Giant Mechanized Fighting Robots I

Now here's something truly ancient I came across when going through the many old projects I documented but never posted about. It dates back to when I was living in Hawaii--so 2015 or 2016.

My friend Karl over at CSW let me know that Hobbylink Japan was having a sale on these plastic VOTOMS action figures. I think they were less than $5 apiece.

I have a hard time passing up a good mech under the best of circumstances. I bought 5. 2 were to be in active poses for use as gaming pieces, 2 were to be in resting position with cockpits opened as pilotable objective markers, and one I chopped up to represent the debris of a destroyed mech.

These are some pictures of the build process for my favorite mech, above.

I cannibalized some guncannon bits I had left over. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever posted here about what I did with most of that guncannon kit. I'll have to rectify that...

Guitar strings are the best, obviously.

The unused guncannon head became a trophy for the base. 

Still one of my favorite, if not THE favorite model in my collection.

I'm Painting My Damn Leadpile II

I feel like it's a bit of a trope at this point of hobby bloggers setting ambitious goals for lofty projects before, comically, going completely dark for long periods of time--or forever.

I try, generally, to avoid tropes here but boy did I run smack into this one.

Anyhow, after a healthy and normal length break, the good new is that I sure do have a lot of content for any of my readers who happen to still be out there after all this time. It's gonna be heavy on the (years-old) pics and light on the text though, as I have to acknowledge that my life has gotten far too busy for the kind of detailed posts I used to do. So if you have any questions, let me know in the comments. I'm happy to go into details if I know someone is reading and cares XD

First up are some treasures from the leadpile, classic Jes Goodwin Eldar sculpts including harlequins. I painted them mostly using liquitex Azo, Quinacridone, and Cerulean. And white of course.

Here starting with a general glaze of the yellow, and then back with the white to establish the values for the OSL.

Cerulean for the glowing energy weapons...

...and highlighted with a quick and dirty white drybrush.

Magenta glazes for the shadows

And some metallic highlights? I don't super remember tbh...I took these photos years ago now.

Here's that unit of Quar from the last post. I got myself some better oil paints and did a test model.

Working on glass with white paper underneath makes both mixing and cleanup easy. Since the oils take a while to dry, I just cover the palette with a bell jar between sessions so I can keep using the same colors for several days.

These are some examples of how the oil paint workflow for blending happens. Basically, you apply highlights, midtones, shadows very loosely and roughly where they are supposed to go, then you use a blending brush to make them smooth. I find that I prefer this MASSIVELY to layering with acryllics.

And here's the rest of the Quarmy ready for priming.Years later, I would return to the primed models still stuck to their priming stands with double-stick tape and half the bases would simply pull off. I don't use superglue to adhere metal models to washers anymore as a result.

And here's a WIP of the hovertank that I scratchbashed from a World War Toons Chibi-Churchill and lots of other bits. Kind of going for my own take on a Ma.K-style hovertank.

Extra points if you can spot where the gun barrel came from. Double extra if you can identify the white sensor array piece in the above shot.

I'm Painting My Damn Lead Pile: A Project Log

 

It's time. I'm going to paint all my miniatures. Or at least, I'm going to paint as many miniatures as I can before I get bored of it again. 

I have a group of around 140 that are more or less based. The first half of these are a mix of scifi and fantasy figs either recovered from my childhood Eldar and High Elf collections or haphazardly collected based more or less solely on the rule of cool. They include some space marines, some werewolf bikers, some of my favorite Bob Olley reaper sculpts, some classic Jes Goodwin Rogue Trader Eldar, and all kinds of other minis that struck me as both cheap and individually cool or interesting in some way.

 

The other half are a small Quar army from ZombieSmith minis. 

...and I have another probably 80-100 or so that are not yet assembled. 

The plan is to experiment and improvise as much as necessary to keep it interesting for as long as possible. I would like to challenge myself to experiment a bit more drastically with methods and approaches, and I don't really care whether I have a highly polished final result in the end.

The inspirations I'm following right now are: 

1. the many underpainting and glazing techniques demonstrated by Dana Howl, Delaney King, and Marco Frisoni
2. Marco's excellent oil painting methods
3. Marco's method for colorful spray can gradients.

Here's where I'm at so far.

Lingering Projects

There were a few minis that had already been greyscale underpainted and then colored with oils last year. They just needed some finishing touches, like a few washes, a couple highlights, teeth, eyes, and a drybrush of silver ink.

This wraithguard was mostly painted by my friend as a learning figure. I just did a couple final details and the base. The guardian was done using Dana Howl's Cyberpunk Necron scheme, except using glazes mixed with metallic inks instead of color changing paints. Both of these models received a zenithal splatter of gold ink to provide a more pronounced, shimmery texture to the highlights.

First Batch, step by step

Next I selected a small group of models more or less at random to try out a spray paint gradient using Montana Gold acrylic spray paints.

I sprayed these with deep purple red from below and shrimp from above...

...followed by a zenithal drybrush of white ink.

In preparation for the oil washing stage, I give any detail areas a value sketch in greyscale. Then I establish any OSL gradients using white ink glazes, and basecoat any metallic areas in silver ink. 

At this point I mix up a few different oil washes--a dark purple-black, a magenta, a warmer brown and a cool brown--and apply them thickly all over the models.

Next, I clean away all excess wash using cotton swabs, bringing back the original value near the highlights but leaving the washes in the crevasses and blending them out. I go back with more intensely colored washes for some areas, including the OSL on the warlock's sword and eyes.

Unfortunately my oil paints are breathtakingly cheap and the pigments are not intense enough to easily provide much coverage, so I switched back to acrylics to do some touch-up on details and highlights, plus some finishing touches like a last, gentle dry-brush using some of the various lightest tones remaining on my wet palette, some silver dry-brushing, and a very light zenithal gold splatter.

Upcoming Batches

I thought this group might look good with a greener gradient--signal blue from below and malachite from above followed by a couple successive drybrushes of yellow (liquitex yellow orange azo) and white inks.

I'm finding that drybrushing with translucent inks like yellow can lead to some incredible filters on the vibrant spray paint colors. The translucency can be modulated with the white ink (liquitex titanium white). 

These quar demonstrate this really well. I went signal blue from below and shrimp from above, resulting in a somewhat jarring blue to orange gradient. However, a few quick drybrushes served to desaturate the orange and filter some of the blue shadows to a really lovely green. This results in a lot of smooth tonal variation and definition on the figure with very little effort expended. I haven't had to apply multiple coats of anything, or lay down a single basecoat and these already feel almost table ready to me--but I know if I take a few minutes with oils I'll be able to easily add spot colors and reinforce the darker values to create even more visual interest.

Finally, I have another group of Eldar that are mostly underpainted. I'm going to go back to value sketch the gems and OSL effects, then try some more variations on the Cyberpunk Necron method.

 

Hopefully I'll have some more for you soon. Take care out there.

Boxville Towers

 

Christ, I've been working on this for the better part of a year 😶😶😶 I originally started this project to use in my Adepticon 2020 game, Upheaval on Tanjarax IV, which never happened. It's finally finished.

It's kind of a 3 way mashup of Wyloch's sector mechanicus walkways, the box making techniques of Sage Reynolds, and the hand-drawn style of Warhammer Townscape.

Most of the following pictures were taken before I applied the final spot colors, and they're far from comprehensive. I can take some better ones if there's any interest at all but otherwise I couldn't be arsed.

The boxes were constructed of heavy duty chipboard—not the grafix brand that Wyloch favors (since I despise amazon and refuse to order my supplies from there) but the Blick brand which you can order by the sheet for peanuts. I went with the 30-ply, which is very heavy duty indeed, but I think you could probably get by with the 14 ply and save your utility knife arm some strain.

For the first few boxes I tried painting the background washes on paper first, then gluing them as a veneer onto the finished box and illustrating over that. This turned out to be stupid difficult, so for the rest I just primed them white, sprayed a variety of slightly diluted liquitex inks onto them using a mouth atomizer, then illustrated directly on the primed chipboard, which worked way better.

I also made some extra support pillars and stairs, but because no design is ever perfect, they don't fit in the main box. Instead, I have a painted notecard box from the thrift store that I'm going to give the same treatment. It will also serve as the maintenance bay for one of the large vehicle objectives in the Tanjarax game, someday.

Lemme know what you think by delicately nesting your comment into the box provided below.

These Ogres...

1. ...haven’t eaten in two weeks (due to food scarcity, pursuit of cosmic revelation, or some other reason). They are haggard, their huge joints knobbly. (They carry nothing).
2. ...are strung out from intentionally stuffing fistfulls of ergot-tainted grain (which their bodies can handle) into their mouths. They will try stuffing fistfulls of ergot-tainted grain (which your body can’t handle) into your mouth. They are stumbling, sleep deprived, their skin mottled and striped by natural plant dyes. (One carries a rune-covered stone that a use of detect magic will reveal to be a 2nd level spell)
3. ...were recently attacked by a band of monster hunters. One of them was killed. (One has the ensorcelled short sword used to kill their friend—a demonic face on the hilt, such that the flamberged blade looks like its tongue; +1 to hit, dmg 1d6+1, save vs poison or take 1d4 damage each round for three rounds as the wound puckers and boils.)
4. …are taking turns hurling boulders at anything that moves, competing to be the most accurate shot. (Between them they carry 300 coins which they are using to make wagers. You can totally try and win it off of them.)
5. …are in the middle of eating a raw horse. There is some evidence that there was perhaps once a rider as well. (They have a man-sized set of full chainmail, an arming sword, a kite shield with a large fist indentation marring the heraldry—either a sphynx or a mantichore volant, argent on a madder field—also d100 coins among a few other knightly accoutrements.)
6. …are sleeping. Their snores shake the ground. One has a lump of mud-caked metal in the shape of a crude, slack-jawed face hanging around their neck from a leather thong. Cleaning will reveal it to be a lump of solid gold worth 500 coins, wearing it grants a +1 to Wisdom, but makes the limbs heavy, and fills the wearer with the desire to just sit and rest and watch something erode. (...One of these ogres sleeps with one eye open—1 in 3 chance every action you take that they will notice and wake up.)
   
   
7. 

Peake-ian Name Generator

...for atmospheric consistency and Gormenghastian flavor among your imaginary personages
(Roll a d200 [d20, d10] twice)

1. rattle
2. glass
3. bell
4. knotley
5. wither
6. whist
7. riddle
8. blast
9. tight
10. blather
11. pander
12. grill
13. wall
14. clock
15. slither
16. free
17. brink
18. lathe
19. fly
20. belt
21. birch
22. malt
23. jar
24. knacker
25. drain
26. lightly
27. spindle
28. thread
29. dry
30. kilter
31. melt
32. wind
33. sour
34. gap
35. silt
36. whistle
37. tine
38. flick
39. fritter
40. waist
41. dust
42. cap
43. dry
44. fig
45. mule
46. fire
47. dull
48. gripe
49. slow
50. peel
51. fiddle
52. whip
53. copper
54. milk
55. soup
56. crumb
57. frill
58. knocker
59. wide
60. winter
61. door
62. filcher
63. rye
64. monkey
65. chop
66. feather
67. sling
68. dial
69. flip
70. fodder
71. curdle
72. whelp
73. crude
74. flaut
75. lewd
76. bramble
77. manner
78. mink
79. wink
80. lustre
81. kettle
82. crimp
83. grout
84. warp
85. mild
86. tripe
87. dimple
88. trout
89. fang
90. limply
91. callow
92. snipe
93. fallow
94. bark
95. fling
96. thither
97. twig
98. butter
99. dust
100. poorly
101. saddle
102. gas
103. gill
104. nightly
105. scissor
106. trist
107. middle
108. bliss
109. bait
110. tether
111. slander
112. pill
113. stall
114. clog
115. slather
116. fray
117. trinket
118. limp
119. flit
120. stilt
121. lurch
122. salt
123. jeer
124. nickel
125. brain
126. lately
127. spun
128. bread
129. droop
130. bacter
131. silk
132. mend
133. glow
134. trap
135. tilt
136. thistle
137. brine
138. wick
139. flatter
140. mice
141. bust
142. gnat
143. bag
144. pig
145. mull
146. tire
147. full
148. grape
149. slip
150. meal
151. freight
152. linger
153. stopper
154. talc
155. sop
156. thumb
157. flint
158. knave
159. warts
160. wimper
161. dare
162. mulch
163. stye
164. wrinkle
165. chafe
166. fumble
167. slant
168. dung
169. flop
170. cod
171. hurtle
172. gulp
173. mood
174. strut
175. lap
176. thimble
177. louse
178. tinker
179. whelk
180. nacre
181. whittle
182. cramp
183. doubt
184. warble
185. mold
186. traipse
187. mantle
188. fork
189. finger
190. lilt
191. bald
192. scoop
193. bellow
194. lank
195. flange
196. yonder
197. waggle
198. braise
199. distal
200. piss

THE TWELVE DAUGHTERS OF MULL

Deep in the wild, on the border of the great fen known as THE SQUELCH, lies the TOWNSHIP OF MULL.

Mull has, or rather had, twelve daughters—or at least, twelve daughters of any political importance.
For a child was born of a certain hour of a certain moontide in a certain manner, the combination of which was deemed portentous, indicative of a god-given leader who would guide Mull township through present and future troubles and into prosperity. This child was given over to the Care of the Township—which is to say, given over to the care of PERE SPLAYWATER, then just a middle-aged, and not an agéd, man—and a piece of corundum, soft pink as dawn over The Squelch, was carved and polished into the shape of a WREN’S EGG to represent the child’s potential.

All of this would have been good fortune enough, but, by happy coincidence, the same thing occurred again, each year, for the next eleven consecutive years. The people of Mull, a sober and pragmatic folk, were content to know that they had been granted not one but twelve individual chances of a prosperous future—decent odds, by all accounts. And it was these odds upon which, as harvests grew poorer and winters meaner and fen beasts crueler, the folk of Mull grew more and more to rely.

But alas, not even the most decent odds always pay out, and the seventeen years that followed the birth of the twelfth daughter of Mull, young Knotley of the Raven Hair, were full of less than happy coincidences.

Sprightly Warble drowned in a well.
Timid Twigslip was savaged by a wild dog.
Scissor, she who Was Bony, succumbed to the pox.
Sallow Yonder choked on her porridge.
Bramble, she who Laughed so Freely, fell from climbing upon a scarp and was dashed.
Errant Tiresling was brained by a rock during an illicit children’s game of ‘Let’s throw rocks!’
Poor Frail Gill was badly frighted by a fen beast at night, which fright caused her heart to give out.
Sweet Dimple simply passed in her sleep, perhaps taken by a fey dream.
Moony Silt was gored by one of young Dulltinker’s goats. He was driven from town and his goat was drowned in the fen. She perished anyway.
Crimp, she who Was Direct in All Things, wasted away from grief over Silt, for they were very close.
Dryspindle, she of the Somber Expression, went for a walk in The Squelch one day, and never returned.

All of which leaves Belle Knotly, she of the Raven Hair and Stern Will, passing fair and of marriageable age—or at least close enough for the sober and pragmatic folk of Mull—as the last remaining hope.

Which is why it is so distressing that she too has gone missing, as had Pere Splaywater (now quite agéd), and that dashing young suitor with the blue velvet doublet, the day before.

All of this OLD GAMMY FLINGTHITHER of Mull knows, and will tell you at length.