Saturday 25 April 2015

Scoobies and Boobies

First, a warning that the bottom of this post may not be suitable for work or for the prudish.
Now on to the pictures of the last dozen figures in the commission I've been working through. First up, the Scooby gang go all post-apocalyptic (well, not all - there was no Great Dane to paint):
Fred and Daphne.
Shaggy and Velma. Jinkies - look at that zombie for me to chainsaw up!
I'm not sure what this figure is. I went with angry street urchin or disgruntled orphan:
'What attitude?!'
I'm sure I've taught her at some stage.
Some great fantasy types up next:
'Chainmail bikini my ass! It's full plate or nothing!'
Now a Greek lady who is not planning on spending her entire life indoors working a loom. Let's hear it for the gyna-liberation movement:
She better watch out - she'll get a tan and then no-one will want to marry her!
I gave her an owl on her shield because surely any Greek Woman warrior worth her salt would be a devotee of Athena?
And finally some young ladies even less clad than the afore-shown hot hoplite:
'Has anybody seen who stole my clothes?'
So there we have it, another three dozen figures completed. But not to totally abandon my own (multiple) projects, I also painted up a couple of characters for Eagle Rampant:
Tribune Lucius Claudius Voracius about to claim the spoils of war somewhere in Gaul.
Still a little hazy after the early morning wake-up for the dawn ANZAC service today. A very impressive number of people attended today, more than I have ever seen there. I took my eldest daughter along too. In times to come she will be able to say that she was there, and I think that is important as she comes to realise the full gravity of the day.

Nate

Monday 20 April 2015

French and Indian Wars

These are the latest commission for Geoff and I'm really happy how they came out.

First up, a Redoubt Enterprises canoe with two Indian warriors paddling it.
These are followed with some Blue Moon Manufacturing 28mm French.




These were really nice figures to paint and an interesting point is that the bases pictured are actually the bases the figures are cast with. It makes them nice and hefty. One issue though. I don't like it when sculptors try to sculpt eyes with pupils. It actually makes them harder to paint.
"'Allo, 'allo, 'allo - I feel much more vivid now me old son"
After looking at the photos of the police in the last post I felt that they looked a bit flat. They were three tone but the base colour was too close to black. So I added a pale blue highlight to all the figures and I think they are much more 'alive' now. Above are three of them.

On this commission I have some zombie apocalypse Scooby gangers and some scantily clad (or unclad) females left to do. I'll be into those tomorrow as tonight is Game of Thrones night!

Nate


Saturday 18 April 2015

I'm not dead yet...

Almost a month since my last post, but never fear, I am alive. I just seem to have been very busy. That has included a little bit of wargaming stuff as well, so here is an update on that front.
First of all, Eagle Rampant is alive and progressing. I'm looking at submitting it as an article to my wargames magazine of choice, so I'll let you know if that gets off the ground. In order to make sure that the atmosphere is right for this project, I've been looking at using the school holidays to ensure I have some nice scenery available. Here are the results:
Seen from above, the Roman garrison fort in occupied Gaul.
First up is a scratch-built Roman fort. Many bamboo skewers died for this monstrosity. Luckily the palisades were built by Dan about six years ago, I just finally got around to mounting them to MDF, painting them, making the gate and the interior buildings.
Roman legionaries manning the ramparts of the fort.
A nice shot of the fort which unfortunately doesn't have the backdrop in it, but nicely shows up the carefully measured angles of the skewers in the palisade.
Not to be outdone, the Gauls also need somewhere to live:
Defending his home from Rome.
I ordered three resin roundhouses from Caliver Books' Battlefield Buildings range. These are big solid hunks of resin that paint up really well and are only $13 NZ pesos each for the most expensive. I still need to build the stockade for the Gallic village (more doomed skewers), but this will probably be next school holidays now.

At the same time I haven't had much time for figure painting, but am working my way through some commissions for Geoff. Here are the first dozen:
Coppers on the move
Coppers ready for anything
More coppers
Finally - something that isn't dark blue! Two detectives and a member of the Women's auxiliary police force.
Finally, let me join the chorus of fans who are hailing the release of the new Star Wars trailer. I am also very, very excited.

Not to mention Age of Ultron and Antman coming out very soon. It is a good time to be a nerd.

Nathan