PTS XVI: Addition by Conflation

Almost by accident, a new batch of Red Ghouls graces my paint table. It all started innocently enough with the intention to paint Wyrd's Baby Kade (sculpted by Edgar Ramos). The miniature's tiny size and single lock of hair make it a good choice to stand in for Joey, sidekick of Dennis (the Red Ghouls having recently acquired a Dennis the Menace sub-faction).

A setback to actually completing Kade/Joey in a timely fashion came with my discovery that Dennis the Menace has both a US and a UK version. (I was unaware of the latter's existence.) This information was provided in the comments to my previous post by Roy of Never Mind the Jankers!.

We here at Minis by Finch pride ourselves in maintaining cordial Anglo-American relations so another sidekick was added to the mix. Say hello to Pieface (AKA Stinky from Heresy Miniatures, sculpted by Paul Muller).

The lack of hair is a concern given that he's slated to receive the Red Ghoul paint scheme (with its red hair). Sculpting a Mohawk hairdo remains a possibility but I think I'll just paint some red spots on his noggin and call it a day.

By now I was in a miniature-assembly mindset and pressed on with a couple more items.

Last year I received some outstanding Midnight Hag miniatures from Mike at Mortal Arrow Miniatures. As I had one earmarked as a second ghoul hag, the time seemed right to finally pull my finger out and get on with it.    

Midnight Hag A (Flying)

Midnight Hag B (Floating)

MA offers two variants, each with multiple head/arm options. The heads from one variant won't work with the other variant's body unmodified due to the way the locator pins are designed. It's pretty straightforward though to address the issue and attach a B head onto an A body as I did.

  

A bubbling cauldron from Heresy (that accompanies their witch) was my final addition.

It's time to paint.

Disc World

 

Zomtober looms but Mortal Arrow's War Snails have not been forgotten. I recently got some 3 1/2" (about 90mm) acrylic discs through eBay. After roughing up the top of one with sandpaper, I set about building it up as needed with putty.

The green is green stuff (no surprise there). The grey is plumbers putty which has a short working time but, unlike green stuff, sets rock-hard and can be sanded. This quality allowed the edges to be finished cleanly.

 
The snails enjoyed an extended stay in a solution of Dawn and water. I followed this with a one hour soak in a 50/50 mix of Super Clean Degreaser and water as suggested by  Steve Gabriele (AKA stormbringer72). This had the unanticipated effect of softening the resin. I had stuff from four manufacturers in play: two (Scibor and Secret Weapon) were unaffected, Studio McVey was slightly affected, Mortal Arrow was heavily affected.

Cut to the chase: it seems that the material eventually regains much of its original hardness once removed from the solution. No harm, no foul.

While it was soft I was able to easily remove various resin bits that were a byproduct of the casting process. In particular, a lot of extraneous material was removed from the spiral shell's interior, allowing it to sit properly on the body.

Things as they now stand:

Snail Mail

The United States Postal Service has been good to me of late.

The arrival of a big box of Tome of Horrors goodness from Pacesetter Games has produced much happiness here in the paint cave. LINK Justifiably so... it was a delivery three years (and many dollars) in the making.

While cause for jubilation, it must not overshadow a package that arrived several days prior from Mortal Arrow. The contents of said package? Snails, giant snails.

To be more specific, they are the War Snail, Flogging and War Snail, Ferrying, sculpted by the inestimable Pedro Navarro. Pedro's sculpts can be seen on his blog: Link Link

These were generously provided by Mike at Mortal Arrow so I could paint them for the website. Their completion will be a priority.

For starters, they look great; chunky resin brutes with detail galore. Each consists of an interchangeable shell and a body. The Ferrying Snail's body is a single piece, The Flogging Snail's is three.

Ferrying Snail

Flogging Snail

The shells each have a substantial lug of resin on their underside. I immediately set about removing this bit from the spiral shell for the scale shots above. 

4" Base Mockup

3 1/2" Base Mockup

I intend to base these and, as the largest base on hand is way too small, something suitable must be obtained. From the cardboard mockups, 3 1/2" is the winner.

The size of the base allows ample space for a little scenery so I tried out some broken column bits. I may want to play with the elevations as well (sm column frag low, snail slightly elevated, lg column frag slightly higher still). We'll see.

I'm relying on the method described by Miniature Tim for removing any residual mold-release. (My first foray into resin miniatures so fingers crossed.) They are therefore currently taking an extended soak in a solution of Dawn and water.

Next up: order some 3 1/2" disks.

A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight

It's been hot lately...  hot and humid actually, in the finest New Jersey Summer tradition. Without the benefit of air-conditioning, strapping an optivisor to my forehead and crouching over a sizzling hobby-lamp, brush in hand, quickly looses its appeal.

Yes, I'm attributing my recent hobby drought to global warming. It's very much in vogue to blame stuff on the scourge of climate change; seems right that I get with the times. Perhaps I should apply for a a government grant or some such thing.

That is not to say that no progress has been made on my never-ending project: Fractured Dimensions' Bearded Devils. In fact they're just about done:

Mostly touchups and some work on the bases remain.

To further pass the buck... Asslessman at Leadplague diverted me from the task at hand with a post about an app called Prisma.

The picture up top is a product of said app. Fun, simple, and impossible to put down once one gets rolling:

   
 For comparison's sake, the original WIP pic:

In other news, a package arrived yesterday from Mike at Mortal Arrow Miniatures:

Much more on that shortly.