Monthly Archives: May 2014

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The Ladies

May 23, 2014 3:31 pm / Leave a Comment /

And my unit of Satyxis Raiders is complete. I’m very pleased with the ladies.

Satyrs01

Satyrs02

I had always heard that painting up units was a soul-crushing experience, and at first it felt like that. I believe it was more an issue of I didn’t have a good color-scheme in mind. When you’re not sure how you’re going to paint them, and there are six in front of you instead of just one, it’s daunting.

This is the group leader. While I enjoyed the addition of her hood, and especially her more extensive horns, her chain bugged me. It attaches on at the front, and I’m still concerned on how the glue will hold up. It was too thin to drill, so we’ll see how it manages over time.

Satyrs03

Satyrs04

One more. I enjoyed playing with the gradient colors on the horns.

Satyrs07

Satyrs08

This was my favorite sculpt out of the group. Her pose reminds me of a friend who dances.

Satyrs05

Satyrs06

The snow bases were designed by Micro Art Studio.

Posted in: Miniatures / Tagged: , , ,

Leviathan Warjack

May 19, 2014 5:22 am / Leave a Comment /

Progress! I’m still happy with how things are going on the painting front. I’ve been pretty focused with the work over the past few weeks – a good sign for those hobbies that sometimes disappear on me. I’m sure those extra miniatures I’ve bought lately have nothing to do with it. =)

Tried a new thing after watching one of the pros. A palette pad. I ordered it from Blick’s, and it’s been sitting there lonely for the past month. Finally decided to give it a shot.

Palette

While I haven’t fully accepted it for mixing of my paint (you can see my normal mixer on the left), it was nice to test out some color transitions. I’m starting to grasp the whole warm / cool colors deal. Might explain how I can have ten different versions of brown on my stand.

Finished work for the moment is the Cryx Crab Jack kit. It’s a plastic warjack kit that lets you build one of three different jacks, the Harrower, the Desecrator, and the Leviathan. I was leery at first, but magnetizing the arms worked out well. (No basing yet, but it’s on the list.)

Crab01

Crab02

Crab03

Crab04

Two sets of Cryxian units are nearly complete. Hopefully that will be my post for next weekend.

Posted in: Miniatures / Tagged: , , , ,

Basing and Morvahna finished

May 6, 2014 6:07 am / Leave a Comment /

I forced myself to push forward and make a suitable base for my painted Morvahna. Truth be told, I hate basing. And it’s probably because I don’t consider myself good at it. Gluing kitty litter to bases, painting cork, none of it ever seemed to work right for me. And so I don’t enjoy doing it. I feel if done poorly, it takes away from my painting. Still, sometimes I can achieve good results.

Morvahna04
Morvahna03

I followed the steps laid out by James Wappel, who is excellent with his bases, painting, you name it. He’s done tons of these bases, and so I tried to mimic him. The first results were… disconcerting. (The clay I used was white originally)

BaseZero

275 degrees for fifteen minutes. Check. 4 minutes in a toaster over, and the smoke started. Took a few days to get my morale back. =) Once I got a suitable piece of baked sculpey clay, I glued it to some cork on a base.

Base01

Then I primed and painted it up. I need more work on marble patterns, but fortunately Wappel has notes on that as well.

Base02

Overall, I’m pleased with how she turned out. I do hate the digital camera for pointing out all my inconsistencies and flaws, but I knew it would do that. I can see why many photos are smaller on sites – if you blow up the image larger than the actual miniature, you’re bound to see flaws and artifacts introduced by the camera.

Onward!

Posted in: Uncategorized

Updates and Plans

May 1, 2014 7:05 pm / Leave a Comment /

Work has taken a turn where it’s much busier, so I haven’t had as much to update for the web. There have been cool things occurring with painting miniatures. First off, I completed a large commission project for a friend. He had a lot of Zombicide figures for me to paint. Not the normal zombies, but instead the survivors and their zombie-version counterparts. (The game uses the term ‘zombivor’, which I detest). My buddy was in on the Kickstarter, so he acquired a large number of promo minis that you can’t normally buy.

Group02

I took photos of them all, but sadly this was before I learned how to best use my camera for macro shots. Thanks again to another friend, Gardner, who showed me the way. Here is a closeup of one of the paired minis that I enjoyed the most. It’s blurry, but there are good amounts of freehand for the tattoos.

Nathan01

Nathan02a
Nathan02b

Nathan03

I have learned to take better photos now, and I’d like to think my paints keep improving. This is an older paint job, Seamus from the Malifaux line. We took the photos recently as practice. I really like the look of the figure. They’ve recently released new sculpts of him for the 2nd edition of Malifaux, as well as a larger hulked-out version. I think I’ll get one of them to see if I can match the colors.

Seamus01

Seamus02

My most recent work has been for the Circle of Oroboros for Hordes. I acquired a good amount of them with the Hordes starter set. One of the others was Morvahna, the Autumn Blade. Her normal paint scheme was the typical greens and golds of Circle, but I wanted to use the seasonal colors of her namesake.

Morvahna01

Morvahna02

Plenty more to come. Some units of werewolves and cyberzombies. Plus, some finished pics of the primed minis from my previous post. Also, I’m going to work on a new design to showcase my miniatures AND my web design talents.

Posted in: Miniatures