Thursday 28 February 2013

Overlord.

If anyone is interested, I am off to Overlord on Sunday... are you?


Maybe, I'll see you there :)

See you from the pilot's seat of the all new Puma 2!

###EDIT###

If you've heard of Kick Starter then you know all about how it works. If not, you pledge money to get things up and running then get rewards. The things that you 'get up and running' can be anything from getting a book published or miniatures cast. I have pledged in a Kick Starter for superhero miniatures and am currently involved with the Warzone Resurrection Kick Starter. Well, I have seen an old favourite called Spine Spur which is a mix of post apocalypse, horror and weirdness... click HERE to check it out.

Carry on...

Sunday 24 February 2013

Back to the usual chaos.

This week has been an interesting one. There was plenty going on at work, we have a little kitten making herself at home, I've started a little bit of sculpting again and I've managed to get a little bit of painting in too.

There was also an instance of almost falling asleep at my desk so that evening I took some meds (prescribed by my doctor) and had to have the following day off work because, to be frank, I was feeling a little bit too mellow and was laughing at things that weren't as funny as I would normally find them. Once I Landed, I finished off some painting and ended up with these:



Click the Pix!

They are Space Dwarfs from Velard Miniatures and can only be found on E-Bay now (Mrs Velard, if you would like to search). These ones are resin and were very clean casts with little clean-up. I thought I'd give them a little bit of a pulp feel rather than the usual military look. I think it works.

It seems that I am going through a subconscious clearance of the shelf... I am just painting random things. I have put the last Clanker unit away for now and have shuffled things around in 'the cupboard' so that I can fit everything in. One of the side effects of this is noticing things that have been hidden away... like Judge Grymn and their transport vehicles... Urban walkers, Pods, GZG Mechs, Beetle-bots... the list goes on and they are all assembled, ready to be attacked with a brush.

So... I got up early today to take my son to work and when I returned home was treated to an hour or so of next door's puppy screeching. I will put up with it for a few more days because it is settling in but after that I will be getting all military. While I was distracted by the puppy, I dug out one of my gifts (I have been gifted some wonderful things by many hobbyists out there who must think to themselves..."I know just the man who'd like that"... people who I've never met but show generosity that I am humbled by) and started to work on it. It is a vehicle from GZG's range of 25mm vehicles (long OOP but in the process of being resurrected by Daemonscape) and will make an excellent vehicle for my newly painted Velard Dwarfs. The thing is that I have to convert it into an exploration vehicle so it is at the very first stages of having some bulk adding to it... there will be pix once I have built the body to an acceptable WIP status.

Sculpting has been slow but getting there. I have bulked out an armature and have started to add muscle groups for my Thor commission. I have also been sculpting something random... but I will be showing no WIP pics of it. I don't want to spoil it's entrance.

In other news, I sold a squad of my old, second edition, Space Marines and I thought..."while I have the army out, I may as well sell the lot" so that is what I am doing. If you want to take a look I have linked to three forums: LAF, Frothers and FoD. You may (or may not) need to be a member of the forums to see the pix. Hopefully, you'll see them on one of the sites. If you are interested... get in quick... they are going fast :).

An example:


Click the Pic!

Well... that is about it for now.

See you from the back of the Jub-Jub bird!

Sunday 17 February 2013

By the numbers.

This week has been one of little hobby action. I have taken to being on-line a bit more and when that runs out of interesting things, I dig out my Sudoku and put numbers into grids. I think that part of my indifference has come from starting up the Frothers sculpting comp and drafting rules. There have been a few e-mails pinging back and forth and I have been contacting people about judging and theme direction. It has been a bit of a distraction... but I guess it is all about getting the competition up and running so it is a good thing (I hope).

The FoD UNDoD is also ticking along. So far there have been lots of theme suggestions and there has definitely been a bit more interest than the last one (so far). Hopefully, this will transfer into lots of dioramas but we shall see. The first theme polls will start soon.

Yesterday was taken up with 'Operation kitty-fetch'. A five hour round trip to Somerset means that we now have our latest family member, Charmmy:


Click the Pic!


 She is much smaller than The Pog was at her age and she toddles around with a lot less certainty than he did.  She is a little cutey and has a little spirit but she needs to get some extra food in her and get to the vets for her worm/flea treatment (she is 580grams!!!... we are not sure about whether we can put the treatment on/in her so we will let her be for a week or so before she goes to the vet, has her jabs and hopefully gets flea/worm treatment at the same time). We have been combing her and the present count is 47 fleas... not a good start but our other cats are properly treated so they should be OK and their treatment will kill any fleas in their bedding too. Once she is treated, we will sort the carpet etc out. My daughter is well chuffed with her new baby... as you can probably tell:


Click the Pic!

So... what's on the table? Well, I received an e-mail from someone that led to E-Bay and a seller that I have been looking for for a long time (now saved). I looked through the shop and was reminded of some Dwarfs I had bought a while ago... so they are now on the table getting some paint. I also have the last Silent Spectre miniature, the Clankers and two mechs... so I haven't stopped altogether; I've just slowed down a bit. 

Here's the dwarfs (prior to assembly and paint):


Click the Pic!

Maybe once I stop being soppy about losing The Pog I'll snap out of it and get back to painting/sculpting at my usual rate again. I hope so because I'd rather be doing that than being so miserable.

That is about it for today...

See you from the place of tiny-clawed, spiky terror!!!

Monday 11 February 2013

Mecha WIP.

I had to take a day's leave today in order to be a taxi so I thought I'd start adding paint to this:


Click the Pic!

As you can see, the model has had a bit of conversion and has had certain areas painted prior to assembly... but apart from that it still has a long way to go. Here is where I am at now (still a way to go):


Click the Pic!

It is/was a 1/100 scale armoured Valkyrie... now it has had the mods it is something different.

That's just how I roll.

See you from the dentist's chair!

Sunday 10 February 2013

From the depths.

As I mentioned earlier today, I have dug a miniature from the depths of my cupboard and painted it up. Here is another Dhurn for your viewing intrigue:


Click the Pic!

I now only have one more to finish and he is on the table at the moment. These are from Silent Spectre Studios - LINK and they are quite characterful and quirky. There are other types of miniature on the linked site that are also worth a look.

In other news...

Not only have I encouraged my wife to get purple hair (which she now has) but I have been dying my daughter's hair again and it is now a range of colours from white, through yellow to peach. I think I've missed my calling somewhere along the line.

I went driving this evening to pick a mate up from the railway station and there is a lot of water out there on the roads. It was highly entertaining 'bombing' through the floods in the car... ahhh... the British weather.

See you from the boats... the boats, man!

It has been epic.

This week has been 'interesting' to say the least.

I have culled someone on Facebook for being insensitive about the Pog.

I have joined a couple of Facebook groups which are about the up-coming Warzone redux and also a general miniatures one.

I have finished painting Meg and the Purple Pugs:


Click the Pic!

I have got the ball rolling for this year's Unofficial Diorama of Doom (UNDoD 2013) - LINK

I have got the ball rolling for a Frothers Unite sculpting competition - LINK (It is Frothers so the language/tone is crude and blasphemous... you have been warned).

I have been sculpting a... CREATURE (no WIP pix for this one... you'll see it when it is finished).

I have been working on the Macross mech from the last post (tidying up the cockpit).

I have dug another random miniature from the cupboard and have painted it (just waiting for the base to dry before I finish painting the base and post some pix). I also have a second one which is waiting to be painted (I had to do a bit of emergency filling on it).

I have dug out a GZG mech from the cupboard and have re-based it ready for priming (it fell off the base because it wasn't pinned). Unfortunately, the weather outside is frightful... so priming is postponed until it improves.

Luckily, I took a day's leave on Friday because I drove my son to college because 'my alarm didn't go off'... which it did because I heard it. The 'Snooze button' will be the death of the world one day...

I won an auction on E-Bay for the last model in the set of these:


Click the Pic!

It was Run-Valam and it means that I have all of them in boxes; safe for a rainy day (once the kit arrives).

I think that about covers it... 

Saturday, we will be picking up Charmmy from my sister's so that will be fun.

I will be posting a few pix later so watch this space :)

See you from limbo!

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Wednesday.

It has been a tough week and we have had to come to terms with the loss of the Pog (something I am finding very hard to do...) but there have been a few moments that have been lighter.

The Bear (AKA Fred the cat) has been really pally with me (which is unheard of) and has been sitting on the computer table to keep me company. Here's Fred:


Click the Pic!

Fred is soft as anything, loves to fight cats outside, has fur so thick that it is almost like a bear's and he is always coming home with war wounds. For him to be behaving the way he is, makes me believe that he is missing the Pog too.

Along the same lines... my sister has a cat too. It has recently given birth to six kittens and one of them didn't have a home. Seeing as my daughter has just lost her kitten, guess what? It isn't without a home now. In a week and a half, we are going to pick it up. It is female and looks like this:


Click the Pix!

My daughter is looking forward to her arrival and has named her Charmmy (after a Hello Kitty character). At least our sadness has led to an unwanted kitten getting a home.

Maybe having a little fur-ball running about will go part way towards filling the void that the awesome Pog has left behind. I doubt it... Charmmy has massive paws to fill... but it is a start.

See you from the dark!

Sunday 3 February 2013

Gutted.

On Friday, after our little Pog had been missing over night, we had the tragic news that he was likely to be the cat that was found dead on the side of the road and taken away. The body was found where he used to play and was described as a small black and white cat. I am making enquiries to try and locate the body so that I can confirm that it is Pog (he is chipped and had a collar... I am a little annoyed that no one has contacted us but there could be good reasons for that) but that can't happen until Monday because it was a works contractor who apparently moved him.


Click the Pic!

The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

On to other things (before I blub), I have been busy assembling Macross to take my mind off things and as usual, I can't make a kit without changing it so I am in the process of converting the model to have a cockpit, rather than a head. The kit in question is an Armoured Valkyrie that was a gift from my very generous friend, DWartist:


Click the Pic!

The Grymn in the pic is to give an idea of size (14cm to the top of the back-pack). I am planning on leaving this as a stand-alone project but I do have another couple of Macross kits that may join it in the chosen colour scheme... which will not be the usual thing from me (even though there are obviously grey bits on display... this will change).

I had planned to show off some completed miniatures but I never finished them due to the sad news.

See you from the quiet place!

###EDIT###

It has now been confirmed that it was Pog who was knocked down. It was instant and he has been properly buried.

See you from the sad place!