a minor disaster

I've been bubbling away in the background with my Draconians, expanding the retinue... however as over the several attempts over the years to get a good colour for the ones I'd started, I figured I strip them all down... a month and a bit in the dettol and the paint has fallen away lovely... unfortunately so has the greenstuff on the conversion I did for the Draconian prince...


2008 that was... not the end of the world really, as I can redo the robes to better fit the new theme, but I really do need to pull my finger out... especially after having listened to Paper Cuts...

devout trooper...

another recruit for the witch barbecue...

lovely little figure from The Assault Group, available as a freebie with orders... a couple of quirks though caused a bit of head scratching... the tip of the musket is below the level of the integral base, so couldn't level him out very easily which meant a bit of undulating terrain... also, I was surprised the raised visor wasn't seperate, god knows how they managed to cast that... but it made paint past that and the hands a chore...

as he's wearing the wrong jacket, my plans to Ian Ogilvy him up a bit went out of the window and I was forced to actually google some reference pics rather than just watch a DVD... buff jacket and some more puritan troos seemed the order of the day... and he matches his mate a bit...

tried something a bit different with the base and used some static grass and the usual tufts... I quite like it, gives a kind of moor feel to it I reckon... but I have never liked basing so hey...

a quick gibbet

saw this on the Black Tree Design site when I was browsing and thought it would give a nice touch of dark, old English atmosphere... tried something new with the bushes, used the cleaning pads I had for the hedges for the body, painted brown and then added some leaf litter from Antenociti (usually used for ivy I think, bought it ages ago)... looks quite good and brambly...

pics don't really do it justice...

Witch Hunter

painted my converted Witch Hunter for my vaguely planned ECW Horror skirmish project... Witchfinder General meets Blood on Satans Claw meets Solomon Kane... details on the conversion are in the earlier post... quite happy with the blacks, tried for slightly different shades, boots have a hint of light brown from the black for a worn leather look, and the rest of the leatherwork is a very dark brown... I had planned black hair as well, but it needed a lighter colour to bring it all out a bit more... the angry shouty head has a nice crease in his brow, but now I look at it, it's all gone a bit Cromwell warty - which all things considered isn't a bad thing...

I didn't shade the white collar, just slapped on the brightest white I had just so it stood out more, the other bits of white have been shaded though...

the 'what every good Doctor Who story needs' project intermission

ok... so this stalled a wee bit... when I came to start undercoating, I completely fell out of love with the rock finish... it was all too rounded and worn, I wanted something a little more jagged - sheared rockfaces with tiny crevices and handholds... I came to realise I really wanted sharp edges and the whole thing stalled...

now I'd been giving it some thought lately, checking out various techniques online for wargaming and railroad set ups... bearing in mind I'll be building up on my existing structure, I needed a 'cladding' finish... bark bits are popular, but I couldn't see them working with what I had... recutting the foam wasn't winning me over... railroaders use the wet plaster in crinkled foil method (google is your friend), but would be too heavy and thick... however, I came up with a variation on that...

crinkled craft tissue paper... for the test piece I cut a thin strip, scrunched it up into a ball and then pulled it out into a strip again, without flattening it... slapped on some PVA and put on the strip, allowing the crinkles to stay and even creasing them some more... dry and a quick pj and I'm quite happy with that...

bearing in mind, there will also be the vertical definitions in the bluefoam that are absent here... should be good...

a Rescue to a Chase

more companions... Ian, Barbara and Vicki...

I'm slowly working through my companions... with exception of Dodo, because let's face it, what use was she? Susan should have been part of this group, but I had to cut her head off on account of it being a really, really, really ugly head... no paint job could have solved that one, so off it came and I'm halfway through replacing it...

and a shape of something to come...

watch this space, just don't hold your breath... it's going to take a while...