Thursday, March 17, 2016

Monday, February 15, 2016

Confrontation Celts, part deux...

This experiment with the value sketches continues.
You saw the darks added. Now I've added the lights. We are ready for more color.







Friday, February 12, 2016

Confrontation... remember those awesome minis from Rackham?

My latest major project is painting about two dozen Celts from the Confrontation line.
I've always loved the entire range of models from Rackham, so I said "Yes way!!" when I
was asked to paint them.

This post is about laying the groundwork. Not the bases. They came to me assembled, based and primed, which is a little weird for me, but whatevs.
Anyways, laying the groundwork for painting. Finding the lights and darks before applying all those colors. I will steal Matt DiPietro's word for it, and call it a value sketch.
I did add a bit of color to mine. A little pinkish tone, as they're supposed to be ruddy-skinned Northern-Europeans, and a bluish hue to my darks.











Monday, December 14, 2015

The Saxon Invasion and the End of Camelot as we know it...

Further Adventures In Camelot...

The Shadows Over Camelot project has come to an end with the Saxons being finished.
As many of you know, I was unable to paint in the last two years, and this project has been
my return journey back into miniature painting.
I had many opportunities to experiment with techniques I used to use all the time.
Because the quality of the miniatures was poor, I didn't have to worry
about the possibility of screwing things up as I painted. I know that's a worry
of many miniature painters, and prevents some hobbyists from even painting at all.









Read the words!
There is information in 
the written word.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Anima Tactics had some really amazing miniatures...

The Golden Age of Anima Tactics:

Back when Anima Tactics had recently come out, I was commissioned to do several figures for someone in Spain.
I've found out that the game is discontinued, and that there are places selling the miniatures for dirt cheap. Great news for me because I loved those miniatures. Easy to clean the mold lines and assemble. Great details.

Here are the ones I painted. They were to look like the box art.

Below: Fallen Angel Dinah

Below: Janus Faith
(sky-earth non-metallic metals)


Below: Kujaku Hime
(sword arm attached with blue tack)

Below: I shipped this one with the sword arm separate from the body because it had to make 
it to Spain without the sword being bent or broken. This is my 
diagram for the customer.

Below: Romeo Exxet

Below: Sophia Ilmora

Below: Yuri Olson


Saturday, December 5, 2015

Ogre Kingdoms, back when there was a place called Middenheim...

My only Warhammer Fantasy army-

I miss the Old World, and the great, huge, ravenous 
Ogres were the best part of it.

This post features my highly converted Ogre Butcher.
I had an idea for a Games Day project, but
as I saw the sort of thing other people were bringing
to the table, I decided it would be for my own
army instead. A wise decision, as my sculpting skills
still left a lot to be desired.

Below: Here is a multi-view of my work in progress.  Lots of Green Stuff, some Brown Stuff, and plasticard. I was new to the game, and didn't know anything about Ironguts, or this whole thing would have been much easier. I wouldn't have had to remodel the arms to be holding a weapon overhead, for instance; Ironguts come that way. *sigh*
My friend, Steve Gurke gave me some helpful ideas as I was sculpting all the extra fat.




Below: Here he is all painted and pretty.



Thursday, December 3, 2015

The Picts. Do They Even Plaid?

Shadows Over Camelot
The Four Picts

Not much of an invasion force.

Below: Here they are, first with just the primer, and then with a 
brown wash to show the details, what few there are
with this quality material.

Notice the faces. They look very expressive if
you're never planning to paint them. 
When you start painting the details though, 
you  realize how odd the details are.

Below: I tried something new. Usually I'm painting NMM, but I've been 
using metallic paints for most of this project.
In this case, I wanted to paint bronze metal. I mixed
green paint into my metallic bronze paint.

Below: These are the colors I'm using for my flesh tone.

I hadn't painted skin in a long time, so remembering how I need to
approach it took some experimentation.
Here we have one and most of one done. Two others have a base coat applied.


Below: Plaid britches. What do you want? They're Picts, not Scottish Highlanders.

Below: I used the same green process on their kilts as I used on Merlin's cape. 
Then I used some purple wash in a few areas to deepen the shading.
And I'm sure you noticed that the bronze is done. I used the same gold process on them 
as I did on Merlin's gold staff tip, except I added some Liquitex Silver Ink to 
the mix for a bit of sparkle.

Below: Here they are, all finished. Front view and then back view.
Interesting to note how the faces look so different when each
figure was the same.



Coming Soon...
The Saxon Invasion!

More thrilling adventures in Camelot!