Beyond The North Waves

It's been a while, but there has been lots going on!

First off was an absolutely fantastic holiday. Starting with a weekend staying with relatives in London, a week in the Norwegian fjords, and a week off at home.

Norway was completely spectacular, it's a beautiful country, which I would struggle to convey with words or even photos unable to capture the sheer scale of the place.

Aside from some really bad sea conditions overnight on the boat, the food was excellent and the excursions we went on in the ports were really great.

Our week off afterwards really didnt go as planned however. We were going to catch up on some things around the house like hanging some pictures, playing some Malifaux etc. However when we got home on the Monday, I could hear a cat outside but dismissed it as one of the local cats trying to be let into its house. I could still hear it very lat at night though, so out we went to investigate and found a 10 week old kitten out in our yard hiding under a bush.

So our week ended up being spent calling around local vets/pet rescue charities printing & putting up posters. Because we already have cats we had to keep him in the bathroom which meant even taking a shower was at least an hour long process, moving him into a temporary cage downstairs, showering, drying everything down, moving him back.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that we haven't been able to find the original owners as he doesn't have a microchip, and no one has contacted us from the vets or posters, so I guess he lives with us now, which means the sage of introducing him to three shy/grumpy adult cats can begin...

I know you don't tune in here for cat stories, but it;s the reason I've had a lot less time than I hoped for hobbying this past few weeks.

Unfortunately I don't have a free weekend until after my friend's wedding in November, so I'll only be posting snippets of any work i manage to get done in limited free time.

Hoping to be able to grab the new Malifaux book & deck to get the October mystery box promotion, and then the November promotion is for the Jury & Miss Anne Thrope who will go great with Rollins Black.

On top of all that, Eldar is the next codex to be released! And I just got a promotion through work.

Very hectic st the moment, but hopefully I will have more to update soon!

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Up and coming - August

Trying to get back on top of hobbying after last month being rather hectic. The plan for this month will mainly be consolidating a few things rather than setting targets to achieve.

As per my usual tendency I've bought too much too quickly for the latest project of Eldar.
Current outstanding builds are below, so Ideally, i'd get most of this at least ready for the table, if not ready for WIP painting by month end.

Dragon Storage
I'd like to replace the current not so sturdy (cheap) box that the larger models and soon to be flyers etc will be stored in with a 'Really useful box' as theses tend to be reinforced and pretty sturdy construction. I just need to pull my finger out and find out the right dimensions for those damned wingspans :) then order enough self adhesive magnet stuff to fit.

Boxed Sets
2 x Venoms
1 x Raider
10 x Dark Eldar Warriors
10 x Wyches
1 x Starweaver
2 x Harlequin Troupes
1 x Death Jester
Crew for all flyers

Kitbashes 
Incubi
Shining Spears
Mounted psyker
Warp Spiders

By no means is this a list of 'have to dos' as, through experience, this isn't the right way to get things done. Hopefully though it'll be good to see progress as things get done & ready to be used and to be painted :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Diamond Geezer

I love birthdays. Doesn't even have to be mine, they are just great.

We had a barbecue with my gaming buddy and his wife to be, and went to one of our favourite places to eat in Manchester with another set of friends, and ate far too much!
A bit of a mixed blessing was having to replace my phone which started draining a full battery in under an hour without being used. Having to shell out for a new handset was a bit gutting, but a shiny new handset is of course great :)

My wife's family sent me vouchers for the Element Games webstore and I managed to convince myself that the couple of boxes of Harlequins I got on our trip to Warhammer World needed bumping up a little...

The full list now is below
2 Starweavers
2 Troupes
2 Skyweavers
Shadowseer

The plan is to convert a Troupe Master, and have him with on troupe in one Starweaver, and the Shadowseer with with the others in the second vehicle. There are enough crews/spare bits floating about to also make a Solitaire and maybe even a Death Jester too. Potentially only interested in another box of Skyweavers in the future as this is a solid little force at around 1000pts.

Rather than the common diamond patterning seen on these models (which ironically is what tempted me to pick some models up when I saw them in the exhibition at Warhammer World), I spotted a rather stunning Harlequin force in a battle report video featuring galaxy/nebula themed paint work which I decided to try and replicated for the vehicles with the airbrush.
Hopefully I'll be able to test out some methods for this soon using masking and sponging etc :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

A Day in the life

Another sporadic update, but we recently went down to Warhammer World as part of a joint birthday celebration for a friend and I.

Great day, nice lunch fantastic weather, cheeky beer, really impressive Exhibition gallery, a good slice of nostalgia, and of course some loot!

Photo dump :)

First Blood

My friend and I managed to get in our first game over the weekend, only a small 1,000 point game and with lots of mistakes :)

The new system is very fun to play, very fluid while being very familiar. hte new 'to wound' table is pretty much like the old one, but it has far less values resulting in pretty much the same results as the last one. Always being able to wound on a 6 makes sure everything is on an even footing, presumable representing a knife to the eye or something lucky. It also removes effective invincibility from some units, and allows the 'underdog' to always have a fighting chance.

Tactically, lots of mistakes were made including but not limited to:
-Only using one round of shooting with shuricannon jetbiked before tring to tie upa unit of chaos spawn. These guys should be hard to catch whilst throwing out 3 shots a piece...
-Striking scorpions popping up from the shadows too early and not really doing anything good :(
- Waveserpent was clogged up in combat after disgorging fire dragons, effectively wasting three cannons :(

We each made a few mistakes with the new rules like damage being after failed saves, rather than generating more armour saves. Falling back/out of combat is something that wasn't used at all really but could have been pretty handy for me at least.

MVP by far was the mounted Autarch. Laser Lances on the charge are pretty terrifying!..

All in all, a lot of fun and I look forward to tweaking my list and trying again against those Thousand Sons :)

I have another game tonight against a different friend, one whom I've faced before with Exodites, from 6th edition I believe. This time though, I've swapped out Striking Scorpions for Howling Banshees, although I'm now not sure that the power swords are worth losing the strength from attacks of Striking Scorpions... Lets's see :)

I also have a lot of irons in the fire conversions/ideas wise so if/when I get time in the next few weeks I will hopefully be able to post something interesting.
Not only is it birthday season, but I'm also far more heavily involved with a theatre production than I had originally planned/volunteered for so it's taking up a lot of time as well.

That's all for now, hopefully more soon!
Lofty

Best Month of the Year

It's birthday season. My two friends and I all have a birthday within a week of each other in July, and with that come a lot of social activities, and busy weekends, so everything is going to be a little quieter on the blog until at least the weekend of the 21st.

Don't despair though as I have lots to write about and some progress photos to share either before then when I get a spare moment or on that weekend. I'll hopefully be able to do a couple of text based blogs in lunchtimes at work with game write up & lessons learned, or ideas & what's in progress :)

Recently I completed the unit of ten banshees I've been working on and got some basing material on then, I also made an Archon from a metal Incubi model, made a start on what will be Ranger proxies, struggled to work out what to do for a warlock, and decided how to approach Shining spears.
Also, the chap below took a lot of work (Autarch with draconic wings) and just needs some greenstuff to fill the gaps in the backpack.

Airbrushing this weekend was out prioritised by a great day out in the sun at Kirkstall Abbey (not religious, it's just a great ruins to walk around and we've never been) and lunch with my wife, and today playing an inaugural game of 8th with my gaming friend which I will have some thoughts to write up on in the coming week.

Lastly, after my wife exceeded her bandwidth on Photobucket and was asked for a stupid sum of money to host her photos 'for commercial blogging' or have the links killed (she earns nothing from the blog so this is extortion really), Photos here will be hosted throughy the blogger album default. A conscious decision was made to move a way from this to Photobucket a few years into the blog, but it seems pretty much a muchness as to where they live, however having the same happen here, and having to re-host photos would be a complete pain

Dragon Knights - Aspects of War

Free time seems increasingly difficult to come by recently which is harrowing after crappy days at work. Hobby time is zen. Anyhow, over the last week or so, progress has been made;

Howling Banshee

The original fluff/concept outlined outlined for this project all those years ago (4 years!) a few plans for different adapted aspects. Howling banshees brazenly taken from this genius imitation and flattery at work. Perhaps the fluff & concept background will get a prose overhaul soon, rather than the musings from last post.

Warp Spiders (still WIP)

Inspired in no small part by these

The legs have been changed, but no heads yet while a good option is sourced. Either Guardian helmets with added mandibles, or the smooth masked Dark Eldar pilot heads. The helmets will also then have the warp spider run decal added.

Both aspect warriors also look 'dark' enough to be used as a counts'as option in a Dark Eldar force. The Banshees could easily be Incubi/Wyches or something if need be, and the Warp Spiders could be Trueborn perhaps. Being more familiar with the rules entries for Dark Eldar might help with better comparisons, but the point still stands :)

Next up, will be some Shining Spears adaptations. Hopefully there will be either an easy way to use the Dark Elf knights legs without it looking too fantasy, or perhaps combined with Dire Avenger bodies, these will look suitably space aged. After all, the Jetbike Autarch needs a bodyguard.
Also on the list are Rangers, Warlocks including one or two mounted options and maybe a mounted Farseer but that's less likely. I also have plans for some Incubi conversions, but I might wait until the rumoured 'Aeldari' release in July is a bit more concrete so as to avoid making proxies for potentially awesome new kits :)

Oh, also this lot:

Hoping also to get some more airbrush time in this weekend, coupled with a first game of 8th with a friend :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Dragon Knights - Crafting Worlds

Apologies first of all for the defeated tone in yesterdays post. Few family issues going on at the moment, coupled with being down annoyed about airbrushing results...

As it turns out, I think that I was using airbrush cleaner to thin paints, rather than thinner, which I would guess accounts for the weird results I was seeing...

After reading through the new rules, and the Index Xenos covering Aeldari I was completely taken by the Ynnari subfaction, and my mind started working overtime, on what might have happened to the Exodite planet after the Fall of Biel Tan, and the intervening years with the rise of the Ynnari.

The fall of the Biel Tan surely brought together disparate elements of the Eldar race, as well as displacing those that once lived on the Craftworld. Those fleeing the destruction must have been desparate for any chance, using long forgotten charts looking for refuge. Eventually finding the maiden Exodite world.
After a while, the newcomers knowledge of technology and life beyond the limitations of the Exodite planet would have had a telling effect, turning the planet into a space port/trading hub with all aspects of the Eldar race...

My vision is a space port on the planets surface, with a webway portal, allowing for Dark eldar (corsairs?) and Harlequins to be added to the Exodite force under the Ynnari rules, or as allied detachments.

I had been clearing out the loft this past week and found a few old games consoles/games which won't connect to our TV, so I traded them in at a local independent store, and walked away with a decent chunk of cash. I placed an order from Element games in the car on the way home, and also spent some on a gift for my wife.

No Big surprise, but I will show off my purchases when they arrive :)
I also recently placed a bits order in order to make my own Aspect warriors (Warp Spiders & Howling Banshees). The thinking here though is that these look different enough to the Aspect shrines that they maybe could represent Wyches/Trueborn as well? I'm seeing my current models as being very interchangeable between different units from different races. :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Mixed Bag

Had another airbrush session today, and the bigger needle definitely helped with getting a good coverage.  I got the Wraithknight, and two dragons undercoated black, and then a really nice pale brown basecoat on the wing membranes of the dragons.

After that though, it all seemed to go wrong. The red I then wanted to add to the scaly parts of the dragons went on really watery, and im pretty disappointed, not really even sure how to salvage it either. I need to do some reading.

I did get a decent basecoat of red/brown on the wraithlord though to later highlight with red :)

Here comes the Sun(cannon)

The British summer looks to finally have arrived. I was planning on getting a couple of hours airbrushing this weekend but it's been far too hot to have to contend with paint drying on needle tips etc. Hopefully this weekend will be a little better for it. I've got a good idea of what I want to try and do with models like the Wraithknight and Dragons, but I just need time to have a go and see what works :)

Also of course this weekend was the release of Warhammer 40,000 8th edition. I was fist through the door of our local game store :P and I've been trying to read the important bits in the two indexes, and rulebook.

Lastly, I ordered a few bits & Pieces from ebay to start work on some custom Aspect warriors for my Exodite army and I'll be sharing progress when they arrive and I get time to spend on them.

Not much else for the time being, busy weekend plus horrible paint drying heat!

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Weekly Progress

I've been really ill this week. I've had Tinnitus for a few months, but this week I've had earache dizziness and migraines to go with it, so I've missed the past two days at work, which I hate doing as it means someone else has to pick up my projects.

The silver lining of course is that I've had a little extra time to spend on hobbying. I've gone a bit crazy with the pipes/tubes on my Eldar 'Vehicles' but I wanted to avoid the feeling that the weapon mounts were just stuck to the back of a dragon, so I have tried to imply that they have a power source somewhere else on the model. I'm going to add some small sections of plasticard tubes on the cabling to break up the longer patches, and maybe insinuate protection for what looks to be quite vulnerable power lines. I've also tried to cover up the riderless saddle with varying degrees of success. The Dark Elf dragon variation looks pretty self contained without any of the above so I've just left it as-is, using the Wraithknight secondary weapon mounts, plus some armour on the back.

I'm also done with the Wraithknight now, except for some gap filling on the more ill-fitting parts that I have added recently but it's no more than a few minutes work, along with blending some of the more disparate joins.
I'm really pleased  with this as I think it looks a suitably less advanced/low tech answer to the model for an Exodite force, as well as a kind of life support system for the ancient dragon.

I'm going to try and get some bases made for the Thunderwolf Cavalry and mounted Lord model ready for an exciting new development which I will hopefully be able to share this weekend...

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Dragon Knights - Storage Wars

It's been a while since the last update, but in amongst a busy weekend, I had to be at home waiting for a plumber to fix a leak in the bathroom, and it's all been a bit hectic.

Storage seems to be a topic that I cover a lot on the blog, but it's in the hope that someone else will benefit from my trials and tribulations.
The current issue is that of the dragons I'm using for my Eldar Exodites. I'm fairly sure that all the infantry/'jetbikes' will fit in one of the couple of variants I have for storage currently, but the wingspan & height of the dragons makes then take up a pretty large footprint in their current 'under bed storage box' home. Taking this around on the bus to the club for gaming would be a pain to say the least, so I posted in the gaming group to see if anyone had any ideas, and was messaged pretty quickly by someone who I vaguely know from trading groups, with a pretty great solution.

So the box is a larger version of what I'm using at the moment with a wooden runner near the top and a cut up magnetic whiteboard for both the larger models in the bottom, and the infantry to sit on in the top. I think this is the best solution for what I have so I'm going to try and work out how best to adapt it.
I'll probably end up using a 'really useful box' for the larger container as I know these are good quality & sturdy, but then I'm not sure what to do about the shelf with infantry on, or if maybe I'll use a shallower box for the dragons like I am at the moment, but of better quality and then have the infantry boxes in a holdall/backpack.

When I get the time i'm going to go through related measurements and see what the best option is, but as it happens I may be involved again with a theatre group I used to stage manage for on Wednesdays so transporting the models might not be too urgent for now :/

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

8th Time's a Charm

There is a lot of noise and excitement at the moment about the upcoming edition of 40k. After all these years I can only say I'm skeptical. However with their recent revamp of the social media dept and engagement with the community, I can also say i'm quietly hopeful.

MY gaming buddy and I have been chatting about the sneak peaks that have been coming about about changes in the new edition, and have each agreed that if the rules are free as they are rumoured to be, then this would be a great chance for us to revamp his Thousand sons and my Space Wolves & Eldar Exodites.

I have a fair sized force of Space Wolves as pretty much a blank slate, with only a few miniatures assembled. I'm almost tempted to wait until the new rules are released in order to build these so that I can make them into useful configurations. The reality of this is more likely to be that I'll put them together as whatever looks good, and worry about it/proxy later :)

On the Exodite side of things, it all really depends on what the new rules look like as to what I should add next. I have a well rounded force with just the Wraithguard left to build, and the dragons to add weapon mounts to (and paint of course). I'd like another Wraithlord anyway even before the new dreadnought rules were teased, and I'm not convinced I want to make shining spears, or a warlock jetbike squad so I'm not sure what to do with the cold ones I have . I do want to make non-mounted warlocks and take another look at what aspect warriors I'd like to add and convert. I suspect that the merging of different Eldar into one codex will mean that I can make Wych/Howling Banshee proxies for example.

Other than that, it's quite exciting. This is the game that got me into the hobby after all, and without it I wouldn't be into roleplaying or any of the table top games I love to play and paint now. Or maybe I would, but it was definitely the top of the slippery slope I'm skiing down now :p

Dragon Knights - New Blood

Whilst I was pondering how to keep track of what I'm working on, in order to have a choice of things to dip into in a short space of hobby time, I was also wanting to think of some kind of showcase model to paint. I think I was painting the Warden's cloak at the time, and enjoying it a fair bit. I've always felt like I can paint cloaks pretty well and definitely enjoyed that part of miniatures (I thought I had a picture of my DND miniature to link but I can't find one sorry).

So after much deliberating and banding ideas about with my friend, I landed on a solution to my 'problem'

These models are fantastic. It doesn't even matter that (IF we ever play) we wouldn't be using the right rules edition for me to field any of them in my Exodite force. I'm going to be building these with no real rush and trying to use an airbrush as much as possible to make these worthy of displaying in our new cabinets in the living room.

I've managed to sit down this morning and get some of the swirly stuff built from the Avatar model, which I'll be keeping as separate as possible from the main body in order to paint properly.
This will be a slow update project as with the rest of the Eldar/Space Wolves as it will likely not see table time so it doesn't make as much sense to prioritise unless I'm in the swing of it. I suppose I need to get my Eldar project list done soonish :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Ch ch ch ch changes!

I've been remiss in updating this month for which I'm sorry.  

Long story short there's a few things going on at work leaving me as the only person in my team so I can expect to be a lot more busy and work more weekends (inorite) for the foreseeable.

Also I'm writing this on the train. I really need to remember my tablet and try and find a keyboard that will work with it!

Let's not dwell on that though, as I have been hobbying during radio silence.
I blitzed through my ideas for the Wraithknight and as I neared completion I got a bit fed up of not really knowing how to finish it to be honest. I don't like the feeling of 'I have to get this done' so I took a sidestep and assembled my Wraithlord

And some Wraithguard

I saw some Wraithguard somewhere with swords/axes and shoulder mounted weapons which I'd love to be able to emulate but I've no clue how really!

As you can see though, I've added tusks(?) Or horns I guess to both types of unit and will be replicating the Wraithlord's bone crest to a lesser degree across his smaller friends. The idea being that each wraith contains the spirit of a great hero and his mount.

I also managed to get the scaly bits done on my Cold Ones/Carnosaur and the first colour on the bases in preparation for doing the underneath colours once the bases are done.

Lastly, I managed to get corsair cloaks onto my Exarchs so they are ready to be primed and added to their units.

That's pretty much everything I think :) I'll get some more Wip shots of the lizards up at some point soon.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

The devil is in the details

Hi all

I've decided to get some models ready for spray priming if I get chance this week, as I have a real yearning to get some painting done.

This involved giving the cold one (jetbikes) a once over for mould lines etc., and finally getting my Autarch jetbike done.  To this effect I've given him some personal belongings and added some horns to the mount

I also worked on the weapon rig for the Wraithknight, adding some vents/power chamber type items, and a pair of horns.

I also added some greenstuff to the skull, where the horns meet, and in the eye sockets which were flat backed, I made them concave like they should be.

That's it for this week, Hopefully I can get some spray coating done tomorrow. It's forecast to be wet though so I will have to try and get this done somewhere in the house...

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty

Festivities

Hi all

It's been a few weeks since the last update, but the reasons are pretty valid. The first week in August was performance week for the theatre company I'm involved with, and the week after that we were at a festival, so time has been pretty short to say the least. Then of course I'm having to work this afternoon grumble grumble...

There are a few things to update on though so let's talk about that.
I played another game with my friend, but lost this one only barely.  A lot of fun again, and my Striking Scorpions managed to almost save the day. I struggled to make my Jetbikes effective, and they got chewed up pretty quickly. Perhaps not fully understanding the rules didn't help. In fact it didn't at all :p The game was organised relatively last minute so next time I will have chance to buff up.  My avatar took names yet again, as did the borrowed Wraithlord, but my Dire Avengers got shredded despite being in cover, meaning that they struggled even more to be effective against T5 Nurgle marines :(

On the bright side, the case worked well, and kept everything dry etc. I just need to finish adding magnets to bases and think of something deeper to carry the dragons et al.

The only other news really is some random purchases of ten corsair bodies (with cloaks of course) for less than just ten cloaks, and far more readily available. Out come the clippers, and job done! There are enough now for my Exarchs, Autarch, 'Shining Spears' and spare.
I also stumbled across some High Elf Shadow Warrior torsos + cloaks for £3.00 posted rather than just the cloak backs (out of stock) for £1.50 each! Warlocks here we come!
Lastly but by no means least, I managed to snag a Zombie dragon kit, after receiving an email saying it was restocked, I jumped on and bought it with what I think is the right sized base. I then started to bookmark the correct weapon components for the Wraithknight and check their availability daily, to the extent that the day they came in to stock, I had bought them out of stock by the time the email came out!
What all this comes to really is that next week and bank holiday Monday (who doesn't love those?!) I will be getting my very own version of a Wraithknight together, with WIP photos out the ears!

Sorry it's another one with no pictures, but hopefully there will be a good amount soon with my Wraithknight build.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Riders

Hi all

Just a very quick post to show off the work I've completed today on the 'jetbikes'. Below pic is one of two Shuriken Cannon armed riders.

You can also (barely) see the bedroll, and baggage I have added. the baggage is the remnants of a Dark Eldar warriors belongings, which are part of the leg assembly. I think it works pretty well.

I based all 6 lizards, though some still need tome attention with a file, and i constructed legs for all riders, and made a seat in each saddle to accommodate the fact that the legs aren't meant to sit astride the moulded saddle.

I am still deliberating how to best arm the riders with regular armaments in order for them to look like they aren't just guardians sitting on a lizard. Will see what inspiration strikes :)

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty

Time Warp

I'm not going to go into why its taken so long to update because there's no real reason other than not having a lot of time/motivation to do so :P call me lazy, call me what you will but here's a couple of backdated blogs :)

29/6/14
Hi again

I know I promised an update a Monday or so ago, and eluded even to more regular updates, but I simply haven't had chance.

This past week we were in Ireland, and the week before that, I can t even think why I didn't get chance to write anything up, but there we are.

Just a brief one today as last week has burnt me out a fair bit and I've ended up with some weird hayfever/headcold combo and my eyes are terrible sore.

I realise that the main factor in updates is timing, and had a bit of a brainwave to solve this, and as such I'm hoping for a keyboard which will work with my 10" tablet for my birthday (July 17th hint hint :P) so that I can write and post things on the train to/from work and utilise some of that time. Hopefully this will go some way towards regular updates, and themed days (WIP Wednesday, DnD Monday) Which I had hoped to do).

I tried out some blu-stuff molds after the last post, and the results were mixed.  It is perfect for casting flat backed items, but for anything which has detail at the back which needs capturing, then a two part mold would be required, and is beyond my current ken. I hope to be able to achieve this though eventually or I'll bankrupt myself buying bits for the Eldar project. It seems that insta-mold maybe best for two part molds so I will be pressing this as a solution at some point.

5/7/14
In the interest of maintaining topic for this post, we are jumping ahead in time a bit here :)
I had an actual game of 40k against a friend this week! Look, proof-

So here you can see my fledgling force bolstered by Dire Avengers for obligatory troop choices and a Wraithlord for points. Just shy of 1k points.

And here are the forces of Nurgle arrayed before me, cultists on the left marines with a mark in the middle, and hellbrute/rhino with plague marines & lord on the left.

I enjoyed the game ALOT. Lots of the rules are the same to the last edition of 40k that I played (going back maybe ten years?) and the new rules serve to make it very fun to play, and easy to pick up.  I want to get my troops choices sorted so the next time i sit down with my miniatures will be guardian jetbikes and Wave Serpents.

I also want to get a transport solution sorted, and in true style, I found my solution here and despite the containers in question being Walmart branded, they seem to be avaialbe with free UK shipping on Amazon. I alos thought that this kind of thing would work also (with trays removed), but I would need to be careful with the height of things like wave serpents and Wraith units. I'm thinking at teh moment that a combination of the cupcake trays and another, deeper plastic box for the larger items will be the best bet. Hoping that both will also fit into some kind of holdall to transport easily and discreetly. Credit to Element Games for the magnetic solutions :)

It's my Birthday in a couple of weeks, and the birthday of a friend (whom i've known for 25 years) and we each mentioned (independantly) to each other recently the new game from Mantic - Deadzone and we are splitting the cost of the starter box four our birthday gift to eachother this year. So expedct some unboxing and painting progress entries for this coming up maybe August kind of time. I think that's it for miniatures and modelling for the time being.

I've mentioned before that I want to add a wraithknight model to the army ant some point and have bounced some ideas of a friend (Deadzone friend) so expect either some mystery WIPs or some more detailed progress discussions (with full disclosure), I will hopefully pick up some of the required parts with any spare money after my birthday :)

That's it for the time being, thought I do have a 'collectables' related post to update with at some point hopefully soon (tomorrow?). There is a Couple of Birthdays today so I won't get much more time after posting this. There are also three birthdays next week including mine... What's so good about July?!

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty

Wet Weather Wednesday

Hi again, pleased I am managing to post when I said I would, let's hope it's something that can be maintained!

I was off work today as I had a dentists appointment, and I received my first filling in my 29 years of life, which I don't think is too bad going.

I also managed to finish the drybrushing layers on both the Dire Avengers and Striking Scorpions.I even added some tufts to the Scorpions as I have been doing with most other models so far. I'm undecided as to whether or not they fit with the Dire Avengers as the cork they are on is a lot thicker, so I'm not convinced it will look as good.

All that's left though is the pre Tamiya clear layer on the gems for Scorpions. I have been thinking a lot about transport, and I am planning something to replicate what is seen in this video (again with the videos right?), as it is modular, and expandable and can be applied to any of the miniatures I won, with the simple (and relatively cheap) application of magnets.  One of my project for the weekend whilst we visit our friends, who are also craft minded is to scout out suitable cases and seek advice from someone into more traditional crafts :)

I also picked up some blu-stuff, again after seeing success from my friends blog (linked above), as a combination with insta-mold as they both work quite differently. Blu-stuff seems to be more of a press mold device, but I will be testing this, in order to establish which is bettera t what task.  I have a few places on my Wraithlord & Wraithguard models which will require dragon horn type protrusions and the bits for such will be nigh on impossible (let alone expensive) to get hold of without making copies.  It's worth mentioning here that IP is not infringed by replicating any other IP for personal use, it's only illegal when trying to make a profit out of the sale of such a copy.

I stumbled a cross (yep you guessed it...) a great idea in a video and the Warlocks shown here using High Elf Shadow Warrior parts spoke to me loud and clear, so I will almost certainly be borrowing that inspiration when I get around to making mine. I think it will translate pretty well to a mounted version.  

This does divert from my original fluff somewhat, but what's a good story if it doesn't evolve? :)

The last thing I want to cover today is that I have scrubbed down the Fire Dragons that I had soaking in Dettol, and they look pretty clean. The paint layer comes off very easily, but the primer turns into a ridiculous sludgy mess that's hard to get off anything it touches. for some reason I decided to only wear one latex glove to deal with them so you can imagine how great my hands smell now after umpteen washes...

Before I get these sprayed and started painting (still struggling to replicate the colours I'd like to use, although I've pretty sure what I'll do) I'm going to work on some of the 'more important' elements of the army as I mentioned in the last post, and try and get the army playable at last!

I also mentioned last time that there are a couple of DnD related points to talk about but I'd like to keep that in a separate post, so tune in next time for Dungeons and Dragons madness on Monday.

Thanks for Stopping by

Lofty