Christmas Painting

A belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy Hew Year!

As I haven't had any spare time over the Christmas break until now, I've finally got my latest painted figures photographed. A few more Lord of the Rings figures, just to clear that 'itch' for a while

First up, Sam & Frodo in orc armour. One of those figure sets I've been after for a while and finally got them from America, via eBay of all places

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Next is a set I've had sitting around for ages, since they came attached to the long out of print Battle Games in Middle Earth magazine. That was an excellent publication, apart from the free figures bundled with each issue it included new rules, scenarios & terrain building articles. Something that the current official White Dwarf magazine is lacking in my opinion..

Anyway, here is farmer Maggot and his dogs, Fang, Grip & Wolf

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So, time for a painting project change!

The Hobbit

Finally, I managed to get those better photos done for the blog. The light at the moment is bad what with the awful weather we're having..

It was the Mid-Somerset Wargames painting competition last Thursday and these were my entry in the group/unit category. I was fortunate enough to win that category and also to take the overall win for the competition

These took a while to do, each one being so unique means the painting time was much more than normal. They are of course, Games Workshop plastics from the box set they released for the first Hobbit film last year

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I have a few more Lord of the Rings / Hobbit figures I want to paint then I'll move onto something else for a change

LotR: Goldberry

This should have been a big update for what I've been painting but the photo's came out rubbish so I need to reshoot them :(

Instead, it's just a single painted figure. Another Lord of the Rings one, Goldberry the water spirit

I've been after this particular figure for ages, it only came in the Fog On The Barrow Downs box set. I also try to get figures in metal if at all possible

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I'll try and get the reshot photo's in the next day or so..

Display Cabinets

A quick heads-up for any UK based painters/gamers who want somewhere to display their painted figures. On Monday 16th December, Lidl's will once again be selling two sizes of beech effect glass cabinets

Small version is £29.99 or two for £55 link

Large version is £59.99 or two for £110 link

Making A Retro Rocketship

Back in 2008, Pete Murray on the Lead Adventure Forum very graciously offered some drinks cups from an American fast food chain called Denny's to forum members. As I have a large collection of retro-scifi figures this was ideal for conversion. I was lucky enough to get my personal message off quick enough for one and it arrived not long after. Here's a photo I found online, that shows the cup in it's original condition next to a 28mm figure

Roll on 6 months (that is pretty quick for a project for me) and the decision was made to 'get it sorted' So, for those interested, here's the process... 

Step One, File Extra Lid Details Down & Insert Nose Spike 

I carved off as much excess detail as I could with a heavy duty knife then using a heavy file followed by fine sandpaper smoothed it down. The nose spike was a golf tee I managed to get off a work colleague (he did look at me funny when I explained what I wanted it for....)

 

Step Two, Side Doors & Windows  

Cut out a pair of doors & window frames from .30 plastic card for detailing the body and stick them on with superglue. The plastic actually stuck quite well, I was concerned that the plastic of the cup might be too greasy but it was OK
 

Step Three, Rocket Ports

Take some plastic tubing, cut lots of 10mm lengths, then superglue them around the body as rocket ports. The tubing I used was 1/8" / 3.2mm styrene tubing from Plastruct. It took two lengths to cut enough pieces, with some spares left over afterwards.
Once finished have a strong drink to settle the nerves!
 

Step Four, Front Window Frame

This was cut from the same .30 plastic card that the side doors were cut from. This needs to carefully curved to apply it to the rounded surface of the cup. I have created a file that shows the size that you need to cut to
 

Step Five, Wing Stubs

Taking a rounded slide binder (used to hold papers together), cut two 25mm lengths, glue the open edge together then cut end pieces and stick them on the outer ends (inner ends will stick to hull) You then need to glue them to the opposite sides of the cup, making sure they are level & line up with one another when viewed from the front
 

Step Six, Paint

With all construction complete, time to add paint. I decided on the classic silver scheme and sprayed with a can of Tamiya silver for polycarbonate (to make sure it covers the plastic ok) Next paint in windows & edge doors etc using a black base and adding high lights in various shades of blue
 

I finally gloss varnished the ship to protect the paintwork as I wasn't sure how the paint would hold onto the plastic cup surface

This article was originally posted on my website but as I will be closing it I am transferring it to my blog

LotR: Paralysed Hobbits

A few more Lord of the Rings finished, these are the paralysed hobbits from the old 'Fog on the Barrow Downs' box set. A simple & quick paint job but I think they came out quite well

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 More to follow shortly..

LotR: Khazad Guard

I have a soft spot for the Lord of the Rings figures that Games Workshop produce. There is something about them that I just love, so every now and again I have to paint some more. Luckily enough I have a collection of unpainted figures living in a box waiting for these events

So, the lucky figures this time are a set of six dwarven Khazad guards resplendent in their battle masks. I picked these up cheap off of eBay part painted and just finished them and tidied them up. A couple need their axe heads re-attached which involved some careful drilling and pinning with the smallest drill bit I own

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Of course, now I've painted these I've immediately gone on eBay and picked up some more figures I've always wanted <sigh>

Rogue Trader: Adeptus Mechanicus

Next thing painted and finished..

I keep having the urge to go back to the original Warhammer 40K, Rogue Trader rules and play a game sometime. I'm not sure whether I will ever get that far, but I have managed to paint an original marine mechanicus figure to start with

I picked this figure up via a sale on the Lead Adventure forum. It was one I never had originally but kept wishing I had got

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I also picked up, via eBay, a couple of old school eldar figures as well. They are currently sitting in some paint stripper prior to painting

Fairy Meat: Glitter Fairy

I have begun finishing off some more of the random painted things I've done this month. There is quite a waiting list so lots of updates to come..

First in front of the camera is another Fairy Meat figure, a glitter fairy from the first wave of figures that were released

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I've since managed to get very cheaply off of eBay the entire second wave of figures. More additions to the Lead Mountain!

Of Gods And Mortals: Egyptian 1

Osprey Publishing have just released another title in their line of wargames rules, Of Gods And Mortals (OGaM). The rules are from Andrea Sfiligoi, the author behind the popular 'Song Of' series of rules. Having played a few games using these rules and liking the setting behind OGaM, I decided to pre-order a copy of the rules from North Star Miniatures

 

 

They promptly arrived a week or so ago and after a quick flick through, I decided I would build an Egyptian force. Now, I have a small collection of Foundry Egyptians already and they would do for the mortal units in my force. I just need to add the gods, legends plus any exotic animal units to the army

 

The first decision is what god will be used? I did get the Set miniature from North Star with the rules, but a thread on The Lead Adventure Forum gave me another idea. Someone recommended a Reaper statue of Bast that would make a great god. So, an eBay order later gave me the perfect goddess for my force. She stands nearly 60mm tall even after I reduced the size of her base plinth

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Being a cat owner (or is that owned by a cat?), Bast appeals to me greatly. Especially when I can field units of cats & lions in her force

Now I just need to try and locate those Foundry Egyptians in the Lead Mountain ..

Silent Hill: Puppet Nurses & Armless Men

I've actually been quite busy painting the last week or so, just haven't fully completed anything until now

Following on from Pyramid Head in the last post, I finished off some more not-Silent Hill miniatures from Grekwood Miniatures These two lots are the very strange puppet nurses that respond to noise in the asylum, plus some of the armless man creatures that stalk the fog shrouded streets

Both lots quickly painted and based on some resin bases I got recently

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Now these are done I need to have a good think about how to portray them on the tabletop

Silent Hill: Pyramid Head

Another miniature painted for the possible Silent Hill game that I'm thinking about doing. I need to think about how best to portray the setting on a tabletop..

This one is the iconic character known as Pyramid Head (amongst other names). He seems to be an executioner that wields a massive knife and wears the pyramid shaped helm of his name

Standing head and shoulders over normal mortals, this 45mm tall miniature is by Grekwood Miniatures. I did reposition the knife so that it is dragging along the ground, as is often seen in the computer game & films

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Random Painted Things

Before starting on another project, I thought I would grab a couple figures from the Lead Mountain that I fancied painting to get done

So, for no apparent reason other than they caught my eye, here are a female victim from Pulp Miniatures and a vampire hunter from SHQ Miniatures

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Space Vixens Commission Part 4

These are the last three figures I had to paint for Gary at Space Vixens From Mars and means I've completed all of the figures he wanted

There is a generic sniper figure plus Darcy and Lizzie Bennett vampire slayers (ask Gary not me)

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Fairy Meat

Fairy Meat is a game that was published by Kenzer & Co back in 2000. It involves fairy miniatures that battle one another across a tabletop. What is different is that these fairies are 1:1 scale or 'life size' and the tabletop you battle across can be anything you like from piles of books, boxes or whatever you like

Now, these aren't your usual Tinkerbell style fairies but cannibalistic little blighter's that fight with all sorts of nasty weaponry & spells

The game is still available as rules but unfortunately Kenzer & Co ceased production of the miniatures but being one of those quirky games that caught my eye and I snapped up the first five fairy miniatures from wave 1 from The Lead Adventure forum when someone offered them for sale early this year

This is the first of these five, a seasoned fairy. I will endeavour to get the remaining ones done soon..

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Silent Hill: Robbie The Rabbit

I decided to have a brief break from the Space Vixens figures I've been painting and do something for myself. I'd recently gotten a hold of a resin figure from Mad Clown Miniatures based on Robbie the Rabbit from the Silent Hill series of games/films

If you don't know, it's a survival horror game based in a mostly abandoned American town of Silent Hill

There are many weird inhabitants of the town, I have some more of these in miniature still to paint for a potential future game sometime. One of these is a rabbit doll that seems to be based on the mascot of a sports team. He appears to be watching the lead character of the series and is never quite explained making him quite eerie..

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Space Vixens Commission Part 3

Painting hasn't been easy the last week or so but I've managed to at least paint something

Here are a couple more of the Space Vixen figures painted for Gary Mitchell. A pair of USE generic spaceship crew figures, one male & one female

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Space Vixens Commission Part 2

Just a quick update with a couple more figures that I finished a day or so ago

These are another pair of the Space Vixens figures for Gary Mitchell. These are a pair of Martian starship crew

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Space Vixens Commission Part 1

It's been a while, unfortunately due to ongoing health issues I'm only getting a much reduced amount of painting and gaming in at the present time. This is likely to continue for the foreseeable future but I'm hoping things will be sorted out by the end of the year

I paint a few figures for a couple of guys who run their own miniatures companies. Nothing huge, just one man operations but they are kind enough to send me free figures and I just have to send them back painted photos to use on their sites

One of these is Gary Mitchell, who runs his Space Vixens From Mars site. This is based on a series of novels Gary has released and a tie-in range of gaming figures. This latest batch is the first ones from what is likely to be the final figures from his range and fills out some gaps that he wanted to complete

So, I kick off with four of the above mentioned Space Vixens figures, armed with a variety of weaponry and equipment

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Finally a figure from his Divine Wind section, which covers personalities from history and beyond. This is Comrade USSR, a female superhero in body armour

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15mm Desert Buildings

I made my annual visit to the Devizes wargame show a couple of weekends ago. Knowing that I have quite a lot of figures still to paint I made a ruling that I wouldn't buy any new ones. So instead, these 15mm desert buildings from The Scene caught my eye and I picked up the first three they do in the range

Quick and easy to paint with a basecoat followed by a couple of drybrush layers, the only details I needed to pick out were the roof hatches. Painting time including varnishing was only a couple of hours - result!

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2/8/2013 - Forgot to mention that the roofs lift out to allow access to the interiors. The floors are scribed a with large square pattern

Flintloque: Orc Chaplain

I dug out another one of the Flintloque limited edition figures to paint a few months ago. He sat under-coated on the painting queue waiting for his time to come and I decided it was here this week

This is an orc (British) chaplain from the very limited range that is limited to just 250 castings. A chunky figure that required very little cleaning beyond removing a couple light mould lines. Painted similar to the example on the Alternative Armies website as I couldn't find any other colour details

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The Perfect Vehicle For A Zombie Apocalypse?

It's been too hot to paint much the last couple of weeks but I forced myself to do something ..

I'm always on the look out for vehicles and 'scatter' scenery to use in my Left4Dead style miniatures games. Up until now, most of them have been suitable diecast toys with the odd resin one thrown in

As a follower of the excellent Walking Dead TV series, I of course wanted a Winnebago to put on the table. However, finding anything that fitted was proving difficult until I stumbled over Slug Industries on the Lead Adventure Forum. Despite being a small one man & his son set-up they produce a nearly perfect candidate

A very short time after ordering (literally a couple of days) a weighty package was delivered to my door. The model consists of the main body plus a base with the wheels attached. All I had to do was glue one to the other and start painting. Casting was excellent with no visible bubbles and all pre-cleaned & sanded flat where needed

Using reference shots of the TV vehicle I went for a close approximation paint job (I did bail out painting the Winnebago 'W's on the stripes though). It's probably a little under scale but is still a hefty block on the table

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Whilst I was waiting for it to dry, I very quickly assembled and painted this laser cut signpost I added to an order from CoolMiniOrNot a while ago. It's not going to win any prizes but at only a couple of pounds it will do. The lettering was left very indistinct so it can be used in different settings and games

Sinbad: Cyclops

Probably like most gamers of a certain age, I grew up watching the Sinbad films made using the stop motion monsters by the late, great Ray Harryhausen. The one that really caught my attention was the 7th Voyage of Sinbad complete with the fabulous horned cyclops

When I saw that Crooked Dice had released a 7th Voyage game, this got me thinking of figures. Even though I'm not likely to game with the rules, when I saw an old Ral Partha cyclops up for sale on the Lead Adventure forum I just had to snap him up. Turns out he's no longer made so I'm glad I grabbed him when I did ..


So, after a few days of painting here is the best looking cyclops miniature I've seen. Standing on a new 50mm base and over 60mm tall he's a beast

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Here is a screen grab I found of the original in the film to compare

On other news, I'm still struggling a bit with my health following the appendix operation. I think I've been more in the doctors & hospital the last month then I have the rest of my life :/