“Don’t be Kruel”

So the lockdown continues, and we all seem to finding our own outlets for our gaming needs, Keith over at, http://angrypiper.com/ is Roleplaying “Star Trek” over the net with some mates, IRO is busy recording Podcasts regarding his particular “Kinks” on the hobby at,  https://imperialrebelork.wordpress.com/ . Azazal is producing sickeningly wonderful painted models at a machine gun like daily rate at, https://azazelx.com/ and even I have been playing the old GW classic “Talisman” with my extended family over the net thanks to “Steam”. Quite frankly it doesn’t matter what we do to get through this global crisis, as long as we do, so let’s all just stay safe, and play with our little men (I don’t mean play with your.. well you know, unless that is what gets you through, I’m not judging anyone, whatever lights your candle and all!), Perhaps before I dig myself any deeper we better get back to the figures I have been painting myself.

I’ll begin as I have been the last couple of weeks with another of my 42mm “Dan Dare” figures by “Irregular Miniatures”. This one is a “Kreul”, and to be honest that is about all I know about him. Much interweb searching only turned up one picture (judging by the pose of the figure, it’s the same one Ian Kaye found too), so if anyone can shed a little light on this “sheep faced” race it would be most appreciated. But he had to be painted, so working up from a black base coat I dry-brushed the inside of his cape (Ian has added some nice detail here that matches the picture I had found very well), along with his helmet and chest symbol with copper and then again with some bronze. Then there are some lighter details on his helmet along with the edges of his chest symbol, sash, scabbard and bracelets so I painted these with an undercoat of “Tamiya” gold leaf and highlighted this with shinning gold. On his chest this didn’t look to bad, but on his helm they were too thin to really stand out, so I decided to edge the lighter bits in black to differentiate between the two metallic’s, anyway much “faffing” later (and a fair bit of “touching up” and swearing), I was happy (well not unhappy anyway). Next the blade of his sword along with its hilt and the mouth of the scabbard were added in chainmail, now I’m not that keen on this as I would have used more gold on these (barring the blade of course), but that’s how the original artwork is done and who am I to argue with the great Frank Hampton! The back of his cape was next, and from the tiny edge visible in the only picture I could find it appears to be more yellow than gold, but staying with the theme, I decided that after laying down a base of sand, I would go over this with more of the gold leaf. I quite like the result here but as to whether it is correct to the art, I can’t really say. I turned to his flesh next, and it is really difficult to see the exact colour here, but it is dark! (Great help huh!), anyway I decided to go with a blue/purple hue, so a base of royal purple was laid down then I mixed more of the same with some royal blue and lavender till I got something that looked about right and highlighted with this. Lastly I highlighted his black coverall, and rather than just do it with dark grey as I usually do I thought I’d mix up a dark aquamarine colour, so I mixed some aquamarine with black till I was happy and used that. Three down two to go.

Also this week I have finished the last of my started “Tin Man” ladies (Sisterhood Assassin No2, to use her correct name). Once again I began by sorting out the terrible painting I had left her with eighteen months ago, the contrast between the undercoat and highlights I’d used on her flesh (and there is a lot of it on show!) was just too distinct, and looked wrong, so I went round and touched up all the darker areas with some European flesh, and this then (to my eye at least) looked a bit better. I then had to add her cape, (Look Roy yet more girls in capes!!) this was plum highlighted with lavender, some blonde hair in sand and lemon yellow, and a couple of copper and bronze dashes to her sword hilt and gun, and she too was finished. Looking at her now I wonder if I wouldn’t have been better going full “Barbarella” on her and painting her costume in metallic’s and sparkly silvers. Not my finest work if I’m honest, but she should look OK once the “magic” Quickshade goes on. Oh well, one more to cross of the list.

I also found this figure languishing on my table. She is one of the figures I painted up from my own line of Santa Claus miniatures I sculpted under the “Wargames Supply Dump” banner “Queenie” the Fairy was one of the display fig’s we took to shows and pictured on the website but somewhere along the way she had broken off from her stand and lost her acetate wings, so I touched up the “chips” in her paint that she had acquired and replaced her wings to with a new pair stamped out of a spare clear plastic box (they are stamped out with a “Butterfly” shaped craft stamp which I then cut the head and tail away from, and hey-presto a pair of fairy wings)!

Last but certainly not least this time, my order from “Peter Pig” has arrived, yes for the first time since summer 2018 I have actually bought some NEW FIGURES!!!! Now I hope to finish off the last two 42mm Dan Dare figures before I start on these (I should leave them in quarantine for a few more days before I mess with the plastic bags), but I am itching to start them so we’ll see!

Oh and I hope to do another “What if…Wednesday” this week too.

So Till Next time, cheers Roger.