Big Z - Addicted to tiny things...

When I started this hobby my philosophy was always "Bigger is better!". Master Grade Gundam kits were my target acquisition and soon my stockpile had reached epic and gaudy proportions. When questioned about 1/144 scale kits I laughed and shrugged them off, "Haha! My massive, Ogre like fingers could not possibly manipulate those puny pieces! I need substance! I need Perfect Grades and beyond!!".

Enter John..John is a good friend of mine that would toss in small jabs here and there about how awesome 1/144 kits were and from time to time would even mention actual miniatures. "Miniatures?!" I would scoff, "You mean those crappy metal things that look like a melted slug? My huge hands and old eyes have no time for these things. I need resin! I need G-System kits coming out of my ears!".

Over and over again John would point me to smaller things, and eventually even went as far as letting me get my hands on a 1/144 Byarlant Custom. Suddenly I began to realize I might have been wrong. After building the kit and getting a feel of the simplicity of it when compared to a MG I started to understand John's way of thinking. Then he went on at that point and started to explain to me that miniatures, especially from companies like Games Workshop and Privateer Press, have came a long way since the old days of crappy, low detail mini's and have now become super detailed plastic and resin pieces that rival most other models on the market for pure quality and extreme detail. Sure, they come at a premium, some would even consider it price gouging for what you are actually buying, but when you get one of these tiny pieces of modeling gold in your hand you truly start to realize the majesty of these newly designed miniatures.

For my first attempt in this new realm I wanted to do something slightly larger than your standard troop, but still a "miniature" and not a vehicle or large monster. I decided to go with the Ork Warboss. A steal on Ebay at $8.00 shipped, this little beauty has a gun, a giant claw and a little skull. What more could I want? By modeling standards it's a joke. 4 pieces, a couple seam and mold lines and boom, ready for primer. From a paint standpoint however the challenge is quickly revealed.

Now I'm officially bitten by the mini bug. I've talked to my local game shop about starting a small army and joining them for a game night and I have already added more miniatures to my collection than I care to think about. Sure I still want to build huge resin kits and my hunger for copious towers of Master Grades piled to the ceiling of my basement is as powerful as ever, but I must admit a large amount of my free time will be spent squinting, wet blending and trying to figure out how to make a damn base look good.

p.s. f$@k you, John.

Mr Zinc Miniature Madness - Howling Griffons Chaplain

Hello again!

This time I bring you the finished Chaplain in colors of Howling Griffons Chapter.
Few things I want to say first before spaming you with pictures, I don't think I will ever buy finecast for the retail price. Nope. All in all - it's not worth it, I'd say it's arguable if the details are better than plastic/metal. IMO plastic is the best of the three but that's just me.
The other thing is I'm not 100% happy with this fella - and by that I mean freehand - or lack of thereof. I REALLY wanted to paint Howiling Griffons logo but lately I just wasnt painting as much  and becasue of that I decided to not paint the logo at all instead of screwing up the shoulder pad completly. It does make me feel bad and sad. I realized that you have to keep painting in order to feel confident and not only advance but to not "loose" your skills.

Anyways I will let YOU decided if it is any good ;)

Till the next one! (spoiler alert: SPACE WOLVES!)

Saturday Ramblings 001: Wips/info/motivation

Starting from the last - a piece of motivation:

Photo credit: Kezdaman via Flickriver

Caption credit: robotspider via Tumblr

So with that out of the way let's talk business. Ok not really, just a general "what's going on". As you might imagine my absence in recent weeks must have some reasons - that would be work. I'm quite happy with it BUT it takes a lot of time (and not just regular time - a lot of overtime recently) and it leaves me exhausted when I'm finaly back home. Also Univeristy work, but that I will be dealing with rather quickly :D

So generaly speaking - same old stuff.

In terms of upcoming events - We still have our challenge, so will definitly work on that - and by that I mean my private "entry" as well as some coverage.
There is some other stuff I would like to enter so I will be sure to spread the word about them so you guys can join as well. Also I should be starting some entries for major contests i'd love to atend (not sure wich one yet as there always are issues  - mostly money)

So with that we come to WIPs

I'm quite close to finish with my Howling Griffons Chaplain - i must say, i haven't been painting as regular recently and i can REALLY feel that :/ Got this guy very cheap and one of the reasons i bought him was to check what's the big idea with finecast anyway. Not that impressed IMO. I don't think i'd pay the retail price if I am to be honest.
One more thing about it before pictures - the base is one of the resin bases awarded as random prizes in recent Bananalicious Painting Contests over at Massive Voodoo. Here is the deal - I LOVE MAKING BASES, ok i said it, sometimes i enjoy it even more than working on the miniature itself. So when i got info that I won some resin bases I was like "meh" BUT I must admit - i was wrong. VERY VERY wrong. These bases are from Taban Miniatures and while they do look great on their own - I do plan to use at least some of them as part of bigger works.

Now with all that said some WIP pictures of said Chalpain

Hopefully I will be able to work on this little piece tonight.
Till the next one!

1/72 Kotobukiya HMM Psycho Genosaurer: A Brief Unboxing

My Next Series of Plamo Projects. HMM 1/72 ZOIDS. Genosaurer Variants.

While I was painting the MG RX-79 I heard my doorbell ring and, as I had expected, a mailman was there with a large box containing the newest Genosaurer and final addition to my Genosaurer collection (for now.)

After the RX-79  has been completed I will be starting on my Genosaurers. These kits are large and highly detailed. They have an immense amount of work involved from cleaning up sinks in the plastic, trimming nubs, removing seams, removing mold lines, and of course painting/detailing the 100s of parts. This is likely all my personal blog (not Mad Spiderz) will feature for close to 8 months to 1 year. Im sure I'll be working on smaller side projects on the side but, the Genos will be my main priority until I receive the cleaned up and lit up parts for my 1/35 G-System EX-S beam rifle commission. As intimidating as that sounds, I'm just painting the rifle and I'll have 2 years to complete that lol. If any of you are as excited about these ZOIDS kits as I am then stick around and watch some progress unfold! But enough about my vain pursuits and ambitions.

Lets Have Some Fun!

The Box

What a beautiful box at that! The art work is stunning and quite alluring. I can hardly stop looking at it myself. It's like the box is hitting on you but you keep telling it you're married or otherwise not single. She just won't give up! "Clever girl..."As always Koto provides you with a very detailed box that shows you enough of the kit to want it immediately, but not enough to show you just what you're getting into!

The Instruction Manual

Much like the box, the instruction manual draws you into it instantly. It's filled to the brim with lots of detailed pictures of the model along with some intricate art of the Genosaurer's various parts, sub-sections, and mechanisms. The instructions are very straight forward and this is where you start to see how detailed this kit really is.

The Runners

Lots and lots of parts! The plastic is high quality most of everywhere but theres some noticeable imperfections here and there. If you're used to working with car, aircraft, resin, and other models that require more work than lets say, a Bandai Gundam kit, you won't have any problems here. While the kit does appear to be challenging in terms of bringing the detail to life and getting everything fit together perfectly smooth and gapless, it's hardly anything to cry over. It actually looks like a whole lot of fun! Models are supposed to be fun right? It can be easy to forget that when you look at a daunting task.

I hope you have enjoyed taking a look and...

Until Next Time!

Soon...Soon...

Well...Eventually...