Mounts and Riders - My entry for the 2nd bonus round.

I didn't submit this, but I wanted to.

So for this round I went back to 20mm for a bunch of Cavalry that had been stalled on the desk for the last couple of years. They were casualties of trying to gear up to get in a game of RrtK and having to scrap the painted army idea as I was taking too long.

I had intended to do four orcs and four Anglo-Saxons but three of the Anglo-Saxons already had the metal bits done so I set them aside.

They mostly came out how I wanted, I think the Liquitex matte varnish that I transferred to the dropper bottle may actually be drying more matte now. It seems to be killing the shine on the metallics a bit.

So take a look and vote for your favorites here.

EDIT-

I apparently forgot to include info on the figures, all 20mm or 1/72 to be precise. The Anglo-Saxon was from Revell set 02551. The Orcs are from Dark Alliance PAL72001 (I'll note here that Hannant's has the half orcs now), while their mounts are metal Ral Partha wolves from Ironwind Metals.

I'll also take this opportunity to welcome Blaxkleric to the blog. I know him from A Tale of Several Gamers and The Painting Challenge. I see he has several other blogs and a deviant art account, which I will check out when I'm not so harried.

My 2nd regular entry - The Mother Crushers

Or is that Muvva Krushas?

I decided to spare you all the shots of the back of the figures. If you want to see them you can find them here.

I assembled a travel kit for painting while on vacation and it has been rather difficult. At my folks I had to clean up my painting station so they could entertain every other day. At me in laws the lighting is atrocious.

I also really struggled with the white primer. When I started painting, around 1990, white was all I did. Now I mostly do Black, Brown and sometimes Grey. The little white specks from paint not flowing or not painting all the the way to the edge at the transition between colors. Gah!

I also took the pictures with my cell phone, as I felt that it would be too frustrating with the Nikon.

Hope you like them.

Oh yeah, here's a picture of Eeza Ugezod from the unit that I finished last year.

Meowy Christmas!

Just some silliness and wishing you and yours a joyous holiday season.

Not me, but an awesome idea.

I'll be feverishly trying to finish up my entry for tomorrow and the bonus round on Sunday.

Update and holiday travel.

Hi All,

While I'm on pins and needles waiting to see my score and voting tally from the "Cold" round I figured I should let you all know what's been going on the last few days.

The finished cast.

 So I completed the axe. I think it looks pretty good. The main advice l would give is to let the mold cure. I followed the video I found and pulled the mold apart to early to try and reduce the flash. Just let it harden and trim it later. 24 Cigarettes also suggested putting a wire in the mold to help with axe handle rigidity.

$9 sculpting tools.

  I've only used two of the twelve tools from the set I got on sale, but they are already proving very useful. I spent most of my available time doing base work so that l could continue painting over the holidays. Although I missed my submission deadline for this week, I hope that I will be able to make up for that by not missing the next theme round and the next two weeks.

Cthulhu says "Drink this or l will eat your soul!"

I found the house woefully lacking in Rum, so I bought some Kraken. This is in keeping with my penchant for buying quirky bottles. I was fortunate to find another bottle at my parents local grocers. Skal!

Stevo's Age of Arthur competition!

Hi All,

The frenzy that is the painting challenge, combined with the realization that Christmas is almost upon us, has consumed much of my consciousness. I therefore have had even more than usual flooding my brain to the point that it has been difficult to form a coherent post on a single topic. Let's see how I do here.

Stevo, of Stevo's mini Soldiers, is having a giveaway here. It is for a copy of the Warhammer Historical title "Age of Arthur". He has the usual requirements for a giveaway, follow the blog, leave a comment with the addition of showing some of your Dark Age figures. This is where I put it off, because I'm embarrassed at how my Dark Age project has stalled. So, without further ado, here are my Saxon and Viking warbands, armies, what have you.

The Dark Ages, ages darker than anyone ever imagined:

Saxons from Imex and Revell with two MiniArt Germans.

A mix of Imex and Zvezda Vikings.

So, as you can see, they need some work. You may have noticed that I used the gamey convention of color coding.  I was painting these for the Talomir Tales Rally Round the King (RRtK) project for the forces of Tereken (Anglo-Saxon) and Mirholme (Viking). Initially I was the Viking player, but I defeated myself in a series of battles with the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. So now I am them. Bother.

The Anglo-Saxons (Tereken) are ostensibly Green and Yellow, the peasants more subdued. The vikings are supposed to be Red and Blue, I can only make out Red. I just found that, looking at multiple Saga battle reports, it became increasingly difficult to tell who was who with realistically painted figures.

And to prove that you can actually win stuff from Stevo, here's a picture of the Zombies I won that arrived yesterday.

The box was a little worse for wear, but everything inside was intact. These guys look like good, campy, fun. They might even make it into the challenge. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Two more items.

I set foot in a Games Workshop store for the first time ever yesterday and it was a pleasant experience. The guy on duty was nice and helpful and the two gentlemen seemed normal, aside from being there in the middle of the afternoon. Perhaps they were on their lunch break. (I do note the irony in my judging people for being there at the exact time that I am.) I bought some basing materials and listened to detailed space marine list recounting in the background. Although I still get some sticker shock at the cost of models I do like some of them. The lure of free shipping on orders I place through the store is a good one too. I'll go back, with my son in tow, in the new year.

Lastly, I'd like to welcome Baconfat of Baconfat Log. He is a fellow challenger and has painted some really nice Riders of Rohan.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ia! Ia! The cold challenge round Fhtagn!

You need to go over to the Analogue HobbiesVth Painting challenge bonus round and vote for your favorite entries (mine) immediately. In all seriousness you don't have to vote for mine if it doesn't tickle your fancy, but there s some really cool work being done and I think there may be prizes for fan favorites at the end (in March).

So show some love to the painters out there. Everyone is trying really hard and showing some good stuff.

Here are the pictures I sent to Curt.

I reasoned it was "cold" at the bottom of the sea.

Here are some glamour shots I didn't include in my submission.

I really had fun with this one. Thanks for looking.

I'm a green stuffin' fool

More of an update than any real pearls of wisdom.

After several tries I got a decent mold with the Instant Mold. As you can see I still have a bit of flash and I bent the cast trying to pop it out too early. This was only my second time ever using green stuff and I'm not sure if my yellow to blue mix ratio was off. The axe is a tad bendy, I thought it would be harder.

I also did a bunch of gap filling and repair of a void in a miscast figure. I can't show them to you yet, as they are for the challenge, but I'll reveal them shortly. I had meant to show them before base coating, as I was really proud of my work.  Of course I got carried away and sprayed them before taking pictures. I learned my lessons from my first experience and kept a little bowl of water to wet tools and fingers. I just used my craft store Sculpey sculpting tools and they worked great. I did see some fancy sculpting tools on sale for $9 on Amazon, so I splurged.

I usually focus on what went wrong, but I had a really positive experience this go round. It really made me want to work on sculpting more.

Bugbears from The Painting Challenge.

Hi All,

Here's my first entry into the Analogue Hobbies Vth Annual Painting Challenge. The link to my specific entry, should you be a glutton for punishment, is here.

I added this size comparison shot to show how they scale with other 1/72 (20mm) figures. Fladnag is 28mm from the bottom of his base to the top of his hat.

Yesterday was the first day since the challenge started that I have not painted something. I went on a class field trip with my son and then had to rush to the gym not long after we got home. More volunteering today may cut into the hobby as I also have to get in a run, take my son to karate and go to San Soo class tonight.

Don't forget the Splintered Light sale code xmas14.

Splintered Light Miniatures Sale

Hi All,

Even with the best intentions i seem to have trouble posting as frequently as I would like.

I wanted to draw your attention to a sale going on over at Splintered Light Minatures. In addition to some sale items on the front page you can also enter the code xmas14 at checkout. If I recall correctly it will give you a 20% discount (I could easily be misremembering the amount, but a discount is a discount.) I've got my eye on some 20mm Kobolds and Goblins and am considering the Hill Giants from the 28mm line.

Check them out. As you know I'm a fan of their sculpts, I wish they had more 20mm versions of their 15mm stuff.

In Painting Challenge news I'm going to varnish and flock my entry today. I've been good about painting every day, something I lacked last go round. For me it's color choices and technique that really hold me up. I seem to be unable to lock onto a palette before I begin. I only had to paint over a couple of areas that didn't work. But of course I also came up against the issue of "that moment when" the flesh color I've painstakingly mixed and layered, ends up looking like I painted it with another color straight out of the pot. :p

I hope to get on a bunch of figures for the next steps in the challenge. I have one outstanding order that I need to track down.

Curt's Challenge has started!

Whaat!? I haven't even finished prepping!

Sorry I couldn't resist posting a picture of one of my first attempts at painting human eyes. Seems like it would qualify for "Pro painted" on Ebay. He, and his pals, were probably painted around 1991. I'd like to think I could do better now, but since I have only re-found the hobby in the last few years I have a lot of catching up to do. At some point in the future I will revisit these figures and fix them.

I need to do some serious blog updating. I have a spreadsheet, a general plan, and even forced myself to put paint to figures last night before bed. I have a few bins sorted. Primed and based, primed, unprimed, washed, and unwashed. We'll not mention the ones in box, on sprue or in blister/ bag.

The entries have already begun (gulp!), you can read about them here.

A pox on Miles, Curt and Iannick I say!