Author Archives: Alex

The Tower of the Dead

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Terrain

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Greetings all, I have a cheeky little terrain post to share with you today – I recently took delivery of a rather sexy little pre-painted tower thingy from a Kickstarter that I backed ages ago. When I first got it, it looked like this:

 

Not bad for a pre-painted piece, but I wanted to embellish it a bit & paint it up to match my Garden of Morr. A quick lick of paint, and I ended up with this:

 

Pretty cool, but ‘so far, so what’ right? I mean, it’s a nice enough tower and all that, but not really deserving of a post all to itself, is it? Well dear reader, this tower does tricks… check this out:

 

How mad is that! The tower is actually the ‘Dark Crypt fog machine’ from Real Game FX, and it houses a pump & ultrasonic transducer (a what now?!?)… The bottom of the tower is basically a reservoir, you turn on the gubbins and voila – instant cold fog comes pouring out of the door & windows. Here are a few examples of me playing around with the photographic possibilities:

 

How good is that eh?! As an added bonus, the guts of the machine come out, so with some clever modelling, I should be able to make other ‘cases’ for the worky-bitz to go in – a venting sci-fi tower, mysterious jungle ruins, whatever I fancy really! Now, I should point out that the fog is (duh) wet… Sounds obvious, but it really is very very wet, and this quickly makes everything around it wet as well. Also, the wires are a bit unsightly from anywhere other than a front-on view, so the tower will only look good around the edge of your board. Also it can be a bit splashy… The pump draws the water from the reservoir at the bottom of the tower, up an internal tube, and on to the sonic doo-dah – it is quite vigorous, and I did find that a bit of water came out of the windows & door. It’s also a pain in the arse to set up, difficult to fill once it is set up, it makes watery noises while running & makes me want to pee, and all the drying & faffing really adds to the packing away time, (I had to leave the models used in these photos out to dry after taking these pics for example). To be honest, it isn’t hugely practical for gaming… But I don’t care – it’s just so cool! I certainly won’t use it in every game, but I love this idea for marking cinematic moments in specific scenarios or for special occasions. It’s also great for the occasional photo shoot, where the impracticalities of the system are less of an issue. All in all, I’m really glad I backed the Kickstarter :-)

Anyway, that’s me for the next couple of weeks – I’m taking the kids hiking next week and I don’t plan to be on line at all while I’m away, so I’ll catch you all on the flip side. After that, I aim to add more Eru-Kin to my BOYL 2018 army, and I have a load of undead to get based & painted as well… Should be fun!

The last Banshee (for now) – Candy

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge, Side projects

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Hello chaps & chapettes, I have a very quick update to share today – it has been a funny week with not too much painting, but I did wrap up the last of the Ghosts of Gia*. I’m calling this one ‘Candy’:

 

‘…but Alex, why is her skin blue?’ I hear you ask… (you were asking that, right?)   Weeeell… Candy is actually the oddest of ‘odd ones out’ in the range, because she is the only one who isn’t wearing either a helmet or a re-breather! I was mulling ideas about how to deal with this, including toying with the idea of converting her, but decided to keep her ‘as is’. I then I thought to painting her as a mutant – some genetic twist that allowed her to breath the toxic atmosphere of whatever sump/hive/deathworld that the Banshees happen to come from. The idea grew on me – it was fun from a painting perspective, but it also says a lot about the ethos of the Banshees I think… I really like that they would accept a mutant into the gang, and that their shared femininity is more important to them than anti-mutant prejudice. Speaking of the gang, here’s the whole heart-breaking, life-taking, bad-assery of ’em:

 

So, that’s it for this week – told you it was a quickie! That also wraps up the Banshees for the time being*, and I’m really happy to have focused in on painting a bunch of ‘realistic’ sci-fi women that were only ever made thanks to the determination of Annie Norman (of Bad Squiddo fame) to address the paucity of believable female minis in the hobby. Thank you too to Cupcakesandmachetes for including this effort on your ‘Celebrate the Ladies’ event – there’s some great stuff going on over there, and I’m glad that Annie’s work is represented.

Next week I’ll have a cool bit of scenery to finish & share with you all, (trust me, you’ll love it!), plus I have a few half-finished Eru-Kin that might get done as well. Hobby time gets a bit choppy after that with holidays & work travel coming up fast, but we’ll see how it all goes. Have a great weekend & catch you next week :-)

 

*I’m actually missing one mini from the first run of the Ghosts of Gia, (fuck knows where she’s gone!), plus the second Kickstarter is due to drop through my letterbox any time now… Yey!! :-)

More femmes fatal – Voodoo, Cascade & Belladonna

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge

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Greetings Earthlings, I have three new recruits for the Banshees to share with you today – yes, I’m still working my way through the delightful Ghosts of Gia 1, but there seems to be a slight change of vibe going on with a couple of minis in the tail-end of the range. Take a look, and you’ll see what I mean!

First we have a rogue psyker that I’m calling Voodoo. I seem to recall that the official background had something about her being ravaged by her own psychic energy, hence all the bandages. I really liked that idea, so went with the theme by washing what little flesh you can see to make it look burned and disfigured. Glowing eyes and Storm-esque hair complete the look, making it clear that this lady is channelling some serious power:

 

Next we have a more traditional sci-fi soldier type that I’m calling Cascade. This is one of the ‘odd-one-out’ minis in the range – in that she departs significantly from the post-apoc style… so much so that I didn’t feel it appropriate to go with the late 80’s punk/new romantic painting vibe. Instead, I’ve used several of the colours that I’m using to tie the gang together, but in a more limited way that is secondary to a more utilitarian palette. I also experimented with some Windsor & Newton artist inks for the visor – the inks are very heavily pigmented liquid shellac with a naturally glossy finish. I’m pretty happy with how the visor came out, but might go back and add an extra  layer of clear gloss to give it some depth:

 

Finally, we have another ‘odd-one-out’ that I’m calling Belladonna. Of all the Ghosts of Gia, she is probably the biggest departure from the post-apoc vibe, and as a result, she has a very different paint job, (I can’t even begin to get my head around what a punk/NR sniper in ghillie suit might look like!). What I ended up with is a pretty boring paint job, but I did have a play with the Windsor & Newton inks to give some areas of armour a glossy look, and I also tried a different visor colour.

 

Visually, these three are hard to reconcile with the rest of the crew, (Voodoo less so maybe, but certainly Cascade & Belladonna are a poor fit), but I imagine that the Banshees are a loose confederation of survivors rather than the rigid ‘one look’ kind of gang that GW peddle, so fuck it – they can be outlanders, bounty hunters, or whatever. Whichever way you look at it, they make for a deadly looking trio :

 

I have just one more mini to finish from this range, plus some random Eru-Kin to wrap up before I paint up the stunning female Imperial Guardswoman from BOYL last year. After that, I’ll be getting some more undead on the table (zombies, skellies and some random monsters), more Eru-Kin (assault, heavy support & magic), and maybe some Wild-West Necrons… All good fun!