The Blog of Michael T. Murphy and his lifelong obsession with "little army men" and their imaginary glory, miniature wargaming, and other things...

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

End of June Update

 So the month of June is here and now gone.

Next month is July, and all the stuff that comes with that.

I did do something different this month though. For the month of June, I focused on "Non-people figures, (animals, livestock, some monsters, etc), as well as terrain, scenery, and a lot of "scatter", (furniture, food, etc.) for buildings, and such, as well as some scratch-building. The break from painting figures was a welcome change, and I plan to keep alternating between "figures one month and "stuff" the next month". 

It's actually amazing how much I got painted.

I've already posted the buildings, docks, and barn, but haven't posted the rest, so lets get on to it.

But first....

A shocker....

Notice anything wrong????


A completely clean and bare painting table.
Yeps.
This was how my table looked last night when I finished, (FINISHED mind you), EVERYTHING I had put on my queue to do for the month of June. And I did a few pieces more also!
Everything. Completed.
When I finished the last item for the month, (a horse), I sat back and said "My word....What. Have. I. Done?"
To be honest, it was a but unsettling, and was creeping me out a little bit.
A miniature gamers paint table isn't supposed to be "This empty"....
But there it was.
However starting tomorrow, it's back to figures.
So take heed.
Take warning.
Lest you find your table looking like THIS!
😨

The Big Picture:

So at the end of June, I stepped back and took a photo of everything that I had done for the month, and I was a bit pleased, but also shocked at my output.

(That's a lot of stuff done...)


For the month I June, I realized that I had completed over 100 (approx. 108) items. This included the stuff on my "to do" list, and extra stuff I just grabbed to work on.
While most of it was scenery and terrain, and scatter, there were some figures there, as well as some scratch-builds.
I'm pretty proud of myself for being so productive.
As you can see, four buildings, (two scratchbuilts, a reworked toy barn, an an MDF building), two scratchbuilt piers, a scratchbuilt "Evil Snow White" fountain, (more on her in a later post), some terrain repair, basing trees and lots more trees, a Wiz Kid gibbets, and two containers of "stuff", as well as some animals, and monster figures.

"Stuff"...

Most of what you see in the following picture is the standard furnishings/scatter type of terrain scenics. A lot of it is from Knuckleduster while some is from WizKids, and Eureka.

(Thrones, couches, tables, a copper bathtub and lots of other stuff...)


Meanwhile this side contains mostly food, supplies, and some scenics. The streetlights are Lego style that I got at Little Wars, and the film camera is from Pulp Figures, while most of the food is from Knuckleduster, Tabletop World, and some from Foundry.

(A wide bevy of supplies there....)



Close ups of some of the foods.
Tabletop World really does some excellent work. I can't say enough good things about them.
Some close ups of the completed groceries and food supplies.




I then decided to do a little "photography" to set the food on a table and get an idea of what the setting would like with it.


(A nice selection of edibles...)







That's quite a selection of cut meats and sausages.

And then I finished up the rest for the month of June.


(Cheese, fruits, and veggies, wurst, hooks of meat, sides of venison, peppers, and bottles of drinkables...)


And pumpkins for the Fall season!




And yes there was barnyard fowl.
First up was the chickens.


(Insert chicken sounds here....)



And first up is "The Rooster"....


(Before alarm clocks were invented there was this guy....)



(Not a happy hen....)



(Protecting the eggs...)



Followed up by geese:



(Geese are nothing more than overgrown ducks with bad attitudes, foul manners, and loose bowels....")



The Gibbets and The Accused....

I got a chance to work on a Wiz Kids set that I had purchased earlier.
The gibbets set also has a poor thinned pirate in it, condemned to a slow, horrible, death.
This was an "interesting kit" as it allowed me to work with multiple parts, as well as inks, shades, washes, blends, and drybrushing.
I wanted the metal pieces to have the oxidation look to it, so a good touch up with Citadel Nihilakh Oxide did the trick.











(This is an easy one to work with...)



I also finished the Wiz Kids thrones and dais  set.


(Fit for royalty...)


And after that it was to some more animals and monsters.
Among them was this Reaper Lion that I got in one of the Bones Kickstarters.


("The Lion eats to-niiiiiiight....")



For such a simple figure, I was surprised at how much reference work I needed to get the colors of the lion correctly, and how all the colors blended into one another.







And then I moved onto the owlbear.


Owlbear

Another Reaper figure done with a variety of shades, blends, and washes. I really liked the way this one came out. 







And then I finished up a Reaper Giant Beetle. 

I need to go back and fix the missing groundwork on the stand, but essentially he is done.
I used a thin coat of Reaper Herald Green, and then a very, very light wash of Vallejo Gold to get try to the the green/gold look that beetles can have on their shell. I did then a light overcoat with Tamiya Clear Green, and it seemed to work. 






Yes, two nice little beasties to wipe out a nosey party of adventurers, I think.....

And then, now all I need to do is wait for "Evil Snow White's" modge podge to dry clear and I can then seal her up and she is ready.

(It's always amazing what you can do with a little imagination, and some common items lying around in your "stuff bin"....)


Okay I will close this out for now. I didn't want to make it too picture intensive, and I didn't include pics for the owl, or the horse, or the dogs. I think we will probably see those later...

Let me know what you think.

More to come and thanks for reading!!!