Tuesday 9 December 2008

068 'Frosty the Artilleryman' - and other songs.

Well then.

Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts, words and sympathies in my dark hour of need since the calamitous frosting of my basilisk/griffon combo, 'Ubique'. Your suggestions and comiserations have been filling me with hope. Thank you all!

Just to remind you (and me), here's what Ubique did look like:
And here are the pics of Ubique now, along with some other stuff I'll discuss below (simply because it was on my desk):


Note, incidentally, that the griffon mortar component did not frost - I suspect the frosting was due in part to the day's temperature, and as the mortar was metal it was already colder than the plastic components. (Ought I to have refrigerated the blasted thing first?!)
You'll note the following things surrounding my frosted vehicle, most of which were the result of me unearthing my box marked "cavalry":

- My part-converted (and tactically abandoned) Cadian rough riders;
- My almost finished and slightly transport-damaged WFB Empire knights (with converted Warrior Priest);
- My part-converted Arbites on bikes. These I got from an eBay win, and they're a great idea - especially in the wake of the recent BoLS Arbites codex!
- A corgi sketch by Kate.

Closer pics of the first three of these are below:


...Battle report coming soon...

Thanks again for your help, and thanks for stopping by!

- Drax

9 comments:

  1. It doesn't look as bad as a scout squad i had once upon a time. they looked like actual snowmen with guns sticking out

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  2. I actually think that the frosting effect on your big guy looks pretty cool! Am I alone? In a situation like this there are a few options... Firstly we can try to rectify the situation with a few techniques that can sometimes be very effective. Secondly we can just accept its fate. Or finally, and don't throw me out to the wolves just yet, but maybe this frost effect can be a positive thing? I mean your 24th could hail from an icy location, and the frosting could simply be the remnants of a cold morning as the Guard are moving to destroy an enemy. Don't worry I will walk myself to the wolves...

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  3. I've always been afraid to varnish my models, as my first attempt at varnishing gave a mottled sheen to the model that I think ruined it.

    Although sometimes it's hard to tell from the photo, I'm not convinced it's unsalvagable. Perhaps you could drybrush it with a light gray or khaki color to make it look like dust? (either urban or desert) I think turning the frosting into weathering of some kind is your best bet.

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  4. I'm going to see if I can save my "frosted" mini with a tip I learned and I'll let you know about the results.

    Here's to hoping it will work... mainly because I don't like the weathering idea personally. We all know what frost looks like... it's too hard to hide.

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  5. Well, it's not as bad as I thought from the first post read. I htought it was gone form what you said. I think you'll be able to salvage her. Maybe Ron will saving grace us all and find a way to save em. If not frost em all and change em to the 69th Frozen Tundra squad. Gotta make some lemonade somewhere out of the lemons. I think you'll be able to fix it though.

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  6. It looks like actual weathering (which i guess it techinally is) shame you won't have Vallahallans.

    I hope you can salvage them Drax

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  7. If worse comes to worst, I suggest you fill the model with explosives, take it out to your back yard, and blow it to smithereens. Make sure you videotape it high speed cameras from multiple angles so as to record it for posterity. No sense in letting it go to waste.

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  8. Thanks, Chaps.

    I think, given suggestions in my last post especially, that I might be able to salvage 'Ubique' - I'll certainly give it a go before stripping the old girl.

    Sadly, I'm not keen on the 'weathering' nor the 'tundra' look - at just wouldn't fit.

    Still, tempting though ypur idea is, Darkwing(!) I don't think I'm quite at that stage. I did used to do that with my old model aeroplanes though (for those of you in the US: although we have very strict gun control over here, it's still easy to get fireworks throughout the nation each November, and when I was a teenager we used to stock up on powerful chinese bangers each year. I think they've been outlawed now, sadly!).

    Still: SOMEBODY SHOULD DO THIS!

    Well-ish painted Leman Russ + contrived cuts to weaken the superstructure + explosive + fuse = great youtube video. C

    Can anyone persuade Fritz over at Siam-Hann? He likes his videos...

    Bah. I suppose it's a bad example to our younger readers anyway. Don't try this at home, kids.

    Enough rambling. I'm off. Thanks!

    - Drax.

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  9. Look on the bright side, if you blow it up and whatch it through a tube there will be a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

    I am just glad it wasn't you WIP salamander thingy.

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!