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Diorama Ideas

Tonight I started printing a pack of wolves for the diorama idea. I will print off the rhino tomorrow, but basically it is going to have about four or five wolves and a pair of rhino, with one being a calf.

I kind of mocked it up a bit using some bits and pieces I had lying around…

Voila…. finished

It is not going to be a snowy scene, but further into the summer as the calf has been born. I will have them near a water hole and Mum is trying to protect the calf from the wolves….

High quality artistry here!

I have a couple of options for the adult rhino. One is the above one, other option is the first one I ever printed with the head turning, there is also a ‘leaping’ one which I don’t think would work. I want more of a stand off than a charge.

I have mirrored and fiddled with the size of the wolf that looks like it is slinking, this will allow them to circle the pair in the middle.

I will see how I get on with this idea as I have bucket loads to paint and make, but I do like building terrain so it might just be fun.

I managed to finish the rhino tonight and had a fiddle with a Wolf’s colouring…

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A Hairy Elephant With Friends

Tonight I wanted something easy so went for the hairy beasts…

Not really much I can say about them except they are rather large and not too bad to paint. Still some work to do on them, but they are getting there. So I survived my first day back in work. Spent this morning trying to sort out colleagues IT problems, which meant I dint get as much done as I wanted. Hopefully it will all work tomorrow…

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Return of the Hairy Elephant

Tonight I decided to mess around with the mammoth I started painting yesterday. I wasn’t happy with it as it was too dark. So I got some canvas coloured paint and dry brushed over the dark colours… to be honest I think I am going to leave it as is…

When I say leave it as it is, I will put a ways on it to blend it in, but I actually like the effect.

I also found some cattle and a spearman that had somehow been missed when I sprayed the rest. I glued these onto bases ready for the next time I need to spray something.

It was a pleasant afternoon so we met with our friends for a socially distanced walk…

Well that is my leave over with, back to work tomorrow, I have decided that I would much rather be a gentleman of means and leisure!

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A Parcel and a Break in the Weather

Thankfully the couple of days of solid rain seem to have eased and I managed to get out and get things sprayed…

Now interestingly enough, when I bought the spay wheel (aka cake spinner) it was very smooth… so in a fit of curiosity I wondered how thick the layer was. It was evidently thick enough to support itself when held…

Considering this is spray paint, then it must have had a fair few layers down on it. It was actually quite satisfying scraping it off with my knife as it lifted in sheets.

Anyway enough whittering on about my paint fetish…

I have new toys!!!

So I got this very nice parcel from Museum Miniatures this morning and, shock horror, I didn’t actually open it until this evening… how about that for self control!

I have got quite a lot to paint… first up the hoplites…

Spartans are without the crest, I have twice this amount, interspersed amongst the troops are some of the officers.

Next up the skirmishers…

I have some light/medium cavalry (and a free Companion cavalryman)

And finally a pile of stuff I really didn’t need, but looked cool 🙄

And finally, this made me chortle…

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Wraiths and Things

I never actually got anything undercoated today as the rain was apocalyptic out there and not good for me or models to be out in it. So this evening I actually resorted to undercoating things with a brush (shock horror). I actually cannot remember when I last actually decided to actually undercoat this way (except in an emergency… which I suppose this was, in a way). For this undercoat I went for a sand colour with a dry brush of white over the top, I decided to do it this way to see what effect it would have on the Contrast paint.

To be honest I was a little hard with the dry brushing on the lady with the basket and snapped her off at the ankles! I will see how things get on tomorrow.

I also got a bit of paint on these two…

This is the same figure, one mounted and one on foot. I have gone for a dark blue cloak, which I intend to cover in dark tone wash tomorrow to darken it down a bit. I went this way so that the horse would be a different shade to the rider.

No printing at all today as I reckon I have got enough to keep me going for a while. I have based up the wolf from yesterday as I intend to print some more for my diorama idea. There won’t be any snow (or at least not large amounts of it. My mother n law gave me some MDF sheets yesterday so they will be ideal (I think), if not I will improvise a base.

Tonight I started watching Louis Theroux on Netflix. I forgot how much I like him… right I am off to drive Tanks on War Thunder, I just wish I knew how the bloody tech tree works!

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Wraiths and some more Beasties

Tonight I decided to carry on with the wraiths. They won’t win any prizes, but they look ok.

I think that the greys and blacks work. I decided on an antique bronze type colour for the helmets and more exotic weapons as I felt it was better than a shiny steel look. I will photograph these tomorrow in the daylight so that they will show up all the errors, I mean so that you can see what colours I used. I will get the base edges done tomorrow.

I also got the mammoth off the plate this morning and managed to squeeze in some cows and a couple of woolly rhino to join the herd.

Yes both of these are printed in the same colour! I am not sure what happened to the white balance in the right hand photo, never mind you can see what they are at least 😂.

I learned an important printing lesson earlier…. remember to change the wash and cure station to cure when you stick you recently printed things on it. Wash tends to rotate them at about 1000 rpm and they really don’t stay in situ.

Regarding the Neolithic stuff, I have a couple more animals to print off, but that is really it for them, just to get them painted up.

I am a bit on the buggered side this evening. As I mentioned earlier on this week, the horse came in and as a money saving thing we order the shaving in bulk. We unloaded and put about 200 of the bales into the stables today. I was stacker so it meant, in some cases, arranging them above head height. We then went and got 10 bags of coal and carried them to the trailer. I then needed to change some light fittings for my in-laws. I hate working with my hands above head height. To make matters worse the lights were ornate and heavy… all in all I am just having a whinge 🥴

Tomorrow I shall hopefully get my printed stuff sprayed and will start painting too. The way the wolf and rhino were placed in the photo above makes me think about doing a diorama using them as a ‘natural’ scene…

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A bit of Painting and a bit of Printing

Today we got my daughters bedroom moved about, it involved a bit of retiring, but luckily I had all the gear so it wasn’t too much of a hassle, except the front plate of the plug stopped working for reasons known only to itself. I will get a new one with USB chargers on it tomorrow.

Anyway today I managed to get this lot printed and some other stuff sliced too…

The mammoth from last night had a bit of bad luck… this boys and girls is the reason why you check the resin vat before going to bed!

I did manage to get some painting done this evening too, not as much as I would have liked but we ate late and I didn’t get as much time as I could have done….

Now these are some of the nine riders so I wanted them to be predominantly black but, with a bit of other colour in there too, just to break things up a bit. Hopefully I will get these finished off tomorrow evening.

I have another mammoth printing overnight and there is a full vat of resin. He will take about 65ml of it. After that more cows and a couple more woolly rhino.

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Repairs, paints and bases (oh and Resin too)

I managed various bits and bobs this evening first off, my mammoth from last night had a failure on the supports under his trunk, rather than redo him, I just added some Greenstuff to make it more trunk like on the bottom…

I also decided that my 6mm Irregular Samurai had been sat in their semi finished state too so they got some more paint added to them and then finally for this evening I eventually got around to sticking my Lizardmen cavalry onto some bases.

I also tried the presupported miniatures today and they came out fine…

The mammoth was printed with automatic supports, plus extra from me.

For some reason the calf lying down does not seem to have cured as well as the rest. I will shove him under a lamp or outside tomorrow if it is fine. I am printing another mammoth off overnight. We shall see what he looks like in the morning.

And finally, we are rearranging my daughters room. She wants her built in bed moving and lowering… o for safe keeping she put her pride and joy on the table for safe keeping… I am convinced it was moving!

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Wolves, Hens and a Man with a Spear

Today I got nothing painted, I intended to get something done, but the holes in the bases were annoying me so I spent a good while looking for my magnets and or some Greenstuff. The magnets were found first.

I also got the printer to co-operate eventually and managed to print some wolves and some chickens along with a hunter that I evidently forgot about…

As you can see, I ran out of Green resin and moved onto the grey, which, to be honest, I much prefer.

When the Kickstarter arrived it was unsupported and I was doing it all myself, somehow I missed a message to say that everything is now pre supported. I must have dropped it into the archive by accident on the tablet. Printing these should be a bit easier now (that is if the printer co-operates). It should avoid a wolf with half a tail or a goat with half a chin.

I am printing another mammoth right now. It should be ready by tomorrow morning.

Weather has been torrential rain today so nothing got undercoated, there is more of the same due tomorrow with strong winds too. My conservatory still has a bloody leak too. I am now at my wits end trying to work out where the heck it is coming from. That’s the problem with water, it can come from just about anywhere!

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A Smidge of Painting

Today my horse returned to the yard for the winter and all was going well until I was opening the ramp to let him out and the gas support went leaving me with a very heavy door heading floorwards at speed. Luckily I lost my grip on it, not before the thing yanked my wrist, elbow and shoulder and twisted me in the process… Therefore painting was a little uncomfortable this evening so I didn’t push things. I did manage to get the hunters finished as well as a random high class lady.

To be honest the lady could really do with being binned, due to me not printing at the correct resolution, but it will do 🥴.

I also managed to get the goats done. I decided to base them on some Flames of War bases that I had lying around (same with the cow). These were thin enough to appeal to my OCD as all the rest were far to thick.

Oh yeah, while I remember… I did a thing!

Evidently I seem to have a thing for goats at the minute!…min hindsight I could have just shrunk the ones I have…whoops.

Men of Bronze came and I have had a quick look at it, I will have a proper read to see if I will give it a go.