Finished Ol' Rowdy

Mostly finished actually.  Here he is.  Only thing missing is the spray finish and some flock grass.

Detail Ol' Rowdy

Used Folk Art Gold, then some old Delven Mud to tone it down.  On the Folk Art Silver, I toned it down with black wash. 

All that's left is attach the arm and base.  He was painted in the week I gave myself.  However, I did not get him final assembled and clear coated.  Overall, I am pretty happy with him!

Base, Prime, and Airbrush Ol' Rowdy

2 Days to go until I want to have Ol' Rowdy painted and ready for the tabletop.  I have this evening, tomorrow evening, and a couple of hours on Saturday.

Ol' Rowdy ready for priming.  I normally stick the mini on the base but I wanted a handle for airbrushing.  Then the handle needed extra support to stand up...

Here is the arm on a separate cork.

For the base, I did two pieces of cork, layered, then white glue along the edges and dipped in sand.

This is the primer I used.  It does a good job of a fine mist and the paint really sticks to it.  On a metal mini, it works great. I am not so sure about it on plastic minis as I had a horrible batch of Bones miniatures a while back and I don't remember which primer I used on them.

Base primed 

Both pieces primed 

Airbrushed P3 Thamar Black thinned with a 50/50 mix of distilled water and blue glass cleaner (Windex)

"Blue Tac" which in this case is white, used as a masking agent

I pushed the tac into the crevices  

Airbrush P3 cygnar blue base thinned with the 50/50 mix of water/glass cleaner

This is the cygnar blue highlight thinned and airbrushed on 

And without the tac 

Base blue and highlight blue airbrushed on.  I like the top of the oversized shoulder pad.  I need to look more into where to place the highlight on things like the forearm brace.

And without the tac

Currently = 45%

After Dry Brush, I will call it 50%

Assembling Ol' Rowdy Part 2

8 Days to go - Want to have Ol' Rowdy finished by Sept. 3rd, 2016.

• To Pin or Not To Pin
• Well, I pinned.  I wanted more stability in the legs.

Lower Leg Assembly

• Note to self - Next time, drill all the pin holes before you start gluing.  I drilled the hip sockets straight through.  Drill the legs at the hips and the feet.  Drill the Arms at the shoulders.  Drill the two smokestacks and where they attach.  Drill the shoulder pads if you are going to.  I did not. 

• By waiting to drill it a piece at a time, it put extra stress on pieces already attached.  It stayed together but I could have thought it out better.

• The benefit of waiting was being able to position things as I wanted them.

Green Stuff in slot to help with the fit.  It was a little loose in the slot.



A little bit of green stuff smushed out and I had to smooth it out.

• And... FLIP THE BASE OVER!!  Wow!  This made positioning the legs SOOO much easier.  I got them glued together and left the feet free in the base.  It helped the legs stay in the best position for gluing.  Why didn't I know about this sooner????

Flip the base over!!  Long pin to go all the way through the hip piece.

Base helps line it all up 

Everything glued.  Now to the knee pads.  They were loose and needed green stuff for support.  I placed a small bit at the 5 o'clock position on the back of the pad.  Then more superglue.

Pushing the knee pad on sucked.  Find something to push with so you don't impale your fingers.

Drilled hole for the center support

Drilled the top part.

This was close to the actual length of the pin.

I almost left it like this!

Here it is lined up.

It was actually easier to line up the top and bottom from the back.  It is a little hard to see from the picture but if you are doing this, you will see where it is from the back.

Still more to do.  I was hoping to have the arms on and the base done tonight but it wasn't meant to be.  Still, I like the structure and I how solid if feels.

Currently = 14%

Fully Assembled will be 20%

Assembling Ol' Rowdy Part 1

Cleaning flashing

9 Days Left until I want him completed 100% (Sept. 3rd, 2016)

Assembling Ol' Rowdy:

• Cleaned all the flashing and rough places on the parts with my Exacto and small files.

• Washed all the parts in soapy water and let dry

• I used the diagram on the box to be sure I had all the pieces.

• I had read that some people filled the empty space inside the body with green stuff (two part elastic putty) and I had a bunch of from Gale Force 9.  I bought a package of putty about 5 years ago and I still have most of it.  Some complained that it wasn't cost effective to fill the chamber but I had the product and I figured, Why Not?

• I always seem to mix up too much so this time I "measured" but putting the separate balls of green stuff in the cavity I wanted to fill.  With the amounts correct, I mixed it together.

•  I coated the inside of the pressure tank with super glue, then stuffed in the green stuff.  I then coated the back of the swan piece and stuck them together.  It probably was not entirely necessary but it felt like the filling gave more surface for the glue to hold.

• I also decided to do the pressure tank first because it seemed to give good cues for where the two shoulders needed to line up.  As always, dry fit everything before you glue!

• The two pieces went together pretty well.  The top is lined up on center.  The Left Arm side has a tight seal.

• The Right Arm side has a little bit of a gap.  However, this is the side that has the oversized shoulder pad and the gap may be to accommodate that piece.  Either way, it will be covered by the 80's style shoulder pad!

• Also notice the hollow core of the chest piece.  I will address this next.

• Next, I rolled up more green stuff.  I could have left the chest hollow but I had all that green stuff sitting there and it really didn't take that much.  This gives the shoulders a large area to grip, rather than just the edges.

• I coated the inside of the Left Arm Shoulder with super glue by making a small pool then rolling it around in the cavity.

• I then shoved the snake of green stuff into the shoulder socket, leaving the long snake form.

• Next, I threaded the green stuff through the chest cavity.  I din't need to fill the void completely, I just wanted more surface area.

• I did the same method of covering the inside of the shoulder and shoving the green stuff in.  After it was fit together, I fed more superglue into the joints.  This is what it looks like all together.  

• This is actually the "front" where the head will go.  This both picture shows the green stuff smushed out a little.  I cleaned it up some and added a little more to the front in the picture below.  I then coated the front face shield and smushed it onto the area pictured above.

This is all the whole chest piece put together.  I cleaned up the green stuff that had smushed out as best I could.  I am not good at that part.  I now have super glue all over my fingers from the smashing of parts together.  

On the right side of this blog, I keep a queue of my progress on Cygnar units I am painting.  I use these guidelines when I decide where the bar is at: 

• 0% = in the box,
• 20% = full assembled,
• 25% = based,
• 30% = primed,
• 40% = base drybrushed
• 50% = blocked colors,
• 50-90% = layers and details,
• 95% = clear coated
• 100% = static grass

With 16 parts and 5 of them together, I am going to call Ol' Rowdy 6% done!

New minis and new paint

I broke down and bought new minis today. The first is the Cygnar Character Heavy 'jack Ol'Rowdy. He fills in several of Stryker's theme lists and is pretty cool all on his own. He can charge without paying focus and he can counter charge if someone gets too close. He is a all metal 'jack and I foresee pinning in my future. 

 

The next mini I got was the Trollbloods plastic kit that can build a Blitzer, Bomber, or Mauler. Or,with good magnets the Blitzer and Bomber! I already have one of the old metal Maulers and I thought the painting would suffer if I tried to magnetize the back piece. 

I also purchased 2starter kits of the P3 paints. Until now, I have mostly been using craft paints. They had lots of pigment and didn't cost an arm and a leg for an ounce. I also have used old citadel paint and was not a big fan. The only ones I really like we're the old citadel washes. Now... I may never paint with anything else! I know I am late to the party but these flow off the brush, cover well and naturally shade into the other colors. I'm a happy girl!