Light at the end of the tunnel...

It's been a strange couple of weeks, not least because I seem to have been subjected to numerous personal injuries and accidents of late that have left me a bit worried about sitting at my desk for fear of some terrible Omen-like final tragedy befalling me!
What I have managed to do though is clear the desk of a load of nearly done pieces and get the two main pieces that I've been working on most recently very close to final completion.

The big thing this week that has prompted me to get some of the pieces done was to get some new matt varnish that I can use easily in my airbrush. It would appear that the matt lacquer that I've been using for years, Testor's Dullcote, is soon to be very difficult to obtain here in the UK. So I went on a little mission to find a workable alternative that wasn't going to break the bank. What I bought and have successfully used is Winsor & Newton UV matt varnish, which I picked up from the Range for under £7. A few drops mixed with Tamiya thinners and popped in the airbrush was enough to happily coat a model and due to the speed of drying when using the thinners, I could add a second coat almost immediately. It also gives me much greater control when I want to avoid varnishing metallics or areas that are deliberately glossy. All in all, a happy discovery and a product I would recommend whether you use an airbrush too, or want a decent brush-on varnish. :)

So, armed with said varnish, I needed to finish off Cassandra. The last instalment had me weighing up a couple of options for the base. Originally I had a smooth surface with little electric glows where here feet touched the floor in my head, but while digging in my spares box I found a couple of pieces of leftover parts from old model kits that I thought would suit entirely. One was a broken robot body from an old Statuesque sculpt, and the other was a spare head from the old Kabuki Hellenika sculpt. Stuck the two together and I had one (male) vanquished enemy robot for her base. I quickly cobbled a stone floor together and here is the result...

 

With that built, it is now just a case of drilling out for my transit bolt underneath (for transporting her to shows), creating a plaque, and gluing it all together.

Here are some "final" shots of Cassandra in place, with a few extra details added to the dead robot. The plaque is kind of built and the drilling yet to be done, but this should be done this evening.

 

I also tried out a new background to my photos which make things quite (melo)dramatic!The background was just a free download that I printed onto a piece of A4 paper, which when set far enough back from the model creates a really effective look. In fact, I was so pleased with the new varnish and  back drop that I took the camera to a whole host of models in the cabinet, some of which are already in my various galleries, but some have never been shown in their final forms, so I thought that I would show them off in the next few blog posts while I am busy with commission pieces that I haven't got permission to show yet.

This is one such model...

This is "The Watcher", who is the end of game boss model for basic box of the forthcoming Kingdom Death: Monster game (incidentally, both this sculpt and Cassandra were created by the enviously talented Thomas David). There are in fact several add-on bosses when the game finally drops, and I do have a couple of other models from the game to do.

I have plenty of others to show soon, plus the Soda Pops Walker vignette is nearly done. I was unfortunately too tired to take photos last night when I assembled the scene, but I'll get some decent shots up once I add the accessories and tidy up where I glued it all in.

Oh, and it's just one week until Salute. I'd better get some sleep in! lol ^_^