Post Christmas Daze.

Christmas has now passed and since I have been away to Cornwall for a few days, very little has happened on the hobby front.

The Diorama of Doom competition is now in the voting stages so please pop along and vote for your favourite HERE (visitors are welcome to vote... and you get 2 votes).

My hobby station has been dismantled for Christmas so I will be unpacking a few things to be getting on with over the next couple of days. I have to finish my commission sculpts (which are rather fun)... here's a WIP pic:

Click the Pic!

I still have to 'chubby' them up and add some facial details but they are coming along nicely. Now that I am back at home it shouldn't take very long to finish them.

In other news, My next dragon has had a green base-coat applied and will be undergoing some further paint application over the coming days and weeks... hopefully, she'll turn out OK.

Just before Christmas hit, I was able to order a few of the brand new weapon back-packs from Hasslefree Miniatures. They are designed to fit in with the Grymn in Powered armour and can be found HERE. Here is a picture:

Click The Pic (From Hasslefree Miniatures' site)

As well as the back-packs there are some cool new robotic arm sets that can be found HERE. Here is a picture:

Click The Pic (From Hasslefree Miniatures' site)

The arms were designed to be used to convert the powered armour into 15mm mecha but they would work equally well in 28mm as replacement arms for injured Grymn.

When my parcel arrived with the 8 back-packs I had ordered, I also received some Christmas goodies including a powered armour trooper with the robotic arms kit, some cogs, stickers, sweets AND... 

Click the Pic!

It is a giant, 3D printed version of the Pug pictured in the photo. I am not sure what I plan to do with him just yet but I thought it was an awesome gift! I think he will end up as a statue for a piece of terrain but I may well change my mind and use it as a Pug Ogre! Who knows?

Well that is about it for now. I hope you had a great Christmas.

See you through the haze!

It's Christmas eve...

A Hobbyist's Christmas

Christmas has come, to the hobbyist's house,

And all around the table is as quiet as a mouse.

The paint's stored away and the brushes are packed,

The newspaper's gone and the boxes all stacked,

The table is bare now; no lead left to fettle,

It's gone in the cupboard with the rest of the metal.

No sculpting, no painting or converting to do,

No hours of patience for you to accrue,

Just silence and stillness upon the bare table,

So try and keep busy, just try if you're able.

Luckily Christmas is a time of good cheer,

And you can tinker a bit, until the new year,

But deep in your mind, you'll be thinking a lot,

Of the projects you plan and the new toys you've got.

But take a while now to enjoy festive fun,

And know that your family are glad at what you've done.

By clearing the table there's room for the feast,

And an annual clear-up's a good thing at least!

So I wish all the hobbyist's a wonderful time,

And I felt it so deeply that I wrote you a rhyme,

But let's not forget our significant others,

Our poor suffering housemates, or head shaking mothers,

They put up with our hobby the rest of the year.

So I wish them the best of the festive good cheer!

Season's Greetings.

As most of you are in the same boat, you will understand that the next couple of days are usually pretty hectic so I thought I'd say my piece now and what better way to say it than with a picture:

Click the Pic!

Stay safe, enjoy the break and have a great time.

See you from the head of the table!

Is it nearly Christmas already?

Wow... what a year! And it will soon be over.

Christmas is just around the corner and that means that I have a couple of weeks off, which I have really earned this year, I can tell you!

So... what about Christmas projects? Well... I have started on a positive path with another inhabitant of Reptiliad; a Dwarf Tribal Chief:

Click the Pic!

He is a leader of one of the Dwarf settlements and is always at the forefront of defence when Dragons turn up. Although he isn't a Slayer, he has a few Firestones to his name so he is certainly no coward! There will be more Dwarfs in the future to go with him but they aren't on the immediate list.

On the subject of Reptiliad, I have been busy filling gaps and sorting out mould slip on the Reaper Dragon that has been sitting idle on my work table for ages. It is now ready for priming so hopefully, I may well start to get some paint on it soon. I think it will be green.

What with gap filling on the Dragon and a small sculpting commission, I have been impressed with the fact that I am actually enjoying pushing putty at the moment. It has been a while since that has been the case so in a bid to keep on the boil, I thought I'd erase a little boredom with a fun sonversion for Christmas... Judge Crimbo:

Click the Pic!

It is still quite cool having your own metal miniature (that you sculpted yourself - available HERE)  to convert! He has been primed and will be ready for the Christmas 'Inso's World' post.

So keep watching :)

See you from the jetski!

For good or ill... it is finished.

The UnDoD13 entry is finished. The varnish is a bit lumpy here and there but there is no repairing it without stripping so it is now counted as finished:

Click the Pic!

It may be better to right click on the image and open image in a new tab - that way you will get the full sized pic. Fortunately, the gloss doesn't look too bad in the pix.

See you from the boat!

A mixed bag.

This week has seen the continuation of my cold, a couple of days leave, a rather dull Christmas party and a few bits of hobby so it has been, all in all, a pretty mixed bag.

So to kick things off with a bit of progress, here is the finished Diorama of Doom that only needs a few coats of matt/gloss varnish to be ready for display:

Click the Pic!

Click the Pic!

Well... since the pix were taken, I have sprayed a coat of matt varnish and then glossed the water and the eyes of the beast... but as is my luck with varnish, I have messed things up and I am left with a decision... strip it or bodge it. I am rather upset about the outcome at the moment but will make my decision when everything is properly dry. 

Bollocks! Bollocks! Bollocks!

On to other things and instead of messing up more painting, I decided to throw some plasticard together in a bid to increase my waning enthusiasm for the hobby and came up with this:

Click the Pic!

It is a truly massive, specially shaped box. It has been designed to go with some DreamForge space-Germans and a trio of Bauhaus Vulkan walkers from the new Warzone Resurrection game. Hopefully, you can see the German influence of the design. It is going to be an anti-grav type of APC/Engineer vehicle and is fairly bulky to carry all the gizmos. I have to fill in all the gaps and sand things down before I go any further but it is a start. Maybe it will point me towards getting the last of my Tunnel Fighter vehicles finished... who knows.

Only a week to go and I will be on my Christmas break so maybe I'll get something done then.

See you from the varnishing pit of despair!

Brakes! BRAKES!!!

This week has been all about three things:

• I had a head cold
• I had an engine course
• I had a party night on Friday

The head cold has been with me all week and was a complete pain for my (rather in-depth) gas turbine engine course. Not only did it hamper the course, it also hampered the evening revision...

... Fortunately I managed to scrape a pass (100%) so I was able to let my hair down on Friday night and go to the mess for the Christmas draw. An evening of socialising, singing and dancing ensued and when we finally got home it was nearly 2am.

Saturday was a write off.

Today is still going slow.

As a result of what has been going on, I have managed to partially base coat my diorama and that is about it... so nothing to see here, I am afraid.

In other news, I have taken on a very small and straightforward sculpting commission for a fellow hobbyist. Three little 20mm sculpts for a few pounds in the bank... which is nice.

Which nicely leads me on to this... LINK (be warned, it is a Frothers link). It is also an army competition that I came joint first in with my Mushroom Men:

Click the Pic!

Now this got me thinking... these Mushroom men have always fired some people's enthusiasm so I thought I'd throw it out there to see if there was anyone who would be willing to sell them if I sculpted a new batch. It appears that there are two such companies who would be willing to take them on so I have a bit of an opportunity to fire up my sculpting tools again and make a few pennies into the process. The beauty is that there is no pressure. It is just the idea at the moment and there is no contract or anything... even if when they are finished, the original offers fall through, I will still have a group of sellable miniatures ready to be sold.

Interesting times are ahead... but in the meantime, I must get back to painting my diorama!

See you from the hobby seat!

Ta-DA!!!

I finished the sculpting work on my Unofficial Diorama of Doom 2013 today:

Click the Pic!

I am relatively happy with it and hope that the painting side of things elevates the bits I know I could do better. The picture doesn't show all the details but once the diorama has a coat of primer, that should change a bit.

The diorama has a few small details to add a bit of colour but all will become clear once painting begins. The main colours will be black, dark greens, dark purples and bright vivid oranges and reds. I think painting will be an 'interesting' experience; especially because everything is fixed down... but I am sure I'll manage it. I have four weeks to paint it. The last diorama was built and painted in seven days... so it should be a doddle.

In other news, I have been painting another character for the Reptiliad project. Yes, it's another slayer but it is a bit of a departure from the normal ones so hopefully, he will provide a little light relief from all the power-stone armour. 

I've started sculpting a miniature too. I can't tell you what it is because... well... I haven't decided yet! I think it will be a Dwarf but whether or not it will be humanoid or alien is anyone's guess at this time. Once I start putting the details down, everything will become clear... I hope!

This week I am on another course. This time I am doing a manufacturer's course for the Makila 1A1, gas turbine engine. I am looking forward to it... engines of this type are interesting because they have a nice mix of ideas. Free power turbine... axial and centrifugal compressor... output shaft drive... automatic governing... Mmmm :)

So... it should be a pretty stress free week.

See you from the Jurassic era!