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.

Shop

Posted on April 15, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

The keener eyed of you may have noticed a new “Tab” at the top of my Blog. Go ahead and browse. Maybe you’d see something you’d like to buy?

A bit of an update

Posted on April 15, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

As I said previously, painting has more or less ground to a halt. Not that I haven’t been productive in other areas. My main push was to get stuff ready to sell at the Austrian Salute in March.
That was quite tiring and on the day itself I suffered with fatigue and a nasty gum infection, so I didn’t really see the day in a positive way. I made the grand sum of three Euro but the guy next to me, from Templates and Widgets, also selling some laser-cut accessories told me that at his first show he didn’t sell anything.
A far better report of the show, with pictures, has been written by Sigur of Battlebrush Studios
http://taleofpainters.blogspot.co.at/2015/03/show-report-austrian-salute-2015.html

A 180 degree view of the show.

Number One Son looking after business

The project I have been getting on with is this.

A laser-cut model from the old Warhammer Cities book. The only problem is that I can’t sell it as it is based on a design by GW. I have now started searching the interweb for pictures of medieval timber framed buildings for the next one. If I find the right design I can tap into the historical market as well.

Inertia

Posted on March 27, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Just hitting a huge bump at the moment and finding it difficult to get motivated and kickstart my painting. Everytime I do sit down to attempt something, life comes along with it’s demands. This image is dedicated to Amateur Airplanes and his unrelenting output.

Sir Terry R.I.P

Posted on March 12, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

Will be much missed

Half steam ahead!

Posted on March 12, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

It’s been very slow on the painting front this month. I’ve been out of hospital and voluntarily stopped my pain management medication. I have to say that was really hard. If I had trouble after a week how do people manage who have been on that stuff for far longer. My head is now a lot clearer which is good.
The Austrian Salute is this saturday and it will be my debut. There isn’t much of a range yet and I really hope that people will like what I’m doing. The pricing worries me slightly as my bits are quite pricey. I’m making stuff that I would want on my gaming table, and it’s quite complex and time consuming to make. For example one small 40mm x 40mm x 40mm crate is working out at a sale price of six Euro! This is me paying myself 10 Euro an hour to do the cutting, material (more of which in a minute) and then multiplying by three, which is what they do in the catering/fine dining industry. This doesn’t factor in travel times and collating the big bag of minute parts you are gifted with at the end of cutting or designing and printing labels and buying bags to put the product in.
Material, here’s the joke. I had been buying 4mm ply at the local hardware store and it had been just under a fiver for a metre square and they cut it for free. It seems that the laser-cut industry seems to work on 3mm MDF. So I found a supplier not too far away and online the price was one seventy a square metre. Result, I thought. When I went to pick it up I was presented a bill three times the amount I expected. They charged by the minute for the cutting, by a trained sloth so it appears. Twenty 500mm x 500mm sheets in fifteen minutes! I can understand if I wanted differing sizes. Set stop position, butt wood to stop, cut and check that the first cut is the right size. Repeat.
So I either have to find another supplier or I work in 4mm ply. Which to be honest I don’t mind as ply is a lot more resilient than MDF.

So here is the laser-cutter hard at work. As you can see I don’t actually get that much out of a sheet because of the layers and complexity

Here I am collating components in the front room.

Let’s make a splash!

Image

Well I’ve taken the plunge

Posted on March 2, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

I have submitted my first entry to Cool Mini Or Not
http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Planetbod?browseid=11428971
Let’s see what happens

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/February work

Posted on March 2, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

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.

I also did an illustration for someone attending this years BOYL, Bring Out Your Lead. The annual Oldhammer bash at Foundry HQ.
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

Posted on February 17, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

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

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.

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.

“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?”

Finally a plaque for my Albion Army, when I finally get my display case out of storage.

Maybe something a little new

Posted on February 10, 2015 by grumpyoldtin

There has been a reason why I have been a little slow this month, I’m starting on a little side project. Yes soon you’ll be able to buy Grumpy Old Tin Products!
In the past I had access to a laser-cutter and made a few little gaming aids for myself. I missed that moving over here. Looking online at what is offered to wargamers I was really saddened at what shoddy goods were being promoted to wargamers (there are some notable exceptions). If you Goggle, “laser cut art” you will see some amazing and beautiful work. So why isn’t it filtering down to us?
Well the answer is that every Thomas, Richard and Harold who think they can draw a square in a CAD program is getting in on the act.
I want better than that. My aim is to start producing beautiful gaming aids and terrain/scenery and painting aids and you name it.
Everything is possible.
You’ll already have seen that I have started branding myself and have now done the social meejah stuff with a twitter (what’s the bloomin’ point) account and a Facebook page.
Here is the first prototype. Bit of a learning curve and a few rough edges.
The Boundary Country Shipping Container.