Re-basing and new photography!

So last week I decided to re-base my figures on 3mm mdf bases. Gone are the low profile 1mm bases I had been using. I really liked them a lot but honestly they may have been too plain and they just didn't have the right look and feel for a project based around vintage minis.  Basing is a real pain and I'm always looking for a method which is quick and looks good. And yet honestly prepping these mdf bases isn't all that quick. Each base gets a couple of neodynium magnets embedded in them and then a coat of matt black enamel. All this even before the minis are attached. Then a mix of cat litter and sand is glued on. The actual painting of the base is quick enough though using the same grey mix as the previous bases.

Also today I've tried a new lighting set-up for photographing minis. It consists of a daylight lamp above the figures with two desk lamps on the left and right. Photographing figures has been a major source of frustration for me over the years so this may a big step forward! 

Some more Orks...

Some more Orks this time troopers from the first box set. Got a lot of these figures so naturally a wee bit of conversion work is in order, if only to add a bit of individuality to my duplicates. Left to Right we have Punky, Cool Shades and Brillcream all lined up and ready for a planetary skirmish!!

Ork conversions!

I haven't had an awful lot of spare time to play around with minis these past few months hence the lack of posts but I'm still tinkering away when I get the chance. After concentrating on some old fantasy minis for a while my interest has swung back to sci-fi minis. I've dug out some more of my Rogue Trader collection and been getting some more minis up to the primed stage.

As things stand I'm gonna be needing a lot more Orks. Regardless of what rules I'd be using they're always going to be low quality troops and as such would need to out number most other races. Here's a pic of a couple I've messed around with.

A lot of gamers will recognise the fellow on the right as Hhruk from the 1980's space Ork Raiders boxed set. That's his right arm attached to the cork! It's been converted so he will be holding the gun low instead of up in the air. It'll make things easier to paint them separately. He'll end up being one of the leaders of the Orks when they make it to the table.

Don't know a lot about the fellow on the left but he can be seen in a White Dwarf advert from the time. Can't make out he was given a name. I've tweaked him in a few places and placed a spike on his helmet.

Grenadier Ettin...

Popped this fellow off his old base in order to rebase him in my current style. Couldn't resist a wee bit of tinkering to get a bit more detail into the faces!

New recruits...

Managed to get hold of some more giants recently. Here are two more C28 giants along with a lovely old minifigs cyclops.
 

 The cyclops is a pretty small figure by todays standards similar in stature to some of the old citadel/asgard hillgiants. I think that as long as they hit really hard in a game they're height isn't an issue!

Next up I managed to get these two figure pretty cheaply in an ebay auction.  On the left is a Ral Partha frost giant and far right another C28 giant. ( Foundry viking added for scale!!).

Having 3 bodies and 3 heads gives me some options as to the arrangements of the giants. I intially though of putting the viking style head on the body with the scale mail tunic, then the eye patch head on the body holding the cannon ball in his left hand. ( This combination was the one used in the drawing from the first citadel compenduim). That would leave the chaos head to go with the head hunter body. Hmmm decisions!

Did a bit of conversion work on this fellow to give him two weapons. The axe I had in the bits box but the handle had been snipped of years earlier. I remade the handle and drilled a hole in the hand. Then it was a case of gluing in place and the sculpting a hand around it. Think he will look pretty mean when he's finished!

Thanks for looking!

C28 Giant...2

Here's the giant from the previous post all primed and ready for painting.

c28 Giant...

I won this fellow on ebay a while ago and he has been kicking around the workbench for a while now. When he arrived his nose was pretty damaged and flattened like he'd been dropped on his face more than once. I greenstuffed a new nose which lead to a pretty extensive facelift! Been tinkering with him for a while adding bits of putty here and there.

I didn't really like the weapon he came with so decided to make a basic wooden club for hi to bash things with. A plastic paintbrush seemed like a good size and shape so it was cut down to a decent club size.

It was pretty simple to then add a thin layer of greenstuff and add a bit of texture.

Phobos marine...

Here's a pic of the finished Phobos helmet marine.

Medic conversion...

Took a pic of this fellow today. The body was originally a medic which I didn't like all that much. Now for a while I'd wanted to put a different style of helmet on a power armour body thought I'd give it a go on this figure. Once I'd made the new helmet I decided not to glue it until I'd made a mould so I could cast it in resin. Will give me extras to play with and some for anyone else who may be interested!

Missiles incoming... 2!!

Remember this guy from the blogs very first post? Well I found the propeller bit off the rocket launcher on my desk and had a change of heart. Yes it looks totally daft but it is iconic in a way. I resolved to re-attach it after filing down the fins somewhat. Changed the face a bit too! Have to stop tinkering with greenstuff and get more painting done!

Space fox 2...

I finished the gun on Foxy and also did a bit of prep on a vintage Ral Partha robot from 1977! Lovely vintage true 25mm figure. The arm was pretty weak so I replaced the cast powerline to the gun with one made from copper wire. Added strenght to the arm as well as being thinner. The gun was pretty basic looking, like a retro hairdryer, so I added a few doodads to tech it up a bit. He's gonna be a great little robot when he's painted up.

Space fox!

Received this mini from KillerB today. She originally had a cigarette in her right hand but I wanted a little more firepower for the lady so in the process of making a laser pistol for her to wield. I reckon her funky clothes won't look out of place in a sci-fi setting. The only other thing I'm thinking is to add a holster on her right leg. Could be worth the extra trouble.

Zombie marines!!

When I bought this Brother Meredith figure I knew I'd be painting him up as a marine zombie. That got me thinking about a horde of marine zombies but the cost this mini now goes for on ebay is too much to make a this an option for me. Thought it'd be fun to cast up some myself.  Hence the greenstuff body which I'll cast to make some dollies and then sculpt some variants to the pose. The gun is a converted plastic marine bolter which I'll be using on the figures. This needed to be shortened and the magazine made smaller in order for it to be more like the size of the metal bolters.  I probably make the zombie heads as seperate castings in order to give more variation to the finished figures. Hopefully these will be ready for some Halloween games of Space Crusade!!

Having another look at the bolter it needed to be smaller still so trimmed the top and remodelled it. Reckon it's a good match for the older bolters now.

Work bench pics...

Some pics of minis on the workbench atm. Something was bugging me about the halflings rifle so I tried to add some detail to it.

Rebased a foundry swat mini and based a Brother Meredith mini. The original Meredith figure leans forward at quite an angle so I've stood him up a bit. This meant some sculpting on the right leg armour and new feet.

More figs ready for priming.

Chainsaw warrior...

Converted Chainsaw warrior figure. Repositioned gun arm and them swapped the cast gun for a plastic marine bolter. Head repositioned and hair/beard to be grizzled up a bit when painted.