Tuesday 25 August 2009

Decisions, Decisions...

If you are very observant, you may have noticed that I have a habit of starting a project and not finishing it (some of you will be surprised by this statement as I hide it so well.)

Well I was just perusing some of my favourite retail therapy websites and saying things like "Wow, I never realised just how cool Chem-suit clad Neo-Soviet troops riding Bears and toting buttercups are. I have to get me a bunch of them!" When it struck me that I really should damned-well finish something.

But what?

I'm now unable to decide because (just like mobile phones) there is too much bleeding choice.

So I thought I'd open the question up to you guys. That way when I'm painting something i hate at 2am I can vent my spleen by blaming you rather than getting distracted by that dwarf pirate fyling roman galley complete with motorised propellor and oars that I've had sitting around for years, (no, seriously!)

So, there's a poll over there on the right for you to vote and pick one, and I've listed and described the projects below. All projects are for 28mm sized miniatures unless otherwise stated.

DROPSHIP - complete the dropship project, remodel the main hull so its hollow and detailed, complete the molds and make a squadron of 3.

GRYMN - Base and paint my 58 Grymn to the same standard as the squad I have already completed. Including themed snow movement trays and completed support vehicles from Old Crow.

FANTASY DWARF ARMY - Base and paint all 500+ of my Fantasy Warrior Grenadier Miniatures Dwarf Army to the same standard as the one unit already painted, including movement trays.

FANTASY ORC ARMY - Base and paint all 300+ of my Fantasy Warrior Grenadier Miniatures Orc and Goblin Army including the Goblin War Giant.

BOHKIN SQUADS - Bohkin are Hasslefree Miniatures version of Space Goblins. Paint and base my 16 Bohkin and Drusch-converted-to-orcs space force.

GROWLERS - Finish conversions and painting of the 40+ FASA Growlers into Yellow Fungus monsters to the same standard as those I've completed. These were started as monsters for an RPG/skirmish game i used to play - now defunct.

KOLVYR - Along with the Growlers above I have about 80 Rackham metal miniatures from the Griffin and Alahan Factions which were also to be used in the same game. Base and paint all these models, including movement trays.

ROGUE TROOPER - Base and paint the 15 Rogue Trooper figures I have from Citadel, Bronze Age Miniatures and Foundry. Note this doesn't include Nort and Souther troops as I never got round to choosing or buying any!

ABC WARRIORS - Paint and base the ABC Warriors figures I have from Foundry, including completing conversions for Happy Shrapnel and Mongrel.

LIZARDMEN ARMY (Inc. DRAGONS) - Well, I say army, the plan was to build a lizardman army from non GW figures (i dont like any GW lizard figures since the tom meir lizadmen and troglodytes boxed sets back in the 1980's) So far I have about 30 Grenadier flying Dragonmen to act as aerial support

DWARF FLYING ARMY - Originally intended as support to a dwarf land army this consists of the flying roman galley/dwarf pirate ship supported by around a dozen gyrocopters and other flying machines and Grenadier Dwarfs on Giant Bats. Finish the modelling and conversion of all machines and paint and base.

ALTERNATE DWARF UNITS - I have around 50 Dwarf figures from manufacturers that I like (Asgard, Hasslefree, Heresy, Black Scorpion). These figures don't mix well with either GW or Grenadier so I always imagined them to be either dioramas or supporting units to the main armies. These all need assembling, basing and painting.

I think that's about it!

The poll is over there on the right so please cast a vote. Thank You.

On top of this I committed to finish a Diorama of Doom for the Forum of Doom competition, and I have some maps to do for Twilight.

Oh, and I need to sort through my old citadel dwarfs and get them on Ebay - I took the plunge NEVER to finish that project!

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Twilight Maps II

The roads, rivers and settlements are completed and I've added the various decoraive elements including Cartouche and Mantle.

There are a few hundred things that need naming now, but I'm leaving that to Mike the creator of Twilight as he has a particular style.

We haven't agreed on a font yet, and I need to place a diffused background behind each text item to get it to show up on the various backgrounds properly.

Click on the map for a larger version.

I like the Sepia version of this map too:


There's also the issue of how to show the various political boundaries (all 39 of them) without losing the detail of the geography.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Sunday 16 August 2009

Twilight Maps I

I have done something silly.

I have offered my services as a map-maker to Mike Thorpe, the creator of the game Twilight, with figures by my favourite company HassleFree Miniatures, following this discussion on The Forum of Doom.

Never having tried to work to someone elses ideas this could be a catastrophe, but I'm glad to see Mike is a great guy, and so far no problems.

Well, this was what I got to work with.


And this is what I've come up with so far.


Click to get a MUCH larger picture you can scroll around to your hearts content.

Still a lot to do, like making the text readable and putting in all the political borders, cartouche, compass rose etc... And Mike has a Gazillion names to come up with...

As always comments criticism and suggestions gratefully received.

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Do you think he'll notice - IV

Here the base has been filled and sanded. I use apoxy sculpt putty for my main filler (that's the blue stuff) which has a texture somewhat like green stuff and roughly the same hardness as plastic-card so they sand similarly. I then use squadron green filler for a much smoother finish and to fill smaller gaps/holes. I also find that the difference in colour is very helpful when sanding as you can see where dips and hollows are.


In the above picture you can also see the holes in the base where the legs of the copter undercarriage go though the skids and into the base. This was the best way I could think of for making the copter secure on the base but it is fiddly to construct.


I need to turn the copter a little to its left. The skids need to extend over the edge of the pavement a little more for composition reasons, and I'm also not happy that the skids follow the lines of the pavement - it looks too contrived - so I'll have to drill another pair of leg holes and fill the existing ones.

Do you think he'll notice? - III

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted progress on my Diorama of Doom entry. You might think looking at these pictures that very little has changed, but dont be fooled, an awful lot of planning and intellectual consideration has gone into this stage (or in the words of my wife "are you giving that another coat of looking at?").


I've had to put it on a slightly larger base (100mm rather than the 80mm initially planned). I was reluctant to do this as I wanted a very tight composition but I simply can't fit everything onto the smaller size.

I've built a slightly raised raised area on which the copter sits, and this will finally represent a road edge complete with kerb drain and slight road camber.


As before the headless Grymn figure behind the 'copter is a proxy for a Hasslefree Grymn Pilot which I am waiting (almost patiently) for them to release. There is also some space at the front of the diorama for a mystery item which I wont reveal until the final competition pictures are released.


I have begun the process of sculpting the undercarriage and skids - neither of which are glued in place yet. I have also slung a weapon under the nose of the copter. I was going to add some small stub wings to the nose of the machine, but they will interfere with something I have planned for the painting so reluctantly I have discarded the idea.



Next steps:

Cover the base in putty and sculpt the kerb edge, drain and road surface.
Fiddle about with the position of the copter skids.
Complete the sculpting of the undercarriage

Monday 10 August 2009

Maps

These are a couple of maps that I developed for an aborted PBeM game a couple of years ago set in A place called "Kolvyr and the Pentra Isles".

I have a love of old maps and have dabbled in map-making using Pro-fantasy Campaign Cartographer for a couple of years.


These are BIG files with lots of detail so to see them at their best click to enlarge and it may take a minute or two to download properly.