Alone and Paranoid

I've tried to maximise some hobby time over the past 6 days. The first opportunity was up in Glasgow where I was working for 3 days at the end of last week. As I was occupying the hotel all by my lonesome, I decided to make the most of it and get in some quality painting time. Two evenings work netted me the following:

 

Not too shabby for a limited selection of paints and (towards the end of the evenings) some pretty poor light!

Professor Barossus, Tutor to the Marcisa of House Ulanti



Professor Barossus has been in the employ of House Ulanti for decades as a retained tutor to the noble sons and daughters of the House. The Professor is an exceptional scholar in ancient Terran history and advanced warp physics, however his primary role is to educate the wealthy and the privileged on mundane topics such as etiquette, Imperial Gothic dialects and trade and commerce.

Currently the Professor is responsible for finishing the education of Anamuria, the petulant Marcisa of House Ulanti. As her personal tutor, he is one of Anamuria's constant attendents, along with her personal bodyguard, Eduardo Murat.

 

Serendipity Strikes!

Every so often this hobby throws up a little slice of serendipity: someone says something which sparks an idea for a new model; you watch a TV programme and think of a cool new scenario; you drive past a truck and immediately want to copy its livery as a new colour scheme.

Yesterday, I had one of those serendipitous moments. I went to post my newly painted Elite Ganger over at the Yatribe forums, and I see an announcement for a new painting competition, launched the very same day that I painted my ganger.

The theme of the painting competition is A House of Cards:

Build a group with at least two members of a Noble House, Brats, Servants or a Lord for Necromunda... A Made Ork, who earned his place on the hulk for Gorkamorka... or an equivalent for Mordheim - Mayor, Knight!

My mind fizzed at the idea - that's exactly the kind of figures I enjoy working on. There and then I decided that my Elite ganger would be a bodyguard. I just needed somebody for him to guard, and probably a third figure for my grouping. I rummaged around in my boxes and turned up a nice little pair of figures:

 

One Man And His Dog

I'm sure most other collectors have that elusive 'most wanted' figure. The one that never appears in your ebay saved searches. The one that never comes to light on trading groups. My figure was this one:

 

Photo from the Collecting Citadel Minatures Wiki

He's the Leader from the Elite Gang from the rather uncommon Confrontation range, circa 1991. Although he was available in blistered packs of hive gangers, the bulk of the Confrontation figures were quietly retired and replaced in the mid-1990s by Necromunda gangs. I particularly like the contrast of his absurd outfit with the mean muscle-dog and AK47 styled autogun.

I would guess that I spent in the region of 10 years looking for this guy on and off, and I was delighted to pick him up with a bunch of his fellow Elite gangers earlier this year.

Industrial Settings - Building a Stage Set (Part 2)

Yesterday I posted my WIP 'stage set', intended to be used inside my Foldio light box when I photograph my figures. What I didn't do was take any photographs showing how the thing works.

 

Below you can see the set inserted into the Foldio. You can see it sits pretty snugly inside, but still leaves enough height to the inside top of the Foldio where the LED strips are mounted.

 



 

Ever Had Trouble Finding Suitable Sci-Fi Civilians?

For a long time I've wanted a nice range of sci-fi civilians, but I've never found anything that quite hits the late 1980s sci-fi vibe I was after.

So eventually I bit the bullet, and have ended up involved in a mad-cap scheme to make some myself. The resulting 6 miniatures have been sculpted by Michael Anderson, based on concepts by Will Beck.

I'm delighted with the results and can't wait to have them cast and painted. Oh did I mention you could have some too?!

Feel free to check out the Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/62661939/colony-87-28mm-sci-fi-civilians/

Industrial Settings - Building a Stage Set

Last year, with the aim of improving the quality of photographs of my figures, I invested in a portable lightbox in the form of the a Foldio.

 

Foldio portable lightbox

The resulting images have certainly been much better lit, and have maximised the potential of my rather inadequate camera. But while pictures like the one below are all very well for showing off figures, they not particularly exciting.

The neutral grey background is rather, well, neutral. And when you start posing figures together they tend to look a bit silly without wider surroundings. What I love to see is miniatures photographed in situ - with a nice backdrop or some terrain to enhance the look. I know from experience that I don't have the patience or photography equipment to make the most of miniatures in terrain. In fact I don't even have enough terrain. So my solution is to build a flexible backdrop which fits into my Foldio. By moving elements around and even creating drop in walls, I can vary the setting ad infinitum, and hopefully get some nice, well-lit and narrative photographs as a result!