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Painting Desk 2.0

Well if you remember, I used an old writing bureau as my painting desk, in case you need a reminder, here it is…empty (ish).

My CD cupboard doubled as storage

So last weekend I saw something larger, and cooler and voilà, we got it today…

Apologies for the linoleum, puppy protection over the floor boards

Not sure how old this is as it has some strange features. The shelves are supported by the ‘S’ brackets which are detachable. That in itself isn’t the odd bit, what is, is the fact the underside of the shelves where the bracket fits in is really rough. No craftsmen would have left it like it is.

The draw pulls out and then the front drops down. Inside the vacuum of the draw are half a dozen larger drawers with three really shallow ones above a couple of shelves. My only real issue with this is that I have nowhere to plonk my painting light.

I deliberately used the same cup so that you can see the size difference.

Alien Isolation (spoilers)

Well I have been carrying on trying to escape Sevastapol Station. Since I dropped the Alien into the gas giant then my biggest danger has been humans as well as Working Joe’s. This changed this evening when I had to go and sort out something. On the upside i found all of the missing people, the downside I found these…(lots of these)…

I wonder what would happen if I gave it a poke ?

These can’t be good! Sadly my flamethrowers was confiscated a good while ago. Based on the open eggs there are at least a dozen of these that hatched (that I have found so far)

So my summation of there being more than one was correct…I was just totally wrong on how many… wish me luck…. I have been tasked with destroying the nest!

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Warhammer Painting Without Skill

Well, I was watching YouTube last night, I must have dozed off (getting old lol). So I woke up and noticed a video pledging that you would be able to paint your Warhammer miniatures without skill. Made me think, it is actually possible… it is called dunking said miniatures in a pot of paint.  Otherwise skill is involved. I was too tired to watch it and now I cannot seem to find the video now. Too tired again.

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One Thin Coat

Nothing at all to do with a well known paint maker. Most of my painting now is one thin coat using either Contrast, Speedpaint or Xpress paint, or a mixture of all three.

This evening whilst on puppy duty I decided to have an easy win so i decided to get these done.

Well the industrial drums that is. The other is pretty much done. So after a bit off a head scratch I really felt that Red would cause me some problems with the rust later on, a bit like here:

My original concept idea was that different containers would be colour coded, but after that initial idea i changed my mind, sadly after doing the above with a dry brush if red. I then remembered that the original industrial piece was yellow so that decided it. All would be yellow. 

I was concerned that the red underpainting was a mistake, but in the words of my favourite artist… “there are no mistakes, only happy little accidents.”

The red, with the white over it has really enhanced the look I was wanting. It has given a mottled, grungy look thar makes me think of old metal that isn’t going to hold the contents inside for much longer.

My happy little accident has really helped. They look even better now that the paint has dried.

On one of them I have missed covering a bit of red and that in itself looks like there is a bit of a leak forming. In other places it actually looks a bit rust like.

The original title for this post was going to be ‘Two Thin Coats’ a bit click batey I know, but in fact one thin coat will evidently do the trick.

Alien Isolation- spoilers

Well, as I suspected, the xenomorph that I managed to drop into the gas giant wasn’t the only one. I always wondered how I could leave it behind at a transit station, only to find it dropping out of a vent on the other side. I was convinced after finding a couple of people with holes where their chests should be.

I have just interfaced with the main frame to find that a) W.Y. have a directive in place to preserve any specimen  and b) I am expendable. I am not being paranoid… it says so in the directive. The Working Joe’s have turned hostile as they are now following said directive too.  I am now on the hunt for a hive. I couldnt put it better thsn Frost who so eloquently stated… “What are the hell we supposed to use man – harsh language? Yes when I arrived at the Mainframe I had to relinquish all of my weapons. Thankfully the jury rigged stuff I made didn’t count.

As I said in an earlier post, this game has really got me thinking about running an RPG set on the station. The beauty of it is, I have a full cast of characters as well as maps and other exciting things like that.

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Forced Evening Off

I fully intended to get a wiggle on and paint something. Unfortunately life had other plans. My daughter needed picking up so I had to drive the 20 miles to get her. We had also run out of puppy pads so I needed to go shopping. By time I got back then I really couldn’t be bothered as it had gone 21.30.

Hopefully tomorrow. We’ll the news had got out for my change in school. The parents and staff found out officially today.

After Skeld closes in the summer then I will be the Head Teacher of Tingwall Primary School.  The new one is bigger and only five miles away from home instead of 20.

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Ready for Undercoating

So this evening I felt inspired enough to hunt our some bases and get nine of the eleven stuck onto them.

The spare two were front left. As I have a bit of a Tyranid force then I thought it only fitting that they have some helpers. These are the Code Splicer cult. They remind of something else with a similar name 🤔.

Behind them is the pair of ‘slave ogres’. Front right are a pair of skull server things. One with a gun and one with a medical saw and syringe.

Behind them are a trio of police officers with a spare head of an Erroish warrior as a proxy. Some twit dropped the original somewhere and it cannot be found. I felt the gas mask worked with the other pair.

And finally at the back we have a cyborg bounty hunter which frankly looked so cool that I had to print it.

Somewhere I have this lot that I want to paint and can I find them?

We are taking my school on a mini residential tomorrow so I might have random bollards to write tomorrow evening. Part of me fancies taking something to paint tomorrow evening, but I doubt I would get the chance.

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Alien Isolation II

So more sneaking and generally hiding (with frequent use of the flame thrower) took place today.

I am about half way through now. Because I don’t know the station I spent quite a lot of time going round in circles. There were a few annoying times when a locked door suddenly became unlocked on the way back through a section traversed earlier.

Where I am playing hide and seek!

The one thing I have learned is that the Seegson Working Joe’s along with APOLLO (the computer system) are not you friend. Oh and it didn’t take me long to realise that unless people on this space station are prone to have explosive lungs then there are more than one creature on this station.

I went on a journey with one into the gas giant… luckily for me there was an airlock and Space suit handy.

He’s friendly when his eyes are white

The Alien AI is pretty cool. It will learn where you tend to hide and will start searching for you.

I will carry on tomorrow evening and see how far I get.

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Alien Isolation

So based on what I have seen on YouTube I am about a third to a half way through the game. By heck this game can give you the Heeby Jeebies. In fact I actually turned the music off as it was causing my heart rate to rise. Proof indeed that music can make a difference.

Warning…potential Spoilers

So in today’s little soirée around Sevastapol Station I had to question a character called Marlow. He started to discuss what had happened, quick cutscene and then we are playing as him and we are on LV426 trying to find the source of an enigmatic signal. I really couldn’t think what would happen when we got to a derelict space ship.

What could possibly go wrong?

On the upside we now know how the ‘creature’ got onto Sevastapol Station. On the upside I now have a flame thrower on top of all of the weapons etc that I have cobbled together…on the downside, none of them will kill it.

This game is giving me loads of ideas for the RPG.

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I Might Have a Problem

Well if you have been following my blog for a while then you will know I do like my 3D printer and therein lies the problem.

The other night I was doing a test print of something at 75%. One thing on the build plate, one teeny tiny thing. Seemed a waste to turn it on for just one thing… so I spent the next hour deciding on what to add to the plate…

I actually have zero need for a pair of ogres with big guns! Ooh actually I have just thought of a potential use… proxy Super Mutants for my Fallout RPG if it ever gets off the ground.

On the left there is a cult psyker for some Alien infestation type force  and on the right is a cyborg bounty hunter.

To be honest it is just too easy to find the file and print it. I reckon I am going to have to go back to the paint what I have approach.

I also printed off a band for each of the Geek Club…

They are a bit smaller than what they are used to, but we can see how they cope.

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Eventually hit Send

So today I made the decision on which school I will become the head teacher (principal) of.

I sent my email along with what I thought about the process. The image above pretty much portrays the gist of my message.