Saturday 28 June 2008

What's on the workbench?

As promised, here are the photos of what I have been up to since March.

First up we have the SoBaH Goblin Warband. All the figures shown are finished apart from the basing. In real life they look much nicer than the photo suggests.

SOBaH Warband

Second on the list are the Maidenhead babes. Here are some that I have started but not finished.

Maidenhead Babes in progress

And lastly here are the 15mm HOTT Wood Elves that I am working on at the moment.

15mm HOTT Wood Elves in progress

Once I have the wood elves finished I shall go back and try and finish one of the other two projects I have on the go. (Yeah right like that'll actually happen).

Friday 27 June 2008

And on to the next

The Wood Elves won. I had to look hard to find them but in the end I found them in a small box at the bottom of the wardrobe in my bed room. From a quick glance all 6 stands of shooters are almost complete and will need just a bit of washing and highlighting. The cavalry and the treeman will require more work as they have hardly been started. I'm not sure where the stronghold for this army is though, I think it is in storage grr.

As you can see below I have started taking photos again. No I have not found my camera, I have just remembered that my phone takes reasonable pictures after all. I can now try and make these updates a bit more interesting again (ha ha).

Thursday 26 June 2008

Ta Dah!

HOTT 15mm Night Goblins

Well so much for "the small matter of flocking". It took me all of Tuesday and Wednesday nights to get the basing, varnishing and touch-ups completed. I applied the final finishing touches before breakfast this morning and I am happy to report that my 15mm night goblins are now completed and yes I do mean completed (finito, done, at an end) - there is only just enough room for the army and stronghold in the biscuit tin I will be transporting it in.

It was a fun project to work on and nice and quick too. I might try and get another 'quick win' by finishing my 15mm Wood elves. They are already about 80% done but I ran out of enthusiasm and never got them finished. Maybe now is the time.

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Angry Again

On Sunday I managed to get busy with the brushes and I even managed to get a bit more sculpting done (if you can call it that). I added tails and legs to all the remaining angry peas (greenstuff 15mm scale squigs if you missed that post) and attached them to their element bases.

Last night's session wrapped up the remaining painting Night Goblin expansion apart from a small matter of flocking which I haven't yet started. Totalling everything up I seem to have about 54 AP or there abouts of new elements which means I will now be able to field 72AP (three commands) with options. As I was only actually aiming for a total of 48AP I think I have overachieved there! I'm still unsure how to score them painting wise for the pledge. I think maybe 3 elements should equal 1 28mm miniature.

This morning whilst showing off my work to number 2 daughter she spotted that there was one remaining amgry pea which I hadn't required. It now seems to be one of her treasured posessions. I dread the reactions I'll get if she takes it into school for show and tell.

RESPONSE TO BEATENZONE: Yes I will get on and summarise my progress so far just as soon ass I total up all the stuff I bought for the babes army.

Thursday 12 June 2008

Back to the small stuff

Okay I'm a wargamer with the attention span of a mayfly with ADD. I've managed to get sidetracked again.

On Monday I played two games of Hordes of The Things at the club with my (recently rescued from storage) 15mm HOTT armies and I had a lot of fun (despite losing both times). When talking to Tim I lamented the fact that I designed my armies years ago and they weren't very competative. I also mentioned that I had originally purchased many of my armies as 48ap (two command) armies rather than the 24ap we were using and that I still had loads more in the lead pile to paint. Well last night I cracked and dug out the remainder of the troops I had purchased fot my 15mm HOTT night goblin army. After laying it all out on the table I tok the plunge and washed the lot, mounted the miniatures on card strips ready for painting and undercoated the lot.

This morning I was faced with the entire lot (now dry) sat on the kitchen table. Its not so bad really, it should be a quick project to finish and then I can get back to my painting priorities list which seems to be quite different from what I have actually been getting on with.

As well as painting and basing I still have a little more sculpting to do to add legs and tails on to the angry peas (green stuff squigs) so I'll probably combine this with adding clothing to the next batch of Maidenhead babes.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Bathing beauties

I decided to try out the new citadel washes range to add some depth to the the flesh tones and equipment on the Maidenhead babes. The results were pretty encouraging and I think I will be using them a lot with this project. The wash settled nicely in the contours of the faces of the models I used it on making them much more distinct.

I've realised that I have become pretty lazy in my painting style recently - something which has enabled me to paint a lot of orcs and goblins without going insane but its not so good on more delicate models such as the babes. I am going to have to get used to adding in more blending steps if I want them to look good. My results so far have been okay but I can see things I need to work on.

As ever - pictures will be available when the camera surfaces.

Tuesday 3 June 2008

Is it June already?

Where did May go?

For a host of reasons I've not been very productive for a while so it was good to break out the paintbrushes on Sunday afternoon. I've been making a start on painting up the babes and reminding myself that its been quite some time since I've painted flesh which isn't green. I'm reasonably happy with the results but I will be adding some dark washes over the top of what I have done so far to try and improve the contrast and shading.

On the plus side whilst I've not been productive I have also not been buying miniatures either so I think I'm still in credit on the deal.

In other gaming news I've had a suggestion to use the babes that time forgot as a WHFB demon army. Initially I thought it was a little crazy but I can now see some merit to it. I still need to put in a bit more thought on where things are going with this project before buying any more stuff.