Some random colouring in

Mantic Games have recently launched their "Kings of War" fantasy wargaming miniatures range, leading off with elves.

I bought a selection when we got them through at work, mostly to see what they were like, and also becuse the price point is a good one for getting some quick, batch paint miniatures together. Since I need to get my eye in again, I figured this would be the ideal way to do so.

The miniatures are nice, 'true-scale' figures truly suited to building a wargaming army, with very little in the way of hard to reach undercuts. Using a quick basecoat, wash, highlight technique I was able to finish off the first batch in a couple of hours, and could justify to myself the purchse of another batch.

Being me, I have gone a little overboard with this - jumping from a bolt thrower and a pack of ten infantry in my first purchase to a bundle deal of fifty models and another bolt thrower.

+++ Edit 11/24/09 0:55 +++

Cheap and nasty photos taken in my very temporary 'studio'

I should have something to show you all here...

Indeed, I actually do. I took part in the Area 52 Staff Space Wolves Kitbash Challenge, which kicked off right after we finished up with the Tasmanian regional round of Golden Demon 2009. The area 52 forums have all the details, and I'll edit in a link down the track.

Unfortunately I have now lost the truly bitchin' jump pack that I wolfed up for my model. I can build another one, but it'll take some time, and I need to buy another Wolf Guard Terminator kit for parts.

At some point I'll actually get around to clearing out some painting space again and do some colouring in. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

+++ Edit 11/24/09 01:00 +++

Images are now live!

Forgefather Vulkan He'Stan

Pure text post today, folks. I have a cat asleep on my lap and nothing to photograph anyway.

I've spent a lot of time looking at the new Salamanders special character miniature over the last couple of weeks. culminating with making the purchase last night before I left work.

I'm now settled in to the long haul process of converting the figure to have the majesty I expect to see in a Space Marine character.

The first step will be to get a stance that says imposing, powerful, commanding, decisive and unshakeable. Then comes the easy bit where I make all the lines flow.

Currently the miniature's pose - the stock pose as sold through GW Direct - seems to be remeniscent of an african tribesman about to thrust with his spear, only he's wearing a heavy salamander pelt cloak and there's no real animation to the stance. The legs, as is a real possibility when working with the very top heavy Space Marine design, seem to lack the substance required to support the upper mass, and it looks to me like the figure was balanced through the mass of the cloak.

I'll be carving back the entire left leg, pistol holster and much of the salamander-skin loincloth, before rebuilding the model paused near the crest of a rise, spear held upright, surveying the field of battle.

The flaming halo Chapter icon on the model's backpack I may have to rotate 180 degrees, but I'll look into how flame reacts to wind first.

So as projects go, this one goes on the back-burner until after October.

Redcoats

A couple of months ago I started buying 28mm historical miniatures. Here we have images of my current log of mistorical miniatures: two boxes of Victrix Peninsular War British plastics and six packs of Great War Miniatures British Infantry.


All the minis, lined up in ranks.


A partial colour group from the Napoleonics.


A Great War platoon of British Infantry 1918.


A close up of a single Victrix Peninsular War Centre Company redcoat that I finished up to based for the War and Peace Games forum competition.

Master of the Hunt

The new Khorsarro Khan miniature screamed out to be painted, and painted in the original White Scars colours colours, so today I started on the process. I'm aiming for a high end gaming/display quality paintjob as practice for this year's Golden Demon competition.


Parts cleaned up ready to begin.

Undercoated with a relatively even coat of white spray primer,

and cleaned up with a little Skull White.

An experiment with Gryphonne Sepia.



I was happy enough with the Sepia shading, so it's on to colouring in the details.

I'll be working on a customised version on a bike to fit my vision of the Destroyers Chapter in time, but this is an interesting experiment in painting something different. I haven't worked with a white undercoat for absolutely ages

Zombie Dragon

These are a couple of terrible photos of my current super project.

I've been working on this model - read I had a major flash of inspiration and got this far into the project before I got distracted - since the current Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts book was released.





The underlying model is a High Elf dragon, with both the neck and tail extended by about 50% each. The rider is made from the upper half of Vlad Von Carstein and the armoured legs that came with the Dragon.

Things that still need doing are many:

• Finish blending the tail and neck extensions into each other.
• Add detail showing open vounds and internal workings of the Zombie Dragon.
• Redesign the surface detail on the riders legs to better fit into the Vampire Counts range.
• Modify the armour on the Dragon's legs to fit the Vampire Counts range.
• Redefine the large stone on the base as something other than a High Elf monolith.
• Fill out the rest of the base with more detail.

I am still undecided as to what I want to replace the armour that ran along the length of the dragon's neck and spine with. Most likely I'll sculpt in scales and exposed muscle and bone detail.

This model currently "lives" atop my computer monitor, staring down at me with cold, dead, grey plastic eyes while I do my daily internet stuff.

Oh look, another gaming 'blog

Being a mad wargamer I collect a LOT of toy soldiers. I paint most of them, and occasionally even play tabletop games with a select few. I work at my local gaming shop, where I am often found sipping a coffee in the quiet moments.

This 'blog is my attempt to share with the world, and specifically those people I actually like, the work I've been putting into my miniatures, and perhaps share the occasional event report. That could mean anything from a brief overview of a game played to a detailed description of my local Golden Demon regional event.

This 'blog is also intended to keep me plugging away at my current projects. I freely admit that I have at predisposition toward leaving a project half done in favour of the next shining gem to hit the shelves. Hopefully I'll get inspiration from your comments that keeps me working on things until they are done.

The first order of business will be to hunt out and photograph the things I have on the go at the moment, as much to refresh my mind as to let you know what I'm working on.