TuShan complete

Hi Munky fans,

Many apologies for taking so long to post this I have been extremely busy.

As you can see I finished the TuShan model and the Cyclone Terminator for the client, these are the final two figures for the moment in the Salamanders commission.

I learnt how hard it is to get a nice smooth blend with white (damn that was hard!) and how tough it is to get a clean finish with your sculpting, so to all you dudes and dudettes who do it a massive chunk of respect goes out to you.

So what have I been up to recently.....not much to be honest sorry, I'm still grinding through my Space Wolves I post up the pics once I have finished the current 3 models.

Why three you may ask, it's a good number for me to work on at one time, any more and I get bored and less and I feel like I'm not making progress.

I have started to play about with the new Games Workshop paints and they don't seem too bad, I've stocked up on the colours I need for my Space Wolves as I was silly enough to make a custom grey......DOH!

I have been painting up some Super Dungeon explore figures with my buddy Adam and once they are done I'l post them up too, they are very nasty sculpts but they are way cool when painted.

That's all for now folks

Il catch up soon

Munky

Tu Shan update

Hello once again, I must confess it's been another busy week so not much has happened on the hobby front but I have got a little more done on Tu Shan.
The scales on the loin cloth was a bit of a challenge but it's all about learning it for yourself.

I also started work on the cloak which is very challenging to get it smooth but a few coats of liquid green stuff should smooth the way, then it's time for some more scales.

This little piece was sculpted from a Space Wolf Thunderhammer and will sit on the top of the Terminator armour as decoration, what do you think?

The only other thing I have done is the first bit of shading on the Cyclone Terminator, but there is much more to go.
I should have some time this weekend to get more done so stay tuned for an update.

Munky Out

Tutorials and cool stuff added to blog.

Hi everyone I hope you are all well!

I have been adding a little content to the Blog in the way of Tutorials I have done and seen over the years.
I know there is only a few now but I have loads to share, once I have checked the links are OK they will appear on the site, just browse off the menu bar at the top.

One of the tutorials I found only a week or two ago is of such a high standard that I just have to share it here as well.
It is by G.Schellert on his Blog here there are downloadable files of the articles he has produced.

Now the tools he describes and builds are of such a high quality and range that I personally will struggle to match his work, that aside it has inspired me to make some myself (although not as well finished as his!)

I am a novice sculptor and haven't really done much since my college days so I have a long way to go, but I was struggling to see how anyone could sculpt a models with conventional tools like these:

That's not to say that they aren't useful of course they are, but it struck me the other day that my problem was they are just too damn BIG! such a simple thought but ground breaking none the less.

After poring over Schellerts pdf I decided to make some myself, now I don't have all the wonderful tools he has but armed with some wire a steel block and a hammer I bashed some tools out and with some bending in a vice and polishing with 1200 wet and dry paper I had success.

The handles are old xacto knifes and with a little modification to the chucks (I drilled them out with a 1mm bit a little) my new tool fit.
Each tool tip is around 30mm long and just pops in the handle when needed.

So far they are proving to be much easier to get into the details on a model, I just need to learn how to use them to they fullest which will take time.

Any ways thanks once again to G.Schellert for a wonderful article.

In other news I have had little free time this week due to 4 viewings of our flat which meant everything had to be tidied up grrrrr!
But I have added some studs to the armour of Tu Shan, I will be doing a Tutorial on these soon to show you how I do it.

Excuse the bad pic it was taken on my Iphone, as usual any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Munky out and see you soon.

Happy New Year everyone!

Hello I hope you all had a nice hobby filled festive break, and I hope you got lots of chocolate hehe.
There are only a few tidbits I've been working on over the break, I couldn't get much done due to "man flu"
The first is the cartoon Tau you see above, the scheme is designed to be fast and manga-esque.
The colours are Astronomicon grey and Solar Macharius orange with a Brown ink wash in the details, I'm not 100% sure on it yet so any comments are welcome.

The second item is a test model for my Necrons, I always fancied copper as the colour for them with a Verdigris wash it looks pretty sweet.
The gun and glow colour is still undecided I went with Purple as it's my favorite colour but it doesn't really work that well, I may switch to the tried and tested green?
I also have done the mask in Rotting flesh and shaded with a little Terracotta to give the appearance of a Ceramic death mask, what do you think?

On the commission front I have begun painting the final Terminator to round out the squad here and give them all the available weapon options.

I have made progress on Tu-Shan and there are plenty of things to add to him like flames on the shins and scaled cloak and odds and ends, I have used Thunderhammers from Chapter House Studios and a spare Logan Grimnar Storn Bolter arm with Blood Angel's Melta pistol barrels to make his "fist of fire"

Anyway that's all for now and I hope to have more to show this weekend, we are still trying to find a buyer for our flat so things are just a little bit mental right now!
But it's all for the better because once the move is complete I will have so much more room to store my hobby stuff in one place thing's will be a great deal easier.

Any hoo

Munky out

Space Wolves and Salamanders Update

As you can see the Liquid Green Stuff worked really well once it was sanded back a little, his armour is much better and the cloak is great as well.

I also painted up the test Fenrisian wolf as well:
Fur - Bleached Bone
Skin - Astronomicon Grey
Muzzle - Dwarf Flesh

Then I washed the model with Gryphonne Sepia.

Then I washed the model with Ogryn flesh around the muzzle and ears and the fur edge.

Then a final wash or two of Delan Mud and Bhadab black along the top of the fur and around details.
Drybrush the fur Bleached Bone, and finish the base off and he is done.

I'm pretty pleased with how he came out and the ears look fine, just another 5 to go......cry!

And on a final note I have bashed this fella together as the next Salamander Terminator, he will round out the options for the squad I painted HERE.

That's all for now I should have more for you this weekend, as always comments are welcome.

Munky out.

My minis are famous.........well sort of!

I recently recieved an email from a good friend of mine in New Zealand regarding some Salamanders I recently painted for him.

It looks like they have been in action against some Chaos Renegades to great effect!

Please follow this link click me you won't be disappointed.
It's a gorgeous set of minis from either side and a very good report too.

Munky out

Salamanders Terminators complete.

They took some time to do but boy do they look nice!

It is actually the first full squad of Terminators I have ever completed, not an amazing milestone but one none the less.

Well that's all from me for now, I am off on holiday for a few weeks.

See you when I get back

Munky

Salamanders commission cont............

Hello once again my fellow bloggers, and thanks for sticking with me all this time.

I have finished the Salamanders Command Squad complete with aftermarket bits as per the customers wishes.
I really like how these guys came out especially the standard and Lightning claw Veterans.

Well there is no rest for the wicked and I have more Salamanders in the works in the shape of Terminators.

This is the current state of them, they need highlighting and all the detail painting in and they will be complete.
There are 6 of them mainly so the Heavy Flamer and Assault cannon can be swapped based on their intended use, and the Chainfist is in there just add some bite!

The next model I will be working on is a Death Company Dreadnought, the Blood fists and Talons just slot in and out on plasticard rods.
Unfortunately the kit won't make both sets fully so I left the Thumbs off the Talons and filled in the recess.

Stay tuned for updates in a few weeks on this chap.

Also before I forget click here to see my models put to good use by Sandy in his campaign!

Salamanders commission - Apothecary complete.

Hi folks, I'm back again with another model.

This is the Apothecary for the ongoing Salamanders commission, I had actually forgotten how much of a challenge painting white can be, but I got there in the end.

I went with shadow grey as the shade colour for the panel lines and it came out pretty good I think.

the choice of Gold for the helmet and Pauldrons was made by the customer from the Imperial Armour books, sandy really liked the Gold as a way to set the Command squad apart from the rest of the Marines.

The rest of the command squad should be finished over the rest of this week, and after them are the Salamander Terminators!

Cheers Munky fans see you soon

Salamanders continued.....continued?????

I have been busy building the Terminators with a combination of Forge World and Chapter House Studio bits to the customers requests.

Also in the mix are the Company Command squad, with Company Champion, Thunder Hammer and Stormshield , Company banner, Apothecary and Lightning Claw and combi-flamer dudes.

The Combi-flamer was made by trimming a Stormbolter to fit the flamer nozzle and tank.

The next model is the Salamander/Lysander conversion which I will hope to show in a few days time as that progresses.

Salamanders Continued......

Right Munky fans I am back!
And I am back with some more Salamanders, this time in the shape of a Command squad, some Terminators and a Lysander conversion to boot.

And after them comes the Blood Angels, featuring a 10 man squad of Death company and a Death company Dreadnought too.

The reason I have been a little delayed is this chap, a Swarmlord!
The eagle eyed amongst you will spot the left and right handed Bonesabres, I have been dabbling with casting my own components in resin.

Over the last few months I have been collecting the necessary equipment to do this and testing it all out.
The left handed Bonesabre has been sculpted by me and cast in Resin.

Now I would like to ask YOU my readers what sort of resin products you would like to see, I am considering all sensible ideas, components , scenery and gaming/tournament aids???

I you can spare the time to leave some thoughts I'd really appreciate it.

Regards

Munky

Sternguard Complete, and the final post of 2010!

Seasons greetings everyone, I hope the bad weather isn't affecting you too much this Christmas!

I can't quite believe it's only a few days away, where does the time go!

Anyways I have put some serious time in today and got these fellas finished, alas as I type I have just realised I forgot to highlight the Black on the models, never fear though I'l get that done straight away!

I am really happy with how the freehand has come out, it's all thanks to some great articles over at F.T.W. namely the following, an excellent tutorial on Space marine lens's and this was superb for the freehand, there is a better link in Ron's tutorials but at the moment the link is broken, but it is there.

I've really enjoyed the freehand on these especially getting the numbers right on the kneepads, that was pretty cool to do that, and it's certainly taught me a thing or two!

Here is a closer view for those who like eye candy!

Once again a big thank you to all you Salamanders players out there your pictures in google search have been a great inspiration for these models.

And that leaves me to say goodbye to you in 2010! I hope you all have a great Christmas break and I'l be back on song in the new year for sure!

Sternguard WIP

From Space Marines

Well it's not much to look at but it's all I have managed this week, it seems to be getting harder and harder to get decent time on the models.

These fellas are still only about 70% done, the left hand Marine has had all the green highlights done as a test to see how the colours work.

They still need the bone/parchment finishing and the little details, then I will have some freehand to do for the Veteran symbols on the shoulders, and the banner will have some flames running up it as well.

I am pleased with how they are coming along but I am still struggling to find a quick way of getting a good base that is easily shaded and then cleaned up without having to apply 2-3 coats of Snot Green.

I am thinking of trying a mix of Snot green and a foundation paint to give smooth single coat coverage, it's an issue that has plagued me for ages, I am not fast enough period!

This will be the last post until the new year I will post the finished pics here for everyone before I have a nice festive break.
And so to everyone who reads or posts here.

MERRY XMAS

Whirlwind Hyperios complete

Hello Munky fans!

I will apologise for the long delay inbetween posts, I have been feindishly busy.....not with my hobby though!

Real life has been butting its ugly head into my free time lately and has hampered me doing anything in at any sort of pace.

But I got there in the end and finished the Whirlwind off, it has magnetized roof panels and cupolas so it can be used as a Rhino as well, these were as per the customers instructions.

I actually enjoyed this project mainly because I haven't fully completed many vehicles before and it taught me some very handy lessons, mainly that GW vehicle kits need a tonne of work before the joins look good, I had to break out the filler more than once.

And another thing I had to do some digging about in the wonderful files over at Bolter & Chainsword on the history and details regarding the Salamanders chapter and their iconography and history.

A massive thanks to the guys over there for helping me out bigtime!

I have one more unit to complete for the Space Marine commission, it is a squad of Salamander's Sternguard veterans.

These chaps have been built out of Forgeworld resin parts and some bits I have scratch built, namely the Bolters.

These were made from Scout bolters with the hand and ammo clip shaved off and a clip made from Terminator Storm Bolter glued on in place, I think they look pretty much like the Special issue Bolters on the metal Sternguard models.

Stay tuned for an update as I get these fellas splashed with green.

Mid winter madness!

From Blogger Pictures

As some of you may be aware the British winter has arrived and the snow!
Now where I live in the south of England we are lucky to get even a few inches of snow, but this week we have had about 12-15 inches.

It's caused chaos, the poor lorry driver in the above picture couldn't get his car moving so he brought the cab home, only to have it slide out of control up the kerb and get stuck in the soft verge.
I saw the Police man arrive and try to tow him out with the 4x4 but they seemed to be having no luck, off I went with my spade to see what could be done.
Alas not much, the lorry had dug its wheels right into the earth and the Police 4x4's clutch had failed .....oops!

Once back in the warm I thought i'd get some more done on the Space Marine commission:

From Space Marines

I have completed all the smaller components so far including the two cupolas and the two top plates and Hyperios launcher.

The launcher and cupolas are magnetzed to washers glued in the body of the Rhino chassis, whilst the top hatch's are done with a magnet to magnet connection.

More on this soon as it nears completion.