Turelio - Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts 7 - Thanks Colonel Shofer!

2012-02-13T21:19:00.002+11:00

A friend pointed out to me today that he was looking through Colonel Shofer's blog, and noticed that he had linked to the Puppet Wars Multiplayer opening I posted yesterday!

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to Colonel Shofer, and also welcome to anyone who has found this blog through his blog!

If you'd like to look at his blog, it is located HERE!

Things Get Opened - Puppet Wars Multiplayer Expansion

2012-02-12T15:33:00.000+11:00

Hooray! I'm back! Better late than never and so on...

This is a quick rundown of opening the multiplayer expansion for Puppet Wars. What it offers is a way to go from the two players in the main game to four, or alternatively gives you two alternate masters, and a few extra sidekicks to expand your toybox. It also provides some more counters so that should you have four people playing, you have enough counters in different colours in order to differentiate the four players workbenches ingame.

This is the way I glamorously unbox items... The back it similarly packed to a Malifaux crew box. So you get models, cards, counters, bases, and foam.

Bases. See them? Good. That's the least interesting thing aside from the foam in the box, so let's move on...

The minis! This box has two new masters (Pandora and Marcus), as well as four new sidekicks (Joss, Kade, Sebastian and Nino). So it's a boost for the four 'suited' factions, as well as providing masters to use for the same suited factions.

Out of interest, this is the comparison between the Malifaux and Puppet Wars Kade. They haven't shrunk down Kade even further. And for this, I'm very grateful.

Counters! Not much to look at, but they are necessary in an expansion letting you go from 2 to 4 players.

Cards! These are the fun bits for the models. I did find it funny that the Pandora puppet has probably just as many rules as the Malifaux one, and at the same time, still retains a similar style of play (Or motive of how she plays if you want to think of it that way). In fact, while going through the demo games of Puppet Wars, it's clear that the puppets have all retained similarities to their Malifaux counterparts. It will be interesting to see what other puppets come out in the future and how they work, especially the masters.

So that's it! Has anyone else played Puppet Wars yet, or used the expansion packs? What did you think of them?

Things Get Opened - Puppet Wars

2012-02-05T15:33:00.000+11:00

Better late than never! I picked up Puppet Wars and the multiplayer expansion just before the end of the year, and took some unboxing photos when I first opened it up.

For now, I'm going to go through the main box, and I'll do an opening of the multiplayer expansion later on...

This is the main box. Everyone drooled over the images when they were firs released, so I'm not going to go into too much detail on it.

Opening up the box, it's pretty well arranged, the rulebook and pattern book are on top of the board, which covers up the rest of the things that go with the game.

The rulebook and pattern book. One thing I would point out is that while it may make sense to read the rulebook and then the pattern book, in this case it is probably better to read the pattern book and then the rulebook. The rulebook goes through all the main rules, but the pattern book has a few introductory games that build on the rules slowly, so it does explain the game in a few easy games that slowly grow to include the full rule set.

These are the counters. The art quality is pretty good, however the card stock is a bit thinner than I have seen in other board games. I've seen worse, however these counters are meant to be used pretty often, so I would prefer something a bit harder wearing. Having said that, I'm sure that Wyrd were half expecting people to make their own counters for things (which they have been doing), so it's probably a case of them being aware of their fan base. I would point out that the box is made of the same card stock (If you've bought their crew boxes from Malifaux, it's the same type of card) so it seems rather thin for something that will be opened and closed a lot and is pretty commonly used.

The board! Now this, I really like. Nice art and very solid. The rules have details for making your own boards with squares instead of hexes, but I honestly really like this, so I wouldn't want to try to replace it myself. I'm quite fond of it.

This is the layout of the box. It's laid out pretty well for what is packed into it, but at the same time, things are going to be taken out, built etc., so a lot of the contents probably won't be going back into the box. Having said that, it also highlights a few other games on the market that don't put much thought into how the boxes are packed.

The puppet decks. They are basically Malifaux decks with the Puppet Wars artwork on them. They've been available for a while, so I'm not going to start opening them and so on.

Minis! And... temporary tattoos? Well, there are people getting Malifaux tattoos, so they've saved people some time there if they really like the puppet head logo.

Bases. A little bag full of them. They are slightly smaller than the Malifaux bases, and can actually sit into the top of the Malifaux lipped base in case you want to use these in a game. They are slightly textured on top similar to the GW bases, so that things to be stuck on top have something to grip to.

Counters! Again, some simple counters. I've got some plans to make my own counters for impassible counters, workbenches etc. I think it's another case of them knowing that their players are most likely going to make their own counters. These ones are functional enough to use, and can keep being used, but they aren't anything that can be replaced without a huge amount of fuss.

Cards, stats, and so forth. Pretty pictures, and the best thing is that Wyrd have clearly been keeping an eye on what their customers do to the Malifaux cards, so these come as plastic cards, ready for whiteboard marking. Considering the game uses a lot of counters to start with, this has actually cut down the possible loose items floating around the table and getting confused with other things.

Finally, the miniatures! As much as I love the twisted, warped nature of these models, they're so... cute! Deranged versions of the pre-existing models from the Malifaux range, but they are also adorable in a strange way. Like a care bear covered in razor blades...

Here's a few close-ups of the two masters included; Lady Justice and Seamus. Cute little blighters :D

As for the game itself, so far I've played the first two introductory games, and I really enjoy it! It's pretty similar to Malifaux in some ways, and in others there are some variations on the mechanics so that they are familiar enough to easily remember them, but different so that they can be distinguished.

Back from Cancon with a sack of loot!

2012-01-31T15:33:00.002+11:00

This Monday was a relaxing day for me: Since Wednesday, I have been in convention mode; running round getting stuff ready for the trip to Canberra, then helping friends out for stuff that was being taken to Cancon, and after getting back yesterday and crawling into bed around 2am, I woke up and have spent the day doing a bunch of small tasks, culminating with this blog post and a few others being prepared.

For those who haven't heard of it, Cancon is a convention held in Canberra, ACT in Australia. I went down to help some friends with a stand they were running, and also spend lots of money (In my usual "It's my first time at this con" routine). So what did I come back with? Well, this:

Want a closer look? Well, here you go! (Complete with photos of my only slightly clean rug...):

First up: Loot from Eureka! While I've been aware for the past few years that I'm able to pre-order and pick things up on the day, I tend to take my luck, and use the excuse to dig through the compartment boxes that the Eureka team bring along. There is something 'old style candy store' about it: Dig through the boxes, put the ones you want on a tray, then get the amount you owe them. This time I ended up with zombie pirates, skeleton pirates, lady pirates, mermaids, monkeys with guns, and a few others. I ended up doing two trips over the three days to get things from them.

Next up are a few books and models from one of the guys I knew there that was selling some things for some people he knew. I can't resist second hand books and grabbed a few, and also dug through a box of cheap minis there and found a few that I hadn't seen before: small female adventurer models for the archtypes - mages, dwarves, elves etc. I grabbed two different packs to have a look at and paint up at some point for fun. I also grabbed the third Dark Tower book. I haven't read the second yet, adn will get the third to match the series of covers I have, but I couldn't say no to an illustrated copy for $1!

I grabbed some Coat d'Arms paint from Olympian Games. These are the same formulation as the classic GW range, so I'm filling a few holes in my collection. I'm planning on trying these out soon and doing a write up for them on the blog to give my impressions.

While on the paint spree, I grabbed three VGC's from Hall of Heroes. I'm planning on expanding the number of paints I have this year, and considering that HoH carries the big lines, I'll be using them to enable this habit :D

At Aetherworks I grabbed a few magazines including some Game Force which are hard to come across, and a few of the Derivan Mini paints (Well, the paint aids they have in the range) that I thought I might try out at some point.

This was some of the stuff I grabbed from the Second hand stall on the last day: A few cheap old Warhammer books (For reference, I'm not getting back into the game), some Mucnhkin, and to feed my LOTR Eowyn habit, another Eowyn. I was a bit shocked to find out that one of my friends who was their found an OOP Eowyn in the same stall that I missed, but he's a better painter than me, so I know it will get a good paint job.

Mil Sims was another stop I made early on at the con, and grabbed some Munchkin things, as well as a Call of Cthulhu expansion. I like the card based games because they are easy to transport if needed (Even though my Munchkin collection is getting rather bulky).

Also feeding my collection to Munchkin and Cthulhu was Good Games. I forgot the Axe Cop version had come out, but grabbed it because I know how well the humour of the game and comic will mix. I also grabbed the Elder Sign for a lot less than I thought it would be, so that was a nice bonus!

More card games!This time from Games Paradise. I couldn't say no to more Cthulhu, a Jack the Ripper game, and more importantly, a game about throwing kittens in a blender. It's wrong, I know, but kind of wrong in the right ways...

This one was from Mind Games. When I got there it was 50% off, and after checking it wasn't a waste of time on BoardGameGeek I picked it up.

This was from another trip to the second hand stall. Retro goodness! I never thought I would see a boxed force of Eldar Epic models, and when I picked it up and found it was $6, I found the Ork one behind it. Grouped with the Man O War, these were looking to be my big wins of the trip, as I doubt I will see this kind of stuff for a while.

This one was the big win for me. Zepnix Games had some Rackham at good prices at their stall, and three packs of Pixie Tricksters! I only got one, but Pixie Tricksters are models I have been trying to get my hand son easily for the past two or three years! I found out back at the hotel that one of them was missing a hand, but I'm going to resculpt it at some point. A few ideas have already been suggested to me. Having said that, the one with the bottle is the one I really wanted, and that is a great cast, so all is good at the end of the day!

These are some Bederken models that Dave King had on hand, but weren't in blisters yet. I wanted this group mainly for the little familiar, but the other models are pretty cool as well. He had some other fun stuff there still in the green stuff phase, so I'm waiting for those to be cast up, as there are some awesome models he has handed over for casting!

Dice blanks from NASM. I've got plans for these... Yes, quite plans at the moment...

Speaking of dice, I bought two of the Cancon dice. They have dragons on them...

These were from the B24Flak stand. I hadn't seen their art before, but grabbed a T Shirt and a few art prints, including an awesome Wild Elf Mage looking character. I'd definitely like to convert and paint a miniature to look like her, but in the meantime it is incredible art, and I'm planning on getting some of his fantasy art shirts as well at some point.

And these T Shorts were from Storm Publishing. They had more Doctor Who shirts, but these were ones I really like (The Usual Suspects line up is a great idea) and I also like to Tolkien University short. I didn't notice till I got it home that there is also a nice Eye of Sauron and wing design on the back of it.

And last but not least, the Munchkin collection that accumulated this weekend. I need to get a few more games in. but luckily I know a few people that can help with that :D

12 for '12 - Things I Want To Watch

2012-01-26T15:33:00.002+11:00

Part Three of this collection (And the last, I promise) - 12 things I want to watch this year:

Alien Quadrilogy
A few nights ago, it was pointed out that it was (possibly) a huge nerd fail that I did not know what a Colonial Marine was, base on the fact I have only seen the first Alien movie, but none of the ones that come after it. Yeah, the first one was good, and there were some elements of it that I noticed which were really original and cool for when the movie was first made, but I never watched anything after the first one, even though I own the movie. This has to be addressed, possibly before Prometheus comes out.

Angel
Yep, the entire series. Yet another series I own and have not watched. Well, I watched the first four episodes or something like that, and then didn't get a chance to keep going. I was enjoying it, but after I started watching it, I ran out of time to keep going, so I dropped out. And I never saw any of it when it was on television. So, time to fix that...

Dorian Grey
This was a really good book, and I was waiting to see it at the movies. When it came out in Australia, I never saw anything about it being advertised or release information. I got the DVD, and every time I have planned to watch it, I get invited to catch up with friends or something like that. Dorian Grey needs to be watched.

The Predator Movies
By now, you have probably realised that there are a lot of things I should have seen, and have failed to see, but probably should have seen due to keep nerd status. I have seen the first Predator movie years ago, and have the second one and the recent Robert Rodriguez one (as well as the Alien Vs Predator films) but haven't watched them yet. Therefore, a Predator movie marathon is needed!

Pan's Labyrinth
Yeah, big film nerd fail. And his Hellboy movies are awesome. Problem with this one is that I want to watch it with the subtitles on, and whenever I get a chance to watch it, I'm trying to paint or something like that where subtitles are not a good option. I need to make time to watch this properly with the subtitles on and nothing else happening.

Lord Of The Rings Marathon!
OK, I have watched these films, I have watched them several times, and I have watched and own both the theatrical and extended versions. I don't have the Blu-Rays because I'm several years behind the times, but before The Hobbit comes out this year, I need to do an entire day of watching Lord Of The Rings in one sitting. It will require dedication, but I think something like November would be a good time for this so that I can get it done with time to relax before The Hobbit.

Monkey
The old TV series which is responsible for select parts of my education as a child, and seems so terrible when watched again. But there is a lot of charm in it still, and it is lots of fun. I haven't seen all of them, so I want to watch them all. I think though that it will be something spread out over a month or so of painting, as there are SO MANY EPISODES!

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
This is more of a film nerd fail before being a generalised nerd fail. I have the film, I need to watch it, and perhaps I can finally get rid of people making references to the movie near me and expecting me to pick up on what they are talking about.

The Godfather Trilogy
Again, a film nerd fail. I have seen the first one, and bought all three films about seven years ago. But, however, I have never seen the second and third films in the series. I really enjoyed the first film, and have heard that the films start to degrade in quality, however I am interested in seeing them, so I think that this year I have to watch them all, although possibly not a marathon.

Life On Mars
This one seemed interesting to me. Time travelling police with Bowie references and John Simm, so this cannot be bad. I know very little about the show itself, but have heard that it is fantastic. I think that this year I need to watch it before it is spoiled for me, because I have learned so little about it for so long, that sooner or later it is going spoiled for me.

Rome
Another show that looks fantastic (I think it is HBO, which has never let me down), and I have on;y seen one episode of. Time for a watch-a-rama, specifically with the two giant DVD sets I have sitting on the shelf looking impressive, but also completely useless, as I know very little about it. I'm assuming it's set it Rome though...

More Doctor Who
Yes, I'm waiting eagerly for the new series, but I've also started to go through all the older episodes, and they are a lot of fun. Specifically thanks to a friend I've become a Tom Baker fan, but on top of that, it's also letting me discover a lot of Douglas Adams' previous work, which is also fun for me. As well, I'd like to have a look at the Peter Cushing films that were done as well.

Other Things:

These are the other few things I'm looking forward to, but they aren't making it onto the list as they are one shots and things like that:
The Hobbit - Lord Of The Rings follow up/prequel! It's finally here in 12 short months! Part of me is looking forward to it, but at the same time, I know that it is not going to be over for another two years, so I'm a bit apprehensive about it.
The Dark Knight Rises - This is going to be cool. The trailer looks fantastic, and I'm really hoping that they follow through with the comics and break The Bat, especially after the news that the series will be rebooted with Nolan's help very shortly after. The first two movies have been incredible, and this is something I'm really looking to pick up the series even further.
Puss In Boots - It looks fun, but I have to see it soon before it leaves the cinema. Towards the end of the series, Puss was the best character in the Shrek series, and I think he would be capable of carrying a film on his own.
Dollhouse - Another series I've missed, but considering how badly TV shows are treated in Australia, I'm not surprised that I missed it. Having said that, the series is over now, so I have the advantage of not having to wait six months between series to see what happens next.

Random Thoughts 6 - Peter Cushing and his toy soldiers

2012-01-22T12:36:00.003+11:00

Came across this video yesterday thanks to a friend. Turns out Peter Cushing was a miniature enthusiast and played Little Wars (The HG Wells rules):

This guy killed Dracula (Among many other achievements). This hobby officially cannot get any more hardcore.

Things Get Painted - Men In Black

2012-01-21T15:33:00.000+11:00

These are some quick photos of a blister of Copplestone Casting Men In Black models I painted up with some friends a few weeks ago. The whole point of the night was to try to get some models churned out quickly to a decent to look at and use on the table standard. I was a bit relieved that I was able to get through all five miniatures to a usable point within about 6 hours, which is actually pretty quick for me.

After painting them, Andrew did a base up for them and finished them up with some Silfor grass tufts. He also went and repainted the hair (Because at midnight it looked good, but when viewed with rested eyes, the hair was no good) and a few other details which didn't turn out right, and is going to have the fully finished photos up on his blog at some point in the future.

Paint scheme steps that I can remember (Pretty basic):

Black undercoat

Flesh:
The first level had already been done when I got my hands on them, but I believe it was airbrushed Tamiya Flat Flesh. I then washed with Ogryn Flesh, then highlighted with Tallarn Flesh, then Tallarn Flesh and Dheneb Stone (1:1)

Shirts:
Base of Shadow Grey and Astronomican Grey (1:1), then highlighted with Astronomican Grey, and Astronomican Grey and Skull White (1:1)

Black clothes, shoes etc:
Base of Kommando Khaki and Chaos Black (1:2), highlighted with Kommando Khaki in sharp creased area, then washed with a mix of Chaos Black and Regal Blue (1:1)

Guns:
Chaos Black base, drybrushed with Boltgun Metal, and then washed with Badab Black

The hair was a few brown tones I had to hand as base coats, then added Astronomican Grey in for highlights, and washed with Devlan Mud.

The glasses were similar to the black cloth mix but using Regal Blue instead of Kommando Khaki, and no wash at the end.

12 for '12 - Things I Want To Paint

2012-01-16T15:33:00.000+11:00

Again, I reserve the right to change this list, but this is a brief look at what I want to get finished this year. Given how long I spend, this has the potential to be the biggest time sink, as watching movies and TV shows take less time than reading books, which are often even less time than painting miniatures. But we'll see how I go with this list:

Seamus Crew
This is a project I am working on at the moment. This has a bit of a time limit on it, as I need to get them finished for Cancon at the end of January. All I need to do is the Rotten Belles and the Madame, but they do have some details on them where I need to spend some attention on them. Also, lamposts. Although, they won't take nearly as long.

12 pieces of terrain
I needed a number. Twelve seemed to be a reasonable number and fit in. I have five fences in the works at the moment, however I also want to get some specific Malifaux terrain done up as well, and possibly also some counters for various effects and scenarios. I'll also have to finish off one of the Aetherworks houses I have here as well.

Smart Max
I have two of these models – The Opiumancer and Humpty & Dumpty. Once of them needs to be painted, and I would like to get one painted for May, hopefully for Auscon. At the same time, they are larger models in a scale I haven't painted before, as well as resin (Which I haven't painted before) so I'm sure it's going to be a learning experience.

Wyrd Nightmare Edition
I have a few of these, and while I would like to paint them all, I think I should focus on one at a time. I have a suspicion that I will end up painting the Nightmare Teddy, however at the last moment I could end up painting a Death Marshall from the Dead Justice box or something like that.

8 Puppet Wars minis
On the topic of Wyrd, I have Puppet Wars, and they have awesome creepy little puppet versions of the Malifaux minis. At the time of writing this, I have an Austringer ready to go (but no solid basing ideas), and am looking at doing a Guild themed group. Because of this, I would like to get an 8 model group painted up for gaming, so the Austringer is going to be followed pretty closely by Justice and a few other Guild specific puppets. Anyway, I would like to get at least 8 of them painted for gaming.

Alp/Grot/Halfling/Dwarf
Among the unpainted models on this desk at the moment are the above four models. The Halfling (A Victoria Miniatures model) and Dwarf (Mantic Games) are just undercoated at the moment, but the other two are close to being finished. I'd like to finish them to get them out of the way. I think one day I need to try and knock the Grot and Alp on the head and get them out of the way in one day to clear them out quickly.

Ork Nobz unit
I wanted to get these guys done up for GD 2011, but wasn't able to get the work done on them in time from start to finish, so I would like to get them done this year. It's actually a unit of seven, and I want them to be Space Hulk style Orks, as in Orks that have taken over a Hulk, so Imperial markings that have been torn down and things like that.

Chaos Knight Unit
Again, another GD entry, only this one is even older. The airbrush should help with these, and I am still deciding between a few different base styles, however all the ideas I come up with tend to be time intensive.

LOTR GD2012 entries
It was pointed out that after getting the LOTR golds in 2011, I need to defend the title again in 2012. So at some point I need to decide on and paint LOTR entries for Demons this year. I have a few ideas for what I want to do for group, but it depends what the specific rules for that category are. The same with single model – I have a few ideas, but I want to think about them a bit more to decide exactly what model I want to do for single.

Goblin/Monkey/Captain Jim Hawk
I have three models to do for my sister: The Goblin Pixie from Victoria Miniatures, the Reaper Monkey with Powder Barrel, and Jim Hawk from Shadowforge. Eventually I have to do these for her, but I would like to get at least one of these done for her this year.

Dragon
It's the year of the Dragon this year, and I haven't painted a dragon before, so I figured this year I would paint a dragon up. I have an old metal one that stand maybe two inches high (a little dragon) that I got with the plan to airbrush, so I may as well use this as motivation to do it up this time.

Other things that didn't make the list:
Orcs and Goblins – I'd like to get at least a unit of some kind painted for my Orc and Goblin army, so I might finish off a unit that I have in the works, or do some other form of unit.
Marines – I have elements of a Marine army, but none of them are painted. A friend signed me up for a hobby starter course as a joke, so I think I might follow through on it and use it as an excuse to paint up some of the marines.

Things Get Painted - GW Fences

2012-01-11T15:33:00.001+11:00

I have seen some pretty good examples of these fences done up in the past, and after deciding that I needed to get some scenery for Malifaux games and things like that, I realised that the $35 or so that GW Aus has these priced as is not as bad as some of the other models they have in their range. What I have below accounts for about half the box, and are all of the 'small' fences. There are also several fence sections about twice the size of these ones, and also two smaller signposts. However all of these will be left for another time, as these will suffice me for now.

I think that they came out OK. Most of the colours were done with drybrushing which for me is a nice change in terms of how much I can churn out in the space of a few hours. They were mainly done at a local GW store the first day of opening after the Christmas break for one of their giffle days. All in all, these took me about 6 hours I think, factoring in the time spent at the store, and the hour or so spent on them a few days later at home when I added a few details to get them finished. As for the painting steps used:

Black Undercoat

Wood (Trees and logs)
Base: Charadon Granite
H: Charadon Granite and Calthan Brown (1:1)
H: Calthan Brown
H: Calthan Brown and Bleached Bone
H: Bleached Bone

Wood (Fence pailings)
Base: Scorched Brown
H: Dark Flesh
H: Snakebite Leather
H: Kommando Khaki

Wood (Woven fences)
Base: Tausept Ochre
W: Devlan Mud
H: Tausept Ochre
H: Snakebite Leather
H: Snakebite Leather and Fortress Grey (1:1)

Stone
Base: Charadon Granite
H: Adeptus Battlegrey
H: Codex Grey
H: Fortress Grey
H: Skull White
Gryphonne Sepia and Thraka Green washes applied to random bricks and stones

Gold
Base: Scorched Brown and Shining Gold (1:1)
H: Shining Gold
H: Shining Gold and Mithril Silver (1:1)
H: Mithril Silver

Metal
Base: Chaos Black
H: Chainmail
W: Devlan Mud

Green Wheel
Base: Orkhide Shade
H: Orkhide Shade and Bleached Bone
W: Devlan Mud

Grass and Goblin
Base: Knarloc Green
H: Knarloc Green and Bleached Bone (1:1)
H: Knarloc Green and Bleached Bone (1:2)
W: Gryphonne Sepia (Grass)
W: Deval Mud and Thraka Green (1:1) (Goblin)

Red Eyes:
Mechrite Red with a small amount of Golden Yellow

Teeth
Astronomican Grey

Base
Scorched Brown, then when dry covered with GW Scorched Grass

12 for '12 – Things I want to read

2012-01-06T15:33:00.001+11:00

The idea for this came from Andrew when I was talking to him the other day, and I tweaked it a bit, and then went overboard for a few items. So this is the first of three posts – another two are coming for things I want to paint and watch in 2012.

Also, because this is my blog, I'm pointing out these are some goals for 2012, but in no way are they actual resolutions. I also reserve the right to change these with little to no notice, claim I never wrote these, and refuse point blank to admit to the existence of this blog if things go bad.

So these are twelve things I want to read in 2012. Not all of these are single novels, and not all of them are things I haven't started reading already. But these are 12 things that at the end of 2012 I want to be able to say 'I have read'.

The Court of the Air – Stephen Hunt
A friend from work lent this to me a while ago, and I'm about 100 pages in. So far, it's a fun sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk story. I'm enjoying it, but am still having trouble finding time to get a chance to read it. So I do want to finish it. I'm also aware that there are some follow ups to the book, and the world seems rather larger than one book can encompass, so I would be interested to see where it leads.

The Stand – Stephen King
Again, another book I have yet to finish. I've been reading this for a few years on and off. It's taking me forever to get through, and while I really enjoy the story, the book itself is huge, and it's written in a style I seem to have a hard time reading through in a quick manner. It's not written in a bad way, it's just there are books that I find I can read really quickly, and others that drag on and on (The Foundation books is one I really think is a good example of this). At the moment, I have about 300 pages remaining in the book, I just have to knuckle down and finish it.

A Game of Thrones – George RR Martin
Again, this is another book I have started. Having said that, I only got about one chapter in, so when it comes time to read it, I'll start from the start again just to try to do it all in one hit. I've heard that the series is fantastic, and the show is meant to be great, but I want to read the books (Or at least the relevant ones) before I get to the show, so I want to get this out of the way early in the year.

The Drawing of the Three – Stephen King
Yay! Another King book! I want to read this to follow up The Gunslinger, as I really liked that book, and considering that a lot of people say it is the boring book in the series, I want to see what happens next. The first book itself was a strange one in that not much really happens, but it is written in a way that the tension keeps building to the point that you MUST KEEP READING because you want to see what the tension is building to.

Snuff – Terry Pratchett
I own the book. I got it the week it came out. I need to read it still. People who have read it told me it was good. They also berate me for not reading it yet. And I've been waiting for it. When I started reading the Discworld books, I wanted to see Rincewind in every story. However the more books I read, the more I see that Pratchett has managed to create a world where everything fits together, but he can still do several different genres within the one world. Admittedly, Sam Vimes was not my favourite character when I read the first book with him in it, but I've grown to really enjoy his character. The last book I read with him in it was Thud, and after the change he goes through in terms of character development, I'm looking forward to seeing how his character arc pans out.

Dexter is Delicious/Double Dexter – Jeff Lindsay
Another series I love is the Dexter series. I realised when I bought the last book, that I still hadn't read the previous book. So I have to get through both of these next year. And I can read them fairly quickly I have found, so I think I need to attack them in the middle of the year when things tend to pick up the pace, and I need quick breaks now and again.

Inheritance – Christopher Paolini
This is the final book in the Inheritance cycle. I enjoyed the previous three books (I hated the movie in terms of it only being good if you read the books to understand what was happening, and alienating those who didn't [As a side note, Jeremy Irons should be kept far away from films involving dragons...]). But this book is HUGE! Yes, it's large print, but it is still an intimidating prospect to get through, and can't travel easily, so it's a bit difficult to carry to work and things like that.

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
I heard this was a good book and bought it not long after seeing the trailer for the film coming out later this year, and I want to read it before seeing the film. I'm a fan of Battle Royale, and this book captures a lot of spirit of that in terms of 'the future is messed up, and kids are going to have to kill each other' (Yeah, I'm messed up...). The thing that does confuse me is that the quote on the front is from Stephanie Meyer, who people that read a lot tend to target as an icon of hate, but the one on the back is from Stephen King, who so many people respect as a literary reviewer in terms of making Good Decisions. I really question marketing sometimes...

Another Three Pratchett Books – Terry Pratchett, obviously
A few years ago, my sister bought me the Discworld Folklore book as a present, which I had already had bought. The following year, to avoid this happening again (As, let's face it, buying me books is something I appreciate, and buying me a Pratchett book was aiming for a series I liked that also had a large gap of 'not yet owned' elements to it) I gave her a list of what I did not own. This got passed around my family, and my Pratchett collection inflated to near complete. So I am slowly going through reading the books I haven't read in the order they were published, as well as reading the new ones that come out. So I need to get through a few more this year to get closer to reading the whole series. Yes, I know how big that series is...

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves – Matthew Reilly
I've been reading Matthew Reilly books since Ice Station first came out, after reading of this book that was written as an action movie. I'll say that his books aren't exactly known for deep plot elements or their believability, but they are great fun books, and if you like action films, they are a great read. Things blow up, people get killed, and there are always the action hero lines that pop up every few chapters. A good fun book, and I really want to see what happens with Scarecrow and his team in this book.

Stardust – Neil Gaiman
I loved the movie, and am a fan of Gaiman's writing, but never read much of his work (Apart from American Gods, over and over again). I have a signed copy of Stardust, and realised that I have not read it yet, so I want to read it to see how different it is to the screen version.

Diaries 1969 – 1979: The Python Years – Michael Palin
I'm a huge Python fan, and have had this book for a few years, but have only read it in bits and pieces. I've probably read the whole thing, but never in one go, so I want to read it all in the right order to see what I have surely missed and get some background information to what was happening during the Python years.

Other things:
OK, there are a few others I want to read at various points, but not as specifically as the ones above. They are:
Some more Asimov (If I'm struggling with The Stand, I may as well struggle few another few Foundation books as well.
The Illuminatus Trilogy (I heard the Audio books which were fantastic, and it's a great giant yarn about conspiracy theories which appeals to me, but I want to read the books as well to keep the character's voices from the audio books in my mind)
HP Lovecraft (Nothing in particular, but every time I read even part of one of his stories something scary happens. I'd like to get through something and note have anything happen for once)
Leviathan (Another Steampunk novel that seems similar to the Court of the Air story, but I know it is the first part of an interesting sounding trilogy, so I want to see what it is like, and wouldn't mind comparing the two stories)

Random Thoughts 5 - HAPPY NEW YEARS!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+11:00

So new years has rolled around, and at the time of this going live, I'm honestly not sure what I will be doing. However, I'm typing this up ahead of time to get a few things ready to post on time. Anyway, I figured that I'd go through some of the bloggy things I've enjoyed this year...

Dungeons & Dragons

After not playing this since uni, I got invited to play in a campaign earlier in the year (which is still ongoing). I almost forgot how enjoyable this game can be, especially with a good group of people. So far the games have been fantastic, even if the other team got killed off two games in, leaving the 'regulars' team with a sense of dread nearly every game that this is the one we will finally be killed in. The story that has been created for it as well is full of plenty of side details to make a conspiracy theorist like me start to watch out for tiny elements that may come back later. And playing an Elf Ranger with a... not very obvious morale code and what can only be called extreme behavioural issues is actually quite fun.

Video Games

Gaming! Without the use of minis, but some for of electronic medium! I use sort of on-again off-again with video games for the past few years, but this year I started to actually play them again, and even finish them. Having said that, I am still several years behind on releases...

Last year, I bought myself a new computer, specifically a laptop. At the time, I went for what looked like a low-spec model, as I didn’t want to be tempted to play video games on it. Then, towards the end of the year, I got a few games, surprised that they would actually work on my PC. Having not been a PC gamer previous to this since I had an Amiga, I’m fairly behind in PC games. It also meant that I got to add to the ever growing pile of games I have not completed (With PS2 and Nintendo DS games). Towards the end of the year I had come close to finishing a few, and realised that the laptop was powerful enough to run recent games. Part of me suspects my brain tricked me into thinking that it was low spec just so this would happen.

Anyway, after playing Overlord, Blood Bowl, and LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth to decent points last year (Not that I finished anything other than the main story of the evil campaign in LOTR), I started to get into some of the games I had missed out on. I finished Dawn Of War and Batman Arkham Asylum (I never said I was playing really recent games). I’ve also started Portal (Because throwing yourself off a cliff in a game is fun when it launches you out somewhere else afterwards), Oblivion (Because hitting things with a sword is fun), and have Assassins Creed I & II ready for later points, as well as about ten other games I have bought for cheap in the meantime, and not installed. I actually enjoy getting back into gaming, however I’m still avoiding the MMORPGs, as I suspect that I will lose a lot of my time to that.

Board Games

Some friends of mine decided to introduce me to board games earlier in the year. Previously friends have talked about playing board games, and they tend to rattle off a list of things like Monopoly and Connect Four, which honestly don’t entertain me that much anymore. However they introduced me to games such as Agricola, which I found interesting for a few reasons. The main reason is that it sounds so strange and complicated to begin with, yet can be picked up within about five minutes of playing the game. Since then I’ve been introduced to a few other games (Such as Dominion and Seven Wonders) and have enjoyed all of them. It’s also got me buying more board games of my own, and looking into them first in a similar manner to how I used to buy video games. Yes, it’s a new addiction, but it’s rather fun.

Miniature Painting

OK, besides doing well in comps this year, I managed to get what for me is a decent amount of painting done. Working to the Malifaux tournament deadline a few months ago was good motivation, and so were a few other deadlines, but the in-between ‘paint stuff just for fun’ has had a higher output than I have in the last few years as well. My display cabinet has filled up to the point that when I get my next few project finished, I’m probably going to have to put them in temporary cases until I get a new cabinet!

Books

I would have liked to have read more books this year, but I didn’t get a chance. I did manage to read a few, however my time kept getting split between other things, and I might get through a chapter or so before I had to go and do something else. Having said that, this was the year I got into HP Lovecraft more (Previous attempts to read had coincided with some disturbing incidents, and left me scared), and also managed to get through The Gunslinger (The first book of Stephen King’s Dark Tower), Heaven to Wudang (The third Journey to Wudang book by Kylie Chan), and Ghost Story (The… thirteenth? Twenthieth? Three billionth? Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher). The last two were books I was looking forward to and really enjoyed (Especially Ghost Story), and Gunslinger was something one of my friends has been recommending for years, and I really got into it.

I’ve got some more books lined up for next year, including Inheritance (Christopher Paolini), Snuff (Terry Pratchett – And yes, I’m upset I didn’t get to this already), the last two Dexter books (Jeff Lindsay), The Drawing of the Three (The second Dark Tower book), and a bunch of others. On top of that, I’ve also got a few books that I’ve started reading already and am at various stages of completing, including The Stand which I have been trying to finish for the past few years. Maybe 2012 will be the year I finish it and some of the others. Maybe not. Who knows?

Twitter

I joined Twitter ages ago, but it was only this year I started to really get into it, specifically because I had a Twitter app on my new phone. Twitter has turned into a strange obsession for me, where I tend to jump on every few minutes and subscribe to random feeds just to see what happens. It also allows me to set up a news feed style system on my phone for random and bizarre things, and gives me something to be entertained by and obscure hours of the day.

Painting Comps

For the last few years my focus on miniatures and wargaming has been on the painting side of things. This year was the year I started to do really well at paint comps (Which I’m attributing to luck, and not really expecting it to hold out until next year, so I will have to put some more effort into it). I ended the year with three trophies from the OzPainters Open in Melbourne, a trophy from the OzPainters MOAB painting comp, a Best Painted trophy from a Malifaux tournament, and my first two Gold Demons from Games Day. After all that, I really need to get my act together, because I did well this year, but I want to at least hold that level for next year.

Year Of The Dogs

This year was productive for me painting miniatures, but the thing I found funny was the high percentage of dogs I ended up painting this year. Three for Farmer Maggot, a Wyrd Zombie Chihuahua, and a Mantic Pitdog. I did mention to someone that if I had planned this, I would have worked the Copplestone Snowy and Hamelin with Nix in there as well, but it sort of all fell together before I realised it.

Wargaming

When 8th edition of Warhammer came out, I decided I was done with tabletop games. I didn’t have time to read yet another Warhammer rulebook, and once I got the rules down, find regular opponents, and on top of that, pack up a goblin army and cart it around, set it up, pack it back up, and set it back up at home. It took an entire day for one game!

Sometime last year I was given the Malifaux rules to go with the crew I had painted, and at the beginning of the year, one of my friends offered to run me through the game. And then we had another game, and another, and before I knew it, I’m entered in a Malifaux tournament (and coming last place, but still having fun). So I’ve enjoyed getting back into wargaming, even if it is a skirmish game, but I seem to have found a scale of game that I can cope with easily.

Doctor Who

OK, so this is really specific, but I really enjoyed Doctor Who this year. I thought it was great, and the gap in the middle of the series that people were afraid of actually worked to it's benefit. Plus, it added the feeling that things set up in Matt Smith's first episode are going to carry through to the end of his time on Doctor Who. There are rumours his time on there could end pretty soon, however I am interested to see where it goes next year, as I am really enjoying him as The Doctor, and am eager to see what happens to his character, and also the series as it gets closer to it's 50th year.

So that’s about it! Happy New Years everyone, and I hope you all have a great 2012! Hopefully I will get some more blogging done in the near future, including finally getting my Golden Demon photos loaded!

Painted Things - Mantic Pitdog, Bederken Crowangle, and Guild of Harmony Asheara

2011-12-30T15:33:00.003+11:00

OK, this is going to be a quick wrap up and update of some models I got finished after Golden Demon this year (The demon models will get posted early new year) . The three of these models were quick ones I wanted to get finished for various reasons. They were never going to be the most well painted models, but they were ones I wanted to paint for fun:

Mantic Pitdog:

CMON Link

This was a model that as soon as I saw it, I wanted to have a go at painting. Even after I purchased the model, I knew I had to wait a bit before starting on it, but I spent a while doodling idea on how I was going to paint it. In the end, I airbrushed on the brown colour, then masked the top half off and airbrushed the white colour. Once finished, I did the final highlights by hand, and then did the leather and gold as I normally would. The model itself doesn't have a base of it's own in the kit, so I filled the depression in a Dwarf base with putty, and glued the dog on. A quick bse and static grass, and he was good to go.

Bederken Crowangle:

CMON Link

This model was one I bought at MOAB this year. It was the first time I had seen Dave King's miniatures for sale, so grabbed a few of them, including this one. Andrew from Numbat::In Miniature got one at the same time, and we both decided to try and paint them up at the same time, aiming to get them finished in one sitting. In the end, it didn't go as planned, and I finished a few days later. However, I did make a raised dirt and stone base which I had wanted to try after seeing the Gold 40K Single winner at this years Australian Demons, and for a first run, I think it turned out OK.

Guild of Harmony Asheara:

CMON Link

This is a model I picked up at MOAB last year. I intended to paint it as a display piece, but when I joined a D&D group, and wanted to play a Ranger, it was pointed out if my character was a female elf with a bow (Instead of a melee one like I originally planned) then I could use this figure. I enjoyed painting her, as there are some small details on her that add interest, but aren't time consuming. She isn't the best painted model, but then again I realised that if she has to be gamed with, I don't want to spend months painting her, otherwise I'll get a bit precious over how she is treated. In game, her name is Hwesta. Not pictured, her magic bow, and pretty helmet of soul theft...

So that's it for now! There should be a Happy New Years blog slated to go up when Australian New Years rolls over, and then I have some other blog entries planned to go up!

Things Get Opened - Wyrd Nightmare Edition Dead Justice Box

2011-12-26T15:33:00.000+11:00

This is the Wyrd Nightmare Edition Dead Justice box. Giggidy. Just plain Giggidy.

Wyrd released these for Cancon at the same time as the Nightmare Teddy and Miss Demeanour model I looked at a while ago. The Dead Justice box was a limited release as an alternate box of the standard Justice crew, and also had cards for both the standard box, and alternate cards to use them as Resurrectionist models. So, in the box we shall look!

The contents are pretty much standard for any of the crew boxes in the Wyrd range at the moment. Five models, and all of the represent the models in the current Justice box (So, Lady Justice, the Judge, and three Death Marshals). The only difference is the card sets: there is the standard Justice group, and also the Resurrectionists cards. They don't for a new crew with a new master, but they do give the option for them to be used as alternate models.

The cards are slightly different to usual, in that they have the alternate artwork on them. When the details for them came out they also acted as teasers for rules in the Twisting Fates book that was still weeks away from being released. At the time it was announced, Dead Doxy and The Drowned weren't known models, so people got a bit more information than they expected.

This is the Judge model. He's in a similar pose to the current Judge, but a lot more undead.

This is the Dead Justice model. It's a great looking model, but the strange thing is that because she is missing her head, she's a lot shorter than other models. And because she is so thin, she actually looks like a rather fragile model.

These are the Death Marshals, as a group and individuals. They are pretty good alternates for the current ones, and can still be used as either the Death Marshals, or the undead alternates. The coffins (Or communes if my Twitter auto-correct kicks in without me realising it) are present on two of the models, and there isn't room on the third one due to all the sharp objects. Originally, I think a few people thought that the pierced marshal would either arrive bent into knots, or turn into a fiddly multi-part model. Luckily, the solution was to add some bridges which seemed to keep the parts in place without getting too problematic.

Random Thoughts 4 - Cool things from the 'Net

2011-12-24T14:54:00.002+11:00

Just a quick post as I thought I should share a few things I have found in the past few days:

First, a cool TMNT themed army that I found over on WargamerAU:
Click Here in a timely manner

Also, so cool trailers that have come out in the past few days:

The Dark Knight Rises

The Hobbit

Things Get Built - Wyrd Insidious Madness

2011-12-22T15:33:00.003+11:00

A few months ago, I noticed on the Wyrd forums there was a post about people having trouble putting together the Insidious Madness, specifically how the arms were a bit confusing in terms of where they fit. I had two of these for a Malifaux tournament that I was getting ready for,and at first glance, I thought it looked like something that would be pretty fun to put together (even if it was a bit of a challenge). How wrong I was...

I did a dry fit, and one of the problems seemed to be holding the arms all in place at once. With a bit of positioning, I started to figure out how it goes together, and thought I should take some photos as I go and do a write up. I did however manage to not get the final photo of the model built but it should be straight forward from that point.

First of all, what you need for the quick fit to make things easier, are these things:

Superglue is essential, unless you have some kind of super-superglue. I also used some superglue accelerator in order to speed up the drying time, and a Dremel with an engraving tool plugged in. I didn't pin the arms on, but I did widen the holes that the arms went in so that I could fit them in a bit easier.

So this is the angle I was working on the model from, and also how I laid the pieces out. You'll notice that of the three arms, only one is a left arm, and that is the one that goes in the centre hole. The arm on the left hand side is the one of the two remaining stretched out more. The far right is the tentacle arm, but that should be pretty obvious from the get go. From what I could see from the dry runs, the arms fit on best when you work from the far right to the far left, one at a time.

The tentacle arm goes on first. The hole it plugs into doesn't fit it perfectly, however this was a quick fit together, and I had decided before starting that there were going to be a lot of gaps that I would end up filling gaps, so this gap was something I decided I would come back to later. Then I started to work on the arms:

This is the first arm on (Working from right to left the way I had the arms laid down earlier). The angle of the first arm seems to decided the other angles of the arms behind it. Because they are packed so closely, they appear to rotate into the previously placed ones to find the position:

This is the second arm in place. When clipped in, I found it easier to slot it in at the wrong angle, then rotate it around to rest against the other arm in the correct position. Once in, it sits fairly solidly. The third arm went in next, but I stupidly didn't get a photo of it at the time.

The only thing beyond this I did was to fill in the larger gaps with a mix of milliput and greenstuff, and the smaller gaps around the arms which I used watered down liquid greenstuff with, and essentially washed it into the gaps to fill them in.

Things Get Opened – Foundry Paints

2011-12-18T15:33:00.002+11:00

Another thing I got just before MOAB this year were a few sets of Foundry Paints from Aetherworks. I had been looking through the Foundry books and noticed that they had some colours that were either ones I wanted and couldn't get easily (For instance, orange, which GW has dropped down to two only on their standard paints range), or were ones that I wanted to get just for variations (Such as purple, I tend to go to that for variation for some reason). So the option came up to order a few paints, and...

OK, now some people may think that I'm made for buying that many paints in one go. And I'll tell you know, this is the weakest signal of my insanity. The Foundry paints range is actually pretty well planned though. Basically, the Foundry paint range is based around triads. For some reason, I've only seen them in Foundry and Coat d'Arms, and while they do exist in other ranges like GW, people like Foundry tend to make it more obvious as to what the plan is. Basically, you can buy a set of a paint triad. You get the blister pack of three paints, and that gives you you base colour, shade and highlight all in one go. They are even labelled shade and highlight to make it obvious.

So what are they like? Well, I honestly haven't used them a great deal, but from what I have experienced so far, I'd compare them to the standard GW range of paints, but maybe with a bit stronger coverage. They are pretty smooth coverage, and the range is pretty wide. The range also takes advantage of obviously naming things to make sure it takes a lot of guesswork (and therefore, saves time) from the process of choosing paint colours for your models Do you want to paint Buff Leather? There's a triad for that, so you don't need to worry about mixing the right shade, or making sure it will work with the other colours in that area. Are you painting someone with Dusky Flesh? Good, there's a triad for that, and it's different to the other triads they have in the range. Noticeably different. No more mixing specific ratios of Dwarf Flesh, Chaos Black, Skull White and I dunno, Dark Angels Green to get the shade you want. It's there in front of you. Get painting.

Any bad points? Well, the quality of the paint is pretty solid, but the packaging does have a bit of a (fixable) down side. The shade/highlight/base labels for the colours are on top of the pots, and the labels are able to be knocked off easily. But there is a really quick fix – I got a marker, and wrote the name onto the pot. Problem solved, and that was it.

What have I used them on? So far, the Bederken Crowangle in a few leather and parchment places, and the Guild of Harmony Elf Ranger in a few spots. Sadly, I haven't done decent photos of them yet, but I'll point them out when they do appear.

Anyway, till next time...

Random Thoughts 3 - Painting on the move!

2011-12-14T15:33:00.000+11:00

So this ended up being one of those happy coincidences. A while ago at work, I realised that when I wasn't cleaning models to paint (That's a time killer that gets boring fast, and draws a lot of strange looks), I ended up messing around on my phone to the point that I would drain the batteries by 4pm, and be without a phone until I got home.

I realised that with a little planning, and carefully selecting what I was going to paint, I could probably fit some painting in at work. So I dug together a box to pack my stuff in, and decided what paints and models to take with me:

Now, I figured that I was going to be in a few uncomfortable positions what with there being no painting desks at work, and that I would have to do this outside. Inside at my desk no one would have a problem with, but I didn't want to have to explain this to everyone who walked by due to the amount of time I would lose, and this was going to end up being time critical to a point. That meant I was probably going to end up doing army level stuff that wasn't too complex.

I figured out a few things quickly when I started doing this:

* Plan what you're painting – I have room for about ten paints tops, so I have to know what I am planning on doing and what colours I am using. Generally, if I think I am going to do one area, I can focus on that, and probably throw a few extra colours in so that I can test some things out if I need to move on to another area.
It's not going to be the best outcome – I wouldn't do competition stuff like this. Of the models I have painted, I all comes down to things I want to clear off my table quickly. It seems to work well on smaller models with few details.
* Have a plan – If it's reasonable weather, I go to one area and paint. If not, there is another less comfortable, but undisturbed place. I sit down, get the paints I need, and starting painting when I've finished lunch. I get about half an hour to paint, and I find I can do something like the hair or the shirt in that time. Overall, it's 2.5 hours a week, and means you are in the mood to paint when you get home.
* It's the little things – So far, I've done most of my Guild Of Harmony Elf Ranger at work, the Wyrd Zombie Chihuahua, and his base. It's not much, but they are some ongoing projects cleared out of the way now. I found a simple flagstone base was able to go from undercoated to finished in less than half an hour, and with the finished model at home, I could walk in the door, and have to glued together before I walked past my painting desk.
* Transport! - Not only do you have to get your kit to work, and mke sure everything you need is in there, but the model has to get there in one piece, and safe so that you don't have to fix up chips every evening. My ones have been stuck to corks or inside plastic containers with blutack, and transported in the paint kit itself. They don't move around much, and are usually ready to paint as soon as you open the lid.

If you have a chance, I recommend you try it. It might not work for everyone, but it seems to work for me to get little models or just small details finished.

Things Get Opened: Wyrd Gencon Specials – Nightmare Teddy and Miss Demeanour

2011-12-10T15:33:00.001+11:00

WOW! So there was a... more than significant delay in getting the next post up...

And to add insult to injury, I've got photos ready to post, but I just haven't got any text to post them with! I've had thing after thing come up and delay me everytime I think I have a chance to do something for the blog, and it keeps dragging out.

So anyway, I'm back, and hopefully by the time this refreshes onto the blog, I'll have a few more lined up ready to go towards the New Year. My GD photos are still waiting to be posted, but they might come out early in the New Year. Meanwhile, here is a look at a few things I got just before Demons, and I figured I would do a post about them similar to the Dreadfleet one I did.

So, back in (oh, so long ago) August, Wyrd went to Gencon, and took with them a few specials. The main three “Get 'em quick” style ones were Nightmare Edition Teddy, Nightmare Edition Dead Justice crew box, and Miss Demeanour. Miss Demeanour was a special one, as you'd get one per order of $100 US or more, but couldn't just walk up and get her. But seeing as the two Nightmare Editions were $50 each, it wasn't too hard to actually get an order worth that much. Now I did get a Dead Justice box, but seeing as there are an entire box of models in that one, I'm doing them in a separate post. For now, I'll focus on Teddy and Miss Demeanour.

Now, my first Malifaux crew was Pandora, and I've already got a Teddy, but I've got a soft spot for the character, but when I heard that there was going to be a Nightmare Edition, I got rather excited. And when I saw it, I knew I had to get it. And I thought it was so nice...

...I got it twice :D

I've found Teddy to be a strange model both painting wise and gaming wise. In the game, it's taken me a while to figure out how to get him to kill stuff without him getting killed first. When I painted the original one, he suffered from being a bit... flat... so it made it a bit strange painting him when you went from a wide model to a very narrow one just by turning the model. Now the Nightmare edition is a bit different. Taller, undead-er, a bit more threatening. And I've heard it several times referred to as a... furry adult novelty. But enough with the talk of bizarre uses for wargaming miniatures, and onto the model itself.

So, in the box:

The body itself is a single piece, with one arm attached. There are two options for the head, two options for the left arm, and a set of claws. The claws are all separate, and attach into the paws through some pre-drilled gaps. There is also a little chubby kid for Teddy to terrorise, and a 50mm base. For those of you gaming inclined, there's also a game card for the game, with the Nightmare Teddy artwork on it. The Nightmare Teddy operates the same way as regular Teddy in game, so he's just an alternate model with a bit more variation than a quick symbol tossed on.

Overall, the model has some good variation. One thing pointed out was that with the alternate heads, you end up with a spare Teddy sized head. With a Lord Chompy Bits list, that can take multiple Teddys, not only could you take the differnet builds of the Nightmare Edition, but use the spare heads in a few conversions. In fact, I've already got a few ideas for these in the end as well...

As for Miss Demeanour...

Miss Demeanour is an alternate Convict Gunslinger model. Wyrd have done a few alternate male and female models such as the Guild Guards and Gunsmiths, and Miss Demeanour supplied the alternate Gunslinger. Like Teddy, it operates the same as the original model, but allows for a bit more variation and a way to tell two models apart on the field.

The model parts aren't as exciting as Teddy. A main body, and two separate arms. But at the end of the day, I honestly prefer a model that doesn't have a handful of tiny parts that need to be pinned, attached, glued, puttied etc. before I can start painting it.

Aaaaaanyway, that's it for now. I'll post this up, and I should hopefully be able to get a few more to appear in the next few weeks.

New display cabinet! And trophies!

2011-10-27T12:00:00.003+11:00

For the past few months, Andrew (Blog) has been convincing me to get a Detolf from IKEA in order to get all my miniatures on display. Previously, they were in a perspex cabinet, but also sat all over the top of my TV cabinet, slowly collecting dust. After Games Day, sometime during MOAB, I decided to get one of these marvellous items. A good indicator towards it was that I helped assemble one, and while it was a bit tough not having done it before, they are really good cabinets, especially with a gap pre-built in it to fit a light.

So the weekend after, and early trip was made to the home of Swedish furniture hobby kits, and with Andrew's help, it was assembled, filled, and became my new favourite thing.

One advantage was that over the previous few weekends, I had also acquired some shiny new trophies to display in the cabinet:

From left to right, front to back, a silver and two bronzes from OzPainters Open in Melbourne, a 2nd place Large Model from MOAB, and two Golden Demons for LOTR Single and LOTR Unit.

So now I had a nice new home for my new trophies, and had to mix them all in with my models:

The top shelf, with my newest trophies, and some of my entries and favourite models. The stepped perspex stands are from Aetherworks.

Second shelf with the first trophies I won from New England Hobbies about eight years ago when I was at Uni, and some more of my favourite models.

Third shelf, with my Orc and Goblin army.

The bottom shelf, or 'holding cell'. Everthing that was hard to fit elsewhere has gone down here, and it has also been the shelf I use when switching models around to try to make a bit more sense of all of this.

Strangely enough, I have room next to this one. And it would be good to have a second Detolf for extra storage, and room to put new things...

I've also got some closeups of various bits of the cabinet:

The demons in their new home, although they are currently on display in Parramatta (And I've managed to break my LOTR single one :(

My OzPainters Open trophies, as well as a few models, including my Orc Warboss from a few Golden Demons ago

Eowyn standing guard in front of a few previous Golden Demon entries.

Farmer Maggot on his new handling base.

So that's that! My shiny new cabinet things!

Things Get Opened: Dreadfleet!

2011-10-23T20:54:00.003+11:00

Last month, GW tried to work everyone into a frenzy about a limited edition game they were releasing. Last time they did this, hints were dropped at it being a Space Hulk re-release. Rumour mills were fuelled, staff nodded knowingly, and tiny bits of information were leaked. After several weeks of this, it was revealed there would be a limited time release of... Space Hulk! Many long-time GW customers were happy, and people, including myself, purchased it. For the record, I've opened my box, checked for miscasts, closed it, and have only reopened it a few more times. I've never played my copy of Space Hulk.

So when a new limited game started to be hinted at, people were interested. Small bits of information and artwork were shown, and it seemed to have a pirate theme. Ships were spoken of. People agreed in a lot of circles that it must be Man O War. GW Staff and people in the know seemed to indicate it wasn't, but they had done this previously. When I turned up to Round Two of Golden Demon, it was also the same day that the new game was revealed: Dreadfleet!

...Wait, what? Surely they mean Man O - Wait, no, they have it on the screen. Dreadfleet. Not Man O War. Even I, who had been telling a friend the week before it can't have been Man O War from what I had heard, was surprised it wasn't Man O War. Because Man O War made sense. People had played it in the past, so there would be a pre-existing group of people to spread the word of how it played. Updated models would be cool. Space Hulk was a great re-release because people had played it before, missed it, and those who weren't around then could hear the tales. Dreadfleet was an unknown game.

GW released the game on October 1, which for Australia was Games Day. Previously to this I had been told (When caught up in the excitement after seeing the models) I couldn't pre-order a copy over the phone at my regular GW store. I had it in my mind that it was a $190 game. I couldn't guarantee a copy. There was a good chance I would pass this over. However, I was at MOAB on the same day as Games Day briefly, and saw it was on sale there. At GD, I managed to see the models up close. Apparently there is a game to go with it, but GW games are secondary to the models for me :D. The models sold it for me, and I picked it up from the Hall of Heroes stand at MOAB on the Sunday for $160, so I got the pretty models, and saved money!

So here it is when opened. I figured I would take photos and do a bit of a write up as I went when I finally opened it up to have a look. People have been saying for the past few weeks that the game is good, but I'm personally in it for the ships. They look pretty cool :D

Opening the box, I saw this:

All the sprues on top. When I opened the box, I had two reactions:


"Shiny things!"
    "Wait, where's the rules, and all the other bits?"

Oh wait! There they are, under a false bottom. Luckily I opened this up now. If I opened it up six months later, I'm sure I would have thought I had a mispack and freaked out. I'm not sure if the false bottom is a 'pirate treasure chest' style design, but for people who actually pay attention, there is a fingerhold on the side which makes it a bit more obvious. But only for those who aren't easily distracted by pretty miniatures...

The box itself does have some illustrations around the edge showing how to put the models together. The bases all match to specific ships, and all of them have cool little details modelled onto them. Now, onto the contents of the box itself:

Dice! You can't have many games without them! Luckily, it does not look like this game needs the cupful of dice I usually expect to use in things like Warhammer. The bone coloured dice are a nice touch, making them look older than they actually are (Either that, or Dreadfleet was a GW plot to get rid of lots of discoloured dice they had found).

This was a welcome surprise. Ziplock bags! Granted, I had a bag of them next to me in case I needed to bag up components (OCD kicking in before needed...), and I have to admit, while I know a lot of people that do the same thing, this is the first time I have seem a game pre-empt it being done, and provide them. Very small cost, and it's a nice touch.

The map! This was a cool thing, as it has nice detail, but I noticed something that I hadn't at Games Day. The map is cloth. Therefore, washable (I would expect) and has a few advantages over a rubberised mat like some other games have in them.

Little cards and bigger cards! With so much Malifaux nowadays, I'm going to feel a bit better playing a game that also involves cards. I won't have as much of a shock :). The artwork looks nice on them, and it gives it more of a boardgame feel which I think is something they planned for.

The rulebook! I haven't taken it out of the wrapping yet, and still haven't for my Space Hulk ones. Looks OK, especially with an index on the back. I expect that make it rather easier looking up rules during a game then trying to find the right page of the index in the back of the book during the game.

And now, the sprues!

The ships themselves are rather cool looking. Moulded detail on the sails, nice little details, and cool little extras like powder ships, dirigibles, and dragons to go along with the ships. The islands are rather nice as well, but... skulls. I remember a few years ago suggesting that natural elements in the Old World (And probably the 40K universe as well) include slate, shale, and skulls. Nearly every scenery release that comes out contains skulls now. And with this scale, the only option they had was to include them as giant islands... Oh well, at least I know how to paint them...

Finally, the bases. These are a nice change to the normal black plastic bases that come with standard GW models in box sets, and from what I can see each base is unique to each ship. A few of them like the Black Kraken have details of the ship also on the bases which helps build the scale of it. At Games Day, the Perry Twins did talk about Dreadfleet for a while when I was talking to them with one of the other OzPainters. Once of the cool things they were talking about was that they were making suggestions to GW people about how to cast these things. They had suggested doing the boats in brown plastic and the sails in cream in a similar way I guess to how Space Hulk was done a few years ago. However the really cool idea was to do the bases in blue/green, or even transparent blue/green to resemble the ocean the boats were sailing on. As cool as that sounds, they said there was an issue in that they are brittle when cast up, so would have probably broken easily. It would have been a nice touch, but at the same time, I can understand why they didn't do it.

Anyway, that's Dreadfleet. Hopefully next time I update the blog there will be more stuff, and I can get back into a regular schedule.

Painting Comps for 2011

2011-10-15T09:27:00.003+11:00

A quick one as well: Games Day/Golden Demon was held two weeks ago, and I finally placed! Not only that, it was two gold! One for LOTR single and LOTR group. I'll do a bigger write up at some point in the future, and will also have some pictures of the entries soon (Hopefully).

On top of that, I ended up getting a silver and two bronzes from the OzPainters Open held in Melbourne a few weeks previous to Demons, and the same weekend as Demons, I got a Large Model second place for Teddy at MOAB! So the past few weeks have turned out very well for painting comps.

Painting Steps - GD2008 Orc Warboss

2011-10-15T08:45:00.003+11:00

OK, I realised a few weeks ago that I have a notebook (or three) that I am constantly writing my paint recipes in, but never doing anything further with them. The only time I do use them is to reference colours I used to reuse a combination, but I also run the risk of not being able to understand my handwriting after a few years. My resolution was to start typing them all up for future use. I also realised I could recycle them into blog posts to show how I did things.

I figured that I would start with the Orc Warboss that was given out at Golden Demon in 2007, and I painted up for 2008. The model is a favourite of mine for several reasons: I'm a former Orc general, so this model had instant appeal to me. It was the first model I ever painted specifically aiming for it to be a display model. It's also currently my highest rated mini on CMON.

So here we go, on with the painting:

Snotling:
Undercoat: White

Eyes:
Base – Mechrite Red and Blood Red (1:1)
H – Mechrite Red/Blood Red/Sunburst Yellow (1:1:2)
H – A dot of sunburst yellow
Wash – Red Ink and Water (1:1)

Skin:
Base – Catachan Green and Camo Green (1:1)
S – Catachan Green and Camo Green (3:1)
Wash – Catachan Green and Camo Green
S – Catachan Green
Wash – Catachan Green and Camo Green
S – Catachan Green and Chaos Black (4:1)
Wash – Catachan Green and Camo Green
S – Catachan Green and Chaos Black (1:1)
S – Catachan Green and Chaos Black (1:2)
H – Camo Green
H – Camo Green and Rotting Flesh (1:1)
H – Rotting Flesh
H – Rotting Flesh and Skull White (1:1)
H – Skull White
Wash – Camo Green

Pink Flesh:
Base – Rotting Flesh and Tentacle Pink (1:1) with a tiny amount of Midnight Blue
Camo Green was added to this mix to help blend it in with the green areas.
Glaze – Camo Green and Tentacle Pink
Add Red Gore to the mix when doing the tip of the nose
S – Tentacle Pink and Warlock purple (1:1) with a small amount of Camo Green and Midnight Blue
Blood – Red Gore with Red Ink (1:1) and small point of Midnight Blue and Chaos Black mixed with 'Ardcoat. Add a small amount more of Midnight Blue to do deeper parts of the blod.
H – Rotting Flesh, Camo Green, and Skull White (1:1:1) highlights under the scratches
Blood splashes are done with Red Gore and Red Ink
Brown Ink added ot the above steps for dried areas

Fur:
Base – Scorched Brown
Wash – Black Ink
H - Bestial Brown and Graveyard Earth
H – Desert Yellow
H – Desert Yellow and Rotting Flesh
H – Skull White
S – Scorched Brown and Chaos Black (1:4)

Nails:
Base – Scorched Brown and Chaos Black (1:1)
H – Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown, Graveyard Earth (1:1:1)
H – Add Bleached Bone (I think for a total of a 1:1:1:1 mix)
H – Add Rotting Flesh (Again, should be an equal mix in total)
H – Bleached Bone and Skull White
H – Skull White

Horns:
Base – Khemri Brown
H – Graveyard Earth
H – Kommando Khaki
H – Bleached Bone
H – Bleached Bone and Skull White
H – Skull White

Helmet:
Base – Fortress Grey
Line with Chaos Black for checks
Fill black squares with Chaos Black
Add Skull White to Fortress Grey for white highlights
H – Skull White
Add Bleached Bone to Chaos Black for highlights
Add lots of Rotting Flesh for the final highlight

Metal:
Base – Chainmail
H – Mithril Silver
S – Boltgun Metal
Dent – Boltgun Metal and Chainmail (1:1)
Glaze – Fortress Grey and Midnight Blue (1:1)
Glaze – Codex Grey and Midnight Blue (1:1)
Glaze – Chaos Black and Midnight Blue (1:1)

Orc Boss:

Undercoat White

Eye:
Base – Mechrite Red
Base – Blood Red
S – Blood Red and Midnight Blue (1:1)
H – Blood Red and Fiery Orange
Spot Highlight – Blood Red and Fortress Grey (1:1)
Spot Highlight – Blood Rexd, Fortress Grey, Bleached Bone, and Skull White (1:2:1:2)

Skin:
Base – Catachan Green and Camo Green (1:1)
H – Catachan Green, Camo Green, and Rotting Flesh (1:1:2)
H – Rotting Flesh
H – Rotting Flesh and Skull White (1:1)
H – Skull White
Glaze – Catachan Green and Camo Green
S– Catachan Green
S – Catachan Green and Midnight Blue (1:1)
S – Catachan Green, Midnight Blue, Chaos Black (1:1:2)
Glaze – Catachan Green

Pink Skin:
Base Glazes – Catachan Green and Tentacle Pnk (1:1)
S – Catachan Green, Tentacle Pink, Midnight Blue (1:1:1)
H – Rotting Flesh and Tentacle Pink (1:1)

Tusks:
Base – Khemri Brown
Base – Graveyard Earth
H – Kommando Khaki
H – Rotting Flesh
H – Rotting Flesh and Skull White (1:1)
Wash – Fortress Grey and Midnight Blue (1:1)

Fur
Base – Scorched Brown
Wash – Badab Black
H – Bestial Brown and Graveyard Earth
H – Desert Yellow
H – Desert Yellow and Rotting Flesh
H – Skull White
S – Midnight Blue and Chaos Black (4:1)

Tusk:
Base – Khemri Brown
Base – Graveyard Earth
H – Kommando Khaki
H – Rotting Flesh
H – Rotting Flesh and Skull White
H – Skull White

Metal:
Base – Chainmail
H – Chainmail and Mithril Silver (1:1)
H – Mithril Silver
H – Mithril Silver and Rotting Flesh (1:1)
S – Chainmail and Boltgun Metal (1:1)
S – Boltgun Metal
S – Boltgun Metal and Chaos Black (1:1)

Metal Wash:
W – Midnight Blue and Skull White (1:1)
W – Rotting Flesh and Midnight Blue (1:1)
W – Fortress Grey and Midnight Blue (1:1)
S – Tentacle Pink and Midnight Blue (4:1)
S – Tentacle Pink and Midnight Blue (2:1)
S – (Lip Lines) Catachan Green and Tentacle Pink (2:1)
S – (Lip Lines) Catachan Green, Tentacle Pink, Midnight Blue (@:1:1)
Glaze – Red Gore

Black:
Base – Codex Grey and Chaos Black (1:1)
H – Codex Grey and Chaos Black (2:1)
H – Codex Grey and Chaos Black (3:1)
H – Codex Grey
S – Codex Grey and Chaos Black (1:2)
S – Codex Grey and Chaos Black (1:4)
Glaze – Midnight Blue and Chaos Black (1:4)

Brass:
Base – Brazen Brass and Tin Bitz (1:1)
H – Brazen Brass
H – Brazen Brass and Shining Gold (1:1)
H – Shining Gold
H – Shining Gold and Mithril Silver (1:1)
S – Tin Bitz
S – Tin Bitz and Midnight Blue (1:1)
Stipple – Bestial Brown, Graveyard Earth, Midnight Blue, Codex Grey (1:1:1:1)
Wash – Midnight Blue
Wash – Scaly Green
Stipple – Scaly Green
Stipple – Hawk Turquoise
Stipple – Hawk Turquoise and Ice Blue (1:1)
H – Shining Gold and Mithril Silver (1:1)
H – Mithril Silver
Stipple – Rotting Flesh and Scaly Green (1:1)
Stipple – Rotting Flesh

Skull:
Base – Graveyard Earth
H – Khemri Brown
H – Khemri Brown and Kommando Khaki
H – Kommando Khaki
H – Rotting Flesh
S – Graveyard Earth and Scorched Brown (4:1)
H – Skull White
Glaze – Graveyard Earth

Sword:
Base – Chainmail
Wash – Gryphonne Sepia
Wash – Ogryn Flesh
Wash – Devlan Mud
Wash – Badab Black
Glaze – Leviathan Purple
Glaze checks with Gryphonne Sepia
Scratches are done with Mithril Silver

Blood:
Big drops: Midnight Blue and Red Gore (1:4)
Blood Red and Scab Red (1:1)
Blood Red

Mud:
Scorched Brown and Graveyard Earth (1:1)

Stone:
Base – Codex Grey and Midnight Blue (4:1)
(Notes missing, but I think I shaded by adding Midnight Blue, and highlighted using Codex Grey and Skull White mixed in)

Base Edge:
Chaos Black and Midnight Blue (2:1)

And that's it! If you want to vote for him on CMON, his link is here!

I'll Be Back

2011-09-13T09:16:00.001+10:00

Just a quick post to say that there will be some updates later in the week. I've been busy with demon entries, but now they are finished, I will get some updates happening a bit more regularly.

WIP - Dark Elf Dreadlord 2

2011-08-05T15:33:00.002+10:00

OK, these are some photos of the base! At the moment, I need to add some water to the shallow at the foot of the base, however the rest of the work is done!

WIP - Dark Elf Dreadlord 1

2011-08-03T15:33:00.004+10:00

So, my Golden Demon projects have started (Although by the time this goes up, they will be well under way). The first plan is the Dark Elf Dreadlord. Below are some photos taken during the model being painted.

The blue was airbrushed on the get a smooth a coat as possible to the armour so that I could work from there. I then started working on the head. The plan is to have the model quite dark, but the face pale so that it stands out and draws the eye.

The colours were blocked in as I got some feedback that seemed to be under the impression that I was doing a monochrome model, which wasn't the plan.

Once the main colours were in place, I started blocking in freehand and designs so that I could mess around in the area, without having to finish once area and then wreck it once I went over it to do the freehand.

Up next, the base!

WIP - Hwesta Lasse Part 2

2011-07-29T15:33:00.002+10:00

These are some quick photos I took of a bit more work I did on Hwesta during a painting night recently while my back was playing up (And I therefore had no interest in painting Golden Demon entries).

While I was painting, these were being uploaded to my Twitter account, which is where I am able to post them straight from my painting table without starting a new blog post.

The plan for her is to make the colours a bit more obvious, just so she stops getting targeted as a zombie accidentally again...

Painting the Eureka Frogs

2011-07-27T15:33:00.003+10:00

These are the steps I used for painting the frogs. As mentioned a few times previously, I did a large surface area on these with the airbrush to speed up the large areas that I had to paint, which could be covered and highlighted a lot quicker than with a brush.

Back markings (Airbrushed):
Base - Calthan Brown and Red Gore (1:1)
H - Khemri Brown and small amount of Red Gore

Some dots of latex masking fluid were put over the area to later create the dots on the back.

Belly (Airbrushed):
Base - Bestial Brown and Tausept Ochre (1:1)
H - Kommando Khaki

The belly was covered with a layer of masking fluid to block out the area I wanted left 'white'.

Skin (Airbrushed):
Base - Chaos Black, Warlock Purple, and Camo Green (1:1:1)
H - Camo Green
H - P3 Sulphuric Yellow with a small amount of Camo Green
H (Brush) - P3 Sulphuric Yellow

At this point, all the masking fluid was peeled off, leaving the previous two layers to show through.

Eyes (Back to the paintbrush from here on in):
Base - Skull White
S - P3 Sulphuric Yellow

Lip highlight - Camo Green

Toe Webs:
Base - Bestial Brown and Tausept Ochre (1:1)
H - Kommando Khaki

Wood:
Base - VMC Dark SeaGreen with a small amount of Dark Angels Green
H - Codex Grey
H - Fortress Grey
S - Wash of Liche Purple and Chaos Black (1:1)

Base cover:
Base - Scorched Brown, Regal Blue, and Chaos Black (1:1:1)
H (Drybrushed) - Scorched Brown
H (Drybrushed) - Scorched Brown and Rotting Flesh
H (Drybrushed) - Rotting Flesh
Wash in patches with Thraka Green and Devlan Mud

Leaves on the branch and drum cover:
Base - Bubonic Brown and Tausept Ochre (1:1)
H - Bubonic Brown
H - Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone
S - Bestial Brown

Inner Mouth (Frog with sword):
Base - Warlock Purple and Chaos Black (1:1)
H - Add Skull White to the mix to highlight the tongue

Leather (Sword grip):
Base - Red Gore and Scorched Brown (1:1)
H - Red Gore
H - Red Gore and Bleached Bone (1:1)

Leaves on the base:
Base (Yellow) - Tausept Ochre
Base (Red) - Tausept Ochre and Mechrite Red (1:1)
H (Both) - Bleached Bone
Wash with Devlan Mud

Finally, all the green skin areas were given an oil wash made of black and magenta oil paints.

Eureka Frogs - Finished!

2011-07-21T15:33:00.002+10:00

OK, these are the finished photos of the Eureka frog troops. I won't blab on with how I painted that; I'll leave it for the next post. But here are the photos!

The base is a wood tray lasercut by Aetherworks which I added texture to and painted.

Now, for the individual frogs...

CMON Link: http://www.coolminiornot.com/283530

Eureka Frogs - Work in progress photos

2011-07-20T15:33:00.004+10:00

OK, these are some work in progress shots of my Eureka frog troops. I posted one of these a while ago which was done up a bit like a test subject. I had a good idea of what I wanted them to look like, but needed to make sure that I could get them done properly.

The main thing I did differently with these was that when I airbrushed them, I did different areas of them in different layers, masking them as I went. So I did them red/brown area on the back, and masked it off in dots. I then airbrushed the bellies, masked them off, and did the rest of the skin. Once finished, I peeled off the liquid latex mask that I had put down to leave the green skin with the darker dots on the back and pale bellies, but without having to carefully layer up each colour and fix up mistakes.

Once the main colours were done, I just had to finish off the smaller details, which on these models were mainly the hammers, the webs on the toes, and the eyes. On a few of the 'higher ranking' miniatures, there are extra details, but the main areas can be done pretty quickly. One weird thing after all of these years playing Warhammer is that the I find it a bit strange painting a group of models with more than three 'command' models in it. This group had four models armed differently to the rest, so it did mean that I had to remember to paint the *four* models with details, not the usual three. At the end of it all, I ranked them all up on a movement tray from Aetherworks:

The bases were done with a mix of a few different textures, including Vallejo pumice paste, beach sand, and the stuff from inside a water filter (That stuff, I think it's carbon, has some interesting shapes in it). As a last minute thought I threw in a few bits of spongy flock to add some other textures in there. Once done and painted up, I put some oregano leaves onto the bases and tray and painted them up. In the end, I had a nice little display unit of frogs!

My plans for Golden Demon 2011

2011-07-15T15:33:00.001+10:00

By the time I get this posted (These are all being scheduled beforehand), I'll hopefully be very close to having my first model for Golden Demon finished. However before I forget to make a list of these things, I'm going to get it posted somewhere so that I can be held to task.

This year I'm aiming to finish some projects that have been floating around as planned entries for the past few years. The three main ones I want to get finished are my single model entries, but I also have two units I want to do up as well...

WFB Single - Dark Elf Dreadlord
As much as I dislike a lot of the Dark Elf models in the past that GW did in terms of what can be done painting wise on them, I really like this model. Having said that, I'm a sucker for dragons, and he has a pet one. I want a pet dragon! The closest I am probably going to get is painting this though. From the pose, I imagined him standing on a cliff looking down, so I have made a plinth like base for him to stand on. Originally there was a bigger base for him, but last year a new one was made; smaller, and it framed the model a lot better I think.

LOTR Single - Eowyn
I love the Heroes of Helms Deep Eowyn model, and it seems to be one that a lot of people paint up with good results. A few years ago, a friend got a box set for me (They weren't available anymore) so that I could get my hands on the model. In honesty, I still have no idea how to base this model. I want something that reminds people of the movie, but on a 25mm base, I'm still trying to come up with a good idea that hasn't been done yet after all these years.

Lost Demon - Space Ork from the old boxed game
Lost Demon is a category for Australia where only older models are entered (I think anything before 1999 is allowed). Last year, one of the guys at work gave me a box of models, and included in it were a bunch of the old plastic Orks from the 40K boxed set (I think it was 2nd edition - The one with the Dark Millennium expansion). Considering I have other Ork projects in the works this year, and greenskins are probably my strongest option (Considering how many I have painted over the years) I'm going to do him up on a little tech base. He is one I am looking forward to just for the sheer retro feel of it. I painted up a few in high school for friends, but never painted one for myself, so I'm looking forward to it.

40K Large - Ork in Mega Armour
This is one I have the base done for, but the model needs to be stripped back, reconverted, and started anew. He's going to match my other Ork entries as well. The one thing I need to do is change the gun on his right arm to be one that uses bullets, as it was pointed out when I first started him that the grot in his backpack was sorting bullets, but he only had a powersaw and rocket launcher. The new Ork will be tooled up with a new saw (From the Ork Nob set) as well as a big gun.

40K Unit - Ork Nobz
The plastic Ork Nob set looked pretty cool when it came out, and I grabbed one hoping to use it in an army. Seeing as I don't really do armies now, I'm using it for a GD entry. A few of them have been cleaned up in my lunch break at work, but I still have a lot more to do on them. One of them will also be converted into a Painboy, so I'll get a chance to mess around with ideas for a Doc conversion. Another thing is that the Orks don't need to be armed the same, so I can throw a few different weapons in there. I've opted to not put in the Big Shootas as I don't like them as much as the other options. Also, I have two old Ork Nob bodies with metal heads, so those will be added in to bump the unit up to seven plus an ammo runt.

WFB - Khorne Chaos Knights
Finally, I have these guys. The models are giant horses with giant Knights on them, and loads of spiky weapons. They have a host of cool details moulded on, and I get to do some battle damage on them. The one thing I want to do is either a cracked earth base (Like a desert wasteland kind of thing) that stretches among them all, or a cliff face, so they are raised at the front and looking down. I'm still trying to figure out how I will do either of these, but in both cases it will mean either filling in the edge of the base, or covering the edge of the base up when they are all ranked up to each other. I have a few ideas to throw around, but for now I'm keeping them to myself and my dwindling sanity...

So that's the plan for this year. Six entries. Granted, one of two might be put on hold for later years, but hopefully I can get these done!

Sebastian - WIP and finished product

2011-07-13T15:33:00.003+10:00

Again, this is another model that I finished ages ago, forgot to take photos of, and never posted. Big mess up on my part.

Anyway, this is Sebastian the Morgue Assistant from Wyrd. He was one of the first models I purchased from Wyrd (back in the days before they game with cards), and I always wanted to paint him, but never seemed to have the time to do so. I finally started painting him at the beginning of the year, and had a few starts and stops on him, including repainting the base colour of the robe at one point near the beginning. Initially I had a morgue style base done up for him - tiny (a few mm each) tiles in alternating shades of green with a drain full of blood, and a few blood splatters. I was rather pleased with it until I finished the model. I noticed that the base was warped slightly after having being painted so long ago. When I tried to take Sebastian off the base to fix it, I ripped the insert out and damaged it! Trying to get him finished ASAP, I opted to use an Aetherworks insert I had sitting on my desk at the time.

Anyway, I finally got him painted after a few false starts. Admittedly, he is rather fun to paint, and not overly complicated.

The WIP shots I took at the time:

So, a few more pictures than I took of Seamus...

But there is also a full picture as well!

CMON Link

The colour scheme I used was:

Skin:
Base - Tallarn Flesh and Dheneb with a small dot of Gretchin Green
HL - Bleached Bone with a touch of Tallarn Flesh
S - Tallarn Flesh and Scorched Brown
HL - Bleached Bone and Skull White
S - Tallarn Flesh, Scorched Brown, and Chaos Black (1:1:1)
Glaze - Scab Red
Glaze - Regal Blue
Glaze - Scab Red, Regal Blue, and Chaos Black (1:1:1)

Hair:
Base - VMC Red Leather
Wash - Devlan Mud
HL - VMC Red Leather
HL - VMC Red Leather and Bleached Bone
HL - Bleached Bone
HL - Menoth White
Wash - Ogryn Flesh

Robe:
Base - Astronomican Grey with a touch of Hawk Turquoise
S - Astronomican Grey and Hawk Turquoise
HL - Kommando Khaki
S - Hawk Turquoise, Scorched Brown and Chaos Black (2:1:1)

Apron:
Base - Charadon Granite and Scorched Brown
Stippled with Scorched Brown, Codex Grey, Tanned Flesh, and Ice Blue
Wash - Devlan Mud
S - Regal Blue and Chaos Black
Scratches - Scorched Brown and Chaos Black
HL (Including scratches) - Scorched Brown and Elf Flesh

Black Straps:
Base - Kommando Khaki and Chaos Black
HL - Kommando Khaki and Chaos Black (3:1)
HL - Kommando Khaki
S - Chaos Black and VMC Violet Red (2:1)
Wash: Badab Black

Powersaw and Backpack:
Base - Macharius Solar Orange
S - Bestial Brown
S - Regal Blue and Chaos Black
HL - Bronzed Flesh

Bronze:
Base - Dwarf Bronze and Scorched Brown
HL - Dwarf Bronze
Wash - Devlan Mud
HL - Dwarf Bronze and Mithril Silver
HL - Mithril Silver
Wash - Devlan Mud

Silver:
Base: Mithril Silver
Glazes - Snakebite Leather, Scab Red, Chaos Black
Scratches - Scorched Brown and Chaos Black
HL - Mithril Silver

Flagstone Base:
Base - Charadon Granite
Stipple - Dwarf Flesh, Khemri Brown, and Astronomican Grey
Glazes - Orkhide Shade, Regal Blue

Oil Washes:
Flagstones - Raw Umber
Sawblade - Raw Umber and Black
Robes - Pthalo Blue and Black

Seamus - WIP and Finished product

2011-07-08T15:33:00.004+10:00

Not only did I realise that I forgot to post photos of Seamus when he was finished, I realised that I forgot to take many photos of the WIP stages. So instead of doing a WIP post and a finished product post like I thought I would be able to do, I'm combining them into one post.

First, the WIP shots I have:

For someone with a 'press the pretty button' addiction, I took surprisingly phothttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifos (The same goes for Sebastian and the Copycat Killer as well). In the final photo, he was very near done. I just had to do the final oil washes to finish him off.

The final photo:

CMON Link

I used and Aetherworks base insert matching the Copycat Killer on his base.

The paint scheme I used (For Seamus and the Copycat Killer) was:

Skin:
Base - Dwarf Flesh
Wash - Scab Red
Wash - Bestial Brown and Chaos Black
HL - Dwarf Flesh
HL - Dwarf Flesh and Bleached Bone
HL - Bleached Bone
HL - Skull White
Glaze - Red Gore
Glaze - Dark Flesh

Eyes:
Base - Regal Blue and Chaos Black
HL - Menoth White
Copycat Killer's Pupil - Regal Blue and Bleached Bone

Hair:
Base - Bestial Brown
HL - Blazing Orange
HL - Blazing Orange and Bleached Bone
HL - Bleached Bone
Wash - Scorched Brown

Green Cloth:
Base: Knarloc Green and Dark Angels Green
Shade - Orkhide Shade
HL - Dark Angels Green and Bleached Bone
S - VMC Black Red and Chaos Black
HL - Bleached Bone

Dark Green Lining:
Base - Orkhide Shade
S - Orkhide Shade and Chaos Black
HL - Dark Angels Green
S - Chaos Black
HL - Dark Angels Green and Shadow Grey

Pants:
Base - Warlock Purple and Astronomican Grey
S - Warlock Purple
HL - Skull White and Warlock Purple (2:1)
S - Liche Purple
HL - Skull White

Wood:
Base - Calthan Brown and Charadon Granite
Lines - Khemri Brown
More Lines - Bleached Bone
Shade - Base colour

Leather:
Base - Calthan Brown
S - Scorched Brown
HL - Calthan Brown and Bleached Bone
S - Scorched Brown and Chaos Black
HL - Bleached Bone

Beige:
Base - Dheneb Stone and Khemri Brown
Wash - Gryphonne Sepia
(At this point on the Copycat Killer, I reset the base colour)
HL - Dheneb Stone
HL - Skull White

Black:
Base - Chaos Black and Kommando Khaki
S - Chaos Black and Scorched Brown
HL - Kommando Khaki and Chaos Black (4:1)
S - Chaos Black and Scorched Brown (4:1)
HL - Kommando Khaki

Laces:
Base - Charadon Granite
HL - Charadon Granite and Kommando Khaki
HL - Charadon Granite and Kommando Khaki (1:2)

Steel:
Base - Mithril Silver with a small amount of Regal Blue
Shades - VMC Medium Blue, VMC Dark Prussia Blue, VMC Dark Blue Grey, Chaos Black
Scratches - Chaos Black and Scorched Brown
HL - Mithril Silver
HL - VMC Metal Medium

Bronze:
Base - Dwarf Bronze and Scorched Brown
HL - Dwarf Bronze
Wash - Devlan Mud
HL - Dwarf Bronze
HL - Dwarf Bronze and Mithril Silver
HL - Mithril Silver
Verdigris - Dark Angels Green and Hawk Turquoise
Verdigris HL - VGC Verdigris Glaze

Base:
Base - Charadon Granite
Stipple - Codex Grey, Elf Flesh, Hawk Turquoise, Kommando Khaki, Fortress Grey

Oil Washes:
Flagstones and Metals - Raw Umber and Black
Green Cloth (Dark lining where it meets other colours) - Terra Verde and Black

The dice are evil... and must be punished!

2011-07-06T15:33:00.001+10:00

The last few games of Dnd I have played, my dice have failed me during crucial checks. I bought new dice to try to counter this, but still thought that the other dice had got off rather easily...

...Which is why I decided to punish the old ones as a demonstration to the new ones!

(Cue maniacal laughter)

A friend had suggested burning sage near them in an effort to smoke anything bad off them (To clear any negative energy off them (Honest, See?!). I had my heart set on some kind of cleansing fire as well. I had a little time to spare the other day, so decided to finally show the new dice what happens to dice that misbehave...

I put some sage in a little metal eggcup I found underneath a steaming rack. Technically, I think this is meant to be white sage, but considering how hard it was to find sage *not* in powdered form in the supermarket, I was happy to settle with the crushed stuff I got my hands on. I laid the dice out, and set fire to the sage as best I could:

The pyromaniac in me failed a little bit. Not enough variety of dry stuff for my liking...

I then tried lighting a few that had really angered me:

Granted, it's not too visible, but there was a nice blue flame from the rubbing alcohol flickering around this for a while :D
Later, I gave up and used some hobby glue (It seemed appropriate) to light the number '1' on fire so that it knew *exactly* why I was angry.

Finally, I decided that boiling them for a while would be a good way to draw this out a bit.

In the end, they boiled for about 10 minutes. I guess if there is a positive side to this, it is that the Chessex dice didn't deform at all after all of this...

Wyrd - Copycat Killer

2011-06-22T15:33:00.002+10:00

OK, this guy has a bit of a story, and it goes like this:

Andrew (Numbat::In Miniature) came round to do some painting one night, and asked if I was interested in painting up some bases he had. Because they were cobblestones, some kind of street dwellers seemed to fit right with them, but I had to find some first. Malifaux models seemed the way to go, in part because I have so many of them. After about an hour (I had no idea where to look first), I found Seamus and the Copycat Killer, and thought they would be good. I got them both cleaned up, and started painting them that night. The plan was to paint them both at once and have them ready at the same time. The next time Andrew asked if I had finished them (About a month later), I was able to say "I finished the bases!". My method of time management is questionable at best...

A while later, I had Seamus done (I just realised I never posted pictures of him or the finished version of Sebastian! I will have to fix that shortly!), but only the skintones and a bit of the hair done on the Copycat. He sat on the desk for a while, staring at me in a dangerous fashion. A murderous leprechaun is a scary thing to have staring at you, so I ended up finishing him.

I've taken him to a few painting meetups and things like that. Standing next to Seamus, he looks pretty good I think. However people see the two of them, and comment that I must have a Resurrectionist crew. My answer for a long time was no. Then about a month ago I realised that I have the Sebastian model, so he could be put into a crew easily. And with a few Rotten Belles, I would have a working force. And of course, since I keep referring to Seamus as an Irish version of Jack the Ripper, and there are three Rotten Belles, I figured that I could do their dresses up as the three colours on the Irish flag. And then all of a sudden the Res. Crew I swore I wasn't collecting seemed to be an inevitable project, so I'm resigned to the fact I'll be painting zombie ladies by the end of the year...

So here are the pictures, and if you want, a CMON link: Here

And a picture with Seamus (Who will have his photos posted in the next few days. I guess I let those updates get out of hand...)

So now I guess I am getting a Res. crew, all because of two psychopathic men in green top hats...

WIP - Hwesta Lasse Part 1

2011-06-21T15:33:00.000+10:00

OK, this is my DnD character (In the previous post, she is hiding in one of the boxes within a box - Inception style), Hwesta Lasse. The model itself is Asheara from Guild of Harmony, and the base is an Aetherworks insert glued over a GW base. I then added a few patches of Vallejo Pumice Paste to the surface to look a bit like debris. As time goes on, she might get a few extra bits on the base as well. For now, she just has a few base colours on her so that I can use her on the table. I still have to do a lot of base colours on her.

Unswerving loyalty to "Weird Al"

2011-06-21T12:33:00.002+10:00

Since I was about 12 I have had an unswerving loyalty to "Weird Al" Yankovic's music. This stretches to buying up his older albums when I found them a few years ago without checking if I recognised any songs on the back, stocking up at the merchandise stand at the concert when he was on Sydney a few months ago and no one was around to tell me not to (It was worth it!), to realising not too long ago I can quote large portions of "Vidiot from UHF" from watching it so many times when I was younger the VCR tape wore out. On Friday night I found myself in a karaoke room for a work function, and while everyone else sang "American Pie" I was singing "The Saga Begins" because it's easier for me to remember those lyrics than it is to read the real ones off the screen.

In short, I question very little that he does beyond "How soon can I get this". Although I still need to get my hands on the book he wrote when I get time...

Having said that, at lunch time today I'm trotting down the road to pick up the new album, which I have patiently been waiting for. Or impatiently. Not too sure...

However, new albums mean new video clips, and on Monday this was released:

I *think* some part of the "someone's face edited onto someone else's body" is going to cause me to wake screaming in terror at some point in the next few nights. And to calm myself down, I'm going to end up watching this video again and repeating the cycle. You just haven't lived until you've had a nightmare brought on by watching a strange music video while half asleep and letting it seep into your sub-concious. Or is that just me?

But hey, I'll still buy his next album as well... :)

Little boxes, how I love thee...

2011-06-20T15:33:00.001+10:00

Over the last few years I have become rather good at keeping things in boxes. And in the event of them already being in boxes, I tend to take the things and put them in ziplock bags which are then grouped up and placed in... other boxes!

And on this occasion, I bought some airtight containers a while ago, with no real intention beyond 'I will find a use for them at some point'...

These boxes hold my current gaming gear. On the left is my DnD box. It has my character's model and my dice (Oh, so many dice), as well as some tokens. On the right is my Malifaux Pandora crew (Minus Teddy, but he is too big, so travels in his own box), as well as a box for my Malifaux cards, tokens, stat cards and tape measure.

After years of playing Warhammer, and having to fit boxes into bags and cart around an army as well as books, guides, dice, rulers etc, these boxes are a welcome change. Now if I want to go somewhere for a game, I can put the boxes I need in a bag with a rulebook or two, and I'm off. It does mean I'm left with the sense that I forgot something. Years of doing two trips to a car to load up everything I need has left me with the impression that when I go somewhere and all I need is sitting on the floor of the car in front of the passenger seat, I must have forgotten something...

Also on the topic of Dnd: DICE!

I bought some new dice yesterday. This was needed because my old dice hated me. They could attack decently enough, but in the last game they never hit when needed, and failed to spot things that were required. I've got a Perception bonus of +9, and rolled a 1 on something like 3 occasions in the last game, one of them being during a crucial test. So new dice were needed:

These dice haven't been used yet, and I've made a point not to handle them unless I needed to pick the single one out of the barrel of dice. I'm getting superstitious of gaming dice again. These were all picked out because they are pretty dice, and Hwesta (My character) seems to spend her free time obsessed with her reflection (That's the only thing I can think of for those disc rolls), so I'm hoping she does better with these dice.

Mantic Games Ghoul

2011-04-04T21:32:00.004+10:00

This was a quick one I painted up one night for a bit of a joke for one of the guys at work. There are a group of people planning for the zombie uprising (Most of this is done when we should be working), and after on conversation I thought it would be good fun to get some of these and paint one up as a joke. Originally I wanted to get the Mantic zombies, but not being in stock, on a bit of a deadline, and liking the look of the ghouls, I grabbed some of these.

This was a really quick speed paint for me; about two hours with dry brushing nd washes coming into play a fair bit. The base was finished up shortly after, and as it was quick, there was nothing more complicated done beyond putting down sand and painting it.

WIP - Steamfitters Union - Part 1

2011-03-23T23:14:00.004+11:00

OK, I have posted barely anything lately, and have done very little in the way of models. I do have some work to put up over the next week or so, but I wanted to post these up before I forgot.

This is the Aetherworks Steamfitters Union. I've been meaning to paint it for ages, and a few weeks ago I got a chance to start working on it, so I got some work done on it, and thought I would take some photos as I went:

This was the building with a bit of wood putty around the pegs. After the outhouse last time, I put my head down and realised that what I probably missed on it the most was treating the *wooden* model as if it was a GW plastic. Greenstuff and milliput worked OK on it, but there is putty designed for wood, so I thought I would try that. The advantage was that it smears on like toothpaste, so it doesn't need mixing etc. It's most obvious on the roof in the background.

This was after the putty was smoothed back (You'll have to take my word for it). I tried to get a smooth a finish as possible, as I knew that if I left scratches in the wood, they were going to show up once painted, and knowing my luck I would probably end up getting them in obvious areas.

Undercoated. Like the wood putty, I ended up going and buying some undercoat designed for wood. It cost me a bit less than it would for a can of GW spray, but I have enough paint I think to do a scale replica of Sydney with these models, so it's going to last a while. When I used spray undercoat before, it went on a little grainy, but this seemed a lot smoother, even if I did have to brush it on in a few coats.

This is the basework for the colours. I used some Derivan Mini paints to get the orange/yellow on there, and some scorched brown for the dark wood basecoat. I realised while doing this though that I can't mask and hand paint to the same degree of neatness as masking and airbrushing. So at some point in the next few weeks I'll be airbrushing similar colours over these to make it a lot neater, and working on it from there!

More to come soon. Hopefully...

Quick WIP update - Sebastian, Morgue Assistant

2011-01-09T23:36:00.003+11:00

A quick update on the Morgue assistant I am working on at the moment:

Hopefully, I can finish him in the next day or two, then move on to a few other Wyrd models. At the moment, this guy is covered in Masking Fluid to protect painted bits while I paint other bits on him to avoid having to do touch ups later on, so he is all shiny and yellow in places.

Dark Eldar Archon / Evil Space Elf Corsair

2011-01-05T22:09:00.002+11:00

OK, so this guy is not really an Archon as much as an Evil Space Elf Corsair. He is for the GW North Sydney painting contest. I'll be honest; I wasn't looking forward to painting the Archon model, as even though it is a nice sculpt, it just didn't appeal to me. I had some spare parts from some Dark Elf Corsair models, and they fit together with this model pretty well. I used some close combat weapons for the arms with the chainmail covered up to form sleeves on the top of the arms, and covered up the gap at the front of the helmet to get a plain helmeted head on it. The beacon thing on the base was made using one of the Dark Eldar tank weapons topped with a pistol part. I twisted together some copper wire to make some barbed wire-ish parts to go on the bottom of the beacon. I'm not too sure what I was thinking for a lot of this model. I think a lot of it was fairly random...

I also did the blue armour with my airbrush. Because now I seem to look at every model and wonder what I can use the airbrush for...

Link to CMON

Aetherworks outhouse

2011-01-05T20:42:00.004+11:00

I picked this up at MOAB as something that looked like a fun model, and it looked like something I could use the airbrush on. Plus, I don't have anywhere near enough terrain that looks decent, and this was going to take a few minutes to put together, so it was win-win all the way! The only thing I think I should have done differently was sand down the surfaces better and seal the wood. I used some rough sandpaper to sand down the wood when I filled the small gaps, and in some places the MDF was a bit rough. If I had spent a few minutes going over it with a fine grade of sandpaper and sealed the wood before I started painting it, it would have avoided the small rough patches that appear in a few places on the model. Other than that, I think it looks great. I had a small piece of plasticard that I used to base it as an afterthought, as the model looked a bit strange sitting without a base next to everything else.

Tyranid Warriors

2011-01-05T18:43:00.004+11:00

These were some Tyranid Warriors I started to paint up when MOAB was on. I originally cleaned them up and bought them along so that I would have something to paint on the day. The problem was that I cleaned them up, undercoated them, and then spent the first day slowly painting the models. Due to my complete lack of motivation to get them painted, they were around for weeks before I actually finished painting them. If I had thought about it better (And I have many times since then), I could have used the airbrush to do the basecoat on the scales and then the blue skin, and it would have cut down the time by a large amount. Oh well, there are plenty of Tyranid models lying around to finish in the future...

Random Thoughts 2 – A whole family of Time Lords?

2011-01-05T18:40:00.001+11:00

Today I came across an article from The Sun (Here) that David Tennant and Georgia Moffett have got engaged. It is from The Sun (So with no official confirmation, it's probably got as much credibility at the moment as the results from a Large Hadron Collider I could build on my flat using toilet paper rolls), but if it is true, congratulations to both of them.

Either way, does this mean David Tennant officially wins the 'Living every Doctor Who fan's dream' award? From what I have read, he got into acting because he wanted to play Doctor Who (Mission accomplished). He then worked with the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison, who he has been quoted as saying is his favourite Doctor) and is no supposed to be engaged to Davison's daughter. He's also one of the fans favourite Doctors, and with the 50th anniversary on 2013, a lot of people believe he will come back to it in some way (Most likely as some sort of special). Does he get a trophy?

Also, if these two have a kid, would it be wrong to expect to see them in sci-fi shows later in life? Because I think a lot of fans would expect that if a child was born with a father and grandfather both having played The Doctor at some points in there career, the natural career path would be for the kid to play The Doctor at some point as well, right? Or maybe some other sci-fi series? Moffett's mother is the actress who played Trillian in the original Hitchhiker's Guide TV series, so sci-fi acting would be in their blood.

The great sprue clean-up of 2010/2011!

2011-01-01T21:48:00.006+11:00

Every year for the past few years I have entered the conversion contest at GW Parramatta. The prize is usually a bag of bitz; a bigger bag depending on how well you did. In 2008 I won the "You" category with a night goblin converted up to look like me, and got a large bag of bitz. Last year I didn't place, but still got a small bag of odds and ends which topped up my bitz box. In 2008 there was a trading session in the back room almost as soon as the winners were announced, and I ended up trading away a few pieces I either did not want, need, or couldn't identify, and came away with some cool things because of the trade. Last year I couldn't get in until a few days after the announcement, so I had no such luck. This year I was in Sydney for the holidays, and thought I would get to trade away again if I won anything. In 2008, I managed to get my hands on all but one arm of an old metal giant, and that's going to be converted someday into a useable state...

I had my Orc Warboss entered in the general category and won, and because of this I got a huge bag (Literally, a bag I think they usually put a boxed game in) of bitz. I went out the back to see what was in the bag, and there was no one around to trade! Looking back, I think there was only one other entrant in the store on the day, and I think he left pretty much straight away. For the first time in years, I was a bit bored by pulling sprues of greenskins for free out of a bag (I guess because I don't WANT any more goblins at this point in time), and then a few people came over to start to chat. At this point someone came over and picked up a sprue from the top of the pile I had made next to me:

Random person: Oh wow! These look pretty cool! Can I have these?
Me: You mean you want to trade?
Random person: No, I just want the pieces.
Me: ...No.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind giving odds and ends away to friends without trading if I have no immediate plans for them, and I have nothing against giving some bitz to younger kids if they are polite, but considering the guy looked like he already had a fully assembled army on the table behind him, and sounded like he knew what he was talking about, I figured I'd prefer to trade rather than just hand random bitz over...

Then I went off to GW North Sydney to have a look at their conversion contest and see if I won anything (I didn't, and I wasn't surprised). When the winners were announced, one of the guys said he was looking for Orc and Goblin bitz. I offered to get mine out of the car, knowing there were a few sprues of models in there, and the trading I missed at Parramatta happened there instead! I managed to trade a few bitz and gain a few bitz in the process, even completing a few things that were in my original bitz bag.

Inthe end, when I spent the next few nights sitting on the floor of my flat at snipping out bitz to get them into my bitz box, I realised I had the following bitz mixed in among everything else which I found fun:

* An entire Steam Tank (Two sprues were in my original bag, and the third was traded for some greenskin sprues)
* Some arcane ruin pieces - These will be turned into scenery towards the end of next year I think.
* A Ogre Tyrant - This was a trade, and I'm not sure if I missed the sword when I got the pieces out of the box, or if it wasn't on there at all. Either way, it will be fun to convert up.
* Moria Pillars - I love these pillars. I'm not 100% sure why, but I was pretty excited to get two pieces of undercoated plastic in the shape of blocks in the bag. Go figure. Stamp "Lord of the Rings" on the side of something, and I'll probably get some kind of primal reaction in my brain for it.
* A castle wall - I have to ask, where is the rest of the castle?
* Doom Diver Bitz - All of the pieces of the current kit bar one of the goblin attendants, the diver's legs, and the base piece the model sits on. It should be pretty easy to covert up!
* Portions of an Orc army - A few random arrer boyz and warriors were thrown in randomly. I'd say they are old store table models.
* GD2010 model minus an arm - Again, something else fun to convert, and not many people will be willing to convert theirs, but I already have a full one!
* 2 40K brass etch sheets - I paint very little 40K stuff, but I'm sure I'll find a use for these.
* A paperclip - This was the booby prize in the bag I think. It's not even one that can be used for pinning...
* So many gaunt scythe arms - Somewhere there is a Tyranid army with only legs.
* And Baneblade bitz - Just a sprue thrown in with a tank commander on it minus the torso, as well as a lot of other tanky and Imperial Guard looking bitz.

But the fun didn't stop there! I had to clip the dreaded things off to fit in my bitz box! After looking at what I had, I realised I was probably going to need to zip lock a lot of the bitz away to stop them from getting separated, and also fit all the loose detritus bitz from the bottom of the bag into my box. So over the course of two nights I sat down with clippers in hand and attacked the pile:

This was the bag when I first sat down. The plan was to get the larger sprues out of the way first, then sort the loose pieces floating at the bottom of the bag...

After that, I realised I had created two things: A bursting at the seams bitz box (I Think I need an upgrade again), and a pile of plastic bags that held sprue contents (IE: Steam Tank, Dryads piece, Greatsword pieces etc). I realised just how much room I had saved, and let my mind wander to the fact I have a LOT of plastic sprues here, and clipping them down could save a lot of room. I thought that at least for the few I have to hand, I could start with those...

That was new years eve... New Years Day consisted of me mainly watching movies and clipping parts, and working my way through some of the boxes I have on storage. For instance, this is the contents of an old Tyranid battle force. Clipped down, zip locked, and sat back in the box:

I thought that was pretty impressive! Clearly, a lot of room can be made this way! So I went on and one, emptying boxes and bagging models. By dinner time, I was left with this:

A shopping bag of scrap sprues! Great! Look how much waste I am making! I was actually pretty please to get this out of my flat, as it meant I had a lot more room. After all, there were all these empty boxes:

It looks impressive here, until I move further to the right and see all the mess I still have left to clean up:

0_0
I went a bit too far I think. Sure it saved me room, and I got a lot of stuff sorted out, but at the same time, I emptied out five boxed games worth of sprues as well! Those boxes were thrown into the hallway for safekeeping at the time, and a large pile emerged there as well. I managed to clear it all away the next morning, but the sprues managed to fill an kitchen garbage bag on top of what I have here!

Oh well, I guess I won't be doing that for another few months or so, no matter how much space it saved!

Teddy!

2010-12-15T21:21:00.003+11:00

OK, another backdated post...

This is Teddy for my Malifaux Pandora crew. The base was done up with the same colours to match the rest of the crew, however the difference this time was that I airbrushed the colours on. Thanks to some masking tape and planning ahead, I got the colours down very quickly, and only needed to touch up two tiles. It saved a LOT of stress trying to do that many tiles by hand. There are WIP photos, however I might post them at a later time. Another thing I did with this model was managed to do the fur (apart from a few final highlights at the end) with the airbrush, which allowed me to speed the whole process up a great deal.

A shot of him with Kade for size reference.

And a self-promoting CMON link...

Gubbinz the Goblin Jester

2010-12-03T20:54:00.005+11:00

OK, I'm going through and adding backdated updates as I forgot to post them earlier, or didn't get a chance to post them when they should have been posted...

This is the Goblin Jester I finished for the Lost Demon category for Golden Demon this year. I didn't place with him, but I was told that he came close, so I was pleased with that. I also got some great feedback about him from people on the day.

And a CMON link as usual

Bases, bases, bases!

2010-11-07T21:45:00.006+11:00

After finishing the Doctor today, I went a bit nuts on half-basing things. I started out with some Fiendish Fabrications bases I was going to paint for a friend of mine along with a showgirl and doll for Malifaux. I realised the other day that if I paint all of them with a basecoat on the airbrush, I can drybrush them all and oil wash them in about the same amount of time I could do two without the airbrush. And that way they all match:

I also decided to do some plaster casting to make a few display plinths. Armed with a few cupcake trays and plaster, I mixed up a batch or two and made some bases:

The Doctor on a 30mm base fits on top of the smaller bases. The larger one just fits a 50mm base, so I've lucked out on the size of these trays! I just have to see if the fridge magnets in the little ones are strong enough to hold a model with magnets on the base, otherwise I might have to make a few wire coils to go in there next time...

The 10th Doctor! Finished!

2010-11-07T21:34:00.003+11:00

I finished up the 10th Doctor / Dr. Hugh McCrimmon model over the past few days. Here are the finished pictures, and also, a CMON link:

Vote!

Space Aliens!

2010-10-31T23:13:00.004+11:00

A quick update of random WIPs:

First, The Doctor! This is his '3rd regeneration', as he's already been overpainted and also stripped back before reaching this stage. The shading on his suit is done, so I just need to do highlights and pinstripes on it, and then I can move on to other things:

Also, some Tyranid Warriors. Only the blue is done on them. I still have to figure out what to do with them when I am finished. I;m not too keen on selling them as has been suggested, but I'm not really playing games with them. I'm inclined to just collect them piece by piece until I have a full army, and maybe in a few years I will get back into the games.

And finally, the result of spare bits and blutack, producing what may one day be an open entry when I want a good laugh: Rocket Tau!

Sorrows part 2 - Now the Crew is complete!

2010-10-16T03:05:00.004+11:00

Remember that airbrushing? It turned out I needed very little work (Even less than I expected) to finish off the Sorrows. The advantage here was that I got them done in time for the painting contest at MOAB, and got to enter them in the unit category (Even though they weren't a planned entry). So what do they look like now? Andrew Lum (Numbat - http://arrch.blogspot.com/) kindly took some photos:

And the crew themselves:

CMON Links are:

http://coolminiornot.com/262039 and http://coolminiornot.com/262038

Next up for Malifaux, I have to finish of my Morgue Assistant who has been around here for a while. After that, I picked up Teddy and the Poltergeist at MOAB, so I guess they are the two that are going to be done after that...

The Doctor!

2010-10-11T01:07:00.003+11:00

OK, so since the last post, time sought of dragged on. I got nothing extra done for demons (I managed to break the Dreadlord), and everything went downhill from there. Last Saturday, MOAB was on, and I put together some Tyranid Warriors to take with me to paint on the day. I remembered pretty quickly how frustrating I find it to paint Tyranids with all their plating, so lost interest pretty quickly. I saw some pretty neat bases there, so decided that I would get some on Sunday, and get another model based on one of them just to see what they were like. I had an idea for a while to do one of my 10th Doctor miniatures (See Here) on a cobblestone base. There was one which was nearly exactly what I was looking for in a pack of five, and that was the kick start I needed to paint him. Saturday I cleaned him up, Sunday I did no painting, and for the past few days I have been itching to get things done around the flat in order to convince myself I have time to paint him. A few nights ago I did the base while messing around with stippling, and oil washes again (I'm coming to relay on those for these kind of things). Today I did a few hours on The Doctor himself:

The base needs to have the edge repainted, but I am very happy with the stonework. I also have a little extra to go on the base, but I am keeping that under wraps for now as I am not sure how well it will work. As for the model itself:

I'm not exactly in the right mood to get a good shot of this guy at the moment. One thing hampering me is that the face is so flat when painted that it looks a bit boring. THe rest of the model seems OK to paint, but the face isn't interesting unless you are looking at it from an angle instead of straight on. I'll note that the blue suit is not yet finished: It is just the base colours to get the pinstripes in place. And the coat colour will be changed. I was trying to find a good colour of yellow/brown earlier and though this would work, but it is far too bright and cartoony for what it is meant to be.

Dreadlord WIP, and a lack of power

2010-09-28T01:11:00.003+10:00

Last post, then sleep. Sleep wasn't something I got much of last night, as I was trying to do some work on this guy; my next GD project:

But then not long after I got the base done to this level:

...The power went off, leaving my to do little odds and ends with a head-mounted lamp while I waited for the electrician to show up and find the cause of the problem. Leaving me with this:

...Then it turned out they couldn't fix it, meaning I had to get up early this morning to feed some cats I was minding for a friend, then head to the real estate to get it sorted by their electrician. How took seven hours to turn up (Hence all the side projects as the desk is blocked pretty well from light).

Anyway, normal painting schedule should resume as normal from tomorrow morning (Here's hoping...)

Sorrows / Fun with the airbrush

2010-09-28T01:01:00.003+10:00

Next up are the Malifaux Sorrows. These have been floating around for a while, and I figured today with some downtime (See the next post) that I could clean them, get the base, and possibly even the bulk of the green done with the airbrush. After some cutting and gluing, failed pinning, and fun with putty and slate, I broke out the airbrush...

(It has a hands on feel by the end...)

And then the Sorrows were painted to some degree:

The rocks were a happy accident. The accident was breaking my new .5mm drill bit in a Sorrow on my first time using it. The happy bit was that when I propped one model up with a rock after trying to putty it in place, it looked good, so I decided to continue that on the other tow models. I may have to add some sand beyond this do it doesn't look like someone just piled the rocks up, but I think it looks OK.

As for the rest, I have to do a a few tiny touchups (Not even visible in the photos) on some dark colours in the green, and a few bolder highlights, and then I can move onto the rest of the model... Which is essentially teeth, eyes, claws, and bases. Because they are in the same colour as Pandora's flame as well, I'm going to try doing them with some OSL on the rocks (Which will be easier than doing it on tiles) to make them look a bit glowy.

Jester Finished

2010-09-28T00:42:00.005+10:00

Lots of updates tonight, and this is the first:

The Jester is finished! My first GD entry of the year is done, and I've picked up already on a few things I did wrong in the process to correct for my next project. But here are some interim shots of him at the moment:

Quick! Get painting!

2010-08-22T21:51:00.004+10:00

I've been lazy. To a degree. Anything I start ends up sitting on the desk unfinished for a while. So this is what I have been working on: A Goblin Jester for Demons (The Lost Demon category), and a Morgue Assistant from Wyrd.

The Morgue assistant base isn't 100% complete yet - I have to add some water with some blood in it to fill up the grate.

Alternate Necromancer Photos

2010-07-25T14:32:00.005+10:00

OK, I tried taking a few different shots of the Necromancer. In the end I used the blue parchment background as it gave a closer balance of the colours, even though they still see a little off to me. But I figured I would post these up anyway. So here are some links to the other Photobucket folders with the pictures:

Blue Gradient 1

This was on the standard blue gradient, but the colours came out too warm.

Blue Gradient 2

The same gradient, different alignment of the shots.

Grey Parchment

Grey parchment paper. The greens seem a bit closer to the real colours in this set, but the rest of the colours are off.

Necromancer - Finished!

2010-07-25T13:59:00.011+10:00

Last week I finished the Necromancer, but never got around to posting him here. So here are the photos. I was happy with how he turned out. This was my first time trying to paint with muted colours, so I ended up using a lot of grey and browns in his colours. I like how he turned out, however I noted that he stands out obviously among all my other brightly coloured models :)

CMON Link as usual

Star Wars - The Force Unleashed

2010-07-24T23:31:00.000+10:00

Last night, I finally finished playing Force Unleashed/ Generally I avoid anything concerning Star Wars unless I'm damn sure George Lucas was kept far away from it's development. This was one of those times.

Yes, I know the game has been out for longer than it should have taken to complete it. And I've had it for most of that time. But it's rare for me to play games for very long, and I end up getting part way through and moving on to something else. It's not a boredom thing, it's just other things appear that take priority.

Last night I wanted to kill a few hours, and thought I would have another go at it. Initially I got up to the Death Star level (Which I knew was the end), and something started to frustrate me no end with the game. I had no idea what it was, I just started getting ten minutes into the game every time I tried to play, and gave up even though I knew I was close to the end.

Last night I loaded it up. About halfway through the level, I realised what the problem was. I'm using a PS2, and for a while it was hard to find replacement controllers, so I ended up with cheap ones that seemed to work OK. Until I realised while playing that the buttons stick after a while. This would cause me to storm into a room, fry a few troopers with force lightning, force throw a security robot into a wall, then dash over the last lone guard to finish him off with a lightsaber...
...Only to end up attacking a computer console like it was a hated enemy while the guard shot me in the back several times until I died.

This happened more than once. It eventually happened so much that the only reason that I got through one area was done to poor AI on the stormtroopers part. When I decided to retreate back the way I came, I fell into the pit the giant laser fires through. And just before I died, I saw the entire room chase me over the edge. I can start that section again, but they can't. The only problem here was that I didn't realise the room was empty when I got back to it, so spent several minutes throwing boxes and barrels into the room to force throw around when I charged in. I felt a bit stupid after that...

...And then I found out just how far I had got into the game. I managed to clear the room I always quit in by only using force powers, and was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I wandered through the door and found...

-A cut scene-

Usually if I get to a new section of a game, I'm pleased. This time, I started swearing at the screen due to my idiocy of not trying to get further when I was playing the game three or four months ago. Not only that, I realised that the cut scene made way for the final two fights in the game. I had essentially been running up to the finish line for the past few tries, and stopping with the end just around the corner! The first fight was OK, and I learned quickly that while the buttons were sticking to some degree, the only one that was giving me trouble was the square button. This, as it would happen, was the button that told Starkiller to 'hit it with the big glowy stick'.

'Fine. I'll fight Vader with just my force powers'

'Right... So I've established force powers aren't going to get me far against a boss who can counter them with his OWN force powers...'
So began twenty minutes of me nearly dislocating my thumb trying to find an angle to hit the button that would register it being pressed, and also avoid it getting stuck. Eventually, I managed to beat Vader. Victory cheers all round. After that, the Emperor will be a breeze.

Not so. By the time I started the fight, my right thumb was in so much pain, I knew ever button press because it caused my physical discomfort. I guess when it comes to playing video games I'm out of shape. It also turns out that the Emperor, despite being an old feeble looking man, is capable of seemingly moving faster than the guy onscreen when he starts fighting with his lightsaber. The fight lasted a half hour easily. Some people could put down dragging a fight out this far to some sort of skill. I'm not that skilled, just lucky. Because towards the end, as soon as it looked like I was about to die, I'd be thrown through some means onto a newly appearing health pack. On several occasions there were cases of:
“Oh shiiiiiiii- Wait! I'm fine...”
Finally I beat the old guy. This is also when I started hating quick time events. Because he key button to press at two points was the square button. Twice in a row. The only thing stopping me from doing this was the fact I'd tap it, and it would stick halfway out, meaning that it wouldn't register the next hit...

In the end, I started the game over from the beginning. Keeping all the powers and just levelling them up a bit more is fun, but it's still annoying without a proper controller. Knowing that if you hit the enemy they will die, it's frustrating watching Starkiller just stand as if he is blocking something on the other side of the room. Force powers can only do so much. But it's still fun to a point. The only annoying thing is the costumes. I unlocked a Jedi robe at the end, and the game is yet to let me use it. Every time I select it, I end up in the Sith robe. And dam it, I want to do evil dressed like Obi-Wan...

More Neon Genesis fun!

2010-07-11T23:56:00.007+10:00

My sister decided while she was visiting this weekend that she wanted to go shopping down the road while she was visiting, and I ended up playing the driver. Not that it's too bad, as it meant I got to go and have a look in HobbyCo. After getting some NGE stuff from there before, I wanted to have a look at the Eva unit models they had in stock to see if there was anything interesting. They seem to be similar to the ones I got previously, but on the way out I noticed some NGE mini-model things. There were three series, and looked like characters from the @School range. I ended up going back and grabbing three of them.

One thing I wasn't overly joyed with was that they are blind boxes, so you can't pick what you are getting. Which for me means that I will probably ended up getting one model from the end of the collection, and then end up buying ten of the same figure in a row before I get the one I want. Luckily it's not like they are $20 each, but I was still expecting to get either three identical figures, or a bunch of dud ones. I cracked open the first box:

Rei! And some giant piece I wasn't too sure about at first. I few moments later I realised that in the range of nine figures displayed, there are ten to collect. So five of them have parts to clip together to form some Eva style machine.

These models go straight onto the base! Last time I got NGE models from HobbyCo I had to clip three or four pieces together. These are near instant. And they are slightly pose-able:

Not only that, but the instruction leaflet inside has some kind of comic strip in it:

...Trouble being that I have no understanding of Japanese in any form, so I have no idea what's happening. Anyway, I decided to go through the other boxes to see what I got:

Not bad! Two Rei's and a Kaworu. The second Rei didn't come with parts for the larger kit, but had a heap of extras including a second head, and is in some kind of mass-produced Eva unit costume! I think it's pretty cool just because it's so strange! And this is what I have of the larger kit so far:

So at the moment my luck has held out a bit, and I get to build this part of the unit from the ground up!

Necromancer update!

2010-07-04T22:46:00.003+10:00

A quick update on what the necromancer is like at the moment. The colours in the photos are a bit off, but the skirt and bandages are finished, and I have moved onto the gems and bottles, as well as the sharp bits on the legs which will be gems as well.

It's not obsessive compulsive behaviour: It's just a collection... (Part 2)

2010-06-26T22:25:00.005+10:00

So, after the speed I put together the capsule toys, I thought I should at least peek at the other models I got...

Because what every single man needs in his life are giant robots...
Anyway, one of the things I thought was pretty good after I got these kits home was what I saw on the side of the box:

Miniatures! I wasn't 100% impressed with the paint job on the displayed ones, but they looked like they were OK details, and I wasn't expecting them, so it was a nice surprise. I thought I would open the box (I'm not planning to put these together for a while as I need to get stuff ready for Golden Demon in a few months) to see what it was like inside:

At this point I'm thinking that it's going to be a slightly more advanced assembly that the capsule toys. No surprise really. After flicking through the instructions (Which are in Japanese, which will no doubt be fun) it seems clear that I am going to have paint a few pieces in order to get the right colour scheme as it points out a few suggested colours in places where the plastic colours won't match the show. And then I find these:

At first I thought the details seemed a bit large, but I realised that the models are larger than I'm used to painting, so that should be OK. However, they are also unpainted, which means I get to try painting them myself! This was a happy surprise! So that was the end of my kit adventures, but not the end of the NGE loot...

At yet ANOTHER booth, there was an anime store with some items, and more NGE stuff (as well as Pokémon stuff, but that's another addiction). I picked up and End of Evangelion set of the three pilots as portrait models, and then saw a few more in the cabinet in front. Thinking I could spend a lot of money in a short period of time, I got the one that drew my eye the most:

Rei in bandages is probably more recognisable than when she is in other costumes, but this looked really cool. It's another pop together model (I'm getting used to these) and for some reason contained something I can only assume is bubblegum (Although I'm not eating it) in individual wrapping. Not only is the model cool, but the base is a nice plastic NERV logo which I thought was nice use of a round area.

Anyway, I'm off. I need to go paint some things, and possibly unwrap more stuff from Supanova...

It's not obsessive compulsive behaviour: It's just a collection...

2010-06-26T21:33:00.006+10:00

Last weekend I went to Supanova for the first time. I've heard about it the past few years, and it seemed a bit slack to keep forgetting about it over and over again, especially when it's only about a ten minute drive away. And everyone I talked to said they had a great time there. So I went this year. And the same as when I went to MOAB last year, I wasn't prepared for the amount of cool stuff there, and ended up spending more money than I probably should have...

Something that has been growing over the past few years has been my random anime/manga stuff (Books, figures, random DVDs...). There are a few series I tend to stick to, but there are others that overpower the rest where I just have one or two items. One series I really love though is Neon Genesis Evangelion. Let's face it, at the end of the day it's a drama series that also happens to contain giant robots entrusted to characters who can't even attend MA15+ movies on their own yet, as well as conspiracies left right and centre. Chaos, unsurprisingly, skips along merrily behind it, which is also what I happen to do to the series.

When I was at Uni, I saw NGE when one of my friends happened to get his hands on the first movie (Death and Rebirth). He told me it was reported to him as the best anime ever made, so we decided to watch it. Ninety minutes later, we were sitting in a kind of stunned daze staring at the screen as it ended.
Him: "Did you... understand anything that just happened then?"
Me: "No... But it looked fantastic..."

The internet was consulted, and we found there was a series you weren't meant to watch first, so I chalked it up to something that I should probably look at later down the track, as it looked pretty good (Note: I was hooked on Bubblegum Crisis at the time, so really big colourful robots didn't have to work too hard to get my attention). A few years later, the first episode was free with a PC magazine as part of some Madman promotions. I watched it, and thought the show looked fantastic. Then a few years ago, when I moved to Sydney, I got a few DVDs, and then one afternoon, the boxed set of the entire series, and the boxed movie set. I was hooked big time.

Since then, I've also watched the new released movie, and a few months ago, I found a hobby store not far from me was selling figures of the three female pilots from the second movie. Purchases were made, and pretty soon I had the full set. When I was buying the last few, the guy at the counter mentioned that they used to sell the Eva's themselves, but didn't have the kits anymore. I had seen pictures of the kits before, but not in real life. Not long ago, I noticed they had some in stock, but for more than I had in cash at the time.

Which brings me back to Supanova. I knew that there would be anime/manga sellers there. I even managed to complete my set of NGE books (Even though there are still more due out later), and was keeping an eye out for NGE merchandise. About an hour after I walked through the doors, I found a stall selling the Eva kits. Not just one or two. The entire lot. And cheaper than I could get them locally. I bought Asuka's unit 02, and decided that would be it for me until I knew I could buy some more. I wanted to keep some cash handy after all. I went by later, and they only had one kit left, unit 04, which was never really shown in the series. I decided against getting it unless I had enough left over later.

Fate works with me, and I end up getting in the next day for free. As soon as I walk by the booth, I notice that they still have 04 there. After talking for a while with one of the people there, I ended up buying it. But not before mentioning the Gashapon machines they had there, which I noticed Unit 01 in (Although a lot smaller than the kits). I'm a sucker for capsule machines, and was told that these figures were actually pretty good for capsule toys. Even better, they weren't loaded in the machine at the moment, but the capsules were in a box behind the counter. And they were willing to sell me a few with knowledge of what was inside. Goodbye chance, hello happy Turelio. I got unit 00 and unit 01, and was told the rest of the series was really worth getting. And for $3 each, I thought they were a pretty good deal. I was also told that they were a little bit fiddly due to the size. I thought that I could handle it after all the miniatures I have put together over the years. From what I saw briefly inside the capsule, there were lots of little pieces, and therefore I was preparing for a good half hour or so of construction on each of them. Then today, I realised I hadn't gotten to put them together yet, so sat down at the painting table to put it together.

A few minutes later, this Unit 00 was sitting on my desk. I thought I must have blacked out for a minute, and someone had broke into my flat, assembled it fully, and left quietly. So I tried again on Unit 01...

So the ball contains a bundle of plastic with lots of large pieces in it. So there's half the construction done for me. The sprue has two sets of hands: closed, and slightly open (Unit 00 had slightly different variants for holding the prog knife). All the pieces fit together on little pop together ball and socket joints.

This was literally a few moments later. The models pop together VERY fast. Some joins are a bit tricky because the join slides around for articulation, but nothing more frustrating then "It slides that way, so I'll put my finger there to stop it moving". At this point, I just have to attach the hands. And I'm starting to wonder why it took NERV/GEHRIN so long to construct them in the series. Had they never put together hobby kits before?

Finished. That was quick...

I think these are actually pretty good for capsule toys. They are decent quality for the price, have pretty good movement, and balance. I can't count the amount of times I've had to prop something like this up against something else. These stand up, posed, and don't full over in a slight breeze. Because I am so pleased with how quickly these went together, I start to look towards other things...

Back again with random things...

2010-06-24T20:29:00.003+10:00

So my original plan of painting hard and getting stuff done for Little Wars never panned out. In fact, I haven't painted anything for months. But I've been meaning to post these photos for a while now and keep forgetting. So here are some random pics...

First, my self-bought birthday presents! I needed new brushes, and there were some models I had my eye on for a while which I thought I should get at the same time. SO I bought myself:

A set of Doctor Who and Firefly models from Heresy. In fact, I bought two of each. Obsessive behaviour is a killer some times... Still, now I have Doctor Whos and Kaylees, and also a Ghostbusters demon dog thing. And now I have these Who miniatures, it's not going to be long before I end up grabbing a few of the others I have seen floating around :)

New brushes! I was holding out for a while to get a set of W&N7's, but these are Kaple brushes which I was recommended. I really love these brushes. I honestly can't believe I have been using cheap brushes for so long.

On top of that, I have made some small levels of progress on:

My Dark Elf Blood Bowl team. It will slowly be built out of corsairs, all of them holding weapons (Because surely every player has one, they just don't wave it around with as much confidence as these guys).

And the Necromancer. Slowly, I'm working this guy towards being finished. Hopefully one day he will be.

Ture - Night Goblin Boss

2010-05-11T22:27:00.005+10:00

This guy has been finished for a few weeks, but I hadn't posted pics of him anywhere until tonight, as I was waiting for him to arrive in Sweden, where he was sent as an exchange. Anyway, this is a Night Goblin Boss (Named Ture by his new owner).

I wanted to do some darker clothes with lighter skin to make the face and hands stand out, and also put him on a barren base so he was a display model, but not overly complicated.

And, as always, links:

CMON: http://coolminiornot.com/250077
MyModelCase: http://www.mymodelcase.com/miniatures/view/198

The path to Little Wars...

2010-05-04T02:20:00.003+10:00

OK, I'm back, and updating now because I can't sleep...

I can blame the lack of updates on a few different things, but in the end it comes down to time, and the priorities I was putting on different things. As a result, I've also got very little painting done. Two Paint Klub entries never got completed, and I'm waiting till I get some other stuff out of the way before I try to do any more of those at the moment. But I have gotten back into the swing of things and started painting things for once. And at the same time, I'm starting to work on some entries for Little Wars in a few weeks. So this is what I have planned at the moment...

Open: Guild Of Harmony Necromancer

OK, I admit I have been trying to get this guy finished for a while. I really like the model, but I can never get far enough into the model without messing it up, and keep stripping it back. Previous colour schemes were rejected until I was happy with a green and beige scheme that I stumbled on ages ago, then messed up, and had to start again. I'm trying a few different things with flesh tones at the moment on him, so I am hoping he turns out OK.

Unit: Eureka Frog Troops

These are some models I picked up at MOAB last year, as I really liked the character of the models, and thought they looked like something which would do well with a simple paint job. Now I have an airbrush, I'm hoping a simple job like that can be done even quicker. The plan is to have them hunting through churned up earth hunting for worms, but I will see how much time I have in the end...

Single: Sebastian, Morgue Assistant

This is one of the first Wyrd miniatures I bought, based again on the principal it's not an overly detailed model, but has some room to experiment with things. Originally I planned to do a larger base for him, but I think now I will leave him on a standard base. Plus, a model like this is just asking to be spattered with blood, which is always fun to do...

More updates to come soon, I just have to get a few other things in order first...

Random Thought #1

2010-02-09T21:21:00.002+11:00

Something that popped into my head today on the way home from work...

I was talking to a manager as I walked out of work today who said he had seen people gathered in the car park yesterday, and it looked like the building next door might have had a fire drill. It made sense, because the last time there was a fire drill at our work we were told to move to a specific location because there was a building between us and the 'fire' so if something went wrong we were protected.

Makes sense. Nothing blocks the rubble of a destroyed building than another building.

About five minutes later, it occurred to me... What about the people in the 'barrier' building... Shouldn't you warn them? Or is the potential pillar of fire next door meant to be a surprise of some sort?

Paint Klub - Skulltaker

2010-02-08T23:25:00.004+11:00

The model due at the end of the month for Paint Klub is Skulltaker. Over the weekend I started working on him, or at least, the base:

All the pieces lined up and ready for assembly

The original plan for how the steps would be laid out.

I knocked the pieces and they formed a spiral shape, so I thought that would be more fun. Wait for it...

The base goes together - HORRIBLY! Turns out I got the angles wrong, and the middle step wasn't nearly large enough for the model to be in scale (I've learned since I painted the Jester model) so it was back to the original plan...

Back to reliable ol' Plan A. How I missed you...

A bit of Tamiya putty around the edges to blend the layers together a bit (It will be fixed up properly later) and some pipes in place...

The piece connected to the base itself. I need to run some putty around the edges and then sand it back to blend it together.

Skulltaker! Or, part of him. Just to get a feel of how he looks on the base. The plan is to have blood fountaining out of the pipes, brass plates for the flooring (The classic Khorne scheme in other words). Then again, the plan was to have a spiral staircase as well...

Hobbyist OCD Indicator #1

2010-02-08T22:54:00.003+11:00

This is one of the random thing I have done recently. For ages I have been obsessed about finding out how to find the width of the GW bases for when I construct stuff around them so they actually fit. The other night I realised if a use some cheap Uhu Stick glue to stick paper to the bases, I can trim around them and measure the gap in the paper, figuring out the size of the base. So I end up with this on my desk Saturday morning:

Should the Zomb-Apocalypse occur, and only GW base dimensions can save us, I'm well prepared.

Whee! Smart Max thingies!

2010-02-08T22:35:00.003+11:00

I picked up some things I ordered from Smart Max from a friend over the weekend, and I want to paint them NOW! But I need to wait to get other stuff finished first... Until then, some nice photos...

Humpty Dumpty - An awesome model which I have thought looked great since I first saw it, and now I get to paint it! He comes with a tiny pocket watch and candle flame, and the glasses on his face sit out by about 45 degrees... and I didn't think it was possible to cast that kid of thing.

Mei Leung, Opiumancer - This looked fantastic on the screen, and my only regret on seeing it is that I couldn't afford to get the dragon to go with her at the moment. One of her floaty ribbon bits did break on the drive back to my place somehow, but it should be easy to fix up without much trouble... I hope...

Deathmaster Snikch - Final pictures

2010-02-01T20:35:00.004+11:00

And here are the completed pictures. I did rush the metallics in the end, but am pleased with how he turned out in the end... Even if i do have a list of things i think is wrong with him...

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Paint Klub II - Deathmaster Snikch II

2010-02-01T20:22:00.006+11:00

Two posts for this guy, one now, and one for the finished pictures. I took some WIP shots while I was working on him, but I couldn't post them at the time as I had to rush to finish him. He's lots of fun, and definitely a model I will be coming back to at some point to do an unrushed job on him:

The base halfway done...

The base complete...

The skin basecoat applied (again)...

The model completed, just needs to be attached to the base.

The model attached, waiting for some final details.

Almost done... Not long now... Then I can sleep...

Twitter

2010-01-27T17:58:00.003+11:00

I decided one of the last geeky things I should do is join Twitter. So I did:
Twitter

Paint Klub II - Deathmaster Snikch

2010-01-24T00:02:00.003+11:00

The second round of Paint Klub is on next Saturday, and as of Friday morning just gone I had yet to start putting together the model, and had only cleaned up a few pieces. So I put in an all nighter last night to get the base almost finished, and have been working for the past few hours to get the model into a near ready to paint state.

So, I built the base first... I wanted it to be a bit like a mine, with a little bridge he is standing on. The model itself is on a 20mm base, and the model has to stay on this for the contest, but I decided I could always build it up and make it a bit bigger...

Alternate Malifaux Photos

2010-01-23T23:52:00.003+11:00

Some alternate photos of the Malifaux models. No extra work has been done on them since last time. However Andrew (His Blog) suggested it the other day using a gradient he had and changing the lights slightly. These haven't been through the usual Gimp editing I do, just resized in MS Paint.

Lego Indiana Jones - The Original Adventures (NDS)

2010-01-21T22:46:00.003+11:00

I bought this a few weeks ago, and it has managed to outweigh my enthusiasm for Zelda: Spirit Tracks. I'll admit that I'm a sucker for the Lego games, as it lets me relive my childhood days of playing with Lego without the pain of not cleaning up and getting pieces in my feet.

I'll admit that I'm no Indiana Jones fan, which is why I was hesitant to guy it at first (I don't even think I've managed to see any of the four films from start to finish in one sitting). However I'm definitely not a Star Wars fan, and yet I loved the Lego Star Wars games, so I figured this can't be too bad.

The main thing about these games is that I think they appeal to older gamers base appeals (Play entertaining character, hit things in creative ways, make a mess, and a bit of comedy) as well as the younger level of making a mess with Lego, and not having to clean it up. But the sheer joy in some of it is that there are very few consequences to your actions. If you lose all your hearts, you lose a bit of money with a chance to pick it up again, standing where you died. If you fall down a bottomless hole, you restart safely on the platform, just a little poorer. And as for the 'player 2' character that follows you around, there is the one thing you usually can't do in other games where you have a companion controlled by the game: If the AI starts to annoy you and do the wrong thing, you can hit the other character until they die and disappear, and you aren't punished for it! The amount of times Short Round has got between me and something I'm trying to break tonight and I have just punched through him is very high!

It's fun. I'll play it for a while, and then keep coming back to find new things. And then when I get bored, I'll probably pick a few levels to play over and over again. Now I just need to wait for the Lego Harry Potter...

Candy - Final pictures

2010-01-18T23:33:00.004+11:00

This is Candy from Wyrd Miniatures. I was testing out top down lighting on the model as well as gloss VS matte areas, and on the base i was playing with oil washes and pigments. The base is 30mm across, so she is really small! I'm just glad i managed to get proper photos of her. C&C welcome.

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MyModelCase link

Pandora and Baby Kade WIP

2010-01-17T23:25:00.007+11:00

Work continues on the Malifaux miniatures, with Pandora and Baby Kade almost completed...

Candy!

2010-01-17T23:18:00.005+11:00

I finally finished Candy! I haven't got GIMP installed yet to edit the pictures properly, but here are some samples:

The computer is evil and must be punished!

2010-01-17T18:51:00.004+11:00

I'm back. I have a few updates to enter into backdated posts from some things i have been up to in the past few weeks, so there will be updates over the next week or so. For the pas week my internet has been slowed to a crawl thanks to me using my download quote without realising it, and now i'm paying the price. To top it off, the condition of my PC has slowly been deteriorating over the past few months, and over the past few days it reached the point where it was incredibly slow, crashing Firfox for no reason, and opening/closing the DVD driver randomly...

So yesterday i decided to do what should have been done a long time ago. And it doesn't involve lighter fluid and the motherboard. I reformatted the PC, and have started from scratch. I'm (carefully) reloading software to make sure i have what i need, so everything at the moment is baby steps. Luckily i have external drives so backup is mostly done without having to think about it (I can't believe i used to back things up onto floppy disks!), but the PC itself still needs to be bought back from the dead. So now i have basic functions of the PC. I'll see how this goes. Hopefully i won't have to redo this for a while...

Malifaux bases III + The first step of painting my crew!

2010-01-10T20:34:00.002+11:00

Oil washes finished to an extent on the bases:

I'm trying out a new set of colours for the flesh, and putting a little turquoise around the face to draw the eye. These models are great fun to paint, if a little fiddly in places. However they are keeping me at my painting table, so that is always a good thing!

Malifaux Bases II

2010-01-08T21:09:00.004+11:00

A few more steps towards completing my Pandora crew: The bases are painted, and are ready for oil washes!

A few people did point out the gap in the base Baby Kade is on between the tiles and the edge, and the general comment has been it looks neater. Originally i filled the gaps on the other two to try to blend them onto the base. Having done that, i wish they all had the gap. It would have been so much easier painting the rims...

Lictor - Final Pictures

2010-01-03T21:52:00.004+11:00

The Lictor is finished! I managed to win Paint Klub too, so i've chosen Deathmaster Snikch to do for the next round, due in 30th January.

Anyway, pics and links:

CoolMiniOrNot

MyModelCase

And playing with some other Tyranids:

Lictor II

2009-12-31T22:55:00.003+11:00

Some photos of the Lictor as it nears completion. These were taken over a few days, posing with various models to get things lined up correctly...

Under construction:

Pinned, scrubbed, waiting for putty:

(I was trying to get a bit of spinning motion to him when viewed from the top)

Puttying the model:

For Christmas I got an airbrush, and needed to try it on something big. Which, as luck would have it, was the Lictor i had been doing up for the previous few days...

G'elli Mah - Goblin Wolf Rider Boss - Final pictures

2009-12-21T22:02:00.003+11:00

My Wolf rider is finished! He's mainly done up for army use and a conversion contest, but here are the pictures:

The Wolf III

2009-12-20T23:34:00.004+11:00

Some more photos of the wolf:

Earth to Hell by Kylie Chan

2009-12-20T22:10:00.004+11:00

When I was young(er), one of the things that stuck in my head was all the mythology stuff I used to read, and as well as that, the old TV show Monkey. About a year ago, I came across White Tiger, the first Kylie Chan book from the Dark Heavens trilogy in a book store. It looked good, had some interesting points on the back cover, and when I flicked through quickly (something I have to stop doing when book shopping) and saw words like 'sword', 'explode', 'demon', and realised this was a book I may enjoy. But I had no money, so I had to put it back.

I bought it somewhere around August though, and quickly went through the entire trilogy. Then I found out that there were two more trilogies planned with the same characters, and I started waiting for book 4 (Earth to Hell) to come out. Then I found out that not only was it being released before Christmas, but there was a signing at Parramatta at Infinitas Bookshop, which is where I found the original book. So I went and bought the book, got it signed (as well as the original three which I bought again to get signed while there), and after a few days, had finished the entire thing. Now I have to wait for book 5. Patiently. Oh dear.

This is a really fun book. For someone like me, who loves martial arts stories/mythology/good stories, this is perfect for me. The story picks up eight years after the end of the first trilogy ended, so all the characters have grown up a little bit, so you get the same characters with no need to be introduced to them and yet get to learn what has happened with them in the past few years. The story doesn't drag it's feet, but jumps right into the action, and one thing I really like about these books, the fight scenes don't get boring. I've read a few action books where the action scenes are either exciting but badly written, or well written and dragged out. Not these ones. If it needs to be a short fight scene, it's short. If not, it gets the right amount of time. It gets boring fast. But these are always good fight scenes, and not thrown in on the basis of "they haven't punched anything for the last two chapters".

I'll read this again and again for sure, although I'll probably buy another copy so I don't have to ruin the one i got signed by rereading it. :)

The Wolf II

2009-12-13T00:56:00.002+11:00

A bit more work on the wolf. The gap around the wolf feet was filled last week to make it stand on the rock, not above the rock:

I've also started painting it:

I tried a glow effect on the eyes, and while i think in real life it is better on the right hand side, it is barely noticeable in the photos. I also tried a few cuts on his back legs.

Lictor

2009-12-13T00:28:00.004+11:00

After the wolf is finished i'm working on a Lictor. However because it's for a contest at the beginning of the year, i need to start work on it straight after the wolf. Meaning i have to start testing things for it NOW! So here are some photos from the test phase of poses:

I wanted it to look stealthy instead of surprised like the standard kit seems to be assembled as. The warlock is there so that when he is put next to something i can make sure he is looking at their head, not at a point three feet above it.

Malifaux Bases

2009-12-12T00:01:00.002+11:00

I have a Pandora Crew box set for Malifaux which i am painting up. It was purchased mainly on the basis it has Baby Kade, Candy and Pandora. I wasn't too fussed about the Sorrows, although they still look like they will be pretty fun to paint. I decided i wanted some simple tiled bases for them as the Wyrd models tend not to need giant showy bases, and as they are going to be used in games, it quicker and simpler the better:

Well, that's what i thought. Turns out to cut the tiles bases for three bases, fit them, fill the gaps etc averaged out at about 30 mins each. I'm just happy at the moment as there are only 6 in a group, so i'm not going to have to do something the size of a Warhammer army with 1/2 an hour on each base.

The Wolf

2009-12-11T23:43:00.005+11:00

Well, i've meant to start a blog for a while now, so here goes. This is a wolf rider conversion i am working on at the moment. It's for a conversion contest, and based on the rider from the old GW Goblin Wolf Riders. The wolf it came with is long past useable now, so i wanted a larger wolf to add a bit of menace. And that's when i decided to use a Chaos Warhoud:

The rider doesn't fit flush with the wolf, so the obvious way to get around that is to make a saddle. And when it didn't look right, i kept adding scales to make it look like dragon hide.

Once done, i put him together with the rider and base i had made to get some shots of him:

The shield is a Dwarf buckler with the emblem ground off. The skull is from the skull bitz pack, and the rock is made out of a greenstuff/milliput mix.