You'll find a little of everything here. Genres covered in this blog include (so far) prehistorics, fantasy, old west, swashbucklers, pulp, Blood Bowl, Ghostbusters, gladiators, nautical, science fiction and samurai in 6mm, 15mm, 28mm, 40mm, 42mm and 54mm sizes. You'll also find terrain, scenery, basing, gaming, modeling, tutorials, repaints, conversions, art and thoughts in general about the hobby.


Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hasslefree goblin

I spotted this little guy while surfing the net. He is Buckle, a goblin pirate by Hasslefree. The figure comes with a separate scabbarded cutlass, but I replaced it with a custom rapier. The figure comes with a 20mm slottabase, but I replaced it with one of my 25mm self-made flagstone bases.

The rapier is made from one piece of brass rod which has been hammered just a bit to square it up. The guard is made from a scrap of cured greenstuff (save your cured greenstuff!) The straps holding the rapier are simply a triangle piece of paper, glued into place.


This is a tiny figure, especially since I'm painting 42mm samurai right now. The face was difficult to paint; I dug out some tiny brushes I hadn't used in a while to get the job done.

I've been wanting to play a goblin as my next D&D character, and this sculpt won out (I like my characters to have a nautical theme.) I wanted him to be a fighter/thief, and that's why I gave him a rapier instead of the cutlass. Oh- the orange skin: The original editions of D&D described goblins as having skin tones ranging from deep red to orange to yellow -- no green here. It was nice and refreshing to do a skin color I hadn't done before.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

42mm samurai: Painting has begun

I started painting the new batch of samurai. I've finished applying the flesh layers as well as almost finishing my swordmaster. I was thinking about what I could use for Asian flesh tones (I forgot what I used last time; I need to start taking notes- or look for the notes I took a few years ago.) In the end, I simply used what I use for caucasian flesh tones- I just left off the last highlight. I think it looks just fine.

I'm fully happy with the head swap, too. The neck seams are mostly hidden, and the heads seem to fit their new bodies well- especially the fellow with the nagimaki at the ready, yelling his war cry as he prepares to receive the enemy.

I also still plan on doing this ninja in a red get-up, though, I may tone it down just a touch by doing her mostly in brown but with red highlights.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

42mm Samurai: Head swaps and conversions

The next batch of 42mm samurai arrived from Steve Barber today. I got right to work. The unarmoured samurai has had his fan replaced with a katana hammered out of brass rod (with a handguard made from greenstuff.) The peasants have had their heads swapped. I've made a nagimaki for one of them (just to change things up a bit from all the spears/yari.

The ninja was not changed in any way. I just included it for completeness' sake. It is a female ninja using a small blowgun. I think I may paint her with a more fantastical red scheme.


Monday, January 16, 2012

Hittin' the old mountain: 32mm samurai/40mm old west

Since I didn't have anything lined up after my samurai- and since I was actually in the mood to paint, I grabbed a couple random figures off the old lead mountain. First up is a 32mm heroic scale samurai/ronin from Warcrow(?) He's been sitting around for a couple years. If I had known how easy and fast he would paint up, he'd have been done faster (it only took about an hour and a half to finish both figures here). Oh well; he's done now. I'll use him as yet another character/figure for playing D&D.


Next up is an older 40mm cowboy from HLBS (the range long since discontinued.) I think I have a couple more 40mm old west figures lying around needing to be painted- one each from HLBS and Knuckleduster. Hmm, I should go check out to see what Knuckleduster has been up to. I had been meaning to pick up a few more of their civilians.


Any new old west figures will be for later. I think I'm settled in with the Steve Barber samurai (I've ordered a few more, with another small order planned for late February/March.) The current order is for a couple more of the peasants (which I will do a headswap on), another ninja (female with a blowdart- I haven't seen photos, but it sounded intriguing), and an unarmoured samurai whose fan I will replace with a sword (katana for those of you who want me to "get it right!")

I will take my time with this next round of samurai (like the last round) with the possibility of more Japanese accessories/buildings during the paint. Any ideas for Japanese "stuff?" More goods, roadside shrine, small temple, small bridge? (And yes, I'm trying to keep everything "small" for this collection.)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

42mm Samurai/32mm Barbarian finished

I finished a couple figures in one sitting. First up is the last of my 42mm samurai (should I buy more?) from the second group I started a few weeks ago. I like how the sashimono (with the skull) turned out. It was about the easiest part of the whole thing to paint. If I get any more samurai, I think I'm finished with red samurai. It's difficult for me to paint without muddying up everything with my impatiently thick layers. Maybe a yellow samurai next time? I do enjoy Foundry's yellow ochre triad (the color of this guy's sashimono).



Next up is a Reaper figure I painted up almost as an afterthought -- Usually, when I paint a figure, I'll have one or two random figures off to the side to paint while I wait for layers on my main figure to dry. This barbarian was that figure off to the side while I finished my last samurai. The figure is Reaper Warlord figure No. 14620 Barbarian Axeman of Icingstead. I like the sculpt except for the face. On the Reaper site, the face looks great, but in person, it's a bit small, and there's not a lot of detail; it was a bit of a challenge to paint. But the rest of the figure painted up great, and I like the simple, no-frills pose so that he will not stand out too much on the D&D table when the DM is looking for someone to take out his frustrations on.


Saturday, January 7, 2012

42mm samurai: Finished peasant's hut

And here's the hut complete with thatched roof (which is not quite dry; I was impatient.) I went with a longer-haired fake fur (as opposed to toweling) to better suit the larger scale figures.


Friday, January 6, 2012

More envelope art

I'm making great progress on my peasants hut- the "fur" thatch on the roof is drying; it looks good for my first try at thatching. I've also added a couple details to my samurai.

I've also found a little time to doodle up some more envelopes for letters to friends:


Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Small samurai update (and smaller barbarian)

I've got a couple layers thrown onto my last samurai. In the meantime, I've started a Reaper barbarian that I've had primed for a few months.

The samurai will get a yellow sashimono with a skull in a pool of blood (something a little bit different from the sashimono on my other samurai.)
Again, I'm stuck on a lacing color. I'll probably just end up grabbing a color at random off the rack.

I tried something slightly different with the barbarian. Instead of dark gray as a first layer on the furs, I used a dark french gray (and it was plenty blue.) It seems to work well.

Once these two are done, I don't have any plans for what to paint next, but I do have the roof of my Japanese peasants house yet to finish. Maybe my next thing will be to actually play a game or two with the samurai (Hmm, Two Hour Wargames Red Sands Blue Skies? or Chain Reaction Swordplay?)