Blightking test piece

Here is my quick test piece for my Blightking team.  I tried both styles shown on the box but was unhappy with both... So I split the difference and mixed the turquoise blue and angels green together for a classic chaos jade.

And the first 'free' Blightking made from left overs!

Plus a little more progress on free Blightking number 2 (Papa Nurgle likes number two's too).

Just another four to go!

'EAVY LEDD issue 2: Stretching your kits

Hmm, I have just scanned a 'eavy ledd from 1986.. and would ya beleive it, it shows you how to fatten out your GW kits using cheap materials.  How did they know back then?  A mystery wrapped in a conundrum wrapped in bacon.

You can get the zoggin' PDF from 'ere...http://www.darklinggames.com/eavyledd/eavyledd_02.pdf

OLD SKOOOLZZZ!!!

More 'eaviness later folks.

Happy new year

Happy new year folks!

Welp, tis that time when we reflect back on the year past and summarize that bitch.

On the hobby front, I actually got a reasonable amount of stuff done, a little over 30 figures finished through to varnish, and plenty pushed along in a factory pipeline kinda way.  I think the progress made on the other figures is probably going to mean a lot of finished figures this year.

BAD STUFF 2014

My hobby time in 2014 was interrupted by two weeks of hospital stays, some severe depression and a flurry of freelance work.  Sublime to ridiculous.  My laptop for Skulldred died, the B broke off on my $100 keyboard, which isn't replaceable and was clearly built to break.  Logitech.  Grrrr.  Teeth.


GOOD STUFF 2014

It was definitely a good year for aquisitions.  I have a Cryx warband and several Malifaux 1.0 warbands in various stages of production, collected several big boxes full of Games Porksword sprues and bits ranging from Forsaken through to Genestealers which should see me fixed for a year of conversion hobby fun, and of course some fantastic classic metal.  This year I added a one peice limited edition Zoat, a metal reaver Titan, two metal marine Dreadnoughts, a Mcdeath Dragon Turtle, A Bob Olley 'Dragon vs. Dwarfs', some classic space pirates and a few more figures for my Lichmaster collection.  I also found a box of metal 40k minis just laying by the road ready for the street rubbish to be collected... it included 90's blood angels, metal landspeeder and metal terminators.  I know right?  Amazeballs.  I wonder how they are enjoying my stripping jar?

Speaking of finds, in a few weeks it will be CANCON and my Birthday, which means more haul if I am lucky.  I LOVE that my Birthday falls just before Cancon's second hand stall manifests.  Race you to the goodies kids, and try not to trip over the guilt of not having painted ANYTHING you grabbed last year.  ;)  I REGRET NOTHING!!!!


REALLY GOOD STUFF 2014

First up, let's talk about you.  Last year I did something I was terrified of doing, which was come out as intersex and announce my transition.  It could have gone really, nightmarishly bad- there are a lot of messed up people out there who just cannot fathom biology past primary school standards.  But it didn't go bad.  It went well, and clocked up the biggest response of any of my blog entries.  Oh geesh, I am starting to tear up a bit.  Thanks everyone, it is brilliant to have such support, and even better to have several people write to me and talk about their own struggles with similar issues.  I feel I have already helped by standing up and taking that big step.

Pat yourself on the back humans!

My transition has gone extremely well.  I have been able to go about my life as a woman without fear of harassment or abuse.  Apparently I just look like your 'average mid 30's lesbian arty geek chick' as one person so eloquently put it.  Suits me!
It is sooooooo relaxing to be in my correct gender now, and I love the way GW staff are not quite sure how to react to me.

GW Dude: "Who are you buying for?"

Average mid 30's lesbian arty geek chick:  "Oh, these are all for me."

GW Dude:  "Oh.  how long have you been collecting for?"

Average mid 30's lesbian arty geek chick:  "Uh, I think since 1985.  Kev Adam's metal snotling pump wagon and a Minotaur Lord- but my collection goes right back to first release citadel figures.  I have a literal ton of the fucking things."

GW Dude:  "................................................  Okaaay then.".

Heh.  Rofl even.

BIGGEST AWESOMEST STUFF

Kat and I finally fell pregnant through the magic of science!  Little King is due in March 2015!  I should have him painting minis by 2025... stay tuned!

PLANS FOR  2015

   I think I am going to call 2015 as the 'year of wrapping up hovering projects' for me.  Let's clear the deck and freshen up this studio's energy a bit.  But all this is dependant on the sleep little babes is going to give us.  Let us all give offerings to the chaos gods he sleeps through the night.  Bless.

 I have two boxes of unfinished scenery, which would not take too long to wrap up, so that is a good start.  Having a cat kinda stopped my tabletop gaming with lots of scenery.  I have no idea how to solve that problem.  Hopefully more space in the house we hope to move to this year.

  I am hoping to do a few more classic 'eavy metal style articles, focusing on things like orc skin, tinting, extending GW kits and of course the one I have been itching to do. The SHERWOOD store opening robin hood dwarf I was so honoured and blessed to be given in order to make the John Blanche 'Undead Assault' tribute.  That needs a special edition all to itself.

On the Darkling front, I hope to get the new webstore finally up so we can list all the new minis I have made.  Oh, and the paint.  I have BOXES of paint here to flog.  :)

I have already started sculpting again, you will be all glad to know it is the sphincter beast kit is first up.  Yep.

Okay, fuck off and do something important.  By the way, I hope you all had a FANTASTIC year and will have a BETTER one!

LOVE, PUTTY AND HUGS!

Nurgling around with green stuff

Xanadu is on telly.  So I was elsewhere.

The blightking box is very model specific in its parts.  Torso variants A and B fit model 1 only, for example.  So what is a girl to so when she likes both A and B?  She reaches for the dremmel, greenstuff and fixes the problem.

As usual, I added super sculpey to the green stuff.

Aaaand since I had the dremmel out I decided to do this.  Mmm, nurgling peekage.

And a bit more to my Blanchitsu warband... Mostiqorr!  He sucks worse than xanadu!  My first pain engine parts come into play!

So this leaves me with all these parts.  Five models for 100 bucks?  Lol, GW... you failed to factor in my cheapness and sculpty skills!  I see six more, yes I do! A project I shall document next year as 'kit pushing'.  I promised myself I would squeeze THREE giants out of the citadel giant.  And dammit, I shall!

Speaking of projects, once I paint these I am heading back into old school territory.  

 Stay tuned.

Great.  Now I have "got to believe we are magic" stuck in my head.  Thanks Kat.

Jitter free hobbying

Putrid Blight kings.  Not to be confused with the kings of putrid blight or the blighted putrid knights (splitters!).

Them's all stuckered together like and converted whilst the turkey digests.  Bwaahp!

Honourable mention to the engineer behind Gutrot Spume (not to be confused with Gutrot Smith).  A seriously clever bit of plastics mould cutting.  But a dull head... I switched it out for something more interesting.

I need to charge a good camera.  Still on my shit apple 3.

Oh and a chaos undivided demon.

Yep.

Saturnalia offerings pleaseth the King

Loot!  Plastik krakk!  Ermagerhd, germs werksherp!

The end times are upon us (well, end of 2014 at least).  I may have to fold and get a glottthingie to go with them!

A decidedly creepy array of prezzies for me this year (plus expensive smelly girly gunk like lip glosses that I am sure you couldn't give a crap about).  Those wracks are going straight to my Blanchitsu inq32 bitz box!

So what did sanity claws bring you all?Comment the ever merry shit out of the comments section... or I will sonic screwdriver your faces upside down!

Shakes (sadly not the hippy, hippy kind)

Graboid my Bacon

 Hey all,

  I just had a lovely week vacation in the local hospital.  Good news is I am home now, bad news is I have anxiety tremors that make me thrash around like a Silent Hill Nurse riding an Alien that has just been pulse rifled in the nads.

I am told it is not permanent, and I should recover in a few days.

I hope it will die down in time for me to enjoy the plastic crack Sanity Claus will no doubt bring me!


Oh, and I saw the new GW 32mm bases.  CALLED IT BITCHES!!  Remember I said that would be the first thing I did with 40k?  Yeah.  Hopefully they will follow my other suggestions.

PAX Been there, done that, got the FREAKING CTHULU!

Aaaand I am back... just.

  I barely survived PAX.  No, not the PAX pox, which everyone seemed to be catching (man flu) but the crushing weight of my bag laden with goodies (and yeah, clothes, makeup, hair accessories... I AM a girl, okay?).

I decided not to enter the speed painting contest, as to not crush peoples wills.  Let them enjoy their so called 'speed painting'.  (actually I was drunk at a party when it happened and felt annoyed I did not drive my enemies before me and eat the lamingtons of their women.  Mmm.  Lamingtons.

  I managed to get away with minimal spending actually.  A black master series paint, an free elf ranger (painted at the paint and keep table Reaper put on), a fire elemental, one of the sexy Umberhulks from the new DnD collectors range and...

 CTHULU HIMSELF!

 

Okay, roll for initiative bitches!

After getting the king of beasties, everything else seemed a little tame.  Y'know?

Okay, Glottkin and Nagash are looking like my christmas list nasties... but oooh, So Cthulu!  Much Lovecraft!  Very f'taugn.  (I think it is cruel that his mother named him Hit Points Lovecraft, don't you?)

Great face... kinda feels more like Hellboy than Lovecraft in my humble bumbles... also I think he is a tad on the small size... even for 15mm.  But a nice model.  I am tempted to make his gaze downwards to his victims and shift his pose a little.  You know.  Because reasons.

I got roped into the Reaper table (who helped store my crushingly heavy bag) and spend some time teaching people about acrylics.  I have to say I am dead impressed by the master series.  The black is particularly good coverage.

Next year I will do cosplay.  Be warned!

PAX

Sooo, anyone going to Penny Arcade eXpo Australia this week?

I will be.  Oh yes, yes I will.  But lurking in the crowd, not on a booth.

I will be the hot chick confusing nerds.

(Heh, yeah right).

Beauty is in it

Limited edition Beholder for half price?  Yoink!

Not my fave sculpt of this type of beastie to be honest, that prize going to one of Julie Guthrie's eyeballers.  This one kinda looks like a lounge lizard saying something like 'hey baby, did you fall from the heaven?  (If so take 99d8 HP damage.)'.

I have the citadel one somewhere, probably in a bag marked 'sod fixing these eyestalks for a laugh'.

I suppose to follow up my sphincter beasts I will have to make A Behinder?  It is a large bum with dozens of little bums on stalks, each with their own magical abilities.

Smell that?  Smells like teen spirit.  Or plastic and superglue.  I get those confused.  More kit bashing tonight, to celebrate the fact The Block was on TV and I would rather gargle barbed wire.

 

First up, Sister Ophelia Proximity.

A sister of battle using Dark Eldar and Chaos parts only.  Because that's how we roll in the shire.  Ever listened to the lyrics of Teen Spirit and thought Kurt was just cramming words in there.  A warband made up of a mulato, an albino and a mosquito called Libido would probably fly over peoples radars I suppose.

So four more nasties, made from Skaven, Dark Eldar, ogres, a Giant, ork, daemonettes and empire bits.  I cannot find my box of imperial guard, I must have eaten it.

That happens.

That article...

John Blanche explained his modern painting style in what I suspect was a 2009 issue, possibly december.  It was plugging skaven and crimson fists, if that helps.  348-360ish.

I don't know because I removed it from the dross and put it in a scrapbook.  Jervis Johnson was replaced with JB for standard  bearer.  Here is a snapshot of what your looking for.

It is actually disappointingly vague and basic.  I pretty much summarised it last issue.  Base coat everything.  Sepia/mud mix, mud recesses then blend or drybrush up.  Fine subtle white drybrush and never use a metal higher than chain mail.  Be grimy, weather stuff and buy lots of games workshop stuff.

 

The little Talos pain engine that could

Talos pain engine.  I wanted one so much I actually went Into a Games Porksword shop and actually interacted with the staff.  Shudder.

I made it out alive.  Just.  So I am now armed with a box of nasty, gribbly pain bitz for my inquisimunda conversions.  Yay.  I feel like I need a shower, but dammit I made it!

I am now upstairs chillin' with an assam tea in the goodgames store above GW, listening to nerds nerding hard.  Ahhh, my people.

Actually, I had a pretty good kitbash session last night.  I knocked up a few more thingies to Blanchitsu.

I also had a couple of good putty sessions on my sphincter beast and ass cannon.  I hope this isn't going to be a big theme of my work.

Inquisimunda

To kick off the adventures of Delaney King, I decided to Blanchitsu the shit out of my bits box.  I had a lot of fun, and I can see a warband or three emerging from this.  First a skavenger mutant "Gruyere".

Photo courtesy of Samsung Galaxy screen engineers who forced me back onto my old, old, old, old iphone.  Because dropping a phone on lino should destroy it utterly.

I have to dust off my old camera and shoot him properly once I get more done.

I followed Johns description of his modern technique from white dwarf, first painting in all the base colours, weathering, then using washes of devlan mud mixed with gryphonne sepia, blending highlights here and there, then giving the final glaze of thin mud/sepia to give that yellowed varnished look.  I used pen to add dots, stitches, chequers and words. 'This cursed earth' on the scroll refers to a quote John used in a painting from the eighties.  Because.

I deliberately over-varnished the whole thing with layers of gloss spray, giving the model a smoother, more porcelain effect, then matting down parts with matt medium.

I used a Skaven clanrat, Dark Eldar gun and Flagellant head.  They felt used.

The green stuff was 2:1 yellow:blue with a hint of supersculpy added to remove some of the putties 'memory' quality and increase working time.  This is perfect for filling and detailing, but produces a very soft, rubbery material once dry so don't use this for structural stuff.  As this reduces stick, you will often have to dot superglue with a cocktail stick under some parts to makes sure it will stay on.

I used my old green pipe roller tools too.  Love those.

The base uses bicarb and superglue, for authentic JB baseyness.

Later alligators!

Felix Jagermeister and Gotmilk?

Eddles sent me a pic of the recently reunited heroes of some books I am unlikely to ever read as I find exclamation marks annoying.

It is kinda nice to think these models where destined to stand together painted, despite being 12,000 miles apart at one stage, in two totally different collections, both half painted, laying in a box somewhere under piles of junk no doubt.

Kings minis.  Friends reunited ain't got nothin' on me.

So how's my chick painting? 

Dnd miniatures. Fail.

Random boxes sets!  Crappy rubber!  Twenty dollars each!  Need ten mites for your scenario?  Well you sure as hell ain't gonna buy enough random boxes to get those.  Therefore you eBay them.  Therefore box sales from game stores diminish.


  They didn't learn a thing.


Hmm.  Think I might have to kickstart some styrene multipart plastic kits next year.

Sphincter beast revealed

Finally, a picture of the fabled sphincter beast miniature!  Thanks Steve!  http://eldritchepistles.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/have-you-ever-seen-sphincter-beast.html

As promised, I shall henceforth sculpt a modern one so players may finally have ass-ass-ins of their own.  It will be a great warm up to ease me back into Darkling miniatures.

 

Rare, old school, ugly as ass

D&D

I picked up the d&d starter.  Pretty close to what I would have done.  Glad to see the ampersand logo is back.
The cover is a big disappointment.   It totally misses the brilliance of the Elmore orgininal.  Elmores dragon was coming at YOU... right out of the frame.   Between you and the dragon,  a dynamic fighter... clearly your character... the spoils of gold behind.  It summed up the game, reached out to grab you.
This editions dragon droops into frame in washed out pastels... the fighter framed out... the logo apologetic in it's sizing.

Bad art director.

I picked up the prepaints too.  They are sprayed and awaiting fresh paint.  The details shallow and poses mostly weak.  Why not unpainted, snap together styrene in six colors?  Why Drizzt again?  Why not  Warduke?  Or the classic mix of base characters?  Why the oriental armor designs?

Meh.  Close but not perfect.

Felix Jaegerbombs and Antonio

The drought is broken.  I painted these up last night.  Nothing fancy, but good to get rolling again.

Felix Jaeger, C01 Fighter (Antonio, Terror of the Lichemaster)

Not dead yet.

Yes, yes, I got sick again with my weird ass condition.

But fear not- after years of confusion about said weird ass condition, I finally have an official diagnosis from a specialist, and thanks to the wonders of modern medicine and a butt load of pills (not literally, I might add- those are suppositories anyway, not pills.)  I am better than I have ever been. Seriously... I have energy now.  It's freaking cool.  I feel like I have superpowers compared to where I was.  Tis magic!


Anyway, it is going to take a little time for me to settle back into a blogging and game development routine, as I need to cram freelance jobs to make up for lost time.  Kate and I are looking for a new house, and things are probably going to pack down for that too.

I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone for the emails asking if I was well, oh and for the Four Liebster awards.  I have to look up what they are, because I am just ignorant about the interwebbything and stuff.  I am pretty sure they don't win me money, which is a shame because I do so like the stuff.  It buys lead.  And paint.  And more lead.  Can we have leadster awards?

I would like to thank Sterling Archer for keeping me out of the dangerzone.  Because that is how you get ants Lana.

Since getting my mojo handed back to me by a very nice specialist, I have done hobby stuff, but nothing exciting.  I have based up / rebased and primed a couple of hundred minis (all on 30mm bases you may like to know) and tonight I will be picking up a paintbrush for the first time in a long while.

Wish me luck!

-D