I'M BACK!!!

Hello everyone I'm back, I am actually still alive and able to paint. Sorry for the huge absence, last year was fairly shitty and since then I've completely re-launched my life, new job and new home at the other end of the country, I'm now based in sunny Newcastle. I haven't done a huge amount of painting so far so it won't be a glorious return with hundreds of painted mini's but I do have a few to show off so I'll get cracking:

I think this is a Ral Partha Wraith of some description, I went for a green ghostly scheme this time mostly using the Vallejo fluorescent paints

I've no idea who manufactured this fella but he's a great little knight, he came as part of a large lot of random ebay wins a long time ago. If it helps anyone identify him he came with his mace as a separate weapon.

Great old Citadel knight, I went for a different approach on the white jerkin, watered down sky blue over the base white.

Second old Citadel knight, I've tried to give him a glowing sword but I'm not really sure how it's turned out I think it needs more white highlighting.

A third Citadel Knight, and below here he is in the middle of the top row.

Here's a little solid base Gnome or Dwarf assassin that I can't seem to find on the stuff of legends site but I know he's there somewhere.
Lastly on the painted front is my Blood Bowl Team, that I'm putting together for a mini League me my brother and a couple of other people are trying to start up. I've gone for the classic old school Orcs and I have a couple of plastic Black Orcs waiting a coat of paint to add to the team

I've also decided to make my own 3D dugout for the team, it still needs a ton of detailing, Orcish shields little stretchers etc but it's getting there.

40k Orc Painboy drafted in as my team Apothecary

On the great find front I picked this up from the reduced section in TK maxx I think it's supposed to hold spices and other kitchen items but works perfectly for mini's. The section on the right hand side slides underneath the main section perfectly and should paint up quite nice as a display stand.

Anyway that's enough for my first post in over a year, I've got to pace myself. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

GOLDEN GOBBO SHIRTS

Hi all, just a quick update and some shameless self promotion again. I've made the Golden Gobbo available as a T-shirt on my Society6 page:

http://society6.com/headnhalf

He's available on multiple colours and a ton of different formats
If you're quick there's free worldwide shipping until Sunday.

I'm Still Alive

Hello everyone, sorry for the lack of updates recently, I'm in the process of relocating 'oop' North back to the motherland so in the interest of getting my arse in gear and finding a new job I packed away all my mini's so I have the minimum of distractions. Don't worry my blog will resurface at some point soon as I don' t think I'll be able to resist the call of the lead.

Incoming blatant self promotion:
In the meanwhile I dug out some of my old drawings and jazzed them up and have made them available for sale through Society6 as an experiment to see if it's actually possible to make any money doodling. So far I only have two drawings up on the site and a few photo's that you can purchase as a framed print, Ipod cover, T-shirt, Hoodie and many other formats. If anyone's actually interested I can probably fire up the Golden Gobbo design that I did as a shirt or art print, let me know in the comments and I'll get it sorted.

Have a look at the link if anything takes your fancy there's free worldwide shipping until Sunday.

http://society6.com/headnhalf

I Struck Gold / Lead

Howdy blog watchers long time no speak, how's it going? Sorry for the distinct lack of updates recently, sometimes the hobby mojo's not there and I don't like posting if I don't have anything to show off. My creativity was sparked with some amazing recent ebay scores, the first being this huge pile of old school goodness for the princely sum of £32:

This is how it appeared on ebay so I took a gamble and placed a bid, the lead gods were smiling that day and verily they decreed that the haul was good and the rot nil.

I'll post up separate pics of everything I've sorted out at the end of the post if you fancy a look.

Here's a couple of shots of the first two mini's I pulled out the pile and subjected some brush work. First up we have a Fantasy Specials Female Tortouress with sword from around 82 (I think):

Not sure why I went with the blue on the sword and shield but I think it works really well in contrast with the flesh-tones and the red cape. Not really sure if it's that noticeable but  on the left hand side of the base I've added a tiny little mushroom that I knocked up a batch of:

Next up we have a citadel Barbarian that I can't for the life of me find on Stuff of Legends so I'm not sure what range he's from:

This week I also came across this great idea from Chris's Gaming Journal that I've stolen, he's basically used a Magic the Gathering card creating program to create cards for his All Things Zombie campaign:

http://cthulhuchris.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/15mmcouk-hooded-executioners.html

I ran with this idea and knocked up some cards using the Song of Blades and Heroes rules and an online warband creator (http://www.wombatzone.com/files/SBHform.html)

The idea behind the cards is that I can grab any of my painted mini's dig out the corresponding card and knock up a warband quick sharpish, so far I've got about 60 cards and I've just got myself a printer so I don't have to sneak print things at work anymore and I can churn out cards as and when I finish a mini.

The warband creator lets you create brand new creatures and classes and totals up the skills etc and gives you a points cost which I've added to the top right of the card.

Back to the initial haul, I've managed to strip a lot of the stuff already and undercoated and based up some choice pieces ready to sit on my shelves for an age, I'll save listing where everything's from and which range until they re actually finished but as far as I can tell most of the mini's are really early Citadel slotta and pre-slotta:

Modular Dungeon / Sewer section almost finished

Nearly done with the first sewer section, I finished off the wall sections that needed doing and slapped some of the stuff I use for my basing over the gaps (brown paint, PVA glue, sand, grit etc).

After all this was dry I painted up everything, and i'm nearly ready to start the next section's:

I'm just waiting for the varnish to dry now then I've got a little bit if touching up to do and a few bits and pieces to create so it all should be finished very soon and I can crack on with the rest.
If there's anything you need to know about give me a shout in the comments.

Crazy idea / Modular sewers/dungeons test piece

In my never ending quest to never paint all my miniatures I had a crazy idea the other day for a modular dungeon system that is easy to store and should hopefully be easy and cheap to make. The crazy idea was to take a normal box file and create a small section of terrain that would hopefully sit next to other future sections and would be easy to rearrange.

Here's the box file as is at purchase:

I started by removing the paper holder at the bottom and sketched in roughly where I wanted the sewer channel to go and any doors to be and the rough layout of any walls.

This was supposed to be a step by step but I completely missed out most of the steps after this one. I'll try and explain the processes in any future updates and if anyone is not sure of anything just give me a shout.

Here's the box'o'dungeons as it stands at the moment:

The paving is hand drawn onto sections of polystyrene pizza base and then PVA glued over chunks of polystyrene to build up the height. 

It still needs a some work sorting out the gaps and joins between sections and I still have a little more cobbling to finish off.

Once I've finished all the stone work I'll have a look at creating some water effects for the sewer channels and some wooden plank walkways/bridges for access to the different levels. I'm still in two minds whether or not to cut holes in the ends of the box so that they match up with future boxes or to leave them as self contained boxes?

The end of each sewer channel could end in metal bars and each section could be accessed by doors to keep each box self contained that way I don't end up losing the structural integrity of the box? Let me know what you think in the comments.