Just a quick one today. Progress has been quite steady on the 15mm hydra army with a few units together and being painted. My major shortness in the army so far is a leader. Well I think I've solved that now. Dr Arnim Zola!!!

Ill take some photos of the model once I get some sculpting done on it but its based on one of the GZG light evac suits. Anyway that enough for now I'd best crack on with it all :-)

The internet is a dangerous place for miniature addicts like us. It's dangerous because its inevitable that you'll find something that will inspire you to create (or buy) things you didn't know you wanted. In my case it started a while back with SpaceJacker over at Tiny Solitary Soldiers It's mostly his fault I got into 15mm in the first place. then recently I decided to have a proper look through the website of Agis Neugebauer which I've known about for years but for some reason never explored properly. That was the point at which I knew what I was doing. I've previously posted my exo suit guys which where the first part of the army but now I've got more stuff so I can really get going on what will be a full on Hydra themed army. Click on the Hydra logo to go to the new page dedicated to this.

I'll take some pictures of everything later on this weekend so you can see where I'm upto.

Bye for now

Mike :-)

For quite a while now I've been hankering after a Tube tool so I can add to the conversion repertoire on pretty much everything I make. This post is a bit pic heavy so bear with me.
My roll maker is from Green Stuff World and cost £14 which included postage. Inside the pack you get 2 fine plates, 2 medium plates and 2 large plates, as well as 2 bracket bits to fit on the sides.

The 2 brackets slot onto the sides of the plates at either a 90° or 45° which give you totally different styles of tube. Basically you put a sausage of greenstuff on the bottom plate and roll the top one back wards and forwards until you get the finished item. How hard you roll it and which plates you use depends on what you get. 

Below are a couple of bits I made with the tool just to test it. This is only scratching the surface of what can be made but I'll cover some more of that another time if people are interested. 

All in all this product is simply brilliant, and although some may not want to spend this much money on a tool I would highly recommend it. If you like to sculpt or convert your minis then the amount of things this tool can be used for is really really useful.

Mike :-)

Just found an unfinished post in my drafts from ages back about my new love of 15mm minis. After having a little read of it I thought I'd share and add to it. So here goes

(About a year ago I decided to go down the 15mm route. Partly this was because of my disillusionment with GW who I had been a staunch fan of for years but mostly because everything about 15mm is so cool. For starters you can get a lot of model for your money and the scale is still big enough for you to be able to paint sensibly. Secondly, there are so many different manufacturers out there offering such a wide range of models that you're really only limited by your imagination. But lastly there is a really strong community around it with lots of like minded people who love to share their passion and knowledge for it. This is something I personally feel has been lost from the more mainstream wargaming and was one of the things that got my doing it in the first place.)

It's interesting reading some of these old ones back and seeing how things change. For starters I've grown a set since then and realised that my boo hiss views views of GW were a bit childish really. They're a business and they do what they've gotta do. Plus they still make awesome miniatures and I've even started working on some GW stuff again just because its fun.
Anyway moving back to 15mm. I've been sorting through some of my lead pile and have come across allsorts. 
Primarily these awesome models from Brigade models which I had originally intended for some sci-fi funkiness.

Anyway I'll call that a day for now and put some more stuff up soon. 

Mike :-)

Hello one and all. It's blog post time again. Over the last few weeks I have managed to make a lot of progress on 'Rise of the Zombots'. Based on the positive feedback received at Nerdfest and the official induction of @ReecemJones onto the team it has made me realise that starting a Kickstarter may not be such a farfetched idea. 
Below are some progress shots for your viewing pleasure. I will also be asking for everyone's assistance at the bottom of the post

The Zombot above is the latest in a long line of prototype 28mm miniatures, and is by far the most detailed and accurate I've made yet. The next model however will be a little different. After speaking to the guys at Mantic Games I will be experimenting with proper transparent domes yes thats right the brains will be on display. :-)

Here is a mockup base tile which would possibly be used for a stretch goal. Below are some test board sections I've been working on. modular sections which can be assembled in a multitude of ways.

Now this is where you guys come in. I'm looking for feedback from the warmongers and general game playing community. What do people think about a steampunk skirmish level board game? Is this something that interests you and would you back it as a kickstarter? I'd love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment below.

Thank you in advance

Mike (Elblondino)

Hi everyone. Hope you are all keeping well and the dice gods are shining upon you. These last few weeks or should i say months have been totally hectic and I have neglected you all. So here is an update on all things Elblondino. 
Firstly last weekend was Nerdfest in Nottingham which for those who don't know is the first Nottingham comic con run by illustrator Kev Brett. As with any first time event you never know quite what to expect, but by god did he do a good job. It was a well organised affair with some fantastic exhibitors there. I myself was between Mike Jackson and Reckless Hero who are both awesome artists and I highly recommend you check out there work. Here are a few of the bits i managed to pick up from the day. Just need some frames for the prints to go up in the office now. :-)

Off the back of Nerdfest I had some fantastic feedback about 'Rise of the Zombots' which has made me realise i really need to ramp up Project Cornelius. Which is now exactly what is happening, with new people coming on board and research underway to setup a kicksatarter hopefully within the next year. 
Finally there are to be some changes with the Clumsy Pickle side of things. I am in the process of building a new website which will be blog based and therefore much more dynamic. In conjunction with this I will be incorporating Elblondino  into Clumsy Pickle. This website will still exist but a lot of the game and comic stuff will move over to www.clumsypickle.co.uk 
who knows there may end up being clumsy pickle games. ;-)

Speak to you soon guys

Mike (Elblondino)

Well you'll all be pleased to know that I've been making steady progress on the Cornelius game. After the Procreate putty arrived I could start sculpting prototypes, and first up is the first basic Hex tile. This has been sculpted like a Victorian street and was more of a test of the new putty (which I have to say I'm impressed with). 

Secondly I have started assembling some of the British Infantry from Black Pyramid Games which once assembled look ace. Ive not started painting any of them yet but that is all to come. The one thing these new miniatures have brought to light is the flimsiness of the original Zombot prototypes, which you can see in the photo bottom left. 
Zombots are supposed to be terrifying constructs slightly taller than a normal man and built to kill! Therefore a 5'10" dustbin with spindly legs aint really gonna cut it!! Plus for casting purposes the skinny original would be far too weak to be viable. The right hand photo shows the start of the new improved Zombot. Its maybe not massively noticable yet, but the body is wider and the shoulder joints are thicker. Once everything else has been sculpted he should be significantly tougher and more evil. :-)

Finally I promised you all the official unveiling of the title last weekend which kinda never happened. (sorry) I was trying to get the new logo all finished so I could do it properly, but time has not permitted this. As such I shall tell you the new title and sort the logo out later on lol.

Drum roll please.......................................................

The Official title for the Cornelius game is.....

Ladies and gentlemen. For your viewing pleasure. My first ever Vlog!! Apologies for the sheer amount of errrs and the wobbly poor quality video but its the first one and things can only get better. 
Oh yes and it's an update on the Cornelius project. Enjoy :-)

Mike (elblondino)

Hi everybody it's blog time again!! :-) I've got some new stuff to show you all tonight which I'm really excited about. 
Work has been coming along quite quickly on the Cornelius game and the comic. The only thing I'm waiting on now until I can start sculpting and making up prototypes is the putty. 

I am working through the rules and will hopefully have a playable test version ready soon. The board hexes are here ready for some sculpting fun, and finally Ant over at Black Pyramid Gaming has kindly sent me some of their British infantry models to use with the game. These guys are fantastic multi-part metal miniatures with pith helmets and martini henry rifles which will represent the standard British military in the game. They come from Black Pyramids Tea Wars range which has some fantastic bits in there including an armoured steam traction engine!! (I want one)
These coupled with the stuff I have already been working on such as zombots etc means we're finally getting to a very fun place. 

What's next I hear you ask?! Well there is a lot to do including finishing the rules, sculpting new models, making the comic etc. However one of the main things needed is to get the project known, to get people interested in what I hope is going to be a very fun and different steampunk gaming experience. 
So spread the word folks, then that way we can all hopefully get to play and join in the fun. Then its Kickstarter!!!

As always comments are welcome and you can always find me on twitter if you want to know more.

TTFN

Mike (Elblondino)

How do folks. Its been a busy day here with all the business hoops that need to be jumped through. However the post man did leave a nice little something for me when I returned. The Hex tiles for the prototype game board all freshly cut and smelling of burnt wood mmmmm.

This means I can finally start getting everything together and iron out the rules ready for some alpha testing. I do have one minor problem though at the moment and that's the name. Obviously its :-
'The Intrepid Endeavours of Cornelius Blow' 
but that's as far as I've got. Another line is needed, something like 'The Rise of the Zombots' or 'Dark Shadows'. You get the drift. 
Now it's really bugging me trying to think what the hell I should call it so for now I'm just calling it 'Cornelius'.So if anybody has any brainwaves feel free to fire them over and I'll have a look.

More to come soon

TTFN

Mike