A late back-log post here, so the usual lack of written content here and more of an image dump. These are the remaining figures from a recent commission - all miniatures are Hasslefree . Dakota Deano Dionne Hassle Jones Pulse Summer Zombie Suzi

A quickie post, just to show-orf my early trials with polymer clay. Something I've wanted to try out for ages, and finally had a try with it while stuck in a static caravan waiting for flooring to get sorted. So, yeah, these are a few months old, but I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. Okay, I know it's not the height of craftmanship, but quite liked the simplicity of the shape - an oblong of clay with a hole (where I added a piece of copper tubing, to add some interest and strengthen the hole, if someone wanted to use it as a pendant.) at the top. Let it air-dry and paint. As you can see, I kept the designs fairly simple; a Cross and a head/shoulders woman, a teardrop. Well, that's it really ... Oh, I used DAS red air-dry clay. No complaints from its initial use. A little water helps smooth it out, but I found it pretty easy stuff to use; although I HIGHLY recommend using gloves, as I found even with the best washing, you'll cover your towels in red clay! ;)

MERCS + CHIEF Some quickie pics of some figures I recently finished. Some better photos will be going on my Flickr page later, but here are a set of models all from Black Scorpion Miniatures: An Native American Chief and a set of Mercenaries. Had a few problems with these, mainly down to the ongoing annoyance of the floor situation (flooring still needs to be sorted and there is pack-up stuff all over the place), so these became a little bogey set. I hated the initial colour I'd painted one of their tabards and some frustration over a gloss finish with a matt over-coat that didn't want to matt properly. Never fun, but they turned out okay in the end. Just. I'm now finishing the last three figures for this commission - one that's taken a while, mostly down to covid, but ... yup ... the bloody floor hasn't helped either. These are a set of Pirate Privateers, I'd already completed one, but just have three remaining. Really nice sculpts, so can't wait to get pa...

I freely admit to being bad at drawing - my sister is the crazy-good (tattoo) artist of the fam - but I still like to sketch occasionally, and this is the result of some recent work. Nothing special, and I need to work on my eyes, but reasonably pleased.  Yup, a quickie post. Should have some model pics uploaded soon, but in the meantime, you'll have to cope with my drawings.

Finished my little side project for some former ice-cream sticks, plus a couple of additional ones too. I have been finishing a set of Mercenaries and a Native American Chief too, but I'll post them in the next few days. Still need to varnish , but their all done, and as I said in my previous post, I'm not too sure what use they may be beyond just being (hopefully) interesting/pretty to look at. They'll be going on the shop soon, probably framed? Not too sure yet. Also decided on another social media stepback/detox? Just don't think it's for me, seems to set me orf on cynicism, feeling down and, ultimately - drinking. Which is never fun. So while I haven't deleted them, I doubt I'll be going back to Twitter anytime soon. And I'm only staying with Facebook until I finish a couple of commissions. Well, don't want to end on too much of a downer, as a result, I might actually start posting regularly here (OoOOOOoooo). Okay, this blog doesn't get many...

With my sporadic painting time at the moment, as well as trying to get some model painting in, I've also started using up a large collection of Ice-cream sticks by painting them. For what? Not entirely sure at the moment; they may find themselves on the shop as just strange micro-art pieces, but you could use them as thick bookmarks? ... okay maybe not. They may look a little better in box frames too. Hmmm - Anyway, this is a quickie post to show them off. I still need to finish the lower areas, but they're pretty much done. I decided to keep them fairly simple, and go for generic fantasy types: Wizard/Mage, Elf, Cyborg, and Lovecraftian creature ... Have a few ideas for others, but for now this is just a sideline while still painting from a suitcase!

I’m slow. In so many ways – make of that what you will, but I’m slow. It’s probably a cheap excuse when you’re a model painter, but model painters are – I believe – not production machines. We have our own styles, prices, times … It’s part of what draws people to commission them. T hey may like the style a certain painter paints, or how quickly they can finish a batch. I’m loathed to class myself as professional ; Not from any selflessness, I certainly don’t see myself as the worst painter in the world, but I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little twinge at fellow artists who have any number of model-painting levels (gaming, display, museum )! Me … I just paint to, what I see as, a good gaming standard. I know that, for a shorty post, this may seem meaningless, but in the past, I would fall behind on a commission or even a self-set limit to get some figure done for the shop, and end up rushing, only to look at the final figures and thinking: shit; THAT coat could use some more h...

As a first real  post; well a post with some content, we'll start with what figures are currently sitting on the paint desk. I'm at the tail-end of a commission at the moment, a commission that has stuttered somewhat due to a dose of Life getting in the way. So I'm playing catch-up. Finished are a selection of Saxons, Viking women, some Conan figures and a Roman Ballista - quite the selection! And on the nearly-done/still-to-come side, are some more Romans, a couple of Saxon commanders and (not shown) two Dead Man's Hand gangs. A pretty eclectic mix, I think you'll agree. Still, enjoyable to paint none-the less. No promises, but I'll try my best to update this blog on a regular basis, with info on the other sort of stuff I do too, such as foam props, painting and photography. P.S. The figures are from a mixture of manufacturers, most being either Stronghold Terrain or Footsore Miniatures.