USS Blen-Dah

Don't hold your breath, but this will be my next scratchbuild. Came across this blender jug while go through a bits box and i've always like the shape of it.
Have in mind to hacksaw off the handle, rub off all the raised numbers, stick this clear blue bit form a broken toy hoover and maybe stick ona couple of wings from a B-12 kit, downwards, rather like the B-Wing in Star Wars.
And do a red or yellow Peter Elson paintjob.

Daemon Prince Of Nurgle - icky

Decided to go the icky route after all - and i've started here.
Also based his armour in Catchan Green mixed with black then drybrushed in it neat.
And - tadaaaa- the winner of my armour paintjob is Mr White. Here he is sporting his lovely washed with red/green inks scheme, which i'll be using for future Nurgle troops - but not the Prince here or anything that has a lot of flesh on show as its just to similar to what i'd be doing there.

Music To Model by - 1

Dunno about you, but i always have to have something in the background while i'm beavering away.
Right now, to match the mood of the nasty things i'm working on, its the brilliant soundtrack to Sunshine by Underworld and John Murphy.
I LOVE the film - the designwork, the lighting, the beautiful look to the sun and space, the much slower pace than we've been used to of late in SF films but, most of all, its the score, which perfectly blends with the visuals.
So its a damn shame that we can't buy it.
Wish the legal wrangles were ironed out - i know its available on iTunes, and i've got it that way, but its not the same as having it in a proper jewel case is it?
Anyway, my favourite track is this one here, which is a reworking of Adiagio in D Minor that, happily, occurs more than once on the album and in the film.

Daemon Prince Of Nurgle - skinned

Right, built the colour up from a Rotting Flesh/Black mix right up through to Bleached Bone then BB/White.
Umming and ahhing now as to whether to leave it like this, a dead, matt undead effect or to put washes on to make it ickier.

Blasts From The Past

Stumbled across a great site which documents tons of metal figures from the late 70's onwards.
REally chuffed by it as i've got (and had) loads of figures that, after such a long time, i've not a clue what they are, who they were made by, or when i got them.
Had a scrabble round my boxes and came up with these, which are Citadel and Ral Partha, the earliest being 1979 and the latest 1982.
That would mean then that i'd have been buying them in London when bunking off from college.
Apologies for the poor paintjobs - i had 30 years less painting experience then.

Daemon Prince Of Nurgle - colours

Here we have the Prince based in Rotting Flesh.
The troops in front are based too in different colours, ready for experiments in which colour to go with for the Big Boys armour.
So, left to right, we have:
Mr Rotting
Mr White
Mr Bone
Mr JA Grey

Daemon Prince Of Nurgle

Still all Nurgled up, this is my latest go at this faction and - what a whopper.
He's 25mm scale, in line with standard Games Workshop figures but so big he could easily be used for a 54mm line.
A lovely bit of casting that went togther really well - didn't even bother with Superglue on parts this big and heavy (its white metal btw) and went straight to the Araldite.
You can see i've left his arms off. That's 'cause the details so nice on his belt and the inside of the arms it'd be a right bastige to get to them if i put them on before painting.
The four fellas alongside him came in the same post and are the bog-standard, pretty crappy generic plastic Nurgle Marines that i picked up cheap on eBay.
I've bought them as i'm not sure what to go with on the armour of the Prince, so will experiment with four different one's on these fellas.

Nurgle Greater Demon - all done.

Here he is then. A nice little diversion that got me back into the swing of doing icky skin tones.
Cheers matey.

The many lives of an Ovaltine jar - 2

Some progress here.
Top pic is where i've added some kitbits and some pinstriping for panels.
Next is the wings based in Black Primer. I've found a nice, quick, easy cheat when masking something up but you don't want to risk lifting up any of the exisiting paintjob, is to use clingfilm, as i've done here.
Third pick is after i've scratched me head and tried to work out what colours i used on the main body. Then the panels were picked out in pencil and evrything given a coat of satin varnish to pull it together.

The many lives of an Ovaltine jar

While looking around the Games Workshop forums and sites, this Drop Pod design kept taking my fancy. Even more taken with the folk that were doing their own scratchbuilt versions.
A lot of them have a nice contrast of a rounded main hull with the sharp, angular wing things.
So, thought i'd have a go. Trawling through the bits box unearthed this long forgotten, partially completed lump of plastic. I'm not sure if i've ever featured it here before but it started out as an Ovaltine jar.
Its shape was kinda like the Escape Pod seen at the start of Star Wars: A New Hope, so thought i'd have a go at one.
Soon gave that up as there was no way i could replicate the original (which was much bigger, being a paint bucket and, even if it wasn't, the donor kit parts would be waaay expensive) so decided to do a riff on the design.
Cut out the section at the front here as you can see for a recessed hatch, cut the top third of, put in a spacer then put it back on, loads of kitbits and, on top, the top off of a toothbrush holder.
So, painted it up and dirtied it down and put it on the shelf.
Fast forward a couple of years and it occurs to me that the style of it inadvertingly was similar to the Ma.K style and decided to reprime it and redo it in appropriate green camos.
Which i started to do - but then got distracted by something else and put it away.
And there it lay forgotten about until today.
Thinking now, this way up and with the bottom detail ripped off so it stands up, it could be the basis for a Nurgle Drop Pod.
With the added bonus of already having a lot of the paintjob done.
So, i'm off - here's how it is now with a coupla stabelising wings attached:

AFM 46

Just aheads up that the latest issue.
Its a bit of an okay one but raised higher by having an interview with Bernie Wrightson - a brilliant artist who's attention to detail just leaves me stunned. No more so than on his stunning work on Frankenstien.
His version of the monster is still the definitve for me.

Slab Ship - still working on it

Apologies to anyone who's popping by to see any progress on this one, but i've been kinda distracted by the figures i've been doing.
You can see though that i am still working on it - putting dark washes over the pastels to stop the blandness of them.

Nurgle Flying Thing - flying

Stopping with this now. I've gone with what i'm used to with the weathering and rust effects - not at all confident at trying out the bright orange effect on the original, as i've never tried it before and don't want to cock it up.

Chaos Spawn

Was in Maidstone yesterday and strolled past Games Workshop so popped in to see if anything relatively cheaply floated me boat.
Came out with these two fellas as i've been after them for quite a while - and there's tons of spare parts that i can use on later projects.
As usual with them, you have to look beyond the usually rather garish colour schemes (bright green claws???) to see the sculpt.
Get it out the box and assembled and its a differeent matter entirely - two bodies with loads of nicely detailed limbs, heads and spiky bits.
Here's what i've done with mine. I've deliberatly not gone overboard on the tentacles and extra bits as when that's been done they do need a good prune. I've chosen two distincively different styles, with colour schemes to match.
Tne one with a mouth where the head should be i've given arms with reconisibly human aspects still to them. So he'll be having a human-like skin type (maybe).
The other i've given quite a few spikes and a distinctly non-human face so will be playing up the alieness of him in his colour scheme.

Andersonic Issue 9

Just a heads up that the latest edition of Richard's brilliant fanzine is on sale. As usual, a great blend of humour, info and a heavy slant towards the effects work. A lot of UFO this time so i'm a happy bunny.
Available from:

http://www.andersonic.co.uk/index.htm

Nurgle Greater Demon - progress

Right, so i've been building up undead, unhealthy skin tones. Made a bit difficult by not having any "Rotting Flesh" to hand, but there you go.
As you can see, i'm in the process of picking out the little rounded bumps that are everywhere and are now, in this incarnation, pustles.
Seem to think this fella fired those spikes that are in those tubes on his shoulders and i'm gonna carry that on - but have snapped a few off to show that he's fired some.

Nurgle Flying Thing - getting there

Quite a bit of progress whilewaiting to get new batteries.
I've just about finished the skin tones - a few more icky bits should do it - and its been a real challenge to go with this colour scheme. I'd usually go with regular skin tones but want a contrast between that and the rust of the armour, so flesh colour were right out and instead i've gone with white, greys and purple.
The armour got a coat of texturiser to try and emulate the pittiness of the original. Dunno if it'll work though. And its got its green basecoat on now, as has the metal bits.

Nurgle Flying Thing - assembled

Aplogies for the blurrines of the pics but the batteries in the camera are nearly dead, meaning not enough juice for Macro.
Anyway, here it is with all the meat put in. I've copied the original in that there's cabling inserted in a coupla places but you should also be able to see that i've added some cocktail sticks.
Figure these'll be metal spikes pointing down - a detterent for anyone thinking of jumping up to attack it as hovers by.
I've included a rear shot to show how i figure it moves - sucking in air through the vents of the motorbike thingies and expelling it through the 4 holes in its "arse".
Kinda fart power i guess.

Nurgle Greater Demon

Have spent all morning sorting my Den out, dusting, tidying and bunging stuff up in the attic that i don't care to see for quite a while.
In doing so, i came across this Big Boy - a vinyl kit of a baddie from the Guyver anime that i built and painted somewhere back in the late 80's i guess.
I've always loved the design, especially the pinhead face in such a huge body.
Anyway, that face and the rhino-like horn coming out of the head reminded me an awful lot of this Nurgle demon my friend Andy had sculpted and very kindly gave me a few years back.
Still not having any spare dosh, and still fired up on GW stuff, have decided to repaint him in a Nurgle colour scheme.
And here's where i am right now with it dusted down and a coat of primer on.

Tyranid Lictor - done

Here's both fellas all done.
Also included pics of the Lictor alongside the Malanthrope that inspired its colour scheme and it with some Genestealer Hybrids i bought and painted when they first came out in the 80's and didn't have the confidence to go my own way with colour schemes.

Nurgle Flying Thing

So its a go on this beastie then.
Top two pics are views of the basic hull shape glued together. The glue has taken well to the wheel assemblies to the egg as i've pinned them with cocktail sticks, less so with the egg to Harrier part.
But in the third pic you can see i've started with the fleshy bits.
First i put a layer of Green Stuff around the inside of the join between the two pices, bunged in the rough Bacofoil shape (which held fast thanks to the VERY stickiness of freshly blended Green Stuff), put in the armament (a Ker-Plunk straw, a bit of aluminium piping and the big barrel being a part from a pen) and some more Green Stuff to help attach the two parts and around the gun parts and clear acrylic rod that i'll be using to hold it aloft.

Maybe a Nurgle flying thing.

So, all fired up on Games Workshop 'cause of my little Tyranid project, i've been having a trawl through the GW Website.
Not too much to float me boat there.
But their Forge World offshot is a different matter...
And, as usual, the prices are WAY out of my range.
Was rather taken though by this flying thing though, especially by the combination of (rather old and rusty) technology with a living biomass, along with two out board hold-the-thing-aloft thingies.
No spare dosh right now - and i figure i will get one at some point - so, for now, thought it might be an idea to do a riff on the concept.
A quick trawl though me bits box got me the following:
A cowling from the engine of the Airfix 1/24th Harrier,
half a plastic egg that housed a toy,
and two wheel assemblies from a Macross kits.
Will glue them together and see what i come up with before deciding whether its worth it to continue.

Sov Judge - done

Slab Ship - pastelled

All pastelled and, as usual when i pastel white, looks crap. Far too, er, pastelly. Hopefully that'll change though once i start dirtying it down properly with washes.