LIKE A MOTH TO A FLAME

 Last week my youngest son had work experience at my company, this isn't an easy way out, as I set the task of designing building and making a castable product in 5 days. We went through his ideas and he settled on a man eating plant, which we've called a Moon Flower, here is what it looks like

The background behind it is over the night time, it opens it's petals revealing it's bioluminescent centre, which attracts all creatures, once within reach the roots ensnare the creature and digests the flesh and fluids leaving the bones, which are pulled into the earth helping enrich the soil.

I think he's done an excellent job and it will make a great addition to my Alien Terrain section. Obviously I didn't have a huge amount of time for painting so finished off the last of the Kroot on my desk first is a Vulture Kindred which are effectively jump pack troops, this brings it up to a squad of 11 which will be as large as I go.

I also got 6 Kroot for squad 1 finished. This squad is in more action style poses.

I need another 6 Kroot to finish all the squads to the number I want, so at some point will need to get one more box to finish it all off. I also made a couple of trap markers using the man trap that you get in the kill team box, sure I need a few more so will have to see what else I can come up with, maybe some Punji sticks.

Bit of an eclectic mix today so hopefully you found something interesting, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

 

BAD BATCH

 One of my favourite groups added in the Clone Wars was the Bad Batch, or clone force 99, these were clones that were considered defective, as they were different but had traits that were considered desirable.

First we have Hunter and Tech, hunter looked the closest to regular clones, but his tracking abilities surpass even technology. Tech is an expert in all technologies and has a vast knowledge on what seems to be every subject.

The next two are characters added to the bad batch at different points, first is Echo, who was once part of the 501 st, but was abducted, and later modified by the Techno Union, he is now as much circuitry as he is Clone. The other is the oldest of the group Omega, unlike the others wasn't given age enhancers so grew at a normal rate, and has an unusual blood that can help with a medicloryant count (jedi potential)

The last two models are originals of the group, so why do them last, I was really disappointed with these two sculpts, first is Wrecker who is the groups muscle, and also a lot bigger than everyone else, unfortunately the model is smaller than the rest of the clones. Next is Crosshair, the groups sniper, the pose was really disappointing just strolling along, rather than in a sniping pose.

Glad to have the group finished but may look for a 3D print of Wrecker and Crosshair to replace the disappointing ones, these models have been sat on my desk since Christmas 2024, as I had been slowly been working my way through them until I was taken ill earlier last year, and just couldn't seem to bring myself to painting them again, until I needed a break from all the white I've been doing recently ! LOL

That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

HALFWAY

 Continuing on with the Imperial starter set I've finished the first squad of Stormtroopers using the same painting method I recently showed, the construction of this squad  is straight from the instruction sheet. The first three are the squad leader, missile launcher, and heavy blaster. I painted the Squad leader as a commander, as the only one I have painted so far was the Imperial Assault one.

The troopers come in sets of two of the same pose, this is disappointing compared to the old box, as the whole squad was different.

I can probably mix them around with the old squads to get some variation between them all. To get half way I needed to paint half of Darth Vader, so went further and actually finished him, have to say the thinness of the cloak was really nice, and the details were nice and crisp.

 

Now as promised pictures of the Northern Lights, the first one was taken on the strongest light show in 26 years unfortunately we had a lot of cloud that night so couldn't see much, the glow in the centre is where it is trying to break through.

This next one looked like a cloud to the naked eye but with a slow exposure on the camera showed it was actually the lights.

This last one was actually visible to the naked eye, in blue and green and danced and moved across the sky, it was so strong that it showed through even in a well light area !

That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

FIRST OF FOUR

 Firstly sorry still no pictures of the aurora, having trouble transferring them to the computer (Stupid new computer, not having the buttons in the right place ! LOL) but will hopefully get that sorted over the weekend, but I have finished the first squad of Imperial troops a scout unit, these models are standard construction straight out of the box, the only conversion was turning a tree stump to a rock under the squad leaders foot. 

Above you can see the squad leader, sniper and explosive's scout, these are different poses to the original Fantasy Flight Games models. Below are the standard troopers of the unit.

These were all painted using the technique I showed a couple of posts ago, so now I have two Stormtrooper squads and another squad of scouts to finish, so they should be coming up soonish ! LOL

I have some health updates today as well, firstly I've had the stitches out from my operation, and the wound is healing well, and the control and strength is retuning in my hand. This week I also got results from a recent scan of my chest, the fluid build up is reducing, which is great news, and hopefully means I wont have to be drained again, and also the cancer has not thickened or expanded since I started my treatment, to me this is great news, perfect would have been a reduction, but maybe next scan ! LOL

That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

PIRATE

 I'm back from my holiday, and happy to report I actually managed to witness the Northern lights, I will post up some pictures with my next post, as I need to figure out how to download them off my wife's phone (still not fully to grips with the new computer ! LOL) In the mean time I have another finished model, just the one you say, yes as this one really pushed me, it's a model of Gorian Shard the pirate you meet in series 3 of the Mandalorian, I thought it would make a great little unit, him and some of his followers, and this was part of my daughters gift for Christmas (they really did spoil me this year)

So what took so long, was trying to replicate his jacket, in the end I've gone with an approximation of the patterning, it's not 100 % accurate, but will have to do as I don't want to spend the next six years just working on this ! LOL That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

PAINT BY NUMBERS

 Been a bit of a slow week for me, but managed to do a step by step for painting white armour, this could be handy for any one with Imperial Star Wars or 40K space marines.

STEP 1 basecoat the model, I use GW Corax white as it's darker.

STEP 2 cover the model in GW Apothecary White Contrast.

STEP 3 I fill in all the areas that need black, between the armour plates and details, I also add blue to the cheek vents on the helmet, using blue wash.

STEP 4 I apply GW Corax white over the armour plates leaving some of the gray from the contrast showing, like between armour plates, and also areas where light wouldn't reach ( The point of light I use is above the head, so looking from above I can see which areas the light would see)

STEP 5 Using GW White scar, I add lights to the areas that the light would hit, using the same point I did in the previous step.

STEP 6 If you want a dirty armour like I do for my troopers on Tatooine, I use two parts GW Reikland Fleshade wash to one part Lamian Medium. You can dab this on apply with a brush to desired areas, or apply extra and wipe off the excess, I used all methods on this one. I also added some GW Dawnstone Grey to the two rectangles on the helmet ears at this point.

Hope you find this useful. For the next 9 days I will be away from the computer so won't be able to comment on anyone's posts until I get back, as the wife and I are going away and hoping to see the Northern Lights, which is something on our bucket list, so until next time stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave

BUSTED

 No I'm not talking about the band, but the great Viking bust my wife got for me for Christmas, she must have picked it up when we visited the Viking museum in York. Is it designed for painting, no, but since when has that ever stopped me !LOL I went for historical colors, as we all know I don't paint much historical's

Was very pleased with the hair and cloak on this one. I've also finished my pledge for join-annes-2026-miniature-assembly-challenge with the second half of the second Stormtrooper squad, and two 7 man squads of scout troopers.

Talking of busted, I may be a little slower for the next couple of months, some of you may recall I was having trouble with my right hand last year, well I had a procedure on Saturday to un trap a nerve in my elbow, which was causing the problem, this is normally done under general anesthetic, but because of my form of cancer, they could only do a local, this meant I got to be awake for the whole thing, did mean I could leave sooner after the procedure though ! LOL They said it can take up two months to notice any change, but will try to get back to painting before that, this was also the reason I was late commenting on your blogs.

That's all for today, so until next time, stay safe, and have fun !

Cheers Dave