Clever girl! My Freeblades Velozar Knight finished

 One of my favorite movie lines ever, "Clever Girl" from a movie everyone should know Jurassic Park.

So I could not help myself when I went to take some photos of my completed Knight (after all he is riding a velociraptor) and doing up a little staged play based off that famous line. 

I downloaded a jungle image as a backdrop for my photo shoot of my last Velozar Knight, and painted up one of the members of the Eclipse Sisterhood who are in rebellion against the patriarchal Traazorite Empire.

The story in the picture unfolds. Having received information on a possible assassination attempt on the local governors life, the local commander sets up a trap with troops hidden in the area to ambush the rebel attempt. A Throatseeker is spotted by a Velozar Knight who charges through the Jungle undergrowth having completely surprised the Eclipse Rebel..... or has he? You decide. 

Here are a few more shots of my finished Knight as well.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades Velozar Knight

 I finished the first of two of the Velozar Knight's I have for my Freeband (models from DGS Games). I did a bit of modifying to it to make it different from the standard pose. Both arms are from a Victrix model kit, as well as the shield, and I replaced the spear with a brass one. I added a pennant and a shield decal from Little Big men. 

I posed him perched up on a rock overlooking the battlefield with his banner fluttering in the wind. He is not afraid to be seen. In fact he wants to be seen, as he fears no man or beast. 

The rock is from the garden and I primed and painted it. I like how it profiles the model.

I hope you like what you see, tell me what you think.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades Traazorite Keshark finished

Quintus (ie fifth) Albus (ie White, bright in latin) the Lion of Isarchael a title bestowed upon him by the Emperor himself for his courage and bravery in the many rear guard actions he led that saved many a Legion from certain destruction during the final days. The Emperor has decreed that he is allowed to carry his family crescent upon his shield. There is not a Traazorite that has not heard the fabled stories of Quintus riding upon his famous Velozar Azrael in their many battles together.

Now we move on to the conversion bits. I replaced the mount with an Etsy 3D print Velociraptor which was a perfect match in size to the actual mount that came with model. To modify the Keshark figure I had to really work out the bits in the crotch area with my dremel to get him to properly fit on mount. Next I converted the cloak as the one he came with was a short shot, so I used a Roman General cloak from Victrix plastic sprue and then used green stuff to tie it in. Lastly I liked the large round shield in the concept art so I needed to replace his arm as it is cast onto the baseball diamond shield that comes with figure. I took a Victrix Carthaginian arm from one of their plastic sprues and cut it off on the elbow, and a round Hoplite shield also from Victrix plastic sprue and used them to replace his shield arm. I used a shield transfer that covered about 60 percent of shield so I had to use some blending skills to match the paint and tie it all in.

On another note, today, I discovered how fragile these 3D prints can be. I suppose material used to make them has something to do with it. I proceeded to work on my Velozar Knight conversion, when my clumsy butt dropped the model onto a carpeted floor. The dino shattered at the ankles, with one leg breaking into three pieces. I was pissed as hell since I had put a lot of work into painting it. Super glue wouldn’t take, and I’ve decided that 3D printing is not where people think it is at. While it’s cool to get something special, to replace something that you can get without a good reason to do so is just a waste of time and money until we see some quality improvement in 3D printing materials.

Anyways, tell me what you think of the Keshark.

As always thanks for looking!

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades WIP report

 Been very busy doing real life stuff, but that hasn’t stopped me from sneaking in some hobby time. I only have two Terminators of my Space Hulk commission left to do but I needed a break. So I started to work on my Dino riding Freeblades warband.

The first picture I am showing you is the concept art.

The following picture is a photo from the website of what my actual model is supposed to look like. This is the leader of my band of savage heroes and he is called a Keshark.

Now the shield that you can’t see on this figure (that is not painted by me) is a round shield with a square shield laid over top of it. So it’s lined up like a baseball diamond, and while it looks cool, if you look at the round shield in the concept art, this I like way better. 

Now the beasts that they ride are called Velozar’s and they (of course) remind me of velociraptors from Jurassic Park. On another note these figures have caused me to watch Jurassic Park and it’s follow ons more than a few times.

Okay the Velozar has the leap ability which in the game of Freeblades cancels some ones counter charge. This made me think of how I wanted to pose the figure. To me it needed to be dynamic.

Now while the figures from DGS Games for Freeblades are nice, they are very static. The way the are made makes the ability to pose them very difficult, and the fact they don’t have a variety of model poses makes it harder to make yours unique. Now I belong to their Facebook group and they have some good painters that show their projects and I am pretty awed by it. But one can only paint a figure so many different ways, and bottom line is it’s still the same pose.

Kevin was having none of that. Kevin is unique. Kevin must be different🤔

Since there is only one rider, and one that is not very posable, I still needed to keep to the spirit of it being a Freeblades model. So what could I change? 

It hit me like a freight train! 3D printing was my answer! Someone out there had to make something close to 32mm and with the popularity of velociraptors my hope rose as I started searching Etsy.

I will post more in the coming days on this project.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades game report

 Got a chance to play a game face to face yesterday. 57 degrees and sunny skies, perfect weather for an outdoor adventure.

My buddy came over and we played a skirmish fantasy game called Freeblades. Urdagger (a Conan like barbarian force) vs my partly painted Eclipse (a Amazon like force). 

My friend has only played a couple of games, and I one demo game at Adepticon way back (in the old days when we had a thing called conventions) in 2019. It was mostly a learning game, just feeling out the rules, and more an excuse to get together for human companionship.

It was worth it. I have posted a few pictures below of our experience. The 6 sided die shows the turn number we were on.

[Below first face to face game of the year 2021]

While the game was slow only because we were learning, we could see the merits of the game and that it will play faster after we get comfortable with the rules. Definitely looking forward to more play.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades: Nightwhisper

 DGS Games on International Women's day had a sale for all there Lady figures. How could I resist these nicely sculpted 32mm miniatures for a Fantasy skirmish game. 

After painting Genestealers for a commission I am almost done with, I needed to reboot for a minute. So today I spent the day painting one of my favorite Freeblade ladies in the Nightwhisper. Such a cool name, and the rule of cool is what I follow to paint.

Here's a quick blurb on her from the site:

"A Nightwhisper is one of the most dangerous weapons in the arsenal of the Eclipse. These highly skilled archers know every street, alley and rooftop in the teeming cities of their birth. Impossibly elusive, they might be responsible for the deaths of more Traazorite notables than any other member of the rebellion. Imperial Ravagers do not try and take them captive, they have a standing kill on sight order."

The Eclipse is the name of the rebellion where the women are basically putting their collective feet down and demanding their due rights.

I figured out the colors I wanted, and didn't just copy the art work like I usually do, and I found this tough. At first I thought I was going to have to strip it or throw it away and start all over again, but I changed a few colors and now I am most partial to it.

So without further ado, here it is and I hope you like it.

As always thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades Ar-Grush basing done

Well with all the time in the world, it sure didn't feel like that when it came down to choices for my time concerning painting etc. Just haven't been able to push over the hill. Last two days I was able to complete the basing and seal coat the Ar-Grush yesterday, and another coat today. In a few hours it will land in the happy hands of it's owner. Just a few space marines and gene stealers to go and my painting time will be all mine. Lot's of I want to do this stuff, but as usual can't make up the mind as to which should get the most attention. Cross the bridge when I get there I guess.

In the meantime here is the final model, and the last photo I threw in a size comparison with another model of the same range. It truly shows how massive this beast is.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers
Kevin

Freeblades miniature the Ar-Grush

This beast is huge. I regret not taking a photo of a 28mm human to show just how beastly, but since I am not done the with base, I can do that later.

I thought about adding more highlights, but as I looked at it, I am kind of happy just the way it is. I tried to take pictures that showed off it's best characteristics, hopefully I've done so. I normally take angle and above,  so I did a few level shots as well.

Anyways, it's almost done, base materials, gloss coat, and than when that dries the old mat coat to finish the deal.

As always thanks for stopping by:)

Cheers
Kevin

Freeblades: The last three...

Well I was able to push through the last 3 models for a Freeblades commission for my friend. The hardest part of doing a commission is saying good bye to paint jobs that won't be going into your pile of completed figures. The one good thing is that I know they are going to a good home, and a permanent one at that. He will really like these models, and hopefully soon be able to play a few games with them.

So without further ado I present to you the Berserker, the Unproven, and last but not least the Hunter.

[Berserker]

[Unproven]

[Hunter]

As always thanks for stopping by

Cheers
Kevin

Freeblades: WolfKarl (The Destroyer!)

Every time I paint one of these Freeblade mini's from the UrDaggar Tribe I can't help but always think of the Arnold Conan movies, or Red Sonja, etc. So this one is named Wolfkarl, and because I flashback to those old movies I added the name "The Destroyer", only fitting I think.

For some reason I didn't enjoy painting this sculpt like some of the others, but as I got toward the end I started to warm up to it. In fact while taking pictures I noticed I hadn't finished the arm bracelets or the sword pommel, I was like doh! So I whipped out the last bit and took pictures (again). Now I have to run outside and spray some dulcote on it. Don't want my friend who I am painting these for having him rub it off while touching it.

Of the ten I promised to paint for him, I now only have three left! Yeah! Then I can paint my stuff which I am chomping at the bit to do. Then I remember I promised 37 Space Hulk figures for another friend. Sigh... I'll get to my pile this summer yet.

As always thanks for stopping by and until next time when you'll see another brute swinging a sword in some distant fantasy land.

Cheers
Kevin