Project Pandora -- the shiny new Oh Shiny!

I have been eyeing Mantic Games' exploits for some time now. They are an interesting company, having set out to compete with GW on their own grounds it seems. They started with dirty-cheap but nice plastic Elves and Undead which looks suitably different but compatible enough for Warhammer Fantasy players to bulk out their GW armies.

A Mantic Dwarf.

In a smart move they released Abyssal Dwarves, evil dwarves or chaos dwarves if you like. Since GW haven't featured them for some odd ten years, and the last official Chaos Dwarves were butt ugly Mantic appealed to those Chaos Dwarf players that have longed for a return of their beloved faction. Mantic have also released Dark elves, Dwarves and Orcs and apparently their prices are very competetive, especially if you buy the big army deals. Unfortuneately I didn't like the look of their dwarves, otherwise I would have been sorely tempted to add even more plastic to the so-called lead mountain (tin- resin- and plastic mounds more like). I realize Mantic wanted (and needed) them to be different from GW dwarves, but the design of their armour just doesn't float my boat. Their berserkers which doesn't wear any armour are just fine though.

Lovely little jeep

Finally the Coat d'Arms paintset I ordered from Maelstrom Games arrived, so I could continue painting the LRDG vehicles. I ordered the WW2 British set, along with a box of Plastic Soldier Company brits, since I will be returning to Normandy after this project. By pure chance it contained a Desert Yellow that nearly matches the Vallejo paint I needed, but couldn't find. Close enough!

So I started to paint the jeep to try out the paints and a suitable method. It is nearly finished now.

The jeep was basecoated with Khemri Brown

Another time, another place...

I have been forced to stay home from work since my kids have come down with some kind of stomach flu. However, once the serial vomiting had subsidied I was able to get some modelling time in between changing DVD discs. Being a bit bored with LRDG stuff at the moment I decided to paint one of the command bases I made for IABSM earlier.

A Company Command stand for IABSM - 4 figures denotes a level 4 Big Man.

Some progress...

Been working some more on the LRDG project. The paint conundrum is not yet solved, but there might be some hope on the horizon. There are two possible solutions, of which the first is easiest, but might not work.

I have recently ordered Coat d'Arms' British WW2 Paint Set, along with a set of Plastic Soldier Company's british figures. I ordered it about a month ago, but my order has been delayed as some other items were out of stock. Maelstrom Games have now split the order and I'm hoping to get the figures and the paint set soon. By coincidence, the paint set contains a colour named "Desert Yellow".  Coat d'Arms wasn't listed in the Vallejo conversion charts, so there is a chance that it will match, and if so your Mom's brother is called Robert.


The other solution is a bit trickier but less reliant on luck. Jocke sent me a printed colour chart for Vallejo, so I can try and mix my own Desert Yellow paint. Harder, but it should be possible to at least get a decent match.


Meanwhile I have been busy painting and building. Some WIP shots behind the break:

Paint by numbers

Warning, this blog post contains some ranting. Lock up the women-folk and infants now.

You have been warned.

So my LRDG project is slowly plodding along; the vehicles are nearly finished and I have started to paint the crew figures. Time to start thinking about paint schemes. There is quite a nice painting guide on the FoW site, that apparently, is totally inaccurate. I should have known better, since they colour choices are a bit wierd at times, and I have seen a particular colour being recommended for two distinctly different shades of paint, on the same model!