Brimstone – Goliath

I have finally finished the XL miniature from the Brimstone – City of Ancients box, so now all the monsters from that box are done. 

This miniature is unfortunately proof that Flying Frog Productions are very new to producing miniatures. I was a bit disappointed with the Night Terrors, but this was worse. Far worse.

Lots of different pieces and lots of green stuff and filing needed, meaning I had to spend a couple of evenings honing my green-stuff skills. Not a total loss all experience there is good for me as I’m relatively, ehr, green with green stuffing. I let the pictures speak for themselves.

Paints used:

Skin – Vallejo 985 Hull Red with a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone ink and then drybrushed with 982 Cavalry Brown, 818 Red Leather, 981 Orange Brown and finally 948 Golden Yellow.

Suction cups – 835 Salmon Rose

Tongues – 944 Old Rose, 803 Rose Brown, 835 Salmon Rose and Citadel Dwarf Flesh washed with AP Strong Tone and Citadel Washes Baal Red.

Eyes – black with 915 Deep Yellow slits.
Teeth - Bone White with a AP Strong Tone wash

Undersides of the tentacles varnished with Vallejo satin varnish and the suction cups got a coat of gloss varnish. Mouth, tentacles and eyes were also gloss varnished. The rest matte.

I’m satisfied with how this one turned out. The starting mess didn’t really inspire me, as I thought all the gaps were sure to be noticeable. As it were they are nearly invisible.           

The tongues are rather two dimensional. They could have been made so much better.

Click here for the rest of my painted Brimstone minis.

My old pal Håkan Olbrink is a new Google+ follower. Welcome.

God Jul and the winners are…

God Jul everyone! 

Today, December 24^th, is the big day here in Sweden. (Living close to jultomten we try to give him an easy start, so he’ll take care of us today, taking his time, and tomorrow is his hectic day when he flies all over the place trying to please everyone else. Poor chap. Anyway, true to tradition, he’ll get a snaps when he shows up here later today – he’ll need all the energy he can get to survive this yearly ordeal.)

When this goes live I’m furiously preparing the last things for the julbord. Presents are under the julgran. Homemade candies and pepparkakor are everywhere. The kids are eyeing the presents wondering what they will get. So am I (I’ve heard rumours of miniatures…)

Enough of that! On to the give-away. Without further ado the winners are:

1.    William Dowie – you’re in for an Otherworld pack

2.    Brownk29 – you’ll get the Lonewulf or one of the Brimstone sprues

3.    Styx – a Brimstone sprue for you

Congratulations to you all. Send me a mail at miniaturesman(at)gmail(dot)com with your address and what of the above you want the most.

Rodger Wood is a new Google+ follower. Welcome.

Dust – Battle Squad and a giveaway!

Enough German Dust-squads for a while now. Time for SSU, the Chinese-Soviet pact, and first up is a SSU Battle Squad, aka Frontoviki.

Five men armed with assault and machine guns and lightly armoured. The minis needed some cleaning as there are mould-lines. They’re not in any way bad but I prefer to clean them off.

One thing that bothers me a bit with these figures are that they all wear the same magazine pouches, regardless of weapon used. I had an idea about sculpting a new pouch for the machine gunners and making a mould of it so I could produce a bunch. But that is for later…

I’ve based the paint-scheme on the previous early-war Russians I painted earlier this year. A bit simplified though.

Paints used:

Uniform – 924 Russian Uniform

Assault pack – 912 Tan Yellow

Magazine pouch, entrenching tool cover – 914 Green Ochre

Entrenching tool handle, grenade handle – 843 Cork Brown

Water Bottle – Formula P3 Battledress Green

Belt – 984 Flat Brown

All above one coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Ink wash.

Amour, helmets, knife sheath, magazines etc – 894 Camo Olive Green + AP Dark Tone Ink

Gloves – Citadel Foundation Charadon Granite + AP Dark Tone Ink

Weapons, metal – 863 Gunmetal Grey + 2 coats of AP Dark Tone

Knife handle - black

Bases will be changed to transparent ones as soon as I get those. Should be any day now.

EndTransmission’s gaming stuff is a good blog that I’m following. He covers just about everything with a slight emphasis on zombies. A great read and recommended. Anyway, The site has reached 25 000 page-views, and that is, off course, cause for a celebration – a give-away with a chance to win a goodie box. Go over and check it out!

Lee Gaddies is a new Google+ follower. Welcome.

Don’t forget my own 100K giveaway.

Dust – Heavy Kommandotrupp and Lara

The latest new-comers to the heavy Sturmgrenadiers. They are painted just like the rest of my Dust Germans.

Mechanic armed with a Fliegerfaust, Commander with twin MG:s and a medic

German Hero Lara packing two twin MG:s

Don’t forget the 100K giveaway.

Another short and brilliant film – The Gunfighter

This short, and free, film is less than 9 minutes long, and will give you a new look on the usual saloon encounter. It is very funny (or at least I thought so)

Check it out here
and while you're at it have a look at Werewolves too.

Don't forget the give-away, open until December 22.

Zvezda’s Vickers Machine Gun with Crew and another give-away

Another great little 1/72 kit from Zvezda’s Art of Tactic range. When you look on the cover art of the box one thing is immediately obvious, namely that the machine gun looks somewhat strange. Yep, the real thing didn’t have the shield. So if you’re building this kit, just skip that (I used mine for one of my LRDG vehicles).

The cover says it is usable for 1939 to -43, but considering that the crew is wearing gas masks and 1939 pattern entrenching tool I would advise against using it later than 41, if that. Anyway it is perfect for BEF 1940 and Operation Seelöwe.

One thing missing in the kit is the condensation can that was used to preserve cooling water. I scrounged one from a Hät-set of British machine guns.

The soldiers were painted as presented in the painting tutorial.

Don't forget my give-away, open until December 22.

Don't forget The Batman Holiday Giveaway at Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher. Great site, great giveaway

Dust – Sturmpioniere

Another squad of German Dust-figures finished.

I try to get a coherent look for each faction, with emphasis on painting speed. That means no fancy camouflage and a very limited number of paints. My goal is to get troops ready for a game or two, not get them ready for a painting competition.

I'll use clear bases from Sally 4th as soon as I get them.

Paints used for German troops:

Armour – Vallejo 995 German Grey drybrushed with 992 Neutral Grey

Clothing – 830 German Fieldgrey WWII

Heavy weapons, gasmasks, equipment – 920 German Uniform

Tubing – 836 London Grey

Power packs – 859 Black Red

Belts and high boots – Black

Low boots, chinstraps, gloves, other leather equipment – 872 Chocolate Brown

Panzerfausts – 977 Desert Yellow

Hand weapons – 863 Gunmetal Grey with two Washes of Army Painter Dark Tone ink

Everything except armour, skin and Panzerfausts washed with AP Dark Tone ink

PF and skin washed with AP Strong Tone ink

Good enough and works well with the rest of the German figures. Not as fancy as those Thomas did a couple of years ago, but I bet mine were done in a much shorter time :-)

Ready for combat!

Don't forget the give-away, open until December 22.