Mr. Big Button and his sidekick Rocket Man

On this day in history:

According to Fox News, the two dictators - Mr. Big Button and Rocket Man - will be having a meeting at the Pirate Port of Santosa, in a few hours.

Dear Tony Blair: DTB7 - Leaders of the 'Almost' Free World

Apparently, their meeting is about non of them are having fun with the games they have been playing. And trust me, those of us watching haven't had any fun either.

So here's my piece of advice for you guys: "if the game you are playing, ain't fun, don't bend the rules to try making them fun (cause you both failed, miserably). Put the war games aside and try out a different game". Maybe you should try out Carcassonne. Wife, kids and I are having lots of fun with Carcassonne. Always makes a good laugh. And I'm sure you would have fun, too.

Dear Tony Blair: DTB7 Trumpy aka Mr. Big Button

Dear Tony Blair: DTB7 Kim Do aka Rocket Man

Both miniatures are sculpted by Bob Olley. Oh, and Kim Do is sitting on a 30mm base "Aftermath post apoc" base topper by Fenris Games.

For more info about the Dear Tony Blair Politicos go check out Dave's blog: http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk

Collecting John Pickford: Devil Inside Productions

Devil Inside Productions is a new company with a mission of creating a range of 28mm classic demons and other denizens of Hell ready to be summon into your homes and eventually bring out a board game to support their line of Demons & Denizens. Eventually, we might also see some of their sculpts entering the fantasy football scene, as there are planed Fantasy Football variants for some of them, too.

The company ran their first (wave 1) successful "Hell Awaits..."-Kickstarter campaign back in September 2017.

A second wave ran successfully in February 2018. This time it included a Kali, Goddess sculpted by John Pickford.

Kali is gruesome in appearance, wearing a necklace of human skulls and a skirt of severed arms, along with her vicious, violent acts including drinking the blood of her victims she seems very frightful and scary, but the Goddess Kali is often thought of as more of a Demon killer and it's actually other Demons who should be more wary of her rather than humans, for whom she'll often gladly do the bidding for.

The Kali sculpt is based on original artwork by Gordon Napier (edited by Xipe/Devil Inside Productions) and I'm grateful been given permission to show the art-piece here, to show how well John has transformed this into a miniature.

Artwork by Gordon Napier ©Devil Inside Productions

But on to the actual sculpt, cause I've just taken delivery of my Wave 2-demons and I have had the chance playing around with Kali.

Comes in a nice blister packaging

She is a horrific looking miniature, indeed - but beautifully sculpted and the details is very scarp and crisp. John did a fantastic job bringing the art to life.

The miniature is cast in resin (yes, I know ... resin :-( ), mainly - cause as you can see the trident arm is actually cast in metal. All-in-all a great piece that cleans up nicely and goes together very well. Hysterical Games did a great job casting her up. Top job.


Now, Devil Inside Productions is running their third "Hell Awaits..." campaign. This third wave also includes a Pickford piece. This time it's Baal, the first King of Hell. A strange looking demon, who appears in the forms of spider-centaur-creature with a man (king), cat and toad head. Here's Gordon Napier's art piece for Baal

Artwork by Gordon Napier ©Devil Inside Productions

Devil Inside Productions has showed these pictures of the work-in-process on their Facebook-page:

And on the campaign pages there's a picture of the resin master - he looks cool - and like a lot of fun painting.

"Hell Awaits... wave 3"

So Devil Inside Productions is definitely a company watching out for if you are into the demons or - like me - fanatically collecting John's sculpts, cause I've heard rumours that 3 more sculpts are in the works. So look out for coming waves, too.

If you'd like to see more, you'll find Devil Inside Productions by clicking the link or the logo in the top. 

You'll find their currently running "wave 3"-campaign by clicking the embedded KS-link below. 

Lastly, you can find John's work for Devil Inside Productions on a new page on the Collecting John Pickford-wiki. 

Commands for the Ewal Crossbowmen

These have been sitting here for months in a half-painted stage. All conversions made out of existing Ewal Dvergar to make a unique looking command for a unit of  Ewal Dvergar Crossbowmen.

The leader has been sitting here painted for almost a year, but without a base. The leader is a Ewal Dvergr Johann fig, with a 5th edt Warhammer Chaos Warrior head swap (these warriors are some of my favourite plastics from GW) and some custom details (beard, bow hand, quiver) - turned out like this:

The standard bearer is pretty much a straight out of the box Ewal Dvergr Warrior from set 2 with a standard from the command pack and then a sallet from the original Crossbowmen and a custom made beard. Body armour was painted 12 months ago, but then put aside ... probably because I didn't really like the colours. Still don't - but I've finished the standard, beard/face and base. Ended up looking like this:

Also began doing a Musician. Again a pretty straight forward job with a simple head swap. These warriors has separate heads so it was quite easy replacing it a Crossbowman sallat and the do a new beard I never started painting him because I lost him, shortly after doing the conversion. But he turned up again during the house move, behind a pile of books, so with the current painting mojo - I paid this guy some attention:

I just love the face on the drum. sadly its hidden when he is standing.
Maybe a should do a causality marker :) 

So the command group is now complete:

Ready to lead the unit into battle:

MM90 Painting Countdown: Next challenge

Well, it's seems like Mr. Slow-hands actually do paint, he's just not going to blog about it or tell me! But he told fellow members at Chaos Dwarfs Online about it - but if he can't blog about it himself, I'll do it- so here it is, Sjoerd's take at the MM90/3d

©EvilLittleBuggers

Awesome job. Real like the tone of the orange and horns are really nicely done. Excellent job, Sjoerd.

So, we are one for the next one. I'm half way there so it's time for do the first one from the MM90/1 blister. So, Mr. Trouwee - how about we do the MM90/1d

On your mark, get set, go .....

Update 12th May 2018:

Hmm, it seems like Sjoerd don't have the 1D with him in Abu Dhabi, so we shall do 1B instead.

MM90 Painting Countdown: 13

Still waiting for Sjoerd to finish the latest challenge (the MM90/3d), but apparently his boss thinks he is need elsewhere rather that at the painting station...? What? I'll get a different boss, if that where me :)

It's actually to hot for painting up here - as we have had a record warm May (warmest and most sunny, May ever) - so paint almost dried instantly, when it drops out of the bottle.

But I have had a few sessions, so while waiting I've painted some other stuff, but also painted one of those MM90s Sjoerd will struggle doing, as his copy needs a repair or rather it needs "a missing bit" - cause yes, I've have painted the only two-parted miniature in the MM90 range - the mysterious and ever so sort after "Crossbowman".

Marauder Miniatures: MM90/5b "Crossbowman"

Half way there, now ... :)

MM90 Painting Countdown: 14

I've already presented this to Sjoerd on Chaos Dwarfs Online (CDO), Sunday - but I'll give him a proper blog-update on here as well, though, I'm not 100% happy with him. My copy shows age. Lots of the sharp edges are gone - and flash/mould lines made the horns rather difficult working with - and then add to that how much I struggle painting blues ... So a rather difficult piece doing - and a real challenge he was

But here he is, Mr. Blue - the:

Marauder Miniatures: MM90/3d

And I know Sjoerd is struggling with this one too, but when he is done, I'm to call the new one. And it will be 12th one painted - so we are nearly half way now. Now how would have thought that ... :)

MM90 Painting Countdown: 15

This one today, is a bit of a bonus piece, as Sjoerd forgot to bring his copy with him, back into the desert. And therefore, I couldn't call him and I went with the MM90/2a (as posted yesterday), but I felt an urge to paint Mr. Umbrella (the MM90/2b) up. And he might be the reason for falling behind in the latest challenge, who knows?

But it will not happen again, and I'll be focusing on painting the MM90/3d - which Sjoerd has called  next.

 - but my poor old "Arabian" friend didn't check the national calendar. If he had, he'd had known that Friday after Ascension Day is a holiday for most, here in Denmark. So I'm on top of this one ... - but don't tell him and let him sweat a bit :-D

And back on topic. Here's Mr. Red, the

Marauder Miniatures: MM90/2b

I just love this pose here. And must have been a challenge for Aly Morrison sculpting. Difficult to get these dynamic poses right on stunty little dwarfs with short arms and no knees. But this one here is just perfect, IMO.

So, here's the Umbrella-dwarf - the MM90/2b