Progress on Space Chickens

Just trying to keep my Mojo up and you all abreast of the situation. (Ha, ha, abreast).

This is where I left off last night. I've gotten a little more done on them today, but I have to run so I'll do more later.

I feel like the Clukkatrix is done. Just needs a coat of varnish.

I also got in the second run of T-shirts and will be calculating shipping and messaging people with the total in the morning.

I had to go to some training on using the Epipen this morning. A word of advice. If your kid has a potentially life threatening condition you may want to make sure that all of the school staff are aware of it. I'm just a lowly duty aide, but if I know your kid could go into anaphylaxis, diabetic coma etc, I could save his/her life.

Have a good one.

Oh and welcome to London in Flames. I don't see your blog listed. Let me know and I'll post a link to it.

Paint Table Saturday 150 - Odds and Sods

Hi All,

Sorry for the infrequent posting. I'm beavering away but don't have much in the way of progress.

So I've primed the Halflings and "Beastmen" (in the background right) and have started slopping on base color. The Chukk (Space Chickens) are for Dustin's Rogue Trader scenario, but i need to stat them out. I'm beginning to suspect that there will not be enough hours in the day to play all the games I desire. Chukk from Alternative Armies, Halflings: Effin Cool, Beastmen: Eureka.

In keeping with the "theme" for Oldhammer Weekends open battles, I acquired some chests etc from Castle Kits. These are nice little Hirst molds objects. Barrels sacks and the like. I intend to put some together into stowage for some scratch built carts for the Muffin caravan that is trying to get to Marienburg. Just an FYI, pay attention to the materials your stuff is made out of. These are plaster, which I discovered after tossing one of the packs into a tub of soapy water. I don't think I ruined them, but I got very worried that I scrubbed off some of the detail.

The merchant Lotho McStuffins, Burgher of the Moot and former Mayor of Sauerapfel. We'll see if I can get all this done.

I was also kindly reminded that I sort of agreed to paint a minion for The Bazaar of Crooked Wonders on Facebook. I found I have more Goblin Fanatics so I'll try that.

I'm also hoping to get these Beastmen and maybe even Chaos Centaurs painted for Herohammer and include them as allies in my Oldhammer Weekend. Some say I'm being meta, but I say I'm giving myself a reason to paint this stuff and have some fun trying different things with my army. Nobody wants to play the exact same army over and over again. Well maybe some do, but I like adding new fun things from time to time.

Welcome to Andrew Dyer, I know him from Oldhammer and as the primary organizer of this year's event. A very talented painter, he has been dragged kicking and screaming into the bloggisphere by the demise of Warseer. His blog is Acceptable Radiation. Join myself and Asslessman in being cool kids and follow his blog. I also think you should follow Anthony B's blog, The Lead Collector, he has far too few followers.

Well, as you can see, I've got my work cut out for me. See you soon.

Revisiting basing

Hi All,

  I couldn't remember if I'd done a post on basing before. Apparently I've had several talking about it but none giving the step by step. A couple of years ago I talked about my method here.

  On to today's version. Mostly the same with a few refinements.

So this is how I base almost everything except for my Sci Fi (40K) stuff. The only thing I didn't picture is the Air Dry clay (Amaco, 10Lbs for $10 at a craft store.) You also need glue (PVA), texture gel, some kind of grit and, for 2.0, varnish. I then use a couple of sculpting tools and a cheap Testors brush that I abuse the hell out of.

Since the air dry clay comes in a gigantic block that you can never use quickly enough I chip off chunks that I need and keep them in a smaller container. The good, and bad, thing about this clay is that you can make it workable by getting it wet. So I wet a paper towel and seal it in a plastic bag with the main brick and do the same in the plastic container with the chunks I'm using. Sort of like a humidor.

After you've cleaned up your figure and glued it to the base, spread diluted pva over the surface you intend to cover with your clay. If you're using greenstuff you probably don't need the pva.

Use your sculpting tool of choice to push around your putty (clay). I like to put as thin a layer as i can get away with. Be careful about the gaps in slotta bases. You don't want to waste product by filling the  gap, just try to skim over it as best you can. Some clay will accumulate inside. When using clay the thinner the layer, the more susceptible it is to cracking. Thus the next step.

Slather on some texture gel. I use Liquitex Natural Sand. It  has the dual benefit of sealing the clay and giving a fine grit texture to the surface. I tend to wet my brush to help it spread, one could probably use a sculpting tool or palette knife, but it's hard to work around the model and not get gel on it.

Then scatter a pinch of grit on top of the wet gel. Mine is just some green aquarium sand that i bought 20 years ago that I'll probably never use up. Now you could just prime it here, but the grit may flake off during painting or even priming, especially if you use a brush. I tried spreading more dilute pva on top to seal it, but wet paint can reliquify pva. So you're back to square one.

In 2.0 I'm trying a spot of varnish to seal down the grit. I use a dropper bottle, put a drop on a couple of corners and daub around with a brush.

Getting some lads ready for Oldhammer weekend.

Have a tried and true method for basing you want to share? Have any questions about how I do it? Comments and critiques welcome.

See you later.

Paint Table Saturday 149 - Getting Stuff Done

Hi All,

Busy week last week and a ton of stuff to share.

First, if you're going to Oldhammer weekend you need to get some figures together for this:

Forgive the Google Translate French, but it's better than I could do.

Next up, what's on the table for this week:

The mix of Circle of Chaos and Eureka "Beastmen" for my Herohammer Tzeentch Army.

My Dragon Bait Halfling Barbarian. Hopefully he will be appearing in some of the open gaming during Oldhammer Weekend. Oh and those are Shogun Miniatures magnetic bases on the right and under the Barbarian. He threw in a couple with that order of plates and movement trays. I'll be ordering some more.

A size comparison of some recent purchases of Halflings. Left to right: Dark Heaven Legends (Reaper) Halfling farmers, Dragon Bait Halfling Barbarian, Effin Cool Halfling Billman, Pathfinder (Reaper) "Halfling" Illusionist.

(Hmm that last picture looks like I need to clean my lens. As a side note I've begun appreciating the camera on my cellphone a little more since I actually cleaned it. Made a big difference.)

It also looks like my current impulse buys on ebay and the like are coming to an end. Although I did get a part time job at my son's school, my truck ended up needing $1500 worth of repairs.

Not pictured is all the stuff I need to paint for Blood Bowl and Epic looks like it's not going to happen.

Crunch time!

I'll try to post more frequently to keep myself on task.

Oh yeah and new round of t-shirts. Crap. I need to get on it.

Paint Table Saturday 148 - Orc Boar Boyz (commission)

Hi All,

What with all the various things going on I haven't been painting as much as I like. I did finish this unit of 10 Orc Boar Boyz, after the person who sent them to me asked for the back post haste.

I'm fairly happy with how they turned out, but I confirmed without a doubt that I am not cut out to be a commission painter. I held on to these bad boys way too long, almost a year, and my normal angst about color schemes and techniques was magnified for this project. So you all are looking at my first and last commission project.

So I'm trying to get myself together, I know it's a constant battle, and I've been prepping a whole bunch of figures for the Herohammer facebook group and a side thing that I would like to bring to Oldhammer.

Speaking of Oldhammer, it's less than a month away!? I've put out a call for a second order of Oldhammer T-shirts. This run may be slightly more expensive than the last, but no more than $13 per shirt. Of course if you need it mailed to you shipping is a little extra.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.