|
Post by ednote on May 24, 2014 11:27:42 GMT -5
Scott, Have you got the phone # for that xenobiologist? Never mind, I'm in that brutal range of too strange but not strange enough for her... A shako is the big, hairy headgear worn by the guards at Buckingham Palace. There used to be entire units on Napoleonic battlefields wearing those things. (And people wonder why fur trappers could make so much money, it wasn't necessarily the coats, it was the hats. That included beaver hair for the felt in top hats until silk top hats became the rage because a fashionable you Frenchman accidently damaged his beaver felt hat in the Orient and couldn't get another so he had a hat made of Silk instead. It went over so well that it became the rage and the prices paid for beaver pelts collapsed overnight because all of the society men switched to silk top hats.) Regards, Ed o' the Trivia
|
|
|
Post by mister frau blucher on May 29, 2014 20:51:00 GMT -5
I am glad you started your blog, Scott, but don't ever be concerned about leaving pix of your miniatures here!
Bret
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on May 30, 2014 19:36:36 GMT -5
I am glad you started your blog, Scott, but don't ever be concerned about leaving pix of your miniatures here! Bret Thanks for your comments. The Sea Story happened exactly as I described. I was surprised I came up with the comeback as quickly as I did! I plan on adding pages for gaming after action reports, and have every intention of having a DCG page. I honestly haven't played any games since last summer (homeschooling tends to consume all available free time, especially since I teach Math, History and Government after I get home from work!) and have been focusing on basing my existing painted miniatures for the past several months. I just finished the last batch today and will probably be updating the blog later this weekend after I take some photos. Then, it's back to painting zombies. Truthfully, I can use a break from two-part epoxy fumes.... Before life caught up with me, I was about half way through ROC. I broke out my paperwork from the game a few weeks ago, but couldn't remember what I'd intended to do next - I'd lost the "vibe". I eventually realized I needed to start over. I'll probably start from scratch with either OHM or SM. Probably SM as I need to paint a miniature for OHM. That'll probably be the next fantasy miniature I paint after the dragon that's in the queue after the current crop of zombies.
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on May 30, 2014 22:47:56 GMT -5
Just updated my blog with photos of examples of the majority of my remaining painted and based fantasy miniatures. Martian Metals bears, wolves, Giants, Ogres, Trolls (and a Splintered Light Miniatures Bear Warrior thrown in for good measure); a Steve Barber Models three headed dog and some SBM snakes; Chariot Miniature Giant Spiders and Ratmen; and some Blood Dawn Elementals. If anyone speaks Blogger and HTML, I could use some advice. Whenever I edit a page, my internal links get appended with with a blogger href line that trashes my links. Consequently, every time I edit the page - even to correct a typo - I have to fix all of the internal links on that page. Not hard, but annoying as all get out. Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?
|
|
|
Post by darkpumpkin on Jun 22, 2014 6:31:46 GMT -5
Great stuff nukesnipe. I'm just looking at your blog and appreciating your collection. I have some nostalgia for 15mm due to some of the old Martial Metals (I think?) Traveller line but you've really taken it to the next level.
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Jun 22, 2014 20:17:14 GMT -5
Great stuff nukesnipe. I'm just looking at your blog and appreciating your collection. I have some nostalgia for 15mm due to some of the old Martial Metals (I think?) Traveller line but you've really taken it to the next level. If I called you 'Pumkin, would you take it the wrong way? Seriously, thanks for the kind words. I just finished a batch of Rebel Minis Zombies and am putting the finishing touches on a Reaper Shadow Dragon (the old metal one, not the new "Bones" thingy). I've been playing with The Army Painter's Quick Shades and have decided, based on the last round of zombies, that the "Strong" tone is too dark for my 15mm tastes. Instead of shadowed, my zombies look dirty, which is okay, I guess, but not what I want my "living" miniatures to look like. Simultaneously, I had a "mishap" with the strong tone on the Shadow Dragon. It was too big to "dip" into the can, so I brushed the material on. Unfortunately, the brush was not large enough for the task (even though it was the largest brush I had for miniature painting) and the silly stuff began to set before I could remove the excess. UG-LY. Fortunately, I was able to repaint it (I'd contacted The Army Painter for suggestions on how to remove it if I couldn't repaint it over the lacquer) and hit it with their Soft Tone product using a 1" wide brush. Much better results. I hope to finish basing it this week and post some more photos next weekend after my wife gets back in town with my camera and I get back from Texicon. I've got another set of Rebel Minis zombies on my workbench right now along with a "not-Lara Croft" (look for the photo of the "Xenobiologist" in an earlier post on these forums), a "not-Hit Girl" and a Two Hour Wargames "Carolee" miniatures. The "not Hit Girl" (from the movie "Kick A$$" I'm told) is a 12 year old assassin. As an 18mm miniature, standing up she'd be about 15mm tall, but the way she's posed she's much more compact. She'll be a challenge, and probably the second of the three ladies I paint (after Carolee). The "not-Lara" has me a bit flummoxed as to how to paint her. The "traditional" Lara with the turquoise top seems to be a no-brainer, but the miniature has a bare midriff (the turquoise top does not show her midriff in the games). However, starting with "Angel of Darkness" (yes, I'm a Lara Croft fan boy. Call me a pig.) she starts showing her midriff with a black top, and the follow on games (up to the most recent one) continue that trend, albeit in field drab. I sort of like the field drab look. Decisions, decisions. At least she's the last of the three I intend to paint, so it will be a bit before I get to her. In any case, thanks for the comments and more to follow!
|
|
|
Post by darkpumpkin on Jun 23, 2014 6:33:30 GMT -5
Too cool. Lara is great and I have a soft spot for your fire elemental. Keep 'em coming!
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Jul 29, 2014 20:59:23 GMT -5
Just updated my blog with some more zombies from Rebel Minis. And, I think I figured out the issue with my blog links. Apparently when using Blogspot, if you edit pages using the "Compose" view, your links get hosed. If you use the HTML view, everything works fine. Weird. More zombies on the work bench. I'm trying to get all my zombies and zombie-related minis painted so I can start an All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out campaign. I did finish the Shadow Dragon (not really happy with it) and I have a Kraken primed and ready for paint, so I am pecking away at my large backlog of fantasy miniatures. Question: what do your Dark Elves look like?
|
|
|
Post by mister frau blucher on Aug 3, 2014 12:22:09 GMT -5
I love those zombie cheerleaders!
I have heard Simple Green is great as a paint stripper. I have had good (not perfect) success with Pinesol. I have gotten a lot of old figures off of Ebay and I soak those with bad paint jobs a few days and that usually does the trick. But for those real difficult to remove jobs, I should pick up some Simple Green.
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Aug 4, 2014 12:24:42 GMT -5
The Cheerleaders were kind of fun to paint, though it took me a lot longer to get the shoes painted than I thought it would. Word of warning: if you're going to do a Google Image search for "Cheerleader" you might want to make sure the kids aren't around!
I haven't had a chance to do any painting for a couple of weeks not, but I did take some time this weekend to make some trees for the table top. I'm a frustrated model railroader (no room, less time), so whenever I can do something that I can convince myself is model railroad related (to justify the expense of my locomotive and rolling stock inventory) I jump on it. Making trees fit the bill....
Turns out last summer grasshoppers chewed up two of my Texas Sage bushes, which really ticked me off as they were quite large and did much for the curb appeal of my property. After treating them for the pesky insects I decided to see how they did this past Spring. Then, we had the big ice storm last December and that did them in. I finally dug them up a couple of weeks ago and dragged them to the bottom of the hill with the rest of my brushy trash. Friday afternoon I got the crazy idea to make trees, so I trooped down to the bottom of the hill and dragged one of the bushes up to the back porch. With my trusty pruning shears in hand, I started cutting off sections that looked like they'd make interesting trees, thinking that actual wood armatures would make more realistic trees.
My goal is to make realistic and inexpensive trees. Using commercial kits, you can make a tree for about $1.50 - perhaps a little less if you catch a good deal. The problem is that for even a modest forested scene you can burn through a hundred trees with little effort. My previous effort at tree making had me making armatures out of solid wire (the stuff folks use to make bead necklaces) and using Reindeer Moss for the foilage. Those look pretty good and easily pass the "three foot" test. This time, however, I'm exploring two different foilage methods: clump foilage and polyfiber/flocking.
Making trees with clump foilage is the same as making them with the standard Woodland Scenics kits. The only real choice to make is which adhesive to use. I tried rubber cement, but that proved too messy and slow. I then tried some Locktite spray adhesive. That looked promising at first, but it ended up not adhering tightly and all the foilage fell off. So, I ended up using the old standby - hot glue. Works fine every time; just got to make sure you don't burn your fingers with the hot glue!
Once I burn my way through my stock of clump foilage I will explore the polyfiber/flocking method. Basically, you take some green polyfiber and stretch it out until it is very, very thin (almost invisible) and then stretch it over your armature. Then, hit it with a light spray adhesive, such as hair spray, and sprinkle coarse turf flocking on the polyfiber. That method is supposed to make the trees look "airy" and "see-through". I guess I'll see when I'm through.
Perhaps I'll post some pictures on my blog. I just realized I have some sci-fi miniatures that haven't made it to the blog....
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Oct 21, 2014 20:15:31 GMT -5
Well, it took me forever, but I finally finished the miniatures I started back in June. More zombies and survivors. Star suggests you check out my blog Distractions In Miniature.
|
|
|
Post by vladtaltos on Oct 22, 2014 9:10:31 GMT -5
Very nice job, Scott.
Non-working link.
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Oct 22, 2014 9:33:10 GMT -5
Very nice job, Scott. Non-working link. Vlad, Thanks for the heads up. I thought I checked it last night. In any case, it should be working now.
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Dec 16, 2014 21:25:31 GMT -5
Bubba says, "Y'all come over to Scott's blog and check out his new miniature photos. Beer's cold, but y'all better hurry!"
|
|
|
Post by nukesnipe on Jan 18, 2015 0:12:48 GMT -5
Alice suggests you swing by Scott's blog and check out his latest zombie apocalypse minis.
|
|