New Arrivals: Foundry Hydra

Here's a thing that arrived today: snake-bodied Hydra from Foundry's Tribes of Legend -range. I instantly liked this figure the first time I saw it, and when I noticed it was available at Foundry's eBay outlet, FlyteofFantasy, and with postage paid, there was no excuse not getting it. I have in the past postponed some purchases, only to find out that the models have been discontinued, the store closed etc. (Red Box Helsvakt, I'm looking at you...), and I was not going to let it happen on this model.

As can be seen from the image, it's going to require a lot of pinning and filling to get the parts fit, but that was expected. Besides, having seven necks in only three parts is not that bad. And from the production point of view, having the two types of head separately makes perfect sense. Besides, there are 5 open-mouthed heads, and 5 closed ones in the kit, so one could mix and match, or even model the figure with some off-cut heads, and some necks where two heads have sprouted from the cuts. Only thing I'm bit iffy is the fact that the tail of the creature is two-forked, (which of course does not show on the image...) I think that I'll cut the other tailtip away.

The size of the figure is pretty much what I expected. It's big compared to a human-sized model, but not overtly so, and most importantly it can be built robust enough to properly function as a game piece. It will fit comfortably on a 40x40mm base, or a round equivalent. The fit of the joints is not the best, and there's quite a bit of flash on the studs, so simply gluing it together probably would not work.

Overall, the purchase went smoothly (well, I've never had any trouble with any eBay transaction yet), and was delivered promptly. And they were nice enough to include some skeleton figures in the order, as well. Probably some miscasts from their skeleton ranges, as one of the figures was cut from the middle and had a misshapen hand. But hey, freebies! Besides, the day you don't have uses for skeleton bits is the day you're tired of the whole hobby.

Plaster mixing ratio: a note

Just a quick reminder for myself: For Occlumedanit, one portion of plaster (fills approximately one mold) mix 80g plaster with 0,35 dl of lukewarm water.

City in Ruins - Ruined Houses pt. II

I have slowly been building some ruined buildings, using pieces I had already cast since somehow I'm in no mood of casting any new blocks. Fortunately I managed to build the houses I intended, although the broken corner of the house with a full-story basement is a direct result of not having enough arch-pieces for an intact level. But that's a boon of making ruins: such shortcomings are easily accommodated into the designs.

The basic structure of the buildings is thus in place. Next steps involve using latex filler to texturize the foamboard and to fill any gaps between the windows and the doorframes, then spraypainting the interiors to a matte black, assembling some rubble outside the buildings as well as texturing the bases all over, and constructing the floors using balsa wood. After that, it's just the task of painting the buildings, and perhaps if the inspiration strikes, some superdetailing as appropriate. Especially the recessed arches on the basement level scream for something. Coat-of-arms, perhaps.

To be honest, I still need a couple of corner pieces, and also some small bricks for the well, so I guess I'll have to do some casting eventually before I can go forward with the construction. But at the moment, what with weather being so uncharacteristically fine, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Some Hasslefree goodness

HFH057 Ferrus and HFH065 Veda-Ann

Here's a couple of Hasslefree minis that arrived into my mailbox recently. I just could not put them in a drawer, to wait for a better time, but had to assemble and base them right away. Pinning Veda-Ann's sword arm was especially nice: it's always a special kind of thrill drilling a 1mm diameter hole into a 2mm piece of metal. I also had to do some 'stock removal' on Ferrus's axe and Wolf's sword to fit them to my taste, although the latter is still by no means dainty. There are still some mold lines to tackle with, and some gaps to GS, and then I can perhaps leave these to wait for their proper turn. Well, maybe basecoat them first...

That's pretty much the rest of the Personalities I need for the Wulfheimer warband. Finding the regular troopers might prove trickier, though...

HFH046 Wolf and HFH068 Boudi

New painting - Elder Vampire

Heresy Miniatures: UNDEAD004: Vampire in Manbat form

Time to get some Heresy on board, as well!

This figure had lain on my figure drawer on a semi-finished stage for a while. I had originally based it on my regular humanoid base, which is about 21mm across, but although it did fit nicely, the pose of the figure was so front-heavy that it was constantly on the brink of toppling forward.

Then, as I was fiddling with the Ruins & Ratmen statistics for the Vampire Duellist, Valerie Dupuis, and thought that she would need a worthy opponent to hunt for in the ruined city. Thus was born the concept of Nemeses, arch-enemies of the Independent figures, that have a chance to spawn to the game if and when Independent models are fielded.

Now that I had an incentive to finish the miniature, it happened quickly. I knew I had to alter the pose a bit, and took an easy way out as I saw a suitably sized barrel in the bit box. With a bit of bending the figure accepted the new pose, and all I had to do was to paint the barrel and add some highlights to the figure.

I'm glad I found use for this figure. It's quite good-looking (Marcus from the Underworld series comes to mind), but unfortunately the wings make it a bit awkward as a game piece. With the elevated pose, that problem is somewhat alleviated, and the figure looks more imposing, to boot.

New painting - Divine Champion

Reaper: Dark Heaven: 03364: Isabeau Laroche, Female Paladin

Here's another Reaper/Werner Klocke collaboration. A two-part figure, I had a bit of problem with the separate shield arm. Not because of bad fit or anything, but rather no matter how I tried to attach it, it did not look natural. Oh well, in the end I selected a pose that showed the shield the best.

Initielly, I was going to do some freehand on the shield, but after a try or two I gave up, and went the old school way, that is to say I printed the image on a BW laser printer, and glued it on the shield. All went well, although I was a bit surprised how thick a regular 80g/m2 office paper would look on a miniature. Fortunately, a bit of Green Stuff did the job of blending the paper. Maybe next time I'll try this technique I'll try to sandpaper the paper edges somewhat thinner.

New painting - Slavonian Huntress

Freebooter Miniatures: SOL 002 Female Hunter

Most of my Werner Klocke -figures are from Reaper lines, but this one is from his own Freebooter Miniatures -range. Although I like his Reaper sculpts very much, I generally find his own range of figures a bit too busy for my tastes, and they are for the most part multi-part figures, as well.

There are a couple I've set my eyes on, however, and this huntress was one of the first that caught my eye. It's wonderfully anachronistic figure, actually more suitable for a post-apoc game than anything else. For me, that was no deal breaker. Tho bodice might have been, but hey, if one would collect female figures with only sensible outfits, the collection would be small indeed. At least she's not wearing bare metal against her skin... Actually, my biggest complain about the figure is that as she's supposed to be a hunter, her spear shows an alarming lack of lugs.

Oh well, in Ruins & Ratmen she's going to get a role as a professional hunter of Were-creatures.