Updating

Posted on August 20, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

So that’s the Summer done and dusted. I have been a little slow on the progress reports. A combination of laziness and the Black Dog.

Look forwards to a flurry of updates, well maybe one or two. Let’s start with the painting done before Electric Love.

These two are from the Old School Miniatures range. “The Circus of Corruption” Jamie sent them to me and it seemed rude not to paint them up.

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/circus-of-corruption-15-c.asp

More from Jamie. These are from the abolutely gorgeous Gnomes range. This is part of the Baggage Train. I swapped out the goat and replaced it with a snail which I thought was more appropriate.

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/alpine-gnomes-3-c.asp

As you might have guessed I love this Gnomes range of Jamies. Some scenery is forthcoming from me and this is the first.

Next up is from Alternative Armies. This guy will be used in my Beastman unit in my “Not” Imperial Guard Army.

GRN53 Zarglain High Prefect

I couldn’t get (rather couldn’t afford) the Beastman Squad Leader, so I settled for this guy from Forgeworld.

More updates on the painting coming soon. KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES!

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First off the block

Posted on January 13, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

A really quick and dirty job. These are from Dreamforge Games and I’ll be using them as Storm Troopers in my Not-Imperial Guard Army. It was a quick hose with the airbrush and a few little brush additions. Not my best work, but I just wanted to knock one out and have something on the table in a couple of days.
These figures actually deserve a bit more time and attention as they have some lovely detail.

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.

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.

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.

Varnished, prepped and undercoated

Image

November’s workbench

Posted on November 1, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

This is what I have planned for this months workbench.
The main job is to finish a unit of Mantic Undead which will be used as Fir Bolg in my Albion Army.
Next up is to finish a unit of Home Guard for my Bolt Action Army. The figures are from Foundry and feature some well known characters.
I want to get a Penal Unit, top center, prepped and ready for painting. They are from Victoria Miniatures and they look very very good and I can’t wait to paint them. Maybe in the New Year? These are destined for my 40K Imperial Guard/Not DKK Army. Finally on the right are some Arcworlde figures, just for fun.

Orctober

Posted on October 31, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

Here is the finished unit of the Lancer Miniatures Orcs from their recent Kickstarter.

Pros

A very good price and an Old Skool vibe. Twenty different poses, so a unit looks varied.

Cons

A couple of the sculpts appear to be phoned in. The Slottas could be a little thicker to grip the base better.

If I had the money I would support further Kickstarters from Lancer. The more they do the better they’ll get and that’s good for all of us.

It would be good to see the sculptors take on Trolls.

Secret science? Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung

Posted on October 21, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

Photographed last year.
Black Sun rising?

Oooh shiny! So much for discipline!

Posted on September 26, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

There I was, being disciplined in my painting, and along come the Orcs from the Lancer Miniatures Kickstarter.

Shiny!

So what happens? I stop painting what I was doing and start these.

Here is a view of my production line. This is pretty much what I do when I have a unit to paint.

Magnetising the bases with neodymium magnets

Cleaning the mold lines with my new Dremmel attachment

Basing with sand and PVA

Undercoating the shields. I’ve been a bit lazy and used an old can of yellow primer that I had lying around rather than using my airbrush.

Wood basecoat.

Metal painted. A test shield with wash and in the background you can see the beginnings of a movement tray.

Test shield with rust, wash and wood highlights.

Lancer Miniatures Orc Kickstarter

Posted on September 22, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

Just got these in the post this morning.

Thirty “Old Skool” figures that would fit in very well with my old Warhammer Regiments plastic Orcs. There are twenty different poses including command. Ten of these are doubled up to make the thirty.

The molding isn’t as sharp as I would like, but as this is a new venture I’m willing to give Lancer a chance. Mold lines are there but not as bad as some GW figures from the 80’s. I may have to do some filing on the hands to make the shields fit, but nothing major.

I will be dropping next month’s figures to make a start on these. There is an ulterior motive, Lancer Miniatures are running a painting competition to win the next set of Kickstarter minis..

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

August progress

Posted on August 25, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

Here are some work in progress shots of my command vehicle used in my Not DKK Army. Vehicle by Ramshackle Games from the recent Kickstarter.

Undercoat and the start of weathering

Weathering finished and dozer blade.

Rubbing away the white paint. I used the Hairspray Technique for this. It is a bit disheartening to spend hours painting on weathering for it all to be painted over.

Masking for the blue paint

Blue paint applied

Cutting the masking for the black stripes. This camouflage scheme was inspired by the film, “Inception”.

The original design

Black stripes. I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped with the masking and had to do a fair amount of retouching.

Start of muddying up the dozer blade. I used weathering products from AK Interactive.

And the finished result

August progress

Posted on August 12, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

This month is not going to plan and this month’s work is going to probably be finished in September.
Why?

Days out at Wallersee, our local lake.

Mountain walks with Number One Son

And wanting to try out some weathering effects on the Command Vehicle from Ramshackle Games.
Here it is with the chipping waiting for a coat of hairspray.

Then sprayed white then distressed with warm water and a cotton bud. It is slightly depressing to see the hours worth of painting disappearing under a coat of paint only to reveal a small part.

Next I get to try out some AK Interactive weathering products on the plough. So far my impression that it isn’t that amazing. It’s basically an expensive jar of Humbrol paint. This may change with more use. Next to the plough you can see that I have been making a start on the Celts. It has been a bit of a slog, clipping, cleaning mold lines, basing and then painting the flesh.

This is the unit with the flesh starting to take form. I’m using Foundry paints for this. Standing on a pot is the unit champian.

A new Kickstarter project I’m backing

Posted on August 11, 2014 by grumpyoldtin

This is a project I’m backing. They look like old skool GW Orcs.

They have a little bit of this vibe going on
http://www.solegends.com/citboxes/pbs3whfbregs/index.htm
Thirty figures, twenty of them being different poses with full command for thirty eight quid! That’s including international postage. Sounds like a bargain to me.