NECROMANCER is here

In the past few months I've been on a bit of a rollercoaster. Mainly, I got a new job. I still don't know if it's the most frustrating work experience I've ever been through or if I enjoy it. At the end of the day, it's taking a lot of energy and I just don't have the juice to keep pumping out the videos as frequently as I used to. So I've been looking for an alternative place to do some hobby writing, that takes less time and commitment. Instagram was always kind of trash but it's gone from showing me funny ads bought by randos promoting incomprehensible products, to just being a stream of "influencer advice" and recommending dogass reels about putting contrast paint on space marines. I used to really love Twitter, and still stalk a few accounts, but it's really sad over there nowadays. Reddit is simply populated by the dumbest motherfuckers of all time, so that's also a no. And then there's blogs.

All my friends have cool blogs, might as well start one too. 

Necromancer was first born as an idea for a zine, steeped in resentment for the rising tide of slop. It would have featured non hobby stuff (music, movies, whatever...) alongside gaming and modelling content from both me and guests. Kind of like 28mag if it was cool. It ended up being kind of a drag, another long form thing that wouldn't see the light of day for ages, simmering along multiple other projects like that. And so it got canned. The thing with Necromancers is they have a tendency to return from the dead. The reborn Necromancer will be my outlet to talk about projects that don't warrant a video, ones that I just can't be bothered to film, and ones that just spring up as I get inspired, rather than plan ahead. The point is to have some fun showcasing whatever I feel, the big stuff will be saved for youtube.

Well, this is the first post on here, let's open the waltz with something new and exciting. This is the 1:76 Falke sculpted and cast by tenbowkissa. 

this thing rocks

 

I imported this little wonder (along with a couple other kits) last month, and I am in love. It's my first time building a japanese garage kit, and my first time building a Maschinen Krieger kit (I've owned another one in plastic, which I am simply too intimidated to get to). This whole thing stems from seeing Nic from Mammoth Miniatures posted his beautifully painted Oskar, another Ma.K sculpt from tenbowkissa. I knew I needed to get some of these and I knew I wanted to get my hands on something like that. I know this is quite a bit different than what you're probably used to seeing from me, but hey, what better way to start a brand new blog than with a brand new kind of model ? 

I am in awe of the care that went into this kit. It's got tiny decals (a little low res for my taste but it's still a very cool inclusion), the wire you need to customize it, detailed instructions and a little art card showing some paint schemes. Along with the bubble-wrap secured resin cast. Might as well gush about the box too while I'm at it. The graphic design is in line with the classic Ma.K designs, with an edited action photo of the model which is rad and I wish I had the skill to edit pictures like that. The back has this delightful technical drawing (with the helpfully singled out "engine for urgency").

knowing this is an indie production... we need to catch up on packaging skills

the tiny waterslide decal sheet

Here's what the beast looks like after a wash to clean the resin, and some assembly. The cast is very crisp. There's some cleanup to do, as usual with indie stuff but this was fairly painless. The bulk of the work was cleaning the mold lines and drilling a ton of little holes. Otherwise, no warping, things went together great. The instruction spell out which of the included wire is used where. But since it's an incredibly tough material and my metal cutters are trash, I decided to replace some of the cabling in the instruction with tin wire of the same gauge, which is much softer and thus easier to bend into shape. I'll say having reference photos of a full scale Falke on hand was very helpful, as some of the cabling instructions are not super clear. 

the (small) beast

 

I really enjoy the scale of these tenbowkissa kits. Maschinen Krieger has traditionally been a 1:20 or 1:35 scale affair (there's a 15mm scale wargame set in the universe as well, which I might talk about in the future). And while that's cool and very manageable for the suits and some of the other machines, it's a tough sell for someone in a tiny apartment. 1:76 is kind of an odd choice, especially when 1:72 seems much more common in plastic, but it's a tiny difference and if I had wanted to include figures in this project, 1:72s would have been just fine. The small scale makes it a very satisfying object I think. It's palm sized, it won't take six months to paint and I'll be ok with only using a brush.

Now let's move a little further in time to the gap-filled, primed model. I left the gun off for ease of painting, but otherwise the Falke is complete ! I stuck the model on a brass rod which will connect it to the base I'll be building. But for that I'll need to find a plinth, so that'll have to wait for the next blog post.

cannot wait to paint this

 

And for the wargame freaks, I promise you'll see some minis real soon. 

Thanks for being there at the very start of Necromancer, 

xoxo

-Noé