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So busy

July 11, 2014 3:28 am / Leave a Comment / ruined

Work is really keeping me hopping, to the point where I don’t usually feel like painting when I get home. But the Zombicide train keeps-a-rolling. I’ve got nine or ten pairs of minis to show, between the normal survivors and their zombie counterparts. I’ll split them out, so I have content ready while I keep at the real project. Up now are some of the Guest Artist Boxes that they recently released for Zombicide. These were from the Kickstarter, and they’re terrific.

First up, Uncle Honk. A disturbing figure, hopefully makes some of you twitch. =)

UncleHonk01

UncleHonk02

UncleHonk04

UncleHonk03

Then we have Bones, a road-worn metal god, by the look of it.

Bones01

Bones02

Bones03

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Finally we have Padre Johnson, a hellfire and brimstone priest. Both Padre and Bones were illustrated by Adrian Smith of Warhammer fame. Great figures, but man, they have so much detail. I could easily spend double the time on these minis.

Padre01

Padre02

Padre03

Padre04

Project Airbrush was almost finished, but I had problems with the hose I acquired. My regulator has a barb connector, which I haven’t used before, and the hose I got wasn’t large enough. I’m hoping to get a suitable replacement, as the regulator was expensive and I don’t want to replace that. More images soon!

Posted in: Miniatures / Tagged: Bones, miniature painting, Padre Johnson, Survivors, Uncle Honk, Zombicide

Commission Time

June 13, 2014 4:23 am / Leave a Comment / ruined

I have another batch of Zombicide minis to paint up. It’s a fun project, because most, if not all, of them are parodies of characters from various pop culture. The first package I started with this time was the Moustache Pack.

Don, the Civil Servant
Don01

Don02

Don03

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Frank the Repo Man

Frank01

Frank02

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Rob the Security Expert

Rob01

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Rob03

Rob04

I’ll say painting the Sean Connery one was my favorite.

My airbrush should be arriving in a day or two. Maybe I’ll be able to try it out over the weekend.

Posted in: Miniatures / Tagged: Commission, Don, Frank, Moustache, Rob, Survivors, Zombicide, Zombivors

Mecha-Zombies

June 2, 2014 5:17 am / Leave a Comment / ruined

Today marked the start of Painting Day from Games and Gears. I joined their group, as I pledged for their new brushes on Kickstarter. Every Sunday, they’re trying to get folks to paint and post pics. Since I enjoy doing that anyhow…

MechThralls01

MechThralls02

These are the aforementioned cyberzombies: the Mechanithralls, grunt units for my Cryxian army in Warmachine. They run up, start wailing with two power fists, and can be easily resurrected by the right units (coming soon). As they’re a bit disposable in game, I felt like painting them a bit rough.

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MechThralls06

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Also, the new commission begins! Zombicide round two! The figures look to be a lot of fun. I’m starting with the Moustache Pack.

Commission01

Posted in: Miniatures / Tagged: Mechanithralls, Warmachine, Zombicide, Zombies

The Ladies

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

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: Cryx, Minis, Satyxis Raiders, Warmachine

Leviathan Warjack

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

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: Cryx, Desecrator, Leviathan, Palette, Warmachine

Basing and Morvahna finished

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

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 / ruined

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

Play It Painted 2014

December 31, 2013 6:15 pm / Leave a Comment / ruined

Four days off work vs. four days of food poisoning/stomach flu. Yeah, I’d have rather been at the office. The malady has been so disruptive, I’ve found little time to paint. Most of it has been either watching television on the couch or sleep. Fun times.

black-divider

So, I’ve been Following a friendly competition on the site Muse on Minis called Play it Painted. Forum members post images of their unpainted Warmachine minis at the start of the month as a pledge. By end of month, they should have photos of said minis painted. Painted minis earn you points, and at the end of the year, those with the most could earn a prize. The prize doesn’t matter to me, but the group push to get your minis painted and keep at the hobby – that’s what interests me. I’m not sure if they’ll be doing it again in 2014 as the guy behind it was bowing out, but we’ll see.

This seems like a good point to post some “before pics” of minis I currently have. Here is the group shot for what I’m looking to paint in January.

Primed-group

The two in the front are the Bane Thrall Officer and Standard Bearer. I already have a unit of these guys, but these two make the unit more durable in battle. Some people have a tendency to shoot my guys and I can’t have that happening.

Primed-Banes

The top left is the Harrower helljack. It’s a cool model set where I can swap out the weapons and effectively have a different jack (Leviathan or Desecrator). This is the first model I’ve magnetized, and it’s worked out well so far.

Primed-Harrow

Finally we have the Deathjack. This is a lesson in “don’t put crazy models completely together before painting.” I’ve started painting a little on it, and reaching between all of the spikes and obscured areas is going to be a pain.

Primed-DJ

black-divider

One thing will interfere with this paint schedule – my first commissioned work! A friend liked my painted work and wants me to paint his Zombicide survivor figures for him. It should be a fun change of pace to tackle these. Much like with my web work – it’s an odd feeling when someone wants to pay me for my creative endeavors. I’ll see if I can post a pic or two of the Zombicide figures as I go.

Posted in: Miniatures

Minis Update (Blog Fail!)

December 23, 2013 5:40 pm / Leave a Comment / ruined

Time to dust the cobwebs off of this blog. No major RPG news to report at this time. We’ve been looking at FATE Core for our next foray, but that’s been dragging due to my travel schedule. If I get some traction there, I’ll do my best to post about it.

I have been painting miniatures again, which has been a lot of fun. I received the Reaper Bones set mid-year, and worked ona few here and there. The big push has been for Warmachine, as my friend Spencer pulled me back into the fold. It’s been low-investment this time around, since I acquired so many miniatures last time around. I’ve been painting up my Cryx forces and enjoying the games thus far.

black-divider

Deneghra, the default warcaster from the Cryx Battle Box. I’m happy with the bases I got from Secret Weapon Miniatures. (I really hate working on bases; I’d much rather be painting actual figures)

Deneghra - front Deneghra - back

Pistol Wraith, from Privateer Press. I had seen someone with a similar paint scheme, showing the wraith shifting to ghostly form, so I figured I’d imitate it. I’m very pleased with this one.

Pistol Wraith - front Pistol Wraith - back

Epic Sorscha, from the Warmachine Khador faction. I painted this up for a friend, using his chosen color scheme. This pic drives home the fact that I need a better camera setup. I don’t want to reveal all of the imperfections, but her face turned out great, and I hate that it’s blurred here.

eSorscha - front eSorscha - back

A fire giant from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. So many of these to paint, but they’re falling behind the Warmachine figures that I’m currently using.

firegiant1 firegiant2

Posted in: Miniatures

Managing Time

May 10, 2013 7:03 pm / Leave a Comment / ruined

Blog posts have been off for a week as I deal with some things and recharge my batteries. I have a Henchmen game tonight; looking forward to that. Not everything can be about gaming or art, so I thought I’d mention a few things that have gone on here. If you’re here for the DramaSystem posts, they should return next week, but feel free to stick around. =)

Managing my free time has become a real problem. I have the 9 to 5 of course, but I tend to fill up that remaining time very easily. It’s generally fun stuff so I shouldn’t complain, but it’s difficult when I try to take on new responsibilities. I play tabletop games twice a week with close friends. The games are fun, but they’re important ways to keep up with my friends. As we get older, all of us have jobs, many of us have married and some have kids. Without the ‘obligation’ of ongoing RPG campaigns, I worry that we’d ever make time to see each other.

I have my video games, of course. The chains of WoW are firmly around my neck, and I’ve enjoyed the newest expansion. I have a good team I’m raiding with twice a week, and I imagine I’ll keep up with that for a few more months at least. Other than that I have the beautiful game Bioshock Infinite. It runs smoothly on my new PC, meaning I can’t blame my lack of skill on slow frame rate or anything. I’m just not that good at shooters. The game hasn’t hooked it’s claws into me the way some have (like last year’s Skyrim addiction), but I should have it finished in a week or so.

This leaves precious time for pursuits like reading, painting miniatures (yeah, I know), blogging, or watching shows. I have a huge list of DVRed titles to tackle; the only one I’m current on is Game of Thrones. I may know the story for that, but I’ve been pushing those novels on to so many people since the late nineties, it’s my obligation to watch the shows. I really love them, seeing my favorite books come to life.

black-divider

The past week has been a sad one. A dear friend of ours, Greyson Wolf, passed away Monday. He slipped into a coma over the weekend and never recovered. I didn’t know him nearly as well as my wife or her crew of friends, but he was the type of guy you’d never forget. He had a huge personality, one to fit his giant 6’7″ frame. Wolf always had great stories of people he knew, things he’d done. One of his creative avenues was making fangs for people; if you’ve seen the Underworld movies or the first few seasons of True Blood, then you’ve seen his work. He will be missed.

Posted in: Main / Tagged: RPG, Shows

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