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| Last of the current crop. Bought off ebay to add to the town acquired earlier. |
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| After all, every town needs a decent pub. Or at least it needs a pub. |
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| Not sure what I'll call it but 'The Ship' or something that includes Dagon sounds about right. |
I must admit I really like the Scenix buildings - they are sturdy and really look solid.
As in, back to getting through the Crooked Dice figures I got at Partizan.
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| I've updated the group photos to give better views! Originally said 'Normally I'm saying that the paint job isn't up to scratch; with these Brides of Dracula it's the photos. Didn't get a single really good focussed picture on any of them. For the vampires, that seems reasonable - no excuse for the other photos!' |
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| And another 3 ladies to finish this batch. Photos a bit dark but at least it's in focus! |
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| I've probably overdone the grey shading but like the way the 'seethrough' effect on the legs has worked. |
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| This one is scary... wouldn't like to meet her on a dark night. Actually, wouldn't like to meet any of them on a dark night. Vampires... |
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| After taking the photos I noticed she needed some gold on her tiara. Now added! |
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| I've gone for a different colour scheme for my 'not Ursula Andress figure. For the cloak I went for bronze highlighted with brass - I like using brass for 'gold' items on figures, always seems to look better for me. |
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| Not-Sigourney figure who is now taking over the job of High Priestess of the Cult of Dagon... |
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| This one is even down in the catalogue as a femme fatale. I thought green would be the best colour, originally didn't notice the arm length gloves so looked the figure up in the catalogue. She wears green there as well so it must be right. |
So, for the only time in years I'm pretty happy with the figures, it's just the photos...
Meanwhile, I've ordered a few not-U.N.I.T. figures to give them a chance. Plus started a few more polystyrene ball Mechanoids.
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| Houses and shops. The bread and butter buildings. |
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| The school. Or it could be a church hall or village hall - a very useful building! |
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| Definite 'town only' buildings - fire station and bus station. |
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| A factory and garage (or workshop building?) |
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| The mineshaft opens up a few possibilities... Haven't painted the Silurians yet... |
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| A few of the plastic railway model buildings that could fit. One of them is a brewery of course... |
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| A size comparison - mainly height of doors and whether 2 stories match as regards height. |
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| Another size comparison. Wouldn't mind a few more of that central building, would make a lovely crescent around a town centre. |
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| Not sure how these would fit regarding style. Some of the buildings I've got need some bits gluing back on! |
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| Stylistically some of my other buildings would seem to be OK sizewise, but not sure if they would fit in. The 'new' buildings are all very robust wargames style rather than very fine detail or generally look a bit frail. |
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| I have several churchs but none are really a 'good' fit - this one is about the closest and would do at a pinch. |
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| Meanwhile, a slight oddity. The back yards on the shops have much lower walls than the houses. Not sure why - generally, all back yards tend to have high walls, some houses would have front yards with low walls. |
So that's how it stands at the moment.A reasonable collection and enough to build up a good town/village.
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| These just arrived from up North. The description was 'two big boxes'. Meanwhile, a load of metal made the return trip. |
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| The boxes contained a nice selection of 1/76th scale buildings that had been languishing unwanted in a garage. Wanted here, a load of Stygians and Medievals wanted there... |
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| I've managed to clear some shelf space for them - being boxed, they fit quite nicely! The Greeks and some Persians have moved elsewhere in the shed. |
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| Sizewise they are obviously smaller than the 28mm-ish card models I've been making recently. However, they do fit in nicely with some of the plastic buildings I have. |
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| In the past I've tended to just mix and match my various 1/87th to 1/76th buildings - as you can see, 2 floors on a 1/76th scale building is roughly the same as 3 floors on a 1/87th building. I think my next job might be to start separating them out now. |
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| OK, the buildings would normally represent the more expensive side of my purchasing. This is the cheap side. I could only find 1 of the 3cm polystyrene spheres to make Mechanoids from so decided to get some more. Found a shop on Amazon selling packs of 25, 50 or 75... looked closer and noticed... the 50 pack cost less than the 25 pack... the 75 pack cost less than the 50 pack... not sure why but naturally bought the 75 pack. That has also arrived. 75 3cm polystyrene spheres for £2.50... |
So quite an eventful day (actually yesterday now - always do the blog after midnight...) - next job will be to sort out the 1/76th buildings I already had and perhaps do a town set up with them. The arrival actually had me looking through ebay and they will soon be joined by a pub.
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| Finally got the 'not U.N.I.T.' squad finished They're to wargames standards - might touch up the bases a bit more, otherwise they look fine at wargames distances. I don't like slotta bases... |
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| Important point is that the figures themselves and Daleks, etc, look OK together size wise. I need more of them if they want to stand any kind of chance against the various aliens they will have to face though. |
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| More of a representation of a Mechanoid rather than an accurate model. Simply a polystyrene ball on a base. It isn't as angular as the original, but actually the painted detail looks a lot more effective than I expected! |
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| Weapons, etc, are stored internally and only show when in use so I don't have to wory about things like that. Size wise they fit quite nicely next to a Dalek. |
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| The Sontarans could have been just as boring as the Cybermen - plain steel coloured metal, though could at least have done some shading. However, in some episodes they are shown with blue or purplish helmets and shoulder pads so I went with that. Sontarans could at least be painted in coloured uniforms to represent other races - might try that if/when I get more of these - unlike Cybermen, they don't have to just represent Sontarans. The uniform is generic enough to make up other species. |
OK, still lots more to do but think (with one exception) it's probably time to get back on course with some of the other pulp figures in the queue - including the not-U.N.I.T. Crooked Dice figures that are going to have to deal with this lot! Oh, and I am being a bit silly with a prototype Mechanoid type figure (the exception) - which comes under the heading 'This is a joke, right?'
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| ... I had a couple of buildings set up. Chimneys for the buildings are still only half painted - I have quite a long painting queue at the moment. What do you call 16 Cybermen meeting 15 Daleks like this? Roadkill. |
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| The buildings are of a slightly different design. In those days they had outside loos. |
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| I've also tried out the new moulds for the first time. This lot represent one of each rider from the 25mm ACW Range plus an officer's horse. Not bad from the first cast. It helps that the moulds have been standing for a few months to post cure. Using a mould when it's freshly made can be difficult as they are still very soft and tend to squeeze the impression. |
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| The next mould is for some of the S&S Range. Nothing to say about this one. Casts well, nothing here I couldn't already do. |
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| The next muld, on the other hand, consists of figures I couldn't cast previously as they were all on 12" moulds - well, apart from the mounted version of DA04, Warrior with Sword. That one didn't exist in the catalogue or on any moulds - it's made from the original master. There is a suitable horse on other moulds. |
So I suppose I'm really getting on with quite a bit, it's just that I'm jumping about all over the place. Still, lots of things getting finished but must focus more.
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| Unlike the Cybermen, Daleks take quite a while to paint up even if it's meant to be 'quick wargaming standard'. So far I've finished 15 of them. |
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| The thing about Daleks is that, over the decades, there have been several different types and colour schemes. I'm treating this figure as the Emperor - of course, this is my version based on the fact I only have this design! These appear to be based on the Mk 6 travel machine. |
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| I'm counting the black Dalek as an/the army leader with the white ones as elite Daleks. |
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| One of the 'sources' put red as the chassis colour of a ship's commander so I'm using this colour as a unit commander colour. The steel/blue scheme is what I've always considered to be the 'standard' colour for the rank and file figures. |
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| A couple of the figures are damaged - 2 have no eye stalks for example. I'm ignoring that, they still do the job as cheap, basic figures. On the other hand I won't be using damaged ones as command figures. I've got enough daleks for another unit. |
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| Cybermen certainly look best in serried ranks. A dozen or so units like this would only be decribed as spectacular. |
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| On the other hand, for painting... yes, possible to spend lots of time shading - but they are effectivly just one colur. So I sprayed them with a grey undercoat over the grey plastic, then painted over the undercoat with gunmetal grey... and that was it. Missed a couple of places and it doesn't make a lot of difference (now painted over the missed bits). Could have just painted the base green and it wouldn't have made much difference! |
Been spending a few days doing fewer Daleks - this lot just finished in a matter of minutes!
Having picked up those Crooked Dice figures, including a bunch of 'not U.N.I.T.' soldier I naturally started looking for cheap Daleks... And found 100 assorted Dr Who figures on E Bay for £55 - at 55p a figure, how could I resist?
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| The figures drying after a detergent wash and rinse. |
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| 27 Daleks. These are 3 part castings made of a harder plastic than the other figures. I would find it hard to believe that they were all made by the same manufacturer. One thing I would suggest everyone looks at is the web comic Second Empire - the videos I hadn't noticed when I first came across the comic, it was a few years ago! (update re these -found this blog post about the figures) |
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| Cybermen. Softer, more 'rubbery' plastc than the Daleks. Only 16 of them so not much chance against the Daleks. But then, if 1 Dalek could defeat 5 million Cybermen, and if fighting Cybermen is not war, just pest control... One of my favourite Dr Who scenes! |
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| Sontarans. Again, slightly rubbery. Look useful if paint sticks. |
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| Weeping Angels in two poses. Again, very soft plastic. |
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| Silurians. Not very detailed but (again with that painting caveat) should be useful - a few more of these would have been nice. |
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| Judoon. Probably the least impressive figures, they don't really 'look' right. |
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| Ood. I can see me using these as Lovecraftian figures. The pose seems just right for them! |
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| The silence. Again, pose suits them. |
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| Size comparison against a Crooked Dice 'not U.N.I.T.' soldier that I was in the middle of painting. Mainly started painting them after I won the E Bay auction. Which stopped me working on some other Crooked Dice figures I was painting. Me all over. |
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| Obviously I need a generic spaceship for this lot. This is my first thought... |
