Ben's Bits n Bobs

[Ben_S]

Not the easiest to see, because they're mostly black at the moment, but two more cars done:

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Not too many bits on either of these, but both are magnetised. The one on the left actually has 8 magnetisation points - all four wheels, the spare on top, another further back, and two on the front (one underneath, one higher up). Possibly slight overkill...

 

[Ben_S]

Just a few colours on this one so far, but now you should be able to see it better:

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FYI, my first mob is Evil Sunz (obviously). I'm torn between Deathskulls and Bad Moons for the other. I'd rather be painting them blue than yellow, but one problem is that I'll be using cars with windows and using blue for those already. Also, if I did Bad Moons, I have some moon icons from old night goblin shields.

 

[Ben_S]

I'd never tried powder weathering before, but I had some cheap pastels that I bought a while ago with the intention of giving it a go and decided that now was a good time to test it out. Here's the initial result:

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I was fairly pleased with that, at least for a first attempt. Unfortunately, I tried coating it with varnish and completely removed it all. I'm not sure if it's blown away by air in the spray or whether it's the actual varnish that dulls the effect down. A bit of research online suggests that a rattle-can varnish will work, but should be lightly misted from a distance. So, I guess I'll have another go...

 

[Ben_S]

1/72? Isn’t that really small?

I got round to a half-decent size comparison photo:

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From left to right...
1. GW ork boy (from Assault on Black Reach)
2. Dark Alliance 1:72 scale goblin
3. GW metal snotling
4. Oathmark goblin

So, the 1:72 goblins are slightly larger (and different in style) than snotlings, but I guess you could use them as snotlings if you ever wanted to - or as snots (the Rebel Grot 'yoof' equivalent) in GorkaMorka.

 

[Punktaku]

Except for the bases, they wouldn’t look out of place with the Oathmark ones either.

 

[Ben_S]

I think the Oathmark ones are clearly bigger, though they tend to be more hunched over in their pose, making the difference a bit less obvious.

FYI, on the subject of bases, the GW ork and Oathmark goblin are both on 25mm bases. The Dark Alliance one is on a 15mm base.

 

[Ben_S]

January Finish Your Stuff Challenge:

I have a bunch of stuff done this month, but I'm not sure what's finished and what isn't quite. I've left out some things - including a second car - that I think I may do a bit more on. So, my entry is one converted Hot Wheels car and six 1:72 goblins:

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[cainex1]

That scale is surprisingly good.

 

[Ben_S]

That scale is surprisingly good.

You're talking about how well the goblins go with the car?

I was a bit worried about that. The goblins are roughly '20mm' figures, which is what I have heard used alongside these toy cars (Hot Wheels, Matchbox, etc). But the goblins are sold as 1:72, whereas the scale usually quoted for these cars 1:64. (Although actually there's no consistency on the scale of the cars, because they're made to fit the size of the box. So, a larger vehicle like a truck ends up being a smaller scale than a smaller vehicle.)

Anyway, if 1:64 is a rough average for the vehicles, then the figures should be a bit too small. But, where I have vehicles with visible seats, the seats usually look too small for the figures.

Still, I've decided not to worry too much about this. GW's vehicles are notoriously out-of-scale with infantry models anyway. (How many marines in a Rhino?)

ETA: Plus, of course, no one knows exactly how big the various greenskins ought to be either. These were sold as goblins, but I may end up using them as orks or as grots. Not decided yet.

 

[Ben_S]

Next on my list, some 1:72 Arabs:

I thought these guys look like Ash Waste Nomads, though (since it's Gorkamorka that I'm planning on) I'll be using them as non-traditional Diggas.

 

[cainex1]

Yeah, the comparative scale.

 

[Ben_S]

Here's a better picture (I hope) of the Arabs, with a bit of paint:

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I thought I'd experiment with Contrast (Aggaros Dunes). I'm reasonably happy with the result, but I think I'll paint over it anyway. I reckon that I can get a similar effect with my usual basecoat and shade approach, which will probably be less hassle in the long run (easier to correct mistakes and the like).

 

[Ben_S]

One of our local poundshops had these little plastic hearts in their Valentines section. I thought they might be useful counters for health or something:

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Maybe not ideal (would probably be better smaller, flatter, and numbered) but they were cheap. I counted 38 in the pack, for £1.

 

[Ben_S]

Back to those Arabs...

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I did go over the robes again (with Antique Gold), but did so in a slightly sloppy way. Not a drybrush, but leaving the darker shading in the recesses.

Straps and bags were mostly Burnt Sienna, with some bits Avocado or Clay for variety. I think the rifle stocks were Burnt Sienna too at first but then, realising I'd accidentally done things the same colour, I went over those with Vallejo Earth. Headscarves Buttermilk.

They're almost ready for shading (wash) now. The only bits I still need to do are feet and facial hair - colour of both still to be decided - and maybe a few small touch ups.

 

[Ben_S]

Measure twice, cut once...

As I mentioned above, I've put magnets in several of my car builds. I noticed that the paint chipped off quite easily and varnish didn't seem to solve the problem, so I figured I'd put a little piece of card or paper over the magnet to prevent actual metal-on-metal contact.

The trouble is, after spending quite a while thinking about this and procrastinating, I went ahead and bought a little hole punch without measuring my magnets first. I'd been meaning to do that all along, but somewhere down the line just didn't get round to it and assumed that my magnets were 3mm. Turns out the ones I'm using are only 2mm...

It's not a big loss, since I paid less than £5. (It could have been cheaper if I'd been prepared to wait for one from China.) And I think some of the magnets in my stash are 3mm. So, maybe this will be useful for a future project, even if it's not much use for what I intended.

The even more annoying thing though is that, while cheap 3mm hole punches seem easy enough to find, a quick eBay trawl suggests that 2mm hole punches are significantly more expensive. The cheapest I've found is £17.50, even shipped from China.

Anyone know of a good way to make 2mm holes? Would a punch designed for leather work on cardboard?

 

[cainex1]

It would work better than it needs to. In that you may need to make yourself a little dowel to push them out

 

[SuboptimusPrime]

I use a belt hole maker meant for leather on plasticard, and that works well, so cardboard should be fine.

They're often weirdly cheap (bought mine at a local hardware store for 4€), and have a variety of diameters on a revolver wheel.

Only downside is, it's very fiddly to get at the piece of material you removed, so if you want that somewhere down the line, a hole punch is better.

 

[Ben_S]

Thank you gentle-Yaks.

a variety of diameters on a revolver wheel.

One like this?

I saw those but I wasn't sure (at least in some cases) whether they cut a circle out or whether they're just spikes that make a hole.

The ones I was thinking of were more like this:

That seemed the more promising option to me (though I don't know). Unfortunately, most of the cheaper sellers seem to be out of stock of the 2mm ones. That gives me a bit more time to ponder options though...

 

[MedMos]

I've got one of those revolver ones for leather working. Works a treat on both leather and cardstock, and cut nice little circular bits out of both. I use a piece of floral wire (I think that's what it's called) to push the bits out, in case they get stuck.

 

[Ben_S]

Hmm, if I'd known that then I might have bought one of those to begin with. Oh well.

In the meantime, I need to start on something for YakComp 50. I was thinking of some kind of orky totem, so I dug out some bitz:

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I'll probably be using some of this. But I want to try making something that could be used in either 20mm or 28mm scales, if I can pull that off. So, nothing too recognisable.