Nurgle Dragon

I was in our local toy shop with our Sprogs and i stumbled on a toy range of dragons from the TV show off-shoot of "How To Train Your Dragon".
What caught my eye was this fella, obviously based on one of those truly bizarre very deep water fishes.



Love those, so love this and it got me to thinking "would be nice to repaint that."
Followed swiftly by "I could make it a Nurgle beastie - have a rider up top".
Followed by "You've not made anything Games Workshop for ages, and you really should pull your finger out and make more things to sell."
Obeying my inner voice, i added him to the shopping list.
Getting him home and taking him out the box, he does have potential - its a nice sculpt, with lots of nice detail, which is not very apparent with its existing colour scheme.
Out of the box though it became apparent that something would have to be done about the wings.
He's got no arms or legs at all, just a mouth with a tail really and that's fine - can seeing it sweeping over a battlefield gulping down the enemy. But not on those wings, far too tiny. And far too bendy - nothing i could do would straighten them out.
So the wings will have to go and you can see i've made a start on the substitutes: two pieces of coat hanger wire, with paper clip inner fingers.



I've also started thinking about the rider and a good delve in a bits box got me this partially painted metal guy that a friend gave me yonks ago, with new plastic arms i've just stuck on.
He'll be sitting up top, covering up the whole i'll be making once i've removed the control to make the toy move its inner teeth.

From The Back Of The Cabinet - The Thing From Another World

"The Thing" is one of those rare things... Actually, no - the ONLY thing i can think of where i love an original version and the remake in equal measures, and for the same reasons too, even though they're 30 years apart and differ enormously in techniques and production.
Never owned any creature designs from the John Carpenter version aside from the McFarlene action figures, but i do have James Arness from the original.
Painting a character that's from a black & white film is always a challenge, but this fella was easy as i just took my cues for skin and eye colours from the novella. And i went with green blood, what with him being a vegetable and all.

Spoon Ship - all finished

Okay, here she is with the metallics on, dirty and rusty washes applied, and all finished.

Spoonship - at last some progress

Had this shunted off to one side, but i've done a bit more the last few days as you can see.
Black Go-Fasta stripes to tidy up the green bands, some more of them for added blackness, decals applied, pastelled and dirtied down, and a nice coat of Matt Varnish to dull things down.
Next up, put on the metallics, then dark washes to stop things looking, well, pastelly.

Klingon Battle Cruiser - colours.

Okay, what colour do i do this thing?
Its from the original series, so guess must be the Mid-Grey that it appears to be on the show.
But this new tooling has the intricate panel detail that wasn't on the original, but was on all the Klingon craft in the films and subsequent series that followed.
So i've taken my cues from them - and especially Star Trek Into Darkness - and have it as a down and dirty, beat up craft, with no order or cleanliness about it.
So, first up a basecoat of Tamiya JA Grey, which is a lovely grey/green affair:



And next is a step towards dirtying it: many washes of Raw Umber/Black and tons of drybrushing with the basecoat:

Steampunk Walker - bit more

Not been much in the way of development on the Steampunk Walker.
That's because i'm still looking around for the upper gun affair, made difficult by not knowing quite what i'm looking for.
I know: it'll be a sort of barrel affir, with a stubby gun barrel coming out of it, fixed so the whole thing has to turn to change where its firing at, a couple of chimneys to the rear, and a ladder hanging down at the vack.
But there's been a wee bitt of progress with the command ball that'll be slung underneath. I've backed the rear of it with Plasticard and started to add kitbits to pad it out. And i've attached an arm which coonects the ball to the body - the eagle-eyed will spot it as an engine from the old MPC X-Wing kit.

Klingon Battle Cruiser - assembled

Okay, that was simple but good fun.
Straight away i had to choose what to do with the windows. There's a whole bunch of clear plastic one's to put into the "head" here, but i really didn't fancy masking each one up individually before painting, i wasn't going to paint the kit before building, and i wasn't going to paint each black once i had painted.
So, as they're SO small i decided to leave them out completly - i'll have nice black windows without having to do any painting.
The dome affair up top isn't glued on yet as they have a couple of clear light to go in, so i've Blu Tac'd it together until after painting.
This really is a retooled model - i vaguely recall making this and i know the rear of the neck here didn't have the six pieces to it that this one has.



You can also see i've painted some clear pieces with Clear Green - they're for the engine nacelle areas and i figured i would use these as they light should shine from one side to the other.
Before glueing in though, i had to paint the area the go into in black:



And here we have it all built. At the rear here there's two clear areas that should be red so, again, i've just Blu Tac'd the upper area there until after painting:

Klingon Battle Cruiser

For anyone in the UK, T K Maxx have the flashy version Battlestar Galactica Viper and the Klingon Battle Cruiser from the Original Series for only 12 quid each.
Had to get me the Klingon Cruiser as:
(A) I loved the design as a nipper,
(B) It was one of the earliest SF craft kits i made, back in about '78 i guess.
So, open the box and there it is. Except, i think its been retooled - there's a tond of detail that i don't remember from first time out, the detail is lovely and crisp, and there's panels etched onto the hull - something that sure wasn't on the original. Guessing they're trying to emualte and tie into the version seen in The Motion Picture?
Anyway, this is what you get - parts, instruction sheet, decals and a Klingon trading card. Printed in German. Guessing that's why its marked down.
Anyway, looking foraward to building it and i promise it doesn't end up like my last one - to have the command module cut off and an Eagle beak from Space 1999 stuck in its place.
Yes, really.

T.I.E Bomber - all done

So here we are with the T.I.E Bomber all done.
Repainting it has been an odd experience as i'm not used to putting colours on something SO large - what would take a few seconds on what i'm used to takes much longer here. And its pretty darn heavy and difficult to handle and get the angles right for painting.
But its done now and i'm pretty pleased with it. I've had to use a bit of artistic licence due to the scarcity of of actual studio model shots, not only down to the redetailing, but to any colours other than the blue/grey and black. So i've just limited it to the odd mettalic here and there to break things up a bit

Jabba's Door Droid - finishing the "eye"

So, here we go with the white area inside the "eye".
Looking at pics of the original, it looks like they started with another hemisphere, cut right back and glued onto the clear one. Then the "teeth" of it are strips of another hemisphere glued over that - you can quite clearly see the stepping of them in some shots.
I don't have the financies to attempt such a thing so, instead chose to draw the entire thing onto masking tape i'd covered the clear hemisphere with, draw on the pattern, cut it with my scalpel, remove the areas that won't be clear, spray in White Primer, remove tape and lightly draw the stepping on with a soft pencil.
So this is it, plonked inside the outer "eye".

Dirty things

Been having a bit of a dirty today.
There's our Son's Tusken Raider headpiece, which i'm slowly getting to roughly the colour they are in A New Hope (or, "Star Wars" if you're a certain age). The colour of them is kind of odd - a sort of dirty khaki affair, totally different to the tans of the other robes. So i'm slowly staining the bandages with Khaki, and a khaki/brown mix, and straight black, keeping the mixes very watered down and dappling them on to keep them nice and random.
Also, got his bandoliers yesterday along with some for our Youngest's Jawa outfit, and i've got to do something about them. The belts are good, being very decent quality leather, but the pouches are a vinyl imitation of the British 1903 bandoliers used, and i think i'm going to have trouble getting any paint to stick on them.

T.I.E Bomber - pastels

Getting rather one tracked with the T.I.E Bomber at the moment, but its such a great design i can't help it.
Okay, over the pencil outlining of the panel lines i've put down some pastels for weathering. The Empire do seem to keep their ships spick and span, but guessing all T.I.E craft enter atmospheres, so they must pick up some muck, yes?
After that i've masked off the cockpit again and put on that light coat of Satin Varnish.

T.I.E Bomber - improvement

Ah, that's better. Here it is all coated as i managed to get it done with just the one bottle.
Trouble with Vallejo paints is that they dry awful matt and there's just something about matt paint on models that just doesn't seem right - think everything needs a sheen of a satin finish to help with light reflection to give it a sense of scale etc.
So, after picking out a lot of the panel lines, i'll be giving it a coat of Matt Varnish.

Mansion Of Madness - good guys

Thought i'd get the dull stuff out of the way first, doing the eight characters the good guys can be.
Bit of a slog this, with them a pretty dull task despite the excellent detail on the figures, especially the old codger.

T.I.E Bomber - that's better

I thought finding a match of the right colour for the T.I.E Bomber was going to be difficult but, when having a sort out of my paint drawer, i stumbled on a full bottle of Vallejo "Blue Grey" which looked just the ticket.
Here's where i am with it today and it does look close. Was a bit worried that i'd not have enough to cover with just one bottle, and getting more Vallejo paint means going online now since the demise of Modelzones shops, but think it'll just about be enough as long as i water it a wee bit.

Steampunk Walker

So, i'm going the Steampunk route with the ex-Star Wars Scout Walker, but how do i stop folk going "that's an ex-Star Wars Scout Walker"?
First up, i thought i'd move the cockpit from up top, to being hung underneath.
For that i'm using two hemispheres - a clear one for the front and a slightly larger on for the rear. The way i see it, i've two routes to go with this arrangement: either utilise the clear part for a rounded window and have a cockpit on view in there, or paint the whole thing and have portholes around it to have a diving bell sort of look. We'll see.
And, up top, there'll be a barrel as i mean to have the beast as a walking gun. This was my first choice, a tower from a toy space station, that i chose because its got some very Victorian looking girder and rivet work on it.
But, its far too big. Not only would it seriously affect the balance, but i thoought it'd overwhelm the rest of it.
Need to think again.

T.I.E Bomber - disaster

Indeed.
The colour of the studio model ws, i think "Sea Blue" by Pactra and long since being produced.
I tried the motor supply places and they had things very similar - but all are mettalic.
Thought i'd found the right shade with a can from the art shop - but its dried a lot bluer than it appeared on the can.
Bugger.

Jabba's Door Droid - starting on the gearing

Next up on the Door Droid is the strange, almost medievial side parts. They're quite hard to make out but seem to be some sort of chain/gearing affair, with spikes all over:



The start of this section are the anchoring parts on the "neck" and the one that hangs down, and i'm using cotton reels for them.
I measured the distance between where they'd be going and drilled two holes that distance apart in some Plasticard and bolted two reels down.
I then eyeballed where the lower one in the middle would be and again bolted another reel there.
And you can i've rivetted a strip of Plasticard between the two upper one's, looped around the bottom one.
I think the original is a definete chain affair, but i'm not too bothered about using a solid strip of plastic as, with all the detail on, i don't think you'll see too much of it anyway.



And here the both of them, taken off the Plasticard sheets and bolted in place, with the lower reels Hot Glued on:



Next up is to source suitable "spikey bits" and some sort of flat, rectangular shapes that i think make up the actual gearing teeth of the device.

The Artmor Project - nearly ready to go

The Artmor Project is getting closer and closer to the start of its auction, and its own website is now up and running, with jaw-droppingly imaginative and creative and fantastic and just plain cool pieces on show, with more to follow.
I urge you take a look and to bookmark it ready for the event.

http://www.artmor.neozaz.com/welcome/index.html

Mansions Of Madness

Being a big HP Lovecraft fan, i've been aware of this board game for quite a while, not only because of its source material, but also how it sports some pretty nice figures to go with it.



Not bought it up till now as it comes with a weighty price tag, but found one going cheap on the 'Bay so nabbed it.
Opening the box, can see why its a hefty price, as the packaging and quality of everythings is top-notch.
And the sculpting on the figures is excellent, although made from that greasy feeling plastic that dictates washing them before priming. This is the first bunch i've decided to start with just after their wash. I'll be going into each individually as they're done:



And here they are in White Primer, where the detail stands out even more:

Jabba's Door Droid - the gearing

Next bit to address on the Door Droid is the strange, almost medievial side parts. They're quite hard to make out but seem to be some sort of chain/gearing affair, with spikes all over:



For the main bits i'm using cotton reels.
I measured the distance between where they'd be going and drilled two holes that distance apart in some Plasticard and bolted two reels down.
I then eyeballed where the lower one in the middle would be and again bolted another reel there.
And you can i've rivetted a strip of Plasticard between the two upper one's, looped around the bottom one.
I think the original is a definete chain affair, but i'm not too bothered about using a solid strip of plastic as, with all the detail on, i don't think you'll see too much of it anyway.

M.A.K Tank - finished

Here he is all done and all crewed up. Pretty pleased with how its come out, just need to find a place to put it now - its got one BIG footprint.

T.I.E Bomber - top detail

Really, the only work aside from repainting on the T.I.E Bomber is to replace the missing top hatch.
That proved tricker than i thought as good clear photos of that area on the original are pretty non-existant.
So i've gone my own way, using a cut down part from the Saturn V kit as the basis, and then a bunch of kitbits on top.
What i can discen from the original is the detail on it is not pronounced at all, so i've kept things tight and down to the hull.

Slave 1 - all done

Here she is then, canopy on, decals done and ready to be lined up with the others. Still can't believe just how much bigger she is to the other craft.

Slave 1 - last look at the cockpit before the canopy goes on