A shit load of projects

I've been blogging now for two years (it's the anniversary today) and the more I blog, the more ideas I seem to get. The quantity and scope of these ideas quickly snowball and I soon find myself trawling through google images for further inspiration and hobby websites to purchase the bits neeeded, all of which completelty overwhelms my actual blog entries and the actual time I can realistically allocate to making them happen. It's very quick and easy to make a few purchases when at the embryonic stage of these ideas (and they pile up quickly) and the arrival of them in the post leads initially to elation and a re-kindling of the excitement of that idea before it recedes into a slightly hazy memory as I have to stash the bits into the depths of a muddled to-do box that itself is hidden away in a hard-to-reach cupboard in the kitchen. There's always another project that I've made a start on and that needs to be finished first. To help keep these burgeoning ideas alive I have a huge "Ideas" folder on my laptop and on my phone (I must merge these one day) which includes research, images, annotations, sketches etc. I occasionally remember to re-visit this folder and when I do I am instantly again overwhelmed with the shit load of projects that I have to get around to doing.


This blogging space is great for trying to stay on top of it all, for setting realistic timeframes, for organising my thoughts for future projects and probably even more so for keeping tabs on the gamut of ongoing projects. Who else has a load of draft posts stashed on their blog, hinting and reminding of some of those embryonic, to-do ideas?





Right now I decided it's a good time to take stock with where I am with all of these hobby projects. So in an unusual step amongst a lot of the blogs I follow and certainly this one, I'll show a load of wip photos and reduce the effect of dropping "finished model bombs" which I have tended to do in my posts.
Let's start with my two, early days wip boxes, spot anything cool or interesting..? Can you see where I'm going with any of these?

Next up are some wip projects that are a bit further down the line, starting with some primed dungeon furniture for my Heroquest/Frostgrave family games. A combination of Grendel Scotia scenery and some original Heroquest parts which have been added too with some insulation foam to create a stone base and bits from my bitzbox to decorate the tables and stalls:

And here's the last batch of dungeon tiles, with some pretty patterns engraved onto the floor:

Next up; the models for a small Rogue Trader, Bob Olley warband, Squat, Ogryn, Ork, female cyborg? and a dinosaur. The dinosaur, nicked from my son's stash, adds to the wrinkle factor. He'll be given some guns and armour and perhaps even a bionic leg (I've a picture in my inspiration folder of course).

Sticking with 40k, I've got some more Heresy Gangers to add to my Freeway Fighter posse:

Here's another big project which I'm chomping on the bit (s) to get into, Nurgle Blightkings, 40k'd up with some steampunk additions. Yep, Blightkings, mashed with the drones, the Skiitari, some small clock cogs and a tank. Plus a load of other bits I couldn't be bothered to get out and photograph. I have a load of ideas and inspiration for this, but the gist of it is that these will be loosely based upon the original, classic and iconic Nurgle Champions from the Realms of Chaos, which I recently completed the collection and painting of:

Next up is a project I've wanted to do for ages, a trash-bash spaceship. It will be for my Logan's World Mercenary Warband and will be comprised largely from stuff I've saved from the recycling, as well as some old broken toys, some old computer parts and a few other bits I've picked up. This stuff is all hidden away in the depths of my garage. I've ordered a few additional bits from Zinge Industries so that I have hatches and doors to add a level of realistic detail. Can you see where this might be going?..

Ps. the decorated yoghurt bottles were a skittles game that my 4year old made for me on Father's day. We've had fun with it, but the wife will just chuck them if I don't rescue them... The sparkly decorations that he lovingly put on will be recycled as gems on some Frostgrave bases. See nothing goes to waste, everything can be added to my to-do list.

I've recently realised that my love of modelling, making, being creative and imaginative in three dimensions stems from my childhood love of Lego. Which of course has also been rekindled (much like my love of toy soldiers) by my children. They love Lego, we love making it together, so I was lucky enough to receive this from my kids (read wife) for Father's day:

It's possibly the first time that my wife has acknowledged my geekyness and love of toys/models, but I'm very happy doing this with my kids. As this is MY lego, they've been relegated to the role of parts finders, much to their disgust.

And finally something that I'm actually painting, although progress is slow as I'm distracted by my Lego Millenium Falcon and the European Championships (as well as all the usual life stuff getting in the way); a dragon ogre shaggoth conversion:

So, to conclude this lengthy post, here are the shitload of projects that I have, at one time or another, flying around in my imagination, in need of tying down:

Realm of Chaos Retinue Table challenge

Bitzbox warband challenge

Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge

Fighting fantasy Warband

Rogue Trader Post-Apocolyptic mercenary project

Dungeon Tiles



And projects I'll be starting:



Steampunk Nurgle warband, based upon the original Classic nurgle champions

Bob Olley warband with dinosaur

Trash bash space ship

Finishing a full 3rd edition Nurgle army

Orc and Gonlin mercenary contingent

Chaos Ally Mercenary contingent


Fuck me that's a lot of work. When will I be too old for all of this?

Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge: 10 Ghouls

I absolutely love these Heresy ghoul models, I saw them years ago painted by Mika over on the Warhamner Forum and loved how he had created a great contrast between the ghouk's skin and the dark reds of the blood and gore. They are pretty dark miniatures (I found applying the blood and gore to the baby quite upsetting) but they are wonderful characterful sculpts that are a real pleasure to paint. There's actually not much to them, they are mostly flesh with a few other details so it was imperative that I got the skin tone spot on. I realised early on that it would have to have a green tinge so that it complemented the inevitable red of the blood, but I also wanted to create a layered, transparency it the skin too. This would be offset with the neutral grey basing. I also did a bit if research into how to create such blood and gore and foinf a great recipe to make the blood quite physical, see below. I usually steer clear of too much blood, but these ghouks, being cannibals and because of the additional details of body parts being butchered and eaten, these guys did need to have a realistic blood effect added.

So after some skin experiments (I'd already decided to veer away from my Orc skin recipe) I went for this approach:

White Primer
Earthshade wash
Small amount of earthshade plus increasong amounts of white, layered on for the highlights
Glazing with purples and blues in the shadows and especially apparent in the faces
Yellow glaze over the teeth
Then final glaze with green ink (and lots of medium) over the skin to remove any chalkiness from the highlighting.
Before the physical blood and gore was added (see below) I washed a mixture of purple and red inks to the hands, feet, knees and elbows (to create a little extra contrast and to break up the large areas of green skin).
Finally I prepped the areas that would be getting the blood effect with a combination of black, purple and red inks, increasing the amount of the latter where the blood was to be most fresh.

After weathering the bases I then approached the blood and gore. Quite simply I used a mixture of Tamiya Clear Red, black ink, UHU glue and a cocktail stick to mix the mess together and to apply it to the areas of stringy, gooey gore. The cocktail stick was used to stretch he goo between two surfaces , for example from mouth to floor. I didn't want to overdo it, so I had to keep restraining myself because it's a smashing effect and easily done. I decided that several of the models would not have any of this applied at all.

With regards to the Ghoul King who is digging out a grave, I decided to use a Tamiya weathering stuck (essentially an oil pastel the colour of mud) and applied this to the grave area, the base and dollop on his shovel too.

Lots of photographs to follow, as I have a new iPhone and have used this as an opportunity to experiment with it's focus and exposure corrections during the shot and it's editing abilities after. I'm pretty damn happy with these:

Enter the Undead

I've created lots of warbands (here, here, here and here) to play Heroquest or Frostgrave with, but I don't have any wandering monsters painted up on the appropriate bases to fight against, yet. Once again Frostgrave has inspired me to get some of my miniature pile painted; so I rummaged through my box of Mantic undead and found some skeleton and zombie sprues initially and then I remembered that I had the Ghoul Warband from Heresy and finally an old Citadel Chaos Warrior who works perfectly as a Vampire/Necromancer character. Oh and a Lord of the Rings model to be used as a Wraith (I have no idea where or why I collected that one..)




So here are all the Undead assembled and based, ready to start painting:

I found a really useful online guide which lists the maximum amount and the full range of monsters which are needed to play Frostgrave - and I like lists to help focus my collecting impulses. So here's what is needed for the Undead contingent:

• 12 Armoured Skeletons
• 9 Ghouls
• 5 Skeletons
• 1 Vampire
• 1 Wraith
• 6 Zombies

Yes that's 34 Undead miniatures to paint...


And all the other creatures in the Bestiary (some of which I already have and some others which I will need to purchase):

• 2 Bears
• 1 Boar
• 4 Giant Rats
• 2 Spiders
• 3 Toads
• 2 Snow Leopards
• 1 Gorilla
• 2 Wild Dogs
• 3 Wolves
• 2 Large Constructs
• 2 Medium Constructs
• 2 Small Constructs
• 1 Imp
• 2 Major Demons
• 3 Minor Demons
• 1 Giant
• 6 Giant Worms
• 2 Trolls
• 1 Werewolf
• 1 Genie
• 6 Statues

That's a significant addition to the [not so] miniature pile and the painting queue... Let's get to it.

Warbands! Part 1: Family Adventurers

As stated in my end of year review; 2016 will start off for me all about the warband, which admittedly is not a huge change considering a lot of my 2015 work was focused on the Realms of Chaos. However I'm expanding my horizons away from 3rd Edition Warhammer and towards some new games systems; chiefly Frostgrave but also Dragon Rampart and Songs of Blade and Heroes. And at the same time using my miniatures for a bit of Family Heroquest too. All these games require a small quantity of miniatures (which means I can lavish more attention on them both in terms of painting and background story) and my first stop will be with the exciting game of Frostgrave (just without the snow). I like the fact that it has inspired me to make some more scenery to add to my town of Rensburg (more on that in a future post).



So my first three painted miniatures of 2016 are additions to my Heroquest family, which now have enough models to become a Frostgrave warband; those new miniatures being a Witch, an aged Barbarian (representing the grandparents) and our Cat Tom who will represent a warhound in the warband. Here are the 3 new additions:

The Witch is from Heresy miniatures, the aged Barbarian from Hasslefree and the cat is a slight conversion (in that the tail was clipped and resculpted to look more feline) from Reaper Bones.

And here is the entire warband, ready for some Frostgrave (or possibly Heroquest) action, exploring the City of Rensburg (read Frostgrave):

So the main spellcaster is the Witch (Grandma) and her apprentice (200gc) is Lily (my daughter). These two are ably supported by myself and Grandad as Barbarians (100gc each), Tom the Warcat (10gc), Sebastian the Infantryman (50gc) and finally Rosie and Willow (wife and daughter respectively) as the Thieves (20gc each).










Further Warbands to follow will include my 3rd Edition Orc warband, my Nurgle Warband, an Empire Warband and a Fighting Fantasy warband. Watch this space...

Fighting Fantasy : Freeway Fighter (completed)

At last, finally finished is my homage to Fighting Fantasy's Freeway Fighter (or at least the cover illustration by Jim Burns). The conversion of the car from a die cast 1:43 scale toy can be seen here and here.

The painting of the model was a proper pain, after many failed attempts I chose, in the end, to use Tamiya clear red sprayed over a white primer. I polished in between thin coats of spray and then polished again with a chamois leather at the end. A coat of varnish was also added at the end.

The chrome was even more problematic, after experimenting with bare metal foil (which made the car feel less painted and more model making) I then tried some nmm with limited success. I finally reverted back to good old metallic paint, in this case a chrome acrylic paint with some chainmail silver highlights. I'm pretty happy with the overall effect, but it's not perfect and I have a plethora of other projects to attack.



For the extras I've used some Heresy gang models to represent the "new" owners of the Bel Air (I have tried to chose two models that are similar to the ones in the original illustration). These were a joy to paint, lots of character and clean detail and seem to fit the feeling of the scene pretty well with their leathers and guns.. Needless to say I've just ordered some more from them.. The base is just made with ply and cork tile then some crackle paint for the texture of a dried riverbed and sand added to represent, well desert sand and painted with snakebite leather, washed with declining mud and highlighted with snakebite and added sunburst yellow and white.

Here's a few other photos:

Hope you like it! It's fun to work from and recreate illustrations that you love, in particular ones you grew up with. One of my next projects is to make a warband based on the main characters from the Trolltooth Wars, namely Darkmane, Mantrapper, Chervah and Yaztromo; watch this space...

Fighting Fantasy : Freeway Fighter pt.2

Let's go back.... Getting ready for the 40k Deathrace at BOYL 2015, I'm pretty much done with the re-construction of the Fighting Fantasy:Freeway Fighter Chevy '57 Bel Air, based on the illustration by Jim Burns:

I've added milliput (easy to sand), greenstuff (easy to model) to help create the shape, plastic straws for the vents, golf tees for the lights, plasticard and orc spear heads for the scythes / bumpers / guns, a plastic cap for the turret, some thick wire for the rim of the turret and the spoiler and some computer bits for the raised engine.

I'm really happy with my choice of models to accompany the car - both of these are from Heresy's "Gang"  line of miniatures. I contemplated giving both characters some 80's hair (as in the illustration) and equip the female character with a flail, but decided against any more converting. The male character fits perfectly inside the gun turret of the car, but I will obviously paint him separately.

With regards to the car, there is still more sanding and smoothing of the surfaces in an attempt to get that perfect finish as seen on the illustration, but I'm starting to realise how difficult it is going to be to achieve, so don't be surprised if the car looks a little more weathered, tattered, used and old when it comes to the finish!

I've been rubbing charcoal into the sculpted areas, the residue then sits in any crevices and I can continue to sand to get a smooth finish. I'm using a very fine sandpaper, some water and a chamois leather too. Hopefully you've noticed details like the bullet holes along the side panel of the car?

I'll be using a sprayed white primer, followed by several fine coats of Tamiya Clear red sprayed on. I am tempted to do some NMM on the chrome, but instead I ordered some Bare Metal Foil. However this has still not arrived, so I will investigate using some very thin aluminium foil (from a kit kat) and apply with some tacky pva... Watch this space....

Oldhammer BOYL 2015 Preparations

I can attend! It may mean a very early start and a long drive on Saturday 1st August up to the Foundry, Nottingham from Hampshire, but I know it will be worth it. Last year's BOYL was excellent.

I won't be running any games this year as it's all been a bit too last minute and there seems to be so much going on already, but I've earmarked what I would like to be involved with and how that correlates with my hobby ideas (and time) over the coming weeks. Here's the full list of events from the Oldhammer forums, that are running over the weekend. First up for me:

1. Deathrace 40k.

I'm slowly and tentatively being seduced by 40k (cautiously, because I've got enough projects on the go at the moment and I don't want to be distracted). I've always wanted to do some Dark Future stuff, converting Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars by adding guns, steel plating, spikes etc and the BOYL 2015 thread by Captain Crooks can provide me with the opportunity but with the bonus of working in an easier to manage 28mm scale... And of course I've just seen the Mad Max movie. And I love the Fighting Fantasy book Freeway Fighter, so why not combine them all....

This is the visual inspiration, the cover illustration of Freeway Fighter by Jim Burns:

And these are the models I'm going to use to make it happen. A diecast 1:43 Chevy '57 Bel Air Convertible:

The scale may be a bit big, but I was concerned that going smaller would just make the car look tiddly amongst it's competitors... It's taken me some time to source the correct car and decide upon the appropriate scale, but this seems the best fit and only cost me £6 off ebay, I'm now researching and considering how best to convert this into the above image; more to follow.

In terms of the characters shown in the illustration I've purchased the following gangers from Heresy that will need only a small amount of converting (or I may just keep them as is if I run out of time and imagine that the car has new owners):

2. Oldhammer Blood Bowl.

Over the years I've owned lots of Blood Bowl teams and painted quite a few commissions too. My current Orc team has been a WIP for absolutely ages and this will give me the inclination to finish the team and play with them at BOYL. The Oldbowl games are being run by Chico at oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.co.uk and here's the roster I'll probably be taking:

Thrower	5	3	3	8	Sure Hands
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Black Orc	4	4	2	9
Black Orc	4	4	2	9
Lineman	5	3	3	9
Troll	4	5	1	9	Loner; Always Hungry; Mighty Blow; Really Stupid; Regeneration; Throw Team-Mate
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Lineman	5	3	3	9
Lineman	5	3	3	9

So I've already got the thrower and two linemen painted (amongst other stuff not to be used on this roster) and last night I finished off the four Orc Blitzers (it's about time I showed some actual painted models); using my usual Orc skin recipe:

And WIP; here are the wizard and his two cheerleaders:

The two Black Orc Blockers:

A couple of Goblins (who I doubt will make this roster)

A two headed Troll: 

A Star Player/ Coach:

And the re-roll turn counters:

I'll keep you updated with my progress on both projects - I like the focus I now have with an imminent deadline and that joy of being given a pass to attend BOYL 2015!