No need for the blues when you have sprues!

While not everyone who will read this will have the Happy Seppuku moulds that I used on the sculpey, you all have sprues!

Yes, they are everywhere... in boxes, in piles, on the floor...

The new generation of sprues (in this case by Wild West Exodus) struck me as being ideal for making pipes and conduits.

I cut up a few of them to see how they might work out.  There are a few limitations, as you don't want them to get in the way of the miniatures.  It is also somewhat difficult, to "anchor" the ends of these sprue pieces.

Here we have one more of the sci-fi patterns from Happy Seppuku moulds.  As before, I pressed a sheet of sculpey with the mould to get the texture, and baked it afterwards.

I used some cork to serve as a platform for the sculpey pieces and sprues.

I had a few chunks of the plasticard deck plating, so I put that as an accent on a few of the larger bases.

All the pieces combined.  The sprue is anchored at one end with a 'brick' of sculpey.

The next base.  This time I will use the flat end of the sprue to glue to the metal plates.

Still, it is anchored at one end.

On this base, I put in a few of my trusty small scale conduits.

On a smaller base, I used one of the sprue chunks to create a vignette, with two un-anchored points.

I followed that up with a few more bases using the sprues... I like the curved pieces, since it means I can easily keep it out of the way of the miniature's footprint.

This one had a very low to the ground sprue, so a figure could easily step over it.

An all sculpey base for the last one in the set.

The set as a whole.  Lots of fun!  I will show you some WIP images of the painting process, just like the first set.

Blood Bowl in the sand...

Now for the Khemri part of the undead team!  I absolutely loved these Throw-ras!!!

And Blitz-ras!

Yup... more skeletons.

Nine men out...

And extra Mummies to make four!

Life in the ice ring

Here's a quick little 5 x 7 painting that I did for Convergence.  A vintage "Rock and Ball" style spacescape.

Working quickly with my filbert brushes, I tried to get color in as many areas as possible.

As always with the Shaded Basecoat, you block in large areas of colors in order to establish that all important value pattern.  You can already see it emerging with the mountains in the foreground.

See the difference placing that dark color near the planet makes.  The atmosphere colors that once seemed so dark have become light!

Also, I am trying to be aware of color shifts.  Some areas are more reddish... others more towards green.

Now all major sections have been blocked in.  Value pattern established!

Further work will concentrate on those color shifts, creating a center of interest, value and edge contrasts, etc.

Lighter colors applied to the mountains start to bring them forward...

While on the planet, I use the "scumbling" technique with the filbert to create the clouds.  That is a drier brush, literally scrubbing the surface to make a softer effect.

Now for the ice chunks of the ring.  This planet is similar to one of the "shepherd" moons of Saturn, at the outer edge of the ring.

Some rudimentary shading applied to the chunks of ice.  They must not compete too much with the foreground, so the brightest colors and highest value contrasts will be focused there.

More development of those ice chunks.

As I continue to work on the ice chunks, I add some of the brightest highlights on the entire painting on the mountains...

That helps to bring them forward, and focus attention on those very hard edges, and extreme contrast in value.

Almost there!  More work on the ice chunks.

Finished!  Again, this was a quick study, a very small piece.  However, it is quite clear that the regular methods I use for painting my minis is the same in principle here.

Oh yes, I also used miniature paints for the whole thing! :-)

Looking a little green

This was a very interesting Blood Bowl project.  The plan was to make a few teams in one.  

When combined together, you could create an Undead team, a Necromantic team, or a Khemri team.

Werewolves for Necromantic.

Flesh Golems.

One set of Mummies.

Can't have enough skeletons!

Those shifty ghouls!  Nasty with block and any kind of stat increase!

Did someone mention skellies?  Old style!

Stay tuned for the rest of the team!

Capture the Crossing

Another attempt at liberating a town!  A heroic charge by a Sherman unit shatters the final Panzers, and leads to an armor overrun by the unit.

However, the wide open artillery unit survives the onslaught unscathed!  Bad news for the intrepid British crews...

Sure enough, a unit of Grenadiers is sent to dispatch the unfortunate tankers.

Undeterred by their fallen comrades, yet another armored unit comes forward to challenge the king of the battlefield... the Tiger.  They are able to get onto the same plateau, and blow the turret from the beast!!!  The troops in Caen are saved... for now.

Bombardment from afar remains the greatest threat to the liberators.  The battle must end soon!

Fortunately, the destruction of the Tiger tank convinces the Axis that their positions here are untenable, and they choose another defensive line, this one at a nearby bridge.

Here you see the setup.  The Allied Victory Event Roll weakened 2 infantry and one tank unit, while the Axis damaged one infantry and tank unit.

However, the Axis lost all of their reserves, due to the defeat at Caen.

The Allies were able to call upon one more additional Infantry unit.

The Axis are even more dug in this time, backed up by multiple Tiger units!

My hand is very strong.  Not only can I execute sustained assaults on key areas, I have nasty command card such as the Barrage, which can take down just about anything, no matter how well fortified a position may be.

The British forces begin by shifting their units on the left into the forest.  They shall await there as their jumping off point.

Seeing this maneuver, the Axis moves to counter.

Stay tuned for the next episode to see if the Allies can take the bridge, thereby solidifying their gains from the previous fight.  Right now, the score is 7 VP to 4 VP in their favor.  Two extra points were awarded for liberating the towns!