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Daffy Duck as "Duck Dodgers in the 24th and half Century" for the win! Or Bugs Bunny versus Marvin the Martian- one of those!

Hmm-m... Hmm-M! Yep! Meer_Cat, that Marvin the Martian idea migh actually work! I am considering more and more memorial theme for my futuristic decorations, and that little pesky armor with eyes of pure terror might be a good addition. Thank You!

In other news - support, advance! My mine-brothers, burn and smite these infidels on the cosmic anvil!


Did them not wrong but differently. Instead of basecoating in usual green I've used metallic red, gradually overpainting with greens and browns. This time I've decided to try brown cloth instead of green for more variety, don't know if I'll continue that on other Forge Fathers miniatures. Maybe I'll try some green-grey combination next. Otherwise - no change from previous recipe. I just hope my Iosan and Gnarls greens from Privateer Press survive long enough for me to finish painting these dwarfs.

And that's it for a sci-fi year of 2019. I dread to look at the pile of stuff I haven't painted - and even built! Well, that makes the beginning of 2020 busier, but not right away. I will take a break from the hobby for a week or two, need to settle some other issues first! Happy New Year!

In the thumbnail the beard of the one space dwarf looked like a duck bill to me , it's clearly a beard when I clicked on the image to see a larger version.

Happy New Year Wirecat, good looking dwarves to end the year with. We all have more models than we can paint, but hopefully it's fun to look at them to decide where to go next.

OK, new year, new plans! Finish what has been started, get rid of PVC (wishes, wishes...)

Dwarfs: finish infantry, all of it already undercoated
Enforcers: finish assault company, scouts and peacekeepers
Rebels: finish infantry, the scum of the scum. Browncoats!!!
Elves: just a few infantry/robots and a firing platform, maybe turn it into scenery piece
Scenery: assemble and paint what little Mantic stuff I have, add some scratchbuilt stuff so that I can at least show something at this year autumn convention.

Phew... Let's start with dwarfs, that will take me through the January and February, then some assembly - until the weather turn warm enough. Go!!!

Ambitious goals, good luck Wirecat!

"A journey of a thousand point army begins with a single brush-stroke..."

Confusedus, or one of those guys!

Sure, and that brushstroke was laid so many days ago! It is really a pleasant feeling - to see that all models, remaining to be painted for a specific project, start fitting on a single palm (although in much disorder).

Blue-grey uniform under green armor has brightened them considerably. I am almost sorry for not trying this combination right at the start - was too afraid they will end up too similar to enforcers and security corps. Well, now that enforcers are grey-white and security corps are black-red this is no longer a problem. And rebels are too rag-tag to have anything coherent to them and elven drones are all metallic...



Just 6 more light infantry to go, and then it is time to finish all these bases in a single sit in.

Always nice when a project starts looking finishable.

Nice to know I'm not the only one with a base backlog waiting for the right mood.

Oh, it is a problem of my own making, Vejut. Usually I just throw some sand, scatter and grass on a base and call it done, but for this deadzone project I've decided to make armies as uniform as I can get them, thus I am delaying actually finishing bases with the rest of the mini to make them all in one go, with one mixing of colors.

Meanwhile - three more troopers, two grunts with missile launchers and an engineer/leutenant:



And three more with rifles -



This means it is time for basing!

Not much to say here - light infantry is done.



On to heavies!

Congratulations on finishing the light infantry

The old Napoleonics painters were right: in mass lies perfection! The group shot looks great- on to the next!

(The bases came out ace!)

Don't You tell me, Mr. Meer_Cat! I keep making a wish to go to the only really real wargaming events - field reconstructions of Napoleonic battles, but this wish just keep slipping away. :( There is something creeepily exciting to once in awhile trade individuality (or at least an attempt at in in our age of pre-made clothing and trendy accessories) for a regimental uniformity - and without the inconvenience of likely death in a most painful fashion.

You can't have a proper society without pants-color-segregation!

Well, I am once again limited to a single room and a single bed (most of the day), but that doesn't stop me from starting on heavy dwarfs in space.



I think I've already mentioned my main problem with them - constant shift of mould parts! Arrrrgh! It is not a mould lines to scrap, it is an actual ladder, going across all these small details on legs and arms. I've tried to do something about it, got the idea how much effort it would take to recreate all details that would disappear and then stopped doing anything about it. :( There are only 10 of them, which means there are only 6 left to paint - and then to base them all.

Yeah, i know that feeling. I had some khusuran stuff with a bad mold slip and it just sucked all the enthusiasm out of them for me. Hopefully you can get it back for the last few.

Ha! I'd forgotten about the vehement discrimination between pants and jacket colors, or the bitter and unending argument as to whether the British trousers should be painted white (which they were, when they had them to issue or in Home Regimental Station) are grey (for the over-pants they wore to protect the white ones) Almost as silly and nonsensical as Jonathon Swift's Lilliputions and their turmoil over which end of an egg one should crack when eating.

I've got to tell you, even with the picture enlarged I can't see the 'laddering' you mention- either it is such a natural texture with the armored suits, or your paint job has blended it in- or both- that it isn't a distraction. Those Jotun look proper good!

One day I want to go to Waterloo (my Belgian wife can't understand why I want to visit a place noted for a) low water and b) a nasty guy like Napoleon) if for no other reason than to see the Cannonball Monument. Apparently, it didn't start as a monument, it was just a where everyone piled the expended cannon balls fired during the battle to get them out of the way for the plowing (farmers' fields make such nice battlegrounds, don't you know). To see the big re-enactment would be terrific. But at least for now I've got the Internet and coffee table books!

Keep on keepin' on- the unit is shaping up nicely!

Cool looking space dwarves. I agree with Meer Cat that I can’t see the defects and they look great painted up.

Pants and hats are serious business! Englishmen in that department are pretty bland (I specifically address the thin red line and skip all sort of highlanders and cavalry, that's where things start to differ), compared to Landswehr, where You need to buy or mix 32 colors before going for washes and highlights.

Anyway, these dwarfs are run-off-the-mills, but I've went through most of my tabletop inventory for them. Three greens (Gnarls Green and Iosan Green from PP, Duck Egg Green from AV) - and I am glad they lasted this whole project but will be dry before summer. Five metallic (silver, brass, blue, red and gun, all from AV). Three miscs for optics (Menoth White Highlight from PP, royal purple and blue from AV). Two washes (strong and dark from Army Painter "quickshades"). Phew! I... actually... am starting to miss Burrows-n-Badgers, where there are no such things as a "recipe"!



Yay, all heavies are done, it is basing experiment for the next week!

Meer_Cat wrote:But the body postures and foot placement make me think they could be doing extra-vehicular boarding action- you could actually paint the bases as 'space' (black, with starscapes flecked on with the brush bristles) and they'd look like they were EVA-ing and trying to force an airlock hatch someplace!

Captain Brown wrote:Black bases might contrast the green and let you do the green sides.

A-and... it's full of stars! I've enjoyed painting these stars, even though some were failures.



And that almost concludes the dwarf part. Almost - because there is a special character and his dog... and a little bit of scenery that I've already started. But all that will have to wait for a time when weather allows spraying undercoat and working with resin. Till then - fantasy!

I like how the stars came out- and the Cap'n was right: the black bases set the armor off very nicely. Great to see this project coming to a successful conclusion!

I like the stars too, especially the ones closer to the bottom of the photo.

Still unable to undercoat and thus paint anything new, I turn to more Mantic rebels. Monopose, PVC with plenty of mold lines, but with a sharp knife and proper glue I've learned at least to make some weapon swaps between them. I will try a trenchcoat for one of them, but that may be beyond my skills. :( So much for progress...

Can't recall if you tried it and didn't like it, but I'll mention it anyways: if you can get a hold of some airbrush polyurethane primer it can be applied by brush fairly well. (I know vallejo's works, less sure about others, like Mr.) Especially for PVC models that you've already decided won't come out top shelf, may let you at least start in.

Trenchcoats I haven't tried, but IIRC I was told the key was starting with a thin peice and trimming to a rough shape before applying. Good luck!

After the intricacy of some of your other sculpts Wirecat, I have confidence and faith that you can do justice to the trench coat. Rock on and have fun!

Thank You for votes of confidence! I am not a high-fashion designer, so this looks more like a camo-cape than a trenchcoat, but... still beats sameness of these miniatures.



First I've glued some PVC cuttings, shaved off from sprues these figures come with. This gives more rough surface for greenstuff to hold onto and also the basic shape support, allowing to build on it. Next I coat the plastic with freshly mixed greenstuff, trying to cover as much surface that needs to be covered as possible. Fresh greenstuff has the best adhesion. Then, after two hours, I add more greenstuff to bulk the shape out and start on folds and wrinkles. Detail and trimmings to taste.

Probably will try the same trick on another rebel, the one holding rifle up...

Coat came out nicely, I didn't think of a sprue backer for that.

That looks good Wirecat, and I really like how you used sprue shavings for an armature. You do very impressive work with sprue and I'm guessing x-acto knife.

Same story, part two. With weather improving AKA "approaching +18 centigrade I've got some primig done, so possibly this month I will start working on painting these rebels.

Syro, I believe it was You who asked about tools? This, then, is the shot of most of them, sans improvised ones I make from rods, tubes and wire at a whim of the moment. Left-to-right. Dentistry sculpting scalper I've got long time ago - and never felt the need to sharpen or polish, even though it has got some scraps. A not so exact X-acto knife - cheap Chinese modeling knife set I've got almost as long time ago. Snapped quite a few blades and lost a handle (or two), but there is still a lot of them left. Two of my favorite spread tools, flathead and edge, both from Goya Caucciu. They are considered medium size, I've got smaller ones as well, but they don't get as much use as these two. A very big oval flathead rubber spreader from Lucas, this I use for larger areas such as bases. I've also got some spreaders from Derwent, here is the smallest and sharpest of them... unfortunately they feel neither rubber nor silicone and quickly develop microscopic cracks. As soon as greenstuff or any other putty get into these - they are finished as they become very sticky. This is the last I have. Lastly, a two sided pinhead for shaping small holes or rolling grooves, also from Derwent, nice...



Sprue... Well, there is an old joke: Back in the USSR model kits/toys were so rare and expensive that we had to build two from a single kit. This is only a half-truth, but from these times I've learned that the best way to start modding a plastic kit, if You have a melting glue (!!!), is a small bit of the exactly the same plastic. That trick still works.

Yes that was me who asked about your tools. It still blows my mind what amazing sculptures you make with very few tools. It really shows it's the sculptor that make the sculpture, not the tools. When you have time, I would love to see the homemade sculpting tools you made also.

Passing time and subjects, here are some enforcers. Trio of pathfinders and a ladder-climbing guard. So far - my favorite Mantic HIPS kits, but there are more, so final judgement is delayed. As are their bases... I need to sit down and make some rubble for pathfinders and some rust for guard. Luckily I have some small terrain project in the work where these things will be useful, so, hopefully, one day...



I am making them more and more splotchy. :(

Pathfinders were finished over the weekend, but the week was so stuffed with problems that I haven't had a time to upload them. Seasand is so much better IMHO than anything off the artistic shop shelf. It sure takes some effort to prepare, but I feel it is worth the extras. However, I think figures need to be mounted higher than usual to account for the thickness of the layer.



No washes, except on the weapons. Just mixing colors from the darkest to the brightest on the palette. My eyes (and everything) are getting worse, so this should be the trick for some time. Tried to dirty mecha-dogs paws to match the terrain colors, even though he hasn't got a base.

Now, I should turn to rebels... and add bases to the Convergence models. Sand with stones and tufts of grass, perhaps?