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Cool. Off to check that out. Nice standards BTW.

So I've done bugger-all miniatures painting in the last few weeks, as work has gotten to the point of completely crazy-busy - with the small exception of a few 20-minute lunchtime chances on some Orcs.

I used to show WIP models a fair bit previously. I’ve done that a lot less in recent times, and with just under 2 weeks left until I have my time off (though still tons to do at work!), it’s also a small window of time where I am able to work on a few other projects – in this case gifts for people at work. This year, I’ve got three – all of which need to be completed in the 11 days before I finish. No pressure, then.







The first is a Littlest Pet Shop toy repaint. I’m turning a generic LPS cat toy into “Lil BUB“. Mounted, masked and sprayed grey with Mr Surfacer – which actually sticks nicely to the soft PVC of the toy. I probably shouldn’t have masked the eyes since I’m going to have to try and match those distinct gigantic saucers on the actual cat. Oops. I’ll figure something out. Coming along - it should be relatively easy to finish off. Then I need to spray it, let it dry and then take a bunch of photographs before giving it to it's recipient.











The second project is a Calavera – or Mexican “Sugar Skull”. This one is a Wedding present for a friend who really loves them. It took awhile to figure out how to create one of these. I decided to decapitate a 1:6 scale COO Model Skeleton who’d had a forearm breakage due to trying to post the overly-brittle plastic it is made of (yes, even after heating). It’s a nice feeling to be able to repurpose something that cost me that much into something besides wargame scenery – I was pretty POed when it broke and it’s just been sitting on a shelf getting glared at whenever I pass it by.

This one is more of a traditional modelling project, despite being made from a 1:6 Model. Neck is mounted on a 50mm rolled-edge base and that on top of a Secret Weapon Miniatures plinith. Not sure how I’ll decorate the plinith yet. It’ll depend very much on time available. I’d like to do something at the base of the neck as well – even a bit of greenstuff to blend it in with the base and give some additional stability. Again – I’ll have to work it out.



And this is where we’re up to…
The final part of this project is “Jinx” by Raging Heroes. I’ll write more about this one later, it was a gift from RH to it’s eventual recipient, but getting it so very late in the final wave of RH stuff has made things much more difficult than planned, especially as I’m going to have to buy some kind of chemical to remove the terrible mould release that Trollcast seem to use. TC’s equally-terrible choice of where to mount the channels for the additional parts is going to result in a loss of details and need for resculpting part of Jinx’ tail. If they’d added those exact same channels on the opposite side of the model it would not have interfered with Jinx’ tail at all. There’s also some pretty bed mould slip across the entire model, to the extent that if I find this on any of my other RH models when I finally get them all in hand and QA them, I’ll be asking for replacements. I’m not sure how or why RH allowed this poor level of quality through from Trollcast.

So with this in mind, and despite the kindness and good intentions from Mirielle, Jinx is going to be the bottom priority of these three. I'm still waiting on advice on the right kind of cleaning agent to get the awful mould release off so I can get it painted. In a week. Hopefully I can still get it done...

Very cool ideas for presents you have here. I do not really bother showing WIP's either, usually seems like a waste of time and by that point I am not going to change the scheme anyway. But these WIP's I like. I am a cat fan and owner but it is the sugar skull that I am looking forward to most.

Hope that work gets a little less hectic for you. Best of luck with the project.

Someone recommended Pine Sol to me in the Alien Host thread, and that worked pretty well, although a couple parts needed to be washed twice, and I haven't tried to paint any of them. Impact miniatures recommend using dish soap with a degreasing agent, although I'm not entirely convinced.

The pet shop kitty looks great.

Some rough WIP shots from this afternoon's painting. Time to wrap it up for tonight though and get ready for shower, bed and work again.













Rollins' Sun is a little wonky, but that section of skull is pretty rough and features the joins between the sections, amongst other things. Still, it fits the Mesoamerican feel pretty well. While the Sugar Skull stuff might (mostly) not be my usual type of content, It's certainly good fun practicing my freehanding ahead of December's stuff. I think an extensively-tattooed marauder Giant is almost definately on the first-tier menu at this point....

Love the candy-skull. Looks really good.

The cat is also really interesting looking! It's great to be able to use a skill like miniature painting to make gifts like that.

Thanks! I think both recipients will be pleased once they're done.

Hell yeah they'll be pleased! I'm jealous of that sugar skull dude! really bloody cool :-)

Very cool. That Mexican Sugar Skull looks great.

Great idea using your talent/hobby for gifts.

EDC

The skull looks really cool. Never looked into what they are all about. But looks festive.

The cat with those big eyes kind of creeps me out. That is a classic photo of the real cat though.

Neat stuff going on here

2 weeks since my last post. The mad frenzy that is the end of the year at work was the thing that it is, though even more intense with me finishing up 2 weeks early, so my life for the past couple of weeks has been a cycle of go-to-work, come home, crash out and sleep for 3 hours, get up at 11 or 12, work for 2-4 hours, sleep until 6:30am, get up, go-to-work… repeat. Pretty much no time for gaming, videogaming, TV, hobby or anything else and mostly just extra sleep on the weekends. Just the odd post on Dakka in the middle of the night.

Now it’s over, and I’m on leave. The downside is that I still have several things to do for work, for others, and for the December project. I’ve basically just slept in chunks since Friday and cleaned up around the house a little bit. I did smaller 3 pieces of work for work tonight, leaving me with 3 larger pieces of work to do for work. Probably tomorrow and Tuesday.

I managed to finish one of the three gifts in time. The Calavera/Sugar Skull can be done by the middle of next week and still “work”, and similarly – I can get Jinx done in the next 2 weeks and still be able to give it, due to a small change in circumstances.

Anyway, I did manage to get one of the pieces completed, and the young lady who was the recipient was very happy with it.








The real BUB

Ooooph, sounds like a harsh work/life balance you had for a time there. Glad to see Lil' Bub done, and Leonard looks happy enough with him. As a cat man myself he gets a big thumbs up.

Just the second cat to go then?

Yup. Just Jinx now. And the sugar skull.

On a semi-related note, does anyone know where I might be able to get hold of round, non-lipped 50mm bases?

I really just need one of these, though they seem a but difficult to find at a reasonable price to get to me here in Australia.

Does anyone know of any UK-based discount retailer who sells them? Preferably someone with free worldwide shipping? I'd happily buy 30 quid worth of stuff (that I want anyway) at the same time to get a free shipping threshold.

I'd rather avoid US retailers, since US postage is pretty horrible these days and the transit time can be 2-3 weeks. UK places tend to have something like a 1 to 1.5 week turnaround.

You might think Vic Minis, located in the next state would be cheap and easy for something like this, but she charges US$4.50 for 5, plus another $5 for shipping, so US$9.50 for 5 bases or AU$13 which is a bit rich.

Waylandgames sell them link below, I think they do free postage over £30 now.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/bases-scenics-and-effects/22472-bevelled-miniature-base-round-multi-50mm-bag-of-5?search_query=50mm&results=423

edit: just make sure you buy stuff that's in stock if you want them this side of Christmas.

Warbases if you don't mind MDF couple of quid for 12. Decent Terrain as well.

Thanks gents. Looking to min-max the postage element of it all. I don't really trust Wayland to despatch on time, unfortunately, and I've had poor experiences with them on more than one occasion in the past - so I'll probably give them a miss. I'll check the others and try to get something ordered tonight.

I usually get my bases off ebay but that doesn't really help I guess.

Could you manufacture a base yourself?

It's cool. I ordered some from Firestorm this evening. As well as some other stuff I "needed".

Firestorm are really good not had any issues with them.

Yeah, they have been my go-to since Maelstrom imploded. The bases were hard to find on their site, but I grabbed 3 packs (all they had).

These figures were found in their half-finished state - and finished off about a month ago. They were pretty much the last things I finished before stopping/changing over to the December project. Two of them had broken pikes, but I was unfortunately only able to find one. I re-glued it with plastic cement, and as you can see, the repair is a little rough. The other guy is pretty much sitting out for an indeterminate time until I can either find his pike or care enough to drill it out and replace it with wire. Not anytime soon, then!



No matter - later on when there are many more, the broken-pike guys will just blend into the masses. I'll probably do 15 in the next batch of these for a total of 24, so I can set up either 2 regiments - or more likely - a horde of Pikemen for KoW. Not sure which rules to use for them yet. I'm thinking that their not-Chaos-Warriors list might be more appropriate for filmic LotR Uruks, though the pikes are going to be an issue. I'll figure it out later, I guess. Might have to be a customised unit profile, though I prefer to avoid those.

Good stuff!

I find that in a pinch, a paperclip and a bit of plasticard cut to shape will make a fine replacement pike, no drilling required.

I'll get right onto that! ...when I start on the next batch of them. Much later.

I've just checked, and the completion of those guys brings my YTD total to 385 figures, which is more than I've ever finished before in a calendar year. It seems rather small compared to the amount I've bought this year, so that's a bit of an issue. I'll look into that a bit more in a couple of weeks when we all start doing our painting resolutions for 2016...

Congratulations, that's a whole lotta minis! Regardless of what you've bought, bettering a mini a day is a pretty amazing feat!

CRIKEY Az - that's one hell of a tally!!!! Good job. Think I managed about 80 - lol. Great stuff fella

385?! That's impressive. Great idea keeping a record of what you've painted.

I smell a new spreadsheet for myself next year.

EDC

Well done on the painted models to date. Any chance we can see your dirty laundry and how many you have bought.....

Ugh. I wouldn't know where to begin. I've bought quite a few historical armies this year - 4-5 for Bolt Action alone, lots of Perry and Warlord stuff, received a bunch of Mantic stuff, picked up a decent bit of resin, lots of stuff off eBay earlier in the year...