"Yes, but will it fly Jim?"

Strange title, but bear with me :)

About a year ago my son handed me one of his toy guns and asked me to fix it."Of course I will my son, what else am I here for?" I said :P

So, after stripping it down and having good look at it I soon realised that it was too far gone. All the internals were worn out from all the pretend combat that it had seen. Time for the bin I thought? But wait, hang on a minute! On closer inspection, with my miserly kitbashing goggles firmly fixed in place, I spied a "space-shippy" kinda thing hidden within the shape of the gun.

And this is where my journey began, almost a year ago. I've been plugging away at this, on and off, while completing other projects. Want to know more? Read on.......

Ooooooh, I can see a spaceship in there, I just know it.

With a bit of hamfisted photo editing magic, this is what I came up with.

So, out came the butchering modelling tools and I set to work.

These sections were going to be used as the landing gear hatches.

I wanted the body of the ship to be much wider than the engine pod.

So, I spaced all the screws holes out with plastic tube. And installed longer screws to compensate.

The top handle for the gun got transformed into a window, ala cardboard backed up with plastic for proper alignment.

Next up was the engine pod. I fixed a plastic tube along the entire length of it.

Then I added a plastic shower rail section into the body of the Spaceship. This had the exact I.D. of the engine pods pipe O.D. 

Starting to make sense now? The engine pod fucks the spaceship but good!

After that mechanical sexual encounter was over, this is what the Spaceship looks like.

Next up was the landing gear. the trickiest part of the build I must say. Trying to find something that would have the right
geometry, as well as the required strength, was quite a task.

In the end, I opted for a set of quad-copter landing legs. Cheap, strong,
cheap, having the right geometry.......and cheap. 

Here's the ugly fuckers in place.

And here's me trying to figure out the correct angles for the entry hatch.

Getting there.

It was at this point that I took another look at the silhouette of the ship. It wasn't really "doing it" for me. The engine pod was looking too long, basically not bad arse enough for my liking. So, after all that work, getting it to mate up perfectly to the ship, I decided to go back to the drawing board.

I wanted something a little more subtle. A smaller, more rudimentary engine arrangement.

So I dug out these old toy bongo drums and set to work.

And I came up with this. Nothing too flashy, just an engine way too big to be technically feasible.....my sort of RT :) 

Coat hangers, speaker wire and toy bits were sacrificed at the kitbashing alter.

A yo-yo, plastic cup and a pen lid channel the thrust of this engine.....pretend like.

This is how I joined the wire together to fill in the empty spaces in the engine compartment. Hot glue to the rescue! 

I filled in the spaces between the two halves of the ship with old public transport cards, as you do.

Then I used body filler to fill in the spaces to the correct height.

Another tough part of the build, bulking out the legs. Their not finished yet, but you get the general idea :)

Remember the hatch angles I was playing with before? Well, this is the hatch at the moment. Gunna magnetise it I think.

So, this is the "used to be a gun, but now a spaceship" project as it stands today.

Next up is the landing gear bay doors, entry hatch, front window, a couple of turrets and a few other bits and bobs.

Stay frosty :)

Siege Dreadnought V2

Well hello there everybody!

I've been a bit of a lazy git over the past few weeks, but still I managed to tick another unfinished project off of my list anyway. My Siege Dread MKII from almost two & a half years ago! Have a gander at all four of my old posts.....if you fancy a trip down yawn lane :D

I'll not bore you any longer with a boring old intro that even I couldn't be arsed reading if it were someone elses post! So here, I now dump a metric tonne of pics on you instead! Hahahaaaaa!!!!

Up until a few weeks ago, this is how she remained for a bloody long time.

Here are my weapons of choice for weathering things. Brown & rust colours for rust, black for oil stains.

Here are my three trays & three fucked brushes of choice for weathering things.

Here is a large soft bristled brush & an ordinary brush for "repairing" errors while weathering....all of choice you understand.

White benzene solvent by MASTEX, in a glass bottle, on my desk......of choice.

Next up is the application of all of the stuff to the Siege Dread:

Apply dark brown oil paint to object with one of the
fucked up brushes.....like a bastard! 

Spread it around with gay abandon!

Go all Mr Hanky on it!!!!

With the large brush, have at it with some White Benzene.

Now, with another fucked up brush, apply the rusty oil paint to it.

Go at it with the soft bristled brush, trying not to mix the colours too much.

Different angles of the butchering process.

Gratuitous arse shot.

Then repeat the process, but this time don't wash off too much.

Keep building up the weathering till your satisfied.....or have fucked up.

Corn cob thingys left unweathered.....because.

Victim chained up.

Took an age to get the chain to sit right.

Here it is pre-pigment application phase.

Concrete dust added to wrecking ball & claw.

Another arse shot, I'm shameless aren't I!

Clutching his entrails while going for a ride, Yippy!!!!

Poor old Drake had a bit of an accident, how embarrassing.

It's name, coz it has a small cock.

Closer inspection of concrete dust attempt shows that it's sort of convincing.

Small tool and cable aggots on display.

The stairway to hell on the back of it's leg.

"AArrrrhhhh!!!! Get me off a this fuckin thing will ya!!!!!"

In all it's splendour :)

Targeting control stick & forward/backward controls.

Drakes' presence is not only seen, but smelt by those close by as well!

This is just another view isn't it! Lazy cameraman!

Chomp, chomp, chomp!!!

Green glowy things.

If he misses with the claw he can slice it with the underslung blade instead.

"Why did I eat that curry before the battle?!!!!"

So, that was quite a large amount of pics wasn't it! I suppose I could have split this into two posts, one on weathering & pigments and the other on the finished build? But I had a bit of  a reality check and realised that I'm no Grand Master on weathering.....who am I trying to kid huh? So I decided against it, instead choosing to let my creation speak for itself. If you guys like it or think it's lacking in the weathering department then you'll let me know. I'd much rather have a discussion about this weathering malarkey than preach to you about a subject that I consider myself a novice at.

I did however manage to find a couple of different methods for applying pigments online. Both of which don't yield satisfactory results.

Method 1. Gloss coat, mix pigment with water or alcohol and apply. Rub off excess with finger and seal with matte varnish.

Method 2. Matte coat then apply dry pigment. Rub off excess with finger, seal with matte. Apply gloss and then matte to dull.

For me, with both of these methods, among others, I've not had a lot of success. Most of the time quite a lot of the pigment gets blown off when trying to fix it with spray. Or, you manage to get it to adhere well, but looks like mud instead of dust. I usually apply it a few times, stuffing about, until I'm satisfied with the look and just accept that it's not gunna work with the first application. I sometimes apply pigments onto wet paint, which I did for the concrete effect. I just pour the dry pigment directly onto it, which looks more chalky & convincing I think.  


What are your thoughts on this subject guys?

Making weathering powder

The hobby industry, as we all probably know, operates in a very competitive market. And as such, each manufacturer is trying really hard to come up with new & exciting products for us hobbyists to buy. But quite a few of those products are a bit of a con i.e. Clump foliage, Basing material, Gravel....for christs sake! and Weathering powders.

About five or so years ago when weathering powders hit the market (in my hobby sphere they did anyway) I had no idea what they were, just thought it was some new magic stuff that made metal look aged. But after I saw how much they wanted for the them I gave them the middle finger. Did a bit of a research online though, and discovered what they were derived from, but took it no further, as I didn't really need them....just wanted them :)

Just in case your not aware, weathering powders are just pigments. The "base" that gets added to the liquid mediums to produce paint. That's it!

Fast forward a few years when I started doing a bit of Kitbashing, and that's when I thought about pigments again. Weathering large areas with paints can be a bit of a pain in the rectum. So I decided to make my own. Thought I'd do a small tutorial on how I go about making them at the same time. So read on if I've not bored you to tears already :)



First, get hold of some cheap acrylic pastel sticks. Just make sure that their acrylic and not oil! otherwise your stuffed. Then steal a small cheese grater from your kitchen without your other half finding out or she'll brain you.

Grab one of the little bastards and....

Grate like a madman! It's actually really easy, just use the finest grating side and apply a small amount of pressure. I found that grating at an angle reduces the chances of the pastel chipping quite a lot. Just play around and you'll figure it out.

You'll end up with a nice pile of brown.......weathering powder!

Here I'm just showing you a comparison of the "real product" beside mine. It's just the same stuff! 

And after about half an hours work I ended up with every colour in the rainbow. I can mix & match to my hearts desire. Piece of piss hey!

Hope I haven't done one of those "sucking eggs" tutorials again. If I have, just let me know in the comments section and I'll delete it, seriously!


Cheers fellas :)

Joff Zuckerman

Ain't no Rogue Trader as bad arse as this here hombre.....fact.

I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a single hardcore RT fan out there who, at some stage in their life, hasn't gazed upon this illustration and thought to themselves "Gee I'd love to have a mini of him". But alas, as we all know GW never produced one......sigh :(

And unfortunately, for us mere mortals, he's not a model that can be easily converted up either. There's nothing in miniature that really comes close enough to replicating his "look". He's got sooooo many things going on with him, stylistically, that even if you were lucky enough to find said miniature, you'd still have your work cut out trying to find or make all of the other components required to make him.

So, why am I waffling on about this with you all then? I'm just stating the bloody obvious aren't I!? Well, I've been wanting to attempt to make him for at least a couple of years now, but, as I just mentioned, I could never find a suitable mini to base him off of. Fast forward a year or so, and I now think I've managed to collect enough bit's & bob's to have a REAL crack at it.

But before I go on, some of you out there (most likely all!....I'm terribly slow with Internet goings on sometimes) will be aware that as part of Diego's Space Raiders 3 Kickstarter campaign, Kev Adams sculpted a miniature version of him. And even though I think it's a really cool looking mini, and as much as I love Kev's work & have the up most respect for his awesome sculpting abilities, for me, it's still not close enough to the original. Yeah, I know, I can be a bit fussy sometimes :)

Kev Adams killa version.

Having a closer look at the green I think I know why he chose to alter some of the sculpt from the illustration though. Most likely because it'll be cast up as a single piece miniature. And as such, considerations needs to be taken into account of undercuts & part thickness etcetera. But, luckily for me, I don't have any of those constraints. I'll be making my version as a one off, to be painted upon completion.....not cast. So hopefully, fingers crossed, I'll be able to get closer to the illo :)

I began by breaking down all of the design elements from the illustration into separate sections. To help me lock down each component that I'd need to find to build this sucker. Here they be;

As you can see from above I sorted him into ten different, unique and almost impossible to find elements to make him from, piece of cake huh? So next came the fun part......trying to find similar looking mini's and/or parts thereof, and figuring which of these would be useful to make Joff from. Here's what I've managed to cobble together so far;

Some of these items will most likely not be incorporated into the final mini, but their there anyway, just to aid in the visualisation process and to try out fits of varying scales. 

Let's see what I've been up to so far;

The head & skull Sashimono will be mercilessly raped from the Copplestone mini pictured below. This particular miniature, not surprisingly, was what triggered my enthusiasm for beginning the Joff project in the first place. 

If only his arms were in a better position I would've
used him as the basis for the whole conversion.

Breastplate is from a space marine. I've begun reshaping the collar and neckline area to suit the design better.....still a ways to go though.

Purity seal? What self respecting Rogue Trader needs one of them for!?

Legs are from a heavily modified set from forgeworld. I spent ages looking for a mini with a natural standing pose. It's virtually bloody impossible to find a miniature in that stance for some reason.

Now comes the part where GS and cursing comes in :)

For this project there's several challenging sections for me to make/convert. The first is most probably the most obvious to you all; the Bionic arm with incorporated power fist. I scoured the net for ages trying to find a fist, hand, claw or any other suitable appendage that closely resembled it, but alas, no joy. So, in the end I settled for a ghoul hand. It's gunna take a lot of work, but I think this element, on it's own, has the potential to either make or break the overall look of the mini. Second will be the shoulder pads. Their not THAT complex, but they'll still require a fair amount of work to get their shape right. Then there's the sword. That's gunna be a real bugger, shaping the blade to fit the illustration & adding those bird skull thingy's to the hilt. And lastly comes the torn cloak....never done that before, so I'm gunna be looking online for help with that. So yeah, a few painful bits in the build. But as far as everything else goes, I'm not worried, everything else should be fairly easy....famous last words hey chums :D


I'm hoping to have him done for BOYL....this year! I'm not sure if this is wishful thinking on my part or just another one of my hobby delusions, but I'll give it a bash anyway :)


And erm er, bye to youse all.