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Working on the Leather

When I got home from work today there was a nice parcel waiting for me. This was the 1 and 2mm EVA foam. This will be used to add designs to the pieces instead of the cardboard.

I decided to try and get some more done on the arm guards this evening… the one on the right is working just fine, the green and fold certainly need some work, but I am getting there.

Now this is going to sound really pretentious, and it isn’t meant to be, but I keep forgetting these aren’t 10mm leather. When I was taking the photo of the one outside the other day, I really couldn’t get why it was blowing away.

I really am enjoying doing these, one it is because my daughter really appreciates them and two they are really good fun.

It is hard to describe how I feel about them. I suppose, in a round about way, I am proud of them, more so than painting miniatures…it is something that I am doing from start to finish. These all started with a flat bit of foam and ended up being something wearable. I suppose it is like people doing dioramas. You take an idea and run with it from start to finish. There are lot of you out there that will know more than me.

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1:1 Scale

Today we were sorting out a new run for the ferrets, it took a little longer than expected but we got there in the end (we hope).

So we have a couple of ferrets that are about six months old now (probably older). Now they come out a fair old bit to play with us, but we felt that it would be good if we could give them a bit more space than in their hutch so we set about building them a play area.

So here are Tonks and Luna, enjoying their new place. Luckily we decided to see what they got up to.

Firstly one of them decided that climbing was their method of escape, so climbed up the concrete wall at the back…

Queue Mission Impossible Theme….

The front of the Knox was 60cm… it is now 80 as she then climbed up the door and then proceeded to shimmy her way out.

The other one is evidently a good jumper… she just about got out of the end using the log in the first photo as a launch pad. We used and angle grinder with a cutting disk in to put a piece of Crain pipe over the edge of the wood to stop her managing to get her claws on the top and haul herself out…

Fully the last time we looked they were still in, unfortunately they decided to both cram themselves in the blue house thing and gave us heart failure as they weren’t anywhere to be seen in the house or the box.

I managed to get the first layer of brown onto the armour… hopefully it is going to work out as well as the other one. Tonight has been video research on using EVA foam.

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Even More Armour

Tonight my daughter and I worked on some different upper arm armour. We used the shoulder piece from yesterday and added some extra plates.

The extra plates were increased in size to match the original increase. We also decided to make these plates from rough leather. So using the old ball of tinfoil we roughened the top layer up a bit. In the case of EVA foam then we needed to heat it up a bit first and then when it was warm push the foil into it. Now as I write this I suddenly remembered my soldering Iron tin foil roller. This was a loose sleeve of foil over the heated end of the iron. This was then passed back and forth across the foam to make it textured.

This fits my daughter really well. A third plate would make it too long for her. I could manage a third or even fourth plate.

While I remember, this is what the vambrace looks like outside…

Tomorrow I will get the bits sprayed and then onto the painting tomorrow evening.

Regarding painting, I did manage a bit more colour on the Ork and on the cultists…

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Back with the Armour

Tonight, I thought I would fiddle around with some colours for the armour. I wanted the leather to look a bit worn and scuffed. I didn’t exactly achieve scuffed, but I did end up with something sort of leather looking.

I will try and get a better photo tomorrow as the towel it is on is turquoise!

I also had a go at adding a curve as well as increasing the size from a pattern. I did better with the latter, than the former, but we all have to start somewhere.

I also had a bash at texturing the EVA foam. To be honest I did the same as I would with XPS, but in this case I heated the foam a bit and then attacked it with a ball of aluminium foil. Voila… rough leather…

I reckon a heat gun would assist me in my endeavours, the one I had, well technically it is a paint stripper with a temp dial, seems to have packed in.

I will get these looked at tomorrow and see what I can do, if anything to fix them.

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Back with some Painting

Tonight was bit of a pain in terms of running about and picking up kids etc. This week at work is what can be best described as interesting. So all in all I was surprised that I managed to get my backside into gear and get anything done.

I decided to get some paint onto the cultists. My plan was to try a tan colour for the armour and I was pleased that the Aggro’s Dunes turned out to be exactly what was in my head. I found a spare Ork when I was in the shed yesterday and as he was already undercoated then I decided to Chuck some paint on him too…

I also got some bits and pieces done on the arm guard…

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Metal Bits and a Flag

Tonight we worked on some of the metalwork on the armour as well as getting another coat of the green on. It will need some tidying up but progress is being made 👍.

You can just about see the paint I used…it is getting on a bit really, so useful for this task.

I was in the shed with my daughter looking for the above paint and decided to see where I was with my Hundred Years’ War French Infantry… I was a bit further forward than I thought, but whilst I was having a mooch I came across the Perry flags that they put into the box with their painting scheme and voila I now have a banner for my knight… I thought it looked pretty good and as there is red and blue on the bit that covers the flag pole it fitted in with the colours on the banner top…

Now t still needs a bit of trimming, but it has saved me an awful lot of work doing something by myself… so a win as far as I am concerned… for the more discerning of you, you will of course realise it is the banner of Saint Jude… if you are anything like me you will know it is because it said so on the page I got it from… interestingly St Jude is the patron saint of lost causes! Purely a coincidence I chose this one instead of St Thomas…I hope!

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Bleurgh and Words to That Effect

My daughter and I got another of layer of brown on the armour and a first layer of green on the bigger one too. She is suffering a migraine and I am rattling with the pills for my ribs and the fever effects of the jab. So needless to say not much has been achieved on the miniature front.

As you can see the green is still a bit on the wet side. Now obviously the card on the vambrace has lifted a bit, but I have ordered some 1 and 2mm EVA foam which will work better than the card. Tomorrow we will try and ‘distress’ the leather a bit. Somewhere I have a pot of gun metal paint, I will see if I can find it for the edges of the vambrace. My daughter wants the designs to be gold.

I got an email from Museum miniatures today saying they were bringing out some more ‘z’ range ancients… it reminded me that I have an army to paint. As a lot of them are nude with bronze armour then they should be easy, peasy to do.

There is also bucket loads of 3D printer stuff to get going with too. In fact there is so much that I don’t even know where to start.

My first Kickstarter dropped today, I also have more hex tiles as well as three month of Patreon goodies from the Lord Of the Rings.

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Needle in the Arm

Well a very nice man stuck a needle into my arm today. I got my Covid jab at 11.00 this morning. Feeling a bit woozy this evening so don’t bother trying to paint any miniatures. I did manage to get the ‘armour’ curved a bit more this morning and sprayed this evening. My daughter set about things with the brown paint of her choice.

Hopefully I will be back on with the painting tomorrow evening.

As I am doing ‘armour’, I thought this favourite was apt….

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Now for Something Totally Different

My daughter is well into her cosplay (or would like to be) so a good while a go I bought some patterns for making bits and pieces for her. I printed some out and today we decided to have a go at some armour for the forearm.

We were messing around and came up with a couple of designs. There are plenty of flaws in them, but she is over the moon with them and to be honest, for a first attempt then I am really pleased too.

As we were just messing we used what we had which was EVA foam mats, card and split peas for the rivets. I will get them sprayed up tomorrow after we have heated them and formed them a bit more.

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Madame Rides off into the Sunset

Well I got a bit of time today so I managed to get her to the almost finished stage. There are a couple of white bits that need sorting but that is about it.

I will get the grass attached to the horse hoof painted and then also add some tufts too.

Also managed to get my Nobori finished too…

As well as sorting out some more on the knight’s mount and the nids…

So I buggered my ribs again and have promised the family if they still hurt tomorrow that I will go and get them checked in A&E. Some pillock left the car lights on yesterday and foolishly tried to push it to allow for a downhill start…problem was I had to push it up hill in the car park first!

I will get my first Covid Jab on Monday morning. Looks like things are heading in the right direction. I am already doing a test twice a week so I know I don’t have the Lurgy (well I didn’t on Thursday).