Matakishi's Tea House

I thought I'd take the opportunity to post about what I'm working on at the moment. It'll be a while before any of this gets posted on to the site in its finished form.

Painting:

I'm painting the 12 bearers for the Tarzan project safari, I'm doing them in stages because they're boring in between other painting.

I've just finished 2 lions that were half done at the end of 2008, their bases will be finished tomorrow but I won't varnish them until I have more stuff to do at the same time.

I'm also painting a large plague demon figure to be a boss in my Shadowman project. He's being done in stages too because of his size and complexity.

All these are filler jobs while I wait for a large order of Kryomek aliens to arrive from Scotia Grendel, these are my 'xenomorphs' for the Future war project and will be started on as soon as they arrive, theres 52 of them and a GW Tyranid Red Terror for the queen that's coming from e-Bay. I'm also waiting on some resin eggs from e-Bay.

Building:

I'm building some floating alien houses for my Greys, I was just waiting for some brass rod which came today so these will move ahead now. There's acomplete 'how to' article that will accompany them.

i'm also putting together a warp gate for my Future war games, a good way of getting modern humans to other worlds. Basically it's a stargate but won't look the same, more a Guardian of Time from the original Star Trek series.

Entebbe will continue as soon as I figure out a way to get some parts of the control tower done. I'm nearly there so expect progress soon.

Coming up next:

I've just drawn up plans for a farm complex for an alien cow stealing scenario which was prompted by Britannia producing some great hillbillies. I plan to use Zombiesmith greys as this is a more light-hearted game than my Future War project.

All, some or none of this will appear in due course

Hi Mat,

You don't have to buy  and  paint Greys you know... One Monk does them in download and print card miniatures.

I'm a member of his card miniature artists' forum (though I am a p*ss-poor artist if truth be told) and he has a very wide range both for sale and for free download.

There are also mutant cows...

Craig.

I know I don't have to buy and paint figures but it's what I do

And the big question is, where are you getting your cows from?

I'll probably be getting a couple of packs of Mega Minis cows, they are the cheapest ones that I like the look of.

Kryomeks arrived and I've nearly finished painting them. In progress photos soon. Still waiting on the Red Terror but the eggs are here.

I've started building my hive entrance as well.

How are you painting your aliens, in a bright colour scheme or in more traditional dark colours?

I've painted them black with a dark green drybrush all over and a dark blue drybrush on the top surfaces, teeth and claws are grey. I'm pretty happy with this, I think it gives a good impression of the film aliens which are black but lit with blue and green lighting most of the time.

Photos will be posted soon of the painted but unbased aliens as soon as I finish the claws. I'm undecided whether to gloss varnish them. I'll do a test one to see over the next couple of days.

A few changes already.

I've finished half the Xenomorph/Kryomek aliens and I'm happy with the look. I've decided against a gloss finish although I might gloss the mouths once everything else is done. This project is on course...

Invasion of the Saucer People.

I've ordered the Hillbillies from Britannia and changed my choice of little green men to the newly announced Black Cat Bases ones. Much cheaper than the Zombiesmith ones and just as nice! Also, I'll be buying from friends and it's always good to do that.

I've also ordered the Pegaus UFO to go with them.

Since I was ordering from Britannia I got a company's worth of Simbas for my Wild Geese project too. Oh, and some more SWAT because they're such excellent figures.

Once I've finished the current batch of Xenomorphs and made their scenery I hope to start on the farm house and have a bit of a building binge as I finish Entebbe and make the Grey 'houses' and my Stargate.

The observant amongst you will have notuced that Geezers and Intergalactic Adventures have been removed from this year's project list, my interest was waning so they can both wait until later.

are you going for a "destroy all humans" kind of thing matakishi? which may i add had some of the most incredibly funny AI character dialogue.

Zed

Not really. The future war project is going to be 'realistic' and gritty, the Saucer People will start off as a one-off game in a set location- hillbillies, little green men and cows- and may expand later. I haven't thought about the rules much but I'm hoping for a 'board game with miniatures' feel at the moment.

Those redshirts are screwed

They (the Kryomeks models) turned out quite dark on screen, are they that dark IRL?

Sort of, they're meant to be black after all. It's hard to tell exactly before the bases are finished because the base colours will affect how the miniature colours are perceived; also some matt varnish will change the colours too, at the moment they are very shiny from the black wash that I used to try to eradicate the last bits of metal showing through (this was a dismal failure, there's still loads of pin prick sized silver bits that I keep spotting which will be sorted after varnishing). I've just this second finished applying the Basetex so tomorrow, when everything is dry, they'll get the final drybrush and have some static grass added. If the weather's better than today they'll also be varnished and photographed for the site. If it's still raining I'll take a couple of close-ups without varnishing and post them instead.

Yeah, a lighter base will help define them, alot of the way they look to me I think is my screen size, when BillChuck mentioned the eyes I had to squint to even see the eyes hmy:

Just wondering, how are you going to go about doing your portal (looking for tips and advise here)?

Ah, no, Bill was commenting on the Greys and the highlights he mentions are natural ones from the light as their eyes are just gloss black. The Kryomeks don't have eyes just nostril thingies.

My 'Stargate' is a circular portal hovering above the ground. I'm making it from a polystyrene hoop I bought for £1.00 or so from Hobby Lobby. It'll be done at the same time as the floating houses for the greys which will be completed after the alien hive which I hope to have done but not painted today.

I've just noticed, this topic is April 2009 but it's actually may. i need to get out more

May? Already?

Oh b*gger... I'm late for work...

Photos of the painted kryomeks are up on the site and the Red Terror arrived today, minus a stamp and with an excess postage charge to pay, never mind- got a refund off the ebay seller, good bloke.

I've assembled the Terror and will paint it tomorrow.

Red terror procedes a pace. Colonists are based, photos later today.

Big parcel from Britannia Miniatures today, Simbas, Hillbillies and SWAT- 54 figures in total.

Also I got a Plasticville farm equipment set, primarily for the windmill but there's also six vehicles that will be added to the Hillbilly farm as well.

Today I finished the Hive entrance for my Xenomorph aliens and posted a 'how to' article about it. This makes the Xenomorphs a finished and complete force.

Tomorrow I'm going to get the table out and have a game so expect pictures and a report soon. I have written up the special rules needed to have an 'Aliens' army in Crossfire and these will go live on the site as soon as I have some nice in-game shots to illustrate them with.

My Future War project continues with the arrival today of the first of the robots...

I may try to get the robots painted before the end of the month or I may dedicate some time to building the next part of Entebbe, I haven't decided.