Lizzie's Lizzie's Everywhere...

... and not a drop to drink. But really - who would want anything, let alone water, from these tough guys? In celebration of the new Lizardmen book coming out in 2 weeks, I submit the following images of some recently painted skinks:

Though they be little, they be fierce

I was referencing a number of images from my trips to the zoo for these fellas. Skinks are spritely, so I looked to tree frogs and other small lizards. The colors had to be dialed back a bit from real life - you just can't make up things that wild and my worry was that too much color on the tabletop would be distracting... or froot loopy.

These guys were built up slowly in thin glazes. I didn't spend too much time highlighting as they're only core troops, so stay tuned. The best is yet to come.

Below are some conversions I've begun. The theme of the army was originally going to be a Bayou Blues sort of thing. That's been shelved, but the green-stuffed guitar was too much fun and I'll be seeing this guy through to completion. His neighbor, the amp-holder, isn't pictured.

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Continuing the Cryx Seether

Second coldest day of the year and for some reason, I'm inspired to work on an army whose principle motif is death... fun! So my model is stripped and has been pulled into its constituent parts. Time to prime.

Now my basement and I have a history of priming with spray paint together. It's not by choice - this stuff turns to a watery mess in the winter weather. But spray-priming in the house has it's detractors as well. I'll recreate a few of them in pictorial form:

All's well aside from a lite-headedness and the

taste of citrus fruit even though I haven't eaten any.

The wife comes home... we should still be good - and

even though I'm poisoning us both (her especially

since there's only one respirator), I'm sure she will

be very reasonable - it's for a good cause.

Wait... that doesn't seem quite right. Maybe the fumes created a temporary forgetishness because I think it was more like:

Bullseye! Yeah that's the one. I still haven't

fixed my hair or that painting on the wall.

Ah the memories...

and the memories you can erase with aerosol.

No no. my wife is very understanding. I'd just rather keep us both away from all the risks that California has figured out and printed on the can labels: deformity, disease, death... hey! just like the Cryx!! Anywho... hand-painted priming it is.

First I clean up all the mold lines. Privateer Press does an amazing job. Their models are incredibly detailed, so I won't give them a lot of flak over the considerable filing that needs to be done.

After each piece is shiny-happy-smooth, it's on to the priming. I use a bit of GW Skull White and cut it with about 25 percent water. Too thin and you'll get bubbles and poor adhesion, too thick and you'll lose some detail.

On more simple models, I would probably reassemble and begin to paint, but this Seether is a special little Nancy with a ton of delicate little dressings. I'll start painting a number of these pieces separately and will bring them together a little bit later in the process.

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Cryx - The first to come clean

Cleaning Cryx this fine freezing evening... because if you want to stay warm in Wisconsin, it's a good idea to head to your basement and poor concentrated solvents and cool water all over your hands. I think that's how Frank Lloyd Wright bit it.

In any case - here's how I started to strip... my Jack...

the offender - a Cryx Seether Warjack

Occasionally I have to use some other solvents, but it always starts with my personal favorite: Simple Green. I bathe metals for as short as a few hours to as long as a day - Plastics can corrode a bit in this stuff over time, so in their case, cut it in half with water and soak for the same length of time. After soaking, get your girlfiend/wife's toothbrush and start scrubbing. You may not want to let them attempt to clean their teeth with the brush after you are done, but this is not an ethics blog; I'll leave those decisions to you. I found that the paint on my model was particularly difficult, so I soaked the mini for a further two hours in turpentine. Never soak a plastic mini in a strong oil-based solvent like turp - you will make plastic soup after your figure is entirely dissolved. If a plastic mini has a paint/prime that doesn't want to come off in Simple Green, dip your toothbrush in some turpentine, brush the mini, and immediately wash it thoroughly with water.

Even after all the soaking and spouse-based toothbrushing, I still had some bits of crud on my Seether, so I picked it off with a sharp dental tool. Crazy? Maybe, but I don't want bits of junk under the layer of primer that is forthcoming. I pulled apart the model, cleaned off the largest chunks of dried superglue, and was left with this:

a nice clean pile of metal

Somewhere, some poor painter just felt a twinge of pain - his work erased.

Tomorrow is nerd night out at Misty Mountain Games in Madison, but I'll be anxious to work on this some more in the near future.

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Madison Games in Middle Earth

I'm a big fan of the tabletop community in my home town of Madison, Wisconsin. There's a great bunch of guys in the local Warhammer Fantasy gang at http://www.wwhfb.com/ and the Warmachine/Hordes crew at and http://www.gearsandguts.com/ . The Warhammer Fantasy board has been kind enough to allow me and a friend to harangue it's members about another Games Workshop line based on a little known book and movie franchise entitled "Lord of the Rings". I've been trying to get a group of gamers together to play a specific LotR game type called Battle Companies... it employs stat tracking and fast paced game scenarios that allow you to build a force of customized killers over time. Last week at our local haunt, Misty Mountain (apt, isn't it?), we played some games and doubled our player base!!! That's right... there are four of us now.

Pictured below left is the big-cheese-with-the-small-legs of my main Dwarf force, and his pal who can't stop upsetting my opponents by hewing off all their limbs:

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Cryx - A Nightmare in Progress

Privateer Press makes intriguing models. I've wanted to try my hand at the Iron Kingdoms for some time and when a friend wanted to unload his Cryx army, I oblidged. The paint job on these death machines was... well... intriguing works as a descriptor here too.

I'll be working to get this guy up to Midloo standards. Stay tuned for the process and some pics.

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Purpose:

We'd all like to think we have oodles of it. This blog isn't like you and me however... It's sole focus will be to house my trials and tribulations in the world of miniatures. Thanks for stopping by!

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