Bad Squiddo Special

So I was lucky enough to have a small parcel sent to me by Bad Squiddo games of master casts of just two of their new upcoming WW2 Soviets. Squiddo already have an excellent range available here, the new additions are in winter kit. 

For those not aware of the company, Bad Squiddo do not do gimicky female versions of historical uniforms, these are researched, genuine historical looks. 

As always, the models were well cast with no flash and took very little prep work before I painted. I have just treated myself to some brand new brushes from Black Hat miniatures so I had a dream painting these. All done with GW and Coat D'arms paints. The khaki colour was my own mix of GW death guard green and Zandra dust. Coat D'arms dark brown super shader did all the magic afterwards. (including turning what started out a redhead into a blonde.)

I wanted to do something different than my normal basing, so in front of the models you can see the test base that worked so well I had to put it in the shot. I used Vallejo Thick Mud acrylic, a pure white drybrush on top, then some light flocking followed by more white drybrushing. Hopefully that gives that frosty ground look.

The Kickstarter goes live this Wednesday and only runs for a week so look up Bad Squiddo on your usual Social Media for the links on Wednesday to get hold of these Soviets.

And in between painting these two (at what I might add a super quick pace for me.) you have to have something to do while the inks and glues dry. So I thought I should finish this mounted Freyja that has been sat half done on the painting tray since Christmas. 

I have recently learnt that this style of having a solid green trim on bases is a 90's style and not the done thing anymore. I couldn't for the life of me think of what people were doing now, so I had to actually look through instagram at some models to see what people are doing. Turns out, leave it black or paint it dark brown now is the done thing. It may be garish to some, but I think I'm going to keep with the green.

Frost Fang Cavalry

Well, hello there. How you been? Yep, I'm still painting fantasy, although I have an excuse. I actually need to order paints so some of my historical models are still on hold due to lack of the right colours. 

 So, the pastel painted fantasy that is my Barbarian Dragon Rampant Army gets another unit. One of the joys of non miniature agnostic rules is you can jump around companies and just pick and choose stuff that you like the look of. So from Mantic games I ordered these amazing Frost Fang Cavalry. My Barbarian army have a Viking/Northern tribe fur wearing feel to them, so they fit in very nicely.

They are full resin, multi part kits. The beasts have two loose legs on one side and the riders have a loose head and both arms. The resin needed a good soapy bath as always. (I must recommend you must do this with any resin model kit otherwise you will find the primer layer won't adhere well at all) One model had suffered a missing foot as well, possibly an air bubble in the mould. A bit of green stuff however and my amateur sculpting skills and you couldn't tell which one.

 

 (I did have to resculpt it a couple of times though as I kept trying to hold the model by the foot when painting it before the green stuff had hardened, rookie mistake!)

The beasts were super fun and easy to paint, I only used washes on the riders, just relying on a couple of layers of dry brushing first and the painting in the details on the face and claws for the beasts. There is something so satisfying about drybrushing layers of paint on fur on a model. The sculpter has basically done all the hard work for you and with some careful selection of shades of paint you can get an awesome looking model. The riders had a choice of two different heads and two sets of arms in the kit, so to make my third guy not look the same as another (sadly there was nothing much I could do about the beasts all being in the same pose) from my bits box I grabbed a bow and arrow arm set left over from the Frostgrave plastic box set. I loved the idea of a barbarian letting loose an arrow while charging into the enemy on his roaring mount. In hindsight I realise he doesn't have a quiver now, but maybe I will find a way to add one to the saddle at some point.

 

So, as you can see, by keeping to a similar pallete and painting style models from different companies can appear as if they are from the same army. Why be beholden to one company's models? It's like a super expensive pick and mix that I can guarantee will make you feel very ill if you eat it.

Oh and finally, please do admire the background painting in my photo's. It was done by my youngest and with his permission I decided it would make an excellent background to my photo's. He came home from school clutching the A3 paper to show off his painting skills and I immediately decided it was far too good for the usual magnetic mounting to the fridge. It would be put to far better use here.

Welcome to Marwencol

There comes a point in a comedy actor's career when they decide they want to do some serious acting. You may or may not be a fan of Steve Carell, you may remember such awesome performance as Brick in Anchorman, or Michael Scott in the American The Office. Well, recently I was intrigued by the trailer of a film call Welcome to Marwen. A true story of a victim of a brutal attack who finds therapy in photographing 1\6 scale depictions of a fictional town in Belgium during WW2. After watching the film I decided to investigate further and purchased the above book by the inspiration of the film, Mark Hogancamp. Mark chose such a large scale during the early days of his recovery for mainly practical reasons. His injuries meant he suffered from shaking hands and couldn't initially cope with the smaller scales that regular readers of this blog would expect.

Mark's excellent photographer's eye coupled with his attention to detail makes a book of remarkable scenes. Uniforms are left out in muddy puddles for days to obtain that lived in look. What appears to be a quirky affectation in the movie of his life of Mark constantly pulling along a jeep filled with dolls and soldiers as he goes about the town makes complete sense when explained. He is creating genuine wear on the tyres of the vehicle.

Mark's 2004 prize winning photograph - Rescuing the Major

The book covers Marks story, his recovery from the attack and the trial of the perpetrators. It then goes into detail of how Mark made Marwencol and the characters that populate the town. Mark has his own alter ego "Hogie" as well as a population of strong female characters populating the town, some named after friends in his life. When Hogie first arrives he is the one that needs rescuing, like Mark, the town has been his redemption.

Mark and Hogie

The last part of the book is made up of Mark's picture stories. Almost comic strip type stories, they show the efforts of hours of painstaking work.

The ladies of Marwencol mete out their own brand of justice

Mark has since begun working in smaller scale again and now like the rest of us has his own stack of projects he is working on. I recently had the unique opportunity via the wonders of Facebook live of joining a Q&A with Mark and asking him about his work through his representatives, One Mile Gallery. Mark has recently discovered acrylic paints (he has always used enamels until now.) and he himself has admitted he is always learning new techniques, mostly from Youtube!

 

Mark is an inspiration to me that crafting and modelling is such a good tool for mental health and although I am no expert at all I am sure I can confidently say he is evidence that it's not just playing with toy soldiers.

 

If you would like to help out towards Mark's crafting costs you can donate to his fund here.

 

Mark will be doing another Q&A via Facebook and One Mile Gallery later on this month. 

How to avoid painting what is on your workbench.

Well, January happened. I watched nine seasons of the American Office and four seasons of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Yep, I got lost in a Netflix well. In fact it was a couple of weeks after Christmas before the paints even got unpacked again but that's okay. Lockdown three here in the UK kinda got to me and I decided I didn't need to do anything that needed any more effort than stare at the TV in my evenings. I think you could probably say I hit a wall. Which isn't like me at all, things don't phase me normally, I'm a glass half full kind of person, but I think I just needed a month to be mentally shut off for a bit. I think I'm back now though.

Anyway, back to the toy soldiers. What's been on the workbench? Well firstly I painted the above Cat Paladin from Bad Squiddo. I ordered it as soon as it hit the website back before Christmas and it's been sat waiting since. I did start some Zulu war plastics, they are all glued together and undercoated, then I got stuck. I think I got daunted by the numbers just sitting there and I needed to step back and paint a single model to get back into the swing of things. So, Cat Paladin it was. 

Also I've been keeping an eye on EBay for a Games Workshop item. (Yep I know right? It's like they have you hooked for life.) As you may know I'm a fan of Dan Abnett and have been reading this doorstop of a book.

Now, a few years back GW produced a limited edition resin of one of these Characters called Eisenhorn to celebrate their publishing arm's anniversary. (tenth I think) I missed it at the time, but I've been keeping an eye on EBay for a reasonably priced one. Well, one finally came up.

As a resin piece it was super delicate but I managed to put it together without any mishaps. They call it Finecast resin and the sculpt is super detailed but I smell trickery with the photo in the accompanying paperwork. Either the model loses detail with repeated casts or the model they painted was larger than 28mm scale because there are details in the photo that aren't on my model. It's still a cool model though and I didn't pay more than retail price for it so I'm not too bothered.

Finally this week was a week of experimentation. I ordered a D&D Wizards of the Coast model from Amazon to see what the quality was like. They do large plastic models for various dungeon type creatures, which in resin or metal would definitely break the bank. So I went for a Tyranosaurus Rex.

They also come pre-primed so no need for undercoating, just get painting. (This makes me so happy.) I did need to attach the tail however which did not quite fit snugly. A bit of plastic putty filled the gap though.

I then couldn't decide what colour scheme to paint so I did some tests on some plastic spiders I had found at a car boot sale a few years back, but more on that in a moment. So, one finished Tyranosaurus Rex.

So, back then to the spiders. So, I had painted the spiders now, so I had to paint the goblins that go on top of them if course. Then, if I'd already painted them, why not paint a few more goblins. Then, why not paint the whole goblin army, it's already undercoated.

So, yeah this week I painted an entire goblin army.

And that is how you procrastinate enough to avoid painting Zulu war british.

A Merry Christmas to All and to all a Good night.

It's Christmas Eve and the paints and models have been tidily packed up away out of sight so the dining table can be bedecked with Christmas cheer. My beautiful supportive wife allows me to normally leave out a permanent painting tray of current projects on the go in the corner of the room that I can just grab and put on the table ready to go. There's nothing more off-putting to any hobby than it being packed away out of sight. The hurdle of unpacking your paints each time can really be enough to slow you down.

This means I haven't really got anything to show and tell I'm afraid, but I'm sure you all don't mind. I made a couple of last minute Pre Christmas orders not expecting them to arrive by now but they already have. So I have January's Wargames Illustrated to read over the festive period which includes a sprue of 13.5mm (I know, the conversations I have seen online about the scale have gone on and on.) American Civil War soldiers from Warlord Games. I predict a lot of drybrushing happening.

I was super excited when I heard about this little Kitty from Bad Squiddo games was coming out, but I really didn't expect to get hold of him before Christmas.

He doesn't fit in with anything else in my collection at all but I really don't care. Annie has promised to do more similar models if he is successful so fingers crossed I can end up with a small warband of animal warriors. I'm sure I can fit them into a skirmish game somewhere or come up with something.

We're in tier 4 here at Chez Lead so small family Christmas tomorrow, (For non UK readers that means we pretty much aren't allowed visitors), but our spirits aren't dampened. Our annual Christmas get together to the pub with my wargaming friends couldn't happen this year so a drunken Zoom quiz was in order instead. I have concluded that they may know an awful lot about military history, but ask them to name top ten Broadway musicals and they will look at you blankly.

It was good to catch up with the chaps, some of whom I realised over the last decade I haven't really not seen in person for longer than a week or so, now it's been over six months. It's been a tough year but others have had it tougher. Christmas is a time for giving, so if you can, maybe go make a donation to Shelter over here.

Before this blog, I didn't spend a lot of time chatting to strangers online. This year it has kept me sane reading blogs, watching live YouTube videos and just general joining in with the hobby chat online. In a year when people haven't been able to get together I feel like our community have become closer in some sense.

Special mention and seasons greetings to Carole from Hippolytas tiny footsteps for her blog, Annie from Bad Squiddo Games for the fun Sunday morning coffee chats, Soren from Bloodbeard Garage for his excellent blog and encouragement, Neal from Wee gamers and Karl from Crooked Dice for their Saturday morning talking nonsense on Youtube.

Finally, a special Happy Christmas to the Brother in Law and the Illustrious Opponent who have both been sources of inspiration for this blog, possibly against their will and to my wife, for having to make suitable impressed faces at everything I paint for the last year.

And to everyone who has commented on the blog or clicked the like button on Facebook, or just read the blog. Take care and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Additional. I love Die Hard as much as the next person, but Christmas Eve is all about Muppet Christmas Carol. If you start the film at 10:47:04pm, you can start Christmas day as Scrooge pushes Gonzo and Rizzo off the window sill on Christmas morning and then shares the joy of Christmas.

Make your own paper hat

My son came home from school today with a handmade Christmas hat on his head he had made at school to wear for his school Christmas dinner. I had a sudden memory flashback to childhood when we used to do the very same thing back in school for our celebration. I particularly remember being very competitive about making mine. Especially as one child was announced as having made the "best hat" each year. I remember considering myself to be particularly crafty even back then and very serious each year with more and more elaborate constructions.

Obviously the teachers made a massive fuss of us all, rightly so, so I can imagine my memory of how amazing these hats were far outweighs any actual achievements we made in papercraft haberdashery. My point is, we were encouraged in our craft. No-one was told they shouldn't have done their hat that way, or why bother making a hat at all, its not going to be as good as the other kids. Everyone joined in. 

My little corner of the internet is tiny and I just scrape the surface of the hobby world, so I mostly see hobbyists like this. We all admire each others paint jobs, praise others work, give useful tips and answer multitudes of questions mostly in the spirit of sharing knowledge without belittling others. 

This is how it should be. There's no limit to how many people are allowed to take part. There's no right or wrong way to do your own hobby. Even if you are painting up historical miniatures and someone points out you've painted the buttons on the tunics the wrong colour, hell, you're doing an alternate history. 

I do however every now and then see the other side, people are told they shouldn't be allowed to join in, or they are doing it wrong. To those people I say, shush. We are all just making our own paper hats.

Read this blog! Share subscribe and Like!!!

Let me begin by saying I apologise for the cheesy title of the blog. It is really to demonstrate what I wanted to talk about today. I have recently reached the milestone on Facebook of 101 likes. Which, after over a year may seem actually a very slow achievement, but I'm okay with that. I haven't been pushy with my blog, My goal hasn't been an exercise in social media engagement, rather a personal journal of hobbying and sharing with like minded individuals that are genuinely interested.

 

I wanted to do an online version of the conversations I have with Illustrious Opponent, Brother in Law and other wargaming friends. I have since discovered that there are an awful lot of people doing the same thing. I hadn't really come up with an original idea, but thats okay. I'm not trying to monetise this, I'm not turning adverts on, I'm not trying to sell my wares.  

During lockdown this has also become a way of keeping my chums up to date with what I'm up to. Although when we can get together again for a pint I'm not sure what I'm going to talk to them about!

I recently joined a Facebook group out of idle curiosity. The group claimed to be for bloggers to share tips and tricks on getting your blog noticed etc. I thought it would be interesting to see how non Wargaming bloggers are doing this as well. All the posts in the group seem to be geared towards monetising though and their blogs are writing about how to monetise or advertise blogs. There are no blogs on just "stuff", like crafting or hobbies. It all smells of a pyramid scheme to me!

So, recent painting? Well over on Twitter a chap going by the name of Sonic Sledgehammer came up with the idea of everyone painting the same model and posting pictures of it with the same hashtag, not as a competition, just as a shared community project. You can see his announcement video here.

 

Go to Twitter and look up #paintinglathgertha, there are some lovely paintjobs. Now regulars will know I have already painted a mounted Lathgertha from Bad Squiddo for my Dragon Rampant army. The blister set actually comes with Lathgertha mounted and on foot, so I already had the model ready. Those that didn't, Bad Squiddo Annie temporarily arranged for the Shield Maiden on foot to be available individually.

So, here is my final paint job, I was inspired by the film Brave, where the main character Merida has a massive head of bright red hair, so I then looked up the tartan pattern her Father is wearing in the movie (she actually doesn't wear any tartan in the movie, just a plain green dress) and gave her a tartan cloak.

 

 

 

 

Also on the painting table I have finished my Bad Squiddo gnomes. I've based them up on three bases for a Dragon Rampant army. Surely there is nothing more terrifying than a swarm of killer gnomes sweeping across the battlefield charging at your ankles.

 

 

 

 I took a delve into my wargaming storage this weekend with the youngest sprog. We had been looking at my rule books and he wanted to see evidence that I had all the Space Marines and Grey Knights listed therein that I was showing him. Obviously the pictures in the books are a lot better paint jobs than my own, but yes I do have some of those "cool space dudes", so we were having a look to see if anything would inspire maybe a small tabletop game. (I'm thinking not 40K rules as I don't think he's quite ready for that, but something simpler.) Whilst delving a few things were kept out that needed some repair work or paint touch ups. One of of which was the following.

 

These Necromunda House Escher gangers from Games Workshop are over twenty years old now. I've always had a memory of my early paint jobs being terrible, but actually I'm pretty proud of these. Apparently my younger self was conversion obsessed. I couldn't buy a model without finding a way of hacking off a section and glueing something else on.

I'm a comic book fan as this page can attest, so I took some inspiration from Tank Girl and attempted some tattoos.

Apparently when my vision was younger and my hands were steadier, I could paint eyes! Not something I do anymore. The shotgun barrels do appear comically overlarge at this angle.

 

Apparently I decided they only wore black leather or camo. Minimal primary colours in my Grim Dark Future. 

Finally with some more comic book inspiration I present my hired gun with a head swap. Against better judgement I took him along with me on my interview for GW back in the day. (you can read the terrible tale here) Apparently the interviewer was not a fan of conversions. It's my version of James O'Barr's the Crow. If I remember correctly the head is from an Eldar Guardian, no idea where I got the crow and gravestone from. More black leather. In fact my weekly walks down to the local GW back then I would be dressed head to foot in black with my long leather coat with the Blood Angels pin on the lapel. A look I am afraid I could definitely not pull off today. (I probably couldn't back then either.)

 

Photographing him was tricky, the all white face reflects a lot of light, so I had to go for a moody lighting look.

Looking at all the models I hacked at back in my youth and now looking at what the untouched versions go for on ebay now I sometimes regret some of my enthusiastic conversions. This guy though, I'm really happy with, I would do it again in a heartbeat. In fact I have two more of the same model. I just don't have any more Eldar Guardian heads. I wonder what they go for on ebay...