Stricken Saucer...

... and a thank you.

One of the many joys of working with someone like James is his mischievous sense of humour.  If truth be told we probably share the same trait, which is why when a seemingly preposterous idea is floated it, more often than not, is given serious thought and consideration.  This is how a fully equipped, weird science, laboratory found its way into Schloss Itter's dungeons.  James' April 1st post, detailing the vile evildoings of 'Dachs Werks', was an absolute joy and I loved painting Bob Murch's 'Pulp Miniatures' that he had sourced to be part of it.

With Dachs Werks now a 'thing', my mind was pricked by a memory from the dim and distant past.  Didn't I have a crashed Martian Space Saucer?  Of course I did, part of the long forgotten, Mars Attacks project now hidden in the loft.  After much searching, rummaging and the occasional cross word, I stumbled across my quarry, a large lump of resin representing a stricken saucer!  James, quick to endorse the foolishness of the idea, supplied a base that was the exact same size as that of the crashed Storch, the idea being that we could swap out one for the other when photographing the model or just to simply amuse everyone at 'Salute'.

Once safely attached to its new oval base, I had hoped that this was going to be an easy win, but the sudden realisation that I had left my trusty airbrush at school was a cruel blow, I was going to have to do this by hand!  Mixing some Vallejo Matt Medium with Oily Steel, I carefully covered the bulk of the saucer.  I am not sure that I fully understand the science behind Matt Medium, but have often used it when painting large surface areas with metallic paints.  Not only does it dull the surface sheen allowing washes and glazes to take hold, but also seems to ease the application of the paint, reducing visible brushstrokes.   Slowly but surely the downed disk started to take shape.

This was one of those models that kept wanting more and more attention and my initial thoughts that this was going to be a quick job soon evaporated as I started to find myself keen to try out all sorts of ideas.  Blue became a recurring colour theme and was used for what could be described as the energy cells and running lights, even trying a touch of Object Source Lighting.  On reflection this probably could have gone better and in the case of the running lights not necessary at all given that it had actually crashed, but nonetheless proved an interesting exercise.

Finishing touches included some German crosses, purloined from another plastic kit, and some gloss varnish for the cracked canopy and lights.  I have to say that I am rather pleased with how it turned out.  Total nonsense, but can't wait to see it placed on the lower paddock.  The addition of the little grey men is another tale all together and came about with a chance email exchange with Mark Dixon of 'CP Models'.

Mark had spotted some pictures of Weird West miniatures that I had painted and with 'CP Models' now holding the range, asked if he could use them on his website.  I was flattered to be asked, but as a thank you, Mark asked if there were something from his range that I might find a use for?  The truth of the matter is that there were any number of miniatures that caught my eye, but given the project that was currently on the table I asked if I might have some Grey Aliens, to act as a suitable crew.  The little grey men were duly dispatched and I am thrilled to share them here, thank you Mark.

With the uncertainty of what will happen with regards to work, particularly from the start of June, I am keen to get as much finished as I can whilst at home.  That said it is evident that there is a degree of mission creep starting to pervade my best laid plans, something which I intend to embrace wholeheartedly. 

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General Tor

Every homicidal Martian invasion force needs a commander so allow me to present the evil General Tor! Moving away from the more conventional colour palate associated with this character, and heavily influenced by examples seen on the wonderful 'Nothing but Sixes' blog, I've used much of the same colour scheme employed with the Martian grunts.

This is a wonderfully dynamic pose, with the flowing cloak presenting an opportunity to let loose with the blending techniques, but I'm afraid that photographs don't really do the final effect justice.

It is still a matter of some embarrassment that I have not really done this game justice, but who knows, one day I'll dust of the core box and give it anther go, but in the interim, and by way of target practice, I couldn’t resist painting up the flaming cows to accompany the chaps.

Char-grilled steak on the hoof, this is actually a single piece of plastic, but fabulous fun and certainly better than the cardboard template that comes with the original game, now where did I put those big stompy robots?

Ack, Ack, Ack!

With now just seven days until the start of this years challenge, I am keen to post the last of my entries for the previous year and so I’m thrilled to finally present them here for your approval. 'Mars Attacks, the miniatures game' was to be my first dalliance into the wonderful world of crowd funding and proved to be a rather expensive introduction. I was swept away with the excitement of it all and before I knew what I had done a large amount of plastic was winging its way towards ‘Awdry Towers’ where it has sat idly – until now!

These then are the Martian grunts and boast a wonderful array of weaponry, perfect for reducing the resistance of the human race to a smouldering pile of ashes. With regards to the miniatures themselves, they are a good match for most 28mm miniatures and certainly had enough detail to keep my brush interested whilst painting. What I didn’t enjoy, however. were the mould lines and although I did remove some they proved too numerous to remove altogether. Of course what they do have, to counter this mild irritation, are their own clear plastic helmets – what an inspired addition!

There are quite a few painting tutorials online and I managed to match many of the colours used to those in my own collection with only a couple of additions like monster brown and Hydra turquoise. One site that proved to be an invaluable source of inspiration was 'Keith's Wargaming/Painting Blog'. Keith also shared a way of dealing with the embarrassing bendy weapon syndrome that these models, made from soft plastic, occasionally suffer from; wonderful for shooting around corners, but they do rather take the sheen off your nicely painted miniature! A relatively simple procedure, but I mention it hear to alert you to a potential pitfall. The idea is that you drop wobbly, weapon, wielding, warrior into a glass of nearly boiling water, remove, reshape and plunge in a cold bath before the plastic memory has time to right itself. It really is that simple, but so transfixed was I by the shapes and colours that I left mine in for far too long and then initially forgot the cold bath - they were little Martian blancmanges!

Finally they were complete and I have to say that I'm rather pleased with them.  It was rather fun working on something so different and using colours that don't normally get a run out.  Still plenty more to do, but first I must pluck up the courage to stick the helmets down!

Ack, Ack, Ack!

Paint Table Saturday#73

A huge thank you to all those that continue to leave comments on these posts; they are gratefully received. There has been a little bit of progress this week with the completion of General Tor and the first few passes at a couple of Zombicide walkers. Given that these are plastic miniatures, mass produced for their respective board games there is still plenty of detail to keep me interested.   

In other news, I have also been fiddling around with a couple of penguins just for fun.  Burtonesque armaments, scavenged from a variety of sources, have now been fastened to the flightless felons' backs!  I just wish I had a modicum of skill when it came to putty pushing; the ubiquitous greenstuff once again adhering to everything but its intended target.  Still with a bit of luck it will come together when painted.

Finally an image of all that I managed for the 'Vth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge'.  This meagre* collection represents just shy of four months work, but did achieve a total of 1040 points, thanks manly to the very supportive voting of my fellow challengers when it came to the bonus themed rounds.  

*Take a look a what others managed to achieve in the time and you will understand why I use the word meagre; simply staggering amounts of work here.

Paint Table Saturday#72

The first Paint Table post, post 'Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' and this is what is left.  I managed to reach my target score thanks mainly to the generous voting of my fellow challengers in the bonus theme rounds.  The curious remnants have all got paint on them to a greater or lesser degree so my current plan is to quietly work my way through them.

That said, there is always room for a distraction and so I'm not altogether surprised to see this character slip on to the table!

Plenty more pain tables to admire here.

The Martians have invaded!

…we interrupt proceedings to report that a sleepy village in East Sussex has been overrun by a Martian horde, its sole intent - the destruction of the human race!

Just shy of a year ago to the day, I pledged an exorbitant amount of money* to help fund the 'Mars Attacks' Kickstarter that was launched by 'Mantic Games'.  A bizarre series of circumstances combined to see me totally absorbed by the Kickstarter phenomenon and before I knew it, I was being swept away by the excitement of it all.  Already a fan of the imagery produced by the Topps trading card company, 'Mars Attacks' appealed to my childish sensibilities and the idea of it becoming a board game that I might be able to persuade my non-wargaming friends to get involved with seemed like too good an opportunity to miss out on.  

*certainly more than I'm willing to disclose here!

Very excited!

This was my first experience of Kickstarter and as the campaign progressed my lack of experience started to show.  As stretchgoals were unlocked, I became gripped with desire to become a completist, I couldn't miss out on anything!  This wasn't helped by the fact that everything looked 'so darn cool'!  When the minutes finally ticked down and the time came to pay up, my wallet and I winced at the realisation of what I had done.  Having made brief reference to my indiscretion to the Saintly Mrs. Awdry, the matter was forgotten and I have had a year to recoup my expenditure and expunge the guilt!  

 Whilst the time lapsed between funding and distribution has been good for my soul, it did somewhat dampen my enthusiasm for the project; after all a year here at '28mm Victorian Warfare' can see a myriad of projects come and go!  This feeling of apathy gave way to one of frustration when news that the game was being shipped.  I read, more and more about it on many of the splendid weblogs that I enjoy, but still no sign of my pledge!  

Vehicles and 'Stompy' robots!

That was until earlier this week when I received an email from UPS saying that they were going to deliver my 6.5kg package on Friday.  Euphoria soon turned to dread as I realised that we would be at work and so what was to happen to my invading force of Martians?  

Terrain

There was no obvious way of contacting UPS to arrange an alternate date or address for delivery and so I was resolved to wait for the inevitable email alerting me to the fact that "your parcel was unable to be delivered", but it never came.  It wasn't until we opened the door on our return from work that I discovered why - yes they had been, but had now taken my goodies away again.  

The good guys.

Fortunately  for me they had not gone too far and I was able to track down the abortive Martian invasion at, of all places, a Brantano Footwear store on the local industrial estate - I know not why!  With the parcel safely ensconced back at 'Awdry Towers' and the 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry' appeased with a large mug of tea, I quietly got on with preparing a light supper, all the time my thoughts drifting to the large package discretely positioned at my corner of the dining room table - all thoughts of indifference, vanished!  After supper, as the 'Square of Despair' droned on in the background, I surreptitiously opened the box - I was like a child in a sweetshop, a magical moment indeed.  

The Martian horde.

After a cursory look at all the plastic loveliness and brushing off a comment of, 'We're going to need a bigger house" with a suitably contrite reply, I decided it was best to wait for the morning before having a closer look.  So as the Lady of the house is currently charging up and down the hockey pitch, yours truly is now knee deep in plastic Martians.  The enormity of what I have done is starting to dawn to me.  This was supposed to be a small investment in a skirmish level game to encourage a few friends round for a 'beer and pretzel' type evening, but oh no, not anymore!  I seem to have enough gaming mats to cover the entire ground floor of 'Awdry Towers', more buildings** to give 'Barrett Homes' a run for their money and a plastic population explosion to match a small developing country!  

**in various states of repair

The hapless ground forces. 

So where does this leave me, hobby wise, you might ask?  Well apart from being as giddy as a kipper, the painting table has an unholy combination of Martians and Dinosaurs roaming about it, but this will have to be a tempory aberration.  I think what is required is a quick stocktake and a healthy dose of common sense.  After a brief interlude playing with the large 'stompy' robot and flying saucer this morning, I shall have to pack up all but the core game and see if I can't fathom out how to use the 'A.I. solo game cards' to at least justify the purchase, after all everyone knows that to leave a Dinosaur unattented for too long is to court disaster - that and the 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry' is due home soon!

The rules.

Ack! Ack! Ack!