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 Ezki wrote:
Also, as a perfectionist I sorta kinda wanted that the door could be opened, even if it's an Ork vehicle.

...but the trunk lid won't close "properly" due to the position of its two chains....

I know you have used the existing trukk leaf spring suspension, but each time I see those gaps above the wheels, I think they could have been filled with springed shock absorbers... what happened to the wheel guards again?

Still - looking good, can't wait to see it finished.

Catchya,
Arakasi

Thank you youwashock & Arakasi!

 Arakasi wrote:
...but the trunk lid won't close "properly" due to the position of its two chains....

I know you have used the existing trukk leaf spring suspension, but each time I see those gaps above the wheels, I think they could have been filled with springed shock absorbers... what happened to the wheel guards again?
Arakasi

Haha, you are right about the trunk lid
I agree that there might be a bit too much empty space going on in there. Coil springs might have been one solution to fill the gap. However, I don't think that I have it in me to start cutting bits again, but now I'll know better for the next one!
The wheel guards were sort of a failed experiment after all. They got bent quite badly during the drying process, and they would require a complete overhaul. Also attaching them with the exhaust would have made them quite flimsy. Will definitely try again at some point.

Painting process started!

Very impressive scratchbuilding Ezki. The rat-rod look is perfect for Orks, I wish that GW had kept the aesthetic for all of their recent vehicles.

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the dust planes
Looking for some hummies
Crushing them, leaving just a stain...

CB

Ooh that rust is super grungy. Great tone on it. I never did learn to do rust like that. Looks awesome.

Thank you very much guys!

Thumpingbear wrote:Very impressive scratchbuilding Ezki. The rat-rod look is perfect for Orks, I wish that GW had kept the aesthetic for all of their recent vehicles.

Thank you Thumpingbear!
I like the fact that they are all different, but I agree that there should be more vehicles like the Kustom Boosta Blasta.
For example I did not quite like the F1 look of the shokkjump dragsta, which is one of the main reasons I started making these conversions in the first place

Captain Brown wrote:Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the dust planes
Looking for some hummies
Crushing them, leaving just a stain...

CB

Born to be speedfreek!
Good take on a classic Cap'n. I wish it was summer already so I could blast that on the stereos while cruisin' with the Dodge.

theCrowe wrote:Ooh that rust is super grungy. Great tone on it. I never did learn to do rust like that. Looks awesome.

Thank you theCrowe!
It's actually quite simple when you get the hang of it.
I use leftover foam pieces from my army trays as a sponge to apply most of the paint.

Steps for this kind of very rusty surface are the following:
- Prime with Rhinox Hide (or any dark brown)
- Sponge Doombull Brown or Mournfang Brown
- Sponge Skrag Brown
- Very very lightly sponge Trollslayer Orange

Sometimes I might throw in a wash of Agrax Eartshade or Seraphim Sepia depending on the finish I want.
The process changes a bit almost every time though, as I like to play around with it.



Little bit of progress done, but no more pictures yet.

Just wanted to wish you all Merry Christmas!

Born to be Waaaaaaagh!

Merry Xmas!

The buggies are finally done!

In addition to the Scratchbuilt Chevy, I worked with the stock Kustom Boosta Blasta pretty much at the same time.
However, that might have been a mistake, as I was way too excited to focus on painting the conversion, so the stock one was left a bit more messy and rushed.

When I start building Ork buggies, I tend to build a few of them one after another and then paint them all.
This tactic has it's goods and bads. The good thing is that I get to get into "the zone" while building them. The bad side is that usually at some point, I get a bit tired of painting the same colors over and over.
Except for the Chevy. Painting that was really really fun, as I got to play around with different rust and weathering techniques.

But first, I'll show you the stock Kustom Boosta Blasta:



Once again following the same theme with the chipped of red paint and a flame pattern on the cold air intake.
I decided to leave the rear "fenders" off, but I think I maybe should have covered the spots for them. Oh well.
I somewhat messed up with the pigments on this one, as I sort of just slabbed them on. And the turret is very rushed, as I just wanted to get it done.
Other than that, I'm okay with it.

For the Chevy, I wanted to build a bit more special base.
It still is themed like the rest, but I wanted to add a few more details to it.
A while back I printed a few poster sheets, from which I cut one and added it as a wrinkled poster, that might have been taken by the wind.
In front of the pipe, I added some UV resin, which was colored using intensity ink. The tone is not exactly how I pictured it, but close enough.



Now to the main attraction and my final model of 2021:
The "Chevy Kustom Kustom Boosta Blasta":



I pondered the color scheme for a while. The other buggies are mostly red, but somehow I got the gut feeling to go black. Maybe it was the Mad Max soundtrack playing nonstop in the background, I'm not sure.
As far as details go, I added two grots from the Snazzwagon kit, which I acquired recently.
And no, I don't admit buying the kit for those two grots. Don't judge me. Jokes aside, the kit has excellent bits for future buggy and vehicle projects, which I will definitely keep doing at some point.

As for the rust:
Most of the chipping was done using liquid mask. I stippled the whole body with different tones of brown and orange, sponged in the mask and painted it black.
Instead of two thin coats, I applied the black in thick coats to get better definition between the painted and rusted areas.
I let the mask dry for a few of hours before removing, so that it would stick a bit better creating those dirty and defined "paint edges".
After that, I played around with AK Interactive enamel paints and Track Rust Pigment to get some more color and definition to the chips as well as a few streak marks.
The driver side door is mostly done with pigments though.

Even if I say so myself, I think this turned out way better than I would have imagined. I'm usually a harsh critic for myself, but this time I'm actually really happy with it.
When building the body, I came quite close to calling it quits. Making the round shapes was really annoying and I got my hands covered in glue multiple times.
During the project, the body snapped two times from different spots: once from the bottom and once from the A-pillar right on top of the windshield. Never work on delicate things when you are hungry and/or tired.
At that point, I swore that I would not build anything like this again. But looking at it now, I might. I also might approach it differently, or just enjoy the painful building process again

Needless to say, this has been my most difficult and ambitious conversion project to date, even surpassing the Iron Harvest Sentinels. Not the biggest model converted, but needed the most work.
It was also something I though about building for years.

What a way to end the year.

Thank you for reading and happy New Year to everyone! May 2022 bring many happy hobby moments to all of you!

Excellent work Eski.

Cheers,

CB

Looks great!

Fantastic work Ezki, the rusting and overall painting is excellent! Those 2 grots were certainly worth the money for the snazzwagon (which I’m sure we’ll get to see at some point too).

Happy New Year!

Phenomenal.

Caked in rust is the next best thing to shiny and chrome.

Amazing build rounded out with a magnificent paint job. The Grot additions are great and really make the vehicle stand out!

Beautiful work as usual Ezki
What did that poor grot do to end up getting tied to the front grill like that?

 Syro_ wrote:
Beautiful work as usual Ezki
What did that poor grot do to end up getting tied to the front grill like that?

He knows what he did, and I'm sure he deserves it.

Fantastic work, a really amazing finished piece.

 DJJazzyJeff wrote:

 Syro_ wrote:
Beautiful work as usual Ezki
What did that poor grot do to end up getting tied to the front grill like that?

He knows what he did, and I'm sure he deserves it.

Thank you very much for the comments, I really appreciate it.
Sorry it took me a while to answer. Been busy with work, the puppy and some D&D stuff lately.

gobert wrote:Those 2 grots were certainly worth the money for the snazzwagon (which I’m sure we’ll get to see at some point too).

You will most definitely see it at some point in the future! Building and painting four buggies in a row is quite exhausting though, so I have to do something else for a while.

Syro_ wrote:Beautiful work as usual Ezki
What did that poor grot do to end up getting tied to the front grill like that?

I guess that being a better shot than the Ork manning the main gun, he tried to give a few tips


I will try to get a picture out of all the minis I finished in 2021 spread across the table.
The problem is, that we don't have a dinner table at the moment, and the floor is absolute no no due to the overly eager four legged monster
Might have to do it in the rented game room a bit later.

Before that, some new and old stuff.

Continued working with some of terrain pieces I started last year. Some of them in the spring, some a bit later in the summer.


Trying to get these built and painted, so we can finally have a proper Necromunda battleground.

One of the new players in my latest adventure got so excited, that he wanted to run a small adventure of his own.
I decided to paint a mini for my character, as I need some general fantasy models to future games anyway. As it happens, most of my models are wielding guns, if we don't count the few Mordheim guys, the old LotR or Vampire Counts models.

It's a Wizkids "Female Elf Paladin" model, which I'm using as a cleric / sorcerer. Did a quick two evening paint job on it.
I think I might be able to create these models quite effectively if I don't get caught up in the details too much.




As you can see from the background, I also created a little prop for the table to represent my character's holy symbol / spell focus.

It's a cheap hardware store "copper look" LED lantern, which had some modifications.
First I sanded the leds and gave them a few coats of blue wash. Then I took some cotton wool from a broken puppy toy, which I dyed blue using very thinned down Ice Blue.
Lastly the handle was covered in thick cotton thread.




Quite an easy and fun build.

That's all for now.
Going to be working with the terrain every time I have a chance to get to the garage. Other than that, I'm not quite sure what my next project is.
More D&D minis? Finally finish the Drukhari boats? We'll see.

And like I said, I'll try to get the pictures out of the models painted last year, even if it's a bit late this time.

Thanks for looking!

That’s a cool idea for the lamp. It looks really effective in the dark. Your palladin is a really solid paint job for such a quick turn around

I admire your commitment to the game. Very cool character mini and prop. I love that the lantern is still functional.

 Ezki wrote:

Syro_ wrote:Beautiful work as usual Ezki
What did that poor grot do to end up getting tied to the front grill like that?

I guess that being a better shot than the Ork manning the main gun, he tried to give a few tips

That would do it

Thank you gobert, youwashock and syro_!

Our D&D group definitely had a laugh as I pulled the lantern out of backpack while my character was casting the first spell.
Changing the color for it won't be too hard I guess, so it could quite easily be used as a different prop in the future.


So, I took a bunch of miniature cases and headed to the game room for a small photo session.
I wanted to take the time to capture all the minis I painted in 2021, as it will be a great memory to have.

Without further adeu, the pics (hopefully they are not too big):














95 miniatures in total, from which 12 were vehicles and 43 were converted / kitbashed / scratchbuilt.
In addition, 5 terrain pieces (if the wall pieces are count as one). Four of them were scratchbuilt.

Close to 100 miniatures, which is quite a haul even if I say so myself. Definitely more than I did in 2020.
Mass producing the Spiky Space Elves pumped up the number quite a bit!

I did fail one of my goals though: to finish the Drukhari army completely during 2021. I got stuck with the boats, as I was waiting for the correct airbrush, and when it finally arrived, my mind wandered to other projects.
That being said, I'm very happy with the achievements. Learned a lot and got to work on many conversions that I had in my mind for a long time.
If I were to choose a favorite, it would be either the Iron Harvest Sentinels or the Chevy Buggy.
I succeeded on the impossible though: I actually painted more than I bought!

As goals for 2022 I will name the following:
- Try to improve the quality of single miniatures
- Practice NMM and OSL
- Paint more non GW miniatures, mostly for D&D
- Build more terrain


I want to also thank you all for reading my ramblings and commenting so actively. It means a lot, truly.

Hopefully everyone has a great year.
Till next time!

Awesome work for 2021 - looking forward to 2022.

Great batch of minis for the year. Work to be proud of!

Beautiful, man. Just beautiful. The Sentinels, the Beholder, the Dark Eldar. The rust! It's all awesome.

I’d forgotten those Armageddon sentinels were yours too, wow they’re still just so cool. Great show for 2021, loads of variety and all really excellent work. You’ve got the skills and with goals like those for 2022 you’ll be even better!

Such a great haul of exellent minis! The eyes on that beholder really are next level. I love the finish you got on the Vypers too. Roll on 2022 projects!

That beholder really is a standout, absolutely jaw-dropping.

Thank you very much for the kind words everyone!
The Beholder seems to be the crowd favorite. I have yet to use it in a game, but it will surely get it's premiere on the D&D table sooner or later!

Got too many projects already planned for 2022. Will see how much I can actually finish and how my attention span sticks with each project.
I have some Kingdom Death coming in via mail (currently at customs), a few new D&D minis and a bunch of terrain projects at my desk.

I've also started to seriously think about buying a box or two of the "new" Sisters of Battle. When I was young, I swore that when they would release the plastic models, I would start collecting them. Well, I did not.
Maybe it's time to get a few reinforcements for my Krieg guys. I'm not planning to make it a full army, but to paint a couple of units for display and allied detachment purposes.
... But that's what I said about my Dark Eldar back in 2012, and currently I'm looking at a 2.5k point army

Wow, what a year! Excellent minis, each and every one. The ork buggies and the Sentinels are my favorites too, though as others have said, that Beholder must also be recognized!

It's been great following your plog, the fact that you switch factions and try out new techniques keeps things fresh. Whatever you end up painting in 2022, I'll be following keenly!

Very nice Ezki.

Exalted work.

Cheers,

CB