Category Archives: Paint

Job’s a good ‘un

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It’s arrived at last! And it’s huge! Flippin’ huge!
I am of course talking about the Heresy Dragon. I ordered it before Number Two Son was even thought of.
Andy, the creative genius behind Heresy, has had an absolute nightmare producing this. Originally he thought it would take a couple of months to produce. Since then…
http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=260
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Here is a scale shot with a 28mm figure just to give you an idea.
The pity is that now it has to go back into the box for a couple of months until my man-cave is set up in our new house.
Did I say, “New house”? Yes, I did. More on that to come.

Image copyright Heresy and is used totally without permission.

Image copyright Heresy and is used totally without permission.


Now go to Heresy and buy something!
http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7&zenid=663b39432d06ba7ae00dc76821cede6a

January/February work

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It’s been a bit slow of late. Partly lack of motivation. Partly preparing artwork for the GOT shop. And also some health issues. I have had to go into hospital for an operation to remove some rogue cells. The after care medication is knocking me for six at the moment.
Anyway, I finished the Ratling Snipers and managed to do one base of my beloved Snotlings.
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I also did an illustration for someone attending this years BOYL, Bring Out Your Lead. The annual Oldhammer bash at Foundry HQ.Erik1
He wanted an eighties style of illustration. There’s room for improvement, but I haven’t really picked up a pen in years, so not too shabby. Not one bloody word of thanks mind you. Hmmmm.

Some more bits for my retail empire

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Productive day today. I managed to get four batches cut today.

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The first was the shipping container. This time I got the setting right and didn’t have to spend an hour cutting it out. There are a couple of etch-lines which need attention. But I’m there.
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This is a packing case. I probably won’t be selling this. Working on a formula of, “Three times time and materials” this works out at six Euro each. I don’t see many wargamers forking out that much for a single piece. So I need to make something a little less complicated in a cheaper material. This is made with 4mm ply rather than the much cheaper 3mm MDF. Which I have now sourced thankfully, now to find affordable acrylic.
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“Line Of Sight” markers. These are designed for your less sporting opponent. For example, I have some of my Ork Stormboyz mounted on flying bases. So when they land behind a large obstacle anybody reasonable would assume they couldn’t be seen. So if you get anyone picky, “I can see your Ork, so I can shoot at the entire unit,” just replace your figure with a marker. “Can you see it now?”
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Finally a plaque for my Albion Army, when I finally get my display case out of storage.

Dezember’s finished work

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Treelady from Ultraforge Miniatures for my Albion Army.
I didn’t manage to do much over December, I wasn’t very inspired and this shows it. There are bits i am happy with and bits that are a bit bland and ho-hum. It was good practice with the airbrush getting some highlights and shadows.

Christmas and New Year freebies

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Here’s some of the bits I picked up for modelling over the holiday season.
The amorphous white blob on the left was some “Snow” used in my local shopping centre. I will be using this to make some explosion markers. Teased out, glued onto washers and airbrushed. Also in the future I plan to make some flickering musket smoke for my British Peninsular Army.
In the middle you see some nose cones from fireworks, very popular here for New Year’s Eve. These will go in my bits box to make rockets and random scenery for my Orks.
At the bottom are the left over wires from Christmas Tree sparklers. I was looking at Daggerandbrush’s, https://daggerandbrush.wordpress.com/, rather excellent tutorial on making trees and thinking about getting some florist wire to try it out.
Come Christmas we put sparklers on the tree.
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Tidying up the next day I was taking them off the tree and thought, “Umm nice pliable wire”. So these have been put to one side to be used soon.
I read Wargames Illustrated, it’s for the articles, honest! Looking at the December 2014 issue there was a photo feature on Brits versus Germans.

Image copyright Wargames Illustrated. Used without permission. Taken from issue 326 December 2014. Article Brits versus Germans. Page 105. By the Derby Wargames Club. www.wargamesillustrated.net

Image copyright Wargames Illustrated. Used without permission. Taken from issue 326 December 2014. Article Brits versus Germans. Page 105. By the Derby Wargames Club. http://www.wargamesillustrated.net


Now I’m a sucker for good scenery and ideas for making it, especially on the cheap. I kept returning to this image wondering what was familiar. Then it dawned on me that the crops were in fact bits of carefully trimmed artificial Christmas tree. All I had to do was keep my eyes peeled after the festive season for any discarded trees.
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What turns up? And in the bins in the block where I live, so I didn’t even have to leave the building!

My review of 2014

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Overall I have achieved a fair amount of work this year, although I did peter out in November and December. I managed to hit most of my painting targets for last year. Still to finish are a unit of British Infantry and to finish the Albion Faeries and Ork Jets which I’d started. Purchasing wise I bought 76 figures and managed to paint about 202. So the lead mountain is slowly getting chipped away. Although I am getting to a very competent standard of painting there is always room for improvement.
I figured out how to make movement/display trays for my round based troops and the result looks good.
Over the year I have received a lot of support and encouragement from the blogging community. Special mentions go out to: DaggerandBrush, Skarach’s World, AmateurAirplanes and Sigur from Battlebrush Studios. And of course a big shout out to my old gaming buddy Mug’O’Dice.
This coming year I want to engage more in Social Meejah and promote my blog a bit more. This will mean embracing Goggle+, banner advertising and actually engaging with the Blogosphere. Something else I want to do more of this year is laser cutting. I used to have the services of a laser cutter at my last job which was so useful for making markers and tokens.
Plus I want to pluck up the courage to post my work on CoolMiniOrNot.
There are two products I would like to suggest for Product of the Year 2014.
The first is Vallejo’s Metal Medium. This adds a beautiful highlight to your metalwork and can be mixed with ordinary paints to produce any metallic shade you could wish for. I must recommend that every painter has this in their arsenal.
The second product is Baking Parchment. It’s uses are many and varied. Painting base edges where you’ll have a wet surface potentially sticking to the table-top. Making a non-stick surface when cutting out a spray mask. Applying washes to a row of shields. Etc. etc. etc.
I still want to paint a unit a month. If I knuckle down I could finish an army. However this would be really dull and repetitive. I prefer to have some variety. I would like to enter some models into the Massive Voodoo competition, which runs until April. I don’t stand a chance of winning, against Golden Demon winners, but it will push me to improve. This is what I propose to paint this year.
* A unit of Ratling Snipers and an empty scenic base.
* Napoleonic Artillery
* Albion Sword Maidens
* And if they arrive in time a unit of Raging Heroes Troopers
After I have dealt with the Massive Voodoo competition then it will be, in no particular order:
* Finish my Roman Army, this is not so bad as it sounds, one fortified base and one commander.
* A DKK squad
* Napoleonic cavalry
* DKK Death Riders
* A unit of Centaur cavalry for Albion
* Another squad of Home Guard and a squad of British Infantry
* A Squig Mangler for my Orc and Goblin Army
* Albion Skirmishers
Other options with I may slot in are:
* A Dreamforge Titan
* The deodorant speeder for Rouge Trader
* Some Titanforge Undead Goblins
* Some 4A Miniatures Kevin Adams Goblin Seafolk
* A squad of Fallschirmjäger as opponents for my Home Guard
This year will be about smaller units and treats, rather than batch painting which I’m finding a drag.
This could be academic if we do settle on a house because I’d like to focus on making it habitable. And of course making my “Man-Cave”.
I would like to to ask if anyone has experience of insuring their collection as I am increasingly looking at my collection as my Boy’s inheritance.
So without boring you further, I bid you a creative and motivated 2015, and to quote from the late great comedian Dave Allen, “May your god go with you.”

Dezember progress

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Finally got round to varnishing these chaps and putting the final touch, bloodied (Tamiya clear red) crosses on the shields.
So, Daggerandbrush, here they are.
image In the background you can see the Tree Lady and a unit of Ratling Snipers.
Can’t seem to shake off the Winter Blues, hopefully things will pick up soon. We are going for a second viewing on a house and if it proves acceptable then I can start properly on my “Man Cave”. There is enough space, upto 650 square meters which includes a space that was used for cheese making. Big enough for the Wife’s cookery school.
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Dezember workbench

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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.
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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.
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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.

November progress

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Wukka Wukka from the Arcworlde Kickstarter

Wukka Wukka from the Arcworlde Kickstarter


My Bolt Action Dad's Army Command Section

My Bolt Action Dad’s Army Command Section


Bolt Action Dad's Army Squad

Bolt Action Dad’s Army Squad


Fir Bolg for my Albion Army

Fir Bolg for my Albion Army


This month I have mainly been despondent. A mixture of birthday blues and the weather. After an amazing autumn the winter has come, it’s all grey and bleak. This month’s workbench was all about finishing the unit of Fir Bolg for my Albion Army. I really started to hate batch painting and not really liking the colour scheme I used. So I broke off to paint one of Alex Huntley’s Arcworlde miniature. Do check out his company, Warploque Miniatures.

http://www.warploqueminiatures.com
He is alarmingly young and alarmingly talented. His figures have a certain style, not to everyone’s taste I will say, which I like. I backed his Kickstarter because I believe that in about ten years if we keep supporting him he will be an awesome sculptor. This perked me up a bit. I do enjoy painting single figures.
Then I got on with the Bolt Action Dad’s Army squad. These were Foundry figures. Much nicer than the ones that Warlord Games released. It’s obvious when you know that the Foundry ones were sculpted by the Perrys. Some of the figures I had already painted in England. I just wanted to get the squad finished and the command. Had a little play around with the movement trays to make them a bit more interesting.
Then it was back to the slog of the Fir Bolg. I painted them in block colour and it was only a couple of days ago that I finished that. I dug out two new brushes to finally replace my old ones. The fine detail one was down to four bristles and the blocker wouldn’t hold it’s shape. My new fine brush is a Creative Models Synthetic 2/0. So far impressed. And the blocker is a Daler-Rowney Dalon D77 1. Not so sure yet. New brushes suddenly made the painting easier. I perked up a bit but the figures were just not doing it for me. Then two days ago I finished the blocking. Time for a wash, using Army Painters Strong Tone Wash. POP! Much more interesting. Shadows, grubbiness more depth. I’ve highlighted the bones. It just remains to finish the bases, paint the eyes a glowing pink (or green, haven’t quite decided) and paint the Cross of Saynte George in Tamiya Clear Red; once varnished.
So still a couple more days work before starting December’s work.
And having to go to Vienna for a Nicholaus Party.
Oh the suffering!

Some more fun

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Some more work avoidance, the Vicar and the Verger from my Bolt Action unit. Although they are on the work list I really should be concentrating on my Fir Bolg. I just don’t fancy batch painting at the moment.