Birthday Surprise II

Well after procrastinating for a couple of weeks I bit the bullet and got the base done.

• Step 1 take a cd sleeve, not a hard plastic but sort of flexible vinyl with texture.

• Step 2 mark the joints of the concrete with a scalpel, then run the blade at 45 along the groove and scrape out the excess. Glue to the base with some weight on the top.
  

• Step 3 paint base and concrete then keeep applying colour till the texture looks right.
  

Voila!

Birthday Surprise

Well after a bit of secrecy and some accidental hints in the form of reference photos left on our computer my wife has received her birthday present ( or one of at least). This fine English holding cell? and call box made famous in a long running British science fiction program although this one is modelled on those used in Glasgow.


The model is cast in Resin by Fenris and was purchased from Hasslefree in the UK. The model looks awesome, there were some very fine bubbles at each bottom corner and one on the top of the light on the roof otherwise a perfect and very detailed casting. Painting it has been harder than i had expected due to the fineness of the police lettering on the four sides and the beading on the windows. It's not quite finished yet, as it needs to be based properly and varnished and I may yet repaint the windows.

One thing I have been surprised at is the number of people who don't know what the Tardis is... where have they been for the last 40 years?

The Maw continued...

Well the creature is together, it proved a bit fiddlly to get the legs attached so the feet all sit on the ground. The right forearm has a v shaped cut you can see in the photo below so was easier to position and glue than the others.


I would suggest get this one on first then its right rear leg then the front left leg. The rear left leg goes on last as it doesn't seem to quite touch the ground.


If you have a look at the resin versions on the Hasslefree website they don't either so its not a fault of the mould maker or yours truly and superglue fingers. It won't be a problem as the basing material will come up to the paw anyway so no drama. Allow some time and be patient, you'll be rewarded as its a truly imposing model.


After a bit of thought and some posing of the model I've gone with a smaller base than anticipated. Less space but should be more use in dungeons.

There are some slight gaps in the joins and i'll be making some small sausages with green stuff and smoothing them in over the next few days hopefully.

The Maw

This lovely creature arrived in the mail with the Hasslefree parcel. It's part of their White Metal range and was sculpted by Matt Lord, originally released in resin and now available in alloy. You can see the resin version here http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/pack.php?pack=951 . I've been putting him together today.

It is really well balanced and will stand on its front legs. It sort of looks a bit like something out of Doom/Quake maybe, it's got that fleshy horror look. I can imagine the faces on players meeting a pack of these in a dungeon crawl.

But should he go on a square base or a round one?
I may actually put him on a smaller square base to get him into the dungeon.

Hasslefree Parcel arrives

Well after dithering for years, and missing the good exchange rate, I've finally got around to ordering from Hasslefree a small UK miniature manufacturer. Prompted by a recent resin Fenris addition to the lines they carry I ordered it and a small handful of goodies. The particular box shaped object which you can see in the photo will be painted for SWMBO's desk at work. I won't say anything else in case she happens to surf in before the date of her birthday.

Anyway everything arrived in good shape, well packed and with a lolly!



And a new hat modelled by b2.

Another Hasslefree figure, this time the multipart Nain fantasy dwarf. The axe and hammer handle are very fine and I'm wondering how they'll hold up with use.

Hasslefree Miniatures

I've long admired these figures from a small English outfit but have never had the impetus to acquire some. I picked up a couple of these miniatures from the bargain bin at Mind Games in Melbourne a few weeks ago. The sculpting is excellent and coming from an accomplished sculptor like Kev rather than someone who is just learning how to do things even these early efforts (from 2005) are just beautiful. Possibly the only concern would be how they would fit in with my other hordes of miniatures.

"Krags" a Grymn or space dwarf next to mini me and a couple of Games Workshop Dwarves, one of who is the now long OOP squat guild biker.

The miniatures are 28mm in size and are much finer in appearance rather than the exaggerated heroic features of the GW style figures. Anatomically they seem spot on without the "big head" appearance of many miniatures.

"Krags", the photo doesn't do justice to the detail on this figure.