Conversion plog: Halflings, p6 29/06/14

[Shteve0]

Hi guys

I've been putting together some undead minis lately and recently started playing with them in the league here in Wellington, New Zealand. I'm not keen on playing with unpainted players as a rule, but despite being an enthusiastic converter of plastic teams, I'm both unpractised and slow to motivate as a painter, so am sharing the plog here hopefully as a bit of an incentive to push on with getting them finished up before the end of the season!

First up, i'll introduce you to the figures. Please meet the Gnarl'Em Globerotters!





I figured these guys needed their own case for travelling around in, since they keep getting bashed about in transit (the name is something of a reference to the fact that I'm constantly moving around these days and the unpainted mummy has debased himself twice in the past three months during transporting alone) and, with metal miniatures added to the team recently, I want to prevent chipping as much as possible (since I'm yet to try out varnishing... not that that step is anywhere close yet!). So I picked up a multi purpose compartmentalised plastic box (NZ$10/US$8/GB£5), a sheet of softish packing foam (NZ$3.5/US$3/GB£2) and a pair of scissors, and offer the following end result.



I'm thinking I'll add a logo into the lid there somewhere, once I can work out the best way to do it!

Next, here's some closeups of the minis with a little paint, a little greenstuff work and a lot of kitbashing. I've never been a fan of skeletons and zombies on the same team, so I've intentionally tried to keep a common theme to the minis - at the moment that may not be abundantly clear, but hopefully a consistent paint scheme will pull them together a little more!

I've made a right hash of a couple of faces here, but the skin tone looks really putrid in RL and I'm pleased with the stripes, particularly on no 7's speedos. I painted the first morghul stalker (wight) only this last week but already think I need to revisit - the shadowing on the white smock is entirely in contrast to the shadowing on the zombified ogre (mummy) and ghouls, so does little for team unity, even more so since his kit is so different. That said, I think I'll come back to it last as the cape paint is already so chipped it's ridiculous and it will give me a chance to varnish up before getting a game in with him.

Hope you like what you see, I'll post updates as I make progress!

Cheers, Steve

Zombies Zombies Zombies!



Wights


Ghouls


Mummies


Rerolls


Closeup of trouser stripes

[nonumber]

Nice use of zombie ogres as mummies. The one stumbling block I have when considering an undead team is mummy choice. I'm pretty much the same as you when it comes to a love of choppin' and changin' plastic kits then having to force myself to paint them.

I found varnish only delays the inevitable especially in bloodbowl since there's so much knocking down and picking up going on. But it's worth a shot especially with the metals. I used citadel's purity seal, which you need to use in like one short second-long burst to prevent clouding.

[Shteve0]

Interesting. Have you tried any brush on varnishes? Would be keen to hear how they compare.

[nonumber]

I've used a brush on matt varnish that I just picked up at the art shop but only in spots, I'd advise you to try out anything on a test miniature first. A couple of space marine scouts ended up getting clouded while I got to grips with the purity seal!

[Digger Goreman]

Tried a brush-on of 50/50 "Triple Diamond Glaze" with good results AS LONG AS your paint job is well dried.... It is still thick and can be a little troublesome to brush on... but gives a tough as nails protection to your minis....

Nowadays? I simply use the quick and very effective method of Testor's gloss cote (a few seconds spray to each quarter of a turn of the mini), let dry, and followed by Testor's matte cote.... Haven't had a problem yet....

I also use numbered, colored and labled counters with representations of down and stunned to show my players on the field, putting the mini to the sideline till they get back up.... Saves a LOT of wear and tear on the paint job...!

[Dr. Von Richten]

I use Army Painter's Anti Shine Matt Varnish, which works pretty decent, and even if clouding occurs, I found that if you keep your cool and just wait for it to dry (instead of trying to brush the excess varnish off like the paranoid neurotic that I am ) it pretty much disappears (the clouding, that is).

[Wightlord]

Always found Vallejo's varnish gives good results and is long lasting. I avoid the GW varnish like the plague because of its tendency to cloud up the paintwork.

[Axtklinge]

First of all, congrats for the minis!
Really like how they turned out.
(I have used similar conversions with Mantic minis for other (zombie) games, and they turned out really nice too).
Like you I love the bashing part of the processes, but tend to get a bit ...humm... lazy to get the painting going.

I've been using that "storage&transport system" (aka cheap plastic box with foam) for a few years now, and I'm really glad I thought of that. That little extra effort of the "box build" is totally worth IMO, comparing to the (outrageous) amounts of time I/we spend planning, sketching, converting, painting, playing...
I get the boxes for 4 to 6€ depending on the store and the foam from scavenging other transport boxes (pc components, or other fragile material that comes with soft protective foam).

I like the colour scheme, with those whites contrasting with the dark greenish skin colour of the players.
The red stripes detail is a very nice touch!
As for the 'team unity' I'm sure the base finish will bring them all together, but if in the end of the painting/basing you're still not happy with the unity, you can retouch/highlight all the players with the same tone for a bit more consistency.

Looking forward to see all of those painted!

Cheers,
Axt.

[bound for glory]

now thats what i'm talkin' about! thats a great looking bag of sweetness!

my son wants to say something.
talkfantasyfootball! let me introduce john jr! john, its all yours...

i think it's awsome! the zombies are cool!
thats from my 9 year old boy. he loves everything undead and gory. high praise indeed!

[Shteve0]

Hey guys, thanks for the kind words, I'm thrilled you like them - particularly you, John Jr! I managed to make a little more progress recently, finishing off number 9 and painting up three more to tabletop - I couldn't resist including the zombie thrower parody, even though every time I've put him on the pitch he's ended up pace down in the dirt!

Ax, you're so right with the carry case. I got tired of my minis breaking in transit, and my newly painted wight took a bit of a kicking, chipping in no time at all (I'm still going to go back to that guy at the end, I think). For NZ$13 I've ended up with a great 16 player (or 14 plus rerolls) carry solution, far more convenient for smuggling in and out of work on days when I have a game than the bulky one-size-fits-all GW case! Customisable foam is fantastic too, since you've no qualms about ripping the guts out (how fitting) of $1's worth of foam to keep a specific team in. I'll probably upgrade this team to a larger box in the future and swap this one out for a smaller team, as I add a further 15 figures to complete the "squad" - watch this space

Last but not least, thanks for the varnish suggestions. I've decided to wait until all my figs are painted, based (and possibly retired from league play) before I touch them up and give them a coat of varnish. This talk of clouding terrifies me...

Hope you like!

More ghouls!


Another Zombie Ogre:


My parody thrower!


And finally, an updated team shot. 7 down, 7 (plus counters) to go!

[lithophile]

Looking good Steve.

I look forward to some more progress soon. Tonight perhaps. At my house.

EDIT: First post too, go me!

[Shteve0]

Thanks man! Managed to do more today... thinking I'm very close to being done with this team! It's not the world's greatest paintjob, but I'm pleased with it.

Today I managed to pick up 12 cheap acryllic paints (12ml tubes) from a general tat store - for $8 all in (around GB£4). I figured it was worth a spin, since a single pot of GW paint costs $7 here. The brown was insanely thick, and there's something wrong with the bright yellow (it's extremely gooey and largely transparent, almost like a glaze) but all in it looks like a sound investment.

So, with effectively only basing and varnishing still to go, the Globerotters in all their glory:










Hope you like! Suggestions for player names welcome!

[Shteve0]

Paint bargain!

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1350711502.107179.jpg

[Axtklinge]

The team is looking good, congrats!
I particularly like how dynamic the zombies are.
(Maybe they are "zombie-elfs", but they do look cool!)

The colour codes in the bases are the skills they have?
If so you keep updating their data, right? Is that usual in your league?
Looks very practical games-wise.

Cheers,
A.


Oh, and what a nice deal with the acrylics!

[Shteve0]

Cheers Axt! One of them is indeed a zombie (dark) elf... another is a zombie norse, and a third is a zombie ape (check out 3DB's back episodes for details )

I think it helps my opponents to see at a glance what skills my players have. I'm going to knock out a crib sheet, I think, to keep my opponents up to date on skill colour codes (since we have no established system - several players just use unpainted minis, and to be honest I'm glad just to get a game ) since I really feel like the acid test for a team is how well your opponent can tell the players apart.

As for the bargain bin purchases, the acrylics are a bit thick TBH, but with some trial and error I'm getting some reasonable results. And they've saved me a packet in the process, too! You can see more of the results for yourself below

But first, bare plastics:


The base of the models is obviously the necron warrior kit, augmented with whfb Tomb Guard heads and arms from Wargames Factory's skeleton kit. Fourteen of the players (including blitz-ras and throw-ras) will come from this combination; rounded out by some of Willy's Tomb Guardians recently ordered from Impact. Thanks Tom!

So, while I'm not going to win any painting contests any time soon, please meet the first players of my likely team for next year's season...



Throw-ra and Lineman


Blitz-ra and size comparison (figure on the right is a wight from the Globerotters)



What do you make of the colour scheme? I was saving it for an Amazon team I have in the pipeline (working name was the "Golden Virginians", hence the colour scheme - I have an old tobacco tin earmarked as the team carry case), but I think it works pretty well. Yet to build any other minis, and have a whole load of skeletal support staff on the way - including a skeleton halfling masterchef! - so I figure it's a good time to reflect on paintscheme.

Cheers for dropping in!