It Has Been Awhile!

Well it has been quite awhile since I have made a post so a flurry of WIP update posts will happen shortly.  The lack of posts is a direct result of a Shambling Mound infestation of our house, otherwise know as Luna.

She is a mobile pile of fur that has taken quite a bit more attention than I ever remember a puppy taking.  Needless to say she has cut into my hobby time for the last year plus.  Now that she is settling into the family I'm getting the chance to grab a few minutes here and there to get some painting done.  Here are a few WIP updates with more to come.

3rd ed. Skeleton commands are done, first group is a full 3rd edition set and the other is 3/4 Nightmare legion with the champion from the 3ed range.

Playing around with new contrast paints on the Rogue Trader era Eldar.  I've now tried straight white, some variations on apex prep, some pre and post inking, as well as metallics as the base color to see what comes out the best.  I haven't landed on a technique as of yet.

And lastly, a quick update on the old FA series of repaints that I've been playing around with.  My teenage work up top and current on the bottom.  The photos don't do them justice.

I would say that its an upgrade from their 40+ year old paint job.  These guys are ready for basing.  Some before and after shots of the FTS repaints that I'm working on are soon to follow.

Off with the Old: Iron Claw update

 Wrapped up the Iron Claw catapult, much better in my humble opinion.  I'm calling it done, maybe a 50mm base at some time.

Speaking of the undead...

As I was filling up the new display cabinet I noticed that most of my skeleton units didn't have command units.  I was already working on some with the FTS project so I decided to dig out some old 3rd ed lead skeleton command units to paint up.  I had always planned to add these at a later date so now seem as good a time as any.  Here are a few progress shots of the first unit.  These are from one of the old command blisters.

This group is a hodgepodge of figures, 3 are from the Nightmare Legion boxed set and the 4th leader figure is from the old command sets, same pose as the one above just slightly different armor.

These are just a few miscellaneous figures I intend to use a unit champions, critical figures in WHFB 3rd undead units.

I need to go back and do some apex painting on these, several were in various states of paint so reworking them has been a pain.

Off with the Old and On with the New: Fantasy Adventures

Yet another of my repaint projects in the works.  This one is from the pre-slota base era with some Fantasy Adventures.  These two lads are FA-24 Anti Paladin and FA-22 Evil Cleric.  I seem to recall that these may have been Citadel miniatures manufactured and distributed by Ral Partha in the US under their imports brand.  I have a few more in the range that I'm sure will meet the same fate as these.  Here they are in my pre-teen paint jobs.

 Not as bad as I would have thought, clearly I have moved from the Testors enables to acrylic paints but no real detail work like shading or highlighting.  Now naked lead, remarkable they came out very clean

Primed up and apex painted.  I'm beginning to like the results that I'm getting using this technique and much thinner paint and ink coats.

 

I haven't decided on color palette yet, on one hand I actually like the red/black/yellow scheme but I might want to try something new.  I'll have to play around with some different looks to figure out how to proceed.  More WIP soon.

Off with the Old and On with the New: Iron Claw Chucker

 As I was filling the new IKEA display cabinet with miniatures I realized that my old Iron Claw goblin chucker was in poor shape.  Not sure when but at some point in time it appears that I lost the catapult arm.  Clearly I was aware of this because as I dug through a bits bin I found an extra one!  My memory of the whole event is very sketchy but I'm glad that I was smart enough at the time to order a replacement one from the old Bitz Service that Citadel/Games Workshop used to run.  For those that lack the requisite amount of grey in their beard, you used to be able to buy any part of any metal model that they made.  This was an incredible service that lead to unlimited opportunities for conversions!  I dont always say this but in this case I do miss the good old days.

I digress, back to the project.  Clearly this was a bit of a later era paint for me as the quality is better than some of the other OwtO projects I have in the queue.  Here are a few of the Old pictures

My biggest concern was trying to match up the wood colors to the new arm so I just decided it was time for a re paint.  Here we are stripped down to naked lead

And here they are queued up for painting

Let the painting begin!  Base coat on everything and in some cases a 1st highlight

Next WIP soon.

Stargrave Water Gun Spaceship Part 3

In this phase I need to tackle a few tings.  First up was the top handle gap.  I decided to put some card stock over the gap to give it a cockpit type feel.  I used some of the faux credit card plastic that comes in the junk mail that we occasionally receive in the good old snail mail.

 

Next step was to clean up some of the details.  I grabbed some spot putty to fill in some of the gaps, screw holes, and other 

I had to keep reminding myself that the goal was a finished model, not a perfect model.  Next shot is the first prime in black.

I'm planning on trying the salt weathering technique on this so first up was an undercoat of black, then some large salt chunks are applied.  now for the 2nd prime in grey.  The white specs are the first salt application.

Now for a touch of grey!

As you can see in the second black primer photo I will have to do some more work on the top of the main body to eliminate the connection seam.  I'll give it another round of spot filler to see if it holds up.  More updates soon.

Stargrave Water Gun Space Ship Part 2

The bulk of the structure is worked out with the exception of the rear cargo area, I'm going to need a bit more time to figure that out.  I moved onto some detailing.

Front nose communications array was just a few odd bits I had around.  I think one was connector, another was a plastic missile from a toy gun.  

Landing gear is actually made of of old leftover windshield wiper parts.  They were the connectors that I didn't need for my vehicle and turned out to be very useful.  

Top weapon is actually a bad wire connector that we cut out of a piece of equipment that I immediately saw potential in.

This alternate weapon is from a line of toy soldiers that Dollar Tree sells and at a $1.25 I couldn't pass it up.  My original thought was to use it as the main weapon until I stumbled on the electrical connector.  I plan to pick up a few more of these for other projects.

Drive units are have a lot of misc greebles from various things like the inside of a bourbon bottle, tops from kids squeeze fruits, etc... 

Next step is to finish up the prep of the main body and get to some painting!