One 72nd Fantasy Figures: 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

1/72 Sci Fi Fantasy Figures Found, and Star Wars to Boot

I had always thought there were only two sets of 1/72 figures designed for science fiction. Imagine my surprise when I found that Micro Machines Star Wars figures were 1/72 scale figures. I went from a world where there were only 24 sci fi figures to one with over a hundred. They are all based on major sci fi movies as well: Star Wars, Aliens, Starship Troopers, etc. The figures are pre-paints as well. The only shame is they are mostly not in production anymore.

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I tried out a 30 second figure improvement by hitting two of the figures with Games Workshop Black and Brown Washes. The third figure from the left got the Black Wash and the fifth from the left got the Brown Wash.

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I then spent about three minutes on each figure to add some paint highlights of orange, grey, and white. The end results of three and a half minutes of painting speak for themselves. Figure one is the Black Wash, figure three is the Brown Wash, and figures two and four are untouched pre-painted figures.

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I have about 50 figures ready for the paint table, I just need to find time base them and then it is time for Star Wars fun on the game table.

As usual, Friar Tuck (an Airfix Robin Hood set figure) and Conan (a Caesar Miniatures Adventures set figure) make their appearance for scale, as well as the Scale Picture (a scale picture).

Questions and comments are always welcome. Tell me in the comments which figure you like the best: black wash, brown wash, or pre-painted. Thanks for reading...

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

1/72 Giant Rats (Nuisance Monsters) Completed

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Name:    Rat Swarm, Rat Swarms

Manufacturer:    Splintered Light Miniatures

Poses:    2 poses, (the single rat figure can be repositioned to give variety)

Figure material: metal

Ability to Take Paint:    excellent

Pose Quality:    it looks quite rat like and the tail and front leg can be bent to create different poses

Sculpting:    excellent, for such small creatures the detail is well done

Mold Lines:    little to none

Created:    2009ish

These models were fun and easy to paint. The rat swarm proper has a lot of character, and the single rats can be used as separate models, as I chose to do, or around the swarm model to make it larger and add some variety. I think these models could be used from 10mm up to 28mm, I mean a giant rat could be anything from a foot long to the size of a small car. All that is needed for fantasy figures to work well is to match the pictures in your mind.

You cannot go wrong with large numbers of easy to slay monsters to slow down adventurers and maybe give them the creeping crude. The creeping crude will force them to seek out Cedric the Cleric leading to even more problems and/or adventures.

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As usual, Friar Tuck (an Airfix Robin Hood set figure) and Conan (a Caesar Miniatures Adventures set figure) make their appearance for scale.

Next up will be articles on Splintered Lights Giant Bats, the number two batch of different nuisance monsters I have completed.

Thanks for reading...

Sunday, April 29, 2012

New Case to Carry My Fantasy Figures

I found this large toolbox that has three separate pieces, two large wheels, and a fold up handle to roll everything from game to game. At only thirty-five dollars a bargain price to move my figures in style.

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As usual, Friar Tuck (an Airfix Robin Hood set figure) and Conan (a Caesar Miniatures Adventures set figure) make their appearance for scale.
Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...

Saturday, April 28, 2012

1/72 Giant Rats Construction

I purchased three Splintered Light Miniature's Rat Swarms. A rat swarm comes in five pieces, a big swarm of rats and 4 single rats to customize the swarm or use how ever you see fit. I decided to base these single rats individually so that I could use them as nuisance monsters with the rest of my 1/72 fantasy figures.

I started by using # 10 washers and filling the empty spaces with pieces of plastic card. Except for the smaller size washer, it is the same same procedure I always use when basing with washers.

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The next step was to glue some cork to the washer with PVA/white glue. I allowed the glue to dry and then shape it into a hill with an razor blade knife.

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I then covered the cork with sanded latex grout(fancy caulk). I simply smeared on enough to cover the mound and bring the caulk out to the edge of the washer.

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After the caulk had dried, I drilled a small hole in the mound. The individual rats came with a spike or pin sticking strait down out of their undersides and their tails were designed to be poseable. I put super glue on the pin and the hole on the base. I then forced the pin into the previously drilled hole. I then held the figure in place and adjusted the tails to add some character.

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Here is a view of the rats from the other side so that you can see the posing of the tails from the other side.

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They are now ready to prime and paint. I will be showing pictures of the completed swarm and individual rats in my next post. Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Paint Maintenance

Dead soldiers aka dried up paints

I haven't painted anything for a year, and GW's old style paint lids were prone to drying out. I double checked all of my paints and found eight paints dried up, eights inks dried up, and three paints I had mixed dried up. I had a gift card for the GW store so I went down to replace the dried up paints. The success rate was low. GW long ago quit selling inks, and half of the dried paints are no longer being sold. They did have "Liquid Green Stuff" and I picked up a couple of the washes that replaced the inks, but it bugs me when products I like disappear.

At this point you are probably think this is just a pointless post where I will grumble about GW policies surrounding how they offer/discontinue products. I suppose I could, but instead I searched the internet and l found lots of helpful inks to help replace the missing paints. I have my shopping list:

Citadel	Vallejo Game	Vallejo Model	Rackham	Reaper Master	Hex Code
Vile Green	Foul Green (025)	Park Green Flat (969)	Antique Green (13)	N/A	82C59C
Storm Blue	Stormy Blue (018)	Blue (925)	Migol Blue (5)	Ritterlich Blue (9115)	27357E
Ghostly Grey	Ghost Grey (046)	Flat Aluminum (993)	N/A	Ghost White (9063)	C3C6CD

It is a hard thing, but I suppose a visit to the game store to buy replacements is in order.

Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...

Friday, February 24, 2012

Wordle of my Blog

Nothing too earth shattering, but I did find it interesting to see the frequency of words on my blog. I also found it interesting that the word "fantasy" isn't in it.

Link to this Wordle for One 72nd Fantasy FIgures

Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...