Category Archives: Side projects

Organised Chaos

17 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Side projects

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Greetings Terrans, I hope this finds you all well. It has been a hectic time in Leadballoony-land – the idea of running the Wolf Time campaign next year has got me motivated to paint some Greenskinz that I have been hoarding for far too long… I’ve been examining the campaign (in the Book of the Astronomican) to get an idea of the forces needed – and the answer is ‘bloody loads!!’ Quite a few can be re-used between games, but the effort of matching models to stat lines is quite the challenge… I’m determined (for now) to stick to late 80’s lead where possible, and to apply the WYSIWYG principle. I have the first raft of Orks based, primed and ready to take on holiday for a spot of al fresco painting, and I’m super excited about it because the bulk of this lot is made up of RTB02 Space Ork Raiders…  Thing is, the RTB02 boxed set was my first ever Warhammer purchase, and Thrugg Bullneck was my first ever ‘proper’ paint job, so I’m really going way back to my roots with this project, and boy, does it feel good! Here they are, ready to enter the carry-case dropship to painting Valhalla:

I’m going for a general militaristic desert theme for these guys – Wolf Time happens before the idea of Ork clanz Is firmly established, when Orks were really more like savage humans than anything else! As such, I primed them black, and then gave them a light zenithal coat of Zandri Dust – the perfect (and quick!) start to any desert scheme. The theme itself seems like a good fit for the minis – it isn’t particularly novel, but it works for the pre ‘red-era’  period of the Book of the Astronomican, and they’ll fit nicely with my Praetorians too… (Last Stand at Glazers Creek anyone? 😀 )

It hasn’t all been preparation though – I also managed to paint a thing this week! He’s a chaos warrior from the Pantheon of Chaos range, and I absolutely love this mini. I keep having the urge to do a chaos warband one day, and he has been primed and ready for painting for quite some time, but I never seem to actually get around to doing anything with him! This week, I had some time to paint but didn’t want to start anything big – long story short, I picked him up and gave him a tickle with my hairy stick:

I have the vague recollection that this guy is supposed to represent Malal – a mysterious anti-Chaos chaos god from the pre-Slaves to Darkness era. I don’t know much of the lore personally, but Orlygg has put together a brilliant piece of research on the subject – you can find it here. From this research we can learn that Malal is all malicious and insecty, that he despises the other chaos gods, but that he isn’t a friend of the ‘good guys’ either, and that black & white skulls is his vibe… As such, I kept the palette restricted, but I did try out a thin wash of violet over silver to give a rather pleasing metallic purple on the armour. I have never tried this technique before, so I’m dedicating this to Azazel’s ‘Technical August’ challenge 🙂

Anyhow, that’s all for now – I’ll be off the grid for a couple of weeks, but hopefully I’ll be back with a decidedly big green bang in September! Peace out dudes, and be excellent to each other  🙂

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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!! 🙂

Second February challenge – ‘finish a neglected model’

01 Thursday Mar 2018

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Hello again, and Wow, second post in two days guys – been a while since I’ve done that! This one is nice and quick, because I managed to crank out a mini last night (as per Azazel’s ‘finish off a neglected mini’ challenge for February… talk about taking it to the wire!) This guy is something that I’ve had kicking around for a couple of months, and is the most ambitious bit of sculpting that I have tried to date…

He was inspired in part by watching Westworld over Christmas, (absolutely brilliant series btw), by the artwork of Simon Stålenhag, (especially this picture), and of course by Clint Eastwood’s ‘man with no name’ in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I was disappointed with the results if I’m honest, and I don’t think any of the professional sculptors out there need to be worried for their jobs, but I figured that I should just get over myself and paint the bugger. He looks much better for being painted I think, and I’ve gone from seeing him as a symbol of how shit my sculpting is to actually quite liking the fella. I’m quite pleased with the freehand on the poncho 🙂

I imagine him as being the sole survivor of a Necron mass extinction event, who has ‘lived’ to see a frontier human population grow on his homeworld. Separated from the influence of his dynasty, he has had to adapt to being an independent creature, and has decided to attempt to blend in with the humans. I don’t imagine that many in the Imperium would necessarily know what a Necron is, so he might be accepted on the fringes of a backward society… who knows how such a creature might evolve! I don’t know if this concept has legs or not, but I may expand on it at some point…

Anyway, that’s all for now folks – have a good weekend & catch you all soon

Fembruary challenge – Siouxsie

08 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge, Side projects

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Happy Thursday folks, and I’m delighted to share my first competed mini for Fembruary with you all. As a reminder, I’m laying down the following gauntlet:

“Dear reader, no doubt you have heard of Orctober, Deadcember, Slaanuary, and all the various themed months of the year… I would like to propose that we add Fembruary to the list – a time of year for us to collectively challenge the male domination of our collections, and commit to painting some female miniatures for a change…”   I’m delighted with the uptake so far – thank you to all who are mucking in, spreading the word and getting involved! Time for me to step up as well, eh? 🙂

So… my February contribution is going to be trying to paint Annie Norman’s (of Bad Squiddo Games/Dice Bag lady fame) ‘Ghosts of Gia 1’ collection, plus ‘Olivia Nutron Bomb’ from BOYL last year. These 10 minis sum up everything that I want Fembruary to represent – the celebration of grown-up, non-sexualised representations of women within our nerdy little hobby universes. No silly battle heals or unnecessary/unfeasible cleavage here – what Annie succinctly describes as “Believable Female Miniatures” in her mission statement. It has been a slow start, what with basing and undercoating, but I have started with ‘Angel’ from the Ghosts of Gia range:

 

You can probably guess that I’m running with an early punk/goth/glam rock vibe for this project, (plus whatever other tropes make sense to bring in) – hence ‘Angel’ becomes ‘Siouxsie’, leader of an outcast Escheresque gang called ‘The Banshees’. She was fun to paint – quite a simple sculpt in many ways, with a few odd bits here and there, but fun nonetheless. I’ve added in plenty of little details to add that Oldhammer flavour, and gone for a wide palette on the mini… slight downside to that is that my youngest Son saw this mini and asked me why she had a tree on her head… now I can’t un-see the tree!! I don’t think Siouxsie would have ever seen a tree though, so I suspect the irony would be lost on her 🙂

One thing to note – the spray undercoat was shockingly rough, which is not uncommon this time of year in the UK – winter and all that. However, I actually don’t mind that effect if the model supports a rough and ready approach – it would suck on shiny Ultramarines, but is fine on a Scavvie if you know what I mean. In the case of Siouxsie, I think it works nicely.

Anyhow, that’s all for now dudes, but plenty more to follow as the month progresses!

Primaris Marines (?!) and some ‘Nasty Bush’!

08 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer, Primaris Marines, Side projects

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Greetings fellow aironauts, and welcome to the first ‘proper’ post of the year on Leadballoony. I really haven’t had that much time for hobbying over the Christmas break – it was a pretty busy time, but I did manage a few bits and bobs, starting with a few jungle bases:

 

This is a continuation of my side project to create some psychedelic jungle terrain, and is meant to provide some really dense patches of bush (fnarr fnarr) with small paths wending their way through. Placing minis on said path is a bit of a bugger, but is absolutely doable. There will be plenty more to follow on this project, so expect to see the odd bit of jungle turning up over the coming months!

Next up we have some unplanned and unexpected Primaris Space Marines… yeah, random! There is an explanation though – my youngest son surprised me a few days before ‘the big day’ by asking for some…  He was quite clear that we needed some real ‘goodies’ in the collection, and that the heroically proportioned and clean-cut Marines were the way to go:

We (I) got them built and undercoated gold over the break, but my boy dictated the weapon loadout & colour scheme, as well as doing all the drybrushing & inkwashing. It was great to see him totally absorbed by the process, and I have a feeling that he might get into the hobby as he gets older:

There is no specific chapter in mind for these guys – my boy wanted to do his own colour scheme, so the purple & gold is very much ‘rule of cool’. I reckon it looks rather smart! I specifically left out some of the finer details, (like highlights on the coloured panels and chapter iconography), just so that they can be improved at some point in the future. No doubt my son and I will slowly grow this small band of brothers as the year progresses, and I’m actually looking forward to doing some more – they are really rather nice to paint! Unlike a lot of folks, I don’t have any skin in the Astartes game, so I was actually happy to see correctly proportioned Marines hit the market… There. I’ve said it… I’m coming out as a secret Primaris fan. Hell, I can even largely ignore the awful & clunky fluff that justifies their existence! As far as I am concerned, this is what Marines look like now – indeed, they should always have been this big, so this as-yet unnamed chapter will be entirely made up of Primaris. Here are a few fun pics of them engaging some wily Eru-Kin on some distant death-world:

 

It hasn’t all been space jungle & giant Marines over the holiday though, there has also been the ‘small’ matter of Azazel’s ‘Painting Decembruary’ challenge… Happily, my version of Arkhan is progressing very nicely – the build is finished and I have started adding colour, but I’m keeping all that under wraps for now so you’ll have to settle for more B&W for the time being:

 

That’s it for now folks, hope you enjoyed the post & catch you all soon!

Painting Decembruary update, and a little bit of jungle

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer, Side projects

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Hi guys, just a few bits to share with you all today – my main effort has been focussed on progressing my big Deadcember / ‘Painting Decembruary’ project. I also got a little more jungle built as well, but let’s take a look at the big fella first:

As described in my previous post, the main part of the build is the rather lovely Death Dragon from Grenadier Masterpiece Editions. Happily, all the pinning, bracing and filling worked out really well, and the beasty has held together & can successfully bear its own weight. I have jazzed up the base with some scenic bits and bobs, and ghosts from the Mortis Engine kit, (an accompanying host of spirits are ‘a thing’ in the AoS warscroll).

I have also done some work on Arkhan himself – he’s a funny character to capture really, what with him being a Liche King, a powerful sorcerer, and a pretty formidable fighter too. He is based on an old metal skeleton knight, with some newer plastics added to refine the look a little and to get him equipped correctly. The first thing that had to go was the lumpy and outsized head – this got swapped for a suitably warrior-magey one from the skeleton kit. The next thing to get sorted were the weapons… Arkhan is supposed to be armed with a staff & tomb blade, but I decided to be a bit liberal with my interpretation of his gear. The staff looks more like a combat weapon, and is made of various components including a bladed staff head from the tree revenant kit. His sword, (slung over his back), is also of Elven make, so it looks like my version of Arkhan might be an ancient Elven warrior-mage of some sort! I also added a small jousting shield from the Brettonian Knight kit – it’s a smaller item than the one that the model is designed for, so it doesn’t hide the figure in the same way, but still gives me a flat area for some freehand. Here’s a closeup for you:

Terrible photos I know, but hopefully you get the idea. I still have some work to do – he needs a sleeve added to that right arm, and a proper saddle for example. I’ll be breaking out the green-stuff this week, with the aim of getting him primed for the weekend.

In other news, I also managed to crank out some more psychedelic jungle terrain for a bit of fun:

I’ve just realised that it’s hard to judge the scale with this photo, but if you look closely there are some bits and pieces on the base that help… basically I went big here, with a vague idea that these trees are carnivorous, and that their area of effect is shown by the big bases that they sit on… They don’t have to be used this way of course, but it’s nice to have the option to go for a deathworld type narrative if I choose. I’m pretty pleased with how this little side-project is going, and have much more to add further down the road 🙂

Anyhow, that’s it for now folks! I’ll try to get an update out next week, but if not then I’ll catch you dudes on the other side for the traditional retrospective post. Peace & goodwill to you all.