End of Year Review

Well, this is my last post for 2010 and I have actually managed to complete a few more minis for your delectation:


Hasslefree Kat and Dionne


Hasslefree Amoy and Amoy (b)


Hasslefree Sadie and Giles


Rackham Tiger of Dirz

I'm really happy with how they have all come out and I'm glad I managed to get them done before the new year.

So, not quite as many mini's painted as last year, but not as bad as I feared it was going to be at one point, plus I'm pretty happy with things at the moment and feel like I have some good momentum going into 2011 which will hopefully see me painting a fair bit.

On the non-mini side of the hobby I've been busy putting together a few downloads for Pulp City, some Agenda cards and Tokens, a Quick Reference Sheet and today I put up some Resource Cards from the Pulp City Guide. They're currently on Google Docs, but I may try and put together a little website at some point next year, I'll see how things go.

Here's a link to the page, I'll also add it to the right hand menu to make it easy to find.

As far as my plans for next year, my 15mm sci-fi army has begun:





Very impressed with the postal service from the US this time of year, they turned up from Khurasan Miniatures within two weeks of the order being shipped, and before Christmas too which was a nice little pick-me-up at the time. Very nice sculpts on the Not-Spartans Federation Infantry, and the APC's are very nice too (very Not-Aliens). I'll definitely be getting more from Khurasan in the future, I just wish they'd hurry up and get more Federation models out.

Tomorrow I plan on getting out all of the Devourers of Vile Tis that I have of Richards and start prepping them for painting, then I'll just have to see what the weather decides to do in the next week or so before I get them undercoated, you never know I may even have some WiP shots to show next week sometime.

Now the Pulp City Shop is back up and running I may well get round to picking up some villains soon as well, if I do I'll try and fit the painting in and around the Devourers.

So that's all from me for 2010, have a happy and safe New Years and I'll see you all again in 2011.

Take care

J

(Hassle)Free Time

As I said a couple of posts ago I recently felt like a change of pace painting-wise and having read the Invasion scenario in the Pulp City Guide decided to get out the six Hasslefree and 1 Heresy/Spyglass zombie I undercoated ages ago. While I was there I also decided to get out my bag of Hasslefree miniatures and get a few more of them based and undercoated.

I've liked Hasslefree's minis since they started and I have enjoyed painting them a lot so it was well past time I did a few more.

Well, after 3 days I got all the zombies painted up, which is something of a record for me, and I'm really happy with the way they turned out, here are the pics:


HF Zombie #4, #2, #3, #1 and #5.


HF Zombie Surfer, HF Zombie Suzi, Spyglass (via Heresy) Bud.


The horde begins to advance.

I intend to pick up a couple more Hasslefree Zeds and then I think I'll try out a couple of Studio Miniatures zombie packs as I think they are the best I've seen to date.

I also need to pick up some uber-zombie types, probably use a couple of HF minis as well as the Boss Zombies from Tengu Models will do nicely I think.

On the Wip front I have 4 minis currently on the go:


HF Kat and HF Dionne.


HF Amoy and HF Amoy(b).

As you can see I'm using a fairly limited pallet on these four. Kat and Dionne are an exercise in learning to paint different materials, in this case I really wanted to try and get the PVC/leather look from the Underworld movies, Kat's almost done, I need to do the leather on Dionne.

The Yin Yang look of the Amoys is an idea I had ages ago but have only just got round to, almost got them done, only a bit more to do and then some tidying up as the eyes on all for minis has caused me a fair bit of trouble for some reason.

So there you have it then, the latest additions to my figure collection, hope you like.

More soon.

J

Planning Ahead

I won't be taking photos of my newly painted mini's till tomorrow, but I felt like blogging something today and after a week of freezing temperatures and snow we now have an almost Springlike day outside and it has made me think ahead to the soon to be arriving new year and the projects I'd like to have a crack at.

Now anyone that has read this blog over the last couple of years will know I always have numerous and wonderful plans each year, the majority of which never see the light of day in the end, so this coming year I will try to be a bit (read: a lot) more focused on completing only a few definite projects with any others that spring up being added on at various points during the year.

I also intend to look at having some ongoing projects that will run through the whole year, these will be done in between other projects as time permits.

So these are the definite plans I've come up with so far:

Ongoing Projects

1 - Pulp City. This is a game I thoroughly enjoy on every level of the hobby: painting; terrain making; playing; character building and interacting with other fans of the game. Pulp City will be an ongoing project for a long time to come.

2 - 15mm Sci-Fi. Recently Rich at the club pointed us all to the FUBAR 1 page wargames rules found on the Forge of War yahoo group. They've become popular with a number of the guys and a few of them have been picking up some 15mm sci-fi forces to use with them and the Tomorrows War rules from Ambush Alley Games. With space and time being limited, 15mm (and 6mm) are scales I've been looking at for a while for doing large battles with. 28mm is just too time consuming to do those size of games these days as far as I'm concerned and is a scale I find much more fun to use for skirmish size games. Anyway, I've already placed an order for some figures from Khurasan Miniatures which will probably become the first personal project I'll have a crack at in the new year.

Other Projects:

1 - Richard's Devourers. When people ask me why I don't start painting models for a living I point them towards this project. I've had these figures from Richard for over two years now and I'm still only 1/3 of the way through them and quite frankly I'm annoyed at myself for not getting them finished for him. So, first project of the year will be these guys, with the last part of this year prepping all of them for painting.

2 - Malifaux Board. Those of you that remember this building I made earlier in the year will remember I mentioned I was going to use it for Malifaux, well I came up with a plan for a 4'x4' board shortly after I completed the build and I intend to get it put together sometime this year, hopefully with the intention of actually getting some games of Malifaux played on it as well.

3 - Crimson Skies. Yes I know this has been on my to-do list since forever, but the original FASA game is still one of my favorites. So, if I can get myself a job before my redundancy money runs out I intend to spend some of that money over a Ral Partha Europe's store buying up an number of planes to play the game with.

Potential Projects:

1 - Reaverlords. Currently just a tantalizing ad in the back of the Pulp City Guide I'm curious to see what this game is. The ad appears to indicate a fantasy game and I'm interested in getting back into fantasy gaming as currently the majority of the wargames we play at the club are either modern or sci-fi based, (fantasy only seems to appear in games like Blood Bowl or Warhammer Quest), so I'll be interested in seeing what this turns out to be.

2 - Vor 2.0. My favorite Sci-fi rules were the origional Vor: The Maelstrom rules from FASA. Since FASA's demise Mike "Skuzzy" Nelson, the writer of the rules, has been trying to get Vor 2.0 up and running, hopefully 2011 will see that happen, and if it does then I'll be one of the first in line to pick up a copy and start playing.

So, these are the few definite/possible plans I have, I wouldn't mind getting a House Cawdor gang put together for Necromunda as well, but I have very specific ideas for how I want them to look so that may take me some time as a fair bit of conversion work would be needed, but we'll see.

Anyway, come back tomorrow and I'll show off my newest batch of painted miniatures and WiPs.

Till then.

J

Quite a few mini's finished this past week or so. To start with the Pulp City models finished recently number 7 and for the sake of space I'll just link to the PC Forum post they're in (5th post down):

Here you go, enjoy.

One thing I have noticed about my current PC selection is that I am lacking a decent number of outright villains, so once the store reopens I intend to correct that oversight on my part.

On the roleplay front I've completed the models I need to complete the adventure now, first up are a group of Gnolls from Otherworld Miniatures:


The leader of the pack


The rank and file

All 7 were painted using the speed painting method I mentioned before and I am really happy with the way they turned out.

Also finished are the 6 Heresy Blights:



For my first attempts at speed painting I think these guy's were perfect. nothing too intricate on them and lots of light and dark areas that came out nicely. I liked these models a lot before I bought them and if I can figure out a use for them I'll definitely be picking up some more.

Also finished are my 2 other demons:


Minor Fallen One - Heresy Miniatures


Type I Demon - Otherworld Miniatures

I really like how both have come out though I wish I'd been a little more adventurous with the wings on the Otherworld mini, maybe next time.

So, that's a fair bit finished with more to come. It's going to be interesting to see how many figures I get finished before the end of the year.

Onto the WiP stuff now, currently getting painted up (in no particular order) are:


Trail - Pulp City.


Pulse Emitter, Teleport Anchor and Spy Bot's - Pulp City resources.


Two old Rackham mini's that may see action in the finale of my current DnD adventure.

Trail may look like I had no idea what I was doing colour-wise when I started painting him...and you'd be right, however, bearing in mind the game is currently set in the '80s and Trail's something of a media celebrity I decided that he has fallen into the fashion trap that a lot of celebrities fell into in the '80s, thinking they looked fantastic no matter what they wore...he can regret it in the '90s, for now though he thinks he's pretty fly ;)

The resources are coming along nicely, I need to start coming up with ideas for the others in the book now.

The two Rackham models have been sitting around for ages and it's nice to get some paint on them (or repaint in the Aberrations case), hoping these two will be finished by the end of the week.

I also decided I needed a change in my painting subjects for a little bit so I dug out my Hasslefree Miniatures bag yesterday and stuck a few of their adventures onto bases and dug out the 7 HF zombies I base coated ages ago in order to try and paint them up over the next couple of weeks, watch this space.

Anyway, that's all for now, hope to have more soon.

Take care.

J

Rainy Days

It is really rather unpleasant outside today, so I thought I'd get some photos taken of the latest work I've done.

First up the two latest Pulp City figures to be painted, Kitty Cheshire and Vector:



Both are done bar a couple of coats of varnish, though Kitty may get her teeth redone as I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with them. Vector's come out great, I really wanted to go for the Tron/Automan look and I think it's come out well.

I've also got the first of my resources done, Gentleman's sniper rifle:



A quick and simple job that I'm really happy with.

And I've got a bit more done on my Spybots as well:



Still not entirely sure how I'm going to finish them off, but they're coming along nicely.

Finally on the PC front is Skyline and his base:



As I said last time, the base he comes with (a Gargoyle) doesn't really fit in with my other PC bases so I wanted to do something a little different. I actually got the idea before I read the Rooftop Vigilante card that comes with him and Jade Hawk and it happily turns out that there is a special rule that allows them both to voluntarily fall onto someone and get bonuses on their attack. So the idea is that Skyline has landed on this poor unfortunate thug (styling the landing of course ;) before getting up to deal with any accomplices.

Here's a top-down view of the base to give you a better view:



And here's a close up of the face, just to prove that crime doesn't pay (and can hurt like hell as well):



The cape actually covers the open eye so that won't be seen on the finished piece.

The mini I used for the thug is from Hasslefree miniatures and I only needed to cut the legs at the waist to get the position I wanted and fill with greenstuff, fate smiled on me again and the cape folds naturally around the guy as if they were made for each other.

Painting Skyline's been a struggle but I'm finally happy with the colour scheme so he should be finished soon.

I've also nearly finished repainting the worst affected PC models from the varnish reaction I mentioned a little while age, so as soon as the weather decides to behave itself I'll get them all out and (re)varnished.

More soon.

J

A Little Redecorating

Trying a new look for the Blog, about time I spruced it up a little I think.

Thought, comments, critique welcome but I'm fairly happy with it at the moment, I'll see how it goes.

Proper post coming soon.

J

Eventually

A day later than planned but I had a bit of a hiccup in my plans and I didn't get all the photo's I wanted, but I do have plenty to keep you all going.

So, what have I been up to? As I mentioned in my last post I've been struggling with some Gaming ADD and have been flitting between numerous projects not getting too far with any of them before deciding I had to do something else.

First up I bought my first Miniature Mentor video, "Speed Painting: The Art of Tomas David", a very nice download in high def where Mr David (the painter behind Hell Dorado's amazing looking official figures) shows off his speed painting technique, something he calls Zenithal Highlighting.

The video is very good and whilst his method uses a airbrush he also shows you how to achieve the same sort of effect with normal spray cans, an approach I decided to try a variation on on some of my latest purchases.

The basic idea behind the method is that you use your undercoating to define your highlights and shadows on the miniature, then use washes to paint on top, saving you the hassle of shading and highlighting as it's already done for you in the undercoat.

Allow me to demonstrate using some Heresy Blights I'm going to be using in the D&D campaign soon (all spray paints are from Halfords btw):


First up undercoat with black spray, once dry I used a gray spray at a downward angle (45 degreesish to the model) to start the definition of light and shade and whilst this layer is still wet I spayed white straight down onto the top of the miniature until I was happy with the effect (if you wanted an even lighter highlight then you could repeat the last part again when the paint had dried).


Above are the next 3 stages, 1st is 2 washes of the base flesh colour, 2nd is a slightly lighter wash to redefine the highlights a little more and finally the finished look complete. All in all about 2 hours for all 3 to be completely painted, maybe not fast by some people's standards, but for me amazingly quick.

I've added the intermediate stage of gray between the black layer and the white as I prefer a more gradual change from shade to highlight and spraying the white onto the gray whilst it is still wet gives a smoother blend (IMO anyway).

Here are the finished 6 Blights, just awaiting a decision to be made on their basing:



I've also got 2 demons & 6 Gnolls on the go with the same technique, but they've suffered from by ADD the most and still need work to get them finished:




The Horned Demon is also from Heresy whilst the winged fellow and the gnolls are all from Otherworld Miniatures.

I have got one project almost completed, thanks to my friend Rob who asked to play another game of Pulp City this past Tuesday (21st October).

I introduced the game to Rob last month where we ended up playing a 3-way game due to adverse traffic affecting one of the other games that night. We all had fun and Rob was eager to try out the rules again this month so I decided to use that as an excuse to try and get my Worldworks Games terrain sorted out after I realised I nearly had enough to do a 28"x28" board with what I had.

So with a concerted effort I set to work printing, cutting and gluing the few bits I needed to complete the board.


I put together these four ages ago, I just had to add the roof and graffiti to the boarded up store on the far right.

I wanted an alleyway and figured out a simple way of doing it. Bud's Tattoo Parlour has been a store I wanted to do for a while, finally decided to do it for this project.



These are the interiors for the apartment above Bud's and Bud's itself, yes I really am that fussy that I found tattoo magazine covers to print up and put on the table for the punters to read :)

Bud's still needs a little work to finish and I'd like to add a stairway up to the apartment at some point, but as I probably wont need the interiors until I do my All Things Zombie campaign I don't need to worry just yet.

To go with the buildings I also sorted out some street furniture to go with it:


Phonebooth and newspaper vending machine are from Worldworks, the lamp posts are from Fenris Games.

Yellow bin and rubbish pile are from Old Crow (from the Ainsty range), blue and green bins are from Antenociti's Workshop, Planters are from Fenris.

For a look at the board in action, scroll down to the bottom of this post on the Enfield Gamers site to check out the game in progress.

I also managed to get 2 more minis painted for the game, Harrier and Virus, unfortunately the bad run of luck I've been having with varnish lately kicked in again so I haven't been able to take decent pics of them, but here's a shot of them as they are currently:



The wolf is a companion for Charlie's Ranger in the D&D campaign and another sufferer of the bad varnish karma, I've managed to save them I think thanks to some brush on varnish, but all three will need a bit more TLC before I can claim them as finished.

Also on the PC front I have started putting together some markers to represent various resources in the game:


L-R Teleport Homer (courtesy of GW), Sniper Rife (Heresy, Fenris base), 3 Spy Bots (Ground Zero Games), and a Pulse Emitter (again from GW).

On other fronts, I've picked up this from Thomarillion for my park board:



The main statue is magnetised and I was going to do the gargoyles as well, but quite frankly trying to do it was beginning to drive me a little loopy so in the end I just glued them down.

on the WiP front I have this guy:



Who is going to be my second werewolf in my Blood Bowl team (another Otherworld mini).

And these two gentle-um-persons:



Dr. Red and Skyline for Pulp City, both put together, just need their bases doing. Whilst I like the bases they came with, neither really fit in with the rest of my stuff so I'm doing them new ones, I've only just figured out Dr. Red's, so that will take a bit of time, but Skyline's base is just awaiting a bit more greenstuff and I can start painting. Watch this space.

Anyway, I've taken up enough of your time so I'll let you get back to your daily lives again and I'll see you all next time.

Take care

J