Finished - Potpourri

Since very much awesomely fixing the hatchet handle I actually HAVE done some painting. I finished a couple of Black Plague heroes, about half of the Black Ops heroes and an experimental mini that has been sitting half-finished for ages. 

Initially, I got to work on Lady Grimm and Glynda Battlestout with the same 10/0 detail that I approach most minis with. Frustrated at my chunky paints and fraying brushes I reached for new ones of each. While doing so, a corrupted version of an old axiom "don't let the great be the enemy of the finished." I knew it wasn't right but with the years of backlog I have, I can't take a week to paint a single mini. Let's get some colors down, a little detail on the faces and let's get them done. 

I finally have two of the very many Zombicide boxes finished in their entirety and that has me jazzed to finish some other boxes like special guests and Heroes boxes completely. To do that, we gotta get paint on minis. I am far from batch painting but I've stopped doing three stare highlighting and going blind with fine detail brushes. Part of me regrets this because I know I can do better but... but let's get things finished while we have spare time. 

OTT - Close Combat Weapon

Doing a little woodworking on an old busted hatchet. Mostly I am working off of this video. My hatchet handle has an archaic teardrop shaped opening and my hardware store only has round short handles. So I am going to shoehorn a longer ax handle into the opening then cut it shorter. Or maybe I'll leave it long and have an ax that looks like zippy the pinhead. Who knows.

I used a saw blade on the dremel to rough shape the larger teardrop into a smaller teardrop hopefully without ruining the taper. I already need some sanding discs to do the more gentle shaping of the handle so I am at a stop. 

This is an ancient craft of joining wood to metal and it is an honor to learn it. I really hope that I don't mess it up. 

EDIT: And here is the finished product. I intentionally left the extra material at the top to give it that ancient look and also because I don't have a saw that can cut it flush (yet). I ended up having to scrap my plans to use a cut down ax handle because it took too much work to sand down. This was much easier and I agree with the tikki torch-owner in the video, it looks better. 

It was really a sinch with a pre-shaped handle. A little sanding and it slid down pretty easily. I put some nice dents in the deck pounding it in but that is my bad. I should have known better. After that, it was wedge and glue, bang bang. Two metal spikes, bang bang. And my baby shot me down. 

I sharpened the edge too with a sharpening disc so now this thing is lethal to fauna as well as flora. I really want to throw it at something but the partner forbids it. 

It was fun and grubby turning my hobby skills to something like this. I also had to replace a shovel handle but after seeing how much work it was and that the price difference was almost nothing, I just bought a nice shovel. 

Finished - Invader Core Survivors

These finely detailed miniatures combined with the last post means I have the whole core box done. I learned a lot and now have a killer recipe for bone white armor.

This is historic in that this is the first Zombicide box I have ever finished. Black Plague will be the next once the commission zombies are finished. Currently sourcing a painter for Green Horde and that will be done. 

Then it is all the flipping stretch goals and guest boxes. At the speed I paint, I have years worth of painting to do. The speed painting and contrast paints helped me finish all the aliens from Invader but that won't work on the heroic Survivors. Gotta do detail painting.

Finished - Zombicide: Invader Swarm

So I am an elitist snob when it comes to painting. I know this. I think that people that use airbrushes as a final step are cheating themselves. Army Painter is for people that seem intent on ruining models.  Agrax Earthshade is a tool in your toolbox and not a Swiss Army knife. And Contrast paints are for people that don’t want to learn how to paint properly and are ok with meeting the basics of table top painting.

Then I had 100 aliens to paint and I didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the last two Zombicide games and have to conscript out the bulk of the painting. I ran across so one that was painting the Workers with Contrast paints and got good and fast results. I picked up some contrast paints and was done with my first 5 before I knew it. A few weeks later they were all done. I haven’t completed a base set of Zombicide yet and this one was done in a blink. 

Here are the lessons I learned at my old age for batch painting:

1. No fancy basing. Be basic. Even the 5 step process for the Mars bases is better than the 3 colors with 3 stages each on top of the clay bits for wood and stone. 

2. Three colors is too many. Think big swaths of color. Don’t paint more than 2 materials different colors. Who cares if he is wearing a brown suit and hat. 

3. Learn to love dry brushing. If I ever start edge highlighting a horde again, shoot me.

4. Use washes to make different tones of color. A corollary to point 2 above, I used washes to make shading and add more color to these models rather than painting a different color.

Goodbye Space Cowboy

I did something for the first time in my almost two decades of painting and playing 40k. I sold a whole army. Tau were my first in 2004. The guy I played with most played Blood Angels and wanted to get out. So I bought his army and started BA in 2005. Somewhere around 2007 I started Grey Knights as a small auxiliary force that grew into an army. After that I started Chaos, Necrons, Space Wolves, Orks, Genestealers, and Knights. Never sold an army.

Until now.

Finished - Zcide Invader Workers

Been painting quite a bit of Zombicide stuff all over the place. Black Plague, Green Horde, Invader. I even outsourced painting of some of the Black Plague zombies to a commissioned painter for money and some printing. I used clay, rollers glue and a lot of time to make textured based for all the flipping zombies. Learning my lesson from that, I just wanted some simple Martian soil for the aliens and save the complex stuff for the survivors.

I found a pretty good tutorial for using the red crackle paint and painting red ground and it worked pretty well. I was skeptical about needing to base things brown, but the crackle pulls up the layer of paint below it and lots of the white primer shows through.

Aside from the bases, I decided to dip into contrast paints in the interest of getting all the Invader enemies painted unlike all the other Zombicides that sit waiting. I based the Workers Grey Seer though I would have liked to use something with a little more color. After that, the whole model gets a wash of Apothecary White. When that dries, the head and hands get a splooshing of Voluptuous Pink. I do a halfhearted blending of the areas by wiping my brush off and stippling around the edge while it is still wet. It is an amature technique with limited results but it is better than hard drying lines. With the base colors done, the bottom nails get painted with the Voluptuous Pink and no fading. The whole model gets a dry brush of Grey Seer to make it pop.

It is not my best work, but I have finished 5 of them in half the time it took me to paint any other mini. Sometimes I have to put quality on the back burner in the interest of getting stuff done.

On The Table - Ender 3 Enclosure

 Part of raising the new baby that is a 3d printer is building it a crib. This will reduce cold drafts, give more consistent temperatures, improve buildplate adhesion by reducing curl, massively reduce dust build up, reduce noise. Lots of advantages but the main two are improved printing in ABS and being able to move the electronics outside the enclosure.

I'll get to some of the details in a bit but if I had to do things over again I would have gotten this or ideally this enclosure and not build my own. Then, if I had to build my own, I would have not tried to cut corners and just done the Ikea Lack enclosure that everyone else does. In the end, I am still satisfied with how it came out because, despite the setbacks, I could build it precisely how I wanted to (with a few compromises).

The damage for the materials alone was over $100 which is more than enough to get a premade enclosure or a couple of Lacks.

1x1 for frame $11
Acrylic plastic for windows $56
1/4" plywood for lid, floor and back $20
Adhesive vinyl tile for lid and floor $11
Screws, bits and bobs $15

Home-made Wine: Hobby Fuel

The COVID-19 pandemic has us all stuck inside. Some people have said this would be a good time to pick up some new skills (even if they did it in an unpleasant manner). To that end, I though I would learn how to make wine in my Instant Pot. I used this recipe to get me started.

First thing you need is yeast. I knew bread yeast was not going to cut it so I got this Red Star wine yeast. I did not realize that all wine yeast is not created equal and this appears to be white wine yeast. That would explain the sour and tart flavors I got at the end. In retrospect, a variety pack like this would have been a smarter purchace.

Before I get too ahead of myself like annoying food blogs do, here is the recipe as I did it with notes on how I would do it differently in the future:

On The Table - Orc Abomination

I have wanted to paint an albino big monster for probably 2 years now but have not seen a technique that I liked or believed. GW has a recipe in their painting app for Pale Flesh (that looks more like parchment than skin) and Varicose Flesh (that looked a little too pink for me. Initially I wanted to try the Pale Flesh variant as I was trying to paint pale... flesh but it called for being shaded with Reikland Fleshshade. At the last moment I decided that is going to look too natural and I wanted something more pink. Varicose Flesh starts with Rakarth Flesh and to be washed with Carroburg Crimson. I was still skeptical but through I could always strip it if it looked stupid.

After washing I did think I looked stupid but pressed on anyway.

The recipe then called for Flayed One Flesh followed by Pallid Wytch Flesh. I did a test patch and didn't hate it so pressed on.

The more I painted the more I liked it. It has good depth, shading and tone. It is also surprisingly hard to mess up. Everything that is not streaky paint looks great. It fades and feathers nice. Even stippling does not look out of place. I aint even done the next stage of highlights.

If I had to do things over, I might go easier on the red shade. This is going to be my go to when I get around to doing my Ork Warboss.

Update:

I finished the Albino-Abomination and it turned out great. Next time I am going to go a little easier on the shading as it is overly dark for me.

I am especially proud of the eyes. I used solid Wazdakka Red for the pupils.

Further Update:

I tried the "pale flesh" recipe on a spare Abomination for Black Plague and it makes me glad I chose the other style. All told it is pretty solid slightly pale caucazoid flesh. It really lacked a variety in tone so I had to use some Carroburg Crimson in the deep parts. It might be good for speed painting lots of bare chests or bare arms, but it is no good for large patches of bare skin or faces.

It comes off pale but not albino. Now I have this pasty, naked mole rat of an Abomination in my box but at least I know now.

Finished - Ossunilur Broadpike (D&D mini)

My regular D&D group of years is on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic but I finished the mini for it. Blogging should be up but it is not. It is hard to stay motivated on lockdown. Despite that, lots has been finished since the last entry. Just have to write about it.

For modeling, I swapped the dagger in the left hand for a hammer from WFB and shaved off some of the Chaos icons. The belt scabbard was empty, presumably with the dagger that was in the left hand, so I replaced it with a cut down hilt from a plastic weapon. I built the base up with some shale flakes and sand.

Painting was pretty standard. Black, gold and silver were painted in my standard "base, wash, touch-up, highlight" style. I did an extra blue wash on the hammer to make it look magical. I washed some of the gold with Agrax Earthshade rather than Gryphonne Sepia to make it look older.

Buckle up for some "let me tell you about my character" below.

I started with the idea of a character whose actions were at odds with his stereotypical racial background. I dismissed the idea of a demi-human passing for human (especially the very trite surface-Drow that is done to death) as that would require lots of racial intolerance to be built into the GM's world. Most D&D games function in a race-blind world where gnomes, half-orcs, elves and humans all get along for the most part and are subject to much prejudice. The "go along to get along" mentality is high.

ON The Table - Death Watch Bucket And Visor Installation

Well the dark grey is sanded with 400 grit and triple coated. There are still little drip marks and imperfections but I think only I would notice them. I masked off the areas that are to painted blue in the picture. The babushka is to cut down on tape.

The masking went great and there are only a couple of little errors where the blue paint got under the tape. Again, not noticeable.

The only other major painting left to do on it is the light grey or silver on the cheeks and this bad boy is done. I will likely do some weathering but that is a project for later.

The next step is visor installation. I am working off this guide on the MMCC boards but was not able get precisely the things they listed. I am glad I went to my local hardware store and got help because the things I was going to order would not have worked.

I ended up getting some vinyl spacers and rubber washers to go with the short screws and t-nuts. I have the visor on order, so we'll will see how installation goes.

There is also padding that goes in the helmet that should be here this week. I know that I'll eventually put speakers, a mic and fans in there, but that is for later.



$10 Spray paint: Blue, Dark Grey
$20 Various hardware for mounting visor
$20 Visor
$12 Padding

Total $128

On The Table - Death Watch Armor: Bucket

Not the Deathwatch you were expecting?

In addition to picking up 3D printing as a hobby, I have also started down the long, long and very expensive road of apply to the Mandalorian Mercenaries Costume Club. I've always wanted to get into costuming and have been interested in the weirdos I see at cons dressed like Boba Fett had a litter with the Power Rangers. I've looked into it before and was put off by the effort and price. Not that I have more time and a little more money, I have devoted myself to it at least part-time.

Thus far, I have introduced myself on the boards and scoured them for information. I have not madea  WIP post because I just don't have that much to say or that much to show off.

This bucket is a Death Watch helmet printed in 14 parts that took about 8-10 hours each. After a week of printing and a few days of burning my eyes with glue fumes, I had the helmet assembled.

Finished - 3D Printed Dice Case

 Well, hello there.

Long time, old friend. It is not that I have not been busy but I have not been blogging in over a year. Lots of things have happened.

I have fallen out of that 40k scene starting in the Summer of 2008. Since moving from Seattle to the boonies, I have met some awesome gamers but for the most part the quality of opponents was pretty poor. I don't think this is a function of my location but rather a comment on 40k in general. Back in 2008 in North Carolina, the few people that played were... frustrating to play against to say the least. I found the amount and quality of players in Seattle better but still really only played against a few people. Even before we left, I found that I played less and less and continued to enjoy the hobby aspects.