Short Sci-fi interlude

I had a hankering to paint something sci-fi-ish towards the end of last week so had a dig through my to do drawers and managed to come up with a bunch of suitable models to slap some paint on. After a shout out on the Lead Adventure forums I've got a few more avenues to investigate for some more suitable aliens to add to the group.

From the depths of the lead pile I've resurrected 6 Bob Olley Retained Knights, 3 Bob Olley Space Goblins, a Space Crusade Necron, an ancient space Hulk genestealer, a battletech Centurian and some Kryomek Aliens that still need some TLC.

Here's a couple of close ups (click to enlarge)

Snipping off the integral bases on them all was a pain in the arse but as I wanted them all standing on piles of decaying scrap it was worth the effort and finger blisters. For the bases it was just a case of raiding my bits box for anything that wasn't organic looking and dissembling some of the watches kindly provided by my wife. If you're thinking of doing some similar type bases I would suggest keeping all your base off cuts as these came in handy for filler.

Here's a couple of close ups of the bases:

I usually paint the bases of my mini's last but as painting these was going to be messy I thought I'd finish them up first so I don't mess up the mini's feet.

The edges need cleaning up but I'll sort this out as a final step.

For the bases I undecorated everything black, dry-brushed Bolt Gun Metal, then a lighter layer of Mithril Silver, then a little GW bronze, (not sure which one) and a small amount of blazing orange. Once all this was dry I watered down a little blue that looked suitably verdigris like and hit a few areas to add some variety. Lastly before the slime stage I gave the base a light dusting of Dark Yellow Vallejo Pigment. Once this was all dry it looked a little too boring so I whacked on a little watery Vallejo Fluorescent yellow around the edges and in the deep recesses to give it a little colour and contrast.
Here's a couple of close ups so you can get a better view of the bases:

If anyone wants to see a step by step tutorial give me a shout in comments and I'll get one put together.

Most of these minis are still in production so if you want to get your hands on them check out the links below.
Bob Olley Retained Knights:
http://www.alternative-armies.com/Retained_Knights.htm
Bob Olley Space Goblins:
http://www.alternative-armies.com/The_Khanate_Empire.htm
Battlemech, Centurian:
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/20849-centurion-p-65.html
Kryomek Aliens:
http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_113_119

A new desk and a Gnome

Sorry about the lack of updates recently it's been a busy week that included a final trip to St Ives (Cambridgeshire) and a mini pub crawl in Cambridge to some awesome pubs that also included our first celeb style spot, the true master of the Universe Professor Stephen Hawking no less. We were there to see the wife and mines best friends before they bugger off back to the north making going for a quick pint a 10 hour round trip. Good luck Phil & Jen we'll try and join you as quick as we can and Phil do the right thing and say those words that Jen can't wait to hear... FOR THE EMPEROR!!!!!!

Me and Ikea are on speaking terms again not friends yet but the healing process has started, they managed to deliver my new desk last week:

Here it is in all it's glory with new daylight bulb lamp and home made painting board. It's almost all there the only other thing I think it needs is a paint rack rather than the box on the left, if anyone can recommend me a UK supplier please let me know.

All my basing guff to hand in small drawers from (Staples)

All my reading materials and reference to hand and a temporary place for my scenery.

Under the desk are the to-do drawers (again Staples), which I am not permitted to add to until I've made a serious dent in what I have.

Here's the close up of the painting board, it's an old shelf with some paint pot sized holes drilled across the top for current 'in use' paints, and some nails for jamming WIP corks onto to keep them upright. I've also added a couple of nails that I can jam scrap paper on to hopefully keep the board paint and glue free.

The only other thing that my corner needs now is somewhere to display finished mini's, and with that in mind I have my eye on one of these from Ikea with the Inserts on the right, looks like it would work quite well for the displaying of mini's.

On the Painting table at the moment are a couple of old Trish Morrison Gnomes (marked in Red below) from the tragically extinct Gnome race.

I've only finished one of them at the moment, apparently an Illusionist/thief according to the advert from the 1985 Citadel Spring Journal. I wanted to go for a bright paint scheme on this guy as I've mostly been painting muted colours and lots and lots of brown which can be a little boring after awhile. I imagine this guy to be a little bit of a character in Gnome terms very flamboyant and a little eccentric.

Lastly but by no means leastly go and check out a friend and Cambridge drinking buddies Blog:
http://jennyandthemagicfeather.blogspot.co.uk/
I must warn you that there are no mini's featured anywhere on her blog, don't hold that against her though as she's still a crafting legend. If you're in need of some blog re-designing, some felt creations or other crafty type stuff give her a shout and with Christmas coming up you can't beat a hand made one-off for yourself or significant others

Here's a couple of pics of her creations and a link to more examples:

http://jennyandthemagicfeather.blogspot.co.uk/p/makes.html

Ikea Makes me Sad and a mostly scratch built monstrosity

This blog post was supposed to be a triumphant celebration of my new desk and was to include lovely pictures of my new painting set up but no that didn't happen.
On Friday my commanding officer (the wife) gave the go ahead on my painting corner in the living room so after agreeing on a suitable shelving unit and desk that will fit in with the rest of the living room, http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S19861339/#/S99861340 I thought why pay the £35 delivery charge when I can drive over to the nearest Ikea on one of my days off. Sensibly I checked the stock figures on Friday night before setting off on the 1 hour drive to the nearest Ikea first thing Saturday. After circling the madly packed car park for the best part of 20 minutes before finding a space I fought my way through three floors of shoppers and the maze like layout to face an entirely  empty bay in their warehouse where my lovely new desk should be. Hmm ok? that's a bit weird, I'll check the stock computers, yep it's in stock, ok I'll ask one of the staff see if they're just re-stocking or something. Nope there's a stock problem/discrepancy on this line and they won't be back in stock until Wednesday. I almost cried.

I've told my wife that if I ever suggest going to Ikea again she's to punch me directly in the knob and I will thank her.

Ok now that's out of system here's what I got up to on the hobby front, as I'm on Hobbycraft's mailing list I received a 20% discount voucher for Thursday only so decided to pop in grab some stuff.

I've no idea what I was thinking buying some dinosaurs but It's a cool little box that I'm sure will be fun to paint. The beads and Milliput will become apparent later in the blog post.

Only finished off one mini from the mountain this week:

My first attempt at painting none white skin, I think it turned out pretty good on this guy. He's an early Citadel sculpt that I can't seem to find anywhere although there is Chaos Thug version:
http://solegends.com/citcat912/c20284rcchthugs-h.htm (second row from the bottom on the right).

Lastly I was feeling a little uninspired on the painting front last week so decided I'd give some scratch building a go, I had a vague idea that I wanted something covered in eyes (hence the beads earlier). What I ended up with was this guy:

I'm not sure what he's supposed to be but he's definitely something in the Nurgle family. He's/It's nearly all scratch built apart from three Rat Ogre arms and the human sized faces on/in his head. I'm especially happy with the base too as it's the first large display type base I've ever made. I must give a shout out to Massive Voodoo's amazing site: http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/sitemap.html for the base as I spent a long time perusing the awesome tutorials before starting on the base.

The pictures above look very muted as I tried taking some shots without the flash or a direct spotlight to see what it looks like, He's the same shot with the light:

Personally I like the muted shots better, let me know what you think:

Here's a few more brighter shots and a final one for scale.

Hopefully the next update will include a glorious new work station but I'm not getting my hopes up yet :(