From GeoffreyT: Clowns, Bins and a Ripe Witch (Vogsphere + Earth + Lune) (111 points)

This week it seems, I am in a sector of the quadrant for which my miniature claims are somewhat paltry but bonus points will abound. 

VOGSPHERE - Black Comedy

From Cybertron, I drift anticlockwise around the middle ring and appear on the planet Vlogsphere.  Looking for black comedy miniatures, I need go no further than my favourite Eureka miniatures brand.

These 28mm meat-cleaver clowns on unicycles remind me of bad guys from a Roger Moore era Bond film.  Dangerous and frightening killers with overly complicated methods that comes unstuck with a bit of lateral thinking by 007.

This bunch of clowns are quite bright (in colour), indeed so bright I had to photograph them in the near dark to get a half decent picture.  To get this effect I used predominantly primary colours and white.  I have kept secondary colours to a minimum, but they are there in small amounts.  By using a few contrasting colours a brighter image forms, it also saves using black-lining to delineate areas.  I also added some patterning with dots and stripes, because thats what clowns have, but again kept in to a minimum.  This is because patterning mutes the colours when viewed at a gaming table distance.  Patterns scale badly from full size to miniature.

From the reverse.   

These guys are quite big for 28's.  Much bigger than usual fare from Eureka.  This is an image of the largest one, held with a ruler on a bit of a backward tilt to make it look bigger than it really is.

As much as I protest, they are largish 28's and not 40mm, so 4 of them does not constitute enough for a squirrel.  Maybe the big one could be classified as next scale up.

Next up is another black comedy miniature from Eureka (28mm).  I painted him up as a Napoleonic era Ghost for The Silver Bayonet game.

I really love the way he is looking backwards at the water pouring out of his horse, it gives an impression of sudden realisation, that just perhaps, there may be something wrong with his horse.  It is a great theme for a ghost who doesn't realise he is dead yet, kind of like in the naff 80's romantic film Ghost.

Initially I tried painting him in full colour, with ethereal edges, it was cool idea, but didn't work.  Then I painted him in the typical GW Aethermatic blue often used for etherial things.  That didn't really work either.  There was not enough contrast between the etherial blue and the watery blue.   Finally I settled on a quite bright white (whiter than I would do white clothes).  So ultimately I have painted this guy three times.  I'm still not happy with it, but the paint on him is getting pretty thick now and I'd have to strip it off to try again.  I was happy with the water tho.  For that I did a thin wash of dark blue over a very light grey primer.

TERRA - Earthbound

From Vlogsphere I penetrate the inner ring, by travelling travel through the Great Abyssal to Terra, where I present for you something that is earth bound.  That something is garbage, bound for landfill in the earth.

The bin metal outsides didn't take much effort, but I fiddled around a bit getting the garbage done.  I used a burnt umber base coat with a flesh wash then detailed in a bunch of the shapes with random colours and a few stripes.

I think these resin castings are from rubicon models.  They are a nominally 28mm scale. 

Hopefully my paltry tally of three widgets for 'Terra' is offset by what I'd like to think is a quite poignant observation on the earthbound theme.

LUNE - Witchcraft

Finally for this week I have an sacrificial offering for Lune.  This is again a 28mm Eureka miniature "Witch in a tree" from their rather funky Avalon Burning range.

When I saw her in the catalog, I was intrigued how she would be attached to the tree.  When I received the model, I was no clearer on this matter.  Initially I glued her so she was hanging by her feet, as her hair was pointed, thus I assumed the hair was hanging downwards.  Then on closer inspection, I noticed her boobs were hanging in the opposite direction to her hair, and therefore there was either some powerful witchcraft at work, or I had this witch glued on upside down.

Close up of boobs to show direction of gravity as intended by sculptor

Eventually it dawned on me she must be hanging by her hair.  I assumed this would hurt a lot, unless the hair wasn't just hair, but somethings stronger.  Therefore I painted her as if she was a fruit on the tree, ripening up.

For her skin tones, I used some contrast paint diluted by glaze medium, then highlighted the flatter areas with solid colours.  The colours came out subtle and nice, but the overall texture isn't as 'solid' and clean as I like my minis to look.  But good to try a different way.

I shaded her from green thru to red so she looked like an apple, but I did it all a bit too vertically and without much transition, so now she looks more like an Italian flag. Finally I glued some green vine basing material onto the tree and called it done.

POINTS

So what does all this add up to.  That is a debatable question.

Four oversized 28mm clowns = 4*5 = 20 points, is the big one worth more?  or are they mounted on unicycles for a cheeky 10 points each?

A ghostly 28mm cavalry man with half a horse (is that 3/4 of a cavalry piece ?) = 3/4 * 10 = 7.5 points

3 widgets (1 point each?) = 3 points ? 

A witch in a tree.  She is true 28mm scale, but is about 40mm to eye from the foot of her tree = 7 points?  Or is she a 28mm mounted fig, mounted in a tree for 10 points?  Or since I added foliage, is she now a terrain piece for 1 point?   Should I get a flag bonus for the dodgy ripening apple attempt that looks like an Italian flag ?

Three locations, Vogsphere, Terra and Lune = 60 bonus points.

A total of 100 points maybe ?  I'm not sure.  I have left some tricky decision making for Barks the Thursday minion.

SIDE CHALLENGES

No squirrels.  Sad face emoticon.

However, my one of this two of that approach to painting has given me some more strong progress in the alphabet soup challenge;

U is for Unicyclists, G is for Ghost, L is for Landfill and A is for Arboreal Witch.

I'm tracking pretty well in the alphabet soup side challenge and will give an update on the tally and my progress around the planets when I have a shorter post sometime.  But at this stage if you are still with me, you have probably read enough of my ramblings.

From here I will probably go back past Terra, through the Great Abyssal to Klendathu on the Outer ring. It is on the challenge packed outer reaches where I would like to resume my hunt for challenge planets, but is going back outwards allowed? 

Kind Regards

Geoff.

A very impressive and spooky variety show today, Geoff! Eureka coming up with the goods yet again. As much as I wish to run screaming from your clown posse, I respect the bright colours and the dots and stripes. I'll shell out 28 points there which may yet score you a Squirrel. Your half-horse has a nice water trough so that is another 10. I'll chip in 3 for the useful earth-bound garbage, and 10 for the gravitationally-affected witch. And, yes, you may go back to an orbit further away.

Barks