Some progress on friendly commission

Apparently I'm not to paint the Stormboyz any more. Shame, I love those models. Instead I will get 23 Kommando and 4 weapon teams from Blood Axes dex. Hey! I almost finshed the TT standard Warboss. Here are couple poor pics taken with my iPhone. Better ones will be taken when they are all finished.

Finished Spider Raiders and a preview of things to come

Phew! I have done the missing details on the Spider Raiders, the second lot. Both of the units don't have weapons and eyes done, but that's intentional; I still don't know if I want to make them look like stone or metal... still thinking.



Also, I will be painting 14 Stormboyz, Zaggsttruk and a Warboos for my mate from Mighty Miniatures blog. That's just a finishing off job for a table top standard, but as I always do with my mates' models, they will probably get a little bit more than TT and I will make them look nice. Anyways, here's how they look right now:







So visit my blog in couple days to see progress...

Arachnarok Spider - review

Arachanrok Spider on its own

OK, so after buying the model this morning I decided to get my hands cut and superglued together in the process of putting it together. I whipped out my plastic cutter and off I went to the land of two sprues and lots of tiny bits with numbers on them. One by one the Arachnarok Spider (AS) started to take shape. You can notice straight away how well all the parts fit. It's just amazing how high quality this model is. I mean I have put together LOADS of models in my time, Italeri, Revell, Airfix and many more less known brands, but what GW has done with their plastics lately is incredible.

Arachnarok Spider with howda and the Flinger

But the AS itself is not as surprising as the howda! I have never been aware that there is a system to put twigs together. I mean, the way GW moulded the thing is unbelieveable! Don't get me wrong, I am no GW fan boy... but you need to pay respect to those guys in front of their CADs or 3-ups or whatever they're using. This thing is so easy to put together even a spastic 10 year old could do it. I mean yeah you need to be careful and FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS like your life depends on it... but it is possible to put the whole thing in 20 minutes.

Arachnarok Spider with shaman mount (not as GW wants you to put it)

OK, onto some specifics:
As I said above the spider bits fit well and are easy to cut out and glue together. Too easy I would say. If one wanted to repose the thing, there would have to be some filing and green stuffing done before it would be possible. As to the howda... I am still impressed. The only thing I didn't like is there is now way to keep all your three variants possible to assemble. There are some twigs that can be glued in one way or another to accomodate a sling, or Flinger, holder or a shaman. Also there is this little spider that I didn't put on the model, that would hold the Flinger in place. If you are ready to go for some sacrifices you can have all three variants, but you will be missing on some extraordinare details. One should be also careful when cutting out the gobbos, especially between their legs. It is easy to cut off a leg or two if using blunt cutters or a blade. BE CAREFUL!

All the tiny gobbos and the shaman. Also notice the small spiders!

All in all, a great model! I don't regret spending £36 on it at all! It's huge, it's going to be a great asset to my army and it's going to be bucket loads of fun to paint! So... if you like those Orcs & Goblins things, or you like to put together amazing models just so you can paint them later on: go and get yourself one! I'm loving it! :]

Spray on varnish problems? There's a fix!

Hello everyone! I guess that if you are reading this, you might have had encountered problems with GW or any other brand spray on varnishes in the past. I know I had.

Here is a picture of my custom Legion of the Damned squad that I painted couple months back.



As you can see they got this awfull frosting all over. This is due to GW Matt Varnish has been sprayed on:
a) and the can hasn't been shaken enough
b) humidity in the room was too high
c) it was a bit too cold

But don't worry! There is a way to get your models to like at least like this:



How did I achieve that? Simply follow the steps below with utmost care! In the end they are your beloved models, aren't they?

Note: All varnishes I used were paint-on varnishes. We wouldn't want to repeat the mistake, now would we?

Step 1: Try warming up your models. Sometimes, on rare occasions, that might be help enough. For some reason the heat can melt the layer of varnish or something and restructure it... I don't know the technical reasoning for this, but it works. If it doesn't, don't put your hair dryer away just yet.

Step 2: Apply a gloss varnish (any make will do but I noticed the GW and Vallejo work best). Before you do it, warm a model just a little bit as in step 1.

Step 3: After the gloss varnish has dried out, heat it up again and apply matt varnish. This should fix your problem.

Caution: Do not use a hair dryer TOO CLOSE to the model, you don't want to melt the plastic. It is better to keep it in the heat for longer than melt it straight away!

OK, I hope that helps! :D

I got myself a table, woot!

I had dreams... rectangular dreams. I wanted a table for skirmish games like Kill Zone, Malifaux and Warmachine. Also, some small 40k and Battle.
I wanted something that will not take up too much space in my small flat. Modular table was in order. After browsing through B&Q catalogue I decided to go for two 2'x 4' boards, MDF 9mm thick. I attached both parts with gaffer tape and some staples. Then some more gaffer tape.





I couldn't stop myself from having a small photo shoot. I dug out my Polish 1st Armoured Division of tank infantry. Here you can see them going through a small italian city.





And that's how my table looks like from a little bit farther away:



What do you think?