Jawa Pistol

Fancying a big build, and one of our Daughters still on at me to make her a Jawa costume, decided to combine the two and go for this "Jawa pistol". It won't be anywhere near accurate as still to this day, no-one knows just what was used on the original. The muzzle could be a ships horn, or part of a portable air-raid siren - no-one knows. But it looks like a lot of fun to do and, though we're off on holiday tomorrow, couldn’t resist starting on this. First up was to work out just how big things needed to be. Using Lucasfilms stated 70cm for the length, I used the excellent pic in the “Star Wars Archives” book and eyeballed a rubbish blueprint at 1:1 scale. Its scrunched like that as I’ve been taking it around the shops, offering up any potential shapes to see if they’d fit. Which is what this green beaker is, sat just above the shape it’ll be standing in for. I’m thinking for my muzzle, I could use a large plastic cup, the same sort of size the largest of drinks come in at the cinema. Or maybe a thermos flask. The trigger will be from an old pair of mull-grips The search continues. As do the funny looks I get when I whip the blueprint out and start laying household goods on it.

Two Trolls done

So here we have the old classic Troll, looking rather dumb, sporting his nifty mushrooms for hair and a slightly different green to usual - don't want everything to look too similar. And one of my very favourite ever miniatures. Love, love, LOVE him.

Samuel's Cave

My Son has been having a hankering for making some terrian to build for his battles and, with a surplus of parts leftover from the Spider build, he's come up this cave for his Goblins to live in. Its: a container from the pound shop turned upside down and an entrance cut out, covered in scrunched up Bacofoil then hot-glued in place trees and shrine from the Spider kit, a rock and gallows-type warning sign from the bits box, stuck onto card and scatter material put all round.

Archnarok Spider - all done.

Well, that wasn't such a slog as i thought it'd be. Just made sure i had an entertaining Podcast to listen to while i dealt with the tedious stuff and soon all was done.

Batman Chess Set - Azrael & Killer Croc

Azreal - very nice, although a tad small. Leaving colours as is, seeing as he looked to be mainly metallics anyway. Killer Croc - oh dear. Not a bad sculpt, though i prefer the proper crocodile incarnation meself, but those colours???? Gold prison clothes? Metallic green and gold skin? What were they thinking? Total repaint needed here.

Squigs!

Right, next up for my Son is a unit of Squigs. Fluff for them is they're herded by Goblins and made ready for fighting by winding them up something rotten with prodding and loud music. So here's the first bunch - a Goblin prodder and Goblin cymbal player, who's been a bit too vigorous and has a bandaged bash-up'd nose where he got it caught. I'm trying a new colour scheme for the prodders skin, just to see what it'll look like. Of these first three Squigs, the grey one is grey as he doesn't have much in the way of details and the skin is pretty smooth. So he's going to be grey with a red top half just to break things up a bit. The yellow one is yellow for a base - there'll be green washes over that. And the green one is a dull green because he's nearly all mouth and i want a colour that won't distract from it.

Archnarok Spider - howdy howdah

Here's the nest thing built. Total nightmare to build - GW's insistance on using tiny photos in the instructions, rather than the much better idea of line drawings, really didn't help at all. Very confusing as to exactly just what went where. But got there in the end. Now begins the slog of painting all those branches, all the webbing used to bind them together, then the various skulls, spiders and Goblin stuff scattered about.

Hornethopter - bits and pieces

So, keeping the wings off 'till the last, here's the body based in Grey Primer. Talking of bases, i came across this one from a long-gone project that handily has a metal wire on it. So i'll be using that then. And finally, how do i go about picking out the lovely detail on the cockpit dials and eye detail? Decided best way was to spray them in Black Primer and, when dry, gently rub with superfine sandpaper to wear the paint off the raised areas and leaving the black in the inlaid bits. Seems to have worked ok.

Classic Troll & "Holy Grail" Troll

Today i've got for you two old classic figures, one i knew about and liked and never got, the other is one of my "Holy Grail" figures from way back in those early Citadel days, i figure i had and cherished but then sold and always regretted it. But building a Goblin army has given me a good excuse to track him down again and, once more, he's mine. First pic is the one i never had. He's definetly from the comedy troll era and i love the hangdog expression, slouched pose (can he really lift that hammer?) and, especially, the mushrooms growing on top of his head in place of hair. Second is possibly my favourite ever figure. Again, a comedy take, but look at that face! And the pose! Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Both he and the other Troll came still painted, which was a right pain to get off as they've been done in enamels. Can't grumble as that's what i was using back then too. In fact, can still remember my favourite one here being done in Humbrol Lime Green, with his bone club in Gloss Cream *shudder* Anyway, i've cracked on with my fav first, and here he is with skin just about done, eyes, sores, teeth and clothes blocked in.

Archnarok Spider - colours

So, this beastie was nice and easy to build and pretty soon he was primed in Black and i've used that for the basecoat, drybrushed with Dark Grey, then the eyes and spikes done. Last shot is a picture of its mouth halfway done. I'm detailing its mouth and things on the underside, even though they won't be that noticible when its glued to the base. But i'll know they're there.

Spoon Ship - bottom done

Think this is as far as i'll go with the underside - as i've said before, the bottom won't be seen that much, and i don't want to deplete my supply of tiny detail too much. I've put a bit more detail up top but, until a put an upper wing on, i don't want to go too far. Regarding the wing to be found, think i'll go with the same type as what i've already got on here, just to help everything blend together.

Archnarok Spider

So, my Son's been on and on at me to get one of these and, like a good Dad, i've given in. It looks to be quite a challenge to build that bird nest thingy that the Goblins sit in and i know i'm going to get REAL tired of painting the branches before i'm done. Going for best thing first, the spider goes together very well and does what the best of IP kits do - hide the previous joins between pieces with an overlapping piece (the mid-build shot here has already got about eight pieces on it). A snip to build, although one thing doesn't make much sense - the spider has recesses all over its body, with tiny spiders emerging from them - but when the legs are on, you can't see them. Odd. Anyway, this is it in Black Primer. Its supposed to be on the base the other way, but i prefer it like this and i've not got it standing as its supposed to. Thats to have its two rear legs up on supplied trees, so its backside is more visible, ditto the crew up top. But that looks daft - and we can use the trees for something else. Last shot is the Primer drybrushed with Dark Grey and i've picked out the front mandibles in Bone plus eyes and horns in cream. Thinking of colour scheme, we're doing a riff on my Son's "Red-Eyed Peas" army of black/red by sticking with black for its body, glossy red for the eyes and the horns will be yellow, just to make things a bit different and highlight the detail a tad more. Not doing the horns on the legs though as we figure that'll be a bit too much yellow, and we're not picking out the fleshy areas at the joints as we want to stick with as much black as possible.

Tyranid Spore - all done

Ah, that's a relief - very pleased how the ickiness turned out in the end and how solid its ended up looking. Up on the eBay now if anyone's interested - just type in Tyranid Drop Pod Spore and you should find it okay.

Tyranid Spore - getting messy

So, i want the thing to look like its freshly opened and i figure that whatevers inside must be in some sort of embyotic sac to protect it from the shock of the landing. I knew form the start i wanted the sac to be stringy and icky and knew for that i'd be using my Hot Glue Gun. Which i've done here. I've also laid in some cut apart elastic bands in there before starting to hopefuly give a bit of variation in the tubing. But, looking at it now, doubt if they'll be visible amongst the glue. But i gave it a try.

Skarsnik & Gobbla - done

Great fun doing these two - the old metal figures had SO much more character than their modern versions

The Invasion Of Slaanesh

So, our Son is merrily ammasing his Orc/Goblin army and from time to time we have a battle. Now our 9-year old wants to join in and she'd like a girly army. Figured she'd go for an Elf one as she's fan of The Hobbit and LOTR and there's plenty of female characters that GW do but, no, she'd like a Slaanesh Daemon army so she can use Daemonettes, which she's rather taken with. That's fine by me - i've got both the FW and the old GW Keeper Of Secrets, along with a bunch of Daemonettes, so its quite a way along even at the very start. To help her out, i've just bought her this very old Musician, which i've started to paint along the same lines as my existing one's. Comparing this one with the modern plastic incarnations, it looks kinda clunky, but i love that whacking great claw and i've always liked the big bug eyes of them too, so it'll be fun to do. The other figures here are a knight and mount that i picked up at Salute years ago. No idea now who produced them, but its a stunning sculpt - the detail and pose of that dinosaur put GW to shame. Anyway, i'd had it all painted up as a Red Knight, but i've stripped him back to bare metal and he'll now be a Slaanesh Champion. I really want his brilliantly fluted armour pieces to be visible so, for his colour scheme, i've put a wash of watered-down Purple Ink over the White Primer to keep him nice and light. I've done a bit of highlighting with White and i'll continue with that after i've gone in with strong Purple Ink to differentiate the various pieces of armour. I've not stripped back the mount, deciding instead to go over my original paintjob and lighten that up too.

Tyranid Spore Pod

Having a think of what can i do next for my Mr E Models venture of making things to sell, i decided again to go for the Warhammer market and in this case the 40K line. Tyranids are Games Workshops take on the beasties from "Alien/Aliens" and there's a pretty diverse range of figures and kits being produced now. One thing that's written about but not available though is the method by which they invade planets. Other races use Drop Pods, which fall from orbit and, making landfall, open up to let the troops out. The Tyranids are no different, except their Pods are organic, a sort of spore. As i say, there's no model available, so thought i'd make one for anyone who wants one. Basis for it is this Easter egg money box (good time of year to be making this methinks), which was only £1.99 from the el cheapo shop. First thing to do was mark out where the door should be. I'm having it as a three part door - the upper half opens in two halves normally, while the lower half folds down for a ramp so the passenger can exit. Then its cut the doors out, fill the interior with plastic bags to give me something to sculpt on to, then on with the exterior. I'm doing a section at a time, working from the top down and waiting for each section to go hard before moving on. I'm keeping the exterior pretty featureless as its got to be tough to get through an atmosphere, so i'm making it almost as a nut, giving a pitted, rough look by simply rolling a ball of bacofoil over the finished clay. I'm making holes every so often as i go down, into which will be some barbs - no real reason, just to break up the shape a bit. The interior is just a mass of clay shapes, the basis for the icky stuff to come.

Hornethopter - wee bit more progress

Okay, to bring you up to speed on this build: the legs are now all on and the incredibly fiddly job of attaching all those tiny wires is done. That was a pain - drill a hole for one, glue the long length of wire in, when set trim it to the right length, then drill and glue again. The other thing i've done is to start on the two pairs of wings. They're made from some of that beautiful brass etch and consist of two halves with a clear plastic cut-out sandwiched between. So what i've done is: attach the wings to a piece of card with double backed tapes, prime, basecoat then dirty them down. With that stage complete, you get a glue as to what colour the craft is going to be - as i want it to be camouflaged in the sky when its attacking airships, i'm going to repeat what i did on this bike here.

Goblins, Squigs & Trolls

Going into Goblin overload in this here house, now we've decided to mix and match a whole manner of modern and classic creatures for the army. First up we've the original version of the Goblin Skarshnik and his pet Squig Gnobbla. We've gone for that over the modern as they're just more characterful. Painting is underway and i'm deliberatly not doing red for the Squigs as they're done to death in that colour IMO. All other colours are just blocked in at this stage, so please don't judge. Next we've got a Marsh Troll. Never saw one of these up close way back when and it was a bit of a punt when i got him as he kinda looked like the really rather naff Troll that they did for the original Talisman. But, in the flesh/metal and with a coat of White Primer on, he's really rather neat, with thatluvverly face and neat collecting basket. As he's a Marsh Troll, i figure he's related to the River one's, so have decided to go with the same slimy appearance of those one's. But, when getting one out to check what i'd done, am pretty surprised at just how small these old Trolls are to their modern counterparts.