More Hirst Arts Molds

+1 Zombie. VC Border Patrol is 68% complete. Hirst Arts molds also arrived yesterday so I’ve done a couple of experimental castings. Nice molds. Seem pretty easy to cast. I’ve forgotten that I need to ‘overfill’ the molds slightly because Hydrostone tends to settle about 1mm when going off. Ah well, a few bubbles in the open sides won’t hurt as most of the pieces are flat. Must make some more progress on those Mordheim city tiles as well as I have two that are almost complete, they just need a little more painting and then varnishing somehow.
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Painted Movement Tray

+1 Zombie. VC Border Patrol is 65% complete. Finished the Skeleton movement tray as well. Looks very nice imho. Might have to bang together another one for the Zombies! Hope to have at least one more Zombie finished by the end of this week. Quite a nice scratch-built ‘semaphore tower’ in the latest White Dwarf. Might have to steal that idea and improve on it using Hirst Arts blocks for another piece of Mordheim scenery.

Resin Casting

Damn. I’ve definitely stalled. Stripped back the Zombies and re-primed them. Almost have 2 completed. Replaced the 3 half-painted Ghouls with 4 freshly cleaned and primed Ghouls (different models). Mixed up some Ghoul flesh and base painted them. Cut down some Hirst Arts resin cast wrought iron fences and put together a custom movement tray for the Skeletons. Primed the tray black this morning.

Painted Skeletons

Couple of pics of the painted Skeleton unit. I really need to invest in a decent digital camera but they give you some idea. Suffice to say they look better in the ‘flesh’. Figured out a reasonable painting scheme for the Zombies and almost have one complete. Bit slow this week! Picked up some movement trays from GW last night as well. So once everybody is painted I’ll be ready to roll! Really should detail up a movement base for the Skellies as well. Thinking of using some of those resin cast Hirst Art wrought iron railings.
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Also ordered three more molds from Hirst Arts and that will probably be my last order from them for quite a while. Really don’t need anything else and must use my current molds for more terrain.

Stalled

Hmmm I appear to have stalled. About to strip back three Ghouls and start painting another set. The current figures I’m painting are duplicates and just don’t seem to inspire me. Some slight progress on 3 Zombies…but still looking for a decent scheme to paint them with. Damn, will I still make the May 16th deadline?! Might have to take a another little Mordheim terrain break eh? Picked up a WHFB soft-cover rulebook in good condition from TradeMe. So I’ll have to furiously swot up on that as I anticipate a lot of bickering from Griff the first couple of games :).

10 Zombies…

Mediocre progress in weekend. Painted up Skeleton Champion but still some finishing touches to go. Also needs some weight in the base as the metal spear tends to make the figure rather top heavy. Dusted off Zombies but will have to strip and re-prime before getting any serious work done. Will finish Champion this week and try to get 2-3 Ghouls out of the way. That just leaves 10 Zombies to paint.

3 Figures a Week

+2 Skeletons. VC Border Patrol is 59% complete. Well, one of those Skeletons is the Standard Bearer…although I can’t think of anything decent to paint on his standard yet. Just the Champion left to highlight and detail and this unit will be complete! Still undecided if Zombies or Ghouls will be the next unit. By my reckoning I have around another 13 figures to paint to get to 500 points. I’m painting at a rate of around 3 figures a week. That means in just over a month I’ll be ready to try WHFB. So let’s say the deadline is the 16th of May.

Mordheim Coach House

+4 Skeletons. VC Border Patrol is 53% complete! Just past the halfway point! Only 1 Skeleton, Std Bearer and Champion to finish for this unit. May have to assemble a few ‘raising’ Skeleton bases but I’m a bit short of Skeleton parts.
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Possibly unsurprisingly I’ve also made some progress on Mordheim terrain. The Coach House now has two stories of foam card and balsa wood above the plaster base. Each level is currently separate so I can paint them up and then glue them together. Lots of balsa wood detailing and half-timbering to go though.
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I’m particularly happy with the supporting beams for the first second floor which is visible in the second photo. I’ve also experimented with making ‘boards’ in the wooden floor by pushing nail holes in the appropriate places. Hopefully these details can still be seen after the paint has been applied.