EXTORTION

Over the past few years I've been into this killer Aussie hardcore band, Extortion. You'll probably find that people refer to them as power-violence, but I disagree with that sentiment. Sorry broseph, it isn't the 90's anymore. Sure, calling your band power-violence makes you sound tough, but its a dead scene. It isn't a thing anymore. Live in the now! Glad I got that outta my system. End crotchety old man rant.

I originally came across them when I snagged a reissue of the Extortion/Agents of Abhorrence split. I picked it up solely based on the artwork, and if you've never picked up an album based on the art, you're missing out. Look at that sleeve in the bottom right of the picture.

Speaking of artwork, all of Extortion's album art and merch is done by their vocalist, Rohan. Throw them some love and buy their shit. The links are at the end of this post. For you anal retentive collectors out there, Extortion does have a habit of doing their first pressings on colored vinyl, which very quickly reach ridiculous prices.

My (meager) collection.

I'm not gonna lie, on that first 7" I picked up, I wasn't as impressed with Extortion as I was with Agents, but when I later came across Sick, I still picked it up. Crank this shit up and stomp around your living room. I'm not gonna recommend any standout tracks, 'cause you should just listen to the full album. I also highly recommend their 10" ep, Loose Screws. I feel crucial tracks are Regrets, Blindspot, and Grind to a Halt. I really haven't listened to Degenerate as much as I should, but here is the link anyways. Do it.

Extortion at Discogs
Merch at Warlord Clothing
Merch at Big Cartel
Book of Faces

A current shot of the desk

So I thought I'd show you guys a shot of my current projects. I've actually been blasting out a fairly decent amount of work recently. I'm trying to clear out some old projects before continuing more recent work.

 

You may recognize that evil little goblin bastard back there. Gorefink is almost done. I have to paint his hand and weapon, and do some touch ups here and there. There will also be a sign nailed to the stump with his name on it. I'm pretty stoked to get him done for show season.

There's a Rackham dwarf chillin' with his rifle there on the right. He was meant to be a fun and quick little paint, but unfortunately I got distracted and started doing a nice job on him. I absolutely love the old Rackham dwarves and goblins. Check out Haekel & Jaeckel for some nice Rackham pictures and tutorials. It's in French, so give that translator a workout! It's worth it!

The  marines... well... they are Space Marines. I just need to finish them and get them out of my world. That being said, the Space Wolf on the left is one of my favorite miniatures ever. The first miniature I painted that I was really proud of was this dude. I'll have side by side pics of new vs. old when he's done.

Other than that, I've been working on a new toy. Pretty stoked. Surly 1x1, dedicated singlespeed trail ripper. Just got her finished up the other day. This bike was mostly funded by selling shitty death metal on ebay. Shred!

I'll get something interesting posted up for you guys soon, perhaps a little tutorial or something. Maybe I'll learn you cats my method for building wilderness bases.

Go Skate!

So in case all you nerds are unaware of where this blog takes its name and logo from, I appropriated an old skateboard slogan and stole the graphics. Skate companies have been doing homages (or ripping shit off, depending on how you see it) for years, so I'm just doing the same. I received a request for some pictures of rare boards, but I wouldn't necessarily call my collection rare, so I enlisted some help on this post. We're gonna start with my crap, move to my buddy Ben's solid collection, and finally I have some shots of a board Todd “Sharkbait” Williams painted up for a gallery show. Then I'll rant about hardcore punk for a little while.

 

I have been a lil lazy (or distracted) lately, but I'll have some cool stuff coming up in the miniatures world soon. Recently I acquired an excellent commission that will be occupying a large amount of my time. I'll be working on techniques to paint a large amount of miniatures somewhat quickly and to a high standard.

 

I've also been selling off loads of rare miniatures, CDs, and records. It built me a pretty rad mountain bike. I'll probably shoot off a good rant about that at a later date.

 

Onto skates!

 

 

 

This is a shop deck from 303 Boards in Denver. It's the best shop in town, and across the street from an excellent punk rock bar, Streets of London. I loved this board, but unfortunately she's dead. Some of my buddies had paint pens one night, hence the grip. It holds a lot of sentimental value, and I was sad when I snapped her.

  This is one of the newer Santa Cruz fishtails. I built it up with Indy 169s, Rat Bone reissues, and Creature rails. Jim Phillips, who did many of the classic Cruz boards, did the art on this guy.

Again, I really dig Santa Cruz. I had wanted one of the Jason Jessee Neptune reissues, and I missed out on them.

Wood. Huh huh huh.

 

These boards both hang over my workbench. Cthulhu and orc drinking beer? Yessir. The art on the Cthulhu board was done by Florian Bertmer, an exceptionally rad artist who does a lot of album covers. See later in this post. Nerd shit for the nerd gods!

This is the rarest thing I have. Sims and Trackers bolted to a slab of wood. 'Nuff said.

 

 

Next up we have my buddy Ben's awesome collection. The Hosoi is a reissue. Still awesome. The McGill and Grosso are original. His buddy ran Body Jar skates, and Ben's pro-model can be seen hanging next to the McGill.

Finally we have a board painted by Todd "Sharkbait" Williams for a show at Rapture Tattoo Emporium in Duncannon, PA. He'll be slinging ink there shortly.

 

 

So while writing up this post I dug some shit out of the vinyl stash that I haven't rocked in a while. Caustic Christ, Ds-13, Utter Bastard, Violent Noise Party comp, Aus Rotten, Bombstrike, Anal Warhead, C.o.C, etc. You know- easy listening, smooth jazz style stuff.

 

I'd really recommend checking out DS-13. Excellent old-school style thrashcore played by a bunch of Swedes. I believe Killed by the Kids is their last album, and it is too bad. It features killer art by Pushead, which is generally a sign that something shreds. Check out Vi Skatar Dom Dor. This album also features a cover of Media Blitz by the Germs.

I mentioned Florian Bertmer while talking about my Creature boards. This is an example of an awesome 7 inch cover he did. This is amongst my favorite records I own. The artwork is rad, AnB always shreds, and TFD covers the Exploited. AnB's track “Self Detonate” is my go to song on this joint. Listen and love.

I leave you with one last tune. Some Spazz, gentleman?

Anyways, I finally motivated and made a post. Enjoy. I'll getchu some interesting miniature/modeling stuff soon.

Take it easy.

A little destruction!

I mean, this blog is called Paint and Destroy. It had to happen at some point. I'm going to show you how to lay down some battle damage on a Warhammer 40k Dreadnought arm and build a sweet display base. This is a really useful technique to practice, it adds some really cool visual interest to large armored areas, and it is useful for pretty much any type of modeling you do.

 
 
So first off we are going to assemble our supplies. There are definitely more pieces that make their way into this little adventure, but this is where I started. By the way, wooden liquor bottle caps make awesome display bases. Even if you don't drink, bother your friends who do to save these bad boys for you. That piece on the left that becomes the interior detail is actually part of a Space Marine missle launcher backpack.

 

This shows how I cut out the panel for the damage. Pretty simple. Drill a bunch of holes, carve that shit out with your knife.

 

 

Now it gets fun. Scrape and carve the hole so it looks like a blast. It isn't shown, but I recommend carving away the interior edges as well. If I had my Dremel, I would have thinned the entire damaged panel from behind. Thinning it makes it look more realistic, and helps with fit.

 

Here it is starting to look like something. The next step is to trim that backpack down to just the piece I need. I'll spare you from pictures of that. I'm pretty certain you probably know how to use a razor saw. I will warn you, getting the internal piece to properly fit can be a real pain in the ass. It is going to take a lot of trimming, filing, and cursing. If I were building a whole Dread, I would have thinned the back of the interior piece with a file or sandpaper.

 

 

This next step is where things get really cool. Get out your thin wire or solder. If not, head down to Radio Shack and pick some up. I used wire here, but I have .015" gauge solder and its about the same size. During this stage I started gluing and realized my super glue had gone bad and was not curing properly, so this whole step was far more infuriating than it should have been. You should just be able to dip the wire in a drop of glue, place it where it should go, wait a minute for it to cure, then bend it into shape.

Yeah buddy!

So you know how I go on and on about trimming and fitting? This is why. Again, I'm not building the entire model, so I'm not exactly worried, but be warned. Remember to always dry fit, check your work, take your time, and prep, prep, prep!

 

Here we begin work on the base. Peel the paper label off the top, then scratch it up with your knife to give it some tooth. Remember how I complained about my super glue not curing properly? That is why the battle damage is all white and crusty looking. Oh well. I did realize I went a little berzerk with the razor saw and messed up those little boxes on the back of the arm. We will get to that shortly.

Here is another quick little trick in case you are unaware. Drill a little hole with the smallest bit you have, then use the tip of your blade to scrape the edges. Easy and quick bullet holes.

 

 

 





Buy these.

Now I have to repair the back of the arm. First I saw it off and sand it down with my Squadron sanding sticks. Buy these. They are awesome. The next step is to lay down a thin line of super glue over all the seams. I tried to show you this in the second picture. Then sand this down with your fine sanding stick or paper. Repeat, possibly several more times. Super glue works great for filling seams that putty would be overkill for. Your fingernail works best for checking if the seams are smooth.

 

Next we head into the stash! Find something cool, trim it down, and glue it on. Easy.

 

 

I skipped a few steps here. Find something cool for a little more visual interest. I dug through my hoard for like an hour before I found this eagle from a banner pole. I dropped something else and found this guy laying under my desk. Go figure. Glue everything down, then mix up your putty of choice and cover that base! I prefer superfine white Milliput for groundwork. I find it has a better texture for PVA glue to adhere to. Also at some point I sculpted a skull on the fist, cause you know, it is Warhammer. Cue Misfits. "WE NEED MORE SKULLS!" I use model railroad ballast for basing, and I always mix my PVA glue with water when I'm gluing it down. The glue will soak through the ballast and hold better.

 

 

Success! Prime that shit and get painting!

 

I haven't quite decided if I want to sculpt something on that unblemished panel, or just rough it up some, so priming will have to wait. I'm currently working on getting the figure for this base into shape as well, and he requires a little more sculpting. I'm going to leave this guy as a suprise for now.

 By the way, pick up those sanding sticks at http://www.squadron.com/. It is an awesome hobby store with some really great hobby supplies. If you have never used Milliput, I'd definitely recommend snagging some of it up as well.

I hope you guys found this post useful. I received a request to see some skate decks, so I'll be on that soon. There will be a special guest appearance by my boy, Todd "Sharkbait" Williams, and some decks he painted up for a show.

Party on!

Been a busy month...

So I know I talked about how much I wanted to post here once a month, but unfortunately July was a busy one. I moved to my new pad, which I'm really stoked about, but I do not have internet access there. That is all well and good, because it helps motivate me to do work. I've also been spending a lot of time cycling in the beautiful weather outdoors. Fortunately I've managed to sneak in some time at the bench. I occasionally work on prepping an Aile Strike Gundam kit I have, but most of the work has been dedicated to a piece that has been on my table for a year and a half or so now.


Meet Gorefink.

Born under the sign of the rat, he's a delightful little chap that enjoys smashing, sewer brew, and striking menacing poses.

I started this little bastard a year and a half ago or so, around late 2012. He is a fantasy tribute to Rat Fink, in case you didn't get the joke. Shame on you if you couldn't figure that one out. I've spent somewhere around 40 hours on him and his scenic display base (not pictured). Other than his right hand and axe he is pretty much complete. I've currently been working on pushing my highlights a little more, so a bit of touching up on his skin and armor may be in the works.

 

I am exceptionally happy with how his pelt and the rat ears came out, however the pelt is another spot that will be getting some additional highlights to make it pop.

 

In case you are interested, I will drop some knowledge upon thee. Eventually I'll get you a recipe for the ears posted. They required a bit more work and I can't give exact details right now.

 

The pelt:

• VGC Cold Grey
• GW Gryphonne Sepia wash
• VMC WW2 German Camo Beige
• VMC Ivory

Lay down a solid base coat with the Cold Grey and wash it with the Sepia. I then drushbrushed a coat of grey with a little beige added, then a coat of beige with a little grey. I really try not to drybrush too much these days, but I'll make an exception for pelts like this. I finally break out that tiny detail spotter and start hitting individual hairs, though this where my paint mixes become less defined. Add a little ivory to your grey/beige mixture and go to town!

 

The skin:

• VMC Black Green
• VMC Reflective Green
• VMC Intermediate Green
• VMC Yellow Green

This is not an earthshattering recipe for goblin flesh. Base with the black green, lay down some reflective green everywhere but the deepest recesses, then start mixing and highlighting that shit up. Finish with straight yellow green.

 

In case you are not a miniature painter and have an interest in what is goin' on up there, VMC stands for Vallejo Model Color, VGC is Vallejo Game Color, and GW is Games Workshop. These are all dedicated miniature paints, but they are also acceptable for airbrushing/other model work. I've used paints from pretty much every company out there, and these days I almost exclusively use Vallejo's Model Color for hand painting. Tamiya still rocks it in the airbrush.

 

 

Anyways, that was a lot and now I'm getting lazy. Sorry to bail. I'll try not to make it such a long time before my next post. For a while I've had an idea to write up an article on my experiences with different paint companies, and some colors I find absolutely necessary for my style, so look forward to that soon.

First post, and starting something new...

Well, I guess it's finally time to getting around to making my first official post on this blog. I aim to post once a month at a minimum, depending on how productive I am. Aside from predominantly being modeling and painting articles, I may occasionally toss in some stuff about gaming, collecting records, skateboards, bicycles, cars, and whatever else I feel like ranting about. You know, inspirational things.

Something that has interested me for a while in the miniature world has been flats, otherwise known as zinnfiguren, meaning tin figures. In case you are unfamiliar, they are flat castings with raised detail that are painted to resemble a 3d model. They were predominantly popular through the mid or late 1800s through the early 1900s. There are still some producers around, and it seems some of them are beginning to expand into fantasy subjects.

I picked up my first flat at this year's MFCA show in Valley Forge, PA. I couldn't pass up the dwarf smoking a pipe and drinking a beer. I got it from The Little Tin Soldier booth, they were friendly, helpful, and enthusiastically answered my questions. Highly recommended. Flats are usually 25-30mm tall, but this guy is a larger 70mm scale.

Flats are traditionally painted with oils over a base of white primer, but I decided to be a sissy and use the good ol' acrylics. I have a crap set of oils, and I've always wanted to try them out on a miniature, but I wasn't gonna push it this time around.

It should be mentioned this is the first time I've used Tamiya Fine Surface Primer, and I'm really not happy with it. It looks like in the future I'll be sticking to my old standby, Bondo flat black auto primer. I'm not completely knocking the Tamiya primer, but in my opinion it is too glossy and fine for my Vallejo paints. I expect it will work better with plastic models and airbrushed paint. I'll let you know when I get to work on the Gundam models in my stash.



After ~1.5 hrs. of work.

As you can see, I've been blocking in colors before working through highlights. I can already tell this is going to get interesting. As I mentioned previously, I usually work from a black primer coat. I'm used to building from the shadows, and working up through highlights in many layers. Here I am going to need to work up through the highlights from a base color, and then add additional shading.

Anyways, back to the paints. Next post I will return with some more progress, and some recipes for the colors I use. I'll leave you with these links if you would like to find out more.

• http://www.zinnfiguren-bistulfi.com/
• http://www.flats-zinnfiguren.com/