Amputee

Coming soon. 

May or may not have anything to do with Chico's 7th challenge.

May or may not be a mystery.

...

Stumped yet?

...

(couldn't help myself)

- The Witchfinder in General

Minimal Progress

    Not much to report this time, just thought I'd drop in and put up some photos of the FCR-87's progress. She's getting there slowly but things are starting to fall into place inside, outside is a whole other kettle of fish. I really don't know what I'm gonna do with the exterior at this point. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cockpit improvements, swiveling chair.

What kind of a spaceship would it be without joysticks?

Captain Mainwaring takes no notice of the guitar strings used as pipes & inspects the ongoing construction.

    The metal components in the cockpit and by the exit hatch are from Antenocitis Workshop (cheers to Gareth over at Drums in the Deep for the recommendation), the brass components you see are from an old model ship kit I found in a bin (particularly proud of the joysticks I might add) and the ladder in the third photo was an absolute nightmare to assemble! I was dealing with components far too small for my clumsy fingers and suffice to say there was a lot of swearing and glue-caked fingertips involved. These were the ingredients: wire and these bloody tiny and frustratingly difficult to work with key shaped whatsits:

What I had to do was glue one "key" to the end of the wire, cut it to length, glue the other key and then trim the keys to fit in the wall. Sound easy enough... except these bloody keys were tiny!

The key what opens yonder door of hardship.

    I think I might be struggling out of my paintless slump though, the age old remedy that is buying more minis has got me inspired. It may not be much but it's either a start or a desperate cry for help:

Looking crate.

     The crates are also from Antenocitis Workshop, they've got some nice stuff there. I've ordered in the Spacelords range Ship's Crew and some other miscreants from EM4, some Metal Magic civilian types from Turnkey, a Citadel giant spider and a huge lot of GW dungeon tiles (two sets boxed, two others loose) from ebay & a pilot from the RT landspeeder to sit at the helm of the FCR-87 from a legend on the Oldhammer fb group, cheers for that mate! Can't wait 'til the mail starts getting chunkier.

- The Witchfinder in General.

Creating the FCR-87™

    Well, due to complications unforeseen, I've failed the 6th Chico's Challenge. I got a bit too excited and decided not to strip my LE02 marine of its previous black undercoat and just spray on a quick'n'thin layer of white over the top. But to my dismay, however, whoever had this mini previously had undercoated it in something strange which reacted with the white spray and blobbed up, obscuring details. So naturally into the Dettol he went and he's sitting in front of me with a fresh white priming, waiting patiently to be painted.

I might've failed to paint up the marine in time but I decided shortly after my last post (after weeks of deliberation, procrastination and design sketches which kind of went out the window once I found something suitable to use as the main chassis) to assemble some sort of spacecraft for my growing (yet still naked) warband while the marine sat in the hospital grade bath. The following is a press release sent out by FynderCorp® whilst the vessel is in its construction and conception stages:

    Small time merchants beware... there's a brand new compact cargo runner coming soon and it's got its eyes all over your hard earned credits! Introducing the latest in lightweight transporter crafts, the FynderCorp® FCR-87™ (FynderCorp® Cargo Runner™) aka: 'The Facker'™.

    This compact craft is simply stunning! Licensed to carry 6 humanoids comfortably (or 7 at a squeeze) with no cargo on board, plus its very own pilot (pilot not supplied). What it lacks in storage is only doubly compensated with it's speed and manoeuvrability, due to it's aeronautodynamic™ design specially forumulated™ by a congress of the universe's top leading ahead-of-the-rest engineers. And the extras!

    The FCR-87™ is a fully equipped cargo, transport & reconnaissance vessel with all the functioning capabilities implied therein! The sleek design accommodates for convenience with the spacious fold-down* airlock stair laden side-exit doorway hatch, allowing easy access to or from the lush interior. An even roomier aperture lies directly opposite: the beautiful fold-down* cargo bay, allowing your cargo to be easily loaded, accessed and unloaded with all the comforts of home or away. Speaking of home, let's take a look inside!

[:End Report:]

There's a lot of work still yet to do!

    I'm short on technical supplies at the moment but I've ordered in some parts... Does anyone know where I could find some suitable interface type doodads to flesh out the cockpit with? It's bare as hell in there.

The general shell of the craft is an AirWick scent dispenser that was lying around unused, figured it'd be a nice shape to start with.

And here's a fitting shot of the FCR-87 from behind as we reach the end of the post...

- The Witchfinder in General.

*Does not actually fold down.

Chico's Challenge 666

It's been a while since my last post so here's something to sink yer dirty chompers into...

Time to step up to the challenge! Chico's Challenge that is, this week being sci-fi themed (how very apt as I've just watched the featurette on the models used in Red Dwarf). I have a few naked Rogue Trader minis that have been waiting for a lick of the sable for yonks now so I thought I'd start off by painting up my LE02 Space Marine, the very first of its kind (as I'm lead to believe (seewhatIdidtherehurrr)). After the painfully painstaking task of removing the mould lines (they were atrocious, still not completely satisfied with the end result) comes the task of selecting my colours.

I've had a geez around at painted versions of this mini and I can safely say, although tempting as it is, I'm going to shy away from the silver scheme as portrayed in the mighty tome Heroes For Wargames and possibly outfit this magnificently detailed miniature in a shade of either green or yellow (or both if want to get all aussie about it, but I don't because that's gross and he's not exactly competing in the commonwealth games now is he?). But after seeing how well oldm8 BlueyVT's Alternative Armies Ion Age not-marines turned out with their olive and bone scheme (which reminds me, gotta finish Problemfoot), I'm inspired and thinking of doing something along the same lines... But I'm a terribly indecisive man so who knows how this will turn out! (or if it will even turn out at all!)

Given that the challenge begins on a public holiday for us convicts down south I don't really have much of an excuse not to get started!

Right... enough of the blue wafflling and onto the painting! Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Stay tuned for photos of my efforts if I actually get around to making any.

- The Witchfinder in General.