Summertime

I was tempted to title this "Kaislikossa suhisee", which is the Finnish translation of an old English childern's book "The Wind in the Willows".

It's been a bit too quiet on this blog, I started my vacation and have been travelling and doing other stuff. So there has not been that much time left for painting and blogging, even though I haven't been going to work...


But today I finished the last miniatures which I dipped some time ago, and here are the results:

This wa mainly a paint scheme test for these, and a quick one as usual. Red spray (from Army Painter) and just small bits of yellow for scales, brown for haft, metal for the speartips, bone for teeth & claws and blue for decorative feathers. And of course these were dipped in the Army Painter Strong Tone dip.

Not too bad, though I am not fully convinced of my choice of colours. I wanted something different from the ones used in the Armybook but I wonder if I went a bit too far. The base was painted using textured paint (Stirland Mud from Citadel Paints drybrushed with Bleached Bone, and edges painted in some dark brown). I added both Citadel grass and "Swamp Tufts" from Army Painter, which did help a bit.

Oh well, back to painting some more Orks. Have almost 20 ready to be dipped...

S.

Status: 83/365

When no one else can help...

The first 4 miniatures today are a tribute to a tv-show from the 80's: The A-Team

So let me present you: The A-Mob!

Left: Kannibal (ie. John 'Hannibal' Smith)

Right: B.A. meaning Bad Aim (ie. B.A. Baracus, where B.A. meant Bad Attitude)

Left: Faceplate (ie. Templeton 'Faceman' Peck)

Right: Zogging Mad (ie. Howling Mad Murdock)

Ork Kommando unit would've been more appropriate, but I do not like the miniatures that exist for that unit. So I just kitbashed something with the basic Ork Boyz-box.

Not to stop there, I also finished 10 Grots with their Runtherd:

That will be all for the Orks for a while, need to get another batch finished before dipping more of them...

S.

Status: 72/365

More Orks

Without further ado here are some pics of stuff I dipped and then finished.

2 Ork Nobz, they will be added to the unit from the Assault on Black Reach box. They are identical miniatures to those from the box, but the bosspoles were added and decorated with bitz from my collection.

1 Ork Pilot (will be used as a  Warboss). A Forge World event only model I bought from Games Day.

 1 Runt Bot. A Forge World event only model I bought from Games Day. Will be used as a Warboss or Killa Kan depending on the game.

Still 22 miniatures from the dipping waiting to be finished, back to work...

S.

Status 57/365

Winter is coming...

No, not _that_ winter...

Just something for my fledgling Finnish Defence Force for Flames of War that I've been painting ever so slowly. Even though winter has passed, as this is more Continuation War than Winter War (ie. Finland vs Soviet Union during WWII).

2 x Artillery Battery of 76 K/02 guns

I tried to achieve something similar to the three-color camouflage that was used (Painting reference).

With these painted I now have a full-sized artillery battery: 1 Staff team, 1 Command team, 2 Spotter teams & 4 guns. And this brings the total size of my "army" to about 1250 points.

Originally I thought I would only count normal 28mm-sized miniatures for the 2013 Challenge. But as I think I will paint other units too for Flames of War I guess I will count these too. So I decided to count these as 2 miniatures (1 each) as there's about as much to paint as for a normal miniature.

S.

 Status: 53/365 

Working outside

So yesterday I mainly worked outdoors, at my balcony.

I started by basecoating some miniatures:

And here's some "instructions":

- A good ventilation is essential when spraypainting stuff, hence I do this on the balcony.

- The spray box has sides tall enough to catch overspray (and sometimes used to prop miniatures if the shape is difficult to paint otherwise)

- The spray box is elevated from the ground, so if some stray paint goes over, it dissipates before colouring the surface.

Then, I started dipping the miniatures I painted earlier this week:

1. Protect the working surface, the dip leaves deep stains otherwise which are almost impossible to remove.

2. Have enough dip, I usually pour it in a larger can so there's more space to spin the miniature.

3. Have something to hold your "dip-sticks" before and after dipping. I use boxes with holes in them :-P

4. Then just take your "dip-stick" and dunk it in the can.

I have made the "dip-sticks" with GW flying bases and bamboo skewers. Then I glue the miniatures on, the bond needs to be quite strong for this to work.

Dunk the stick in the can and then give it a spin to remove excess dip.

Admire your work, and then do it again for the rest of the sticks.

Oops. Sometimes accidents happen and the glue does not hold enough, or you hit the edges of the can while spinning and it breaks off. Then a pair of tweezers is useful so you can fish the miniature out and then shake it a couple of times to remove excess dip.

After a couple of hours outside, I took the miniatures inside (as I did not want to leave them out for the night). There's still some fumes so a well ventilated place is still essential.

Then just wait for the dip to dry completely, remove the miniatures from the sticks and base them. Will see about that today after work...

S.

A new foe approaches...

So, I finally got a new miniature done. Not much, but at least got something finished.

A Necron Overlord

And yes, it is my only finished Necron model so far...

The model is from Games Workshop, it is the one from the Necron Catacomb Command Barge / Annihilation Barge box (as I made an Annihiliation Barge, the overlord miniature was left over).

S.

Status: 51/365

Still nothing new...

Was away for the weekend playing boardgames with some friends, so still nothing new to show.

I have about 20 Ork miniatures ready to be dipped, but I want a bit more so the setup & clean process will take less time per miniature. There are 11 Lizardmen waiting on the line, when I get those done I can do the dipping part. Though there are two other miniatures on the painting table, and they are almost done. One of them will go to the dip, but the other might be ready for tomorrow...


So instead I'll show yet another old project:

High Elves from the Island of Blood starter pack. These were (again) painted for the release, and the additional units were needed at Games Day 2010 as we had a scenario to be shown there (I worked security, so did not play with these. But I brought the miniatures as none of us had enough by themselves).

10 Old Elf Archers & 3 Extra Sword Masters

Some High Elf Mages

5 Ellyrian Reavers

My favourite unit from the army: Sea Guard of Lothern, I think there were 17 of them (as one box had 10 with command and I used two boxes but the command models were not used twice).

I liked how the Prince Althran on Hippogriff turned out. It was an experiment in speed painting with heavy washes and drybrushing. The Prince on foot was converted with the same model from another starter box and spare parts from High Elf Prince & Noble box.

10 Sword Masters of Hoeth

S.