The Void, Calamities blog of everything from tables to soldiers

[ModelCalamity]

Hi Welcome to the other side of Sanity.

After years of Random blogs and unfinished Projects i thought it would be cool to have a place where I can put all of it together. Most bloggers would say it would be for you (that is this blogs readers benefit). Wishing to conform I Therefor would like to list a few benefits which I hope will apply to you:

when reading this blog you could experience the following:

1. Entertainment
2. An increase in hobby knowledge
3. Only a very limited number of product placements
so don't click this link if you are not interested in adds

(you clicked didn't you? Hope you find it useful there is never enough putty in the world!)

finally before we begin a small disclaimer:

1. I deny any allocations that this Blog is mostly for myself to gloat and stroke my own Ego.
2. I refuse to take responsibility for any damage caused to infants or adults for viewing this blog.
3. Views expressed in this Blog are my my own and in now way related to the companies that might or might not pop up in this Blog.
4. Any physical damage to Kittens or other cute fuzzy animals was honestly unintended. (except for hello Kitty that was completely intended)



5. Stunts performed in this blog are performed by a professional....
nutcase. Please try this at home.
6. I distance myself from any connections involving Wood Elves, Jon Bon Jovi, Drag Queens, Tree hugging and or any other bad 90's bands involving long haired men in tights. I also apologize in advance for any hurtful comments concerning said Panzy Elves. I just cant help it!

with all that out of the way! its time for toy soldiers!

As a little interlude it might be useful to disclose that I have been playing with toy soldiers for the last 17 years. In those years i have collected many an army and even won a few painting competitions. Last year i moved across borders. After a long farewell to my toys (and a brief one to my family) I arrived in the Far east city of Shanghai.

Now the first few months I went cold turkey. No glue and no paint. But as the real plastic junky that I am I have finally decided to pick it all up again. With no models and no hobby materials, what else is there to do but start all over!

So what does that mean! Well I love both 40k and fantasy so Both starter boxes would be good. Also a table and some scenery would be nice!

So here is what is on the table or rather more soon to be on the table. (Actually there is a Realms of Battle board involved so its more like, here is what is soon to be on the table that is soon to be on top of another table!)

1. RoBB
2. 3 Woods
3. 2 Hills
4. 1 Arcane Ruins
5. 1 Witchfate Tor
6. Dreadstone Blight
7. Imperial Sector


and models wise:

1. AoBR
2. 1 Island of Blood

now Most blogs start with a buck load of text and No pics. Not me (i already had two pics before!) However i have some more treats for you as I have not been idle these last few weeks!

Firstly here is an overall shot of the RoBB. Which was painted fairly simple with the Scenery painting kit. I always like to have a stark contrast between the rocks and the Grass. And as much of my table will be having some red as spot colors i added some Object source type of lava effects around the skulls.



As you might have noticed actually many of my scenery pieces have already been painted so here is a close up:

[Daniel36]

Anyone claiming not to be jealous by such a greatly painted table IS A LIE! REALLY NICE JOB!

[EmperorNorton]

Very nice terrain.
I'm not a fan of the RoBB, but I have to admit that I'm a little jealous anyway.

[Lord_of_end_times]

Great work on the table and terrain. Seeing that witchfire tower makes me want to get one of my own. One Love

[pointyteeth]

^ seconded! I hated witchfire tower right up until I saw your paintjob. Damn you, well done

[juicytomatoes]

lovely board, lovely terrain. Looking forward to see more

[ModelCalamity]

Great work on the table and terrain. Seeing that witchfire tower makes me want to get one of my own. One Love

^ seconded! I hated witchfire tower right up until I saw your paintjob. Damn you, well done

Thanks! I think many People especially GW themselves use too many different colors for their towers. thats when the detail starts to distract from the overall centerpiece. In fact I only used three base colors:

Lime stone:
Base: Charadon Granite
1st Drybrush: Deneb Stone
2nd drybrush: Bleached Bone
3rd Drybrush: Skull white (very light)

Normal Stone
Base: CHaradon Granite
1st Drybrush: Adeptus
2nd Highlight: Astronomican
3rd Drybrush: White

the 3rd base color was the wood
Base: Scorched
1st Drybrush: Khemri
2nd Drybrush: Rotting flesh

Some observant people might have noticed not everything is painted yet as the trees need more work. But i have a good reason for that. I don't know what colors i want to paint them yet! However there is something really cool and unique about my trees. They Bend!




yes its no optical illusion and i am most definitely not the Next Uri Geller! They were a test run in the GW Shanghai factory with a new form of plastic. Unfortunately the plastic made it nearly impossible to manufacture the sprues without an operator having to jam their fingers into a small crevasse between two halves of a 1ton heavy mould slamming shut every 3 seconds. GW not being the evil employer a lot of people here proclaim it is, decided not to go the way of a certain large shoe manufacturer, so unfortunately these are a one-of.

Fortunately we made enough for me to steal and turn my trees into bouncing balls which has the benefit of the woods not looking like they are in autumn all the time!

I also started work on a marsh insert for the tree base. I plan to make another 6 of these but i wanted to see if they look good enough first. Ofcourse i added some little fantasy details. I need to get a box of skellies soon for more decoration (i like skulls )

[pointyteeth]

The marsh inserts are a really good idea. Now I really want to start building some scenery.

[ModelCalamity]

i love building scenery, its just like making your own world of makebelieve......

i didnt glue any of the towers to their bases. This because the magic circle inside both towers can be used together with the Ruins set to create some interesting different setups.




as you noticed i changed one of the circle into a wyrding well. Again to stay versatile I made sure i lay a large monster base in its centre. The idea is to build a set of statues that can represent some of the other scenery options from the scenery generator table in the BRB.

next its time for the models!





I used this metal sheet to make the movement trays. Add some rare earth magnets and you get some really versitile movement trays. You see how magically nimble those elves are!

[ModelCalamity]

Some days you feel like painting and some days you feel like assembling stuff. I dont quite know where that drive comes from. The only thing I know is that i always end up assembling more stuff than I can paint!

So here is the pledge of the new year (the chinese new year that is) i will finish painting all the stuff listed in my first post before I continue with the rest of my Skaven army!

I am however in a bit of a difficult position today. Its the first day of the Chinese new year and I am off from work. So i have nothing to do and an urge to paint some stuff. However My wife doesnt allow me to do so as she says that cleaning up the house in the first two days of Chinese nw year will bring bad luck as you will sweep away your fortune.

I mentioned that I had absolutely no intention to clean up after myself and that this superstition doesnt actually say anything about making a mess in itself bringing bad luck! For some reason that didnt go down very well………

However just before the new years i did put together some buildings. From the imperial sector kit. I used the movement tray sheets for tiles as a base. In the future i will add some dust and and rubble before painting.

So first The ensemble:



afterwards two shots of the power generator



As you can see I like to have a few buildings conected via a diagonal so you have some more options setting your city up from the table edge either straight or crooked

[/IMG]



Finally the chappel.

.

I eventually want to add a little park with the Big SM Statue in the middle. Ofcourse that will go with the compulsary Swing for the “playground”

[pointyteeth]

Good lord man! Do you have a secret after-hours door into the GW warehouse? (if so, send me some )

I really like what you've done with the GW scenery kits. Combining the magic circle with the ruins kit has made an amazingly nice scenery kit, and making it multifunctional so you chan change it depending on what terrain is rolled is absolutely brilliant!

Keep it coming!

[ModelCalamity]

Right, It has been a while since an update. But I have made some progress. Yes i almost didn't get distracted by loads of other stuff.

So I herby Solemnly swear it was not my intention to assemble a full army of GK,
Or a Arachnarok Spider....



luckily i did manage to hold my hand painting it. So before I finish that i have forced myself to complete one unit of the Skaven in the IoB




Tomorrow i hope to finish the Lothern seaguard. That is if i dont get distracted by GK again.....
\kindly keep me in line you guys

[Daniel36]

Well, you just had to go and get us all even more painfully jealous, did you? Your use of the CoD pieces is very original! I like the pointy tower things. The table is just looking better and better. I like how you turned the ruined tower into something else. Is that wyrding well thing retractable? Because that would be awesomely smart.

Seeing those lovingly painted miniatures on the table makes the table look even better, and even the grey horde makes it look nice. GOOD JOB!

Oh, and by the way, consider that idea specifically very much stolen!

[ModelCalamity]

Thanks Daniel, and no... not intended to make anyone jealous

unfortunately the well is not retractable but as said i will add certain pieces that go over it. This works fine for me as I have two magic circles and i didn't want two identical ones. However i am sure you could make it work that way no problem.

I did get on with painting but i didn't quite finish the SeaGuard. That white is just a lot of work. I do like how its going to look.




oh yeah got distracted again an assembled a little spider......

ah well

[Daniel36]

Well, anyways, I stole your idea of the large monster base in the middle (which I meant with the retractable part, didn't read your post well enough) and it is pure genius! Now I can make different types of centers, which will make it a very versatile centerpiece! Thanks for that!

[ModelCalamity]

no worries do put it up in your blog once its done

i made some headway with the elves. I managed to finish the White. (By Khorne that takes time) and the Gold. Got halfway with the red. But couldn't stop spending 5 min painting one GK.




which i want to be very dark as i want to do a lot with Object Source Lighting. For now i like the quick result as this literally took me 2 min to complete.... but enough GK first finish this IoB.....

[pointyteeth]

Nice looking clanrats, and the elves are progressing extremely well. I guess since you painted up 20 clanrats, we can let you get away with painting one grey knight (they're probably worth the same amount of points in game )

[bluewolf74727]

everything in here looks great can't wait to see more what colour do you start your white at

[ModelCalamity]

@ pointy teeth; Yeah you are right. now if I paint a vermin lord than I have justified painting GK right ?

@ Bluewolf, I start with a grey Tamiya undercoat. After that i washed heavy with a mix of 1:3 badab:asurmen. then i layer astronomican grey, progress layering by adding more white. Last layer is 6:1 Skull white:astronomican then glaze with heavily watered down Asurmen. Finally a pure white highlight

thanks guys

[biginbelgium]

That is one sweet table you've got there and I'm definatly curious on what you are gonna do with the big spider. Very inspirational stuff.

cheers
Tim