Wednesday, 29 June 2016

"We're Not Going Anywhere, Orac, Until You Give Me Straight Answers..."

"Orac, what proof do we have that Blake is on Gauda Prime?"
This diminutive 28mm model of "a Box supercomputer", is produced by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought together with "a female psychic, full of hatred for the Federated Security" and her “computer expert” companion as code SKU: Deal 44 from the company’s Future Freedom Fighters range. “Programmed with its creator’s irascible personality” the tiny metal sculpt makes a terrific proxy for Ensor’s “most advanced [computer] in the galaxy” as first seen in the March 1978 "Blake's Seven" television episode "Orac”.

Initially undercoated with “Vallejo” White, the mobile super-computer was washed with Pale Grey, before being dry-brushed with more White. A few of Orac’s ‘whistles and bells’ were then predominantly ‘picked out’ using a combination of Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.
Human Torch WIPs - Johnny Storm's flames have been base coated, shaded and dry-brushed 
 In addition to completing another miniature for the next instalment of my long-running “Alien Verses Blake’s Seven” campaign, I have been merrily progressing this “Heroclix” model of the Human Torch. I have now managed to not only finally base coat all of Johnny Storm’s flames with “Vallejo” Heavy Orange. But have also found the time to glaze each of these areas with “Citadel” Bloodletter and subsequently dry-brushed them with more “Vallejo” Heavy Orange.

As a result the founding member of the Fantastic Four, whose painting was motivated by the superhero’s inclusion in the Dice Masters” Avengers verses X-Men starter set, now needs only to have his flames highlighted with some yellow in order to be finished, and ready for the tabletop.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle WIPs - Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo have been under-coated
Similarly inspired by “Wizkids” recent release of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Dice Building Game, as designed by Mike Elliott and Eric M. Lang, I have finally moved three of the ‘heroes in a half-shell’ models I bought from “My Way Miniatures” up my painting queue.

These delicate resin figures of Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo were rather painstaking to put together. But are definitely worth the effort once the super-glue has dried. Having had my arm twisted by the likes of Andy at "Da Gobbo's Grotto" and Bryan at "Vampifan's World Of The Undead" I've actually bought all four of the martial artists, along with Shredder and a number of his henchmen, courtesy of "Greebo Games". 

38 comments:

  1. Hahaha good to see the boys getting a run out Simon ;-)

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    1. Thanks Andy. Its taken a while but the TMNT "Dice Masters" set has finally got the ball rolling, so to speak. Plus "Crooked Dice" have released their stats for "7TV2".

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    2. Omg!! **highpitched squeal!!**

      Just downloaded them for reading later on, after I spent all that time designing my own too - haha, I wonder how close I got?

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    3. Thought you'd be excited ;-)

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    1. Cheers PulpCitizen. Ace is coming along nicely too ;-)

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    2. I see what you did there!

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    3. I've always got plenty of "Black Tree Design" "Doctor Who" minis on the painting table, my friend :-)

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  3. Another post full of eclectic figures. Great work, Simon. I'm chuffed to bits that you're finally painting the Turtles. Thanks for the heads up about the 7TV2e stat cards for the TMNT. I've just downloaded them and will print them out later today. I'm so happy to see official stats for them, which in no way is meant as a slur to the excellent work Andy did on creating his own versions.

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    1. Tbh Bryan I was pretty close with my guesswork so quite happy with that!

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    2. Cheers Bryan. As you can probably tell "Dice Masters" is really directing my mini painting currently, and the "TMNT" boxed set contains all the characters I've recently bought.

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    3. You could always rename your stats to the Teenage Mutant HERO Turtles, Andy ;-)

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    4. Wash your mouth out Simon!!

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  4. WHat a shame "Orac" was not cast in clear resin! Still this looks pretty good and I am sure it will serve you well.

    I am a big B7 fan. So absolutely brilliant to see.

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    1. Thanks Clint. I must confess I was disappointed it wasn't in some sort of clear(ish) plastic myself. Still it did make it quite simple to paint. Thought the buttons were a swine on account of being so small!!

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  5. Where else could you aee ORAC, the Human Torch and Ninja Turtles in the same post. Excellent work on ORAC - of course I'm now tempted to try and create my own using all those bits of clear plastic I've been saving - hmm, some fuse wire and a frosted plastic bead...something to ponder, methinks.
    The Torch is lovely, but I wish people would stop posting those damned turtles! I can feel my resolve weakening, especially when looking at Greebo's 'wartarts'...

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    1. Cheers Jez. I aim to mix up my contents in order to cater for one and all :-) Sadly you'll be seeing a lot of "TMNT" over the coming weeks as I dip into the "Dice Masters" game and get thoroughly inspired to paint the minis as a result!!

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  6. I'm feeling quite chuffed with myself, knowing all the characters you've featured on this post !
    Love the paint-job you've done on Orac and looking forward to seeing what you do with the others too

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    1. Thanks Joe, and I'm delighted you've recognised them all. Orac was a simple but fun piece to paint up. Hopefully the others won't be too far behind being finished.

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  7. Nice little Orac figure, I see what people are saying, it would have been nice if it was in clear resin, but then how do you paint the internal parts, Jez's idea appears about the best but no good on a commercial fig.

    Anyway good work on J'Storm he should be stunning once he's finished (another figure that would work well on clear "red" resin perhaps).

    Those trutles have a real cartoon look to them, they are rather nice, not really my thing, but I look forward to seeing you finish them to your usual high standards.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. I like Jez's idea too. But as you say, it'd make a pretty complicated commercial mini that way... and I was rather pleased to have a model I could paint with a quick undercoat, wash and dry-brush etc :-) Human Torch should be finished in time for posting next week (after my last 'Forgotten Heroes' WIP article), and perhaps once I've finished them, you'll be tempted with some TMNT ;-)

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  8. You mentioned Dice Masters; do you play? I've got a fair-sized collection myself...

    Is it just me - I think that the turtles look a little weedy? I thought that they had more muscles than that...

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    1. Hi Hugh. yes I play a lot of "Dice Masters". In fact its my fave game currently, hence I want to paint up a few appropriate "Heroclix" so I can do a few BatReps using the minis for some of the pics :-)

      The "My Way" turtles are a bit tiny. But there again I don't like the new-look turtles, so I suppose its all down to a question of taste. They certainly won't tower over any of my human-sized minis.

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  9. Great stuff, Simon. I like the look of the human torch in particular.

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    1. Cheers Finch. Johnny Storm is now finished, so I'm hoping to post him up at some point next week :-)

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  10. I hope you go with the classic red cloth colours on all the turtles like in the original comics. They are some really cool sculpts and I'm very tempted to get them myself to paint up for my son as a gift.

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    1. Ah... a true Eastman & Laird fan, Dai :-) I am considering it, even to the point of painting Michelangelo a darker shade of green flesh than the others; as per the colouring of some of the earlier publications.

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    2. I endorse this idea!

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  11. Very, very, VERY nice. The Turtle bug seems to be very prevalent at the moment, and I love these guys: the models are spot on aren`t they. Torch is a very attractive piece, but it is to ORAC that my heart yearns. What a lovely model, and nicely painted too.

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    1. Cheers T, very much appreciated :-) Orac was actually a swine to paint as the detail, unsurprisingly, is very tiny and was hard to pick out using my black outline painting technique. I don't think it really came together until I'd based and flocked it.

      You must blame Andy (Da Gobbo Grotto) for all the TMNT stuff and Bryan "wallet-killer" Scott; as both posted loads of them a few weeks back!!

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  12. hehe, oh I blame Andy, and Bryan and ALL of you: you keep giving me all this eye candy and its turn me into a game fanatic.

    I was thinking just the same, Orac looks awfully hard to paint. You did a lovely job on it. But now want one too :( I want ALL the B7 figs now *sobs*

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    1. "You did a lovely job on it." - Many thanks T :-) I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on painting them!!

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  13. she'll have to save her pennies, or wash up a lot of dishes to save and buy for little this lot hehe. There`s simply SO lovelly much eye candy on the Crooked Dice site.

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    1. That is the problem with "Crooked Dice" Steve, they regularly churn out so many tip top minis, and now they've got a new sculptor it seems to be release after release these days. I'd need to dedicate an entire year to their range to keep up!!!

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