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.

CITADEL ORCS AND A WANT LIST

I've given myself a break from painting zombies and gone back to some good old school citadel. It's partly due to the amazing Realm of Chaos 80's blog that my interest has been re-sparked:

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/

The sheer volume of scans uploads and images that Orlygg is sourcing is a credit to the blogiverse (?) if you have any interest in old citadel stuff and if you haven't already checked it out I suggest you go and bask in it's warm nostalgi-glow.

Anyway here's my most recent paint jobs:

The two on the left were in one of the first citadel blister pack I ever bought back in the early nineties and have been saved from oil paint disaster. I think the one on the far right is part of the crew from one of the early orc war machines.

 All I need to finish them now are some plastic shields with suitable grinning faces

I think I went a bit mad on this one's base and went a bit over board on the mushrooms and other guff.

 The plant at the back of the base is a tiny cutting from the aquarium plant in the background.

I wanted to try and capture the old school look by creating some mushrooms for the bases, I think to I need to go smaller on the next lot as they are a little on the large side.

They were pretty easy to make, just green-stuff on sections of wire which were then trimmed off and drilled through the bases.

Inspired by this amazing post on the Realm of Chaos 80's blog:
http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/do-you-have-miniatures-wish-list.html
I've put together a a very vague want list of old school citadel, this list is no way in any order of priority and subject to change whenever something else becomes my flavour of the month :)

1. A FULL SET OF C-SERIES ZOMBIES:

I think these are the best zombies that citadel/games workshop have ever released and capture the rotting shambling feel zombies should have perfectly. I'd love to have a complete set but don't really want to pay over the odds, so far I've managed to hoover quite a few of them up for nothing through ebay bulk lots.

2. MIGHTY FORTRESS

I had one of these, but stupidly sold it to my neighbours older brother when I grew out of collecting mini's in my teens and moved onto more grown up things  like dungeons & dragons (insert eye rolling emoticon here).
I love the simplicity of the model and the one I had got some good use in some crazy games of both 40k and fantasy.

3. FULL SET OF JES GOODWIN OGRES

The best Ogres ever created, so much variety and character in each sculpt. At the moment I've only managed to get hold of the guy in the bottom right giving the V's. The rest all seem to go for silly money and I'm nothing if not patient.

4. NIGHT HORRORS

I love this range, every sculpt is a complete one off, I've managed to grab a few here and there from ebay but most end up being completely out of price range.

5. GOBLIN KINS CHARIOT (COMPLETE)

I have most of this chariot as I my dad bought me one back a million years ago when I was 11 or 12 but for some reason I only have the boar the driver and the goblin on the back who for some reason is missing a foot. I'd love to have one painted up exactly as it was on the box.

6. MENTAL NON- GOAT BEASTMEN

C'mon what's not to like about a snail man and an owl man, back from the time when Chaos was in fact actually chaotic and not all about the skulls and spikes

6. MINOTAUR LORDS

I've managed to get the bottom two for decent prices from ebay but the rest I keep missing out on or they go for more than I'm willing to pay.

I could keep going but I'm going to leave it at that and maybe come up with a proper list ordered by priority for a future update.

DISAPPEARING UNDER A LEAD MOUNTAIN

Just thought I'd share with you pictures of what I'm working against, here's my stuff that's almost ready to get to the painting table:

Everything in here should be based up and most of it is undecorated ready to go it's just a case of me ever the time to paint it. On top of this I've got a crate of un-based treasures that I keep adding too:

The most recent additions are these old citadel goodies

All the old school action over on the awesome Realm of Chaos blog http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/do-you-have-miniatures-wish-list.html has re-sparked my old school citadel love and currently this lot is winging it's way to me from ebay:

There's just something about the old school citadel stuff that has wonderful character that I feel most of the current Games Workshop stuff is lacking, it's probably partly nostalgia but the new stuff doesn't have the same soul... Anyway moving on, I just scored these awesome tomes at the charity shop for £1.50 each:

I've mainly bought them to look a the pictures as I have no intention to play fantasy roleplay and completely lack the space or a castle to play siege games but still they are still nice things to own and will be added to the pile of unused rule-books

Moving on from old oldhammer I finished up some more zombies, first up are some foundry plague victims:

I've tried to keep them time period neutral so they could be used for modern systems along with fantasy settings. I went for different base colours and washes for them all to give them a different finish and look.

Next up are a couple of Alpha force mutated zombie's

 I love the look of these mini's the bursting head tumours and the general John Carpenters 'Thing' look they have going for them.

This update took about ten times longer than it should have as I kept getting distracted by the awesome BBC documentary 'Punk Britannia', if you can get on the BBC iPlayer and give the three part series a go it's well worth it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00s81jz/Punk_Britannia_PrePunk_19721976/