Time for an update!

So, it's been a few weeks since my last post. But I haven't been idle. (Just lazy with posting... My apologies!)
Time to catch up. What have I been up to?
Mostly, I've been spending my hobby time experimenting with the airbrush and finding it quite entertaining.
Here are some of the projects I've been working on, most are an excuse to get time in with the airbrush, get used to things.

A Zero:

 This plane is a trial run for the J7W1 Shinden kit that I have. I want to get colours and techniques sorted out before I start on that kit. At this stage it needs decals and brushpainted details.

To keep in the Japanese theme, I've also been slowly but surely working on a 90mm display model of a female Samurai. With this one I'm taking my time as I want this one to be display-worthy, not just a throwaway practice project. The model and subject simply deserves it. To that end, I've also made a (simple) display plinth for her:

(As you can see in the background, I also hammered out a quick squad of Necrons for 40K/=I=Munda skirmishes.)
The lady Samurai has also reached the brush-painting stage this weekend, so I'll be spending some time with her on the painting desk over the next couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to the final result, but I'm not willing to rush the model. Best take my time for optimum result. With this model I've really discovered the joys of Blu Tac masking.

The final (current) airbrush experiment has been a Warhammer 40K Eldar Vyper. I don't play Eldar, or own any more models of them beyond this one. I just got this one once from someone who knew I was "into that Warhammers stuff", and maybe I could do something with it. So a good excuse to tackle a model and a colour I wouldn't quickly choose for other projects:

Main lessons from this one: Airbrushing is really, really cool (but that's really a lesson learned from all these projects!), have the patience to wait for things to dry, and don't remove masking until you're ready to either stop painting or can safely put the masked item aside from any overspray....

I've also been building some Deffkoptas and painting another trio of Meganobz for my Ork army.

And with the weather being as nice as it is the last few weeks, I've also taken the occasional night off for some late night flame staring sessions:

I've missed out on Militracks this year, due to budgetary and planning constraints, but will be sure to rectify that next year!

What is in the project qeue after these? 
There is still a piece of Necromunda terrain to airbrush the base colours on, my Goliath gang needs finishing, I'd like to do some more on my Orks, especially the Stompa is starting it's siren call for the airbrush... I still want to build a skimmer boat inspired by the Mare Solum facebook group (an alternate Necromunda setting, placed on an ocean world, really intriguing stuff!). And I have a pair of larger scale Battletech/Macross robot kits that I'd like to paint. GW has announced Adeptus Titanicus for August and the models are looking mighty appealing.
Plus I'm still combing through my stockpile for quick projects that allow me more airbrush practice...
Whew! I need longer weekends!

Here we are, all caught up...

See you next time!

The arrival of loot

This is a loot-themed post...

First, a real-life bit of "loot" arrived. A while ago, I impulse-bought a Geralt of Rivia (of the Witcher game and book series), I came across it at a price I couldn't resist, and pulled the trigger before thinking twice.
Here's the man himself:

 

If he seems a bit moist in this picture, that is correct. As a second-hand, he was missing his box and had been wrapped in bubblewrap for transit. This, as well as the mandhandling he received during his travel by post resulted in some warping of the figure: The sword on his back was bow-shaped and the one in his hands seemed distinctly noodle-like. Luckily some hot water allowed me to reset everything to its intended shape. This picture was taken right after his form-correcting bath...

It's a very good figure, with only a few flaws: the mould-lines that were left unremoved and the misplacement of the eye decals, making Gerald distinctly cross-eyed. I'm going to enjoy him in his unmodified state for a few days/weeks as I debate wether or not to go ahead on a full repaint.

The other loot is more gaming related. A while back, I ordered some sets of fantasy coins to use as in-game currency for, for example, tabletop RPGS or my own idea for Questing/Chivalry based fantasy skirmishing. These coins can accomodate a range of wealth from the daily loaf of bread costing a copper bit, up to major purchases using an impressively large golden coin. But as adventurers have a tendency to end up ludicrously wealthy (especially in things like D&D) and like their wealth portable, I needed a way to represent even greater riches. In come precious stones...
Another cheap online purchase:

In this picture you can see a few of them. (for reference, the largest coins in the pictures are about an inch across).

Unfortunately, the glass jewels came with that typical silvered backing, that I'm now trying to remove.
Apparently, a mix of salt and vinegar should work, but I'm not yet seeing much effect:

If this fails, it's on to sterner measures, and I'll see if the same oven cleaner I used on my Gaslands Hotwheels will have a similar effect on these gems silvery coating...

See you next time!

Loot!

Still painting Dreadfleet terrain (at the current rate, I expect my next post to display all the painted islands), but to today a package arrived:

My Nilfgaard and Northern Kingdoms Gwent set!

And the contents. The same nice quality and lovely art that the previous release (Monsters and Scoia'Tael deck) had. A nice touch was the inclusion of the Cow/Bovine Defense Force cards. The only shame about it is that they didn't also include those to add to the previously released decks as well, or offered you the option of ordering them separately for them.

This latest delivery means I now have all four decks:

I can't wait to try them out against each other!


Anyway, that concludes this intermezzo, now it's back to painting Dreadfleet/Man O'War and binge watching Black Sails for me...

See you next time!

The Cake is a lie...

As I said in my previous post, I've been painting a couple of portals for a friend.
Normally I don't show stuff I paint for others online before the new owner receives it as a matter of courtesy, but Johan gave the go-ahead to show these off early. Per request the portals were painted in blue and yellow, in reference to a certain PC game that deceives you with regards to baked goods. ;)
The stonework was left more subdued.

So, thank you Johan, for letting me paint these and show them off early, I'll get them to you soon! :)

Going deeper underground

The display backdrop for my wife her Warhammer Quest set is done!
I installed it into the cabinet today, and presented it to her.

Naturally I also shot some pics of it for you folks...
The first pic is with flash, the second without. I'm presenting both as I like how the pic with flash looks more like the bright cartoony style Warhammer Quest has in it's presentation and miniature painting. Whereas the pic without flash best shows off the colours and mood of it, and shows the more "modern" pallet and style of many dungeon games.

With Retro-Flash Tech:

And without flash, in modern Gritty-Punk-O-Vision:

I haven't yet set the heroes on the outdoor section yet, as the glue in the flock still needs to dry properly.
She's happy (though she scared my by saying: "Nice, now do the rest of the cabinet as well."), I'm happy.
I'm looking forward to switching off the display lights tonight, I want to see how the glow-in-the-dark shrooms in the cave will do. :D

See you next time!

Mercenary Terraformer

For the past couple of weeks, behind the scenes I've been working on some terrain. A while back a friend mentioned he could use some more scenery, but lacked the skills and materials. Now I had the skills and materials, but could use some more hobby budget. We soon came to a mutually beneficial understanding. ;-)

He was looking for some rock formations. After some exchange of ideas we settled on a group of rocky hills and a stone circle. As I delivered the finished product today, I can now share the pics with the world. (When I make something for someone else it's my rule that the new owner gets to see it first.)

So, here is a pic-dump of the construction process for you to enjoy:

A change of gears.

I've done a bit of painting on the Warhammer Quest display backdrop, but a combination of the size and extent of the paintjob on it, as well as some real life worries had me lose steam for a bit, hobbywise. As a result the backdrop project just became this massive beast, staring me in the face, making me lose heart.
So I decided to change gears for a bit, and just pick up a random project on a whim. Clear the palate as it were. I wanted to do something none-fantasy, but not grimdark (I felt like I had enough doom and gloom on my plate already...). Something small and easily finished.
I had a look over my stacks of mini's ready to paint and WIP (I have an archival drawer cabinet with minis from various projects that are either WIP, primered or ready for primer. I tend to switch gears a lot usually, and this is my way of accomodating my hobby-butterfly tendencies).
My eye fell on my partly painted Appleseed Landmate conversion from a couple of years ago...

At the time painting on it had stalled out, because, well, painting that much white neatly was an absolute bugbear. Luckily, this time I knew what I was in for (and had nearly half a decade more painting experience under my belt). The trick to painting white is accepting it will take a bazillion layers...

Anyway, here is the result:

And the anterior:

In the end, it turned out a little lighter/brighter than his buddy I painted years ago:

(Old one on the left, new paint in the centre, and Special Ops Landmate on the right.)

Here's a pic of the whole gang as it stands now:

The SWAT team in the background isn't formally part of the Appleseed project (they're painted in the colours and markings of the Arrestatieteam, the Dutch equivalent of SWAT), but as they're carrying futuristic gear anyway, they might as well be co-opted.

With him, all my law enforcement Landmates are painted. On the to-paint tray are still 3 opposing force Landmates and 9 Bubblegum Crisis "Boomer" miniatures that need converting into combat cyborgs. When I'll do those minis? I don't know.
I had intended this mini to be a single painting project, to reboot the mojo, but I've finally watched Appleseed Alpha ("for research") and am currently rereading the manga, and it's drawing me in again. So this project may just have a longer breath than I had planned.
I also discovered that the particular Infinity models I used for these conversions are being replaced with a newer sculpt that isn't compatible with the looks of these (It's a nice sculpt, but there's just not enough of the classic Guges in it). So I kinda, sorta, somewhat quickly ordered an extra one, to convert into a support Landmate with an Anti-Landmate Sniper rifle.

There's still plenty on the wish list for this project, with the top picks being; a Landmate for Briareos, suitable clean sci-fi terrain, and most importantly, a ruleset that does what I want from Appleseed style gaming.
After that it's just tasties: more (varied) opposing force, some vehicles, civillians...
But there's not much of a priority on that, because as far as I know I don't have anyone to actually game this with... It's mainly just a modelling project and homage to Appleseed. But who knows, if I get enough finished I may just draw someone in?

See you next time!

Blacked out...

Sunday I spent making the extra detailing for the display unit; Sconces for torches, some candles for the niches in the lower corridor, the doors and trapdoor and a set of iron rings to go into a wall somewhere.

Which means that I had everything ready for primer!
The little bits will be sprayed, I just have to wait until the rain lets up long enough.
Because the corridors are mainly made from various forms of foam, I couldn't spray them, so they got handpainted with a PVA/black paint mix, slightly diluted down. Here is the result, still drying as I type:

Now that it's finally all a single colour, it's great to see how all the different materials give a nice variety of textures and surfaces. I'm well pleased so far!

Now just to leave this to dry for a couple of days and then find the time to paint this behemoth...
As an extension of this, I'm also thinking about dungeon terrain again, I've got lots to think about on that subject. If I can, I'll write something up about it.

See you soon!

Flooring it!

I had the house to myself today, so I decided to make a mess... :D

After a gentle nudge from Harry over on Warseer, I had to agree it was high time to continue work on the display backdrop for my wifes Warhammer Quest set. If I am to finish painting it, I'll need both a boost to motivation and room to put the finished minis, as the allotted shelf is slowly filling up. Warhammer Quest is a big set!

I still needed to do part of the flooring on the dungeon corridors. (In fact, the entire centre level of the display needed its flooring done!) So, that's what I did today:

More photos and words after the break.

Catching up (Aka Loot-tober)

So, what have I been up to the last couple of weeks?

Well, reading, as my copy of Badab War arrived:

I've wanted these books ever since they came out, but just couldn't justify the price tag. But recently, as I was browsing the Forgeworld site, I saw that the price had come way down, I guess because the rules inside are now several editions out of date. As I mainly wanted it for the background and decidedly less for the rules this doesn't bother me, so I struck.

A while ago my son expressed interest in painting a mini. The past two weekends we spent an afternoon painting together, teaching him the basics of basecoat, drybrushing and washes.
As I didn't want to paint anything involved while doing this I started on some Deathwing terminators from Dark Vengeance (Yeah, I know, the fact that I don't consider Deathwing terminators involved panting-wise should worry me).
I don't have a Dark Angels army, nor an interest in starting one, but they are useable in Space Hulk and I could put them down whenever I needed to help out or advise my son while painting.
For him I prepped a few spare miniatures (a Chaos warrior, Space Marine, Lizardman and an Ork), being an 11 year-old boy, he chose the Space Marine... :D
He actually impressed me with the focus, attention and calm he was painting with (especially as he has ADHD) and the result is quite nice for a first mini:

A proud parent am I....
After this first taste, he seems to be interested in doing more. Not going to push him on it, we'll see where it goes.

Also, my Gwent decks from the Witcher 3 expansion arrived:

For those that don't know. the Witcher 3 is an open-world fantasy RPG for the PC based on the world/setting of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher novels. Unsurprisingly it is the third part of the series of games...
Gwent is a (mini-)game within the game, that has become quite loved and popular (with people making emulators to play it outside of the Witcher game and even some making physical cards to play it in real life).
It's quite a fun game, each player builds a deck, of which he draws ten cards for a game. Each card has a value, you play over three rounds, the highest total score when both players pass wins the round, the first player to win two rounds wins the game. You don't replenish cards between the rounds so there is a fair bit of strategy to determine what cards to play, which to hold in reserve for a next round and when to pass. Certain cards mess can influence your strategy even more by either modifying the value of cards or removing/recycling cards from your or your opponents hand. This man on youtube can give you a beginners tutorial.
 The collector's edition of the game contained two of the four decks (I didn't get it, it was too expensive for me at the time of release), but the first expansion allowed one to order the other two decks. I'm hoping the second expansion will allow me a second chance to get the first two decks as well and complete the set.
I'm looking forward to playing this with a real live human.

Yesterday I went to Crisis, a Belgian wargaming show hosted by the Tin Soldiers Of Antwerp. A great show, especially now that they seem to have settled into their new venue quite comfortably.
As usual lots of great and good-looking demos and participation games, nice and friendly traders with a good mix and diversity of products and ranges and a well-run bring and buy. (Though I couldn't buy much at her stand, due to previously reserved funds, I especially enjoyed the visit to the Dice Bag Lady. Cheerful and friendly service and I quite appreciate her intention and effort to find and promote miniatures of women that are sensibly equipped/dressed and capable. While I enjoy the occasional cheesecake, I have set myself  a goal of making my collection of Dungeoneering/Fantasy heroes as gender-equal as possible and found myself surprised at how difficult that actually turns out to be.)
The bring and buy, while always good, had an unexpected treat for me this year, as I managed to snag a very good condition copy of the Realm of Chaos- Slaves to Darkness hardcover for a mere €25, whereas it usually goes for a princely sum on Ebay. Now I can only hope to have similar luck someday with the companion book, the Lost and the Damned, which usually goes for even sillier money online...
On the miniatures end of Crisis, I acquired a wizard and apprentice from Frostgrave (Sigilist as I like the minis, not sure if I'll actually use them in Frostgrave or for something else entirely. I'm somewhat eyeing an Elementalist for Frostgrave with regards to spell selection) as well as the populations and livestock for a medieval/fantasy village through Foundry and Warbases:

So now I'll have to (re)research appropriate colours for medieval livestock and village buildings before I build and paint them. Maybe I'll even have to rewatch Tales from the Green Valley again...
Ah, the toils of knowledge... ;P

I kept a little bit of cash set aside for things that I wanted to get, but weren't available at the show itself, which I've now ordered online.
Even though it's in November, the visit to Crisis wonderfully concluded what I've come to think of as Loot-tober this year as, in addition to the above, this month also saw the Heresy monsters Kickstarter delivered, along with the last set of coins from a coin Kickstarter. :D
It also effectively concludes my hobby purchases for this year, aside from a little bit of currency reserved for a Kickstarter I know is coming in december (Late 14th/early 15th century styled armoured halflings, I just can't resist!), I'll talk more about that when it starts.

See you next time!

Plains of glass

A couple of months ago (wow, time flies) I got an extra set of glass shelves for my display cabinet, as it was slowly getting crowded.
This weekend I finally added those extra shelves to the cabinet.
For that I needed to drill extra holes to support the shelves. While I originally hoped I could do this in situ, after clearing the mini's out of the display cabinet, it quickly became obvious this would be impossible, there simply wasn't room to move a drill about and the risk of shattering the glass was too great.
So, with the aid of my loving and patient wife and son, I completely disassembled the entire thing, drilled all the holes, and proceeded to reassemble the whole contraption... I took the opportunity to properly clean it out as well, as now I could get to every last nook and cranny.
There was a moment of confusion when, instead of having parts left over as usual when assembling furniture, I had to feed extra components into the heaving mass of proto-furniture. But we overcame that and all was well.
I had a few scares when reinserting the glass shelves: Because the shelves were closer together, and there were more of them, I had more nasty little metal pegs to maneuver around, the occasional unexpected tink of impact causing me to freeze nervously. In the end, nothing broke, except a sweat, and I now have a shiny, roomier display cabinet:

I believe this is the largest conversion I've made to date. ;P

Next on the schedule is to repopulate it with my miniatures and arrange them in such a way that I can safeguard for future expansion, as I will not be undertaking the adding of shelves again!
I'm hoping I can do that over the next couple of days. Currently all my miniatures are clumped together in the old display units, which will be handed of to my sister for her hobby stuff, once I've emptied them out again. Here they are, all base-to-base in the largest inter-setting, inter-range and inter-scale melee ever:

Not really a way to do justice to lovingly assembled, converted and painted figures, is it? I'd better free them soon.

See you next time!

All in all, you're just another...

... brick in the wall.
Tiny foam ones, that is. This weekend the lad is out on a sleepover trip, the misses is meeting up with friends, so I've designated this "Terrain Weekend".
Specifically, I wanted to work on the scenic background I'm building for my wife's Warhammer Quest collection.. I had one section of corridor I still needed to do the walls for. Inspired by JimBibbly's excellent Castle Blackwolf thread on the Lead Adventure Forum I decided to try my hand at bricklaying. As I wanted the wall to look roughshod and crudely made, I opted not to measure or use a ruler when cutting, but to just cut by eye and feel. I'm glad I did, the results look nice and "rustic" (aka dilapidated and unsafe...):

Here is how the entire thing looks at the moment:

I've still got a fair  bit to go before I can paint this beast (I should have included a mini for scale, come to think of it). Here's what I still need to do:
-Sculpt some (semi-round) tree trunks for the upper left area, to give the impression that the cave entrance is in the middle of a forest.
-Add floors to the centre corridor sections (the left one, with the large stone blocks gets a dirt floor, the centre one a tiled one, maybe even a mozaic, the right one gets worn plank flooring).
-Detail all of it (floors, furnishings, dirt and debris, small little touches). This may potentially be the most time-consuming step yet....
-Seal all the solvent-vulnerable materials and primer the thing!

Sunday update:
I got some work done on the trees, but I ran out of greenstuff and daylight...
Here's where I got:

The leftmost tree still needs to get it's wire branches reinforced with greenstuff. After that the trees can get a bark texture (still need to figure out how...). Nothing of it is glued in place at the moment, I want to attempt to paint a scenic backdrop on the rear wall. Hopefully I can achieve the effect that the 3d trees are merely the nearest ones of a larger forest. If not, I'll just have to cover up the entire rear wall with trees...

Faith and Fury

Remember that WIP shield I showed when I finished my skeleton spearmen?
Well, it's done, and so is it's owner.

I present to you, Hieronymus Lightbringer, Paladin Solar:

Hieronymus, as a Paladin*, has dedicated himself to the concept of the Sun as representation and symbol of the Light Divine. Hence the sun in splendour on his shield.

The miniature was originally a Paladin of Menoth from Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms Miniature line. I filed away all his Menoth-specific details and removed his chimney-like helmet. The latter I replaced with the top half of a bare head from the GW plastic Bretonnian knights sprue.

To prevent confusion about what he is I wanted to stay clear from the tradional Menoth colours, but still get a sense of purity and faith. To achieve this I went for clean, shining metal, blue and (off)white as a contrast colour. 
The mini really demanded I took my time highlighting and shading his armour to prevent him just looking like a lump of metal, and to really emphasize his bulk and weight.
I'm quite pleased with how he turned out. Especially when sat next to the rest of my heroes. He looks like a tank, and then there is the ludicrously heavy/large sword. He's clearly got to have more than mere human muscle and determination driving him to be even moving around, let alone fight as vigorously as he looks to be doing!

Speaking of the rest of my heroes, here is a little shot of the collection as it stands now:

As you can see, the shelf is getting somewhat crowded... And I'm not nearly finished with this!
I'll need to re-arrange my display cabinet at some point, or find a way to add extra shelves to it...

*: A little background note: In my (as yet loosely defined) personal fantasy/chivalry setting Paladins are not really a religion or Order in the strictest sense. Paladins are holy, spiritual warriors who take one concept, often an abstract or esoteric one, from their religion or the chivalric ideals and dedicate their entire being to it. They are Knight-Mystics who channel the divine in their fighting skills. Most, if not all of them are wandering ascetics. They serve no lord but their own ideals and their otherworldly patrons/inspirations. As much apart from Knights as Knights stand apart from the peasantry, they are universally considered beings of awe and wonder.

The New Faith views them with some doubt and reservation as, while their ideals are pure and wholesome and they inspire piety and good in others, their practices and beliefs are often almost shamanic, at times borderline paganistic…

Spring cleaning and glamour shots

I've been fiddling about with the blog a little bit.
For a while now I felt the header image I am using didn't really fit the blog anymore. While I like the Crimson Skies plane, I haven't done anything Crimson Skies related for quite some time.
Since I was taking pics of my Knight and retinue anyway, and I seem to be on a fantasy streak for some time now, I thought I might as well update the header.

I also altered the title text colour on the blog to match that of the header. This one is a bit more cheerful, and higher in contrast. I found I was regularly squinting and tilting my head to read the red on gray when I was on my laptop, especially in outside light. That should be fixed now... ;-)
 Maybe I'll fiddle some more in the coming days/weeks, I'm still undecided if this is overhaul enough.

Anyway, on to the meat and bones of this post.
I took some time to set up a few proper shots of my Knight and his newly finished retinue.
Enjoy!

Down the hall, on your left.

What could this be? Is Modhail building dungeon terrain?

A new home for my miniatures...

No, I'm not selling off my collection, or anything that dramatic!
I got a new display cabinet.

The current (previous?) cabinet was full to (beyond) overflowing, and has been for a while.
In fact, I couldn't fit in the new miniatures I painted during the last three years or so, maybe even longer.
And that was with the least played army in storage in boxes.
So, my recently painted miniatured have had to suffer the indignity of having to linger on my painting table, or get ignominiously stuffed back into the project trays and boxes they came from.
No longer!
Today I went to pick up the new display cabinet I found through an online marketplace.
It needs some cleaning up, having come from someone's storage, but then I'll be able to give all my painted mini's the space they deserve.
I'm a happy camper today.... :-)

Anyway, this was the old situation:

This pic is actually a few years old now, since then the Ork army has expanded to occupy three layers and the bottom two layers have been compressed together onto one plate. Pretty sad, isn't it?

And this is the new cabinet, I just need to give it a good clean and fill it up with my (and the misses') painted stuff:

 

 

Sexy, isn't it? Can't wait to get the lights hooked up and put my stuff in.

Have a nice weekend!