MOAB 2015, figure cases and finishing off the Reaper Bones Valkyrie

A good shopping week this week with a number of bargains to be had at the Bring and Buy stall at MOAB 2015.  But first a figure transport case.

Slide out trays

When I took El Torres to Canberra at the beginning of the year I transported the figure inside and old baby milk powder tin.  Quite a robust transport method but pretty daggy and hard to get the figure in and out safely.  As mentioned last week I started making a decent figure transport case.

The case is made out of 9mm (sides and top) and 12mm ply with some 3mm ply as the removable sliding side.  For strength I used 18mm square pine in each of the corners and glued and screwed the ply into the pine blocks.  This way there is something solid to hold the box together.

Slide side 'lid'

There are two slide out trays that the figure bases will be attached to (via screws) and then these trays slide into slots so they are held securely.  There is also a removable dividing wall so if I’m transporting two figures anything breaking off one figure won’t hit the other.  Also if I’m transporting something huge I can by removing the dividing wall.

The removable side slides into slots so that way I don’t have any hinges/clasps/etc that will catch on anything else.  The whole thing is painted with enamel paint on the outside and estapol varnish on the inside.  Finally a carry handle was attached.  The handle was a discount find from Ikea many years ago.  Now that I’ve got that out of my system I can stop wasting time building boxes that I will use once a year.

Reaper Bones Valkyrie

I also finished off my Valkyrie.  I could do a bit more but there are a few casting faults on the figure (esp in the arms) so I think I’m done.  Still struggling to shade metallics esp when they aren’t chainmail.

















As usual I went to MOAB for the Bring and Buy store.  After 30 minutes in the sun the store opened and the great unwashed mass descended.  I was looking for 54mm figures (or busts/etc - little chance there), maybe some 1/35 military figures and anything else that looked good.  However no 30+ year old boardgames are allowed anymore.  The cupboards are full.

I made out like a bandit.  On to the swag bag…

* Malifaux rules and 25 d6 dice - $2

Never going to play, just wanted to have a read.  Plus it came with dice.  Can’t walk past that at $2.  Or to put another way, I got 25 dice for $2.

* German machine gun team - $6

Just to add the collection.  Doubt I’ll use all of the figures but some may be used in a 1/35 diorama one day.  Never been opened.

* German flak panzer IV - $15

Since I did my Panzer II a year plus ago I’ve been wanting to do another 1/35 vehicle.  I’ve also been reading a number of old Military Modelling magazines and have skilled up quite a bit on technique so want to try another large piece.  So this was a great find as it saves me money as I don’t have to buy a full price kit.  I even had someone else ask if they could have it from me :)  Pays to line up for 30mins in the sun.  Never been opened.

* Jagpanzer IV - $12

It was raining Panzer IV variants at MOAB this year.  Again saves me buying a full price one later.  Never been opened.

* Plaster pots - $5

Nice looking pots (Hirst molds I’m pretty sure) which I purchased for 54mm scenery.  Symmetrical shapes are hard to get right by hand.

* Urmuth, scars of war - $15

I normally go over the bring and buy a number of times, just in case.  Really glad I did it this time as just before leaving I came across this.  54mm figure from Andrea. Oh yeah.

* Grondar Firebeard - $15

In the same area on the second hand table as Urmuth, another 54mm Andrea figure.  Again early glad I picked over the scraps this year.

So after such I good haul at the Bring and Buy I didn’t buy anything from the retail stores.  Now that I don’t do 28mm games much any more there isn’t that need to keep buying extra units for armies, etc.  Kind of feel a bit rude about not buying anything to be honest.

The quality of the items at the Bring and Buy store was better than previous years.  The usual huge amounts of 40K and Warhammer although I suspect there will be more Warhammer fantasy over the next few years as people start to dump their collections. Heard many complaints about the Age of Sigmar killing off Warhammer fantasy.  There was less mouldy old boardgames (sad face) and crummy 28mm scenery.  That’s right people, black spray painted foam “buildings” can be done by anyone, so your pieces aren’t going to sell at $20 each.  Lot of magazines too this year.  There was more 1/35 figures there but I had enough.  I didn’t really need more Germans.

It’s also interesting to see the trends of games go through retail and into the second hand store.  Years ago the Bring and Buy was full of LotR figures.  This year was the first scatterings of X-wing.  Like sands through the hourglass…

Some Reaper Bones Valkyrie and shopping

Valkyrie

This week I managed to get a bit more on the Valkyrie done.  I’ve had to restart her front skirt as my original metallic shading/highlighting went a bit off and everything ended up way too silver.  So I started again and used some dark red brass with a hint of purple as the shade colour.  This is because purple/red are on the opposite side of the colour wheel to green/yellow.  The shading worked a bit better.  However I still find it very hard to work with metallics at night where I’m working totally under lights.  Too much reflection going on there.  Still can’t work out what to do with her shield.  Also her hair seems a bit flat, but that is caused by all the metallics on the figure.  The usual perception of colour where something bright (shiny) makes everything else look dull.

On Saturday I got all inspired and started making a wooden carrying case for my larger (54m+) figures.  The case can hold two figures on slide out trays.  I had read an article with the design in an old issue of Figure International and liked the idea.  All the wooden construction is done and now I’m painting it up.  Photos next week.  Yes, I really should have spent the time painting but when you have the urge to do some woodwork, best go with the flow.  Just had that urge to make something physical.

On Sunday I went to OZ Comic-con with the family.  This was more a shopping trip for the wife and an excuse for her to try out her steampunk costume in public.  I think I saw at least ten Poison Ivy cos-play outfits.  However Firestorm models was also there so I picked up a few things.

The Violinist

First was the 54mm figure “The Violinist” from Nocturna.  I had seen this figure awhile ago and just loved the subject matter and pose.  Second was an impulse buy of a set of four dogs in 1/35-54mm from Reality in Scale.  Just some diorama bling really.

Woof woof

A slight detour and more Valkyrie

Some months ago I decided to make a glowing sign for work (I work in the Unix team) with both green and red leds in it which you could vary the brightness of, all cast into clear resin.  Sounded like a good idea at the time, but I underestimated the scale out slightly.  Near 100 leds later I realised I had a whole lot of soldering and wire cutting to do.  Thus for the last two week straight I’ve been concentrating on that.  But now it’s finished, the healing can begin and I’m back to painting.

Reaper Bones Valkyrie

Back to my Reaper Valkyrie I blocked out a few more colour areas.  Her main dress will be white, perhaps even going up to pearl white.  I’m going for the “just down from Asgard” look so she will be very bright.  Plus that is marked change from my usual green and brown dark age figure colour schemes.

To contrast the white her shirt will be dark red (mixed with a little purple) and her arm guards are a base colour of Khaki.  The same Khaki is the base of her hair.  However the arm guards will be darkened and highlighted up with white, where her hair will only be highlighted up with yellow.  Ie a golden blond.  The wife has commented that my blond hair colouring is pretty poor so I hope to improve on this.

For her front scale armour I’m going for a green/gold mixed from metallic green (the old Coat d’Arms range) and metallic gold.  Each scale will be individually shaded.  Squinting eyes on that one.

The shield cover I haven’t worked out yet.  Maybe more of the red, but I’m not really liking that.  Need some more thinking on that one.

OSL 101 - Shadows

Finally my daughter painted one of her figures.  She then showed be the big black stripe on the back.  I asked her what it was.  "It's her shadow dad".  Yep, she's already into OSL.  Shading needs some work but I'm humbled that she has worked out OSL without any assistance.

Flemish figures for Saga, Reaper Bones Valkyrie

I was going to start on my 54mm Samurai this week, but when I got to the painting bench there were a few too many half done figures.  So I decided to clean up some space first.

Flemish figures for Saga

I’ve had two Flemish figures for Saga half done for months so I tackled them first.  This was when I remembered I haven’t really painted much for two months as everything was off.  My brush control was all over the place, my mixing was bad, shading everywhere.  Always annoys me on how fast my skills drop off without use.  So I’m glad I did these figures before my next 54mm figure, if nothing else than to get back up to speed.

Next was a few Doom figures.  I pre-shaded and base coated the Cyber-demons and did a quick AP soft tone wash on the last of the Mancubus figures.  They aren’t pretty, but I just want them done so they can go back into the box never to be seen again.  No pictures for them.  Just couldn’t get the Mancubus paint scheme right so I covered up all the mistakes with AP washes and dry brushing.  Hopefully the Cyber Demons will be a bit better.  Just three of them and all the Doom figures are done.  Need to get them done before the next big box game with figures arrives :)

Reaper Bones Valkyrie

Many moons ago I purchased my first Reaper Bones figures, a Valkyrie, while in Denmark (as it seemed appropriate).  With just the few hours working on the Flemish figures I was already feeling better about painting and spent an enjoyable two hours working on her face.  For such a cheap figure ($4 AUD) she wasn’t too bad.  Very glad I swapped out the original sword and shield for a hard plastic spear and shield.  Looking forward to doing some more work on her.

Hmm, wall

While in the shed spraying the Cyber-demons I did some playing with a section of plastic card paving that I’m thinking of using as a wall (paving, rough stone wall - pretty much look the same).  This was pre-shaded as usual (white from top, black from bottom) and then sprayed a light brown.  I then did some dark green/brown spray along the bottom to try and represent some algae, etc.  Next will be some colour randomising on the stones to break up the monochromatic brown and oil washes after that I’m thinking.

Super glue vine

Finally I did some more practice on gluing very small leaves onto tiny twigs.  Really getting the hang of this and want to trial a few more pieces to improve my skill level on this technique.