fun with Siligum

ok, not a great picture, but here you go...

some Timelord wall decoration courtesy of Siligum - a fun instant molding stuff recommended to me by Germy over on Frothers... very useful stuff, even if these tests haven't been 100% successful - the face on the right on isn't well defined and the the tween collar bits on the left one aren't level even though the face is spot on, but this could be down to using g/s for the pressmold... come the new year I'll try with some other stuff to see what's what, but it could ultimately be the depth of the mold that's causing the problem which is fine... I bought this stuff to do the books for the shelves of the library, this was just a bit of fun and I can redesign it easily enough... probably will now I've had a play... was an interesting learning curve...

partly why I've gone for a Tomb of Rassilon effect is this diorama I stumbled on while looking for reference pics a while ago... I think his quoted scales are a bit out (20mm and 1/50 doesn't sound right) and any statue to Omega wouldn't show him in his antimatter universe armour, but I do like it...

the library at Cthluedo Mansion part 1

December has been mostly tiling the floor for my part of the Salute 2011 game, the library...

Not very exciting to look at I admit, but quite time consuming... also experiment with some small scale pressmolding, the results of which I will hopefully manage to show before Christmas... the main need for that is also the library (42 units of 3-4 shelves equals a fecking lot of books), however my experiments are with something very very Who-ish which should also prove useful in time...

The Giant Robot!

well... not that giant really... big bugger, but some of the BTD Invasion Cybermen are the same height... barely a head taller than a normal 28mm figure... anyhoo, Professor Kettlewell's K-1 robot:

bit of a bugger to paint for a quickie really... the living metal (and that's as far as the writers got to naming it) it was made from was nice and silvery and shiney... which is a bugger to shade and still be nice and shiney and there are a lot of nubbins and bits that give shading... I quite like the darker finish mind...

essentially a quick pj (red stripes were a git) to get a November post, still plodding with several half arsed projects, still payday tomorrow so will get the fresh g/s I need... of course that won't change much as the Salute build has started so I really need to start knuckling down and actually doing stuff...

no one hold your breath...

October update...

well... bit of a bugger of a month - summed up by Woody on Frothers describing my super power as Glacial Slowness... he's not wrong there you know...

got my longed for Warlord plastic Germans and the top secret armoured heads are undersized, so will need to do my own - for 20 of the buggers... that was one project that got stuck pretty quick...

so... started on jazzing up my Wirrn, hefty bit of g/s'ing done, but need to work on the legs and had problems with the g/s around wire, tried using brass rod, but that looked too regular - after a call out for help on Frothers I think I can move on it, but to eliminate any problems I need to get some new g/s as my batch isn't the freshest...

so then returned to my hedges, finished off some flocking on that and picked up some trees - but need to get some bases sorted out for those...

and then back to the quarry... finished off the 'something extra' piece and did some test fitting and things aren't quite as good a fit as I'd first hoped... so plenty of filling, plenty of sanding, one bit of rebasing and some major restructuring to one side it should almost be done - this I intend to get painted in November... just need to texture the base, add rubble and... oh bugger...

in the meantime, if you haven't seen gamerMac's Zeppelin, do check this out... most frothworthy pics on the bottom of page 34 - makes me want more space...

Crooked Dice Astronauts...

the soon to be released Astronauts from Crooked Dice, painted for Karl and Graeme @ CD in a Space:1999-esque fashion...

Melody Lake and not who you might think it might be from a certain library... no spoilers...

Karl wanted them all to be part of the British Rocket Group, but after an entire evening trying to get the one Union flag right the air was very very blue - Melody managed to be British (just), but the other two became French and Chinese...

the bases need a finishing touch and they need a dullcote - the base is shiney, but looks much better from above... sigh...

Windmill 123...

UNIT helicopter...

1/48 Corgi diecast Bell 47 that was one of many bargains from Salute (cheers Karl)... basic repaint over the existing job - made easy as the plastic/metal used the same olive green as me (although have noticed a blip in the pic on the top of the skid which stands out, may have rubbed some paint off without realising...), the danger sticker was on the original (carefully painted around) and homemade UNIT decals were added...

couldn't for the life of me remove the bubble canopy to paint the interior (the single screw did nothing when unscrewed) so it was either paint it or have a crappy plastic interior... on the plus side, it matches the Mobile HQ and Lanny windows and will never look like it's piloted by the invisible man...

speaking of which a flight stand is in hand...

the 'what every good Doctor Who story needs' project part 4

right... basic build done... need to do the gravel/dirt transition at the top which I'm hoping will be successfully achieved with torn cork tile...

the eagle-eyed amongst you may notice the promontory is now longer than the earlier shots, it looked too stumpy and is now a full length of A4 with the end piece now seperate... still fits in two boxes though with space to spare so I need to come up with something a little extra...

still a few kinks in the joining edges which need fixing (really do need plans when I do this sort of thing) but basically that should be that... have run out of filler and sandpaper though...

also had a thought - quite random and may not do anything with it, but do some high security fences and it could do service as somekind of animal enclosure... raptors maybe?

the 'what every good Doctor Who story needs' project part 3

right... I have to say that the upper levels have stumped me a bit... the replication of the 25mm thick layers wasn't going to look right so I had to have a rethink and this is what I'm going with at the moment...

I think the larger slabs need a bit more definition, have been adding bits that jut out a bit to make it more rugged and less of a flat surface (looks good from looking up from the base), which have helped break up the large flat surface, but not sure how much of that I can get away with... there is some grooving and so on in there, but it's been partially killed by the flash... I also scored the 3rd 25mm layer into two layers for a bit more variety, but again, that's barely visible...

it certainly won't be any higher than that, as that's the depth of the paper box it will be stored in, allowing for the base and the rock/dirt/grass transitional layer on the top...

a Rose by any other name...

Crooked Dice's Daisy Taylor...

a really nice sculpt by Andrew Rae (Korosho Productions) for Karl and Graeme at Crooked Dice, she is due to appear on the Crooked Dice website at some point - hence the extra effort on the base (for me at anyrate)... chip and burger papers and a crushed Fosters can made from Rizla paper... it will probably get rebased at some point as it won't match any of the other stuff and I have little to no urban terrain planned (dreamed of, but not planned)...

UNIT pilot....

still working on his ride, but a quickie for the UNIT pilot...

after trying just the visor shield and giving him a logo (all very Top Gun), but that didn't work so finally settled on the familar UNIT mustard for the helmet... tried mirrored shades as well, but they didn't look right either, so stayed with black (which helps hide the fact that the face is slightly off centre in the helmet)...

need to varnish and then finish the base, but July was looking bare as I've been doing stuff, but not finishing much...

the figure is from the Mo-Fo Mogadishu range, have plans for the wounded downed pilots in the same pack...

the 'what every good Doctor Who story needs' project part 2

just caught up with the two end pieces after a week away housesitting... first is the corner piece, with the passage that leads to the Skin Room cave, and alongside is the central cave piece and then the wide gallery... at the end is trailing edge that would take the rest of it 'off table' as it were... I've put some platforms on that end piece to allow for figure placement... I may or may not make the top accessible, haven't decided yet, will probably not to be honest...



I had the pieces stacked up earlier while I was working on the trailing end and the long gallery looked quite good high up the cliff face... I won't do it on these ones, but may do another piece with a high gallery just for some variety... it's also just big enough to fit the Dalek saucer in... very Thunderbirds...

the 'what every good Doctor Who story needs' project

it's a classic stalwart of British tv sci-fi... and I've always planned to build one...

the trusty quarry...

now, I had one main limiting factor with this - space... I ain't got much...

so the first consideration was storage - as I can easily get hold of boxes that used to contain reams of A4 paper, the quarry will be based around a footprint of a sheet of A4, it can (and will) be smaller than a sheet of A4, but everything should nestle in together nicely...

next of course came the look of it, and what choice... rock quarries, sand pits, gravel pits... and yet, oddly, I do have a favourite quarry and what a quarry it is... half of pre-War London is built from it, it was a WW2 naval installation and starred in Doctor Who twice and Blakes Seven once...

Winspit in Dorset...
http://www.doctorwholocations.net/locations/winspitquarry

great massive blocks of stone that doubled as Skaro, Atlantis and Mecron II

now I'm realistic enough to realise it's not going to be a rock for rock, crack for crack match up... especially with the in a box requirement, so I wouldn't bother with the Skin Room cave, concentrating on the North Front area and the massive outcrop that hides the Skin Room... this area should give me a nice corner terrain piece, which can double as an abandoned Skaro, a Silurian shelter on Earth and (with a bit of dressing) a Dwarf mine...

so, after much playing with paper cut outs I had a plan...

the plan was, of course, completely flawed...

aside from what you see there, there is an end piece which trails off to the table edge (similar to the entrance to the real quarry) and plans for 'in table' pieces so this rock wall doesn't just spring from no-where...

on reflection of it at that stage (you're looking at 2 A4 long pieces, one an L shape A4 wide) I realised that the distance between the long open cave and the smaller central cave was too short, similarly the distance from the corner to the central cave as also too small... even allowing for my fudging for gaming/storage, it looked wrong...

so foam was cut and swapped about and the central cave got a section of it's own, the L shape was lopped down.... the resulting 'wall' is now 2 foot long from corner to end of the long thin cave section... which is a happy coinkydink for future plans... I've made the central cave taller than in real life as well, so, well, tall things can exit safely...

the corner section is midglue so declined this photo opportunity...

I reckon, to reflect the cliff face, it needs at least another 3-4 layers of the 25mm thick foam, with some more 5mm layers added in for some variety...

knobrot iDaleks...

for some reason my ftp software is buggering about so I can't upload the pics to Frothers or LAF where it's been brought up... so...

free with this weeks Doctor Who Adventures magazine (comic) are 5 new style Daleks... in horrible orange plastic... right... they are a bit crappy looking, but that's because they look exactly like the iDalek and that looks crap... there are 5... but of the 5 I had, only 1 had the two halves aligned correctly, and it's taken me 20 minutes to pop the other 4 apart so I can try and glue them straight... they are big, obviously... but eyeline wise match the Heresy Nerdlord...

and the MU old new style Dalek - which I still prefer...

Oi! Spaceman!

Donna Noble...

converted from the KissKissBangBang not-Pussy Galore from Artizan... helpful assistance from Andrew Rae on the hair... with the base figure I could have gone for the Partners In Crime pinstripe or the Sontaran Strategem outfit... I figured the pinstripe would be a bit much with the Doctor in it as well so it had to be the other one...

bit of a mixed bag on this one I reckon... not 100% happy with my g/s'ing (noticed little niggles when I was painting her) and I spent far too long doing and redoing her trousers (didn't help that the reference pics had been doctored and had the trousers either grey or beige) before I figured that would do... all in all, I like what I've done, but could be so much better - may start from scratch at some point, the base figure is fine, I just need to get better with the g/s...

needs varnishing and grass adding... but out of Dullcote til payday and the gloss would kill any pics... I may feel better about it after the Dullcote...

Salute 2010

well that was a cracking day... Frotherheim eventually got working smoothly after a few bum starts... we almost had too much scenery and too many figures oddly... but sterling efforts for all...


The other Frothers game was brilliantly done and looked great - World War 1 Subutteo:

and other fun stuff was to be seen...

Star Wars Lego:

Weird War Two with the cracking Area 51 UFO kit under the camo netting:

of course, some time was spent taking plenty of reference pics of the Doctor Who Miniatures game (the Mobile HQ did special duty on the day) and that oil rig...

and Antenociti's Governance of Technology game look superb, every building with fully accessible interiors... cracking work...

got to chat to plenty of folks... said hi to Andy at Heresy and checked out the not-Doctors I painted for him in his display cabinet (forgot to get pictures of them myself before I sent them off to him)... as for purchases, I got a lovely Bell heli for UNIT from Karl at the DWMG table (not a proper purchase in terms of trade stands, but most welcome), some of Mantic placcy skeletons to go with the free ghouls sprue and some control panels from Antenociti that I reckon can get Daleked up quite nicely... Ian from Fenris mugged me and I ended up with load of really lovely deep ones... and lots of sundry other little things picked up or thrust at me so that was great (I have classic GW pygmies! completely politically incorrect and lovely!)

Salute 2010 - Frothers presents Frotherheim...

Frotherheim - where the sky rains with fire and all below is ruined and wracked.
Frotherheim - where looters and adventurers seek rich pickings in the wrecked buildings and mysterious rocks that have fallen from above.
Frotherheim - where the survivors blame the warbands for all the ills that have befallen them and happily execute them in cruel and unusual ways in Execution Square.
Never was a town more cursed than Frotherheim.
In every alley way scum waits to cut your throat.
In every shadow lurks a monster ready to rip you asunder.
Fame and fortune or shame and an ignoble and rather painful death await all who venture within!

Frotherheim is a game run by Frothers for Salute 2010 using the Song of Blades and Heroes ruleset.

Prizes have been generously donated by such companies as Blood Moon, Otherworld (yes, you have a chance to win the uber massive Otherworld giant!), Dave Thomas, Fenris Games and Red Box Games.

Come and see us on table GD03 where death, glory and spankingly good prizes await you!

Salute next week...

still buggering about and staring at stuff for Salute... have much Who-ness planned once Salute is out of the way, in the meantime the results of several snatched moments in Photoshop and I get a new logo... well two technically... haven't the heart to get rid of Ernst Stavro just yet though, so the monocled bugger will hang about still...

wonder if I should make the A more visible... hey ho...

Ruined Tower...

a peak at the ruined tower destined for the Frother's table at Salute 2010... still needs some bits finishing, but wanted to get some pics up for the Feb entry and just to show I've not been completely twiddling my fingers...

the whole tower is 17.5 inches tall, scratch built from foamcore, card, balsa and kitty litter... windows and embossed foamcore from Antenociti... hard to get a decent full length pic, so this will have to do...

the Ice Warriors cometh...

a quick distraction to get my mojo back (oddly have found painting a real chore since I bought new glasses - prescription did change, but can't really see what that has to do with anything)...

BTD Ice Warriors (since Jon at BTD was able to track me down an Ice Lord for the normal price as opposed to the tenner eBay would demand)... not much to them really, a lot of green (must do Tre's gobbo's at some point), bit of red... the GW washes came in handy...

need to finish the bases and varnish, but I like these as is really... half toying with doing some snow on the bases, but that's a bit dressy for my bases... tried to do some wrinkles/scales on the Ice Lords skin, but you can barely see it in the pics... I did a hint of teeth as well which seems just enough...


one of these guys will double as Harma in full Dalek Killer mode...

the lenses were a bit of a pig as, when you really look at them, I don't think a single one matches another... reds have come out better than I thought though... all in all, I'm happy enough and feeling mojo'd...