Ex Royal Court Dwarf Jester with assistant

Why?– just a whim really, something I might like to paint, I have always been a succor for miniatures that alluded to some kind of story and interact well with each other for that purpose. Not always easy to find in straight gaming figures, not without converting anyway!

When I started this piece some time ago it really was just a practice piece to see how far I could go with Magic Sculp alone, as I do enjoy to carve and scrape away with a scalpel blade, the harder more clay like epoxies being ideal for this. As the Dwarf progressed to the final stages of fine detailing, I did find the Magic Sculp appeared slightly translucent, making it slightly more difficult to see the details especially when using Vaseline as the smoothing medium. So I decided to add Procreate in different quantities to the mix ensuring slightly firmer working putty with good detailing and more opaque qualities. The second companion piece was then used to experiment on different mixing ratios of the two putties all of which were successful and gave a good degree of variation in uses and properties.

I have plenty more ideas to work through, most of which are probably totally not viable commercially :-)

Don't be afraid to let me know what you think!........it can only help on the next ones...

Lead Rot Roulette

  

Upon delving to the near deepest recesses of the lead mountain for the first time in a few years, not something I recommend that often!  I stumbled across a small box of early Citadel stuff from the period where the description ‘cast in white metal’ was almost holey inaccurate due to some of the miniatures invariably being very dark grey to almost black, I suspect due to impurities in the alloys. Anyway to my horror albeit without surprise I found they were exhibiting the first signs of Lead Rot.  Some may say I should have let them rot, but rightly or wrongly I have decided to intervene in what could have been a grizzly end for the poor C 13’s and others. Anyway after a day or two soaking in bleach and then a good wire wool clean (whilst wet to ensure no breathing of nasty dusts etc.) they are now primed in Tamiya metal primer and hopefully safe from any further harm! I might even paint a few now.

The good thing about all this is that the night goblins gave me some inspiration for sculpting a companion piece for my recently finished Dwarf Jester both of which I should be ready to unleash upon an unsuspecting world in about a week ;-) !!...........until then au revoir

don hernandez tenario di maritorne by Degra (35mm)

Thought I had better paint something from this Century! Nice little resin sculpt by Degra standing 32mm to the eyes. Do not know if the name means, or if it is anyone specific, my Spanish is not that good. I was due to post my next sculpt, but due to a small accident which lead to a broken nose and foot.........on the sculpt that is! I am having to do some repairs so  hopefully done soon.

 

 

 

Citadel Old Timer Wizard

Well, with the limited time I have had over the past month or so I have been doing a bit more sculpting, something small, hopefully something to show soon....ish. On the painting front I have managed to knock up this quickie, one of my favourite Old timer Citadel Wizards, small little figure standing no higher than a dwarf.

Miniatures of Madness

Well for those of you interested the winners and runner up sets from the Frothers 2010 Sculpting competition are up for sale, including 'The Grandfather' my humble entry. Each set is a only £8 GBP inclusive of P&P anywhere which I think represents terrific value for money! Or for the complete set a mere £20. All for a limited time only until the 6th of May

http://www.frothersunite.com/shop/

Asgard Half Troll Chieftain FM27 v2

Well this is the first project completed this year! The Asgard FM27v2 Half Troll Chieftain with a couple of slave orcs, one of my favourite miniatures from the mid 80’s. I used to think he was quite big at the time but 38mm to the top of the head he would probably only measure up to a big Orc these days!

Very detailed little minis increase the painting time a bit, the only extras added; a repair to the spike including moderate extension (I know, I know ) a bronze shield to the chieftain, and a repair/replacement to the pole arm of the slave orc; I think it used to be an axe head. The Chieftain has been lying around undercoated for more than 10 years, so quite happy its now fully dressed. Base made from critter clay and painted along with the miniatures in a mix of acrylics, oils and printers inks.

 

 

  

 

  

The Grandfather…..Cthulhu inspired

Well have not done a great deal of painting recently, but I have done a little sculpting!

When Frothers Unite announced their Cthleudo 2010 Sculpting contest (mix of Cthulhu mythos and Cluedo for a game at Salute 2011) I thought ‘nope’ can not think of anything to do with that and know very little about Cthulhu anyway. Until that is 2 weeks before the deadline I had one of those Time Bandit moments of an ‘idea forming in my head’ and rashly decided to proceed. After about 3 days of fine tuning the idea and working up a 3d sketch in putty to test the engineering aspects for casting, there was a week and a half to sculpt it…never again! Any way I am happy that it placed 2^nd in the Evil Lurkers category, and will be cast up and made available. Overall an enjoyable if stressful change from swinging the brush and some useful practice in pushing the putty!

The piece is designed as nominal 28mm and stands a total of about 54mm high

Citadel Imperial Dwarfs (Part 2)

Well… have had very little painting time over the past month which is typical when starting a new project! So a bit surprised I’ve actually managed this much. So here are the next six which takes me to just over a third of the unit being done.  Painting time per figure has come down when compared to the first batch, helped by treating them as unit pieces rather than individual display pieces and not getting too hung up on imperfections.

Imperial Dwarfs

The unit so far

I really need to start some other projects soon as these were only designed as a secondary project to practice skills etc. but I’ve got into them so will make sure they are progressed!

Citadel Imperial Dwarfs

Well the first 5 are done in what I hope to be an ongoing series between other projects. To be honest these poor critters have been subject to ruthless experimentation and re-learning mistakes, but as  they are to be part of a unit I didn’t have to get too hung up them individually, and by the end was moving along quite quickly…..for me!

I have to admit the enjoyment of finishing anything has been a pleasant experience and with only another 25 or so to do in this unit, things do not look too daunting! Now where is the primer…

Citadel Imperial Dwarfs

Have gone for an on campaign look down and dirty!

On the attack!

On the run!

Asgard Half Troll Chieftain WIP

Well this was just supposed to be a simple single figure job……but has now become a vignette, don’t know how that happened!

I think that classic enigmatic expression on the half troll combined with the wonderfully character rich slave orcs just screamed to be placed in context. This is now in the painting queue, and hopefully will not take too long, more work being required on the basing once the figures are painted.

Meanwhile I have been practicing on my painting, and I need it. The unfortunate painting fodder has been some OOP Citadel Imperial Dwarfs, the first few of which are being based and will be posted in the next few days!

Asgard Half Troll Chieftain Vignette

Asgard Chieftain with a pair of slave orcs