More than just a pony show

Welcome again, readers.  Not much to talk about tonight - without ranting about damaged or missing pieces from figures (pre-painted ones, but still).  But I will not bother you with that.  Instead, I will focus on the positive - and the positive is a set of three figures that I had previously painted up from the Wild West Exodus game - three lawmen, to be precise.

We'll start off with the baddest of the bunch, good old Wyatt Earp:

An awesome sculpt, and a nasty piece of work on the play field.  Of course, he wouldn't go out without Doc Holiday:

Sporting a lovely era-inaccurate gas mask - but hey, we play these games for their wild flights of fancy, not their historical accuracy (at least, not the sort of game where you can drive around tanks in the wild west).  In any case, they'll need a deputy to support them, right?  Well, here he is:

He won't take any nonsense - and don't let his pose fool you - he's just as ready for a fight as you are!

Well, that's all from me tonight.  I will likely see you all again on the morrow - and until then, paint on!

All his base...

Greetings, all.  Another evening is here, and it's time to see what I've gotten done today.  Not much on the painting front, but I did start on the dragon, as I promised I would:

Just the first coat on him, but it's already looking pretty sweet.  And, what's that sneaking around behind him?

Why, it's the reason I didn't get much painting done.  A Space Marine Razorback, all assembled and awaiting the primer this weekend.  Took a bit of time to get together, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

That's all for today, folks.  Tune in tomorrow for what I put up - probably another picture from my archives, as it is a Game night.  Until then, folks - paint on!

She'll make your skin crawl

Greetings once again, readers.  It is time, once more, to see what I've accomplished today.  Another day of not getting as much done as I would like, but I do have a lovely demonette to share with you all - but she's topless, so you'll need to jump over to my Photobucket account to get the full view:

I'll finish off the base tomorrow, but she is finished, painting wise.  Until tomorrow, when I'll likely start on the next impressive dragon - the Pathfinder Red!

Until then, folks...  Paint on!

Fido, he ain't

Greetings once again, readers, on this fine Memorial Day.  Another lazy day where I didn't get much done - but I did finish up the Wolf Lord, and get started on a lovely daemon lass.

First off, the finished product of the wolf lord:

I think we can all agree he came out looking particularly spectacular - I really would not want to feel that wolf's teeth around my neck!

Next up, we have the lovely snake demon Vandorendra from Reaper Miniatures.  Just the hair, swords, and detail work before she's ready to...  ahem... bare all to the world - but there are a fair few details to pick out...

Hopefully she'll be done by tomorrow, so I can start on another great figure from Reaper Miniatures - the Pathfinder Red Dragon:

He should truly be a site to behold once finished.  And hopefully I can start working toward that on the morrow.  Until then, folks - paint on!

Not the kind of dog you want to play 'Fetch' with

Greetings once again, readers.  Another day of not getting much done - but that's to be expected when you spend the bulk of the day playing games with family and friends.  I have made more progress on the wolf lord - and there is less to do than I have thus far done!  But I know you want to see the pic, so here it are:

There's still a fair bit left to do - face, hair, and base - but it's closing in on the end.  Tomorrow should see him done - and you'll be the first to see him!

Until then, folks - paint on!

Well, they did say it was Chaos

Good evening once again, readers.  I don't have any crazy late gaming going on today, so it's time once more to see what I've accomplished with my day - which, having gotten nowhere near enough sleep last night, is nowhere near as much as I would have liked.  But, I did take part in a birthday bash at the Games Workshop store, where I took part in a Kitbash/Speed Painting competition - which I ended up winning thanks to the speedpainting technique I told you all about previously.

Now, for what you're all waiting for - the pictures!

We'll start with the progress I've made on the Wolf Lord kitbash that I've put together:

A tired day, I didn't get nearly as much done with him as I would have liked, but there's the first color and the starting of the second.  I'll hopefully have him done by tomorrow, but we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Now for the main bit of the post - the kitbash/speed painting figure.  I would start with the pile of bits I started with, but I didn't think to snap a picture of it.  However, after about 25 minutes of assembling, I ended up with this:

The time came for voting - and this poor fellow didn't fair well.  The two other competitors split the vote 2-1, leaving this faithful lout out in the cold - but he would have his revenge!

The speed painting portion came next.  It was a fast and furious painting session, clocking in at a meager 30 minutes to paint the miniature - a perfect time to put into practice the technique I used on the Infinity model earlier:

As you can see, this got some great results (if a bit sloppy), and was solid enough to take the vote uncontested!  Base/Wash/Highlight - works great when you're fighting an insanely tight deadline!

But his revenge was not yet complete - oh, no.  There was still the grand melee ahead.  The three entries - Adeptus Astartes Gandalf, The Gargoyle, and The Raptor - entered into combat on a 2' by 2' board - with Gandalf and The Gargoyle focusing on each other, allowing The Raptor to grab victory, practically unharmed!

That's all I have for you all today.  Tune in tomorrow to see what I get done - and until then, paint on!

Just out trolling.

No update two days in a row?  Well, maybe not, but enjoy this troll anyways:

Enjoy, and I'll have something for you all tomorrow.  Until then, Paint on!

An Ice Zakerlash

Greetings once again, readers.  Not much to report on today - I had hoped to get two figures painted up, but ended up feeling just a touch too tired to do so.  I did get the latest batch of primed figures through the wash - giving me even more choices for what to paint next! (as if I really needed more in that regard...)

But, I know why you're here.  The pictures!  We'll start off with what I've finished - the Zakerlash, from DGS' Freeblades:

A bit of a wintry gleam there, which is a much different take than the pure black of the production model.  I'm debating whether to go with a Snow base or my standard static grass base for this one - the static grass will help tie it in with the other Freeblades figures that I will be painting up, but I think the pure sparkling white of the snow base will tie in better with the miniature...  Well, if any of you have an opinion on the matter, feel free to weigh in, and I'll make my call over the weekend.

On another note, here are the figures that I got the wash on.  Nothing spectacular to see, but there's a lot of them there - and no telling what order I'll paint them in...

As always, thanks for reading, and until next time - paint on!

Gimme some sugar!

After over a week working on this figure, and 8 hours of painting and repainting, he is finished.  I present to you: Nethyrmaul the White, in his full glory!  At some point, I will need to paint up Nethyrmaul the Black - same figure, different color scheme - for a campaign that I'm planning on running at some point.  But for now, this version of Nethyrmaul will stand alone against all manner of adventurer that comes his way.

Tomorrow will bring something new - but what it is, I won't know until it's here.  For now, I will celebrate the completion of this fine piece of undead dragon - and hope that you all have enjoyed taking this journey with me - and definitely look forward to the next big project I take on.  You know, there is a Cthulhu lurking within my collection...

Until next time, folks - paint on!

All the bear necessities

Greetings once again, readers.  Another day of gaming - and another day of no more progress on Nethyrmaul.  But I'll get to him again tomorrow, and hopefully get to finishing out the main body on him, and at least started on the base.  But for tonight, I have a couple more pictures from my archives.

We'll start off with Thorvald, Dwarf Bear Rider, from Reaper Miniatures:

And we all know what mead dwarfs and mean bears leave behind.  My second model today is the Pile of Dead Bards from The Gamers 2 module kickstarter:

Such a lovely result from such a brutal paring.

That's it from me today.  I shall be back tomorrow, and it's back to seeing what Nethrymaul brings to the table.  If nothing else, that freaky closeup I keep showing you all should be well and truly finished for tomorrow's update - and if I've the time, I may even get the stone outcropping finished!

Until then, folks - paint on!

Could I get that scaled up, please?

Greetings once again, readers.  I continue to make progress on the dread Nethyrmaul, and I have another pic or two on some of the other projects that I'm prepping.

Let's start off with the off-main stuff, shall we?  Unfortunately, I forgot to grab snapshots of these, but I've assembled the rest of the Thunderwolf Calvary models that I had purchased, and primed them and the main one primed (along with a good selection of other miniatures, mostly from the Freeblades miniatures game).  I've also applied the glaze and glitter to the Hound of Tindalos, but was unable to get a good picture of it.  I'll try again later this week.

But I know what you all want to see.  You want to see some big dragon action, and I'm not one to disappoint:

 "Hi.  I'm ready for my closeup!"

Hm...  Perhaps a bit too close in again (though you can really see the shading on everything in that picture!).  Let's try that again, shall we?

And there you have it.  I'm going to go through and get the touchup work done on everything - hit the places I accidentally covered with paint on later layers, and add paint to areas that I missed on the first pass, then paint up the stone pillar and the earth, apply the basing material, and he'll be done!  Though you'll probably need to suffer through another few WIP posts with him while that happens - that is not a small miniature by any means, and painting him up is taking up a lot of time.  But that's to be expected when I take on a big project like this.

Until next time, folks - paint on!

A new sinew

Good afternoon, readers.  It is time for another early update as I have gaming to get to here shortly.  But before that, I have a few things worth sharing.  First off, the latest on good old Nethyrmaul, whom you all have seen me working on for the past week:

And a gruesome figure he is making, too.  though you may want to see the whole piece before passing judgement:

Yes, that's better.  I have finished up my first pass on the mummified skin, and am getting ready to start on the white of his scales - what scales he has left, of course.  Which brings me to another bit, a new figure to add to my (rather massive) pile of figures waiting to get paint on them - a proxy for the Space Wolves Wolf Lord, assembled from the Raging Heroes Cyberwolf and a Space Wolves Space Marine torso:

Mm...  That's looking good!  It'll be some time before he's ready to hit the painting table, but he's there - and with the purchases I made yesterday to get him ready, I'll also have a nascent Space Wolves army to go with my Tau (and all the other ones that I have from the first time I got into 40k...)

Until next time, readers, when I shall hopefully have the main bulk of Nethyrmaul finished - leaving only the stone and ground he's standing on (if that!).  But, for now...  Paint on!

The Eyes Have it

Greetings again, readers.  Another game night, and another late post from me.  But, that's what I have my old collection of miniatures for!  Tonight, we're going to take a look at a dwarven gryphon rider by Reaper Miniatures - and I've chosen a particular reason to show this figure off - the eyes:

As you can see, the eyes on this one are significantly more detailed than my usual fair - because they are significantly larger, and I can play around with the light and shadow on them a lot more, giving them a much brighter and more lively appearance.  In order for eyes like these to look good, you must remember that the iris of an eye is a refractive surface - which means that the highlights for the eyes will be at the bottom, rather than the top, with a bright reflective light source will define the arc of the upper iris.  Doing this can give you some really spectacular results - as you can see for yourselves in the above and below pictures:

That's all from me tonight.  I shall return tomorrow with more pictures of my WIP on Nethyrmaul - and another figure that I picked up the pieces for yesterday and today.  Until then...  Paint on!

Isn't it a little big?

Greetings once again, readers.  It's another game night, so it's time to take a look at some of the figures that I've painted up between when I left off updating my Photobucket library and when I started up this blog.  And where better to start than the two characters whose journals are (or soon will be) gracing this fine blog:  Kaelo and Argos Magebane!

Kaelo is a living construct - an artificial being that non-the-less grows and heals on his own.  His model is based on Privateer Press' Reciprocators from the Convergence of Cyress:

As a strong contrast to Kaelo, Argos is a brash and brazen Dwarf Barbarian with a giant chip on his shoulder.  His character is represented by the (relatively) new Dwarf Dragonslayer model from Games Workshop:

That's all from me today.  I'll catch you all on the morrow.  Until then: paint on!

It's best to start with a good foundation

Welcome once again, readers.  Another day where I did not accomplish as much as I'd like - but I did make some progress, so there is always that.  I finished out the first coat of the skin, and started on the second, but still have a long way to go before that's done:

And that's really it from me tonight.  No real discussions on what I'm doing, no extra models to show off (I'll be getting to those over the next few days) - this is it for today.

So, until tomorrow: paint on!

Flawless skin - if by flawless, you mean missing

Welcome once again, readers.  Another day without much getting done, but as promised, I did finish up with most of the bones (and what's left I'll get during the touchup), and start on base coating the skin sections of Nethyrmaul.  But the biggest part is yet to come - and boy, do I hope that doesn't eat up a week of work...

And, as today's bonus picture (because just seeing one WIP day to day over several weeks is rather uninteresting), here's one of the other figures from Wild West Exodus - the alternate sculpt for Sitting Bull:

That's all from me today, readers.  I'll be back tomorrow with another WIP update tomorrow.  Until then, paint on!

Show me them pearlies!

Hello once again, readers.  It's time once again to see what I've gotten done today - which is nowhere near as much as I had hoped for, due to a variety of circumstances...  Ah, well.  I did get something done, and you can see how it adds more color to old Nethyrmaul.  Still a long ways to go, but I am making progress:

And, since this is such a small update today, I'm throwing the figure for one of my current characters:  Mikhael 'Harbinger' Orison, modeled by one of the Anima Tactics figures (alas, I cannot remember the name of the figure):

That's all from me for tonight.  Tune in tomorrow, when I'll hopefully finish up with the bone, and will then start on the dark skin - going for a mummified look, as if the moisture had been sucked right out of it, the ripped away to reveal the freshly reanimated muscle when Nethyrmaul ripped out from the ground.  It should be deliciously disgusting!

Until then, readers - paint on!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Good evening once again, my readers.  I did not get as much done today as I would have liked - but I did get started on Nethyrmaul, as promised, as well as powered through two figures today.  So, let's get to it, shall we?

We'll start, as always, with the WIP I ended out yesterday with.  Let's hear it for the lovely and exotic Belle, Steampunk Heroine from reaper Miniatures:

 Next up is a little more experimental piece, Reaper's Runelord Alaznist:

 I say this piece is experimental not because of anything on the main body of the figure, but because of the spell effect at the end of the want, which I used a blue Glaze and a bright yellow to make look like it was emitting a rather hot flame.  I like how it looks, but local opinion has been mixed:

And finally, the moment you've been waiting for, the first steps in the monstrosity that is Nethyrmaul.  This one is going to take me quite a while to do, mostly due to picking out all the scales and the rotting skin between the wings.  But it will be quite awesome once it's finished:

That's all from me today.  Since you all like looking at my finished minis, I'm going to start photographing the ones that I haven't posted up anywhere yet, and I'll post those up when needed.  But that shouldn't be needed for a few days yet, as I will have plenty of time and will most certainly post up my progress on Nethyrmaul from day to day - though you all will likely be sick of seeing him by the time this project is done!

Until next time, readers...  Paint on!

Counting Queue

Good evening once again, my readers.  As promised yesterday, I have been quite busy today, and have quite a bit to show you all today.  From finishing up the competition piece, to a new work in progress, to a new bevy of Bones that I have primed up.

To start with, let's look at the piece that has been the center of attention this whole week: the Warhammer Fantasy Skaven Stormvermin:

Next up, on the other end of the spectrum, is the latest batch of figures that I primed today, all of them members of Reaper's Bones line of miniatures (you didn't think I was priming actual bones, did you?)  Priming Bones is a little different than priming other figures, as the Vinyl material that makes them up reacts poorly to most primers, leaving the figure tacky and unpleasant to hold.  What I've found works - outside of a few variant formulations of the product - is using Krylon Fusion for the base layer rather than Krylon Primer.  After adding on the Grey and White primers, the paint holds just as well, and hey!  No tackiness:

Next up, we get into two figures that I painted using my usual techniques.  The first is Reaper's Bone's Succubus - quickly censored to keep this blog PG-13.  I do this because I want people to read this blog without worrying about surprise nudity or worrying about getting in trouble for it at work.  But, for those who want to see the uncensored version, you can click on this link (warning - nudity, NSFW, and all that jazz) and see the image on my Photobucket account (and it's not like that area is completely PG, given the topless Sphinx and Lamia already residing there...)

Next up is a lovely piece from Stonehaven Miniatures as part of their Gnomes! kickstarter - a lovely little ferret slipping through the grass:

Next up, the one I didn't quite get done today (there is one more finished later on, but I'm going to go in depth on that one, as it illustrates a different technique that I used):  Reaper's Belle: Steampunk Heroine:

And finally, we come to one of the lovely ladies from Infinity (I, unfortunately, cannot remember which one...):

Now, this figure used a very different painting technique than my usual select three shades/build up from darkest to lightest.  Instead, I used a speed painting technique (though I definitely didn't speed paint this figure!), where I blocked out the basic colors, dipped the figure into my wash (1 part Blue ink, 2 parts Black ink, 6 parts water, and a few drops of Jet Dry to help break surface tension), then picked out the highlights with the the base color, and in some cases one shade brighter.  This can allow you to push out a lot of figures very quickly without spending too much time on any individual piece - but the wash can be unpredictable, and you really should pick out the highlights again once it's dry.

You can also see the effect that the screen door screen has for the base - a very distinctive look, and not one that I use very often.

Well, that's it for me today.  Tune in tomorrow for a few more smaller figures, and the start of the first Nethyrmaul the Undying.

You didn't think I only had one of those figures, did you?

Until then, paint on!

Project Update 05/09/2014 - Creeping Closer

Good evening, readers mine!  It is time, once again, to take a look at what I've managed to do today.  I am, once again, making good progress on completing my next competition piece, and have only touch up work to do before it is ready to seal and turn in!  Huzzah!

I should have this piece finished over the weekend, and will try to get a couple of other small pieces wrapped up to be more efficient with my sealer (though I definitely need to get more) - so expect to see a lot over the next few updates - and Sunday, I will have something to show on Nethyrmaul the Undying - and you will all get to see my progress on that figure.

For the time being, though, you're here to see what I got done today, so I shall delay no longer:

Top is in front of a generic white wall on a generic black painting table, and Bottom is the piece on a play table in front of one of the GW Fantasy Terrain pieces (not painted by me, but it makes a wonderful backdrop, does it not?)

And that is all from me for today.  I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully with a couple more models to ogle!  Until then, paint on!

[Painting Tips] Painting the town... Pink?

Good evening, readers.  Another game night, another no-picture day (boo!).  Instead, I'll talk to you all a bit about color selection, and how much of a difference that it can make in how a figure looks when it's completed.

It may seem obvious - you obviously want to pick the best colors for the figure, and who could go wrong with that off-white and luminescent green combination that I was thinking of using?  But it's more than just grabbing some random colors off the shelf and expecting them to go together - or worse, trying to use a purple to shade a green.  It just doesn't look right...

This is because certain colors work better together than others.  Reds and blacks, blues and oranges, these colors are used together a lot, and the reason for this is simple - they are colors that complement each other.  I would highly recommend any aspiring painters invest in a color wheel or bookmark one of the (many) color picking websites out there, particularly one that shows you shades and Triads or Quatrads, so that you can pick out the colors for the whole figure in one go, potentially.

Once you're used to that, you can go back to grabbing what you think feels right with the figure, knowing that you've gotten used to thinking of how the different colors with compliment and contrast each other - which, in turn, will make your figures shine all the more!

Until next time, readers - paint on!

Project Update 05/07/2014: Drawing Closer

Hello once again, readers.  I'm here once again with an update on what I've gotten done today.  Progress continues on the competition piece, and I've managed to finish up the base that I've been working on.  I think everyone will agree that it looks a lot better finished than it did last night.

So, let's start off with the work in progress - this time with multiple angles so you can see some of the new tricks I've been trying to work in with it:

We'll start with a side view, where you can see some of the rust I've added to the halberd, as well as the glowing runes on the helmet:

The front, where you can see the chainmail and the first layer of the black backing:

And the back, which is almost entirely black (with a few exceptions):

 And, finally, the base that I've spent rather more time on that normal:

It is coming together quite well for these two projects, and I should definitely be finished by the end of the weekend - something I very much look forward to!

An that will do it from me tonight.  Tomorrow's a gaming night, so I'll spend some time talking a little about color selection, and how much of a difference that it can make.