Spielberg Tripod - thank gawd that's done

Here its as assmebled and painted - and not a moment too soon. This build has been incredibly frustrating - awful part fit, glue not sticking and a bunch of other gripes that i won't go in to as i don't want to wind meself up. So, its built and apinted then. The instructions would have it that its a dark grey, but one look at the DVD and its clearly metallic. Whether that's one of the few instances in the film that's true to Wells' book or not i duuno, but i was happy to go that way. I used "Moonland Sand" spray paint for the basecoat, as i've had it laying around since i did my Blade Runner blaster years back. On top of that i've drybrushed gunmetal and silver very sparingly. As i say, kinda fed up with the build - and i've still the base to do. Hearts not in that at all.

Zombie Dragon - back again.

Some of you may remember that back at Christmas (!) i started on the GW Zombie Dragon, turning him into a Nurgle beastie. I've very unfairly been ignoring him since i got to the detail stage, but figure i really should get him done. Right from the off, i thought the base for him far too big and figured it'd be nice to have a keeper for him on there and i initally had in mind someone like the Rancor keepr in "Return Of The Jedi". So a few days ago i had a trawl round the 'Bay and also on the Collectors section of Games Workshop to look for something similar. That turned up zilch, but i did find this fella:

Yeah, he's a Slaanesh Champion from yonks back but (A) i love that cowl, (B) he's pointing, so could be siccing the Dragon on to someone, (C) i could remove the flail and replace it with a length of chain from his wrist up to the dragons neck. Mind made up, the scene is the keeper pointing out the dragons next victim and just about to let him fly. This is what i have in mind:

From the back of the cabinet - Nosferatu

Had a bit of a clear up today and stumbled across this fella, that i'd TOTALLY forgotten about. By Geometric years and years ago and only about 1/12th scale, its a brilliant version of the best ever vampire:

ORKS!

Told a guy at work, who's a gamer, that my son is starting to get in to Warhammer and has chosen Orcs for his army. And he very kindly gave him these 40K, which means SF versions, figures. My son loves them, even though he won't be playing the 40K game and i'm pretty impressed by the casting and detail of the figures, considering they're not special items - just from a bog-standard box set. My son says we should paint three each, so these are the one's i'll be doing. I wouldn't normally be painting Games Workshop Orks as i don't like them, but what the hey. I've started here on the base skin colour - much, much brighter than i'd normally be going with, but its just a bit of fun.

Plump Ship

Okay, filled in the front hole and so time for a recap. So, left to right, which is rear to front, we have: some nozzles from who knows where, they're joined to a Bionicles lid, which is attached to the main shape, which is a salad bowl thingy, into the top hole i've stuck a tupperware pot, which fitted just right, and on to that, a clear hempisphere. Over it all is a bunch of kit bits, Plasticard, Go-Fasta stripes and sticky jewels. The silver sticky jewels at the very front i was going to remove after painting, figuring the now bare clear plastic could be cockpit windows. But, with a coat of primer on i quite like as is - a sort of studded detail. So that's where i am at the moment. Been mulling over colours for it. Was going for red but thought it might look like a nod to Red Dwarf, so instead i'm going orange with yellow striping - again to envoke the 70's look. Certainly not green - looking straight down at it from above, the chubbiness and back to front wings make it an awful lot like Thunderbird 2.

The Devourer - all done

Came out a lot better than i'd hoped for. Simulating her insides bursting out with light was going to be a tough job but, courtesy of my wife's light off her bike,its intense enough a beam to wash everything out and give sort of the effect i was after.

Batman Chess Set - four more

Getting really good now:

Nightwing and Katana go straight on the shelf, as they look just fine and dandy as is, with the metallics used being in keeping with thier outfits:

The Scarecrow is a fantastic sculpt, but needs a total repaint:

Best of this bunch though, and by far my favourite so far, is Mr Freeze. BRILLIANT figure, off-set by a very well done clear dome, the metallics used here are totally in keeping. Yeah, the eyes are a tad big but i can live with that - and how would i get the dome off to correct them?

Great Unclean One - fleshy

Next up, pic out all the wounds and exposed flesh in, er, flesh:

After that its my usual route of wash with Red, drybrush flesh, wash with Burgunday, drybrush with flesh. Which leaves a very unconvincing:

But that's only part one. Part two is documentated on vid:

Plaguebearers - all done.

In the end, never really used them for choosing a clour scheme for the Great Unlclean One, but they've been a whole bunch of fun to do.

Great Unclean One - progress

Here he is assembled, primed, basecoated, washed and drybrushed. Been a bit of a rethink as to his colour scheme, as seen in the vid:

Hutt Pod Racer = Plump Ship

After a good three or four attempts, i've come to the realisation that i can't sculpt Hutt's... So, scrap that idea then and i'm going to my second choice for my Pod Racer species. Expect an update just as soon as i've found donor shapes for the engines and cockpit. In the meantime, the failed Hutt racer will now be a rather plump spaceship. I'm thinking a plastic plate will cover the hole at the front where the air intake was going to be and, in the middle of that will be the cockpit.

Great Unlclean One - assembled

Well, that was easy - after a good wash, the antlers were stuck on, the tendril stuck in, the centre horn glued and then it was a simple matter of sliding the tongue over the sword blade. Apart from a wee bit of flashing, there was no clean-up at all. The only things that needed addressing was that i lost one of his teeny tiny eyebrow horns, so had to replace it with the end of a cocktail stick, and quite a gap between wrist and right hand, which i've sorted with Green Stuff here. Just got to blend that in and then its Prime Time again.

RIP Harry Harrison

So, another link to my past goes. Harry's "Stainless Steel Rat" series of novies were a HUGE influence on me growing up, along with a myraid of his other novels, mixing pulp SF, epic SF and a massive amount of humour in there too. His imagination was unlimited and i was glad to get a peek in to his worlds when i did.

Great Unclean One

He landed today, gave him a wash right away, but not before having a waffle about him on Youtube:

Spielberg WOTW Tripod - what a nightmare...

... part fit for the mandibles being rubbish, glue not working well with the plastic and everything too delicate to handle. Glad i've passed the primer stage. Here's the two sub-assemblies. I've base-coated them with Moonlight Sand, a colour i've had since i did my Blade Runner blaster years and years ago. Over that i've drybrushed Boltgun Metal and, more sparingly, Mithril Silver. Next up - add the lenses:

Also started on the base. I went with a Tamiya greeny colour for it, as i didn't want anything similar to the Tripod and you can see all i've done since is to heavily wash it with black:

The Devourer - almost done

VERY unfairly been overlooking this chap, but here he is: skin done, teeth & gums done with his bracelets covered with bling. Next up is to paint the bracelets as is then add a few sticky jewels for added detail, then add drool then he's done.

Speilberg Tripod - legs

Here's the lower half then. The legs are VERY thin and the join areas VERY small, so the whole assembly was left to set for a good two days before moving.

Plague Bearers

Two things that are great about turning 50: A fantastic holiday, and folk being VERY generous with money gifts. I'm getting through the dosh quite quickly right now, but the only model-related things i've spent it on is is the WOTW Tripod and, as of yesterday, i've ordered the whacking great Great Unclean One form Forge World:

I'm really out of practice with painting all things Nurglly so, thought i'd pick up the new Plague Bearers plastic set to get me into the swing of things:

Open the box up and, wow:

Two sprues of lovely crisp detailed parts. They're pretty much interchangeable, so that'll be fun to do. Also, i'll be painting each with its own colour scheme - partly because i can't stand seeing whole regiments of such types all with exactly the same skin tones when they're pox ridden, diseased zombies and therefore should each be rotting individually. Also, the one i like best i'll duplicate on the Great Unclean One.

Batman chess set - board and new figures

Two big boxes were waiting when we got back from our hols. The biggest held the colossal chess board for the figures, along with four new pieces:

The Ra's Al Ghul and Poisen Ivy are pretty good, what with having hardly any of the crappy metallics paint job on them, so i'm leaving then as is. Ridller and Gordon are going to need work though:

We're back

Yes indeed. And rather unexpectedly all fired up to scratchbuild from it, after seeing these lovely quirky designs at the tank museum at Bovington.