Zab's Damn it to hell! WIP

Well, the 12 year old is a precious adopted girl from China, so Mom didn't have to deal with a labor there, although the adoption process is equally painful. I'm not the oldest, either. I have a 34 year old brother. But yes, 34-12 is quite the age gap.

I failed to mention my 20 year old half brother and 18 year old half sister. I had no idea they existed until I got an email while in Iraq 2007. It said Hi, I'm your sister. Crazy....
 

Canny

Active member
I look forward to painting rainbow dolphin's with my girls too. You sound like John McClane "suck it up buttercup".
 

Zab

New member
Oh hey that's cool BFK, I'm pretty sure my Maltese, God fearing, catholic in-laws had an even 10 kids, but "lost" a few on the trips to and from Malta over the years ;) Canny, I'm not a monster (yet, just wait till she hits the teens) I just have no sympathy for tears that spring from self inflicted pain (said the ex skater/ snowboarder who is covered in tattoos). If she gets hurt doing something honest that's fine and I'll hug her like crazy, but if she was warned about doing some thing dumb, proceeds to be dumb and gets hurt? Well hell :rolleyes:
 

Zab

New member
NOVA SCOUTS DONE!:victory::victory::victory::victory:I'll take some display pics before i ship them back and may even put them in the gallery later...maybe.
I noticed a shortshot on the connector for one of the scouts rifle wires...ah, the perils of assembly after painting
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And now you would never know...
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Everybody ready for their close ups...
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oh and i added a little gore for the severed stealer head...
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I also took a trip to my local exotic woods store to get some fancy wood. I got a nice black walnut round for Digga's giant squig:highfive:, plus some nice African black wood and some nicely burled wood from Australia that will make lovely display cubes!
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Super excited to get back to other projects :claply:
 

Demihuman

Active member
Awesome! Definetly need to put a group shot in the gallery. I am also really interested to see some nice shots of how the cloaks turned out. That one shoulder looks great! The lenses also turned out really nice. I always struggle with those.

Glad you got the short shot thing worked out.... Uh what's a short shot?

My only nit pick, you knew there would be one, is on the assault guys swords you could take some of your black wash and give them a little more shadow and then one more edge highlight with mithril silver. Just like two minutes more on each one.
 

Zab

New member
Thanks! A short shot is where a mold doesn't completely fill thus leaving detail missing and on the scout in question the wires didn't reach all the way to the connector due to the short shot. I'm still really struggling with my new WIP camera. The on one thing it's having trouble with is the metallics. I swear to god they don't look like that in person. There is a very subtle, but constant fade from the edge to the darker parts that goes from metal to gun metal with a bit of blue in between and some black in the recesses. The blends on the gold look shoddy too. Actually now that i look at it even the nice blue fade on the armour is barely visible and Telion has this weird tan in a can complexion. ~sigh~ I'll just have to keep trying new settings. At least this batch is in focus :p
 

Demihuman

Active member
I hear you. I was in love with my new cell phone camera but I fiddled with the setting and now everything looks sort of like play dough. okay all done!
 

Zab

New member
Yeah, sadly I'm too old to learn her cool painting tricks. I'll just keep it to getting the paint ON the mini and be happy :p
 

Khonner

New member
You've inspired me, Mr. Zab.. I've been looking for an exotic wood store local here, but the only thing I managed to find was stuff over in Europe. However, I did another google fu attempt and WHAM! found one about 30 mins away from me. So went down there this afternoon and picked up a couple of pieces of Purpleheart, Wenge, Jatoba, Walnut and some Red Oak.. I lucked out and they cut some of the purpleheart for me right there. This stuff is so dense that a 5" by 4" piece weights prolly close to 2-3lbs. Should be interesting to see if I can cut it down, their industrial cutter was having trouble with it, it actually burned some of the wood instead of cutting it.. lol

I will post some pics if you want to see them..
 

Zab

New member
Yeah i'd love to see them. tell me about the heft of the hard wood though eh? I was trying to find something more exotic for digga's squig but most were so heavy that it would have cost hundreds to ship and probably would have crushed the model itself if upended on the way. I like the old craftsmen who hang out at those places too they were very interested in what they were for and very helpful with suggestion as to what has a nice grain or color. Not sure what i'll use to cut the African black wood - diamonds or lasers maybe...
 

Digganob

New member
Another amazing job Zab. I am extremely impressed with how well they came out. I'm having trouble with the red thing one of the marines are on though. It looks like a nid head but my phone won't let me get a good look. The slime bursting out though is great. I wish I had some feed back for you other than that but when it's good it's good. Plus I'm super eager for your next project :p
 

Zab

New member
Thanks, yep it's dead bug. I'm excited too. Once i'm done processing all the pics I'm gonna just lay into building the base for chuckles then get back to painting him up. I even have some cool ideas for a floating frame made from insulation board to keep it all secure during shipping!
 

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
You've inspired me, Mr. Zab.. I've been looking for an exotic wood store local here, but the only thing I managed to find was stuff over in Europe. However, I did another google fu attempt and WHAM! found one about 30 mins away from me. So went down there this afternoon and picked up a couple of pieces of Purpleheart, Wenge, Jatoba, Walnut and some Red Oak.. I lucked out and they cut some of the purpleheart for me right there. This stuff is so dense that a 5" by 4" piece weights prolly close to 2-3lbs. Should be interesting to see if I can cut it down, their industrial cutter was having trouble with it, it actually burned some of the wood instead of cutting it.. lol

I will post some pics if you want to see them..
Hmmmn Purpleheart I have isn't that dense. Maybe you have some "very" seasoned timber.
I'd seriously suggest getting a tin of sanding sealer to help get a smooth finish on the wood, and if you don't have a flat sander 200, 400, then 800 grit automotive emery paper will give a good finish. Tape it to a flat surface and away you go.
I've been using GW 'Ardcoat spray as a gloss varnish on wood left for 24 hours gives a good gloss finish.......But I'm almost out of that so it's going to have to be a trip to Ken Bromley's to try some of their gloss acrylic spray varnish.
One thing get a face mask and use it! I didn't once and made myself ill sanding Laburnum..I was lucky, that stuff is bloody poisonous and most of the woods you mention do have toxic tendancies.

Slight case of "Do as I say, not what I fecked myself up with!"
 

Digganob

New member
Well if you need a break in between projects I understand. So I'll give you 15 minutes then I expect progress. Seriously I wish I had the focus everyone here seems to have. I must say I am curious about your foam idea too. Well break should be over now. Get to work. ;)
 
You've inspired me, Mr. Zab.. I've been looking for an exotic wood store local here, but the only thing I managed to find was stuff over in Europe. However, I did another google fu attempt and WHAM! found one about 30 mins away from me. So went down there this afternoon and picked up a couple of pieces of Purpleheart, Wenge, Jatoba, Walnut and some Red Oak.. I lucked out and they cut some of the purpleheart for me right there. This stuff is so dense that a 5" by 4" piece weights prolly close to 2-3lbs. Should be interesting to see if I can cut it down, their industrial cutter was having trouble with it, it actually burned some of the wood instead of cutting it.. lol

I will post some pics if you want to see them..


Grrrr....where is MY local exotic wood store? I live outside a major US city and can't find anything. Plenty to order from online, but nothing local insofar as I can see. The best I could find locally was a cut of fir.
 
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