twisted moon's 2021

[twisted moon]

my beloved is rather taken with grogu, and the mandalorian series in general, so i've joined the ranks of those painting 3d sculpts of the main protagonists.



i got her the figures from ebay with an anticipated delivery date of 23rd december, they arrived considerably sooner, but i opted not to paint them before wrapping as our plans around christmas meant i wasn't confident i'd be able to get them done before her birthday. that was before johnson and crew changed everybody's christmas plans ... again, increasing my painting time.



after expressing her delight with them the first question was whether i'd paint them for her, so here they are.



i opted to base them together as a mini-diorama (of sorts) since they're scaled for one of the official star wars games, and too big to mix with my rogue traderish figures.
the back drop is from a star wars sticker book, in case anyone is interested.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^It's the eyes. My sweetheart is utterly smitten with the "innocent eyes." Maybe that's what it would take to get her to play space toys with me. I should try that! Great project.

 

[twisted moon]

Great project.

thanks very much.

i've based the trees i bought last spring (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=25291&p=1i02286&hilit=decent+size+trees#p102286) for my sci-fi project.
i bought some 50mm diameter mdf bases but quickly realised they weren't going to be up the job of keeping the trees upright, instead i cut 100mm diameter bases from high density pizza base card (from 'fresh' sainsbury's pizzas, if you're doing a search) with my circle cutter. i then cut a rough pyramid / cone shape from expanded polystyrene, wrapped masking tape around it to stop it from splitting when i pushed the tree into it (after repairing the split from the first one in this fashion), and glued this to the base using tacky glue. to increase stability i used general purpose uhu to stick fishing weights all around the polystyrene. then the tree was pushed in with pva glue to hold it. i then used decorators caulk (left over from making my mat) to cover the polystyrene and blend it into the tree trunk. i applied this with a coffee stirrer and discovered that verticle application gave the impression of bark that matched the trees quite nicely.



this shows the stages, and some of the materials used. then it was just a matter of painting and basing ...



... and here are the finished products. i forgot to include the caulk in the product photo., so have included it here for anyone interested,



i shall leave you with an action shot.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^They look suitably alien and very nice.

 

[twisted moon]

four mine carts from ainsty castings.



the track will follow in the not too distant future, all being well.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^Ooh, those look both nice and very useful!

 

[lenihan]

Thanks for putting those minecarts on my radar, now that I have my Dwarf miners, surely time to send them down the mine

 

[twisted moon]

speaking of miners ...



from left to right there's uther from the dwarf lords of legend, an actual '80's citadel engineer, hhg 2053 dwarf engineer: pickaxe and hhg 2039 dwarf champion with hammer.
i've largely kept to the same scheme as the rest of my dwarves, but since they're more likely to play a role in scenarios than in a battle line i've tried not to tie them in too closely to either faction.



these fellows are clearly strong adherents to h&s policy with a commitment to ppe. wearing not only helmets, but armour and carrying shields in two cases. they must be expecting a goblin incursion into their mine. the one with the laxest attitude is the one with the dynamite who is only wearing a stiffened felt hat. perhaps he thinks that if the explosives go off while he's carrying them, no amount of ppe will help him.



the second shield is tucked away behind a fur cloak. hopefully you can see it poking out in this photo.

 

[symphonicpoet]

^That's a great looking bunch of prospectors! Love the fur cloak and shields and pouches and candles and kit. Nicely done!

 

[twisted moon]

Nicely done!

thank you.
here's their workplace, including the track for the mine carts, as promised.



it's a 60cm x 60cm piece, with a plywood and polystyrene packing tile base. the tunnels are scans from the citadel / games workshop caverns dungeon floor plans; i only have a monochrome printer, so they're not the original blue-grey colour, but they've come out okay even though they appear white in these photos. as already said the tracks are from ainsty; and the bulk is mostly polystyrene from various deliveries, with corrugated cardboard for a couple of particularly narrow stretches. the vertical planes were then coated in the caulk i had left over from my sci-fi game mat, before being painted with emulsion. the tops were coated in pva and sand for durability and the outside edges given a covering of newspaper, for the same reason, and painted with a slightly diluted mix of black paint and more pva. gaps between the tracks, tunnels and walls were alos covered in pvs and sand and painted in a lighter grey craft paint.



the lift and ladder are coffee stirrers and cocktail sticks. i was going to use wooden props for a more fantasy feel, but didn't have any suitable square section dowel, nor did my local diy shop, so i used plastic i beam painted to look like cast iron. i think it's acceptable for a dwarven mine.
it was a fortunate happenstance that i had the i beam. i broke the last of my hot wires when cutting the polystyrene for this and my sci-fi trees. looking for more i discovered it seems that my hot wire cutter is now obsolete, and i thought i might have to buy another. fortunately, i discovered that https://www.ema-models.co.uk/, had a stock, but they also have a £12.00 minimum order, so i added the i beam as a cheap addition that looked as though it might come in.
when i can find some suitable dowel , or have occasion to place another order with ema models, i'll probably add some more props.



the layout favours playability over realism, with no real dead ends, wide tunnels and three entrances / exits: the lift, the ladder and a tunnel which i imagine leads to the adit in the spoil heap i made and posted in 2018 (viewtopic.php?f=20&t=14082&start=30).

 

[Eric]

This is brilliant. You can't beat a good mine and those ore carts and dwarves are lovely. I do like the twists and turns of you mine, have you thought about a wash on the walls to bring out the texture you have there a little more (or perhaps you already have and the camera has washed (no pun) it out in the photos). This really makes me want to go and build a mine now... must stay strong. I had been planning to do a mine adit at some point (there was a lovely tutorial in WD I remember which was the inspiration).

You might just be able to replace the wire on your cutter - although it might be a little bit of guess work figuring out what rating of nichrome wire it had.

 

[symphonicpoet]

I need to make a mine myself. I have a mine portal that goes into a hill. And you can lift the top off the hill. But it doesn't go back very far. Just around a corner and out of sight. (Really just an adit if it were a real mine.) But a big mine wandering around where you leave it covered until the players get to it could be enormous fun.

 

[twisted moon]

thank you. i thought about a wash, but the walls seemed dark enough already (the flash has really bleached the photos). i might reconsider.
i'd forgotten, but i was thinking about trying to source some bare wire for the cutter, before ema models sorted me out.

for femuary, here are fast lucy's street girls from foundry's street violence line.



i picked these up at last year's vapnartak.



i tried to paint penny blanchart's outfir as some kind of high fashion ensemble (a la lady gaga) rather than fetish wear; i'll let you decide how well i got on with that. there wasn't much that could be done about nico payne though, so we'll just have to suppose she's getting ready for valentine's day.

 

[twisted moon]

continuing the theme here are olivia's street girls.



a few more valentine's day preparations in this batch.



that's it for street violence figures for the time being, but i do like the range so may well pick up some more in the future. they paint up quickly and easily.

 

[twisted moon]

some non-combatants for spanglish town.



the three leftmost are from cp models. i envisage them as spaceship crew on planet leave and have painted them in semi-uniform. the next one is a convention freebie i got in 2019, i can't remember where from but i'm pretty sure it was either border riever or battleground. the last is scrooge from wargames foundry; he came in a pack with tiny tim as a freebie with the original street violence special i received as a christmas gift from my sister many years ago (and which have now all been painted). tiny tim will follow in a similar capacity.



the mystery figure received an earthen base since the sand between his integral base and the mdf was bumpy and i didn't think it would look convincing as tarmac. i'll probably try to make a few transition bases of my own for future non-combatants, so long as i remember.

 

[Caradepato]

I've got to say, Jocelyn reminds me of a certain journalist. Great sculpts, these are, always look forward to seeing you post more.

 

[symphonicpoet]

I quite forgot about those CP models civilians. Great set of miniatures. Well done, and thank you for the reminder!

 

[twisted moon]

thanks both.

some more non-com's today.



four from the colony 87 street folk pack, tiny tim from the foundry pack i mentioned last post and a foundry cherub (sans wings), which came in one of the elven nymphs orders, repurposed as a homunculid with the edition of a milliput ruff collar and chain lead. i thought those were the two most defining elements of the colony 87 sculpt.
it is thanks to the fat git's posting of these (and others) that i realised the colony 87 sculpts have official names, or at least most of them do.



i picked these up from the crooked dice stall at battleground in 2019.

 

[symphonicpoet]

I might or might not have had a couple of those om my painting desk for . . . oh . . . a year or so now? Too long. Glad to see you getting them done.

 

[twisted moon]

here's another building for spanglish town:



the door onto the balcony is from blotz (https://blotz.co.uk/index.php?main_page ... Path=23_29). the other bought components you've seen on other builds, but just in case i've never said, the air conditioning unit is from ainsty and the satellite dish from scotia grendel.



the dome is the excess polystyrene from one of the dwarven tanks i made last year.



otherwise it's just the usual cobbling together of salvaged rubbish.