Couple of Random Bits...

Ever wonder what 60 modular trays would look like spread over a table?

Time to get rolling on the Hammerers.

Bone Head Terrain

The resin house is coming along.  The finished house looks awesome, though putting it together has been a comedy of errors!  First mistake - I put the second story on in the wrong direction so the two windows are partially blocked by the half roof.  I fixed it  by boarding up the windows.  Second mistake - I magnetized the roof to the second story, it should have been magnetized to the 3rd story!  I'm leaving this house as a two story and I will buy an additional 2 story which I will convert to a three story.  To magnetize I put a magnets in each corner, but I offset one corner so I can easily figure out which direction the room goes on. 

Here is the finished house.

Dwarf Lord Conversion

As I mentioned previously I'm working on a Dwarf Lord with Hand Weapon and Shield mounted on shield bearers.  I already have the shield bearers painted up to go with my Lord and great weapon.  The lord is pinned on so I just need the alternate lord fit on the same shield.  Here is my work in process.

Miner Unit Completed

First let me give a big thanks to Todd!  Went to the bunker today (got smashed by WoC - but that is another story) and he gave me a bag of Dwarf Miners!  Gave me everything I needed to round out the unit to 15 models.  I've got a few more bits incoming and I will most likely make the unit 20 strong when they arrive.

I finished all of the grunts and got the prospector nearly complete.  I still have to clean up the mold lines and texture the bases.  Here is the finished unit.  

Miner Groove

I'm in a bit of a groove of late and the miner unit continues to develop quickly. I still have some more work on the Prospector, namely his right arm.  I have to wait to finish the rest of the grunts until I get my latest order of bits.  But in the meantime I'm working hard to finish the other models.  I'm attempting to make it look like the unit is marching through a mine.  I will give the base a proper cavern floor texture, whatever the hell that is.  I glued thin strips of plastic to the bottom of their boots to raise the models up slightly so when I glue the texture on the base the models will look like they are standing on the ground rather than sunk down in it.  I'm also trying to give the appearance of the mines support structure and beams.  I'm not completely finished yet, but hopefully you will agree that I'm on the right track.  I pinned the guys on the bases with the wooden beams to make them removable and them easier to paint.  The center beam is one model unit filler.  One glaring issue is that I will have to lower the standard as it is too tall for the height of the mine. 

It is crazy how my bitz boxes have had everything I need for this project so far.  Hopefully the luck will stay with me to the end.  Well, without further ado here are the pix.

Miner Update (pun intended)

I was watching You-tube the other day and I noticed someone using their hand behind the object to get the camera to focus better.  It turns out that it works great!  Here are few more WIP pix.

Better shot of the converted Steam Drill

Green stuff strap added to hold on the spare Steam Drill head.

Little more work on the Prospector's face mask.

More Miners

$8 worth of bits from Hoard O Bits on Ebay coupled with my leftover bits from the miner sprues and I'm going to be able to make another 5 miners.  My hoarding of old, mostly useless bits finally paid off!

Miners!

Today I got busy and got a really great jump on my miners. My Dwarf Army only actually has a few conversions, so I figured it was high time to add some creative flair to the ranks.  I'm currently assembling 10 GW multi part miners, including full command.  For the Brawler Bash I'm leaning to running 15 miners.  So I either have to pick a few more up or just use my Battle for Skull Pass miners, which are already painted, in the back rank.  I guess we will see how fast I finish the other e projects. 

First up is the Standard Bearer.  I went for a simple, understated standard.  Not entirely sold, need to see if it grows on me. 

Next up is the Prospector with Steam Drill.  The drill that comes in the kit is uninspired.  So this is my take on what a Steam Drill should like like!  I'm really happy how it came out.  I still have to finish extending the other handle on the other side of the drill that connects to the right arm. 

Using such a tool means that the Prospector must have a some sort of protection for his face and eyes!  Also since I gave all of the regular guys helmets that at least partially mask their face I want the Prospector to fit in with the unit. So I carved away the original face and sculpted something a bit different.  I was attempting sort of strap on ornamental mask in the shape of a Dwarf face.  I still have to add the straps that will wrap around the helmet to keep it in place. It's a little more Kabuki then I would have liked, but I'm still very happy with the result. 

Next up is one of the most important troopers in the unit.  He is charged with carrying the back up  for the Prospectors Steam Drill.  I don't like how the plastic strapping looks so I'm going to sculpt some out of green stuff. 

All for now, I will have a few more pix later this week. 

Custom Dice for my Dwarf Army

Just ordered some custom dice for my Dwarf Army from Chessex.  I needed to add a little bling for the Brawler Bash.  Pretty stoked at how they turned out!

Dwarfs for the Brawler Bash

So I've decided on Dwarfs for this years Brawler Bash.  It makes the most sense as almost everything I need is painted.  Plus it gives me a chance to unleash the Tomb Kings after the book comes out.  Now I'm busy putting together a small miner unit and painting up some additional Hammerers.  Stay tuned for pix. 

More molding goodness...

gI had a chance to play with the molds a bit more.  I'm working on a sweet Dwarf Lord conversion where he will be standing on shield bearers with a large shield and a big ass hammer.  First up for me is to create a shield.  I started a with an old round empire shield.  Shaved the lion's head off and using the molds I created last night I add a dwarf head.  In the pick below the one I like best is the shield in bottom left hand corner.  I will snap some better pix of the final product when I'm done.

First Impressions of Mold making Oyumaru

So this material is the hype of the Internet right now, it turns out the hype was correct. For those that don't know this is a reusable mold making material.  You dunk it in hot water, form the material around your object, dunk it in ice water and then split the mold.  Voila, you have a mold.

Last night I made some green stuff version of some plastic shields I assembled out of various bit.  Here is the pic of me dunking the stick into a cup of boiling water that I nuked in the microwave.

 Here is what it looks like coming out of the hot bath.

After wrapping the object in the material I cooled it in an ice bath then cut out the mold.  Here is what the final mold looked like with a couple of the green stuff shields.  The beauty is the material is reusable by throwing it back in the hot water.  I was able to make 4 small molds out of a single stick.

A couple of tips I picked up from my first try last night. 

• Work in a clean area or you run the risk of getting crap (dirt, hair, etc) in the material which is impossible to remove.
• When cutting the mold apart cut a notch into one side so you can tell how tho parts go together.  
• Better to have more green stuff in the mold rather than not enough.
• After you put the green stuff in the mold let the green stuff harden before you remove it from the mold.

More details to follow once I've had more chances to play with it. 

Brawler Bash

This year I decided to make the commitment to try and get to a few of the popular tourneys around the country.  First up is the Brawler Bash on April 9th and 10th.  I've decided to run Dwarfs since the Tomb Kings book won't be ready yet and my Orc and Goblin House Army is not really painted up to my normal standard.  I've also had a decent run with the stunites of late and they are painted half way decent.  I've started tweaking my list and working on the army background fluff, because I can't play army without a story!

Here is a link to the Brawler Bash IV and as of right now I'm planning on driving.  So if there is anyone in the nearby Memphis area that wants to hitch a ride, just let me know.

http://brawlerbash.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Terrain Part Deux

Just a quick update that work continues on the resin terrain.  This piece that I mentioned last time is an actual treat to put together.  There was very little flash and it's going together very smooth.  Here are some work in progress pix.  I added a little extra support in the joints by using brass rod in addition to the super glue.  Next up is the roof.  It's a 3 story building so I'm planning to have both the roof and the 3rd story removable. 

 

Goblin Wolf Riders Reenforcements

Just a quick update.  I recently negotiated some re-enforcements for my Orcs and Goblins army from a Halfling mercenary in Southern California.  I've been busy fixing up the new troops to blend in with the existing army.  Last night I tackled the Goblin Wolf Riders and fortunately with a little elbow grease and some plastic glue I was able to repair them so I have 44 with spears and 25 with bows.  With the exiting models this will yield 3 units, 18 strong each, with spears/full command and 1 unit, 25 strong, with bows and full command.  Now they are repaired I will attempt to match the paint job on the new bits and give all the models a Devlan Mud wash.  Finally, I will redo the basing to make it consistent with the rest of the army.

Movement Tray Update

Just a quick update that I completed painting the movement trays.  After a base coat of Storm Gray I followed it up with an over brush of Hippo Gray followed by a light dry brush of Drizzle Gray.  Now I just need to lock in the paint with a little clear coat and drop in the metal inserts.

Orcs & Goblins and Movement Trays

I spent the bulk of last Saturday at the Memphis Battle bunker pouring over the new Orc and Goblins book.  First, let me say it's fantastic and I genuinely think GW has outdid themselves.  The only thing that I'm not sure about is the inclusion of only 8 magic items.  It feels a bit lazy and a great opportunity lost.  But I suppose GW figures with so many common magic items available in the BRB each army does not need as many army specific items.  The new giant spider model is AMAZING.  Head in to your local GW and check out for yourself.

With the army book release right around the corner I've been busy getting the army ready for the table.  I've never actually played OnG, so March should prove interesting time for me.  One small project that I started this weekend was the movement trays.  As I didn't want to make custom wood trays as I did for my Tomb Kings I decided to go with modular plastic trays from GW.  It's fairly cheap and more importantly faster.  I have no idea of how many packages I went through but I have around 40 trays of varying sizes for both 20mm and 25m bases.  I think the 40 trays have enough variety to let me field just about any combination of units in a standard sized game.   Here is how I'm getting them to the table.

1. Assemble the trays.  No edge on the back of the tray unless it can be used in 2 directions. 
2. Applied sand to the edge of the trays with PVA glue
3. Locked down the sand with watered down PVA
4. White spray primer (Krylon)
5. Black spray paint (Krylon)
6. Brushed on base coat of Storm Gray (Delta Ceramcoat)
7. Dry brush Hippo Gray (color subject to change)
8. Light dry brush with Quaker Gray (color subject to change)
9. Clear coat paint job (Krylon Flat Coat)
10. Add static grass to add interest.
11. Glue steel inserts into the tray.  Gives the magnets in teh bases something to grab onto.

Here they are after the Storm Gray base coat applied.

Orcs and Goblins

Having nearly finished a fairly large OnG army I was given the opportunity to significantly pad it's ranks through the acquisition really large, mostly painted, army.  Without going into too much detail there are 60 Goblin Wolf Riders and 15 trolls!  However, what really sold me was a opportunity to add several units that I didn't already have like a Wyvern and Savage Orcs.  Package arrived last week and I've been fervently assessing the models and determining the best way to blend them into my army.  Some of the paint jobs are pretty good and just need a little TOC.  Some units I will simply use as is - case in point the Savage
Others I'm touching up some of the chips and using a Devlan Mud was to tie it into my army - like the 9 Stone Trolls.  There are also some paint jobs that are too far gone to resurrect.  For these I will strip and repaint them.  I will eventually re base all the new recruits so it matches my existing army. 
The already loaded paint table is about to be overloaded.

 Here are the Stone Trolls after I touched up the paint chips and then gave them a heavy wash of Devlan Mud.

 

Here are a couple of shots of some cool vintage models.  I dig the old Black Orcs, but I'm not entirely sure on the old River Trolls.

To be clear, this new acquisition will not stop me from adding the new OnG models coming out next month.  Can't wait to see what the giant spider does on the table! 

Gaming Table & Terrain

Sometimes it seems like I never actually finish a project before 3 more pop up!  One of my current projects is to finish my gaming table.  My goal is to create a small human town that you would find on the fringe of the Empire.  It's ironic since I don't have an Empire army.  I guess it's all the Black Library stuff I've been reading of late.  I've used the Realm of Battle and the bulk of the terrain is the plastic GW stuff.  I will post some pix of how it is progressing but today I wanted to focus on my newest addition.  I was searching for something to give the table a little punch and to separate it from every GW fanboy table in the US.  A while back I found these resin buildings from Germany.  A really admired them, but unfortunately, they were unavailable for sometime.  Late 2010 they were made available again and I finally ordered a building along with some barricades with the intention if all goes well getting a few buildings in the future to round out the village.




http://pardulon-models.com/index.php/cat/c14_Fantasy-Buildings.html

I received the package last week and here are some photos after I had at them with soap and toothbrush.  The detail on this is amazing.  Completely model inside and out.  Much crisper and more refined then the few resin models I've worked with in the past, like the wares from Armor Cast.  I must admit, there is TON of parts to make this 3 story house.  I will post some pix of how I get on.