Weasel Town

Posted on February 14, 2023 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve been hankering after making some modular trenches for a while. I started but when I laid them out earlier this week it seems that I do not have nearly enough. Plus I did not have any “kinks” (not sure of the correct terminology) to stop a gunner standing at one end of a trench and taking aim down the entire length.

One of the rule-sets I was reading, “The Last War” talks about a settlement in the wastelands. For some reason it caught my fancy. A tidying up job at the beginning of the year was sorting out my movement trays and I had a whole lot of crude plasticard ones that I had made about twenty years ago. This has left me with a big bag of plasticard. I also have some big sheets of pink insulation foam recovered from some building work nearby.

I wonder…….

I added detailing with resin parts from Ramshackle Games and 3D printed parts from Knucklebones Miniatures. The tin roofs were made from Red Bull cans run through a corrugator from Green Stuff World. I found out later that this is just a toothpaste squeezer rebranded for twice the price. Painted with household emulsion paint. The rust was done with Green Stuff World Rust paint, which is frankly rubbish and I wanted to use it up.

I thought I had documented the making process, but when I stuck the memory card into the computer there was nothing to be seen.

The Heroquest update

Posted on February 5, 2023 by grumpyoldtin

I have finished painting the board.

It has only taken five years to get to this stage. I have painted it, mostly, with household emulsion paint. I am still deciding on the finish. High gloss for toughness or semi matt for realism?

Here is an original board to give an indication of of scale. Each square on the new board is 40mm. Something I didn’t notice is that the central left/right corridor should only be one tile wide.

Ooops!

Now to paint the doors.

Some news, some is important, some middling and some trivial

Posted on January 19, 2023 by grumpyoldtin

This is the important one!

Some of you may know Heresy Miniatures?

Well he is in a spot of bother. His words about it.

“Hi! My name is Andy Foster, I’m a miniatures sculptor who has run a tiny indie wargames miniatures maker for the last 21 years. Unfortunately, this means I can’t afford to buy a home in the UK because our housing market is nuts, and the average starter home costs over 12 times what I make in a good year, so I am only able to rent.

And because the housing market IS so insane, rental property prices are also incredibly high, and I’ve just been told that the house we have lived in for the last 8 years is having its rent increased by the landlord from £800 a month to £1175, which I absolutely can’t afford to cover.

The problem is, because I am living hand to mouth, as a lot of indie miniatures manufacturers do, I don’t have the funds in my bank account to pay for a deposit on a new rental home, or the fees involved, which amount to around £1500 for a tiny 2 bed terraced house in the UK, so I must turn to you, dear friends and customers, to help me out. Any amount is gratefully received! Any extra may need to go towards a new bed, wardrobe, etc if the house ends up with a bedroom that is too small for our current one to fit in (and I suspect my existing wardrobes won’t survive another move, they’re decades old self assembly things that are already a bit fragile!)”

There is a Go Fund Me set up and it would be really nice if everyone reading this was able to donate a little something. Even a quid would be amazing.

https://gofund.me/811fdb7b

Now to something of middling importance.

I mentioned the “Not Nog Ball” medball Kickstarter a few days ago. There has been a new addition to the campaign.

We’ve just got permission to add the Noggin character pack to the Medball Kickstarter which is great news! It consists of 3 miniatures; Noggin as a referee, Nogbad as a fan (with separate rattle) and Knut waving his scarf.

And finally some trivial news.

Last summer we were looking after two kittens that were dumped on a friend’s farm and were going to get them re homed.

One of them decided that he adored me and decided to stay. I now have a constant companion wherever I am.

2023

Posted on January 9, 2023 by grumpyoldtin

Finally it is here. Last year was a bit of a blur, nothing really of note stood out and it really did go quickly. I did hit a significant number complete with upcoming health checks. Nothing major to worry about, slightly high cholesterol and low thyroid function. I don’t have occult blood which is really not as interesting as one would think.

One thing which I do regret is that Grumpy Old Tin laser cutting is no longer a thing. The makerspace I was using changed hands and the new owners, Pioniergarage- Salzburg, have a difference in opinion about accommodating the less abled. Long covid means that it it is impossible for me to stand for two or three hours beside the laser machine and the computer is placed so you cannot sit and operate it.

More tomorrow as I had a bit of a painting blitz this last week.

Finally my Product of the Year is Vallejo’s Model Colour Vermillion. A really good punchy highlight red. I did get on the cool kids bandwagon and bought some Dirty Down Rust. I only tried it once and I realise I need a bit more practice with it.

You snooze you loose

Posted on December 6, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Or rather gurgle unpleasantly for three weeks with a chest infection. An update from yesterday’s post.

The Old School Miniatures Kickstarter has finished and the figures are now available for pre order.

Thanks Jamie

https://www.oldschoolminiatures.co.uk/tim-prow-space-adventures-102-c.asp

A couple of Kickstarters to consider

Posted on December 5, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Here are a couple of Kickstarters which might be worth considering.

I was lucky enough to receive some as a Birthday present from OS Miniatures so I couldn’t resist slapping some paint on them. I’ll post some pictures when they are finished.

The second Kickstarter is from Keta Minies. I backed a previous KS campaign and the quality was outstanding.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keta-minies/alternatives-heads-and-helms-stl-for-tabletop-and-wargames?ref=profile_created

Resolved morals

Posted on August 19, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Disclaimer: the blog post has been brought to you by the generosity and patience of Chitu Systems.

Remember in my last post I said that I had a moral dilemma about fitting the 3D printer screen sent by Chitu Systems? Well they actually read my post (imagine?) and to paraphrase, “Why didn’t you say? Here’s some resin, go and play!”

Shortly after they contacted me there was knock on the door and there was an Amazon package with this resin.

The only thing I could do was to fit the screen and do some test prints.

Fitting the screen was an absolute doddle and the online tutorial is a great help.

The firmware update was slightly problematic but some gentle prodding from the online support got me there quickly.

I was a bit of a numpty when it came to the exposure and kept going to high. Once I dialled it back (a lot) I was good to go.

Talking about the resin this gave a little more detail than my my usual Nova3D (cheap as chips) and what I did like was that the models were slightly springy before curing. And that made removing the supports a lot easier. This is now going to be my preferred resin for printing.

This new iteration of mono screen gives a larger print area than the previous one and with a faster print speed it makes it a no-brainer replacement. If you are lucky you can pick up a Mars Pro pretty cheaply, probably second hand, and with this screen upgrade you’ve got a pretty serviceable machine. Roughly for the price of three spash mareen squads. Think on that.

My first proper prints were of various Treefolk for a Warmaster (10mm) Wood Elf Army. Files are from Forest Dragon.

https://forestdragon.gumroad.com/l/QtcwE

Thumbs up from me.

Paint progress

Posted on May 30, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Here is a picture heavy painting round up. Still struggling with fatigue and concentration. This is why I made this the first job of the day so it would get done.

These are walking troop transports for my Traitor Guard. There are 3D printed parts from Knucklebones patreon, resin parts from Ramshackle Games and laser cut parts.

I am not quite sure what these are. 3D printed, laser cut, resin parts and physical modelling.

This is from Redgozfasta Patreon. The guy doing this wants to work his way through the Epic Orks collection, scaling them up to 40k size. This month (May) is the Battlewagon. One of the variations is the Weirdboy Tower which I am very much looking forwards to. Entirely printed on my Ender 3 FDM printer. My genius neighbour took my printer apart and rebuilt it totally square. The results are amazing, not resin quality but pretty damn good.

This is a gun crew for my Traitor Guard. This is all from Knucklebones patreon.

https://www.patreon.com/knucklebonesminis/posts

This was from the paintpotchallenge (my elderly computer doesn’t have a hashtag) that was running on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/grumpyoldtin/?hl=en

Did I mention that I occasionally lurk on Instagram?

Finally on the painting is Khonshu imprisoned. Printed and painted in 24 hours for my youngest.

There is something big on the horizon. It has finished printing, now to assembly and painting.

Long covid

Posted on April 11, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

These last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle. Covid has left me suffering with fatigue, lack of focus, demotivation and shortness of breath. I have been doing small stabs at hobby, but I haven’t had the enthusiasm to really get stuck in with the painting.

I have been making progress with Blender, 3d modelling software. And I am attempting to rig, basically putting a skeleton inside the figure, my model which will make posing a lot easier.

I have been making some tools for my workshop. I always need clamps for glueing and I have been eyeing up some right angle aids on that fabulous far eastern trader. My aim was to avoid plastic and as I had a lot of spare wood scavenged from the Happylab bins I thought I would attempt to make my own.

I am now working on a bigger version of this now.

The weather has been going from snow to sunshine and back again in a day.

I have had some nice walks when the weather has been clement. My mood improves after being out.

I have finished building the modular tiles for my 4 x 4 modular ruined city table. Now to slap some paint on them.

My neighbour, who is a bit of a perfectionist, took ten hours to deconstruct my Ender3 3D printer and rebuild it totally square. The difference is amazing and I will be posting some pictures soon.

There you have it. A brief catch up on what has been happening.

Display cases

Posted on February 3, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Dagger and Brush wanted to know what my display setup was. Here is my response.

You will have to excuse the poor lighting, a project for this year. This is the current state of my hobby room. it tends to be used as an overspill while we organise the house.

This was my first display case, from Ikea about twenty five years ago. I thought that I would never fill it. Little did I know.

After moving over here i got these two from a second hand store.

I have recently just got these two. I should really have been a bit more patient because the shelves are only just bigger than A4. Holes have been drilled to add more shelves. The cabinet on the left has nine shelves from its original four and the cabinet on the right has (or will have) twelve shelves. As the bottom shelf was directly sat on the floor and I have built a plinth to raise them up. I have to admit to some pleasure in being able to go to my workshop, cut some wood on my circular saw and make it there and then. Trips to the local recycling are called for to get glass for the shelves. Again (thanks to my Post Grad in Glass) I have the tools and experience to cut the glass to size and linish the edges to make them safe. Illuminating the shelves will be another project for this year.

“Last Christmas…..”

Posted on January 14, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Just before last Christmas I received a mystery package. I knew who it was from thanks to the wonders of return addresses. Curiosity was hold on hold until the day. We actually celebrate twice; once on the twenty fourth, the Austrian one; and on the twenty fifth, the English one.

Those of you two followers (don’t forget the dog!) who have been paying attention may have noticed that I rather like Bob Olley. Getting an original pencil drawing by the Man Himself was something special.

Happy bunny.

Now to frame it and hang it.

Better late than never?

Posted on January 11, 2022 by grumpyoldtin

Welcome to 2022. Who knows what shitstorm it will throw at us. Thankfully the last two years haven’t been so bad for us. A combination of a large house and garden and good weather. Hopefully this coming year will be kinder to a lot of people.

As promised here is a round up of the painting from last year.

A chained/bound spirit host for the inquisition

One heluva princess. A civilian for my crowd

A Gnome with a fishing rod. Well it had to be done. Part of a set of scenics for my beloved Gnome army

Nothing to see here. Six disguised Orks. The models were a bit chonky so I didn’t really want to show them.

A Cultist and an Axolotl. And we seem to have a large Troll problem.

This is part of my modular terrain

This was a big paint project that I had been putting off for a while. I don’t know what I will use it for. But I wanted it.

I have to say thankyou to Jamie Loft, Old School Miniatures, for the Gnomes AND for the 2021 Painting Challenge on Facebook. Without it I would have not been at all motivated to paint.

Painting progress

Posted on July 14, 2021 by grumpyoldtin

Due to computer malfunction I kind of lost track where I have been in painting. I will try and amend this by hijacking my Son’s computer.

Lungbursta, inspired by plans from White Dwarf. Back in the day when we were encouraged by G`Dub to make our own stuff. Laser cut body and tracks from Ramshackle Games.

Gobsmasha, again from plans in White Dwarf. All laser cut parts.

Cyclops Demolition Tank. 3D printed from files gathered from a Friendface group.

Troop carrier 3D printed from The Makers Cult.

Sci Fi civilian 3d printed from files by Knucklebones Miniatures.

Sci Fi/Fantasy Librarian 3d printed from files by Knucklebones Miniatures.

Turnip 28 3d printed from files by Knucklebones Miniatures.

Victim of my growing inquisition force.

News from Elsewhere

Posted on June 24, 2021 by grumpyoldtin

My customer, Nick Wilker, sent me some photos of his Polystyrene Castle adorned with parts from me.

I am very pleased to see this but also sad because it reminds me to remove my digit and make a set for myself. AND paint it!

Infodump

Posted on April 23, 2021 by grumpyoldtin

This is a continuation of “Direction?” and as the title suggests it is an infodump.

Not everything here will be of interest to everybody, these are things that I have discovered that have interested or informed me.

Being a silver surfer I tend to use Facebook as my main social media window. Here are some of the pages I am a member of:

Oldhammer

The Inquisitorium The Beating heart of INQ28

Warmaster (GW)

Battlefleet Gothic

Heroquest

‘Eavier Metal

2021 Painting Challenge

Middlehammer

The Terrain Tutor

3D Printing for Warmaster

3D Printing for WH40K – Facist Free Zone

40.000 Reasons to 3D Print

Titan Printers Society

I Love 3D Printing Miniatures and Terrain

You might find me if you look for Brian Weninger

Next up are the Patreons

www.patreon.com

Starting with the ones I support

One Gold Piece

The Makers Cult

Knucklebones Miniatures

Soul Forge Studio

Others of note

Forest Dragon

Lord of the Print

Warploque Miniatures

ThatEvilOne

BigMrTong

onepagerules

Geargut’s Mekshop

Bestiarum Miniatures

Anvil Digital Forge

Lost Kingdom Miniatures

Other social media platforms worth exploring

Instagram

Twitter

You can find me on these last three, just search for grumpyoldtin

Discord – you will need an invite to join the various groups. Usually if you have a subscribed to a Patreon they will have a Discord channel linked to it.

Twitch – I have not explored this as yet

Websites with paid for, and sometimes free, digital files

My Mini Factory

Cults 3D

Thingiverse – for free models

Yeggi is a useful search engine to find models, paid for and free

For Heroquest resources I recommend

https://www.yeoldeinn.com/

For SpaceHulk visit

http://spacehulk.barsoom.cc/

Warmaster Revolution

https://www.wm-revolution.com/