Score!

Weeee! A big box arrived today full of confrontation minis- no, not those hideously expensive resin ones, preplastimakated dross or those 'authentic' ones from taiwan... Genuine, garlic smelling metal goodness from the deceased brilliance that was Rackham.
Whats in the box? Dwarf cannon chariots, goblin rat riders, a cyclops of mid nor, a black troll and various and sundry mid-nor and hybrid minis. Joy-joy.




Miiiiine!!!!



Miiiiiine! See that dwarfs happy expression... Thats me, that is!

Bwa ha ha!

Bad news? They go to the bottom of my lead pile there to lurk until I finish all my half done projects. Thats cast iron will power for you. Cast IRON!
Actually its a pretty good trick- I literally put them on the bottom box of my lead pile and am usually too lazy to lift the top boxes (swollen with lead as they are) and paint something else instead. I actually have no will power whatsoever. A little smarts can use your laziness as an advantage. Heck, since I am sharing will power tips -I picked up a great tip to stop snacking off your plate at restaurants once your full- simply pick up the salt shaker and dump it over the food. Willpower is rubbish... Intellegence wins everytime.
You may have noticed the lack of Rackham minis coming through this blog, I have lots of them, but always put them into the 'enjoy later' category. This is a good thing, as not only does it give me the warm fuzzies thinking about that future project, but lets me improve my skills to really do them justice.
I personally think I have improved painting dramatically since I started this blog, though still nowhere good enough to go for Golden Demons or Crystal brushes. Knowing a couple of GD winners means I get to see what masters can do and... Yeah, definately not got the patience to get to that level.
I did recently experience one of those 'Dave has gone up a level' moments recently when painting something, I am sure you know the feeling. Considering thats my third such experience, I put myself as a fourth level demi-human painterer. Just a thousand xp till I can get my next feat 'paint eyes like Jen Haley'.
Oooh, its a sunny day..... Gotta go.... PRIMER TIME!!!!!!

Undershading, dwarves and more C01 fighters

This ones for Nils- a quick iphone snap showing undershading.

The pics go left to right.
After polishing with a copper brush I start with a light prime of tamiya grey primer, making sure all the metal is covered. I do this as soon as I get the figure so it wont deteriorate if it ends up being years before I get to the model.
After basing, next paint pass is about three or four very fine misting passes of citadel chaos black. I use a black wash for bits I miss. Chaos black is a paint, not a metal primer - so it tends to rub off when handling lead. A primer acts like a glue to anchor paint on. I like chaos blacks matt finish over tamiya matt black.
Next I overbrush using either a midnight blue or mid grey. I add white and drybrush up until I have the sort of highlights I want. Black is painted into creases I missed at this stage.
The monk shows a flat base of tallarn flesh on the skin and the first tinting pass. Ocre acrylic was thinned with a little water or windex and then made translucent by adding a fair whack of matt medium. Test the paint on some paper- it should diffuse (spread out softly) as you touch it.
Glazing (or tinting) is all about applying thin, even layers of translucent paint- therefore the amount of paint on your brush is critical. Ideally you want your brush damp, but not wet enough to leave a gathered splotch where you lift the brush. To achieve this, get some lint free paper (kitchen towel- not tissue paper) and touch your brush to it for a second or two. This will wick away most of the water, leaving a fine layer of thinned pigment and medium your bristles.
The ironic thing here is less paint on your brush equals more speed. Weird? Not really- thin layers evaporate quickly so you can apply more layers in less time. The more translucent the glaze, the more layers you need to build up.
Well thats the trick. The next thing I tend to do after color tinting is to use tints like washes to build up shadows then highlights. Once thats done, color variation can be glazed on. Hints of red for areas of skin rich in blood, yellow and white-blue for fat, grey for stubble, green for sickness, purple for evil. Blue veins can be tinted on too.
Matt medium rocks.

I found some more C01 fighters and started on them tonight. Dorian (second left) is nearly done and I am just starting the other three. I found two more in a baggie and based them up ready for a sunny day. I know I have at least three more from the range lurking in my stripping jar. I think the blue-grey-aqua theme is going to make the set look great and coherent- which is saying something because the C01 fighters are a weirdly eclectic bunch of figures. Mixes of historical armors from all over the world are thrown together willy-nilly, and you have bizarre additions like Klotilde Ironface- (front right) who appears to be a pubescent girl in a skirt wearing a hockey mask... You know, as you do.
Dorian (second left) is a case in point- he has a medieval bucket helm, greek sandles, a clown face embroidered on his loincloth, a scribbly shield with a suggested evil face, studded leader armor and a evil runic scabbard. A possible chaos warrior shifted to hero perhaps? The eclectic style reminds me of the fighters Julie Danforth illustrated for the Tunnels & Trolls boxed set- such a mish-mash of styles was typical tunnels and trolls kit out for adventurers!
What you can see is citadel in its last wave of supplying minis for the D&D craze before warhammer really took over their focus.
Oh, and I rebased these older works in progress and started touching them up. Citadel Norse Dwarves!
Its going to be nice to have a 100% painted up and completed norse dwarf warband to play Skulldred with!

Some of my big assed norse dwarf, imperial dwarf and dwarf adventurer collection.
Remember the guy up the front from Colin Dixons 'eavy metal master class?

Ivan Nozski and Sureye Kroenail

Tickled some lead with the hairy wand this merry eve. A nice sunny day meant sprays where behaving themselves and I finished these two...



Early citadel C01 fighter 'Ivan Nozski and one of Aly Morrisons Hobgoblins C36 'sureye kronail'- both from around 1985.
Both have been sitting around my collection for ages, and its really nice to have them finally painted up, as they both where seriously tarnished and looking somewhat downtrodden. Plus, with work and illness all I have managed to do is some undercoating and rebasing. Hardly stuff to get fired up about hobby wise.
With these pjs I aimed for a crisp 'game ready' finish on both, lots of black lining and simple blocks of color. Dark violet and brown ink washes punched out the blacks.
These figs are some of my first finished on the new washer bases which I am thinking will be my regular basing style for fantasy, golthic horror, doctor who and pulp from here on in. I have been loving Fenris sci fi bases for my sci fi stuff.

I think the washer bases give these two a nice old school feel, dont you?
I even fished out my new fallen leaves for the first time.
All in all I am pleased by the result- it has me all juiced up to do more of the C01 fighters in blues and hobgoblins in orange to kit out a couple of skirmish warbands for Skulldred. Fortunately I have some right here....

New figures undershaded

I have had to change the way I paint after the badab black replacement failed to live up to its predecessor in the undershading.
So instead of grey prime+black wash I have had to return to prime, black spray coat then grey and white overbrushing. Its actually quicker and neater this way, so I guess its for the best.
Here is a tray of tonights effort.



As you can see I have a really eclectic mix of figures coming down the pipe. Everything from Trish Morrison orc villagers, guild of harmony, ral partha dungeon beasties and Bob Olley Iron Claw dwarf minis.
The technique I use is to glaze over the pre shaded model, letting the black and white shine through. This does not work on skin, as the flesh would have blood shine through in the shadows so I use a flat foundation tallarn flesh base and glaze warmer shadow colors to shade down.
But for most things, such as leather,cloth, hair and fur it gets you done pretty damned quick. I use a little matt medium to make the paint translucent.

How I would save the DND license- a brain dump

I was surprised to find a package from Oxfam in England today in my mailbox.  It turned out to be a copy of The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd ed Games Masters guide which I had won for a pittence on ebay what seems like six months ago.  I had actually written that off as lost, but none the less, here it is.  Yay.

I had a coffee at my local cafe and read through it, and it got me thinking.  What if I was handed the Dungeons & Dragons license right now by the bigwigs at Hasbro with a post it note saying 'sort this mess out'.  Now thats a fun mental challenge.

I thought I would share my musings, as its bound to cause an explosion in comments and I do so love comments.  I am a comments hog me.  Oh, I got to paint some stuff last night, so Kings Minis will be back to putting up pictures of old school minis, but in the mean time....

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS (Dave Edition)

Lets look at the business model, the francise, the fan base, the product line, its competition (pathfinder) and the future.

Firstly I would kick off with a total reboot of the rules.  This would involve cutting the rules down to the bone.  The model where you need volumes and volumes of books to get all the rules is broken- its a law of deminishing returns... players buy the core rules, then a handful of the hundred or so books published.  This means those books are dead stock.  They cost just as much to develop, but ultimately will not sell as much as the core books.  I would focus on making a DND that cherry picks the best bits of the systems from 0e through to the modern game, streamlining it down to a flexible core system that can be expanded on.  This would mean the learning curve, and audience would be wider, and the range of books less threatening to both new players and shop owners.  Lets not forget the days of game and book stores are numbered- PDF, POD and book via mail is the future.  A DND ruleset you can mail is top priority.

Oh and this would be the cover...

So how to make the money if there are less books?  We will get to that.

As an example of the direction I would take, characters are generated from a class initially to give form and direction to the character, but equipment feats, spells and skills are not class restricted- a spell costs a great deal more XP to buy if your a fighter than a wizard, and some spells get a penality modifier if your wearing metal armor.  If your strong enough to weild a weapon, you can.  This makes the game more about imaginative development of the character, and gives players much more freedom to arm, equip and advance their characters.  This also allows feats and spells to be nixed by GMs to suit their campaign world without unbalancing classes.


Thinner rules means less rules to bitch about and less to balance- it also would mean thinner books.
This would place us in a great position versus Paizo's Pathfinder (which I prefer over 4th edition- great work guys).  Paizo sell BRICKS.  To counter this, my thinner books would have less tables and words, but much, much more art.  Rather than new art, I would cherry pick the absolute best art from the history of DND, lets not forget the wonderful Elmore, Eastley and Brom art (plus hundreds of other great artists over the years), plus lots of great Magic: The Gathering art produced that would be under the Wizards IP.  I would using the art to stimulate imagination and really get the juices going- who needs wordy descriptions of monsters when you can place three or four great interpretations in images?  Of course, reusing old art does not mean its free- the artists get their comission- however it does mean a heddy mix of nostalgia that would attract older players back.

The first books you would see from my DND would be...

Dungeons&Dragons: Your adventure starts here    (Based on the original dnd red box, it leads you through solo play into the rules)
DND Players Book:  Character generation, equipment lists, Spell lists, Feat lists, Miniature tips
DND Games Masters Book:  Art of GMing, Making campaigns, Sample scenarios, Npc generator, the core DND monsters.
DND Tables and Treasures:  All the random generator stuff a gm could want, names, items, creatures, fluff and nonesense
DND campaign books:  Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Ravenloft etc.
The campaign books would include the monster manual stuff for each specific setting, as well as the usual fluff, campaign specific spells as well as suggested nixing for core rulebook stuff.
DND adventures 1, 2, 3 etc.   Each book containing several adventures that GMs can mix and match content from, as well as having encounter options for different levels of players.  These would mainly be available through an automated watermarked PDF download or ebook to registered players on DND website.
DND War:  A mass wargame ruleset that actually can stand up to Warhammer.  This is free to download.
DND infernal:  This would include all the demonic spells, demon classes, Teiflings etc... as a way to make DND more accessable, the overly satanic stuff would be shifted to a seperate book, which is purely optional.  Parents can flick through my regular DND books and purely encounter fantasy and mythological imagery.  Players who want a slice of the infernal plane can pick this gem up.

MyDND Style
The big change I would make to the styling of the game is to make it more roleplaying than ruleplaying, but keep the focus on miniatures.  Yep, its all about miniature facing, distances in squares etc.  I would leave the world of warcraft MMG complexities for online games, not tabletop games.  Let computers do what they do best (number crunching), and GMs do what they do best (imagination and drama).  Though I personally prefer loose rpg without the focus on miniatures (we even use paper minis in my games- ironic considering my collection, right?) the business model demands it.  So strike a good balance and strip it back to essentials.  My DND is a boardgame with a creative, imaginative hobby on top.

Plastic, plastic, plastic.
Okay, with that huge spring cleaning comes the miniatures stuff.  Yes, though my DND books would be more about atmosphere and imagination than tables and rules, rules, rules- we have to make money somehow, right?  Well, Hasbro is a plastics company, and thats where I would refocus the business model.

Taking a leaf out of GW's huge success, I would relaunch DND as a miniatures kit hobby.  Instead of prepainted plastics (which would still be sold under my iron rule until the kits take off), I would focus on small box sets containing plastic sprues with enough components to make several figures with heaps of equipment options.  Player packs would be things like human fighter, elf ranger, dwarf warrior, female human fighter, etc.  Each player pack contains enough parts for 3 figures, with lots of bits left over.
There would be low level and high level versions, all intermixable.  This would allow you to not only assemble a figure that closely matches your idea of your character, but could be magnitised to allow mid game switching.  What this means for the business model is simple:  Multiple sales for less tooling, less cost as prepainting is not required, players buy multiple kits to get all the bits they need to create their characters.

Players only buy a few miniatures, but it is the GM where my business model kicks in.  My DND would actively encourage GMs to collect and build dungeons, taverns and villages and stock them with treasure, scenery and of course, monsters.  My business model would be about PLASTIC 3D DUNGEONS.

Hasbro is a toy company.  They flog plastic.  My DND would be about selling lots of boxes of plastic sprues and paint.  Modular plastic dungeon sections, kobolt kits, gnolls, bugbears, orcs, big monsters and all with a focus on mixing, matching and customising.  Yes, the rules for monsters would be flexible to allow this.  And yes, the wargame rules can then kick in to enourage even more sales of the kits to players as well as GMs.
The modular dungeon parts would have neo-d-magnet holes, be lightweight and stackable for storange.

This model is proven.  GW do it.  They do it well.  Unlike warhammer, where players focus on one, maybe two armies, DND players would be tempted to buy it all.  Who wouldnt want a fully stocked dungeon?  Dozens of NPCs to pick from?  Armies of bugbears, Mindflayers, Githyanki, oh my.  What a rich IP to collect and paint!
Who wouldnt want a beholder construction kit?  Yep, everything you need to make beholder kin in one box, or go apeshit and custom create something new with the bits.

Ultimately, plastic makes more money then paper.  MyDND would be about flogging lots of boxes.

Evil stuff
Okay, now the bastard stuff.  All business requires some dastardly moves, here are mine.  Of course I wouldnt announce this if I was in charge, but this would be my thinking....  ;)
The modular terrain would all be based on 3.3cm square instead of 1 inch.  This gives more room for bigger models, as the 1 inch basis was set during the 25mm mini era.  This would make it incompatible with other makers of 3d terrain initially and make all the paper encounter stuff redundant.  But hey, who cares when the (Daves)DND box terrain sets are cheaper than resin, lighter and much more customiseable, right?

Secondly I would switch to true 30mm for the minis- not heroic 28.  Uhg!  Yes, it would make older minis look a tad small next to the new ones, and it would mean GW stuff does not fit the DND plastics quite right.  The bonus of this is that the models are easier to paint for beginners, can have more detail and look good on the game table at the distance one normally plays dnd.
Encounter kits.  Yes some creature or scenery sprues are only available in encounter sets, which inlcude a bunch of regular sprues, like goblins.  Mindflayers, for example, come only in an encounter set.  These sets encourage you to get into 3d dungeons too, as they have one or two bits.  once you have a few bits, you want more.  I know I would.  ;)
 
Dear, that Dragons back...

I would reinstate Dragon magazine as a thin, glossy printed mag to act as an entry way for new, young players much like White Dwarf does.  It would focus mainly on the hobby of collecting, painting and customising your plastics, but rather than just be a glossy catalogue like white dwarf it would also include some content- not much, but some - these would include scenarios, encounters and stats for new released monsters, plus encounters to use them in and suggestions for new player feats, skills and spells.  Older issues would be available as PDF downloads once off the shelves and a best of would be published yearly online to registered members.  It would also have room for wizards collectable card game stuff.  The magazine would be a write off, but as an attractor to the hobby it would be front and centre.

New directions
Embracing ebooks, character generation apps and strengthening the old licenses would be a major focus.  Remember the DND cartoon and toy range?  Those characters would reappear in the modern DND.  Old IP legends such as Warduke, Kellek, Ringlerun, Strongheart, Dungeon Master, Drizzt, Goldmoon etc would all find themselves in app games, video games and ultimately a decent film.
IP expansion and condensation would be a major focus for me.  A reboot of the tabletop would also mean a reboot of the online MMO.  I would also start pushing the reboot DND into war gaming, encouraging tournament style gaming to lift mini sales.

Anyway, thats my two pence.

Nostalgia, streamlined rules, condensed IP and plastic, plastic, plastic.

Love to hear your comments below!

Dave out.

"Pay some"

Grrr! 
So I stopped by Ebay after a self imposed break to find a bunch of unpaid items in my inbox... I used the 'pay all' feature recently and apparently it decided to cherry pick which ones to pay.
This is the third time this has happened to me.  Does anyone else have this issue, and is there a fix?
I am nervous now about paying and going off on holiday.
After all, after paying ebay still lists the items as unpaid whilst is processes... so unless I check back the next day there is no way of knowing.

Grrrrr!

I have cold sweats worrying about my ebay account getting locked or damaged as it is the only avenue I have to my hobby.  What pisses me off is that every case issue I have had has been a technical hoo-haa from their end, and they simply do not respond to technical emails in time.  I guess because they have just soooooooooooooooooo many.

[EDIT]  Hey, happy little me just wrote a three page rant on how company policy trumps local law when using an international buying system, but thought better of it.  I am, after all, recovering from a week of sleepless nights thanks to a nasty stomach bug- so am not thinking very clearly.  Its always better to delete the messages after you hammer them out.[EDIT]

So on the hobby front, nothing this week.  Too ill to lift a paint brush.
Hopefully fixed next week!

Dave

Melbourne roadtrip!

Roadtrip!

Work often takes me off on adventures, and today I am reporting from Melbourne- Australia's cultural, if not official, capital. The one thing I can definitely say about Melbourne is it takes care of its geeks. Sydney, now bereft of any miniature shops other than GW should take note!

So after a wonderful day of site seeing (including the must see minotaur store), the call of the hobby summoned me to Mind Games where I had a good go at emptying their shelves of Bob Ridolfi minis and other Reaper shiny things.



Naturally I had to open them and have a improvised game of pchoo, pchoo in the hotel with my new dollies! Bob Ridolfi's aptly named incredible woman is just breathtaking as is his Allura Succubus. I grabbed some chronoscope figures and microsrt tech crates for Stardred too...


Sadly my holiday spirit was cut short by food poisoning, so I am currently surviving all alone in my hotel with nothing but gastrolyte, poweraid and hotel priced toast.

I am accepting sympathy comments below... and donations of miniatures ;)

Anyway, the thing I really wanted to blog about is, whilst there, a young kidlet was taking his first steps into warhammer hobby (learning how to pester his dad into paying for GW products by getting really excited and waving one expensive and one really, stupidly expensive option so the day would pick the cheaper option- bravo kid!)
Dad, however, won my respect by using the exact same tactic back on him - resulting in the kid happily buying a goblin starter paint set). I can just imagine the lad getting home, racing through his homework (the dad reminded him in an admirably firm and yet nurturing way about that responsibility) and proceeding to dunk and splatter his way to his first wrecked brush and that wonderful thing that is 'my first mini!'
I wanted to give him sooooo much advice, but giddy from what I suspect is an acute, super hybrid mutation of manflu and salmonella (I dub thee manellazilla-rex) I could only grin and think of the night I dunked my first snotling into a pot of goblin green and tried to paint eyes on with a 60p newsagent nylon watercolor brush. No advice can compare to making your first mistakes, and I really hope he keeps those goblins for years to come.

So I got thinking about what advice I would give a boy with a boys attention span. What are those, lets say, five golden tips to get you started.

Mine would have to be...
1:hey kid- undercoat- dont skip this! A thin, even undercoat is like a clean sheet of paper to work on.

2: hey kid- aim to just get everything neatly colored in before moving onto learning to shade- and do this on all your figures in the box before you buy any more!

3: hey kiddo- less paint on brush=more control! Only put a little paint on your brush, scrape off blobs onto the lip inside the pot and touch the brush to kitchen towel to soak up excess moisture that could flood your models details. You tell the paint where to go... Not the other way around!

4: hey Kid- to steady your hands put elbows on table, lock palms together, breathe out and hold your breath as you slowly stroke the brush. Dont forget to breathe afterwards.

5: kidster- hey dont worry if you make a mess and it does not look anywhere as good as the eavy metal ones... You can always strip the paint off with dettol and try again and again til your happy!

What would your five tips be?

How to get ahead

Hey folks, just a quickie to show off my latest arrival... One eighth of The Citadel Giant!



I have him here next to a C28 giant head for scale. Solid lead alloy- It is really, really heavy!
I picked him up on a whim from ebay seller DaveT. Cheers Dave!

I was tempted to base a dwarf on his head, but considering there are less than 1000 of these on the planet I cannot bring myself to drill pin holes in him. I think I will paint him and make a fancy display mount for it to rest on- that is, until I gather all the other pieces.



Oh and five boxes of various and sundry fender washers arrived since last post. Nearly bust a gut lugging these from the post office. Very pleased with them- they are super thin and have tiny holes- I could not resist basing up a Bob Olley Ral Partha ghoul and am greatly satisfied. Probably more satisfied with a washer than any man in history now I think about it.

Enjoy the head.

Zzap! Blanchitsu

Ah, dear readers- fancy meeting you all you here. Well, while I have you have a peek at these...



Citadel, sister of battle, nurgle marine and early chaos broo.


Its just a quick iphone pic, I am rejigging the room to include a permanent light box above my desk, hopefully better images after thats done.
So as you can see they are a liiiiiiitle bit inspired by John Blanche. It was killer fun to loosen up and treat the surface like a canvas- scrunching and scratching thinned paint with a little retarder to get the dirty look we so love about Blanchitsu.



All this early JB miniature reference has really opened up some new doors for me- its okay to be whacky and make things from pure fantasy and whim. I am enjoying the hobby again after a little downturn!
Cheers JB!



Oh, and I also made one of these tonight, its a static grass applicator made from an electric fly swat. It works a treat. Search on youtube for instructions (and safety warnings) and takes twenty minutes to make.
I am going to make a couple of tweaks- a nylon screw cup with a protective ridge to stop any chance of contact.
I made some tufts using weldbond and a metallic sheet. Easy!

Prime time

Aha! After a dreadfully overcast week a single hour of clear skies allowed me a quick priming session. I thought you all might enjoy picking through the pictures to see whats there!



Its a real mixed bag of beauties from Ral Partha, Guild of Harmony, Hasslefree, Grenadier, Reaper and of course lovely, lovely citadel classics!
A big shout out to ebay seller partytree whose friar you can see at the top right- very cool to finally get this piece after a few years of hunting!

Speaking of shout outs, check out the awesome new blog...

http://www.thecitadelcollector.co.uk/

Its full of blanchey goodness and lead wisdom. Like this stuff...









Looooooooovvvvvvvveeeee!

Check it out!

Blanchead progress

Okay some crappy iphone pictures via blogpress will have to suffice, but here is some of the stuff I was talking about yesterday.
First a total and utter homage on John Blanched Psychotic head monster... I did a smaller version using a Reaper Hooked Horror and Orc.


This is a WIP of the uber rare citadel Chaos Demon which I reconstructed by rethreading each joint with wire. Took ages but... look, a seven dollar rarity!
I ripped the colors directly from the six amazingly characterful chaos spawn Steve posted.

Next up, Snow white and the seven chaos dwarves- mid way through rebasing and repainting to the metallic blues and cold flesh on The Master of Madness. Here is a closer look at his work in progress, along with a chaos sorceress and a really old ral partha figure.

I am really loving how the muted but warm soil colors pop the color out, I flecked in tints of other colors to add interest like Frank Frazetta and started to add puddles of foul water and twisted roots - this could be my new themes!
Lots more crazy chaos spawn and John Blanche homages on the table, but right now its time for bed!

Back to base-ics

Greeting Lead Pilers. After an exhausting week I decided to treat myself to a little free form hobby time. Lately what with sculpting commissions and Bederken back end stuff during working hours, an hour on Skulldred per day and blocking color or rebasing my leadpile I was getting a little burnt out.
I realized I had not had a chance for creativity or exploration for a while. I dont do factory robot well. Time to recharge a bit!
With last weeks John Blanche mini bonanza fresh in mind, I kicked off my minijazz jam doing a few totally whacky conversions by raiding the broken lead pile and slicing up a fair few reaper doubles/triples laying about. Real realm of chaos stupidity- but I loved it! I want to paint them in his style and perhaps do some banners before I post so you get maximum impact!

I also experimented with basing using washers to give an even more old school feel. Coins in australia have grooves around the outside making them a little unsightly without a damn good filing, so I went with fender washers (we call them mudguard washers downunder).
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed washer basing, and love the low profile looks. Placed side by side, the 30mm lipped slottas on magnet stickers look terribly huge and clunky, especially when placed on terrain.
That puts me in a bit of a quandary. Do I rebase?

Well, I decided the best thing to do was base up a warband or two that I had not based yet to give myself a feeling of progression. Rebasing a twice-rebased model is a bit like being stuck in a hobby limbo. This way I could play around with the style and have two new warbands to play skulldred with.

Having read everything google coughed up on the subject of washer basing I found a few techniques I prefer and modified them using my choice of materials.

Daves kooky experiments and resulting tips:

First, I found paint adhered better if I attacked the edges with a sanding block first. I suspect oil and the nickel coating.

Second, I tried pre priming the washers with several coats of car body black gloss enamel spray can gave a tougher finish than acrylic. It would not be good for priming minis, so I did this before basing.

Third, stretching thin black insulation tape across the bottom of the base before gluing stuff on top with superglue worked well- if you leave it on it protects the underside and table surfaces from scratching, looks neat when you flip the model on its side and does not alter the profile or magnetics.

Fourth, adding baking soda to my scatter gives finer texture, acts like a filler and helps cement the model in. Makes the model seem more in scale than my previous grit! Thanks to Mr Blanche for that top tip!

Fifth, 5 minute cure epoxy is brilliant for filling washer holes and blending figures into base. I use shelleys knead it but procreate stick putty is also great. Wear gloves! No overnight cure and waaaay cheaper than kneadatite- plus you can build up raised rocks, trees stumps, ruins and it carves easily. No good for fine sculpting, but its my new best friend for blocking stuff in!

Six, 30mm fender washers occupy the same space as a 30mm lipped base, but you can fit a bigger range of figures on them- for example, Bob Olley's Fireteam crusaders with long stances fit perfectly, reaper trolls that would usually need 40mm bases often fit.

Seven. Take a magnet to the hardware store to check the washers. I had a mixed batch and a few needed more iron in their diet.

Eight. There is no tip number eight.

Nine. Good pliers are a must for slotta tags. Craft store ones bend too much to exert pressure to crush the tab, but my 'good' pliers let me crush the tab and bend it til it forms the a flat base to attach the model!

Tip eleventy. Washer basing forces you to varnish your models well!

Pics next time! Anyone else got washer tricks and tips?

My god... its full of Blanche...

Thanks so far for the Blanch-athon, and its turning up GOLD.  GOLD I tells Ye.  Keep them coming everyone, and I will do plenty of homage minis!

Here is some direct links to Steve Caseys Photos for you all to worship- I posted these first because many have not been seen before.  Some appear in Ratspike and WD, but at different angles.  Mr Casey, your mission is to photograph the rest!

I will now attempt to ID some of the parts and tell you where to get them!

Converted Asgard Dragon Lizard (Available from Viking Forge)

Aly Morrison Samurai Conversion

Citadel Dwarf Sorcerer

I am pretty sure the torso and legs are from Ral Partha Ogre with club (here)

 I

I See body a from a Ral Partha demon (here) and a face from a Ral Partha Jabberwock (Here)

Ral Partha Cyclops  (Buy here)

Space ranger (I have this guy) plus wolf- please ID the wolf and I will do this conversion!

Super smooth blending!  Awesome.

Run away!!!  Fantastic planet.

No idea.

Frikkin awesome alien!!!

Possibly some trolls in there?

Uh... tail looks familliar.... anyone?

Unknown

Unknown

Ral Partha Frost Giant

Ral Partha 13-002 Hill giant?  Foundry Elephant?

Rogue Trader Dreadnought

Citadel FF Balrog

Citadel George The Giant

Defies... uh... what was I saying?  What?

I uh... what was I saying... Oh look!  Boobs.  Uh....

Now fans of this diorama may like what I am cooking up here- I have hunted down most of the figures and am constructing warbands painted to match.  Yep.
Anyway, Thantsants wanted to know what the sorcerer blasting the door was... and no, he is not a citadel miniature.  He is actually a Ral Partha (now Iron Wind Metals) Wraith sculpted by Tom Meier.  You can still buy it here along with some mates...

Wraith (blasting door)
Samurai Liche (halfway across diorama)

Guys on hill- Citadel Chaos Warriors, not undead!
Bottom right, FA Antipaladin.  FT skeletons and mummies from FFfor the most part.

Now the guy on the hill is a tricky one.  He is actually a preslotta chaos warrior from citadel, as is his general lower down on the hill.  You will also find a Ral Partha rip off of that character (here), it has a weaker pose, less detail and different sleeves, but is close enough!



As promised, the links from other images...

Tears of Envy
Gothic Punk
Marienburg Gazette
Spyglassasylum

From world of Zhu- Converted LOTR Orc

Well more minis from me next week- in the meantime, keep yur blanchy links coming and I will post them up for everyone to oogle.

Ciao

John Blanche minis

God I just love his painterly mini style and twisted conversions! I have been collecting images lately and just cannot seem to find enough. I have ratspike, Heroes for wargames, blachitsu pdf on orc bikers, skaven imperial guard book, inquisitor and white dwarfs from the 1980s and have googled like mad to find more. What I really want is black library to do a Blanchitsu book just showing grids of picture after picture of JB works from 1980 through to today and do a video time lapse of him working!
Shall we start a petition?

Here are some I have gathered so far- apologies for not crediting the sources and linking back- I will correct that shortly when I have a moment to refind them but for now I am on my iphone and it does not let me store data with each... enjoy.






















I have lots more, but if anyone can point me to WD issues with his work, sites etc I would love it!


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