.  However, your wish is my command.

I went for a classic 1980's finish for my figures based between Phil Lewis and Kevin Adams style.  I wanted robust bases that could withstand gaming, and be dustable.  That ruled soft flock out- which always looks shitty several years down the track as it flakes off and greys with dust.  My color inspiration comes from the sales poster for the Citadel Monster Paint Starter Set- which showed very yellow green grass on Skragg the Slaughterer and his goblin pals.  Nice.

ATTACHING THE BASE

First, prime the tab.  Yes the bonds weaker, as your glueing paint not directly to the model, but I am told it will protect the figure from lead rot- especially if the PVA glue or basing material is acidic.  When gluing a figure together you want the contact points raw for maximum bonding, but when your holding the figure on the base, it does not matter so much.  Leaving a relatively weak bond to the base gives you the option to crack off the old base and refresh it in years to come.  This is why I use more expensive, rubbery putties such as green stuff and procreate to build up bases around the feet and tab, rather than millput- which I often use for sculpting stone and rubble.  Flexable putties are much easier to remove and flex when dropped.  Polyfiller wont- unless you use the wood version- which I suspect is acidic.  Now that stuff is GREAT for doing dungeon tiles with!

I use regular superglue to base the figures.  Once glued on, flip the figure over and either fill the slot with epoxy putty or paint a thick layer of paint over any exposed metal.  Again, this protects the figure from exposure.  Just like a Jedi going after a shape shifter in a bar, you must be extra careful.  Superglue in the eye is a hospital trip you dont want.  When popping the cherry of a new superglue, always turn your head away or wear protective glasses.  If your worried about looking like a wanker, well- sorry to break it to you, YOU COLLECT MINIATURES!  May as well be a safe one.

SURFACING

I use a mix of Bondi Beach, grit from the streets, flock and brushings from my workbench- which often contain metal filings and bits of Bederken Dwerg figures.  This is mixed with PVA glue to make a gloopy concrete.  You can use this mix to make scenery, I refer to it as modellers cement.
Anyway, use a cheap brush to paint the cement onto the base, and then sprinkle fine sand to dry off the surface.  Wipe your brush clean, then use it to dust off any spillage on feet.  An old scalpel blade can be handy to push the goop under the feet.

The grade of sand you use makes a massive difference to the drybrushed- so experiment.

If the slotta holes are really wide, like you get on some precut horse bases nowadays, a little stickytape is all you need to block the hole.  The small gaps dont need to be filled if you use PVA.

Finally I run my thumb around the edge of the base to cut a small ledge around the lip of the surface.  I think it looks nice.

ORNAMENTS

Mushrooms are a MUST for a retro citdadel figure- the old world was FULL of mushrooms and venus flytraps.  I suggest making them in bulk, rather than doing them for every figure directly on the base.  Grab a cork, stab it with wire- bend the ends over to stop the shroom falling off, then whack on your putty.  Leave the stalk long enough so you can drill and glue it in your bases later on.  Check out Kevin Adams wonderful bases from the eighties- he used stippled putty for grass and sculpted plants, skulls, shrooms and flytraps galore.

For painting, I use a thinned wash of black acrylic, overbrush with GW Catcachan green, then finish up with a drybrush of Camo Green.  Washes of brown, red, purple and Dark Angels Green add Frank Frazetta-esque touches of color.

For science fiction I use VMC green-grey washed with 50-50 GW badab black and blue washes.  Gives the thing a 1980s scifi video feel I kinda like.

Basing

So I recently got invited into an D&D campaign for like the first time in decades, and casting around for a mini to play with I settled on a slight conversion of a 1980s Citadel AD&D female theif model.  Hard to find, but rather than damaging the figure I settled on adding layers of greenstuff over the existing model, giving me the freedom to clean it all off once I am done.  More augmenting than converting.
Anyway, for her I used a classic milliput stone finished surface on a round base, and I have to say its far more practical for gaming than my beloved Hex bases with sand.  The dilemma is that now I have a huge collection styled in exactly the same way, do I go a different direction for part of the collection to give a consistent look?  A quandry.

Love to hear your opinions.  Vote below.

Yay- keep rocking the HEX.
Nay- mix it up.

Busy busy

Quite a delay in posting I am afraid Retrodelics- my work life has rudely interrupted my hobby life.  Tsk.
Thanks for the emails.  I have had a few requests and questions.  Lets tackle them.

Q: Can I get a close up of the Monster Starter Set Ogre?
A:  Totally.  I will be posting close ups of the completed monster starter set once I, you know, complete it and stuff.

Q:Good pages for collecting retro citadel.  Well, FROTHERS (FU-UK) has a great 'citadel archive' sticky thread, which is well worth going through every page of.  Take a day off and cruise it with a bottle of fine tequila.  For the definitive AD&D mini collection, google Otherworld minis.  Stuff of Legends is a must have bookmark, as well as the collecting citadel miniatures wiki.  Am I the only one who thinks wiki is a stupid name for something.  Put it in the sin bin with google, blog, skype and twitter.

Q: Whats the best way to find old stuff?
A:  Ebay.  Naturally.  Search result combinations to try are '(1980s, vintage, OOP, rogue trader and rare) + (GW, citadel, warhammer, talisman)'.  Tad obvious, but I am hardly a font of deep wisdom.  Joining the collecting citadel miniatures yahoo list also gives you a headsup on auctions.

Q: How do I stop getting ripped off?
A: Tough one.  Go for quality figure photos, ask if the photo is of the actual model sold if duplicates are listed.  Its almost impossible to tell a good recast from a late line model, but the bottom line is you want a figure thats good quality.  Most recasts you will encounter are gravity fed tin copies made from silicon moulds- very warped, softer details, lost details, inferior metals and a ragged double mould line are the main problems with these.  A clean double mould line is a by product of the manufacturing process at citadel - the putty masters are cast in resin, and from these resin masters the production moulds are made.  Lazy workmanship means the original mould line is not smoothed off, and a double line results.  A ragged double line that digs into the figure denotes a poor silcone mould copy and is definately the work of a pirate.  If you imagine where the two parts of the mould run against the figure you get very thin silcone edges, and these need to be trimmed with sharp scissors or they have a tendency to fold in and cause crappy joins.  Hence the ragged edge.
I have no doubt that some professional casters may be tempted to make proper vulcanised plate spin cast copies and these are often impossible to tell from an original even placed side by side.  Quite often you just have to shrug and say 'close enough'.
  I wouldn't question the integrity of a seller, however you do have a right to return the figure if you are not satisfied with it in most deals.  Remember that some genuine dealers may have picked up fakes in job lots and have not spotted them, so its not part of a conspiracy against you.  Accusing someone of fraud and piracy is a major thing.  Try for a refund, then complain.  Most dealers are in it for the love, its not exactly big money.
That said, a policy of checking frequently to see if the trader keeps getting the same stock back in- its amazing just how many rare rogue trader figures some guys get manage to find every month.
Ultimately dont pay too much for a figure- if you pay more than a modern figure your a nit wit.

Q: I heard someone lost his whole collection to theives.  Do you insure?
A: Yes and no.  I have read a couple of cases of insurance companies not paying out on miniatures, even when Citadel where asked to value the collection.
  Instead I keep most of my collection in cases in a secure storage lockup rather than at home.  I rotate these when I get fed up looking at them, or once I finish painting them.  At most I only ever have about fifty or so figures out at a time.  If I ever was robbed I would only loose a couple of hundred bucks worth.  Sad, but something I could live.  I wouldnt take any more than a case load to a convention.  I don't buy super rare stuff either- so no chicken dragons or Mcdeath sets for me.  All this adds up to a pretty secure collection.
It is actually one of the reasons I am doing this blog- so I can eventually see them all in one place and check which ones I have already when buying online.  Gotta love blogs.

Q: Whats next?
A: Once I claw my free time back I have a huge clean and priming session planned to protect my current batch of exposed metal.  I lost some lovely figures to lead rot recently due to a citrus air spray I was using, (doh) and its gonna be the last time!

Back soon with pictures!

Lead getting heavy

Okay, lead pile is getting seriously heavy.

New arrivals include 1980s retrodel juice Sauron The Dark Lord, Chaos Dwarf Marauders, the four classic Elementals, as well as life and death elementals, Ally Morrison hobgoblins and some more zombies.  You can never have too many zeds, right?  Damn straight.

Adding to the pile is a few tasty Reaper peices this month.  I couldnt resist the quaint mole men 3 pack, and also grabbed the cavegirls- all of which I dove straight into painting the minute I got home.  My first Darksword batch is also coming along, though I am seriously disliking the integral bases.  Judging by the new release photos they have not learnt their lesson yet.  A half an hour date with a razor saw is not my idea of fun.  Anyway, three down, two to go.  Beautiful figs, but I am leaning more towards Kev Whites style of figures right now.  Which leads me nicely onto a big box of Hasslefree arriving today.  I am pretty stoked with them all- Oakley, powered armoured libby and a whole team of zombie fighters.  Awesome stuff.  I will have to put these on a backburner, however, as I need to post some more Retrodel soon, coz thats what this blogs all aboot.  Fortunately the hasslefree box contained sprues of metal shields, which will be put to good use on some of my old figures shortly.

My war vs. the Leadpile is going to have to be stepped up in the coming months, otherwise I will just have to stop collecting until I dent it enough to gain its respect again.  Expect to see pics of soft touch figures such as dwarves, orcs and Lords of Battle soon!


If your reading this, you will appreciate Somewhere The Teas Getting Cold...http://teasgettingcold.blogspot.com/
orcses.  Retrodelicious.

Ciao for now.

Kill team Charlie upgrade

KTC just got a some new recruits this morning thanks to the wonderful world of Ebay.  I am now toying with the idea of going beyond the full set and including a few multiples.  The charging troops will look cool together flanked by heavy lasers.  Perhaps even an imperial robot or dreadnought could come along for the ride.
  Should be fun.
You just know its going to spill out into the full series 2 marines.
Resist.  Resist.

Pete Taylor inspired Demon

So here is my Scratch built 'Realm of Chaos era' style Spawn inspired by, and dedicated to, Pete Taylor.  Full bore speed modelling and painting without a seatbelt!
Yeah, yeah, this model is unpolished, rude, crude and you know what, I kinda love him for it.
He was made mainly from scrunched tin foil over wire, covered with a thin layer of green stuff.  The yellows are inspired by John Blanches orange washed yellows from the 1980s, and he is sitting on a dreadnought base.
  Look, to be honest its crap - I wouldn't dream of releasing a figure this bug eyed and unfinished, but he brings a nostalgic smile to my chops everytime I see him.  Buzzbluhhhlrkkk!

 Pete Taylor inspired scratch built spawn.  Tin foil, wire and greenstuff.

:)

Skellies, and using stages

I thought it would be a good time to explain a trick I use to get through my lead pile.  Firstly, pick soft targets.  These are things that dont require much effort to do, such as chainmail clad dwarves, ghosts, snotlings, knights etc.  'Soft touches' or soft targets are the thin edge of the wedge, and having these 'wins' under your belt will help inspire you to keep going.

The next trick I use is kinda implied in the tutorial page on undercoating, but I will explain further.  I paint my models in stages.  The first stage is to clean, prime and preshade my models.  They can now sit on the shelf and be admired- with the preshading you can see all the details clearly.  Alternatively, and I find myself doing this a lot, they can now go into a foam case and into storage- relatively safe from leadrot.  Either way, it can be a ages until you get around to stage two.

Stage two for me is to paint my models to tabletop standard using layered glazes to build up color over my preshading.  Once this is done to an okay standard, I can happily stop, and call it painted.  A zap of varnish and the models are done.
The third stage for me is to then take my tabletop standard models and rework them, using glazes to smooth transitions and add richer colors.  Finer details are painted in, patterns are added, expressions worked at.  I can now do this at my leasure, knowing that worse case I can just strip it.
Now this technique wont win me any Golden Demons- but it does mean my unpainted lead pile does not crush me.

To show you what I mean, check out these skellies I attacked friday afternoon.

1980s Skeletons, Armoured skeletons, Nazgul, Skeleton champion

 This is an example of stage two painting - battle ready.  These are mainly done with preshading glazes, working six figures on a strip.  Bones and chainmail get drybushed and weathering is glazed on.  I used a screwed up, flayed out old brush to dot on rust and chips, and used black and brown washes over most of the model.  Finally, thin bestial brown was washed into armour, simulating water damaged steel.  Not perfect, but I am sure you will agree, ready for battle.  I can consider them 'done for now'.  (I havent done shields for these yet- I have some custom shields planned).

Later, when I have time, I mount a few of the figures individually on bottlecaps for handling, and refine the paint job at leisure.  I focus on no more than three or four at this stage, squeezing the refinement stage in the gaps in my life.  Got ten minutes?  Fix the paint job on that pouch.  Got half an hour free?  Finish off that champions face.  Start with the command and front row of your units, then sneakily rework the back rows when you have time.  Your opponent will only see the sexy PJ's up front!

1980s Lord of The Rings Witch King of Angmar, Undead Chariot champion

This image shows the battle ready job on a sexy witch king of angmar and skeletal champion (horn head, from the chariot boxed set).  These are both entirely done with glazes over a greyscale preshade.  Yep.
I decided to do something different on the Witch King than classic black, so I started layering on rich colors circling blue, then glazed them down to darken them.  If I keep going, I will end up with a rich black effect, with subtle color shining through.  I decided to keep it as it is for now, he is much more interesting this way.

Hornhead is also just glazed down, and really could do with having his little magical discs detailed, he could do with some hard edging and so forth- but for now I can check him off.

Deadites... Sally for...  Sally for... sally forward.

Imperial Space Marines: Kill Team Charlie

If your a fan of this site you would know your Warhammer 4000k: Rogue Trader,  from your Warhammer 40k. The original was Weird, wonderful and- as most of us remember it- rich and full of promise.  It was like 2000ad punk, smashed into the good bits of Tolkien (no poems), presented by Max Headroom (look it up gen y- theres an awesome film you need to see)..
Okay, so the modern child of Rogue took a few interesting turns, but slowly has become a smaller, more restrictive and exclusive universe.  Women marines?  No.  Halfling cooks.  No.  Beastmen troopers.  No.  You cannot wear power armour unless you have implants, you cant do this, you cant do that.  Roll 4, 5 or 6 on a D6.  Oh, I have an invulnerable save on that- check the codex.
Sigh.

So for my next mini project I decided to tackle some of the earliest Warhammer figures in a different way- pushing them away from gothic and towards early eighties science fiction.  I wanted them to be able to walk into an episode of Rogue Trooper or ABC warriors and look the part.  So lets take a look at the figures!

First edition space marine with heavy laser

Now with the first ever 40k figures, you notice the evolution start straight away.  Batch one is prototype, with built on backpacks and absolutely chock full of detail and equipment.  They hit white dwarf before 40k did- although a cryptic ad for a Rogue Trader role playing game was seen on a flyer about that time, we had no idea a new battle game was in the making.  You can spot a first edition marine easily.  Those ball jet thingies on the backpacks point up like exhausts, and there are many more science fiction stylings such as wiring, piping, letters, scanners and laserguns.   Bolters do not yet exist, but a lot of the trappings we have come to know and love are seen in embryo- such as powerfists.  Interestingly, the sergent model hints strongly at the future, with his nazi inspired skull eagle and skull emblems.  A cool touch to this model is that he has a helmet hanging from his waist, from which dangles the middle breathing pipe.  It gives the model a very visceral, pragmatic feel- especially when you notice his helmet is modified to make room for his cyborg eye.

First edition marines

I decided the best way to exaggerate the science fiction feel of these characters was to pick a totally new scheme based on the colors common in science fiction at that time.  In the late seventies and early eighties Orange, White, Black and Beige where the future.  Take a look at Star Wars, Buck Rogers, Disneys The Black Hole, BattleStar Gallactica, Robotech- you name it.  White, Black, Beige and Orange.  Thats why commodore 64's where that awful monkey shit beige.  It was proper high tech.
I found VMC medium grey was a perfect offwhite beige with a slight warm note.  Citadel Blazing Orange would counter this nicely, once thinned and glazed over the beige.  I wanted my troops to be dirty, but not rusty- this is futuristic plexisteel or ceramite- not iron.  They have been in toxic environs, been blasted with lasers and space dust.  VMC ocre and green-grey dirtying up the palette nicely.
For the bases, I was considering round, however a glance through Heroes for Wargames, all the 40k models where on hex bases too- fortunately I have bags and bags of them.  Easy choice.  I also decided to give the base a moon dust feel, keeping with the science fiction angle.

So after taking these pictures I got most of the way through six marines, including the limited edition power armoured marine released about the same time.  I am calling them Kill team Charlie now, for some reason.

Hope you likey.

Chaos Knights and Warriors

As promised, here are pictures of my work in progress on the old chaos knights and warriors ranges.

Its interesting to see the lineage in these lines- the first and second miniatures are actually variants- with the first being a slotta based model.  The head of the second reappears elsewhere in the later range too.
The fourth mini shown came to me in a collection marked 'old D&D models', and I had trouble identifying him at first, as he was painted as a traditional templar.  After I cleaned the paint off, I noticed the skull face weakly etched on his mask and started sniffing in the chaos section of Solegends.  Yep.  There he is.  It was nice, he came in a vintage matchbox wrapped in cotton.  The acids in paper cause leadrot, so I expect this guy to start dissolving in years to come because of this.  However I did give him a dettol bath, rinsed in demineralised water and scrubbed him hard with bluetac and a soft dremel to help prevent this.  Time will tell.  When you restore really old figures be sure to seal the slot hole using paint.  If you spray varnish, give the underside a blast too.

Early Chaos Knights and Warriors

A pleasant surprise was the succubus on the shield, which I did not notice until I was half way through painting this batch.  A bit worn off, but a little paint magic to exaggerate the masses and she popped right out again.

So love to hear your comments before I finish these up-  do you think this scheme is working, or should I go back to a more traditional red and black 'evil' painting style?

Very happy this morning, because the comments posted on my last article reflect the calibre of reader I am getting through here.  I hope to keep you all stimulated!

With Mabdens point about the "secretive and mysterious" days- there was a journey of discovery- and a magic to it all.  Especially growing up sandwiched between the drab, bland suburbia of Thatcher's England and the rich, anarchic magic of the worlds found in UK comics (2000ad, Eagle), Terry Pratchet, Fighting Fantasy and White Dwarf (I drew up on a farm surrounded by urban developments, so I had forrests and dark places to fuel my imagination- I was very lucky).
  Funnily enough, the nearest analogy to how the miniature hobby felt was almost like dungeoneering.  There was treasure caves, and magical books and secret tricks and arcane lore.  You where all working in the dark, and occasionally you met a dwarf.  No, wait... hang on, lots my train of thought there.
Lead Mountain also hit the nail on the head (I get a good class of reader)- without Ebay (and I suppose improved international postage systems) I can now have the exact models I couldn't find no matter how hard I dungeoneered through the maze of game shops, magazines, journals and friends collections and bitz boxes.

Another interesting thing is that recently I saw a fascinating speech by an old, well respected Australian media man, who said that modern media like chatrooms means like minded people flock together, reinforcing their mindsets because the worlds they choose to inhabit are all alike- and every point of view they encounter helps crystalise their own.  He said he was trapped in Russia during the height of communism and noticed his friends daughters room was full of contraband rock and roll stuff.  He realised then that people will seek out what inspires them and reinforces their world view.
Well, all that stuff aside- this blogs about finding that magic again and crapping on about it- because, thanks to technology we can!

Okay, so thats enough high brow stuff.  Lets talk Lead!

Last night I attacked the lead pile and took a huge painting chunk out of the original Chaos Knights I posted a few days ago.  Although tempted to do a fresh take on some of the work from Heroes for Wargames, I decided I was sick of painting red schemes and looked for something more interesting.  I wanted the figures to exists before the pre-defined Chaos gods, so by using both Nurgles greens and Tzeenches purple-blue domains together in a very muted palette circling around a green-brown from VMC I just aquired and my current color darling, Hawk Turquoise I should come up with something interesting.

Pics shortly!

Gold to Golden Age

You know whats really weird about vintage figure collecting?...  well, actually there is a lot weird about the whole thing I suppose... but whats really weird is that they are so much cheaper than modern figures.
Take my chaos collection.  Right now, if I remounted them onto the legal square bases, I could field a pretty impressive Warhammer army.  Toting up what I payed for it, even with the harder to collect figures and I would still have paid less than buying modern figures.  Would it be technically tournament legal?  I would guess yes, its entirely Citadel figures.  After all, at Cancon there where some lovely Skaven armies still comprised of Jes Goodwin sculpts- and why wouldn't you?

So on that note, lets talk about how GW is currently stimulating the new golden age of miniatures.  Through White Dwarf, new kids are being drawn into the hobby and loving it.  Soon they start to look outside the GW stores for cheaper alternatives, and in this search they discover that there are not only alternatives, but a whole rich world of miniature outside the GW products.

  This coincides with the internet finally giving small mini companies what they need to get started- connectivity.  Sculptors can connect to casters, publishers with artists and most importantly customers to online stores.  I dont think there has ever been such a range of figures open to you at any given moment, and it only takes a few hours of browsing to not only put together a squad of interesting models and conversion parts, but also get all the instructions, tips and tricks you need to make them look good.  Compare this to the 80's when small ads in Dragon magazine, Warlock and White Dwarf where pretty much it for independants- and sending away 20p with a stamped addressed envelope to get a photocopy of some hand drawn interpretations of what figures where for sale was your browsing method.

Golden age.

Pete Taylor Gallery

 At the height of Realm Of Chaos Madness, converted chaos figures where the in thing, and towering over all of us was one mans work.  Colorful, insane and irreverant, Pete Taylor blew my mind.  Recently I sculpted a creature inspired by a vague memory I had of a yellow, bug eyed demon he sculpted, and it got me hunting around the internet for pictures of his work.  Sadly, that search threw up no results, until his gallery appeared on the Stuff Of Legends gallery.

Retrodel yay!

Pete Taylor Gallery

Now if your new to his stuff, I bet your thinking 'what the f...?' - but back then converting was hard, and scratch building was no where near as easy as it is now.  Pete Taylor was knocking out swarms of freaks and painting them super quick.  Hordes.  And every one fascinating.  In a white dwarf article about his conversions (if you know which one lets hear it from you!), he used stuff called blu-strip. Now in those days Green Stuff was something the regular public couldn't get- all we had was milliput (pastey, crumbly) and tamiya putty (seriously expensive in those days).  Blu-strip has similar properties to greenstuff- sculpting memory.  I lucked into finding some that week and tried it.  After three days of poking the monster I made using Kev Adams white dwarf recommended sculpting tool (a sharpened cocktail stick), I figured it didnt work- you see, I was expecting it to set hard- like milliput.  Still, twenty years later and I would my hand of kneadatite- so it all worked out in the end.

Oh, and if your reading, you legend Pete.

Bederken Blog

If you like the quirkiness of old school figures, or are a fan of my video game design work you may be pleased to hear I have jumped into the minis business.  Currently, you can read all about it at www.Bederken.blogspot.com.

The first figures in the range are the evil little Dwergs- twisted by evil magics, these freakish little critters gnaw on gnee bones.  They will be available from my site cast in lovely old school lead alloy shortly.

Cool Lead: Whats rocking my boat right now

Here are some recent additions to collection outside the realm of the 1980s that I am loving right now.

Bloat Thrall, modern EE, Reaper, Grenadier (now Mirliton), hasslefree and more Reaper

First up is the Bloat Thrall from Warmachine.  I am slowly assembling what could be considered a Cryx force, but this is merely a biproduct of how much the figures rock the eyeballs, rather than an urge to play Warmachine.  I grabbed this figure because it is just a huge open canvas waiting for tasty blending.  Ok, so it looks good and will paint well- what are the drawbacks?  Well, the weight Vs. leg strength is a big issue- I suggest drilling double pins into the joints and using a tough pin such as a sewing needle (be extremely careful cutting sewing needles- use goggles and hold a peice of rag or plastic over the pin as you cut to stop it flying off).  Even then, you are faced with a chunk of metal resting on four thin legs.  The lipped base and weight combine to make this hard to pick up, so my advice would be to slather it in layers and layers of gloss varnish so you can pick it up by the body during a game.  Drop this one at your peril!

Next up, surprise, surprise is some modern Citadel.  Yes, I know, I know, but these are actually rather good.  Bemoaning the fact that on the whole quality has dropped massively since the 80's, doesnt completely cut it, as you still have gems like these being produced.  These two are Jules Le Jongleur (Brettonia collectors series) and Countess Marianna Chevaux (Mordheim range).  Mordheim currently holds some of the more interesting quirky figures in the modern range, including the brilliant Frenzied Mob.  It sits right in with travelling players and villagers from the 80's.  Brilliant stuff.

I also have Trish's hatchling dragons lurking on my shelf.  Dont worry, I wont be rushing out to buy any plastic armies anytime soon.  Do check in the misc collectors section for some modern casts of old dragons and elementals too- mind you, I just grabbed two sets (oops) of vintage Elementals for way under the modern price.

Grenadier may be gone, but Mirliton is still cranking out its casts.  This pictured Death Giant is actually an original grenadier fig I picked up of Ebay, so its nice and crisp.  I have read reports that some of the Mirliton moulds are showing their age, and maybe once my leadpile is down I may order some and see for myself- I have an itching for the collectors giants and Dwarfs I need to scratch.  This Death Giant haunted me during the 1980s, appearing in white dwarf magazine ads I poured over, and yet never being in my pocket money budget.  What a brilliant thing to have striding across your undead battlefield.  It does look a bit like an oscar, or perhaps a posessed statue of liberty, but I love him.

Reaper's The Summoning is some of Julie Guthries best work to date- check that sculpt.  Three writhing spirit women -sensual and yet not crass.  Great stuff.  The necromancer chick lifted by skeletons is also a must- the skeletal detail on the base is brilliant and satisfying to paint.

The last batch of figures all come from my new love, Hasslefree miniatures- who not only shipped me a great batch of figures but also included an English sweetie.   Cheers.
The figures shown are just a few of the figs on my ready line - and there are many more I am aching to grab.   Two thumbs up for quality on all the casts I have received, the mould lines are smartly placed and the modular options are so good you will be tempted to buy a few copies just so you can have all the variants.  Damn you Kev!

I am also eagerly awaiting some classic sculpts based on my old art faves Eastley and Elmore this week - I have a Songs of Blades and Heroes warband to assemble!

Cool Lead: Kev Adams Goblin Court

Not a retro Citadel, but you will be damned to tell the difference- this lovely set was sculpted by the goblinmaster himself- Mr Kev Adams.  (cheers), and is a tongue in cheek reference to the classic Dwarf Kings Court.  Colin Dixon did an updated Kings Court for the company too.  I dont know what company this was made for, but apparently it went belly up.  I nabbed these off ebay with some trepidation, but have been richly rewarded- what a wonderful set!

Kev Adams Goblin Court

EE Nurgle WIP

Something old, something new

My latest comission work in progress - all half done at this stage.  This is from a huge Nurgle battle force I have been painting up - its great because its made up from figures across the ages.  Here modern Forgeworld (re: Brittle and bubbled as f@$k) minis intermingle with early Nurgle death corps.  I magnetized the limbs on the dreaddy so the client can snap weapons at will.  My fave is the guy down the front- the modern chirurgeon backpack just works so damn well with the old body.  A nice break from red, red, red- which most of my collection seems to dictate so far.  Anything thinner than 2mm thick on the forgeworld stuff has had to be rebuilt or replaced- I love the sculpts, some of the best from GW lately - but I really dont like the quality of the casts.