Merry Christmas

Show Room Dummies...

Shoplifters beware...

More uses for the Crooked Dice Men from the Future figures.

William Killan

Guess who is looking for his wife?

Crooked Dice's new figure is searching for May and Tweedy who are investigating strange happenings in a department store.

Time Lift Security Captain (2)

The second Time Lift Security Captain.

The figure is the second of the three different Time Lift Security figures from Crooked Dice, the door and wall are again from Ainsty Castings.

"We bump back"

This is the Steve Jackson Games Hellboy figure.

The figure came in a (video) box set, I must dig the rest of them out.

Usual Suspects (4)

There was a question on the Crooked Dice forum about the relative size of Offensive Miniatures SWAT figures.

A Warmacre policeman, KillerB Northern detective, CD Man From 3000, Offensive Miniatures SWAT and an Offensive Miniatures Riot policeman. (chorus) All unfinished.

Usual Suspects (3)

More pictures of unfinished figures for size comparison purposes.

Over on the Crooked Dice forum, there is always interest in comparing the size and proportions of figures from different manufacturers.

In this case, the comparison is between the Warmacre No Go Zone police and a number of Crooked Dice figures.

Unfinished Man From 3000 distracts a policeman with his uncanny abilities.

Tweedy assists the police.

Two WPCs fail to spot a a vandal

A full parade.

Deathguard Lord (part 2)

Continuing with the conversion of the Warhammer Nurgle Champion to a 40K Deathguard Lord.

I cut the back pack mounting structure off a Spacemarine torso and pinned (the white mark is the plastic rod) and glued it to the back of the figure.

This was then blended in with some Green Stuff. The fit of the pistol holster was also improved.

The backpack had the vents drilled out and short pieces of plastic tube glued in to represent the structural failure of the more usual grill. As mentioned previously, the right hand tube was cut off and rotated. Brass wire was added to holes drilled in top surface and then a piece of plastic card added to indicate a panel had 'popped' and spilled cables. Holes were drilled in Nurgley patterns of three and finally a horn from the Terminator Lord kit was added to the skull on the back pack.

The figure has now been under coated and initial base colour applied.

Hopefully this will be finished by Christmas...

I make haste slowly...

First up, Crooked Dice's recently released Lady Winterly in all her sinister glory.

Clutching her magical talisman, she unleashes the horror of the Corn Dolls upon her foes.

Next up, Impossible Agent Martin Coach. With his specialism in disguise, he can infiltrate into the villain's volcano lair. Another example of Crooked Dice's Man From 3000 body, with the badge removed, and one of the heads from the Scientists.

The following is an Offensive Miniatures Hostage Taker. Armed with a machine pistol and revolutionary zeal, she is taking prisoners. Who knows what she has in that sports bag? Probably not a towel.

Time Lift Security Captain

A Time Lift Security Captain spots something through the door.

The figure is one of the three different Time Lift Security figures from Crooked Dice, the door and wall behind from Ainsty Castings.

Usual Suspects (2)

Another size comparison (though the miniatures are only base coated)..

Offensive Miniatures hostage taker, Tweedy Mattison and a KillerB Northern Detective.

Zombies (1)

Zombies, a type of figure you need in bulk, so an obvious market for plastic figures.

This is one of the Wargames Factory Zombie figures

WPC May Killan will need all her skills to survive this.

This opponent is a Studio Miniatures WWWII Zombie.

Deathguard Lord

Just as I was finishing the second coat of paint on the Time Lift Security, I got distracted by the Games Workshop Nurgle Chaos Lord I bought a couple of weeks ago for conversion into a Deathguard Lord.

Here are some work in progress shots.

The figure (plastic) is very cleanly moulded. The main modification I made was to cut and file off the neck and then drill out the neck stump to take a standard Spacemarine head. For this figure, the Nurgle head from the Chaos Marine accesory sprue was an obvious choice.

I added a pistol and holster from the Chaos Marine sprue plus a hanging skull from the Terminator Lord to the right hip.

The backpack is from the Possessed sprue, so far the only modification is to cut one of the hoses and rotate it as if it has fallen out. I also drilled out the other connection point. I am going to have a look at the Forgeworld Nurgle Sorceror Lord's back pack to see what else I need to add.

Now I could add the Nurgle Icon to the back pack but that might overwhelm the figure, I will think about that.

Captain Black Cosplay Competition

Work in progress on the Time Lift Security figures from Crooked Dice.

I have straightened, cropped and resized the picture, that is all.

Colours 2011

After a very long time, I finally went to Colours.

The last time it was in Reading, and I am not sure how long ago that was.

I was extremely lucky to be passing the Crooked Dice participation game when they were looking for players for "You Only Live Dice " (see the Salute 2011 post for more pictures or the Crooked Dice web site/forum).

A very good time was had by the players, with partial victories on both sides as Department X stopped the chemical attack on the Peace Conference (note to Villains, buy better quality containers) and my Villainous Star made use of his jet pack and the Auto-Gyro to make his escape.

The game won the Colours 2011 Best Participation Game.

For the rest of the show I wondered round seeing stuff I wanted to buy, and then forgetting where I saw it (so no change there).

I had an interesting conversation with the representative of the Plastic Soldier Company about plans to add 28mm vehicles to the current 28mm Russians infantry. I do hope that some of the vehicles are produced as hard plastic kits. The smaller (1/72 and 15mm) ones look very nice. I picked up the Russian Infantry, Support Weapons and Antitank Guns. Pictures when I get round to painting them.

Warlord Games supplied a Jeep, a Kubelwagen and a Cromwell tank which I hope to start soon.

Empress Miniatures (as Imprint Moderns) do a very nice range of Modern vehicles, I have one of their T90 tanks under construction. Very nice resin mouldings and easy to put together.

Figures In Comfort had a nice blue figure case which will take my 7TV and Doctor Who figures, unfortunately it is not bigger on the inside.

Westwind had the new Incursion: SNAFU figures and also Incursion on special.

Ainsty supplied some new backgrounds, which are being painted. I did forget to get a water cooler. Never mind.

I had not expected to go to Colours, so had ordered the new Time Lift Security from Crooked Dice, so I only added another two packs of TLS to the four I had ordered by post and received on Friday. The delightful Haydon suggested using them for a Blood Bowl team.

Overall, an enjoyable show, the game was extremely fun and I made it back in time for Doctor Who.

Unusual Suspects 1

A quick comparison of a range of (in many cases unfinished) miniatures.

From left to right: Offensive Miniatures Riot Police; CP Miniatures SF trooper; Crooked Dice Armed Minion with automaton head); Copplestone Guard in Beret; Offensive Miniatures Riot Police Sergeant and Hasslefree Neil (with Offensive Minitures baton arm).

Organisation to Nurture and Consolidate Europe*

* Apologies to Charles Stross for borrowing his joke (it is better in French and in the novel Halting State).

Agents Red and Blue of a UN agency involved with law enforcement.
Both use the body of The Man From 3000, Agent Blue uses The Man From 2000 head. Both use the optional gun hand from The Man From 2000.

The following are the stats for 7TV, usable for a 100 Rating skirmish.

Name	Move	Def	Hits	Str	Agl	Int	Morale	Ratings
Agent Red	6	4	3	4	4	3	6	47
	Gadgets Luck(2) Seduce Saboteur Leader(1)			Drive Snapshot Disarm Good Offence Danger Magnet(D)			Brawl 4+ Pistol 4+
Agent Blue	6	4	3	3	4	5	6	52
	Gadgets Luck(2) Seduce Saboteur Leader(1)			Drive Eagle Eye Disarm Kung Fu Grip Danger Magnet(D)			Brawl 4+ Pistol 3+

I have given them both the Drive Special Effect, even though they have no Vehicle Special Effects, but would allow them to Drive any vehicle they encountered during a game.

They both have the Leader(1) Special Effect to allow either of them to be the one activated first (and then use the Leader Special Effect to provide an Activation Marker for the other).

Insidious Industrialist

Insidious Industrialist (Media Mogul subtype) surveying the site of his new printing facility.

The body is the Man From 2000, the head is the Suave Aging Agent from the Flamboyant agent heads sprue.

Not COSHH compliant...

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 is a United Kingdom Statutory Instrument that states general requirements on employers to protect employees and other persons from the hazards of substances used at work by risk assessment, control of exposure, health surveillance and incident planning. There are also duties on employees' to take care of their own exposure to hazardous substances and prohibitions on the import of certain substances into the European Economic Area.

Oops, someone is going to get a stiff letter from the HSE...

Luckily UNIT is on hand to deal with this situation...

You need to look BEHIND YOU!

Hasslefree's Sadie (c) is not paying attention.

UNIT - Defending the Earth against the scum of the universe

UNIT troops

Three of the figures are from the Copplestone Casting guards with berets set, the other (with the walkie-talkie) from the Artizan Guards II set with added beret and pistol. A fifth UNIT trooper makes up a 100 ratings skirmish force for Crooked Dice's 7TV game.

The squad is commanded by a Dependable Deputy armed with a submachine gun, and four UNIT soldiers again armed with submachine guns.

Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid.

This is not a sign of rapid production, just photographing existing figures.

The Westwind SOTR WWW2 British Infantry are facing off against a Crooked Dice Scary Statue.

Lieutenant Stewart is an up and coming squad leader, armed with his trusty Webley Sabot pistol.

"Don't blink Sir!"

Thriller Theatre: Riot Squad teaser trailer

This gentleman is the Star of the forthcoming Thriller Theatre episode "Riot Squad!".

He is the first of the Offensive Miniatures Riot squad figures I have completed.
I currently have the Riot Police Collection, eight police with square shields, three police snatch squad with round shields, one policeman firing a Taser, another with a revolver type grenade launcher, cavalry backup is supplied by three mounted police.

They also do two sets of rioters (hairy and hairless) plus hostage rescue and terrorists.

There will be more on these.

Look, a Scientist!

This is not evidence of a sudden increase in production, more that a couple of figures have inched their way up to the nearly ready to photograph point, and a couple of minutes more work have pushed them to the point where they are sort of ready.

So here is my first Dr Melody Lake, in a lab coat with tablet computer.

This is one of the few examples where a photograph has improved my painted model. The underlying model is fine, I am just having difficulties getting an acceptable face painted.

My first attempt at the ARC astronaut Melody looks more like a Flesh Surrogate, though I put that down to insufficient preparation of the Army Painter spray paint.

I will revisit the face on this figure, probably when I correct the over paint on the trousers.

The Master of All He Surveys

Almost finished painting up The Guru and two of his hired alien minions.

The Guru is unmodified, the minions are the Armed Minion bodies with the ape like Failed Experiment head.

The Minion head's neck diameter is smaller than the Failed Experiment head's, so I had to (hand) drill out the neck hole on the body. I also filed down the collar.

The problem with painting non human skin tones is trying to get a reasonable and 'realistic' look.

I am not completely convinced by the paint job. I have another nine Minions and heads on order, so I might try some other methods on those.

Distractions...Distractions...Distractions...

On Thursday the 14th, I bought a Tzeentch Sorcerer (for use as a Herald of Tzeentch), assembled it and prepared it for painting on Friday.

On Saturday I collected a parcel from Crooked Dice (The Guru and Failed Experiments).

So the sorcerer is just sitting on the bench awaiting finishing.

It will be finished eventually.

"Standing over the fields of England, as their protector"

This Crooked Dice Corn Doll conversion is either a display piece or an objective marker.

Considering the length of time it has taken to get this figure to this point (it is one of the first Corn Dolls I bought when they were released), the paint job is simple. Mordian Blue top, Black Grey trousers, Leather Brown gloves and shoes, German Light Camo Brown for the head and rope (washed with Flesh Wash) and Dark Sand for the straw and rope highlights finished off with a Dheneb Stone dry brush.

The base is not finished, I have a test piece (a 40mm lipped base) which I am trying various scenic effects on before committing them on this one. 

I have a number of these 'in production' on 25mm normal and 30mm lipped bases (the latter for WWW2 games), and at some point I will post some more. If I do not get distracted.

More Astronauts and Scientists...

Here are three work in progress scientists and astronauts.
They are in various stages of painting, but highlight the conversion possibilities of the Crooked Dice figures.

There is one additional figure in this set, he uses the scientist holding a beaker body (holding a beaker, not with a beaker body), the bouffant head from the Minion head set and the hand holding the tablet computer from the ARC astronaut figure (the body being used for Commander John King below).

This is Dr Melody Lake, a simple head swap of the ARC Melody Lake head and the female scientist. I smoothed off the clipboard detail and rounded the edges to make it more representative of a tablet computer.

 Dr Milly Fogel is a slightly more complex conversion, the female scientist head, the 'unarmed' Minion optional pistol hand and the removal of the Photonic Spanner hand from the Melody Lake astronaut.

 Commander Jon King uses the male scientist head, the ARC astronaut with tablet computer and the 'unarmed' Minion pistol.

Distractions are the 'Bain' of my life...

I have just received the excellent Scientists miniatures from Crooked Dice, together with some of the Albion Rocket Consortium astronauts.

The photograph shows the female scientist (Dr Milly Fogel) and the ARC astronaut Melody Lake (I removed the Melody head from the sprue to check for conversion purposes).

The intention (assuming nothing else distracts me) is to build a Melody Lake in lab coat (head swap and change the clipboard - so end of last century- to a tablet computer), and Dr Fogel in a Vac Suit (head swap plus a replacement for the photonic spanner - either scratch build a staple gun or the gun from the minion sprue). The bases will be Slaters' 7mm scale granite setts (ship or lab).

Of course, Crooked Dice have just released The Guru figure, and one of the heads just cries out to be used with the Scientist Pointing Binatone TV. There are also some additional heads, and the bearded Tweedy head would suit the Scientist Holding Beaker of Meths.

I have done some work on the Finecast Huron figure, built up a 40mm base and used the Chaos base bit from the Chaos Terminator Lord, but this has grabbed my attention at the moment.

Quiche for the Quiche God!

So, here is the previously promised Vegemarine.

He is a standard Khorne Berzerker, though I have reposed the right leg from the supplied Morecombe and Wise pose.

Now I need to start on the Forge World conversions (plus the Khorne Jump Infantry - with the winged back packs from the Possessed).

So, while I had the camera out, I thought I would add a few more Marines (Loyal and otherwise) to the blog.

Soul Drinker versus Word Bearer



Word Bearer (with bolt pistol in focus!)




Another view of the Word Bearer




Soul Drinker Space Marine




And again, with painted Chapter symbol














Now what I need is a more 40K background to the figures.