Tag Archives: Modelling

A new bit of kit. Almost. Well not really

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A new bit of kit. Almost. Well not really

Warning this contains product placement!
This is nothing new or revolutionary, it’s just a bulldog clip holding some hand towel. But it is something we all use in some form or another. Something to wipe your brushes on.
I started off, like many I suppose, with hand towels from the toilets at work. These did me for many years. I still have a couple of packs left, now used for drying resin pieces after being scrubbed in bicarb solution. Then when I bought a house with my now Wife I was introduced to kitchen towel. Definitely a step up in the right direction. About two years ago I started to take painting a little more seriously. About this time my Wife started to work for her friend Jane at The Begging Bowl, London.
Note: if you want possibly the best Thai food outside of Thailand at non wallet bursting prices try this place. Jane, the Owner/Head Chef, worked under David Thompson (Goggle him) at NAM. *
After a few weeks I was invited down for lunch. When I went to freshen up I was struck by the sheer quality of the hand towels. Soft and luxurious almost like cotton. Brush heaven!
Needless to say on every trip a few would vanish into my pocket.
The moral of this story, check out the hand towels next time you fine dine.

* Other Thai restaurants apparently exist

June’s workbench

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A unit of Napoleonic infantry, ready to go

A unit of Napoleonic infantry, ready to go

Goblinaid

Goblinaid

 

I finished my Romans early so I did a Goblinaid figure, Paul Hick’ Napoleonic Goblin. It was an opportunity to try out paints for my Red coats. After a bit of looking through books the uniform looks rather Frenchie. It is fantasy so I don’t think anyone will complain, too much.

If I feel brave I might take one of my 95th Rifles and experiment with darkening the uniform as it is too light.

May’s workbench

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My Field of Glory Imperial Roman Army.
I need to add highlights to the armour, finish Scorpions and Auxilliaries.
The carry case, in the background, is handmade out of canvas and an old yoga mat. The ties are leather and the buttons made of briar wood.
The trays are laser cut with steel base.
Troops are based on laser cut bases engraved with my initials (just to sure as one lot of Romans looks much like another).
At the bottom are my playing aids.

FOG play aids

FOG play aids

April’s Work

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Warploque Albionican Empire Ogre

 

Warploque Albionican Empire Engineer and Captain

Warploque Albionican Empire

 

Warploque Albionican Empire

Reaper Necromancer Babe

Reaper Necromancer Babespacer

whfba3 whfba4 whfba5 whfba2

Another basing interlude and thoughts on motivation

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No More Nails

Reanimated troops for my proxy DKK ArmyJust trying out a new product for basing. No More Nails. I have no idea what the German name is. I’m using this to glue the figure to the base and to fill in between the figure base and the base.

So far the result is fairly promising, the only thing that I need to work on is smoothing it out afterwards, it’s not as easy as the ready mixed plaster I have been using.

I really should be getting on with the projects that I said I would rather than getting distracted. I have just about finished the Albion heroes and the Albionican unit. They just need varnishing and photographing. The Reaper Necromancer Babe is underway. I will need to do some interweb research on what near naked skin looks like. Surely there will be sites I can study in great depth? Other distractions have been the Goblinaid Spacer Goblin sculpted by Mark Cragg. Prepping a unit of Napoleonic English and a Raging Heroes female kommisar.

Peter from D6 Painting and Gaming wrote a good article on his blog about what keeps him motivated to paint. At the moment I have been distracted by various models rather than committing to paint. I think that everybody has some form of reward system. Mine is if I paint a unit I can paint a hero/leader. I love painting individual figures and find painting units a chore.

There are two things I use to keep me on track. The first and probably the most important is to keep my Lead Mountain out of sight. Only one project on the workbench at a time. I love opening boxes and picturing the painted model in my mind, or discovering a model that I had forgotten that I had. It is also slightly discouraging seeing how much work there is ahead of me. At the moment all bar a couple of boxes are in storage in the lager. The second thing I use is a list. One item on the list a month. It helps me stay focused.

Next month is my Roman Army. I need to finish my Scorpions and a unit of Auxiliaries. Add metal highlights to all the other units. Photograph, catalogue and put on the website.

After that:

A unit of Napoleonic infantry

The reanimated DKK Troopers and command vehicle from Ramshackle Games

GW Squig Mangler

Unit of plastic Warlord Games Celts for my Albion Army

Three Ork jets from Puppets War which will be proxy Deth Kopters

Finish a unit of Faeries and a unit of Undead for my Albion Army

Finish my Bolt Action Home Guard and a unit of British Infantry

Ultraforge Tree Woman a proxy giant in my Albion Army

So if I stay on target, this will be the next nine months work. This doesn’t allow for any distractions like taking any commissioned work (no takers yet), any Kickstarter bits arriving or the bust of Kevin Adams which I am itching to get started on.

For those lucky enough to be going to Salute tomorrow

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From a Foundry mail shot

SALUTE 2014

I’m off to Salute in the morning: so it’ll be a few days before I get back to this missive!

We’ve dug out all sorts of barely released and never released items to take this year’s Salute. This includes a Victorian Egyptian Adventure range, unseen Trojans (including 11 chariots (!) apparently there are actually 15: but I couldn’t find the others) , Napoleonic Mamelukes, unseen Hittites, Carthaginians, Ancient Spaniards and barely released Persians We have also discovered stocks of loads of Kevin Adams Orcs and suchlike many of which have barely been seen by the public. In fact Kevin himself will be coming along to keep them company.

Another brief basing interlude

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I don’t know about you but I have been using basing sand since year dot. Then I spend ages painting and highlighting it to make it look like soil.

Is there another way?

I thought I’d try out something I saw in AK Interactive’s Weathering Magazine where one modeller used soil. That’s right soil!

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So I went out gathering, some dark forest soil (shown here), some fine pale river silt and a mid tone.

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This is the first test piece, I put some gloss varnish on one side to represent wet soil. I think that the “crumb” (blame programs like “The Great British Bake Off”) is too big. This is a result of the size of the sieve. The bits of root give it a slightly more random realistic look.

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Recently at a fleamarket I picked up a new addition to my painting tools. This should deal with the size of the crumbs.

 

 

95th Rifles Black Powder Napoleonic Peninsular War

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This is my 95th Rifles Black Powder Napoleonic Peninsular War, from March’s workbench.

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The figures are mostly Foundry, sculpted by the Perry’s with a couple of Perry plastics thrown in. I’m not happy with the colour as it is much too light, they were known as the “Sweeps” as the uniform is a very dark green. Maybe in the future I’ll do a black wash over the uniform to darken it. Hopefully any opponents won’t complain too much about the inaccurate colours.

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The movement tray is a custom cut from Wargames Tournaments

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What’s on April’s workbench?

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What's on April's workbench?

What’s on April’s workbench?
There is a small squad of Albionican Empire troops from Warploque Miniatures. This is for my “Not-Empire” army.
Some heroes for my Albion Army, miniatures from Studio McVey, Hasslefree, Celtos and Privateer. These just need a little touching up and basing to match the Halflings.
Finally, if time allows, a necromancer babe from Reaper.
This month is a relaxing one as I found the unit of 95th Rifles a bit of a slog.

My penny’s worth on the new White Dwarf editions

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I  did write three pages worth of notes looking at the first two issues of Warhammer Visions and an issue of White Dwarf Weekly. Then I just thought, why bother, you’ve already seen it and made up your own minds about it. Plus there is so much on the interweb already which you’ve probably read.

My penny’s worth is, don’t bother unless it is an army you like or collect, otherwise you are just wasting your money. Really really pointless money making exercise by Games Workshop. Go and buy Wargames Illustrated, chase down back issues of the Weathering Magazine, or buy beer and pizza.