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Antares – Drones Finished!

Posted on May 3, 2016

Just a quick couple colours after yesterday. I did two layers of white, which were both mixed with more water than I had mixed with the Ulthuan earlier in these guys.

I tried to paint “gems” (lenses) for the first time…I’m going with ever. I didn’t do a very good job of them, but some ‘ardcoat fixed a bunch of problems. 😛

There are two big visual differences between these guys and the test squad.

First, the drones look cleaner to my eyes. The whites look cleaner, which can be attributed to having gone less dark in the initial wash. I think for the next squad of 5, I’ll definitely do a coat of Ulthuan, then wash the recesses only with blue, then Ulthuan to clean up, then some spot black in the recesses, then Ulthuan to clean up, then white (and as many whites as necessary). I think it’ll be easier (although it reads more difficult!) and cleaner.

Second, and this is super weird, but the bases are totally different. I used a Vallejo Surface Primer to prime the drone bases because I didn’t want to spray the flying stands, but used GW white primer (which is excellent, by the way) on the models and the squad. The drone bases almost look fluorescent! They’ve got this odd bright glow to them that isn’t there on the squad bases. I don’t think it’ll be noticeable unless you’re really picky (or you watched the process of trying to dull them…like I did) but it was weird to see the difference between the two “whites”.

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Antares – Strike Squad Final

Posted on April 27, 2016

This unit reminds me of why “we” don’t highlight up anymore. Hard chalky edges, and patchy solid colours.

I need some time to reflect, but I think I’m into it. There’s a couple problems preventing me from coming at this with a more painterly mindset.

(1) This is a “massed battle” game, where my first 1000 points will have about 30 models in it. So if each individual model looks less awesome, but the army looks great, that’s a win. This is how my Night Goblins got so much attention back in the day — bright purple lines make make come to you. In this case, starkly contrasting white/orange is my game plan.

(2) White. I’m not certain at all how to paint white, like white white, in a manner of “highlight up, wash down”, because wash down by necessity turns the white into a grey. I’m sure it’s something like “highlight up, wash down, then go back with white”, but I’m pretty certain that I would not get what I wanted out of that, which is big panels of all white. And besides, that’s almost what I did with these guys since they started at primer white.

I think for the next squad, my starting steps should be a lot lighter. I did these guys with a mix of Nuln Oil and Asurmen Blue, which started them out really dark, but after my highlighting I still needed to hit the recesses with a dark wash because I wasn’t as precise with the highlighting as was necessary. I think that if I just did the Asurmen Blue, then started the highlighting, then went back with the Nuln to increase recessed contrast, that my highlighting could end up a lot more smooth. As it was, I needed a mid-layer of Ulthuan+Asurmen between the base and the Ulthuan to prevent it from being super chalky.

I also ended up drybrushing Blazing Orange at the tips of the rocks. My game plan is white/orange contrast, so anything I can do to pop those rocks even more is a good plan!

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WAAAGH – MEK GUNS

Posted on April 5, 2016

Super happy with these! I wrote about the carriages and grots previously, so just the guns here.

I started with Vallejo Fluorescent Yellow inside the recesses where I wanted the energy coming from. My goal was to keep these areas yellow through the whole process. It mostly worked, except for the round balls on the right and the tips, which I had to go over a lot again at the end.

Mithril Silver pretty much all over, leaving the cables and that center red housing. Silver everywhere is boring, but after a sloppy application of SW Amethyst and GW Seraphim Sepia to make some colour and distressing, the silver is pretty awesome!

I had to go back with the Vallejo Yellow a fair amount. I did White in the recesses, then Yellow, then drybrushed the Yellow out of the recesses, then mixed the White with the Yellow to go in again. I don’t feel like I got that “pulsing glow” look, but it’s pretty bright looking. Not certain what else to do to get the glowing look, but I think it has to do with a smaller paintbrush and painting more gradients inside the coil area.

Everything else was pretty easy. SW Soft Body Black to get the really deep recesses. Mephiston Red in the center — I didn’t even do anything else here, just the slop-over from the Amethyst and Sepia made it look good. Blazing Orange+Sepia on the cables, Steel Legion Drab+Sepia+Ushapti Bone on the cable wraps.

Oh, and Blood for the Blood God on the sights. It’s an easy “glassy lens” look. 🙂

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WAAAGH – Mek Gun Carriages

Posted on March 27, 2016

I’m super happy with how these guys have turned out. The problem with vehicles tends to be how to deal with flat panels of paint — they’re either uninteresting, or messy if you aren’t careful with the washes.

I was not careful with the washes. Because ORKS WAAAGH!!

Mithril Silver and Alaitoc Blue base was pretty easy. I kind of wazzed Reikland Fleshshade all over the metal, more on the bottom than the top. Drakenhof Nightshade (blue shade) all over the blue sections. Then SW Soft Body Black into the recesses in places.

I then painted up a bit with the Alaitoc, and it mixed with White and added some Mithril Silver in.

They didn’t look great at this point, but weathering saves the day! I took some foam and stippled Mithril Silver and Tin Bitz in places. Then I dragged out the old SW weathering powders, which I still haven’t truly figured out how to use, and put some Dark Yellow into the dusty areas of the front and wheels and MIG pigment fixed it in. Then a little bit of Ushapti Bone dry brushed to help out, because I got bored. 😛

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WAAAGH – Mek Gun Grots

Posted on March 23, 2016

These guys were pretty great to paint. Quick and simple. I’m using Vallejo Goblin Green, because GW doesn’t have a colour that is identical to it’s old GG, but Vallejo does. Weird. Steel Legion Drab for the brown, Mithril Silver metal.

I decided to use GW Reikland Fleshshade and SW Flesh Wash here. The nice thing about greenskin flesh is that it’s a lot easier to not fuck up. Human skin is pale, and pale colours are hard. We look at human skin all day every day, so it’s easy to tell when it’s wrong. No gretchin at my office to tell me I painted this wrong!!

I noted when I started this project that I don’t actually have any Ork painting projects on this blog. Way back when I started it, I’d finished most of my existing Orks already, or I hadn’t figured out the format I wanted to use for it so I wasn’t blogging about it.

The bases are super simple — black it out, because I primed white, then Codex Grey, Fortress Grey and scorched grass from GW basing.

The carriages will be up next, and then (hopefully) the guns!

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Blood Bowl – Ogre

Posted on March 19, 2016

I think he’s done. I’m too tired to pull out the camera and take real photos. Maybe when I have a bigger place…

Lots going on here. I’m pretty happy with it on one hand, but on the other hand I’m less happy about how dirty it all is. The contrast is really nice, and from 2 feet it looks great, but there’s no smoothness to it.

Here’s some colours:

SW Flesh Wash is SO YELLOW. Put that in the crevasses of the skin and went back with a damp brush to spread it out. Took the midtone colour and painted up the highlights again a bit. A bit of the Vallejo Flesh Wash, Seraphim Sepia and SW Amethyst.

Used Vallejo Fluorescent Yellow the broach, with some Sepia. Got to use the Vallejo Goblin Green for the little knoblar!

I think I’ve got some common colours at this point. SW Amethyst, Heavy Body Black, Flesh Wash. Vallejo Skin Wash, Bloodletter glaze, Seraphim, Nuln Oil, Reikland Fleshshade, Mithril Silver. I’m planning less and pulling paint out of the drawer more. Maybe that’s why it’s dirty? Or maybe I’m just impatient?

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Santa’s Workshop

Posted on February 14, 2016

As part of the CHOP! Game Sales and Trade day on February 21st this month I’m cleaning and organizing some old hobby stuff.

I found this item, that really shouldn’t be taking up space in my house anymore. It’s an old diorama I made for one of the Park Royal Games Workshops contests. I love it, but it’s not useful and won’t ever be useful so I’m going to rip the grots off it and throw the rest away.

However, I need something to show of it, so here it is to fill my blog with 2 month old holiday cheer!

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Blood Bowl – CHOP CHOP! Apothecary

Posted on January 21, 2016

My team bought an apothecary last week and I impulse purchased this guy as my “war apothecary”. He’s an Avatars of War model. I’ve always wanted to buy one of their models, because they are great sculpts!

I basically painted this guy in a day, which I’m pretty happy about since I haven’t painted at all in a…a month. Probably a month. Before Christmas, for sure.

The base, which are the same colours for the entire team, is Mephiston Red, Mithril Silver and Alaitoc Blue, with Dheneb Stone and Ushapti Bone.

I used the SW Dark Sepia instead of my usual Seraphim, and didn’t like it by itself – it shines a bit. So I did some of that sparingly, with the Seraphim in places where I wanted it lighter. The Drakenhof Nightshade from GW is a great dark blue wash.

The sign was Vallejo Fluo. Yellow, obviously with black and some SW Dark Sepia to brown it up just a little bit.

I should pull out the other 5 models that need finishing from this team. >.>

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Hordes – Cyclops Brute

Posted on November 24, 2015

When I get into a new game, I need something visual to draw me to it. I consider myself a game player primarily, despite this blog, but I like cool looking things more than I like powerful things. (Malifaux is an excellent game, because everything is cool looking, and everything is powerful!)

When I first found Warmachine/Hordes many years ago, I looked though their catalog to find models that spoke to me. The Cyclops Brute in the Skorne faction was the model that did it for me, with the Immortals being the next ones. Then when the big stompy elephants were pretty cool looking (as opposed to all of the Warjacks of the game, which look bloody stupid!), I was sold!

This was the only model painted in the army for the longest time. When I got into it, I noticed that very few people had painted models, at all. (Todd, who is now an excellent commission painter, was an exception). I wanted to be different, so I painted this guy.

After I was unable to convince anyone to play it with me, he sat unused for a long while. He might have been the first time I used a GW wash and white primer! I remember his pants are white primer, with a red wash and then a black wash and that’s it and I thought they looked so cool! (I still kind of do, although I can see how simple they are :))

Still really love the look of the cyclopses in this game! Plus the fluff…they are all but brutal animals, but they can see into the near future and can predict what their opponent will do.

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Hordes – Titan Gladiator Final

Posted on November 20, 2015

After my last section, I did the red glaze on the skin, but I wasn’t super happy with it so I ended up going back in with really thin layers of the lighter and darker grey, as well as with the amethyst combination in the under areas.

I did the green glaze over all the gold and I really liked it, but went a little far. As well, with all of the other glazes the gold had lost it’s shine, so I went back along 30% of the edges with the Dwarf Bronze, and then 5% of the edges with Mithril Silver to give some variation. This gold is most of the model, so it was important to change it up a little.

The back banner was fun and a little frustrating. I used a couple layers of the Bloodletter glaze which was still super orange. I did a layer of the SW Red Black, and decided to get some more red in it and did some really light layers of Mephiston Red which made it a lot redder. Then I took the Amethyst mix and weathered the banner a bunch. I got impatient in a few spots, and the glaze had dried along the edges and was still wet in the middle and it left a big ring. So I had to go back with the Mephiston and start again.

Lastly I took a number of really light layers of Vallejo Amarillo Lunar Moon Yellow and lightly painted in the yellow star, to help keep the banner visible even under the layers.

Here’s the metal one!

And here’s the new plastic one! Much easier to paint because it’s so light!

And here they are together!

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