Changing Gears

Hi all,
I'll be changing tack soon over here. I haven't been doing much figurine modelling latley, concentrating on military models instead. I'm busy with a SAS willy's jeep used in Normandy (Caen) before and during the D-Day landing time period. Include a resin radio-set, a BMW R12 motorbike and sidecar. Three SAS 'Commando's', and a couple of Maquis French resistance fighters and we have a scene set.



















I'll let you know what happens next,
Cheers
G

Car-less Painting

Well it's almost a month since I last updated, and I'm not very much further along with the paintwork. The weather has improved greatly, and warranted a bit of gardening. I'm no closer to finishing Haley yet, just staring at her...there's so little left to do but I'll have to mix up about 8 different paints just to complete her, Meh!
Ashlynn, on the other hand, is coming along nicely.

I have completed the base piece. Built up with plasticard to form two steps and then covered with Std Milliput and sculpted into cobbled stones.


I plan to add a Khadoran flag draped over the steps, with Ashlynn's foot on top of it. The 'blank' piece of steps is where I know the flag will cover, so I didn't bother sculpting there. Symbolic and also for the vast colour shift to make her little self pop a bit more on the Battlefield. I didn't want to go with a huge base-piece like I've seen some people use.i.e. it still fits the 30mm edge, but buggers off vertically for about an Inch. I went right up to the edge of the base at the 'back' of the piece so that I could steal an extra 7mm of footspace for Miss d'Elyse. This gave me a whole lot more room to 'move' when it comes to laying down the flag and positioning her on the base. It will all have to be planned rather carefully as her skirt comes down rather low at the back.

I've tried to keep her armour looking utalitarian, and so I added in varying degrees of grey into the metallic steel that I was layering onto her armour. It's left it with a sheen and a silver highlight, but it's not bright.

I changed up her Stack, by adding the spiked tip of the Hunter's Axe (Light 'jack). I cut it down and hollowed it out. It looks more like her art from Matt Wilson now. The horsehair plume is a sculpt, using a thick wire 'arm' glued into her helmet and then adding thin sausages of GS and sculpting them gently into strands with a silicon tipped 'paint shaper'. I'm very happy with the plume as it's my first attempt at a major change to a figurine. The helmet is a Steelhead, reversed and with the face smoothed over with GS.

I am also working on another piece that I can't really show off with yet, or post any info on for a few reasons. I've it some time and it'll be up here soon.
See ya
G

Steelhead Ashlynn

So here I begin with Ashlynn d'Elyse and a Blister of Steelheads. I would have been into them earlier, but was missing some parts in the blister pack. I had received an extra torso, but no right arm with Halberd, so I had to contact PP eurodesk and get them to send me the missing bits, only took six days, and I'm majorly impressed with them.
So...it was obvious that her poppet head had to go, and the saw made short work of that. I was able to get the head off intact and may use it at a later stage, but in the process I cut through her steam-stack at an angle and sheared off the top of the stack. I rebuilt it more like the painting that Matt Wilson did in NQ #19. I used the spiked tip off the Hunter Warjack's axe, which I cut off and then pinned and mounted on her stack. I then cut away (and saved) the tip of the spike and drilled the new hole in the top. Her Steelhead head had to be filed for a better fit from underneath, and I refined the edges to be narrower thus making the helmet look a little smaller. It's still early in the process, but she's coming together very nicely. All the mold lines are gone now, and it's just pinning and gluing left really. I will be sculpting a horse-hair plume for her helmet, this will help her to stand out more, and add a sense of movement to the figure that is mirrored by her arms and the folding of her 'skirt'.

MK II.......WooooT!

Well, that's possibly thrown a massive spanner into the mechanika!!
MK II on the horizon. The biggst question for me, and a lot of folks on the PP Forum is: "Will we see any other Retribution before MK II is released?"
There is a general concensus that says that PP will still release the models in the 'old' format, with a new deck and extra models coming in early 2010. I sure as shinola hope so, since I'm holding out for them.
My car has gone and Died on me, and so until I am mobile again, I'm kinda stuck at the painting desk. My LGC is just too far to walk, and buses don't run past silly o' clock in the evening. (20 miles is a stiff amble at best!) So this means that there will be more going through the grist mill of my painting station. Luckily for me I am a compulsive figurine buyer, and have built up a nice little 'egg' of stock to paint my way through until I can get some more. Not that I couldn't order more from stores online, mind you, but the idea is to afford another car before the summer, if you know what I mean!!
And so I will start my 'Car-less painting challenge'
1. 2 x Steelheads (WM)
2. Capt. Victoria Haley (WM)
3. Xmas figurine 06 (WK)
4. 2 x Trenchers (WM)
5. Trencher Master Sgt. & Sharpshooter (WM)
6. Capt. Maxwell Finn (WM)
7. Cygnar Ironclad-Light Warjack (WM)
8. Cygnar Lancer- L W'jack (WM)
9. Cygnar Hunter- L W'jack (WM)
10. 'Steelhead' Ashlynn d'Elyse (WM)
11. Epic Magnus, The Warlord (WM)
12. Khador, Old Witch & Scrapjack (WM)

Webwraith is prolly going, "Where the F*$K is Lylyth man?"
I have a small stash of other models including:
Lylyth
Gammick Redhammer
Tomb Maiden
Cygnar Stormlancer
Trollblood Caber Thrower (tosser, he!)
Arwen, from Lord of the Rings
Brahyn, Lara Croft & a 2nd Xmas 06 fig from Freebooter mini's.
There's also a beautiful pirate captain vignette from Freebooter, a limited edition that's already sold out.
SO, we'll see how it comes along, but I'll keep ya posted.

The Focus of my attention for the next while!

For now it's still Miss Haley and the 'Frankencense' wise woman on the desk, with the Trenchers and Capt. Finn being prepped. I have an alternate First Mate Hawk in the Brake Fluid, so the stripping can begin...Ravel's Bolero please maestro!!
The Ironclad is a 'battlefield' recovery job, and is in bits in a prep tray at the mo'. Same with the Lancer and Hunter light 'jacks. I need to vary the paintwork as my Cygnar force is toned down, so I'll interspace it with other more vibrant models to keep myself sane.

Never Lick Your Brushes
see ya soon
G

Back to Basics

Well since the last post I've got the painting table up and running again, better than before actually. More streamlined and organised. It pays to have to pack up everything and then unpack and organise. It helps you to re-evaluate what is on the agenda and leave the other things packed while you enjoy stuff that you may not have seen for a year or more.
On the figurine front I am still fully engaged by the Warmachine and Hordes models, whether for my growing army or for simply painting. I am varying my models to keep myslef from burning out. I began anew with the Alt. Capt. Haley model from PP and did a bit of resculpting and used her epic figurine's arm to change her pose quite drastically considering the minimal effort.
At the same time I'm working on a Werner Klocke figurine, the Xmas 06 limited figure. Limited to 1000 each figure's base is stamped with it's number and includes a signed card with the number written on it. She represents Frankensence and is an oriental beauty with a large incense censer on chains.




Since my Cygnar army is a new start for me, that I can utilise a lot of my Merc's with, I'm back to the Battlebox and the basic units again. The Charger and Grenadier light Warjack's are complete now, and Haley, my Warcaster, is 80% done. The hardest part lies ahead...the fine details. Other than that I'm prepping a line up of Trencher troops for painting. Two basic troopers, who will be painted slightly differently to their mates as I will be using them to reload the Grenadier's Grenade launcher. Mwah ha ha ha ha! I did some research on the Queens Grenadier Guard and besides already using their Sea-grey trench coats I will be painting the front plating on the two Grenadier troops black with a white piping on the edge. This doesn't seem like much, but I think that they will stan out from the rest just a bit. The other Trenchers are the Master Sergeant and Sharpshooter. The Sharpshooter is lying over a wall of sandbags (mediocre at best) that I will be consigning to the bitz box and sculpting my own set for him. Last, but def not least, is Capt. Maxwell Finn. A mean character figurine with a mini slugger gun, an antiquaited machine gun that he slogs around with. He will offer some variety in the production line as he has some extra details that I can take advantage of. The Master Sgt only has the one set of 'wings' on his shoulder plate to designate rank, whereas Finn has many small details that I can pick out on him.
The only problem that I think I'm going to run into is the loss of impetus when it comes to the Cygnar painting. It will be my first army with a completely coherent colour scheme. It works fantastically, especially with the fluff related to the army, but is a bit boring. My own fault really in that I picked the colours of the Classic comic Batman for the army. This toned down scheme of Sea-grey, light grey and black is very striking, it lends a more sinister look to the otherwise bright Cygnar forces. ...And being a coastal force waylaying ambushes from the sea and coastline they need to blend in a bit more than the traditional Blue and Yellow. I will keep a few Merc models in the mix, since they are much more colourful and varied and will keep me from getting bored with the muted tones of my growing force.


On the Mercenary front, I have just completed a second Talon, quite a lot of converting was done on him since I had a theme going for him. He is to be Dirty Meg's (the pirate 'jack marshal) sidekick, and since I'm starting out with some Cygnar stuff and since the Talon is a decommissioned Cygnar 'jack I thought to add some bits that show where he's from, including a 'jack medal for service during the Scharde invasions. That was an interesting build as I had a week to complete it and paint it. Well I finished sealing him minutes before I left for the club this Saturday to use him in a 1000 pnt game with Cameron against Tim 'the sneak' Morris.



My next few will be a blister pack of Steelhead Halberdiers to fill my unit to 8, still not complete...but stronger. I also plan to do a Steelhead conversion of Ashlynn d'Elyse, the Laelese warcaster. Her poppet head must go!!! A shoulder plate change is in the cards as well.
However, I greatly anticipate this year's releases as I will hopefully see the beginings of my Iosan/Nyss Retribution army come to fruition.
I'll keep ya posted,
til next,
G

Oh Nine

Hi there,
All I can say is that the last three weeks have been holiday for me...NOT!

I've just freakin' packed up my entire life into a multitude of differing boxes and shifted across the county. So while others in my LGC were planning their Xmas/Boxing day model and paint masterpieces, I was planning how to store and move all my hundreds of bits and pieces, Meh!

I've been off work since 17th Dec 08, but didn't get a single chance to touch a model (besides putting it in a box) since then 'til now 4th Jan 09.
I couldn't believe the amount of GW stuff that I have, and yet it's still not enough to field a decent sized army on the table...sad really since that kind of killed it for me an GW. I still love the figures and some of their new stuff is fantastic, but for me it'll be to paint them not field them.
Today, like one hour ago, I finally unpacked my travelling modelling essentials box back into my re-instate painting-desk. Now I feel like I'm finally unpacked, and maybe tomorrow I'll get back to some of the stuff that's on the table.
I'm really busy with a small Cygnar force that I'm basing around Capt Victoria Haley, 2nd Army Coastal defense. Early in the background fluff, actually right at the beginning of Warmachine. I bought 500 pnts of Cygnar from a young chap, Aaron, at my LGC. It included the Battle Box, a Hunter, Grenadier & Capt. Finn. As part of my Xmas presents I got my PP Parts order with all sorts of Cygnar bits and my Alternative Haley figurine, my Warcaster. I'm going to use the Epic Haley figure's left arm(thnx Tim) to change up the sculpt a bit, and flip her lance around so that it's pointing upward. I want to add Deneghra's helmet to the base since I'm placing my force around the time that Haley fights Deneghra for the first time and actually smashed her helmet from her head. In the ensuing events I find it hard to believe that she retreived her damaged helmet before taking flight.
As part of the same force I'm busy with a conversion of the Khadoran Master Mekanik, giving him a scratch-built rivet gun, strapped to his back. I intend on rounding out some of his armour and adding a Craye type slouch hat to him. I have a Gobber assistant for him (thnx Tim) and I may use the Khadoran assistant aswell, but it could take a lot of converting to get him to fit in with the Cygnar force.
I still have the Battle Box 'jacks to construct and paint, so I have 4 light jack chassis to play with, since they all have the Talon chassis they can be easily swapped out. The differing shoulder plates makes for interesting changes to otherwise staticly posed jacks. I've found that I can bend them and twist them at the waist by quite a bit before it shows in the 'pistons'. If you're wondering, because I would be...the fourth is a Talon that I'm painting for Dirty meg to marshall when aiding Cygnar. I have a Sentinel's shield for him and will be swapping the Lancer's right arm with the Talon, to change up the poses yet again. I already have a Talon in my Merc force so I want a slightly different one.
I'll be keeping this running so see you soon,
G