Toolbots

12.30.2018

It's been almost 2 months since showing anything on the hobby front. When I have a bad batch, which although on 1 out of 4 was really bad, it left a bad taste in my mouth for painting figures. The thing is, I wanted to paint some more figures and not vehicles/scenery/etc. The key here - what's something I couldn't screw up? Or at least have a hard time screwing up. Enter the Chronoscope Toolbots.

I have no need for little robots in anything I can see myself playing in the next half decade. Luckily that has no bearing most of the time in picking out what I'm going to paint. After scouring the interweb for some reference pics of how other people have painted these, the majority aren't painted very well. A low bar! That's perfect for the taste that's been in my mouth!

I found a color scheme I liked and decided to emulate at least parts of it. Each bot would be a different color, but little details like collars, visors, and knee joints would be the same color.

Like most of my painting, this batch was wrought with mistakes to cover up. I never do well with bright colors on top of grey primer (so why start that way?). Yellow is always too... streaky? Blue went on too thick. I used 2 shades of green on 2 bots, but they ended up looking the same to me. Metallic gold and silver went on a little thick sometimes, too.

I got to try some things that worked out too. The beveled bases got leveled out with Tamiya Putty, and a decent enough job for concrete-looking floors. The caution pinstripe tape I got at HobbyTown in Kinnesaw worked well on those floors, too. I tried out washes that matched the base colors - that might be why those 2 greens turned out more alike. I dipped into the fluorescent colors for neon green and orange, which I applied with a toothpick and holding it like a miniature pool cue to help steady it.

While not great, I don't think they suck. I used more paint than my normally successful prime + wash + drybrush method.

After a year, I discovered I've been calculating my Percent Complete incorrectly on my little spreadsheet. I've been using my total painted vs remaining unpainted, instead of total painted vs total (unpainted + painted). Just for consistency, the final tally for the year shows the old method while I'll kick off the "right" way with whatever is painted next.

Next time - maybe the Year In Review. Year End Review? 2018 Summary!


gaming miniatures reaper chronoscape

A Bloody Crusader and Really Bad Dodgeball

11.05.2018

Another batch of "taking too long to paint", with only 4 minis to show for it. There was another that I'm not naming and leaving "in progress" although I don't know if I'll ever finish it as it's more of an objective marker piece than a usable figure.

Today's batch is brought to you by "it was on sale". The first two are left over fantasy figures from the last batch.

Above is the wizard Juliette from the Reaper Dark Legends line. This one turned out to be the best of this batch, as I was able to keep to my working method of primer + washes + drybrush + actually paint a few bits of details. The base is hopefully suited to something dungeon-y. Not really sure why her cleavage looks like there's 3 boobs if you look closely. Go look closely, you can't un-see it now.

Last up from the Dark Legends line is the Crusader Justifier. Armored up with a big freaking sword. I didn't want shiny silver armor, and I read Kevin's Weathering Metal Armor Tutorial. I didn't follow said tutorial, as I decided to start winging it after the second step. Between washes, metallic drybrushes, more washes, and more drybrushes, a slathering of blood splatter made sure I didn't end up with "silver". I've gotten used to brushing on the glossy Citadel sealant where needed after a standard matte spray sealant, and it worked well on this one just to keep the cloth from being overly shiny. The base is 50% bigger than normal, as the stance for this mini is so blamed spread out it was needed. Another dungeon-y fitting floor base.

Back to the good old Chronoscape line, this time with the super heroine Incredible Woman. I had nothing specific in mind, other than testing out how to eventually paint Batman. Primer grey with 2 heavy Nuln Oil washes has been giving me a consistent look I like by bringing out the body highlights. The yellow at the collar (eventually for the bat symbol on the chest) gave me fits as my yellow is just ALWAYS too runny and streaks. Citadel's Cassandra Yellow wash works well for me, but it needs a white base/primer to work well on. I still need another good practice run before committing to a Batman. For fun, I topped this mini off with red hair - honestly the orange Citadel wash works great for hear - and I think it turns into a vaguely Black Widow style mini. Same style base as the other two, just because I was cranking them out to the end at this point.

My obligatory crap paint job that was due. I picked this one up on Amazon for $4.79, and I have no idea what the game is that it actually goes with, but Takoshi University - Dodgeball was, well, I could have done better. I covered up the details way too much, especially the face. My dodgeball turned into a soccer ball. The skin tone turned runny, I was trying for a yellow shirt but the shadows came out orange. She's standing in poop. With perfectly white shoes.

Sometimes you just have to realize there's no fixing something and say "eh, I don't have to use it" and file it away.

4 more doesn't feel like a big hit to the overall total, but I'm close to 50% on the realistically painted total.

This is another busy meeting week at work, topped off Thursday by getting a new windshield on the car. Friday, on the way to Florence for Maw-Maw's 91st B'day Extravaganza, an errant pebble found its way to the bottom corner of the windshield well enough to nick it. Over the weekend the nick grew about a foot. With the length and location, the windshield guys said it had to be replaced, and they would have to order the windshield. I had a windshield replaced on the Explorer so it's not my first windshield replacement, just damned annoying. Since there's a good chance of rain Thursday, I'm going back to the Safelite shop to have them do it there instead of wondering if the weather will mess it all up - and force me to take it to their shop anyway.

I think my next fun hobby thing will be to work on the 15" x 22.5" maps for my cityscape that I've had on my list, yet been putting of for a couple of months. It's all computer/Paint Shop Pro work, and usually I do hobby stuff to get away from the computer, but I'm at the point where I've been putting it off for so long that THAT'S starting to bother me the most.


gaming miniatures ninja division reaper chronoscape

Fantasy Figures 2K18

10.22.2018

I may, possibly, play Dungeons and Dragons with Daniel. I've played one-off games a couple of times since 1984. I played a nice little campaign, with 2 other people, when going to Calhoun back in the 90's. I don't know what the current rule set of D&D is, even though I've managed to get a hold of PDFs of whatever is current. The important part of any role playing game isn't deep understanding of the rules and proper commitment to playing the role. No, it's the minis.

Not really, but it's the most fun prep for me. It's been a while since I've painted something not zombie or (modern) building related. I hit Amazon for cheap Reaper fantasy minis and found some good ones in the $5-$7 range. I could get them cheaper elsewhere, but shipping always kills any deal for something this small. Small in both size, weight, and price. Thus, JeffyB wins my hobby money for this round. I wanted some women, both to practice painting and to see if when it comes time to play I don't go my normal route of "human fighter". Lady Magic User is un-me. Perhaps with a mini to inspire me I would pick such when it came time to crack open the rules.

I took my time with this batch. I actually primed 2 more minis with these, but something got me started on these 4 and I just stuck with them. Basing was a little tricky. These minis come with part of the base attached to the feet, not the slotted bottom/base most minis have. Goldar was set in an oversized beveled base, while the girls went atop a standard (non-slotted) base. I aimed for a rocky style base except for Goldar. He was an experiment in Citadel's Martian Ironcrust, which got primed and heavily doused with at least 3 coats of earth wash. The red dress on the Strumpet was my first use of Vallejo Thinner. I've had problems in the past with yellow and red not covering very well. From now on, thinner is the way to go with light colors like that!

The Painting Spreadsheet (again) doesn't show much progress as I ended up buying new minis and immediately painting (most) of them. On the realistic list, 209/454 has gone to 213/456, which is ONE PERCENT PROGRESS.

Next up is to paint the other 2 fantasy minis that got primed, which may or may not have a few other minis added if I get a wild hair. After this next batch, it'll be time for some more buildings or maybe start on the Antenocitis Workshop vehicles I got back in July.


gaming miniatures reaper chronoscape

Dinogas Is Open

09.23.2018

After mentioning the TTCombat gas station for the past couple of weeks (or maybe a month), the final product really doesn't live up to the hype.

Thanks to a suggestion from Bob, I was going to go with the Gulf Oil color scheme of Orange and Blue, but the signage on this version of the kit had Dinogas and the dinosaur burned into the wood instead of heavy cardboard (which could be easily switched out) that I was expected. For whatever reason, I thought of the Joker and his classic orange & purple motif, which was an easy jump to make the dinosaur purple, ala Barney!

I still need to work on masking when spray painting stripes. I still got a little bleed this time around. I was also using old, and I mean old, Citadel paints for the detail work on this kit. Most of the paint was just shy of dry in the pots. I was thinking the thickness of the paint would work well on the MDF - and once again I think I came away with mixed results.

The 3D printer was cranking out interior fillings for this building for the past couple of weeks, too. Thanks to a Kickstarter (which I'll link to the website when I can dig it back up) of modern furniture and building materials, there was a "Tire Shop" set which gave me enough stuff that would fit in my little gas station. I actually printed a lot more than I used. Once again, my little trick of using sticky tack to keep everything in place worked out. I Google-Imaged some random vintage signs to help fill out the walls. My favorite little inside joke was getting some Roxxon signs as a throwback to when I read Iron Man all the time, a good 20 years before the movies came out.

I don't really count buildings in the To Paint tally. They're on the list, just not the part I show. As such, this counts as progress in spirit!


3D Printer gaming miniatures ttcombat

Still not the gas station

09.17.2018

The TTCombat gas station is taking longer to wrap up that I predicted. Once I got the 3D printer printing again, I got on a bit of a roll printing things out. I'm not sure how much of the above will end up in or around the gas station, but it's sure not going to be an empty building! After ~2 (maybe 3?) weeks of printing, at 100% infill just to give Daniel a coronary, the printer is now off and getting a little rest. Printed models have had brims cut, errant plastic trimmed, and run through a thorough warm, soapy rinse to help get rid of cruff that will get in the way of the next step, PRIMING!

The way the rest of the week is looking, said priming may not happen until Friday or Saturday.

Just because they look out of place, the 4 discs at the top of the picture are tank tops for Pringles cans, which will hopefully work as fuel tank/storage for the gas station.


3D Printer gaming miniatures

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