Harlequin OOP Barbarian

Part of the last batch purchased, this OOP Barbarian Scout from Harlequin Miniatures (3110A) is not going to be permanent part of my collection.

I shall probably try to flog it on Facebook or LAF, but it will have to wait until after the summer holidays.

Should any of my readers fancy it, feel free to contact me - buyer pays postage and any price we can agree on.

Enjoy!

Skaw the Falconer - Without Falcons

Yet another recently purchased mini - this time a Wood Elf, who is going to form up with the Wardancers, first for Blood Eagle, then OGAM. and later Saga/Dragon Rampant, and other games.

When I purchased him, I was not aware that parts (the two falcons) were missing (I assumed he was some kind of magic-user, and the tetherings some kind of energy-outburst).

Well, now I am in the market for some falcons to attach to him, but I am not going to hold my breath while searching, as those parts are fairly small, and very easily lost, and thus it will probably require a fair amount of luck to find someone with the birds and willing to part with them.

High Elf Captain

Another one of my recently purchased secondhand minis, a High Elf Command Hero/Champion, who is going to be put in charge of my old mono-pose spearmen (and probably going to lead a Blood Eagle High Elf warband before then.

He has been through the paint-stripping process, although he did not sport much paint when I got him; I just wanted to get him completely clean before cleaning up mold-lines (which the model has in abundance).

Sadly, I shall not have time to start work on any High Elves within overseeable time, as I am still struggling with my Vikings, and am determined to finish them and get some Dark Ages civilians ready for the table, too, before shifting my focus elsewhere!

I also have to find a place to buy Instant Mold without paying exorbitant postage and/or customs charges, as I shall have to make a shield to go with this mini (and probably more, with all the second-hand stuff I am buying these days)

Unknown Goblin Piper

Part of the lot with which I bought the Eldar Avatar was this funny fellow.

I cleaned him in the ultrasonic cleaner with the rest of the lot (some old Wardancers and other Wood Elves, and a few other old minis of various kinds), and gave him a brush-down just after I finished work on the Avatar.

I have no idea about where this is from, but I am going to paint it up just for the sake of it, as soon as I can squeeze it into the queue.

Should any of my readers know the origin of the Gobbo, please do not hesitate to tell me in a comment to this post, as I would like to know if he has any companions I can hunt down and add to my collection.

OGAM: Eldar Avatar for the Elves.

I recently bought this 90's Eldar Avatar of the Bloody handed God, K(h)aela Mensha Khaine, and I am going to use it for leading Elves in OGAM (High or Wood or a mixture of both), and probaly also for Dragon Rampant

It was primed in black, but as I prefer cleaning up moldlines (and the primer was scratched and chipped), I put it in white spirit in my ultrasonic cleaner for some days, remembering to start the ultrasound now and then.

I brushed it off today, and this is the result: A miniature almost as new, and it did not set me back more than about £6.

Ancient Elves for Blood Eagle Sídhe

A couple of weeks ago, I got these for peanuts, and after some days in the ultrasonic cleaner (soaked in white spirit), almost all traces of paint has been removed.

Five of them are designated Wardancers, long OOP, and perfect for starting up a Sídhe warband for Blood Eagle.

I already have another copy of the guy with the big sword, another ancient Jes Goodwin sculpt, which is now listed as a Wardancer, too, but was in a blister labeled Wood Elf Warriors back when I bought him.

The first two in the top row are Scouts from a later edition of Warhamster, but I think the last one is also an ancient Jes Goodwin sculpt (the mail gives him away).

I shall go over these and remove any mold lines revealed by the paint-stripping, before I start fleshing out their profiles.

I have a few more - and an old Warhammer 40.000 Eldar Avatar - incoming. I intend to use the Avatar as a deity for OGAM, and then build up a warband of Elves around it, based on the Blood Eagle Sídhe - but that is currently a long-term project, as I have to get my Vikings done, and then paint up some Dark Ages civilians.

OGAM: Harpies

Part of a batch I purchased last week, these are destined to become a part of a Roman/Greek OGAM warband.

I threw them in my ultra-sonic cleaner (which seems to have survived the small 'explosion' which I thought was a blown fuse), and the paint  virtually flew off the minis.

As you can see, I am one wing short, and I am probably going to get some 'Instant Mold' to press-mold a replacement for the missing part.

OGAM: Greek/Roman Warband Project.

Well, it had to happen. A new set of rules = a new project.

Needless to say, I am going to make an OGAM Norse warband very soon, but they need somebody to fight, and as I have a bunch of WGF Caesarean Romans, I am going to make a Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Zeus) warband, based on the Greek Pantheon in OGAM.

I am going to include a unit of Satyrs, and as I bought some second-hand Citadel plastic Chaos Beastmen along with some plastic Bretonnians last year, I thought I would use some of those for this purpose.

Some of the Beastmen are covered in really bad paintjobs, and I thought this would be a good time to bring my ultra-sonic cleaner into service once more.

To the right, four Beastmen is getting their second treatment after getting a good scrub with a soft acrylic 'leather brush'.

This fellow to the right was ready after treatment with a brass 'leather brush'.

I need only four for this my first warband, the rest of the Mortals being formed of a unit of legionaires (Greek Hoplites) and one of Veteran Legionaires (Spartan Hoplites)- which I have to assemble and paint, too, as I do not have many ready for painting.

My two Legends will be a Centurion (Generic Greek Hero), and a Harpy - which I have to purchase, prep, and paint, and I think another Foundry order is building up.

I had hoped that I would not need further purchases this side of the summer holidays, but I really want some armies ready for OGAM as soon as possible.

It seems a fast and easy to pick up game (it is basically Song of Blades and Heroes, just with units for the rank-and-file troops instead of individual models), and, although I am not fan of pass-activation-roll-or-forfeit-your-turn games, the Ganesha engine is so straight forward, that a game does not require a lot of planning and rules-reading - just build your warband/army (yes, I think it scales very easily), and get stuck in - you can always avenge a defeat the next time (the Dice willing).

I also plan to make a 'Slann' warband from some of the painted Lizardmen army I purchased recently - I shall use the Slann as the deity, and some of the larger models (the Salamanders and the Terradons) as Legends (and I shall see if I can find some Kroxigors to fill this rôle, too).

I may have the Lizardman warband ready very soon, but the Romans will not be painted, until I have my Blood Eagle project ready for Åcon.

Shortly after I wrote the above, my ultrasonic cleaner blew a fuse, and now has to be de-commissioned. IF I can find the invoice for it, I may be able to get a re-fund, as I purchased it less than 2 years ago, but that is a very big 'if'.

Ultrasonic Cleaner, Part 2

The final result of my paint-stripping venture can be seen here:

I left the minis in the soap, and re-started the ultrasonic cleaner a lot of times whenever I noticed it had stopped, then left the whole thing over night, and the last paint came off easily.

I don't think the rest of the week will see much progress (I had planned to get some work done on my Pulp project, but stuff got in the way), as Lea turns 9 this Saturday, and I have to tidy up the living room for having some family and close friends over on the day, and the girls from Lea's school class on Sunday (unfortunately, the garage attic is still too cold for having events in)-

Ultrasonic Cleaner

I got this for DKK 239,- in 'Harald Nyborg' in Odense, and had to try it out for paint-stripping right away!

The two ancient skeletons I started painting with Humbrol Enamels more than 20 years ago (the scythe-wielding ones) were submitted to this first attempt.

I first tried using white spirit as cleansing liquid, but it didn't really hav much effect on the enamel paint.

Then, I tried using liquid 'brown soap' (a kind of soap apparently unbeknownst to non-Danes), and after 3 'treatments' of 480 seconds, each followed by a scrubbing with my brass brush, the middle figurine looked like you can see below.

The helmeted skeleton as shown below was treated 4 times, and as you can see it also still had some paint residue in some creases.

My next step in this process is to leave the minis in the soap for a couple of days, before using the ultrasonic feature again (to allow the soap softening up the remaining paint a bit more)






This is much more effective than leaving minis in a jar with brown soap for months and months, and I shall be using the ultrasonic cleaner for all paint-stripping operations from now on.


Next time I shall try leaving the subject in the soap 24 hours before appying the ultrasonics, as I think the ultrasonics might have an easier time loosening the paint if it has been softened up a bit in advance.

Who knows, maybe I'll even get some of all those old Space Marines I have had in soap for ages (I am not going to play any later version of Warhammer 40.000, but I might use them for other Sci-Fi and/or Post Apocalyptic settings)

If you find yourself stripping minis often, I would recommend getting one of these. I haven't tried stripping acrylic paints, but I assume that the process is much faster, as 'brown soap' dissolves acrylics easier than enamels.






Some primers may require the minis to be left in your paint-stripping solution a bit longer (like the enamels), but I think the combination of ultrasonics and a dissolving (not corrosive, mind you, at it will damage the container) solution of some kind should prove effective.