Mark MK6 - nearly there now

Okay, so that's the underside attached and you can also see i've bunged on an engine bell at the rear. Can't for the life remember what it is - its certainly not a kit piece as its some sort of bendy plastic.

Merry Christmas to me - Hornethopter

Well, hope y'all having a great Christmas and you all got what you asked Santa for. I did - eventually. My Wife ordered me this Bad Boy and i'd had it on pre-order for quite a while and it shipped on the 12th, so hoped it'd arrive in time. It didn't, but at least it came on day after Boxing Day:

Wow is all i can say. Just wow. Lovely packaging artwork on the back:

And, on the underside of that, is the very clear instruction sheet:

Open the box and everything i've heard about FichtenFoo was born out - BRILLIANT, flawless resin castings and fantastic brass etch work:

This is going to be a joy to build. Its quite small, being 1/35th scale and my thought while it was on its way that i make it as an alternative WW2 vehicle, but i really like the box blurb about it being the "scourge of the dirigibles" and so will go with the intended Steampunk setting. I may use figures that Industria Mechanika produce or, if i don't fancy another long wait from the States, try and source military figures readily availaible over here that i can adapt in some way.

Mark MK6 - bottom

Figure there's two ways i could go about the working section of this here craft: (1) Continue the whole wing-theme that's been going on and have another one hanging down in the middle, or (2) Go completely different - maybe a nice, blocky shape? Thought another wing would be too much, so have decided to go with the latter. First up though, was to cover up the gaping whole on the underside which, of course was the cockpit area when it was up the right way. For that i've used a bit from, i think, the Airfix Refueling set for a blanking plate to attach things to:

Looking around for a contrasting, blocking shape, i'm going with the turret from off the toy tank i used for the Weirdboy Tower:

With the barrel taken out, i had to put on something as a spacer to allow the engine bell to attach square to the rest of it. The yellow bit is from a Tamiya tank piece along with the cowling from a 1/72nd bomber as the basis. Into them'll go the actual engine bell. You can also see i've started on the now customary sticks gems for blooby detail:

And here we are this morning, a few more bits from Mark's sprues for detailing at the front - that wheel part is in mid dropping off as i took the photo:

Slug! All gooey

Okay, in an effort to stop it looking like white dog poo, i've gone for a sickly, ripped apart scheme. Also, as i've based it on a slug, i thought some slime might be in order for it to drool and dribble. That was easy - when all the painting was over, just drizzle freshly melted Hot Glue over the jaw area and, when set, tint it with clear paint.

Up on eBay right now if anyone's interested? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scratchbuilt-Chaos-Spawn-Slug-/160939783175?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item2578c23407

the Mark MK6 - progress

Okay, so here's the little stubby wings on:

Looking at it, its far too top heavy and far too much all at the front and i've got to address that. Figure i'll build the body at the back to give it more of a rear and make the top fin more central, and have the engines underneath to bulk it out down there. Looking around for a shape for the rear section, i've decided to go with this tiny 'copter:

Turned upside-down and with its nose cut off to make for a better fit:

Batman Chess Set - Red Robin, Huntress & the Bat-Signal

Big, big box arrived and in it these three beauties. I'm not doing anything to any of them - Red Robin's red is metallic but not very noticible, Huntress' is a tad garish but it works at this scale, and the bonus Batman on Bat-Signal hasn't any metallic to it at all. And a very nice sculpt it is too.

the Mark MK6

I'm VERY indebetted to top bloke Mark McGee for very kindly suppling me with a whole boxfull of sprues to replenish my Bits Box:

There's tons of interesting shapes and things, including this ball thing, which screams Star Wars Probe Droid to me, and am sure i will do:

But it was finding this aircraft body and wing that i was drawn to:

That lovely curved tail really looks like the prow of a ship to me, and that wing, if upright, would make for a heck of a sail sort of shape:

And the whole thing would be done in a Ma.K/Dust sort of style, and be called the Mark MK6 as a nod to its supplier. Okay, lets go then. As i was cleaning up the parts, it came to me that it would be a nice challenge to try and do the whole thing using parts that Mark suppied, so that's what i'm doing. Here you can see i've got the wing upright. Sandwiched between that and the body is that grey part, which i've put there as it comes with a couple of stubby wings, which i'll be putting on either side:

Slug!

Had a lump of air-drying clay that was going off fast, so quickly had a go at it and came up with this - its a Chaos Spawn, a kind of a slug creature that bursts out from the ground to attack, arther like the beasties in "Tremors":

Gonk Droid - legs done

Hellcannon

With my Son planning on all sorts of devices to bung at me, figure i'll be needing some artillery of me own. With Chaos, that's this here Hellcannon - a lovely device where you feed dead bodies in the back, the souls are extracted then fired out the front. I was thinking of making one of my own, but this built and primed in black one was going cheap on the 'Bay, so i got it:

I plopped some Nurglins up top to show that's its a Nurgle weapon and, after putting on a dusting of white so i could see the details better, i started on the metals first. I'm going for a "so rusty, you'll catch something from just touching it" kind of look and i'm pretty happy so far. I'm waiting to see how it looks with the other areas before deciding whether to do more:

Under The Influence - 8

Being an occasional series while the paint is drying, the glue is hardening or waiting for enthusiasm to come back, where i have a waffle on the things, films, books and whatnot that had a direct influence on me, getting me into this hobby or the whole SF/fantasy malarky.

This is one of those odd occasions where i was massively affected by something when a child - but never actually saw it until and adult. Back in the 70's, one of the constant staples in the huge amount of books put out of the subject of horror or Sf films (usually by Denis Gifford)were stills from the films of Georges Melies. I'd already been growing up on a diet of Laurel & Hardy and Charlie Chaplin films and part of the appeal, other than the comedy, was the rather disturbing feel to the silent one's - the B&W photography, the sets, the very scratched prints and the strange, strange support casts (typified by Eric Campbell in the Chaplin films) went towards giving the shorts an unsettling feeling of menace throughout. So i was used to that. But these still? Well, i'd never seen anything like them. Far, far more distburing than anything i'd seen up to that point, with incredible ideas making for incredible, iconic imagery. Boy, i was fascinated. When i finally got round to seeing them, they still had that sense of menace wrapped up into the fantasy and they hold up brilliantly well today - something you can't say for CGI films made only a few yaers ago. Georges Melies is rightly acknowldged now as not only a pioneer of special effects, he was the first to use so many of the techniques still in use today, but also for pushing the boundries of film making - realising before many others that scenes could be edited together to create a story. Was so pleased to finally see him and his films up there on the Big Screen in the excellent "Hugo" but, if you're a fan, i urge you to track down the compliation DVD of his works on the Arte Video label, which is just stunning.

Collapsed Crab

Longterm Followers of this here Blog may remember this kit i made years back, a mechanical crab in 1/48th scale, not a M.a.K design, but sure could be from that universe. Anyway, he and his base and his lil' friends have been stuck at the back of a cabinet since finishing and, at the weekend, thought i'd have a sort out and a dust. Pulled him out - and this is what i found. Think what's happened its that a glued the two-part legs together with Araldite and then joined them to the body with the same stuff. Which would be fine normally. But think, over time, the weight of the body has put a constant strain on the joints and some have given way. This is what's revealed once i've lifted off the parts and given them a dusting:

Thinking what i should've done back then - and will do now - is pin each part before adding the glue.

Batman chess set - Hush & Bane done

Here they are then. Dead simple repaints here - Hush's guns and coat, along iwht Bane's mettaly bits:

Starting a new ship

Having a rummage through a bits box, i came across this:

Which goes way to 2008 when i'd signed up to a build challenge of scratchbuilding something that incorperates a spoon somehow. Eventually, i came up with the below craft, using two ladles from Wilkensions for the boom arms:

But the piece up top was before i'd settled on the ladles and was my first idea - get a large plastic slotted spoon, cut the handle off, fill the inside of the slots with Ribbed Plasticard, and seal the bottom with plain Plasticard and have it as cockpit for a fighter. But, as i say, i changed tack and it was consigned to the box. Until now. Thought i'd do something with it and another trawl around for a suitable shape for the body and came up with this:

Another abandoned years ago project which you can see is just a tube with a couple of WW2 Bomber wings laid down horizontally each side. I'd also added a vertical wing as a tail but i've removed that yonks ago to use elsewhere and you can still the stump of it on the tube. So this is roughly how the parts will join:

And here you can see the underside and what i need do - add to the existing Porsche shape, Baco Bricks, SRN4 parts and Airfix Refueling shape to add more detail. And come up with something for the engine:

Updated Jeff Wayne's War Of The World's

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Remember when the Star Wars prequels were announced and you go "Hope, they're good - if they're not, then they'll spoil memories of the originals". Then you get to see it. And what you get is a pale rehash of what's gone before, clumsily handled, with all the charm siphoned off, with flashy CGI effects that aren't a patch on what's been seen already. A hollow, waste of time. With Liam Neeson. "Groundhog Day!"

Weirdboy Battle Tower - done

Okay, had a day off today, with my Wife at work and the Sprogs at school, so had time to focus and finish off my Orky build. Here it is just before Primer stage, with final detail added:

Then in Primer stage:

Reason its finished just in the Primer stage, is that i'm hoping to sell it and i figure any buyer would want to paint it to match their army. Its up on eBay now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scratchbuilt-28mm-scale-Ork-WEIRDBOY-BATTLE-TOWER-/160926839499?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item2577fcb2cb

Nurgle Plague Bearer fridge magnet

Wanna buy a fridge magnet?

Strange sort of journey this - i was thinking about what else i could make to sell, and it dawned on me that no-one makes GW busts anymore. So thought i'd have a go, and decided to plump for a Plague Bearer, figuring its hideous details could be kind to any mistakes i make. So i plomp some air-drying clay down, start moving it around while still on the mat - and it occurs to me that the flatness of the rear of it is sort of like a fridge magnet. Hey, why not do a fridge magnet? Never, ever seen one done from this universe before. So, mind made up, off i went. Sculpting away, i had it in mind to use an opaque hemisphere, half of a ball that toys come out of a disepnser in, for the eye. First plan was to paint it as a regular eye but, when in, the clearness of it combined with the white inside refracting round it, looked kind of neat, so decided to keep it as is, for some sort of etherial, blind look to him

At this point in the build, you can see i've attached the seperate horn and blended it with Green Stuuf, put in the teeth, again with Green Stuff, and started to paint the interior of the mouth, for ease of access. This shot:

Shows the skin well underway and the mouth done. Something kept bothering about that mouth but couldn't decide what. Then i realised - it was too "normal" compared to the rest. So, while poxing him up, i gave that areas loads of icky colours to tone it down:

So there you have it, a guardian for your fridge - as long as he doesn't put you off your food. eBay link: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NURGLE-PLAGUE-BEARER-original-unique-fridge-magnet-/160923823952?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item2577ceaf50

Nurgle Titan Head - all done

Very quick this build and here it is all done. As its a Mr E Model project, i'm leaving it at the primer stage and its up on ebay right now.