A Blue Façade

Hello again, folks.  Time to tune in once more and see what I've gotten done today - which really is not a whole lot.  But I have started on this months competition piece, and I'm ready to share!

I'll start off with a bit of a discussion on priming wood.  Unlike pewter or hard plastic, Wood (such as the balsa wood that I used on this figure) and other porous materials (like plaster and related products) tend to become rather...  Shall we say, malodorous when primed using a spray primer.  Because of this, you need to use something to create a non-porous barrier between the wood/plaster/what have you and the spray primer.  I, personally, like to use craft paint for this purpose - it coats well, it's thin, so it doesn't obscure details, and its biggest flaws - it's low color- and light-fastness - aren't a factor as you're not seeing it anyways.

So, that said, here's the pics of the piece primed up and ready to go:

Here's the front.  Nothing really special to see here, so moving along...

And here's the back.  With a layer of primer over everything, you really can't tell which parts are original plastic, and which are the balsa-wood add-ons that I put on.

And, finally, we have the first half of the base layer of stonework.  For a project like this, I take a variety of Artists Paints - expensive, but they have excellent color- and light-fastness levels, which makes them the next best thing to actual hobby paints - but they are thick!  So be ready to water them down quite a bit to be usable.  In this case, I took a mid gray with a dark blue-gray to get this color, which I will then go over with the gray, and finish off with a gray/white mix to give the final results.  It's going to take a while to get everything done, but it'll be well worth it in the end!

That's all I have for now, folks.  Tune in Tuesday to see the rest of this first level, and perhaps get started on the drybrushing.  Until then, folks - paint on!

She's certainly looking sharp - and there's something super on the horizon!

Greetings all!  It's certainly been a bit, but I'm finally back and raring to go!  We'll start off by finishing off what I started before I left - the lovely dwarven lass, Ursula Silverbeard:

I would certainly say that she came out looking quite nice.  Definitely ready for the flocking and to get sealed up with the next batch that I do.  And, speaking of which...  I've been hinting at it for a bit, but here's the next big project that I'm going to be working on.  It's from the new game from a company that I've grown to rather enjoy over the years - and since I won't know what I need to be painting up until Friday for this month's painting contest, I'm going to get an early start on it:

That's right, folks - I'm going to work on painting up all the figures from the Sentinels: Tactics board game over the next...  Well, however many weeks it's going to take to paint them all up.  The Proletariat is probably going to be the most annoying for me, painting up the same color scheme, pose, and all that six times running - though I'm probably going to stagger him out over the course of the rest of the figures.

Well, that's all I've got for today, folks.  I'll have more to post up tomorrow, so tune in to see how this super project starts rolling.  And until then, folks - paint on!

In the depths, he slumpers...

Greetings once more, readers mine.  Not much done today (I do seem to be saying that a lot...), but I have the next batch of figures primed up and ready to go:

And here you see the next big project that I'm going to take on - the elder god Cthulhu (or, at least, a smaller version of him - yes, smaller!).  The commission for Devona/Avery comes first, but soon...  Soon the dread god will rise from his watery lair and lay claim to the gaming table!

Cthulhu Ftagn.

Ahem.

That's all for today, folks.  Tune in tomorrow for the first (and perhaps all) paint applied to Avery/Lady Devona.  Until then - paint on!

A bit of Primer, a touch of Layer

Greetings once more, folks.  Time once again to see what I've been up to today.  I don't have a lot to show off in this update - the last progress on the Dragon for a bit, and the first progress on the next Competition piece.

Let's start of with the dragon:

Not near as much progress as I would have liked - but painting scales properly takes up a good chunk of time - but I'm not going to worry about that for now.  For I have a new batch of figures primed:

Including the next competition piece - the Skaven Doomwheel I showed you all yesterday:

If you're wondering why I've painted the crystal bits white, they're going to be small light sources on the vehicle, and I'm going to use a glaze to give them a greenish glow - and to tinge the area around them the same color.  If I pull it off, it should look pretty sweet.  If not...  Well, I've had worse results...

Until next time, folks - 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 - 05/04/2014: A New Hope

Good evening my readers.  Time once again to show off what I have accomplished today.  With no project on my immediate plate, I have gotten started on a number of them - and don't worry, Nethyrmaul is coming.  But first things first, I have a deadline to complete my next competition piece, so most of what I've done today has centered around that  - buy why waste time priming up just one figure, when an couple dozen don't take any longer:

After an early afternoon break for some Attack Wing - including getting an opponent into a rather awkward spot:

I returned and washed most of the figures that I had primed (no pics of them today - I'm not going to bombard you with pictures where you can hardly tell what you are looking at).  I did get some work done on the figure:

And have also started working on the base for another figure (slung low to the ground, so it would be difficult to do everything with it glued on):

I'm going to paint the flat areas with the Citadel Agareth Earth technical paint (which, when slopped on gives a very nice cracked earth effect) and scatter the grass around where the wheels on the figure that will sit upon it will not be.  This should give a nice variety of colors and textures to the base, and make the piece come even more alive.

Finally, as promised, I'm going to talk to you about painting techniques.  We'll start with the first one that I learned, and one that is a mainstay of my painting technique, even today (as you could see from my Mousling yesterday):  Drybrushing.

Drybrushing is a very handy technique to know and to start out with, as it, quite literally, lets the miniature paint itself.  You'll need three similar colors that become lighter (another staple of my painting techniques), a largish miniatures brush that you don't mind wearing out, and a paper towel to wipe off the excess paint.

The technique is rather straightforward - you'll start with a base coat using the darkest color, making certain to fill in the area you're working in.  Once you have that area filled in evenly, you'll dip your brush in the second paint color, the wipe the brush quickly on the paper towel 5 or 6 times, followed by lightly swiping the tip of the brush over the area you're drybrushing several dozen times.  The third layer will use a similar process, but you'll use about a dozen swipes across the paper towel to start, though you'll still brush along the painting area several dozen times.

The more times that you swipe the brush across the surface, the better the effect will look, and the more smoothly the colors will blend together.  This technique is particularly useful for Fur, Ground, Wrinkled Cloth, or other low-surface area and high-detail areas.  This technique is particularly bad for large, flat areas that don't have much detail to them (as they will still look large and flat, and horribly painted).

That will wrap up the update today.  I won't have much time to work on figures tomorrow, so I'll give you all a discussion on the strengths and weaknesses of the different primer colors, when you'll want to use each, and the technique that I personally use for priming my figures (it's a tad bit complicated and much more expensive, but you've all seen the results it gets!).

Until then, paint on!

Project Updates - 04/23/2014

Hey there, readers.  While I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked, I have made more progress on the WWX Geronimo figure, and have the promised picture of the primed Tau figures - though there was some damage leading up to the picture...  Well, nothing that a little creative painting and/or superglue won't fix.  But you're all here for the pictures, right?

Let's start with the promised picture of the Tau:

And a nice closeup of that riptide sitting in the back, so you can see the little stream I emptied out and the gradient effect that this priming technique gives me:

And a little peak at what I want to work on once Geronimo is finished up (soon, so very soon!) - the Fire Eagle from Wild West Exodus:

 An, last but certainly not least, the latest pics of Geronimo.  He's coming along quite nicely, and is looking suitably intimidating!  I still need to finish up the bone sections, the nose, and the base, but then he's done and ready to terrorize the board like only a giant werebear can!

There probably won't be an update tomorrow, and there may not be one Friday, but I'll probably more than make up for it over the weekend.
Game on!