Thanksgiving Break 2015

A few days off for Thanksgiving allowed for some hobby time.

I managed to get some primer on a commission I am working on – a unit of 10 Goblin Spider Riders, ready to put paint to them.

Ten primed Goblin Spider Riders for a commission.

In an effort to (finally) finish my Han Chinese DBA army, I put some time in on the three bases of Spearmen, replacing the "spaghetti" lead spears with brass wire ones that I shaped using the wife's jewelry anvil.

Telephone-pole-thick, spaghetti-flimsy original lead spears.

Spear removed.

Two units of the Spear with brass wire replacement weapons. Nice and sturdy.

Bushido Terrain

I also started work on a Bushido terrain piece, testing out a new method, a GW ink called Nihilakh Oxide, to simulate bronze oxidation – a patina or veridigris – on a bronze statue. So far, its working out nice on my test piece. The steps I take to the finished piece are detailed below.

I searched eBay for some appropriate Bushido type statuary, searching for both Japanese and Chinese dragons, and happened to come across this neat little set of six in a red resin finish. They looked nice on their own but I intended to repaint them both as bronze statuary using the GW ink, and some stone statuary (think "Great Stone Dragon" from Mulan!). But to actually own the set became an ordeal...

Six red resin dragons in their flimsy, vacu-formed packaging.

I won the auction and only paid less than $12 including shipping. However, the crappy plastic vacu-formed holder and flimsy cardboard box was placed in a bubble-pack envelope and mailed. Needless to say, the package arrived and all but one piece had been broken.

All but one dragon busted and broken!

Heads and Tails!

Not an issue for what I was gonna use them for, the repair would be covered up by my repaint, but I felt the shoddy packaging deserved a discount so I contacted the seller about it. She gave me a full refund so ended up getting them at no charge! Woot! Next I repaired the pieces with super glue and left off the fiddly little bits, accepting that these stones dragons could have been chipped and broken in a war torn Bushido setting.

Fixed.

Fixed, but showing small broken scales for "Mushu" effect.

For my test piece of the bronze finish, I chose the sculpt that had a duplicate in the set (just in case I "messed it up"), and primed it black. It's a neat little turtle dragon with a little turtle on its back.

The duplicate piece primed black with automobile primer.

Next, came a dry brush with a bronze craft paint to pick out all the details. The color I used was DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Rich Espresso Craft Paint.

Dry brushed.

I'll post more details later...