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