The joys of printing

I mentioned the other day that I bought a 3d printer, well lockdown finally gave me that kick to use it properly and start learning how to use Blender to make my own models as everything I could find didn't quite fit the aesthetics I wanted. A few years back when I was on a resin casting kick, I tried sculpting/casting an extra wall to go with the GW Garden of Morr set as I loved the style... but hated all the skulls on it all. That didn't go so well as the plaster started to disinegrate in the wet rubber.

Roll forward a few years and I've not only managed to create some straight walls that fit nicely, but I've managed to create a full set of walls for the table and I'm over the moon with how well they have come out.  The set also includes a small gateway, like the Secret Garden and a collapsed section... but also includes a lychgate. It is for a cemetary after all.

Given that these are my first ever 3d models, I was a little wary of doing anything with them, but I was finally convinced the other day to let others have them as well. It's not like I've got enough of a following to try and sell them yet... so they are now available for free on https://www.myminifactory.com/users/MrMagpieCreates.

Future models will also be added there too. Enjoy! and if you print them, please let me know, I'd love to see them in use!

Nautical cults

Welcome to the Cult of the Tentacled One. 

In the challenge this year I've been working through a selection of fantasy models for Frostgrave. Some of the more interesting kits are the official plastic kits, especially the cultists. The last batch were a combination of thugs, crossbow, archer and warriors

These join the ranks of last year's small cthuloid cult

 And their new captain, an old GW WFB pirate captain who had been sat in my painting pile for years. The nautical these has certainly been a good inspiration.

At some point I want to find some modern weaponry that scales will with the cultist kit and equip some for use in a more pulp-y setting.

Scatter terrain

It has been quite a while since I've posted any new painting  and with the upcoming Analogue Challenge, I thought it was about time to get the brushes back out again and put paint to plastic (or MDF in some cases) to I wasn't quite so rusty. The first two are some bits of scatter terrain for use in a muddy English village, or a railroad town in the Old West. The well is one of the pieces of terrain provided with Dungeon Saga. Thanks to the Kickstarter bonuses, I have three of these; which I think is highly unlikely to occur in any adventures... 

The other piece of scatter terrain was this little chicken coop from Warbases. Again, destined for an English village circa 1943, or an Old West town.  One thing I have realised is that quick snaps with my iphone are not going to cut it for the painting challenge as the colours in these are well off. I'll take some better pictures when I clear off the dining table and set up the lightbox.

Painting table updates

As I mentioned yesterday, it's been a while since we've had a painting update (or many updates at all come to think of it). Please excuse the rushed photos... I had millimeters left on the battery so had to rush, which has led to some shoddy, slightly out of focus bits, or edges of the backing paper. Oh the shame! When I get some of the terrain done I need to do better photos of everything anyway.

While doing some tidying up a few weeks back I came across yet more plastic Russians... it is amazing how many of these guys you get in a box! There were enough parts for a couple more riflemen, a panzerfaust, a sergeant/smg, sniper team, AT gun and a commissar!

With the Russians finally, finally done I decided to move onto some of the Crooked Dice bits I picked up at Salute this year.  The second figure in the first photo is supposed to be a power pack for a laser (second model in the second photo), but I felt these worked better as a radio operator and an LMG, so that is what they are. I've no idea why the fourth figure in the first photo has forest camo trousers, but he felt more like a commando style guy, rather than the SAS look you get by putting the gas mask heads onto the Department X troops. At some point he will get some 80's style army companions

Facing off against Department X is the dastardly Generalisimo Stanly, named that mostly because he looks a bit like Stan Lee... His minions are still sat in the painting pile and will probably end up looking like extras from the A Team in their green jump suits.

Daemonic infestation

Next up on the painting table is this beastly 4 armed monstrous lump of lead. This daemon is from the Mongoose daemonic cabal set for their Dredd range and stands about 50mm tall. Like most of the Mongoose models, I'm not a massive fan of the sculpts as they are lumpy and uninspiring, but a large daemonic entity is a large daemonic entity.

Spike

My favourite Buffy character was always Spike, the evil vampire. When Curt said he wanted an antihero for this year's challenge price, who could be better than the Big Bad turned good?

After painting up Spike, I came up with another idea for the Culrtgeld... so Curt gets to choose between this one and my actual entry for the Antihero round. He can have both in exchange for an extra 50 points ;)

Long lost update

Apart from yesterday's Conan excitement, things have been a bit quiet here recently as hitting the initial goal of 500 points in the painting challenge seems to have burned me out a little. I think it was about this time last year that I also lost momentum. Still, we have a painting day arranged on the 21st, so hopefully I can get a kick up the arse. The last thing painted was Tank Girl, Camp Koala and Booga for the Hot sub-challenge. These three were from the Frother's Charity Model thing in 2013. Very nice models, though sadly TG had a mold line running right around her that was hard to get rid of completely.

It was also about this time last year that the urge to build a gaming table of some sort started... sadly apathy and dis-organisation set in and I never did get around to starting it. That too has returned. It must be something about seeing all those painted figures together that sparks it. Hopefully I can overcome apathy this year and actually make some terrain.

The main stumbling block is working out the best way to do the base board. Modular, thick foam is one approach so I can carve in rivers, coast lines etc. This one is appealing, but does lead to storage issues as I don't have a dedicated gaming room like some lucky people. This raises issues with placing buildings on non-flat terrain.

Option 2 is a gaming mat of some sort. The plain green ones, like the old GW mat, don't appeal as they look a bit lifeless. I've seen a few really nice ones made from thick canvas and caulking/sand, but this leads to raised roads and rivers which, for some reason, grate with me slightly. Probably from working in GW years ago with the flat green square with the wandering rivers that never stayed in place.

What do you use and what do you prefer?

Myths and legends

One of the Analogue sub-challenges was entitled Myth. A lot of my other entries have been a bit unimpressive compared to all the others, so I decided to have a dig through the figure box and see what I had that wasn't a greek warrior. I'd almost given up hope until I came across the Forgeworld Skin Wolf that was only available at events a few years ago.

The myth of werewolves goes back to ancient greek literature and covers most cultures across the world, from American tribes to various Asian cultures where the wolf is replaced with tigers or leopards. The actual transformation process can be triggered by many things and can take many forms.

Some myths tell of the slow transformation of man to beast, with bones reforming and skin stretching... painful to be sure. But not as painful as the beast bloodily ripping itself from within the man, leaving ragged tatters of flesh clinging to his fur. You can see why TV programs shy away from this version of the transformation.

One thing I've decided to do, now that I've got my lightbox setup working more effectively, is to provide extra photos in my posts, so it's not just a repeat of the Challenge blog photos.

The police aren't very lucky at the moment. First they were taken by the weeping angels, now they are about to be savaged by the towering monster...

Christmas presents for friends

This year I decided to paint some figures for Christmas presents, rather than buying a book, game or CD. Something that is a bit more personal and shows some thought and effort. They seem to have gone down well

The other set completed on time were Number 2 and Number 6 from The Prisoner.

The figures are from Crooked Dice... possibly my favorite gaming company. The sculpts are nice and clean, with plenty of character that brings the models alive.

Unfortunately I had an accident with the spray varnish as it misted up. Thankfully a coat of hand painted gloss varnish managed to fix the problem... but I didn't have any flatter varnishes to take the shine off the models... hence the photos being a bit dark to counter this. 

The other set were Crooked Dice's GhostBusters

He was so pleased with them that 5 minutes after dropping off the parcel there was an excited post on facebook with the following photograph. Made my day :)