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

Quick tip: Brilliant budget shields

I have been looking around at the selection of shields available on the net, and have not really been very excited by the options.  Its on my list of Bederken must-do products (its a big list), but for now I have a bunch of minis needing something to cover up their ugly bumps.  I mean the ones on their wrists.  You know.   Where the shields are supposed to go.

Got a great solution today.  Thumb tacks plus copper washers.  Allow me to illustrate.

Shields.  5 bucks for frikkin hundreds

A dab of superglue, a quick snip and I have a perfect greek style shield just begging to be painted with funky retro iconography.  The nice thing about these is they automatically come complete with a pin to firmly attach them onto the shield boss.  All I need to do is drill a small hole and I have the most firmly attached shield you could possibly wish for!

Oh, and of course I have the means to make hundreds for a few bucks.

This works really well for my Macdeath Skirmish project as these shields exactly match the artwork for the Knights of Harkness shields!  Bingo.

Tutorial: Making mini sculpting tools

My heat shrink came in the mail today, so I finished upgrading my sculpting tools to the level of 'reet propa like'.
Here are some snapparoonies for you to glare at.

Pokey things wot to poketh da putty wiv.

So here's what you need...

Ingredients:  Heat shrink, dowel, paperclips
Tools:  Saw, file, pin vice, superglue and sandpaper

First cut the dowel into a comfortable size.  Nick out a wedge where your thumb rests- this will help orient the tool in your hand- so you can 'feel' if your holding it in the right direction.  I hold my pencils weird- crossing my index finger over the top- have done since a child.  Weird, but comfortable for me.  That means everyone will find my set of tools a bit strange to hold.  Serves them right for nicking them in the first place.

Its also a good idea to whittle down the tips into a taper- the thickness of the dowel allows your hand to relax whilst holding the tool- but the thick end blocks viability somewhat.

Next drill a hold in each end to hold the paperclip.  As I use paperclips to pin minis, I had the exact size of bit (#69).  My tools are double tipped- saving digging around on the desk for the tool I want- if your prone to poking yourself in the eye, maybe go down the other route.

The paperclips are straightened, and I run a diamond file over the surface to be stuck to give the superglue a bit of purchase.  Once fixed in the hole, I set to work on the tips.

You can hammer out the ends if you want a wide tool- but I prefer to use jumbo paper clips, as they are much sturdier.  The galeforce 9 diamond files are excellent, and will make short work of the metal.  Finally, polish up the surface with extremely fine wet and dry paper.  Its important to get a totally smooth finish- any roughness at this stage will cause your tool to rip your putty.

The last step is to make the grips.  This is done with heat shrink- available from electrician supplies.  You need some a few mm wider than your dowel.  Simply slip the heat shrink over the dowel and wave over a heat source, such as a gas stove to make the sleeve fit.  A couple of layers will make a nice grip.  I grabbed a mixed pack with six colors- and color coded all my tools.

Now the paperclip metal is quite strong and will last a while.  You will have to keep sanding your tools to take off dried putty- so all tools will eventually wear out.  No problems- ten minutes and a fresh paperclip and your back in action.

When leaving your tools for a while, wrap the tips in an oil rag to prevent rusting.

The next step is to find some clear rubber hosepipe from an aquarium supply that fits the ends.  Cut this up to make protective sleeves for your tips- now your mobile baby!

I really love my new tools, and wish I had thought of doing this earlier.  Thanks to Victoria Lamb for showing me the tools she got from Gencon!

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.

Gameboard progress

Forget hearing the lamentations of your enemies women... now this is happiness.

Early Citadel Fantasy Adventurers FA19 female warrior tackles
a swarm of converted Citadel FF Red Orcs.

 
This morning I finished flocking and filling the first peice of my modular game board and had a bit of a game on it at lunch time.  I have never had a proper board before, and though I suspected it would make a huge difference having some top notch scenery to the verisimilitude (yeah I had to look it up) of the game, I am having trouble shifting the resulting grin from my chops.  It makes every difference!

So my cunning plan was to make small 4 boards rigid enough to lift up and shift about.  My flats small, and storage is limited, so having to pack down my game everytime I needed to eat got quite annoying.  Now I can go crazy, crazy on a campaign and simply lift the peices, dice, figures and all out of the way when space is needed.  The boards stack vertically, and the scenery fits into 2 storage tubs.

Blank game board, work in progress.

So I started with a sheet of MDF which I cut down to a portable size that had enough room to have a major feature on it and at least four tactical situations.  Plenty of flat room for modules to sit on (I use old cd's) too.  I am going to make chocks that clip to the side so all four peices can be stacked in the back of a car if needed.  Finally, a series of magets are countersunk to allow the board to snap and hold together.

Somewhere the teas getting cold.
Citadel Chaos Champion.  Reaper Lorna The Huntress.  Twinings Irish Breakfast.

The flock and static grass is held on with watered down PVA.  Once dry, I sprayed matt sealer initially from a height, so it wouldn't blow away the bits.  After a minute or two I lowered down the height of the aerosol and by the third pass I could put it a few inches away.  Cheap hair spray also works I am told.  I will try that on the next one.  Anyway, the fixative keeps all that scatter firmly in place.

I am yet to paint it properly, plus I need to put in flowers, mushrooms, animal burrows, roots and puddles yet... I want a really temperate, wet, damp environment.

Anyway, here are some shots of the game taken on my crappy iphone camera.

Ral Partha 'Harryhausen' Cyclops, Citadel barbarian,
Citadel Chaos Champions, Mike Broadbent Matakishi Cat (converted)

This shot shows the stone boards I created earlier in this blog... its in something like 'how to make indestructible scenery from expanded polystyrene'.  The effect looks really stoney right?  Thats Woodflex polyfilla stippled with sponge.  Brilliant stuff- great for mud, lava, stone and rock.

The battle for lunchtime rages on.  Using Skulldred beta 3.0 rules.

Kates Amazons rush to their doom for the first time.

Tonight Kate and I had a quick match after dinner.  Kate thinks that her low level Amazon should survive when she drops her guard, takes a direct hit in the head by a chaos champion's meat cleaver the size of her torso and falls back off a 6 meter cliff onto stone.  The jury is out.  Next month I am fitting spiked traps.

Matakishi cat, Runestaff Flana and my shelf of technicolor lead things

Great.  Insomnia again.  Fortunately I just found a whole list of Sulphite free food alternatives that I can try.  Did you know you can make your own Baileys at home?  Yay!  Sulphite free booze for me!

So my lovely wife took some photos of some of my collection yesterday, and I thought I would post up some pics since I have a few hours for my antihistamine to kick the butt of whatever is keeping me up and itchy.

First off, since the good doctor asked... is my conversion of Mike Broadbent's Matakishi cat for my wifes Skulldred warband.

  Converted Matakishi cat- available from Matakishi's tea house..

The 'mostly painted' shelf- Citadel, Eureka, Ral Partha and BeDerken figures in da house!

The 'mostly painted' shelf.  My sculpt of Flana Mikosevar for Eureka front and centre.

WIP of my Jes Goodwin's Nurgle Champion- shield sculpted by me.

So as you can see I nudged along my Nurgle warband a little by adding a shield.  This is scratch built using a 50:50 greenstuff/brownstuff mix.  Its also painted using the talc medium I spoke of in an earlier post- matte as matte can be.  I just got the teeth picked out in white- I will glaze those suckers down when I have the chance.
Its gotten me into the vibe of sculpting some 1980's style shields for my figure range.


Well I am actually yawning now.  Good night, leadaholics, and sweetly painted dreams...

Medium bliss

It work Folks! Adding talc and flow aid to Liquitex matte medium makes a killer medium that pales Vallejo by comparison. Flat and matte, flowing smoothly from the brush and leveling with a soft edge. A huge vat of it- perhaps all I can eat for a year for under twenty bucks.

This deserves a funky thumbs up.





Whilst I have my hipstamatic app open I took a shot of this...




My armory catalogue I have been checking figure off from for the past few months. Its a cruel master that forces me to look at ebay and spend my pocket money.
A heap of Fiend factory, space farer and fantasy adventurers await stripping and checking off... I have most of them now if I include broken ones.
I think the ones I am most excited about are doing up all the Space Farers ready for an old school Stardred game- I made up some digital floorplans last year for a starship rpg I ran and cannot wait to have the red redemption running about shooting lasers at eat other in them!
However I am Painfully aware of my project vows. Skulldred baggage raid first- kill team Charlie second- 15mm post apoc team after that...
Then weighing up night horrors /citadel gothic horror Cthulu temple, Judge Dredd/paranoia block war, FF /FA old school dungeon, Fantasy town, macdeath skirmish or Frazetta death dealer barbarians.

Any votes?


If anyone has a FF manticore wing set (the one that looks like a hood ornament) I would love to get them for the forlorn manti that appeared in a job lot this week- otherwise it's reaper wings for this fine fellow, and only half a crossing off from the list. Or perhaps he becomes a mount for a broken goblin.


Oh I almost forgot to post this- a first glimpse of my new mdf board mounted gaming table panels for the Skulldred baggage train raid. Now I can pick up my games, figures, dice and all when I need the table to do boring stuff like eat.



Nothing special yet, but the first board I have made yet. This is a photo of the look development corner.
I am trying a different approach with it from the usual instructions. It is entirely designed to not scratch figures!
If you think about it, gluing down sand is like making a huge sheet of sandpaper. Not good.
I am trying all soft options- the soil for example is made from used dried tea leaves, pva and acrylic paint. Its spongey to the touch, looks just like muddy soil and detritus and smells nice. Drinking 2 cups of tea covers an area the size of my hand.
Good thing I am English. Somewhere the teas getting cold... Literally. ;)

Cork for stones, foamcore for paving and woodflex for rocky structures. My only mistake was choosing citadel flock- now I have to fork out top dollar to match it. Anyone know a cheaper option for glade grass that's the same or close?

Ciao for now!

fixing liquitex medium with talc

Morning folks- thanks for tuning in again to another brave, daring episode of Kings Minis- brought to you in spooky technicolor.  Last episode we left our hero hanging from a cliff pondering mediums... well, actually not, but lets pretend we did.  On with the show...

Now I have said that I find Vallejo matte medium to be the best for the crazy medium heavy blending techniques I use.  Well, thats all dandy, but it only comes in tiny little dropper bottles.  Handy, but expensive in the amounts I use.  I love the stuff.  If it was edible I would probably snack on it.

Enter Liquitex....

Now Liquitex products are pretty good- if you are a 2D artist you will swear by them as a graphic medium... however, as a miniature medium the Matte medium dries far too glossy to build up highlights and shadows- the light you paint with is reflected and it makes it hard to see whats going on.  I kept thinking this was a shame because you can buy it in 473ml bottles for about the same price as 2 Vallejo droppers.
Well heres the good news.  Talc.
I caught an offhand comment by Jen Haley the other day on youtube (http://www.paintrix-miniatures.com/)  that festered in my mind last night.  Matte medium is just gloss medium with talc in it.  Well, if thats the case, perhaps Liquitex simply does not have enough talc in it.  Bingo.

Tried a quick test today using various mediums and mixes of industrial talc (non perfumed) that I had handy from resin casting.  Its true.  Adding talc kills shine on medium.

YES!*


(*Thats me trying to capture the volume of the exclaimation issuing from my lips in the biggest font blogger will let me.  Kinda not quite got there IMHO).

It works.  It works well.  Cheap, truely matte medium in bulk volume.

Ta Ms. Haley.  You little brush goddess, you.

So I made up a master mix of 1:8 talc to liquitex and thinned with distilled water with liquitex flow aid (1:10 as per instructions).  I am going to test this out once I have some painty time.

Huzzah!

Happy unbirthday to me!

Don't you just love it when eBay sellers go above and beyond? I got a package today from one seller that gift wrapped inside the box! Awww, thanks VP!
It felt like my birthday too- a lovely set of old school dwarfs including 'The Dwarf With No Name' and a Vorpal kitty no less!
Got to be happy with that...

It's a cool feeling when you know a seller is checking in to see their old figures painted and restored- kinda like visiting rights. Museum archive- just one of the services I provide here at Kingsminis.

I get Especially warm and gooey when the figures in question are old roleplaying figures- I like the idea of them having been on many adventures before they travel 12,000 miles to continue their adventure down under!

Other nice things that arrived recently are a bunch of spacefarer jetbikes- ff dark lord, nightmare dragon (boo) and a boxed set of game workshop cavern floor plans. I am going to mount those on stiff card to preserve them for more adventures.

I am looking forward to a break soon - my work is very intense and I just know there are jars of figures soaking in Dettol just staring at the back of my head whilst I work. I hate unfinished projects hovering about- at least when they are stripped and filed away they are not mid-task.


My addiction to early figures is getting worse- I am playing running flushes and full houses with the Fantasy adventurer and fiend factory at the moment. I am looking forward to posting a photo of the ENTIRE range painted. How utterly, (and I pretext this with meaning in nerdy context), how utterly, utterly cool would that be.

Of course, you then need the fantasy cavalry to match... That's another fifty odd rare figures... Then you start spilling into fantasy tribes... And flying spaghetti monster help me then...
I can only hope by that time my addiction wears off or I make a fortune and can be a man of leisure.


It could happen.



Next up on my hobby table, the raiding game continues with more pack mules, a bill the pony paint job and booty markers- plus I restore a bunch of old wolf models (a gift from another great eBay trader) ready to harass the baggage train!

Stay tuned!

Bill lives!

Lots of putty flying around today, so between sculpts used scraps to finish bill the half pony off.



Ironically (Well, in the Alanis Morrisette meaning of the word anyway) I also won a complete Bill the pony on eBay today. Hence a quick addition of a fringe mane.
That brings my total to five pack animals- for the raiding party game.

Kate also scored this little critter for her birthday- a converted Matakishi cat barbarian for her Amazon tribe. The original sculpt is by Aussie legend Mike Broadbent- trappings and base by yours truely.



Next to the cat is a 15mm sculpt of ghost rider I did whilst on holiday a few months ago. Sun, surf, sand, spa and a mobile sculpting kit! Bliss.
The little guy was my third crack at 15mm - this time I used paperclips for rigidity and hardened 2:1 white:black procreate. The white was hardened by leaving it out to air. This makes the perfect 15mm sculpting material as the resistance means You have to really MEAN each impression.
I am looking forward to doing more 15mm later in the year.( and before you ask -no, he is not being cast up!)

Bill progress

Thanks to a bout of allergy based insomnia, (try finding food without soy or sulphites in it) I found myself with a few hours to kill - too fuzzy headed on anti-histamine to trust myself to sculpt something for clients - so I got bill a little further along instead.





I deliberately made the packs different to the actual mini, since I may as well make him a variant since I am going to the trouble of building his missing half. I figure I may find one on fleabay at some point.
I have a preslotta donkey and pack mule heading my way from the uk, so that gives me four pack animals and a cart horse ready for his cart. Plenty for brigands to raid!

I am surprised by the lack of decent wagon wheels and bits available. Think I may have to make some for my mini range.

Finally felt drowsy by the time I got to doing the fetlocks- so back on the waiting shelf for ol' bill and the rest of his wagon train until the last project mutants are all done.

Frugal fruits of the foamy forrest: Making foliage for a couple of bucks

You know those times when your standing in the hobby store and you have that tub of scenic material and you know you really, really need it for your project but you just can't shake that little voice in your head that says 'Well gee willikers Mister, that's just a load of shredded foam they painted green - and by-golly thats just some sawdust dyed yellow.'  Yeah.  My inner monologue sounds like a 1950's TV kid.  Wanna make something of it?

I wanted to make something of it.  I wanted to make my own.  And golly gosh, gee... I did.

50c of cheapass gamer

 So armed with a discount store electric coffee grinder, some tubes of students acrylic and a bit of foam discarded from one of the many evicted backpackers furniture piles commonly found on any street curb in Bondi beach, I tackled my greatest challenge yet.  Make an unending supply of foliage material for the price of a single bag from my hobby store.  Coffee grinder included.

Step 1:  Rip up the foam into chunks.  Pop it in the blender and give it a few whizzes to get it into inch sized bits.

Step 2:  Take a screw lid pot, stuff in a little foam and add water.  Squeeze and stir in enough cheap craft paints to make about twenty citadel pots worth up.  Use the foam chunks to be your color guide- it will lighten up a tad, but not much.  Alternatively buy a can of house paint from the store- you can get their little computer to match a sample you already have.

Step 3:  Lay out a protective sheet of plastic in a warm, sunlit place.  Put some newspaper down on top of that.  Make sure there are no breezes or pets in your chosen location.

Step 4:  Stir in the foam chunks a handful at a time using an old kitchen utensil that has holes in it (a strainer is ideal).  Press the chunks against the sides to take out most of the paint without discoloring, then lift the batch onto the paper.  You want the paint to thickly coat the foam, so that it hardens when it sets.

Step 5:  Screw the paint lid down and store away for your next session.  Clean your tools, then go off and do something less boring instead.  Leave the foam for at least 24 hours to dry.  You can try using a hair dryer to speed up the process, but only if you want green paint and tiny bits of foam everywhere in your house.

Step 6: The foam should be crunchy dry now.  Grab that old grinder and pop the pieces back in for another whizz.  Now its crunchy, the blades will make a much finer job of shredding it up.  Make a few batches up of different sizes and mix them together for your final batch to add some natural variety.

Do not use the grinder for coffee now.  Well, hell, I am not going to stop you... its a free world after all (and if not free, certainly a lot cheaper world with this technique).  The coffee would taste like Starbucks if you did.  Always switch off a grinder before poking around inside it, even with a utensil, and never blame wargaming bloggers for dismemberment.

Skulldred Raid Project part 1

First up I have to apologise for the camera work this post.  My proper camera is not charged and I have only a short window to blog- buts since this stuffs all work in progress, it will do for now.

The gaming project I have decided to work on first is my Skulldred family battle board- the one I play my wife on.  I decided to complete everything associated with that core game first.  That means some choice scenery items, player models and tokens for things to rescue and loot.

So the project kicks off with a baggage train for adventurers to protect and raiders to raid.  My pack mule collection was rather thin- especially since I picked up a boxed set Bill the pony without reading the text and found, well... something out of The Cell.  Turns out the boxed set was incomplete by one half of bill.  If you ever list things on ebay that are incomplete, I think its polite to write that in the title for lazy people like me in general and specifically for me.  :)

Citadel packhorses- adventurers boxed set and bill the pony... uh, make that half a bill.

Fortunately for our little Demi-Bill I can rebuild him.  I have the technology.  A pointy implement, paperclip and some epoxy putty.
That leads me to a great tip... I have been using 5 minute epoxy putty to do armatures and building understructure for bases.  Its like having a slightly smelly, milliput that understands my patience is limited and behaves accordingly.  The brand I use is Knead-it.  Though it should be called Knead-it-wearing-gloves-or-you-get-a-nasty-rash.  Great stuff.
Once I get some sculpting time (commissions at the moment) I am going to place the model in front of a mirror and sculpt the B side using a bit of green stuff.  I probably will stick my tongue the corner of my mouth whilst I do so, just to enjoy the cliché.

I also started tacking down some resin treasure items to poker chips, but think I will post them once their are done.  Besides, I ripped them off from Phreeds treasure tokens on his blog.  ;)

The Adventure Ends
Citadel FS28 Slain Adventurer, Grenadier Death Giant, Citadel WF6 Aggressive Aardvark (Cerebus)

Last to begin but first to finish is my slain adventurer token, played here by a citadel FS28 slain adventurer.  The cause of his situation is Citadels, well, shall we say blatant 'omage to Cerebus.  I have decided to rebase him.  I realised he really should be on a bar room flagstone base standing on a pile of dead folk and spilt tankards.  I am also going to strip and resurface him like I did the pack mule above -he is just too rough and will look great with smooth blending and some properly defined fingers.  Still, no time for that right now, so I will leave him be- and perhaps get some Skulldred sessions in with the little guy first.
The Grenadier Death statue is is inspired by the recent Citadel Garden of Morr statue.  I realised I had just the thing for my scenery, so a quick repaint later and voila!  Again, it needs rebasing on a stone plinth methinks.  I find many of these figures on ebay that are broken.. thinking I may make a bunch of these at some stage for the table if I can get these cheap enough.

Now the progress on the main stars.  I am going to do myself a bandit warband, though since I do not have the figures I need, I decided to finish off the small Realm Of Chaos warband I started so I can game with them.

Kats Amazons rebases.  A mix of Reaper and Citadel figures
Daves Chaos raiders:  Mainly converted and Augmented Citadel 1980's chaos champion figures

So these are the best ones so far- rebasing them took the majority of time here, but I have pushed the painting along a little on my team, and scratch sculpted a chaos shield for the horned champion and blended in the new Reaper weapon swap for Big Bertha.  Lots to do still.
A spike backed chaos warhound arrived the other day, which I think will make a great addition to the team.

Well thats my hobby time all used up.  Back to sculpting figures for other people.  Hope your enjoying the blog so far.

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?

Demonette

Jes Goodwins Chaos Familiar Demonette

A quickie but a goodie.  Jes Goodwin's kinky little demonette from the Chaos Sorcerers range- recently re-released by GW as part of the famous familiars.  Remember the beastman with the chaingun that had this girl growing from his head with her pubic hair woven into his goaty braids?  John Blanche did that little bit of 1980s Realm of Chaos Gold- you can find it in his Ratspike book along with other great conversions.  I grabbed an extra set of familiars just so I could shred them up for similar conversions.

This lass is going to have resin poured into the pool in front of her... though I may transfer her to another base first.  Not decided yet.

Realms of Chaos divide!

I really do not like square bases.  I realised my army of vintage chaos figures are just going to sit on the shelf unless I did something about it.  Inspired by Donvoss of Berlins brilliant 6 man warbands for Realm Of Chaos recently posted here on Lead Adventure I decided to move it across to 30mm round bases for Skulldred.  You can see my rant about how brilliant I am finding my new bases in previous posts.

Daves 'Eavy Meddlers -Skulldred Warband
Converted citadel warriors, Chaos Champion

Remember this conversion?  The spikey club (aka Dil-dorr- wrecker of retreats) unfortunately was just not strong enough to stay on such a heavy model, so I am replacing it with a suitable metal weapon from Reaper minis.  Needs some milliput to form a rigid support and perhaps a chain to tie it all together.

Original Chaos Warrior - Big Bertha conversion

The other conversion is just a headswap- taking the modern chaos sorcerer head and situating it on an old chaos warrior and dressing the join up a bit.  Think I will add some severed heads to that one to really tighten the look up.

The brilliant think about skirmish gaming is you really get to focus on your individual models more.  Huge armies look great, but a skirmish warband is real narrative delight.  With Skulldred, I am focusing on making a game that can play smoothly with around 20 figures per side.

Asgard, Hasslefree, Rarities and my new 30mm Ply Bases

I got a few hours to base up and partially paint Hasslefree minis Svala and dynamic kaylee-For one of my Skulldred demo game warbands (aka the orange team!).  Kev White, as usual, rocks my socks with two awesome figures, understated details, fluid, dynamic and paintable as heckaroonie on a stick.  Yep, well worth your cash - get em here.

Hasslefree Svala and Kaylee (converted) WIP paint jobs

I lightly converted Kaylee, shaving off her chaos symbol and replacing it with a grinning monster face, as well as adding extra fabric to her arms to give more space for her team colours.  All this was done with greenstuff.  I then decked out her base with mushrooms, creepers and leaves to make use of all the new space on my BRAND NEW BASES!!!!

So the story with my bases is that I really needed some extra room around my figures so they dont bump up against each other in gameplay.  I also like decorating them, so having the extra room is great.  I made a bunch of lipped deep dish bases, since I hate the way you cannot pick up lipped bases, but have had issues with leeching oils through the resin- clearly my resin is out of date :(
I decided to try out some laser cut 30mm ply discs and you know, I love them!  I am sorely tempted to move my whole collection across to them now.
What can I say?  Cheap, roomy, easy to pick up, easy to modify, light, have a little bounce to protect the figure, soak black paint up so they chip black, and look the business.  At 30mm, they are the exact same footprint as Malifaux or Warmachine bases, but without the annoying lip.  You know, I am totally sold on this.  Very surprised, considering my experience with plywood bases for HotT has been less than spectacular.

Converted Hasslefree Kaylee framed with some Asgard gems- Lizard man and Poisonous Stalker
Kaylee's shield sculpted by me.  All Work in progress paint jobs.

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Kaylee vs. Lizardman wips - playin' Skulldred, naturally!
The lizardmans pokerchip base gives me room to sculpt a torn apart
adventurer using procreate.

 The figures shown are all part way through painting, really needing neatening up and a bit more shading.  The next ones are even more WIP...

Citadel WF6 Aggressive Aardvark, LE-4 The Black Dwarf and DL2 Hobgoblin shaman
Primed and ready to be drooled over.

So you can see the raw wooden bases onto which I have mounted some dead sexy rare citadel gems- including the 'other' black dwarf (see my earlier posts for the Jes Goodwin masterpiece from Asgard).

The only pain with the ply bases is that the laser scoring around the edge needs sanding off.  I found if you use two grits- course to get the lines off and a really fine to polish it really shiney, it looks just like plastic once painted.  Using a diluted chaos black wash allowed the paint to soak in- making the base absorb the paint deeply and so it chips to black- which will keep my collection looking a little less played with hopefully.  The underside, being perfectly flat, also looks nice when you flip a model on its side too- no ugly slottabase grooves.


I do worry about acids from sap in the plywood leeching into the model and causing leadrot.  A few really old models I have prised off wooden bases show damage where they contact the wood.  I have kept a thin layer of epoxy around the figures to protect them, and sealed the surface with superglue here and there.  That ought'a hold it.


I think its about time citadel allowed 30mm bases for 40k- the models have scale creep'ed to a point where they could really do with the extra stability and protection.  Don't you agree?

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.

Daves back... now with the awesome power of bleach

Yes.  Bleach.
So my 'real' job is 3d artists, as you may know, and this month has been crazy busy crunch time.  Result- no miniatures stuff, but my bank account is healthier (in theory- freelancers tend to get paid months after work).

Today showed a little chance to get something done, so I decided to tackle the most urgent problems in my collection- bloom.
Bloom begets leadrot which begets, well, lead poisoning and angst as your classic mini crumbles like a Skeksis Emperor sitting on the Something Wicked This Way Comes merry go round.

The solution is alkali.  Lead+ acid = sugar of lead = leadrot.  Alkali neutralises the acid.  Yay Alkali.  Up until now I have been using bicarb, but someone on some forum somewhere suggested bleach.  Turns out, its pretty darn strong alkali, and pretty darn good at cleaning up minis!

Harpic bleach gel.  The result, 24 hours soaking later

A soak overnight in some thinned bleach and the figures turned from ash grey to murky brown.  Wearing gloves, I brushed this with a soft copper brush and it came up dazzling shiney.  Not minted new shiney, but the sort of shiney that gives you confidence that the figure is risk free, and certainly a nice painting surface.  Take a butchers hook at these three...

FS7-1 Naked Girl Bound Hand and Foot, FA11-2 Illusionist
FS22-2 Victim hanging from Gibbet.  Bases detailed in procreate.

They are some of the earliest citadel figures, and as you can see are nice and shiny now, awaiting a tickle from the hairy stick.  I just love how politically incorrect the range was then, from stoned druids though to one legged bondage babes.  Oh and look, not a skull in sight. Though I was too young for miniatures when these originally came out, as I have collected citadel figures I have been drawn more and more to the very beginnings and now find myself with baggies full of spacefarers, fantasy adventure and fiend factory figures.  I think because they where 'anything goes' and the citadel clichés had yet to be established makes these figures stand out from the throng, plus the delight in getting an old, cruddy looking thing and trying to make it stand up to modern standards.

Anyway, bleach gets my tick of approval and joins in ever increasing box of foul smelling bottles in my tool kit.

I am looking forward to some free time soon, I have to finish up a bunch of sculpts and I am back to painting things then blogging them... yay!

Enamels: Seriously oldschool

The moment I opened the bottle of mineral turpentine I was transported back to 1986. My bedroom at the farm where I grew up, with it's seventies carpet and rainbow patterned walls left behind from when my sister owned the room.
That smell was the smell of early miniature painting. Sure, Citadel had released a range of acrylics at that stage, but all the back issues of White Dwarf and Heroes for Wargames all talked about enamels. John Blanche and Aly Morrison both swore by them, though both admitted to using anything that would go on a brush- including nail polish.
Mineral turps. Mmmm.

My resin base project slowed when I found resin leeching through my acrylic paint- turning it to mush. Obviously I needed to let the plastic set longer, but time is precious and I want my bases now! Plus, as I was cash short this week from eBay Kung Fu, buying black resin was off the menu. So how would I get stable, chip resistant paint on my gaming bases?
Enamels!
It hit me like, well, the smell of mineral turps. Enamels are bulletproof.
If you strip minis, you will be familliar with dunked enamel. Kids using newsagent quality brushes as thick as a licorice stick to apply humbrol the thickness of whipped cream to some poor unsuspecting mini. Tough stuff indeed.
Enamel seemed like the solution. So off I popped for a tin of matte black humbrol and a bottle of turps.

The smell of turps reminded me of so much- a metallic blue chaos warrior I painted- a minotaur and.. Fraser Gray. I remembered the reason I got into enamels in the first place. Fraser is, unquestionably, the father of smooth blended clean style mini painting. How did he do it? Enamels, mentioned an article (I think it was in fantasy miniatures). Back then I tried to emulate this using John Blanches instructions but failed to get Frasers amazing results. I wrecked brushes and a couple of chaos hounds. Back then I did not know of Dettol, so paint strippers where the only way to remove paint. It barely worked, so the dogs went into the failed pile.

Fraser Grey Art- enamels never looked so good.

I remembered this in the midst of the fumey daze and decided to try again now my painting skills are a little more mature. Fortunately I had some white and grey lurking in my paint box from art school and by Jove it was still fresh!

Wow!

I applied a grey base coat to a paranoia troubleshooter, let it dry, then applied a thinned, fresh coat with a fine brush. This time, I know brush flow control, and tapped off the excess paint onto a paper towel. Then, using thinned white and black I worked in some shading, and washed my brush out in turps. Then tapping off the turps, danced the brush over the area to blend in the shading.

Did I say wow? I meant WOW!
I nailed it- A perfect smooth blend ala Fraser Gray. My inner child jumped for joy (though, looking back, it could have been dinner).

I actually enjoyed painting in enamels! That really surprised me.

Going to grab some more colors tomorrow if I can- try getting that brilliant Orc and Chaos Dwarf skin effect he used, and the matte blues and reds I need for the troubleshooter with laser.

Anyone else use enamels here?