Carmen's fun painty time

42mm Samurai: Head swaps and conversions

2012-01-25T17:07:00.000-08:00

The next batch of 42mm samurai arrived from Steve Barber today. I got right to work. The unarmoured samurai has had his fan replaced with a katana hammered out of brass rod (with a handguard made from greenstuff.) The peasants have had their heads swapped. I've made a nagimaki for one of them (just to change things up a bit from all the spears/yari.

The ninja was not changed in any way. I just included it for completeness' sake. It is a female ninja using a small blowgun. I think I may paint her with a more fantastical red scheme.

Hittin' the old mountain: 32mm samurai/40mm old west

2012-01-16T14:42:00.000-08:00

Since I didn't have anything lined up after my samurai- and since I was actually in the mood to paint, I grabbed a couple random figures off the old lead mountain. First up is a 32mm heroic scale samurai/ronin from Warcrow(?) He's been sitting around for a couple years. If I had known how easy and fast he would paint up, he'd have been done faster (it only took about an hour and a half to finish both figures here). Oh well; he's done now. I'll use him as yet another character/figure for playing D&D.

Next up is an older 40mm cowboy from HLBS (the range long since discontinued.) I think I have a couple more 40mm old west figures lying around needing to be painted- one each from HLBS and Knuckleduster. Hmm, I should go check out to see what Knuckleduster has been up to. I had been meaning to pick up a few more of their civilians.

Any new old west figures will be for later. I think I'm settled in with the Steve Barber samurai (I've ordered a few more, with another small order planned for late February/March.) The current order is for a couple more of the peasants (which I will do a headswap on), another ninja (female with a blowdart- I haven't seen photos, but it sounded intriguing), and an unarmoured samurai whose fan I will replace with a sword (katana for those of you who want me to "get it right!")

I will take my time with this next round of samurai (like the last round) with the possibility of more Japanese accessories/buildings during the paint. Any ideas for Japanese "stuff?" More goods, roadside shrine, small temple, small bridge? (And yes, I'm trying to keep everything "small" for this collection.)

42mm Samurai/32mm Barbarian finished

2012-01-12T17:25:00.000-08:00

I finished a couple figures in one sitting. First up is the last of my 42mm samurai (should I buy more?) from the second group I started a few weeks ago. I like how the sashimono (with the skull) turned out. It was about the easiest part of the whole thing to paint. If I get any more samurai, I think I'm finished with red samurai. It's difficult for me to paint without muddying up everything with my impatiently thick layers. Maybe a yellow samurai next time? I do enjoy Foundry's yellow ochre triad (the color of this guy's sashimono).

Next up is a Reaper figure I painted up almost as an afterthought -- Usually, when I paint a figure, I'll have one or two random figures off to the side to paint while I wait for layers on my main figure to dry. This barbarian was that figure off to the side while I finished my last samurai. The figure is Reaper Warlord figure No. 14620 Barbarian Axeman of Icingstead. I like the sculpt except for the face. On the Reaper site, the face looks great, but in person, it's a bit small, and there's not a lot of detail; it was a bit of a challenge to paint. But the rest of the figure painted up great, and I like the simple, no-frills pose so that he will not stand out too much on the D&D table when the DM is looking for someone to take out his frustrations on.

42mm samurai: Finished peasant's hut

2012-01-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

And here's the hut complete with thatched roof (which is not quite dry; I was impatient.) I went with a longer-haired fake fur (as opposed to toweling) to better suit the larger scale figures.

More envelope art

2012-01-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

I'm making great progress on my peasants hut- the "fur" thatch on the roof is drying; it looks good for my first try at thatching. I've also added a couple details to my samurai.

I've also found a little time to doodle up some more envelopes for letters to friends:

Small samurai update (and smaller barbarian)

2012-01-04T16:50:00.000-08:00

I've got a couple layers thrown onto my last samurai. In the meantime, I've started a Reaper barbarian that I've had primed for a few months.

The samurai will get a yellow sashimono with a skull in a pool of blood (something a little bit different from the sashimono on my other samurai.)
Again, I'm stuck on a lacing color. I'll probably just end up grabbing a color at random off the rack.

I tried something slightly different with the barbarian. Instead of dark gray as a first layer on the furs, I used a dark french gray (and it was plenty blue.) It seems to work well.

Once these two are done, I don't have any plans for what to paint next, but I do have the roof of my Japanese peasants house yet to finish. Maybe my next thing will be to actually play a game or two with the samurai (Hmm, Two Hour Wargames Red Sands Blue Skies? or Chain Reaction Swordplay?)

42mm samurai: Working on the peasant's house

2011-12-31T19:43:00.000-08:00

I guess the building itch hit me early, and just at the right time (I had three hours of free time), so I got most of it finished. I still need to work on the roof (not sure if I'll use toweling or fake fur for the thatch- or maybe even sculpey??) I had originally intended to do the roof later; Usually when I build, I do everything all at once, and since the roof comes last, I tend to build it in a rush. Since I'm saving this roof for later, I hope to do a better job of it.

The construction of the main structure here was pretty easy. I drew up some plans, and glued together some modular walls (as seen below.) This time around, I actually calculated how much wood I would need (and only had about 6 inches of wood left over after finishing.) I decided not to recreate any teahouses or specific architecture, instead going for a generic "Japanese" look.

I built the raised floor as a separate piece, giving me a solid base on which I could glue the wall sections. Before gluing the walls to the base, I painted everything (to make it easy to get the brush where it needed to be.) I added a couple layers of framing around the top of the walls to give the roof an even base to work with, and to give the structure more strength- And it's strong; I wouldn't stand on it, but this house just feels more robust than any of my card buildings. Anyway- here's some photos!

42mm samurai: Standing with yari (and lumber)

2011-12-30T12:03:00.000-08:00

" ... And lumber?"
Sure, it sounded like some of you wanted me to post stages of my work. Well, "stage 1" is lumber :)
Ok, it's going to be a small peasant's house- nothing spectacularly designed, but it will still incorporate mostly wood (instead of card.)

The samurai has a first layer of brown to serve as an undercoat to the red armor he will be wearing. This sculpt is one of a couple of the newer figures offered in Steve Barber's 42mm samurai range (the other being the ikko-ikki monk posted earlier in this blog.)

Next weekend, I'll finally have (after six months) more than 2 consecutive days off work (3 days!) So I think I'll try to build my little peasant house then (or finish it then, if I get the itch to start building during the week.)

42mm samurai: Kneeling ashigaru

2011-12-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

Another easier figure to paint; I may have rushed it a touch, but it still turned out ok. The sashimono is a bit large (I was in a rush at that phase,) but it won't matter too much since these figures are just for skirmishing.

I've been thinking about getting a few more ashigaru to put together a small battleline (and give me an excuse to get a banner man or two.) But that's just a thought; I still have one more samurai to paint from this current batch, as well as a teahouse/house/small temple to build ... maybe. (I need to get up the gumption to buy a bunch of wood and take the time to lay it one plank at a time- If I do this building, I want to do it right.)

42mm samurai: Some new Japanese goods (and some old)

2011-12-24T07:19:00.000-08:00

I had a few minutes here and there yesterday, so I threw these new (on the three GW cavalry bases in front) accessories together. Each individual pack and jar was actually already made (from Sculpey) when I originally started with this range; I've just mounted them on the bases and painted them up finally.

To help nudge me toward building a small Japanese house/shed, I've based these latest accessories to be placed indoors.

42mm samurai: Samurai charging with yari

2011-12-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

This one didn't turn out as good as I hoped, but it still turned out nice. I wanted the lacing to be a bit brighter, but I think I dig the all-around darker look.

42mm Samurai: First colors on charging samurai

2011-12-18T14:10:00.000-08:00

This sculpt is probably my least favorite to paint (yet still one of my favorite poses of the range.) The sculpting is good, but it requires a gentle hand to pick out the fine lacing on the armor. Later, I'll try a couple washes to see if I further define the lacing. I think some very fine blacklining between each color will help also, if the washes don't take. As my art teacher always says: "You have to massage the art."

I was unsure about what colors to use on this sculpt, knowing that the fine lacing would require some good quality paints, but the colors turned out nice; I just needed to put a few light layers on, building up the color.

42mm Samurai: Ikko ikki finished

2011-12-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, that took no time at all (in actual painting time- probably about 35 minutes total) a testament to how paintable these sculpts are.
For armor and lacing, I kept it simple and humble - black armor (with just a touch of dark brown,) and light brown lacings.
And I think I'm getting better at hammering out my katanas. For those who don't know my method of making swords, you can see a tutorial here.

42mm samurai: A little Ikko ikki work

2011-12-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

Well, my desire to paint has definitely returned. Now, I just need to find the energy after the still- (ever) busy work day. I won't do a step-by-step of postings, per se, but I will post pictures after each evening that I manage to get any significant painting finished.

This evening, I managed to get a couple colors thrown onto my ikko ikki monk. I knew I wanted to paint his pants white, and his shirt some off-white or drab, but I'm not quite sure what color to do his armor. Any suggestions?

I think, so far, of all Steve's samurai, this one is my favorite. I don't know why; he just is. Once I get the colors chosen for the armor and lacings, I think this figure should paint up rather quickly.

Sorry, I didn't keep an eye on what specific colors I used; I just grabbed offhand what jars looked good to me. My oriental flesh recipe is the same as my caucasian; I simply used a different base color (I think it was Foundry Dusky Flesh light (6C), mixing it with each subsequent highlight from my base recipe.

42mm Samurai: First paint applied

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

I don't normally post such a small step, but since it's been almost two months since I last put paint to something, I figured I'd celebrate the tiny achievement with a post. It's been years since I went more than a month without painting something.

I chose to do the flesh first (I usually do it last) so as to make the figures come "alive." This way, they will beckon me to finish the job each time I walk past the painting table.

I like Steve Barber's samurai sculpts; they look good and paint up easy! I wish he would do more, but understand that sculptors, like painters, get a yearning to do different things along the way. Steve, if you're reading this, if you ever do more samurai, I'd like some unarmored fighting samurai so I can play Kurosawa-type games.

Priming under way (and here's more envelope art)

2011-12-10T08:21:00.001-08:00

Samurai are sitting in their first coat of primer. In the mean time, here's another piece of envelope art for your enjoyment:

42mm Samurai: Weapons made

2011-12-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Nothing major going on; I just hammered out a few weapons for my latest batch of samurai. This photo does, however, show what the Ikko Ikki monk (far left) and Samurai standing with yari (second from left) look like.

I don't plan on any major conversion work on these other than the weapons and the back banners that I'll add later. Still waiting for bases; they've been ordered and have been shipped. I hope to at least get these primed by this weekend.

Samurai arrived but...

2011-12-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

...It's been so long (relatively) since I last painted that I hadn't realized I was out of bases. So this evening, I ordered some 40mm lipped bases (what I base my 42mm samurai on.) Ah- it just hit me: I hadn't ordered any bases lately because I've been basing my large-scale figures on poker chips. I think my samurai would also work on the poker chips, but they're already based on the lipped bases. Oh well.

Anyway, these (Steve Barber) samurai look nice. One of them is an Ikko-ikki monk which looks better than I expected. When the bases arrive and stuff gets assembled, I'll post some pics. The other poses I have are a samurai standing with a yari, samurai attacking with yari and an ashigaru kneeling (wearing helmet) with a yari.

While we wait for bases, I'll just keep posting my art from letters (and elsewhere.)

I also enjoy drawing on envelopes

2011-12-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

I draw on just about every envelope I send through the mail. Unfortunately, I don't have many scans of them because the envelope art is the last step before I drop the letter off. But I scanned this one (addresses left off for privacy, of course):

Still waiting for samurai; Here's a squirrel

2011-12-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

That's right: I can paint giant robots, AND cute little squirrels. It's also meant as a piece of incidental art for my letter-writing (hence, all the white space.)

Quick piece of Giant Robot art

2011-12-01T10:52:00.000-08:00

Of all the things I've drawn, I can't remember the last time I've drawn a giant robot. So here's a quick one. It started off as a doodle, and went from there. (In case anyone is interested, it's watercolor pencil, ink, brush and pen on paper.) Since it's on regular old paper, I'm gonna write a letter on it to a couple cousins with kids who like this kind of thing. (And yes, the robot is saying, "Petoo, petoo," as he devastates his enemies with his plasma eye disintegrator rays.

In the meantime, I've had a piece of old masonite for a while trying to think of something to paint on it; I think I'll try a giant robot in acrylics (complete with background sky in ominous, cliche reds.)

Also- 42mm Samurai are on their way, so hopefully miniatures will be returning here, soon!

Reruns: Caveman Attack!

2011-11-23T22:19:00.000-08:00

Sort of a sequel to my popular Waiteri Scouts photo (seen here.) This is the whole tribe.

Reruns: D&D

2011-11-23T20:54:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of my D&D figures as requested. Also- I think my painting drought is soon to come to an end; Taking pics of my samurai led to me ordering a few more of the zen warriors. Not much -- an ashigaru, a couple samurai, and an ikko ikki monk -- but still enough that might snap me out of this funk.

Reruns: 42mm samurai

2011-11-22T12:28:00.000-08:00

As requested, here are my 42mm samurai (by Steve Barber models). I use these to play a "reskinned" Red Sands Blue Sky. For those familiar with the ruleset (by Two Hour Wargames), my samurai version is less of a skirmish and more a a duel. (I do one or two samurai with a couple supporting ashigaru per side.)

Eyecandy reruns

2011-11-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

Just so that my blog doesn't get too stale while I'm on a painting hiatus, here are a couple new photos ("eyecandy") of stuff I've painted in the past ("reruns.")

If you want to see new photos of anything you've seen here before, just drop a comment, and I'll take the photos. At least I'll get a touch of photo practice if not painting practice.

Couple more cartoons from my letters

2011-11-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Still no figure painting. I'm more comfortable with it, now, and I think that will actually help me get back into painting later. In the meantime, here are a couple more cartoons from letters I've written. One letter was about my chess prowess (guess how good I am,) and the other letter was about how I've donated 5 gallons worth of blood in the past few years.

Another painting drought

2011-11-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure the busy weeks at work are killing my drive to paint minis. We've been understaffed since August, working 50-hour weeks (which isn't all bad when you get paid overtime). I'm sure many have worse work-weeks; mine are just busy enough to dampen my verve to paint minis.
Though, I think the lack of a large project may also be keeping my drive and inspiration down. But if I start a new project, I need to unload some minis. Probably would be my old Foundry Gladiators, AWI, and maybe my War Rocket fleet (great game, just never took off with my group.)

I've been looking at Trident Design's 40mm Robin Hood stuff, as well as 40mm Flash Gordon from Monolith; it all looks fun to paint. I'm also trying to think about what other custom projects I could put together. Maybe some 54mm post-apoc civilians to push the limits of my sculpting skills (and as spectators for my apocalators)?

I also haven't been playing a lot of minis games lately, so I have to ask myself why I should paint new figures. Maybe I could take something from one of the old collections and throw it all into a vat of Simple Green and start anew? Street Corner does provide a little outlet, letting me add one or two figures at a time. Maybe it's time to add another fruit stand or street vendor? Or more figure conversions? Tramp steamer crew? Personal questions abound, but I simply haven't been in the mood to paint minis, lately.

What have I been doing in the meantime?

I've been keeping artistically occupied. For fun, I've been writing letters to friends and family (actual HAND-written letters; no email, Twitter or Facebook for these communiques). It also allows me a chance to draw/paint something nice (but mostly silly) on the paper (such as Hanslore Krusher from my previous post, or the "flying dog/baby" combo shown here.) But I do paint some nice stuff once in a while. So, I'll try to post a few of those pieces of art at this blog until I get back into the mood for minis; Here are a few to get you started

Hanslor Krusher Day

2011-11-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

My friends and I are usually stuck in town for Christmas, so we celebrate Hanslor Krusher Day instead (a name made up by one of my friends.) And I draw a picture of Hanslor and give it to a friend or family member. That is all. We don't do anything special, except maybe go eat at Perkins. HANSLOR KRUSHER!!

New game on Kickstarter

2011-10-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

Flashpoint; Fire Rescue will soon be shipping; that was my first venture with becoming a backer on Kickstarter. Such a fantastic way of discovering (and helping to fruition) cottage industry board games.

Anyway, the new game I've backed is called Mutant Meeples. It's much like Ricochet Robots except each meeple (which take the places of the robots) has a special power modifying his movement. Also, once you've reached the target location, you can no longer use the meeple with which you reached the target. This gives players who are behind an advantage to those who are ahead.

There are 8 (supersized) meeples, as well as an expansion adding two new meeples and some tiles to modify the board.

That's the incomplete gist of it; head over to Mutant Meeples' Kickstarter page and check it out for yourselves. (The video is cute, too) : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tedalspach/mutant-meeples

Information at Boardgamegeek (Not a lot there yet): http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/109969/mutant-meeples

Note: Bezier Games (who created Mutant Meeples) didn't pay me for any advertising. In fact, no company I mention ever pays me to solicit for them. I just enjoy posting about things and games I like, or, in this case, new games I think are good to support.

For those who hate their jobs

2011-10-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a folk hero emerges to give inspiration to the workers. Thought I'd share some good medicine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A4UGtM4hDQ

Street Corner: Spade

2011-10-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

The last figures of the Sleuths pack are done -- Sam Spade and the dog, Milou. There was no conversion work for these two figures, nor was there much I could convert. I'm sure I'll think of something now that they're both painted.

That does it for the Sleuths pack. I actually enjoyed taking this long to paint one pack of figures. It's definitely a lot easier on the wallet. It's also nice to feel unhurried without a ton of packs sitting on the workbench looking at me, waiting for their turn.

I've been thinking of other things I could add to Street Corner -- Lovecraft, Weird Menace, 193X SciFi. I was even thinking to myself a couple nights ago, "What about Post-Apocalyptic, but if the apocalypse happened in 1929?"

These are all just brainstorms and whimsies; I'm sure I'll go back to add a couple small things to the tramp steamer, or maybe make another piece of scenery for the Street Corner itself, before I branch out too far.

Oh, and here's a quick comparison shot of my figures and the originals. When you shop for figures, don't just shop for what you see, shop for what could be possible.

Dressed up like a $2 trouper

2011-10-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this figure; every town, no matter the genre you're painting, needs a bum. This is the last conversion I did from Copplestone's Sleuths pack. Again, it was simply replacing his gun for some other item, which, in this case, is a bottle.

I knew all the colors on this figure would be muted and washed out, so I put him on a base with brick to bring a little color to the whole thing. To wash out (and blend somewhat) the colors even more, I did a light drybrushing of Foundry Rawhide.

That does it for the Sleuth's pack conversions. Sam Spade and the dog still need to be painted.
I actually have a couple other figures on deck ready to go -- (both by Foundry), a little boy and an old west civilian (which will work as an Italian immigrant, I think.)

Dress up like a million dollar trouper

2011-10-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

This was an easy conversion: file away the gun, bend down the arm, and add a brass wire cane. Now I have a fellow who's ready to put on the ritz. He also could double as a mob boss dressed for his alibi.

By the way, this was another figure from the Sleuth's pack in Copplestone Casting's Gangsters line.

Street Corner: From the times of the single wing offense

2011-10-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

The painting bug finally bit me, and I was ready to paint. So I finally painted my football player and in one sitting. These are the colors of my fictional college team, the Assyria Tech Charioteers (from my Arcadia rpg.)

This figure, as you may recall, was from the Sleuth's pack from Copplestone Casting's Gangsters line. To complete the conversion (summarizing previous posts), I detached the slotta and bent his left leg back into a running position. The gun hand was clipped off and the arm bent down in preparation to carry the ball. Next, I sawed the top of his head flat, and used the top of another figure's pith helmet to form the top of this figure's leather helmet. I used some greenstuff to form the ear covers on the helmet as well as to form up some shoulder pads. The last item was the ball. I used a metal ball that I got from Impact! Miniatures, and I used greenstuff to sculpt a hand onto the ball. Unfortunately, the hand came out too large, and is a bit misshapen. But I'm still happy with the figure as a whole. This small ball-hand assembly, I pinned to my figure. Paint and based, the figure is done! My first figure in a few weeks.

I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with this figure, now. I reckon' I need to make 21 other players. That'll take forever unless I make a few lucky finds, or my mind just clicks right for conversion ideas ... or I learn to sculpt a whole figure myself. In the meantime, I'm happy with another successful conversion.

Not that I haven't been doing anything

2011-10-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Work has been hell.
Well, yesterday, I cleaned up my workbench to get ready to paint. I have a few Street Corner figures assembled, primed and ready to go; I just have to put brush to paint.

Besides work, I've taken up chess (yep, I suck at it), reading (Maltese Falcon), a new roleplaying game (Fiasco), and doing small paintings of the new bar and grill in town (I've Picassoed my way to a bunch of free lunches there.) And the weather has been warmer than usual, so I've also been out taking long walks (to de-stress from work.)

But I won't leave you high and dry; here are a couple pieces of art from the new bar:

Street Corner: Quick football update

2011-10-02T18:02:00.000-07:00

Got the ear flaps and shoulder pads sculpted. I also go the "ground" sculpted away from my football.
The sculpting is all a bit rough, but I'll hide it with my painting :)

I also, after the photo was taken, sculpted a very rudimentary hand onto the football. I think it will work all right (again, I think I can compensate my sculpting skills with my painting skills.)

No I need to figure out some uniform colors. Pants will be canvas, and shoes and helmet will be a basic leather brown, but I need to decide on a color/color combo for the jersey and the socks. I'm leaning toward blackish blue (or just black with blueish highlighting) with yellow trim, or maroon/brown/cardinal.

Street Corner: Conversions coming along

2011-10-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

I indeed had a bottle-shaped piece of greenstuff for the bottle my hobo is carrying: Save your bits of greenstuff! A quick note: The figure I'm using as a hobo I believe is supposed to represent the Continental Op, the original hard-boiled detective. So having him hold a bottle instead of a gun doesn't change the character much.

The ritzy man's cane was about as easy conversion as you can make.

Then we come to the football player: I looked at about every piece of greenstuff I had for making his helmet, then I saw this German colonial officer's helmet, and my mind immediately knew what to do. Yeah, yeah, I know; I mutilated one figure for the sake of another, but this German had been in my bits box for a long time. He just didn't fit in with anything else I had.
I still need to make ear flaps and sculpt a hand onto a football (if I add a football at all. I have one ball with which to try, so I might as well have a go at it.)

Street Corner: A few conversions begin

2011-09-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

Got my pack of sleuth's. I have enough gangsters, so anyone who had a gun in this pack has had it removed. The rest of my plans are labeled on the picture.

The football helmet will be of the leather variety. I'll make it using greenstuff. I've cut the top of his head off (filed it flat as opposed to actually cutting it, that is) to make it easier adding the helmet. I need to flatten the sides of his head as well (to make room for the ear flaps.) I've also changed his the figure's pose a little bit, pulling his right arm down and throwing his left leg back a bit to pose him more as if he's running (or jogging.) I'm thinking about making him a football (or just using an old bloodbowl (non-spikey version) ball. I'm going to try to sculpt a separate hand right onto the ball, so I don't ruin the figure by taking his hand off before seeing if I can indeed sculpt a hand and ball.

The cane for my ritzy debutante will be a simple brass-wire affair. I had another idea for him: I bent his arm down a bit for the cane, but while the arm was still raised up (and without the gun), I thought this guy would work well as a big band conductor (just add baton). Not at all a bad idea, and it'd be about the easiest conversion to make. The hard part would be converting a big band for him to conduct. (I've seen Black Cat Base's jazz band, but I'd need a "big" band ... and a club for them to play in ... and a building for the club ... and a bunch of sportsmen and floozies to fill the club ... and you can see where this is going and why I'm making this guy a simple man-about-town, instead.)

I'm not sure yet how I'll do the bottle for my hobo. It'll probably be greenstuff as well. I may have some greenstuff scraps somewhere that fit the shape I need.

Not much else to say. I just wanted to get a photo up of these fellows before I changed them up too much.

Street Corner: You wanna (brass) knuckle sandwich, pal?

2011-09-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Here's the last of my pulp gangsters. Another one withOUT any conversion work (save for adding a little extra to the base.)

For his pants (a bit difficult to see in these pics) and hat, I used Foundry's Granite, which I like. The jump between shades in the triad palette is a bit much, so I suggest mixing intermediary shades. Otherwise, I enjoy the greenish-gray quality making this color good for older, muted-color clothing (I was getting tired of trying to find yet another new brown shade to use.)

I went ahead and gave him some golf shoes. Why? It was something different to do. And they seem to match well with his shirt. All in all, I like the scheme for this figure: Simple with nice contrast.

I want to work on improving my craftsmanship with the urban bases. I'm happy with the results, I just need to get better at cleaning up the edges, especially when sculpting on these non-lipped bases. But the only thing I sculpt these bases for are my pulp figures. I guess I'll have to get more. Ahhh, excuses.

I may pick up just one more pack -- the Sleuth's pack. I'd get it more for the Sam Spade figure, but I'm thinking the Tin-tin "Boy detective" figure in the pack might be easily converted into a long-coveted 1930s American football player. What would I do with only one such figure? Hell, I dunno, paint'em I guess :)

Street Corner: A couple Joes

2011-09-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Painting is coming slowly along, but it's coming. Here are a couple more citizens for my Street Corner project. The man to the left has had his gun filed away and replaced with a newspaper; my stand needed some business. The other figure is a straight-up paint job.

The only other citizen I'd like to get my hands on is Copplestone's Sam Spade figure (in the Sleuth's pack.) I'd like to get some more citizens (and fighters,) but I'd rather have some new Copplestone sculpts. I may need to turn my brain back on and see what kind of conversions I can do. With the citizens, it would be much more of a challenge, given the relative static poses. A conversion I'd like to try is a reporter and a photographer. There's a Back of Beyond figure I know I could use for the reporter, but the photographer eludes me for the time being.

Another random desire: I'd LOVE to have (and I'm certain these do not exist) two teams of old-fashioned 1930s American football players. I think that's about as niche as you can get for 28mm miniatures. I think the only way it'll happen is if I win the lottery (and pay Copplestone for a private commission.) Hmmm, maybe Bronze Age's generic figures could be a good starting point to convert my own....

Red Riding Hood

2011-09-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

"Red Riding Hood." That was the only request from Jeff when he asked me to paint this elf for him. I painted her a layer at a time, in those little breaks between other figures. I think it took me about 6 months to get her finished. I kept the scheme simple.

Really, the only thing that makes her Red Riding Hood is the red cloak. The rest, I kept very elfish -- mostly cliche -- but I know that's how Jeff likes his figures. He gives me a lot of leeway, but he has his preferences which he doesn't always tell me, but I've learned over the past couple years painting for him. In any case, as long as the paint job is clean and competent, Jeff will be happy.

I'm still not quite in the painting mood. I was gonna try to jumpstart painting this evening by painting my few pulp figures, but I realized only after I dipped the brush in paint that I had forgot to check those figures to make sure they were entirely primed. So I finished some priming touchup on the pulp figures, and in the meantime, pulled Riding Hood off the shelf and finished her.

I've been touching the future with my thoughts about what to paint next- as in what project. I'm no where close to deciding, but it's a good sign that I'm about ready to start painting in earnest, again. One minor project I was thinking about was doing a couple arena officials for my apocalators, or maybe a couple post-apoc civilians/spectators with all the trimmings (shopping cart, trash bags, backpack, coats, blankets, food cans etc.) All in good time. The weather is slowly getting cooler, so I'll soon be stuck indoors with little to do.

The figure is Reaper's No. 3166 Alistrilee, Elf Archer.

Tarzan/Conan, King of the jungles of Hyboria

2011-09-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Here's an excellent Reaper Chronoscope figure with a quick paint job thrown on. This is No. 50237 Jungle Lord. I was pulled to this figure because to me, he looks more like Conan than Tarzan; but I can accept him as either/or. He also fits in either my collection of Conan (and other fantasy figures) or as a tangent to my Street Corner collection as the jungle man (more specifically as a character confronted with my Tramp Steamer and crew.)

The paint job is a bit rushed; it took only 30 minutes to paint this figure entirely, but I think he turned out just dandy. I needed to get this figure done, so that I felt like I wasn't wandering too far from painting, hence the rushed job. I still want to get the few Street Corner civilians on my table painted up. Hopefully, I'll get to them sooner than later.

New school RoboRally bots

2011-09-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here are (most of) the plastic robots from the 2005 release of RoboRally. It was difficult to get into the mood to paint these; I'm not fond of the soft plastic (though, I understand these are super-durable and will stand up to hours of handling, moving, rotating, reversing and U-turning,) but I got through them. They're not my favorite paint job (and nowhere near my best), but they're (finally, after 6 years) painted, you can tell which robot is yours by shape OR color, and each of these seven bots matches a set of dice I put together for playing RoboDerby (which some of my friends seem to prefer over RoboRally.)

My only concern is that these are not properly primed. The spray primer left them tacky (due to the soft plastic,) so I went over them with a couple thin layers of black, instead, before painting. Hopefully, my group can get a few games in to see how long the paint lasts until it starts chipping off.

(Note: Hammerbot is the one missing from this photo.)

Old school RoboRally bots

2011-09-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

I've been preparing bits for playing RoboDerby Express (including slightly larger boards so that the robots from the actual RoboRally game fit in the squares. So while I was getting stuff together for Express, I decided to dig out my bots from when I first purchased the game way the hell back in 1994- old school first edition, yo!

So here they are in all their glossy, cartoony glory:

As you can see, it was difficult to ascertain the orientation of a few of the bots, especially Spin bot (blue) and "Run" bot (far left.) A later printing (edition?) of RoboRally had new metal robot sculpts with arrows sculpted on the bases. The latest edition of the game retained the arrowed-base theme.

Right now, I'm painting the plastic bots from the new edition of the game, though, they're not looking the greatest; it just doesn't feel right painting cheap plastic bots. I'd like to get a hold of those 2nd printing bots, just so I can have some metal robots to paint for the game (that, and to have a more complete selection of bots.)

Other info: What's RoboDerby Express? It's a simplified version of RobRally for those people who don't mind moving robots about a board, but who don't like doing it for three hours. It's a free print-and-play that uses dice instead of cards for movement. More information can be found at Boardgame Geek here.

During the lull

2011-09-02T08:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't even sat at the painting table in the past week to look at what needs to be painted. It's a combination of busy work month, taking a break after a train of painting projects, and working on a boardgame for Victory Point Games. It's my own idea. I won't say what it is yet; I'll wait until actual playtesting begins before I let you all know. It's probably something you wouldn't expect me to do (or something you'd think that suits me perfectly, depending on how you look at it.) Once designing and playtesting begin in earnest, I'll see about keeping a design diary posted to this blog.

But YES, I do have a couple figures sitting on the table that I DO want to paint. Just a couple civilians and another fighter for my Street Corner project. One of the civilians and the fighter are pretty much straight out of the box. The other civilian is a conversion; The original figure held a pistol at his side. I've removed the pistol and replaced it with a newspaper. My newspaper stand needed some business.

The figures aren't new; I just drafted them out of my black and white collection. No worries- the majority of the black and white collection will stay intact, especially the actual gangsters. I'll simply be repurposing a few of the civilians (that, and I don't really want to put in an order when I only have an itch to paint a couple figures at the time being.)

P.S. In case you haven't already, and if you're a connoisseur of boardgames, take a look at Victory Point Games. Godawful terrible bits, but fantastic rules. A lot of major boardgame companies put out some flashy games with tons of pretty bits, but only a few of those games have actual decent gameplay. I've only played a couple of VPG's games, but they're great. I still haven't won a game of Nemo's War, and I still don't know how I'm going to accomplish that. Also, Circus Train, originally (and still available at) a VPG game, is being given the full treatment by GMT games. I haven't played the game yet, but I've had my eye on it.

Apocalators: Heat in the Wasteland

2011-08-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the last of my Apocalators for a long while. I'll probably use him as an enforcer in the arena, making sure the other combatants don't stand around catching their breath for too long.

I chose green skin, as I mentioned before, as a little homage to the green screamers from the short story "A Boy and His Dog." The screamers were irradiated mutants who could burn you with just a touch. Hence, my screamer can also burn you.

The shield is a Tamiya 1/32 scale figure base with the wheel from a 1/35 scale kettenkrad (seen as post-apoc terrain elsewhere in this blog.) The flame thrower is a cut-down WWII machine gun ( I forget what kind), with a German WWII gas mask container as the muzzle (and a hose made from rolled and cured greenstuff). All of these items were leftover bits from my kettenkrad kit.

Now I can go off and begin the first fights of the Pompay Portico....

By the way, just to show a bit of the versatility of the Bronze Age generic figures, here are the four figures I created using the same pose. On the last figure (my apocalator), I reposed the arm a bit (simply bent it a little):

Qwik 54mm: Freelance driver

2011-08-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

Here's another freelance driver for playing Qwik. I gave her an extra-large blade so that she can also take to the Pompeii Portico.

So that leaves one more 54mm Qwik/Apocalator to go -- the flamethrower. After he's done, I was thinking about painting up a couple more pulp figures; I think I may have a couple unfinished figures tucked away in a case somewhere.

Apocalators: Sextius and Legarius

2011-08-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

Holy shit, I finished a couple figures finally. These are my first official "Apocalators;" figures specifically converted for post-apoc combat. Legarius is at the top and Sextius beneath. Not much to say about them. The Stop sign turned out better than I thought it would, but the Children at play sign still feels a bit rough. Maybe a bit more weathering will cover up the roughness.

After seeing these finished, I'm thinking I should have taken the head off Sextius. I sculpted the helmet around the figure's head, but I could have sculpted the helmet around a simple armature and saved the sculpted head for potential conversion work. A casualty of sculpting/converting without a plan. Oh well, live and learn. I still got two nice figures out of it all.

What's going on

2011-08-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

I've added a couple more colors to my apocalators (honestly, I could finish one or two tonight if I get off my lazy, overworked ass... I'll give it a go.)

In the meantime, I've dipped my toes into boardgame design. I'm not sure if I can say what it's about or with which company just yet- the idea and proposal were sent only yesterday (and met with enthusiastic reaction.) So I'm going to see if I can develop my idea to fruition. If it's ok with the company, I'll start keeping a design diary at this blog.

Ok, let me go see if I can pull away from the TV and grab a paintbrush....

Quick apocalator update

2011-08-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

I didn't think my work week would be this bad. I managed to get some skin painted on this apocalator last weekend, and only tonight had enough time to get a quick photo to show everybody I'm still around. Not sure when I'll get some more paint thrown onto these figures.

For this figure, I went the "Brom" route in color selection. Besides the stop sign, this figure was feeling too "ancient" for my taste, so I wanted to do something to help bring him back to the apocalypse. Hence, the Brom paint job.

I may do something totally different for one of the other apocalators as well -- perhaps a sickly green for my flamethrower (let's call him "Burner.") Burner's green skin would be my homage to A Boy and His Dog (in reference to the burnpit screamers.)

Fire Rescue: update

2011-08-11T16:07:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder that Flash Point: Fire Rescue is still available for "preorder" over at Kickstarter.
I guess it's not really preorder, but rather a chance to throw in a little money to help back the project's start. And this is no print-and-play; the quality of the prototype looks very professional.

Also, I think buy purchasing/backing through Kickstarter, that will be your only opportunity to get a second, mounted promo map, as well as some little firemeeples* (*provided the Kickstart funds reach $30,000.)

If you want to take a look at the game, there is an active entry over at BGG. Click here.
And if you want to throw some money about, you can do that at the Kickstarter website here.

I'm just bringing this up because there's only a few days left if you want the extras (the mounted map boards and maybe some firemeeples.) I know I usually hang back on stuff like this, then forget about it before it's too late.

Apocalators update:
Nothing new on that front yet. Haven't had a chance to throw any color on. It's not that work has been too bad actually; the afternoons have been a lot cooler outside, so I've been taking advantage and getting in some good walking and hiking time. In fact, on one of my hikes, I found an old-fashioned water pump. So I had me a drink of water. Sounds simple here, but it was perfect zen at the time.

Tramp Steamer Crew: Mascot

2011-08-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I didn't paint this little guy up earlier; it took me a shorter time to paint him than it took to prepare him. I wanted to keep his hair relatively dark, so I only did one pass of the drybrush with a dark brown. I mixed the brown with a bit of flesh as a base coat for all the fleshy bits, adding successive amounts of flesh as I added layers. Done!

Apocalator sculpting complete

2011-08-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

I've finished all the sculpt work for my apocalators. I start priming tonight. Painting might not start for a while; I might get a color or two thrown on during the week, then a few more layers next weekend. (It's gonna be one of those weeks at work.)

I thought of an idea for my flamethrower guy: One of the options granted a gladiator on the attack tables (or was it maneuver?) in Red Sands Blue Sky is the ability to step back and catch one's breath. Well, last time I played (I acted as referee, actually), the players were taking this option an aweful lot. It slowed the game way down. That's where flamey comes in; I'm gonna make him my enforcer, someone to motivate the other fighters. Wanna catch your breath? Not today, not when the crowd demands blood.

And yes, the fellow on the right is gonna get a stop sign shield. I've given him the informal name of "Crossing Guard" for the time being. The lady with the axe will also get a "sign" shield of some sort. I'm not sure which. Perhaps it will be children playing sign, or a European speed limit sign.

Knowing myself, it'll probably just be a circle of rust.

Apocalators are under way

2011-08-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

I've finally begun working on my apocalators (post-apocalyptic gladiators for those who aren't regular visitors to my blog.) Two of these figures will have the basic sword-and-shield setup, the female close to a thraex in her armor combo, and the male (with the octagon shield) will essentially be a murmillo. My Qwik figures will serve as a filler fighters with two-handed weapons, chains, etc.; These current figures are simply to give more options to my post-apoc gladiatorial combats.

The fellow with the bulkhead for a shield will be armed with a hand flamethrower. And no, I don't have any rules for it yet, but when I asked for some ideas for post-apoc weaponry, someone at my local gamestore said one of the fighters should have a flamethrower. I thought how unfair that would be to the other fighters: Perfect.

You might also notice I'm not at Gencon. My ride fell through; too long of a story. But I've saved myself transportation and hotel money, and still got the week off. I've spent a little bit of money on boardgames this week, picking up Shogun (Queen's Games version), Factory Fun (think Galaxy Trucker+Factory Floor), Nemo's War and Zulu's on the Ramparts (both from Victory Point Games ... Have you visited them yet?)

When hell at work dies down in February (or if I win the lottery), I should have time to play some boardgames.

Flash Point: Fire Rescue game

2011-08-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

While I'm on the subject of games by micro-publishers, I happened across a little yet-to-be published gem over at Boardgame Geek. The game is called Flash Point: Fire Rescue, and it satisfies a couple conditions that have been drawing me to certain games lately -- smalltime publisher, solitaire suitable, and a theme not usually seen in the boardgame world. And that theme, of course, is firefighters vs. fire. The only other (non-abstract) firefighter game I can think of right off is Smokejumpers.

In Flash Point, your team of firefighters not only must battle smoke and flames, but they must search for victims and be wary of hazardous/volatile materials. The game board is a gridded map of a home. The players spend action points so that their firefighter(s) can accomplish specific tasks. Some firefighters are specialists, able to do some actions for free or for fewer AP. That's the quick basics of the game.

Now here's the rub: The game is VERY indie, and has yet to be published. Mostly because the designer is currently seeking funding for the game. He set an original goal ($5,000 I think?) which was quickly met, but the maps were to be unmounted at that point, and folks were requesting mounted maps. Well, the designer decided to set a new goal that would fund mounted maps. That new goal is $15,000. A couple weeks ago, I saw this new goal and thought it would be difficult to reach. Today, I looked, and the funding level is almost to $14,000! So I'm helping to spread the word (nope, I'm not getting anything in return for this effort; this post wasn't solicited.)

Anyway, go take a look at the funding page here. The rules are also available for download at that link so that you can see how the game plays before deciding if you want to back it.
You can also learn more about the game at Board Game Geek here.

Victory Point Games (Updated post: July 30)

2011-07-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

Update about Victory Point Games
I emailed a couple questions to VPG and got a touch more info that I thought was interesting: Alan, over at VPG, tells me that the company is a "classroom," helping new game designers and developers bring their imaginations to fruition. I totally dig that. In fact, if YOU have an idea you'd like to develop, VPG has a series of articles to help get you started. Here's a link to the first article.

Alan also mentions that VPG doesn't take preorders, but that's because their games are printed on demand. I'll enjoy my copies of a few of their games knowing that those games are helping someone's budding career, and knowing that the game was specifically put together for me. (My first order, by the way, will be Nemo's War + the expansion and Zulus on the Ramparts +expansion, and maybe perhaps The Alamo Remembered.) Looks like I'll be having some fun after GenCon!

(Original post)
I have yet to play a game, but based on one read of one set of rules (Nemo's War), I think Victory Point Games is my next game company of choice. (Two Hour Wargames is still my all-time fav.)
What do I like about VPG? First of all, they have a wonderful diversity of your basic genres -- Science Fiction, ancients, Napoleonic, World Wars, sword and sorcery, Zulus, and zombies -- but they also have some stuff you don't see a lot of: Circus Trains (yep- manage a Circus train), Boxer Rebellion, French Revolution, Mountain climbing, Sherlock Homes, Space Opera, Tennis, Jules Vernes (the aformentioned, "Nemo's War," which I hope to purchase REAL soon), and (probably the best name for a boardgame ever) "Toe-to-Toe Nu'klr Comabat with the Rooskies," (inspired by "Doctor Strangelove.)

They also have a nice selection of highly rated (BGG) solitaire games among those genres. One example is Nemo's War, in which you play the title character himself, travelling the oceans spreading destruction, inciting rebellion and even undertaking scientific research. A few of the multi-player games may also be played solitaire.

Yes, it IS a small company, and I read that the bits and boards are lesser quality than usual (somewhere between print-and-play and professional), but, as they mention on their website, you're paying for the rules. And many of its customers echo that sentiment on Boardgame Geek.

So I'm gonna give'em a try! I'll be ordering "Nemo's War" in a week or so. I may also throw in "Zulus on the Ramparts" (and the expansions that go with each game.) But what I really look forward to is their 1930s retro "Marooned!" in which 1-3 players try to survive being marooned on a remote and hostile planet. Both Nemo's War and Marooned! are designed by Chris Taylor.

GenCon!!
I'll be going to GenCon for the first time, so there'll be no new posts next week. Sure, I'm a miniatures guy and I'll be looking at minis there, but I'm also a boardgame guy, and that will be the focus of my visit. I'll be saying hello to my friend who works at Fantasy Flight Games (maybe I'll pick up Blood Bowl the card game), as well as all the fellas at the Hydra Miniatures booth (who were the first to print my art on the cover of anything ((the back cover of the War Rocket rulebook.))

I didn't sign up early enough to get in on most of the painting action, but that's all right; I want to walk around and get a lay of the land for the (hopefully) next time I go.

Painting
You all may notice I haven't been painting a lot lately. Work has been rough (newspapers), and I've been doing the boardgame thing, but mostly, I think I just burned myself out on projects (NOT painting; I WILL paint more.) I had been doing so many projects, I couldn't pull myself to do just random individual minis like I used to. My next 54mm order is a small one (just three figures). I think this will help transition me to doing random figures again (with the occasional small project.) But, to be honest, I have been enjoying taking a little time off from painting. It has given me a moment to assess my collection and to see what I am ready to sell (28mm gladiators and vikings for sure) and what I might even give away(?)

Until I return to painting in earnest, I'll enjoy reading a few more books, watching a little TV, and devoting a bit more time to political cartooning at work (especially with the elections about to pick up ... well, they are picking up here in Iowa.)

If you find yourself on my blog and there aren't any new posts, there is still plenty of older stuff to look at; Pick a month and a year, and see what there is to see!

Hey, and don't forget to take a look at Victory Point Games!

Photos for Ken:

Septimontium, my Wasteland background

2011-07-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

To get started with my small post-apocalyptic gladitorial campaign, I threw together this short alternate universe background. And since it's gladiator-related, I kept things related to ancient Rome (see the notes at the end.) By the way, a few more 54mm generic figures are on the way to my workbench; I wanted a few more post-apoc gladiators ... or Conspirators, as you'll soon read:

Septimontium is the last city on earth, and it is also where the greatest gladiatorial games are held. In the center of Septimontium is the Pompay Portico. The finest arena in all the Wastes, only the best combatants are allowed to fight for their lives in the Portico.

The most important festival of the year in Septimontium (and all the Wastes) is the Conspiratorial Games. The Conspiratorial Games memorialize the assassination of the great and ancient King Julii of Old Septimontium, who was murdered on his thrown by his own friends, who wanted power for themselves. The festival and games last for 13 days; there is one day at the beginning and one at the end of the festival reserved for religious and scientific rites. And there are 11 days of fighting, with one major match per day (with the 11^th day reserved for the final, championship match. There are other smaller events, including animal hunts, shows, trading, racing, mutant “harvests,” prostitution and other athletic events, (as well as activities for the kids,) all taking place in smaller venues near the Portico during the festival.

Only 20 gladiators are permitted to fight in the main events during the short festival. These fighters are all longtime veterans of combats from the outer settlements who have bought or bribed their way into the possibility of fame or death. Once committed and accepted by the city elders, each fighter relinquishes his old identity, no matter how much glory it came with, and is assigned the name of one of the ancient conspirators who had plotted and took part in King Julii’s assassination. Even their title of “gladiator” is stripped away, replaced with that of “conspirator.” This way, King Julii’s spirit may see justice done as he watches his own killers descend upon themselves, dying one-by-one.

(A skilled veteran may also be called a conspirator, with the understanding that even if he has not fought in the Conspiratorial Games, he is at least good enough to appear in the festival. These fighters simply take “Con” as a title. So, Felix would become Con Felix, or Flamma would become Con Flamma.)

The only way the conspirators can survive the festival is by being the last one alive after the 11 days of fighting; the fights are all to the death. But the winner is showered with riches, women and fame for the rest of his (or her) life. He is also examined and “cured” by members of the Gene Priesthood, so that he no longer has to worry about the cruel curses of the wasteland. He regains his old identity, and his name is inscribed on one of the 20 statues of the original conspirators (on whichever statue whose name the fighter bore during the festival.) For the remainder of the year, that original conspirator is pardoned for his ancient crime, while the fighter is recognized, honored and glorified in every city, settlement and wastetown forever more.

The names assigned to the gladiators during the Conspiratorial Games at the Pompay Portico are: Brutus, Cassius, Decimus, Cimber, Casca, Cinna, Legarius, Trebonius, Spurius, Petronius, Turullius, Basilus, Longinus, Albinus, Pontius, Sextius, Antistius, Sulpicius, Caecilius and Rubrius.

Notes: Septimontium was another name given to ancient Rome. It means Seven Hills.

Pompay Portico is named after the Pompeii Theater in Rome. This was a temporary meeting place for the Senate, and is where Julius Caesar (King Julii in my alternate universe) was assassinated (on the portico of the theater.) So now you get an idea of where all the names of the “conspirators” came from.

I don’t know what a “mutant harvest” is; I made it up, but it sounds like fun. By the way, mutants can also take part in the gladiator fights; I'm thinking about converting one for my 54mm collection.

Send-off to HLBS Old West

2011-07-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

I just found out HLBS is discontinuing its 40mm Old West figures (as of July 20th!) I got my fill early on, but here they are again to say a sad goodbye to the rest of their compadres. There is still a great selection of 40mm figures offered by Knuckleduster here in the states.

Ordered Reaper's Jungle Lord

2011-07-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

I just ordered Reaper's Jungle Lord through the Warstore. What I like about this figure is that I think he looks like a perfect Conan the Cimmerian, specifically, Conan as he appeared in the story "Tower of the Elephant." On top of my love of Conan figures, this figure will give me some more practice with my flesh palette.

The only worry I have is that this figure will have a feather in his hair, hidden in the one-sided photo (I've seen a couple Tarzan figures with a feather). Even THAT is really not a worry; I'd just need to file away the feather and add some greestuff to make new hair -- no problem. I may also remove the dead wood under his foot and base him on a dungeon floor base ... maybe. I guess a dungeon floor could have a little dead wood on the floor (from fallen beams or old furniture.)

The monkey? Well here's a great added bonus to purchasing this pack: He will become the newest member of my Tramp Steamer Crew. I had been looking to fill out their ranks, and I think the chimp will make an excellent addition. Every ship needs a mascot.

Qwik: Full set of (rusty) dice

2011-07-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

Only took an hour or two, but here's all the dice I painted up for playing Qwik. Hopefully, it'll be enough; knowing my friends and how they love to spend their bonus dice, this probably won't be enough.

Qwik: Getting some proper dice

2011-07-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

When I first started with Qwik, I had hoped to find some decently post-apocalyptic dice. There were a couple here and there, but a bit pricey, so I left it alone. Then, today, I had an "Oh shit" moment when I realized I could just paint my own! It was so obvious that I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. This opens a whole new can of worms for me.

So I dug out a couple dice for the sacrifice, primed them, and laid down some layers of rusty colors -- of course it would be rust with me :) After the primer dried, I did a quick test to see how well it was adhering to the dice; I scraped my thumb nail over the dice a few times- no scratches. Good to go!

Even better: I have a big old bag of dice with a bunch of D6 that would otherwise never get used. Now they're all gonna get a coat of rust. I also plan on adding silver to the "1" "2" and "3" pips. In most Two Hour Wargames, 1, 2 and 3 are the rolls you're looking for. This will help my players more easily spot the dice they need after a roll. I may add some more silver/less overall rust to a few dice to vary things bit. I might also try some verdigris dice.

Quick note on the picture: It looks like the dice are chipped and corroded a bit; they just look like that. I haven't done any manipulation/weathering on them except for a few thin layers of stippled paint. And since these dice have the rounded edges (rendering them not very balanced), I'm not too worried about any paint throwing the balance off.

Warmachine Cryx stuff (done!)

2011-07-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here they are; the pain-in-the-ass pieces finished in all their glory. Since there was so much real estate to paint, I kept it simple and did mostly drybrushing. The rust started with dark brown, followed by more and more orange a stippled layer of silver, followed by little more rust. I drybrushed and stippled to keep things varied, though, I think all stippled would provide a much better effect (though, take a helluva long time with a piece this big.)

I have a couple Reaper and Pathfinder pieces on the table. I'll see if I can go LESS than two weeks without painting anything this time around.

Painting-Warmachine-is-a-bitch sort-of rant

2011-07-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

It's slow going. I'm painting a couple Cryx items for a friend- a character and a mech (I don't play, so I couldn't tell you which ones they are, specifically.) All I know is that these are a bitch to put together and paint. There are no instructions on how to build'em, luckily they're designed well enough that you can just bumble into the correct construction (at least I managed to bumble correctly).

It's also a pain in the ass getting the primer to cover everything. My usual routine is to prime as many angles as I can, then finish up with a layer of paint or primer to cover the little nooks and crannies. That mech-beast-thingy has a grand multitude of nooks, and most only show up in specific lighting conditions. I'd start painting it, then turn it one way and -- sonofabitch.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I have all the spots covered now that would be seen by most people, but now I'm pissed at the piece for giving me so much grief, so I don't want to paint it right now, yet I still have to get this thing finished because I'm getting paid for it. I'm glad I don't play Warmachine. Holy shit.

In other news:
I've been playing more games lately, as evidenced by my lack of painting. Mostly some good-old fashioned Red Sand Blue Sky (not old fashioned -- 2nd edition.) A little bit of Qwik. Work has also been busy, so I've been coming home tired, but I've also been enjoying a nice game of Yahtzee - I mean Delve: The Dice Game.

What is Delve: The Dice Game? WELL, if Yahtzee and Dungeons and Dragons met on eHarmony.com, had a few dates, got drunk one evening and had some awkward first sex, and, a few weeks later, Yahtzee peed on a stick and noticed that it turned blue: That's because Delve: The Dice Game has been conceived. And since Yahtzee is a Catholic, she has decided to keep the baby. And that's a good thing; it's a fun game to play! Give it a try. You only need some D6 (about 12), a pencil and the play sheet. It's all free; you can find it here.

Ok, time for a little TV. And then maybe later, I can muster up some gumption to paint that goddamned Cryx atrocity on my painting table.

Red Sun, Blue Sky: Converting a game

2011-07-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

One of the things I like about Red Sand, Blue Sky (gladiator rules from Two Hour Wargames) is the ease at which you can re-skin it. Here, I've adapted the rules to a samurai skirmish game (using 42mm samurai from Steve Barber). I didn't have to change much -- no shields, no net attacks, and no mercy of the crowd or imperial intervention -- otherwise, I didn't have to change a thing with the mechanics. I'll have to write down some basic terrain rules, and I still haven't figured out rules for bows and muskets. I'd also like to figure out how to incorporate ninjas (when you have the figures, you just have to use them!) Otherwise, this game is good to go on my table.

There are other skirmish/battle games offered by THW that have mechanics better suited to dealing with multiple figures and other factors/reactions on the battlefield, but I like using RSBS because it simplifies movement (no more bumping terrain and figures while you measure with rulers.)* This is a biggie for me (and my friends) who are all boardgamers (and NOT big miniatures gamers.) It is a good compromise that is easy for the group to accept and play. I also prefer RSBS for the smaller skirmishes because I like doing battle where specific hit locations are involved.

Speaking of which, I made myself some more generic roster sheets for my games (samurai and gladiator, both). Then I put them in 5x7 inch plastic photo holders. Grab a wet erase marker, and I have myself some reusable roster cards. I've also made a couple reusable roster sheets for my Qwik game.

By the way, if you're not into samurai, Red Sand, Blue Sky also makes for a kickass Roman gladiator game.

* For the uninitiated, RSBS uses a zone movement mechanic; most figures move one zone at a time, and a maximum of three figures can occupy any one zone (though, others can try to force their way into a zone while forcing someone else out.) If you look at the top photo, you'll notice black dots on the field; these are what dilineate my zones.

Tiny update

2011-07-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a week since my last post; a long time for this blog. I just finished priming some stuff including a couple Pathfinder figures, some Warmachine, and another 54mm Qwik figure. Hopefully, I can get some painting started today or tomorrow.

I've also been playing a lot of Red Sands, Blue Sky (gladiator rules). Been lovin' it! Maybe I'll put together a battle report some day (if I can figure out how to artfully narrate the action in the context of the rules.) I've also had thoughts of my 42mm samurai lurking int he back of my head; I was thinking of using them in a semi-skirmish game using RSBS. Would make for some nice pictures, anyway.

How to make your own map (just some basics)

2011-06-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, folks have asked how I did my map, so here's a little photo tutorial I put together. These are some real basic tips, and you'll need a somewhat general knowledge of Photoshop (or your own photo/art software) as well as a little bit of artistic skill. Here goes:

Wasting time: Campaign map

2011-06-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I figure a fun way to start an RSBS campaign in the post-apocalypse would be to make a map of the area where the pit fights (and some Jugger matches) take place. On my map, the "fringe of the empire" towns are north, getting nearer the "heart of the empire" as you track south (Teixeirum.)

Do you need a map to run an RSBS campaign? Absolutely not, but I needed to do something to waste time. Oh, and this was all done using some basic Photoshop tools.

Thunderdome? Sure, why not.

2011-06-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

My friends and I had a lot of fun playing Red Sand, Blue Sky (Two Hour Wargames) this weekend. RSBS uses most of the same mechanics as Qwik. And with the movement in both games done via "zones," this them a bit of cross-over into boardgaming. I think this is why my friends (who are not really miniatures games kind of people) and I (who likes miniatures AND boardgames) enjoy these two games.

My friends preferred Qwik over RSBS (I think because they're also Blood Bowl fans). This usually translates as Qwik is sure to get a few more plays with my friends this year, but RSBS probably will only get one more play if any. I prefer RSBS over Qwik, simply because there's a lot less to keep track of, especially during solo play. But I LOVE the post-apocalyptic setting that comes with Qwik, so I'd prefer to play with friends when I can.

"Carmen, get to the fucking point."

Ah yes, well anyway, I've decided to go ahead and combine the two genres: Post-apocalyptic gladiatorial combat, combining my interests. What's great is that my Qwik figures are already outfitted for such a game! I have space in my figure case for 4 or 5 more figures, so I will be ordering more in the future (A little birdie told me new 54mm generic poses were in the works) just not sure when. These new figures will be converted specifically for gladiatorial combat (complete with road sign shields.)

When we played RSBS this weekend, we used my Qwik field, but it was really too large (though, we did block off a smaller area within the field.) So I've made a new field specifically for playing RSBS (either classical or my post-apoc version.) It has plenty of messy earth with blood and a little bit of arrid static grass glued into place (just a little; it's an experiment to see how well the grass sticks.) It's small (my own little Thunderdome at 3x3), but it's only meant for four to five figures at most. And if I need more space, I can still use my Qwik field.

Western City RPG (My thoughts/review)

2011-06-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

So I was wandering around my local gamestore and I came across this small book on the clearance table. It was called "Western City," and I'm always one the lookout for nice reference material- I enjoy a decent read now and again. I opened the book expecting to see maps, illustrations, character archetypes and such (I didn't care what system the book used.)

WELL, as it turned out, the book is actually a self-contained roleplaying game. At that point, I thought, "Ho hum, just another old west rpg. But I'll flip through it."
And that's when I made the discovery that not only is Western City a tongue-in-cheek spaghetti western roleplaying game, but it's one where everyone is a player (no gamemaster needed!) Hells bells! So I bought it.

I've read a lot of it. It has some basic character creation. What I like about creating characters is that there is no skills list. You choose a profession, and with any skills related to that profession, you get a nice static rank. But you can also choose five skills not related to your profession (YOU get to make them up; there is no list to choose from except for a short list of examples.) You have these skills, but at lower ranks than your professional skills. You have three basic, generic attributes (Body, Mind and Charisma.) And main players all start with the same number of hit points.

After creating their own character, each player creates two "extras," a friend and a foe. The extras are placed in a pool, and players take one (to control) that they didn't create. Then the players use a simple bidding process to acquire more extras.

Then players decide on a day's worth of events (called the Line of Events) that will make up the game session(s). If a player wants to take over and add their own idea to an event being pitched, they can bid on the process (bidding is with a limited supply of poker chips.)

This is about as far as I've read in the book. Honestly, this is such a simple story-telling concept, but I think it's a Holy Grail of codifying the mechanics to get it done (at least I hadn't seen it done before.) But this is NOT a game for the "numbers" player -- that D&D player, for example, who creates a character who is built to deal the most damage possible. This game does include dice rolling, but its soul rest with the story, and all the players have a chance to steer the plot; It's a game that will reward the creative player more than the dice roller.

So, as I read the rules, I thought, "Hey, these rules are pretty generic. Honestly, you could use these rules to play in ANY genre you wanted: Pulp, Ancient, Fantasy, SciFi, Dungeon, etc." My first choice would be something Conan the Barbarian-ish. THAT'S when I discovered on the Redbrick LLC website (the folks who distribute Western City) ALSO have an rpg called Barbaren! Unfortunately, the game has not been translated from its original German yet. Looking at the descriptions here and there on the web, Barbaren is REALLY about stereotypes and silly "macho" play; Having sex with women and drinking mead is just as important as fighting in battle, apparently. (And every player is male, and starts with a "Manliness" score.) The game is definitely in bad taste, so it's not for everyone. But if you enjoy a rip-roaring good time and can read German, you should have a go.

I'd love to have a copy of Barbaren! in English even if I never play. The rules sound like they're going to be a hoot simply to read. For now, I'm gonna finish reading my Western City rules to get a grip on the mechanics before looking into alternate genres.

Foundry swashbuckler

2011-06-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Don't worry; I still have that other halberdier sitting on the table. This guy just sneaked in. He was already based and primed, and he fits my current D&D character, so I wanted to paint him up quick to get him into the game.

He comes from Foundry's Elizabethan Sea Dogs range (probably Foundry's last really good range.) I have a few more sea dogs primed and/or based. My original intent a few years ago was to paint up a bunch of random renaissance figures (including some of those older Games Workshop Empire pieces) to play some renaissance street skirmishes (think Romeo and Juliet). I was going to use Two Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction Swordplay ruleset. But I just never got around to finishing these figures, until now. I had around a dozen figures to go. And this week, I've painted 4 of those.

Games Workshop Averland Halberdier

2011-06-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, that was fast. I guess I'll reiterate that these figures are incredibly easy to paint. I pulled another couple of my classic figures out of the box for painting (I think they're the last ones I have that are based on the 30mm lipped bases.)

I have a swordsman from Mordheim. He has a long cape I had added when I first started making greenstuff capes. I already have color ideas for him (nothing special, just some good military red and black and such.)

I also have another halberdier (more classic than even the figure in this post.) I'm not sure how I'll paint him, so I'll take suggestions as to which Empire province to paint him to represent.

GW (Classic) Nuln Handgunner

2011-06-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Here's another of my old classic Games Workshop figures, a handgunner I painted up as a soldier of Nuln.
These figures are about the easiest I've painted in a long time. The plume and ribbons are Foundry Storm blue again. I forget what the browns were; I stacked layers from different Foundry palettes.

I have a classic GW Empire halberdier on the table right now. I'm not sure which province I'll have him yet. I may just choose some colors and have a go. Though, it's been a LONG time since I've done anything for Averland (1993 in fact, when I first bought most of my Empire army.) And Foundry has a pretty good yellow (Yellow Ochre.)

I'll see how I feel after doing the halberdier. If I get the energy built up, I may try to get one of my halberdier regiments painted up to go along with my handgunner and crossbow regiments. I already have the flag and the captain finished up for one of the two halberdier regiments I have; it's just a matter of getting the rank and file troops started -- as well as trying to pull back how much detail I try to put into a figure so that it doesn't take me a month to finish the regiment.

Leonardo di Miragliano

2011-06-11T13:25:00.000-07:00

This my all-time favorite sculpt from Games Workshop. Leonardo di Miragliano is obviously influenced by some Da Vinci fellow. The figure came with the original sculpt of the Empire's volley gun (along with a couple other nice figures that would compliment Leonardo's workshop if I were to build one- oh wait, I did (see below- something I whipped up a few years ago).

I used my favorite Foundry colors again, storm blue for the jacket, red oxide for the shirt sleeves (highlighted with some base spearshaft and even into a little bit of orange.)
The base is a 30mm slottabase on which I sculpted some tile using greenstuff.

Here's some old file pics of my watchtower which is topped with Leonardo's workshop (for the sharp-eyed, you'll find in the bottom pic a tiny painting of the Mona Lisa I did up.)

Chronoscope martial arts master

2011-06-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a quickie I did up in about an hour: Reaper Chronoscope No. 50190, Chan Li, martial arts master. Ge was pretty easy to paint up, and if you're looking for something to practice painting skin, I'd recommend this figure; the muscles are sculpted with enough relief to give a beginning painter a good guide to paint over, while still rewarding an advanced painter who takes more time and care with his minis.

I put him on one of my planked bases with the intention of adding his to the tramp steamer crew (how else will he get to Han's island?)

I suspect, over the coming weeks, I will be posting a few random pieces. I'm a bit burned out on projects. I think, though, I may be painting a few things here and there to add to existing projects. For example, I have a figure left over from my Street Corner project as well as another figure I can add to my tramp steamer crew. I also have my Frothers Cthulhu figures, though, I'm not sure when I'll get to those. I only purchased them because the were available for a short time, and I know I'd get to them some day.

Until then, I'm trying to get a game of Qwik set up for this weekend! My friends are big Blood Bowl fans, so I think they'll enjoy Qwik.

Qwik 54mm in action!

2011-06-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

This wasn't a real game; I just wanted to take some action shots of my Qwik figures on the field to show you what a game might look like.

And here's a shot showing the tokens I'll use for my games. I made them from Sculpey.

Qwik 54mm: Dirt Dog driver (and teams are finished!)

2011-06-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

Here's the last of the Qwik figures! The last of the drivers for the Dirt Dogs. The cleaver blade came from a GW ork figure. The rope around the blade is twisted copper wire, which I think works perfectly as rope (and is easy to paint.)

I finished off all the other figures by giving them a good drybrushing of Foundry rawhide. This served two purposes: It added a layer of post-apocalyptic dust to everything, and it helped to kill the glossiness on some of the paints (my freelance driver in an earlier post shows some of that gloss. The drybrushing worked really well to dull it out.)

After a few days and lots of coats of varnish, and I'll be ready for my first games of Qwik!

A note on drybrushing: When you drybrush your figures, remember that it's "dry" brushing (and I'll explain here in a moment). Some folks confuse drybrushing with a technique called "overbrushing." In overbrushing, you pull a brush with just a little bit of paint over raised detail, such as hair or chainmail, so that the paint lands only on the raised surfaces leaving the recessed surfaces dark or unpainted. In drybrushing, you load your brush up with paint, then you wipe as much paint as you can onto a paper towel. This should leave mostly dry paint on your brush. Then you wipe or flick (there are different techniques to this) the dry brush over the figure, leaving essentially a "dusty" layer of pigment on your figure. In fact, when I drybrushed these qwik figures, I could see little dust clouds getting thrown up as I flicked the brush to and fro. If you try to drybrush with paint that is still a little too wet on your brush, you'll get streaks on your figure. And since dried paint kills a good brush, that's why we use a crap brush :)

I like these figures! Despite being specifically made for playing Qwik, I can also use them as a post-apoc primitive tribe (alongside my Waiteri), or as post-apoc gladiators using Two Hour Wargames' Red Sand Blue Sky rules. And, you know, as I was doing these, I was wondering how hard it would be to do 54mm Road Warrior stuff.

The Qwik figures could easily play the part; all I would need would be a few vehicles, but that would be the hardest part. I have yet to find cars in 1/35 scale (1/35 is VERY close to 54mm). There are plenty of military vehicle models at 1/35 scale, but most civilian vehicle models are at 1/24 scale, and it's the civvie vehicles I think that make the best road warrior cars. Now, I've seen 1/32 scale cars, but they were still a touch too large for my tastes. Has anyone ever seen 1/35 scale models of civilian vehicles?

Update: Hmm, I think I may be wrong, and that 1/32 scale is closer to 54mm. That opens things up a little bit ... like my wallet.

Oh well, it was just a far-off thought ... though, my 54mm Qwik figures started out as just a far-off thought, too.

Qwik 54mm: Dirt Dog qwik

2011-06-03T14:58:00.000-07:00

Just one figure left on the table, though, I actually have enough figures now to field two full teams.
This figure might be my least favorite; he's looking maybe a tad bit like a luchidor. But the pose is perfect for his position as a qwik, low to the ground, arms outstretched to stop the opposing qwik or balanced to dodge a rival driver.

I've made some markers as well. Some show who has been pinned, and others are simply to mark players that have acted in the current turn. (There's only 5 players to keep track of on your team, but it doesn't hurt to have a little reminder.)

That's it! One more figure and I can call this project complete. Another one almost down, and then what next? I think I may flounder a bit and do a couple random figures here and there. I need to see about selling some figures to make space. 28mm gladiators and vikings probably up on the block.

Qwik 54mm: Dirt Dog driver

2011-06-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the next member of my Dirt Dog team. I painted him and the chainsaw driver at the same time, that's how I got this figure finished so fast. Since they were the same pose, I thought it would help the painting go as little faster.

I deliberately kept this sculpt more primitive. I want him to look more as if he's a replacement player for the team. Keeping him primitive helps me to connect him (somewhat) back to my Waiteri tribe, thus tying all of my 54mm figures together. I didn't want to paint him as a Waiteri because my Macello team is painted up in those very colors (tattoos,) and I don't want the players/teams to be confused during gameplay.

Nothing else of note on this figure to mention except that the spiked weapon head is from a Games Workshop orc.

Qwik 54mm: Husqvarna's finest

2011-06-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

"Whether it's felling timbers, hunting zombies or playing in a pick-up game of juggers, the APOC 2100 should be YOUR chainsaw of choice. The APOC 2100 has teeth with POWER! Runs smooth, cuts fast. The APOC 2100 runs on refined petroleum, distilled spirits and process organics to guarantee YOU will never run out of fuel. APOC 2100, Pick one up at your local wasteland trader today!

*APOC 2100 emits deadly fumes. Always wear APOC-brand safety masks when operating your APOC 2100. APOC-brand safety masks sold separately."

This is easily my favorite sculpt of all the Qwik figures I have so far. It's hard to not like a guy swinging a chainsaw around in a game that's really supposed to be nonlethal.

The chainsaw was easy to make: The blade is a piece of plasticard with teeth filed into it. The engine box is just a cube of greenstuff with a couple disks of greenstuff (cut from cured roll) glued onto the sides. The handles are all brass rod, and the wrappings just twine wrapped repeatedly.

This figure departs a little bit from the look of the team; I think he looks more like he belongs to the Macellos. Perhaps I'll get another figure to fill in the position and make this guy another freelancer. I mean freesawyer.

Green interlude: Reaper goblin

2011-05-31T18:36:00.000-07:00

I'm painting the next two figures for my second Qwik team. In between drying layers, I would throw some paint on this little fellow who I found sitting lonely in a figure case. He's so small, it only took a few splashes of paint to finish him up.

I also wanted to a skin color slightly different from the cliched "goblin green." This skin is direct from Foundry's Drab triad (with a final highlight of Raw Linen C.) It still has a strong green base shade, but it is much lighter, which makes sense for a creature that spends its time out of the sun.

I can't remember what set (or the No.) he comes from, but I know for sure that he's a Reaper figure. I hope to use him as a D&D character in the future: A goblin raised by elves.

Qwik 54mm: Freelance driver

2011-05-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here's an extra driver for whomever needs a replacement during the course of a game. I'm informally calling him the Green Knight.

His pack is made up of a couple extra jerry cans from a Tamiya kit, some copper wire for rope, and packs and bedroll from green stuff. The weapon has a styrene cutting head wrapped with twine onto a brass rod, capped at bottom with a filed down mace head.

Qwik 54mm: Macellos finished!

2011-05-26T18:39:00.000-07:00

Here's the last player for my Macello team, the last driver. I was worried a bit with this figure, because his helmet with a bit of a fin, the symmetrical cross belt and relatively tidy loin cloth gave him a bit of a retro Flash Gordon look (to me, anyway.) But the rust quickly took all that away and made him a proper Qwik player.

The Macellos are ready to play. Now, on to the Dirt Dogs!!

Qwik 54mm: Macello Driver 2

2011-05-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Here's my second Macello driver. This was the first figure of the whole bunch that I started converting; he has a diverse array of garment, evidence of my experimentations with greenstuff and Sculpey as I searched out a "look" for the team.

Just one more driver for the Macellai, then on to the Dirt Dogs.

I also wanted to mention that I've been enjoying painting all of the metal of these figures with plenty of rust. It's an easy recipe: Some red brown, followed by a dark orange, and finally some silver - all of it stippled.

One thing I forgot to do was to make a mutant or two. I guess this will be reason enough to maybe later order a couple more BronzeAge generics to cut up and mutate -- a tentacle here, maybe an extra limb or two there. They'd be added to my pool of freelance players (of which I only have one now).

Qwik 54mm: Qwik and Chain players

2011-05-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

Qwik 54mm

I was stuck on these for a couple days; the red warpaint just wasn't looking right to me, so I switched to my old standby Waiteri Black. Not much else to say about these two. I didn't do anything special; though, the chain player turned out good. I'd still like to figure out a way to get some more traditional chains in mid-swing, but I think my compromise works for this genre.

Just a couple players to finish for the Macello team -- a couple drivers -- then on to the Dirt Dogs, then time to play!

Bloody Bradigan

2011-05-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

I had been working intently on the Qwik figures for almost a month; I needed a break. While surfing the web, I came across Bloody Bradigan. The pose struck me first. Here's a fighter with a "Can do" attitude! Then there were the chains, the broken bottle, the bully moustache. This was one of those rare figures that hit me at just the right time.

My local game store had one. I bought it. 48 hours later, I have his image posted here. It's difficult to see here, but the base is half stone (mostly covered in grass) and half plank. I wanted to write a little story with the figure and the base. The figure says, to me, "I'm an escaped convict." And the base I want to say "And I'm leaving town straight for the docks to reclaim my ship!" It's not a big story; it's not a big base either.

I added the sword (stolen during his escape). It's a leftover gladius from my 54mm gladiators.

I don't play Warmachine, so I think I will use Bradigan here as a D&D character, probably a brawler fighter, for those in the know.

I don't play Warmachine, but I may have to purchase some more of the Sea Dogs and press gangers. Lovely figures all. But I still have plenty of Qwik figures to keep me busy for the next couple weeks (I have vacation one of those weeks- and I'm staying home! Paint, paint, paint!)

Qwik 54mm: Female Chain

2011-05-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

This figure more decidedly has a post-apocalyptic look: rags, rusted metal and a good ole fashioned road warrior mohawk. I'm happy with her style; She's just enough scifi/post-apoc without going overboard. I'm also happy with the low-key colors (aside from the blue warpaint.)

Since this chain player's pose wasn't in mid-swing with her chain, I was able to use a more traditional looking chain. The chain was just some cheap chain in Hobby Lobby's bead section (it's actually listed as "cable.") $3 for 18 inches of chain, I think it was.

I'm not sure which figure I'll paint next. Perhaps the other chain player, maybe another driver. I'll know once I start painting.

Quick note: Hmm, I think this figure is awfully close to what I would do if I were to sculpt up some Picts for my 54mm Conan figure to fight (except for the chain weapon and armor; I think it's the colors/warpaint and style that I like). The look is not necessarily what Howard describes (short, stocky with long hair), but perhaps I could do one of the pictish tribes only mentioned in passing in Howard's stories, and make it my own.
What am I doing- I still have many other projects to do :)

Qwik 54mm: First player finished!

2011-05-17T08:51:00.000-07:00

About two and a half weeks from figures arriving to the first one being completely finished; here she is, a female driver (heavily influenced by Brom.) I know I said one team would have red warpaint, and the other blue, but on this figure, I thought red warpaint might make her look a little bit busy. But I DID manage to slip in some red on the two connectors on the right of her torso.

The hammer head is from a Boris figure from Heresy Miniatures (with a new handle made from brass rod.)

I'm also happy with the knee-high boots. I was a bit worried with how those would turn out.

This is my most "Brom" looking figure of the bunch. The rest, on both teams, are a mix of Brom and Road Warrior.

And no, I didn't censor her nipples with Photoshop. I painted the "X"s over them to add to her look. (I copied the idea from another post-apocalyptic image.)

Qwik 54mm: Female players WIP

2011-05-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

I finally got past the procrastination and put paint to metal. Here are a couple females, one from each team (which will be differentiated by blue and red warpaint.) The figure to the left will be kept in a black scheme, perhaps with a brown leather gas mask with metal accents. I'm not quite sure how to approach the other yet. For sure, her chain will be all rusted. I think most of her armor will be leather, maybe with a couple metal plates or trim.

Qwik 54mm: Stakes and beans

2011-05-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

Nothing major here; While I waited for the primer to settle on the figures, I threw together a couple dog skulls (called "beans" in the game) and a couple stakes on which to score.

The stakes are made simply from brass rod driven into poker chip bases (to add some consistency with the rest of the figures.) The dog skulls are made from greenstuff. I mounted them on small 20mm bases, that way, I can drop the small base onto the larger base of the figure carrying the skull. I only needed one skull, but I had pulled a little more greenstuff out than I needed in one go. That, and it doesn't hurt to have an extra. I even had enough leftover to make a third (somewhat smaller) skull which I used to add some decoration to my freelance driver.

The glue under the static grass in these photos hasn't quite dried. When it does, I will add a tuft or two to the stake bases (the same tufts you can see on the figure in the background.)

With the primer dry, and the stakes, beans, field and some terrain finished, all that is left to do is paint the players!

100,000!

2011-05-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

All righty! My site has received 100,000 hits, not simply page loads (about 200,000) from search engines and whatnot, but actual unique visits by all of you!

I've had the blog since May 2007 (Hey, my blog is 4 years old, too), though I didn't start tracking stats until 2008. That year, I had around 8,000 hits. That number jumped up to 26,000 in 2009, and a whopping 45,000 last year! (Well, it's "whopping" to me.) And I have 21,000 hits so far this year. So I'm on pace to have another 45,000-hit year.

Thank you to all my visitors (all 15,000 of you first-timers), but especially my followers (186 as of this posting) and repeat visitors (5,000 of you). Honestly, this blog was started so that I could simply keep a record of my hobby; having an audience is admittedly a vain bonus.

And what an audience -- You all are visiting from all over kingdom come (and these are recent numbers):
About 30% are from the United States
17% from the U.K.
10% from Spain
6% from Canada
5% each from Germany, Poland and the Netherlands
... and many other countries, all the way down to a visitor each from the Northern Mariana Islands, New Zealand, Finland and Ireland.

The cities I'm getting my most visits from are Peterborough, U.K., followed by Des Moines, Iowa (near my hometown of Ames); Bilbao, Spain; London, U.K.; and Budapest, Hungary. (Granted, these are all recent stats. I also get a LOT of traffic from France ((mostly Paris.))

And my most popular subjects continue to be my Ghostbusters/paranormal investigators (followed by my Bad Bay Hackers, Waiteri Tribe and Steve Barber Samurai.)

Something I especially like about blogging (and our shared hobby) is that it's firmly international. Thousands of us across the world sit at our own little tables tucked away in the deep corners of our homes; artisans and artists meting out bits of creativity on our own terms, yet with the quick click of a button, we can take a quick glance at what someone across the ocean is painting, sculpting or building. 10 years ago, I'd have never imagined someone from Spain, Hungary or New Zealand making comments about my figures. And even 10 years ago, it was still somewhat difficult to find as many blogs, galleries and tutorials as there are on the internet today.

Now to see how long it takes to get to a half million hits....

Qwik 54mm: Lorn Sands, freelance jugger

2011-05-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here's my (nearly) complete freelance jugger Lorn Sands. Last night I finished his pack which is made up of a couple leftover jerry cans (for water) from a Tamiya kit, greenstuff bedroll and pack, some rope/cable (made with copper wire), and a jugger helmet made from Sculpey. To finish him off, I'm gonna have him wear a pair of fur-topped boots (since it's a fairly easy conversion to make.)

I originally wanted to have a dead rabbit hanging off the side of his pack, but I just couldn't get it right. I may try again tonight; there is still space on one side of the pack (above the rope.)

I think this one is my favorite of the bunch. I'm not so keen with the mace end of his driver weapon, so I may make him a new one, but I like everything else about the figure. I think the pack helped give him a better post-apocalyptic look than the others.

Lorn is my last jugger; I'm pleased with the "look" of the teams. My original intent was to have these players deep into the post-apocalypse, so there would be less actual clothing and more rags and skins; no guns (at least as scenic accessories since they wouldn't be used for Qwik), just melee; and I wanted these figures to matchup with my old Waiteri tribe.

Qwik 54mm: Macellos ready to paint

2011-05-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

... And here's my other team, the Macellos (pronounced ma-'che-lo; without the "s," it's Italian for "slaughterhouse," at least according to Google translate.)

The chain turned out all right. I have him swinging two cabled flails, the heads of which will be painted to look like concrete blocks. I'm very happy with how his helmet turned out. You can't see it in this photo, but the helmet does not go all the way around; it's more like a large metal mask. In the back, I have the chain player's long hair hanging down.

Before I start priming everything, I still want to finish up my freelance driver. I just need to give him some fur-top boots, pack and bedroll. Everything should be primed by the end of the weekend. Unfortunately, that weekend leads into my busy week for the month at the office. But I do have vacation at the end of the month, and no travel plans....

Qwik 54mm: Dirt Dogs ready for painting

2011-05-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Here's my first team, all built and ready for priming, basing and painting. I've decided to name them the Dirt Dogs, an appropriate post-apocalyptic name, methinks. I'm not sure what I'll name the other team yet.

I found a decent piece of jewelry chain for the chain player. The chain for the other chain player will be a little more difficult because I want his chain to be in mid-swing. I think I've hit on a compromise using some braided (twisted) copper wire which would represent metal cables rather than linked chains.

That other chain player is also the last figure I need to finish to complete the other team. I also have an eleventh figure which I will use as an independent/freelance driver. He'll have a small pack on his back and a few extra pieces of clothing/rags as if he's wandering the wasteland looking for a game.

How to carry yourself

2011-05-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

I was at Hobby Lobby today browsing around when I came across this little box for $5. I had been searching for a nice way of transporting my D&D character to and from gaming sessions and this fit the bill! I had plenty of extra foam from other figure cases, so it was just a matter of cutting the pieces (and getting enough to get a good thick layer of foam so that the figure wasn't rolling around) to fit this box.

It would be a little bit tricky, but I could lay out the foam differently to accommodate two figures (or even one 54mm figure.) For now, the box will be just for one figure at a time.

There's probably enough space to put a set of gaming dice in there, too (perhaps beneath the foam.)

A quick note on the photo: The figure is not stored in the box standing up that way. I just stood him up so you could see better that it was indeed a mini. Otherwise, you'd be staring at the bottom of a minis base.

Stylish Blog

2011-05-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, I give up and accept a Stylish Blog award. So what were the rules ... oh, ok, 7 things about myself, then nominate 10-15 other blogs... hmm.

Ok, Seven things about me:

1: I'm earn money as a copy editor for the Ames Tribune here in Ames, Iowa, but I also draw the political cartoons for the paper (hence my handle, "Evilcartoonist" on many other forums.
(Even as a copy editor, you may notice a few mistakes here and there on my blog. That's because I don't bring my work home :)

2: I got into miniatures (and gaming) after watching Clash of the Titans back in 1980. Zeus had a room where the walls were covered with shelf (little alcoves, really) upon shelf of small stone figurines. After seeing that, I wanted my own wall of mortals to play with.

3: I was born in Kansas City, but have lived in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Ames, Iowa. Out of all the places I've lived, I prefer little old Ames.

4: I worked a few times at a sawmill. It was my grandpa's sawmill. And I love the smell of sawdust.

5: My great grandmother was the first woman to get a pilot's license on the Missouri River. She piloted a ferry at Brownville, Nebraska. On board that boat, they had a mouse she would feed cheese and whiskey.

6: I like the semicolon; it's my favorite punctuation mark.

7: I have a pretty good tolerance for subfreezing cold; I can walk the block in a T-shirt, jeans, and sandals while it's -20 degrees (Fahrenheit) and not bat an eyelash (at least I've done that a few times to walk the dog.) But I don't do it as a machismo thing; I do it because I'm too damn lazy to put a coat on for being outside only 10 or 15 minutes. If I go on a long walk when it's that cold, though, I'll throw on a long-sleeved shirt, sweater, coat, scarf, hat, boots, heavy pants, long johns and gloves; I may have a good tolerance, but I still prefer comfort over cold :)

Nominate 10-15 other blogs? Honestly, I don't read a lot of other blogs. I don't think I regularly read any one blog. I do a lot of blog surfing to find good tutorials and get a little inspiration when I start a new project. Let me think... I guess there are a couple blogs/sites I look at semi-regularly:

Matakishi's Tea House (http://www.matakishi.com/): He does a lot of stuff I'm interested in. He also goes about it the same as I do, choosing a project and going all out on it. I LOVE his Tarzan collection. I was looking at Matakishi's stuff before I had my own blog.

Hetairoi Wargames (http://hetairoiwargames.blogspot.com): Mostly because I enjoy gladiator games, and Hetairoi did everything I wanted to do when I got my first Foundry gladiators many years ago.

Witchhunter.net (http://www.witchhunter.net/): I love the extensive galleries of figures he has displayed. The site hasn't been updated in quite some time, but there's still so much to browse through. I still go back now and again to admire his clean and competent painting style.

I know there are so many other excellent blogs I have looked at, I just can't think of their titles. Honestly, if you want to look at some good blogs, just start with my list of followers. I think just about every single one of them has something to offer. What's great about my followers is that my diverse tastes have gained a diverse following, so you're sure to find something there that interest you, be it Warhammer, historical, scifi, or other uncategorizeable oddity.

Qwik 54mm: Patience and progress

2011-05-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten how much patience was needed to work this extensively with greenstuff; Lay down some greenstuff, wait for it to cure. Lay down some more, wait for it to cure. But I am making progress, and here it is. I have three other figures still yet not seen here; my two chains and one other figure, none of which I have added any greenstuff to. The rest of these figures show my remaining driver players and my two qwiks. All that is left to do on most of the figures are some boots, wrappings or other footwear (with accompanying leg/shin armor if any.) And a couple figures still need body armor. These are turning out about as I expected. I can't wait to see how they look painted.

Qwik 54mm: First driver is built!

2011-05-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here's my first driver. Not too bad, methinks. When I do greenstuff work, I usually count on my painting skill to hide my junior sculpting skills. Here you can see how I do my boots; I just do the tops and let the original sculpt do the rest of the work (now you can see why I like the Bronzeage sculpts.) The greenstuff on the toe of the boots is meant to represent steel tips.

I need to pick up primer first, but I think I'm going to try to get this figure painted up while I work on the others; I want to set her on the work bench to inspire my other creations.

Qwik 54mm: Driver weapons

2011-05-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

NOT ALL MY WEAPONS HAVE A "SWEEPER" END;
MY QWIKGAMES ARE MEANT TO BE MORE BRUTAL.

Another quick update; here are the final weapons for all the drivers (I may add a couple wrappings here and there maybe.) My favorite is the apocalyptic chainsaw. The serrated edges of the chainsaw and a couple of the others was achieved by simply using a triangle file and filing out a few teeth into the plasticard. I really wanted to have a couple of these serrated weapons to help achieve somewhat of the "Brom" look I'm looking for. Now I only have to make weapons for the chain players. One will be easy, the other more difficult because the chain needs to be flying through the air. I may just cheat it and make the "chain" part of the weapon a piece of cable (which I can simply "paint" onto a piece of bent brass rod.)

54mm Qwik: BIG hammer

2011-05-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

So the plan to do one figure at a time went by the wayside real fast. So here's my new plan: No plan. I'm just going to sling green stuff and build weapons until all the figures are finished (with periodic updates here.) I may paint one or two finished figures before the rest, though I'd prefer to get everything built, then prime and paint all at once.

I'm happy with my gas mask lady and her overly large hammer. I'll finish her up with a pair of boots, some straps to hold the gas mask on, then I'll call her good.

Oh, and I need to remind myself to paint her nipples to look like they're covered with electrical tape.

Here are the figures I've worked on so far. The driver in the center may yet still be made into a chain player, though I do like how imposing he looks with that large spiked club.

54mm Qwik: Strapping man

2011-05-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

To give all the figures a more hodge-podge apocalyptic look, I think I'll work on them one at a time. This will make the project go longer, but it will also help me to concentrate on one figure at a time.

WORKING WITH THE STRAPS IS EASIER IF YOU GLUE ONE END DOWN FIRST;
THEN YOU WILL HAVE ONLY ONE FIDDLY END TO DEAL WITH AT A TIME.

Here, you can see I've added some straps to hold the armor together, and to hold the facemask on. I didn't have any old toothpaste tubes, but I did have this old Neosporin tube. All you need is an Exacto knife and a steady hand (or a straight edge.) It works really well!

WHEN YOU HAVE THE LOOSE END FITTED, SNIP OFF A BIT SO THAT
IT WILL FIT FLUSH (THOUGH, YOU CAN ADD THINGS SUCH AS
BUCKLES OR RIVETS TO COVER UP WHERE TWO STRAPS MEET.)

The armor came out a little thick on this figure, making him look a bit larger than he should be; then again, he IS a hero of the wasteland, so there's nothing wrong with a bit of extra size. The armor is still a little too "clean" for my taste, so I think I will "wasteland" it up by adding some tatters of clothing, rags, ribbons or other random assortments of old fabric (using greenstuff.)

The weapon has a typical setup for the Driver (one of the player positions for Jugger/Qwik.) The back end (harder to see) with the wheel disk is the "driving" end, and the scythe-like blade is the "sweeping" end. I don't have plans for a "sweeping" end to all of my driver's weapons, but there'll be enough to give a general idea.

On this figure, I still have to do the backside loin cloth, a pair of boots/(with shinguards), maybe some arm bracers, a belt, a few more straps, and those aformentioned tattered rags hanging from the armor. But it's already been a long morning (and a long celebratory night with the bin Laden news,) so I'm going to have myself a little siesta, now.