No more posting

Hello all - after a long break.

Hello and actually good bye...
After several months of trying blogging it turned out I don't have enough time to prepare any decent blog material and sometimes just don't have enough time to write at all:

Real estate valuation practice takes most of my hobby time =(

So what does it mean?
Basically it mean I don't think I will write anything more here.
But there's also a good news:
I still have some materials nearly done and these will be posted (sooner or later) in the tutorials section of Plinth Country site.
Also there will be added a gallery so I hope to upload some of my stuff there.

Looks like there's not much left to add...
Thank you all supporters - short adventure with blogging wouldn't happen without you :)
If you ever need to contact me - you can find the email address on Plinth Country.

Take care!

Busy, busy, busy...

(I will post pic here)

Hello all - with the delay!

This post is kinda pathetic but it's still better as it is than posting nothing - again...
I definitey owe you explanation wht no shit hasn't been posted for recent weekends. The reason is pretty lame and obvious: I was busy.
In fact I was damn busy...
First of all since a few weeks there's more and more work with 2 more sites I administrate: the store and recently added tutorials section.
Which is another news material - Plinth Country has finally got articles panel!
I moved there basing tutorials already posted on the blog but also added new text about building sci-fi base.

(I will post pic here)

And that takes us to another update:
Because operating html code on blogger is slightly different than on Plinth Country I decided to post articles only on PC site and put links here. The reason is only my laziness - you have to forgive me (or not ;-) )

But apart from being busy by operating sites there was much more going on - which distracted me from spamming here.
The most important thing was my brother visiting home - he couldn't come last spring because of eruption of the fuckin' volcano buuut he managed to come now. In fact he's been here for a month and is leaving today. I'll be seeing him on Xmas but already miss the guy - there's never enough of party-time ;)

What else?
I've been painting and assembling models - at least a bit.
The most important thing I have (almost) finished is science - fiction socle from the tutorial:
which means soon part 2 of the article will be ready for revealing. I don't mind painting stuff for article purposes not writing text but uploading it and posting is such is pretty time consuming for me - which is why I prepere tuts so rarely...

(I will post pic here - promise)

Another thing (almost) finished is Sd. Kfz. 222 model - it's only nearly done because I want to wait with weathering and final painting touches untin it stands on the base. I want to use the same colors and tchniques on the vehicle and base so whole piece is as much unified as possible.
As for the model itself - it's from ICM and I must say there's huge difference between ICM products and Italieri - which I painted before.
After assembling the piece I am sure it is worth to pay a bit higher price to get much better quality model: Italieri's stuff has much better details quality and the plasic models are made of is kinda "hard", not "rubbery" as ICM or UM.
As for base - I will use the same shape and size as for AB 41 but this time it will be very dirty and muddy winter base. And of course I'll try to take some work-in-progress shots so I get material for another article! :)

(I will post pic here, I will post pic here, I will post pic here...)

The last thing - yesterday while painting ork's display base I also started painting Nurgle dreadnought - as you can imagine it will be green'n'olive (so that's not realy a surprise) but it will be painted only for Ebay purposes so I cannot prepare enything extravagant - players, collectors and bidders have own, specified demands when it comes to getting painted model ;)

(I will post pic here)

Take care!!!

PS. PP hasn't sent me my No Quarters issues yet so I don't like these guys anymore

Storming Ebay...

Hello!

It's Sunday evening, it's raining like hell here, I am dead-tired after gym so there's nothing better to do than speading zombie spam around the webspace!

So once again there was something going on in the hobby area - maybe not as much as I'd like to but it's still better than nothing.

The cherry on the top of the cake was grill-party Friday night over 100 km from my place!
It was just great - although I had to come back the next day (with naaasty hangover) I definitely don't regret the event: I finally had opportunity to meet some friends with who I lost contact long time ago and of course I could finally relax for capital R =]
To bad I lost the Saturday for recovery but that's the price every partyboy has to pay once in a while...

The next hobby-thing: Heroes of Might and Magic IV arrived a few days ago - I bought it to prevent commiting suicide during long and deadly hours of doing nothing in the office: yup, sometimes such thing happens...
Unfortunately the game game doesn't like Windows Vista Business (who does actually?) so I cannot use it at work. Oh well - I can still play at home reminding time wasted at Univ campus doing beers, pot and Heroes IV...

As for miniatures - there was also something going on! After all life cannot be just party time!
So first of all I pinned, based and undercoated Chaos champ got 2 weeks ago. I hoped to convert it much more but all in all I only replaced model's head with mutated one - it will be Ebay piece and snice I am not WH40k gamer I wasn't sure is there better weapon choice than power fist + melta gun. And once again model will be sold together with the socle so the lord has own place to rest after a battle :)

Another piece dedicated to auction is dreadnought: I got it damn cheap and converted into Chaos vehicle (Chaos = Nurgle of course!). The model dame already assembled so I couldn't modify it as much as I hoped for but I think it will look decent anyway: lascannon + power weapon should be good set against all those nasty SM / IG armor. Adding the "driver" was fun so I think one day I will get dreadnought and paint it for myself - I don't play so it will be really big converting project, not limited by game's rules. And I could finally use all those bits from the boxes around...

The last pic this weekend is finished AB 41 model. I added details + the base last Tuesday and even though it was rather fast paintjob - I really like it. I like it so much I ordered 2 more vehicles in 1:48 scale: german fuel truck and another wheeled scout car. I will paint at least one o them in winter camo and I already got the idea for the base: the only problem is I don't have different shape/size display base so the projects will have to wait until I add such bases to the store :(
I like the one already used but these will be models for MY glass case so I want each of them to be special. Hope you like the pic:

What else?
I still haven't got replies from CMON authorities, NQ magazine (these guys still owe me 2 NQ issues...) and Chaosium. Apparenly I've become to big pain in the ass to be contacted with or these guys suddenly started to dislike me. No idea which of these would be worse...

But there is also good news: articles panel has been finished - my bro is checkin it again searching for any flaws but it's there waiting to be added to Plinth Country site and uploaded with tutorials.
Thats it for now - see ya next week!

Autoblinda nearly done!

Hello!

The week is ending so there's a time to sum up hobby activity from last few days.
The biggest achievement was finishing (well... let's say in 90%) the first military model I painted for ages - Autoblinda AB 41.
It took me one day to paint the thing - I think all I need to add is some shading and of course desert style base! I am quite surprised I was able to paint at all - I was being haunted by horrible hangover for most of Saturday but all in all such thing seems to work like a decent motivator ;)
I tested some new colors purchased last week on the AB 41 and I like them so much I am sure I will paint another vehicle sooner or later*.

On wip shots you can see one of new bases added to the store today afternoon - these are made of oak and I like them so much I can't wait to base another large model :)
I also added another painted model to Plinth Country gallery - the palaquin unfortunately pics turned out REALLY screwed up so I'll try to take new ones withing coming week.

Last week I also won 2 internet auctions which means:
- I will have something to paint \o/
- I will have something to use plinths for
- I will have something to kick out on Ebay ;)
Stuff I got is dreadnought from AOBR box (which will be converted into Chaos vessel*) and Chaos lord - which has already been washed off, cut, pinned and slightly converted.

What else? Works on tutorials module for Plinth Country are going fine and with a bit of luck the thing will be finished next week. So I will be able to finally add the articles from the blog.
That also means I will have proper place to put new article about building sci-fi display base!
Building part is finished as well as texts for it - all I have to do is paint it and reveal to the hobby world!

Looks like that's all for now - see ya next weekend!

*definitely sooner ;)
** if Chaos it must be Nurgle =)

Viva Espania!

So I came back - flew a plane and even managed not to fall out! ^^
The short vacation is over so it's time to coma back to work (ouch...) and to the hobby (yay!).
During my absence there was something going so it's time to restart spamming!

First of all today afternoon I managed to find new home for the Chaos Lord - tomorrow the model is going to start it's big trip over the ocean :)

Another thing is the Autoblinda was undercoated today morning and hope to start painting it this week just after I get proper base: I was told base will be ready about tuesday so I am keeping my fingers crossed. And since we're next to bases matter - 4 new bases were added to the store - this time hand made of high quality ash. Square ones will be added in the middle of the week. Can't wait to finally base the palaquin on one of these!

And there's another spoiler - yesterday I finished taking pics for another basing article so all I have to do is edit the text and it's ready to be posted!
Unfortunately Plinth Country text module isn't ready so the article's publication will probably be delayed... :(

But what's the biggest news?
Of course I was in Spain (mostly in Barcelona) for the last week, I took lots of pics and here are few of them.
All in all I really like Barcelona - although almost none of people I met were speaking english people are friendly, beers are tasty and police doesn't make any troubles. There are lots of nice narrow streets full of interesting places and locations and it's just a pure pleasure penetrating this labyrinth. Barcelona seems to be very safe place.

Many buildings are covered by graffiti - I took pics of some of them:

This building is some sort of squat - it's occopants did great work painting it!

This is example of international, interlanguage and intercultural signing toilet ^^

Another nice paintjob:

And more...

Here whole building's side was covered by paintjob: it was so big I couldn't catch whole thing on a single picture. Impressive isn't it?

And here's example of less impressive graffiti: apparently local idiot has problem with counting to 6 and more:

There are many cool sculptures in Barcelona - some of them give you opportunity to have some fun during break between finishing one beer and opening another:

And the last thing which will always reming me Spain: roaches - there are lots of them so if you're roach-allergic - don't go to Spain ;)

Seeya next Sunday - this time there'll be ordinary, pure-hobby spam! :)

Heil Nurgle!

Hello again - for the last time in July!

As almost always there was something goint on in the hobby area so let's start!
First of all I finished assembling the very first military model in 1:48 scale: Autoblinda AB 41
It was actually one of a few military models I ever built yet is was lots of fun: model can be used in post-apo skirmish games, all parts were nicely casted so therere's only painting left:
I want to use desert painting scheme and test some new weathering tricks yet definitely don't want it to turn out as most of things I start weathering...
Bad news is painting will have to wait beucase I need to get some more paints for this model and because of short vacation next week - all painting plans are delayed.
But after coming back there will be some wooden bases waiting for me and one of them should fit the model really fine!

Another achievement was bringing the palaquin almost to the end: it's nearly done but I cannot finish it until I get some new bases: I want to see it in kinda swamp scenery and cannot do it now and somehow move on new base later :(
As for model - I am more-less satisfied: I wanted to paint it for a long time, too bad the trone sculpt is pretty poor. Yet it was one of my big painting plans for 2010 so yay for me :)
Besides thank to the fact palaquin is (nearly) done I can paint some side project: necrons warriors from Sławol or something for my mysterious miniatures provider...
After I put model on base I'll surely add some more blood and probably some glossy coat on the goo coming out from trone's back. What do you thing about it?

What else? The tattoo is healed in 95% but there are still pieces of damaged tissue on it so the photo report about getting inked has to wait once again. But no worries - you will see it for sure!
Apparently that's it for now - see ya in 2 weeks!

Cthulhu is complete!

Hello,

The week is coming to the end so it's time to update the site.
There was prerry much going on: the most important thing is I finally got tattoo finished!
I've been waiting for this for a while and I'm so glad the picture is complete now.

The pic above ain't spectacular but the tissue has to heal so green tones blend in nicely. After that I can take proper photo of the whole thing.
While the tattoo was being finished I've been talking with tattooist about expanding it even more so I think sooner or later I will visit the studio again... The only problem to solve is what do I want want to get inked first: chest, back or low arm. Well see :)

As for miniatures matter I decided to wash off Rackham troll. Assembling it took me lots of time and painting is ~1/3 done but I don't like the direction it's going. Apparently the more I try to paint something not in my standard way - the more zombish figure I get. But during painting I got some ideas for converting troll into sci-fi model so it should turn out unique.
So troll is to go and instead working on this model I FINALLY started painting palaquin of Nurgle!
Painting the champion was fun as I supposed it would be but the trone itself is just silly: I know the sculpt is old but parts of it are just ridiculous. Hope whole piece will turn out nice after banners and nurglings are painted. I will base it on wooden socle - they should be added to the store next weekend.

The last thing for today is another another plinth from the offer got model.
It's oldschool night goblin which I painted pretty long time ago for Forces of Darkness project on Chest of Colors forum - project I never managed to bring to the end. There are more minis painted for the same purpose so sooner or later they will appear on new bases.

And there's one more technical update of the Plinth Country site: on the left panel you can find Tutorials section - it's just temporarly version but I hope to see there whole module with articles
and not just links to the blog. That will probably mean the tutorials will appear only on PC site and not on the blog but it's nothing sure until I see the module finished and installed.

That's it for now - see ya next Sunday!

So damn hot...

Hello all!

First of all - I deeply hope wherever you live you have better weather whan it's here. Better = less leathal.
Apparently some stupid Polish camel stepped on Gork's (or Mork's) foot and now we're all punished for that by Evil Sun's death rays!
I hope this armageddon won't last much longer because I want to have decent weather during vacation not some fecking holocaust pouring from sky.

Anyway hot or not there was something going on in the hobby last week so it's time to write about it so without further introduction - 'ere we go!

Once again "hobby part" the week was dominated by working on the Plinth Country site - I've found some mionor typing errors, 2 unused sections were removed (thanks Butch!) and also I added links section - bottom left panel. There's even then first link added to one of friendly sides - I'm quite sure you know Voodoo - Monkeys - Team ;)
I'll try to add more links during coming week.

Another site update I'd like to see soon is adding section with articles: in fact I'd like to move them from the blog to the Plinth Country. Unfortunately site's engine isn't as user friendly as I'd like it to be so it might be a serious problem. Yet I'd really like to see another tutorial posted in new place *fingers crossed*

Since we're next to plinths - another one was used for rebasing one of minis from my glass case. I thought about it and I realised I didn't like previous raw wood group base for Hydra Warrior so another one was rebased. You can vote for the model on CMON site and also you can see in in small plinths section of the store ;)

The last thing to write about is Chaos Lord I got on auction some time ago has been finally finished (voters -> here ;) ). That means another large plinth got decent model. About 25 more to paint and the store should look decent. I like the model but it's not the mini I'd like to keep in the glass case so I decided to put it on Ebay - model will get 2 bases (showcase and gaming) so I hope it will find new home within 10 days of auction lasting.

That's it for now - the plan for the rest of a day is getting a cold beer from a fridge and start painitng Rackham troll - making it's base will be described in a tutorial but I can't start it until I can see whole model done.

Take care!

July brings many changes

Hey again!

Last week was busy. And I mean it - there were LOTS of things to do (not many of them were related to the hobby though) but somehow I managed to make it more-less safely to the Sunday.
So let's start!

Probably the biggest event was the fact I finished studies: final exam was on the previous Saturday but it was last Friday then I was defending my thesis. All I have to do now is waiting for the diplima. And of course start real estate valuation practice in October.
As I suspected it was strange feeling to go to univ for the last time. As I told to examiner professor I didn't think I might even think about missing that - but it's happening.
During last year I learnt lots of interested things and lecturers did all they could to make whole that law-shit as interesing as possible.
To thank them for everything I brought one of minis rebased on decorative plinth to exam - prof was pretty surprised when she discovered zombie model in a box ^^
But I suppose it was one of the most original gifts she ever recieved.
Text on plaque says: "For the first successful year of studies"

But there was also something going on in painting field.
I finally started painting lord of chaos. It will be similar to champions painted before - apparently these colors lure Ebay biders to my auction.
And as bonus model will be provided with 2 bases: square 50 mm for gaming and scenic plinth for glass case. Here's the wip:

Another success for assembling and posting basing tutorial #2: it was intended for Miniature Madness Magazine but since the zine wasn't eventually born I was left with some pics so I added new text and voila. Hope you like it and find it useful.

And finally: 3 days ago I finally managed to get Plinth Country operational!
Thanks to priceless help of my bro site is working (more-less fine) so maybe this will be good way to fund my hobby bills. At the moment there are only resin plinths available but I want to add wooden to the offer as well. If you visit the site and spot any bugs - just let me know :)
The tutorial was even posted on the main site of Heresy Forums :]

As you noticed I want use only models I painted so I decided to re-base some minis from my collection. I started with Hydra warriors - these deminiacs look much better on new bases and I think they are a bit more happy ;)

Till the next time!!! :)

Tutorial #2: Desert base

As I wrote in the previous tutorial - there will be the second part.
It took me much longer to assemble the text (post graduate studies were pretty time-consuming) but as some people say: it's better late than never, right? ;)

This time I'd like to show you my way to create desert. Please note - it's only one of MANY ways to create such base but I really like it: it's fast, easy to execute and result is decent so without more useless introduction - let's start the show!

Preparations:

Once again we have to start by choosing the proper base to work on. Ideas for choosing base were mentioned in the previous tutorial (Preparations section) so I won't repeat it here.
This time instead of block of wood I decided to use nice wooden plinth which is test Plinth Country base - it should look really nice under painting contest miniature. At the moment store offers only resin plinths but according to what I managed to learnt - it will soon change. Of course you can use resin base as well - these work equally well, the only true difference is you have to paint them.

If you decide to use nice, wooden plinth you should seriously consider securing it with some kind or masking tape: it should protect plinth's original color against any accidental painting, glue or whatever.
Next step was adding piece of tree bark on the plinth (the base will be rocky desert) and cut off the top of the bark so the model can be placed with no problems. Remember - if superglue isn't enough to place the bark you can always use greenstuff and after that apply superglue.

Adding details

After glue and greenstuff dried it was time to add a bit texture.
I didn't want just plain rock + sand this time (at least not under the contest model) so I added piece of skeleton and skull of some poor bastard next to rock. Apparently he didn't manage to find way to oasis on time ;)

After superglue gets totally dry (and I mean it: TOTALLY - you don't want to get the brush destroyed too fast) you can add sand and gravel. Wood glue ("white glue") is just perfect for this. Applying sand around skeleton should make it look half-buried.

When it's done and when glue is totally dry (again) it is a good idea to paint whole thing with diluted wood glue: is will slightly reinforce the bark but most important - should prevent sand from falling off during drybrushing.

Painting

So the time has come for painting. Desert can be painted in NUMEROUS way - practically only your imagination is the limit: it can be realistic, toxic wasteland, alien planet - just whatever comes to your mind!
This time I decided to give my base a reddish tone therefore I started by covering whole surface with diluted terracotta color. As you probably noticed in the meantime I added some leaves . I don't like boring bases, that's all ;)

Next I mixed base tone with drop of dwarf flesh and started drybrushing. I've been adding bleached bone to the mixture between layers of drybrush to highlight the desert and the final drybrush layer was almost pure white.
Important thing: remember the more intermediate colors between base and final colors you use the smoother transitions you will get. And it really doesn't take much more time.

Bones were painted during drybrushing so all I did was adding some washes and final highlights to make them a bit more visible.

The last thing was adding some dried foliage and pigments onto the base. Pigments are just an option but I like them because you can easily get dusty feeling.

The base is ready and is waiting to carry the contest model.
Hope you found the text useful. The next article will be about turning decorative resin plinth into forest base so stay tuned!