Random distractions

My efforts have been somewhat lacking in direction following the completion of the Mustafar set so I’ve been following my muse and just picking up little bits that took my fancy.

After finishing the scrap cars for my pulp city scenery collection, I thought I might do some of the other little incidental bits as some of them have been hanging around for years. First off were some generic bits including tables, chairs & beds. Quick and easy!

I got a TTcombat arcade a couple of years ago. I’ve not painted the building yet but the idea of painting an arcade machine tickled me.

Random build. WWII sentry post.

 

Colours was at the weekend and this mdf kit caught my eye. Rickety and characterful. I’m looking forward to painting it!

 

All this contemporary scenery stuff got my juices following for a bit of superhero gaming so we broke out the town for a game.




YTD 308

Scrapyard additions

I've not done any work on my Pulp City scenery for ages despite having collected and painted loads of it. I still don't actually consider it ready as I've not added any vehicles.

I three years ago (gulp!) I brought two 28mm resin cars to add to this set. I'd deliberately not painted them yet as I'd intended to try and do some cheap moulding from them to make some car parts to add to the scrapyard part of my scenery collection. Of course that was the plan but I'd not gotten around to it.

I ended up having a free hour at the weekend and it struck me that it could be a fun and slightly messy thing to do with the kids...so out came the tin foil and plaster to give it a crack.

I wrapped one side of the cars in foil, gently starting with the roof and carefully pressing it down around the body of the vehicles. There was no way to avoid creases but I wasn't too worried as they are meant to be junk! The surplus foil on the sheet was rolled round to add some support to the mould for when the plaster was added.

I extracted the originals fairly carefully then gave the foil a poke and a prod to deform it. Then the plaster was poured and left for an hour. I wasn't sure at this stage but hoped that they would come out okay.

I wanted to protect the edges of the plaster at the base as I suspected it would chip easily there. I thought the best way would be to mount them on some plastic basing material which also meant I could use the sand to help them look like they were buried slightly.

Just paint after that to finish them off. Simply bit of weathering and they were all sorted.

Now I just need to paint the proper vehicles!

YTD 287

TTFN

 

Plugging away

I managed to finish off the wall sections and gate house for my planned 30K strongpoint attack games. All the pieces in this were great to paint and I'm pleased I've painted them all together to keep the colour scheme consistent.

The appearance of the sun lately meant I got to do some spraying as well. The Sylvaneth were done along with the ridiculously large crane that I brought from TTCombat a while back.

I've also started the base colours on the Sylvaneth. I want to get the bulk of them done over the next month or so to enable me to focus back upon Pulp City and the VSF stuff.

My tally was helped with finishing stuff but blown out again by the recent purchasing of some Forgebane stuff. Still, at least I am getting stuff painted.

Purchased: 118
Painted:     -145

Net:           -27

TTFN

Progress from the weekend

I've managed to finish off most of the Pulp City scatter stuff which pleases me immensely. Its been sat around for a while now and it is good to get it done and dusted.

Next up is the Mechanicus Galvanic Servohaulers. Lovely kits! They've had a good dry brushing of Tin Bits and some bronaze to start and then a odd bits have been picked out with Oily Steel. Onto the bodywork next to add some colour.

The additional scatter stuff has really helped the tally as well.

Purchased:    86

Painted:        -138

Net:              -53

Happy with that!

TTFN

-39

Woot!

Bins and Cones finished! 39 pieces done is great for my tally.

Purchased:  85
Painted:      -101

NET:           -16

Very happy to be back in negative numbers again. I've got a couple more purchases in the not so distant future, namely the next two Nef which are imminent and also a gang for Shadespire.......apparently. Not sure how that happened.

Oh yeah. Someone mentioned new figures and I jumped on it quicker than a cat on a keyboard.

I've also got a little bit of scratch building to do as I have road works lighting and railings, Cones and also skips but I really could do with a dug up hole for the stuff to go around. Shouldn't take longer to cobble a bit of broken tarmac together.

What next? More scatter for Pulp City. It's quick and really fun to paint the random items like a broken TV and a bullet holed fridge.

Can't wait!

TTFN

Heroes, Villains and some everyday folk.

I’ve started putting together the Sylvaneth at work in my lunchtimes but it’s going to take a while so I’m all fired up to get a few more things painted at home whilst that progresses.

Painting the unique figures is a real dose of fresh air that I do enjoy every now and then. It lets you go a little further on a figure than you normally can.

Hence these two.

I couldn’t resist with Mr Patriot. I’d starred at him for a while unwilling to commit to a boring dark suited hitman type thing. Not sure where the idea came from but I was sold. It took me longer than I would normally spend painting a figure but it makes me smile so was worth it!

The camo cape was fun as well. I kept the rest of her plainish to emphasis the cloak.

Gotta have some people living in Pulp City!

  

These two big uglies have been sat unfinished for ages so it is a pleasure to get them completed.

Clearing this lot off of the painting queue was nice and I enjoyed the pulp city vibe so decided to try and get some of the loose scatter started as well. They shouldn’t take long.

So 14 figures finished changes the tally for the better.

Purchased          85

Painted               -62

NET                   23

TTFN

2018 so far.....

I’ve been pretty busy since Xmas but I’ve lacked any real focus. I just have too many fun projects that I want to work on. This does mean that I’ve got lots of progress but nothing getting finished.

I’ve wanted to do a siege game for Horus Heresy (HH) ever since I started collecting an army. I’ve decided to make this a reality, hopefully this year, and as such I’ve purchased some walls, gun emplacements and a TTCombat Gothic Garage which I think will make a good gatehouse. I’m planning to use this on my 3x5 dining room table so this should stretch across the narrow table side just fine. The plan is to have the attackers play up the length of the table.

The scenario will need some thinking about but, given the sterling work being done 30K Heresy Forum to create 8^th Edition rules, I should be able to use the fortification rules from the back of the 8^th edition 40K rulebook as basis for something fun.

The HH setting does inspire me and I want to vary the types of games we play. Several years ago I’d made some starship interiors scenery. Sort of my own take on a modular Space Hulk type thing. It got messed around with a few times but then stored in the loft. It struck me that it would be pretty good as a Zone Mortalis and this compelled me to bring it down from the loft.

I hadn’t varnished it at the time of making it, something that I regret now. My loft is pretty dry but I think the inherent moisture in the plaster it was made from was enough to let the mould creep in. Sadly some pieces were lost but most were recovered, repaired and giving two coats of Varnish. One Gloss and one Matt. Hopefully that will protect it in future. I also have a plan to add some larger boards to the ZM set so that it can fill an entire 6x4 table.

All this HH planning has also had the effect of galvanising me to get more stuff painted for it. I did the Iron Warriors(IW) infantry last year but they sorely need some reinforcements. Now I like the idea of dreadnoughts stomping down ZM corridors in support of the troops so the couple of dreads I had in need of stripping pushed their way to the front of the queue and got themselves a nice bath in Dettol. They came out pretty clean.

Sitting around for a while has been a tray of terminators for both the Iron Hands & Iron Warriors. These were kit bashed together from a bundle of Scibor bodies that I won on Ebay cheap, Anvil heads and Shoulder Pads all coupled with GW Termie arms and weapons. I like the notion that 30K was a time of innovation and invention giving rise to lots of variation to the weapons and armour that were used. 

So the IWs have received two coats of Gun Metal Grey so far. Onto stripes next for them. The IH Termies are started with a heavy dry brushing of Bronze and then a light dry brush of gold. This picks out the trims and lots of the details. Next comes the red colour for the main armour plates to represent the blood of Manus that these surviving IH refuse to wash off until the traitors have been wiped out we all know how well that goes!).

  

I was given, by a very kind soul, some GW scenery at Xmas. The lovely gothic machinery terrain. It is wonderfully characterful and was one of the first things I put together once the silliness of Xmas subsided. Love these models and I’m looking forward to using them with the ZM terrain.

My first wargame of the year was a cracking game with BFG and I using my Seraphon to thwart the machinations of The Silverback and Silverfox’s Chaos forces. Cracking game which I neglected to take any photos of. Still it was enough to spur me on with some additions to my Lizards.

A homemade Dread Saurian has been staring at me from the shelves of holding for some time now so he was treated to a lick of paint to get him started. I was also treated to some Seraphon Cavalry for Xmas by another kind soul and those have been constructed and undercoated. Painting 40 cavalry at once is a bit daunting so I need to get some things cleared before starting them.

My ongoing endeavours to put together a stonking urban cityscape is still also progressing with the additional of some street furniture from Blotz.

I picked up lots of additional bits for the city at Colours and Warfare and decided to get them under way. This is them all washed and they’ve been spray undercoated now as well. They should add lots of character.

Well I also need some people to populate this city so I’m working on getting the civvies and heroes finished as well so we can get on and have some games. I think some of the folks in this part of town may have dubious professions…..

One of the Hero (or Villian) figures I’ve had for a while was a suited hitman type of guy but I didn’t want to have him in a plain suit. Well….there was only one choice really wasn’t there. Let me introduce you to….

Mr Patriot!

It took the best part of two hours but it was worth it. It still needs neatening up with some white and the colours could do with another coat but he won’t take much to finish after that.

I seem to have entered one of my more productive phases again, which is great, but because I’ve not had my painting mojo for a while I have been concentrating on building. This has meant that the painting queue has grown considerably. I’m estimating that I have 300+ prepped and undercoated waiting to be done. I really should address that!

So goals for this year? Well last year I painted 366 figures. Great but I brought loads as well. Time for a new tactic. I’m going to track Net items painted. So a minus for a painted one and a plus for any new ones brought.

So the street furniture places me at -15…..but…..

….those 20 mkiii marines I didn’t think I’d win on Ebay but did takes it back to +5.

So this year I must be productive and also resist buying too many figures.

Wish me luck.

TTFN

Eddie.

Some Superheroes - Pulp City progress

This is my fourth time of taking the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and once again it's prodded me into action on the painting and blogging front.  I've actually been painting fairly steadily, but as I have to put blog posts together for the Challenge, it's much easier to transfer them here too!

I decided to start with fours Supes for "Pulp City", a rather fun little superheroes game with it's own characters that I haven't played nearly enough.

This first chap will be "Father Oak", a Powerhouse in the terminology of the game who is a hero and aligned to the "Nature" faction in the game.  The figure is from Black Scorpion from the Bloodbowl/Fantasy football range and is brilliantly detailed.

He was originally going to be brown with green leaves, but the colour scheme sort of took on a life of it's own whilst I was painting and he ended up a little more green/grey in the trunk so I thought perhaps a red leaf would work better.

These next three are spandex clad superheroes, from the Reaper Bones Chronoscope range, which sadly appears to have been discontinued now Reaper are all about slightly wobbly plastic instead.  So for once it's a good thing that I bought them a while ago to sit in the lead mountain "Just in case they're discontinued"!  Having now succeeded once with that excuse, I shall feel justified in using it going forward more often.....

 

I believe a couple were sculpted by Patrick Keith of Bombshell miniatures fame - I do like his work having previously showcased some of his Counterblast figures and I hope to paint more of his sculpts during the challenge.

I've no real plans for which hero each will be, I just gave them a classic two tone scheme each and based them on street bases that I carve myself from plasticard and stick to lipped bases.  They may end up as heroes or villains, as every good comic book story needs generous helpings of both.

I went a little more extreme on the highlights than I normally do, but the joy of painting only a few figures instead of a regiment of forty allowed me to take my time a little more.

I've always liked superheroes (who hasn't?) and working in a comic shop during my holidays during University was without doubt one of the best jobs I ever had.  Spandex clad superheroes are the classics in my eyes and these three will be joining my other figures and will be taking to the streets of Pulp city hopefully very soon!

A deadline on the horizon

I've allowed myself to get a little distracted by another project of late so must redouble my efforts to get my 365 figures painted before 10/12/17.

Lots of things on the go but I decided to try and finish some half done stuff to get it off of the painting table. First off is a bundle of Ork Dreadnoughts and Killer Kans for EPIC along with an AA wagon. With these finished I've only got 60 left to finish!

 With them out of the way I've moved onto a tray full of Ork buggies, planes and scorchas that had been started. I've slowed myself down, once again, by choosing to paint checker patterns on 6mm figures. why do I make these choices?? Oh yeah! Cos it looks good! ;-)

I'd expect these to take me another week to finish but there is something like 30+ so its more than half of what I need to do before December.

Also on the go are some more Pulp City figures and I've started painting two of the smaller Massive Darkness box sets.

As always I've also allowed myself to be distracted by scenery. No great surprise there as it is a real weakness of mine.

First up a cool phone box and some street lamps from Blotz. Very nice fun little kits to put together!

I'd gotten them at Colours and really wanted to put them together to get them done for my City scenery set. I also got the new tram kit from Warbases as I thought it would look good on the city streets. Sweet kit.

Not quite sure when I'll get around to painting it?

;-)

TTFN