Last Minute Shopping...

Abbi and her trusty Diemaco C7 face the hordes on the Last Day.

A Wargames factory The Survivors: The Women figure.

M113 Work In Progress

One of the key features of this blog is the glacial progress I make with these projects.

At Colours I bought an Empress Miniatures M113 APC.

There will be a full build item, but due to the jolly British weather it is on hold until I can get it undercoated.

The kit comes with optional rear fuel tanks and a TOW launcher.

However, at Warfare in Reading I picked up Crooked Dice's Villains' Programme Guide. One of the villainous organisations (United Radionics' FEDSEC) have an option for an APC. If I had read that before leaving the show, I would have bought another M113 for my FEDSEC troops to be configured with a converted Minion HMG in the cupola.

In the meantime, here is the unpainted M113 and a FEDSEC trooper.

As with all previous Empress/Imprint models, the kit goes together easily, but care needs to be taken as the resins used for the major mouldings bonds swiftly and strongly with superglue.

Reach out and touch them, part two

Having made a bit of an epic out of finishing the excellent Crooked Dice Heavy Machine Gun team, here are two pictures of them in action.

The figures are supplied with Fritz style helmets, but to fit in with my UNIT, I used the Fighting Men heads.

I have another two to finish, probably one with Westwind British heads in steel helmets.

It is only a sniffle...

Having fought with the finishing of a Crooked Dice Heavy Machine Gun support team (my problem, not the figures'), I thought that finishing off one of the Demons of Nurgle would be a simple victory of sorts.

So here is the first of Legion.

The figures are multi part plastic kits with minimum flash and moulding marks.

So after a spray undercoat of GW Chaos black, I used GW Nurgling Green for the body. The gory bits were then filled in with GW Mechrite Red. The sword was cleaned up with Vallejo Black.

The whole thing (gory bits and all) were then washed with GW Drakenhof Nightshade. This provided a grubby shading for the whole figure and dark shading for the gory bits.

The large blister/internal organ area on the stomach was then lightened with Army Painter Skeleton bone. All the gory bits were then washed with GW Baal Red. Vallejo Dark sand was then used to highlight the icky blisters. The horn started out with Vallejo Leateher brown lightened with Vallejo Dark Sand (which looks the same as the Army Painter Bone) with a final highlight of Vallejo Buff.

Dark sand and Buff were used for the claws. The eye was filled out with Buff, and when dry Vallejo Red. a White highlight was added at the bottom of the eye.

The sword was dry brushed with Vallejo Black Grey.

This colour scheme looks okay to me, and should not be a problem to finish the rest of the squad, plus the herald.

For The Greater Good - part four

There has been a conjunction between my camera and the two Crisis suits (there was also an unfortunate conjunction between the Monat suit and the floor which snapped both ankles of the suit).

So after pinning (0.7mm brass rod) the ankles back together here are the pictures.

First up is a Fireknife-7 configuration suit (suit configuration names are from The Guide To Mech Tau)

Next up is a Monat suit.

In the original Codex, it was not made clear that if you had two identical weapons, that they had to be twin linked, so when I built this suit it was designed to have two (not twin linked) fusion blasters.

Now I am undecided between continuing with the original design (Sunforge - TL Fusion Blaster and shield) or a Helios with Plasma Rifle and Fusion Blaster (and shield)

As this suit was designed to have the weapons mounted on the shoulders, there was no room to add the multi tracker allowing shooting with two weapons. Though the multitracker was hardwired (previous Codexes) I wanted a representation on the figure.

Looking at the accessory normally used to represent the multi tracker, I noted that it would also work as a head, so I drilled a hole for a central eye and used plastic rod to make the lens and added the usual two aerials from a standard head to the side.

I also added an unfolded hand, the fingers again made from plastic rod.

I used the same painting technique as the fire warriors.

Next up a Stealth Team and a Piranha.

For the Greater Good, part three

I make haste slowly.

First squad of Firewarriors.

Same style as the earlier one.

I have two Crisis suits nearly finished, I just need to get them and the camera in the same place.

The most dangerous weapon in the enemies arsenal is...

... your lieutenant with a map...

First of the Perry Miniatures 8th Army figures.

Very nice they are, though smaller than other 28mm figures.

Hopefully I will paint some more up, and the matching Afrika Korp I got at Colours.

Now to get some matching vehicles.

For William, even putting the bins out is an Adventure...

Crooked Dice's William Killan puts out the bins (Offensive Miniatures), unaware that United Radionics have designs on him.

Maybe he can escape in the elderly VW Beetle?

The 'Beetle' is a Company B Volkswagen Type 82 E staff car (a 1938 design sharing the chassis of a Kubelwagen).

Great Escape Games had them at Colours.

Girl Power

Wargames Factory have released their Apocalypse Survivors: The Women multipart 28mm scale plastic figures.

The box contains three sprues of ten identical figures and one sprue of additional weapons.

Scale wise, they look compatible with ranges such as Crooked Dice.

Terrible flash effect in the photograph.

Some of the poses are a bit extreme, generic poses are more useful if you are going to have lots of the same figure (an advantage of the Studio Miniatures zombies, four generic poses rather than the ten weird poses of the Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens).

The woman with the RPG is a bit odd and I am a bit dubious about the figure, but I will see if I find it acceptable.

Tea is served...

Project Timelift encounters numerous Time Lost individuals, some more dangerous than others.

Crooked Dice's Time Lost includes Sachs, a mutated servant. Based up for Victorian gaming he is delivering a cheering beverage for his mistress.

For comparison purposes, here is Sachs and a Scarlon warrior.

Technical

William wondered why May wanted to visit the old church.
He was certainly glad of the four wheel option, especially when he saw what was lumbering out of the woods.

An Empress Miniatures/Imprint Models Technical 'ploughshared' into a civilian pick-up (the recoilless rifle will be fitted later).

Apocalypse Survivors...

Oh well, the Tau are now back on the shelf as I have been distracted by the Wargames Factory Apocalypse Survivors: Men.

The box contains three sprues of ten different bodies (nine adults and one kid) plus a sprue of weapons and accesories. The 25mm bases are on the body sprue and following on from the Zombie Vixens the figures have flat feet with no integral base (something that is a problem with the Studio Miniatures Zombies).

The bodies are a bit odd, some of them  have very limited reuse (one can have a cricket bat, the other a baseball bat, the other can have a baseball bat or a cricket bat). The kid has three different options (pistol, SMG and 'scope rifle). Eventually I will assemble a full set.

The weapons supplied are odd, M16 is understandable (but no M4), lever action rifle/shotgun and AK47. The SMG looks more like the Walther MP, rather than a more usual HK MP5, Uzi or Ingram. The real surprise is the inclusion of the L85/SA80. There are seven separate L85 rifles plus one with arms attached. There is also a rotary magazine shotgun/grenade launcer.

There are no separate arms, so if you want to use the additional weapons then it is out with the Swann and Morton...

So how do they compare in size. Below (left to right) are Factory with AK47, Empress British, Factory with L85, CD William Killan and finally another Factory figure with an AK47.

The guy on the left is at a slight disadvantage, the Empress British infantry man has a base. The two L85s are similar size. William Killan shows they are similar size to the CD figures.

The CAD process does lead to some slightly odd postures, but they are useful to fill out your survivor cast

For the Greater Good... Part Two

So, on Thursday I visited my my local purveyor of plastic and resin and had another chat, mainly about the recently released Space Pixies. However, slightly inspired (and having chatted about painting techniques), I was inspired to revisit the Firewarriors that I undercoated back in April (Glaciers are always rushing around in my opinion).

So, I decided to paint through one figure to come up with a coherent paint scheme that I could complete before all the stars go out.

So I started with an base coat of Humbrol 93 Desert Sand spray, followed by some filling with Humbrol 93 acrylic.

 I then used GW Scorched Brown to paint the under suit, and Vallejo Black for the Tau logo, vent and the handley bit on the bottom of the backpack, face plate and the circular bit on the gun. You may notice that this is a different figure, yes, I forgot to photograph the base coated figure...

 I then dry brushed with Karak Stone followed by Dheneb Stone (a colour that will be sadly missed).

 I then washed the whole figure with GW Flesh Wash (in the old hexagonal bottles, I have some very ancient paints).

 Another drybrush, this time with Humbrol 93. The lenses were then painted whte then Blood Red. The Tau logo was repainted. The base was then given a coat of Wilko Wood Adhesive and then piled Woodland Scenics Ballast Light Grey Fine over the adhesive. It will be painted later (Graveyard Earth or its equivalent).

It is not going to win a Golden Demon, but once the base is painted it will be playable.

So, I now have a plan, but how long will it be until I have an army to fight For The Greater God...

Sarissa Victorian Buildings

At Salute 2013, I ordered a Victorian Gaslight Alley building.

Here is the building unpacked.

The pieces are cleanly cut from MDF and card.

I look forward to assembling it.

Allies?

Sometimes your Flamboyant Agent needs assistance while visiting 'friendly' countries.

Othertimes your opponents might have been equipped directly or indirectly by your 'allies'.

Plus the studio is always looking at ways to cut down on production costs, and those uniforms and weapons they bought on the cheap from a completed war film always come in handy.

So to represent one of these extras is the following figure:

The figure is a Crooked Dice Armed Minion with SMG combined with a Westwind SHS US steel helmet head.

Tweedy investigates, with assistance

Sometimes Department X needs assistance from Her Majesty's Armed Forces. Tweedy attempts to open the locked roller shutter while Private Jones keeps watch.

At Salute I  bought a set of Westwind's Berlin or Bust SHS British Infantry in steel helmets heads. The body is the Crooked Dice armed minion with rifle.

When Crooked Dice released the Armed Minions with rifles I had thought they would make good British Infantry. I had tried some of the Westwind SOTR British Infantry infantry in helmet and gasmask heads and they were a very good match. As you may have seen earlier I have used the same source's heads in beret and gasmask for a UNIT flamethrower.

There will be a squad with bazooka and flamethrower support.

Let us Regroup...

Heresy Miniatures have just released their Sharclon range of High Gravity Low Stature Clone Warriors.

This is my first painted one, together with 7TVs Tweedy Mattison.

New Zombies (2)

Studio Miniatures have recently released a plastic sprue of four multi part zombies.

As you can see from the accompanying photographs, the sprue is made up of four different bodies, eight heads and six pairs of arms. A set of flat Renedra 25mm diameter bases are included in the box.

The figures are well sculpted, the mouldings are clean and with minimum flash. The only downside is the moulded base. As I base my figure on paved surface, I used a razor saw to remove the base.

I bought the bargain bucket option, building sixty zombies, though individual sprues are available from Hasslefree and direct from Studio Miniatures.

Finally, for scale here is a completed zombie giving William Killan a bit of a fright.

New Zombies (1)

Studio Miniatures have just released a set of multi part plastic zombies.
Each sprue contains four bodies with separate heads and arms. A complete review will follow shortly.

But as a teaser, here is one zombie, with Crooked Dice's William Killan for scale.

7th Voyage

To celebrate the arrival of Crooked Dice's new 7th Voyage game of Stop Motion Movie Action, I dug out a suitable completed miniature.

The figure is a Casandra, belly dancer and spy from Eureka Miniatures.

Salute 2013

Salute 2013 started bright and early. The queues at Excel were long, but good natured.

Unfortunately time was not on my side, so I had set an exit time of 1330

First stop was those awfully nice people from Crooked Dice. I picked up 7th Voyage (stop motion adventure war gaming) and the 7TV Hero Programme guide, plus this month's figure releases. I only had time for a quick look at their quick play games, but the boards looked excellent.

Next up was Hasslefree. This time I had a list to work from, so I think I got everything I was after. I finally managed to get an Oakley figure as the basis for the Dependable Deputy Co-Star for 7everence.

Heresy have just released their Sharclon range of High Gravity Clone Warriors. I also managed to remember to get one of their Arthurius figures that I forgot last year.

Westwind had a few new miniatures, but most of their releases are tied to their Kickstarter process, but they did have their Berlin Or Bust separate heads on sale, so I picked up the British, US and Soviet ones. They will be used with the Crooked Dice armed Minions.

A pleasant surprise was Empress Miniatures, they had a new European Theatre Challenger 2 model (ie no add on armour etc.). I also picked up their new British figures including two aircrew on foot. Still hoping for a CVR(T) Spartan to go along with the Scimitar.

Renedra had their new 28mm Barn model, which will go nicely with the American Farm, Store and Church for 7ombieTV games. Some additional bases will come in handy, their cavalry bases will make useful sub bases for their graveyard set.

The Perrys had their new 8th Army figures and a matching Universal Carrier in resin. They look nice, though perhaps a bit small compared to the Bolt Action figures I am used to to. Comparison shots will be up later. They come with 20mm round bases, I have decided to use 25mm round instead, the same as the Bolt Action figures, even if I never use them together.

Offensive Miniatures had some new Riot figures, including a Police Dog set, a contrast to the Crooked Dice Police dog handler from a gentler age,

I ordered a Victorian SIFI building from Sarissa Precision, hopefully that will arrive next week. They had their new range on display, and it will look good on the table top. Useful for Steampunk and 7TV. Now, will they do a mews set?

Mongoose had sold out of their Sov Judge set, hopefully theywill have some more at the next show. The Judge Dredd miniatures rules looked good but will need some looking at before I buy.

So there I was, halfway across the hall when the exit alarm went off. Frankly I blame the aliens for the lost time.

So I had to quickly run round the rest of the show, Ainsty had their new Valley Forge crew and Astronaut buggies and Warlord their Soviet army book and plastic T34/85. Great Escape supplied an A34 Comet Cruiser Tank (nice moulding though slightly larger than the Warlord Cromwell, again there will be comparisin shots later).

I picked up a pack of two shipping containers from Warmill, together with an Uplink Tower (I love the smell of MDF in the afternoon).

I also noticed that Studio Miniatures were not present, so went back to Hasslefree and picked up the Bumper Box of plastic Zombies. Sixty multipose Zombies (four different bodies).

And then it was well past time to depart.

So, once again a pleasant if hectic Salute, and hopefully I will have more time next year to actually talk to people.

Thanks to all those organising, running and selling at the show.

See you all next year.

Photographs to follow.

For the Greater Good... Part one

Games Workshop's recent release of the third iteration of the Tau and a conversation with Daniel, my local purveyor of plastic and resin, prompted me to have a look at what I have previously purchased.

Inspired by the new Codex, I even started assembling some of my previously purchased items. As you can see, some of the boxes are from the original release all those years ago.

So I now have six assembled Tau Firewarriors and a Fireblade awaiting undercoating, plus I have even started assembling the plastic torso of a Forgeworld XV89 Iridium armoured battlesuit (I had forgotten what a chore that was).

By the way, there are more boxes awaiting assembly, these were the most easily accessed.

Vigilantism Is Illegal

Sometimes someone says, enough is enough and takes the law into their own hands.

Does that make them any better than the criminals they fight?

Hasslefree's Aaron roams the streets of his hometown, attempting to bring justice to criminals.

Reach Out and Touch Them

A while back Crooked Dice brought out a new batch of Minion Specialists, including a two man bazooka team.

The two man team engage heavier targets while defending their temporary HQ.

Both figures use the Fighting Men heads, the loader has an added pack for additional rounds. There is an empty container at his feet while he prepares the next round.

T90

Back in September 2011 I bought a T90 MBT by Imprint Models (available from Empress Miniatures).

The mouldings are very good, there was only some work needed under the turret bustle where a piece of the  feed needed filing away.

With the exception of the combination of overenthusiastic superglue and minor incompetence (the first track unit is placed incorrectly, the resin just loves superglue - forming a bond stronger than the resin - it looks like it has just performed a crash stop), it went together very easily.

I then undercoated it with the traditional Citadel Chaos Black aerosol.

And then I got distracted.

It sat on the top of the computer desk, only receiving some paint when I was painting anything else in Vallejo Russian Uniform Green. Eventually it had its green basecoat.

And then we had the cold weather, meaning no more spray painting, so a reduction in distractions.

A while back I had bought the Main Battle Tank T80 (ISBN(13) 978 0 071 10 3238 5) published by Ian Allan. Though the T90 is derived from the T72 family, I thought that the green-sand-black brown camo pattern shown in a number of the colour pictures would be suitable.

The base green is Vallejo Russian Uniform green, Vallejo Desert Sand provides the sand tone and Vallejo German Cam Black Brown provides the border colour. The material covering of the mantlet was Leather Brown.

 Vision blocks are always  difficult to paint. I tend to use Citadel Mechrite red for my modern British, but decided on Citadel Ice Blue (mainly because of the picture on page 83 of the T80 book showing the Shtora laser detector showed blue lenses - the Osprey modelling guides show a number of different interpretations of vision blocks, some quite garish).

Weathering and mud is a combination of Citadel Stirland Mud, Vallejo Burnt Umber and Leather Brown, lightened with some Vallejo Old wood with a final dry brush of Desert Sand. Citadel washes (two flavours of sepia and one of earthshade) overall plus Citadel Nuln Oil provided exhaust and fume shading.

Overall, it is a very nice and easy to build model.

Now, to finish the BMP3 (and Warrior, and another technical, then to order another Scimitar and convince them to do some more CVR(T) family vehicles).

Jason vs The Argonaut

Private Jason Fleming wished he had not volunteered to test Darius' prototype glue projector...

Ullyses Argo's latest Argonaut advances.

The Argonauts are a signature feature of the evil mastermind Ullyses Argo's appearances in 7TV series such as The Man From 2000 and Department X.

The Argonaut is a Crooked Dice resin figure and is about 45mm tall. It is supplied in four pieces (body, two arms and a head). Crooked Dice make two different bodies and arms allowing a number of combinations to be assembled.

I should have some more completed shortly, together with the towering Talos, Argo's most fearsome creation.

Light My Fire (Two)

Here are two more members of the UNIT.

The Major, armed with his trusty Automatic Pistol directs the 'fire' of the Flamethrower specialist.

Both are Crooked Dice figures, Flame Thrower Specialist Minion and Minion armed with Pistol. They both use the Crooked Dice Fighting Men heads.

At this time, Health and Safety did not require the use of masks when combatting alien threats with flamethrowers...