ReaperCon Competition Minis - Steady Lads Finished

This is a quick post. Its early in the morning here and I haven't had any sleep. Not the best way to start the con. However, I did finish the Steady Lads diorama up and thought I would post a few pics for those of you who may have been waiting to see it. I think it came together quite well. The pics are missing the street sign but I have fixed that now.

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.

Trenchworx WWI Rolls-Royce Armored Car - Finished!

I'm calling this one done. Here is one Bulletproof Ghost all finished. Trenchworx did a bang up job on this kit. I highly recommend it.

ReaperCon Competition Minis - In Progress

Its been at least a week since I have posted anything but I have been busy! A while ago a I posted what I needed to get done in two months for ReaperCon. After an intensive weekend of painting I have moved closer to some of my goals and farther away from others.

The "Steady Lads" diorama (which has a fair number of posts dedicated to it) is moving towards completion, pretty much on schedule. The base is nearing completion. It needs some glazes of dark blue and yellow to complete the lighting affect and the posters need to fastened to the walls. The minis are essentially complete, the only one that might need some more work is a secondary piece that doesn't need much work.

The Colonel

The Sergeant

The Private (still not sure if I'll be using him or not)

Alien Tracker

Alien Gunner

The "Shopping II" diorama is also moving right along. The minis will be finished either today or tomorrow, depends on the amount of work I get done this evening. The base itself hasn't been started but I was planning on dedicating this week to basing anyway and I have the critical component and have been working on the modifications to it. Since the viewing angle is going to be more controlled in this one there are things I can shortcut without a problem so it should be ready.

Black Marketeer 1

Black Marketeer 2

The shoppers. The mini on the far left will become my single entry. She was originally painted for LAF, but I've decided to upgrade her for ReaperCon 

My alien single mini entry just hit the stripper bath today. She might make it still and I will keep working on the base for her just in case. I do have a back up single mini entry and I have been working on her today. She definitely will be ready, however, its a Hasslefree mini which means I won't be meeting one of my goals of having a Reaper piece up for serious Sophie Trophy consideration.

My vehicle entry, the Rolls Royce Armored Car (the Bulletproof Ghost) is finished and I just need to finish the base which consists of adding static grass and maybe a couple of grass tufts. The base needs a coat of Danish oil but that can wait till everything else has been applied.

The Bulletproof Ghost

So progress has been made!

Kickstarter Loot - Hanger 18 Modern PInup Miniatures Bawidamann Style!

I haven't participated in a lot of new Kickstarters and currently everything on my list is in progress on way or another. I have passed up a couple that I was very interested in then decided not to participate. I'm a bit tired of waiting for merchandise, so I'm getting a bit more picky about what I back.

The Hanger 18 Kickstarter was originally set to deliver in July 2014 so needless to say they are a little late. However, since I was more up close and personal with this one I know about all the difficulties that they were running in to getting their minis produced. Mine were hand delivered to me yesterday at our regular 2nd Saturday CMPA painting workshop. I'm completely blown away by the quality of the sculpts. These were well worth the wait.

I was in for a mousepad, a photo backdrop and a three pack of 54mm minis. I added on the Tiger Madchen bust (1/20th scale and probably more properly the Tiger Fraulein, since she is definitely not a little girl!). I also received the Flying Tiger Mascot as a freebie, I'm not quite sure what to do with it! You can expect to see the photo backdrop used in a lot of my future photos. At least that's the plan right now.

I took some photos today (sort of using the new backdrop) for everyone to check out. I also grabbed some photos of either the completed models or the 3D renders so you can see how its supposed to go together. I'm really looking forward to painting these.

Misty Grey Photo Backdrop. This is an A2 size (about 16 1/2" by 23 3/8")

While I didn't actually order the Cosmonaut Mini, I did decide to have her on my new moustpad.

Bubble wrap packages, allegedly containing miniatures

The Flying Tiger Mascot.

The Tiger Madchen Bust

and with a quarter to get a better sense of scale. I'm seriously considering getting this one finished in time for ReaperCon. We will see.

A finished version of Death From Above

My version of Death from Above

Will need a little prep work, but mold lines are light but there are definitely some chunky bits where the casting channels  are.

Now that's a set of legs. There is a bit of marbling where the resin mixed in unequal quantities. It didn't affect the quality of the casting though.

Hot Rounds, 3D Render

Hot Rounds on the sprue. Note that there is an alternate version of the head without the shooting glasses

Specialty Girl, 3D Render

Terrain pieces for Specialty Girl. I'll have to go back to the original artwork and see how this is suppose to go together. I don't ever remember seeing a picture of her with the terrain. Hopefully there is something on the artist's site.

The pieces for specialty girl. One of the straps has broken. Not to surprising with something that thin in resin. Should be an easy fix.

Three head options for this one!

Most of the body is one piece on this one. One joint at the hip and then at both elbows.