ARMOURED APRIL

So April's challenge this month on azazelx was two fold, firstly was to finish a squad of armoured troops. I actually managed two units, which I was very surprised about, firstly was my riot stormtroopers

and secondly I managed to finish the last three stormtroopers I needed to paint. Is this the last ? Probably not as I think I need a lot more, but I want to get some variation so may need to do some conversions on any more I buy. What would be great is several different leg options and multiple torso variations so I can have a multitude of options.

The Second part of Azazel's challenge was to do a army shot, so here is all my Imperial force that is finished

As a reward to myself for a) finishing all my stormtroopers and b) all the hard work I put in on the run up to Salute, I got a few new additions for Star Wars, I've finished the 3 FFG models I bought. Firstly is Green Greedo

Secondly I got the Wookie Warriors pack, I converted one so they didn't look exactly the same and did two different colour schemes based on the picture below.

I also got some more models from Tritex Games but I will be showing them at a later date, once I've finished the conversions.
That's all for this post so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave

CAN'T SEE THE WOOD FOR THE TREES

Managed to get into the flow this week and finish the sculpting of HOTDA's treeman, just need to finish off the base to give it some thickness, which will make it easier for casting and make the casts more stable. I based the model on a Angel Oak, and wanted to give it more of a tree look than man.

I ran a poll on Twitter and Facebook, and the general opinion was they would like to see Fantasy figures and scenery next. So I've started work on this little monster a Griffin. This model has been sat on my desk for a long time, so will be good to finally get it finished. The base is a rough carved insulation foam which will need detailing before casting, there will be an optional mountain goat to go infront as prey, but you will be able to leave it off with no modification needed

I'm also finishing off the undead summoning well I showed a while back, and then starting some more Aztec style scenery, that I've had swimming around my head for a while.
My next post will be my entry  for Azazael's painting challenge, and yes it will be Star Wars related, so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave

FRESH START

I think I've now gone screen blind after spending most of the afternoon moving over all 120 posts from the old blog. While moving them over I noticed several things. First there are times I make no sense on what I'm writing ( I blame the constant pain fog I'm in for this), second there are times I barely explain anything I'm showing, and third I bounce around from one project to the next.
Is my new blog likely to be ant different, probably not ! Because this is my hobby and business blog, there will always be lot's of bouncing around from one project to the next, especially as I do commission work as well, you never know what you might be making next. As for my lack of explanation, I will make a serious effort to work on this element, as I understand how annoying it could be ! As for making no sense, that I can't do a lot  about, until they come up with a cure, but I will try to be clear as often as possible, and don't be afraid to ask if I'm not.
So what can you expect in my new space ? More of what I was doing on the last blog, sneak peeks at new releases that will be shown here first as WIP shots and the finished items will be shown here before anywhere else, tutorials on sculpting and painting, more of my own hobby pieces both old and new. Will there be BatRep's ? Not going to make any promises on this, if I get time, then yes, if I don't then no. In the last month I have played around 20 games of Death Match with my friend Griff, but we were too busy enjoying the games to take pictures and write up reports, but one thing I found out was no one race is guaranteed to win ! For me this is a great thing as it means the system is balanced.
Now the keen eye'd of you will have noticed that we had no new releases in April, this happened for two reasons, preparations for Salute, and finishing off a rather large project for Heroes of the Dark Age, a flying dragon. It is available as a single headed or twin headed version, the same as their walking dragon we built for them.

 So am I back onto new releases for WTW  ? Almost as I've just started a treeman for HOTDA pictured below about 3 hours work so far.

The problem I have for my new releases is what to do next, I've currently got fantasy pieces started, post apocalyptic pieces started, Sci-fi pieces started, and new bits for Death Match, and I don't know which to do first. If you'd like to post your preferences below this would be a great help.
That's it for this first post, so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave

" TIME FOR CHANGE "

Well Salute is over with for another year, just the orders taking on the day to sort out and any orders placed because of what they saw at the show.
For any who have never seen as at a show I've taken some pictures of the stand so you can see what it looks like, had to take the pictures with the phone as didn't have room to take the camera as well ! LOL

We even had ballons in the shape of our logo so you could find us from anywhere in the hall.

Was great to see lot's of people I know there, and from the blogging community I saw Simon from fantorical Jez from carrioncrowsbuffet and Michael from 28mmvictorianwarfare who all came over to say hello and have a chat.
Now life has a way of changing things and I've got a major one coming up, we're moving house, now some may say that's not too bad, it is when you also have to move your studio and casting facility at the same time ! "Why do it ? " I hear you say, well it will give better facilities that are large enough to grow the business and more suited to us, plus Sarah will have a dinning room again for the first time in 10 years ! She is very much looking forward to this ! LOL
So while all these changes are going to be happening, there won't be much time for blogging as it's going to be hard enough keeping the business going during the move.
Any one who has known me for long enough know's I never intended doing a blog at all, as I had so much to do with the business anyrate and was happy just to comment on blog's I followed (I blame Simon for this ! LOL). When I first got asked to be a part of the cupboard I thought this was a great idea as I would only have to do an occasional post, and it might encourage me to get on with some of my own hobby pieces that had been neglected. Then the situation changed and I ended up being the only one posting as Steve and Hils were moving and wouldn't have internet, so I plodded along and kept going as best as I could, with several times thinking about stopping.
Then Steve and Hils didn't move and were back but didn't feel they could post on the cupboard as I had taken it in a different direction, which was their choice.
The cupboard has always felt like a rented property to me, you may live there but it never truly fells like home ! I am very grateful to Steve Hils and Tarot for asking me into the cupboard, but it is now time for a change, when I am ready to start posting again I will be doing it on a new blog, I will be moving all the content I've posted here over to the new blog, and then cleaning out the cupboard to leave it in the way I found it, so Steve Hils and T can return and carry on in the direction they intended.
So this is my penultimate post as I will post up the new blog address as my final post.
A huge thankyou to all who have followed along and commented and if you would like to continue seeing what I'm about please follow along on the new blog.
All the best Dave

" ENTER THE ARENA IF YOU DARE "

One of the displays I've wanted to upgrade since bringing it out was the Death Match demo board, now what we've created is a one off, but not to say I still don't have intentions of making a 3D arena for sale later, when demand is high enough.

The first shot shows the overall layout, we've made half the arena and two separate beast enclosures to make it easy for running demo games.

This next shot shows the false door which is the gladiators entrance in detail, have also fixed in the commentator

The above pictures show the beast enclosure doors closed and open, yes they do slide.

Here you can see the beast loading doors from inside the enclosure and from the rear of the enclosure.

This last shot is the main stairwell up to the seating area. Next I want to build some crowd models but that will have to wait until after Salute.
That's the lot for today, so until next time have fun !
Cheers Dave