The Age of Strife

Lush. Do you have a static grass applicator?
Just a bodged tea strainer and a bit of pipe for the electrics job. Works okay. Every now and then I wonder about upgrading to something a little more professional looking!
Very neat! What sort of trees are you intending to “plant”?
These ones are more K&M trees like the others - they are actually all in now bar one board where I need to do a little more work. So nearing completion.
BTW is that a latrine? :?
Yep! I was looking for bits and pieces to add a bit more interest to the woods and had that in one of my boxes of random resin, so I thought well why not, even on the battlefield you may need to go! It's that one that is waiting on trees since I need to paint the roof of the latrine. I might also add a bit more undergrowth on that one to help make it look a bit more integrated. I assumed I might use that woodland next to a cottage or something. So "detail wise" (other than the bog) on these there are a few skulls, some bone piles which I had left over from prints used on my chapel/graveyard, a few graves and a campfire.
 
Some new ebay sacrifices to the gods of paint stripper await their fate...

new-old-marines.jpg

Posting my other marines and seeing a few of the recent offerings here reminded me just how many of the classic marines I don't have. So I managed to pick up a few more recently on ebay. Given the basic nature of the scheme these Dark Angels are quite nice and my apologies to the original artist who painted them for their upcoming bath. A couple of these sculpts are ones I had as a youngster, but a few are "new to me", I've wanted the robe chap for years so quite pleased I got him. So they'll go from black to yellow at some point!

Also taking some inspiration from @RetroGamingKnight I've cleaned up some RTB01s I had lying around. Lucky for me the existing glue was very brittle so they actually came apart very neatly.

rtb01-cleaned-up.jpg

So at some point I'll have some fun posing these up. I was wondering if other people filled the gaps around the shoulders with green stuff these days? Likewise does anyone do any extra filling around the neck?
 
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Oooh look at all that!!

I would be minded to keep them as they are, no filling or faffing, except maybe one to see how it goes/for giggles?
 
Sprue glue for the gaps?
The few old RTB01s from my old collection were a little harder to pull apart, the poly cement was either bubbly, came loose but left messy plastic or was so well glued it refused to come off! Fortunately still had a small supply of spare bits that helped contribute to the Raptor conversions.

Still no Brother Meredith I see! Perhaps he is too downtrodden to be an Imperial Fist? :lol:

BTW have you see these RTB01 conversions? https://www.instagram.com/bitzboxer/p/Cdib0JPNxpt/?img_index=1 This guy is a magician with the putty!!
 
BTW have you see these RTB01 conversions? https://www.instagram.com/bitzboxer/p/Cdib0JPNxpt/?img_index=1 This guy is a magician with the putty!!
Impressive stuff, so I don't think I'll go as far as that, but I feel like maybe tidying up the neck and shoulders is something I should tackle.

Still no Brother Meredith
Alas no, maybe one day!

the poly cement was either bubbly, came loose but left messy plastic or was so well glued it refused to come off!
I was lucky with these - very brittle - just pulled apart. Granted when I'm done with them the next owner won't be as lucky, but hey ho. Quite pleased as it means I get to pose them all and leave my RTB01s that are on sprues on sprues for posterity for now!
I would be minded to keep them as they are, no filling or faffing, except maybe one to see how it goes/for giggles?
Certainly think I should try one. Cleaning up a few other Mk7 marines just now has left me pondering a bit more. Of course they had separate shoulder pads so they look fine. I think I'm going to have to do one and post it and see what everyone things. If I prime one up then hopefully any green stuff won't distract. Still we'll see if anyone else has done some more modest mods than the chap on instagram that I can take inspiration from.
 
Impressive stuff, so I don't think I'll go as far as that, but I feel like maybe tidying up the neck and shoulders is something I should tackle.


Alas no, maybe one day!
Might be fun to try one day! I have done simple conversion work of more modern “first born” scale models to amend their proportions (Space Ace’s YouTube channel has some neat tutorials), but Bitzboxer’s conversions and putty work is next level stuff…

Have a backburnered project making a Brother Meredith conversion using modern kits, but need a more suitable head! Will see if can get away with sharing on here when done… ;)
 
I don't know why but I was looking at a barrow entrance I picked up from Fogou Miniatures - who I've just discovered in going to link to them here have shut up shop! - a little note on their Facebook page about it. Real shame as I had been thinking about getting some more of their shanty bits and pieces and their casting was lovely. Fortunately my willpower collapsed last year and I picked up the "scrap fortress" which I wanted since it came out. Anyhow along with that I got the barrow entrance and it's been sitting in my display cabinet awaiting its fate for some time.

Given we're awash with XPS at present for Halloween builds I grabbed a few scraps this morning and some of the various MDF "scenery bases" I have lying around with a thought that I might make some barrows. Seems like they should be nice and easy. Anything other than the jobs I should be doing...! So I duly picked up some suitable looking stones on the morning walk - I'm too lazy to sculpt stones and here are the results. so far:

barrows_wip_01.jpg
Carving out the basic shapes - thought I'd go for quite defined mounds so they are nice and compact.

barrows_wip_02.jpg
All three shaped now and some stones from the stone pile picked out.

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Some stones glued in place.

The rear one has a little drink stirrer wooden door and the one on the right has a stone blocking the entrance - hence the hole dug into the side (which is what all that black primer is about). Those now need to dry overnight and then I'll get the Apoxie Sculpt out and add the cribbing around those stones to make them more like the Fogou one and extend the "earth" of the mounds over the stones a bit. I need to do a bit of stone sculpting on the one on the right to flesh out (rock out?) the vertical stones as they were not quite perfectly shaped for their job. I was going to add a tree to the one with the larger base, but I guess other than getting it in place that'll wait for the flocking stage. Hopefully I'll not loose momentum and will get these primed up in a few days.
 
Crazy isn't it! Most of what I have is slightly rougher light blue stuff from ekoheat which is good enough for most terrain, the "mega pink" stuff was from a company called ThermoRise who don't seem to be trading anymore, which is a shame because the density is similar to proper old really high density blue model making XPS (not quite there, but close), which sadly I only have a small stock left of.
 
Actually managed to do some painting today after what seems like ages. Granted I should probably have been thinking and preparing a WFRP adventure, but afraid I decided to relax with some painting instead, sorry. Managed to finish up a small pile:

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Small photo, since I'll do some proper photos and didn't want to spoil the proper photos! :)

Repaired the Eldar, roughly matching the painting style. Luckily the Guardians only have a basic paint job (good for the age Robin was when he painted them) so no real shading. The black armour looks like it might have had some silver maybe dry brushed on or something, so I've tried to get something close to that. Hopefully the varnish will help unify my efforts. Anyhow they are perfectly good to sit alongside the others now so happy to have them back to fighting fitness.

Finished up the beasts at long last, along with a Mole Mortar, escape pod and Aquaclops (Retro Raygun).

If I can finish up the NightHaunts soon then I think I might just have mostly cleared my backlog of semi-painted minis - which would be nice.
There are more metal Nurgle Beasts on that photo that I've seen on a game table in my whole country for 30 years.
 
:) I'm still keeping half an eye out for three more to make up the unit, but whilst I might stump up £30 a beast at a push I'm not coughing up the £100+ some people on ebay seem to think they should each cost!
 
100? I’ve seen one at 200€.

In fact, there was a guy trying to sell resin copies from scans that got banned from the app in less than 24 hours.

Edit for clarification: I was indeed pointing out that the hubris on the guy who tried to sell something that obviously illegal was big as a Bloodthirster.
 
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You can get Styrodur in the UK - for instance - I've wondered before about getting some, but have yet to do so. Fenerally XPS (in reasonably high densities) isn't quite as common as foil backed PIR foam sheets in the UK, generally the higher density XPS is used for floor insulation here it seems and not generally (at least in my experience) sold in the common DIY stores.

Quick snap of some "classic" blue styrofoam (bottom) vs the stuff I currently buy as my bulk material:
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The old blue styrofoam stuff was indeed lovely, I think the 4D Model Shop in London still has some stock. My understanding is the grey stuff that has replaced it is much more grainy. The current stuff is fine if you're covering it with paint and flock and whatnot, but the old stuff you could just carve into the surface so nicely to make bricks and so forth.
 
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