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It's wonderful to have you back in action! Have you considered using the halberd off a furioso, with a bit of chopping (I have a spare if you need).

I hadn't considered a Furioso halberd until you mentioned it... I'll give making one a go first, but I may take you up on that offer at some point, thanks!

Speaking of updates... you lucky people actually get another one already. Yes, it's true! A real update, not 6 months of silence




The top left part of the image is the start of the Executioner's symbol. Currently I'm not all that happy with it, especially as it's not really the same on either side! It'll probably be redone at some point in the next week or so. The leg joints were looking rather... fake with the standard model, so I've started sculpting in some rubber(like) joints in there to make it look like someone is at least attempting to stop gunk getting into the hip joints! The knee pad has already had a bit of rework since the photo too and is looking a it neater... mostly because I stuck my thumb in it shortly after the picture was taken... oops!

Anyway. You can get the rough idea of where the pose is going. The left arm is raised, grabbing/crushing a Scourge, while the right arm will be down and back a little, grasping the axe just behind the head. I'm also trying to decide if the right foot needs to have a scourge between it and the mound of rocks too

For the executioners symbol, I hit a similar problem with a symbol for Skull takers. I ended up using a small metal axe from Confrontation and shaping it slightly with jewellery pliers. So if you could find a suitable small axe (lotr dwarves maybe) you could use that? BTW really like the pose, especially how you've done the legs.

Holy cow! I thought transmissions on this blog had ended

Looking nice indeed - look forward to seeing where it goes

It very nearly did. There was a point about two weeks back I considered clearing everything out... Glad I didn't

I am glad you didn't because you do awesome work and it is great to see. My wallet is also glad, because I end up buying a lot of those cleared out projects

After a few weeks of traveling with work and then a long deserved holiday, I finally got the chance to do a little bit more painting.

Work on the Conteptor has stalled as the order for Scourges failed to appear. I need to sort that out at some point... in the mean time, I started to do a few other models that arrived recently. All of these are still very much WIPs (aren't they always?)

Judge Minty. This charity model is much much nicer than anything produced by Mongoose for their Dredd range... makes me wish they would just hire this guy to redo their models as they would sell far more.



We've been playing a lot of Zombicide recently, so it felt right that we should have the Scooby gang



And finally there's a giant walking statue for 7th Voyage games (the stop motion expansion for 7TV). He's supposed to be a large metal statue, but I figured no-one would know the difference if he became living stone.



He's also a first experiment with the AK Interactive slime weathering mixture. This is a liquid that you paint onto your model, then once it's dried a bit, use some white spirit to blend the edges and create streaks. So far I'm really impressed with it and need to investigate some of the other paints in their weathering range. The digital catalogue is well worth a read as it's got small guides on how to use all the products in the back

Nice to see you back! Was the Scourge issue me or the retailer?

A few more updates for you. Ages ago I painted one of Crooked Dice's Daredevil models for a friend's birthday; these are based upon the Captain Scarlet Angels characters



I'm not overly happy with the outcome as I was up against a tight deadline and the undercoat went all chalky. One of the eyes also looks weird as I tried painting a shadow over it. I won't be trying that one again! Still. He's happy with her and I finally have a photo for the gallery.

On a better note, my order of Secret Weapon's snow effect turned up today and I have to say it's significantly better than the GW snow effect!


Here's an example of the awful flock GW snow effect, followed by the same base with the Secret Weapons



You can also see that the GW "snow" effect has changed colour over the 2 months since I put it in place... really not impressed with their offering (why am I not surprised?). The Secret Weapons snow is definitely worth it




Automatically Appended Next Post:
It seems a bit more painting got done last night too... it's unprecedented! It won't last, I can promise you that much

Judge MInty had a bit of a cleanup on various bits, the gold got another highlight and the helmet was started. The head and gun are waiting for a pile of clear bases to arrive so I've got something to hold onto while painting... so he's nearly as far as I can take him at the moment.



Shaggy also got some attention, with almost everything getting a bit of a tidy up

I like Judge Minty a lot. I am not so enamoured of the lady and Shaggy. They seem...blotchy?

The SW snow effects look really good, though they look more like ice than snow.

The Angel is definitely blotchy. the really grainy undercoat and time limitations really didn't help with the paint job. Hopefully the new shot of shaggy is a bit better.





I've also got one piece of terrain now. It's been a while...

Those muted brown tones are lovely!

Thanks

So. Here's a quest for you all.. I need to find a steampunk-y looking female robot and an angry orangutan miniatures to use in a 7TV game in a few weeks time. Can anyone suggest any decent manufaturers please?

Black Cat Bases?

http://blackcatbases.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=437_438&zenid=031517dba5ff7b8515ece3e62d077f0a

Reaper?

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Sci-Fi/latest/50246

Black cat are excellent, and I have that seated orangutan. Cyriss stuff for wm for the robot maybe?

Oh boy. Another long silence... sorry!

Thanks for the tips on the Black Cat stuff. Sadly that campaign fell through, but the ideas are still floating around the aether somewhere.

So what's happened since I was last here? Big news is that I'm in the middle of buying a new house so we've got more space and a much bigger garden. This happily means that hopefully sometime this year I'll have a dedicated hobby room and can start to build me a skirmish sized table and a permanent lightbox setup.

Most of the hobby stuff is packed up at the moment, but somehow that's inspired me to actually start work on some bits that were laying around the house! Over the last few months we've been playing a lot of Zombicide and with Season 2 just around the corner, I figured it was about time I started putting paint to plastic. Since this picture a few more walkers have joined the horde. So far there are 13/40 walkers, 2/16 Runners and 4 of the 8 Fatties done. Still quite a way to go, but we're getting there slowly.



As well as playing lots of Zombicide, I appear to have stopped caring about the mighty GW and their latest large kits and am finding myself reading historical gaming magazines or pulp style skirmish game rules. One in particular is a Cthulhu based skirmish system called Strange Aeons, which looks to be a neat little system for running short, deadly battles with the Old Ones in the Home Counties.. Normally this is set in the roaring '20s, but with the Bolt Action models in the bits box and the incoming Achtung! Cthulhu miniatures, it should all line up nicely for a 1940s home front investigation too. To get things started I've painted up a cult leader from one of the Mongoose Demonic Cult models



He will be leading the horde of zombies against the British secret occult society, Mi57. To do that, I also need to start building up some more terrain. I want this to be a nice quaint little country village, not some war torn battlefield... so I need to get some bits to make up a proper village. Once the gaming room is in action, terrain will begin being built... for now I've decided to de-skull the Garden of Morr, which is lots of work! Here's the first wall to be completed. Wall 2 is nearly done... then I need to start carving up the buildings and fences!



And for anyone on Blogger, I finally got around to starting a general gaming blog over there so I can post about anything I want. Come say hello

It's... It's... ALIVE! you totally need ash as your avatar now after that update. A lot to love but the cult leader, the girl in blue and the very green guy stand out, as does the rather fat zombie. Terrain is looking sweet! I suppose it's only natural you should do zombies, they're miniatures with weathering: D

I think I need a necromancer as my avatar as I keep resurrecting threads long thought dead

Blink...blink...whazzat...Endy's back in the woodshed making thumpety noises?

Those projects look really interesting. Too true that most of GW's minis since the Dark Vengeance set have been rather like little kids toys.

Skirmish games are appealing. Not so much of an investment in time and quid. The trick is finding regular opponents.

One of the things I like about Strange Aeons is that it also includes some basic solo rules, so even fi ding an opponent isn't a major issue.

Skirmish systems also appeal to the idea butterfly in me

Did you rebase the Zombs with clear bases? What is the reasoning behind that one? Zombicide solo isnt bad either. Good way to try some of the new survivors and different ways to play the levels (the ones on GG's website are pretty good).

I am rebasing the zombies on clear bases, yes. I want to use the zombies in other games, like 7TV and Strange Aeons as well... so to make them fit with any models in those systems I'm now basing everything on clear bases so that it doesn't matter which game I'm playing or what the table is.

Plus a lot of the bases in my Zombicide set were warped

Makes sense. The zombicide plastics are real easy to manipulate with some hot water or a hair dryer, if you need to for the models themselves (like a sword or chainsaw).

Are you fully done with GW, or "taking a break"? Seems to be two distinct camps these days.

I'm undecided about GW. The prices, attitude and most of the new models are off-putting, but if the rumours of an Inquisition boxed game come true... that one is a must

I've done some fixes with a hairdryer already, but the bases were somethingI wanted to do for anything that can be used in a skirmish system.

[update] I've been off ill today, so I managed to get loads done on the zombie horde... with the exception of getting a decent photo that is

I'm now 50% of the way through the initial horde. Only another 33 zombies and 6 survivors left before Season 2 arrives...

Absent, but not unproductive I see! Loved the de-skulled Garden of Morr. Might have to see those clear bases on several playing surfaces to truly appreciate them...

endtransmission wrote:And for anyone on Blogger, I finally got around to starting a general gaming blog over there so I can post about anything I want. Come say hello

You can't post anything you want here?

subscribed! This is good stuff

 Arakasi wrote:
Absent, but not unproductive I see! Loved the de-skulled Garden of Morr. Might have to see those clear bases on several playing surfaces to truly appreciate them...

endtransmission wrote:And for anyone on Blogger, I finally got around to starting a general gaming blog over there so I can post about anything I want. Come say hello

You can't post anything you want here?

I probably could, but would a load of rpg plot hooks go so well in the middle of a painting thread?

Last night I managed to get a nice run on the painting and finished a couple more bits of the graveyard






and Shaggy decided to go have a look around to make sure Mr Burnheart, the local caretaker, wasn't causing trouble by raising the dead

You mean the monster was Mr. Burnheart the whole time? Zonks!

I suspect that, stupid though he may be, Shaggy has started to twig that it's always the caretaker.

On a different note, earlier today on the Lead-Adventures forum I was asked how I'd painted the brickwork and rooftops on the building to your left. I don't really have any step by step photos from this one, but I'll try and remember to do some photos next time around and update this tutorial a bit.

Brickwork

1) Start with a white undercoat

2) Do an 70/30 mix of VMC Green Ochre/water over all of the brickwork so that it flows nicely over the whole thing without getting lumpy. It should also give you some initial colour variations and leave to dry.

3) Do a 60/40 mix of VMC Green Ochre and VMC Deck Tan and drybrush over the whole thing.

4) Do a 30/70 mix of VMC Green Ochre and VMC Deck Tan and drybrush over the whole thing.

5) Do a wash of GW Gryphonne Sepia into the shadowed areas, especially between the bricks and under overhangs.

6) Do another wash of Gryphonne Sepia over some of the bricks to change the overall colour of some bricks. You can also do this with a black wash for some really different bricks.

7) Do a very light drybrush of white over the whole lot to finish the brickwork.

To get the really worn, stained look there are two final steps, but these involve more advanced weathering materials.

8) To get the green mould stains on the bricks paint some streaks and spots of the AK Interactive Slimy Grime Light weathering liquid. With a damp brush blend the green areas into the brickwork a bit so it's not quite so vibrant.

9) For the muddy, dirty look around the bottom, gently brush on some dark weathering powder, like Forgeworld Dark earth. You don't want too much, just enough to get stuck in the paint's texture.

For the rusty gate I gave it a black undercoat and then dotted on some of the Model Mates Rust Effect. It's probably one of the best weathering liquids I've come across as it created a nice rusty patina without anything else needing to be done.

The roof was an interesting experiment that involved a number of rounds of "does this look right to you?"

1) Start with a patchy undercoat of VMC Field Blue over a white undercoat

2) Do a watery (60/40) mix of VMC Leather Brown/Water over the top of this to darken it up a bit and give the bluey/grey a brown tint and shadows.

3) Water down some GW Temple Guard Blue (60/40 - paint/water) and start painting thin stripes down the roof as if the water hits the top and runs all the way down. You don't need to be too neat about this as any runoff or spashes onto the brickwork below the roof just looks like dirty runoff

4) Keep building up the layers of this green, making sure it's streaky and patchy.

5) Do some small stipples of neat Temple Guard Blue in some areas for a really bright patina

6) A final wash of Devlan Mud into the shadows and around the edges gives you a bit of depth and pop.

I hope those were useful. I'll try to get some pictures next time around