Christmas 2018

Here are some of the model making and hobby presents I received as Christmas presents this year. Thank you for ALL of the presents.

Tony

Shadespire update

Following on from this earlier post, this is the Spiteclaw's Swarm that I painted up for my son.

Tony

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.

Last night, Sue and I visited Worcester Cathedral for the Christmas Service in Nine Lessons. It was the first time we had been able to attend this service (which is also repeated this evening) and listen to the choir. The cathedral was packed full and we all enjoyed this very special service.

I hope you have a great Christmas break. For me this is the first Christmas in over eight years that I have be able to have the whole seasonal holiday off work. I'm looking forward to it.

Tony

Reminder; Models For Wargamers Book is still available

I still have copies of Dampfpanzerwagon Guide No. 3 - Models for Wargamers for sale. For details of how to order a copy see this link.

Thank you.

Tony

Scale Model World, Telford 2018 - part six

Part six of my photo essay of the IPMS Scale Model World from last month showing the models that don't easily fit into the earlier classifications and showing the diversity of modelling content that was on show.

I hope you enjoy them.

Tony

Warhammer Shadespire my first game

This weekend I had my first ever game of Shadespire from GW. Gary was over for Holly's birthday and between babysitting and eating we had a quick game. I was playing the Bloodbound and lost!

I'm afraid the die Gods were definitely not on my side.....

Shadespire from Games Workshop

I found the game mechanics were simple enough to pick up quickly but offered the opportunity and challenges that meant that I am looking forward to a return match. Hopefully with a better outcome.

Help

I would like hints and tips on how best to play prior to sitting opposite Gary when we next play.

Tony

Away-Day Parabellum, Birmingham 2018

My annual Christmas visit to Parabellum, Birmingham has had to be delayed this year. My initial intention was to be up in Birmingham this weekend, but changes at work, Birthdays and other issues have meant that it will now have to be next weekend.

I have in the past met up with other like-minded modellers and discussed the hobby over (strong) tea and Christmas cakes, but as stated this year's Away-day has had to be re-arranged.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to The Jewellery Quarter and meet up with Mark next Friday. Maybe you can attend?

Tony

Goblin Cacadores from December 2012

This article/tutorial was originally posted on Orcs in the Webbe way back in December 2012, but due to computer glitches and issue with OITW image hosting, the article and the images were lost to the Webb. I have reproduced the article here.

ooOOoo

This group of Goblins was inspired by a recent e-bay auction from billybonesworkshop. I came across these beautifully painted Flintloque Goblin Cacadores for sale and thought that it was about time I painted my own group of goblins which had been residing in my box of unpainted miniatures for years.

I do not intend this short article to be a full painting tutorial or even a blow-by-blow account of how I have painted them, more an example of how a simple e-bay image inspired me to complete a long dead (and buried) miniature painting project.

I had a squad of eight Flintloque Algarvey Cacadores, some partially painted some mounted on to 2p coins and some just bare metal castings.  I even had some conversions – quite a miss-matched group.

My first job was to properly base all eight and build up the groundwork with Milliput. In addition I searched through my ‘bits-box’ and pulled out some GW Snotlings (they maybe Wargames Foundry Goblinoids) and mounted these in two pairs on to 2p coins. The initial e-bay Goblins used a single Snotling mounted alongside the bugler and I thought I would copy this great idea.

Base one (or the first 2p coin), has a couple of fighting Snottlings in a wrestling pose, while the second base has a Snottling with a sling and another standing with his hand on a club.  I can see me using similar style bases in future Flintloque projects.

Once mounted I undercoated all of the miniatures with matt black spray paint and touched up any bits that I had missed with a large paintbrush and GW Chaos Black.

Rather than taking photos of all eight Cacadores, I decided to concentrate on just two, the goblin with the bugle or horn and the goblin with the huge moustache.  Obviously I have painted all eight in the same way and later I will show the whole group but I feel that going back to just these two will show the techniques better and in greater detail than photographing all eight at every stage.

I used the e-bay Cacadores for inspiration and was soon painting the bright green goblin flesh with Foundry Forest Green (26A) and highlighting with Forest Green and Sunburst Yellow from the old Citadel Colour range. I am afraid I will be continually referring back to the e-bay Cacadores and apologise for this but I feel it is of interest to anyone following this tutorial to be clear on where I followed the colour scheme slavishly and where I deviated from it.  For example the e-bay goblins have their green flesh highlighted with white – which in my opinion gives a very ‘washed-out’ flesh colour.  I decided to highlight with yellow which I feel gives a brighter, more cartoon-like colour that fits in better with my Flintloque collection and is a style that I personally prefer.

The flesh areas were then ‘washed’ with the Citadel Wash – Thraka Green and once fully dry, I used the Forest Green/Sunburst Yellow mix to highlight the ‘high points’. For the bulk of the painting, I used a standard Games Workshop/Citadel brush.

The next area to receive paint was the traditional dark brown uniforms.  For this I used Vallejo Charred Brown, highlighting with GW Snakebite Leather and even a small touch of GW Scab Red.  Even so I stopped short of a 100% Snakebite Leather highlight, preferring the uniform to be a little darker than the e-bay goblins.

The cuffs and facing colours were built up from GW Regal Blue and GW Skull White, but once again slightly less highlighted than the e-bay models as I felt I wanted my goblins to be less pastel and more primary.  I hope that you are following so far.

All of the leather work was painted with Charcoal Grey from Foundry over the GW Chaos Black then highlighted with Charcoal Grey and Skull White.  I deviated from the e-bay goblins again by painting the backpacks dark grey and not very dark brown.  I think this technique is best illustrated on the Shako.  The goblin blowing the horn has a GW Scab red bandana, highlighted with Vallejo Bloody Red.  The white spots and pendant were first painted with Citadel Colour Bubonic Brown then highlighted with pure GW Skull White.

The boots were painted Charcoal Grey over Chaos Black, while the leggings were Charred Brown slightly highlighted with some Snakebite Leather while still allowing some of the Chaos Black to show through in the deep shadows.

Finishing off the figure painting, I used Snakebite Leather and some Charred Brown to paint the stock of the gun. The metallic areas were all GW metallic paints which I feel are some of the very best metallic paints available.

The whole group took about two evening of work to complete to this stage and given that they had laid for some time in my Flintloque miniatures drawer and sustained considerable damage, I feel that it was only fitting to resurrect them and complete this group in a similar style and in homage to the e-bay goblins.

Later I painted the bases in my usual scheme; a base of Snakebite Leather highlighted a number of times by drybrushing with a Snakebite Leather/Skull White mix. Some individual stones were picked out in a Chaos Black and Skull White mix before varnishing.

Once varnished – a coat of Ronseal Hardglaze and then two coats of Galleria Matt Acrylic Varnish I flocked the bases with some static grass bunches over PVA glue.

These Goblins had been relegated to my lead mountain and might never have been completed if not for the inspiration from the billybonesworkshop e-bay auction.  It is strange how certain images or in this case a group of figures can inspire you.  I would hope that this tutorial would kindle some inspiration and that you like my Goblin Cacadores plus see the humour in the two additional Snottling bases and maybe copy the idea the next time you are painting a regiment of Algarvey Cacadores!

For more Flintloque Cacadores see this post.

Tony