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2016: The Year of Wobbly Monsters


Will Vale

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Hi all,

 

Sorry for the longer-than-usual absence over Christmas - I was involved with some more design work for Scale Models Wellington, then many late nights at the end of my work contract, which then got extended meaning more late nights. After that I had to do the Christmas shopping, cook the dinner etc. etc. and I'm only just winding down from all that. Next step is to clean the office so I can start using it for modelling again!

 

In the meantime, here are the things I finished in 2016 - please don't ask about the things I started!

 

I began with a couple of Cosmo Navy ships from Space Battleship Yamato 2199. These are Bandai kits but not as well-engineered as most of their models - the breakdown by colour made them harder to build neatly.

 

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(click the pictures for bigger/more)

 

They're quite small as you can see:

 

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I then started a load of things (Guntank, Spice Harvester, Judge Anderson) and made great progress until all my spare time got eaten up by organising our Scale Models Expo - so many things needed to be designed and printed, floor plans worked out, communication with sponsors and stallholders etc. I was a bit grumpy about it because I really wanted to finish Judge Anderson for the show but couldn't. In the end I had one spare day and used it to mend and finish off my Airfix Tiger Moth:

 

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It's a really nice kit - less than perfect fit, but it's close and to my eyes the shape and detail are very good. I did replace the kit windscreens with new ones made from thin plastic sheet which was fiddly in the extreme!

 

In June I picked up the new version of Lost Patrol from Games Workshop and painted a dozen Genestealers in just over a week - very fast for me!

 

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I also painted up the "infestation markers" and based them with jungly stuff including paper plants from Kamizukuri:

 

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One thing lead to another, and a collection of Spore Mines and a Mucolid Spore joined the horde:

 

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I made them some scenery from junk as a proof of concept and was pretty happy with it:

 

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I'm going to claim a completion here which is slightly inaccurate - this was the Bandai Real Grade Gundam 00, which I modified with a new backpack and weathered up. It's basically done but needs a base - I have finally acquired some N scale containers which I think will help with this but haven't done anything with them yet. Here's the suit though:

 

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Another break from Tyranids at this point was painting up these Brimstone Horrors from Silver Tower (also Games Workshop) in an evening or two. Simple models but it was really fun to try and do something loud!

 

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I then went back to the Tyranids and painted a Broodlord (boss Genestealer) and three Tyranid Warriors to complete the horde as it stands at the moment:

 

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They also got some opposition in the form of two of the Space Marine Scouts from the Lost Patrol box. These were speed-painted in a couple of evenings:

 

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Around this time, my friend Nathan who runs our local GW store encouraged me to enter the Armies on Parade competition so I had about six weeks to finish off the models and build a base for them. Which was a bit of a rush but I managed to get it done in the end. It was really fun to do some scenic modelling again and I hope to keep this kind of thing going.

 

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I was even happier when I won the Wellington store competition and got a funky golden metal medal thing :) I was hoping the diorama would do well in our club competition too but it wasn't the case - maybe the gaming bases were treated as flaws, or there was some nasty issue I didn't spot?

 

The end of the year was disrupted by a moderate earthquake - not much damage in Wellington thankfully, but it was pretty scary and there are still buildings in town closed pending demolition. I used the time that I couldn't sleep to try my hand at polymer clay sculpting and made a bust of Bemular, the monster from the first episode of Ultraman. I haven't painted him yet so he isn't here, but I did finish the Bandai kit of the Science Patrol Jet VTOL to go with him:

 

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That was a very nice little model and I have picked up a couple of others along the same lines. I'm going to sneak a photo of Bemular in here because the sculpting is finished even if the painting isn't!

 

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Other things I've done this year that are related to modelling in some way:

 

* Photographed the entries from our Scale Models Expo the IPMS Nationals and our Club Competition.

 

* Wrote a build review of the first Master Box World of Fantasy models:

 

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* Took some publicity shots for our Expo press release (which got published!)

 

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* Made new posters for the club:

 

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(Model credits: ABC Warrior by Richard Alexander, Astromechs by Kevin Trew, and F40 GTE by Paul Edwards)

 

* Acquired some display cases for the office at long last!

 

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And lastly I did a few more Photoshop jobs on my model images from the year, which I really enjoy :)

 

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We just now had another aftershock that was vigorous enough that we dived under the table :( Let's hope next year is calmer!

 

Thanks as ever for all your support, this is such a great forum full of wonderful inspiring people! I rate it five dinosaur emoticons out of five.

 

:dinosaur::dinosaur::dinosaur::dinosaur::dinosaur:

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 


 

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Hi Will,

 

Another fantastic and varied collection!

 

I love the immaculate Tiger Moth. The kit is hard not to love even though it's a bit of a pain to put together. Yours is impeccable and the base sets it off really nicely.

 

I can't get over the size of those Bandai Cosmo Navy ships either. If you had asked me how long they were from the context-free pictures I would have guessed about a foot.

 

And I am quite fond of the Mucolid Spores too - lovely paint effects. The fantasy figures are very eye catching and beautifully photographed too.

 

I'm guessing that your selection of paints must be a bit brighter than the average on this forum!

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Afternoon Chaps :bye:

 

Another fantastic crop Will.

I love the GW figures and Diorama, you certainly have the knack :), but the scenery is fantastic.

Definately need to see more sci fi stuff on here...

 

Erm, Okay, maybe its private and personal, but why do you live in a Wellington? ;)

 

:tease:

 

:santa:Mad Steve:santa:

 

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On ‎29‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 7:18 PM, pacificmustang said:

Whilst not my chosen subject matter, that is just magnificent work Will, and very nicely photographed too.

 

Thanks Bruce! Normally I try and balance it a bit more between realism and wacky stuff - no armour this year which is a bit of a shame.

 

On ‎29‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 9:06 PM, AdrianMF said:

I love the immaculate Tiger Moth. The kit is hard not to love even though it's a bit of a pain to put together. Yours is impeccable and the base sets it off really nicely.

 

Thanks Adrian! I'm definitely a fan - such a nice model from such a tiny cheap box :) I have one more to do in a trainer scheme, or maybe as the black and silver example I saw at Hood Aerodrome last year.

 

On ‎30‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 3:10 AM, MAD STEVE said:

Erm, Okay, maybe its private and personal, but why do you live in a Wellington?

 

Cheers Steve, it's "the" Wellington. Or so the locals would have you believe :)

 

On ‎30‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 5:08 AM, woody37 said:

Not really my scene Will, but absolutely stunning stuff, as Adrian says, lots of colour that we don't often get! So much to see, I need to look through again!

 

Thanks Neil. I acquired some fluoro paints this year which are a first, and some bright pinks. Most of the monsters are a mixture of Tamiya Wooden Deck Tan, Flat Red and Hull Red so perhaps less extravagant colours than the end result would suggest. I guess I do use some quite loud GW paints for highlighting.

 

On ‎30‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 11:50 PM, whitestar12chris said:

Cracking output Will, always a joy to behold.

 

Thanks Chris!

 

11 hours ago, Kallisti said:

Great variety and very colourful! Look forward to seeing Belumar painted...

 

Nice to see Al Stewart lyrics used in modelling!

 

I will try and get onto Bemular soon. Trying to decide between doing a "figure painter" style job, or something a bit more muted and realistic given than it has to sit right with the VTOL.

 

I think you're the first person to recognise the song :) I ought to add some oil drums and a flying jacket to the base really.

 

3 hours ago, sean said:

It seems to have been a busy year Will, the quality of your painting is outstanding, (and colourful)..

 

Thanks Sean, it feels like I've done less than other years but I tend to treat the squads and groups as single models when I'm reckoning up the totals. Although it's definitely the most things in one colour that I've ever done.

 

1 hour ago, PlaStix said:

Wow! A stunning collection of beautifully made and painted, not to mention colourful, models for the year. Well done! :worthy:

 

Thanks 'Stix, I really enjoyed your yearbook too. Amazing how many models (and how much variety) this forum produces.

 

Onwards to 2017 - which we're now in down here!

 

Cheers,

 

WIll

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Great stuff all round! I appreciate all the skills you've displayed in all those different genres,, My eldest son may be joining BM and your Games Workshop aliens would definitely be the clincher. He's into all that.

 

Congrats again,

Rearguards

Badder

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Excellent work as always Wilburton t'as been a pleasure watching these come together.  

 

Also, I blame you for reigniting my GW obsession resulting in my purchase of the re-released  Island of Blood set. 

 

Toodles,

 

Paul 

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On ‎1‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 11:14 AM, Radleigh said:

Love your work Will, not all my genre either but superbly built & painted. There are a few there I'd love to have a go at though! All the best for 2017! :) 

 

Thanks Radleigh, one of these days I'll get one of those Russian jets out of my stash and give it a go!

 

On ‎1‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 9:20 PM, Badder said:

My eldest son may be joining BM and your Games Workshop aliens would definitely be the clincher. He's into all that.

 

Thanks! There are a few others on here who make GW models from time to time so I'm sure he'll be appreciated. The 'Eavier Metal group on Facebook is very good as well.

 

19 hours ago, CliffB said:

Beautiful work Will - great to see :)

 

Thanks Cliff :)

 

3 hours ago, Blastvader said:

Also, I blame you for reigniting my GW obsession resulting in my purchase of the re-released  Island of Blood set. 

 

Cheers Paul, I was quite surprised when they re-released that, I think it's cheaper than it was too and comes with WHFB and AOS bases? Some great models in there for rat-fans and the High Elf on the griffon or whatever it is looks very cool. Hope you post your models on here when you start painting them.,

 

Will

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Good Lord there is so much awesome in those display cases. Is that a JinRoh helmet?  Is that a Speed Racer poster? Is that the antimatter gun from Rocky Horror? What's the yellow ship beside the antimatter gun?

 

Outstanding collection! 

Bulmar is gonna look great in there!

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2 hours ago, Thud4444 said:

Good Lord there is so much awesome in those display cases. Is that a JinRoh helmet?  Is that a Speed Racer poster? Is that the antimatter gun from Rocky Horror? What's the yellow ship beside the antimatter gun?

 

Hehe, thanks. I'm guessing the "JinRoh" helmet is the Helghast helmet? It was a box for a special edition of Killzone 3 (I think!) - I've worked for Guerrilla who make the Killzone games for most of the last decade or so. On the other things:

 

* It is a Speed Racer poster - I worked on the videogame as a contractor and we had the opportunity to get copies of the marketing banner printed at cost - it's really loud and awesome and goes well with the movie.

 

* Well spotted with the antimatter gun! I made it as a prop last year the year before last when we went to the show, there's a picture of us on Britmodeller somewhere which still gives Mike conniptions, but the gun looks like this:

 

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I made a work-in-progress thread of sorts for the costumes and another for the props but they're quite brief, especially the latter because everything not made of cloth was bodged together over the last week.

 

* The yellow space-ship is a Britains Space toy, I need to take some proper pictures of it. I never had that one as a kid (it's from eBay) but I did have the green flying saucer which was way cool.

 

Glad you like my collection of weird stuff :)

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

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17 hours ago, Will Vale said:

 

ope you post your models on here when you start painting them.

 

 

 

.Funniest thing Ive read all year. 

17 hours ago, Will Vale said:

 

ope you post your models on here when you start painting them.

 

 

 

.Funniest thing Ive read all year. 

17 hours ago, Will Vale said:

 

ope you post your models on here when you start painting them.

 

 

 

.Funniest thing Ive read all year. 

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Fantastic collection for the year Will. Without doubt some of my favourites from your output over the years.Even more impressive given the seismic interruptions you've had of late. Very glad you've made it through all that unscathed.

Love the club graphics work too, especially the Hideous Beasts poster.

 

Andy

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On ‎8‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 1:13 AM, AndyRM101 said:

Love the club graphics work too, especially the Hideous Beasts poster.

 

Thanks Andy, means a lot coming from you :)

 

On ‎8‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 2:00 AM, Reini78 said:

the emperor protects!

:thumbsup:

 

Not from Tyranids he doesn't! Nom nom nom.

 

Will

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