JT's Plog o' Plod

[juicytomatoes]

thanks again Daniel, the 36th In that case, when I find the time, I'll sit down and write properly the story behind my chapter of spaz ****** as well.

For the Emperor! Er...

[juicytomatoes]

Aaaand I'm back with some progress on my 2nd rhino...



Didn't have time to think of the words to put into the Chapter background story yet. Will do it another time. More painting to come!

[bluewolf74727]

if you blended in the regal blue the rhino would look alot better

[EmperorNorton]

if you blended in the regal blue the rhino would look alot better

I disagree, I like it the way it is.
It's an interesting look.

[bluewolf74727]

true but it dose not match the other rhino

[Dimitrios]

I have to say that the blue highlights are a great colour and make for a rather striking rhino. I can understand peoples view that it is somewhat TOO bright and to some extent they are right. It does take away from the realism of the tank, however... realism ??? 40k?? warhammer ??? toy soldiers??

To heck with realism i say Its a nice bit of painting

[juicytomatoes]

thanks guys, for the comments. Hugely appreciated!

I understand what you're saying bluewolf, but strangely, the other tank was painted in exactly the same way. I think it might be because the other colors may not be in yet (e.g. the Bleached Bone parts?) and so it might throw the whole look off. I'll take another pic when it's closer to completion and maybe we can compare them again. Could also be the lighting coz I'm experimenting with my light setup. I did raise the 'levels' thingy (don't know what to call it!) to brighten the previous pic coz the original was way to dark, so that could also have had an effect. This pic of the 2nd rhino is unedited.

The eventual army shot should solve that problem I'll try to make sure the lighting is good by then.

As for the colors, yea, it was a conscious choice. I wanted to go for an almost 'Tron' kind of effect for this army but not overboard (well, I guess 'overboard' is different for different people). I also wanted something that could be painted up nice and quick, given the nature of the painting challenge at the beginning of this project. Hence, this color scheme.

Well, back to the painting table for me then.

[Daniel36]

Well, I could give you a quick hint to make the blue edging (the darker blue) blend in better with the black.

Add a black wash to the edge of the dark blue line. So don't throw a wash over the entire dark blue line, only the half touching the black. You can go over to the black, because it will dry up invisible. That way, the lines will blend in better.

[Dimitrios]

I think it might be because the other colors may not be in yet (e.g. the Bleached Bone parts?) and so it might throw the whole look off.

I think your right mate!

I recon once the other details are added it will distract the eye and darken the highlights. Keep it up

[bluewolf74727]

Well, back to the painting table for me then.

good keep up the good work

[juicytomatoes]

@Daniel the 36th: Thanks for tip mate! I'll do that when I finish up the unit markings on the tank. That's what's going to get painted next

@bluewolf: thanks for the encouragement!

@Dimitrios: Yep, I used to feel that way too when painting my models. The WIP just didn't match the end result and I thought I was doing something wrong until I finished painting that particular model. But let's see ya? There's always room for improvement.

@EmperorNorton: Thanks! I'm glad you like it... It's nice to have a quick paint scheme/method that looks different and still serviceable.

Well, so I have a few more pictures of the sculpting I've been doing. This is the WIP shot of the 'special character' daimyo. He's a head taller than the normal 28mm infantry model. As to why, see the inspiration bit below.







Inspiration:


This is Tulio, the Brazilian-born Japanese footballer of the Japanese team at the World Cup. I thought he had a good showing in the tournament and so decided to base my daimyo on him. He is a head taller than his teammates and was rock solid in defence. Hence, my daimyo

[juicytomatoes]

another view:


I'm also reworking the sashimono joint for the odachi samurai (and indeed for all other models that will use the sashimono). I want to create a stronger joint and a friend of mine pointed out certain improvements I could make. I haven't finished the bit on the sashimono, but I've replaced the previous joint bit on the samurai body with this:



When the changes to the sashimono are complete, I'll post up pics again.

I'm also currently working on some hills for my next venture... 6mm gaming!

The idea here is that we are going to do a kind of 'Age of Mythology' game based on the historical ruleset of Hoplon 3. We're using 6mm scale miniatures but following the 15mm ground scale for the gaming part. We just like the mass troops visual.

We haven't played a game yet, as we are waiting for our minis. But we are making some terrain for it. The game system looks quite fun to play and we're going to add the 'myth' element to it once we get to grips with the rules.

So, this means that pics of terrain will be coming soon

[Lord_of_end_times]

Your sculpts are great man. Keep up the good work. One Love

[juicytomatoes]

Thank you, Lord_of_end_times

Well, a teaser of my board and terrain-making project. I bought this to cover my game boards for Hoplon 3:



And, here's a test model for my eternal guard, painted some time ago. Looking spiffy on the new board (3 angles of the same model, not 3 different models ):

[juicytomatoes]

I've finished making 3 hills for the Hoplon 3 game. They're necessarily smaller than the normal whfb ones due to the 15mm ground scale thing. I decided to color code the hills to make things easier for our games. Grassy land is considered flat ground (good going), brown (soil) land is considered sloping ground (thus advantages for being uphill of enemy elements) and grey (rocky, steep) parts are considered impassable.

[bluewolf74727]

looking good you have done a good job on those hills

[juicytomatoes]

Thanks bluewolf!

The past 2 weeks have been spent on a terrain blitz, in anticipation of those 6mm minis arriving from Baccus. The minis are finally here (along with the small trees I ordered) and they are TINY! I'll show and tell the minis when I knuckle down to assemble and paint them up. All this 6mm goodness is very... how do you say... CUTE! Even the trees are small and cute. I'm just a little intimidated about painting the miniatures at this point tho. Never painted 6mm in my life and it's looking really really small...

So, today, I will show you the pictures of the various terrain pieces my pal and I have done in preparation for our games. They're not much, but it's a start. We'll be building more along the way.

Here's the board with all the completed terrain:


All the terrain were made by hand. It's not the best-looking terrain, but it certainly put some smiles on our faces.

The hills are made from the dense pink styrofoam coated with wall putty and then painted over.


The farms are also pink foam cut and patched with green stuff best as we can. The farmland is just balsa wood for base (for ease of cutting. Didn't want to have anything to do with saws and whatnot, but the price we (willingly) pay is that they warp a little) with the vinyl grass mat cut to shape and stuck on and then painted.


The rivers were a joy to make. We started with a balsa wood base and glued on thin cork sheet on it. Then we used wall putty to make the banks. When that cured(dried?) we glued sand to the edges that descended into the river bed. Then we glued on the rocks and then painted the entire piece. When the paint dried, we added the bushes (also from woodland scenics). I think its called ballast. We then coated 3 coats of white glue on top of the river bed, letting each layer dry completely before applying the next. Then we took extremely diluted ice blue paint and slathered it on top of the white glue. After this, we added 2 layers of the Woodlands Scenic Water Effects, shaping it with a brush to try and capture the effect of rushing river water.

I think the pic's not very clear, but well, many people on the forum seem to have the same trouble so I won't make excuses for myself.

And finally, here is a pic of the road we made, leading to the town:


We do have quite a few more buildings to make to complete the town, but that's gonna take a bit of time. We're hoping to make a gate as an entrance to the town at the top of the slope leading up to those buildings, and also to add some statues here and there to make the town prettier and all that.

We also intend to make curved river sections after this. We just wanted to get the easy and quicker things done first so we can start playing.

[Daniel36]

Awwww so cute! What game system is it going to be for?

[juicytomatoes]

@Daniel: It's for this game called Hoplon 3 (can be found here). It's free for download. I think it's a pretty good ruleset, quite detailed in terms of the possibility for creating quite accurate historical troop types. Haven't really got down to playing the game yet but that will come soon. We're also exploring HOTT 2, to see if it is any good as well.

Well, more updates, as I have been working very hard to get our table ready for games:

Here is a ranked up, fully painted unit of TREES!



These guys are really cute! They stand a mighty 18mm to 20mm, towering over those 6mm miniatures!

However, they might have some trouble here:



"Wotcha lookin' at?"


Perhaps the longest stand-off in history.


What they are supposed to look like on the terrain board, with the footprint of the forest.

And because they are so small, I can store them like this!

[EmperorNorton]

Perhaps the longest stand-off in history.

Heh, funny.
Very nice box of trees you have there.