Topics

1

General Ranting / Real-life dragons found... And its NOT april 1st...

« on: December 06, 2011, 01:01:14 PM »

REmeber that regular debate about how dragons with wings and 4 legs is silly and cannot be explained by evolution?

Seems that Charles Darwin has just stomped all over that arguement;
http://scienceblogs.com/sciencepunk/2010/02/real_life_dragon_discovered.php



OK, so we still dont get the giant dragons swooping around breathing fire, hoarding gold and putting damsels in distress, and they are also quirte small too, but they always seemed to be secondary arguments to the 6-limbed lizard thing...   

And no.  You cant find them and stomp them to claim you still win the arguement!

2

Doctor Who / Tailer for Doctor Who Christmas Special

« on: November 19, 2011, 04:30:05 PM »

Been a bit quiet and theres been a shed load of tosh about a movie that people are saying will lead to the end of all things...  despite it having not been written or made yet...

So here's the trailer for this years Christmas Special from last nights children in need;
http://youtu.be/gxIPj2b7h0E

3

Movies/TV/Music Zone / On second thought it is a very silly place

« on: June 12, 2011, 08:05:36 AM »

So last nights feature length episode of the new Channel 4 sexed up Authurian tale.  Camelot (Its only a CGI model).

I wasn't expecting much, and TBH am continuing the search for decent televisual arthurian viewing (still rotating back to Monty Python and E$xcalibur).  But that said I did rather enjoy this one, and not even due to the gratuitous and uneccesary nudity (so many boobs on disply I thought it was frothers).  It manages a bit of the mysticism, some decent political machinations, a whole heap of visions and prophecy.  Eva Green as Morgan le fay (phworrrrrr), and Sean Pertwee (fans of Pertwees career to date will be reassured that he dies before the end of the opener!)

It looks relativly grubby as it should (not like the BBC Themepark that is Merlin), and so far very little sigh of all the armour plate and the like added into the mythology by the victorians, so far this is clearly a dark ages setting, but leavining it undated is probably a wise move.  They even managed a couple of nods towards the Borman Excalibur too, which is good in my book.

Weakest point.  Arthur...  Seems a bit young and whiney at the moment, but considering the point of his story being covered that might actually just be acting, and will have to watch more to see if the character develops. 

On the whole its OK, and I would certainly be going back for more.

Anyone else watch it?

4

Doctor Who / The Doctors Wife (SPOILER INSIDE)

« on: May 03, 2011, 12:56:03 PM »

So Neil Gaimen has posted the cover of the Doctor Who magazine dealing with his epidoe 'The Doctors Wife'...  A bit of a spoiler here as it seems to imply that the cover photo is of the lady in question;





http://www.whosay.com/neilgaiman/photos/26685?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150176526074637_16249167_10150176529169637#fb27dc1070794e

5

Movies/TV/Music Zone / Outcast?

« on: February 14, 2011, 10:23:28 PM »

Outcasts on BBC.  So the Beeb are really rushing them through with 8 episodes and 2 a week.

On the whole its non too bad, decent acting, nice setting.  Although I do have a serious tech-nag at the back of my mind at the absence of some relativelyminor technologies that should be well-within he capabilities of an FTL Space Faring humanity (such as...  wheels for one thing...)

Anyway, we all know its plot driven absences.

Anyone else been watching this?

6

Suggestions (HF) / Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North...

« on: December 22, 2010, 10:06:16 AM »

TBH I am not sure whether to point this at Kev or Andy...

But the masses are crying out for bystanders...  And a burst of inspiration struck me this moring;

Harriet Jones MP.  Sometimes ally to the Doctor...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Jones


Maybe an optional left arm, for flashing the palimentary pass, or for holding a bunch of flowers that she thinks are for her?

Oh, tyes this would also be useful as an Adventurers mum, someone to be saved for the ravening zombie hoardes...

Then again, a generic bystander, low-ranking politician, reporter, or popular actress on the BBC.  The possibilities are endless...

7

Movies/TV/Music Zone / Solomon Kane

« on: November 24, 2010, 10:57:27 PM »

The DVD club just sent it to me.  Have to admit its been a while since I was so excited as to watch the movie same day as receiving it.

And it paidoff wonderfully.  I love this movie.  Watch it, watch it now.  Then start badgering Andy for some of those demons in miniature, specifically the Mirror demons...  Andy, Mirror demons please...  You only need o watch the opening 5 minutes for them (wish that was on you tube)!

Trailer;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSDZNHYLDOY

OK, I accept that plot-wise its hardly going to tax the gray cells, but there be demon bashing galore and a god-damned west-country puritanical swashbuckling superhero in the lead (James Purfroy), along with some standard cameos from Pete Postlethwaite, Mackenzie Crook and Max Von Sydow...

8

Questions and Answers / Runes...

« on: August 03, 2010, 09:41:32 AM »

Has anyone got aby good references for Runic writing, preferably runes that are easily transferred in a cack-handed half-arsed painting technique and still remain vaguely legibubble.

I need to paint the hem of a wizardy robe and I wanted to put some runic script in it.

9

Movies/TV/Music Zone / Walking Dead. TV series...

« on: July 25, 2010, 02:21:27 PM »

Footage from Comic.con, the Trailer for the TV Show of the Graphic Novels...  Lots of direct page to screen scenes there;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHN6goQTP9k

And hang on a minute.  Thats wootsisname off Teachers???

10

Suggestions (HF) / For Halloween and other fun times

« on: October 22, 2009, 04:59:05 PM »

I dont really like making suggestions because quite frankly most of them have been said before.

But.



http://www.joke.co.uk/fancy_dress/ghostbusters_sexy_80s_halloween_costume~30231.html?ref=awin&source=AFFWIN&awc=854_1256230531_6bf8dd9091942dde91d334db71e37a22

Who are you gonna call?

11

The Colouring-in Room / Cartoon Zombie skin...

« on: August 28, 2009, 09:10:28 AM »

Most of the zombies I have been painting recently have been somewhat less than 'fresh'.  Oh sure I have a few that are pink and bloody...  But it seems that my mindset has been for greens and purples in skin tone. 

For example, a nearly complete fella (just need to dirty him up a little and brownwash the blood splats to age them...)


Now, my question is. 

I am now doing the zombie mime.  And found that uncontrollably that I am using a much brighter green, and the mini has a slightly more comic-look.  Which I think really suits the miniature, but would look slightly out of place...  TBH, I think I am going to go with it anyway, but wanted to gauge the general opinion in here...




As an aside.  Add a back-pack, a walking stick and alter the hat slightly...  Zombie Wheres Wally!!!

12

Ideas for New Heresy Models / Ganger Gun Hands

« on: July 08, 2009, 09:40:05 PM »

Just a thought Andy...  Burt why not sell the Ganger handguns with hands as a shop item?  The would be ace for quick and easy conversions and the McDaddy with Silencer is rock and roll, I really want a few, and really liked the original revolver and standard McDaddy that came out with the first round of Gangers

For example they could be used with Eccles and Masterson, a simple hand swap to make a completely different model useful for RPG PC's and the like?

Why not?  Its hardly like you have to do them up special?  Would this be a simple and easy fix?

13

General Ranting / Lost function on the FoD?

« on: July 01, 2009, 07:27:06 PM »

Is it just me or has the ability to scan unread posts only disappeared?

Or have I done something to my settings without realising?   

14

Ideas for New Heresy Models / Doctor Hugh wishlist…

« on: June 11, 2009, 08:34:48 AM »

Now I know this list has been done to death, but for my money, the following is a short list of possible Doctor Hugh miniatures that I would like to see.  I have tried to incorporate the subtle hints dropped in the past too.

•   Spacesuit Zombie/Dr Soon rogue archaeologist (I figure that with a spacesuit and a head and arm-swap option, this one could cover the whole team…)
•   Curly haired scientist (long scarf, floppy hat and bag of jelly babies?)
•   Lily Taylor, Chav in space, do you like her gun?
•   Wing Commander Jock.  Archaic RAF officer out of his time, but don’t worry he is armed.
•   Action pose Dr Hugh (maybe specs, no coat and sonic multi-tool to make a difference)
•   Scarlett.  The cute but crazy wife of Masterson.
•   THE Master, to complement the curly haired scientist, and with a goatee, because he is eeeeevil!
•   Or at least an alternative; The Headmaster.  Slick haired business suit with perhaps more going on than meets the eye…
•   Armed Guards.  With an option for a beret or a baseball cap, but looking oddly suitable for Earth military circa early 21st century…


Obviously the list can go on and on…  But this is my personal wishlist of favourites that I would prefer to see up front, and which I personally feel would supplement the SciFi range generally too.

Now, how do I go about actually convincing you to do all this?   

15

The Colouring-in Room / Shepard Book

« on: April 20, 2009, 08:24:33 AM »

I think that I have done all I can for the Heresey Shepard Book (paperback edition)...  Being a priest he is of a slightly limited palete.  Very catholic...  Most blacks are dark grey or blue, but only the catholic shops sell BLACK socks...

Andy, if you ever remaster this one, the pose is great, but Book often carried a canvas satchel, that might help offer some colour to the miniature?  I really thought about whether to have a go at adding it myself.  Still hesitating on that one.



Anyway, I need to base him up.  And it is this that I would like to refer to your esteemed opinions.

The options;
Starship.  Deck of the firefly, old, maybe a little corrosion.
Starship.  Nice and clean, clearly Alliance.
Sonework.  As if he was walking a pavement or church floor.
or Outdoors.  A Garden, its established that Book loved his garden on Haven (in the extended scripts...)

I dont think the miniature would look quite right on the deck of a spaceship...  And an tending towards the garden, but this may look a little out of place when put with Kaylee and Mal bot on the old decking of Serenity. 

16

Ideas for New Heresy Models / A big gorram verse of shiney inspiration...

« on: April 07, 2009, 10:24:28 PM »

Andy.  I know you have a lot on your plate at the moment.  But I also know you have plans for additional crewmembers to join the not Firefly crew...

And as it happened I stumbled over a couple of decent websites for inspirational pictures;

You have the standard publicity shots/movie stills here;
http://www.firefly.withoutshadow.com/gallery/promos.html

And for some amusement, some pics turned into successories here;
http://www.bigdamnverse.com/index01.htm

enjoy, and I hope you feel inspired.

17

General Ranting / New Big Bad FOD Banner

« on: March 18, 2009, 01:32:29 PM »

I like the new banner.  Big success as it is rather imposing and eye-catching.

This of course is a bit of a problem for me when surruptitiously trying to browse the FoD at work and my boss sneaks up behind me...   

18

Libertee's Miscellaneous Musings II / Bad Habits Die Harder

« on: March 04, 2009, 09:56:12 AM »

I have a really bad habit.  WIPS.

I get the miniatures with such high intentions, I have great ideas and high ideals.  'This one will be my greatest paintjob ever'.  And then all I need to do is pass the first hurdle that I know we all suffer in taking this metal miniature out of my own personal EU unpainted tin mountain and start work on it.  TBH I dont consider that to be the bad habit.

When I do decide to work on a miniature I will sometimes do a little putty work to personalise at times, and recently really been enjoying this part too.  Most of my conversions and alterations have gone without a hitch and while I still cant sculpt a whole miniature unaided I feel more confident all the time (at least until I see this finished work that looks nothing like it did in my mind...  Again, I dont feel that this is the bad habit either...

Bases are done, sometimes just sand and stone.  Others are raided from the bits-box...  These are painted and prepped often with a specific mini in mind, but I even have a small supply of pre-painted bases.  All done and ready to pick-up and assign to a suitable mini.  Once again.  Dont see a problem with this either. 

My bugbear.  The stumbling block that seems to trip me.  The habit thats started to annoy me is the 'works in Progress' gremlin.  I will take my miniature undercoat, and block out colours, maybe even do some detail, washes, shading, weathering...  But can. I. Finish the thing?  Can I find myself satified that its ready to count as completed.  And before you know it I have another mini on the table reaching the same point...  And before you can say "You stupid idiot, a small army of part-painted metal is just going to ruin your concentration and make it difficult to work in the space you have" thats what I have got.

• I know I dont like painting large units as I get bored. 
  
• I am painting for me really, as I dont game, so am working towards a higher standard than table-top
  
• I get distracted by the new shiney regularly or have a great idea or want a new project to distract me...
  
• I am deliberately trying to avoid this, but it seems my idea of reducing the minis on-the-go is 'to focus on 4, no wait 8, no wait 12, and if I just undercoat these 8 as the next group, now I can base coat them for when I finish the first 12...  Oh no I've done it again...'

Anyone got any tips on combating this problem as I am sure I cant be the only person who does this?

19

Ideas for New Heresy Models / lets hear it for the beer!

« on: January 26, 2009, 01:21:02 PM »

Andy...  While we all know that Big Boris quite coincidentally bears a slight resemblance to yourself...  I had just realised that he also bears a slight similarity to one of our Comedy greats too  ;


Al Murray; Pub Landlord?


Big Boris?

How about an homage somewhere along the way.

20

Random Chat / Question re; Trenchcoat Ganger Armaments...

« on: January 26, 2009, 10:49:25 AM »

Andy.  Its nearly Feb which means I will have some cash finally and will be placing an order.

Now I remember you made a comment about the Gangers having interchangable hands or guns...  and I can clearly see on some of the painted jobs that Bane seems to have multiple had options.  But could not remember the deal here.

Do the gangers come with a choice of hands including ones that are gripping a pistol-grip but can have the Heresey SMG fitted later, or are they sent with pre-moulded wespons attached (as with Banes kick-arse revolver), and if so what are the options for weapons?  are they random?

As I have not seen an exploded pic of the bits its difficult to see just what it comes with?

21

Questions and Answers / Conversion advice required...

« on: December 29, 2008, 05:41:13 PM »

OK, I have been on and off with a set of conversions for the crew of the Jupiter mining ship Red Dwarf (Balgin translation; 'The Hologram, The Scouser, His Cat and their Service Mechanoid')...for quite a while now, but I have been productive this christmas break... 

So while I have most of the organic elements done and nearly painted now based on Heresey miniatures...

Lister;


Rimmer;


Cat;


I extended the crew a touch to include;

Holly;

(Holly is WIP, and of course the eagle-eyed in there may also note that the talking toaster is in there too...)

and George and Mildred the Scutters...

(1 complete and being inked, Mildred is new, I had planned on making a scutter a base ornamentation, but they got upgraded to characters in their own right, but will share a base.)

You will of course noticed that someone was missing...  So onto the subject I wanted advice.  I decided against using the Copplestone robot Butler from the Future Wars range, while perfect for the first intro for Krtten it just was not the familiar image that we all know and love which left me only one option really, and so using the HF dolly as a base I am starting to sculpt one...

Kryten;


Now the question is.  In the right hand I plan on putting a hand-held scanner, as this was the most common bit of kit he used.  But a part of me is considering adding the running 'knob' gag that the show ran and have hime using a vacum cleaner attached to his groin socket...  But a slitly more mature thought seems to think that this might get tired very quickly.

So.  Knob gag or not?  Whats your thoughts?

22

Random Chat / New Guns...

« on: December 28, 2008, 11:36:55 AM »

Andy...  WHile I know you had recentlyu uttered a suggestion regarding new guns for your sci-fi range...  I just wanted to also suggest that you could also do 'varients' of the rifles you already do...

I spent the christmas break doing up a 10 man IG squad as UNIT troopers, and the best fit weapon was the Heresy Assault Rifle and SMG...  And in the process I found myself doing a couple of alterations.

1st; Silenced with a scope lifted off the large Heresy handgun


2nd; And then a compare shot of a silenced and hard stocked version;


These were pretty crappy because I did them...  But for yourself, you could probably replicate these and improve on them in about 3o minutes?  What do you think?

Apologies for the poor photography...

23

Hasslefree / Too late the Kev.

« on: December 12, 2008, 06:38:23 PM »

Well.  There was a sculpting competition and...  I missed it.  Not too upset, the 1:1 scale human we WERE focusing on is coming along nicely at 17 weeks.

However my idea for a Sparta Kevinicus ended up on hold, and admitedly has not prgressed since I took these WIP photos the week before the deadline.  But this morning I recieved a little package from Hasslefree with the old Grymm Greek helmet in.  (Beware Greeks bearing gifts indeed!!!!).  So with, but a short gap to say;

Thanks Sally, Kev and all the little helpers at Hasslefree central...
Allow me to present the mid point of Sparta Kev.




His cloak is nowhere near finisked, and needs to be a bit longer...  He needs a spear still, and a head swap, and then I plan on draping the shield over his back so its a spartan marching to war...

24

Libertee's Miscellaneous Musings II / 1:1 Scale

« on: October 13, 2008, 06:32:30 PM »

Something I just discovered being married to a Chinese national....  It seems that the one-child policy has an interesting side effect, in that prospective chinese parents are far more concerned with the health and welfare of their unborn children...  In that in China there seems to be a common EM shield garment for mothers to be.  To protect the foetus against increasing EM radiation, but most specifically from phones and computers.

And this thing is ONLY really available in China, nothing whatsoever in the EU (despite what their website says)...  To a point where I am suspicious of the effectivness of this garment, especially when combined with western women and what seems to be a far more cavalier approach to pregnancy by comparsion.

How do I know all this?

:pssst:Oh yes.  In addition to the 1:1 scale model house, I am also working on 1:1 scale people to populate it!

 

25

Suggestions (HF) / missing from the martial artists range

« on: October 08, 2008, 05:52:54 PM »

It occurs to me that the Dragon-headed warrior stands out a bit, conspiquous from his species compared to all the other humans, and that really he must be very lonely.  So I put it to you Kev, that what he REALLY needs is a compainion.  A freind or Nemesis.

But who could fill this role?

Could it be Sarge?
...No.

Rosemary, the telephone operator?
...No.



Penry, the mild-mannered janitor?
...Could be!

Oh yes, we need a Hong Kong Phooey tribute!