Pheasant from the ashes

I am back, like a pheonix from the flames, or as the title suggests,more like a pheasant, and definatly more ash than flame after all the months that have passed.

It has not been a good year regarding the blog, due to a lot of very difficult situations in real life, which as expected has meant the hobby has been practically ignored.

However, the cry went out for the annual painting challenge and despite having no interest initially i decided it may be what i need to bring back my enthusiasm.

This year i am aiming for 400 points again, i got close last year at around 350 points so i must beat my target this time.

I also have a few figures lined up for the point boosting theme rounds, something i had not considered last year.

I have also taken the step of undercoating and prepping a ridiculous amount of miniatures in different scales and genre's in case i hit painters block and fancy a change.

Not much else to add other than best of luck to all of my fellow competitors and to anyone else who like i did before signing up, have their own little challenge just for fun.

below is an image of one batch drying off ready for the challenge, i think i have done another 3 batches of figures since.

Falcon mark 2

A while ago I posted about a project to build the old EMT millennium falcon kit.

I intended to fit it out with led lighting etc.

I did start the kit and had most of it completed but I was never happy with the poor quality of the kit, too many gaps and splits in the build, and poorly fitting parts.

I decided to just give up and bought another version of the falcon from Bandai.

The Bandai kit is only half the size of the other kit but has ten times the detail. It is truly a thing of beauty but a small kit is very hard to find room for led lighting.

Unfortunately i had forgotten to take pictures during a lot of the build however here a re a few.

 It is a snap together kit,which has a massive advantage when trying to fit all the wiring in as you simply split it apart again if need be.
A lot of parts required sections to be cut out to allow the led's in, the front headlights were the hardest part, these had to be filed down at the rear of the part to fit the led.

 The finished article below, the plinth is actually the base of an old standing lamp that was in the garage.

New posts soon
Thank you for looking.

Clean airbrushing

Another small post, this time showing a few pics of the airbrush booth i picked up from the online auctions a few years ago.

They usually sit on there at about 70 quid, but if you hang on wait you can get one for about 30.

Its nothing amazing but does a good job of removing the paint particles from the air so much so i am allowed to use it in the house.

Its best feature though is the way it folds up for easy storage, see the pics

Neat little box

Open the front panel

fold out the work station

Viola, instant spray booth

What i have neglected to picture is the power cord, which is tucked away in the back on one of those old inertia wheel return buttons you used to get on vacuum cleaners, so even the plug fits inside the unit. 

Bye for now

I want lots of them

A small post tonight about my wheels.

This is mainly because of a conversation with a another gamer about the process, so i thought i would share a picture of the main ingredients and write a little about the process.

In the picture can be seen the 2 moulds on the left and next to the model are the original constructed wheels and the cast models.
Both original wheels were made in the same way, effectively 2 round bases seperated by a piece of blu tac at the desired width. then carefully cut some plasticard strips to slightly wider than this and glue them around the outside lip of the bases.
Finally use a small disc or spare shield or buckler to place in the centre of 1 base and apply really thin strips of plasticard to represent spokes.

Both of the moulds were made by blu tacing the wheel spoke side up to the bottom of a plastic cup or spray can lid, applying aerosol release agent, and pouring in the liquid latex.

Likewise the resin i use is just cheap 2 part resin, to which i deliberately add more hardener than is recommended so it sets faster.

Bye for now.

15mm orks

In between waiting on varnish or paint to dry for my first post in the analogue painting challenge I have been working on these wagons for my 15mm orks project.

The gobsmasha needs top hatches but is almost done. 

The battle wagon is finished, it has turned out a bit larger in the transport section as I base my figures on 20mm I need the room.

The wheels were built from bases and strips then latex mounds were made so I could make as many resin copies as I will ever need.

Thanks for looking.