Intermission

Just to let you guys know that next month will be quieter than usual as I'm going in for some surgery so wont be gaming and maybe not up to much hobby stuff in general. Stay tuned though I'll be back :)

Consolidating Interests

I've been on a bit of a binge recently with payday coming up.

I mentioned in a past blog post that some of my 5+ year old paint collection had dried out and was useless. So, whilst replacing some key colours (metallics mainly) I've also added a whole new raft of colours - Purple for my eventual croak hunters (poison tree frog style) a couple of extra green shades for diversity (also in my Blindwater), and some blues (who doesn't love too many blue paints?..)

I also treated myself to some new brushes (and spent the most I've ever spent on a single brush)
Round Synthetic Sables from here :) http://www.princetonbrush.com/heritage-series-4050/

I have also been getting some work done in the meantime on Lady Justice & the judge, who I'm pretty pleased with and are nearly finished

I'm also pretty much done with the 'official' Boneswarm, and have done a bunch of work on my proxy second Boneswarm which I envision more like a gelatinous D&D style beasty

That's it for now, I'm really hoping that the Basius webpage is up soon so I can get my Malifaux guys sorted, but I'm enjoying being back hobbying again and think I'm making some pretty good progress for the year.

Thanks for stopping by :)
Lofty

Steady

Just on the train back from the Thursday night meet up in Leeds, so I thought I'd do a write up.

I lost versus a Runes doom shaper list. Unsurprising maybe for my first game in 3 years, however I knew what list I was facing in advance, so if I'd bothered to read up on it I'd have known that Barny's feat was useless vs all those steady Runeshapers...

Ah well, it was fun getting models to table and rolling dice again. Mark also mentioned a kind of slow grow type league which a lot of the local competitive players aren't interested in, so its really good for me as I don't know every rule of everything I might potentially face, like most would.  I tend to play for fun more than anything and if I'm honest I'm not a fan of the competitive play mentality that some people seem to have. To each their own of course though.

I need to find some way of stopping magnetic models sliding over the smooth baking trays though. Maybe some mesh material fixed to them. Strong magnetic hold, but no friction whatsoever. Successful test run of the case however :)

I also got some work done on Rask yesterday (who would have stood a far better chance this evening, ironically). I'm trying really hard with thinning paints and highlighting not drybrushing. I still struggle with hand shakes though, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong with my wet palette butnit doesn't seem to be doing what its meant to :(

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by

lofty

Opportunity In The Community

Time for an update

Over the Xmas/New Year period, I had been planning to replace my old rickety (falling apart) desk, and once I'd finished emptying it out, I realised just how much I had been missing all the hobby stuff I 'didn't have time to do anymore'. A combination of getting home relatively late, and then cooking and washing up etc and having pesky inquisitive cats meant that the goal of a new desk would have to be easy setup/pack away again to maximise time actually spent hobbying.

What I ended up with, I think allows me to do this effectively. I won't go into massive detail here, but perhaps I'll outline my new setup in a future post.
Looking through my many and varied 'to do' piles not only allowed me to put a load of older stuff away (with a view to sell hopefully at some point) but also made me want to get some use out of it all, so I messaged my friend & Pressganger in Leeds, and asked about their regular meet ups.

I mentioned briefly that I recently moved to a new team in the new year, 1st week of January, in fact. I have a lot in common with my new team, having known them for a while before moving, and some if not all of them play either roleplaying games, or online games or both. They are definitely not the kind of people who would give a second thought to me carting around a case of toy soldiers to go gaming with every other Thursday, so it's a great time for me to start again :)

I actually ended up playing Malifaux at my first time at the club, I had mentioned this to Mark (Pressganger), who arranged for me to get a starter set game in with his regular Malifaux opponent.
Not only is it always good to make new friends in the hobby community, but I've had the Guild's Justice box set since my birthday in various stages of WIP, as well as having made some good purchases on a Facebook trading group for a couple of the Malifaux books.

I had a great time learning the game with the starter crews, and very much enjoy the card mechanic in place of dice. My wife and I have been admiring Malifaux models for ages, and I've ordered the starter set for us to start getting some games at home too.  I've had a gaming table for a couple of years so all we need really is a 3*3 playmat and some mdf buildings or similar and we should be set without a great deal of expense.

When I arrived at the gaming space, pretty much the only thing going on (I think there was also a Warmachine game being played) was Guildball.
This is something I was aware of when it kickstarted, but ignored purposefully as I had no-one who would have been interested in playing, despite the models looking great. After our Malifaux session had ended, I loitered around a bit and watched some game play, and asked Mark a whole raft of questions after I had left to get the train. I didn't think much more of it to be honest as my head was full of Malifaux, and what I wanted to get done next towards my Gators/Skorne, and then out of nowhere someone posted on Facebook a Brewer's Guild team for a handsome price, and I snapped it up :)

Which leads me (around the houses) to my hobby plans for the year.
I had originally planned to keep going with Skorne and Minion Gatormen, and possibly branch our into Trollbloods after seeing some really great painting threads, and being on the fence about them for years. That's still what I intend to do, but I will of course now be playing/painting Malifaux (mainly Guild) and Guildball.
I also want to revise my miniature catalogue which has miniatures listed by stages of completion etc, and add to this what paints I own. Just as a reference more than anything , and to stop me buying duplicate colours.
I have no aims for completion of x number of miniatures by y date, but I do want to have my Malifaux ready by the next time I play, and similarly with Guildball.

I'm back at the club on Thursday, facing down a 50pt Runes of War list with Maelok. I had intended to use Barnabus, but I have no confidence in doing very well in my first game so I thought I would try and learn a caster I've not used before and just re-learn all the things I've probably forgotten :)
Time depending, I may also be getting a Guildball demo, but this isn't quite so likely and if not, I will try and watch some of the guildball action to learn what it's like to play.

For the foreseeable future, I'll be splitting my time at the Thursday night gaming between Warmahordes & Malifaux, more than likely Guidball will feature soon too. This week, is Hordes as mentioned, which means that next time around it'll be Malifaux.

Hope you guys are looking forward to this year as much as I am.
Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Getting Carried Away

EDIT: Refinements have been made since this post, found here :)
I've recently re-thought my miniature storage solutions in a rather complete overhaul kind of way.

All my models until now have been stored in either KRMulticase card or aluminium cases, and to this day I would recommend them as a solution to anyone that wanted foam for their toy soldiers.

I saw a video a long time ago and I've wanted to attempt something similar ever since. Fast Forward to when I started my Eldar Exodite project, and I had large dragon models which were unsuitable for foam due to size, and I came back to this idea to attempt my own version.
The video in question uses a brand of craft items which seems to only available in the US, so I humbly present my UK version of the entire thing.

The case itself
A cupcake carrier, available here (bearing in mind you will be removing the inserts designed for the cakes and thus the pink), they are also compatible with each other with regards to the clips on the side to join layers.

Magnets
You will need to magnetise both the carrier, and your miniatures. I use the magnetic sheeting self adhered to the bottom of each section of the case, on which I use a baking tray. The beauty of this is that, instead of permanently affixing sheet steel or similar to the case and then popping magnetised miniatures on/off this, the baking tray is removable, and perfectly serviceable as a 'tournament tray' to move minis between tables etc.
As far as magnetising miniatures go, I won't reinvent the wheel and describe the process as it is done here near perfectly. the only extra steps I take are to build the green stuff up the sides of the magnet a bit and then drench the whole assembly in super glue. I'd rather the magnet stayed inside the base when I remove the miniature than remaining connected to the tray.

Transport
For some of you, you're done! Congratulations, your new army transport solution is complete bar personalisation (stickers/painted logos, I've no idea - go nuts) and expandable by the purchase of further carriers whose trays can click to the bottom of your existing case.
My own solution however has one further step. Call me vain, call me paranoid, call me what you will, but I don't relish the thought of going to work, and subsequently carrying my (transparent) case around Leeds city centre during the evening. I'm also not convinced that the plastic handle & lid would bear the weight of a whole tray full of say metal troll bloods and another tray of metal dire trolls for example.
What I landed on here is a simple, cheap holdall in which the case sits very comfortably, and leaves room for a jumper/jeans & tshirt/books/dice/templates etc.

Caveats

• I've yet to work out a way of transporting gargantuans and the like using this method. My first thought was to have a new case, removing the bottom floor of the top case and permanently affixing it to the bottom, making a double tall space for them to stand in. I've no idea how to do this though. Hot glue and a dremel are my first thoughts but I don't know how this would change the rigidity of the whole thing etc.
• Some models need more than one magnet underneath to prevent them sliding if the case is jostled at all - getting on and off the train etc. This isn't really a concern though as the magnets are cheap enough to add a pair to metal warbeasts rather than just one. Three to the base of the likes of extreme models etc etc
• Tall models won't be happy here. straight off the top of my head i'm thinking of Molik Karn/Mulg. I don't yet have a solution, which is disappointing because I won Molik, and will own Mulg soon enough. However, all my blindwater guys fit in there just fine, the tallest of which being a Blackhide Wrastler I guess, I also tested a Bronzeback Titan.

All in all, I'm really pleased with my version of this from the original video, and think it's a pretty solid solution.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty

Breaking Radio Silence

Hi all


I know its been a while, but I'm getting back into the hobby world again.


Long story short, I've just started a new job and its one in a team of people whole play role playing games and inline games so being 'the guy with the toy soldiers' is in no way an issue :)


I've been to my first Leeds Warmachine gathering on Thursday just passed and will be attending them every fortnight when they are on. My intention is to play alternate Hordes and Malifaux and maybe even Guild Ball and Infinity in the future.


I've got a lot to update so I won't go on for much longer in this post, other than just to say that I'm hoping to keep up a regular log of what I'm getting up to with my hobby :)


This evening, and evenings this year in fact, I've been doing odd bits and bobs and I've finished off a few WIP blindwater pieces which I spray coated in a large batch today. I'm hoping to get some airbrush basecoat time soon.

Thanks for stopping by

lofty

Departure

Its is with heavy heart that I've decided to part ways with my retribution. If I were to get to a club/event then my first choice would be hordes. As much as I live the models and the time spent painting my ret, it is a waste having them simply sitting in their foam case.

If there is any interest at all please contact me here or message loftybloke on the privateer forums.

Thanks
Lofty

Better,Faster, Stronger

It's been a while again since my last post. For which i can only apologise. It's been a busy summer since my last post in June. 
Let's review:
Birthday madness through July. There are literally 5 different birthdays Including my own
Cats. We adopted three kittens mid august and we have spent a lot of time with them getting them settled into their new home etc. This had also meant that my hobby gear has been locked away for their safety and my sanity.
At the moment though we are on a train back from a long weekend in London which means I have missed this year's Breast Cancer Brawl

On the up though, im planning to finally sort out my hobby area,which is something I've neglected for one reason or another since we moved if I'm honest.  The aim is to be able to stop WIP items and relevant paints/parts/tools in their own tin/box to allow me to store/retrieve them with minimal fuss and remain productive whilst fending off curious kittens.
I've got lots I want to do and start/finish/re-do at the moment all of which is currently frantic scribblings in a notebook.but I will hopefully be able to shed a little light soon enough on what's coming up:)

So for now that's pretty much it, but I hope to be able to update fairly soon with more interesting content
Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

All Quiet on the Western Front

Just wanted to check in and ensure you all that I am still around and still hobbying.

I've had a couple of bouts of illness recently coupled with some really busy weeks, so I've barely been at my desk since the last post.
During that time though, I have eVyros ready to prime and undercoat, my witch doctor conversion almost finished (including a base that I really like), and Rask & various minions all ready to get basecoated.
All I need is time to spend getting everything set up and long enough to get them all sprayed ready to be worked on.

I'm also planning a magnetising project with some of the new Games Workshop Eldar models. These are the first models I ever purchased over 17 years ago, and the re-released stuff has really piqued my interest, and I look forward to a bit of a palette cleanse with this project. After all, how different are the miniatures from GW/PP?

I'm also planning on picking up some new airbrush paints, and I plan eventually to have base/mid/highlight colours for commonly used colours, browns/reds/greens/bone etc. This will be for any work that comes in (not sure how likely) but also to increase speed and efficiency for my own models, as I can reduce the amount of brush time spent with a model, in order to be able to spend more time on details, instead of repeated coats of base colours etc. I'm hoping this will give me more time to practice new tachniques that I've recently started, as well as learning new.

It's also my birthday coming up, and me and a friend who has recently started Cryx have agreed to exchange PP minis as gifts to the value of £30, as neither our significant others, or any of our other friends would gift us with hobby gear! We exchanged lists of 'wants & needs' and I have purchased a Merc heavy 'jack, Broadsides Bart, and Dougal Macnaile. My list was a real mix of Skorne, and the few remaining Ret' miniatures that I am after, so we will see what comes of that.

Lastly, I elected not to get into the new Warmachine faction, but I do intend to buy the book once the PP digital app is released. I would rather concentrate on my Retribution collection, and get back onto my Skorne relatively soon.

Next weekend is a trip to London, and the weekend after is a family birthday, so it might not actually be until my birthday that I get time to do anything much, more's the pity. In the meantime though I'm going to be planning out my next few batches of purchases, in terms of projects & hobby essentials.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Commitments

As I'm writing this when I said I would be at the colossals release event, it may not be surprising to learn that I'm not actually there.
"Why?" I hear you cry. "Why after busting a gut to get ready and rush a paintjob on Hyperion are you now not in attendance Lofty?" Work. Plain and simple, I'm not going to go into it because frankly I'm not in the mood, but I've had to work both days this weekend.

I'm going to take this chance to write the post I had planned to further dissect my painting process for Hyperion.

The first and most obvious thing is that I did absolutely no work to the model after I had bought it. I suppose there are a few reasons for this:
- A lack of impetus due to lack of games, which was solved by the deadline of an event to paint to, despite this being far less notice than I would expect from an organised event (different pressganger).
- Airbrush woes, which I've mentioned before meaning that i needed some new kit before I could get started.

The base was an experiment in how I usually make water effects, and quite honestly I think it looks spectacular. I hate to blow my own trumpet but I'm very pleased with the way it looks with snow + model. A success

I originally intended to make the 'jack weathered and battle damaged, but I far prefer the clean look I managed to achieve so I don't feel like I've chickened out of trying this technique.

The line highlighting looks really good I think. After the pre-shading I tried didn't work, I think the alternative of line highlights on the panel edges, and strategically placed shading look really well together. Part of this is that the airbrush gives such a smooth basecoat as well.
I'm disappointed that the airbrushing didn't really work out (I would have liked to try it for some OSL on the power nodes etc as well) but I'm please that I've 'learned' a new technique as it's something I will be trying to carry forward. The Destors and eVyros have large armoured areas on the horses, and I think this will suit them well.

All in all, I'm really pleased with how the big man turned out, despite everything that has happened, I'm proud to have Hyperion standing on the speaker next to my monitor.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

With Time to Spare

Here he is. No explanation necessary ;)
I'll add a bit more in depth post about the big man next week at some point, after the tourney write up.

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty

Rocky Road

No, not the ice cream flavour. I'm talking about my experiences painting Hyperion.

The main thing I've learned is that I should have started painting before I knew about the event I'm getting ready for, and given myself far more time to spend on such an awesome miniature.

That said, it really has been a journey to get it to the stage it is at today. I've tried out some new techniques this time around, some of which will be visible when I post up completed pictures.

The first of which was pre-shading. I discussed this in a post a week or so ago, and to surmise, I decided that airbrushing detail really wasn't going to work for me.  I'll revise the technique & my method after a total strip down of the brush and a clean, in case this was affecting flow etc and see how I get on painting bog trogs.

The second method I've adopted that I haven't really done before is line highlighting. I had the intention of trying to blend my highlights a lot more on the large armour plates on the colossal, but I really haven't left a great deal of time at all for something like this, more 's the pity. Instead, I've been pretty satisfied with applying a reasonably fine light of a highlight colour to the edges of each section as a highlight, and a similar method to shade selected areas.  I also tried some edge highlights which came out pretty terribly if I'm honest, and I hope they won't stand out too much on the finished article.

I've felt pretty overwhelmed by the project over the past ten days or so of work, and it was only last night, when I was adding the glow to power lines etc, and had the base snow added that I felt like it was going to look great when completed. I'm taking tonight off to avoid burning myself out and not wanting to finish, but I ahve the afternoon off work tomorrow, and a late night planned to get the finishing touches (and Ravyn finished for hat matter) done and dusted. I've learned the hard way that the night before an event is a bad time to be waiting for paint to dry in order to pack models into cases, so Saturday will also be a hands-off day (busy during the day).

I'm confident that I'll be done in time, and confident that the final product will at least look half decent, as well as being fairly excited about getting some table time with the model :)
Definitely disappointed however with the rush I've imposed on painting such a great model, as well as a little bummed out about my visions of airbrushing being un-realistic.

A bit of a bitter-sweet post today, but I hope to be able to lighten the mood with completed pictures of Hyperion either late Friday night (early Saturday morning) or from the event on Sunday.

Until then, thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Northern Son

I'll be honest, I lost a little steam after the bank holiday on Monday.  I'm not sure the pre-shading has worked on Hyperion if I'm honest, and it looks like I will have a fair amount of work to do once it's base-coated.
I was also a bit dejected when I started work on my witch doctor conversion. The piece I had bought as a skull mask for him doesn't have a chance of fitting over his face without a lot of Dremmel work to remove the mass inside it, whichj i struggled to do with hobby knife/files.
I managed to salvage the skull into a Wrastler looking one which I will use on the base, and try to add some runes/OSL glow to the eyes maybe. Back at the drawing board for this one, and maybe I will try a different type of headdress.

So tomorrow and Sunday I will be pushing on with Hyperion when I get chance, and hope to at least get the grey base coat and metallics sorted so I can think about how to approach highlighting.  At the moment, I'm leaning towards using standard brushes to shade and highlight, which I'm disappointed about, but there may hopefully be chance to airbrush at least the white on the shoulders, if not some kind of stencil work to make it stand out as a centre piece.

Based on recent experience however, my current airbrush set-up really makes me feel like it will just be a tool for priming and base coating.

I've been looking at some of the convergence of Cyriss photos to come out of Lock n Load as well and I really like the aesthetic, and have been juggling potential colours schemes around in my mind this morning.  I have been pondering about a second Warmachine faction for a while, but I can never really justify it to be honest. I still haven't picked up any of the new 'jacks for Retribution, and I pretty much prefer playing Hordes anyway if I'm honest (I'd love to pick up some Trollbloods).

My first thought is that I can magnetise a Vyre 'jack kit or two (learning from my mistakes with the first Shyeel kit I tried to magnetise...), and grab the last 'caster is missing along with a solo or two I'd like and call it done, unless the next book or two drag me back into the faction.

For Skorne, there is very little I'd like to add to my forces, save perhaps a second unit of Cetrati at some point, but I have pretty much everything I like the look of etc. so I'm happy with painting them up for now.

It's a similar story with Gatormen, I have Rask now to put together, and with the exception of the witch doctor/shamblers unit in the new book there isn't anything I'm after greatly so, again I'm happy painting up what I have.

As far as Cyriss/Trollbloods go, I think I'll wait until at least the end of July (after my birthday) and see how I feel then. I don't play at all hardly any more due to various reasons, so it's difficult justifying any large layouts at the moment, so we will have to see where the future lies

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Sleep on it

Managed to get Hyperion pre-shaded & Zenithal highlighted yesterday with the airbrush, and the mask works perfectly, so I will be doing plenty more airbrushing in the future.

At first, I was a little scared that I had 'ruined' the areas I was trying to shade, with a steady hand and not great control of the airbrush requiring me to go back in with a brush and tidy up some areas with the grey primer colour, and the white which I was spraying down from the top didn't really seem to have coated too well. This was assuaged a little this morning though once I opened my drawer to inspect my handy work. I feel a lot more confident now that it will look ok once I have painted on the mid-layer. Hopeful it will pick out the shades and highlights too. If not, I have  a plan to re-shade with a mix of the darker colour and the mid-layer through the airbrush.

I'm reluctant to show any WIP of this process to be honest as it really doesn't look great so I'd rather show the finished item, if I need to fix a load of stuff, or even start again if the methods used haven't worked.  Once the armour is painted though, I'm going to add battle damage with a sponge, paint the metallics, and then try to OSL the power channels and orbs with the airbrush.

I think this may be a little ambitious for my first real use of the airbrush, but I'm pretty sure I'll love to tell the tale :p

Ravyn and the Arcanist are being added to whenever I get a moment between Hyperion layers, and I also finished Calabans base, and eVyros' base as well. Calaban shown below.

I'd like to add in a link here to a forum I found recently which is an amazing resource of guides and tutorials for painting miniatures and bases.  I spent an entire evening/night pouring through these well-written articles, and I really felt like I learned something. Despite the focus on Warhammer fantasy, there is a lot to be learnt here, so I suggest you go and at least have a look even if you feel you don't need any help :P

Hopefully some progress with Hyperion mid-week

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Committed

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have things coming up which I've committed to with the amateur theatre group that I stage mange for, and of course I have literally zero time at the moment for hobbyisms.  It's all hands on deck until Sunday morning, including not getting home at all after work & rehearsals 'til gone 10/11pm.

It's not all bleak news though my friends, fear not!
I've two 'missed delivery' slips from the postman, so I'm hoping that my copy of Gargantuans is waiting at the post office, along with my respirator.
Which leads me nicely on to the fact that I will be airbrushing like a man possessed in order to get Hyperion painted. I learned recently (Tuesday) that there is a Colossals release event at my LGS in two weeks on Sunday. Pretty short notice if you ask me, but no-one did. Of course, me being me, I went into panic mode and started trying to cram on the new rules, and on casters and tactics etc... Where as what I think I'll be concentrating on is painting.

All I need to complete is Ravyn, an Arcanist who are both at around 80% and of course Hyperion.
I do have a plan of attack on how to approach the big man, involving pre-shading and weathering/battle damage, so we shall see how he turns out.  I suppose I can always go back and add to the model if I feel like it needs it at a later date.

The only thing I have literally no idea about is lists. I will be using pVyross and Ravyn, but other than that I've no real clue what to field.  I won't have time to get my Destors assembled for Ravyn unfortunately, but I've never really played her before so I'm stuck for other options.

Can you guys help suggest anything for these two casters at 50 points? The only Ret models I DO NOT OWN are;
Vyre 'jacks
Houseguard uints
eEiyriss
Sylys

Radio silence for now then, but hopefully I'll be back to it on Sunday with something to show on Monday late on.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

The Gravewalker

In a flurry of productivity (the likes of which hasn't been seen for over a year:/) I got Calaban finished, and a base prepped.

I'm pleased with the way he has come out. For some reason, the albino skin tone isn't quite the same as the witch doctor. I think maybe I got confused between two similar looking paints for the base coat  I'm happy though  and definitely can't complain about knocking him out as quick as I managed   I'll never be dropping quality minis in the kind of time scales Griffin does, but I'm happy.

I would guess that this is the last entry for a while, depending when my orders arrive, as I may be able to get some quick WIP shots of my planned witch doctor conversion.  Other than that I would hope to be able to get at least some hobby work done a week on Monday which is a bank holiday.

Until then I will be chipping away at the tyrant I mentioned, Maelok if I get distracted, and I hope that I can add the finishing stages to my Bronzeback titan. Maybe even get my Cetrati finished. Ambitious maybe but at least I'm in the zone :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Sugar Rush

Late night/early morning productivity is what's on at the moment. I'm hopped up on energy drinks and combating fatigue from today's lunchtime run along the canal (Long story, but basically I'm training for a 10k later this year).

This seems to be a good state to be in though, as I've managed to get Calaban from primed to pretty much finished except for the many and varied skulls on the model, and the details like his glowing skull and face mask.  There are some really good colour contrast areas on this model, from warm to cold and light to dark so I'm looking forward to seeing how he turns out. 








I've also made some progress on the Skorne Tyrant (standard bearer not started yet). I've used red as the colour for his robes, which is one of the ideas I had surrounding changing my colour scheme for my Skorne, and the theory here is that Whilst Xerxis' house colours are blue, Makeda will use red, so any tyrants other than Xerxis will use the Baalesh house colours.  Hopefully the armour colours and blue accents will still tie it all together visually.

It's payday on Monday, so I can place my monthly hobby order. I'm going to pick up Gargantuans, Rask, a couple of paints and I'll also be getting hold of some airbrush friendly varnish to save my poor warbeasts from chips/abrasion from any case foam (I'm not convinced that this is what has happened, but I'd rather be sure), as well as a respirator to enable me to use the airbrush more often and more safely.

I'm also ordering a single gatorman in order to convert it into a second witch doctor.  I've mentioned a couple of times that I'm not a  fan of the current sculpt (despite how quickly/well it painted up).

I've been inspired a great deal by some posts on the PP forums, namely these few.  Specifically these ones posted by PG_Gift.  I've got my eye on a few games workshop pieces to bits order to help with this conversion so hopefully I'll be able to progress with this this month also.

I've got some commitments next week with the Drama group I'm involved with (as stage manager, I don't act) so perhaps Bank Holiday Monday will see some hobby time. I'll try and update where possible, but hopefully Mr Gravewalker above will suffice for now.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Loss of picture

Hi all

Just looking through some historic posts, and the pictures that were loaded to blogspot now no longer appear in the posts, any idea why this might have happened/how to remedy?

Thanks

Weekend Warrior

I managed to get the witch doctor finished :)

I like the albino style colour so much that I will use this method for all my witch doctors (Currently only Calaban) when I manage to convert up some more.

I also played around with my new colour ideas for my Skorne, but I couldn't get any of them to look as good as Xerxis currently does in what was the final iteration of my bone + blue scheme, so I will be continuing with that :)

This week will be working on Maelok I reckon, and then seeing what takes my fancy after that.  I didn't manage to get a respirator over the weekend, so I will try and get one on payday this month a long with some bits and bobs like varnish, as some of my beasts have chipped at some point, or have paint rubbed off by foam, which is less likely.  This of course means that I will need to finally add water effects to those that need it, and I can do this all at once, and hopefully varnish the next day :)

Once I've got a respirator though, I will be working on my minions units, and trying to use the airbrush to get them done quickly, whilst not rushing them.  The bog trogs especially I can see as being laborious to paint after not particularly enjoying putting them together

I will also hopefully be picking up Gargantuans on payday so I can catch up on all the fun :)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Mayday mayday

Managed to get a brief painting session in today after our weekend away.  Had plenty of housework to catch up with though so it was only maybe an hour or so of painting.  

I took the advice that most people had been sharing, and painted the things I felt inspired to paint. So I added some more layers of pallid flesh to Maelok, and began to think about what else needs adding. This model has a bewildering level of detail, and a lot of layers. By which I mean not only does he have skin, candles leather accessories, but he also has rotten skin, innards, and exposed bones. Lots to get on with, but I really really like the model and his back story so I enjoy painting him.

To complement this, I also chose a '15 minute model' which is an idea I picked up on the ppforums, and is a model which you may not particularly like/enjoy painting and trying to work on this model for just 15 minutes every time you sit down to paint.  My victim is the Gatorman Witch Doctor, who I've mentioned previously that I do not like, so I'm hoping I'm able to get him painted alongside something I do enjoy.  I've decided to make him a little different also and try an albino style paler skin tone compared to the rest of my Gatormen.

The reason I'm not going nuts with my freshly undercoated Hyperion model is that I really need a respirator of some description.  The dustmasks I've been using to work with the airbrush really aren't sufficient when I'm working so closely with the atomised chemicals coming out of the device.  I can't begin to describe the headache I had the other day when I was bascoating.

I'll have the window open wherever possible, in order to avoid a build up of fumes, and take regular breaks so as not to fumigate my dear wife who shares the study with me

So hopefully at the weekend I can get basecoating a few other miniatures, and start to work properly on Hyperion.  

That's all for now, hopefully have some progress pictures at the weekend

Thanks for stopping by

Lofty