Consistency

Posted on March 8, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

It’s been a while, and it gets worse everyday thinking I must add some more content. And then you don’t. And then the guilt builds up. So I am biting the bullet and adding a bit more content. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the editor when using a iPad was decidedly arsey.
This is the next stage for my painting, consistency in basing. I have, now, several armies each with an individual look, so it is important that the units in each army have some cohesion in basing style.

I am already recording what paints I use in a journal.
This piece of wood has been laser-cut with spaces for some 30mm bases that I don’t intend to use. The plan is to make up these bases as I make my armies and record what I have done in my journal so I will have a written record and a visual one.
I also want to experiment with other basing techniques and record the successful ones for future use.

Product of the Year 2015

Posted on January 21, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

This year there are two products of note.
The first is something you wouldn’t normally think of: yoghurt pot lids.
As I have two boys with rapacious appetites I tend to buy half litre pots. They come with plastic lids for resealing. Presumably the manufacturers don’t consider that their product will be consumed in one sitting. Anyway they make ideal one shot palettes, especially when using oil paints. I don’t have to worry about cleaning up, I just toss it in the recycling.
The second product is a paint from Vallejo, Dark Blue Grey.
I have been using it a lot on my Imperial Guard Army and have started using it on my fledgling High Elf Army. I wanted to steer away from the standard Games Workshop blue and white and head for more sea-like greys and blues. This clour just fits the bill.

Return

Posted on August 28, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

As some of the more observant of you may have noticed I haven’t blogged much recently. My energies have been diverted elsewhere and have been dealing with some minor depression. The reason for all this is that we have moved. Now we have somewhere permanent to live and I can put down some roots and get settled.

There is a bit of time to wait until I can properly get to work on my Man-Cave as a new boiler and radiator systems have to be installed. Then I can lay a new floor and give it a lick of paint.
Once that is done it will be time to bring everything back from the lager and unpack. I can’t wait to see what treasures I do have.
One thing that I have done is to bring back my glass display case and put my painted stuff in. It is very gratifying to see my work in one place rather than wrapped up in boxes.

I have managed to spend some time on the hobby though. Earlier this year I entered my Ork Jet into the bi-monthly Puppets War painting competition.
For those of you who are unaware of Puppets War, they are a Polish company specialising in resin models and extra parts for wargames figures.
http://puppetswar.com/
Can’t recommend them highly enough, some very nice models and a good price!
Anyway, I got a first prize, a voucher to spend in their store. Which I did.
And here is what I got…..

Soaking the parts in washing up liquid solution

After a rough assembly I thought the turret wasn’t imposing enough

What to use?
In the bits box was the lid from a baby food sachet.
Seems to work.

Figuring out where to drill the centre hole for the turret

The roller at the front was too close. So I built it out a bit. More rivets!

Extending the arms as it was otherwise going to look like a Tyranosaurus.

Finished arm with cables

This is the nifty device I used for making the cables. The Tentacle Maker from Greenstuff Industries
http://www.greenstuffindustries.com/

Turret.
Puppets War sent me a few extra bits in the box and I thought it was only fair to incorporate some into this model.

Undercoated

Base colour

A different base colour. I wanted the machine to look cobbled together.

A bit of rust

Starting to paint

Mud and dust

A bit of colour

Putting it together

And the finished result

Trying to get life back on track

Posted on August 28, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

I found this on http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/27/purpose-work-love/

New page

Posted on July 1, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Yes. Just up there. Have a look.

More pyrates?

Posted on June 26, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Continuing the theme we have a pair of shipwrecked pyrates from Reaper.

I have greatly enjoyed painting these figures but time seems to be slipping away and I always seem to get side-tracked by other little things. Here you can see an Oldhammer sign for my display case, some regiment signs for my Napoleonic army and some Black Powder gaming tokens.

But the big news….
…..we finally completed on a house!
With garden,
Mountain views,
Workshop,
and Man-cave.
So no more tiny flat with all my belongings and hobby bits in storage.
Now my time is going to be taken up with getting the house ready and of course my Man-cave.

Continuing the Pyrate theme

Posted on June 16, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Next up we have from Eureka Miniatures a Pirate Teddy Bear.
Just went to the website to post the link and it seems that Eureka no longer stock them. A pity as I wanted a few more. Here is the link to their 28mm ranges, http://eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=87_126&sort=3a, there are some interesting bits and bobs there.

What happened to May?

Posted on June 13, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

The answer to that is, not a lot. My Death Korps Riders hardly got touched and have been retired to the cupboard. This month I’ve pulled out six pyrate figures and I’ll tackle them one at a time.
First up is Captain John Finch from Musketeer Miniatures.

I made the mistake of using some Tamiya Flat White as an undercoat. I might as well have painted them with chalk, the stuff just flaked off. I’ll do a bit of reading about it. It was purchased along with a few other pots of clear colour at a Flohmarkt for fifty cents a pot. The clear colours are fine and I already use the Clear Red for blood and gore.
The month hasn’t been wasted though, I’ve added a few more items to my shop. Go on click the button, I know you’re curious. And I won a painting competition. Puppets War http://puppetswar.eu, a Polish miniatures company are running a monthly painting competition. I entered my Ork Jet which I’d finished earlier this year and I won sixty six Euros to spend in their store. Which was nice.
At the end of the month we get the keys to our new house which is kind of exciting and kind of scary. It does mean that I will be getting a permanent hobby space, although for the first few months it is going to be used mostly as a storage/unpacking area as we clear the lager.

Job’s a good ‘un

Posted on May 21, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

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

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.

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

A puzzling distraction

Posted on May 20, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

I had a few requests from relatives after I made a coffee mat for my Brother-in-Law. so you can see a couple at the bottom. The top six are rather puzzling, I hope I can solve it.

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.

A bit more detail about the “Fun”

Posted on May 7, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

April saw me not terribly motivated and to try and get out of the rut I decided to paint some single figures that were started or primed but not finished. Just for fun.

First off was this figure: General Sir Eddard Sharp. He was a promo model for the Arcworlde Kickstarter Sculpted by Alex Huntley, basically Mister Arcworlde. Alex’s sculpting is not polished, he is very talented and his style is very characterful and great to paint. Very like the Battleforge Halflings that I painted a while ago. He deserves our support, he’s only twenty and if he is putting stuff out there like this now imagine what amazing stuff he’s going to be producing in ten years time when he’s hit his stride.

Second off was this fellow. Again sculpted by Alex, this is The Big Chief of the Jungle Gremlins of Chaq-Itza.

Then it was my beloved Snotlings.

This guy was a cheap plastic robot that I picked up from a charity shop. He’ll be joining a few others in my “Not” Imperial Guard Army.

Finishing off with this from Puppets War. A proxy Deth Kopter in my 40K Ork Army.
They all need a coat of matt varnish just to seal them.

Wassup for May

Posted on May 7, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

These are Forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg Death Riders. I’ll be using them in my “Not” Imperial Guard Army as Rough Riders.
I have promised myself that if I finish this squad by the end of the month I can do a tank.

Splashing paint for fun

Posted on April 16, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

I haven’t painted for the sheer pleasure of it for a couple of months now, so today I thought I’d change that. I haven’t set myself any targets or goals this month. It’s all about relaxing. I have been putting in a fair few late nights making artwork for my laser cutting and have been putting painting anything far away.
This is one figure from the Arcworlde Kickstarter I received a few months ago but didn’t start, well apart from prepping and priming.