Hoff to a good start...

A quick pic of my hoffbeat painty rest break... I feel better after messing around with these.  Its got my juices if not flowing, but defrosted enough to peel off the cling film and stick it back into the mental microwave.

The spaced out druid is fun, but I really should have done a bit of a proper fill and file as he is from the era of rough surfaces and crappy fingers.  Not sure what to do with his lantern yet.  I may do source lighting, but he is already pretty light.  Hmmm.

WF Spaced Out Druid, Asgard Adventuress, GW Chaos Cultist, Confrontation Hybrid

The Asgard adventuress was the first in a whole slew of bare bristol warriors with crossed straps.  Citadel did a bunch almost identical several years layer which appeared in fighters and chaos fighters and I think Ral Partha did one too but I will check on that... I will do a side by side shot once the others are painted up.  Needs a lot of work on the eyes still, and I suspect she should be a brunette... (opinions below)  She had bug eyes, which is always hard to paint... and is generally poorly sculpted except for the obvious bang on bits.  Anyone know who sculpted her?  Still, nice to finally have her transition from ugly grey lump to ugly colorful one.  More polishing required before varnishing.

Third up is one of the snap together chaos cultists from dark vengence. 
How exactly does dark vengence differ from regular kind?

I decided to go way out there with style, painting them to be gleering out of the darkness with source lighting.  For colors I am keeping tightly with orange vs midnight blue, and keeping them muted.  The base is a Renedra 25mm plastic base.  Yeah, yeah but it will work better in tightly packed necromunda hives.

Finally is the lovely confrontation hybrid beastie from Rackham.  One of my Skulldred playtesters is using the system to resurrect the Arkalesh game world... and I love that idea.  I have enough rackham to make large dirz, goblin and undead warbands, as well as a good fist full of smaller bands.
Painting this guy is F.U.N.  plus I realised if I kept the basing simple grey flag stone, this versatile bastard is ideal for Inquisuitor, weird world war, nurgle, warmahordes cryx, modern horror and cyberpunk genre games.
Thus I went with a green metal armor and offset this with purplish hues for the flesh.

Oh you can see some bob olley dwarfs from mega minis just behind on my painting rack.  These will be appearing in Skulldred if all goes to plan.  I painted one with a white undercoat and cried 'sod this 'after a couple of hours and sprayed the rest black.  I just have to face it... I am a black undercoater.

Keeping the Karmic Wolves at the door

Today I broke my painting drought with a full on onslaught of my leadpile.  Many fell to my mighty brush this day, (I hear America has been scoring pretty good on their own to do list today as well), and I discovered one really good trick; and that trick is this... kill your karmic blockers.
There is, I dare say, one or two figures hanging around your collection like a bad smell, never being painted and draining your enthusiasm just looking at them.  For me, its been a half orc (I only have one) loitering around the fringes of my orcs, an elf archer, a samurai warrior (I do not collect Oriental fantasy figures as a general rule) and a dire wolf, the hobgoblin and the Chaos Warrior from the brilliance that is the BC2 Monster Starter Set.
  Having these figures is not good for your hobby soul- they accumulate at the fringes of your collection, gathering as a clogging sense of dissatisfaction that taints the whole.
  Today, being sick with a cold and generally unmotivated to sculpt, I tackled those figures, and the rush of vitality that returned when they where finished was astounding.  Invigorated thus by the fall of my karmic blockers, I stormed ahead and got 90% of the way through 28 figures- completing a handful of those to my liking.  Count em.  28.

Set aside a day of pain to tackle those ones, and you wont believe what it will do for your lead pile.     Kill your karmic blockers today.

Citadel FA19 female fighter with sword, Dwarf Adventurer, Talisman Necromancer,
C13 Lesser Goblin, ADD OH2 Samurai, Wood Elf

The dwarf and Lesser goblin here are what I call 'soft targets'- things I know I can paint really quickly.  On days I do not feel like a challenge, I bee line for these.  I love the old lesser goblins- I have a bag of them somewhere and now I have the smaller 20mm bases I may do up a tiny, tiny warband.  The Samurai here was the biggest karmic blocker in my collection!
I decided to go really far out with the Talisman Necromancer- slapping on a Wizard of Oz makeup to match his cartoonish look.  The FA19 female fighter is one of the best faces on any citadel miniature ever.  EVER.  Its so subtle, and such a joy to paint.  It would have made a great starter character for D&D.

Citadel BC2 Monster Starter Boxed Set 90% complete

If you have been a fan of my blog, you will know my fondness for the BC1 monster starter set.  Here you can see I am almost done painting it- just little things like shading boots and jazzing up the bases to go now!  I remember the first time I painted the dire wolf, I just painted it black with red eyes.  This time around I was determined to go realistic with the fur and really make him pop.  The hobgoblin is now a favourite of mine, having totally ignored the box art and struck out in vivid green lacquered armour instead of the run of the mill copper scales that where making me yawn just thinking of painting them.  I have a second vile goblin, and will be painting him lime green with dark blue trims and black armour me thinks.  Oh, and yes, I have the BC1 complimentary heroes boxed set now... will have to wait for a dry day to prime them up.

(left to right) C22 Creatures Chaos Hounds 1 & 3,
Unknown Vintage Wolf (middle), Reaper Wolves (top right),
BC2 Vicious Giant Wolf

So one thing you can do to get through your lead pile is rack up a bunch of figures all at once.  I hunted around my collection and found all the wolves I had, and saved myself a heap of time by mixing the colours up at once.

Mystery wolf, BC2 Vicious Giant Wolf

If anyone knows the mystery wolf, I would be glad to have it identified.  Its pretty stiff and old looking, but cannot find him on any citadel collectors sheets.  I thought he was the FF giant wolf.

I also managed to knock down some chaos familiars, Norse Dwarves and a couple of Asgard beasties- but they will have to wait for a later post.  I am tired as hell with cold!

Bederken Dungeon floorplans get an airing

As you probably know I recently released some 30mm square dungeon floorplans in .pdf format through my Bederken blog.  Well, I got my first prints all back and mounted up and I thought I would take some quick snaps to show it in action.  As you can see, going up from 1 inch standard to 30mm makes it much easier to play without minis bumping up against each other- plus you have the freedom to use modern lipped bases.

So the first fools to brave The Dungeon of Dave are some classic citadel paladins who probably have not had a decent dungeon bash since Dungeons & Dragons came out.

Preslotta Citadel Paladins and C11 halfling attack Kev Adams Zombies and Reaper Wizard

Classic early 1980's Citadel creepy crawlies and Red Orcs attack!
Grenadier halfman takes aim in background.  Molemen by Reaper.  Ooze by me.

Thirty year old minis get some playing with!
Some classic Red orcs have been converted here- headswaps and
scratch built weaponry.

Another angle.  Note the green ooze sneaking up on a red goblin in the background.
It was made with a hot glue gun and a plastic base.

 As you can see, my red orc tribe has expanded since I last posted.  These guys are about 50% done.  I swapped out a couple of heads and weapons to give more variety, keeping at least one of each variety in archive state.

The creepy crawlies are a personal favourite of mine, I have been collecting these for a while now.  When you get them they just look like a little lug of brown metal, but with a little TLC they transform into some classic vintage gaming niceness.

Well that's me for tonight... enjoy dungeon bashing!

A motley Crew, Asgard Black Dwarf and friendsElf

Some poncy Elf, Nob the Mercenary, Bird Thing (Chaos Familiar)
The Black Dwarf (Asgard), CP2 -Bryan Ansell's Heroic Adventurers boxed set Cleric
FF5-2 Demon with sword and whip

I thought I would go back to doing some mixed group shots this year.  What a motley crew.

Starting on the left is an experimentation piece, starting with white and working down using thin washes.  Yawn.  I also tried out some NMM since I was trying out new stuff.

Nob got a polish- I worked up flesh tones, but still have not got around to doing his clothes.  He is a citadel mercenary- a variant of the militia figures-  you will find a few with the same body in that line.  Both ranges go for moderately high prices now a days.  You want old school character, this range was a high tide point.

Bird thing is one of my favourite figures of all time.  A classic Jes Goodwin sculpt.

Next up is a real joy for me.  White Dwarfs great cousin, The Black Dwarf.  He is from Asgard miniatures, and from a series of probably the coolest dwarf proportions from that time.  I spotted him back in the 1980s in an 'eavy Metal article by Aly Morrison.  I took the red and black chequered hood and tiger fur from his pic, but went in a different direction with the rest.  God how I loved that figure and poured over that article!  I have about 80% of the figures from that display now, some of which I have painted in the same way to fulfil a childhood whim.  The converted figs may have to be scratch built.  :)

Asgards Black Dwarf- so ahead of its time its breathtaking

This guy is the grand daddy of all Chaos Dwarves.  Look at the poise, the brooding nature, the expression and detail on the shield and that unusual weapon!  Whoever sculpted it (answers in the comments if you know) should be really proud.

Hans - Citadel C26 Feudal  work in progress

I have never really  loved the feudal range to be honest, but am starting to see the character in them now.  This one needs a bit more work, but I like the atmosphere of the piece so far.  All my peasants are getting the drunken Brughel, Gilliamesque 'oh look Dennis theres a lovely bit of filth over here' treatment.

Monster Starter Set Dark Elf and warrior maiden

C01 warrior maiden and BC2 Evil Dark Elf Captain (monster starter set)

Two citadel minis tonight.  On the left is the C01- yes, C01warrior maiden- from the very first 'C' series.  Looking at the sketches in the catalog (no photos sadly) the warrior maidens where a seriously nice range of the early citadel figures and I now look forward to hunting them all down.  Of course, now I have pointed you lot at them, I probably have driven bidding up haven't I?
  I forget who the trader was on E-Bay, but he used the line 'yes, you didnt know you had to have her until you saw her'.  He was right.
Like all early citadel she is true 25mm scale, making her look like a little naked teenager next to the later Amazon models.  The fine strap holding on the underwear is missing on one side, I do not know if its a casting fault or a previous owner has tried to trim it off, but for archive sake I left it missing and painted on the line.  Its always a juggling act how much you repair or trim away things on vintage stuff... quite often I leave on some flash in order to preserve the figure.  I am guessing its a perry sculpt, as back then they where the only employees.

So as you can see, after last nights discussion about how to do the darned dark elf, I went with an albino look and kept him white and blue.  I love the monster starter set, and will shortly have them all done and ready to display.  Looking at the squeezed face I would guess its an Aly or Trish Morrison sculpt- purely because its reminiscent of the Talisman elf faces.

Twas Brillig...

 Hey folks, welcome to another instalment of Julie/Julia.  This week we take a break from cooking french cuisine and instead focus on old miniature painting.
  Since I started this blog I have fallen in love with restoring these really old figures- the uglier the better.  I have an Asgard she-ogre on the go which is probably the ugliest model ever made- and I am having a lovely time trying to make the paint job sell her as art.  Tough job, as you may see soon.  But kicking off this episode is...

FS6-3 Dungeon Torturess variant

Yes, the brilliantly politically incorrect FS Torture set by citadel featured naked women wot are being tortured like.  Lots of proud giggling tweens in the eighties had these.  Pre-internet we had to get our boobie fix elsewhere.  I think it was either Lee Chinnery or Gareth Parrys elder brother (hello!)  who showed me his 'naked girl on a cross' model back in 1989, and I was instantly hooked on the idea.  Sadly, I missed the boat, as by then Citadel where more politically correct and the figures impossible to find.  I had to wait till I had grey hair to start buying them up- they are very expensive and highly sought collectors items now.  Dammit.

   Less collectable and far less rare seems to be this variant of the whip mistress- from the Fantasy Specials line.  You can frequently snap her up for a couple of bucks from evil-bay.
  One word of advice, with all miniatures from this era you will find the surface very uneven.  A couple of brushes full of watered down Milliput grey-green and a quick sand makes all the difference.  I left the weapon and shield pitted for effect, but you can see just how rough the surface was all over.
  She got a lick of Vallejo model colour paints using thinned layers of model color matte medium tinted with the highlight colors of red, purple and flesh.  I gave her a more Mediterranean skin tone, as she seemed to step straight out of a harem in some Conan adventure.  I glazed a little green into the recesses too.
  Its hard to make out in the photo, but I sculpted a snake slithering on her base between her legs-  this gave an element of Orientalism and danger.  Of course, the between the legs thing is also a metaphor.  I too was an adolescent boy once.

Now, burbling as it came, is the C29 Jabberwock with eyes aflame.  This Lewis Carol homage hailed from the Spring 1985 Citadel Journal.  I have wondered about this figure since I saw his head poking out a moat, devouring zombies in John Blanches fantastic undead diorama.  Getting hold of one was an exciting day for me.  I know, I know.  Sad bastards, line on the left.  Owners of the original Warhammer Fantasy Role Play can find this chap in the bestiary section.  He seemed to be discontinued by the time the 1989 catalog appeared.  I hear rumour there is a standing one too, but have not encountered it.  Probably the Ral Partha one.


I had an hour to spare last night, so knocked this guy out really quickly- simple yellow-green matte medium tinted glazes over a catachan green base, followed by really thin red and turquoise glazes for variety.  The photo doesnt catch the contrast in the yellows sadly- he really pops in real life.  I may sculpt some stuff on his base later on... such as a sign pointing to Tulgey woods or a few gilliam-esque severed limbs.

C29 Young Dragon 'Jabberwock'

Now a confession.  I know I have been promising to finish that monster starter set, but I have been dragging my heels over the Dark Elf.  I don't know why, but I just dislike citadel Dark Elves- especially when they are painted purples and blues.  GURPS Illustrator and awesome Artist Simon Lissaman painted me a great dark elf female for my 21st birthday, and he went with a pale flesh skin tone and green clothes- it looked great- sort of an edgy elf.  However I am torn- since its a classic set, should I go with the classic look... hmmm?

Answers on a postcard... or alternatively, in the comments section below.

Next episode...  more stuff.

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.

Kaleb Daark, Gobbledigook, Warlock

Kaleb Daark, Gobbledigook, Warlock

One more photo before I sign off- some limited editions.

The first is Kaleb Daark, star of the comic featured in Citadel Journals- chaos warrior of Malal.  I have him on horseback too.  He is pretty rare, but not as much as The Chaos Brothers Jaek and Hellwud- a parody of the Blues Brothers.  Kaleb Daark is arguably based directly of Elric of Melnibone - an insane, powerful albino wanderer armed with a living weapon that drinks souls.  Hmmm.
  Anyway, Kaleb has an interesting history - have a google and a wiki and read all about him.  Do Elric too, while your at it ;)

Gobbledigook also hails from GW comics- this one a strip from White Dwarf.  Created by Bil, Gobbledigook faced off against Thrud (and lost), travelled into the future to battle space marines (and won).  Here he is from the White Dwarf Personality boxed set- along with his mate Nibl.  I based them together so I wouldnt loose Nibl, but they come on seperate integral bases usually.  I am tempted to sculpt his mate one day too.\The boxed set contained a few more interesting characters- Thrud, the White Dwarf and Ian Livingstone- as well as a bunch of totally forgettable ones.  I lucked into an Ian recently- he is partly painted at the moment.

Finally is the Warlock.  John Blanche painted this from a design by a contestant winner.  I am guessing he doesn't get royalties.  However, he is NOT the Warlock of Firetop mountain- but instead the Warlock from Warlock magazine- the final fantasy magazine.  This model is painted to match Johns original color scheme from the cover- including the rocks.  He was released alongside Amazona Gothique- which is also a John Blanche character (see the book Ratspike).  She is sitting on my shelf pouting at me.  No paint job until I sculpt a shield to match Johns original painting.

Goodnight from Australia.  Happy retrodel.