Cancon excitement

Oooh... saturday is Cancon day (formerly Australia day).  Time to blow my savings at the second hand stall again!

I vowed last year to have assembled and painted all my cancon purchases from previous years ready for this year.  Result?

Nope. Not even close!

(Sigh)

Anyhoo, next year will be Skulldred demo table year.  Hopefully I will be too busy to buy too much!

Okay peeps... your worst convention blow out?  Comments below!

Ahh strip bucket Christmas and Wear Purple Day

I got in an hour of miniature stripping to take my mind of how darn crappy things have been of late.  A bit of mindless scrubbidy dubbin with a tooth brush seemed restful.

Its always like Christmas whenever the strip jar comes out.  I usually forget what I have in mine,  so invariably there is a pleasant surprise or two lurking in the dettolly mire.
For my hour of effort I had most of my c11 giants appear, paranoia troubleshooters, c100 marines, ten original edition skaven ratmen, a dracolich and a couple of rare chaos Champions I never knew I had.  Bonus!

This also cleared enough space to finally get the last remaining members of my Undead Assault project in to soak.  I am sure you all cannot wait to see that one taking shape!

I got a big hobby session in tonight and feel much better.
All my chaos familliars had been rebased on 1 inch rounds but have been laying around incomplete.  So I got those bases painted up, which gave me a nice feeling of completion.  I have had these figs since I started this blog and they where a constant niggle in the back of my collection.
Oh, and I got all my washer mounted dwarf and chaos dwarf warbands rebased onto 30mm rounds, as well as rebasing my old Ral Partha large monsters.   I feel like some progress has been made.  Yay me.

I also kicked off a small mini project by painting up a bunch of figures to celebrate 'wear purple day' tomorrow (in support of gender variant, transgender and intersex youth).  My wife, who helps communicate such things in a big company, told me about it tonight and I love the idea.  But, as I dont have any purple clothes to wear to work (or at all), I decided to dress my lead instead.

So tonight was all about da purps.  I slapped rich, opulent purples on a host of minis.

I avoided Slaanesh figs though... after all, it wouldnt be fitting for tomorrow as GW demonise hermaphrodites in that range (as if the sexism wasnt enough- female marines now!).  Not to mention use purple as the main colors of daemonettes these days- not very PC when you consider it really.   Still- I am a huge Slaanesh fan- and currently have about three boxes of Slaanesh goodies awaiting assembly - but thats for another time. 

Tomorrow is about letting kids know its okay to be born outside the binary... not pink or blue but a shade of purple!

Pics once I finish up.  I forgot just how striking purple can be- and vow to do a few purple warbands soon.  Hmmm... purple orcs?

Heres a random pic... you know... coz its not a post without a pic.

Parsley, sage, flock and time

Some folk just cannot seem to understand the joy of miniatures. For them painting little figures is just so repetitive and boring.
Last night I found myself using a diamond file to sharpen thirty odd spokes in a parsley shredder. Why? To shred foam and sawdust to make fine flock scatter, of course! It's surreal moments like these you often catch yourself in whilst engaged in this hobby that the aforementioned folk miss. Some hobbyists too- if you find yourself blindly laying down cash to solve problems without looking closely at what your buying and trying to come up with cheaper ways to solve the problem.

Hence my parsley mill, now adapted with all the glee of Gomez Addams sharpening his fence, solves the problem of nil resistance my budget coffee grinder foliage maker cannot overcome- once your chunks get to a certain size, they no longer shred because there is nothing to stop them moving out of the blades path. The chunks are perfect of tree foliage and bushes but for basing you need that extra find grind to turn it to flock.

The parsley shredder came to my attention in Canberra during the 1990's when my friends introduced it as the 'Mull-o-matic'. Though the herb they where shredding was not destined for scenery, it struck me as a nifty tool. I filed it in the back of my mind.

Teenage mutant ninja turtles!

 I grabbed one this week for ten bucks. Unfortunately the blades are more like lumps if steel- so it is no good for tough materials like foam, it jammed instead if sliced unless you put in more effort than I could care for.
Not any more.
Bwa ha ha.

Diamond files.  Fun for all the family.

 
After a hood hour of filing and contemplating the unusual nature of my hobby the blades where Dexter approved sharp and the foams resistance proved futile. In a few minutes I had a Chinese take out container full of grade A fine flock.
My timing is bad though- today is big object garbage collection day so all those thrown out backpackers couches will have been collected by the government to recycle into some other generations problem.

So foam shreds into perfect flock.  Leaves, too, shred nicely- though remove the stalks or you will wreck your shredder.  The funny thing about scale is that the resulting leaf scatter, which is made from real leaf scatter, does not look rich enough.  I look out my window and see the fallen leaves that I gathered the material from, but on the base it looks nothing like it.  So, I put a few drops of sepia ink and a squidge of glycerine (to help preserve the leaves) into a shaker pot and shook up a perfect batch of forest floor scatter in no time.


MORE ON AD&D SKIRMISH

The AD&D battlesystem skirmish book from last episode has me all excited about terrain again.  All my feverish need for mounds of flock will be revealed in the Skulldred project, by the way.

Speaking of which, I fished through my collection and was pleased to find the Ral Partha stone giant and the rare Marid where in my possession. These both appear in the book and are lovely figures. I was tempted to sell the Marid, because it gets upwards of 50 pounds on eBay, but damn it's charming.
Strangely this sent me on a bit of a d&d spin. I was looking at some of the larger preprinted plastic minis by wotc last night for a good basis to repaint and convert some big classic monsters. The forums seem to think stripping them is nightmarish. May have to experiment. Some of them would be great if only they released them unpainted.
Strange business model. All the power of hasbro behind it and rather than look at the successful GW business model, they choose the prepainted plastic pokemon model and cut away a massive chunk of their market.
Imagine if they turned to making unpainted themed hard styrene dungeon packs instead? First level box of Kobolds, treasure, doors, skeletons, orcs and bugbears with swappable parts, scenario booklet and floor plans?
Instead you have to hunt down enough kobolds to... Oh wait, no... It's a githyanki... Damn, won't be able to play that scenario this week.... Hmmm, reaper do packs of five...Otherworld whole warbands...

Waste.

Is it okay to steal someone elses nostalgia?

This arrived for me in the post yesterday, a solid chunk of old school goodness...

My new precious

The AD&D battlesystem's little punk kid skirmishes.  I grabbed a 2nd edition copy for small change, as I wanted to check out all the Skirmish systems out there and see how my pet project Skulldred was holding up.  The moment I started flicking through the book I remembered just how horribly technically over complicated AD&D was... even trimmed down for skirmish play, such horrors as thac0 (to hit armor class zero) and saving throw vs. petrification tables dwell within.

I am sure its fun enough, but it leaves me cold, and I never really liked the expressionless and stiff looking Ral Partha figures.  However, ten minutes in and I couldn't help but get nostalgic.  What??  How could I get nostalgic about something I never had or was into?  Is this sensation psudeoonostalgia? or some form of nostalgia reflex my brain kicks into when it sees something just a little bit crappy and old?  Hmmm.  Strange.
It may have something to do with the spray fixative I have been zapping my board with.

Anyway, if you see this book, grab it.  Not to play... oh heavens no... just for the chockablock old school looking minis and a vibe that's really 1980s (even though, somewhat embarrassingly, its a 1990's publication).  There is just so much charm oozing from the pictures, and there is not one illustration in sight... its all colour photos.
So here I am, inexplicably, drooling for old Ral Partha and full of inspiration for scenery and a fresher look at base decorations.

It has been just the ticket to set me back onto my righteous path of completing my skirmish board and wagon raid project... though at the moment its looking more like a game of 'nick the donkeys'.

Anyway, back with more painted old school goodness soon.

The Bigger they come...

I love the citadel giant.  Its one of the best miniatures of all time, and a delightful model kit.  Yes.  Thats me... talking about a modern citadel product in good terms.

No, I am feeling quite well.

I also happen to think Jes Goodwin is hitting balls out of the park with his new look Cennobite/ Green goblin inspired Dark Eldaer... the most Rogue Trader looking things ever.  Shame they are "finecast" aerobars.

On my unassembled modern model pile is a set of aquatic trolls, Dark Eldar Wyches (what a kit!) and a plague cart.  I am soooo tempted to grab some more giant kits.  Love, love, love.

Citadel Giant and classic Elric (Jes Goodwin)

 Anyway, the problem with giants, as so finely demonstrated by all the undercoated but not painted giants at Cancon and MOAB, is that they scare the crap out of you.  How do you even begin to paint something that big?  That much detail?
My giant was assembled on my birthday, hours after I unwrapped it (bless my wife, having to go into a games workshop store and beat away the frothers and gawping depressed tweens ("look, a girl... in a game store... WHAT DO WE DO????").  Anyway, that giant, so hurriedly and lovingly assembled sat on my shelf ever since... grey and plastic and daunting.

Kaylee and Svala from Hasslefree (Kev White),
Jes Goodwin Elric, Chaos Champion.
Bob Naismith Chaos Champion conversion with head from modern Chaos Sorcerer

The trick to painting your giant is to pick up a brush and put some paint on it.  Before you know it, a few hours have passed and your done.  Ignore White Dwarf... their tutorials always focus on perfecting and shading each part before moving onto the next... great for teaching- but not for marathon paint jobs, psychologically and practically.  In the old days, the trick was to finish all your base colours first, then shade, then highlight.  That way, your figure feels like its progressing, and if you accidentally slip when slapping on the base colors, you don't wreck a nicely finished section.

I would go further and say before detailing, whack on some varnish... that gives you a few seconds to wipe off mistakes.  Plus, as the pictures in this blog attests, you can game with partially shaded models.  Most of the figures in these photos are just colour glazed over a grey undercoat thats been drybrushed white and hit with badab black.  Passable gaming in minutes!  Sure, I then go over the top with more subtle glazes and highlights, often repainting whole areas... but its super thin, so no build up of paint.

Anyway, got the giant to a gaming standard... which means I have to fix up a lot of details, but pretty happy with the fact I got through him.  It actually did not take much longer than doing a regular mini... you just need a bigger brush!
Now, I have that Tom Meier Forgotton realms beastie to tackle next on my 'big things that hang around my shelves for aaaaaaagggggeeesss.'  Remember Dave, just pick up the brush and start....

Skulldred mayhem!
Another Bob Naismith Chaos warrior needing to reload
Grom from Groms goblins guards in backdrop, about to be lynched by
a Perry Bros female chaos warrior
Citadel Fantasy Specials Dead Adventurer in foreground

Strip show

I smell of Dettol. You know what that means? Fresh new (old) miniatures.
4 kilos of sparkly clean lead pile ready to bend to my evil will.
Bwa hahaha.
I have been rather slack lately, collecting figure stripping jars and leaving them months to stew in their Dettol dips, but on my quest for mental clarity through completion of backed up tasks I took a few hours out if my morning to scrub, scrub, scrub.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook) I immediately refilled the jars with my stripping backlog.

Strip show day is like cristmas. You forget exactly what lurks in that filthy black morass, and this particular batch was exceptional. Most of my missing Citadel FA range appeared,along with a few judge Dredd perps(always fun), a Spawn of Naarglesh, FF bonesnapper, treeman mcklinty, Chaos girl/insect demon and many of you will be pleased to know, the remaining members of my c100 kill team Charlie!

Woot!

Happy Leadmas!

Here is a pick for you to pick through and identify if such is your whim.

Matakishi is the man

 
Matakishi is one of those I am happy to call a 'legend' in the games hobby.  His blog, Matakishi's tea house is a must read for any gamer.
It was at the tea house I learned how to make a smooth miniature surface- a huge barrier I had to overcome when I first started sculpting minis, and its from the tea house where I got my latest revalation about the hobby.

Matakishi is a projects man.  He makes small, contained projects, then works them through to completion.  Scenery, figures and often rules too.  A playable game table with everything on it finished to a good, if not excellent standard.
My collection is a sprawling, seething mix from which I pluck models to paint based on whim.  As I paint some barbarians, I know there are more in storage and more on their way from the land of ebay.  My goal has to paint complete collections of sets that interest me.  Worse still, I have several figures I want to paint really, really well... so they remain unpainted of course.
Well, readers of my blog will remember the dead energy projec, where I took some figures that, well, they where not my favourites... and I painted the living hell out of them?  That project really released some hobby karmic blockage, and I followed it with a painting spree that really dented my lead pile!

Matakishi focuses on game projects.  Small, doable and inspiring.  That ideas really got me primed up.

I am next going to attack my collection with the goal of making two finished themed warbands for Skulldred, along with finished game items to play some simple scenarios.  Everything on the table finished and to a good standard- including tokens, goal markers and a few choice scenery items.
Now... the question is what scenario?

Victoria Lamb

Had a brilliant night on Sunday hanging out with the Ozpainters crew.  I finally got to meet the one and only Victoria Lamb.  I have been a big fan of her work for years, and have to blame her influence for the Sisters of Battle collection I have tucked away somewhere.  Check her site out and see what I mean.
We got to sit for a few hours and trade tricks and I got some sneak peeks at what she is working on.  Subjects included about all things green stuff, and I naturally asked her if she cuts her toast with her slayer sword. I know I would.
I also got to check out some minis painted by some real pros- Andrew of Aetherworks fame (and no slouch in the golden demon trophy department himself) has a brilliant collection featuring work by such luminaries as Jeremie Bonamant Teboul, Jennifer Haley and Anya. You think they look good on the interweb- you should see them up close!

I am talking about the miniatures. Sheesh.

Of course this means I have to up my game a bit - hanging out with the ozpainters sure is going to drive that.

One tip I did pick up is that my sculpting tools are just not fine enough. I got me some needles and made a new set today using a gas stove, hammer and diamond file. Tried them on my lead adventure sculpts and found I got much more control over the finer details.

Declutter your studio. Declutter your mind.

I have been trying to sculpt in a very cramped, very dusty room- and yesterday it suddenly got to me.  I snapped.  I had to do something, right then and there.  A massive clean up started at 2pm and went through to the wee hours.  However, unlike my previous attempts at cleaning (think Scott Pilgrim drying his hands), this was a controlled attack based on strategies garnered from a declutter your life book my wife bought to help dig herself out of our dining/library/sewing/piles of random crap room (easily confused with our bedroom/library/piles of random crap room).
The thing I wanted to share in this episode is a few tips on clutter and the psychological, nay, spiritual impact of filing away unpainted minis.

Triage
I first went through my shelves and picked out the unpainted and unstripped figures onto a tray. Anything still to be stripped of paint was taken out of the collection and put into a tray ready for the dettol jars.  All unpainted minis where bagged by category and set aside.

Tip of doom 1:
I then created a filing cabinet (of sorts) for my Lead Pile.
  I took two clear stackable storage tubs and divided them into two with foamcore.  The tubs where then broken down with divider cards, and all my minis where bagged, tagged and entered into the correct slot. Look at all those little cards! Fiend Factory, Fantasy Adventurers, Lotr, Paranoia, Rogue Trader, Chaos, Things with Big Heads from Bob Olley, Jes Goodwin Ogres, AD&D - ahhh, the deep, strange enjoyment a mini collector you probably understand.
  The good thing is now I can quickly flip to a section and check to see what I have already got- I have been plagued with doubles of late.  Seriously, part of my brain says I do not own a female night horrors vampire.  I just keep buying her!

Side note:  Space farers- what's with the sudden ebay rush this week?  Months go by, not a single one, then boom- the entire lot every way you like- painted, job lot and still in bag- your choice of these teeny, tiny little sci fi kitch range!

I store my minis in plastic baggies- NEVER store old figures in wooden or cardboard boxes- sometimes these have acids in them, over time these react with the lead in the figure and you got yourself a lead rot nightmare situation.

Tip of doom 2:
I then blue tacked my figures to black pieces of foamcore and board all cut to 3x6inches.  This allowed me to pick up my whole display collection, dust it and move it from shelf to shelf in batches of 24.  A large nylon painters brush for the figures, a damp cloth for the shelves.  Again, no cleaning products- lead rot is such a curse!

Tip of doom 3:
Box of doom.  When de-cluttering, and this tips a corker, rather than moving stuff around endlessly, just carry a box around with you.  Anything that does not belong on the place your working on goes into the box.  This stops you endlessly circling junk around.  This is the best tip ever for me!

Tip 4:
Be merciless.  Little bits you have been meaning to use for scenery, scraps of material, weird tools from gameforce you never actually use... paint pots with a little bit left- just a little.... screw all that its time to ditch them.  You got minis to paint and need that mental energy.

The Dust settles on the aftermath...
The net result of this onslaught is two shelves of neat, painted minis and a floor I can actually see.  That's the physical difference.  The mental difference is suddenly I do not have a thousand unfinished projects glaring at me from every corner of my studio nibbling at my mind.  What I now have is a neatly boxed collection, and a display of finished, and mostly finished figures.  Clean.  Zen.  Achievable.

Tonight I am going to hoover the ever living crap out of the studio and finally transfer the remaining citadel paints into Reaper bottles and ditch the containers.

Once I have the LAM mutants finished its back to Kingsminis business as usual- pictures of old school figures tickled with a hairy stick!

Go on.  You know its time to clean your studio.

Lipped bases for sale?

I have had a couple of folk ask if I intend to sell my deep dish lipped bases.
Thats a thought, though they would have to be top quality- something my home resin kit isnt really set up for.

So, since the idea has been mooted  I am looking into professional resin casters in Australia to see if someone can vacuum cast them for me.  I am also getting some prototype digital printed masters done with a few extra features that could be integrated into the base for extra handiness.  I dont sell tat.  :)

If you would be interested in such a base system, with reversable base cappers (in metal), deep cappers (in resin) and seperate lips that can take a regular 25mm round base, either temporarily or be glued in- drop me a line or comment below.  If enough people are keen, I will add them to The BeDerken line.

It would be uber cool to get the base made in black plastic- but none of the companies I have spoken to are willing to take the punt.  Shame really.  Resin it is.