Thursday 18 February 2016

Paint Pot Restoration - Citadel Colour & Wargames Foundry Paints

Hi Friends, while I am still finishing off a whole bunch of miniatures for this blog and I thought I should share this easy paint pot restoration technique with you.

Now If you been painting Citadel miniatures like I have since the early 1980's you may have amassed quite a number of paints, I myself am probably nearing the 200 mark and although I mainly use Vallejo Model Color nowadays but on occasions I still go back to my Golden Age (pre 1992) Citadel Colour ranges and much has been blogged about these superb paints

I still own all the Citadel Colour paints sets and 95% of the paints are still close to full and in good working order the only problem is the many of the lids are broken and on ones that I have not opened for 20 years the plastic can be a bit brittle and snap forcing me to then prise the lid open with a screwdriver.

All the abuse during painting can lead to the ugly pots of beloved paint and the possibly of air drying your paints up so I went looking for a solution.

Now everybody knows that the original Citadel Colour range is still available now as the Coat D'Arms colour range but I didn't want to replace my original paints I wanted to revive them so I went looking for replacement pots, originally I wanted to transfer all my Citadel Colour into pipette type bottle like Vallejo paints but this was going to a lot of hard work and I am limited to about 4 hours a week painting time at the moment.

Anyway did a bit of Googling for a replacement pot solution and first came across these...

Coat D'Arms Empty Paint Pot Deal for £6.00 for 10

Coat D'Arms Paint Pot Lid for 0.15p each

Now the above solution looked a bit expensive once I had added the £3.50 P&P and when I have about 100 Citadel Colour paints with the white lids and then I came across these on eBay from a craft supplies seller...

Ebay 20 Empty Paint Pots for £7.55 (Buy it now) with Free P&P

I ordered 20 and tested them and they were perfect, in most cases I only have only needed to rip the old battered lid of and firmly push new lid on then I was left with a fully restored citadel colour pot.

Big bag of empty pots arrives at my workstation

Classic Citadel Hawk Turquoise was the first to get a make over as the lid shattered on me the other night and it was in danger of drying out.
Some of my Citadel Colour in retirement
And a few more waiting for a make over
This technique also works great with Wargames Foundry paints which surprisingly all the lids on mine were terribly broken and cracked now these are great paints which I use often so it probably just wear and tear rather than a fault with the product.


Wargames Foundry paints really did need saving and are now restored good as new

thanks for visiting now get painting... and following this blog 
cheers
J




Thursday 14 January 2016

Rogue Trader - Space Dark Elf Trooper


Hello Friends,
My latest painted miniature is the Space Dark Elf Trooper who was released on the Warhammer 40,00 Rogue Trader March 1987 mail order flyer along with other famous rarities like the Piscean (Saharduin) warrior and the Imperial Bodyguard. A good example of the original miniature can be seen here.

It was an enjoyable miniature to paint and I went with a purple/violet scheme as I done with previous Dark Eldar projects, I think it brings out their malevolence, it is certainly an interesting miniature covered in intricate pipes, tubes and bands which required lots of concentration to paint neatly. His weapon resembles a Flamer but could also be some sort of Shuriken Catapult if that's what you like, his armour is mesh (chainmail) and carapace plates and he is equipped with a power pack for his armour/weapon or some sort of flight pack.

I would probably say the detailing on the sculpt was probably the reason the Space Dark Eldar did not get it's own range, all that tubing must have been tough to cast and must off lead to lots of failed miniatures, I think all examples of miniature I have seen the tubing has small breaks and missing bits in random areas.

Space Dark Elf Trooper - sideview
Space Dark Elf Trooper - front
Space Dark Elf Trooper - sideview
Space Dark Elf Trooper - back

More random miniatures in the pipeline so stay tuned

WIP my current projects

I hope you enjoyed this post so get following
thanks
J

Wednesday 23 December 2015

RT601 - Scum


Hi Folks, here is my my latest painted miniature the aptly named 'Scum' or more fondly know as Space Eunuch due to inscription on his base tag, now what the hell is a Space Eunuch? 

So here is the dictionary definition of a Eunuch for those who do not know: "a man who has been castrated, especially (in the past) one employed to guard the women's living areas at an oriental court", you know big bald headed guy's with a single earring, baggy trousers, guarding the harem in many a Arabian Knights tale.


Now I was thinking a Space Marine is the perfect eunuch as they are about as sexless as you can get and this miniature would fit the bill for the adventuring penitent Marine from the Ian Watson novel. He would also make a nice boarding party member and looks like he would be first on to any captured Spaceship, a pit fighter, body guard, the list is endless.

This was a nice miniature to paint as he has an interesting armour harness and Chainsword, I distressed these a little but tried not to go overboard as this would blur the details.

He also had a bit of a badly sculpted fist where the palm poked out like a massive ball which I didn't discover until I was painting him so I didn't have a chance to file it down so I managed paint it as a Grenade. 

I am going to name space Eunuch after a real historical Eunuch would rose to be one of the most powerful men in Europe at the time, Narses. (Read up if you don't know his story)

Scum aka Space Eunuch - front

Scum - back


An end is in sight for my Rogue Trader Adventurers project, 8 more miniatures to paint.

thanks for visiting 
J

Friday 4 December 2015

RT601 - Adventurers - Bandit, Tech-Priest Schlan and Psyker


Hi Folks, 
I am still on my Rogue Trader Adventurers project (although I am struggling with the temptation to get back to my Chaos Beastmen and the latest miniatures I have completed is a lovely trio Bandit, Tech-Priest Schlan and Psyker from the RT601 - Adventurers range published in White Dwarf 99 back in March 1988.

First we have Bandit in my mind he is none other than George Peppard in Battle Beyond the Stars, the space cowboy in this much watch Stars Wars clone, every time it is on I watch and love this movie with my childhood eyes. I have painted this miniature several times over the years but this time I thought I would have a go at a glow effect on his Eldar Lasgun, I still haven't got the technique down yet but I'll keep trying.


Bandit - front

Bandit - back
Second up we have Tech-Priest Schlan of the Adeptus Mechanicus who sports a staff adorned with a imperial wing symbol from way before the current cog and skull emblem, I didn't really enjoy painting this miniature as there was lots of swallow details which even the thinnest of paint seem to obscure.


Tech-Priest Schlan - front

Tech-Priest Schlan - back


Lastly we have Psyker, another rare Rogue Trader female sculpt in a great dynamic pose, she wouldn't be out of place in Inquisitor Eisenhorn's retinue, banishing Daemonhosts or maybe as a Pariah.

Psyker - front

Psyker - back

hope you enjoyed this post, please get following all you lurkers :D

Two more Adventurers on the paint station, stay tuned.
J


Thursday 12 November 2015

RT601 - Adventurers - Eldar Trader

Hi Folks, 
I am finally getting back my Rogue Trader Adventurers, the project that this blog was originally created for and the latest miniature I have completed is the Eldar Trader from the RT601 - Adventurers range published in White Dwarf 99 back in March 1988.

Progress on my project can be seen here.

Eldar Trader - front

Eldar Trader - side

Eldar Trader - back
Eldar Trader - side

Now I don't like to gloat but this miniature cost me the tidy sum of $1 from eBay U.S, well actually $5 as there were 5 Rogue Trader Eldar in the auction lot and no one was buying so I had to rescue him as I did not have the time to strip my terribly enamel painted original from the 80's.  
I did really enjoy painting this miniature, he sports the obligatory Rogue Trader mohican (which I have talked about before) and is covered in the trappings of a swashbuckling spacefarering trader, tights, codpiece, jewellery and a discrete weapon. I went for gold jewellery as I imagine him landing on savage human fringe worlds and impressing all those greedy little eyes with all things shiny while relieving them of their rare xenos artefacts.  There is quite a wide gap on his base that is reserved for a Gyrinx (page 213 RT rulebook), I was given two suitable cat miniatures by Paul over at Sho3box a long time ago (be sure to follow his superb work)  but alas they are too big for the base and still sit half finished, I recently found a little present in a trade in the shape of a realistic tiny Squirrel miniature that fits the gap perfect and I am sure painted neon blue or something would pass as a Gyrinx.  I would like to get your thoughts on the Squirrel proxy before I commit (no Ptera-Squirrel on page 215 suggestions please that's just ridiculous :D).



Eldar Trader with proposed Gyrinx
Squirrel Gyrinx

I think the Eldar Trader miniature really captures the Rogue Trader universe as illustrated in the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook, a good example is page 188 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook which has similar character concepts that would not be out of place in the RT601 - Adventurers range.


Page 188 Rogue Trader Adventuers


I went with a Gyrinx familiar in the end :D


I hope you enjoyed this post, please get following all you lurkers :D

More Adventurers on the paint station as we speak.
J

Friday 25 September 2015

Low output - Beastmen and other stuff


Hello! Welcome back, it's the end of my holiday season (if only work would stop ringing me during said season) and my miniatures are getting some well deserved attention so I have got back to the task in hand and finished some more Chaos Beastmen, speed painted a classic Citadel limited edition miniature and got caught up in a Yogi frenzy (see below).

First we have preslotta C38 Chaos Beastman 'Horseman', well not much to say about this miniature other than it's a naked bloke with hooves who you would struggle to outrun, I remember as a teenager tittering with my rocker mates at this miniatures todger, I'll leave it at that :D


Horseman - side
Horseman - front
Horseman - side
Next we have a CH4 Chaos Beastman 'Vrak', I don't think he was meant to be based on any animal in particular which seems to be the case for many of this range and he even has a true Beastman name 'Vrak' departing from the old names like 'Koala-man' (if only he existed :D), the miniatures were very bestial a precursor to where we are today I think.  For the shield I did not have time to paint it so I dug out a arcane armorial decal (another example here) and stuck it on and in this case the gum was faulty so I had to set it with Microsol, a must have for any serious painter/modeller as it sets the decal, sinks in and follows the contours it is adhered to. 

Vrak - side
Vrak - side
Then I had a day off and was sorting out the thousands of slottabases into a new box I purchased from Aldi and low & behold I found the missing foot to Tinman (mentioned here in the comments back in 2013, thanks Orlygg :D) stuck to a 40x40mm base so after breaking off the crudely sculpted replacement and a bit of pinning and medium Superglue he was good as new.  Tinman was a limited edition miniature (LE14) who appeared in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario 'The Crude, the Mad and the Rusty' with his maker 'Oxy O'cetylene' the dwarf engineer (I am not a big fan of dwarves so I won't be painting him in a hurry), I went on to paint him aiming for a heavily corroded look, I was testing the new Citadel Nihilakh Oxide techinical paint as I don't seem to be able to find a good copper oxide colour, for the normal rust I used my tried and tested method detailed here. Overall I am happy with the results and to compliment the rusty colours I added some Autumn tufts with leaf fall, which are widely available on ebay.


Tinman - front
Tinman - back

The last miniature on today's post is 'Yogi Yakamoto' from the Citadel Judge Dredd range JD13 Sky Surfers, he appeared in the Judge Dredd story 'The Midnight Surfer',  I painted this miniature after being inspired by several pictures of this miniature on the Oldhammer Facebook group. I copied the colours he was in the comic strip except I accidentally painted his chest which should have been flesh coloured. More will follow as I enjoyed painting this miniature.

Yogi the Sky Surfer with original Citadel flying base
Banzai! Yogi's Sky Surfboard

Here's my new box from Aldi with all my spare slottabases neatly organised, we'll see how long that lasts, plastic shields next. :D




Thanks for visiting now get following this blog.
J

Saturday 22 August 2015

C13 Kaleb Daark and other work

Hi Friends, today I finally got around to finishing Kaleb Daark, I am not going to go into his history as it has been covered in countless blog posts, here and here are two good Oldhammer blog examples. He has been sitting on my paint station for about 6 months and after several disasters during his paint job I almost threw in the towel as this is the third time I have painted this miniature from it's original purchase back in the late 1980's, be warned neat Vallejo game colour Black wash is very dark, I spend hours getting the perfect black following the teachings of an artist I once read saying there is no such colour as black and after several shades of grey (ooer) I was almost finished and then decided to give the miniatures a wash of Vallejo game colour Black wash to add more depth, the miniature turned out like a lump of dusty coal, anyway I put a lot of work in salvaging rather than stripping the miniature and am sort of happy with the end result, I have tried to stay true to the comic strip a homage to the late Brett Ewins with the shield and helmet design but the miniature did deviate from the comic strip in many places which also wasn't always the same in every illustration, I hope you like.

Kaleb Daark on his mutant warsteed
Side view displaying his shield design
Front view with Dreadaxe
Side View 2
Front view 2
Next we have C27 Chaos Beastman 'Kiss of Death', a collection I have now completed :), this miniature I managed to acquire for £2 from a member of the Facebook Oldhammer Trading Group as it had a broken club which I easily replaced with a club from the Warhammer Empire Militia plastics, heresy I know but it looked right to me. 

Kiss of Death - front
Kiss of Death - back
I  always like to do my own research on my miniatures and try to stay clear of others findings as this can be taken as the final answer, I have convinced myself that the 'Kiss of Death' Beastman was not a new sculpt but a modification of another which is very common in early Citadel miniature ranges so after much searching I think the base miniature for this sculpt is from the C32 Slann range either Polo Slave 1 or Slave 2, I think you would agree that the club on Slave 2 is very similar to the 'Kiss of Death' Beastman's original club (if you have him to look at close up), other evidence is that the C27 Chaos Beastman were sculpted by Trish Morrison and the C32 Slann Trish and Ally Morrison are credited as the sculptors.  Not a easy miniature to find painted examples of but I managed to find one by Orlygg on realmofchaos80s, go check it out here.

Next we have some Runequest Broo, the original Chaos Beastmen, it's funny that I acquired these miniatures in a battered none padded envelope in the pub when meeting up with a mate, we were both wrecked and the miniatures were too, originally painted in the early 80's they required a lot of TLC to bring them back from the brink of destruction, not the greatest paint jobs but I had battered painted miniatures with dark grey patches and lead oxidation in places to play with so I was happy with the restorations.


Sometimes charity costs you dearly (well in time anyway)
FF68 Goat-headed Ogre always considered a Broo with the addition of a old, old Citadel Orc axehead

The next 3 are from the Runequest Box 4c: The Broo


Broo with Dagger
Broo with spiked mace
Rhino Headed Broo (I have many more of these to paint up :D)

Thanks for visiting, now get following
J

Friday 14 August 2015

GO BUY NOW! - Unreleased Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader miniatures

I have just returned from my holidays to find these wonderful miniatures delivered to our house, they are unreleased Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader miniatures that were never released during the golden age of Oldhammer and have been cast up on general release by Wargames Foundry.



You can purchase these miniatures here.

Lets have a breakdown of who these unreleased miniatures are.

EMPIRICAL ABSOLUTION and LIQUIDATION SQUAD
  1. Captain Repentance: a Rogue Trader miniature that appeared in a photograph on page 11 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book, a prototype Imperial Inquisitor, the base miniature for this was the 2000AD Strontium Dog Johnny Alpha from the Citadel Judge Dredd miniature range.
  2. Sergeant Shame: a prototype Adeptus Custodes, another Citadel Judge Dredd miniature was used as the base miniature for this one, the SJS Judge holding Rifle
  3. Private Penitence: another prototype Adeptus Custodes miniature sculpt based on a Citadel Judge Dredd miniature and in this case it's Judge Giant
  4. Corporal Contrition: another miniature that appears in a photograph on page 189 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book sporting an 8 Ball helmet and is based on the RT7 Mercenary 'Old World Jack
  5. Lord Revelation: he is clearly depicted on page 140 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book as a typical Administratum Scribe.

Fishmen
These miniatures were based on Citadel Fiend Factory Ferocious Man-Fish and were modified to carry Sci-Fi weapons, previously only available at events, just give Wargames Foundry an email at: customers@wargamesfoundry.com, they cost about £5-6 each plus P&P. There are only two poses available at the moment, a third may be coming soon.






Please support Wargames Foundry and purchase some of these fantastic miniatures doing so may help in making it financially viable for the guys at Wargames Foundry to dust off more Ex-Citadel moulds and cast them for our enjoyment, it takes a lot of time to do so please support them.

I was happy to find a gift of a Street Violence Swat miniature in my parcel too.



For many more Ex-Citadel miniatures go here: http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/ex-citadel

I am also proud to show off my new paint brush rack courtesy of my father-in-law's woodworking skills, thanks John :)



I hope you enjoyed your visit, now get following :D
J