I Need a New Spray-Varnish

Unlike many of my photos, the poor quality here is due to too much varnish blurring the models rather than shoddy camera work

My spray-varnish broke a nozzle late last year, and I thought I could use up the remaining varnish by holding the nozzle bit over the can and pressing down. This was good enough for the last round of varnishing, but this time I massively overdid it on a couple of models and ended up with fuzzy grey patches. Argh. Now I have to not only spend money on more varnish but also repaint these chaps to fix the harm as best I can.

Keep reading, there's more news under the break.

My current 'Operation Cupboard Cleanup' has morphed into a frantic 'Operation Make Room For the Ghosts of Gaia Kickstarter Gunny Pets' and things have got worse since I ordered 5 'Mechs off ebay for £10 (There were 4 unseens! Those go for like, £15+ each!). I expect delivery courtesy of the Parents in a couple of weeks. Even if I didn't have a job and a social life this would be a tall order. 

The lesser-known 13th task of Herakles was to get Zeus's toy soldiers ranked up properly

The hoplites are coming along rather well. 6 more are finished bar gloss varnish over the transfers, bringing the total to 10. My two shield-curtains were painted after photos were taken, so you'll have to wait until the next update to see those. 

"I look down on him because he is middle-class"

I've got a sort of production line going, with one batch glued, one batch sprayed and on the painting corks. I don't assemble any more models until the cork batch are painted and the assembled ones have been undercoated.

Next batch ready to begin. I've tacked the shields to the corks so I don't forget who's arms is who's.

For the sake of tokenism I've added one of the Bad Squiddo heads to an unarmoured figure. I believe the Victrix Athenian hoplites box has a helmet-holding arm, so other women will probably be idly-armoured types for some income variation. I doubt hoplites would have gone without helmets if they could afford them. 

The exciting models from the newly assembled batch with a boring figure for scale

I've decided to post more half-finished pics to the blog. The instinct is to post only the 'best views' of models, finished and based, but looking back over the blog I find it comforting to see the progress I've made before my eyes rather than endless perfect people. It's not the destination but the journey or something like that.

Only progress on this lot since last update has been another layer of highlights on the elf's white tunic

As the Kings of War super-tournament ('Clash of Kings') will be taking place within travel distance (Stockport) this year, I've decided to buy a ticket and take the Normans out for another showing. I look forward to applying the lessons I learned from the last tournament: fewer characters, another cannon (may need to buy one), maybe combine the shield-walls into large hordes rather than single regiments. I am also excited to learn that Mantic have finally got their act together and added a unit to represent my Angry Beavers (may add more beavers from Bad Squiddo Game's latest kickstarter for this).

A few more stragglers finished off

So it looks like the plan to not buy any more models is going down the pan. Still, tournament not until October, so I can order them for Birthday (July) and still make a dent in the plastic pile.

I assembled the Hellbringer (centre, right) with detached torso so it can twist in action. The Summoner (left) was already assembled and I don't want to risk taking a hacksaw to it.