Friday, August 27, 2010

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.

Friday, August 6, 2010

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...