Painting Dreadfleet: Swordfysh

Time for other warship! Today, the Swordfysh. The good thing is that you are already used to what I'm doing, so I can skip the most tedious parts and be more visual.

 

Pieces painted

 

Some people have told me that my first step (painting) is usually the only one they did! Well, I'm flattered, I'm trying to make the difference here, I think the ships come pretty much impressive with this kind of tiny details. I encourage everyone to try! It's a little boring drill, but it's really worth it ;)

Okay, let's begin. The Swordfysh looks more like a real ship than others, so the technique is pretty much the same I used on the Heldenhammer. First of all, threads under the mainmast:

 

Given the scale, I wonder where do they find trees that size to make the masts

 

Something I learned here is that it's a good idea widening the hole on the deck a little. Just a little bit. In this case the hole was quite tight and, once I fixed the threads, there was no room for the mast. No kidding. I broke it and I had to glue it carefully. Since then, I have been widening the holes a little with the tip of my scissors. But be careful not to make a hole too big! Well, lesson learned for the foremast and mizzenmast.

 

My public disgrace on the mainmast. No problem, sails will cover it later

As usual, fix the threads to the sails:

 

By now, this should have become boring routine to you

 

And do the rest of the stuff: glue the sails to the masts and fix some thread from the corners of the sails to the deck, from yardarm to yardarm and so on. I'm not showing you again photos of every thread I glue, just let you figure it out:

 

Begins to look like a ship

But it's not yet complete

Now it is

A real ship would have much more rigging

But looks fine for me

 

As I've told you, I'm not trying to make it for real, it would be absurd on a fantasy ship. But transmitting the idea of a more complete model makes it work for good, so I'm satisfied.

Let me know your thoughts, landlubbers, arrr!!

Paratroopah!

Some pics of old today. Funny, silly conversions I did some years ago. I didn't have Stomboyz and, to be honest, the WWII German-like uniform is something that never really got my eye. Instead of that I thought I could add some flavour to my army and try something different for this kind of unit. And so I came with the idea of... the Paratroopah Orks!

Death from above!

Da Parachoot

Well, honestly, can you think of anything more Ork-like than jumping out into the void and falling down pending of a mere piece of cloth? :P

Super easy conversion, I made green stuff backpacks and glued four straight wires out of it. The parachute itself is simple paper for weight issues. I could do it better, but for the moment they will do.

I had to add extra weight to the bases, of course

The crouching legs of the models were just perfect for this purpose

And of course I also had Orks on the ground...

Retrieving da parachoot

This time the parachute is green stuff

I also had some fun with different variations...

...like the guy whose ring doesn't open anything

Or the guy who got wrapped into his own parachute

Incoming!

Another one wrapped in his parachute :P

Not top conversions, but funny stuff nevertheless. I'll have to revisit the concept one day, but for the moment here they are :)

Painting Dreadfleet: Dwarven warships

Easy thing today ;) As I was getting tired of glueing my fingers with all the thread, I decided to go on both Dwarven ships, Grimnir's Thunder and the Black Kraken.

No secrets here, paint & glue:

 

Again, amazing details even in the inside. Love the dirigible

A fantasy Ironclad Aircraft carrier

 

Simple as it is (at least compared to the other ships with all the rigging issue), I find Grimnir's Thunder particularly inspiring. And I'm not even fond of Dwarfs.

Let's work with the dark cousin, the Black Kraken. We do just the same, paint and glue:

 

Simple idea, wonderful design

Captain Nemo could perfectly fit in here

 

It's way easier when you have no rigging at all ;)

Well, this was a real quick update. Next warship will be full of threads again, don't worry :)

Second Edition Ork Characters

Back to a little old flavour today. Not absolute old, but quite enough ;)

I've just finished these 2nd Ed. Ork characters. First of all, the iconic Ghazghkull Thraka:

Chubby and funny. That's an Ork!

The character of Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka was originally developed long time ago for the "Waaagh: Orks" book. From the first conversion by Andy Chambers urged the necessity to sculpt a full mini, this one, which was released for the Second Edition of the game. This is the Ork Warboss par excellence, absolutely charismatic with his companion Makari the banner bearer Gretchin. Though the current mini that replaced this oe -the armoured giant, is quite imposing indeed, I still find this set totally representative of an era.

The next mini is Zodgrod Wortsnagga, other mini released for the Second Edition.

Bright eye-hurting colours. The only way to paint an Ork

With a funny background on its back, this is a full detailed mini again. Though it's classically represented with blue "hair", I decided to try red, I thik it also works for this model. The back banner, as the one the Gretchin is bearing in the previous pic, is just made of paper.

This other mini is a Painboy -or a Mad Dok. I find Ork position names quite revelling :P

 

Da Doktor is in...

 

I went for pale colours on this one, trying to resemble a health care professional dressing, but with a leather apron, so it looked like something halfaway between a doctor and a butcher. Now that I see the result, I'm afraid it's too pale looking, maybe it needed more colour.

 

Stains of green blood all over

 

That's it, just some minis I wanted to share. I have a lot more of old Orks to paint and show, so I'll be alternating ships with these kind of things and posting different stuff not to bore you.

Painting Dreadfleet: Seadrake

Back to painting warships!

Today, the Elven Seadrake. As you already know the drill, I'll go a little bit faster. First of all, paint the pieces:

 

The masts are towers, yes. Elvish craftsmanship...

Let's begin with the rigging.

These stayes are orientative. As usual, don't bother too much with ship engineering

I'm not sure what's Smaug doing on the stern of a ship full of Elves

The sails should look something like this:

Beware. Glueing threads can be tricky, specially on the corners

 Then set the sails onto the masts:

Almost finished

Last details:

Rigging from the sails to the deck, just to the base of the masts

Done!

Looks better than I imagined at the beginning

Finally, the auxiliar dragon:

Smaug's cousin

 

Ready to sail! I wonder if this ship ever tied up at the Grey Havens. Oh, wait, that's not from Warhammer universe...

I hope you like this project!

Braveheart

A little diorama today, don't wanna overload you with ships :)

This was a commission work to achieve a Braveheart scene.

 

I guess you already know the movie

 

As the client gave me absolute freedom, the option was clear for me, I used this wonderful model by Andrea Miniatures. This was going to be a full set diorama, so I also chose this other mini, to get two minis on the base. Both are 54 mm. scale and absolutely gorgeous.

 

No, it's not a Futurama head

 

I started with the basic stuff:

Dancing body

Coloured dancing body

Dismembered dancing body

  Then I went on the funny mayhem. Painting the tartan. If you study a little about the production stuff, you can see this is the pattern used in the movie:

It was later auctioned for an obscene amout of money

Okay, first time I've ever painted anything like this. Little bit scary, I must confess. I went for the horizontal stripes first:

 

The pose reminds me of Tony Manero

This mess only reminds me of Jack the Ripper

 

 And then for the vertical ones: 

No way! Too bright and clean!

Much better

The same with the other guy

The project begins to look like something. I glued some pieces then:

So the parts fit in

I had to pay attention then to the blue paint on the faces. I got some pics frome the movie.

Grrrrrrrr!!!!

Mad Stephen

The mini does not really depict Mad Stephen, I'm quite sure of that, but I think it's a funny charismatic character in the movie and the model reminded me of him, it was quite similar enough, so I decided the mini would represent him.

Once the minis were finished they had these lookings:

 

They may take our lives...!

...but they'll never take our freedom!

 

View from the scot guys perspective

This mini is quite imposing

Dynamic and forceful



The next step was the base:

Ugly phone photo

After some putty/greenstuff work this was the result:

Some battle spoils. Andrea Miniatures manufactured again

Alba gu bràth! (I googled that, I'm afraid)

I'm really disappointed with the greenstuff grass, I have to improve a lot

Though the movie does not resist, as any of this kind, any minimally serious historical review (and I will say no more), the scene of the Battle of Stirling is really evocative and no one can argue that. I hope I have caught some of the spirits of it.