About grumpyoldtin

An old git over the hill and declining disgracefully

Yet more prevaricating

Posted on November 4, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Earlier this week we took a trip across the border (luckily nobody mentioned the war) to visit the Hans-Peter Porsche Traumwerk. A new toy museum in Bavaria.
Link here http://www.hanspeterporsche.com/

This was a really well laid out and beautifully curated museum, and as is typical of Porsche no expense was spared.

An unusual camouflage scheme which I imagine would be hard to do in real life

The lighting was a bit too subdued to take proper photographs which was a pity, but you have to also understand that they are also conserving the exhibits. Upstairs was a large collection of tin toys. This description does the displays somewhat of a disservice as the exhibits covered circuses, zoos, ships, a small amount of military, fire engines and of course trains. Lots of them.
There was a gallery looking down to the main attraction, a vast train layout.

Again this is an understatement. There were wall projections of clouds and a lighting sequence that cycled between day and night. Clouds passed over the mountains and an immersive ambient soundscape.

I’m not really a train person, but I wouldn’t mind tapping into that market, so the trains weren’t all that exciting. But the scenery was to die for.

Really well done, again it was attention to detail. You would look into the windows of a house and see that it was fully furnished.
Well worth a visit, but bring sandwiches as the restaurant was expensive (I’ve never had a meal that has been up to scratch in Germany) and the kids adventure playground was very well designed.

So how is the Dragon going I hear you ask.
Well…..
I am going to stick with the colour scheme, but I have been prevaricating. Again.
Continuing the Undead theme and the Bob Olley addiction.

So now I have a command group.

And this chap, sculpted by Justin Coutange from the Oldhammer community.

This was another entry to the Warhammer Salzburg “Spooky” painting contest. I finished him with a couple of days to spare, but I didn’t get into town to submit him.
Late news.
The figure that I did enter came second, so not too bad.

And finally this figure from Grimskull Miniatures. A bit T&A but I thought she would go nicely with my Raging Heroes Not DKK army.
So there you have it. Time to tidy the desk and knuckle down with the dragon.
Honest!

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First splash of paint

Posted on October 27, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

dragonhead Here is my first attempts at a colour scheme. I think I need to step away for a couple of days and re-assess it. The pale colour is a little bluer than it appears here.

Some more prevarication

Posted on October 27, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Something I like to do, in the evenings (life permitting) is mucking around with sound. I want to make my gaming a little more immersive. This is one of my attempts. I am not able to post directly here, so here is a link to my website where I am hosting it.

http://www.payattention.altervista.org/Atmospheres/intercepted%20transmission.html

Gratuitous cock photo

Posted on October 27, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Our little menagerie has expanded with the addition of four hens and a cockerel. I’m not sure all the neighbours approve, we are canvassing opinions. I’m not so sure of the 5.30 wake-up.
Anyway in all his glory is Brutus.

There’s something in the air

Posted on October 20, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Mostly paint particles.

I decided to strike while the iron was hot and try airbrushing the wings. The set up for airbrushing isn’t quite right yet, but a few small tweaks should get it there. More practice is required. Firstly getting the paint to the right consistancy and secondly getting the airflow/needle balance right.

And patience. Take time and build up the paint slowly otherwise it runs.

Most importantly wear a mask.

Winter is coming

Posted on October 20, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

The leaves on the trees are changing from green to orange. The mountains have had their first snow. Our winter wood has been delivered and safely stored.

And now I have primed the Dragon.
So far I have only used a single action airbrush. Now it’s time to up my game and break out the double-action airbrush for the wings.

I really need to stop prevaricating around the bush

Posted on October 17, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

So the Dragon is glued and ready to paint. Am I doing anything about it? Am I heck as like!

The first distraction was in the form of a freebie figure from the revamped White Dwarf. I thought he would make a nice leader for my growing band of Chaos cultists.

Then I got distracted by an old Bob Olley sculpt that I have had for about thirty years. I was inspired by seeing pictures on the Oldhammer Facebook group.

And finally my local GeeDub store is running a spooky painting contest. So I had a rummage through my bitz box and found this figure.

Perhaps it’s time to get my finger out and get on with the real job?

Dragon glued

Posted on October 11, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Finally after much prevarication the Dragon has been assembled. There is a tiny bit of filling to be done on the two wing fingers. After that time to start painting the beast.

Well I found some plates

Posted on September 11, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

A few years back, when I was at CSM, the canteen was having a clear-out and I came across these plastic plates.

We used them in our greenhouse, back in London, to put plant pots on. But always in the back of my mind I thought they might be useful for something hobby related.
Over here now and getting settled. Time to start unpacking boxes and I came across them. Tick tick tick, hmmmm?

I laser-cut a base and some gubbins to make it a bit more interesting but I seem to have missed out photographing the base painting and the chipping.

Here we are masking the structure to add a white stripe.

Masking the whole structure to avoid overspray.

As you can see my airbrushing was not very successful. Instead of gently building up the layers I blasted away with the end result being this where the paint went under the masking.

This was remedied by adding a line of marker pen.

Adding rust streaks with oil paint.

The finished product. I wanted to provide a quick photo as I’m certain it is going to feature in more photos in the future.
If I can point you in the direction of this blog
http://port-imperiale.blogspot.co.at/
It’s Blogs like this that keep me on my toes.
Now that reminds me…. I’ve got some small flowerpots I picked up at Ikea because they had some plastic grass in them.

Rogue Trader Civilians

Posted on September 6, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

I wanted some civilians for my future games of Rogue Trader/Rogue Stars so it’s not just two groups of fighters slugging it out. I’m now trying to figure out some form of group dynamic. Maybe three or four influencers to roll direction/scatter dice for and everyone else following them. This might make life interesting for the fighters if they have a crowd charging towards them in the middle of a firefight.

The Patron, his Concubine, his Bodyguard and his Accountant. These are from Moonraker Miniatures

Colony 87 from their Kickstarter

rtciv3

Citadel Paranoia ‘bots and a certain melancholic android from Denizen Miniatures

Speeder Bike from Denizen, scratch-built easel and Painter Kevin from Foundry

Slave Market. Minions, not sure about them I got them in the 80’s. Naked girl and man with staff from Unfeasibly Miniatures. Kneeling girl from Brother Vinni. Bodyguard from Warlord Games.

These were from some freebie figures I got at Salute. Maelstroms Edge with bits from Warlord Games, Victoria Miniatures and Perry Miniatures.

A Fatty from Citadel’s Judge Dredd. Privateer Press and Ramshackle Games.

A Cartographer from Ral Partha Europe. Traders from Lead Adventures and a Gentleman from the Slaver set from Unfeasibly Miniatures.

Moonraker and Reaper

Reluctant to be photographed, Meridian Miniatures and Moonraker in the center.

Denizen

Denizen

My target is for about fifty. Getting them painted would be good.

And yes, I am prevaricating about the Dragon.

grumpyoldtin now on Etsy

Posted on September 6, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve now taken the leap to Etsy. The first steps to untold wealth?

It’s rather pleasant here Mavis, don’t you think?

Posted on August 26, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Just one minor adjustment, just extending a cut line by two millimetres, and it’s ready to roll. I already have an order for three, so not too shabby.

Another brick (or stone) in the wall

Posted on August 26, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Today has been hotter than yesterday, if that is possible. The cicadas are in full voice and the mountains are a pearly grey in the heat.
This mornings task was to glue some walls together that I had laser cut over the last few weeks using up old scraps of MDF.

These were inspired by one of GDubs scenery books where they made walls from thick card. I really did not fancy spending hours and hours with a knife cutting out card shapes. This is where a laser cutter comes in handy. Each wall section only takes a couple of minutes to cut and I have loads of scrap that I want to use up. The only pain is glueing it together.

By ten this morning I had to stop as the glue was setting almost immediately in the rising heat.

Pinning for the fjords

Posted on August 25, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

I have been prevaricating around the bush about the Dragon. Mainly because I am nervous as it is the biggest model that I will have attempted. I do have bigger in the lead mountain, a Forgeworld Titan, but that model really does put the wind up me. Maybe next year?
I have been doing other things, work avoidance really, glueing together all the laser cut bits that that I have made for my scenery over the year and various DIY and painting jobs around the house.
The Wife and Kids have gone to Croatia for a week so I have the whole place to myself. This is good, the dining room table has been commandeered and all my loose ends from various corners have been spread out and collated. This has tidied up my work areas and reduced clutter.
The weather is far too good to be sat inside painting. So I am sat looking at the hazy mountains all blue in the distance and soaking up the sun. I have set some thermometers to tell me how hot it is. One is telling me it is 57 degrees. Another says 41.4 degrees, it also says it’s raining. And an older more traditional thermometer says 45 degrees. So it’s quite warm.

Luckily drilling holes for pinning is something that can be done outdoors. I am using paper-clips for the pinning because although the Dragon is resin it’s still pretty hefty and I’m not sure if my usual thin brass wire will be up to the job.
For some strange reason I’ve got it into my mind that this Dragon is Norwegian. But it won’t be blue.

Clear the decks! The dragon is coming!

Posted on August 11, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

I haven’t painted for four months.
There has been the Puppet’s War Robot sat on my desk half done for all this time and I think I have been using it as an excuse. So I have packed it away and cleaned the desk away of any other distractions.

Tidy desk

So the next project is the dragon.

Image copyright Heresy and is used totally without permission.

Here is the post I’d written before, for the benefit of my newer followers.
https://grumpyoldtin.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/jobs-a-good-un/
This project has also be an excuse to crack on with my workshop where I plan to airbrush and do some of the dirtier jobs.

Workbench

I’m going to have a permanent airbrush set-up as before I had been packing it away after every use which I found that it put me off using it.
Part of my equipment is a single action airbrush which was being used for primer and for varnishing. I wanted a double action but the expense put me off. I use Facebook, probably too much, and one of the groups I subscribe to is the “Artblock Social” for people who went to Camborne Tech in the 80’s. The good old days before computers when there was Letraset, Cow-Gum, Type Scales, Grant Projectors, Magic Markers and of course Airbrushes. Anyway, earlier this year was a chat about Type Scales, how totally useless they are these days and why do we still have them lurking in the bottom of our drawers. So this got me thinking, and I posted that if any of the Technical Illustrators had an old one kicking about I’d gladly take it off their hands. I got a message back from one of the guys that he used to be a demonstrator and had a spare airbrush in his garage. He sent it to me and I was half expecting something quite well worn, not that I wouldn’t be grateful. When I opened the parcel I had quite a surprise, a brand new boxed DeVilbiss Aerograph Sprite!
On to the Dragon. I’d met Andy Foster from Heresy earlier this year at Salute and I had promised that this year I would be painting it. It appears that most of the dragons are boxed up on a shelf somewhere.
The next question was what colour? Red? Or green? These are your two classic colour schemes which most painters seem to follow. I was undecided. That was until last week when I had a trip to the zoo with my Boys.
Then I came across this and had my mind made up.