I Got Some Stuff

I just had to delete a number of identical bot postings about something in Spanish, I don't speak/read Spanish beyond a very rudimentary level, so I am not quite sure what it was about, but I think it was something about luring peeps to a porn site.

Well. I'¨ve been hollowing out my account as I needed some stuff to get things moving,  so here it is.

OK, I did not need every part of this mainly the paint, I want to malke it easier to paint ghosts and snow/ice, so I purchased Aeldari Emerald, Briar Queen Chill. Hexwraith Flame, Nightghaunt Gloom, and Pylar Glacier to try them out. Apart from that, I bought Steel Legion Drab to try out how close it is to Khemri Brown and the other 'earth' colours I use for bases.

The lichen speaks for itself, and the trees are cheap x-mas deco stuff from Harald Nyborg, a builders merchant store in Odense.

I actually purchased ten more yellow 'stones' at an earlier occation, but they are put away with the rest. The new ones are plasitc, btw, not glass as the old ones, which annoys me bit.

I also got some seasonal necessikties, amd Stanley moved in with us.

And, of course, the Santa Balloon. Not cheap, bujt kinda must.

 

This post was approved by Billy.

Shopping a Bit

I went into Faraos Cigarer (Cigars of the Pharaoh) in Odense today, and I bought a ton of Citadel Contrast Paints.

Sadly, a few of the colours were missing in the rack, as well as the white contrast undercoat, and the staff could not tell me when they would get the full range.

At least I can get started using them for army painting, but I really wanted Black Templar for Warriors of Minas Tirith, and Apothecary White for Star Wars Imperial Storm Troopers. Well, I shall have to keep an eye out for them now and them or simply buy them online.

DIY Paint Storage

I have been contemplating getting some mdf racks for storing paints, but my current financial situation, after paying a large mechanic bill, means that I have to prioritize the use of my funds,

Thus, I have opted for making another couple of boxes for this purpose out of print paper boxes (that I get for free from my wife's workplace) and rigid cardboard, of which I have an abundance.

Over the last week, I have finished the first insert, and below you can see how it is going to work when placed in a box.

The plan is to make two such boxes, and then, after sorting paints into them, see if I need to make yet another one (which will then have to wait until after Christmas Eve).

This is a very time-consuming solution, but otherwise completely free - and free is always good for the hobbyist!

I hope to finish the second insert over the next couple of days, and then it is time to cut down and glue the boxes...

USUTHU! - Bhekizizwe Joins the Ranks!

As promised yesterday, another married Zulu Veteran can now be shown in all its painted glory 😆

The frontal view is a bit blurred - my camera must have focused on the shield or the iklwa.

I had almost decided to disregard the Foundry Dusky Flesh palette for painting sub-saharan indigenous people, but as I already had given this one a base coat of Citadel Scorched Brown, and a second layer of Foundry Dusky Flesh Shade, I thought I should give it a go.

I mixed some Dusky Flesh Shade with equal parts Dusky Flesh - and struck gold!

Rarely have I expected less, and gotten more! The resulting mix makes the transision between the two paints almost seamless, and I could paint on the third layer with the new mix, and finish of with final hightlights of Dusky Flesh.

I think Bhekizizwe here maybe is the one with the skin colour closest to the one seen on many of the photos of Zulus I have been able to find on the web. That being said, I have seen quite a few different shades of skin (and lots of it), when googling for reference material, so I am under no circumstances going to settle for just one palette when painting future Zulus, and my experiments with Dusky Flesh will not end here, either! I have already planned to mix Coat d'Arms Negro with Dusky Flesh to be able to use Negro as the base colour and skip the slightly reddish Dusky Flesh Shade and obtain a more 'milk chocolate' like effect, and I shall probably also try another go at using Dusky Flesh Shade as base coat, this time with the new mix as second layer.

All these experiments with dark African flesh tones will aso come in handy when I return to painting Uruk-Hai, somewhen, as I want an Isengard God of Battles army based on the Orc Warlords list.

A Sudden Death and Some Paints

As my father-in-law passed away quite suddenly early Thursday morning, the last 36 hours have been a bit hectic, with my wife driving over to Haderslev to support her mother, me tending the kids, the dog, and the cats, and going to work Thursday night, all the while having to get the firewood into the shed.

As a consequence, not much time has been allocated to the hobby, as both the kids and my wife need comforting and togetherness instead of me disappearing into the study.

I received my Foundry Paints order from Miniaturicum, though, and thought I would show the contents of the box here.

Lots of browns, as I want to experiment a bit on dark indigenous African skin for my Zulus and other 'black' Africans.

I also got the 'Flesh' triad, as I would like to be able to vary Caucasian skin a bit more, and the 'Drab' triad for painting some khaki (I guess it is meant for that purpose),

My wife and the girls went to Odense just after lunch (we stacked firewood this morning) to shop for some autumn clothing and footwear (we let the girls stay home from school today, to be able to address any signs of grief), and that let me paint a little bit during the afternoon (I worked a bit on a Zulu, and started painting another mini for the LAF Back of Beyond Painting Club).

Well, that is all for today. Tomorrow we are visiting a horticultural nursery to get some plants for the newly cleared beds in the front yard, and a Spartan apple tree which I have been wanting to get ever since we got our own garden.

Sunday I have half a gaming appointment . I do not know, yet, what/which game(s) will be played, but we shall figure it out tomorrow, I guess.

Got Me Some Paints

As the temperature here is close to 30 Centigrades, with no wind and extreme humidty, I have not been sleeping all too well today.

So, instead of sitting down in the study to paint or decorate bases, I opted to drive to Odense and buy a few hobby supplies I need.

Foundry African Flesh Paint Triad

As I have plans about Darkest Africa and the Zulu War, I prioritized to get some dark African skin colour paints along with my Dark Ages order from Foundry.

I am going to get their Dark African Flesh set, too, and as always, I shall mix intermediate plus darker and lighter shades when taking the paints into use.

Paint Pot Holders

I do not remember if I have already shown these - but a fellow LAF'er lamenting tipping over a pot and spilling half the content made me think that I should share my solution for unstable paintpots.

It is made from a piece of wooden lath, and I made the hole with a paddle drill bit.

Originally I made some of these, because Anna wanted to pant some toy knights, but I have adopted them for my own painting, as I have also sometimes knocked over a pot, with a horrible mess on the pain(t) station as a consequence.

I can heartily recommend such a device, as I do not think I have toppled an open pot while painting, since I started using it.

The grey paint is from a bottle I dropped while placing it in the pot holder, so accidents can still happen, if you have butter fin´gers like me...

LEGO Elves Terrain Project, Part 4

I went to Svendborg today to get some paints from a craft store that match the colours of the LEGO Elves bases.

I also visited a DIY market to get some water-based varnish to use for arrows (I ordered tools and materials for making wooden arrows yesterday). Apparently, arrows need 4-5 layers of varnish, being sanded with a very fine grain of sandpaper in between layers.

The varnish is meant for indoor use, but I hope it will prove good enough for arrows - we are not going to shoot in rough weather conditions, anyway, so with several layers, it should be able to withstand handling.

Did some shopping today.

I got up early and drove with my wife to Odense, when she went to work, as I had a few things on my to-buy list (especially some honey for the next batch of mead).

After Odense, I drove down to Svendborg to do some additional shopping.

Of notion, hobby-wise, I got some paint for my Egyptian temple stairs, and I bought another yatzy-set with dice tray (to have 2 trays for gaming) - and I found a green doormat in the pound store (Tiger), that I am going to cut up to use as fields with un-ripe crops.

You cannot tell from the picture, but the bristles on the mat are approximately 10mm long.

GW Paintpots... why, GW, WHY??!

Couple of weeks ago I needed some black paint.

Only hobby paint readily available anywhere near me is GW, so I bought a pot of Abbadon Black.

The first couple of times I used it, I had much trouble making the lid stay open, and after a while I simply could not get it to do so - thus I had to resort to my old method of placing a matchstick under the 'tongue' protruding from the back end of the lid.

It seems that GW (or the manufacturer of GW's paints) has changed the design of the lid once again for the latest incarnation of their paint range - this time for the worse.

The tab that is supposed to snap in place 'gripping' the lid and hold it open is too soft, and simply bends backwards/to the side when the lid is opened.

I may be able to push it into the right position, holding it back with a finger while opening the pot, but as you can see, paint seeps out aroung the tab, and it might get a little messy.

To the left you can see the difference between the newest and the last versions of the lids.

I really don't understand why a company that keeps boasting about their 'high quality products' does stupid things like this time and time again.

I shall stay away from their paints as much as possible, as long as that stupid design is around, that is for sure.

Coat d'Arms Paints in Europe.

The following link was kindly offered by Mike from Black Hat Miniatures as a mainland Europe distributor of Coat d'Arms:

http://www.mbmmodels.com/

Royal Mail does not accept packages with more than 4(!) pots of water-based paints these days, so for those of us who need solid supplies, ordering them from the UK is a bit impractical (and expensive if we use courier).

I'll add the link to the Materials page.

Vallejo Polished Gold FTW!

I'm on a 'painter's high' right now; I had Vallejo's metallics recommended to me when I was at Horisont V last fall, I bought VGC Polished Gold on the side as part of an order from Miniaturicum (because I had to substitute a bottle of Charred Brown that was not available), and I just tried it out a few minutes ago.

First, I compared the colour to my OC Burnished Gold, and the mixes with black I have made to paint ancient gold. I was surprised - and delighted - to see that it was an almost 100% match to the mix with a few tiny drops of black.

Then I painted a censer/ball-and-chain/whatever on the mini I'm currently working on

1. Charred Brow
2. Burnished Gold with black (dark mix)
3. Polished Gold
4. Burnished Gold + Mithril Silver

And the result was really good.

Polished Gold covers much better and smoother than the Citadel metallics (apart from Mithril Silver, which is still a fabulous paint to work with).

If the rest of Vallejo's metallics are just as good, I'll have to get more!

I think my Burnished Gold will be transformed into an even darker mix by adding black. I don't like the finish of it very much, anyway, and it does not cover too well.