So that was 2020

Posted on December 30, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

Before the interweb crashes I will get in first and wish my one reader ma Happy New Year. 2020 was unusual and thankfully for us wasn’t too bad. here is to the hope that 21 will be an unmemorable year.

As is usual I would like to nominate my product/products of the year. My biggie is the Elegoo Mars Pro, a resin 3d printer. The quality is amazing and combined with Patreons (more of which further down) and Thingiverse I don’t think I will be buying figures in the traditional sense in the near future. My second product is Army Painter Dry Rust. Go and buy it, it will be the best two quid you will spend.

So now on with the painting since the last post.

I managed to make the 2020 challenge, one figure a week, and managed to get double bubble of 106 figures done. There may be a couple of extra.

Next year the painting challenge is to tackle twelve projects that have scared you as a painter. Maybe the Heresy Dragon? It would be nice to see it finished.

I did fall behind with the make/fix/mend resolution. I seem to have ended up with a lot of extra projects.

I received a copy of Bloodbowl for Christmas, 2021 will see me making a pitch, 3d printed from files by Kraken 3d Studios.

Finally I would like to mention Patreons. This is a scheme where you pay an artist a small monthly fee and they produce something. I have backed, in no particular order.

Westfalia: some rather nice halflings, some have been themed around a certain galactic bounty hunter.

The Makers Cult: they are making some 40K proxies with their own little twist. Victory Corp, think rebadged DKoK. Iron Hive, mechanical ‘Nids. These are the two ranges I am most interested in, but there are others, dark mechanicus, Feudal Guard (think medieval with las guns) and some SMs.

Tabletop Terrain: modular sci fi vehicles.

Code2: fantasy medieval buildings.

Anyway I shall leave it at that.

Good luck for 2021

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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May progress

Posted on May 16, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Not painting as much as I should be. I’m managing upto an hour a day rather than my ideal three hours. Here is the Rough Rider progress. At the moment I’m not so happy with them, but then I had a similar situation with my Ratling Snipers earlier this year. Suddenly after another colour or two they’ll start to “pop” and I’ll be happy. Patience is the lesson I need to learn.
Most of my spare time in the last few months has been taken up with making artwork for laser cutting.

Even then I get distracted into little side projects. I had been pondering what to use as treasure tokens when browsing on Goggle Images I came across some pictures of old coins. It was a matter of moments to copy them into Photoshop, up the contrast and turn into black and white. Then into Illustrator and draw a cut line. Export as EPS and then to the laser cutter. And bingo! I’m rich! About two hours worth of cutting and I should have a decent trove.

March Workbench

Posted on March 2, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Here are some, ahem, Forgeworld Deathriders which will be serving as Rough Riders in my Imperial Guard army.

January progress

Posted on February 5, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve had a real slow month this month, a bit depressed and some minor health worries have taken my painting mojo. I have really been put to shame by the output of some other people, mentioning no names, amateurairplanes. My mood also hasn’t been improved by advised, by a builder we hired, not to buy the house we had been looking at as it had potentially too many problems and would end up being a money pit. So back to square one!
These guys were my first unit of the year and for a while the painting just didn’t do anything for me. It’s only been in the last week when I started detailing that they have started to pop. With a little push they won’t take long to finish.

So obviously I’m behind this month and I’m very tempted to leave the painting schedule behind and just paint Snotlings this month.
But on a positive note, I have embarked on a new project, still wargaming related. It’s early days yet, but once I have something to show you I will.

Dezember workbench

Posted on December 5, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

A Treewoman from Ultraforge. She will be a giant in my Warhammer Fantasy armies. I’ve been looking forwards to painting her. This is my Christmas treat.

This is a unit of Pixies for my Albion Army. I’d already started painting them in England, but I’m not impressed by the work done. So this is a rescue job. They’re all individual figures so I’m not batch painting.

This is the Ork jet I’d started earlier this year and I’d like to finish it.
I’m not too much out on my painting targets for this year and I need to think about what my targets are for next year. I want to spend one month finishing my Field of Glory Roman Army. That would bring completed armies up to the grand total of two. If I solidly paint for the rest of the year I could finish my Napoleonic Army, but I think go bonkers painting eight infantry, three cavalry and two artillery. I’m going to split it up between Albion, Napoleonic and the Imperial Guard Army that I seem to have accumulated. Plus some one offs as treats.

Varnished, prepped and undercoated

Image

November’s workbench

Posted on November 1, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

This is what I have planned for this months workbench.
The main job is to finish a unit of Mantic Undead which will be used as Fir Bolg in my Albion Army.
Next up is to finish a unit of Home Guard for my Bolt Action Army. The figures are from Foundry and feature some well known characters.
I want to get a Penal Unit, top center, prepped and ready for painting. They are from Victoria Miniatures and they look very very good and I can’t wait to paint them. Maybe in the New Year? These are destined for my 40K Imperial Guard/Not DKK Army. Finally on the right are some Arcworlde figures, just for fun.

August progress

Posted on August 25, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

Here are some work in progress shots of my command vehicle used in my Not DKK Army. Vehicle by Ramshackle Games from the recent Kickstarter.

Undercoat and the start of weathering

Weathering finished and dozer blade.

Rubbing away the white paint. I used the Hairspray Technique for this. It is a bit disheartening to spend hours painting on weathering for it all to be painted over.