The New Lair, nearly done!

It's been a long hard slog, I've been incredibly destructive and happily constructive, I've learned to plaster and to mount a flatscreen TV to a wall.  I've learned how the Dulux PaintPod is so much better than a normal roller, and how some Victorian red bricks are harder than others (I have a masonry drill bit with a perfectly flat end to prove it...).

But it's been worth it, and I'm about 80-90% of the way there.  Please excuse the photography, as it's from my phone, but this is where I've got to:

This side of the room is pretty much done - I've got to build a paint rack to go on the blank bit of wall next to the sticky board and mount a few pictures.  I know I'm incredibly lucky to have a spare room to dedicate to my hobby, so hopefully this doesn't come across as me showing off - this is pretty much a dream come true for me, and I'm really pleased that I've managed to do most of it myself.  Having the camera permanently set up is already making my life easier when it comes to photography for articles.

This should be where I'll relax after a hard evening's painting:

A big thank you to Kenny from the Ancible for the Infinity posters - with some glass clip frames from B&Q they really do look the business.  I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to sit on the sofa-bed though, as these two characters will generally be hogging it:

Hex (The Devious)

Ponder (Lord of all He Surveys)

They're only allowed in the room when I'm in there (they're part of the reason I needed the room in the first place), as they see the desks and the shelves as a giant cat tower for them to play on, and all the little things on the desks as their toys, the little buggers...

Actual hobby-wise, I've already had to start on painting for the next article, I'm cracking on with the Fellowship of the Ring for the in-laws, and I've just started my little Vampire project.  He's a (very) old Marauder Miniature (remember when they did loads of cool stuff for GW?) which I've always loved.  The previous paint job was not too bad for when I did it around 15-20 years ago (gulp), but he needs a fresh new look.

I originally just mounted him to a base, but that looked a little dull, and I wanted him to stand out, so the plan is to have those two pins surrounded by bats, so it looks like he's being borne aloft by them.  I've got some old Marauder Miniatures bats that I'm going to try and carefully pin and position around the bottom of his robe.  Hopefully this will look pretty good, the bats are quite two-dimensional so it should work.  Hopefully, the next post will have some pictures of him plus bats.

As always comments and criticism welcome!

Getting there…

It’s been a while!  All work and no play makes Andy a dull boy.  I’m trying to make some time every day to paint, but it’s been a bit tricky recently.  I’m slowly clearing all the half finished projects on my workbench – first up is the Reaper Assassin I started a while back.  The photos were taken quickly as I don’t have somewhere to set up properly at the moment

I wasn’t quite sure how to paint him, I didn’t want to do variations on black as it wouldn’t be much fun to paint, and I wanted to do something a little more colourful, but not gaudy.  so I tried the old “Charadon Granite as a basecoat for everything and wash it all with Badab Black” trick that I’ve used on Warhammer Fantasy models in the past.  I had somewhat mixed results with this - the cloak, the boots and the green elements worked really well with this method, but the purple really did not, so I had to re-base the purple.

I’m really, really happy with the dagger, particularly the blade, which came out fantastically (the pictures don’t do it justice to be honest) .  I also feel like I’m getting the hang of skin tones – for this chap I wanted a paler skin, so I tried a different method:

• Base:  Dheneb Stone
• Wash: Gryphonne Sepia
• 1st highlight: Dheneb Stone
• 2nd highlight: Dheneb Stone and Skull White

The cloak was a simply highlighting with Charadon Granite and more and more Dheneb Stone added, and finished up with a glaze of very diluted Badab Black to tie it all together.

Not a complicated paint job by any means, and he was pretty quick to paint.  He’s quite a classic fantasy type of miniature, feeling a bit “old school D&D”.  With my current love for Reaper miniatures, it would be nice to find a good set of universal fantasy skirmish rules to use these guys in – anyone know of any?

Work on the new lair continues, and I think most of the hard work is done, and the painting should be finished by next weekend.  I did the major job today and plastered the old fireplace:

I think it’s fair to say that I won’t be putting plasterers out of business any time soon, and it’s going to take some Polycell products to make it all smooth, but for my first attempt at plastering it’s not too bad.  It was a much easier process than I thought it would be – and once you get into the flow of it, it’s actually quite relaxing.

Miniatures wise, next up is Bikou (the Ninja from Bushido), another Reaper mini and stuff for my next Ancible article.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

TARDIS needed…

Anyone know of a good way to get more time in the day?  Or make weekends longer?  It’s late on Sunday and I have no idea where the weekend has gone or how I’m going to get everything done next week – at work and at home!

I actually managed to get some painting done this week though.  A friend I’ve worked with for over 10 years has moved on to pastures new - he’s gone to University to pursue the career he was meant to have, the lucky swine.  He’s a massive Doctor Who fan, so my contribution to his leaving present was this little beauty from Ainsty Castings:

He was over the moon with it (thankfully!) and it got quite a few admiring glances from other people (one person asked if I did commissions!).  The wife has also demanded one – I’m not sure how I feel about batch painting TARDIS’s…

Painting “Police Box” four times was torture.

Work on “The New Lair” continues – the fireplace is still a gaping hole, but I’ve got a base-coat on 3/4 of the walls now, and probably 3/4 of the woodwork is primed.  I’m doing things in stages as I have to shift some furniture around, all good fun!  But at least I’m doing something constructive, and with the Polycell basecoat on the walls (and a lot of woodwork now white), I’m getting more of a feel of how the room is going to look.

I don’t usually get excited about DIY, so this is about as close as I’m going to get.  To be honest I’m more than a little impatient and wish it was all done already…

Bikou hasn’t progressed at all, and I was right in worrying about the pin being long enough (it wasn’t) so deeper holes have been drilled.  Lord only knows when I’m going to get some paint on her.

This post has been brought to you by the wonders of Microsoft Live Writer – I think I prefer it to Google’s in browser offering and a couple of other clients I’ve tried.  I haven’t clicked “Publish” yet though, so we’ll see how that goes.

Anyway onwards and upwards (and probably sideways and backwards at times)!

A New Lair (Phase 2a)

Feast your eyes on this bad boy:

This isn't a Chaos Weapon, or a medieval torture device, this is the Perforator (imagine movie trailer voice man saying it for added effect).  It's sole purpose in life is to get rolled across walls and poke holes in thick wallpaper so the steam can get in and "unstick" (technical term).

Without this weapon I would have still been stripping the damn wall paper off today, even with an industrial strength wallpaper stripper steam machine thing.  As it was, stripping the wallpaper was hard work, especially as the steam machine turns the room into a sauna...

It was all worth it though as Phase 2a is complete!  All the destructive tasks have been completed, but in doing so we've uncovered a bit of a nightmare in the fireplace.

So my next task is to build a false wall across the fireplace opening and plaster across it.  I've never tried plastering before so it should be interesting!  I figured if I don't get it right the first time it's not that much hassle to start again if necessary.  The other slight problem is the gaps in the ceiling board either side, they'll have to be filled too.

On the positive side, my estimating of how much the chimney breast had been extended by has turned out to be a little conservative:

As you can see in the photo the gap is nearly double the size now.  So I might be having a rethink about what I do desk and shelf-wise in that corner.  As you can see the walls are in a bit of a state, but they've been recovered using Polycell Smooth-over paint - which is awesome.  I don't get excited about DIY products that much, but that stuff is the business.  The corner in the picture above is pretty much all white now, and I've started repairing the plaster further up the chimney breast.

Unsurprisingly there's been no painting done for a couple of weeks, but my latest article and photos have been sent off to the Ancible, and the next issue should be out soon.

I'm off to Colours 2011 in Newbury with some of the Ancible team tomorrow, really looking forward to that, and I might just spend some money there...

Hopefully another update this time next week!

As always comments and criticism welcome...

A New Lair (phase 1)

There has been tension in the Walker household, as the compact previous incarnation of the lair seen here:

...has started to outgrow it's limited confines and spread further into our living room (see previous post on new photo set up).  As useful as the "Painting Station of Doom" has been it just wasn't enough room to work properly, and the bench wasn't a comfortable seat.

So agreement has been reached and one of the spare bedrooms in our house will become the new lair!  It will still double as a guest bedroom as there will be a rather comfortable IKEA sofa bed (the same model as seen recently at Tentakel Games) staying, but the majority of the room will be turned over to the dark arts.

Like all diabolical schemes, it will be multi-phase and phase 1 has been achieved:

Some notes on the pictures:

1. A blind will be going up at the window, to save premature blindness
2. The ironing board is going...
3. In the bottom of the second picture, note the black and white furry demon, Hex, bane of anything small enough to bat off a table (and he tries to drink my brush washing water too...).  

So phase 1 is complete, including the TV in the corner, which means I can keep up to date with news and the football, or watch QI and Mock the Week while painting.  Mrs Walker is happier that all my stuff is out of the living room and we don't have to worry about the cats (oh yes, we have more than one) knocking things over.

Phase 2 is planned and a week away from commencement.  You may have noted the bizarre gothic style fire place.  To fit the ridiculously large mantelpiece (origin and construction unknown, no STC found, possibly xenos...I've still yet to work out how the damn thing is attached to the wall), a previous owner of the property used plaster board to extend the width of the chimney breast - and yes dear reader, those words in your head match the ones in mine when I discovered this.

The picture below helps show the extent of the insanity:

 

By process of knocking on the wall and seeing where the hollow sounds stop and the solid sounds begin, I've found the extension of the chimney breast begins at roughly the centre of the mantelpiece support column.  So Phase 2a will be somewhat destructive, removing the hollow bits, and stripping the wallpaper (the woodchip variety, scourge of DIY).  Phase 2b will then be the painting of the room using a lovely shade of white to maximise the light in the room.  Phase 2a and 2b are planned for next week which I'm taking off from work.

Picture courtesy of Ikea.co.uk

Phase 2c will involve adding this splendid piece of furniture in the corner and I'll probably be getting a new chair too. Hurrah!

As always, comments and criticism welcome!