Wednesday 28 October 2009

Do you think he'll notice..? FINAL PICTURES

Brandlin's Entry (c) 2009


"Do you think he'll notice..?"


Click the pic for a much bigger view.

Click the pic for a much bigger view


Our scene here shows Bob and Dave from Bob and Dave line Marking Limited, discussing the latest cock-up of the younger partner Dave and wondering just how long it might be before the 'copter pilot notices the newly applied yellow line over the nose of his prized flying machine.

Luck it seems, is on Bob and Dave's side for a while as Squadron Leader Gaffer seems to be somewhat distracted at the moment. Having paid his £10 he is idling away a relaxing few minutes with his cup of char while watching an employee of the Megan Fox hand car wash emporium going about her business!


----------

Finally!

After several tens of hours of work, trial and tribulation, many packages arriving in the Royal Mail (when it was still moving) placing several hundred glass beads with tweezers, cleaning, recleaning and cleaning my airbrush again and again, cutting and applying tiny decals, painting and repainting, falling down stairs and rebuilding the copter, then lighting and relighting the diorama, and finally taking pics and putting them together in piantshop - I AM FINISHED.

This has been a labour of love and hate. There have been times when this diorama was close to going out of the window and times when I've looked it and thought "wow thats better than I could have expected. Its also the first time I've done a diorama, and the first painting competition I have entered!

The large 100mm Base is from Fenris games as is the barricade which is laser cut acrylic painted and then with home made decals applied.

The raised pavement is green-stuff and plasticard, with the copter undercarriage fashioned from pasticard and paper clips, the line painting machne is made from wheels from a 1/72 WW2 german Kettenkrad kit from Hasengawa with the body made from plasticard and the handle from a bent paperclip.


Bob and Dave are Scifi Customs Inspectors from Heresy Miniatures.  Squadron Leader Gaffer is the Grymn Pilot from Hasslefree Miniatures, and his vehicle is the soon to be released Grymn attack craft from the same company. My version is turned into a copter with the addition of lift fans from Evil Mushroom Games.


The car wash girl is a simple conversion of Summer the Cheerleader again from Hasslefree Miniatures. Her pom poms cut down and smoothed to resemble big sponges and her left arm cut off and repositioned with pins and greenstuff above her head.


The bucket comes from a Tamiya 1/48 WW2 diorama pack and the decals were home-made using paper from Antenociti's Workshop. Paints from Foundry and varnish from Testors. Finally tiny tiny glass beads from Blockhead Stamps in America - yes i had to import them as this was the only place I could find multiple sizes under 2mm diameter.


Right I think thats all of the name checks for companies. I should especially mention Kev and Sally White from Hasslefree Games who provided the Attack flyer and Grymn Pilot to me ahead of their formal release as i am such a nice guy (and good at begging) so i could get this diorama finished in time. Thanks guys - you're the best!


The soap was by far the hardest element of this diorama as I had to figure out how to do it from scratch. A lot of people on the FoD, and on CMoN and TMP have offered some elements of advice, THANK YOU all for putting up with what might have seemed silly questions at the time. Subsequently a few people asked for the steps on how I did the soap, so here is the method I developed. 

After a lot of tests it became quite simple:
  1. Watered down PVA glue applied in small patches
  2. 2mm glass beads applied sparingly with tweezers in small clumps or 'smears'
  3. 1mm glass beads applied around the edge of the 2mm beads
  4. 0.5mm beads applied more generously arounf the 1mm beads. Allow to dry.
  5. Wash with watered down white ink (with a tiny tiny amount of blue to give that daylight sparkle!) with future floor polish mixed in. This makes the wash draw deeply into the areas around the bubbles making the bubbles themselves translucent but the suds around them seem more opaque.
  6. seal with PVA.
  7. Gloss Varnish
  8. Matt varnish the whole diorama
  9. Re-gloss varnish the bubbles with 2 further coats to make sure it 'gleams'.
Simple!

The area of the copter which is covered in Soap is deliberately lighter than the rest of the grubby vehicle to try and show that its getting cleaner. The copter was airbushed with Foundry grey/blue shades and then washed in black and brown ink to grubby it up a bit. The ink wash was simply not applied over the area to be soapy.

Anyway judging starts on 1st November ...wish me luck!

Thursday 22 October 2009

Creating a Grymn Force XV

Yes, yes, I know I said I was going to concentrate on the drop ship after it won in the recent poll, but I can't get any enthusiasm right now, but I have been working on my Grymn, and they were second choice!!

And as its been a while this is a long rambling post on what I'm aiming for with my Grymn.

I've sorted out an OOB (Order of Battle or as Inso politely informs me it should be a TOE - Table of Equipment) which is shown below. There are a few gaps which I have on order from Hasslefree to fill as soon as the postal workers go back to delivering (no comment - no politics here please.)

All squads are 10 Grymn squads organised in 2 x 5 grymn sections.


Each 5 man section is based on a movement Tray from Fenris Games and are highly commended. As with my other fantasy units these trays have flexible steel paper from Tiny Tin Troops cut and applied in the recesses and small magnets from First 4 Magnets glued to the underside of the slotta bases. This means I can almost literally throw the bases around on the tabletop with no risk of them coming off the tray - it really speeds up squad movement. Eventually these trays will be decorated to match the troop bases.


MY Grymn TOE
(or OOB - you choose)

Each squad shown with the Old Crow vehicle I'm equipping them with.

Head Quarters
yet to be finalised
Likely to be command and deputy, 2 comms officers (Hasslefree WIP)
plus Medics and 2 Snipers and LI troopers (only snipers shown)
with Comms turret.

Heavy Infantry (10)
full environment suit, plasma carbines, 2 HW plasmas

Light Infantry (10)
smg, 2 Missile launchers

Light Infantry (10)
smg, 2 'gattling' style machine guns

Support Squad (10)
4 HMG teams plus spotters.
(Note I have models for these sections both on the move and with their 2 man HMGs deployed)

Scout Infantry (10)
smg, 2 grenade launchers
x 3

Close Combat section (5)
with jump packs and twin pistols.

That's 70 Grymn models and about as big as I want it to get right now.

EXCEPT ...
I just love these heavier vehicles from Old Crow, So i'm likely to add some armoured might to this mechanised infantry division!




In addition (you knew that wouldn't be the whole plan right!)

I have three of these "Provider Transports"

Which perform multiple duties as general trucks and convoys to be protected and such like. I also have four of these "Outrider Scout Vehicles"

Or rather I have one of these to include somehow, and a further three chassis. These Old Crow vehicles are designed to be modular, with a single chassis being used with multiple tops/hulls to create different vehicles. So I'm going to make some hulls for each of these Outrider chassis to be used either as independent vehicles like ambulances or as trailers for the trucks and APCs, and I'll buil "top" sections for the Provider Transports.

Ideas for new vehicles/trailers so far include:
  • Ambulance / mobile surgical unit
  • Flyer trailer (to carry this when it goes on release)
  • Dedicated communications unit
  • General ammunition trailer
  • Flamethower armed mini-tank
  • Territorial Gyrmn display unit for parking at village fairs and church fetes!
  • Trailer for carrying the Grymn Motorcycle display team (and if you know my views on sci-fi motorcycles on the battle field you'll know this wont be top of the list!)
Suggestions welcomed!

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Do you think he'll notice..? XI

Well, I FINALLY finished my first competition entry. This is my submission for the Forum of Doom Diorama of Doom entry.

Now the competition rules state that I can't put up final pictures of the model but teaser pictures are encouraged... so here's a collage of bits and pieces from the full model.


Vote Brandlin - X

I have been careful not to include elements of the diorama that give away the 'story' or the 'joke'. So i hope this will still be a surprise of sorts when it is shown on the Forum of Doom.

There are some fabulous painters on the FoD and some of them are waaaaaayyy out of my league, however the DoD is judged by the owners of Hasslefree Miniatures, Heresy Miniatures, Black Scorpion Miniatures and Eolith Miniatures not just on painting but on the dioramam composition, and how it tells a story. So I am hopeful of not coming last!