MOAB 2018

Well, been a bit quiet.  Home life has been kicking me around recently with lots of 'around the house' projects that took up most of the last month.  Those now are finally done and I can get some free time on the weekend to do my stuff instead of home stuff.

MOAB 2018 was once again on over the long weekend and I headed for the bring-and-buy.  After waiting in line for 45mins (every year I'm having to go a bit earlier :) ) it was into second hand game heaven.

Every year I love seeing the gaming trends come and go.  This year it was obvious that X-wing was on the decline with lots of items for sale.  I found quite a few bargains and some just random things I didn't want but were priced at the 'why not' price point.

* Various lego sets - $38

Not only were all complete, but the boxes had all been opened very carefully to avoid ripping.  Plus they had been stored away from the sun and not crushed at all.  Some true anal retentive behaviour there.  The kids of course just ripped them apart.

* Bane 75mm $30

A cheap 75mm figure as a painting project.  

* Walrus 1/72 - $10

I've been after this kit for some time but it is out of production it seems.  I have dreams of dioramas around this plane.  Too much Biggles as a kid.

* Barn - $5

Awesome buy at $5, plus inside the box were three sprues of the Renada wattle fences as well.  $45 for $5.  Already built the barn.

* Reaper Bones Fire giant (old) - $10

Another figure for painting just because.

* GW LotR Balrog - $20

In pieces and paint stripped (badly) but complete.  Not really for playing LotR (a game and figure range I love) with but more for a huge figure and only at $20.  Will need a fair amount of putty work. 

* Tree set - $10

Purchased this mainly for the plastic tree pieces for dioramas.

* Battlemasters map - $5

Huge hold out vinyl map with a hex grid.  Purchased to keep the kids occupied for a day or so over the school holidays

* DS game - $3

For the kids, can't complain at $3

* Gamer's grass - $10

The only thing I actually purchased from a retail store at MOAB because they were on special.

So some good buys and the kids were pretty happy with all the Lego.  Resisted all the Walking Dead sets there that were very cheap and other things I just didn't need.  There were some great MDF laser cut sets on sale from various retail sellers.  But I just can't justify buying them given that I'm not playing anything at the moment.  

Blacksmith workshop

Slightly off topic but I went on a two day blacksmith workshop course held by the https://eveleigh.works  I took the 'Blacksmith Introduction I' course.  Great fun pounding away on red hot metal and I only lost the hair on two fingers.  We made a coat hook holder with consisted of two hooks (with spirals) hot riveted onto a base plate.  The baseplate also had some details of a cut line rectangle.  Those lines are meant to be straight.  On my piece I then hot cut out the corners with a custom chisel and used a ball pein hammer to add some texture details.

Photo bomb tour below...

250kg anvil

The old furnaces

Racks of steel ready to be worked on

Our instructor in front of the large power hammer

The two hooks tapered.  This took half of the first day.  Noodle arms at the end

Baby gas furnaces.  Not something to stand in front of

The anvil I was working on with some tools of the trade

The classroom with the striking anvils in the middle of the room

So much history laying around - a die for a hook.

Hooks now with spirals

Hooks bent to shape - this was the end of day 1

Day 2 - Marking out the back plate - the last time anything was square on this.  Witness punched holes to help guide the fuller.

When the anvil has two hardy holes, you know it's serious

Random spanner left laying around

Bench (well floor) grinder of death.  In the time before OHS a big red sign meant this machine kills people.  The wheel has sharp teeth for chewing up metal.  Not sure how you would stop it from flipping the work piece up.

Hooks hot riveted onto the base plate and coated in bees wax

54mm Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2) part 3, Stormcast Eternal conversion, Celtic Chieftain bust

54mm Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2)

Well I did a bit more fiddling on the green cloak of the knight and got happier with it.  I decided the spear needed a pennant.  I first tried doing it in paper but the paper kept folding after painting, even after being covered in PVA glue.  Next I decided to make one out of green stuff.  After cutting to shape and attaching to the spear I created the folds and let it dry.

Green stuff pennant

The green stuff needs to be supported (I used a plastic bag underneath to avoid the green stuff sticking) otherwise it will sink before drying.  The advantage of green stuff for this kind of work is that you can get it very thin, it holds the shape and when bumped (as happens, esp. with flags/etc) it doesn't break as it's always flexible.  I'm really happy with the contrast work I got on the pennant.  Unfortunately makes the rest of the figure look a bit flat.  Next time..

Green cloak of many coats..

For the ground work I tried two different techniques.  Normally I sculpt the ground with milliput/modelling clay, glue on a sand/rock mix, then add flock/scatter and then static grass tufts, etc.  This time I mixed-up a batch of the usual sand/rock mix and adding the scatter and bits of static grass (the leftover jar from previous flocking jobs with all kinds of bits in it) and mixed it all together and covered all the base with this.

Ground work start

The variation in materials gave a much better ground texture.  Many people just use real dirt, plaster, ground debris for their bases and I see why now.  Another lesson on why you should try new things, esp when many other people are doing it that way.  The second technique was for the static grass.  Rather than just put it on, or use pre-done tufts I used the 'gently blowing on' technique that I first read about from Sheperd Paine.

Finished ground work

You sprinkle the grass on and then blow it from the side.  This blows off the excess but also makes the remaining static grass stand up.  Works a treat.  I also added in some longer grass bits bent over in the direction of the wind that is blowing the cloak and pennant.

The expression "before anyone did anything, Elvis did everything" could be equally said for Sheperd Paine.  The book "Building and Painting Scale Figures" is a fantastic reference and is the book that really turned me from an army painter to a figure painter.

Cut down and wire supports added

I purchased five GW Stormcast Eternals secondhand in Cancon this year as experimental figures.  The second figure I wanted to convert to a chaos corrupted version.  I had a vision of a tentacle arm going through a nose, with the nose being on the chest.

Shaping areas

Then I added some eyes as per the usual "lots of eyes on chaos things".  All very standard and a bit of a throw back to the old school Chaos marines.

Eyes...

For sculpting I'm using a mix of milliput an green stuff in approx. 60/40% mix with a dash of harsh language.

Celtic Cheiftain 1/16 bust

Finally started on the Celtic Chieftain bust.  Starting to get the bronze where I would like it.  Flesh next.  Need to work out the cloak and shirt colours and I'm thinking about using the airbrush on these given the large flat areas.

54mm Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2) part 2

Teutonic knight of colours

So lost a weekend to moving the parents.  On the other weekend I got the cloak on the Teutonic Knight sorted out.  Trying green and having limited success.  My main issue is that I seem to have streaks/lines in the paint.  I'm thinking this is from the JS paints being a bit thicker.  However I haven't had this with others so maybe it's just the Pthalo Green?  The cloak colours were

base - Pthalo green + yellow oxide
up - green and yellow ink, with more pthalo green added
down - base + violet mix from the JS Ultramarine Blue and red ink.  Random shades using the base + ultramarine blue for variety.

I did try using white to highlight the green but that (as expected) chalked out the green.  I also found that adding yellow made a much more dynamic highlight over the white.  Really added shine to the green over lightness (aka whiteness).

For the three shadow folds the wife suggested making them each a different height (originally two were roughly the same).  This added greatly to the dynamics of the cloth.

I'm not sold on the green to be honest.  It doesn't sit right to me.  Perhaps it's just too much, or maybe needs some texture on it?

28mm bridge

Second up was adding some flock/scatter to the bridge to make it look a bit more run down.

fix up time

Finally started to fix up a Celtic bust I purchased awhile ago.  The figure came with a left hand instead of a right hand.  So I cut off the fingers and thumb, glued on the hand stump and started to sculpt new fingers/thumb and fix up the sleeve.  For the sculpting I used a mixture of green stuff and standard milliput.

54mm Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2)

Andrea Teutonic Knight (FP-2)

So my 1-1 scale terrain project has finished up so I'm now able to get back to some painting finally.  In the queue for some time was a 54mm knight with a spear (Andrea FP-2) that I purchased off eBay.

Although a Teutonic knight I wanted to do something different to the usual white as I've got a few other Teutonic figures in the cupboard.  Sorry Mike Blank.  So after much head scratching I went for a tradition(ish) blue/yellow scheme with purple highlights and green (at this stage) on the cloak.  I also wanted to try using the mixtures of two of the main colours to help shade the third colour.  Ie mix blue/purple and use this mix to shade the yellow.

For the blue I used JS Ultramarine Blue as the base, shaded with VMC Dark Sea Blue and highlighted with white and Cerulean Ink from Liquidtec.  I also added some of the base blue back to the mix to stop is chalking out so much.  It has become rather dull but I think that matches the fabric look I am after.  I may also do some dust/stains on the bottom of the cloth area later.  I did try and use the purple (see later) in the mix but that ended with the blue being too violet.

For yellow I used JS Yellow Oxide shaded with a mixture of the light purple used else where and some VMC armour brown.  Basically a very slight darker orange.  I was trying to use the secondary colours from mixing the primary colours of the figure in the shading to have some colour harmony.  Highlights with white, VMC Light Yellow and VGC amarillo yellow ink added to keep the colour intensity.  Really starting to like using inks in the highlights.

For the purple I make a mix of Liquidtec Dioxazine purple (a very dark purple) with white added to make a light purple.  The horns use this as a base and the horn tabs are this colour neat.

Originally I was going to paint the cloak in the purple but it didn't work.  Instead I swapped to a dark green (complementary to the blue/yellow) which helps the tunic pop some more.  More of that to come.

The armour was just the usually black undercoat and then some very gentle dry brushing in metallics and shading with dark sea blue and violets in the shadow areas.

On the rear of the figure the unpainted tab is some milliput that I added to give the cloak something to rest on and stop is sagging while the glue dries as the original fit wasn't that great.  I do have concerns that during gluing the cloak will sag so may also pin this.

28mm bridge painted with oils

Also painted up a 28mm bridge I purchased some time ago.  I used a technique of using oil paints smeared over a light brown acrylic base to represent a wood pattern.  Now need to add some dressing (plants, etc) and clean up some of the highlights.  Really just and excuse to break out the oil paints.

Terminator Genisys human

Finally finished the two Terminator Genisys figures.

...more humans