Rob_Jedi

Those ghosts are awesome but ZOMG Cat Ducks!!! they get my vote.

The cacti are from Pegasus Hobbies. I got them through my old local gaming store, they're easy to find on ebay or online. They make 2 sets which are identical but different sizes. Use set 1 for blocking terrain, set 2 is about 1/2 the size so is great for bases. http://robjedi.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/pegasus-hobbies-cactus-1-review.html Here's a look at the different shapes you get.

Look great

Hoffman Avatar Progress It becomes pretty obvious as you try and work out how to base Hoffman's Avatar that he was designed to fit a flat 60mm disc instead of a round lipped base. He'll quite happily even stand without a base with those big feet of his. Problem then was how to base him. I was toying with the idea of him standing on big cogs or maybe another wagon wheel poking off the side of the base. Instead I decided to make a raised deck from coffee stirrers. I split one part to make the raisers filled between them with sand and texture paste and then glued down planks on top. I left a gap just for interest so some grass could poke through and added an animal skull at the front from the bits box. Also added in a small cactus at the back so it matches the rest of my bases. I also decided to rework his feet a bit. I wanted them to look more like talons so I clipped off the spiky bits from the front of his toes and glued them to the knuckle. For the foot overhanging the side I cut it off a bit further back and pinned it back on bending down over the side. Gives a nice feeling that he's digging his claws into the ground as he walks. After priming all the parts over the weekend I didn't have enough time to start airbrushing on the copper but I did have enough time to paint up the base. Lots of drybrushing and washes same as the other ones. As usual you can see bigger pics on my blog

Yeah it seems an incredibly precarious way to ride around, all it has to do is straighten it's arm to break his back... Why couldn't he be in the middle power loader style? Oh well, it's still a cool model.

[h=3]Hoffman Avatar of Voltron... I mean Amalgamation WIP[/h] I finally got my hands on the crazy Avatar version of C. Hoffman on Saturday Here he is all on one well packed sprue. I clipped off all the parts and got to sanding off mold lines. to match the rest of my crew I had to work out where to put in some gems. 1st obvious spot was to drill the eyes out of the face. I used a round rotary bit on the back of the mask to open up the eyes area to fit in the smallest of my green gems. They fit in nicely. I'll glue them in place after painting the mask. The chest of the robot already had a sculpted gem in the middle of it's chest continuing the Iron Man look of the other robots. I drilled this out then used rotary bits and a knife blade to expand the hole big enough to fit the largest of gems I have. I went a bit deep drilling though so had to fill it back up a bit with a cut off bit of sprue. There it fits in just right. After the converting I kept cleaning parts and glued him into his stock pose. He really is quite a beast. Nice presence on the table. The only dissapointments I have is the plastic version of C.Hoffman seems less defined and a bit weedy compared to his metal version. Not that keen on him just being kinda strapped to the robot's arm either. Lastly The design of the feet is a bit weird, and more importantly, doesn't really fit on the top of the base. Surely the sculpter knew what size base this would be going on, yet the very fragile claw tipped feet look destined to get hooked on stuff in carry cases and break off. They also seem very flat which I don't like very much. Maybe I will think of something that extends over the lip of the base for him to stand on or I will redesign his feet.

I've ordered Hoffman's avatar but not sure I'll get Ryle, the mini doesn't really grab me.

Hmm I'll have to check, honestly I don't know that much about my own airbrush. Will see if it has a parts sheet when I get home. ---------- Post added at 03:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:14 PM ---------- [h=3]Hoffman's Crew done ... mostly[/h] I've managed to get everyone in my initial gang done Now just need to get the mobile toolkit and the claw guy done. Here they are: I think I overdid the rust spray on the smokestacks on the Peacekeeper so I'm going to give it a black wash and a bit of metal drybrush to tone it back. [bigger pics on my blog]

[h=3]Painting Wild West Bases[/h] I got a lot of comments about the bases as I've been painting my Hoffman crew so I thought I'd write up something about what colours I use as I do up the next couple bases. The starting point is a few bits of broken coffee stirres, some rocks, a couple plastic cacti from Pegasus Hobbies and a heap of sand. This was given a spray of undercoat, in this case Army Painter undead flesh but white would do. All the ground was basecoated with a nice earthy brown and the cacti with khaki. I actually used a sample pot of house paint for the brown since I had used it for my big base board for my Western town. Drybrushing: a sandy yellow over everything including the cacti. Next a very light drybrush of off white on the larger rocks. Next washes: a bit of Army Painter Soft Tone painted around the rocks and cacti to give a bit of depth. Also a bit here and there on the cacti. Next some Thraka Green wash over the plants. Now some Strong Tone washes over the wood planks and a bit more defining around the rocks.. Using a warm light grey I picked out the planks a bit for that weathered look. Now using grass tufts I give the bases some foliage. It's a good idea to have the minis on the base when you do this so you don't get the grass obscuring the figure. All done. Finally paint the edge whatever colour you like, I've gone classic black. Now I just need to get the minis finished. [As always you can see bigger pics on my blog http://robjedi.blogspot.com/2013/05/painting-wild-west-bases.html ]

[h=3]C.Hoffman finished and some basing WIPs[/h] I finished up Hoffman's exo frame on the weekend and attached it to his back and base. I made it a bit brighter than the mostly copper of the other robots so far. I may yet highlight them a touch more. What do you think of having little gems on the ports on his carapace? I'm a bit undecided at the moment so they aren't glued in yet. Worked up some basing for these 3 using the same materials as the rest. A few placed rocks, a couple bits of coffee stirrer split in two and some plastic cacti from Pegasus. I'll do a separate post with the stages of painting them up and the colours I used. [as always you can see bigger pics quicker on my blog http://robjedi.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/choffman-finished-and-some-basing-wips.html]

Where has he broken? I'm guessing just bellow the hips, that part seemed way too thin and fragile. I've put a bit of glue on there a few times hoping they'd stop twisting.

Bit more progress on the crew, painting till the wee hours of the night with the last Star Trek movie playing in the background getting me eager to see the new movie. I've pretty closely followed the official paint scheme for Hoffman himself cause it does actually go well with my metallic colour scheme I'm painting the robots. I've also added some grass tufts to all the bases. So the Mechanical Attendant is now finished and glued down to his base. As you can see the experiment in the sparkly gems on the minis has worked quite nicely, they're hugely reflective and just shine under pretty much any light. I've put a bunch on the Robogear spider to give the look of a Jumping Spider's face. These are the source from a local dollar store if you missed the Robogear Spider post. Lastly I bought the last two robots for Hoffman's crew a Mobile Toolkit and a Warden. The toolkit was damn fiddly to clean up and glue those fragile arms. I've drilled out the eye and chest power gem things to later put my gems. The last spindly guy is Jeeves, the clockwork robot from Reaper. I've lopped off his tiny head to later put a big gem there instead. I have no idea what to use him for but may as well paint him with the rest of the steampunk robots. Oh I have to recommend the primer I used on these guys Mr Surfacer 500, it sinks like hell (leave it to dry overnight outside) but it's coverage in a single spray is very good and it really dries close to the surface without obscuring detail like a lot of sprays do. [if you want to the pics a bit bigger view the update on my blog] http://robjedi.blogspot.com/2013/05/hoffman-c-hoffman-at-your-service.html ---------- Post added at 12:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ---------- Something I've got ticking in the back of my mind to do after finishing the crew is to do up a building with Hoffman's workshop. Like Emmett Brown's barn in Back to the Future 3. Anyone have good idea's what the sign on the building should say?

Not sure about the UK but I can show you the compressor I bought for around $100 on ebay, I've seen bundles which include a double action airbrush and hose as well.

This is pretty much the 2nd time I've even tried airbrushing minis. I'm hardly experienced at it, and kinda worried the Tamiya paints are going to rub off... I can only say give it a try.

http://robjedi.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/they-said-airbrushing-was-easy-hoffmans.html After the fun packed day of Free Comic Book Day and a concert of Axis of Awesome with my friends I got stuck into painting the crew. Following on from the bizarre order I've done a lot of my western minis I started by painting the bases. Guess I was putting off setting up the airbrush as well. here they've all had a base coat of earth brown on the ground and khaki on the cacti here they are again after a bunch of drybrushing and some washes to define areas like the rocks and the cacti for more colour and a bunch of darkening and weathering on the wood painting on streaks of grey and washes of dark brown. They still need flock though which drove me nuts cause I couldn't find where the damn stuff was hiding I did find the grass clumps though which was enough to finish off Bette Noir's base so I could stick her down and call her finished. (That's one down for my McMourning Crew) Everything was given a base coat of Tamiya flat black. I think I should have used the single action airbrush for this, using my fine tip double action took ages to do. Also I really should have given them a coat of MrSurfacer or some other primer 1st, I think this stuff may rub off down the track. Hopefully a finish lacquer will hold everything down at the end. Next step I had hoped to spray the highlight areas with copper leaving dark recesses. That didn't work out. The metallic paint behaved very differently and was quite spitty. So I had to basecoat everything in copper instead. quite a bit of temp basing and clamps were used to hold on to the models while spraying. The next day in a marathon session I thinned down flat black and airbrushed in shading all over the models. Now this is very new to me so I may have gotten carried away but I was spraying rivets and crevices and panel lines and adding shadows underneath. It gives a very different look to just using washes for shading. The helper robot is the closest to finished. I've added a bit more copper on the round surfaces and a touch of brass for highlights. Then I used boltgun metal to add some contrast with some steel areas. I've also added one of the green gems for his eye to see how they'll look. Very very bright in real life. The rocket blast was really relying on the airbrush for the right look. I started with a coat of yellow all over by brush over the white primer. Then I airbrushed on some Citadel orange ink around the bottom of the flames and over the base. Then I painted some raised areas with a touch of yellow with a brush. Along with the shading on the models I went in with the black and airbrushed black onto the smoke clouds around the flame column. Each blob was carefully sprayed leaving orange in the gaps. The Watcher still has a ways to go but it already looks striking perched on the rocket blast. Lastly I started painting Hoffman himself. [worked out what wasn't working before so have tried again to copy and paste in my post]