Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => The Lead Painters' League => Season 12 => Topic started by: Plynkes on July 03, 2018, 08:33:56 PM
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So here is my LPL12 portfolio, all my entries in one place. At Captain Blood's request, I'll try and add some brief comments on each one.
1. The Heart and Stomach of a King
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/32/369-290418115956-325981254.jpeg)
I originally bought the Queen Bess set for the Pikes, Muskets and Flouncy Shirts Painting Club, hoping that something different might get me out of my painting slump. Didn't work and the figure had been sitting on my painting table ever since. Part of my LPL motivation was to try and clear some space on the table by painting the stuff that was gathering dust. But I only had three figures, so I ended up buying the billmen, and then I saw the Blackadder set and the whole thing spiraled out of control. So what started out as a plan to clear the lead-pile ended up with me buying more figures! Not a good start. But they are all painted now so it turned out all right.
No plans to make this into any kind of a project. This is pure and simple a LPL one-off. Loved painting these figures, if they had given me problems it might have killed my LPL before it started. But for some reason these figures are just super fun to paint. I did eat into my time budget, though. I took way too long on this entry and that would come back to bite me later.
Oh shit. So much for "brief comments."
2. Bulalio the Slaughterer
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/32/369-060518001153-32757584.jpeg)
More long-term squatters from the paint-bench that needed evicting. Can't even remember why I started on them. Don't think they were part of any particular project. I probably had something vaguely Alan Quatermainish in mind. These guys are entirely in my comfort zone. The sort of thing I do all the time. Quick, safe and easy. Not much challenge here.
3. The Young Bandit King
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-120518220005-330352011.jpeg)
More stuff that was already sitting on the table waiting for some paint, from my Unyamwezi project, which I am hoping to get back to soon. The nudie guys are quite heavy conversions. Foundry DA tribal musketeer bodies with their loincloths removed and Greenstuff private parts and buttocks added and some ankle bracelets made from wire. They were then given Copplestone Tuta heads to make some Nyamwezi proto-Ruga Ruga from the 1860s. Luckily the conversion work had already been done prior to the LPL. All they were waiting on was some paint. The other three are North Star figures with no structural messing on my part.
4. Operations in Jubaland
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-190518155524-332281143.jpeg)
It's long been my plan to create small skirmish forces for each of the King's African Rifles precursor units, and also for the KAR itself in its first and second decades. I also have a mind to one day cover their exploits in WW2 in the horn of Africa, Madagascar and Burma. But realistically that last part is probably just a pipe-dream. I call this little project "Tales of the King's African Rifles" and while I have steadily been collecting figures for it, nothing has ever been done and it has remained entirely a project of the mind.
But no longer. The LPL spurred me to actually get started. These guys are the Camel Company of the East Africa Rifles, pictured around the turn of the century, hunting down some naughty Ogaden tribesmen in Jubaland. In those days it was the turbulent and lawless North East frontier of British East Africa, today it is a province of Somalia.
As old colonial hands will probably be able to tell, these figures are mostly head-swapped Perry British Camel Corps from their Sudan range. The mounted officer has been given a Woodbine Designs Wolseley-helmeted head and a leopard skin rug made out of Greenstuff. The officer in charge of the gun is also a Woodbine WW1 figure.
I'm a bit annoyed with that gaming mat they are standing on. With the naked eye you do not see those thin lines, they only show up in the photo. Weird.
5. Mrs. Lucton's Tomboy Tearaways
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-270518000833-33429975.jpeg)
Part of my Congo project that rather got out of hand. It's the story of two East End urchins who grow up to become adventuresses to fulfill their adopted father's ambition and avenge his death. But more of that another time. Something possessed me to then create young versions of the characters and then the project was officially declared off the rails. The little kids are all conversions of WestWind horror figures, the grown-ups are all Foundry figures that haven't been messed with. The one with the police helmet started life as a little boy, his shorts have been turned into a skirt with Greenstuff and I gave him some hair extensions from the same material.
6. Return of the Tomboy Tearaways
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-030618142416-336341440.jpeg)
The grown-up versions of the same. The Congo project doesn't call for marauding mummies but I thought it might be fun to add them just for the LPL entry. They were probably the quickest and most fun things to paint in the entire LPL. Turns out I love painting mummies (mostly because it is really easy, I like it when figures don't put up much of a fight).
The Sweeting Sisters, Nora and Lora, are the main protagonists of the project and they are the most heavily-converted figures here. Nora wears an "hot-weather exploring outfit" of her own devising, including grass skirt, her sister maintains a little more Victorian decorum. Nora involved a full torso-swap, she is the halves of two very different figures fixed together (a Foundry Darkest Africa lady explorer's torso and a Pulp Figures Melanesian tribesman's skirt and legs). Yes, she has man's legs. They look quite shapely on her, though, I think. Her sister Lora has had a head-swap and a scratch-built sun-hat and a hockey stick provided for her.
7. Bruce in the Blue Sultanate
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-090618235818-337251583.jpeg)
Not much to say about this one. No conversions or particular calamities here. But there was the pressure of time, and by this stage of the league that was really starting to bite. I started out with about a three week head-start on the LPL, but by this point it had been whittled down to nothing (mostly due to me trying to make scenes with lots of figures instead of just doing five-guys-in-a-row). This one was very tight for time and slightly rushed. I am not a fast painter and it is something of a miracle that I managed this one in a week. Considering the circumstances I was pretty pleased with how it all turned out.
8. You Know Bugger All, Jon Snow
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-170618011851-338121590.jpeg)
I've been planning some sort of Fantasy skirmish project for ages, but have yet to quite figure out what form it will take. I have a mountain of Lord of the Rings figures from the old partwork magazine and I am hoping to use those, but I have also acquired some North Star Fantasy through birthday gifts. I'm planning on having Northern Barbarians, some kind of "Men of the West", an Orc/Goblin/Troll faction, and possibly some sort of wood elves/spirits using that range that Cubs painted a while back, the manufacturer of which escapes me at the minute.
But as yet, these are the only figures painted. I guess they will be part of the Northern Barbarians war band. The giant was great fun to paint, almost as easy as the mummies. Really one of those figures where we say it "paints itself." But again time was a real struggle with the others. I somehow managed to ruin the girl's face and had to strip the paint from it. Wasn't much happier with the second go but there just wasn't any more time so it had to stand. Luckily nobody seemed to notice.
9. Say Live and Let Die
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/33/369-240618013536-33965999.jpeg)
By this point I had nothing left in the tank and sort of just wanted the whole thing to be over. It was a rush-job and to me seemed sloppy. The supporting characters were done in a very basic block colour-wash-highlight fashion and I wasn't very happy with the result. Wasn't time to get rid of the little glossy patches on 007, either. And then the photography fought me too. I just could not get a photo I was happy with, for some reason all the detail on the captive Solitaire was being washed out. So eventually I handed it in, extremely pissed off and feeling defeated. In my own mind it looked terrible. But I guess you can lose perspective when things don't meet your expectations, because people seemed to like it. I can't believe it won. But there you go. Shows what I know.
Group Photo
(http://leadadventureforum.com/gallery/34/163-030718183120.jpeg)
So here's the entire gang, brought together for the first and last time for a group photo. I think I counted 74 figures and they did me proud, every one of them. Cheers!
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Well done.
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Congrats Dylan, on a sterling effort in being awarded the 12th Lead Painting league with your hard work in each of the entries submitted.
All the best,
H
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Outstanding work!! :-* :-* :-*
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always a pleasure to see your stuff, like Audrey Hepburn- small but perfectly formed ;-)
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Fantastic show, Dylan, thanks for showing them all in one place again.
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Congratulations Dylan, great effort and some lovely pictures for us to drool over and steal for future reference lol
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Such a brilliant collection of entries! Each one perfectly staged and painted! :-* Well done! 8)
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Congratuilations! How very nice to comment your entries, I enjoyed them through all the competition! Cheers!
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Stunning work :-* :-* :-* :-* :-* :-*
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Excellent work Dylan. :-*
You deserve to win, your painting technique is very good, the colours really pop and shine. Looking forward to seeing more from you. Especially Rooster etc ;) ;D
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Simply superb.
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A wonderful assembly Dylan. I'm torn between Good Queen Bess and the Tomboy tearaways as my favourite. The Jubaland constabulary is also wonderful - although I can see what you mean about the gaming mat (perishing printed mats! I hadn't actually noticed until you mentioned it lol)
Thanks for the commentary too. Very interesting and revealing! :)
So many ace conversions too.
I hope the other fellows will follow suit and put their portfolios together, time permitting :)
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So what started out as a plan to clear the lead-pile ended up with me buying more figures! Not a good start.
That happens to me all the time. In fact, every time.
A wonderful selection of minis and very nice painting and scene-setting.
By the way, the 'Baldrick-theme' had me wondering if more Blackadder & Co. incarnations were to be obtained, and so far Google has come up with this:
http://scarabminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_18&products_id=329
this
http://www.rogueminiatures.co.uk/index.php/catalogsearch/result/?q=Eddy
and this
http://www.rogueminiatures.co.uk/index.php/lord-loud-miniature.html
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A wonderful selection - so cinematic and everything executed to such a high standard. Week on week your entries have been inspirational and, perhaps appropriately, resulted in me adding things to the lead-pile.
Your commentary is ace too. Really enjoyed reading that and glad to see that I wasn't the only one struggling with the pace at times :)
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A great fun of work.
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Excellent work, I especially liked Bulalio and Live and Let Die.