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Hello Dakka!

So one of the down sides to running a successful hobby business is that you're often left with no time for the hobby. One of the first things I had to give up was my time on the forums -- and, dammit, I really miss it! And so I'm making a concerted effort, and using work time, to get back to the forums I love and share some of my work.

Images as attachments - we'll see how that goes.

First up is my Landscaping truck. This is the Toyota kit from Meng, and I've scratch built the rack, added the TOYOTA brass, scratch built the tool bin, and had some tools 3D printed so I can pimp this thing out properly.

Next up is a little diorama I'm doing for my wife based on "Castle in the Sky" from Studio Ghibli. It's going to live in an acrylic box on her desk, so I've had to take some liberties, and leave out some elements, to make everything fit.

Last, but not least, is a model that breaks my "only two projects" rule because I started it while waiting on the others to dry. I've had the DKoK Death Rider Commissar on my desk for years -- but haven't painted it because I didn't feel like my ability could match my vision. Hopefully I pull it off.

Look for regular updates as I have them -- and many thanks, in advance, for any feedback and questions.

Good to see your stuff popping up here. Very cool.

Well, lookie lookie who finally wandered into the P&M Blog Zone, my pal Justin.

You guys are in for a treat, not only is Justin a talented hobbyist, he also works on a great variety of models and lines so it is always something new with him.

Some recent favorites of mine he has worked on -







Welcome Mr.Justin, look forward to seeing more!

Good to see you on the forums.

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated....

I see what you did with the side door logo ...

Hey MisterJustin, nice to see you around.

The truck's looking good. Love the company logo on the door, that's really well done.

I've started adding foliage to the Castle in the Sky diorama. I'm going to do this in batches, using 10 MiniNatur products, 6 Woodland Scenics, and some dried plants from the florist.

It's all a bit larger than it looks in the cartoon, but that was a conscious and intentional decision. I could have just used a bunch of fine foliage to re-create the film look, but that's not the point. Instead it looks a bit more like it would as a non-animated film.


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And many thanks for the warm welcome, and the kind words.

MajorTom is making me blush though

This is going to look so cool...

It is good to see some of your work again; I remember being awed by it back on the Boot Camp forums ages ago!

Incredibly awesome jawdropping work sir! Can't wait to see your finished Castles diorama!!

Where do you get your MiniNatur products from? My LGS is having a hard time tracking them down.

Some cool stuff going on in here. A change from what we normally see to be sure.

@ Ifurita -- MiniNatur only has one US importer, and they're a pain to deal with. You also only get a 20-30% margin for resale, which is just stupid.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. It's nice to be modeling regularly again, and nice to have the feedback of a large community of my fellow hobbyists!

The figurines and the base are nearly finished, leaving me with more attention to give to the robot....

I'm going to apply some pigments to the pillar, but otherwise the base itself just needs a bit of filling in once I confirm the model placement.

The robot will need to be covered in moss, and get a bit of verdigris - via pigments and the SWM washes - before he'll be ready to mount.

If there's still time before the event, and the landscaping truck is finished, I'll aim to add the little squirrelfox as well.

I couldn't stop.

The figures aren't glued down, and there's still a lot left to do - but the base itself is nearly finished.

Unless someone spots something I missed, I can finally say that this one is finished. The models are from Finemolds, and the scene was adapted from "Castle in the Sky."

Very lovely I quite like the girls dress, and the grass field.

Very cool.

And very nice work you do, nice weathering.

I'll add the bungee cords as soon as the elastic arrives, and work out some bumper stickers in the interim, but otherwise....

The dirt on the windscreen is excellent. Never thought I'd have reason to think that.

As an aside, looking at the Castle in the Sky diorama, and contrasting that to my Marder III that Tom posted, makes me realize that I really, desperately need to fix the ground cover for that model O_O

Also, thanks for the compliment on the windscreen. It's a fun effect and one I don't get to use very often.

While it's nice to see a hobby company headed by a hobbiest, it's real annoying that you are real good at seemingly all parts of it.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
While it's nice to see a hobby company headed by a hobbiest, it's real annoying that you are real good at seemingly all parts of it.

Maybe he's not good at playing the games at least?

Yeah, that's the good news -- I'm a horrible, horrible 40k player. I do okay with my Warmachine force... but I still lose a lot more often than I win. Something about how just because I'm running Epic Butcher I should ALWAYS charge him right up the middle. Whatever.

Also, thanks for the compliment

Things have been a bit crazy since the holiday season - but I made some time to start in on this converted Nurgle gunner.

The base was made by Roman Lappat of Massive Voodoo, and the ammo belt is from Dragon Forge Design.

I'm going to re-paint the gun in a slightly lighter blue than the fabric at his belt -- and I managed to drop him at one point, so I have to fix some chips in his back.

At this point I would only consider the armor panels finished.

Cool conversion. Where are the bolter and arms sourced from?

Many thanks. The gun is from the Space Marine Devestator box, and the arms are stock, but for the hands that came attached to the gun. The head is from the old Chaos Marines box.

I had to re-sculpt a bit of the belly, where the axe handle from the original model rested, but otherwise it's all stock cut/paste work.

 whalemusic360 wrote:
While it's nice to see a hobby company headed by a hobbyist, it's real annoying that you are real good at seemingly all parts of it.

^Very much so this.

I love your work thus far. The weathering and details on the landscaping truck are incredible. Having worked many a summer in that particular field, I can definitely say its spot on! I really like the windshield effect as well as the touch of leaves in the bed. And awesome work on the Castle diorama- Miyazaki movies are definitely among some of my favorites.
Lastly, the heavy bolter guy's looking great. I'm definitely in favor of changing the gun's color- I think the blue'll help it stand out a bit better, rather than a mass of green (albeit nicely painted green)

Definitely looking forward to seeing more stuff from ya- I've a lot to learn about painting/basing! In particular, I need to learn how to create that rough field effect you used on the diorama's base. Is that all SW stuff?