Clearing my Backlog (Spring Cleaning Thread)

When I first started this project log my plan was to take on a bunch of small unrelated tasks, but in the end I’ve been focusing on my Space Crusade stuff for the most part. The Terminators and Scouts I ordered at the start of the month haven’t arrived yet, so before the challenge is over, I wanted to try something different.

I’ve had this amazing Onyx The Prowler since the days Confrontation was still in print. I love big, chunky, hungry werewolves and I think every game -fantasy or sci-fi- should come with a werewolves army (I’m looking at you, Age of Sigmar).

I did a terrible job assembling the model back in the day, so the first thing I had to do was break the mini apart and pin the pieces properly.

My plan is to use this guy in AoS, so I might replace that base in the future. As for a Warscroll, these rules for Forge World’s Skin Wolves seem like a good place to start.

Now this is the end of the challege for me. I think I managed to complete a good amount of stuff. I know I’m not the best painter in town, but as long as my models look half decent, I’m a happy guy. Better finished than perfect!

What’s next for me? I definitely want to keep working on my Space Crusade and hopefully get a complete painted set one day, but that’s going to take a while. I’m also eager to throw that werewolf in an Age of Sigmar game, even if it’s just a small skirmish battle.

I had a great time sharing these with you and I hope you too made some progress with your own personal projects. See you next time guys. Back to lurking the site 😉

Here’s some pictures of my finished Dreadnought. I finally followed Shredhead’s advice and cut my bullet casings out of copper wire. I’m sure there are more realistic solutions out there (some people use syringe needles apparently) but these were very easy to make and I think they look pretty good.

The end of the Hobby Challenge is coming closer and I’m not sure how much more I’ll be able to complete before the deadline. However, I’d like to make one final post as a recap, maybe with some before and after pics.

Time for an update! I’ve been painting a couple more orks and gretchin this weekend.

I also started working on my Dreadnought. I considered magnetizing the body and weapons for a while, but the poor guy was in really bad condition, so I decided to go for durability and pin all of the individual parts together.

As you can see, I painted some of the parts and details before assembly. For the paint scheme I’m using Sho3box’s Dreadnought as a reference, with some minor changes here and there. I’ve been using Vallejo’s Matt Varnish lately, to coat all of my minis.

Something I’d like to do is add some bullet shells on the base. I’ve been trying to find a good tutorial or tips on how to make those, but I haven’t found a good solution yet. So if you have a good technique for sell casings, please sound off in the comments.

Oh, and after a visit to my parents’ basement, I now have the entirety of my Space Crusade models. I should go through these carefully and make sure there’s nothing missing. (There’s something missing, I’m sure).

Coming next, I’ve got these three buddies here who look somewhat decent. I don’t think they need a repaint for now, but what I’m gonna do is -again-, replace the bases. This time with the help of a little bit of green stuff.

If you’ve never tried green putty before (and I’m not great at that either), I think this is probably one of the easiest things you can do get started. Quick, easy, painless, nice result. I shot some photographs to share here, but if you want an in depth tutorial, this one is pretty good.

And that’s the finished gang. Next, I’m priming a couple more Orks and Gretchin to add to the group. But to me they’re the biggest hurdle to get a fully painted set of Space Crusade. There’s dozens of these guys and they all look exactly the same.

The boys came out of their caustic sauna looking pretty good. Overall, I think they were in the jar for five to six hours, but I took them out for some scrubbing every now and then.

Next step was rebasing and repainting those chaos androids (Necron? What’s a Necron?) I like keeping my bases simple, so all I did was add some texture using a few pieces of an individual tablecloth and some plastic dishes I got from the dollar store. A little drybrushing and they make the perfect industrial flooring.

For the figures, I followed this GW tutorial to the best of my ability. All miniatures were pinned to their bases with some wire. As a little extra touch, I added some stripes to one of the androids’ shoulder pads. Just for a little variety.

In other bit of news, last week I ordered some new figures for my Space Crusade collection from Ebay. Some classic scouts and terminators. They just shipped today, so I’m not sure I’m getting those before the 19h, but I can’t wait.

Hi everybody. I decided to jump on the Spring Cleaning bandwagon and hopefully clear some of my backlog. This is just a bunch of small tasks I’ve been putting aside for whatever reason. Some rebasing and some repainting for the most part. Nothing too fancy, but feel free to drop by and take a look.

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Now, I’ve got this long term project of restoring and updating my old copy of Space Crusade (which I still love after all these years). I’m really into Rogue Trader era games and minis these days so I’m going to kick off my spring cleaning by stripping the paint off some of my old Crusade figures.

It’s pretty easy to strip some acrylic paints off your miniatures. Some soapy water and a good scrub will do the job. But if like me you made the mistake to paint your plastic minis with some enamel paints, here’s a recipe that’s been working fine for me:

Put your minis in a jar full of water with some dishwashing soap and three spoons of caustic soda (Sodium Hydroxide, the same stuff you’d use to make soap, cure some olives or open a blocked drain). Leave them in there for two or three hours, then take them out and scrub the figures vigorously with an old toothbrush or something similar. Then repeat the whole process as many times as needed until you get rid of all the paint.

Disclaimer here: manipulating caustic soda can be dangerous, so follow the manufacturer’s instructions, wear gloves and take all necessary precautions. If you’re a young hobbyist, there’s no shame in asking for some help from an adult.

I’ve never had any problems with this trick, but I’d recommend you check your minis and stir the stew every now and then to make sure everything is going fine. Also, some people claim they got the same results (if not better) by putting their miniatures in brakes fluid, but I’ve never tried that.

My minis were painted with Humbrol enamel paints first and then repainted with acrylics on top. So we’ll see how it goes. Whatever comes out of that jar, I’ll let you know.