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!

Stargrave Water Gun Space Ship Part 1

 As I have been working on various Sci-Fi projects I got the itch to do a space ship for scenery and because I seem to always need something new to work on.  After some searching I found several options.  One was a foam board lander that was originally designed for Reapers CAV miniatures.  The scale and design we such that while it is a 1/285 is scale it can easily pass for a 28mm with a few modifications.  I downloaded the pdf's for it and have plans to give it a go.  As I started to get things prepared I realized that I had missed that one of the templates had a piece that needed multiples cut out but only provides one template for it.  Given I printed on full page stickers and just slapped them onto the foam board I will need to either make a few more or do a design modification.  I have decided to put that one to the side and work on another example I found that was made out of squirt guns.

There was a video online by Dark Matter Workshop, that caught my imagination and off I went.  First up was to get the squirt gun, I managed to find the exact one in the video online and made the purchase.  

 At least I thought it was the same one, I clearly didn't read the dimensions before I purchased it.  While they are identical in design, the one in the video is rifle sized and mine came in pistol size.  After reviewing the dimensions I realized it was my mistake.  I contemplated sending it back but decided to make the best of it and try to make some thing out of it.  I went to Dollar Tree and found some nice looking pistols as well and started to make my plans.

Dark Matter cut the handle of his and that made good sense to me so I followed suit.  I had always intended to use the smaller pistols as some sort of drive unit.  I considered keeping the grip intact to use it to attach to but had concerns about cleaning up the trigger areas and just decide to cut their grips off as well. 

Now came the fun part, I just started to play around with different configurations, taping them together with painters tape.  I landed on this configuration for the drive units.  I just need to work out how to connect them.  I tried a few different bottle tops, I really liked this bottled tea top but couldn't figure out how to make the attachment.

Figured out a connection after several tries.  I landed on the top of a pop bottle cut just below the top thread with a cap.  I had a couple already done so it was more out of convenience.  Turns out it was very useful as I had to adjust each side slightly, just had to tighten/loosen the cap!

I got them connect and realized they weren't quote square or level.  Then I had an epiphany, of course they aren't square since the area you are gluing them to isn't level!  D'ou! The areas that I planned on using as the connection point slant in towards the nose at a slight angle.  I realized that I wasn't making a model to enter into some contest, it is intended to be used as table top terrain and doesn't need to be perfect. Once I got past that I reworked the connections.  I have a few more modeling things to address like the nose, a front landing gear and the back section.

 

The Force is strong in this one...

 With this post I'm venturing into the Star Wars universe, specifically the Star Wars Legion line of miniatures.  I have not purchased the core set as of yet, I wanted to make sure I was interested in the figures first.  My wonderful wife and sons got me a couple of expansion sets of Imperial forces because clearly the universe needs structure and order!  

I'm obviously a fan of Star Wars, who isn't?  I saw the original premier in the theater as a kid back in the day.  There have been a few iterations of Star Wars miniatures from the West End Games Star Wars Miniatures Battles to the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures collectable line.  While these have always been intriguing to me it was Fantasy Flight Games release of Imperial Assault that got me to dip a toe in the water and it was Legion that got me to jump all the way in!  

I started off with a used copy of Imperial Assault which is more of a board game than a wargame but it was packed full of miniatures, 34 to be precise.  

I picked up a copy at Half Price Books at a ridiculously low price.  Some good pieces like Darth Vader, Luke, recon droids,  Stormtroopers and some miscellaneous rebel forces.

I started to do some research into the Legion line which was released shortly after I picked up Assault.  There was a lot of chatter online about the scale difference between the two.  After some thought I decided to go with the Legion line since it was also announced that Assault was being discontinued.  I got a couple of the expansion packs of Stormtroopers for Christmas to try out.

 First thing to do was get one assembled for a scale comparison.  One of the droid probes came off its base so I was able to get them on the same base.  The Legion bases are notably taller and thicker than those from Imperial Assault.  Any crossovers will likely need re-based to the Legion bases.

Now lets take a look at the Stormtrooper comparison.

Clearly the Legion models are a bit larger in scale and definitely more detailed.  In a large mass of them its unlikely that you would notice it much, especially from an overhead view while gaming.  I do think that non-identical figures will probably mix well together.

Being honest, I'm not a big fan of white as a primary color for miniatures but given my proclivity for all things Empire i dont have much of a choice.  I'm going to give 4 different base color schemes a try: white base, grey base, black with just grey apex and black with grey and white apex.

 

Next update will feature the results.

WIP Updates

 Decide to do a quick  WIP update on a few projects. Here we go!

Knightmare Games Bugbear

Started a color test on this guy to see how a yellow/orange would look.  Overall I like it and will break out the others to get started on them.  If memory serves me correctly these are the work of the great Goblinmaster Kevin Adams.  I'll have to send Sergio some shots for his Facebook page.  

Apex shading

 

Initial color blocking.  

After some highlights and washes

Done except for the base.

Direhard bounty hunters

Wrapping up the details on these guys and have just a few more touch ups then I'll call them done.  

Not real happy with the left shoulder guard, wanted the golden eagle look from JD but I'm not so sure it really works.  Will have to decide on a base look for them, maybe just a dirt/soil look or a Martian red look.

Carwars/Dark Future/Gaslands

Primed up another car to work on when I get bored with everything else.  That is it for now.