Star Crafting Potnoodlandia

When I was a teenager, I picked up my first issue of White Dwarf in my local newsagent and inside was the launch of this new thing called Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader.

Yeah, I timed that pretty fucking well, didn't I?

Anyway, the thing about the game back then was we played it with scenery made from yoghurt pots and hover tanks made from deodorant sticks.  It was much more 2000 ad magazine future shock and space opera and much less rusty catholic church with pipes up the ass.

So I wanted to have a really vibrant psychadelic space opera game table, filled with cool aliens, Chris Foss style patterned ships and Roger Dean style landscapes.

So I gathered up all my scifi minis, bits, scatter and buildings with the goal of bringing it all together into one glorious gaming spread.

Turns out, I had a lot of cool stuff.

First off the bat, I found some Ion Age Crusaders painted in a grab WWII style.  After rebasing, I gave them a once over with light grey ready for their new look, and then made a note to research 70s scifi art space suits.

Naturally all my Rogue Trader minis had to come out to play.  Most are unfinished and painted in a much older style.  They will get punchier contrast and more colors added.  I started to put complementary colors onto a few but didn't far.

I had some Alternate Stars and Irregular Minis aliens, plus a few Chaos sorcerer minis that would make great Druillet or Mobius type aliens.

I also have a few space adventurer types from Reaper.  These can get more punchy colors later, but I slapped on the basic base coats.

Remember that Starwberry Punnet House I made ages ago? Well I pushed up the brightness and started to add extra stuff like dome windows from googly eyes and laser cut base rings, and flyscreen mesh onto the roof.  Think I will get some raised letters in alien font for the sign.

I gave a quick clean up to these Kyromek minis, rebased them and started looking for more vibrant alien markings to add to them.

I think this picture by Peter Andrew Jones is a great start for their new color scheme.  Maybe I could add some bendy antenna using broom bristles and some extra limbs.

Found some Minifigs alien plants, and some classic space cacti I started once.  These will need finishing and painting up.  I think I need to make lots of little alien plants to tie it all in with the olive flock.

Okay let's try to get the pot noodle pots looking a bit better...

PROTOTYPE TIME!!!

First up- let's try foam sheets.

UHG that looks really shit.

Maybe a better paint job?

Nope, still looks shit.  But not that shitty retro kind of shit, but just amateurish.  Needs finer details and panels.

Hold on... back in a moment...

Okay, progressing a bit...

I gave the whole model a dirty wash and daubed grey paint to see how it was working.

I wasn't happy with the crappiness of the surfaces, but I can worry about that late with some decent plasticard instead of cornflake packets.  I will give it a sand and maybe add some more small panels to cover the cruddy bits.  I want these to have a lot of color eventually, with various mints, sage and aqua tones on each panel.  But the panels need to look sharper than this IMHO.

Okay, might as well glue together some other buildings to get a rough idea of what the space will feel like...

I glued some junk to some other junk, but it's tricky to see with the paint slapped half arsed onto it like this.

I think what all this junk needs is some Foss-y blocky panelled raised platforms underneath to give some play options and raise it up a little.

Okay that was a monster session, I shall press on soon.

He'll be back

Ged doo dah choappah! Remember that big assed bag of imperial guard Cadians I got from a bargain bin a while back?

Welp, did a quick test peice painting directly over the original paint job.

I started off with an overbrush of Cryx Base to flatten out the original glossy finish.  A wash of army painter dark, then I dusted up through the dirt colours of my base.  I forget their names.  Dirty McDirt and Soily McSoil, with a Tyrant Skull finish.

The skin was done using a neat trick I have been using lately- by mixing the shading wash into the base paint colour coat, it both flows more easily and ties tighter to the shade.  In this case Reikland Flesh mixed in with a VMC flesh that shall remain anonymous for... uh... reasons.  Look, I haven't slept much lately.

I am tempted to fix the arms seams by building over those gloriously ridonkulous deltoids with a little green stuff- however as my sculpty kit is packed away, that will have to wait.

Overall, he was fast and fun to paint.  I have a small squad picked from the bag that I will do for now so I can use them to play Stardred with.  The rest will have a lovely bath in dettol to easy away their pains.  They may become parts for freakish cultists.  Because that's how I roll.

My Cryx army arrived today.  Not a bad paint job on them at all- however they are destined for tutorial video fodder- so they too shall know the delicious kiss of dettol.

Okay- gonna go bang gorgeous chicks in a satanic blood orgy of wanton destruction the likes of which makes angels tremble.  Kidding.  It's cup of tea and bed for me.  X

Ged too da choppah

Twenty Cadians for a buck each?  Why yes, bargain bin at Mind Games Melbourne, that will be lovely.  The paint jobs are game ready- but naturally I will wanna do my own thang.

If it bleeds we can repaint it!  Ged too da dettol!  It's nodda toomah.

Hey did you realise Arnie's daughter in Tru Lies was none other than Eliza Dushku- star of Dollhouse and Faith from Buffy?  Oh yes.  And I plan to marry her one day (if I can just turn her gay first and get her to move me to Boston).

Unfortunately, like my unrealistic nuptial expectations, I don't have time to fix these minis up just yet- other projects must be finished- but hey, nice little nabaroonie.

Probably will do them up as martian guards to fight my Chaos Cultists in Necromunda style action.  And no doubt covert them a fair bit, because it's me.

What a Total cult!

Want a work in progress shot of my dirty great cult?

This batch is abooooout fifty percent done.  Lots of cheques, skin work and details to go.  I start base up, in case ya didn't know, so I can use big brushes without worrying about dirtying the models legs.  Feet are usually last to finish.

And here is the rest of their team so far.  I hate having doubles, so I just head and weapon swapped a whole bunch with daemonette and millitia bits.  Arrr.

I had planned to do much more with converting the whole lot, but this is part of my 'just get it done' campaign.  There is nothing stopping me stripping and reworking things later!

The bases are the new citadel 32mm bases.  They are a bit tall and chunky for my liking- plus here they cost 70c each, which is fucking ridiculous.  But GW is pretty much an evil cult.

Once these are used up and I going back to the normal 30mm bulk buy bases for my 40k moderns.

Laney manufactors a manufactorium

My manufactorium kit has been languishing too long and has thusly been smited with my unmitigated mighty might surge.  Seriously, I have no idea why I am churning through shamefully unfinished projects, but day-aam, it's exciting!  One more languishing box of plastic crack assembled and ready for a serious festival of drybrushage.  Zoots!

I tried to treat my kit as your basic eighties action figure playset.  I managed to get a lot of potential gameplay features into it, like several low cover points, a couple of high areas and a choke point in the door.  I found the chimney actually worked better as a ground pipe, giving me an extra bit of cover to play with adds a nice arch.

  It makes me sad to see people turn a kit like this into basically a plinth for their spess mehreenz.  So much can be squeezed out of these kits!

My dark battle sister makes her entrance!  Note the gibbet from the giant kit. Tres inquisitor don't cha think?

The reverse side has a low cover area right next to the choke point door.

And of course you need a sodding great big fan.  I think it needs a skull in the middle.  The white stuff is texture medium which gives a lovely rust texture to things.  Gruyere approves of the obligatory computer fan for necromundian tomfoolery.  Pchoo!  Pchoo!

And in other news, it's my birthday tomorrow!  I shall be heading to Cancon to spend all my birthday money on second hand store goodness!  Weeeee!

Blanchitsu is good for you

My Blanchitsu Warband is now a gruesome twosome!  

Yeah, need to get that inquisitor scenery sorted at some point.

Parts used:  Island of bunnies Rat Ogre, Genestealer, Ork, Beastman and a spess mererhn.

I shall call him 'Ard Cheeze.

I have several of his clan underway, and now that I have found my guardsmen boxed set I can do a few more Rat mutants ala Mr Blanche!

Comments below or... Alternatively written in the back of money and posted to me.

Some (nearly) finished stuff

Lots of minis this blog- not one completely done,  but very close.  My camera phone does not do a good job in low light- I must dig out the digital cam that I used at the start of the blog.

Enjoy!

Demon hunter 45mm

A work in progress shot of one of my Cancon acquisitions.   This is the demon hunter- a sister of battle like figure released in the second and ultimately last wave of Inquisitior figs.
A bitch to pin as she had nine parts, but satisfying to get done.  I have base coated her so far.

Rogues need trading

Hi.  Welcome back.  So hows that itch going?  You should probably see a doctor. 

You know... switching to Renedra 25mm bases with 4mm magnets for my scifi figs has been one of the best decisions I have made since breakfast.  

Renedra feel free to send me free stuff for endorsing you ;).

The speed I can base up figures has made a huge impact on my hobby mojo.  Trays of minis which once languished in the 'too hard' basket, now stand based up and primed and excitingly ready for color.

With 25mm vs 30mm bases I lose stability, however it occurs to me I can snap my models onto decorated 30mm washers using the hefty magnets for some games if I desire.  These bases allow for tighter storage- which is my biggest woe right now next to lack of energy from my recent illness.

Losing base decoration room actually means I don't spend any time worrying about it, and filling that empty space was eating a great deal of time.  Sure my bases wont win any awards but they are fast, unobtrustive and keep the focus on the mini.  I opted to give both my fantasy and scifi bases the same green-grey base coat, and vary the drybrush colors on that.  Keeps it quick and effortless.

I figure all this lacklustre basing gets the figure game ready- I can back and tart up the bases when I am further along.

I like seeing GW minis on non GW sanctioned bases.  Gives me a little tickle.  Not sure why.  But 25mm rounds are game legal... also amusing.  I also like bubble tea.  Also not sure why.

So now I have the excitement of knowing soon I will have heaps of rogue trader, street violence and 2000 ad figures to paint and play.  I am most excited to finally have my RT mercs and adventurers, plus an unhealthy amount of iron claw space pirates out and based, and I found a few gene stealer cultists I forgot I had.

To paint this huge influx of figures I have returned to my trusty prepaint and tint technique, using four layers of overbrushing and dry brushing with a huge soft brush, which I will then glaze over with color at my leisure.

Painting on a preshaded model is much nicer and easier than facing a black surface, plus the tooth the dry brushing gives the surface a paper like quality that helps take the color layers.  

Heres are some test figures (still have to finish the marines- the skin is flat color and the shading on the armor is a bit rough.  Anyway. .. enjoy. 

"You sure your readin' that right Orinocco?  That's inside the room?"

Generation 2 SPESS marines hanging out with an Iron Claw pirate.  A zoat passes by on the way to Iits painting apointment. mmmm... Oldspesshammer.

Start from black spray, apply these starting dark to light using ever softer, drier, drybrushing.

This makes me happy.  I am happy now see?

Citadel rogue trader and 2000ad minis with cryomek and hasslefree mini.

Genestealer karyoke.

Hoff to a good start...

A quick pic of my hoffbeat painty rest break... I feel better after messing around with these.  Its got my juices if not flowing, but defrosted enough to peel off the cling film and stick it back into the mental microwave.

The spaced out druid is fun, but I really should have done a bit of a proper fill and file as he is from the era of rough surfaces and crappy fingers.  Not sure what to do with his lantern yet.  I may do source lighting, but he is already pretty light.  Hmmm.

WF Spaced Out Druid, Asgard Adventuress, GW Chaos Cultist, Confrontation Hybrid

The Asgard adventuress was the first in a whole slew of bare bristol warriors with crossed straps.  Citadel did a bunch almost identical several years layer which appeared in fighters and chaos fighters and I think Ral Partha did one too but I will check on that... I will do a side by side shot once the others are painted up.  Needs a lot of work on the eyes still, and I suspect she should be a brunette... (opinions below)  She had bug eyes, which is always hard to paint... and is generally poorly sculpted except for the obvious bang on bits.  Anyone know who sculpted her?  Still, nice to finally have her transition from ugly grey lump to ugly colorful one.  More polishing required before varnishing.

Third up is one of the snap together chaos cultists from dark vengence. 
How exactly does dark vengence differ from regular kind?

I decided to go way out there with style, painting them to be gleering out of the darkness with source lighting.  For colors I am keeping tightly with orange vs midnight blue, and keeping them muted.  The base is a Renedra 25mm plastic base.  Yeah, yeah but it will work better in tightly packed necromunda hives.

Finally is the lovely confrontation hybrid beastie from Rackham.  One of my Skulldred playtesters is using the system to resurrect the Arkalesh game world... and I love that idea.  I have enough rackham to make large dirz, goblin and undead warbands, as well as a good fist full of smaller bands.
Painting this guy is F.U.N.  plus I realised if I kept the basing simple grey flag stone, this versatile bastard is ideal for Inquisuitor, weird world war, nurgle, warmahordes cryx, modern horror and cyberpunk genre games.
Thus I went with a green metal armor and offset this with purplish hues for the flesh.

Oh you can see some bob olley dwarfs from mega minis just behind on my painting rack.  These will be appearing in Skulldred if all goes to plan.  I painted one with a white undercoat and cried 'sod this 'after a couple of hours and sprayed the rest black.  I just have to face it... I am a black undercoater.