A very special commission

Hello everyone, 

Jonathan, my eldest son turned 10 this year.

He's become increasingly interested in board games and tabletop games with me and my wife, so I wanted to give him a special gift for big boys.

Another thing he kind of likes are these pop-culture shows such as Transformers and Pokemon, that and Hot Wheels.

Convenience has it that I recently came across an Australian company from Queensland who has developed a Transformers rip-off miniatures game called 'Bot War'. Which seemed like the perfect gift to me. Funny enough, the thing he was most stoked about when he got the box was the ruler inside 😁.

The models themselves are 8-10mm scale, which means that the robots, while varying in size, are between 35-50mm tall. 

While very crisp and slightly bendable, the plastic resin they're using has two fundamental flaws. 

First is the fact it doesn't take superglue very well, the glue tends to flow around and pool, causing a crust when it finally dries. 

And secondly, the're a hell to clean. I tried filing, scraping, shaving, sanding, nothing seems to work. Even now not all of the mould lines are completely gone and I had to repair some details with greenstuff already. 

All of these flaws made them more than a bit of a challenge to prepare and paint. There are a lot of flat surfaces, making it hard to hide any mistakes. 

Considering the challenge ahead, I decided to paint up his models myself as that's one thing he's not too keen on himself. 

I still need to do the villainous Atlanticans, but here are the Vigilantes from the starter set:

• This is the leader called General Duke, apart from the missing wheels and up-turned visor he looks exactly as Optimus Prime. 

• My favourite model from the set: Wolf

• Love the pose on this one, not sure what he's transforming into though. He's called Aegis, which doesn't really tell me much either. 

• Another colour scheme I blatantly ripped of from an official Transformers model. In Bot War she's called Angel and again I'm not sure what she's supposed to be in vehicle mode, She's got two pairs of small wheels on the back of her legs, but nothing else that hints towards a kind of vehicle.

• The creator made some strange design choices when he created these bots in my humble opinion. This one's name suggests he's some kind of race car (Topstar), although he's quite bulky and looks more like some kind of construction vehicle to me. So I went with a very different colour scheme compared to the one on the website.

Size comparison, I have to start using a different kind of ruler because this one is pretty hard to read with its reflective surface.

The official set, I don't mean to brag but I think mine look just as good 😉😁.

That's it for this week, currently enjoying the term 2 holiday with my kids. Won't be doing much in the next week as we're going on a road trip. 

Stay safe everyone, until next time!

Wouter

Alien bounty hunters part II

Hello Everyone, 

Last month I've been going back and forth between my fantasy and sci-fi projects. 

My backlog of partially painted models is slinking at last, although there's still plenty of models left to do. Among them are quite a few more stand-alone mercenary type looking models. 

Not sure if I'm going to use them for games or not, we'll see. 

Khurasan has a lot of great models, very crisp and with clear details, this guy is no different. 

He is probably going to end up as a pilot of sorts, hence his high visibility clothing. Pretty happy with how he turned out. 

Really like the look of the model, he's a bit like a crossover between steampunk and post apocalypse.

One of the best models from Alternative Armies in my collection imho.

Another Critical Mass mercenary model, didn't like the original bright green scheme I did on him and decided to repaint him almost entirely. 

Not really satisfied with this guy, I'm not even sure the colour combination works to be honest. I should have gone with my gut feeling and give him dark grey armour. Maybe I'll buy him a second time and try to do him justice.

This Yoda is a Micro machines model. Like I said before he's a bit on the large side, but still only 12mm high. 

Every story needs some antagonists and evil robots are a bit of a trope. Figures are from the scene and Khurasan. 

A damsel in distress, or perhaps that's what she wants you to think before she robs you. Lucy will probably join my gang of zombie survivors once I get to them. 

She's been in my box for so long she's started to suffer a bit from leadrot (for some reason GZG figures seem more prone to this). Fingers crossed I managed to stop it and my paintjob will protect the model from deteriorating further. 

As promised, some reference to show the size of the models, measured from the top of the base. Most 15mm models have a slab to mount them on a base, which isn't taking into the measurement.

Thank you all so much for watching, 'til next time!

It will take me a bit longer to work towards my next post, hopefully next week or so.  

Wouter

In the darkness of the night

Hello everyone, 

I know I'm posting in rapid succession now, this has nothing to do with a lock down or quarantaine, but simply because I had been putting it off to take pictures of all the models I painted. Like I said in the comments of my previous post, photography isn't really my strong suit and I lack the soft- and hardware to do it properly. 

The post for today is about me trying something new, so please don't judge me too harshly on the quality of painting this time 😁, it's just me having some fun. Though I think you can see some progression towards the end.

I've always had a soft spot for these old black and white movies from the early 1900's up to halfway the century, and horror movies in particular at that. 

Blue Moon has a great set for this, which I bought a few years back when I wanted to play Dracula's America. Maybe I'll do some vampire hunters and townsfolk in the future as well. 

So, without further ado, here are my vampires:

First tryout model, a vampire knight in full armour. Not happy about the skin colour, but that's part of the journey. Model is from Alternative Armies.

Bound for eternity, a Duke and Duchess.

Buttons on the Duke's jacket were a bit too small to paint, which is why they look a bit messy. 

Poor Duchess gets lonely when her husband is out hunting, so she has gotten herself some toy boys (sorry couldn't resist). 

I'd love to hear your ideas on these ones and painting in black, white and grey tones. Especially if you have tried this out yourself. 

I know the sand is out of tone, I considered doing a cobblestone pattern on the base but then they probably would never be used in a game. 

That's why I decided to give them the same brown base as all of the rest of my fantasy models.

Finally, I decided to throw this miniature in. She's another vampire from Blue Moon, but I thought she looked more like a banshee so I painted her up in the same way as my tortured soul.

Again, thank you all for reading and leave a comment if you feel like it. 

Next post will be up in a few days. 

Regards,

Wouter

Edit: Javi asked me about how tall the models are in the comments and I remember seeing a comment in a previous post with the same question. I'm going to try and think about adding a picture with some kind of reference in my next post. Hope the picture is clear enough. 

Summoned at will

Hello everyone,

Having a bit of fun with some mutated critters this time.
Nothing major and they painted up rather quickly. I do have a plan to use them, but all will be unveiled in due time. The colour schemes may be a bit of a hint though.

I have a lot more painted models ready to go, but it took me a long time to take photographs of them. Been experimenting with a background this time. 

Electro-kitten: I tried to paint lightning bolts in it's eyes, but it was a bit too small for my skills with the brushes.

Drooler: Just a bit of sillyness but it might be poisonous

Medushark: A mutated critter or a being from outer space? 

Flamuppy: I envisioned this puppy as some kind of hell hound offspring. My first intention was to paint a molten earth pattern on him, but in the end I went for quick and easy.

                                              

Terrokin: Probably capable of shooting exploding seeds.

                                              

Thank you for reading, stay safe and healthy!

Wouter

Alien bounty hunters

Hello everyone,

The holidays are once again over, me and my family even managed to sneak out of the house for a week and enjoy a short break at the beach.
Before our leave and the start of term 2, I spend some time trying to reduce my extensive backlog of partially painted models and also played a few Rogue Planet skirmishes with my two eldest sons and we had a lot of fun.
Needless to say this has given me an extra incentive to paint some more sci-fi models.

About 5 years back I decided to get into AE bounty and bought some models to play the game. As so often happened (and happens), the project got shelved and many of the models were never finished. Looking back at the brushwork that I had done back then, it seems like I was in a hurry and made some strange decisions regarding the colour schemes.
While there was a strong urge to strip and repaint them, I decided not to. I would never get through my lead mountain If I went down that route.
So, all I did was some touching up, painted the base in the same wasteland colour as the rest of my models and corrected some obvious mistakes.

The first guy was nearly done and it didn't take me long to get him ready for a game.

Another bounty hunter, with a glowing plasma gun this time. 

The next three were already completely finished. However, like I said: "mistakes were made".
Not only did all three of them have the same dark brown skin-tone (no clue why I painted them like this anymore), the one on the left also had a completely monotone blue-grey armour.
Luckily, nothing I couldn't solve with the use of some washes and a fast repaint. 

 

And lastly, the boss, nothing new here except for a repaint of the base and the removal of some static grass (which was incredible hard to do).

Pretty sure this is a Star Wars Micro Machines model from one of their interactive terrain sets, which is a little bit bigger (closer to 20mm scale probably), but close enough for me to use him in 15mm. 

He's perfect for a number of roles such as a noble, rich merchant, mob boss or even a religious figure of note.

Ready for some more Rogue Planet, Traveller, 5 Parsecs, Gunstorm or who knows what else. 

Thank you for reading!

Wouter

Easter-pocalypse

Happy Easter everyone!

My day started way too early today, as my kids were very to eager to start searching for eggs. With them now suffering from chocolate indigestion, I have the time to make another  post about some older, partially models I finally managed to finish.
I'm sorry for posting in a more rapid succession compared to my usual rate, I painted up a few more models in the past month I didn't post about yet which I decided to share with you fine citizens.

The first models I want to show you are some Wasteland warriors I bought for 15mm Rogue Trader and Tomorrow's war. I think they were to be fielded as all kinds of undesirables such as, insurgents, raiders, bandits or slavers.
They kind of resemble the many punks you see in the artwork for Logan's world in the Rogue Trader rule book and this was no doubt what inspired me.
They're among the first 15mm miniatures I bought 6 to 7 years ago and I'm actually amazed I never finished them before. The models are probably among the best sculpts I got.
There's a few left in the set which are still on my paint table, so far I only did the ones that were either finished already or waiting for that final touch of paint.
Couldn't resist to change a few things though.
For instance, I kind of redid the skin tone; which was a strange leathery brown and a few other details.

A couple of droids, looking for their owner.

Just noticed I took the picture with the white robot's backside facing the camera. These were primed when I found them, nothing more. 

A more rent acquisition from Alternative Armies. He's a bit of a rugged explorer/bounty hunter type character who will also act as the leader of my wasteland raiders in some scenarios.

Another robot, not sure what it's role is as it looks heavily modified. 

Maybe it's accompanying this fine Imperial officer.

Another batch done, ready for the next group. 

Time to entertain the kids and keep them from fighting (the Holiday is already starting to bore them)

Thank you for reading!

Wouter

A merry band of adventurers

Hello everyone,

Hope you all manage to stay safe and healthy!
No quarantaine here in Australia, but a lot of do's and don'ts. Also, the restaurants are closed and people stay indoors because many of them are scared. For example, before the extended Term 1 holiday there were less than 40 children still attending the school, including my three boys.
One of the reasons I decided to keep my kids at school is the fact I know my own limits. Homeschooling is all fine and dandy, but I'm no teacher and can never give them the same level of education they receive at school.
Luckily, the shops we go to for groceries are slowly getting the 'essentials', like toilet paper, back in stock now many people have locked themselves in at home with they're 100 TP rolls and 50kg of pasta and rice.

I did a few courses over the past few weeks and had far less time to paint. Nevertheless did I manage to finish of a few models, I'll share them over the next few posts.
Another thing that happened is the fact I got on Instagram, which is a lot quicker and easier to use than blogger. There is a big BUT though, one of the things social media doesn't allow you to do is actually tell a story and give your post a title; which I think is one of the main selling points for blogger at the moment. My biggest problem with the platform seems to be the fact I'm following way too many blogs and find myself drowning in posts I want to read but just haven't got enough time for. Another issue is the fact it just doesn't seem to work so well to create a post on my phone.
I decided to keep on blogging, but I have to go through my readers list and make some hard decisions to stop following some other blogs, just to keep it manageable.

Anyway, welcome to a new post about my progress on getting enough 15mm fantasy miniatures painted to start playing the actual Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign.
The models below would also be perfect for some 15mm Dungeon crawling, something I'm considering of doing somewhere in the far future.
I didn't spend a lot of time on these because the holiday was almost over and I knew I was going to have far less time once school and my courses started.

There's a couple of Rogues, a fighter and a Wizard of sorts, which is still the traditional make-up for many fantasy roleplaying games.
But let's start with the best companion for any group of adventurers.

My second knight, nothing special. One of the things I wanted was to have the royal symbol on at least one of the two knights so I can create a themed force for other skirmish games like Song of Blades and Heroes.

Some thieves/rogues I did real quick and with a limited palette.

My wizard in this post isn't necessarily meant for Rangers of Shadow Deep. I'm thinking of sculpting a lovely apprentice for him once my sculpting skills are up for it and use for Frostgrave. The snow/frost effect I did near the edge of the base is meant to represent a spell that originated from his wand. Despite the fact that I had a colour scheme in mind this didn't work out as I wanted and he looks a lot more blue than white.

I also created some more markers and started working on my terrain. For the wattle fence I used a technique I found online, didn't work out that well for 15mm terrain but it's still usable. 

The tokens are from a french game called Alkemy and are a kind of spirit well token if I remember correctly.

Despite my late post, I'm happy with the progress I made during the Christmas holiday and hope to keep a steady pace throughout the year. 

Thank you all for reading!

Wouter