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Dedication there kestrel, I would have dry brushed and been satisfied.

Cheers,

CB

A good dry brush counts for a great deal! I actually like terrain not to over shadow miniatures, sometimes simpler is kind of better.

Here's some stranglevines made from grape tendrils, and some eggs from hot glue.

The same theory applies to 'troop models' versus characters. You want the characters to stand out!

kestrel,

Some nice, inexpensive terrain ideas there. Although how fragile are the grape tendrils?

Cheers,

CB

Surprisingly tough. No problem there I think.

Yeah, dried grape vines are nice and rugged! I wish i had some around, they're fun for all sorts of little hobby projects.

The hot glue is a neat idea, and they turned out great.

Well, if you ever really need some I can probably lay hands on some. : )

A dream finally achieved!

Brilliant!

Crab or Lobster?

I need butter.

More interesting alien terrain there kestrel.

Cheers,

CB

They're like the scenery in the last scene of Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. Terrible movie, great settings!

Thanks folks!

I should watch the follow up Starship Troopers - especially if they have some cool terrain. I wish I'd gotten some of the bug figures when they were around - they were cool and alien, especially the basic warriors.

This was mostly a test to see if the smell could be removed. It is lobster, and I have a much more ambitious lobster project for later, if this one doesn't stink....



So far it seems that boiling for an hour, picking out any soft tissue, soaking in water for a week, sealing up well with hot glue and spraying with dull coat removes all odor as far as I can tell.

In the meantime, I got my Reaper Bones. I got the Dreadmere, the Peasants, Horror and some statuary. I wish I'd gotten the lost world too. Hell, and the Underworld. Here's the statuary - I sprayed it dark grey, washed with black, lightly sprayed pale grey, drybrushed white, washed with thinned Nuln oil selectively, and then added some flock.

I'm one of the people whose order included THE LAST CONTAINER, so I'm still waiting for my Bones.

Nice lobster. I suspect there's some Taxidermy skills that would come in very useful, here? To the internets!

--Brian

The Statuary looks nice, and good luck on the future lobster project. It's sounds epic.

We used to clean sand dollars by soaking them for a few hours in a dilute Clorox (insert your local bleach based cleaner here) and then scrubbing in clean water. This could work for lobster parts, unless you wanted to keep the natural colors (ie: aren't going to paint)- it probably would bleach a lot of the color out.

The only other thing I can think of, is- after cleaning thoroughly with soap and water, overcoat them heavily with matte or gloss varnish as appropriate, to kind of seal them.

I look forward to your next arthropodic project!

Excellent stuff bud, love the lobster though I think I would make moulds and cast in resin, that way no smelly bits.

Thanks for the tips folks! We'll see if the smell stays away over time. During my resin casting days I cast a dragonfly for a conversion at one point. I'd like to do some similar stuff at some point.

Too busy to paint much recently, but here's one of I-walkers Mordians I painted for an RPG, next to a Victoria. It shows how nicely the Victoria figures update old ranges without making them obsolete, so to speak.

A slew of Victoria's work is on my to buy list, thanks for the comparison foto!

Kestral, if your Starship Troopers void still troubles you I’ll just leave this link here...

http://www.rebelminis.com/screecher.html

They have quite the selection of bug critters, some of them would go nicely with your Stranglevines

These blue coats remind me of something that avoids being named. Something from anime, of Hayao Miyazaki fame? Anyway, good painting and a very useful scale shot. Thanks!

@ Wirecat: Howl's Moving castle?
https://images.app.goo.gl/QMCQpMaq11cefraq5

Stuff is looking good kestral, I'm especially looking forward to your alien bugs

They do look like Miyazaki stuff, now that you mention it.

Clearing the shelf for other projects, which means making things out of the odds and ends I've tossed up there for the past couple of months:

We've got... ....an ork Painting station? I don't know. And some giant hive vermin for Necromunda. Mice and Moonspiders. Everyone knows giant mice are more dangerous than giant rats.

Clearly, a malfunctioning Dalek is being attended to by a pair of fuzzy/hairy servitors and pulled to a repair shop by a pair of Skaven slaves. As the wend their way through the city, a Cyberman squeegee man is accosting them for money to wash their windshield.

(Honestly, these things are so obvious- they write themselves! )

Maybe for you they do. That is brilliant!

The shy and elusive yet delicious hive Roach of Unusual Size.

That is brilliant. Honestly, off to get some bugs I have been keeping for a rainy day out, just love that.

The other thingamejigs above all look enticing too.

Very... believable bugs, to the point of scaring me off this great thread! But I will return, with a swatter!

Great idea with the grape vines. I need to keep an eye out for some of those. I have used interesting weeds and seedpods as terrain and I agree, once dried and painted, they seem to hold up for years.

-Rids

I enjoy your terrain making very much. Nice work.

If you have a roach of unusual size, you need a soldier with one boot of unusual size as well. Just saying.

Why thank you!

Here are some random pieces - I was going for a field of vegetation that would make it look like figures were up to their waists in bushes. Worked well, I think.