“Kremmen, V, the Daleks”

No not a battle report (sorry Simon! 😜) but instead this time I have a mixed bag of stuff for you, two loosely attached to “franchises”, but never directly appearing in them, and one based on an actual character, but painted by me as something else, confused…yep me too! But we’ll see if it makes more sense by the end of this post (probably not).

So what have we got, well I mentioned a few weeks back that I had another of the “three wheeled” cars I’d picked up from “Kore” at the “Phalanx” wargames show, and looking at this one I couldn’t help but feel it was the perfect conveyance for the “Captain Kremmen” figure I’d made back for “Forgotten Heroes” this year so I’ve dug it out and added a “K” insignia to the front in greenstuff. Talking of the “stuff of green” I also used a little on my second couple of figures. These are “not-Daleks” from Etsy (I think) and were “part of the very kind gift from Simon” (see I said we’d be seeing that sentence crop up!), that arrived last week, these 3D prints just needed the eye piece and rings adding to their eye stalks to make them a bit more “Dalek’y” I also drilled a hole in the bottoms of them so I could mount them on a bit of wire and have them “floating”, I’m going to call them “Dalek drones”. Lastly I have a “not-Mike Donovan” figure from the original mini-series “V” (see that’s where the V in the title comes from! I don’t just throw this together you know!). Another member of the “Kind gift from Simon club”, this is from the now defunct company “Nexus Miniatures”, but just to be awkward I’m not going to paint him up as “Gooder” Donovan but instead as a more generic Sci/Fi character, as I’m sort of half tempted to do something…or perhaps not, I’m not sure yet, but either way you can blame “Matt” for it!

We’ll start with the car or “Kremmobile”, this had the usual coat of matt black before I realised that white would have been better, great start! Anyway this did mean that I could get straight into painting the silver bits like the wheels, grill, headlights and trims before going in with the coffee, cream and white layers over the cockpit shroud, rear detail and the “K” insignia. Royal blue was next (I basically used the same colours I had on the Kremmen figure itself!), and this was highlighted with bright blue. The front wheel arched came next these were first painted ruby red then (several) layers of bright red were painted over this, then it was just a case of adding the indicators in orange, the brake light in more bright red, and of course the inner bit of the “K” insignia in citrus orange. Well I say all, actually that wasn’t all at all, as I still had the bloody glass “bubble” to add! Now as you may recall last time I used a tutorial from “Youtube” to do this, so with this and a reference picture that “Dave Stone” had sent me of the reflections on a spherical object (I think this just confused matters if I’m honest, sorry Dave I am easily confused 😵) I set to work with the navy blue, royal blue, ocean blue, blue grey/porcelain blue mix, mid grey, and white and….I don’t know what happened, but it doesn’t work for me at all! I think I was trying to be too clever (never a good look for me!) and it just came out wrong. Still at least I’ve learnt never to buy cars with “bubble” canopies again 😒. This was then given a coat of “Quickshade” (light tone) and once dry I lightly dry-brushed the bottom half with some khaki, for road dirt. I left it shiny with the Quickshade, as I thought at least this gives some reflection to the screens.

Next up I have the “Not-Daleks” or “Noleks” if you prefer (you don’t, suit yourselves!), I first saw these on Simons blog a while back and instantly thought they were great, so when I saw these two in the “box of surprise treats” I had to paint them ASAP. Now when it came to colour, I went back and forth across all the Dalek colours from the “year dot” to the present, I nearly went black, but as the bottom “vents” were going to be black I eventually decided on red, so after a base of dark red was applied several coats of bright red went over this to cover it (I think I’ll have to buy a new bright red!). The sensor “balls” were next, always a total joy to paint these (not!), the best technique I’ve found is to work round the figure painting the left hand sides of all the balls, then work back in the opposite direction doing the other side, so that’s what I did using bronze. I then went back round just adding a small highlight in bright gold, and then again with the bright red touching up. Their eye stalks were next, so after the actual rod parts were painted in chainmail, I added the rings in bright blue with highlights of porcelain blue. The front of the “eye” was then painted white, with a black dot, and then this and the bottom “vents” were highlighted with a little dark grey. Lastly the dome lights were dotted with some orange. These too were then treated to a covering of “light tone” Quickshade.

Lastly this time I have “Donovan”, now rather than use him as the erstwhile hero of the resistance to a certain Alien” invasion, I thought he’d make a rather good “technician” figure, however it’s always useful to have a gun to hand, so I decided to use the “gun holding hand” rather than the video camera the alternative arm had (because you would wouldn’t you). Also this meant I could add a toolbox to his conveniently posed left hand too. This entailed drilling a hole through his fist and poking a length of florists wire through it. Then I had to find a convenient shaped item to use as the “box” itself, I considered a few things from “Grahams big box of crap”, from cut down Ork guns to hammer heads, but just when I thought I was going to have to build it from scratch with greenstuff my eyes alighted on the edge of a plastic sprue, two lengths of that glued back to back, then cut to length and shaped at the ends might do. So that’s what you see here, once cut to size it was just a case of bending the wire down into an upside-down “U” shape drilling a couple of holes in the box and gluing it all together. Again working from a black base, I dry-brushed his gun and toolbox handle in chainmail, then I added his shirt in coffee and cream. His jacket was next, dark red with pink burgundy highlights was used for that, and his “chino’s” were then added in Eurasian flesh, highlighted with more of the same mixed with a little coffee. Flesh was my usual recipe of European flesh and after the eyes were added the highlights were the same with a touch of pale flesh thrown in. The collar and cuffs of his jacket along with the rest of his toolbox was then painted dark grey with mid grey highlights. That just left his boots and hair, chocolate brown went on both, leather highlighting the boots and saddle on the “barnet”. He also got the Quickshade treatment, though he went for the “strong tone” variety, then both he and the “Noleks” (still no? OK I’ll let it drop), were based in my usual fashion, and sprayed with matt varnish. I rather like him he’s generic enough to be either a minor hero, or a complete nobody, if it wasn’t for the “laser gun” he’s holding he’d fit into a modern day scenario too (luckily I don’t play many of those anyway 😉).

So that’s it my last post for “anything goes” month, back to the challenges next, and it’s a “two for one” month, as what I have planned will fit into bother Zom’tober and Dave Stone’s Apocalypse Me challenges, (shame they won’t fit into Ork’tober as well, but never mind it’s not the “End of the world”….Oh wait, yes it is!), so till then.

Cheers Roger.

“The Japanese Tea(Loaf) Ceremony” (Advent Challenge)

Advent Challenge time again, and as I’ve mentioned before some of the figures I put into pairs to suit any other challenges that month (like Fem,bruary, or Monster May’hem), others while being picked randomly with a die just fell into complimentary pairs (like the Space Henchman and Sorcerer Magnas, or Weasel and Gnome), but others really don’t go together at all (it’s what happens when you pick things at random, duhhh!). But what’s this got to do with anything I hear you shout, well I’m getting to that, as the two figures I have for you this month really are polar opposites…

No3   Oyuki, Geisha (official Reaper Name)

No17 Small Robot Warrior (Defiantly not official Reaper Name! Possibly a “Viceroy Enforcer” thanks Matt 😊)

So starting with the lovely Oyuki, if you look online (please don’t) there are so truly beautifully painted renditions of this figure, mine however is much simpler, I started with a white spray coat of primer, then thinking ahead (not like me at all!) I dumped a little cyan and some black onto a pallet (Pringles lid 😉), and added in the darkened area behind her exposed let with the black at the centre and a little cyan at the edges blended into each other. I then added the edges of her kimono, sash and fan in coffee, and highlighted these in cream. Cream was also used for her face make-up, the rest of her flesh being done in a mix of khaki, European flesh (ironic eh?), and pale flesh, highlights were added once dry in the same mix with a bit more of the pale flesh variety added. Her eyes I did in just black, and actually pretty much nailed them without having to touch up around them, same went for her lips that were ruby red, I only mention this as this almost never happens! (Actually you can delete “almost” from this sentence 😏). Her dress was always going to be Samurai green, this is a lovely shimmering satin colour by “Colour Party” paints and I use it as often as I can, so this was painted over a base coat of cyan as the translucent nature of the paint really needs this base colour beneath it. Then after a bit of head scratching (still need that flee powder!) I decided to add tiny “sprigs” in coffee and cream and the dotted /stippled metallic blue (well it was out for the robot below) around the tops of these to create flowers or trees (or something at least!). On the home straight now, I added her hair ornament’s along with a basic design on her fan in dark red with bright red highlights and then painted in her hair itself in black with dark grey mixed with black for the highlights here, and while the black paint was out I did a little bit of “black lining” here and there to define the separation between a couple of the colours. Once dry she was given a coat of “Quickshade light tone”, then based in my usual fashion,

Now the “Robot” is also a very nice figure, nice action pose, pretty well sculpted, the only problem is he is small… I mean really small, 25mm to the top of his head, I originally thought that he might have been made in 20mm scale, but his gun is too big for that really so I think he’s just a short robot, I can live with it as I will use him as an “Assassin bot” so being on the diminutive side probably makes it easier for him to sneak into places” 😉. But anyway unlike “Oyuki” he was given a coat of matt black that was then touched up with a brush to make sure he was good and covered, then he was given a good dry-brushing with the chainmail paint. Now as a “naked” style robot be didn’t really have many areas where I could indulge my creativity (haha!), therefore all I could do was pick out some bits and bobs here and there in copper, blue steel, or metallic blue. That just left his eye to add which was done with a little lime green and a dot of “Fluorescent” light green, and I also added the odd cable in bright red. Simple stuff, he was then also given a coat of “Quickshade” though this time I used the “Strong” stuff, and once dry (for some inexplicable reason the Strong tone seems to take days (three in this case) to dry, whereas the light tone will be bone-dry overnight 🙄), anyway I digress as I was saying, once dry he too was based in my usual style. Both figures were then given a final blow-over with the matt varnish, and they were done. That’s three quarters of the “Advent” figures done now.

Now a few weeks back Pete from “SP’s Projects Blog” mentioned he’d made a “Tea Loaf” for the lads playing in a few “Traditional HG Wells type games”, and the week later he posted the recipe on his blog too asking if anyone made one themselves, to post a picture…Well I have, here it is 👈 and very nice it is too (If I do say so myself), I didn’t have any Scotch, so substituted Napoléon Brandy instead, but other than that I followed the rules to the letter like a good wargamer should. Even my wife who doesn’t like Earl Grey tea or Brandy say’s its nice, so high praise indeed, I think you’ve rolled a six there Pete!

One last thing before I go, I have to give a huge thank you to Simon “Blaxkleric” Moore, who mentioned he had a couple of spare “ABC Warrior” figures he would send me, well they arrived yesterday…In a big box filled with all manner of other wonderful figures too! Truly it was like Christmas come early, I won’t go into details of what there is here, but expect quite a few posts over the next year or so to include the line “These were part of a very kind gift from Simon”. Cake and figures, do weeks get much better than this, I think not! 👍

Till next time, cheers Roger.

“Faffing About With Fathers”

Just a quickie this time, as I am currently between “Challenge months”, I thought I’d bolster my “Forge Father” unit by adding in some more weapons options, so it was out with the box of sprues and four bodies/ legs/heads were cut away along with two “heavy machine guns and a couple of rocket launchers (these are Hailstorm Autocannons and Missile Launchers respectively, to give them there official names, I think), While I was sticking these together (always one of my favourite pastimes (not!)) I noticed that the “running” legs option could be tilted back to give a “foot up on something” stance, thus giving another different pose, but as this didn’t really suit the upper pose of any of the heavier weapons I cut off a few more bits and using an open faced helmed head too made up (in my opinion) a rather “cool” looking chap firing single handed. Talking of different helmet options I used the “half open option on another figure and the rocket launchers had their own specific option too.

Anyway once they were all stuck together, I covered their bases in a few layers of basing sand and added some “cat litter” rocks (especially under the foot of the leaning back chap), then it was out for a coat of matt black courtesy of the rattle can and brush, ready for painting.

As with all my other “Forge Fathers” I began by dry-brushing the guns, and the backpacks weapon  with chainmail, then all of their armour was painted in German field grey, and highlighted with dark turquoise. The bits of under clothing that can be seen were then undercoated with dark grey, and mid grey was used to highlight these areas. The gloves, belts and the odd other area were then painted in chocolate brown before being highlighted with leather. When it came time to add the eyes on their helmets I first added took some “Tamiya” green (this is quite a dark green) and painted the larger lenses on the half helmet, then as usual I used light green before I added a dot or pupil with some “Fluorescent” light green. I also added lights with these colours to their weapons and backpacks. The tiny amounts of visible flesh on the two faces were then added in European flesh with more of the same lightened with a little pale flesh, and one got a chocolate brown beard highlighted with chestnut and the other a sand highlighted with lemon yellow one. Lastly I added some accoutrements to their armour with a little copper with bronze highlights. Basically exactly the same as before, the only addition being a small pipe on the Launcher that was added in

As usual they were then given a brush coat of “Quickshade” (strong tone) and once dry had their bases painted to match the last lot of Dead Zone figures, in so much as they were painted chocolate brown, dry-brushed with khaki, and again with coffee, then they got a spray coat of matt varnish spray. So another five “Forge Father” figures ready to hit the table, slow but reasonably steady progress through my “Dead Zone” mountain, hopefully I can make another (small) dent in it next month as part of the “Zom’tober” challenge, but for now I have a couple of my own challenge figures that need some paint chucked at them!

So till next time, Cheers Roger.

“Not So Over the Hill” (Season of Scenery)

A car again this time, and also a bit of a tribute to one of my musical heroes, the late lamented “Dusty Hill” of ZZ Top fame who we lost last year at the age of seventy two. Therefore when I decided to paint up the last of my “Wargames Terrain Workshop” post-apocalyptic cars, a “33’ Ford Coupe” it seemed the perfect chance to do a little tribute to the “Bearded Bassist” of one of my all-time favourite bands, what with it being the same model as the iconic “Eliminator”.

Now as you are probably all aware by now I can’t just leave these things alone and paint them “as is”, so a few “extras” were added before I could get to the painting (and probably why this has been sitting un-touched for so many years to be honest!). First off I wasn’t happy with the exposed rear wheels, so after taking some coffee stirrers and cutting and shaping them appropriately I glued then around the tops and sides of the rear wheels, using a bit of greenstuff as filler to hold them out away from the wheels themselves. These “boxy” covers then formed the base that I was able to build up the curved arches over using greenstuff, the hardest part of which was getting the two side equal and similar in shape, though luckily I was going to add dents to these later so could cover up the worst of the imperfections!

Next the rear of the vehicle had been turned into a flatbed/pickup type thing, probably so a figure could stand there, but the bases on my figures were too large to fit so instead I decided to go with the “Mad max” vibe, and put an additional fuel tank in there (though with today’s prices I wouldn’t fancy filling this bad boy!). I had some oil drums that I’d bought from “Scotia Grendel” a looong time ago, so taking one of these I set about building a framework out of coffee stirrers to support the drum. Then I needed some way for the fuel in the drum to get to the engine, so a hole was drilled in the top of the drum and a piece of florists wire was bent round so it fitted in the drum top and then disappeared under the wooden framework, a little greenstuff tidied the joint atop the drum and while it was out I also knocked up a filler cap for the side too, (probably health and safety wouldn’t approve of this solution by hey’ it’s the apocalypse!). The drum was then glued into place, and I was able to attack the whole vehicle with the “Dremmel” fitted with a ball topped grinder to add the dents associated with life in the wasteland. Now something was bothering me, what was holding the drum in place? What stopped it bouncing out of the back over rough terrain?…Nothing! Now luckily I had some cheap necklace chain I’d bought back when I was building “Ram Man” for my “Masters of the Universe” collection, so I dug that out and cut two lengths gluing the front length to the inner rear body, and the rear length to the tops of the rear wheel arches, these then needed blocks adding with a little more greenstuff, and finally I could start painting it.

As usual I started by giving it a spray coat of matt black that was then touched up with a brush. I then gave it all a dry-brushing with chainmail. Ruby red was then “stippled” over the bodywork avoiding the dents, edges and the right hand front wing. This was followed with another round of stippling this time with metallic red, I went a little heavy with this so more ruby red was “tapped” over this again. The front wing I wanted to look like a replacement part that had never been finished. so dark grey, with mid grey “stipples” was used to simulate a “primed” but unpainted part. The drum was then stippled (I did a lot of this!) with royal blue, then a mix of bright blue with a touch of blue grey went over this. I attempted to write “Dusty” across the roof in a ”slightly” fancy style with white, it’s not great but the weathering hides the worst 😉 and that’s what came next!

So taking some chestnut this was “stippled” (again!) round the panel edges, in the dent’s and anywhere there was exposed bare metal, then after I’d repainted the tyres black (I’d made a mess of them while doing the rust) it was out for a coat of  “Quickshade” (strong tone), which for some unexplained reason took two full days to dry completely! Anyway then a little more chestnut was applied over the last lot, and orange was added here too to give a little fresher rust effect. Then I dry-brushed some khaki over the lower portions to give it some road dust, now I usually use “Eurasian flesh” for this and I don’t know why I didn’t this time 🙄 but I didn’t like the khaki as much so did a second lighter dry-brush with coffee over this (again why didn’t I use Eurasian flesh, don’t ask because I don’t know!). A final spray coat of matt varnish finished it off. I don’t think three “sexy babes” would be seen dead in this (or fit for that matter), but apart from the rather heavy handed weathering, I’m fairly happy with the result.

So that’s the last of Dave’s post apocalypse vehicles that I own finished, and also my last entry for Dave’s “Season of Scenery”, in just under the wire as usual. I now have a month relatively “challenge” free, so I’ll have to see what I want to paint next, hmmmm….🤔

So till next time, cheers Roger.