Busy

Posted on January 18, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

The last couple of weeks have seen me busy. My 3D Printer has decided it wants to start behaving again so for the last week it has been printing pretty constanty. It is slightly stringy but I don’t want to mess with the settings just yet. The strings can be dealt with pretty easily with a scalpel and file. I have managed to print an elemental cavalry unit for one of my Dragon Rampant armies, a skeletal giant for another DR army and on the print bed at the moment is an Ork Gobsmasher, a replica of an old Armourcast model. All of these are freely available from http://www.thigiverse.com. Next up is a replica of another Armourcast model, the Warhound Titan. The originals don’t come up for sale much and when they do they are quite expensive. You can see some images of the Titan here

https://rustymagos.wordpress.com/2014/10/17/armourcast-titans/dscf3252/

Tool making was next on the agenda. Number Two Son has been watching “The Mandalorian” and loves the helmet the protaganist wears. He also discovered on Youtube a cosplay video where they described in great detail, with downloadable plans, how they made one out of EVA foam. He would like us (me I expect) to make it. One of the tools they used was a rounded metal former. I had a cut off section of railway track and with a bit of work with an angle-grinder I ended up with this.

I have a rusty H Beam section which will get the same treatment.

A recent discovery (thanks Daughter!) has been the app, “Wish” where you can buy goods directly from the factories in China. I bought a 2m strip of LEDs for €3, that was including postage! I added them to my photo thing.

This has been expanded with a paper holder on the back and trays underneath if I want to do some more scenic photography. I will be getting some photographs printed up with dramatic skies. The light is a little yellow but I did a manual white balance on my camera and my first test result seems promising.

I am keeping up with my New Year Resolution, so far and also the 2020 painting Challange.

If doing basic carpentry, remember to keep your fingers BEHIND! the chisel.

Then there is my new paintrack. I had been running out of space for my paints and I had promised the Boys that they would have a paint rack in their painting desk. So they get my old one and I get a shiny new one.

Orktober

Posted on November 1, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

Orktober this year has been rather busy. A trip to London and reorganising the hobby room so I can put a painting desk in for Number Two Son.

I did however manage to finish this little tankette.

The main chasis is from Ramshackle Games.

https://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php?id_product=232&id_product_attribute=0&rewrite=plant-blank&controller=product

The main part of the turret, the exhausts and the Schürzen are scratch built.

The Ork is from Kromlech

https://bitsofwar.com/home/125-orc-tank-crew-.html

New blood

Posted on May 24, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

After the Austrian Salute and Sigur’s painting induction Number One Son has expressed an interest in painting toy soldiers, “Just like Papa”. So we sat down with catalogues and looked in my cabinets and he decided that he wanted to paint Space Marines. He was greatly taken by the blue of the Ultramarines.
So before I went to London I hit eBay and searched for Space Marines, found some and had them sent to my Daughter’s so I could collect them and save on postage.
After my trial and tribulations in London I was able to get back home in time for his birthday where he would get them.
The set I got was all the marines from GeeDub’s Dark Vengeance box set. We sat down and looked at the figures, I have to say that I am very impressed by the plastics GeeDub produce. I fell in love with the High Elves from Island of Blood and now these are worming my way into my affections. They are very crisply detailed and look to be a joy to paint, I wanted to steal one to paint, but I wasn’t allowed. Anyway looking at them it became apparent that they were a specific chapter and not generic marines. I said that as they were his figures he could paint them anyway he chose, looking at illustrations he chose to go with the green livery, Dark Angels, instead of his previous choice of UltraMarine blue.
Next up came construction. Then came Priming which involved setting up the compressor and airbrush. All of this also came with the first steps of zen patience, because nothing can be done instantly.
Painting was the next step and Number One knocked out a figure an hour.

Hard at work

The overall aim was to get him to game, but I didn’t want to complicate things too much, just toys on the table.
So I made up a very simple ruleset.
Movement 4 inches. I used some marker rods for ease.
Shooting/hand-to-hand combat hit on a 4, 5 or 6.
Armour save 5 or 6 (in our first battle it was 4/5/6 but it was a bit too easy)
Three lives.

Our first battle.

I lost.

Our next combat

This was our second battle using ten of my marines and ten Orks.
Needless to say, I lost.

So what have I been up to during radio silence?

Posted on March 10, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

Well I haven’t been painting prolifically as I have been mostly working on the house.
I joined a Facebook group called 1houranight which sets monthly targets and this has been keeping me motivated.
Anyway here is a selection of work. Apologies for the variable quality of photos, one of this year’s targets is to set up a little photo set-up so I can take decent photos.

The Adventurer, his Concubine, his Accountant and his Bodyguard.
These are from Moonraker Miniatures and are part of my Rouge Trader collection.

This was a Christmas present.
It’s from Mirleton. I was disappointed to find out that there is only one pose of this as I wanted a small unit of Skaven cavalry.

Another Christmas present a Female Orc from The Dice Bag Lady aka Bad Squiddo Games.

This is from Scibor and I bought it because a friend of mine is really into Dwarves. Seriously into them. And the thought of one of his little men consorting with one of the hated enemies will drive him to dispair.

This one is from Spellcrow I think.

This is Ozzy. He was a giveaway from Casting Room Miniatures. An offshoot of Foundry. Sculpted by none other than Kevin Adams. This plus a sale and free postage was too good an offer to pass up.

This is a test paint for my Imperial Guard Ogryn unit.

Some armour for my Imperial Guard. I think I may have gone over the top with dust and mud.

This is from Kromlech. They are doing some very characterful Orks and Goblins. I have my eye on some more Goblin Pirates.
Anyway that is a round up of most of what I’ve painted. That I can remember. Sometimes I am getting a bit “Senior”.

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

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.

September

Posted on September 18, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

Well I managed to finish painting the thirty strong unit of Celts from Warlord Games. All that remains is to finish the movement tray and the shields. The shields can wait because the transfers provided by Warlord were frankly very disappointing. They looked as if they had been printed on a cheap laser printer that was running low on toner. I’ll wait until I get to Salute and get some shield transfers from Little Big Man Studios.

http://www.littlebigmenstudios.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1_173_182&products_id=2046

Next on the workbench are some Ork Planes from Puppet’s War which I will be using as proxy Deth Kopters in my Orky K Army

Production line

Image

Production line

Making a start on movement trays in my Father in Law’s workshop. I only have enough clamps to glue two at a time. Luckily I’m not in a rush.

Some good skills shown here

Posted on April 4, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve always loved Orcs/Orks and seeing this guy’s work is giving me inspiration for my looted titan.

http://conversionfanboy.blogspot.co.at

My desk

Posted on December 3, 2012 by grumpyoldtin

My desk My old painting table

This was my old set up back in London and I am planning to have a similar set up in Austria.

What you can’t see are boxes, filing cabinets, printer and light table all stuffed underneath. I don’t plan to do that again. It meant that my chair could only be in one position.

Starting from the left is my chest of drawers filled with Foundry paints and some GW paints. Above, just out of shot, are some smaller drawers with inks, washes, milliput/greenstuff, scalpel blades and tweezers.

Along the top of the picture you can see my two lights which have been fitted with daylight bulbs. Also just out of shot is a big magnifying lens with daylight bulb. I haven’t really got on with it, maybe one day I will.

At the back on the left you can see a small stained glass panel of an Ork’s head. This is a test piece for a larger 50cm by 50cm panel which needs leading up.

Once I have my permanent painting table established I want to display my large leaded panel of the Emperor from the 40K universe. It just happens to be exactly the size of the windows at GW’s Warhammer World. Long story.

Further along is my brush rack. Next to this are some plastic drawers with my Vallejo paints, spare brushes and some fine brass wire for pinning. Above this you can see my brush soap and between the two dragon heads are three of my notebooks; The Show Book, The Recipe Book and The Book of Everything.

There are three more things to note on the tabletop.

Teacup, no explanation needed.

A sheet of plywood for cutting, drilling and gluing on.

And a ceramic “Gentlemans Relish” bowl. The bottom half I use for water and the top half (hiding behind large black undercoated squiggoth) as a palate. I plan to experiment with a wet palate when I get set up. See “Tabletop Minions” vlog for a sensible explaination.

What else?

The chair. As you are going to be sitting in it for a long time get the best you can afford. Your back will thank you. I went for the classic Herman Miller “Aeron”. No regrets with that decision.

Cat. Sheds hairs and wants attention at the most inappropriate times, and yet so relaxing to have a purring friend on your lap.