Painting Agency

A couple of Things

2012-02-07T19:13:00.004-05:00

Riflethings
15 mm

Just a couple of 15mm minis. I have two more of these Things to finish up... perhaps next week? I have a Khurasan order coming in with some oil barrels I'd like to add as base dressing. (I also finally ordered these, which I'm looking forward to painting... and I see there are some new Riflething sculpts available, if I want to expand my collection)

My available "hobby time" has settled down to ~ 5:30-6:30 am, which is nice because I've got a big cup of coffee in front of me, the house is quiet, and my wife and kidlet are asleep. The downside is that absolutely nothing noisy can be done, which rules out, eg. listening to some inspirational Bolt Thrower, or firing up the Dremel to grind off some attached bases :P

Also, for the record, I'd like to thank javi for producing this amazing piece in his inimitable style:

For those familiar with the game Half-Life, it's a... nose-crab. Not really any less parasitically horrific than the standard headcrabs, IMO.

Riflethings, Take 2

2012-01-28T07:04:00.005-05:00

Riflethings
15 mm

I got a start on the rest of my Khurasan Riflethings. Nothing too exciting, the rest of these won't have quite the "hero" base that the first one did. It's neat, but looking at it in my display case, it's almost diorama-like and less like what one should put on members of a squad of minis (even for display). I think the last two Riflethings will be based together on a larger base, just to be different.

We come from the land of the ice and snow

2012-01-11T22:13:00.001-05:00

Robot Yeti
28 mm

In between probing the mysteries of cancer biomarkers and looking after No Such Agency Jr-ette, I managed to paint this up. It's a Yeti from the 1967 Doctor Who serial "The Abominable Snowmen"... but I guess you could use it as a regular Yeti, too.

Alas, I think this guy really got his mother's hips.

"No, YOUR line is 'AAAAAAGH!'"

The Christmas Loot

2011-12-29T10:55:00.005-05:00

I hope everyone had a good holiday-of-your-choice. For me it was Christmas... and I finally got some hobby-related gifts! From my brother:

Yep, that's a 28mm scale TARDIS among the resin stuff in pic 1. Also some nice resin industrial/spaceship bases and a Lovecraftian pillar thing. I'm eager to try out the magnifying visor whenever I have time to paint my next project :) Might make painting eyes easier on my rapidly-aging eyes.

Tasty... and Trans-Dimensional

2011-12-14T19:58:00.003-05:00

One of my readers *cough javi cough* reminded me of my Christmas gingerbread tradition recently... so here's this year's creation:

Lighthouse
230 mm

Perhaps not overly elaborate, but I try to make each one a little special. The light is a little LED tea light, covered by a clear plastic cup. This will be a gift for some friends, but I'll probably make a second similar one to keep.

Also, I thought in the spirit of much of my recent painting, I'd post this very old work:

On the back in my dad's writing is "Dr. Who's TARTUS (sic) Gingerbread house, Christmas 89 with K-9 mechanized dog". Any inaccuracies can be blamed on the fact that I rarely actually got to watch Doctor Who at age 15, and I was probably working either from memory, or the illustration on the cover of one of the episode novelizations...

The Fourth Doctor

2011-12-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

The Fourth Doctor
28 mm

My favorite Doctor, all done! Just in time to reconcile the Tesh with the Sevateem, and defeat the Zygons, and the Sontarans, and the Rutans, and Weng-Chiang, and Sutekh, and become President of Gallifrey...

I'm pretty satisfied with the red/burgundy colour of his jacket, despite pinkish highlights which admittedly seem realistic enough. Apart from the eyes, which were not well sculpted and a challenge to make just manic enough, the scarf was probably the toughest part to get looking right. But that was almost the most critical part, considering how iconic it is:

"101 uses for Tom Baker's scarf"

Fortunately, someone has devoted a whole website to careful descriptions of the scarf, including instructions for how to knit your own... I love you, internet.

The colour out of space

2011-11-20T18:34:00.002-05:00

Red is a pain to work with, everyone knows it. Transparent, lousy coverage, generally hard to make it look the way you want. I generally use a warm primary (GW Blood Red) for most red things, but for the Fourth Doctor's burgundy-ish jacket I chose a cooler crimson. I used this random Mage Knight mini as a test piece to try and work out the troublesome red highlighting issue, and hopefully learn something:

Left side: Games Workshop Crimson Gore/Scorched Brown base coat, shaded with Scorched Brown, highlighted up with mixtures of C.G/yellow. A very warm result.

Center: Games Workshop Crimson Gore/Scorched Brown base coat, shaded with Scorched Brown, highlighted up with mixtures of C.G/white. This gave me the pink highlights that people tend to try and avoid.

Right side: Games Workshop Crimson Gore/Scorched Brown base coat, shaded with Scorched Brown, highlighted up with mixtures of C.G/Bleached Bone. The result is slightly less pink than mixing with white.

I'm not sure either look is particularly satisfying, but as always, this is a learning experience. And... this isn't for the Golden Demons or anything. I just want my growing Doctor collection to look pretty good :)

Less Human than Human

2011-11-14T06:22:00.000-05:00

Khurasan Riflething
15 mm

I managed to squeeze this little guy in before the end of my parental leave... only one of five, but I did want to test my colour scheme before I (some day) paint up the rest of the squad. Inspiration was the Overwatch Elite from Half Life 2.

Still working on my Fourth Doctor. Not surprisingly I'm not the first person who thought Dalek parts would make good base decoration. But I'm glad I didn't have to hack up a metal figure to do it :)

Objective...ist.

2011-11-11T14:49:00.008-05:00

I'm in the middle of some things now, so: a "look what I found" post to keep the blog flowing while I paint away...

I'd never heard of Lead Bones before... but this is pretty cool. Anyone who enjoyed "Bioshock" should recognize these 15mm heavies:

Sure to keep your underwater temple to Ayn Rand safe and secure from any pesky players roaming around out there! They're available at Recreational Conflict, along with a 28mm version! I'll have to pick up a set someday, when I've finished painting everything else in my stash. It's a pity their shipping charge to Canada is $12; it's enough to make me "Go Galt"... :P

EDIT: the seller posted on Lead Adventures to clear up the postage thing, you should pay less for small orders that fit in an envelope instead of a box.

"Would you like a jelly baby?"

2011-11-04T15:27:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty busy these days... but I still managed to start a new project, in between diapers and naps...

The Fourth Doctor
28mm

Between the dark and creepy nature of many of his adventures, and his character's Bohemian charm, the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, is many North Americans' favorite Doctor Who, and is definitely mine! This is another Black Tree miniature, a nice sculpt that is instantly recognizable.

I decided this figure deserved a unique base, and I came up with the idea of using my new Instant Mold to steal some detail to jazz it up. It was pretty easy to duplicate parts of an unpainted Dalek figure to make the wreckage seen here. The result looks pretty good, and fits well with his satisfied expression. I know the Fourth Doctor never encountered white Imperial Daleks... but I was never much for continuity anyway :)

And I thought NMM was hard...

2011-10-09T03:30:00.000-05:00

Beautiful? Definitely. The biggest challenge of my life so far? Oh yes. But so rewarding, even though I barely have time to add this post, let alone sleep.

We'll see when painting happens again... but it will.

In honour of Change

2011-10-02T14:52:00.000-05:00

Champion of Tzeentch
28mm

Change... it can be good or bad for us. Too little change and we become inert, dull creatures of habit. Too much, and life descends into chaos, a swirling maelstrom with no direction or control. Tzeentch is the Chaos god of Change, the seducer of those who seek knowledge or power, to change the world to their advantage.

This guy is obviously based on a Heroquest warrior figure. Plastic, easy to cut up :) I didn't have any GW "Tzeentch horrors" to saw up for parts, so the mutated limb is based on a Genestealer arm. The headdress, of course, is a tribute to Tzeentch's most tragic of followers, the Thousand Sons, who I have always found to be one of the more compelling stories of Warhammer 40,000.

I can't be sure when this guy will get painted... our baby is due any day now so I doubt I'll have a ton of painting time in the near future :O Change indeed!

Instant Mold

2011-09-27T18:12:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I ordered some "Instant Mold" from the Coolminiornot shop. This product is a clear waxy plastic, which melts to a soft consistency in hot water and can be used to make press molds of somewhat simple items.

There are a number of demo and review videos out there, so I didn't bother doing one. But I did a quick test that might be informative. Space Marine shoulder pads are a popular target for this, so I tried out a couple for my test run.

The pieces I'm duplicating: an old SM medic and a random Terminator arm.

The softened Instant Mold formed around the parts without any difficulty, and appeared to hold a very fine detail level.

The results. I'm pretty impressed! There's some loss of detail on sides of the Medic pad. There appeared to be some air bubbles in the Terminator seal, but it looks fine out of the mold. I imagine after a few more tries I'll get a more consistent result.

One thing: some forums I've seen have pointed out that polycaprolactone is available from various sources for cheaper than IM's price. That might be worth pursuing, but since this stuff is reusable, I'm not going to worry about it.

Bug Hunt

2011-09-16T18:11:00.001-05:00

Alien Warriors
15mm

"Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"
"All we know is that there's still no contact with the colony, and that a xenomorph may be involved."

OK, here's that "quick project" that took a month to finish: Khurasan's Space Demons, with an "abandoned colony" basing theme.

I resorted to *gasp* drybrushing these, and it really shows. But I'm not sure how else you could paint them in a reasonable amount of time, except maybe painting them light grey and dipping them with a pure black dip. The head carapaces were blended though, those would have looked terrible drybrushed.

"THEY cut the power? How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!"

Oops!

2011-09-14T19:42:00.002-05:00

What? A month? I've been working on a "quick" 15mm project to post here, but somehow time has flown by.

In the meantime, this is all I've finished painting:

I promise I'll have something worth looking at soon. Really.

Adversaries through time and space

2011-08-16T07:34:00.000-05:00

The Fifth Doctor
28 mm

All done! And I'm pretty happy with it. The Doctor's amazing trousers were a bit of a freehand challenge... and with freehand being my real weakness, those stripes did not come easy. I'm never sure how to approach shading with a painted-on pattern: in this case I shaded the tan base and then painted the detail: white & olive stripes, then red. The result is only okay IMO.

Also, I actually had to add detail to his feet 3/4 of the way through painting him, when I realized they looked more like blank, deformed dinner rolls than sneakers. It's like they were sculpted by Rob Liefield :(

As for the base... it's a cricket ball. Very fitting for the Fifth Doctor.

Sontaran Warrior
28 mm

As for the Sontaran, not the most exciting colours ever, that's for sure. I've tried to make up for it by making his ugly skin look really convincing, and putting some earth tones and grass on his base. Originally his base was going to be castle flagstones, referencing "The Time Warrior", but I decided that would be too similar to his grey uniform to look good.

Not quite cricket

2011-08-04T07:02:00.000-05:00

The Doctor: some personality emerges... maybe a little too much personality. I'll have to dial back the shadows around his eyes just a little, lest he look like some kind of deranged drug addict:

And I started on a new adversary for him too:

Sontaran Warrior
25 mm

Sure, they look like potatoes with limbs, but the Doctor calls them the galaxy's greatest soldiers. This guy wasn't sculpted very faithfully, I had to reduce his number of fingers, and add the "probic vent" on his neck (which is only, you know, the #1 plot device associated with Sontarans):

Boom, right up the bung hole

The Fifth Doctor

2011-07-29T19:01:00.002-05:00

The Fifth Doctor
25 mm

I'll admit I've never actually watched an episode of Doctor Who featuring Peter Davison as the Fifth doctor; my knowledge of the stories comes entirely from reading the Terrence Dicks novelizations as a child. (I think the last time I saw this actor he was elbow deep in a cow...). Still, I've been looking forward to painting my Doctors, including this one who wears celery.

A Harlequin/Black Tree miniature.

Cult of the Octopus God - finished!

2011-07-27T10:25:00.001-05:00

The Cult of the Octopus God
15 mm

These turned out so well, I should have done three or four! Oh well, I can always do a couple more if I feel like it :) Keeping the same swampy theme of course, I decided their tentacled faces were not masks, so I kept the green skin/pinkish tentacles and black eyes from my previous Great Cthulhu. Just to tie everything together.

EDIT: another version of these, the "official" Khurasan paint jobs by Spacejacker. More colourful.

Swampy...

2011-07-25T07:12:00.000-05:00

Battling the heat wave and painting are not 100% mutually exclusive.

I'm going to try and finish these guys this week, I like how the bases turned out... the rest, we shall see.

"American Idol"...

Domo Arigato

2011-07-12T07:48:00.000-05:00

D-84
28 mm

Took me long enough... The quilted pattern of his clothes was so damn fussy to paint. I think the result looks decent enough.

I really, really need to paint more, and make better use of my time. I have the Octopus God cultists to work on too, and they haven't progressed much (I blame trying to paint the Italian seasoning).

Say it ain't so, kid!

2011-06-22T07:39:00.004-05:00

Khurasan Miniatures has had to close shop temporarily while the owner deals with some kind of personal issue. As seen on other, more popular blogs, he has many fans who are slightly despondent about this - Khurasan is all about quality and service, and is easily one of the most creative ranges out there, in any scale! (see below...)

And of course there's the person behind the company name, who obviously is having something serious going on, usually these are not pleasant situations :(

I'll leave you with a reminder why I love this little outfit so much:

Who else makes figures of a monster from a notoriously bad 50' B-movie about an alien in a gorilla suit/diving helmet?

Noodly appendages

2011-06-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

The Cult of the Octopus God
15 mm

A couple of Khurasan's Eldritch horror minis. Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu" refers to a swamp cult worshiping Cthulhu, so I'm giving these guys some bases featuring rotty tree roots and stagnant water:

"Ugly roots and malignant hanging nooses of Spanish moss beset them, and now and then a pile of dank stones or fragment of a rotting wall intensified by its hint of morbid habitation a depression which every malformed tree and every fungous islet combined to create."

Are their tentacled faces just crudely crafted masks... or hideous fleshy mutations resulting from some ghastly dark ritual?

And yes, I made them a Cthulhu idol to worship. Who's a cute little Elder God?

At 6mm high, not the smallest thing I've ever sculpted, but most of the others were just pouches.

Robot Detective

2011-06-06T07:02:00.001-05:00

D-84
28 mm

Another one of my recent Doctor Who purchases... Not much to look at yet, admittedly.

The Robots of Death is a classic Doctor Who serial from the Tom Baker era. Aboard a giant mobile mining vehicle largely staffed by humanoid robots, the Doctor and Leela have to solve a mystery - who is murdering the crew one by one?

D-84 is an intelligent detective, disguised as a "Dumb" class labour robot, put on board to protect the crew from the murderer. Eventually he sacrifices himself to save the doctor and remaining crew members.

For the Motherland (finished!)

2011-05-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

"железа ребенка" (Iron Baby)
15mm scale

Well this was a lot of fun to make. And I'm quite happy with the results: not goofy looking per se, but definitely a different visual style than my other Weird War 2 walkers. I think thinking up the back story beforehand helped visualize the final product, since of course every miniature should have a story, even a brief one.

So little

2011-05-14T15:30:00.001-05:00

... both the figures, and the amount of painting I've been getting accomplished lately :P

Soviet flag bearer
15 mm

The first time I've done proper eyes with whites and pupils on a 15 mm figure :)

Soviet Assault Walker
15 mm scale

As you can see, I think I accomplished the "look" I was going for, a much brighter green (Ordic Olive mixed with Space Wolf Grey) than standard WW2 Allied olive drab. There apparently was no standard Soviet armour colour, since all factories used whatever was available.

Next I just have to base these guys and paint some markings on the mech. It's been a while since did any freehand...

In other news, I just discovered Blogger has a static page function, so I can put up an About Me page and stuff like that. I'm always reluctant to put too much personal info on the web, but I'm not an "in the closet" mini painter, or anything :)

Why am I not painting?

2011-04-28T19:53:00.003-05:00

I'm a busy man these days:

Freaking "real life". I'll try and post some proper content soon, I promise :P

(no that's not actually our sonogram, I don't have a digital copy of it)

For the Motherland!

2011-04-16T16:45:00.000-05:00

Soviet assault walker
15mm scale

The war walkers produced by Allies and Axis alike captured the interest of Comrade Stalin, and he ordered production of a "robot" to support mass infantry charges. The Christie walking suspension was overly costly for Soviet production, so a simpler non-transforming leg mechanism was devised, and the walkers transported over distance by trucks. Armament varied; this one carries a 20 mm ShVAK autocannon and a rocket launcher adapted from a captured German Nebelwerfer.

Due to the walkers' awkward toddling gait they gained the nickname "железа ребенка" (Iron Baby) among Soviet soldiers. Operation required considerable skill, and drivers enjoyed being considerably less expendable than their comrades on foot.

This was a fun conversion from a Khurasan Miniatures sci-fi walker. I just generally down-tech'ed it, giving it a more gas-powered look and fixing some bad design (pointless asymmetry - why?) and building the Nebelwerfer out of sprue.

Earth Invaders

2011-04-02T06:10:00.000-05:00

"Doctor Who" Dalek and Cyberman
28 mm

I'll be the first to admit these are basically tabletop-level paint jobs, but I wanted to have some fun and finish these quickly. We've been watching so much Doctor Who lately that I'm kind of... obsessed :) Anyway I like these two as a pair; they have different body shapes and metallic hues, but the same objective: conquer and destroy! The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend...

----

Side note: I found a couple of other decent blogs with some pretty pictures of Doctor Who minis:

Miros' Games - UNIT, Cyberman and Sontaran forces.

An Evil Giraffe - Some nice recent-series figures.

captain apathy's secret lab - inclues some Vogans, Movellans and Zygons, which I'm not familiar with.

ArtWho9 Figure Painting - a lot of the old Citadel (!) DW range, including Sea Devils and Martians.

Hack and Slash

2011-03-24T18:00:00.001-05:00

Cyberpunk ~~Elf~~ Street Warrior
25 mm

Nothing says "dark future of the 80's" like ripped jean shorts, a mohawk and a katana ;) I received this figure for Mini Exchange #25; ~~I think it's a "Shadowrun" mini by Grenadier but I'm not certain, since Stuff of Legends' SR gallery is very incomplete.~~

Javi informs me "This mini is from mark copplestone's future warriors and it was labeled as future warriors killer bimbo's, all 5 minis under the same reference 7901 (page 100)." Thanks!

Pretty cool anyway, in a retro way. Edit #2: I'm not sure where I got "elf" from, since she doesn't have pointy ears. Perhaps from her slight physique.

The base is a resin industrial-type thingy I received a few exchanges ago. So this is a two-fer, if you will.

Grr Argh!

2011-03-20T07:16:00.001-05:00

HeroQuest Zombie
25 mm

Well he's done, nothing special but I'm reasonably happy with how he turned out. Once again, GW Snakebite Leather looks rich and wonderful when it's basecoated and washed with a dark brown, but looks dull and lame once you start highlighting... Clearly a colour meant for "dippers" :)

Review: Black Tree Design Doctor Who figures

2011-03-18T22:15:00.007-05:00

L->R: Fourth Doctor, Robot of Death, Fifth Doctor, Cyberman, Dalek.

So I just received these fantastic minis from Black Tree Design. I was kind of amazed that a fairly minor company would have such a prominent license, and in fact surprised that these were even still being made. But "Doctor Who" is the longest-running sci-fi franchise in TV history, beloved by many.

First of all, I was expecting these to be OLD sculpts, from the 80's or so. Fairly small, a bit odd-looking. But they're definitely not. At 30mm, these should mesh nicely with most modern ranges (see below). Really nice detail and proportions, not to mention pretty decent likenesses of Doctors #4 & 5.

The other thing is... the line is HUGE. The first EIGHT Doctors and all their major foes and Companions, all in miniature form. Wow.

The downside is... you have to be patient. It took a few weeks just for my order to ship, and a few more for it to get here. Kind of anomalous these days, but I'm guessing Black Tree is really just a few people. Still, it could be a frustrating if you need gaming miniatures in a hurry.

EDIT: A search of The Miniatures Page forums will reveal a number of threads of this nature, which is very unfortunate. I might order from them again simply because DOCTOR WHO, but I'd email ahead to confirm they have the stock in hand before making any payment (with credit card not Paypal).

Für das Vaterland!

2011-03-07T08:00:00.002-05:00

Gepanzerte Truppen
15 mm

Some Eureka sci-fi WW2 Germans, first posted here back in 2009, sans bases. I figured that since I just ordered a set of Khurasan's "Control Battalion Infantry Riflethings", I should finish these guys up and get them off my work table. Great little sculpts; they really have the feeling of being the menacing elite soldiers of an evil war machine, even at this tiny scale.

The Riflethings will probably end up as some kind of WW2-era strangeness as well. I'm just not sure what. I ordered a sci-fi walker as well, so maybe I'll do the lot as Allied gear, since the Germans usually seem to have the Weird War advantage.

I AM DISAPPOINT

2011-03-06T09:08:00.001-05:00

So it looks like my Miniature Exchange recipient bsop (a.k.a. Ben Sopczyk, of Glens Falls NY) has decided to screw us :( I say "us" because not only did he not send anything on to the next guy, thus ripping him off, but now I really should send something so that guy has something to paint. I don't mind doing that at all, but I shouldn't need to. This all leaves a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but ultimately, who cares? I just don't want someone else to have a bad experience from this :)

So, sent to Bret ("Ritus") in Utah:

Reaper Dwarf Cleric
Possessed Trooper
WH40K Kroot
HeroQuest orc and skeleton (heh)

Guard Dog

2011-02-21T13:05:00.001-05:00

CSD Mk1 Security Robot
28 mm scale

SLR? More like SL ARGH! When is flash ever helpful for macro shooting? When?

So, although it's not my best painting, and definitely not my best photography, I entered this mini in the WAMPED! contest over at the increasingly-popular Wargames And Miniatures Paradise. I feel I should represent, even if it isn't with anything outstanding.

Good points, IMO: the pale blue bot base colour, exactly what I was trying for. Also the display base he's sitting on turned out Star Trek-style clean, which matches the bot, rather than Firefly-grimy. Not-so-good: some fairly impatient blending on the bot, especially in the difficult areas of the legs where the casting wasn't so hot. Also, that nice, clean base lacks detail, and therefore visual interest (a few gubbins from the 1:300 Soviet navy sprue don't help much).

Papercraft basing

2011-02-16T00:05:00.001-05:00

Well my security bot is almost done, so I was thinking it needs a base. It has too wide a stance for most regular plastic bases, so I figured maybe I could build something a little more interesting.

I put this together in about an hour... aside from the little grey gubbins and bit of screen, it's all paper. Largely some 5x5 cm pieces of foamcore board, and card stock. Hopefully it'll look as good as plasticard construction once it's painted.

I suppose the idea here could be that the door is jammed open and the bot is preventing anyone from entering. Or leaving... I really just built it halfway open because it looks a bit more interesting.

Slow going...

2011-02-08T22:55:00.001-05:00

Well, my wife is away for a whole month, to improve her French among the Quebecois. Logically this means I should get loads of painting done including a lovely WAMPED! entry, n'est ce pas?
Reality = apathy, and no contest entry even selected :P

This is not shaping up to be one of my better paint jobs. It's kind of a frustrating mini, the overall design aesthetic is "sleek 'n' advanced" but the casting is a little "seamy 'n' pitted". I do like how the top surface looks... so far. But I'm glad I put a few extra protrusions on it to break it up a bit.

(also, right now I'm stuck taking photos with my wife's $700 camera instead of my $99 one, god I miss it. I can't get the damn SLR to stop flashing!)

Oh... and a nifty arrival from eBay:

CMON Mini Exchange #25

2011-01-31T20:57:00.000-05:00

These exchanges are always a lot of fun, and I painted up TWO figures from the last one, which is a new personal best.

Received today from "Tarreknoire" in the UK:

GW plastic "Fellowship of the Ring" (ALL of them!)
GW plastic Space Marine
GW Imperial Guard loader
HorrorClix "Fandancer" (squished a bit, alas)
... as well as various interesting-looking older stuff

Sent to "bsop" in New York:

Reaper "Jeb Wilson: Western Outlaw"
GW Tau Fire Warrior
Revelation "The Rook"
HeroQuest orc, goblin and chaos warrior (of course!)

Odd Couple

2011-01-26T21:44:00.005-05:00

HeroQuest Zombie
28 mm

CSD Mk1 Security Robot
28 mm scale

Despite my wife getting sick this week... followed by me getting sick :( I actually managed to get some painting done. Not much, but I worked a bit on my gunbot and started another HQ mini. So, a clean and tidy guy, and a grungy one.

The robot's blue is just GW "Hawk Turquoise" diluted with a lot of white. It's exactly what I was looking for :) It's hard to see but I added some small wheels stowed on the inside of his legs, similar to Tachikomas...

My inspiration for the zombie is this recent CMON post... but if mine looks half as good I'll be happy. That skin really looks great.

No crown for Victoria

2011-01-26T18:52:00.000-05:00

Well, The Chick Challenge verdicts are in , alas my Queen Victoria didn't win anything. But I pretty much knew that as soon as I saw the other entries. It is rather gratifying that neither of the best of show winners were "topless barbarian swordswoman" type subjects, although to be fair that genre was less represented in the contest than it tend to be in the hobby overall...

Cruising with Gunhead

2011-01-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

CSD Mk1 Security Robot
28 mm scale

A Reaper Chronoscope "CSD Mk1". I don't have a great track record with this type of miniature. Anything robotic, and anything anime-like are often... not finished by me. I never even completed my "Appleseed" minis, despite them being such an amazing find, and from an anime I really enjoyed.

I've added some antennas to this thing to make it a little more interesting, though I doubt it'll ever be Tachikoma-cute. But it will be light blue, because research indicates the colour blue lulls intruders into a false sense of security.

Also... I located where Agis got the base figure for his amazing 15 mm Captain America:

Superfigs in 15 mm scale at Old Glory

By the power of Greyskull...

2011-01-13T07:19:00.000-05:00

HeroQuest Barbarian ("He-Man")
28 mm

Ok, so he's not exactly as exciting as "Skeletor", as I've said the villain usually gets the coolest outfit :) But I am pleased with the way the skin turned out, which is good considering how little he's wearing. The only real modification I did is the belt design, which I tried to make similar in style to He-Man's chest plate (while not clashing with the rest of the figure). Since I was messing with greenstuff after I started painting, I didn't try to make it too elaborate.

As you can see I gave him a companion; maybe a little small, but perhaps Battle Cat is young in this photo :) The cat is from Mega Miniatures.

I'll probably try to paint up a few more of these HeroQuest figures in the coming months: Chaos Warriors, orcs/goblins, maybe a zombie (But not the Fimir because, frankly, they're lousy minis even by HQ standards).

Works in progress - barbarian and tank

2011-01-04T07:20:00.002-05:00

HeroQuest Barbarian
28 mm

Of course, I'm painting him up to go with "Skeletor", but I don't think he'll be as engaging. The villain is so often cooler than the hero... (also this figure is not nearly as interesting a sculpt, nor does his pose work as well with the plastic casting). But that's no reason not to paint him!

Possessed Panzer
15 mm scale

A bit of work on my "possessed" Panzer III. Cutting the tracks up (with the world's #$^@ing dullest razor saw) to make room for the emerging tentacles was a pretty ghastly chore, especially since I wanted to save some of the road wheels and leave some track remaining to dangle convincingly at the ends. But I think once it's done it'll look okay, and I can just plaster some demonic goo over any rough spots ;)

2010-12-31T20:20:00.001-05:00

HeroQuest Necromancer ("Skeletor")
28 mm

Finally done. I wasn't sure what that sphere on his helmet is supposed to be, so I painted it as a Palantir-type black orb with point reflections.

I suppose an alternate name for him could be Lord Zuthulu ;D

Some Christmas swag from my brother:

A Reaper "Reptus Sergeant" and Confrontation "Orhain the Erudite". I believe I asked him not to buy me minis... so he compromised and dug these out of the FLGS's bargain bin for a few bucks each. I especially like the turtle guy.

And in similar batrachian theme, I just got myself these:

RAFM Call of Cthulhu Deep Ones. ♫ ♫ It's beginning to look a lot like fish men ♫ ♫...

Happy Holidays

2010-12-24T11:37:00.001-05:00

Well I didn't manage to get any more painting done before the holiday descended on us... so Merry Christmas everyone!

And I hereby resolve to paint more in the new year, no matter what happens. Let's see how that works.

Gingerbread 2010

2010-12-19T13:51:00.006-05:00

A yearly tradition of mine. Yes, it takes away painting time, but it's a lot tastier in the end! These were all made as gifts for friends.

Toronto, Ontario
350 mm

Christmas trees
250 mm

Screaming, screaming for vengeance

2010-12-17T07:06:00.002-05:00

Some work on the Necromancer, much-delayed by Christmas stuff. It turns out that if my wife goes out for a few hours and I can blare 80's metal through the house, I actually don't mind fussy layering on smooth surfaces:

OK, so the music didn't improve my ability any. I think the Skeletor look will actually turn out okay, maybe a bit cartoony but I don't mind that. His green skull face actually looks genuinely sinister.

Also, a very geeky paper Xmas ornament I came up with, using some internet papercraft and clipart designs printed off and hand-coloured:

Yeah, that's a Stargate :D

Basing, with candles

2010-12-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

Some basework for my Necromancer:

Cork isn't very imaginative, but it is pretty easy, and I like the way it looks.

And... Bonus content! NSA's totally ~~amazing~~ simple method for sculpting candles!

Now, I'm neither skilled at nor enthusiastic about sculpting, but we often have to do it to get the miniatures we want. In this case, I wanted a skull with a drippy wax candle on it; something that says "sinister ritual" without taking up too much space. Anyway, this method isn't Golden Demon quality, but it does produce credible-looking drippy candles in only a couple of minutes.

Obviously, before you start this process, you can just fix the wire into the surface on the mini that the candle will be sitting on, or you can hold it in a pin vice or forceps.

Hell hath no fury like...

2010-12-09T12:51:00.003-05:00

...a small pewter woman, well-painted. The Chick Challenge 2010 entries have finally all been posted, and they are an interesting bunch! My "Victoria" is in the Open category, where the competition includes things like this... and this... and this.

Yeah, this is why I don't play to win :P Fortunately, seeing such amazing work by others is a pleasure in itself.

End Zone Interception!

2010-12-07T21:13:00.009-05:00

HeroQuest Necromancer
32 mm

I've wanted to paint one of these for a long time... I never figured I'd get my hands on one. (And yeah, he does look like he's waiting for a football to fly out of the sky)

I'm not sure what to do with the base now that I've extracted his feet from it... Pentagram? Some Chaos-y torn cork rocks? Skulls and bones? I'm a little short on ideas.

Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India

2010-12-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

Queen Victoria
25mm

So here is my Chick Challenge entry, presumably okay to reveal since today is the contest deadline. The miniature is a Victoria Lamb sculpt, which I bought from Eureka, though VL also sells them through her own website. I really enjoyed a lot of aspects of painting this figure - figuring out what all her medals and things were, rendering the rich purple, and just generally doing something a little different. As mentioned before I don't think I really have a chance of winning anything, but that's not the point... I think painting for contests, as rarely as I do it, really does bring out my best work.

(The plinth is a wooden toy makers' train wheel, stained with GW Chestnut ink. Worked perfectly!)

Sick Day(s) Project

2010-12-05T10:30:00.001-05:00

HeroQuest Mummy
28 mm

I did most of the work on this guy while laid up with a cold, and then (unrelatedly) recovering from having a long skinny medical instrument jammed through my body via some of my larger blood vessels. Not optimal painting conditions, but this wasn't exactly a groundbreaking paint job either. Still, I like the results.

Size comparison with an old Citadel mummy from "Curse of the Mummy's Tomb". HeroQuest figures are a lot closer to modern "heroic 25/28mm":

I'm very strange, I know it.

2010-11-27T19:10:00.006-05:00

I'm working on a new 15 mm project... and it's a weird one. Here's some rough concept art:

What the? OK, some explanation: As we all know from watching "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the Third Reich were interested in some pretty fringe stuff - occultism and black magic and so on. This is the product of some kind of Nazi occult ritual gone horribly awry on the battlefield, resulting in the tank being "possessed" by some kind of demon or entity :O Kind of like the Chaos vehicles in Warhammer 40,000.

I'm basing this on a 15 mm Flames of War tank, and probably some GW Chaos or Genestealer bitz for the legs, since I'm not such a hot sculptor... I might have some mixed troops (Allied AND German) trying to destroy the thing, to emphasize what a universal menace it is. Should be fun :)

Motley Things

2010-11-09T19:00:00.002-05:00

Chick Challenge* Entry
28 mm

OK, I can't actually show this, at least not before the Dec. 5 closing date for contest entries. But I will say it's a lovely sculpt by Victoria Lamb, and it's not at all like a lot of the things I have painted lately. Also, it's very purple.

* The Chick Challenge, in brief, is a female miniature painting contest. It was run for years by Jason Moses, but is now ably managed by Legio Pictorum, a group of Italian painters.

I recently managed to acquire ($2, church bazaar) a battered copy of Heroquest! This was a Milton Bradley fantasy board game from the 80's, with game pieces produced by Citadel/Games Workshop. Essentially a canned version of a RPG dungeon crawl, complete with treasure to collect and orcs and other nasties to fight.

It came with a large number of "game pieces":

Hmm, yeah. They remind me of the figures from Battlemasters, or the old Bloodbowl box set. While they're not exactly high-quality even by the standards of modern plastic figures, I have done decent paint jobs on such things in the past.

I feel like these have... potential. We'll see.

DUEL!

2010-11-07T20:00:00.000-05:00

Alien vs. Predator: The White Queen
15 mm

The base inscription reads:
"To the last I grapple with thee;
from hell's heart I stab at thee;
for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

Captain Ahab was hunting a white whale, but this Predator seems to be facing something quite a bit more exotic and deadly.

I wish I could say the idea of relating this duel to Moby-Dick was some clever and oh-so-literate impulse, but it's probably influenced by watching "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"... I was trying for a de-pigmented "facehugger" type colour on the "white" Queen, but she ended up looking quite green.

Here are some shots I took before I put the whole thing together:

Squishy!

2010-10-26T06:28:00.003-05:00

Ta da! Alien nesting... stuff.

One can only hope the aliens would produce it in a process resembling this:

...and not by pooping it out of some specialized orifice and then lovingly sculpting it with their bare hands. But I wouldn't count on it.

"Whoever wins... we lose"

2010-10-17T21:49:00.010-05:00

Alien versus Predator
15 mm scale

I never thought that tagline made sense - Predators supposedly kill a few armed people at a time, whereas Xenomorphs kill everyone indiscriminately. Not really equivalent.

Figures are "Vacation Alien" and "Space Demon" from Khurasan Miniatures. I don't see the Hunters on the site any more, I wonder if someone's lawyer gave him a call? (ed. - they're under "cinematic aliens", along with the classic B-movie Martians)

For basing, I'm going to sculpt some of that chitinous crap that Xenomorphs secrete all over their nesting areas in the movies, and maybe some techy floor remnants to fill out the base area for an infested colony effect.

Uber Villain

2010-10-12T08:10:00.000-05:00

The Red Skull
15 mm

This is a quick conversion and paint job I did for my brother over the Thanksgiving weekend... a new commander for his Flames of War German army.

Red Skull was Captain America's wartime nemesis: a ruthlessly evil supervillain allied with the Nazis (but always pursuing his own agenda).

The original Red Skull as he appeared in comic books:

Mini Exchange #24 (that's a lot of exchanges!)

2010-10-04T22:06:00.002-05:00

Well I participated in another Miniature Exchange this month, through Cool Mini or Not. I received some interesting stuff from leopardpixie, and I think this is the quickest I've ever painted what I received.

"Waggamaeph"
20 mm

African Shaman
20 mm

The first one is cute, the second is of... well, questionable cultural sensitivity. Also he's really thin and his legs broke off at the knees! That must be why he holds the spear. Fortunately, epoxy glue to the rescue.

Long departure

2010-10-04T19:51:00.001-05:00

Months and months of no posts... the death of a blog. But I have an excuse, I got married and honeymooned and all that.

But hopefully, back to painting now!

German Valkyrie walker
15 mm scale

So this didn't turn out looking quite as good as I'd hoped, but it's good enough. I think it's a very wintery, chilly model, which at least is what I was aiming for.

Little Hunter

2010-05-11T20:09:00.001-05:00

Predator
15 mm

This great little figure from Khurasan Miniatures was a lot of fun to paint - and fast, of course! Despite its size, it's a great sculpt, which really evokes the movie character:

Winterkrieg

2010-05-11T19:00:00.002-05:00

I decided on a winter camo paint job on this model. Soldiers in WW2 tended to use whitewash (lime) often applied hastily over the factory paint with mops, brooms and rags. So I tried for a "messy" look, without making it just look like I was being messy... I'm not sure it's convincing.

Another Weird War Project

2010-04-22T15:26:00.006-05:00

Valkyrie Walker
15 mm scale

More German WW2 stuff that never happened. I really enjoy these little models, I don't feel nearly as much self-pressure to strive for technical perfection in my paint job, and I can have fun meddling with them without risking mangling a large and costly kit. In this case, I built a turret, added a tank commander from the bits box, and sculpted a rolled camo net to hide the ugly casting flaws on the rear end (that's what $16 gets you, apparently).

Star Wars Cake Toppers
Approx 50 mm

Speaking of alternate reality, since when was Princess Leia Bengali? Since my charming friends Siham and Sean decided to get married, that's when!

This was pretty easy, since I didn't have to repaint the whole figure, and Han was perfect the way he was. But they turned out looking so cute, and it's always nice to make myself useful...

AWOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2010-03-01T22:01:00.005-05:00

The Wolfman
28 mm

I just started Reaper's nifty retro-horror miniature of the original "Wolfman" (played in 1941 by Lon Chaney Jr.):

I'm going to try for this effect:

Very dramatic, n'est ce pas?

"Let's go steal wine from that farmhouse... uh, I mean... attack! For the Fatherland!"

2010-02-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

Loki Scout Walker
15 mm scale

Another Weird War 2 model from Gear Krieg. There are a bunch of conversions on this one. The awning-looking thing is a hi-freq radio antenna, WW2-style. Also, a spare tire, some stowed gear, better gripper claws, and a half-track commander from Flames of War.

That doesn't suck either...

2010-02-16T21:54:00.002-05:00

Chrysaora fuscescens
20"x10"

The Pacific sea nettle. Nice and colourful, just what I needed after painting sand and concrete.

The fascinating process revealed: composition of this painting consisted of about half an hour moving cut-out paper jellyfish around on the canvas... truly high art.

Hey, that doesn't suck...

2010-02-07T19:00:00.001-05:00

Desert Ruin
9" x 12"

All done. Doing the fiddly little stones on the ground was a bit tedious but it definitely made a difference. A WIP shot from about a week ago is below:

Edit: I reshot the completed painting, the first pic is much closer to the actual colours.

Dog Soldier

2010-01-21T21:05:00.004-05:00

Canid
25 mm

Just a quick mini to get me painting. It's another old one, "Grenadier 1985" is imprinted on the base.

Learning to Paint?!

2010-01-20T06:25:00.002-05:00

Desert(ed) Village
9"x12"

I'm taking a canvas painting class, two lessons so far, and this is what I started working on yesterday. It's from a Nat. Geo. photo (top) of a village built for Bedouins in Yemen, kind of the Arab equivalent of making Indians live on reservations. They didn't go for it and this ruin was the result. I like the quasi- abstract, geometric and haunting look of the image, though mixing the odd palette has been a bit of a challenge.

Weird Reich

2010-01-19T22:00:00.001-05:00

These just arrived in the mail from Dream Pod 9:

Loki and Valkyrie German Walkers
15 mm scale

DP9 minis seem overpriced to me, but since I can't sculpt/scratchbuild my way out of a paper bag, what choice do I really have to satisfy those World War 2 stompy robot cravings?

'Tis the Season

2009-12-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

Untitled
10" x 14"

This painting was a Christmas gift to my fiancee; she liked it :) I collected the tiny driftwood from a beach on Lake Huron (if I recall correctly) on one of our visits there. I kept it for quite a while before the inspiration for this piece came to me... I wish I had inspiration for a title now.

These I received, from my brother. They're Reaper's "Monstrous Snowmen". Now I know why he was asking me for tips on painting snow... And he did a great job! They look... cold.

Back in the saddle...

2009-11-06T20:08:00.002-05:00

Space Marine 1988
25mm

A blast from the past to get me painting again after so many months. This is the sort of miniature that was hot and new back when I first started painting, in high school... Now mine, thanks to the miracle of eBay.

Abdul-Qadir
28 mm

I never really got into painting this guy, but maybe I should finish him...

Mini Exchange #20

2009-07-02T15:01:00.001-05:00

I decided to participate in this CoolMiniOrNot tradition once again. Sent to "ghetti" in Manitoba:

Giant barbarian (Confrontation), Asian gong and striker (Pulp Figures), Golgoth the Ancient (Reaper), and some small stuff.

Received from UnDave in the UK:

LOLWUT? Yeah... it's a giant dragon, and a giant motorcycle-chaos-looking-guy. So much for shrinking my collection.

Weird War 2, again...

2009-06-06T09:00:00.003-05:00

Gepanzerte Truppen
15 mm

Another World War 2 that (thankfully) never was... Wehrmacht space marines :P These finely-sculpted little 15 mm figures are from Eureka in Australia.

Don't look a gift elf in the mouth

2009-05-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

Caelon, Half-Elf Warlock
28mm

Well he's done. I really enjoy painting things green, it seems...

I originally planned for the base to look a lot like these from Micro Art Studios, but ended up being more inspired by a friend's photos of the Cambodian temple of Angkor Wat, overgrown with trees and vines.

Canned Meat

2009-05-15T06:21:00.004-05:00

Barrel Zombie
28 mm

This canned meat tends to eat you instead.

Also, some progress on Caelon, the elf. I like how the green is turning out.

Character project

2009-04-22T20:42:00.000-05:00

Half-Elf Warlock
28 mm

This is a Reaper mini, chosen to be as close as possible to my friend David's Dungeons and Dragons character "Caelón". I thought he might appreciate his alter ego in tiny form :) I'll convert the staff to hold an orb, as per his description.

Barrel Zombie
28 mm

A fun and gruesome mini from Eureka. It's a pickled zombie, escaping from a 40 gallon drum.

Yith Master

2009-04-20T07:18:00.001-05:00

Yithian
80 mm

Well, I think this thing came out looking pretty much the way I wanted it to look - alien but not garish. I considered making the colours a lot darker/grungier, but this pretty much is how HPL described the Yithians, for once something that wasn't shadowy and ichorous.

- - -
In response to javi's comment: the grey parts are just grey, except where they blend into coloured areas. As for the base, I didn't even really want to have one - it's a free-standing creature - but I think it worked out all right, and it'll save me from a bunch of CoolMiniOrNot comments saying "if this had a base I'd like it better" so I made it out of card stock and foamcore. The plain octagonal floor slabs are as described in the original text.

Beginnings

2009-04-15T21:14:00.004-05:00

Home for Easter, I found a few things I painted a long time ago. I think these were done around 1990-1992, when I was in high school. They actually don't look too bad to me now, but I think that's probably more an indication of how little I've developed in the intervening time, rather than any precocious show of talent.

What's available to paint has come a long way too... back then the range of characters to choose from tended a lot more towards basic sci-fi and fantasy tropes. There was some unusual stuff, but if it wasn't available at a local store... it wasn't available. No eBay, of course: what a grim and joyless world, I don't know how I survived.

2009-04-07T18:47:00.001-05:00

Wehrmacht H39 gun
15 mm scale

Just finished one more WW2 mini, another gift from my brother. Very kind of him. This is an assault gun Germany made from a captured French tank. I'm happy to say my results with static grass were much better here than in the past. It looks vaguely like grass.

Got some painting time, yay...

2009-03-31T07:30:00.003-05:00

I decided to go with a mostly yellow-green scheme for the Yithian. Lovecraft describes the body cone as "iridescent", and I was tempted to buy some sort of iridescent paint, but that would have probably looked like a My Little Pony version of the bizarre alien. DO NOT WANT.

A shadow out of time

2009-03-17T20:39:00.000-05:00

Yithian
80 mm

Their actions, though harmless, horrified me even more than their appearance - for it is not wholesome to watch monstrous objects doing what one had known only human beings to do. These objects moved intelligently about the great rooms, getting books from the shelves and taking them to the great tables, or vice versa, and sometimes writing diligently with a peculiar rod gripped in the greenish head tentacles. The huge nippers were used in carrying books and in conversation-speech consisting of a kind of clicking and scraping. - H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow Out of Time"

The "Great Race" of Yith explore the universe by swapping minds with other creatures existing in the future. The Yithian visits the future world inside the (unwilling) donor's body, while the donor's mind resides safely in the Yithian's body, a billion years in Earth's past. They are free to explore and travel there, but their memories of Yith are largely erased before their eventual return to their own time. The Yithians are locked in perpetual war with the Flying Polyps, eventually leading to the destruction of their civilization.

Tank

2009-03-15T19:50:00.004-05:00

Stuart Tank
15 mm scale

Could be titled "The Goose Thieves" :)

Hopefully there'll be more updates coming in the next while, and some non-WW2 minis, since I know it's sort of a weird kick to be on :) In the meantime, here's a canvas:

Untitled Green 2009
12" x 12"

2009-01-23T08:29:00.003-05:00

Monkey Demon
20 mm

All done... no water reflections anymore since I'm not feeling very masochistic right now.

Reflections

2009-01-21T21:46:00.004-05:00

So this doesn't look much like a reflection of fire on water, does it?

In fact, it looks more like sugar-tripping schoolchildren threw craft paints at a moving target as some kind of demented performance art project. Pity, that. Oh well, try, try again.

New projects

2009-01-05T07:00:00.001-05:00

Monkey Demon
20 mm

This came all the way from Italy, so I'll try and paint it well. He kind of reminds me of the art from Hellboy, for some reason.

M3A1 Stuart tank
15 mm scale

An American tank of WW2. My brother, who loves these little tanks, got me this for Christmas. As usual I've added some extras to make it look lived-in. Soldiers in the field tend to accumulate useful things if they can, because the only thing worse than being shot at, is being shot at when you're cold, wet and hungry.

2008-12-30T22:03:00.001-05:00

Normandy 1944
15 mm scale

All done! I like how this turned out, the street is a little "clean" but I didn't want it overwhelmed with rubble etc. The ruined walls are made of a kind of fiberboard, with tiny gravel as the brick rubble.

I've been meaning to get back to my more "traditional" miniatures, but my brother went and got me some more WW2 stuff for Christmas! So I suppose I'll have to paint those at some point too...

Something not painted

2008-12-16T07:31:00.001-05:00

My Christmas creation this year:

A Dutch-style post windmill. It's not easy convincing cookie to be a structural material :P

Useful find

2008-12-10T00:17:00.006-05:00

WW2-era European streets were usually paved with cobblestones. While picturesque, these are a bit of a pain in the butt to model, since you pretty much have to sculpt an entire #%@# bunch of them yourself, or find a textured plastic product (usually not cheap or available locally) to get the effect.

I found this stuff at the local art store for $2. God help me, I think it's scrapbooking paper.

But painted, it makes pretty decent 1:100 scale cobblestones. Go figure.

WW2 Update

2008-12-07T14:28:00.003-05:00

I need to post more in-progress shots so there are more updates here. I've been pretty lax.

Anyway here are my latest 15 mm scale WW2 minis, they're done but obviously the base isn't started yet. Alas, American vehicles in WW2 weren't that interesting to look at, the regulation markings were very plain. The vehicle names would probably have to have been painted on by the crew once there weren't any authority figures around.

Lettering "Betty Boop" was surprisingly difficult, the letters are less than 2 mm tall :P "Yellow Fever" was, thankfully, a decal.

The walker commander (presumably holding binoculars) was originally the .50 gunner on the car, but I sawed him off at the waist and gave his legs to the waving man so he could stand up in the car turret. All the extra bags etc. were sculpted from putty.

More WW2

2008-11-16T16:26:00.002-05:00

US "General Early" walker and M-20 Scout Car
~35 mm

Some real and fictional WW2 American gear.

What could have been...

2008-11-12T18:00:00.003-05:00

... if World War 2 was fought with big stompy robots!

"Gear Krieg" British Walker
~50 mm

Definitely a different take on WW2 war games! "Weird War 2" is a popular miniature genre right now so maybe this line will become more available. This is a Christmas gift for someone who hopefully doesn't read my blog...

A gift

2008-11-12T17:45:00.001-05:00

In return for submitting a Chick Challenge entry this year, the CC crew sent me a goat-monkey thing, all the way from Italy. Very kind! (I'll have to send them a Christmas card...)

Research is Hell

2008-09-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Graduate Student
28 mm

This guy really has seen it all: unexplainable results, all-night experimental marathons ruined by a dropped test tube rack, instruments going off-calibration as soon as a precious sample is loaded, and his supervisor skipping his committee meeting to play squash. His body runs on caffeine and anxiety and his bank account is laughable. He hasn't had time to read a novel for years, but he took a pile of journal articles into the toilet this morning. All that keeps him going is the faint glimmer of graduation, at the end of a very long tunnel.

This miniature is dedicated to all the graduate students I know, and to Jorge Cham.

Twinkle twinkle...

2008-08-30T08:50:00.001-05:00

Jolie the Astronomer
28 mm

Another non-violent mini... I always liked this one. Suffice to say, the telescope and candle holder were awful to make, too many tiny parts glued together. I wanted the two vertical elements to share a helical design but not "match", I think the compact wire helix ended up looking much better than the greenstuff one, but we shall see once they're painted. The "hatstand" base of the telescope used to be the fin end of a model airplane missile, it would probably have been easier to make it from scratch.

Misty Mountain Sam

2008-08-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

Nobody knew where Sam was really from, or why he had left there to hire out his pistols in the scrubby towns between Gondor and Harad. But one thing was for certain, no-one ever dared call him "short" to his face.

Chick Challenge 2008

2008-06-19T06:43:00.003-05:00

Rebel Alliance Pilot and droid
25mm

"They're moving our base to Dantooine, R5. It looks pretty safe and out of the way to me."

This is my Chick Challenge 2008 entry, in the Sci-Fi category. No chance of winning anything, of course, since the quality of the other entries is pretty high. The miniatures are 80's-era Grenadier figures, the holo generator is made from Zoid toy parts.

Slither

2008-06-15T22:11:00.003-05:00

Nurgle Warrior
28mm

A family photo:

The Short, the Bad and the Ugly

2008-06-04T20:35:00.001-05:00

Dwarf Gunslinger
16mm

A minor conversion of a plastic dwarf given to me by MPJ in the Coolminiornot.com Miniature Exchange #16. Frankly, these aren't very good figures, the plastic casting method ruins too many details at the sides of the miniature. But I liked the subject matter, at least as a starting point.

(Re: comment below, he's 16mm tall, but in 28mm scale)

There's never an octopus wrangler when you need one.

2008-06-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

The very deep did rot : O Christ !
That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

Some sculpted tentacles seemed right for this guy's base. He's not quite done; I still have to do some highlighting, detailing etc.