Thursday 23 August 2012

Sasha Charity Figure

Back at the end of 2011, the Frothers Unite miniature forum started a charity drive by getting a figure sculpted and for sale. This year's figure was a fantasy swords woman called Sasha and is based upon a drawing that was made of a character in a series of Dungeons & Dragons games that were broadcast on the internet. As one of the charities was cancer research I was happy to donate, as I lost my father early last year to it

The figure was sculpted by Kev White of Hasslefree Miniatures and then a limited number of metal casts made and then a further limited number cast in a new plastic compound called Trollcast by Troll Forged Miniatures. The one I had was one of the later, I was too late to get one of the metal ones


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The Trollcast plastic is excellent, there was no pitting or holes and the details are very, very crisp. Also, I simply clipped the tab from her feet and superglued her to a Fenris resin base. It stuck really well!

Here is the original drawing the figure was based on if anyone is interested. Well done to all those involved

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Monday 20 August 2012

7TV: More Painted Characters

As my break from the Dystopian Wars painting, I stepped up to my favourite figure scale of 28mm. I had a few new figures from Crooked Dice recently that needed to be done so I took the opportunity over the weekend to get them painted

Here are the Man From 2000, Hugo Soloman and a Daughter of Shiva

 click picture to enlarge

I've basically followed the Crooked Dice paint schemes for the first couple, they are based on existing characters so it made sense. The Daughter of Shiva I've given a more subdued colour scheme though as it should make her fit into other things that I have planned

I finished the bases of these last night after returning from a monthly Sunday boardgame session at Wells. Invasion From Outer Space resulted in a win for the invaders on the last game turn whereas I somehow managed to win the Killer Bunnies card game despite my first three bunnies dying out as soon as they were brought out 

Next up, maybe one or two more 28mm's before dropping back to Dystopian Wars scale

Friday 17 August 2012

Dystopian Wars: Prussian Land Force 3

And, completing the Dystopian Wars Prussian landship miniature this evening finishes off the land force starter box set

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That leaves me a few flyers left to paint in the remainder of my force. I might leave those for a few days to break up the painting with something different

On a Dystopian Wars theme, I see Spartan are releasing the Martian invader figures soon. I really, really don't need another force (or do I?)

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Dystopian Wars: Prussian Land Force 2

I've no idea where the last week has gone, I seemed to have very little time to do any painting so the posts have slowed down. Still, I have managed to get the Prussian Walze small tanks painted in the last couple of days

These things are tiny! There are ten bases, each with two tanks on and only measuring 20mm square. I thought I was going to go cross-eyed at one point!

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This just leaves me my landship to paint to complete all of the Prussian landforce starter box. Work starts on it this evening, I want it finished before the weekend

On a totally different theme, I should be getting my copy of the Kickstarter boardgame Zombicide soon. That means over 100 new figures that could be painted <gulp> I'm considering the idea of just painting the survivors and leave the zombies unpainted for now.....

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Dystopian Wars: Prussian Land Force 1

My latest painting has been aimed towards that Dystopian Wars Prussian land force box that I mentioned previously. Breaking the seal and emptying the contents out made me realise how much was in there and in need of painting. Because of this, I decided to break the task down into several groups to make things a bit easier and less daunting

Once washed and cleaned I glued the medium tanks & bombards onto the supplied acrylic bases. They were then undercoated black and painted using a similar colour scheme to one of the Metzger robots I had done previously. Grabbing the Vallejo field grey paint, everything got a base coat before highlighting with a mix of the grey with a touch of white added. Details were painted on in bronze and gun metal. I thought of adding markings but have left them plain for now

To finish them off I gave the bases a coating of fine sand and added small clumps of static grass following my basing technique

So, here are the A-6V medium tanks and the B3-S medium bombards

click picture to enlarge

click picture to enlarge

That leaves the landship and the small tanks to be done

Also today, I received a delivery from The Warstore of some new dice especially for my Dystopian Prussian forces. I thought I would treat myself :)

Tuesday 7 August 2012

7TV: I Shot the Sheriff

Last Thursday, saw the second episode in our on-going Crooked Dice 7TV games based on the Left4Dead computer games. When we left the survivors at the end of episode 1, they had managed to fuel their van and escape the gas station along the road

I Shot The Sheriff

The aim: report the incident to the police, in the nearby town of Keystone and refuel the van

Here is an overview of the entire table, at the top edge can be seen the survivors van, the square cream building to the right is the police station whilst a cinema car park can be seen on the bottom edge

 
The heroes pull up outside of the police station and enter, speaking to Officer Jobsworth to report the attack from the last episode. Understandably, the officer checks the survivors weaponry in before allowing them to proceed. Not believing the strange tell and smelling alcohol, he decides to lock the heroes in the drunk tank overnight


The cell already contains several town residents who appear to have been celebrating rather well. Several of them look rather worse for wear and when Jobsworth steps into the cell he gets bitten!



Knowing what is coming next, the survivors grab any weaponry they can find. The station armoury yields several shotguns and a submachine gun, whilst a confiscated bottle of whisky is put to use as a molotov cocktail, setting a blazing fire going in the cell doorway which takes down most of the walkers. At this point, things suddenly take a turn for the worse when a hulking zombie tank bursts through the flames!




Several well aimed shotgun shells soon puts the creature down and the survivors decide that they need to move quickly. Zoey and Nick take the van to the nearby gas station and begin to refuel. The noise of the pumps alert some unwanted visitors but they are soon dealt with by some sharp shooting from Zoey



Exiting the back of the police station the remaining survivors search for anything of use. Unfortunately the police riot vehicle's keys are no where to be found, 'I hate keys' mutters Francis....



Now bursting out of the cinema come a horde of the dead, with further ones appearing at nearby junctions to cut the survivors off





As their van rushes along the road, the remaining heroes battle their way through the advancing dead. As coach cuts a path through several with a chainsaw he found (it was either that or a lawn mower), Francis beats off a hoodie wearing hunter zombie that leaps at him from the top of a nearby oil tank



Knocking zombies flying, Zoey, Nick and van makes a timely arrival. Making a break for the escape route, Louis, Ellis, Coach and Francis shoot and cut their way to safety and leap aboard. Having to choose which road to take out of town, they decide to leave via the bridge that heads to the docks

 

Episode 2 ends at this point...

Wednesday 1 August 2012

7TV: Robots

A couple of weeks ago, Armorcast added some familiar looking robots to their online shop for a limited period of time. These are usually only available from their stand at conventions, obviously meaning being here in the UK I was unlikely to get hold of any. Seeing as they were only available for a few days, I jumped in and purchased the ones I wanted. Delivery was very good, they took a week maximum to arrive here

Anyone who has watched Futurama will recognise the basis for these miniatures. They were all multipart metal castings, the outer pair needing the heads attaching, whilst the middle one (named 'Folder' by Armorcast) needed arms & legs fitting. I attached the figures to some nice 30mm resin bases I had bought previously from Fenris games

click picture to enlarge

I've tagged these under the 7TV label, I'm not sure where they will get used but the 7TV rules are likely to be the best option