2013 goals

So even though we're already halfway thru January, I thought it would be a good idea to write some hobby goals down for this year.  I've noticed a lot of other people have been doing this, and I really like the idea in a hobby sense.  At the end of the year (pending if I'm still blogging at that point), I want to return to this thread and see what I've accomplished.  So without further ado....

1. Finish the Goblin Town Box Set (Completed)
2. Marry my gf/fiancee of 8 years  (Aug. 31st) (Completed)
3. Paint a 1000 point Gondor Army (Completed)
4. Paint a 600 point Rohan Army
5. Finish up my Isengard Army  (N/A)
6. Finish up my Mordor Army (N/A)
7. Push my general orc total to 72 models (I think I'm in the 40's at this moment)
8. Experiment more with conversions (Completed)
9. Paint a 600 point Elven Army
10. Finish painting my Garden of Morr Cemetery that is half done.
11. Get more involved with the gaming community (Completed? Sorta)
12. Become a better painter by working on my weaknesses (Completed? Sorta)

Now I don't think this is impossible, but I did set the bar pretty high and I'm almost certain I won't get everything accomplished on my list, but these are goals rather than "to-do or else" item.  I know throughout the year other hobby priorities will pop up, but that's okay.  As of right now, this is what I'm aiming for

Bases and the New Shelves

So I was pretty busy yesterday to post anything new.  I managed to cast the mold a couple times, so now I have plenty of bases to paint.

 

Yep, that is about 50 bases.  I would continue to cast some more, but this is plenty to get me started for the time being.  I just took them to sink a few minutes ago and cleaned the mold release residue off, so now they're ready to be primed and painted.

The new shelves for my case came in today.  Now I must say that I really like the Ikea Detolf glass case, but the problem is that the spaces are too big and they don't nearly give you enough shelves.  For $65 dollars though, its still a good buy.  I didn't want to do any major remodeling to the case, but I didn't want it to look like I "jerry-rigged" something together.  I did a little bit of research and I found these wire rope clamps at Home Depot.  I found that with the 3/32 to 1/8 in, you either get a perfect fit, or it just a hair to snug which you have to bend out so the clamp will go around the bar.


Here is what it looks like...

 

Personally, I think it looks pretty good.  Trying to measure the correct height on each one was a hassle due to the fact that its a tight fit, but with a little perseverance and trial and error, we got it on.

More Greenstuff Bases

So last night after I posting about my green stuff bases, I checked to see how the green stuff was curing and it was pretty solid.  So, I decided to pour the mold before bed so I could start working on these bases all day tomorrow without having to worry about the 4-6 hour dry time for the mold.  Here is how it turned out 

  

I think it turned out pretty good, other than the fact that everything is bunched up to the left.  I was worried this morning about wrecking the mold because I forgot to hit the originals with mold release before I poured it.  Alas, everything turned out pretty good with minimal air bubbles.  I had to muscle a few of the legos off the side, but everything turned out pretty good.

As for the plastic that I'm using, its this stuff....

 

Smooth-Cast 300.  Its pretty good stuff.  It cures in a little under 10 minutes.  You can purchase this stuff and Mold Star 15 at www.smooth-on.com/ for around $25 for the 2 part Smooth Cast and $30 for the 2 part Mold Star.

 As far as the casting goes, the mold I made cast pretty well.  I screwed up at the bottoms because I didn't scrape the top of the mold, but that can be rectified easily.  Since these were the test ones, I wanted to paint them up to see how the details hold.

 

I took this picture because I wanted to show the masters with the cast ones with a paint job.  The details looked pretty good.  As far as the paint job goes, it looks a little too stoney and bland to me, but I went with a straight grey pattern to white because I wanted to really see the details and how they pop with a strong highlight.  When I repaint these, when I go from my dark to my mid grey tone, I'm going to do a quick reddish brown (doombull brown) and a mid-tone brown (mournfang brown) in between to give it a more earth tone.  Stone work (even cobblestone) is not straight grey.  It has a brownish and even greenish tones in it as well as your grey and white tones.

I would've casted a bunch more today, but I was working on my ikea glass case in where I put my finished miniatures.  I've pretty much run out of room, so I'm adding more shelves.  I went to a glazier on friday, and I'm having 3 more shelves made which will be in on tuesday.  I mounted the brackets today which will hold the new shelves to the frames and I had to find an alternative area to put my miniatures till the new shelves come in.  I'll post some pictures when the new shelves come in.

 

Green Stuff Bases

So after a few hours of dabbling with green stuff and sculpting, I finally have the 8 master bases done.  After I cranked out the first 3, I started getting quicker with them, trying to make each unique.

I experimented with a couple, trying to add different textures.  I'm hoping that each of them will look similar, yet different at the same time.  I think when I start casting them, then painting them, the drybrushing will pick out the unique textures.  I'm going to let the green stuff set over night and cast the mold tomorrow.  I haven't cast anything for awhile, so I'm really looking forward into seeing how they turn out.

Gondor Pt1

So I know I said I was going to finish up the Goblin King and company, but for some reason tonight I got a bug up my ass to start cranking out some Gondorian footmen that have been collecting dust on my shelf for far too long (over a year at the very least).

 

Anyone with any sort of hobby experience can see they're in pretty bad shape.  I bought 2 lots of them for dirt cheap off of ebay a few months before the new warband books came out.  I think total with shipping, I paid around $10 for over 70 of them.  Considering now they're 12 for over $25 with tax, I'd say I got a good bargain.  Granted, it looks like the wreckage of some 12 year olds hobby gone terribly wrong.  I know a few of them in there were sprayed/painted with some kind of stuff that looks like it was oil based Testor's stuff or something.  No matter how long I left them in simple green or how hard I scrubbed them, I just couldn't get that crap off.  I'm tempted to go buy some turpentine and see if that'll do the trick, but the layer is pretty thin and I think with a coat of thin primer we'll be able to cover it up nicely without obscuring too much detail.  Regardless, I'm going to keep a close eye on them and maybe let those sit for a little bit before I slap some paint on them.

As you can also see from the picture, I started ripping them off the bases either with force enough to crack the glue without ripping they're feet from they're bodies, or cutting off the slotta part at the bottom of the foot.  I'm big for salvaging bases (and sprue for that fact).  I have a plan though.....

  

These two are actually my first attempts at sculpting bases.  I've always been a little intimidated of doing any sculpting work outside of extremely minor conversions like weapon swap touch ups and gap filling.  My plan as it stands right now is to do 6 more similar (yet different) than these, then cast a mold for them and use these as the bases for the entire army minus warband leaders and special characters (going to go a bit more elaborate for those).  I want the Gondor army to have a "city in ruin" feel to them.  The one on the left is going to get a little sand/rubble on the one side, kind of like the cobblestone has eroded or a big warhammer smashed part of the masonry work.  We'll see what my creativity yields this weekend.

More Goblins

 

So the two boxes of new goblins came in.  They'll probably end up on the shelf for the next few weeks.  After having just painted 36 of them, I'm ready to paint something else for awhile before we start snipping these out (not to mention I still need to finish up the rest of the box set).  Also going to need to purchase 3-4 more Goblin Captains to go with it.

The Hobbit Pt.1

So lets kick this blog off with something interesting and fun..............

About a month ago I picked up this box set from my local GW store.  For a $125+ tax, you get 36 Goblins, 1 goblin captain, Grinnah (special named goblin), the goblin king, the goblin scribe with platform, Thorin's Company (total of 13 dwarves, Gandolf, and Bilbo). Since this was a "special edition" box set, it also came with Radagast with a custom base (which I thought was pretty cool).  You also get some terrain which includes a throne for the goblin king which is actually a fancy toilet from the looks of it (I'm not even kidding), 4 plank walkways and 2 wooden platforms.  You also get the small rules booklet which is pretty much similar to the one that came in the Mines of Moria box set along with a beginners guide which shows you the basics of a game (also similar to the Mines of Moria box set).  So a total of 56 miniatures, some terrain, and a small rulebook.  Not a bad deal.

Needless to say, I bought this the day it came out along with a hardback rules book.  I have most of it painted up.  I took a little break from it to tackle my Citadel Realms of Battle Board which I'll show off in a later blog.  I'd finish it up completely this week but I'm taking a slight break from painting to play Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition.  I digress...

Here are all 36 Goblins

Here is a closer view of them

and another angle

And here is Thorin's Company (all 15 of them)

I'm not going to lie, but I really had fun painting these.  The last few Goblin's started wearing on me, but after my first couple test ones I started doing them in blocks of 5-7 and completed them rather quickly.  As for the dwarves, they took a little longer and I spent alot of time on each one, trying a few new techniques and even busted out my magnifying glass to try and do the eyes.

And these are the last 5 mini's left to do.  I started to paint the goblin king, but for some reason he started getting spackled with dry paint still stuck in my large drybrush.  I started to justify it in my head, but he just looked terrible so he took a little swim in some simple green over the weekend.  I'll have to redo the seam-lines with green stuff again.  I haven't even started on the scribe yet and I really want to make the Goblin captain and Grinnah pop, so I planned to put some extra time into them.  As for Radagast, I think hes going to have to wait.  After I get the last 4 gobo's done, the terrain needs to be primed and painted, so Radagast is going to have to wait.  I've also been eying my unpainted Gondor army for quite some time, so that'll be coming up hopefully in the near future.