Sunday 17 August 2014

There's a change in the weather coming...

Welcome to another Sunday update and I'll start this one of with a pause...

... No matter what life throws at you, if you take time out to look around at what there is in the world, you may get a better perspective from it. I found that sitting by a river for an hour or so, with some coffee, a sandwich and some company was just such a moment. Add to that, two loaves of bread and a flotilla of ducks and swans to feed, and it was an hour spent recharging. It is soul food and we all need to keep our inner spirit charged up...

...So, this week has been one of progress. To start with, I have sorted through a bunch of Squats, based the bodies, added the heads, sculpted on beards, added wire for the arms to be built on and shortened a bunch of lasguns to go with them. I have added a little green stuff to some of the wire arms to act as a base for the arm sculpting to start proper and have decided that the Sgt's with berets will be used in a beret wearing platoon rather than a helmet wearing one. I have also built up a special character, armed with a pistol and close combat dog... but that is all just so much talk... so here are a couple of images of what I have done so far:

 Click the Pic!


Click the Pic!


Click the Pic!

The middle pic shows my little Squat production mat and on it are a few weapons in the process of being changed (lasguns have been shortened, plasma pitols lengthened to be used as plasma guns). The Character has Catachan Jungle Fighter arms and a throwing mastiff from Mantic's Kings of War Dwarf range.

I'd like to mention at this point that all of the Squat miniatures pictured, were bought painted and have been stripped with Dettol. It does a tremendous job of cleaning them up and smells fairly nice too. There are a couple of Squats that didn't get dipped because they only had tiny areas of paint (so any paint you see  hasn't been left behind after stripping, it just hasn't been stripped).

As is normally the case, I am overthinking everything and it seems that I may be opting for hovercraft for these guys to travel in. After last week's post showing the bikes, I have been looking at various hover vehicles and it seems that the Hammer's Slammers ranges that are about may be brought into play. Here's a way-back link to OLD CROW and here's a current link to AINSTY CASTINGS. Both have a range of Hammer's Slammers vehicles that could prove useful to me, even if it turns out to be just inspiration for my own stuff.

Last weekend, my daughter passed her basic training on motorcycles (125cc) so this week I have been looking at small bikes. I have got myself a small loan (good for the credit rating) and will be going to choose one next week... so it looks like me and my daughter will have a new toy quite soon! I am looking forward to it.

Well... that about sums it up for now so I'll go and get on with stuff.

See you from the middle lane!

4 comments:

cedric said...

Nice. I don't know which one I prefer, the riverside picnic, the squat or the bike. About the squat, I like the different customization. Very characterful.

Goblin Lee said...

Great work on the Squats, I really like the trouble you have gone to on the detailing. The Squat with the dog is just awesome.
Thank you for the Dettol tip, I have some plastic Guard to stip sometime.

Simon Quinton said...

Awesome job love the dog and handler. The Mantic dog is so useful I have one to use for Empire of the Dead at some point.

Inso said...

Cheers :).

Dettol is great for paint stripping. Use it neat, pour enough into a bowl to cover what you want to strip, leave over-night and scrub with a toothbrush the next day. If it hasn't got it all off, throw it back in and let it soak a bit longer. Only use water when there is no paint left on the miniature because as soon as water gets on the 'dettoled' paint it turns into toffee.

The Mantic 'throwing mastiff' is brilliant. So much character in such a tiny model. I'm tempted to get some more and have the heads on the front of missiles in a launcher :D!