Care Package from Hasslefree

Last week turned out to be a little rougher than I expected. I changed internet providers on Wednesday, the tech came out and, in theory, hooked everything up. To his credit he did make the change at the main box correctly. It took six days for another technician to make it out to take a look. Took him less than 10 minutes to get it working again. 

I also ended up helping a friend get projects done around their house to get it ready to sell, hopefully this Friday. That kept me away from my hobbies for the rest of the week. Of course I could have had the Hasslefree box if I had been in on Saturday, instead I had to go to the post office and pick it up today.

This box contain my selections of minis from my $200 gift certificate for winning the Best Hasslefree entry at ReaperCon. I'm looking forward to sitting down and working on some of these. I will need to finish off that TD Company first though.

Now, on to the box opening!

Nothing quite as exciting as a box from the UK

Okay I admit it, there was candy in there, that disappeared pretty quick.

The first 15 minis, mostly sci/fi military adventurer types, including the Not-Scooby Gang. 

The next 13.

And the big piece, Crystal 54mm in Resin

Looking forward to painting this one.

ReaperCon Competition Minis - Shopping II Finished

I wrapped up "Shopping II" tonight. I have two entries ready to go and two more that are very close. I had to shift my single entry to a different piece which means I'm going to be out of the running for a Sophie Trophy in the painter category. However, "Steady Lads" will be ready so I have a shot there. My goal was to at least be in the running meaning surviving the first cut.

So a pick at the finished version of "Shopping II"

ReaperCon Competition Minis - Shopping II Details

It never seems to matter how long in advance I plan or start painting everything still seems to come down to those last few desperate days before the convention. Every year I swear I will do better, and this year I actually did do a little better but there is still some definite room for improvement.

Tonight I finished off the details for  "Shopping II" and started the assembly process. Everything is in place but the final three minis that still need to have their weapons painted and a few touch ups done.  I haven't even started the final assembly for Steady Lads, but everything is mostly finished. I need to add the glass to the windows, the posters to the walls and glaze in some more colors to the sidewalk. All of the main miniatures for this are done, only the lady in the window needs a little work yet and she is secondary and is more of an easter egg than anything else. I'm confident I can do the final assembly for this one quite quickly. After that I'm still trying to a get a single entry in. I think I'm going to scrap the basing plans I was going to work with and go with a base I already have done.

I'm quite please with the reboot of "Shopping II". This base didn't even exist until Friday night.

I was so heads down today that I forgot to take any pictures till I got to this point.

Picking out the details a bit

Other elements for the base

Things are a bit tighter than I was thinking, but generally smaller is better.

Decided that I needed something on the vast expanse of brick. This came out pretty well, next time I will remember to do graffiti when the walls are flat. I wanted to go kind of wild once this came out so well, but I just really couldn't get the brush in there.

All the secondary elements in place along with our black market guys.

A bit of a close up. I managed to hide his face in this shot, I'll try and get a better shot tomorrow. Or maybe not, I'm don't like to put finished competition pieces up until after the show.

ReaperCon Competition Minis - Shopping II Details

I have wrapped up the base for the Shopping II diorama. Just need to paint the details and finish off the three female soldiers. Here is the construction that I finished off today and a look at how it might go together at the end, at least as far as the scenery is concerned. Figure placement is still up in the air.

Let's make sure that glue bonds.

Sidewalks and pavement going into place

First element

A look with all the details. Gutters, electrical box and ladder are glued in place. Dumpster, shoeboxes and boots are loose.

ReaperCon Competition Minis - Changing the Approach

I finally was able to sit down and do so work on the Shopping II Diorama again. I had done some work early this week on it and I had to scrap the first idea because I couldn't find my front faced mirrors. So much for the shadow box effort. But that did mean that I had to put something together pretty quick tonight. The basic shell is finished, now I need to lay down something that looks like concrete for the ground and put in some details to finish it off a bit. I'll try and wrap up all the painting tomorrow.

Here is where I ended tonight.

I backed up the plastic brick with basswood to provide some extra strength. It does have to travel to Texas in a few days.

The back side of the shell. Trying to keep everything nice and smooth. This will end up just being painted black

Found a dumpster to add a bit of interest. My black market guys will be setup in the back corner. I'm thinking a steel ladder would add a nice touch to the whole thing.

Now the base is cut and fitted. The idea here is to add as many angles as I can to break up all the straight lines.