Whoops!

Ho hum.

That was the end of that little blogette.

I've only gone and lost/deleted a load of "in progress shots" of the trophies.
Nevermind, here's a picture swiped from the Daventry Vaulters forum. 

Now repeat to make a total of 16.

I'll be more carefull next time.

Secret Trophies

Undercoated - Black of course.

Metal colour - I prefer Brass to Gold

Well - The Secret's Out...

I've had to keep this under wraps for a little while now but can now reveal what all the hush hush was about.

Our Bloodbowl Commish asked me to slap some paint on some trophies that are being handed out at the end of this current season. 
After many a set back, including the first batch being lost in the Spanish post and a heatwave meaning that the resin would not work until after midnight, eventually I received a bunch of resin Daventry Vaulters' Trophies. (Ah - and a week to paint them!)

The first thing I had to do was wash them in warm soapy water to get rid of the release agent for the moulds then rinse and dry...

I shan't go into too much detail needless to say I had to pull my finger out:

All washed and ready to undercoat.

Something A Little Different...

I've been very proud to perform a painting job for someone.  It's a little different to normal but as there's a serious deadline involved - I'm up for it!

Now, I can't say too much at the moment - time will tell why - but I was asked to do this job ages ago.  Things took forever to produce then the first lot got lost in the post.  Now, having received these things I have a week to sort them out.

As I said, I cannot show anything at the moment but hope to bring you the stages at a later point.
(All very mysterious isn't it?)

However, I have washed the mould residue off and selected three colours to use:

TGM TIP: I use a lot of Vallejo paint. To save time finding the colour I need they're all stored in the same place in the box but I also dip the top of the lid into the bottle's contents to see the colour from a distance. You can see what I mean on the purple. (Easy really)

Dark Vengeance Chaplain and Librarian

After some intense painting and working recently I forgot to post pictures of the two Dark Vengeance characters that I've finished a couple of week's ago.

Hopefully you like:

Under Pressure.

Having missed out on Wednesday's session - playing my league game - I am now a tad behind!

Have dry brushed the tor with three greys and a white ready to add the fun bits later. Where the grass is going to be I've brushed the sand with a brown and and beige.

Next I'll be working on the Gobbs.  (Normal, special and star players).

Black is the Colour

Cheap black acrylic paint, thinned down, to make a base layer over the whole dugout.  This will be mostly covered over on the cake/tor and be the "lowest" layer on the mud/grass.

For the Gobbos, I've mixed a lighter blue colour with a glaze medium.  This thins the consistency down so the paint flows and adds some transparency.  (More glaze = more transparency).

I'll continue this lighter blue throughout the rest of the Gobbos.  Thirteen in total...

The Coach will be green as will one of the trolls.

The Captain of the team - the Pogoer -  will be painted completey differently in reds.  I'll show him later.

Time to paint a troll.

Hopefully the paint has dried as I'm about to splash some paint on the first troll.  (Micro blogging will have to be the way if I'm going to finish this team!) Bye for now.

Hurry Up and Dry.

The plaster took forever to dry.

The Dugout. Eventually I can now glue sand to the places where I want grass/mud to go then I've thinned down some PVA to seal the rest of the polyfilla "cake".  (Which I'm hoping will look more like a tor than a cake with icing)

The Goblins.  The goblins were smoothed and filed last night and converted where required.  I've done a couple of head swaps, added a slightly bigger "bomb" to the Bombadier, turned a Fanatic into a Chainsaw toting loon and some more fun things that I'll show later.

Tonight, I've glued sand onto the bases, sprayed with blue undercoat, (I know a real rarity for me!), waited for the spray to dry then painted the sand thinned black and given them all a blue wash.

These gonks won't be the bestest painted, (I'm waiting for the Greebo Ninja team for that!), so I am taking some shortcuts.

Cake Decoration

Having set the challenge to paint up a new team of Goblins with a dugout in time for the weekend's VaultBowl III, it's now time to crack on. I'm doing the bits that take longest to dry first.

I've run out of Modroc so have raided the first aid cabinet and tried to make my own polyfilla/bandage gloop.

Here I've squished the polyfilla onto the cardboard box and given it some texture with my blunt scalpel blade.

This lot will take ages to dry - it's not helping that the wife is making comments about cake decorating.
The pressure is on. 

Vault Bowl III

Why do I do this to myself.
Vault Bowl III has been on the calendar as soon as the dates were released.  So, why with less than a week to go do I feel the need to convert, paint and make a "dugout" for this #Bloodbowl competition?

Still, here we are. 

I've decided to play Gobbos.  They look like great fun and I've collected a few bits and pieces over time.

The "dugout" is going to be fairly simple: Reserves, KO'd and Dead and Injured.  I'm not sure if I'll have time for a turn /reroll counter.  (We'll see nearer the time).

Anyway the bare bones:

Testing testing one two.

Just a quick test to see if thegonkmachine can blog on the fly.

10 More Khador Points

I've got to add 10 points onto my 15 Point Khador list, here's the first part: The DoomReavers.
(Basically they're very dangerous criminals locked together with magical blades which are "saturated with tainted magic")

Next up?  Another horseman.

Khador Battle Group - 15point

Here's the 15point battle group for the current League.  

(Got to decide what's next for another 10 points...)

So, what's next?

It's all gone a bit gonk mad at the moment!

On the bench are my Warmachine Khador 15Point "army" to be ready for the new league that's starting. (Well it's started but you cannot play with unpainted figures can you?)

I've got a great looking underworld Bloodbowl team; another weeny Bloodbowl team and tonight I've been given a further set of gonks to finish a Necro Bloodbowl team - these go with the wights, werewolves and flesh golems that I've done previously.

It looks like I'm going to be a busy boy!

Orc/Kroxigor - Different Angles.

Custom Board

Orc/Kroxigor for "Goblins of the Crooked Moon"

Finished in time for the NAF Championship this weekend!

This is the oddest request to date.  A Black Orc that wants to be a Kroxigor playing in a team of roller skating goblins.  Naturally, he had to be on a skateboard with his own ramp. 

Hopefully he'll fit in with the rest of the crazy team!  

Good Luck Sparky Dave.

The Storm Stider

(Better photos to follow - hopefully)

On The Bench: Storm Strider

I've painted the base black (of course) and mostly given the Strider itself some base colours.  (Not finished yet! - Don't worry Jack.

(Once it's on the base it shouldn't look too lopsided).

On The Bench: Storm Strider

Also on the bench today is a Warmachine Cygnar Stormstrider.  Again this arrived (partially), undercoated.  I sprayed the whole model black to give it an even coverage to start off with.  It's going to be tricky brush work to get around all those bits.  (I may invent a right angled brush...)

 The base had been started using cork but, (no disrespect here), it needed some more texture.  I added some sharp stones, (in pink) and some sand which will look great later, (I'm hoping).

Not a Step by Step

This Orc is going to be a Lizardman Star player in Bloodbowl on a skateboard.  Confused?  Well that's Bloodbowl for you!

I've found myself too busy to do a step by step, so I'll be doing a few "On The Bench" pictures for the next few posts.

This skate park jump is made from large coffee stirrers as is the skateboard but more on that later.

The Orc came to me sprayed black - which is great, but being pinickerty I had to carve out the hands more where the weapons were and shave off a couple of mold lines.  (I would hate to see them once I'd finished painting).

The colour on the ramp is just a tryout.  The Orc's colours will match the rest of the team but I've simply whacked a bit of colour on for the moment.

Furballs Finished

The Furball Frenzies will be able to have these replacement models for their next Bloodbowl match - which happens to be me!

The purple colour for the uniform has bee hilighted in many layers using a grey to lighten the Hexed Lichen. I used medium glaze to soften the blending.  (Grey works well with purple instead of white which makes a pinky colour - must be something scientific with the colour wheel).

Before highlighting though I gave the purple a wash of green, (again better than black or mud - opposite on the colour wheel?)

Everything was given at least two coats of matt varnish, I then picked out a few details with gloss, (like the Flesh Golem's weeping sores and their helmets).

Purple Furballs

With a splash of purple, (the team colour), these gonks are heading for the finish line.  Of course they'll need to have a lowlight followed by several highlights; some finishing bits and bobs and some base colour.  Apart from that they're in the bag.

Frenzied Furballs

The Flesh Golems have now had further highlighting and washes of flesh, red and light brown.  The patchwork of meat is starting to look OK.  

The Werewolf that was quite brown and drab has almost be repainted and is now much lighter all over.  The flesh is lighter than the black furred one.  I'm not sure if it is poor casting but I've had to give the black one a large scar over his face. (It was the only way - a file and scalpel can only go so far).

The gravestone bits have just been given a flat grey colour for the moment.

Fabulous Furballs

With a splash of colour and a wash and blend these gonks are coming along nicely.  The Werewolves are two different colours to distinguish between them.  (It'd be boring both the same as well).

If used flesh wash all over the Flesh Golems but before that dried I used a red wash on certain places.  I want to create the feeling that the parts are sewn together are a mix of fresh meat and well, not so fresh.

Not much on the Wights today.  just a bit of silver and bone to the face.  I have not been careful with the bone colour on purpose, (honest - you'll see).

Furball Madness

Just a quick splash of colour today.  

I've used a thinned down Tallarn Flesh which is just too thick and gloopy if used neat.  The Flesh Golems have had this done nearly all over and just the fronts of theWerewolves. It looks well weird at the moment but will be lighted and darkened accordingly.

The Wights have been painted all over with a very dark grey.  Most of the armour is going to end up black but if left black would have no depth to it.  I'm going to make the faces really stand out on these. 

The team colour is purple and black.  I will paint all the cloth last with purple later on.

Suddenly, they look like they have come alive, (undead).

Got hammered three nil by this team recently so I'm hoping that the new paint job will bring some luck next time we play.  (Luck to me anyway).

The Furballs Continue

The black spray came out, (again).  I love the black undercoat.  Once left to dry I did the normal thinned down black to smooth out the spray and get into those hard to reach areas.

I added sand to the base last night, carefully putting PVA glue around the feet and graveyard bits that I'd glued before. (This way when I spray undercoat it covers the sand base as well - this saves time later on and I would hate to get black paint on a finished model).

TGM TOP TIP Using Vallejo Thinner you get a more even thinning but if you are short on money use a small amount of Council Pop. (Unless there's a drought).

Now writing this as they're not dry enough to start painting.  (and I want a hot cross bun).

The Furball Revamp

Eventually managed to pin and scrape the flesh golems.  They took a bit of positioning and then needed a fair amount of green stuff to fill the horrible gaps.

I found some graveyard bits to stick on and now waiting for the green stuff to dry before spraying on a nice black undercoat.

The Furball Frenzies Revamp

One project ends and another begins.
I love this hobby.  I've just lost at Bloodbowl again; (this time in the Chaos Cup to a really experience player - really enjoyed it though); but picked up a new commission for a "coach" who's replacing his key players.

I guess I'll have more time to paint if I'm kick out of the cup.

The Furball Frenzies, (Necromantic Team) are doing really well this season and are currently top of Division Three.  (I get to play them two games straight now but I'm somewhat lower, last in fact).

Anyway, here's the gonks:

There's two Flesh Golems, two Wights and two Werewolves.  The team colour is mostly purple and black with a bit of white to contrast.  The idea is to get these new players to match the rest of the existing team.

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang X

Last but not least, the group shot:

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang IX

At last The Gonk Machine has stopped whirring.  Here's the three finished gonks for Daventry's finest Pressganger!

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang VIII

It looks like the Machine is fixed.

From what I can tell it went into overtime and produced it's first video:

The Machine's Gone Crazy!

There's been some odd sounds from The Gonk Machine and I can't open up the main hatch, (there's been a massive intake of lightning rods as well).

It looks like it has kept hold of Jack's gonk!

Watch this space whilst I try and prise the door open. 

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang VII

The base for JK needed further highlighting and the edges have been picked out with Bleached Bone, (white is too harsh on this occasion).

I've also used a wash of Devlan Mud and some Badab Black to "define" the rocks.  I thought it was looking too "cartoony"

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang VI

I couldn't resist it anymore.  I had to start the base to see how my grenstuff addition worked with the existing sculpt.
I've used a whole blend of tans, oranges and yellows to make JK's base really stand out.

(The other two guys have had a lighter brush to help pick out the details.

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang V

First thing first.  It might seem bizarre but I've "wet" dry brushed the mounted gonk, (Jeremiah Kraye - JK), with a very light grey leaving the shadows shaded and the horse, well, grey.  (I was thinking of going for a different colour horse but the Grey looks so good I had to go for it).

The two individual gonks were "wet" dry brushed with Ultramarine blue all over. (Again this leaves the deep recesses black so no messy wash needed later on). 

I chose Ultramarine blue as a nice base but will lighten this later...

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang IV

What's that song? "Paint it black"?

The horrible white undercoat couldn't last long.

Black spray followed by thinned black paint gives a great smooth finish to start the real painting with.

Captain Jeremiah Kraye and the Gang III

Two more shots of the now dry greenstuff rock sculpting.  Time for some paint?