Vyndica - Zaku

 Still working on the Perfect Scale Zaku. I was a little worried about the electrical components as I am not electrical wizard and the bits are super fiddly. After wiring the whole thing backwards and experimenting with the admittedly bullshit wiring. Honestly I am surprised that it worked at all let alone so well.

The LED is effing bright as eff! I am also super glad that I glazed it red. I was watching a lot of Mobile Suit Gundam and Gundam Wing while doing this and it gave me a moderate to large boner when the light came on and the eye moved.

I removed the clear plastic part and clear coated the whole thing and I was rubbing off paint every time I touched the head. This mostly worked but some bits flaked off when I mounted the armor.

Things are going well but slow. Up next is to finish the armor and the power cables that circle the head. 

Vyndica - Alpha Legion Lord

Wrapping up on the Alpha Legion CSM Lord for a Vyndica commission. I know that I haven't blogged about this project but it all came together pretty quickly.

The client, jtalley12, posted for an Alpha Legion leader for his army. He didn't give any real direction other than to say that if there were conversions that he would be willing to pay for them "if the price were right." In conversation with him, I confirmed that he wanted the standard blue/green colors and that he wanted a "tactical" look. He didn't really expound on what that meant but I took it to mean that he wanted them to look more like soldiers rather BDSM space demons.

I asked what he wanted and he said he trusted me and I could pick bits. I sent him links to some eBay posts for single Forge World Alpha Legion bits. I found some and, since his deposit just about covered them, I pulled the trigger.

This is when things start to get a little weird. The links I sent were to a bits seller in Germany. While I didn't point this out specifically, I kind of assumed that he looked at everything I sent him and I didn't need to hold his hand and walk him through things. I told him that I would keep him updated once the bits got here.

Fixing Vehicles - The New Toughness

Just had a good drunken idea about how to reconcile Toughness with how vehicles take damage in 40k.

Rather than a Toughness characteristic, vehicles would have a Durability score. Wvery time they took damage you would roll versus their durability score. If passed then they were durable enough to shake it off much like biologics and Toughness. If they fail they reduce their Durability score and keep moving. This represents a vehicles ability to shrug off damage but also slowly accumulate damage as well.

Borrowing a mechanic form Deadlands RPG, We could add in steps to the Durability characteristic where for each mutiple of the step, the vehicle would add in a mishap (basically a roll on the vehicle damage table). For example a Durability rating of 4/9 would mean that a vehicle could fail 9 Durability rolls but at the 4th and 8th failure they would get things like weapons blown off or immobilized.

I know that drunk me has not thought this through very well but it is still an interesting thought.

Vyndica - Zaku

I know that I B&C a lot about how hard this perfect scale Zaku kit is but it is really hard. Assembling the head alone is a 13 step process. At least all the pieces are labeled withe a sprue letter and a bit part. that makes it easier as so many of these pieces look a lot alike.

I found a helpful site that shows pictures of this kind of an assembly and that is helping a lot. It is hard to know how things fit together. This is really speeding things up as it lets me see not only what bits I should be grabbing but also how they should fit together. It is also super helpful to see what edges will be exposed or hidden so I can paint or leave them hidden as appropriate.

I told the client that I was concerned about heavily painting (base, wash, highlight etc) as many pf the places they join do not allow for any excess space. There is a gear in the head that moves the eye inside of the head. If I had panted the bits on sprue like I had intended, then the eye would have either not fit at all or stuck when trying to move it. I messaged him and asked If I could drybrush all the internal parts metallic and paint only the bits that I knew were going to be exposed and safe. 

Finished - DnD Mini

Behold! Adr Al'akhir in all of his glory. Major inspiration for this comes from the description of Kossuthan priest and their garb in Faiths and Avatars from 2nd Edition D&D. I knew he was going to be red and gold as those are thematic and I am pretty awesome at painting them. The silver areas are inspired by the box art.

I knew I wanted to do the hems in a burnt theme based on the description in F&A and I knew how to do it thanks to my flamers and plasma weapons in 40k. That was done with a dry brush of Mournfang Brown and then a drybrush/stippling of Abaddon Black. It was not homogenized enough for me, so I did a little wash of Agrax Earthshade to mute the colors.

The dark skin was an experiment. I had never done anything like this before. I based it with Bugman's Glow then washed it with Reikland Fleshtone. This did not make it dark enough for me so I washed it with Druchi Violet painted into the recesses. A touch up of Bugman's Glow and that was about it. I wish I could have highlighted it some more but the end result is ok.

Very happy with this mini. It cost me 50% of $25 as it is a set of 2 minis in a box. The paint job took considerable time for a single mini that bordered on 10 hours. I value it at $40. Total replacement cost is $63.

Looking forward to causing some serious damage with this class in the near future. 

Vyndica - Zaku

Dear god, what have I done. I put in a bid for a commission on a "perfect grade" Gundam suit from the old Mobile Suit Gundam. I had put together similar models like the Dreamforge Knight proxies and I thought I could handle it.

This is the most complicated model I have ever attempted.

There are more sprues and bits of different kinds than in any kit I have ever seen. It makes the Dreamforge kits looks like single-post GW models. The head assembly alone is 13 steps.

I know that I can assemble and paint this doing honor to the model and the old series. I bid $120 on the job and I am going to earn every penny of that. 

On The Table - DnD Mini

I have done a lot of work on this mini since I posted last. I should have taken this picture after all the base colors were down. I think I have used every color of red on this mini so far and I am not even half way yet.

Based the mini Khorne Red and applied Wazdakka Red liberally over that. That was my overall base color to work up from. I washed it red (which is a mix of Fugan Orange, Seraphim Sepia and Carroburg Crimson), touched it up with Wazdakka Red and then did a pretty sloppy highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlette. It then got washed with Seraphim Sepia and then touched up with Evil Sunz Scarlette.

All that washing really sunk into the cracks and crevices especially on the front. In some spots it is so thick that it fills in the gaps. This is a mistake on my part for painting with too much beer in me.

Up next, the red needs some more work and then I start on the skin.

On The Table - DnD Mini

I have fallen in with a bad crowd and they are into Monsters and Mazes... I mean Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Ed. The character I chose is a Firewalker, a Specialty Priest of Kossuth. He wears a combination of ring-mail and leather armor. His weapon of choice is a ball and chain with a back up of an OG sling.

I scoured the Reaper archives, but could not find anything close. After saying that I had looked fairly extensively on my own and wasn't intereested in the "build your own custom mini services" I posted on a very unhelpful Facebook group where the only suggestions were "look at Reaper minis" and "here is a link to hero forge." I swear people read like 5 words of a post then comment.

I found a DnD mini on eBay by chance from WotC that is kind of close but will require some modification. My plan is to swap that rod for a ball and chain. With a little re-position of his right hand to the horizontal position, he can be holding the chain in a pretty threatening position. I may be able to sculpt the ring-mail but I am unsure about it.

That is the plan, anyway.

As far as painting, I am going to do him in red/orange robes with burnt edges. I have a pretty good idea of how to do that.