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Hope the final piece for your terrain piece arrives, but it already looks great. Love the autumn vibe it conveys!

Sisters look cool together on the terrain piece, Commander looks great.

Thanks very much, Viterbi!

I'd never painted Sisters of Battle before and enjoyed how these came out. I have some Games Workshop metals hanging about, and even some Urban Mammoth VASA flight troops that I was once upon a time going to use as the SOB equivalent, but the Artel W sculpts are so unique, I figured to just get more of them to build out a larger unit.

What I have on hand at the moment is a basic squad of ten plus the heavy flamer. In looking around on eBay and Etsy I was shocked to see what the pieces cost now, the ones I could find- they seem to be out of print. For what I spent about three years ago for 11, you can now get 2. I have so much else to paint and don't really have opportunity to game that I just can't afford that kind of money, so when the last three Siblings of Confrontation are done that will probably be that. Or, go back to the original idea of mixing and matching again. Or or, get highly sculptive and modify some newer, affordable close-to-SOB pieces into matching the Artel-W's. We'll see.

For now, it's enough that 8 of them are done, I had some fun and learned a couple of things along the way.

Oh, and my packet from Greenstuff World came in, so I will add my final bits on Tuesday and hopefully submit final pictures to the LOER competition and can put that terrain piece on the 'finished' shelf!

Making progress on the Squat Heavy Weapons guys- really leaning in to get them done as part of Augment Something April.

And here are the final pics of my River Game Board section for the League of Extraordinary Riveters competition. The additions are the lily pads and the elephant ear plant growing by a slow eddy in the stream:



















So, all told- the board was from Walmart Online, the plants are from Greenstuff World, the ground flocking is from Huge Miniatures, the rock I stole from the parking lot, the bridge is popsicle sticks (they were delicious) and I made the tree from scrap wire. Other pictures are over on the LOER blog in Painting & Modeling, same angles, really, just no figures in the way.

More follows soonest.

Surged a bit last night and was able to (mostly) finish the bases on the Squat Heavy Weapons section tonight, so calling these done in time to be counted as part of Augment Something April. I'll add some little doodads to the bases probably and definitely hit a dry brush lighter color on the painted sand, but pretty much done:









All of 'em in one spot:



The numbers aren't high, but I'm satisfied with everything that got done:

- Command section (Commander, Heavy Flamer, Reliquary Bearer) for the Siblings of Confrontation
- Heavy Weapons section for the Squat Force (I have the banner bearer and general officer, so can make a proper command team squad when ready)
- Completed my LOER terrain piece River Gaming board, which included the Battle Jackalope and the deer

Which clears the way for the next themed month: May Kit May = Make It (in) May. The purpose being to get models assembled and ready for painting to include infantry, character pieces, buildings and vehicles. I'm hoping to get some painting completed while gluing things up, but getting pieces assembled is the goal.

More follows soonest.

Looking great. Are you interested in playing the new squat rules with these models when they come out? Any hopes/ideas?

A squad of hard hitting squats!.. I love it!

Thanks for looking in, PaddyMick! I would be interested in trying the new rules- I'm a bit remote from any FLGS or other venues to play, so lining up a game is always a challenge. Frankly, for me, the painting and modeling side of the hobby has always held the greatest attraction. I've been a Guard player since about 1989 and I'm not sure I've played a rules set beyond Second Edition! I purchased the most recent one to study, but really learn better by playing with/against someone who can explain the strategies along with the rules. I'm interested to see what the new figs look like: how much respect will they pay to the originals and what new flair will they introduce?

Thanks also for looking in, MeatShield! Truly, nothing says 'attitude like a short guy with a BFC on his shoulder! I'm short, just need to get the Big Fething Cannon....

Thanks for posting the squats, I know will have "heigh-ho" in my head the whole day

Congrats on finishing the terrain piece, the last additions look great and fill the scene with life.

Thank you for the kind words, Viterbi! Have to admit, I had the same ear-worm going through my head whilst I was painting these guys. Fortunately, I onl yhave aobut thirty more of them to paint, so that song should pass from my memory in about six or seven years!

I looked at the Macrocosm webpage and saw everything else in their Space Dwarves line of which I had previously been unaware; there will probably be a lot more figures to paint in the near future- as soon as my order arrives.

I sorted out several projects to undertake for May-Kit- more than I'll probably get done. One that I want to not only assemble but get painted is this figure from the Wargamer "Hot and Dangerous" kickstarter I backed some time ago:





This is as close to a flash-free white metal miniature as I've ever seen. Hopefully you can see on the picture, the only flash/moldlines I had to deal with were a little bit on the arms holding the rifle- and on the left arm, what look like additional mold lines are actually the edge of the rifle sling; the figure is using the 'sling assisted, modified seated firing position, off-hand' as we were taught in Basic many moons ago. Fantastic detailing!

I hope to have some additional project photos tomorrow and maybe even some WIP photos of Betty.

More follows soonest.

So, May-Kit Begins apace:

Most of the base coat colors for Betty the Pointe Du Hoc Ranger are on (one drab brown, three greens, couple more to go- then a metric crap-ton of shades and washes):



A true kit to assemble for May-Kit, this is a Vision Models BA-64 prototype for deep winter conditions in WWII- it never went into production:



I've given over my little bookseller table/airbrush station (such grand terms for the corner of a studio apartment!) for assembly, because I' going to try airbrushing a winter camo scheme on this when done:



This little kit is very well detailed and it seemed a shame to waste all the engine and transmission parts and everything else that goes inside the model, since I'm going to button it up when finished. So I'm saving those bits out and they're going into my Air Service business/mechanics vignette (which has a theme month all its own coming up soon).

The new things I'd like to try just with these two projects:

- Some coloring of the Betty's face beyond Flesh tone paint and Reikland Fleshtone wash
- I've base painted the model base for Betty flat black and now I want to layer earth tone washes by Green Stuff World from dark to light, all 6 of 'em
- Salt method of rusting/weathering on the BA64

I may or may not do up a commander for the little armored snow car- this piece is too perfect for Valhallans of which I have some first edition metal minis, but may get some of the new releases from GW or from Brother Vinni on eBay to do up a platoon, we'll see.

As John Wayne says "Good Lord willin' and the river don't rise" I'll get some more work done on both of these tomorrow and have started the assembly on another set of pieces that will hopefull be in shape to show you'ns tomorrow.

Rock on.

More follows soonest.

Three projects running now for May-Kit, but finished up the first today- Wargamer "Hot & Dangerous" line Ranger Betty:













I'm a little disappointed in the eyes- with my glasses on and through the magnifying glass they looked better, but the closeup from the camera shows a different picture- ha! I'm pleased with how the rest came out. I notice a bit of slop on the entrenching tool handle- I'll take a dab of paint and fix that. It comes from trying seven different colors trying to get the right contrast- a little bit of pop- when in reality the handle would have been painted almost the same color as the pack and other canvas webbing.

And I have to laugh a bit because the bits that look like crushed grasses or maybe roots of some kind on the base are toilet tissue fibres from accidently spilling more wash onto the base than I wanted and trying to dab it up. I like the effect, so it's staying.

In other news, the SnowCat BA64 is nearly assembled and will get its base coat of primer and then ready for the airbrush- probably tomorrow.

And here's the next kits (albeit fairly simple, straightforward assemblies, like Betty) that will hopefully get slightly modified into a Rough Rider squadron:



My first question to our listening audience is whether to mount the exploding lance across the steering bar, alongside the engine cowling on the left side, or replacing one of the miniguns forward of the engine fairing?

More follows soonest.

Very small update tonight- might get some more painting in later but will post now to get it done. We've got an unscheduled procedure for one of our rescued horses and the next few days will be a little hectic. I'm heading back up to the farm tomorrow after work.

Got two base colors on the bikes- going for a WWII theme and using the Model Color set again, same as for the Space Dwarves:



Need to go through my water slide transfers to see if I've got enough small font white or yellow lettering to give each one a serial number and also add some unit markings- those big gas tanks are too nice a billboard to waste. Still haven't decided where to position the lance yet, either.

Did get some gluing up done on the SnowCat and- contrary to the assembly instructions- will leave the treads and skis off until the underside is painted.

Also got the pieces sorted out for a large mech-walker/Sentinel piece, much inspired by several of you who have displayed RoboGear based models lately. I've got a bunch of Tehnolog and RoboGear lying about, time to use some up.

Possibly appending to this post later, but at least something for now. More follows soonest.

Oooh I like the BA-64 that looks like a fun kit. I want that for my admech!

Nice work on the squats!

Thanks Olthannon! It is a nice kit- assembled very easily but a remarkable depth of detail. It has a complete engine with shifter, for instance, if you want to make it so the top half lifts off to reveal the interior. I'm actually going to use it for another League of Extraordinary Riveters project, as I'm gluing the top armor down and making it a closed kit. I think it would do very well for Admech!

The Squats were fun and I have many more to do, and I've visited Macrocosm's website and they have even more that I didn't know I couldn't live without until I saw them; lots to do there.

In fact, the main line of Squats they produce are in greatcoats and would go very well with the SnowCat. Maybe it won't be for the Valhallans!

Bit of work has gotten done since last post:

First up, the motorcycles for the new Rough Rider Squadron are nearly done, so no picture tonight as I hope to complete them tomorrow and get a 'final' pic up- at least until their riders are done. Still not sure how/where to mount the lance or if I'll mount one; I rather like the look of them with the GAU-7's forward. I do still need to go through my water slide transfers and find emblems or serial numbers or both to put on the tanks.

Second, the BA-64 Snow Cat is assembled and primered. Once the bikes and bikettes are done it's next up for painting. I've a new airbrush to try, as the old reliable one will push air all the way through but won't take any paint from the cup. I've run a cleaning wire all the way through and there is no obstruction, so it must be FM (fething magic). All those extra bits and bobs are going on the Air Delivery Service and Repair Shop.



Thirdly, next up is this Robogear T-Rex assault walker, which has been primered olive drab for a couple of years and just needs assembling, which is what May-Kit is all about. I may customize a little, depending on how time shapes up:



Fourthly, I got my oil changed the other day and the Jiffy-Lube is right across the street from the Dollar Tree and I snagged these kits for a buck apiece:



I got two of each, all that were left intact. I thought the kit on the right was just the roll bar cage, but it is the whole assault buggy. Too big for my Imperial Guard, but perfect size for an Ork Trukk and I've never painted Orks before. In any event there were 'way too many interesting bits to let them pass by, so the bits box gains new fodder.

Curious to hear your thoughts on where to mount the lances.

More follows soonest.

I like Your ranger. A very... traditional choice of colors, although the base could be more grey-dusty rather than muddy. Eyes... yes, they could be done better, but they are a difficult subject. With a helmet brow this low I am sure they wouldn't ruin the model unless brought out with a very bright light - or camera lens. I would worry about her rifle, though. It should have more metal showing than that. This sort of long gun have most of its barrel exposed, usually gunmetal grey, black or a sort of dull dark metal (tin or similar work well). You have painted most of the gun body in wood colors, which is unusual. And bright. In fact, after her hair the gun is the brightest spot of color under most viewing angles.

And what an interesting bunch of kits have You got! I for sure am interested!

Thanks very much for your candid and constructive feedback, Wirecat- and very good to see you back on the pages again! I hope your sculpting and painting continue as imaginatively and productively as always.

I'm seriously thinking of redoing the eyes as just a wash, rather than attempt the coloring as I did, it really distracts/detracts from what I feel is otherwise a fairly credible job with this kit.

World War II themed figure = Model Color's World War II palette paint set! I got this years ago to do armored vehicles- I just like the greens and khakis for that purpose and it was kind of ironic to actually finally use them on a World War II piece.

I used Greenstuff World's washes for the base, but looking at it in light of your observation may go back and hit it with some weathering powders for that grey-dusty appearance you're describing.

Her rifle is an M-1 Garand and its furniture was entirely wood with the exception of 4 inches of barrel, the butt plate, the trigger & guard and the bolt carrier and rear sight group at the rear. I own a real one and enjoy shooting it immensely and yes- have suffered 'M-1 Thumb' that afflicts the careless. It is awfully brightly colored considering someone has just come ashore after several hundred yards' ride in a landing craft, run across a beach and scaled several hundred feet of cliff; we'll get some wash on that also to dull it down!

A detail that I particularly like in this kit is that she is using the sling-supported steady hold firing position, and one of the photos shows it fairly well. You can see where the sling wraps around her arm to take tension up in her firing stance. Even at regular price, which is still fairly affordable even with the economies going crazy just now, there's an awful lot of detail crammed into these 28mm figures (although I think they're more like 32mm, which is why I had the delusion that I should try painting the eyes).

I'm glad you're interested in the variety of pieces I'm able to crank through, after a very long fallow period I've hit my stride again and am having great fun- I even got a piece submitted for the last League of Extraordinary Riveters! I've got a monstrous big 'pile of plastic shame' to work through so that variety and non sequitur order can continue for some time to come.

More follows soonest!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Bikes are done except for overcoating with a matte varnish:







First time trying to do the lenses on the firing lights. And, now that I look at them, I have to dry bush the brass onto the ammo belts to the twin GAU-7's.

I've started the biker babe riders and they're comparatively simple compared to the bikes, should be done directly. And T-Rex war walker awaits. Make-It May progressing nicely.

More follows soonest.

Her rifle is an M-1 Garand and its furniture

Want to have a second laugh on that? OK? here it goes. Half of my brain (more sensible) "That's a Garland. It is fat all around and wooden." Another half of my brain (more senseless) "You have seen it in museum. It is black all around. This looks like a Brown Bess!" 1st half "But wood comes in lots of colors..." 2nd half "You want to see "Private Ryan" again for reference?" Both halves in unison "NO!" :^)

Point taken, this is M1 and You are totally right!

Ha Wirecat! I have a second of these 'Betty the Ponte du Hoc Ranger' figures- now I reckon to arm her with an all-metal Brown Bess with internal magazine! I was looking over a sprue of 1/48 scale extra weapons and bits and did some reference on-line as well to look at other common shoulder arms for WWII- the US Springfield, German K98 and Soviet Mosin-Nagant all had full-run metal barrels exposed, with wood (under) forestocks. The Garand and the British Lee-Enfield Mk3's and '4's were full wood. I never noticed that before.

Ran into a 'soup from a stone' situation working tonight, as the Bright Idea Fairy was much in evidence. I was getting ready to do some more painting on the figures for the motorcycles and thought "hey, I have a metric crap-ton of extra canteens, pouches, bayonets, etc, why not add some bits to jazz up the figures and make them look a little more militant?" Because, frankly, as they are they appear to be dressed in some sort of skin-tight lycra body suit with a hood with dingle balls on and really they're cheesecake, for all they're riding hogs with dual GAU-7's on 'em.

So I got out some bits and found more than enough to jazz the riders up and thought "These look really weird just stuck on, what these figures need is an equipment belt to break up the catsuit look and make it more like a military coverall and form a logical place from which to hang accoutrements." So I started rooting around for suitable belt-making material. I considered greenstuff (too small and too sticky to work easily for me), electrical tape (ditto), paper (couldn't get it thin enough and held in place to glue down)- other items, all no good.

Finally used some whiteboard outlining tape I had from a project at work- it's really very much like blue masking/painter's tape and starts out at 1/4 inch thick. I stuck some to my cutting mat, sliced it with an x-acto knife to maybe 3/32 inch, wrapped it around the figure's waist (had to cut the dingle balls off the hood to make it fit- I may glue those back on) and added a dab of superglue at the tape join to make sure it stays on.

All to be able to add a pouch, a knife and a compass case.



So much hobbying, little painting tonight. But a better look I think.

More follows soonest.

Couldn't resist this apt representation of my modeling skills:

Welp, my motorcycle Rough Riders are (nearly) done. These are final pics and the only additions I plan are to add are a blanket roll on top of the saddle bags- I made those tonight out of greenstuff and they probably won't be dry enough to primer and paint before tomorrow, when I won't have much- if any- time to hobby, so going with these tonight. The other addition will be a cross-piece glued under the center of the bike to act as a 'base'- They came with an excellent 50 or 60mm base, but I like the look of them in close riding formation so am going with something much lower profile/footprint so I can display them like that (I'm not sure they will ever get gamed). The pouches are from my bits box, the decals are WH40K I got on eBay, otherwise everything is from the kit.

What they aren't waiting for is the lance. I'm not going to mess up the nice clean look they have now to add a feature that is only important if I actually game them. The muzzles of the miniguns are drilled out, however, and I've cut a piece of styrene tubing for each bike that is 2.5 inches long, to be fitted into the bore and bring the total length to the 4 inches I believe the Codex calls for- if it's different I can just cut new inserts to be the right length.







I took close ups of this rider because they were the dickens to fit onto their bikes and the legs broke off this one before I got the hang of it. I recovered one and glued it back on in position, but the other is wherever my odd socks go when they disappear from the dryer- couldn't find it. So I fabricated a 'cyborg leg' by snipping the leg off an old Marauder Miniatures skeleton, filing the bones flat, priming black and highlighting silver. I think it came out pretty good.









I like the effect I got on her hair- that's a cheap chestnut craft paint (50 cents a bottle at Walmart) with Seraphim Sepia wash- and it came out a great auburn/red.

A number of firsts for this project:

-First time trying to paint lens highlights- followed the Warhammer short video on YouTube and like 'em for a first try
-First time building and painting motorcycles
-First time trying to kitbash a cyborg
-First time deliberately sculpting something from greenstuff to fit a certain way on the model- in this case, I rolled the blanket rolls and them pressed them ontot he bike to get the right shape

These were a lot of fun and I'm glad I purchased them. I highly recommend Patrick Miniatures on Etsy- he delivers really clean resin castings with incredibly fine detail, is extremely responsive to customer enquiries (I contacted him about getting a replacement rider before I thought to turn tragedy into triumph with the cyborg leg) and the pricing is fantastic- one of these bikes with rider was US$5.

He makes police with riot shields forming a testudo formation, so I may be making some more purchases to finally put together a space age version.

Hope you find these pieces interesting. More follows soonest.

Great work on the stand-in rough riders. They look amazing and hopefully see the field of battle one day!

I only dipped two pages back in my "catch up on peoples' plogs" effort and I'm thrilled. Inso's Squats look awesome... I've been waiting to see someone paint some up! You Sisters unit looks great too... the flame effect is a really nice visual unifier, and the occasional contrasting color picks out some cool details on the models. I love the Banner Bearer's pose... I'm already wondering how I could replicate that.

Great progress!

 Viterbi wrote:
Great work on the stand-in rough riders. They look amazing and hopefully see the field of battle one day!

Thanks Viterbi! I really would like to game again, would even buy and play 'standard figures' to accommodate a group that preferred not to allow substitutions, it's just that we're kind of out in the sticks and it would be a bit of a drive to get someplace that had a FLGS or other location with players. They were fun to build anyway, and Patryk (in Germany I believe) an excellent seller on Etsy and great to work with. My descendants can argue over who gets stuck with....I mean- lucky enough to get to keep them!

 MacPhail wrote:
I only dipped two pages back in my "catch up on peoples' plogs" effort and I'm thrilled. Inso's Squats look awesome... I've been waiting to see someone paint some up! You Sisters unit looks great too... the flame effect is a really nice visual unifier, and the occasional contrasting color picks out some cool details on the models. I love the Banner Bearer's pose... I'm already wondering how I could replicate that.

Great progress!

Thanks MacPhail! I know how busy everyone is and especially you just now with LOER duties; I'm flattered you took some time to see my work. Lots more of Inso's Squats to come. I wish the Artel W figures were still available and at a price I was willing to pay, but I can be happy with the 12 I have. I do like the articulation on the standardbearer: in looking around for more SOB-substitutes I saw a line of figures on Etsy that have an advancing figure with arms that are either close or could be modified fairly easily to assume a similar position. Now that you mention it, I might order one in to see a) how well they would go along with the Artel W figures and b) what a flag bearer would look like alongside the reliquary ensign I've got.

Coming tonight or tomorrow: a summary for May-Kit (Make It!) May and an introduction to my personal motivating theme for June.

More follows soonest.

Welp, first day of the new month, so a wrap up of the last and an introduction of the new:

Make-It (May Kit) May got a lot done- got the biker/rough riders done from Patryk Miniatures, assembled and primered the BA-64 SnowCat variant and did- just last night- finish gluing up the Robogear T-rex walker.



It's actually a bit of a kitbash between Robogear and Tehnolog bits and you can see I've glazed the cockpit windscreen with black out panels- it's designed for a 40mm driver figure and is just too big- although thinking about it now, I bet I could've modified the cockpit to be crewed by two. No worries, I've got another of these kits floating around.

On the subject of Robogear, the Robogear Starter set is available again on eBay for around or less than US$50. It contains 8 vehicle kits plus the modular components to build a huge sci-fi/Necromunda fortress. I bought one of these sets years ago and have been using the kits and bits all this time.

I did add the blanket rolls and stands to the biker chicks, so they're done now for real- nope, not gonna add a pieces of olive drab thread to simulate tie downs, nope, not at all:



This month's killer theme is Re-JUNE-venate and the first project is the T-rex walker. How can this be, I hear you ask, it just got glued together last night, how can it need rejuvenation when it's never been finished?

Easy: That model has been primered and basecoated for at least four years now and I foolishly thought it just needed basing and posing and it would be done. In reality, it has a lot of detail and potential for so much more, so the old, flat green 'stand around and look tough' model just won't do. It's going to be posed more dynamically on a custom mini-diorama base and be magnetized so it can be removed for gaming. Plus I've up-gunned its armaments load-out considerably from what it had originally. I reckon that makes a good rejuvenation plan.

For the custom base, I had a failed print from doing up pieces for a massive bridge project (not featured here yet, but it's coming). The street tiles came out well, but the printer ran out of filament or the print came loose as it started to print the height of the curbing. It's the perfect size for what I have in mind. Here's the bare piece:



And here it is with crackle spackle used to fill in the rough side. I figure to cut some paving stones to glue down in a couple of places, but most of it (and the street pavers) will be covered with debris and enraged combat walker, so all good:



So, Make-It May is done and Re-JUNE-venate has begun.

More follows soonest.

Nice work in "Make-it May", and best of luck with Re-June-vinating the T-ex bike

Thanks, Syro! No pics, but the base is now well along and the magnets fit right up inside the feet of the walker like it was made for them; I glued small washers down on the base and it works like a charm. The walker joints are stiff enough that you can re-pose the miniature once off or when putting back on the base. We're making hay at the farm this weekend, but once I'm back to the apartment in Virginia I should be able to get everything primed and then some good pictures up to show better what I'm trying for.

More follows soonest.

Some great stuff, looking forward to seeing the walker based up. Those lady bikers are clearly instagram influencers!

Thanks Olthannon! Yep, to borrow from Heinlein: the Lysistrata Corps of the Amazons, now with dual GAU-7's!

Can't wait to see said June project. All looking great here, enjoyed a good catch up.