Sunday 27 January 2019

More Conquistadors and some sculpting

Hello everyone turns out I do have one last post for this month. It appears that a couple of conquistadors were somehow able to slip through my grasp and escape the photoshoot that happened last week. Well now I have found them they too have been told to scrub up and prepare for the photos. Much whining was had but finally they were compelled to pose nicely for the camera. In addition I have been trying my hand at scultping recently using a couple of techniques. One was one used by the manugacturer AB figures. For this I substituted the NZ made hobby putty Du Kit for Fimo, it didn't work so well and one leg broke so I decided to use a more traditional method for the remainder of the figure. Perhaps I need to experiment with the Du Kit a little moe. The other was based on an armature I had bought from Green Stuff World. I decided to sulpt a woman in this case mostly because I have so few woman figures plus it does give me a chance to practice sculpting flesh a bit which will be a useful skill to have once I transition to using wire based armatures which I hope to do if my efforts here prove successful. I hope you enjoy and please remember these are WIP those massive eye sockets will get filled. None of my usual commentary on these figures as I am someone rushed for time. Still I hope you enjoy this wee post of mine.













Well that is all for today I hope you like it. I am now off for a twelve hour shift at work. Wish me luck. And to you all I hope you have a good day/night.

Thursday 24 January 2019

Oronegrean Conquistadors

Hello everyone today I have got something rather special, something for the very begining of Oronegro. These figures may also double as elite armoured troops for a later time period as Oronegro retained armoured troops for use in combat against native tribes or behind the main lines of infantry. The basic principal was that in situations where melee combat was likely to break out armoured troops would be superior to unarmoured troops. Certainly many of those who faced Oronegrean forces during the 18th century got a nasty surprise when these troops bushed their way to the front during a bayonet brawl.

These guys appear to be preparing to recieve the enemy. But what enemy? Native tribesmen? Pirate marauders? Something inhuman?

This figure I have shown off before. The first to be painted and all around one of my personal favourites. He is the officer of the group.

The pouch on the back may be for some supplies but perhaps he intends to fill it with gold stolen from native temples?

To more armoured soldiers. As can be seen there is no standardised uniform for these troops, something that was true for their entire existence.

The black and yellow man on the right was harder to paint than initially expected. Seems that the yellow paint refused to go on evenly despite my best efforts

I forgot that there was an even numer of figs so one special guy gets to be on his own. Although sadly the camera refused to focus for this pic.

The camera did focus for this picture however, the lighting doesn't really do this guy any favours though.

Two crossbowmen, the crossbow also continued to be used. Especially because of its silent nature which was quite useful when fighting native troops in the jungle or even against regular armies at night.

The guy in the tophat is one of the many Moorish settlers in Oronegro, although he appears to be dressed in red, white, and green so perhaps his loyalties really lie with Italy.

The gun however, was what truly terrified the native troops. These big and powerful guns are not to be messed with. Even in later times big rifled guns, often requiring stands, were issued to these troops in part due to the value of intimidation alone.

Hmmm perhaps more than one of these guys has questionable loyalty towards Oronegro.
Well that is all for today. I have a lot of work coming up (two rather large events that I will be cleaning at) so I won't be able to do much painting. But I am still chipping away at the little pile of figs on my desk (which is increadibly cluttered because of it). Hopefully I can get something out for you in a week or two but this will probably be the last post of this month. What a good way to start the year. I hope to be making many more posts in the months to come.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and I wish you all a good day/night. ::)

Tuesday 15 January 2019

Elves, guards and maiden

More fantasy figures although this time something a little more human. These elves come from the Caesar Miniatures set and as with the previous figures were purchased to play D&D with. These however were purchased at a different time along with a bunch of other fantasy sets so keep your eyes out for more wierd and wonderful things. These elves have been painted in a dark blue and grey colour scheme, I like to think of them as some form of guards wearing blue as opposed to other elves who would be more dressed for camouflage. I hope you enjoy.

Protecting the maiden as the makes the dangerous trip across this strange wooden plain.

Unfortunately I don't have access to fine thread for the bowstrings

The elves have an engraved pattern on their quivers. I was unable to make it out though so all the patterns are imrovised.

This guy is the only one with his hood up and perhaps he is shy?

Once again, no clue what that pattern was.

Something rather annoying about this figure is that the two ends of the bow are shaped differently. Something I could not correct.

The dark hair came out much better in the photo than I had expected.

This man has a sword out but no obvious scabard. I really should have added one in retrospect.

The dirt effect I did on these figures was a combination of dabbing paint on unevenly as well as a drybrush. I am quite pleased how it stands out against the dark blue.

Finally the maiden, I find her clothes too simple to be of a princess, I am already converting some of her sisters in the set, one into a warrior another will be more spendidly dressed.

Time to talk hair, this silvery white hair was very frustrating to achieve and it took be several attempts to finally get something I was happy with.
Well that is all for today. I also completed another fig today as part of a different group which may get some love in this blog in the near future depending of his counterparts are also finished. Will probably be a little while before the next post though due both to upcoming work (Fat Freddies Drop concert) and the fact that I don't have a nice group of models all close to completion. Still slowly chipping away at those Oronegrean figs, I promise I will post them one day. But until next time I wish you all a good day/night!

Monday 14 January 2019

Little Demons (D&D Gargoyels)

More fantasy figs, these were bought at the same time as the mind flayers and both with the intention of being played with as part of the D&D campaign with friends. While the set was labelled gargoyels I felt that they were a little too large to be animated gargoyels from a 1/72 building so I painted them us as little demons instead. I hope you like them.
Steel vs claw, brute instinct vs skill, will this adventurer survive his encounter with the demons?

Originally I had painted the horns gold but at the last minute I decided on a more traditional bone look.

To create the contast in tone I used several reds. While later corretions have actually taken away from the original effect the contrast does remain.

As with the mind flayers despite being pre-primed some areas suffered from paint chipping or rubbing off particularly the tails

Some vert off effects going on with the lighting as the back appears almost black. This might have to do with one of the reds I used in particular which is more reflective than the others.

The second one is in a very symetrical pose, almost as if it wanted its picture taken

I used yellow oxide paint to do the teeth. After all I doubt demons brush.

I am very glad that I switched to the whiter horns as they stand out much more against the red bodies

I had wondered about giving these guys more fancy bases but I feel the simple grey works quite well and fits in with the rocky bases the figures are on.

One more close up from the front.

Once again I hope you enjoy these little figures. Next up will most likely be some elves despite the fact that I had told myself to get some series 5 (mid 19th century to early 20th century) Oronegrean infantry complete. Ah well whater I complete next I will complete next. I hope you all have a good day/night wherever you are.

Friday 11 January 2019

M...m..m...Monsters! (Dungeons and Dragons Mind Flayers)

What's this another post within the same year? Same month? Indeed same week? What sourcery is this? What sourcery indeed. Well perhaps these, ahem, fine fellows have something to do with it. These are some Mind Flayers for Dungeons and Dragons. Can't remember the manufacturer but they came pre-primed which was nice. I bought them for the D&D campaign that I was playing with friends. That campaign is long since complete but I have only just finished these two. It is also, in a sense coming full circle with this blog. My first post included some monsterous cloaked figure. Now here are two more, how terrifying they are too.
Sometimes the burried treasure really isn't worth the risk to get it.

*shivers* It is almost like he's trying to cast a spell on me through the image.

That's better, feel more secure now... wait what was that sound.

This was also a good opportunity to really experiment with some more out there colours. I am quite happy with the results.

The blood on the blades was a last minute addition but one I think works well.

Certainly don't want to meet this fine chap in a confined space. *gulp*
Well that is all for today. I hope you enjoy these figures. They are something rather different, and bigger than usual. I now must rush off to work but I hope the rest of you can have a rather more relaxed time. Have a good day/night!