Yeah, baby yeah! Mojo is back

Title says it all, my paint mojo has found its way back!  And all it took was a couple of new acquisitions.  First group came in a package the other day.

Hmm, wonder what this could be?  Something from across the pond?

It is always fun when you get a package in the mail, it actually happens more often now a days than when I was a kid with the advent of Amazon and online shopping.  But I still get a charge even though I knew this one was coming.  Tim from Diehard sent out the heads up email a week or so ago.  I have to say that Tim and Diehard do a great job with their Kickstarter campaigns.

I went light with this one, I was feeling guilty at the time about all my unpainted lead so I kept the order small.  I added some SF robots and undead.  I definitely feel a SF wave of painting coming on with this group and some remaining space frogs I picked up from an earlier Diehard Kickstarter. 

The more important pick up was this little foursome.

I was in a funk and decided to grab some new paints from a local hobby shop.  I have to be honest I loved Citadel paints back in the day but lately I felt that they were a bit over priced.  That and I've had a heck of a time following the new developments in their paint system.

Well that came to an end when the local hobby shop owner suggested that I try the GWS paint app.  What a great suggestion!  It quickly educated me on what I needed to buy.  I haven't used the full base/layer/shade/dry/edge system that Citadel is currently marketing but I really liked my first experience.

With a couple of pots of new paint I had to break out a brush and put down some paint.  I painted up some brass on several of the figures and used the new dry brush paint to do hit some edges and high spots.  Picture isn't that great so more detailed one in a future post when they are further along.  Lets hope this train keeps on rolling.

In between bursts of painting I also did some work on the War Rig for Gaslands/Car Wars/Dark Future adding a few bits and pieces as well as a front plow.  I just need to pick up some diamond tread plate and corrugated plastic card next weekend to wrap it up.  It is getting closer to being ready for paint.

Looking for inspiration! Collecting and Building.

So I seem to have fallen off the blogging map, life seems to get in the way of my hobby effort occasionally.  We took a vacation in late April and that combined with a busy couple of months at work seem to have sent my painting mojo askew.  I don't seem to be able to get it back on track quite yet so I focused on some other aspects of the hobby; collecting and building.

While we were in Texas visiting my oldest I made my obligatory run at the used book stores in the area, predominately Half Price Books which started in the Dallas area.  I was not disappointed!

I managed to find 2 White Dwarf back issued I'm missing!  I'm down to just 3 issues left on the original monthly run from 1-407.  If anyone has US issues 373, 374, or 377 to sell or trade please let me know!  I'd then be able to put this obsessive quest of mine to bed!  I was also able to replace my missing Baen Books version of The Hobbit that I was bemoaning about having misplaced in an earlier post.

I also picked up a copy of Gaslands off Amazon which inspired me to do some more Hotwheels modifications!  First up is a Wasteland dune buggy that gets a little spikey treatment.

Not much modification here other than the ram addition.  I did toss a spare wheel in the back since I covered the one in the hood up with the ram modifications.  Next up is the start of the war rig!  This looks like the start of a fun ride!

This is the twin to my cheap Walmart semi-rig cut up for a Wasteland look.  The engine and frame are from a Hot Wheels Hauler line firetruck.

I had to cut the engine away from the pump unit and reverse the exhaust to better line up with the direction of the blowers on the twin engines.

The wheels are from some McDonald's happy meal monster trucks while the card stock modifications are actually old credit card/gift cards that I have stumbled across unpacking items.  As I started to toss them I realized that they would make great plastic card stock to use in making these conversions.  I do need to pick up some plastic diamond tread and corrugated sheets and some structural members the next time I'm close to a railroad hobby shop.  This is still in the very early stages so far.  More progress pictures to come.

"Pig Pen, this here's the Rubber Duck and I'm about to put the hammer down." More Car Wars/Dark Future/Gaslands WIP

Yes you knew I was going to eventually quote something from Convoy!   I contemplated   painting the tractor blue but decided to go a different route and try green.

Here is a early WIP shot of the tractor.  Weapons will be blacked and then metaled up. The turrets for the top of the trailer and for the top of the box truck are right below
 

Here is a later one with a bit more detail work on the cab, by no means finished.  I have some clean up to do, the ink wanted to wander outside of the panel lines for some reason.

This is a shot of the trailer and magnitized weapon turrets.

Lastly, the box truck which I decided on grey as the main color.  Not sure if I will use a secomdary.  It can use the above turrets as well.  It has a single weappons spot while the semi trailer has two.

While I had the green out I decided to block out some color on the Chaos Warrior project as well.  Thats it for now.

I’m seeing double! More Car Wars/Dark Future/Gaslands cars

I wanted to do something a little different for the second round of cars. As I rummaged through my (or better put my sons’) piles of Hotwheels I realized that it had several duplicates.  Then it struck me,  I’ve been wanting to do some wasteland cars and opportunity presented me with a great idea!  I pulled out several of the doubles so I could do an interceptor/wasteland version of each.  One lesson learned from the first project, unless it is an open top vehicle I’m not going to waste time on the interiors!  Here are some of the twins!

This set includes one from the original set of cars I did last year and a copy to do the wasteland conversion.  I need to buy some structural HO scale plastic beams and such for more ram conversions.

These are a couple of Dodge Chargers.  I elected to go with at black primer coat on this set of mins and quickly found out that for the wasteland conversion it is perfect but for the interceptor/good paint jobs it was too dark in my opinion.  At least with light colors, this one actually started off with a yellow paint job that simply wasn't happening. Then a grey that I wasn't happy with either.  I think the green turned out pretty good.  nor just a bit more weathering.

I like the looks of this vehicle with the double twin engines and the low rider look.  For the interceptor version I elected not to prime it and instead went with just weathering the factory paint job.  I did pull the engine insert and paint it.  I enjoyed doing the armor plates and making the rivets on the wasteland version of this one and others.  there is still some work to do on all of them.  I need to do windshields for a few of the wastelanders.  And the weapons could use a ink wash and then another highlight or two.  Overall I'm happy with the results.

Thats a big 10-4 good Buddy! Back into the Car Wars/Dark Future/Gaslands groove.

I tried, I honestly tried to fight my adult ADD!  I finally succumbed to my impusles and jumped back into some auto body work!  I did up some Hotwheels cars last year and I really enjoyed the project so I thought why not another around!

This project is focused on creating a semi rig for the collection.  It started life as a very cheap pullback toy from Walmart.  I think it was a massive $1.00, I wish I had purchased more than two.  

Here is the cab with a few select weapons on it. I kept it somewhat easy.  

For the trailer, I went with the magnetized weapons option so I could create multiple options to use. 

Here are a few of the turrets with different weapons combinations.  I also did a cab-over box truck with a magnetized box that will accept the turrets from the semi-rig.

Here is a group shot of the upcoming batch.

Quick WIP update

Painting updates first, it has been a chore to find painting time as of late.  I’m not sure why but it has been slow going on these Champions of Khorne, I was very excited about the project and still am but alas this hasn’t expedited my painting any! 

Here are a few shots, got the base red down, inked and then highlighted with the base again.  I was a little disappointed with the brown wash feeling that it was too dark.  Left is the base only and right is the brown wash.

 

I’m not sure if it is the shade of brown or a matter of its age. Yes, that is indeed one of the old flip top pots from what?  30 years ago?

I did go out and pick up the new Nuln Oil wash and a Seraphim Sepia  Brown wash while I was out and about on Saturday, from a quick test on another model the Sepia seem to be more of the result I was looking for.

I did some work on this chap and highlighted with the red base through pink up to white and then gave it a wash/glaze of red.  Pretty happy with the results.   

Here is a better look at the process, left is the white based highlighting and the left is wit the red glaze.  Next up to start on the black and metals.

I made a few used bookstore stops after the Warhammer stop (I guess they don’t call them Games Workshop stores anymore) and had some nice finds.

I always like picking up reference material and grabbed a picture heavy German WW2 aircraft book.  I also picked up an old copy of Ballantine Books version of The Hobbit when I discovered I couldn’t find my childhood copy after the new house move.  No luck on the Horus Heresy books so I grabbed a copy of Ravenour to start.  Lastly, I found the Frostgrave supplement Thaw of the Lich Lord which looks interesting given my proclivity for undead.  A Frostgrave warband is a bit down the road but certainly a project I’m going to do.

No Paint just a "Look what I picked up!"

Lets face it, we all get a little charge from posting the look what I just got stuff so here is mine from the last couple of months.  Feel free to turn green with envy!  Just prior to Christmas I treated myself to a few choice purchases at Half Price Books with their 40% off coupon sale.

First up are some miniatures.  I’ve always wanted to pick up some of the newer plastic Nurgle flying beasts/daemons so this was an easy choice.  Especially since Papa Nurgle is next up once the Champions of Khorne are complete.  I also grabbed a 1/35 German PAK anti tank gun for $3.85 I couldn’t pass it up.  Not sure how it will scale with my 28mm Bolt Action line but worst case I use it for some conversion work on something Konflict 46 or other WWW2 project.

And some paper.  I was able to find a Horus Heresy book that I didn’t have as well as a copy of Frostgrave.  Any comments and insights from players would be greatly appreciated!  I’ve heard some decent reviews about it and my initial 15 min skim while the wife was shopping seemed interesting.  

A couple of months later I had a 20% off coupon and landed two more nice pieces.  Biggest was this Dust Tactics original starter box.  The most surprising was an old Space 1889 box of Kraag Warriors.  I'm about to venture into the WW2/WWW2 realm with some Warlord Games Bolt Action and Konflict 46 figures along with other Dust pieces that I have so this was a great buy.  If anyone is interested in the American troops let me know I'm willing to trade or sell them.

The Space 1889 was a surprising find and while I don't have any current plans for a Victorian Sci Fi project, I couldn't pass it up.  It was in great shape and complete.

Okay enough bragging and showing off, next post should have some more substance/paint progress.