It’s been a little while since my last post but I’ve been busy as ever. I’ve been working through more Tsuba Miniatures Russo-Japanese War stuff. This time dismounted Japanese cavalry. I’m just waiting for some more grass tufts to arrive so I can finish off their bases.
I’ve also started a set of GW Eldar Harlequins. Thankfully these are mostly the older metal castings. I do have a couple of Failcast ones to do though but they don’t look as bad as the very first castings GW put out. I’ve prepped one of those models (a Death Jester) and it wasn’t too bad. Only a few minor air bubbles but an annoying amount of gating all over the model, especially little triangles beneath all the undercuts. It’s still a horribly soft material to work with though and so easy to accidentally remove detail during clean up. The model also looked like it was limbo dancing so I had to stick it over the kettle to soften it and bend it into a better position.
Anyway, the painted model here is metal which to be honest I also found quite time consuming to clean up. The one problem with more recent GW metal castings in my limited experience is the amount of little bits of mould vent sprue that are all over the place. You know the stuff. Those little curly wurly bits of metal that are left. The vents are needed to ensure the model casts properly but they’re bloody annoying to remove when there are so many. It’s easy to miss the odd one or think it’s a bit of twiddly detail and I know in my younger days I’ve painted them as if they’re part of the model!
I had hoped to have gotten a little further into the set than just the one model but I forgot just how draining it can be painting diamond designs (or checks). Base coat yellow, paint the red design over it, go back and neaten up the yellow, go back and neaten up the red…. I’m quite pleased with the end result though. There were a few tricky areas where the pattern had to be fudged a little to make it work but they’re out of sight. Looking at the box art and the studio paint jobs I’m amazed at the precision of those designs considering the curves and creases that they cover.