Cultist conversion, flamer

I have been passing time in canberra painting stuff with my nephew.
Here's a quick snap of the nurgle cultist I converted a little bit with spare putty, and a flamer my brother in law got me.  My hearts not really in it,  but it is  therapeutic.

For retail therapy I grabbed a molly squidgepidge boxed set, a pathfinder gnome Wizard and some more Greystuff to turn into old school style minis for you all.
Matt primed them up for me,  along with his Vicktorias boxed set.  He is done on the skins. .. gotta go get a move on to catch up!

Further kickstarter thoughts

So I was browsing kickstarter and indigogo the other night and thinking about how I could use it to help focus my efforts once I am back.

What I am thinking is that it's a fantastic way to go big and do some really polished,  high production cost things that I always dreamed of doing.

First though, I think I will use it to fund a small miniature production or two just to get used to the kickstarter process and do something I can deliver without effort.

So when I say big,  I am talking things like modular plastic kits in full color printed boxes.  Boxed set rules with dice,  tokens,  figures, cards, measuring gizmos and full color glossy handbooks.  Commissioning artists we love to do wot dey do.   Game apps.
Big stuff.  Stuff that requires me to hire hirelings and actually pay them money.

This kinda thing is all possible now.  It's daunting but amazing too.

In the near future I want to do some digital prints now that my caster has low temp silicon.  It seems silly not to use my decade plus years experience modeling digital characters. This could be a good opportunity to experiment with modular models with a goal of resin or plastic production.  That's the beauty of kick starter.  No risk production.

I have made a few posts about how I would run d&d and warhammer to both better fans and profits... The response is positive.   Shall I put my money where my mouth is and get serious?  Shall I kick start a business that goes beyond one guy pushing putty around in his spare time?

Is tantalizing stuff.   The idea of having money enough to make something special.   Something you know folk actually want because they paid in advance.

Tempting.

Thanks all

Well Canberra is bloody cold, but I am pleased to spend some time with my family.   My nephew is assembling a formidable necron force and I am sitting sculpting Hawkmoon figures next to him.  Nice to both have the same hobby. He is no slouch with a paint brush either!   I am very proud of him.  He is probably sick of my tutorials by now.   I do have a lot to say about minis... a looooooot.

Besides I have to beat the fanboy out of him before gw milk him any more.   He buys GW hobby sand and shite cast clean up brush fur christ sakes.  Summit has ta be dunn 'bout dat.

A big thank-you for your comments and links- cheered me up no end.  I am coping well. I sculpted a pig faced orc for myself to cheer me up in between HM figs.

I am off to the hobby store in civic to grab a little retail therapy tomorrow- not sure what.  I am certain I do not have enough miniatures. That's lead addiction for you.

Please post comments about kickstarter thoughts a couple of pages back!

Dad passed away

Soooo....  just recovered from being ill and eager to dive back in to work and then....
I just got the news my dad passed away today of a sudden heart attack.  No warning.  Done.  Thats yer lot.

So I wont be posting for a bit or kickstarting stuff as I will be off making arrangements for my dear ol' dad and hanging with my family for a bit.

I am doing fine- surprised,  sad, but well supported and strong.  So signing off for a bit.

Thanks to all my readers- If you want to cheer me up pop a link in the comments to the coolest damn mini thing you have seen on the net... distract my little mind!

Its been a funny sort of year....

Wippity do dah

A quickie wip to mark progress on my hobby fix- I had a few hours free tonight as my missus was out at work drinks.  I just pushed a few things on my pile further along without much focus- I am rather tired tonight.

Starring in this pic are works in progress of a classic winged cat from Ral Partha's golden ad&d era, and citadel lead aplenty:  a kniggit of dol amaroth, a chaos sorcerer, The orcish limited edition of the Brothers Grimm (Fraser Gray style) and a chaos centaur from slaves to darkness.  Oh and one of my new unreleased dwerg for Darkling Games!

In my last post I kicked off a kickstarter discussion- please pop back there and share your thoughts!

Kickstart my ass

I am toying with the idea of using kick starter to help me dedicate some time to my minis and games business.  I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon as the hobby is flooded as it is, but being pulled all over the place by work really inhibits my plans.

Here are the hovering projects I have.  If there is a kickstarter here holla in the comments:

*Dwerg series 2- artillery- modular troops and war machines.

*Skulldred core rules, toad minis, skully mini, portal minis, resin dread tokens, lasercut sticks and tokens.

*Dundred RPG:  old skool dndesque game with modern rules

*Dundred lairs:  Floorplans for 30mm bases, + card buildings ala 3rd ed.

*McNastybeastie: shakesperian scots minis.  Laird, lady, helldog, clansmen, spear girl

*Dungeon Noobs boxed set: rpg foolish minis on their first dungeon raid

*Stardred skirmish:  Skulldred with blasters!  80's style future minis action plus minis inspired by the era.  Space helmets, cricket pads and laserguns anyone?  Think eagle, future shock, starblazers, Druillet and Mobius.

*Missing bitz:  replacement proxy parts for classic minis such as early citadel giants and wheels for war machines.

*chaos halflings.  'Cause.

*Steampunkish/creepy cyber robotic spiderlegs and limbs to fit any minis.

*Amulet spell toads.  15mm versions.  28mm versions are awaiting production molds and webstore.

*restoring classic minis web book- kind of a heroes for wargames 2 style thing.

After these I was thinking of entering the resin kit market, getting stuff cast in europe and distributed from the UK, adding modular gaming thingies to augment my aussie made metals (I hate metal modular minis hence resin).
This would allow me to put into practice some of the ideas I have explored within my blogs.  I am, after all, a pro digital character sculptor and have all the same software and haptic hardware citadel use- no reason not to explore my own 80s scifi universe in an affordable modular way, right?

Kickstarters have worried me in the past because of my health- particularly my sudden chronic energy drops - it seemed random... however I am now diagnosed, am on the right diet and getting treatment, so thats not an issue anymore.  I am shiney and new and ready to go!

Anyway, I would love to hear you thoughts on Kickstarting Darkling games.  Its all about you folk after all!  Now back to Skulldred editing!

What-would-you-dohammer?

My nephew asked me what I would change if I was put in charge of warhammer products.  Fun question huh?

Okay, so here is my main thoughts...

1: remove 20mm bases from fantasy.  All troops on 1" bases.  All larger bases clean multiples of inches.  Launch a new set of low profile, non bevelled bases in clear, brown and black plastic with magnet sockets.

2: refocus kits, designs and rules to focus on more multiple sales of the same kit.  For example, a 'dark eldar' troop kit that lets you build six or seven types of units from the one kit- rather than four or five kits that focus on one or two types.  Imagine a single space marine squad kit that could make light, heavy weapon, veteran, command, or jet pack squads.  Shops would have less redundancy and it would be easier to buy gifts for players, and GW would greatly reduce packaging and tooling costs.  Resin bitz would be streamed out to fuel the new release hunger instead of kit after kit.

My 'more sales of same kit' drive would likewise see the crossing of 40k and fantasy kits ala chaos demons.  A zoat kit with fantasy parts, future weapons and bloodbowl helm bitz anyone?  Whats that?  Youll take seven?  Thought so!

Slan heads in the Kroot troops boxes anyone?  Fantasy weapons for kroot?

3: I would also make the huge change of making 40k a 30mm base standard. Lets face it, the minis are getting too big for 1". Starting with snap on adapter bases and moving to low profile clear and black plastic bases for all new releases.  Of course selling cheap packs of bases so you can upgrade is a must.  This would also mean wider, more dramatic stances are viable and true scale marines are go.  Yes.  I would relaunch marines true scale.

4: I would ditch the huge rulebooks for boxed sets of rules (with no minis in it).  The box would have a seperate book for rules, armies, fluff and hobby.  That makes lugging it around optional.  The rulebook itself is free to download.   Its the fluffbook/armylist book thats the premium bit.  Focus money making on minis not rulebook tomes- this encourages new players.

5: merge chaos back together into one.  Add 'evil sorcerer' as a new empire option (and add evil options to empire kits ) and allow crossovers of undead in both.  Skaven, beastmen etc can intermix.  The goal is to make players buy a mix of kits rather than single army focus.

6: race variant modules.  Tau could have been a head/weapon swap for eldar- fimir could fit orc models... slann on kroot... rhinomen on ogres... barbarians on chaos thugs... a few simple modules can enrich the universe and give players more options without more army rules or kits.

7: end wave releases.  Each month release a little of something for everyone rather than eldar month, then orc month... new variant modules, new characters... it would make WD much more appealing as a subscription.   New unit rules appear in WD and are added to website for download.  This does not need to be a whizz bang power thingie... resin head swaps or alternative weapons is enough.  Enrichen... enrichen... enrichen...

Well thats my thoughts... care to wade in ?  Comments below peeps !

Realms of Chaos era Warband: Nurgle

All this cryx stuff has made me pine for old school realm of chaz and dave.  Some demons require a summonin'

Pappa Nurgle!  Pappa Nurgle!

Oh happy days.  I finally glued together my greater demons of Nurgle.  Boy I am knocking those painful tasks out this week.  Its making me all confident and stuff.
I always coveted these, especially after Mike McVey pulled of a masterfully blended deep green pj in a white dwarf article.  After decades, I am about to fullfill the childhood wish to paint one up.  Twice!
This is the spirit of what drives us... that need to fill the voids white dwarf burned into our souls.
That little beardy gold grabbin git.

The three nurgle champs front and center I owned back then, did my best paint jobs on ever and promptly gave them away before migrating to oz.  I am excited to paint them again after all these years!

Later down the road I have me a plague Ettin, two mounted nurgle lords from different eras, and a cthonian larvae that will double as a beast of nurgle (til I get one).

I have some slaanesh stuff bagged up still, but not one tzeenchian chap to my name, strangely.  I will have to rectify that... anyone got a lord of change or two they fancy swapping?

Group shot

Here is a fun little iphone snap of some of my collection (in various states of completion).

A three color skaven

Damn amine intolerance.   Could not sleep friday night, so did boring things for a bit. Rebasing is my ususal go to in times of antihistamine dazed nights, but after six chaos warriors got new treads I felt that itch to paint.  Something unimportant was required.
I decided to be-slap a skaven about the head with my hairy wand.  No touching up of orcs tonight.
This poor (skaven)blight-er was one of those I recently repaired from the deep morass that was my broken minis tub.  I stuck the legs back on this chap with a couple of pins, during which time I noted that, much like Tom Cruise in interview with a vampire, he was somewhat miscast.  Perfect!

I had visited Steve Deans website a few days ago, and decided to try the old 'three shade layers over black' technique favored by historical grognards, with crisp contrast, strong edging, deep black parting and no blending or glazes.
I knocked him out quickly and finally got tired and went to bed, pleased that one more figure had risen from the lead pile to take its place on the done pile.

As you can see by the picture- he is not so crash hot up close but boy he reads well on the gaming table- much better than most of my figures do.  I can easily make out his rope weapon at five feet- which is surprising.
I must push my brightness and contrast more in general.

Oh, and he is standing on a newly finished hill module for my Skulldred table.  Thats one more thing that was lurking un finished in my studio done.

Cobblestone tutorial

Great little tutorial on making cobblestone stamps...

Here

Dire Chicken

Undead Robochicken Privateer Press

I realized my plan to add spider legs to my Cryx chickens put them in the too hard basket and would mean my force was not ready for my nephew's arrival...  so...

Nothin I fancy... just a straight forward pj to get the job done.  I used cork tiled to build up the base, hardened this with thin superglue and pinned on my robo chicken.

Whilst chained to my desk I also magnetized my plastic warjack using the old dremmel and greenstuff technique to fix the magnets in place.  I am not looking forward to painting all the parts separately, and have a dreaded feeling that some of the heads may disappear under the table never to be found again.

I reread the warmachine rules again last night and, well, to be honest I am not filled with excitement.   Admittedly its not the latest edition,  but it seems due to the special rules combining forces that a major portion of playing the game is in army building and deployment, the actual mechanics of battle seem hella complicated for the end result.  But, as I always say the proof of a game is in the playing.

I am tempted to do a war golem skulldred expansion now.  Once I finish the main book!

Virtue is a virtue

Yes dear reader, I am feeling virtuous.   I have taken a tablet and hope it will soon pass.  All this virtue is making me virtually giddy.
I forced myself to up end my 'to fix' tub and actually fixing stuff therein.
You know all those things that arrive in the mail with a weapon snapped off and your like... uh, pinning... Ill do that later.

Well tonight was that later baby yeah!

Citadel miniatures:  Aly Morrison Hobgoblin (reaper banner), Broo, Chaos
Centaur, Drum and Drone Ulssen Chaos Dwarf, First Slotta Chaos Warriors,
Adventurer Starter Box fighter with Chaos Familliar

So picture my evening.  Drill, pin, fill... rinse repeat.  Yaaaaaaaaawn.

I figured it would be a good warm up for getting back into mini sculpting.  I was right.  After that pushing putty feels exciting again.

Deneghra converted from her sister

So another crappy iphone picture- this time of a motley crew including some early beastmen (broo), early slotta chaos warriors, a hobgoblin or two from Aly Morrisons nifty fingers and a starter set adventerer with an evil puppet.  Along with this stash was three cavalry figures and a half dozen more simple drill and pin jobs.
I also found Deneghras witch barbs in my bitz box and liberally, (if not wantonly) applied said barbs them to 'er back with this amazing stuff called glue.  Cracking ride this episode, innit?

Next episode is a cliffhanger,  with thrills, spills and more lead with paint applied.  Hang onto your seats readers...  excelsior!

Scrap tokens

Any old Iron, Any old Iron, anyee, anyee, anyee ooooold eye-ronn.

I picked up a crappy looking rubber battletech loader mech the other day for two bucks.  Tonight it gave its life for scrap tokens, and surprisingly I got five out of it.  Bargain.
I just tore up the model and voila. Excellent junk.

These tokens will come in handy for a variety of games.  I have some copplestone bikers on my shelf that will no doubt get to shoot out over these at some point.  Pchoo, pchoo!

On other project fronts... I *finally* landed my last Dwarf for the Undead Assault project.  Mimbrim is on the way!

I am still missing some skellies, but they are suddenly going for silly money on eBay at the moment.   Weird how it goes in waves like some insane stock market with no apparent rhyme or reason.

I am not feeling up to tackling big things right now, so the castle and mushroom forrest scenery will have to wait.  I may just focus on creeping along finishing off long time incomplete figures til then.

Touching some orcs up

Tonight I touched up some orcs whilst the varnish dried on the last batch of Cryx.  These lovely old school figures are from Ral Partha (iron wind metals these days).

I just spent an hour or two on them, and want to go back in for some ink washes to make them pop a bit more.  Excuse the shitty iphone snap.  Couldnt be bothered setting up the camera.  Still not 100% clearly.

Anyway, lovely old school minis.  Enjoy.

Ral Partha Orcs.  Fun to touch up.

Cryx in the neck

A big shout out to my nephew Matthew, who inspired me to finally put some effort into my warmachine figures, which have been sitting on my shelf since... well, before lady ga ga heard a madonna record.  Matt is in Tasmania right now, and is heading to the mainland to reap and plunder shortly.  Its been years since I have seen him, so very exciting.  I have been a dutiful uncle in the meanwhile, and made sure he was well topped up with 40k minis at every chance.

Turns out Matthew is also a Cryx fan!  Whats not to love?  Angry undead robo pirates FTW.

Since Matts going to want a game or ten, I figured what better excuse to drag my sorry ass back to the painting table, then to at least get my figures all painted to table standard in readiness for his arrival.  Its nice to be back behind the brush, my illness sucked all my energy out, (no doubt converting to energon cubes and storing it under a dam) it was really nice to be back to the stage I can comfortably sit and paint.

Early Work in Progress- King's Cryx Horde  (Privateer Press)  30mm plastic bases by www.hurlbat.co.uk

So let me chat about what's in the pic.  Coz dat iz wot I doo.  First up, I dont play Warmahordes, so I just bought cool minis.  I am sure I will correct this error later by filling out my ranks, but since I figured they will probably be used for Skulldred, the 'oh, that looks cool' method of building forces was selected.

In addition to this I have a placcy Reaper Warjack, and two ebil chikenz wiv tuskz and Goreshade- coz he looked badass.

So I am about halfway through the painting of this little lot.  As usual, I got them table ready first, then plan to go back and glaze on some magic later.  I confess I got ahead of myself and started gluing on the basing material before the paint job was done, but hey, I was sick for yonks and missed base decorating.  I want to find some nice little cogs at some stage.

The unpainted model (Top right) is my stand in for Deneghra.  I cut my original model up to use in some conversions, so her sister Victoria Haley got a quick makeover and is doubling her til I get my filthy, diseased fingers upon an epic wavey dynamic witch caster model... the other Deneghra poses are stiff and a bit blah.  This one will do for now.    I used a dremel to etch her blade into a more cryxy style, and blocked in her helmet with procreate/Apoxie mix.  She still needs a detail pass.  I still have the witch blades from the original model, so plan to retrofit those to this one shortly.

Now my cryx chickens are another story... I hate the two legged look, so am thinking of giving them creepy spider legs perhaps using some canopek wraith bits.  If anyone has spare bits and want to trade up, lemme know!  I like the idea of having my chickenz more like steel pirahnnas- and have been thinking of scratchbuilding something along those lines.

I landed some nice plastic battletech figures at the local flea market today for a few bucks, so they are destined for scrap markers.

I am looking forward to finally putting a big 'check' next to the life goal of painting up all my cryx figures, since they have lurked in my collection for soooooo long.  I also have my eye on a few other figures in the range... perhaps put that on my cryxmas list.

As for making my cryx playable, I decided to keep my basing and coloring style compatible with all my other figures- though I originally wanted to do classic cryx grey greens for everything. They all work so well with my weird war, dirz and inquisimunda style figures, so they can tripletime on my table.

I was also thinking of filling in the gaps of my cryx force with proxies from my reaper collection.  Why fork out for satyrx raiders (not greatest models in the faction imho) when I can call upon the mighty range of reaper demon lasses?  Bane thralls are easy to make too.

Anyway, hopefully I have this lot done by the time he arrives... feeling much more energy lately, so that bodes well.

Later peeps!

A pox on multilistings

Multi listing miniatures on ebay is just fucking annoying.  Dont do it.  dont encourage it.  Message anyone you see doing it and tell them to stop it.

That is all.

Not dead. Just ill!

Hey mini fanciers,
  No I am not dead- I just have been a teensy bit ill this past few months.  Nothing life threatening but very, very exhausting.   I wont go into the details as the only illness this blog is about is lead addiction!  Plus a little mystery makes one interesting.   :)

So I am recovering as we speak... so to speak.  The good news is my mini mojo is coming back and I will be back behind the brush shortly.

In the meantime here are a few shitty pictures from my smartphone.  All are works in progress.  Enjoy!

Ranger retouched and rebased

Just a quickie today.  I did a quick touch up on an old ranger with the goal of dotting I's (or, eyes in this case) and crossing T's in my mostly done painted collection.  Even with my workload I can fit in one mini to polish and wind up at a time.

The photo is crappy, but it's more about charting progress.

In the years since he was first painted, I have learned a great deal, and I thought it worth noting.
First thing I did was thoroughly dust the mini and give it some lahmium medium coats to matt the surface down ready for new paint.
The main upgrade in my technique is using strong contrast between shadows and highlights to make the model pop on the gaming table and in dim light. Though he was originally subtly shaded, I kicked him up a notch witha few simple glaze passes and some edging.  Deeper washes punched out the flesh and seperated the fingers.
The base was decorated with rotten wood, tufts and leaf litter to really sell the outdoorsy aspect of the character.

Rustoleum magnetic primer

It works!

I applied Rustoleum magnetic primer to the inside of a box file and it actually works!

Eight coats, stippled on with a sponge and voila-  Enough grip to keep my minis still even with a good shake of the box.

Great!