My own blog has forgotten who I am

Oh the humanity!

Where to start... it's been a while!

I'm still learning to drive, still learning bass (and now, bongos, amazing Christmas present courtesy of the most amazing parents on the planet!), still in school and still a major movie and music geek.

I don't even have that much to tell you guys really. Just that I'm back blogging again, and I should be doing more regular posts in 2012.

Hopefully I'll be reviewing more films and music events (yeah, I've started reviewing gigs over at http://flaresnseagulls.com/) in the coming months. There will probably be a few more rants too, y'never know!


Nothing else to say, so I'll leave you with this picture of two polar bears riding a bicycle made for two.

Take care!

Lauren xxx

Port Tavern ready for paint.

Finally found some time to get a little more work done on this. It still needs a few tiny details like a door handle and maybe a pipe or two more, but for the most part it is ready for paint.
My automatic thinking is to paint the walls cream, and the roof blue, because of  all the old Warhammer cities I used to ogle in white dwarf magazine. I am going to have to try to break away from it though and make this unique looking.
I plan to get crackin on the next building(probably a tall Inn) pretty soon, so as to keep this project rolling.

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Sequel please ..........nuff said

Akira

I've just finished watching Akira on Blu-ray, the movie looked great but I was slightly unimpressed by the new sound mix, it sounded good but I didn't think it was as amazing as I'd read in a few places online, it's funny but in some ways the movie looks rather dated now ( such as character design and animation ) but in other's it still holds up rather well.

While Akira looked and sounded great on Blu-ray I don't know that I'd be rushing out to buy it any time soon, the disc just seemed overpriced for what it was, it is the best looking version of the movie I've seen but I'd advise waiting for a price reduction or until it's on sale somewhere before picking up this version of the movie.

Halloween IV: The Return of Micheal Myers

Over the years I've lived by a simple rule: any Halloween film (except for Halloween 3 ) that doesn't feature Jamie Lee Curtis sucks and any Halloween film that kills off a character played by Jamie Lee Curtis is ok up until that point but then quickly turns to crap after that character's death.

Over the last few months I've been slowly working my way through the various classic horror movie franchises and it was probably the Halloween series that I thought I'd enjoy the least based on my one simple rule but when it came to rewatching Halloween IV: The Return of Micheal Myers I found that I actually enjoyed the movie, it's certainly no classic like John Carpenter's original film but I had fun.

Troll Mauler for my son...

I painted this Troll Mauler for my son's army. I wanted him to have something from me that will be his own. I wanted to do a good quality table top model for him. I also wanted to do some blending on the skin and such. The army is going to have a them blue skin but it will be different shade depending on the type of troll. I want to tie the race together but also show a difference between classes so to speak. I also want to add some special touches like the spots and such. The stones on this guy were originally dark blue but I changed them and I am glad I did. I am really happy with the color combo on this guy. My son is pleased with it so that is all that matters. Now I just need to base him and he is done. If you have any questions let me know.

Cheers,
John...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Yesterday I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes on Blu-ray and it was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I thought the first two thirds of the movie were excellent far exceeding what I was expecting from the film but then it all started getting very silly towards the end, the final action sequences were over the top and spoiled what could've been an outstanding movie.

I did enjoy the various nods to the original movie, they were fun apart from one which was clumsily inserted because fans were probably expecting to hear it at some point.

I understand why the chose to do CG apes instead of using real ones or people in makeup that was kind of distracting for me, while computer effects technology is advancing in leaps and bounds all the time and these apes looked pretty good but they just didn't blend in with their environment, I can't quite put my finger on what it was but the end result was that the apes all looked like they weren't really there, the one thing Tim Burton got right with his Planet of the Apes remake was the excellent use of makeup and prosthetics.

The Director and Producers seem to have left things open for a potential sequel and I have to admit I'd probably be interested in seeing one but if it happens hopefully they will resist the temptation to use ridiculous CG action sequences and get back to telling a good story.

Donation Made

Well, I can honestly say this was probably one of the coolest painting experiences I have had. I was glad to be invited to participate and hope to be invited to do something like this again. I am happy with how she came out, always feel like I have a lot of room for improvement though. My follow Geeks here both put out some stellar donations!

Thanks for following!

-Grim

Breast Cancer Donation Fig has been Donated...

Calandra has a new home now. She was donated yesterday for the Breast Cancer event as was auctioned off for $60.00. The event was for a great cause and I was happy to be a part of it. They raised a total of $430.00 for the cause. That was way cool. If you want to see some of the video from the event I will be posting some clips on our Facebook account. The link is on our front page of the blog. Check it out. I plan on getting another Calandra fig and painting her up in the same scheme for my sons army but I will be putting her into the middle of a stream. My touch of pink for the cause was her fingernails. Thanks again to Scotty for suggesting the green, red, yellow scheme.

Cheers,

John...

Breast cancer Brawl: ESkarre finished.

Well, here she is, ready to go off to the tourney. I am fairly pleased with how she turned out, though I felt I rushed her a bit at the end because I'm a terrible procrastinator. I think when I buy one for myself, I may go with an almost exact color scheme.(minus the pink hair) I'm glad I got asked to paint her for a good cause, and hope to do more in the future.

Breast Cancer Donation WIP...

Well here is the latest installment of the fig. Scotty suggested doing green, yellow and red for the beads but I decided to incorporate that into the dress as well. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but so far it looks good. Now I just have to tie everything else in. I decided to do pink fingernails for to signify the Breast Cancer theme. Not really fond of the armor breast plate but it will have to do. I might give the blade a tint of pink too. Still thinking about that one. Another suggestion from Scotty was to darken the edges where the wrist cloth made contact with the skin. Once I did that with a dark blue it made the wrist cloth really pop.

John....

Tekwar and Total Recall 2070

Tekwar and Total Recall 2070 are two shows I've wanted to see for years ( I've seen the Tekwar movies but not the TV series ) and today they arrived in my mailbox and I'm really looking forward to seeing them.

Sucker Punch

I finally got to see Sucker Punch yesterday on Blu-ray, I watched the extended version and not the theatrical release and I really enjoyed it, I can see why people wouldn't like the movie but it was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be right down to the so-called twist at the end ( they were hinting at it early on in the film ).

This was a fun little movie and one I'll be sure to watch again.

Grim's Boobie Brawl Contribution

Along with my fellow Geeks here in the garage, I was also asked to paint a fig for our local Boobie Brawl Tourney to support Breast Cancer Awareness. I was given eHaley. Such a cooooool fig. As I don't play Cygnar it is a nice change of pace to paint one of the boys.....errrr girls in blue. As I started this project, the biggest problem for me was figuring out which area I should implement the one stipulation for painting the fig... "somethings gotta be pink" After consulting a buddy and staring at the fig for awhile... this is what I came up with.

Progress so far: Pinks- Completed. Blues- almost finished... need to tighten up some of the transitions from shade to highlight. Whites- only base coated. Most of the black will end up being metallic.

Thanks for takin a peek, and follow us... you won't regret it.

Godzilla Vs Megalon

I know that they are not to every one's taste but I enjoy Godzilla movies and while I don't own all of them I do have a lot of them, last night I watched Godzilla vs Megalon for the first time ( that I can recall ) and it was just terrible, easily one of the worst movies I've seen in ages, in fact Godzilla was only in it for around 20 minutes, this felt more like an attempt to launch a spin-off movie series.

This one was pretty disappointing but hopefully the next one will be a return to form.

WIP: Breast Cancer Brawl Donation

So, along with John, I was also asked to paint a fig for our local Breast Cancer awareness tournament. I ended up getting handed E-Skarre to paint, and I have to say that I am mightily impressed with how nice of a figure this is. Real fun to paint so far, I'm going to have to get one for my Cryx army now for sure.
Here's is what I've gotten done on her so far.

Breast Cancer Donation WIP...

Well I didn't get to this fig as much as I had hoped during the holiday. I finished the blue and red hood only. I did a base coat on each of the main color I wanted to have. Then I did a darker wash on both. The blue was just a darker blue and the tomato red was a bit a black mixed in the red for the wash. After that I took the original color and added a bit of water and retardant to the paint to thin it up. I high lighted the area and then added white to both as I built it up. Basic and quick. Trying to make it look like a good table top figure.

John...

WIP: Port Tavern

Well, I have great ambitions to make my own 6'x4' port table for all the various fantasy, Skirmish games I play. This little building is the beginning of that very long project. Hopefully I can power through and see this to completion, and not just have another half finished project sitting on my shelves.
Here's a few pics of the work done so far.

True Blood Season 2

Fiona and I watched all 12 episodes of True Blood's second season over the last couple of days, I actually rather enjoyed the first couple of episodes but then it all started going wrong, so very wrong.

For me at least ( Fiona rather enjoyed it ) the second season was a mess, there was just so much wasted time and boring story lines during the second season that I'm kind of shocked anyone was left watching the show by the end of the season although I guess all the nudity helped save the show.

In the name of keeping the wife happy I've ordered the third season Blu-ray set but honestly I'm not looking forward to it.

Hippies

OK I admit it, I only bought Hippies because Simon Pegg was in it and because it was cheap, the show was a mildly amusing little comedy but nothing special and I'd only recommend it to Simon Pegg fans, having now watched the first and only series I can see why a second series was never produced, to be honest I'm not sure why it was commissioned in the first place, it's not horrible or anything but it's just not really funny either.

Breast Cancer Donation....

Well this is a late post but it is for a good cause. I was going to post the spaceship interior I was doing earlier this week but at the last minute I decided to paint a figure for the upcoming Breast Cancer Event at our LHS so it was only fitting that I post the WIP for the mini they asked me to do. So I contact the Press Ganger in charge of the event and he asked if I would do Calandra. I was going to put her together the next day but my weekend got busy which not I am thankful for because if I would have gotten to this blue girl when I purchased her she would have been on a normal flat base with not to many features. Due to the delay I had time to think as I drove around doing errands and it came to me to elevate her and have a waterfall running on the base. I used some slate that I have left over from my kitchen floor and glued a couple of pieces together and used a die to elevate her. Once they were dry I attached her to the top with some supporting rocks around her foot to add strength. Once that was all done I mixed some Sculpta Mold and filled in the gap below the slate and then inserted some slate fragments to give it some flavor. Now she is drying and I will spray her tomorrow and start working on her. This will be a fun project and for a worthy cause.

Cheers,

John...

Painting Night at Endzone

It looks like we are going to start a painting night at the local hobby store (Endzone) starting in January. It will be once a month and on a Saturday night. We have had some positive interest in painting lately so we are going to jump on it and see where it will take us. Should be a great time. We will take pictures and post....

John...

Stuff and Nonsense

Finished Batman: Arkham City - loved it !

Watched the original Phantasm, hadn't seen it in around 15 years, I didn't remember it being so cheaply made and disjointed at times but it was still B-Grade fun.

Also watched to original The Fast and the Furious, looked and sounded nice on Blu-ray but it was a pretty average and very predictable movie, I can't believe that it got four sequels.

I had a lot more fun watching the Escape to Athena with it's big Hollywood ensemble cast along with the 1973 version of The Three Musketeers, both films looked pretty good for their age on Blu-ray, I'm hoping to watch The Four Musketeers later today, it's a pity that there weren't more films made in this series as they are a lot of fun.

Finally there was Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, I'd been interested in seeing this sequel to the original film for some time, the Blu-ray looked and sounded great but I thought the movie was a little disappointing - I guess you can't win them all.

Pirate Booty

Well, for my first post here on the new blog, I thought I'd throw up something a little bit different from my normal fare. She is the Female duelist from Reaper miniatures.  I've been working on this fig, on and off for a little while now, trying to figure out what I could use her as.
I came to the conclusion that she would make a great proxy for First mate Hawk in a Warmachine Pirates army.
So, if I ever get some Pirate Jacks and Casters, I have a solo to go with them.....

Scarab7664 here...

Well I am going to jump on here and intro myself. My name is John Salmond and I have been painting off and on for a long time since the intro days of Greyhawk. I have been building terrain seriously for just a few years now. I have done a few pieces that have made it into No Quarter Magazine. I enjoy the side of painting and building terrain as much if not more than playing the games. I play Squad Leader, Mustangs and Messerschmidt, Hordes/Warmachine, Warlord, Warhammer, and I am now getting into Infinity because I need a Sci Fi game. I have also meddled in other games and have figures from all kinds.

Here is a Troll I am doing for my son that will be what I call 'Table Top' level. I have to tone things down otherwise I will never get anything painted. I am trying to paint figs for my kids now so they have something painted from the dad.

This was the last figure I completed and it was for a tournament painting contest for a league I was in several months ago.

This is the figure I am currently working on. This army is a step up from 'Table Top' because it is the one I have chosen to do that with. The skin is the only thing done on this critter.

This is how I thought I would start off by showing what I have recently completed and what I am currently working on. Hope you enjoy. If you have any questions jump on over to our Facebook page and give us a holler and we will be glad to answer the best we can.

John...