In this update you can see how I have continued to add paint to this 40mm Spartan Miniatures Hero.
After painting the base and the shield I varnished the mini with both gloss and matt varnish before adding static grass decoration to the base.
Keep calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
Another 40mm Spartan Miniatures model. This time one of the heroes. The model was mounted onto a pre-decimalisation penny and the groundwork was built up with Milliput epoxy putty. I then used some Vallejo modelling putty to hide seams and smooth out areas of the armour.
I have found that the Spartan Miniatures sculpts are of varing quality - the main group of modular Hoplites (body and lower legs as a one piece casting and then head and arms can be added) are better sculpts while the heroes, see above are more 'two dimensional' and can look very flat from certain angles.
The figure was undercoated with Tamiya spray primer and then basecoated with a black/brown base.
The metallic areas were painted first with a bright gold colour which was 'washed' to bring out the sheen and detail.
I'll post more images and details later, but for now, stay safe and
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
Two more 40mm Spartan Games Hoplites - The first is this blue shield figure - can you guess where I got the shield design from?
And this black leather clad soldier with a hand painted shield design and a much more dynamic pose.
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
Over the last couple of months I have been able to spend more time in the garden and on my hobby. I've written magazine articles and searched through my Lead Mountain to pick-out miniatures to model and paint. One of my larger projects was to up-date my well-used gaming table. The image above shows the finished table or table topper.....
The table was built many years ago from three panels of white polystyrene packing material (used to protect display fridges during transit) with a strip-wood frame or surround. The gaming surface was first covered with manilla envelopes torn into small sections and glued in place with PVA glue then painted green. Over the years I have added layer after layer of railway scatter material or dyed sawdust. Images of the gaming table have appeared throughout the Blog.
Here is an image of the bottom of the table. Note the torn newspaper sections which have two uses - firstly; they are repairing damaged sections of the exposed foam and secondly; they help to secure the two wooden battens which were added to strengthen the polystyrene panels and stop 'bowing'.
My first job was to sand the surface and remove any obvious rough areas. Over the years of use and adding more dyed sawdust the main surface was far from flat!
I added three areas of high ground. These were built from more polystyrene. The first (top right and covered in white filler) was a domed hill with the top cut off. Like the main board this was built many years ago but had not been used for ages. The second area (also to the right and just below the domed hill) was the section that I had cut off the top of the domed hill. And thirdly a much larger and flatter hill (bottom left). All three hills were glued in place with No More Nails and further secured with cut-down cocktail sticks pressed into the hills and board surface. I smoothed the transition from flat board to hill with both ready-mixed filler and Modelling Compound from Gaming Geek.
As you can see there were other areas of filler added to the sawdust covered board. these were where the surface had been damaged or I wanted to smooth out any deep ruts.
Once the new surface had been added I painted the whole board in muted browns and pale greens. I used both a large paintbrush and my airbrush for this.
Later I searched through my many part bags of flock and ground foam and mixed them all together to produce a more natural looking, multi-coloured mix and applied this over a patchwork of PVA glue.
The final steps were to 'blend' different areas my Paasche H model airbrush and add some areas of ground foam. Here you can see the finished board with the edges painted satin black - the image was taken in strong sunlight.
I have yet to game of the new board and don't look forward to re-flocking my terrain pieces (they are all edged in plain dyed sawdust to blend in with the old gaming surface - they will need to be updated and I will do this as and when they are needed or I have time). I hope you like the new gaming surface - I do. But for now - stay safe and
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
Another 40mm scale miniature for my Typhon project - this time Hercules a conversion using the lower body from a 40mm Spartan Miniature, the body from a HeroClix miniature - Hercules (from Secret Invasion Marvel) and the head from the Spartan Miniature set. I used Green Stuff to 'blend' the various parts and a pre-decimalisation penny for the base.
The club was modelled from some 3mm plastic card and 'pinned' into the hand before being superglued.
After a Tamiya spray coat primer was applied, the flesh areas were built up over a brown wash.
And the detailing done with a Rosemary & Co 401 no. 3 brush.
The figure was both gloss varnished and then matt varnished before I added some static grass to the base.
The final image shows my converted Hercules and The Nemean Lion (another conversion - using a plastic zoo lion and some Milliput).
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
These images show the progress on yet another 40mm Spartan Miniatures Hoplite. The mini was mounted onto a pre-decimalisation penny and the groundwork built up with Milliput. The basecoat was a little different to the earlier models as I used different washes to get an overall brown tone.
I painted the armour as white leather rather than metal and kept all the colours in the grey spectrum. While the shield was hand painted in a bright red colour with a black bulls head motif to give a strong contrast.
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
The painting has been done with various acrylic paints. The horses body was detailed with washes of dark brown over a chestnut colour.
Once fully painted, the model was both gloss varnished and then matt varnished before I satin varnished the horse and gloss varnished the armour. The base was decorated with some static grass applied over PVA glue.
The final image shows the converted Centaur alongside a Spartan Miniatures 40mm Hoplite which I painted earlier to give an idea of the size of this unique figure.
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
Here is the latest model for my 40mm Typhon collection - a Centaur, an armoured Centaur. I have used the upper body from one of the Spartan Miniatures Heroes and the horse from a 40mm Lord of the Rings collectable figure. The metal body on a resin horse was way too heavy and would have over-powered the two rear resin legs, so I reinforced one of the legs with a piece of paperclip wire. The wire was superglued into an indentation that was cut into the leg while the upper torso and horses body was 'blended' with Milliput and Green Stuff.
The Centaur was mounted onto a metal washer with the groundwork built over some old lead bases (to give it some stability) and then decorated with fine sand.
The resin horses body was then coated with Milli-butter (a mix of Milliput and Isopropyl alcohol - something I first saw on the Marco Frison You Tube channel - See this link) to smooth out any joins and add some strength to the model. In this image, I have undercoated the model with Tamiya spray primer in preparation for the main painting.
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
In my attempt to paint up some of the miniatures I have on my to-do shelf or Lead Mountain, I came across this 40mm scale Greek Hoplite Hero from Spartan Games. I'm not sure if they are still available but occasionally came up on E-bay. The mini was mounted onto an old fashioned (pre-decimalisation) penny and the groundwork was built up from Milliput epoxy putty.
I primed the mini with Tamiya grey spray primer and used Vallejo putty (the white areas) to add additional detail or hide seams.
The figure was painted over a light brown basecoat and I used lots of washes to build up the colours.
I wanted gold coloured armour instead of the more usual bronze. The highlight was Vallejo Gold with the rest of the miniature painted with various acrylic paints and a fine No. 3 Rosemary & Co. 401 brush.
The base was painted in a light earth colour and after varnishing the model, I added some static grass and static grass tufts. The image below shows the simple shield design I choose.
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
Both Charlie and Finley are enjoying me telling them stories of Robin Hood at the moment and I've been using some old Crescent City plastic models to illustrate the tales - these models are in a very bad state having been well played with and re-painted - as you can see.....
My first job in renovating the toys was to strip the paint and this was done with some mild soap and a cocktail stick to remove all those tiny flakes of paint.
I mounted to 54mm tall figure onto a 40mm round base and built up the groundwork with DAS modelling clay (applied over PVA glue).
The model was primed with Dulux Endurance house paint. I was researching how to paint plastic figures when I read of using Dulux paints. I had assumed that Endurance (the tough, washable variety) would be better than plain emulsion and gave the model a coat of Endurance Putty colour.
A second coat of the Dulux paint and the base has been decorated with some sand applied over PVA glue. The model was undercoated with pure white to which I had added some PVA glue.
The figure of Alan A'Dale was painted with standard acrylic paints and varnished with Galleria matt varnish before the base was decorated with a couple of static grass tufts.
I thought the red jerking was too red and toned it down a little with Leather Brown before re-varnishing. And here you have the finished model, ready to act his part in the stories of Robin Hood.
Stay safe and
Keep Calm and Carry On Modelling
Tony
