Degra El Torres is done

Almost like a real one

I made it, with just under a week before Cancon (although the last two weeks were pretty easy).  It was just the last few pieces done this week.  First a light varnish with Vallejo Matt varnish.  I use an airbrush to do all my varnishing now and can’t recommend it enough.  No more rattle can and speckled finishes and frosting from old cans.  Also $5 for a small bottle of varnish is a lot better than the $25-30 for a spray can and lasts longer.

Once the varnish was done I did some more dust work on the boots and lower legs with some pigments to add to the dust washes already done.  I also added some more rust pigments to the tongs.

Unable to stop fiddling I redid some of his face, mainly the forehead.  It just was a bit too plain.  I’m not 100% with the result but had to stop as things are getting lumpy due to all the repaints done.

Then it was on to gluing.  I used PVA glue for the smaller items and polystyrene glue to attach the figure to the modelling foam.

Lastly was the brass plaque.  After a few nights of playing around with the Dremel and some brass strips I was getting better at engraving, but not good enough.  The low quality of the engraving would be a bit distracting to the overall finish.  So off to Mister Mint and $20 later I was all done.  This makes the plaque cost more than the rest of the piece combined.  I also found Mister Mint have gone high tech and don’t do the engraving by hand.  Instead they have what I assume to be a little CNC machine which they just type in the text, select the font and size of work piece and everything is done by machine.  Great of the end consumer but a little sad as one more skill is lost from the workforce.  I glued the brass onto the wooden base with some two part epoxy.

I’m a bit out of sorts now.  Happy El Torres is done, but still wanting to do better.  I have a number of other things to look at (finish the Doom figures, some figures for Saga, 1/35 scale german AT gun, the banshee bust, 54mm Pegaso figure) but I think I will wait until after the painting classes at Cancon to see what to do next.  Maybe some 28mm Saga figures just to keep things ticking over as they are pretty easy to do.

I also have to consider do I keep doing two streams of painting, one ‘churn and burn’ army stuff and the other high detail work?  But the army level is starting to loose it’s appeal.  I feel I’ve painted enough armies and maybe will just finish off the few remaining ones I have (LoTR elves, few saga bits).  Mind you I said that a few years ago when I was coming to the end of the LoTR figures and then went out and purchased two armies for the then new Saga game.  After all everyone knows that you die when you paint your last figure.

El Torres near the end

Ready for a display base

Bit of a quiet one this week.  There was some fiddling around on El Torres as I redid the spot highlights on the front breast plate armour (again) and smoothed out the shading transitions.  After reading one of the painting guides in issue 20 of Figure Painter Magazine (a great magazine) I added a 5 o’clock shadow to the face.  I also added some black washes around the rivets on the armour to try and make them stand out a bit more.

All this fiddling did however result in a few mistakes that then took almost as long again to fix up.  So I’ve pretty much had to say no more so I don’t ruin things.  However what I would really like to do is varnish the figure and then start playing with some oil washes.  My intent was to do a trail figure before El Torres and the Pegaso figure I have but with time constraints and trying to get something ready for Cancon I had to go with El Torres off the bat.

Ready for a figure

The base is also finished.  I added the extra grass tufts and painted those.  I also added a few birch seeds acting as leaves.  Insanity is gluing individual leaves and taking serious consideration to the orientation of each leaf.  The old days of PVA glue and dip in flock are gone.

Those leaves never seem random enough

So what is left?  Just a light varnish coat and to glue everything together.  Due to rainy weather I didn’t get the varnish done this weekend so that will be next week.  Then the glue together of all the bits and final photos :)  I already have a carry case (actually an old baby milk powder tin) sorted out and have predrilled some holes in the bottom of the display plinth to attach the whole piece to the tin.  That way it can safely be transported.

MOAB and Sy-Co conventions 2014

Once again I made the annual pilgrimage to MOAB and the Bring-and-Buy store.  I never get that much as I don’t play Warhammer or 40K which is probably 75% of the content.  However I’m always on the lookout for old Ral Partha figures, boardgames from the 1970’s that no one plays (but I have fond childhood memories of always wanting) and hopefully some special thing (like getting 30 back issues of WGI from Cancon on year at $2 each - yeah!).  So below is the swag from the Bring-and-Buy.

Academy German tank crew at $3

More 1/35 figures are always good practice, and this included 40 odd American and German jerry cans which someone had added to box - score!

Hail Caesar at $40

I managed to avoid collecting Fields of Glory (which I never would have played, just wanted a copy) but couldn’t resist Hail Caesar.  All those battle reports in WGI were definitely a factor.

Pegaso Models St John Order Knight at $40

This was the special item.  I’ve been wanting to get a large scale, good quality figure as part of my painting journey.  I keep looking at ordering one online (from Pegaso, Scale75, etc) but keep putting it off thinking I’m not ready, etc, etc.  However I was hoping that there would be something like this at MOAB this year and there was.  The god of lead dollies was kind to me this year.

I had to resist strongly a box of 28mm Warlord Romans at $20 and various Germanic war bard figures.  Still have that little voice telling me I need to have a large historic army (or two) before I die.  Buying Hail Caesar was an effort to get that voice to quiet down.  But 200 28mm Romans would look so good…

After enduring the smell of the Bring-and-Buy I made some retail purchases to get the swag bag up to size.

7 norman infantry (Conquest Games) at $9

I wanted a Norman war band for Saga but I’ve put that on hold for awhile.  However these two loose sprues (5 figure normal sprue and 2 figure command sprue) is enough to make up most of the 8 figure Flemish mercenary unit from Saga.

Vallejo air colour - basic colours at $50

16 air colour paints, what’s not to like

Vallejo Black surface primer at $19



That night I went out to The Combat Company for their Sy-Co convention and big kids night.  Had fun, played Zombicide, chatted about painting with Luke from The Sound of Machines, etc.  I went in the 20 minute speed painting contest which was great.  Wet on wet blending whether you like it or not.  Tried my hand at the dice rolling game but lucked out.  While there I picked up something from the specials bin.

Degra Miniatures - 54mm El Torres at $9.50

A really interest looking large scale figure which at that price was an easy purchase.  Another adventure into non 28mm scale figures.

So a good, long day in what is usually the second biggest figure shopping day for me after Cancon.  New rules, new paints and some great new figures.