Category: Miscellaneous

Having failed miserably to meet the challenges for May and June I thought I ought to get my finger out for July.  The challenge was to produce a centre piece, never particularly easy for someone who tends to concentrate on vignettes and dioramas.  Fortunately I remembered that I bought a bust (not any old bust but an Ork bust) at the Torquay model show a few weeks ago.  It seemed like now was the ideal time to get it done.

I have never painted a bust before, partly because they never really appealed to me but mainly because of the scale.  I knew it would offer a whole new painting experience and I wasn’t sure if I was up for that.  I don’t claim to be an expert but moving up and down the scales requires different techniques.  What you can get away with at one scale you cannot get away with on another and the large scale associated with a bust is pretty unforgiving.  Still, as I had bought the bloody thing I reckoned I might as well do it.

So here you have my first attempt (and probably my last too) of painting a bust.  Some photo’s, including a few work in progress ones appear below.  For scale I have also include an image of the bust along side Lord Flash.

On this occasion I used no oil paints.  As if painting the bust wasn’t challenge enough I decided to only use acrylics this time.

If only I could have come up with a better name for the model though!

TIM

 

 

 

 

 

This week I finished the last in my little mini serious loosely falling under the sub heading of “Post Apocalypse”.  In total that makes for five little dioramas.  Now I do not need to tell you that five is an odd number but I do need to tell you that I am big on symmetry and so a sixth model is needed.  I have an idea for what that will be but right now I have yet to decide on how it will be built and exactly what figures to go with it (and if I can then find them to buy!).  For now the sixth is a little ways off but watch this space.

This one is the second of the bikers I bought from Crooked Dice.  They have a third but I have no plans for that one, well not yet anyway.  Another great figure in my opinion which came in four parts.  Another enjoyable paint job and an opportunity to use (albeit only a little bit) my other colour shift paint from Green Stuff World.

All in all quite happy with the way it turned out but now it is time to turn my attention to my Jewel of July project for Azazel’s monthly challenge.

Pictures below.

TIM

It had been my intention this week to post part 2 of “Tomb Stoned” but as so often is the case life got in the way and what time I did have at my disposal for modelling I spent on this little number instead.  Next week I must make some more progress so brace yourselves for a boring work in progress post in due course.

I mentioned in last Saturday’s post that I had a couple more apocalypse type ideas floating around in my head.  Well this is one of the two I had in mind.  The inspiration for this one started with Alex over at Leadballooney.  He recently put up a post featuring some cool biker figures which I thought were great which in turn reminded me of some I had seen produced by Crooked Dice.  I quickly went online and ordered a couple and once they arrived I was easily distracted away from my “Tomb Stoned” building conversion and onto this instead.

So what’s to say?  Well not a great deal really.  If I’m honest the bill board ought really to be bigger but it does the job of providing a bit of background interest on a small base and besides the “Serious Injury?” idea appealed to my sense of humor.  The only thing of note in respect of the paint job relates to the bike.

Some while ago I bought a couple of Colour Shift paints from Green Stuff World which until now I had never had occasion to use.  In theory the colour should change between blue and green pending light and the angle of view.  I’m not entirely sure that it works but the end result was a reasonable metallic finish which I was happy with.

Pictures below.

TIM

 

A very simple one this week and not a great deal to comment upon.

This is the third and what I had originally thought would be my final figure under my loosely linked Apocolypse mini series.  I have now got another idea festering away so a fourth, possibly even a fifth could be on the cards.

Some of you might think the title is in some way linked to the movie District 9, it isn’t.  I recently finished building a Tamiya motor cycle, a model you will get to see futher down the line perhaps (I say perhaps because the whole thing has been sitting around for months), and I had a few decals over of which the number “79” was one.

The yellow and black hazard lines were done free hand.  I kept them as precise as I could but the plan was for most of the base to be covered over so I didn’t get caried away with masking tape this time around. The figure is from Hasslefree, Winter Dionne.  The industial background contraption was a piece of plastic packaging which came with a new washing machine!  Quite what purpose it served I have no idea but painted up I figured it looked OK.

TIM

 

This is the second of three in my mini series under the very lose genre title, Apocalypse.  In my own mind I kind of thought I needed to group them together and this is the best I could come up with.  What’s in a name anyway?

So what do we have here?

Well what we have are two Hasslefree figures, both with a bit of attitude.  The observant of you who follow this blog will recognise the larger figure on the right.  This is the same figure I used in my recently named “Get out of my fucking room!” diorama.  As previously mentioned I just love this figure which just happens to come in three variations.  This is the second and the third option is for the figure to have a wand in the right hand and a spell book in the other.  For now at least I cannot see myself doing that one.

Inspired by the Sex Pistols I decided to go down an anarchy themed route and set the figures against a graffiti daubed wooden fence.  As a minor tribute I added the album cover and the words “Never Mind The Bollocks …”  The graffiti was free hand and is OK while the little piece of wire fence to the right was made from the plastic mesh that garlic cloves come in from the supermarket.

Not a great deal more to say so on to the photo’s which begin with a few work in progress shots.

TIM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good while ago I purchased some figures from Artizan Miniatures.  All the figures with the exception of this one were Old West figures and were painted months ago.  This one was bought for one reason and one reason alone, I liked it.  It didn’t typically fit with what I normally paint but the pose and facial character appealed to me greatly and I just wanted to paint the little chap.  The only problem was I forgot to do so!  Somewhere along the line he got submerged among other piles of stuff until I recently rediscovered him for Azazel’s monthly challenge.

Not a great deal to say about him really.  Painted in acrylics with some oil washes here and there and some pretty basic base work. The key thing with the base was to find a stone from the garden which would provide some height and the appearance that Mad Jack is looking into the distance.  Hopefully that comes over.

TIM

As several of you are aware I’m a fan of Reaper Miniatures.  A little while ago I finished the last of a fantasy batch that I bought and promised myself that I would buy more Reaper figures in the future.  Good to my word I bought a few a couple of weeks or so ago and began working on this little vignette during the closing stages of completing my recent WW2 diorama “Operation Overlord”.

I’ve been wanting to do something involving Pirates for some time but what with one thing and another never got around to doing anything about it.  These two figures, along with another one, caught my eye as I was combing my way through the Reaper catalogue and so I finally bit the bullet and made the purchase.

The figures were a joy to paint, so much lovely colour after the drabness of WW2 uniforms.  Nothing really to say in respect of the figure painting.  The palm tree on the other hand is a complete scratch build.

I had never made a palm tree before so this was a new learning curve and what you see in the photo’s is my first ever attempt at making one.  On a personal level it turned out OK but needless to say I learnt a few things along the way.  Rather than go into full details on its construction in this post I’ve decided to do a separate “How to Make a Palm Tree” article (I bet you can’t wait to get started making your own!) which I will aim to publish next next week, not least of all because the lead up to Christmas will almost certainly leave me bereft of painting time!  Besides, if I share it then between us perhaps we can refine the technique further.

I thought I would also enter this one into Azazel’s December challenge under the categories of Vignette and Scenery Pieces.

Slightly blurry photo’s below.  I need to work on depth of field for close ups thats for sure!

TIM

Just managed to squeeze in a third entry for the July Challenge.  Not sure I’ll be able to do that for future challenges but on this occasion I was on a bit of a role.

This figure by Reaper  was clearly modelled on Harrison Ford in his role as Indiana Jones.  Presumably copyright was responsible for the name Jack Harrison being given to the figure by Reaper but I’ve imposed no such legal constraints on this little model of mine.

On close inspection it is obvious that the painted face is anything but a dead ringer for Harrison Ford, however, I can assure you that the paint job is the spitting image of Jack Harrison!  A fun model to put together.

Oh, and what has this got to do with July?  Well he’s searching for the Jewel of course!

Photos of the completed model below.

TIM

 

 

 

Not too much to say on this one as it’s mainly about the pictures of the completed diorama.  The film crew, camera and lights needed to be based and have been and a few other final touches needed to be made.

I’m still not sure if the balance of the completed diorama is right.  I feel the set wall might have been better if it ran the full length of the base.  The downside of doing so would have meant not being able to properly see all the figures.  Buggered if you do, buggered if you don’t.  I think I’ll have to put this one down to experience and if I do something like it again try to come up with a better composition.

Once again  there are some interesting shadows appearing in the photographs, purely by accident I must admit.  As IRO pointed out in one of the photos in Part 2 of this model the idea of painting in the shadow would be pretty cool.  I’ve resisted this idea only because I have never done shadows before.  I will try it out on something else and if it works out OK then I may revisit this model.  Until then it is complete!

Photo’s below.

TIM

My brother and his wife along with his son and his daughter visited us for a few days last week so little was done on the modelling front.  It was great to see them all but I’d forgotten how exausting a 4 year old can be.  It was as much as I could do to lift a brush after they left!  I did manage to get some further work on the base completed and the other three figures have now been painted.  I ran out of time to complete the whole thing for this post so a final part will have to follow in due course.

I’m still having my doubts on this one.  Since I started it I’ve had lots more ideas on other ways I could have put this together.  Not so much that what I’m doing is wrong  it’s just that the scope for using either horror figures and/or a film crew offers so many alternative possibilities.  Still, at least it means I’ve got plenty of future ideas to keep me occupied!

Latest progress figures below.

TIM