I'm hoping my very late Lustrian Corpse Cart will not be my only major modeling accomplishment in 2016.
I am most excited about my prototype jungle huts.
Fluffwise Skinks set up huts along common patrol routes so they don't have to sleep on the ground every night. I figured a Skink Hut would just be a thatched hut on stilts with a rope latter. The huts are at strategic intervals so Skink patrols don't have to sleep on the ground while away from the city (at least not EVERY night). Also a good place to store supplies. The stilts are to keep heavy rains from washing away and to keep the smaller biting predators away from the Skinks while they sleep.
Figured a miniature Pringles can is about the right size and shape.
Step One: Eat the potato chips
Step Two: Strip the shiny coating to remove potato chip smell and so glue doesn't slide off
Step Three attach legs.
Note, no floor, of the hut. That won't be visible on the finished product and no floor allows a greater surface area to glue the legs on. They shouldn't come loose barring someone deliberately pulling on the legs.
See, from this angle, you can't tell it has no floor!
Step four is to paint the cans light brown so the red doesn't show through. I don't have a photo of that yet which is fine because it's a really lousy paint job that's going to be 99% covered up. Even then, I think I'll want to add a second coat even though I already skipped to step five.
Step five is to make a frame for a slanted roof out of popsickle sticks. No pictures yet.
My original plan to was to drape my faux fur over the frame to represent the thatched roof, but that looks like an amorpous blob. I need to cut the faux fur into overlapping triangle slices so it's all going the same direction with my frame. But before I can permaently attach my faux fur faux thatch I need to paint the stilts and the bottom rim. I don't want to accidentally drip paint on the fur.
Step Six, paint the exposed wooden parts.
Step Seven, apply the burlap (lower right) to be the main texture of the walls. I plan to cut a Skink shaped hole in the burlap for a door and drape cloth for a curtained door.
Step 8. Cut the fake the fake fur (left of the Pringles can in the photo above) to the roof to simulate the thatch.
Step 9 Make a rope ladder out of string.
Probably two or three hobby nights with
@eron12 away from completing my first two huts. One hobby night if I can stay very focused, so you know two or three because it's clear that I can't stay focused.
I'm not sure how to make a watch tower look like a
Lizardmen watch tower. I don't want a pyramid shape, too bulky. Probably a square tower Not sure what kind of stone I want it look like that but that can be accomplished towards the end.
I recently finished painting two new Salamanders. I now have two males and two females. But I'm not ready to post them yet. I want to swamp base the. I swamp based 12 Skink handlers but I found a hiccup. Almost every time I take my Salamanders in my carrying case, at least one of them comes unglued from the base. That's no biggie when their base is just painted Goblin green, that takes two minutes to fix, but if I create my swamp texture and add three or four layers of successively lightler dry brushing with a glossy wet finish, that would hard to fix if it came unglued. So I need to pin them, then base them. Did I mention I dislike pinning.
I actually finished a Skink standard bearer of the Sotek caste that I haven't taken a photo of yet. Not exactly a stellar accomplishment but not nothing. I am working on a command crew for my blue and yellow Saurus. I field two Saurus blocks in many games but have one painted command crew. Yerch.
I'm working on two or three Skink chiefs at once. While I am not converting the models, I am going to designating my Beast Caste Skink colored one as Belrikt for my fluff fans or at least "young Belrikt." Eventually I'll end up recreating most of the cast from
Divided We Fall. Old Belrikt needs some conversion. That's a project for later. I don't want to start a new conversion project when I so many half finished stuff on my shelf.
Lots of zombies, I have a big pile of human zombies awaiting paint jobs. I have a small pile of Skaven zombies with early stage paint jobs. I have Skinks in early stage WIP painting and unpainted Skinks. A couple Saurus too and a fresh attempt to make a Saurus standard bearer that doesn't fall over under its own weight and ranks up.
I have 15 or 16 zombie Cold Ones ready to stand in as Dire Wolves. They've already played that role in a few games! But they need paint jobs and basing. And some of them like to come unglued from their cavalry bases. They need pin work too. So do my Quatlixa (Saurus Ghouls). My many metal Kroxigor need preventive pinning too.
That about covers my WIP that I feel reasonably confident I can finish before 2017. New projects I'm likely to undertake relatively soon include mass conversion of 5th edition archer Skinks into javelin toting Cohort Skinks, still more zombies, and a Huan-kai conversion.
My eventual checklist is to complete pieces for this chart. I have forests and swamps but they are pretty subpar. The huts will be my first A-list terrain. Next in line is swamps and lakes. Ideally I can use a similar technique for my zombie and Salamander swamp basing to make an actual swamp.
2-Inpentrable Jungle (raised impassable feature)
ONE
3-Wizard Tower or Acropolis of Heroes
ONE OF EACH
4-Lake (1-3 Ordinary, 4 Boiling Flood, 5 Necrotic Ooze, 6 “River” of Light)
TWO LAKES
5-Building or Ruin
FOUR HUTS, ONE WATCH TOWER
6-Mysterious Forest (1-2 Venom Thicket, 3 Abyssal Wood, 5 Fungus Forest, 5-6 Wildwood)
SIX FOREST BASES WITH REMOVEABLE TREES, small removable decals to show venom, fungus, etc.
7-Ordinary Forest
8-Hill (1-4 ordinary, 5-6 Scree Slope)
THREE HILLS, one that is obviously dangerous terrain
9-River (1-4 ordinary, 5 Raging Torrent, 6 River of Light)
THE THOUGHT OF MAKING RIVERS TERRIFIES ME!!!!
10-Mysterious Marsh (1-3 ordinary, 4 Khemrian Quicksand, 5 Earthblood Mere, 6 Mist-wreathed Swamp)
FOUR SWAMPS
11-Obstacle (1-3 Fence, 4-5 Wall, 6 Blessed Bulwark)
2 WOODEN, 2 STONE
12-Sinister Structure (1-2 Sinister Statue, 3-4 Banestone, 5-6 Charnel Pit)
SOTEK ALTAR, STONE OBELSISK SURROUNDED BY DEFOLIATED JUNGLE, TARPIT WITH DINOSAUR BONES.
And of course I really want my
Chronicles of Verrick novella done before 2017. Ideally before Fall.
I admit I haven't painted much in a long time. Admittedly I went on a modeling freeze in response to doomsaying about 9th edition rumors. Then Age of Sigmar did not thrill me. But hey, Kings of War is working on a scaly army. I can use my stuff for Oldhammer, AoS or KoW.
) is regular paint and skype sessions with my brother and uncle. We have been trying for ~7pm every Tuesday. Having a scheduled time helps see forward progress every week.
