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Welcome to my current hobby blog. I've been recording my antics here on dakka since 2009, and on the one blog since early 2010. However, at nearly 400 pages the previous blog had become rather unwieldy, and very prone to the dreaded rollover (disappearing posts at the top of new pages). You can find it over here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300224.page

A bit about me. I am dad of 3, hobby blogger over at bigcomicpage.com and instagram as @big_geekingout , a Media (and occasionally English) teacher and lifelong nerd. I play and paint all sorts of games, but I lean towards comic IPs, mini-board hybrids, quirky fantasy skirmish and small scale sci-fi, mostly (Papa bless ). I am an enthusiastic, productive if not terribly capable painter; I also enjoy building terrain and indoctrinating my children since the demise of regular gaming in times of Covid.
For the last few years I've tried to average a mini day. With 424 in 2023, this year I'm looking at working on Carnevale, Shadows of Brimstone and Star Wars: Shatterpoint. I am, however, a creature of whimsy.

2024 Painted model tally: 348
January - 22
February - 55
March - 24
April - 19
May - 85
June - 24
July - 23
August - 26
September - 43
October - 15
November - 14
December -


The current iteration of the blog stems from 2021...


So what's going on chez graven?
Well, it's Orktober so it's got to be a greenskin, right ?!

MCP is featuring heavily just now, and The Lizard was my favourite spider-man foe as a kid.

I've always liked characters who do the wrong thing for the "right" reason (vid. Lando)

The sculpt is so dynamic it's crazy.

Plus he's a solid addition to a lot of teams, an excellent fairly low-cost big bruiser.

Hope you like what you see, and stay tuned for more!
Till next time, true believers
Graven

Nice work on the LIzard. The slime on the manhole cover.

Lizard looking great, the base as much as the mini. Brilliant sculpt, done justice.

Looking forward to further continued Graveny antics here!

I have also now migrated to your new thread

JoshInJapan wrote:Nice work on the LIzard. The slime on the manhole cover.

Thanks! I did try to get that down, so pleased that it was noticed.

Paradigm wrote:Lizard looking great, the base as much as the mini. Brilliant sculpt, done justice.
Looking forward to further continued Graveny antics here!

Definitely antics. Perhaps also shenanigans. Thanks chum.

Slinky wrote:I have also now migrated to your new thread

Welcome dude once more!

My old blog seems to have broken dakka, though the mighty legoburner is on it. How privileged do I feel?! actually there's that total fear when you see one of the bigwigs commenting on your blog...

Continuing to work through the Web Warriors, we have the legend that is ...
The Amazing Spider-Man!

Lots of layers of red over black to keep the suit lines defined. Not fun.

Experimenting with super white highlights, inspired by some amazing eldar Harlequins by Hendarion on Instagram (check them out if you're on insta, top-notch stuff).

I added the barrel to base just to give the model some visual balance. I'll likely do something similar with Daredevil, Bullseye and/or Kingpin.

Nevertheless, I like the gravity defying sculpt, it's really succesful/

And as we are swinging through the multiverse, you meet all sorts of Spider-Men!

The spectacular Spider-Man swings into action!

I'm liking these explosions. Fun to do.

I should, really, have done the DP in red but I think the "gold" works ok.

Black Cat and Ghost Spider next, but I'm also starting to build up the Deadzone - 2 big Nightmares built yesterday (which apart from no obvious indication of which feet went with which legs, were not really a nightmare to build), 10 little space clan rats and giant clawed resin Hero to do.
On we go!
Graven

Marvel-ous stuff. Curt and the Peters look awesome. Especially the more dioramic Spider.

Hope your old blog can be fixed but glad to see you're still here!

Another blog to subscribe to .

Well you at least kicked it off with an Amazing Lizard-man

Found you. Brilliant as always.

Found you! Great start on the new thread, Lizard and multi verse Spider men!

Ah this is where the rollover went

Nice work on the spider-men and Dr Connors

Subbed.

youwashock wrote:Marvel-ous stuff. Curt and the Peters look awesome. Especially the more dioramic Spider.

Thanks amigo. The dynamic, dioramic basing is a great ybing

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Hope your old blog can be fixed but glad to see you're still here!

Cheers mate. Yeah, well, bit sad I didn't catch up to Gitsplitta, but it's not the end of the world

Theophony wrote: Another blog to subscribe to .
Well you at least kicked it off with an Amazing Lizard-man

Sucker Spread the love, tell your friends good to see you here buddy

Camkierhi wrote:Found you. Brilliant as always.

Many thanks old son. You're too kind.

endtransmission wrote:Ah this is where the rollover went
Nice work on the spider-men and Dr Connors

Yeah, I'm like a bad penny, you can't get rid of me.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Subbed.

Ta
Last night the elder spawn and I resolved to play some Deadzone, as we're both missing gaming, which had been such a regular fixture of lockdowns. Middle spawn has started doing basketball with his bestie, run by his dad, so once little spawn had gone to bed we decided to try out Deadzone 3rd edition.

He'd read the rules, but I deliberately hadn't so he'd be forced to teach me. In just over an hour we had desprued and built 6 minis+terrain AND played the intro scenario twice.

It's fair to say we had fun.

Yeah, I'm pretty sold tbh.

Head is a bit of a mess. Not in a great place, not sure why. But I'll bounce back, no doubt.

Hey ho
Graven

Cool to see Deadzone is still going strong, I remember getting the original big box and expansions and really enjoying what little I did manage to play. And I assume it comes with much nicer minis than that first edition too!

I love that you started off with The Lizard. He was my favorite Spidey foe as well! Great work on the water gushing up out of the sewer.

Paradigm wrote:Cool to see Deadzone is still going strong, I remember getting the original big box and expansions and really enjoying what little I did manage to play. And I assume it comes with much nicer minis than that first edition too!

Yeah, they're super crisp. I didn't enjoy earlier editions much - first was too unbalanced, and second was a mess of special rules - but 3rd is really streamlined.

Gitsplitta wrote:I love that you started off with The Lizard. He was my favorite Spidey foe as well! Great work on the water gushing up out of the sewer.

Thanks old chap and lovely to see you here! The water was really enjoyable to do, Vallejo Cayman green, nightshade and white blends, plus a little Nurgle's rot for slime.


Continuing to trudge through the Web Warriors, I finally get one that I can use for Crime Syndicate... Black Cat!

Ridiculous model.

Genius pose, impossible to photograph

Also, annoyingly gappy. Lot of gs work here.

In the comics, and cartoon, I really disliked her for a long time a cheap, cheesecake Catwoman knock off.

However, I really loved Mark Waid's take on her - within the context of Daredevil, she's a much more nuanced character. So as you can imagine, Matt Murdock is on the to-do list also.

In the end, I think she turned out ok
Next up, Ghost Spider, the amazing Spider-Gwen!
Graven

The pose on her is fantastic. Imagine if GW were to try to do something similar .

Nice highlighting of the black on her outfit too.

Hi, Felicia.

Ambitious mini, sculpt-wise. Still not sure it works. Paint looks good. Digging the highlights.

Great work on the black bodysuit. That couldn't have been easy.

Dang thats a ridiculous pose perfect for super heroes although it just begs for a just shoot her scene.

That might just be the most bizarrely posed miniature I've ever seen! I get what they're going for, but it doesn't really work for me at all. Can't knock the paintwork though, nice levels of contrast on both the suit and face!

Whereabouts did she show up in Daredevil? I never really got her as a Spidey character, she always seemed a bit too sudden with her endless hero-villain-antihero-whatever turns to really be genuinely compelling, but DD runs do tend to afford a bit more nuance to that sort of thing, might have to track it down now I have Marvel Unlimited, see if it can change my mind...

Theophony wrote:The pose on her is fantastic. Imagine if GW were to try to do something similar .
Nice highlighting of the black on her outfit too.

The nearest would be assassins or witch elves. But the balance points on these are bonkers.

youwashock wrote:Hi, Felicia.
Ambitious mini, sculpt-wise. Still not sure it works. Paint looks good. Digging the highlights.

Lol I know exactly what you mean. Thanks amigo.

Gitsplitta wrote:Great work on the black bodysuit. That couldn't have been easy.

Yeah, not much fun Much obliged.

Paradigm wrote:That might just be the most bizarrely posed miniature I've ever seen! I get what they're going for, but it doesn't really work for me at all. Can't knock the paintwork though, nice levels of contrast on both the suit and face!
Whereabouts did she show up in Daredevil? I never really got her as a Spidey character, she always seemed a bit too sudden with her endless hero-villain-antihero-whatever turns to really be genuinely compelling, but DD runs do tend to afford a bit more nuance to that sort of thing, might have to track it down now I have Marvel Unlimited, see if it can change my mind...

Yeah it's certainly... Interesting. Mark Waid's 2012 Daredevil run iirc. Thanks for comments about face, that's definitely where I'm trying to raise my game.

Continuing with the webheads and black theme, it's the Amazing Spider... Gwen!

Aka, Ghost Spider.

The sleeves were a nightmare.

More gap filling, too.

But in the end, pretty content. Had quite an enjoyable time rummaging through my stls finding more Marvel stuff. Keen to print once more. Speaking of which, I've been looking for skaven stls so I can make some more Veer-Myn, though I might be better trying to just find a grab bag of bits on eBay. Kids are loving Deadzone, texted me pics of their game whilst I was at work today. Wee buggers
Graven

Newspaper base is ace

Gwen did NOT look fun to paint

Nice work on SG/GS. Web pattern really turned out nice. Like the reflection of her teal crocs on her backside.

I was out of comics before spider gwen, but she looks great.

There was just a kickstarter for a kings of war type rat army not too long ago, probably on page 1 or two of the News and Rumors thread.

Found the late backer on myminifactory.com $55.00
https://www.myminifactory.com/campaigns/ravenous-hordes-385

Oops, never mind.

That's what I get for doing this at 1 am.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Oops, never mind.

That's what I get for doing this at 1 am.

So i guess it’s safe to post in here again .

The Marvel stuff is looking great!
Can't have been easy getting those web patterns done on the various Spider-people.

Stevefamine wrote:Newspaper base is ace
Gwen did NOT look fun to paint

Thanks mate, it's the cover of the trade of Spider Planet shrunk tiny. No, indeed she was not.

youwashock wrote:Nice work on SG/GS. Web pattern really turned out nice. Like the reflection of her teal crocs on her backside.

Dude, means so much that you spotted that! I thought no-one would notice but it tickled me to do it.

Theophony wrote:I was out of comics before spider gwen, but she looks great.
There was just a kickstarter for a kings of war type rat army not too long ago, probably on page 1 or two of the News and Rumors thread.
Found the late backer on myminifactory.com $55.00
https://www.myminifactory.com/campaigns/ravenous-hordes-385

Well, I am notoriously tight fisted I have actually tracked down some decent STLs I think on thingiverse.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Oops, never mind.
That's what I get for doing this at 1 am.

Easily done mate lol much obliged.

Theophony wrote:
So i guess it’s safe to post in here again .

Well insofar as it ever is

aku-chan wrote:The Marvel stuff is looking great!
Can't have been easy getting those web patterns done on the various Spider-people.

Thanks mate they were indeed a pain :/

Took a wee breather from Marvel to get on with Moonstone

Swiggarty Swooty! Another goblin pirate to add to the horde!

He is such a fun sculpt.

Arrrrrrr.

Well, it IS Orktober after all

And as it is greenskin season, well...

She-Hulk

I am very excited for the TV show, has the potential to be a lot of fun.

Another lovely sculpt from Atomic Mass

I'm really looking forward to have her hit the table too, especially as she's so disappointing in Marvel Champions

I have also done the skin on some other goblins also, and spent a chunk of today building GCPS Marines and Veer-Myn with the kids so we're all set for Deadzone. Just trying to enjoy the week off, having spent a full-on weekend tackling the jungle of my father in law's garden.
Want to try to get a game or some more painting in, fairly busy week ahead though. My folks tomorrow, more to be done at herself's dad's Wednesday, Shang-Chi (finally!) on Thursday and nephew's birthday Friday ah, family
Graven

Shulk was ok-ish in Champions...

But, minis are where it's at. She looks cool. Great muscles.

Enjoy Shang-Chi. I found it quite entertaining.