Cancon 2017 and Crystal Dragon

Well Cancon is over for another year.  I failed to place with any of my entries in the Crystal Dragon but my daughter not only got a Gold in the Hatchlings (Junior) section she also got Best in Show!  The Darth Vader quote “The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.” seems rather apt.  At least she was nice and asked “When are you going to win an award daddy?”.  Pictures of the mermaid piece, award and prizes below…

Mermaid in the sea - Gold award

Hatchlings Best of Show

Prize pack

The second hand store was run differently this year with staggered entry which I think worked out ok.  The horrible crush from last year was missing thankfully.  I also scored pretty well.  There were also some great purchases to be had however I already had the items in question.  This means I’m getting older and my classic cool games are now moving into the “old crud no one wants” category ;)

Second hand store purchases

- Urak-kai scouts $18 - Always wanted these to add into my existing force.

- Gondor Knights $22 - I’ve got one box already so now I have enough for a decent size force (5 calvary figures alone don’t do much in LoTR I found).

- Gondor bolt thrower x 2 $12 - Only wanted one but at that price why not.

There were a number more LoTR box sets but I resisted.  It was hard.  I’m sure I’ll regret it later.  Maybe I did need another 10 wargs..

- Divine Right $10 - I purchased mine for $70 off eBay many years ago :(  This will be gifted to a friend who remembers the good olde days.

- Reaper Bones Wyrmgear dragon $15 - Clockwork dragon for $15, why not.

- Ex-Manus Explorer in Void Suit $3 - Really like this figure and can see a sea (narf) diorama with it.  Plus I saved $5 over the normal price!


Purchased

- Ex-Manus  Sinister Suit  - love the Cthulhu head on a carnival ring master.

- Reaper  Bones animals - animals good.  Just because I could really.

- Eureka Miniatures  figures - Count Brass and an Order of the Wolf from the Hawkmoon range.  Love the wolf figure.  Some more animals as I wanted some lions for my gladiators and some ravens for the Mr Sinister figure.

- Rowboat - cute little mdf rowboat from Battlefield Accessories  Some great stuff there.

I also got some more Reaper Bones for the kids (Son got some skeleton archers, the daughter a female wizard and a female rogue) and some mdf buildings from Knights of Dice for them to make as they have been enjoying playing with the existing 28mm terrain I have.

Halo Fleet battles human captain bust finished

Halo Fleet Battles Human Captain bust

The week I finished off the human captain bust from Halo Fleet Battles just in time for Cancon.  Wasn’t planning on taking him down but he went rather well and in the end I will take him over the Amy Johnson bust.  She is painted with straight out of the box flesh colours and it shows.  Long live the new flesh (colour mix)!

Back view

For the captain bust my colours were as follows.  Very much a study in blue.

Main Shirt
- VMC Sky Blue 40%
- VMC Flat Blue 50%
- VGC Ghost Grey 10%
Highlights with more Ghost Grey and white, shadows with Prussian Blue

Under shirt
- VGC Ghost Grey - base
Highlights with white, shadows with VMC Dark Sea Blue (very small amounts and glazed)

Hard Amour
- VMC Prussian Blue 50%
- VGC Night Blue 50%
Highlights with Flat Blue, Shadows with more Night Blue and Black.

Flesh base
“Cimmerian King” mix 50%
VGC Bleached Bone 50%
Highlights/Shadows as per Cimmerian King

Hair
- VMC Black/Brown 50%
- VGC Cold Grey 40%
- VGC Ghost Grey 10% - I found the Ghost grey makes this a bit purple so later on swapped it out for a straight grey mixed from black/white.

Under the sea...

My daughter has finished up her mermaid diorama.  Just needs the mermaid to be glued to the base.  I wish she would paint more than once a year :)  My son (a bit too young to enter) is very keen on painting currently so I will get him some figures at Cancon (probably Reaper Bones) just for him, so he has his own figures rather than getting them off dad.

Swim time

Now the wait until Friday.  Going to be a long week at work waiting…

Halo Fleet battles human captain and lots of terrain

Halo Fleet Battles human captain

Had a bit of a heat wave this week so in 34 degrees painting isn’t really an option, even with a wet palette.  January is always a bit of an enforced quiet time.  I did a bit of work on the Halo human captain bust.  I used the Cimmerian King flesh range but I started with a lighter base colour by adding in more VGC Bonewhite.  I wanted the bust to have a very pale look (fluro light tan ;)), tired and not that well.  After all he has been in space without any real sun for most of his life (well that’s my story).  He is going rather well and I’m thinking he may even make it for Cancon.

Just add mermaid

My daughter is slowly getting her mermaid diorama underway.  Should be able to get there :)

All the toys..

Keeping the kids occupied in school holidays time I got out all my 28mm gaming boards and terrain and let them have a play with it.  I had some 28mm Wargames Factory Persians that I had made up but were never going to be used.  So now they have been adopted by the kids to become guards of the various houses.

I also had some 28mm Wargames Factory (more bring and buy specials) Celtic calvary so I made up a figure for each for them so they can have some riders (for taking messages between houses).  Looking at all the terrain laid out I was thing that my 12 year old self would have killed for all this terrain.  Never too late for a happy fulfilled childhood.

Guarding the keep, with cars at the ready..

1/35 Tamiya German and starting the Halo Fleet battles human captain

1/35 German AT gun crew by Tamia

This week I knocked off one of the 1/35 German figures from the Tamiya 37mm AT gun set. This was the figure carrying the 37mm rounds to the AT gun.  I found it really hard to get  his face right.  I was using the Cimmerian King flesh mix I developed instead of the usually ‘orange’ standard flesh colours but found it kept going very purple on me.  Also the face was a bit uneven (it is a 40 year old figure) and I had to redo one eye over 5 times.  Found the Cimmerian king face so much easier to do even though it’s the same size.  The figure just needs the rifle added to the back which will need a bit of putty work to join the gaps.

Hmm, messy face

I redid the eyes on my Amy Johnson bust as I thought there was too much white in the eyes.  That didn’t take long and I’m a bit happier with them now.  I also redid some of the Cimmerian King’s eye work as after a week I was able to spot a few things that looked off.  Pre Cancon jitters I suspect.

Trying out some of the blue range

I have a number of blues but most are too purple (a lot of the VGC range) or too bright.  Maybe I'm just keyed into Ming blue?  To get around this I got some VMC Prussian Blue for my Halo Fleet battles human captain bust.  Traditional I know, but he is a human in the navy so he should be in blue :)  I’m going to be using the following blues on him

VGC Night Blue
VMC Prussian Blue
VMC Flat Blue
VMC Sky Blue

However I need to work out his hair colour first.  The bust is of an older man so I’m thinking black with grey.  But I’m not sure on that and need to have that sorted before I start going full ahead with the various blues.

Think I’ll go watch some more Ben Komets videos and let that bubble away for awhile.  If you haven’t already the Patreon channel Ben Komets (https://www.patreon.com/ben_komets/) has is well worth the investment.  The only downside is realising how fast and good he paints.

No dust on you...

I picked up a nice way to keep dust of figures underway.  A 2L drink bottle bottom upside down is a quick and easy way to get a dust shield.  Think I got that from Mike Blank somewhere along the line.

Microballons at lasts

Lastly The Combat Company now stock the AK range of diorama materials.  Finally found some microballons for the next snow scene!

Christmas, New year, 54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) done and some Dungeon Saga

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.  I had a week off but that was for the kids (and shopping) so not much getting done there compared to the previous week off when I did all the work on Conan.

54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan)

So first up I finished off my 54mm Cimmerian King figure by Andrea.  The last bit was fiddling on the base.  Everything was glued down with two part epoxy or PVA glue for the lighter items.  I added in a blood spattered dirk and broken spear to the base and made a banner from green stuff.

Best flesh I have ever done

The banner was done by rolling out very thin green stuff and then crumpling it into the desired shape and letting it dry.  Once dry I painted in a light purple to add some colour to the base (otherwise a very dull brown) and to catch the eye.  Finally I touched up the black edging and called him done.

Dungeon Saga Salamander

For a break between big jobs I did another Dungeon Saga hero figure, the fire breathing Salamander.  I tried out some Jo Sonja’s paints for the first time (they were cheap during a boxing day sale).  Very nice colours and they cover quite well.  However when they say matte paint, they really mean it.  I tried a bright orange for the skin and it was very orange, and the flattest finish I have seen.  More so than matt varnish.  So when other people have mentioned that the Vallejo paints are slightly satin in finish, I now see what they mean.  Like many things related to painting, it’s all relative.

Dungeon Saga zombie

Finished off three zombies from Dungeon Saga in the quick and dirty method.  Shouldn’t have gone with a brown for the pants and it blends too much.  Never mind, these guys die off pretty quick :)

1/35 Tamiya German 37mm AT crew

Next up in the “in between figures” will be another 1/35 German from the Tamiya 37mm AT gun set.  Really need to have a go at more 1/35 WW2 figures but just not enough time.  2017 will be the year of the Tamiya tank diorama (which I’m sure I will curse like the Violinist) I think.

500 pages!!

On Christmas Eve I found out that The Combat Company (just down the road from me) had the new FAQ Dioramas from AK in stock.  500 pages of diorama love :)  Always best to buy the Xmas presents you want.

Halo Fleet battles bust

Finally also at The Combat Company they had the “2016 Halo Fleet Battles Tournament” box on sale.  So for under $20 I picked up the set as it had two 1/10 (?) size busts in it (as prizes I assume).  I’ve assembled both and prepared them by undercoating them black and then doing white highlights to suggest shadow placements.  I’ll probably do the human figure first.

Halo Fleet battles bust

Four weeks to Cancon and I’ll probably take the Cimmerian King, the Amy Johnson bust and the Violinist diorama down to enter in the painting competition.  I was going to take the old Ral Partha (mini) Death Dealer but I don’t think he is up to scratch.  I love the figure but the others I’ve done more recently are better.  Maybe I’ll be able to do the 75mm version for next year.