Hyped up on sugar, and unable to continue my water terrain table I decided to work on Skulldred. Only it was too frikkin hot in my studio. The only solution was to strip everything left in mah bukkit.
I know you love seeing piles of stripped figures... you dirty leadwhores... and this pile does not disappoint.
First up, sodding great chronopia hydra. Part metal, part resin... part garden ornament. This beasty is going to be a blast to paint! He was one of the first ever resin models out if memory serves. Blinking huge, but sadly not very dynamic.
A couple of early dragons I picked up from CANCON- Tom Meier's gnarly black dragon on the right- a very early fiend factory dragon on the left. The other half of my Grenadier Dracolich is bottom right. A ral partha land dragon- based on the Roger Dean artwork (next to the Dnd skirmish giant).
Great, dragon month can get off to a flying start.
Also from Cancon, a metal diver war machine. Yes. My fingers are set to bleed this year with endless frikkin pinning.
The bloodthirster is the second from last daemon I need- jist tzeench to go.
The most exciting stars of the show are center... some more of the critically needed undead for the John Blanche Undead Assault Skirmish Project (jbuap?). Stay tuned.
Well I am excited. Are you excited?
Today I picked up a three by four foot lightweight mdf board and 18mm battens to make me the first panel of my full size wargame board!
I managed to assemble the frame pretty quickly. In hindsight 18mm may be too thin to prevent warping entirely, but it will do for now. Any larger and I wouldn't be able to stack it against the wall neatly behind the bookshelf. I may have to add a few more cross braces.
I am thinking I will paint the underside white to make it seem airy and light. Or bkack and white to look like a japanese screen.
I intend to paint it deep sickly green then gloss the crapola out of it. Gloss modpodge and ink will then be used to texture ripples in the top.
This new board is the basis for my Skulldred photography board- and will also be used for demos at events like Cancon/PAX/MOAB.
Once this is done I will fashion some islands in various sizes which can each have different looks- muddy trench, city, flocked field, necromunda hive, leafy forrest... whatever I feel like. The gaps between the islands form rivers. Infinitely configurable water/toxic sludge features!
Undead assault here I come!
So only an hour or so of hobby time tonight but hey, results. I got a big batch of those I stripped the other day primed and based tonight, plus painted their bases. Nice.
The pic shows whats on my table right now. Some gothic horror and doctor who minis in there. Lots of fun coming...
Mmmm... miniatures.
Yes. That is Krell. No. You can't have him.
This post is more for me, whilst I pass time in a car trip to get my head together. Still, it may interest you. Who knows what sick twisted things you get pleasure in. People like Kanye, for example. That worries me.
Okay so my goals in general in rough order. I will throw in limited editions and one offs now and then.
Darkling demo figures
Toads, dwerg ordinance, burrowguard
15mm Warbands for skulldred
Splintered light elves and undead.
28mm minis for skulldred
Hasslefree amazons
Mirliton barbarians,
Megamini dwarfs (good and evil)
Viking forge lizards
Reaper monsters, half orcs, amazons
Dwerg
Warband project:
This project is to get a functioning, finished painted warband of each factions I have collected. The idea is to expand these out later to complete my collection. Each must have a leader, standard or musician, three troops and a wizard.
♥warbands
Undead.
Broo
C01 Fighters (blue)
C01 Fighters (Red)
Orcs.
Amazons.
Savage Orcs.
Goblins.
Norse Dwarfs
Militia.
Chaos thugs.
Paladins/ battle lords
Skaven.
Barbarians.
Dark elves.
Wood elves.
Hobgoblins.
Lizardmen.
Night horrors.
Rangers/theives.
Halfling & Gnomes.
High elves.
Chaos in rough order:
Slaanesh (rebase), Nurgle, Khorne, Tzeench, Undivided (rebase) and eventually Malal. Dwarfs of chaos mixed in as I go.
At least five models finished of the above before moving on...
♥Undead assault
Last three dwarfs.
Undead painted ready to base (I want to base them exactly in the order they appear in the diorama about five to a base). Then hunt remaining minis.
Mushrooms.
Doors.
Ballista.
♥Giant month: original citadel giants, ogres, trolls- lund giant and ral parthas. Oh my!
♥ Malifaux month: all my collection. A hodgepodge of neverborn, resurrectionists and outcasts. Yay finicky multipart metal. Meh. But so purdy.
♥ Dragon month. Much wings! Such Dragons! So scales! Get at least five of my dragons assembled- including Kegox.
♥Demon month. Possible now. Pencil it in. Lots of succubi.
Terrain upgrade time!
♥ 36" square soft dirt board with batts to stop warping. Good for all genres. My old board is too small, too warped, too heavy.
♥Undead assault board: 36" square water effects base board, islands, hills, and more mushroom stands. (Castle and bridge modules next year.) Back board?
♥Warband phase 2: Y'arrr!
At this stage I should have a water board, so it is time to hit the high seas with...Skeletal pirates, Pirates, Ninjas, Samurai, Cryx pirates.
2.5d card boat for playing above, or tortuga like docks? Then maybe a real boat model.
♥Rogue trader warbands 2012?
Playable squads of (in order) space orks, crimson fist, eldar, dreadnoughts, tyranid/zoats, space pirates, guard, adventurers, chaos cult, genestealers, tallaran dog soldiers, death world fauna, judge dredd and perps.
Modern chaos, modern sisters, remaining sci fi figures. Necromunda escher.
♥SCIFI TERRAIN
spikey plants, Domes, yoghurt tub towers, necromunda bridgeworks, Shanty town buildings, refinery pipes and landing pads. Starting with pieces of cover and working up to buildings.
Well gosh darn it, if I didn't manage to strip one of my two stripping buckets in the measly few hours I had tonight. Yay me.
Now I know I usually take a picture of the shiney gems, but space was limited and I offed them into jiffy bags for the moment ready for the next few weeks.
There is an ungodly amount of doubles in there. Bad collector. No more ebay for you til you sell them.
I got a message from ebay saying turbolister should work now... but the breezy nature of the message suggested gen Y and did not inspire me with confidence in the tester. Still, if it proves true that's great news. I have sooo much to sell you all. :)
Some highlights to surface from the jar included The Nottingham Dwarf (aka Robin Hood dwarf) and a few undead for my Undead Assault project. The Robin hood dwarf is very special, and I am hoping to set aside time to do a full 'Eavy metal style pdf on his history, previous owner and the models restoration, basing and painting. I am jazzed to be able to push on with the project and complete the dwarf contingent. Mimbrin the guard needs to be repinned before I can go on, and he needs superfine drilling. Must get some new bits.
One thing I have been loving this month is my airbrush. I grabbed some Vallejo model air primer and have fallen in love with it. I plan to grab a black and grey air primer next week to do preshading with. It makes such a huge difference to the quality and speed of priming and laying down base coats that it's a no brainer. It's no where near as tough as enamel spray, but at least I can use it on rainy days.
So back to the stripping session- I want to reduce doubles, but the idea of setting up a database makes me uncomfortable. This is a hobby, and meant to be enjoyed in a casual, cavalier manner. Which is good because I am a casual cavalier at best. I probably should do a got list on my website using catalog pictures ans crossing out the ones I have. Hmmm.
The thought of the database did get me wondering just how many minis I now have- and that made me think about how one would officially count them. Do broken ones count? Do multipart components count? Kits? What about props- or models fused together in twisted mutations?
Do you know how many you have? If so, how do you keep track? Post comments below!
Picked up some Necropunks and Copycat Killer from Malifaux today on a whim. I have decided to focus on painting now, than collecting. I have a lead mountain to enjoy.
The necropunks are typical of most modern minis- thin and fiddly to assemble. Not the robust single part things of my teens that could survive a good game. A large portion of my collection of non-vintage figures are unpainted for this reason... fiddly ass assembly!
So next time I can, I must grab some really fine drill bits. My current ones are paperclip thickness. Not good when drilling limbs as thin as paperclips. Half the time I may as well just rebuild the limbs with greenstuff on wire- easier and more robust for gaming!
What confuses me is why many of these figures are not reposed slightly to allow for minimal part casting. One necropunk had four limbs to pin on- uhg. Not fun.
But I stuck at it and managed to get all three assembled and based (30mm bevel bases not the lipped ones- makes for easier handling). Yay me. This is the sole reason I do not buy infinty models. Way too thin and fragile.
That reminds me... I was promised an intro game by mainly medieval!
So anyone have their multipart horror stories?
And I am done... a quick paint job and a matt seal and I had just enough time to squeeze in the last episode of game of thrones season 3. Total time about two hours. It's nothing special, but it is durable and solves the display space problem nicely.
The next one I do will be a more elaborate affair.
Cracks where drawn in with a pencil.
The next step in the process involved making up a goop to harden, texture and color the surface.
This recipe is two parts weldbond, five parts fast drying wall filler, one part acrylic house paint (I had it mixed up to match vallejo model color german camo green). I added a sprinkle of fine sawdust flock (noch alpine) to give texture without acting as glasspaper on the minis.
Here is the first coat- a couple will be needed. I am tempted to add in a few cast details at this stage. A backboard would be a good idea to stop minis falling down the back of the shelf.
I have shelf issues. I need more space to show off figures. I also have a heap of blue foam I cannot store. Sometimes, solutions require putting two problems together. Often with glue. Lots of glue.
I had planned to do more display boards like my stonework one to make an intricate dungeon lair display that can double as shelving- but time is not my friend at the moment. Rather than wait, a simple interim board will have to do for now. A simple old school stone wargame style step hill will have to do.
Here, in step 1 I glued blue foam layers together with weldbond and hammered cocktail sticks in to reinforce. Once dry, I coated the whole lot in modgepodge to seal and strengthen it. Detailing and surfacing next.
Recognize.
Works in progress, really rough models that I wished I had filled with millijuice first. Though the red on the sorcerer's helmet was technically cast from his perspective ignoring fireball, I though I would leave it on to match the artwork a little closer. Not happy with greenies look yet. I think the red should be charcoal black.
I don't have the two headed goblin or long neck goblins that appear in the art, but they exist. I have yet to find the elf and dwarf, but the hammer bearer was never made.
May have to fix that... where is my grwen stuff?
Okay, first comment to name the source art gets smug points!
One of the first off the blocks from my Cancon haul... a classic Kevin Adams nineties goblin. I prefer his earlier works, but how could I say no to dis widdle belly.
I painted him a while ago but forgot to take a snap. Plus... some days you just lose your mojo. I tried to get super nice blending on his belly and stuffed it up. Dirt got in, I rubbed it off and it all went downhill from there. I may strip him down one day and go again when Mars isn't in retrograde and shit.
I tried a new flesh recipe for this girl, starting with a base coat of vallejo model color tan, highlighted up through bone. I tried a muted, natural look for her so she could double as a barbarian raider.
I love chaos thugs, and collect as many broken ones as I find going cheap. They are so much fun to convert, fun to paint amd a blast to play. Psycho punk mutants? Yes please.
Lichemasters terrorizing you? Who you gonna call?
Riolta Snow is the first finished figure from my mostly complete Lichemaster set. And by mostly I mean all but the bloody hard to find, expensive ones. Sigh... one day.
Shiney new old lead, all mounted up and ready to spray. Cue thunderstorms and rain.
Yep. Sydney weather.
I just want to point out The Standard Miniature's Killer Penguin. My brother in law got this for me. Ain't he a peach?
This gaffy stick (OED. noun. A stick onto which miniatures are suck for wot to get painty wiv.) also features some Rackham shooty bald men. Because.
Some Ral Partha classics may also catch your learned gaze- a 3 stage witch doctor set and Drizzzle pants Drizzt himself. My wife staggered me by recognizing him and said she read all the books.
I called her a sad, sad nerd, then went back to playing with my little lead dollies.
Grenadier's flying carpet is front and centre. I remember seeing this for the first time in 1991 at school friend Gareth Parry's big brother's epic warhammer table. He also had the chaos ass cannon and naked torture chamber girls. Sigh... teenage joy. Plus... these where all being fielded- a unit of ninja where munching orcs whilst a hobgoblin rocket launcher laid into a balrog. Fuck you game balance!
Just a quickie- the demon of freaking everything is a little fun sculpt I started to talk my nephew through the process. I added a long sucker arm whilst waiting for my ogres to bake.
