Wild!

Trying to get back on the horse after being off it for a couple of weeks can be difficult, but still rewarding.  Today I sat down to paint up some of my Gamers miniatures I got from the Hands Of Fate Kickstarter.  Specifically the male and female Luster pieces:



One thing I've noticed about all the Gamers miniatures is that the sculpts are on the simple side.  This isn't a bad thing in my own opinion.  So many miniatures nowadays have an incredible amount of detail that they are both stunning and intimidating.  Finding miniatures that have a simple but straightforward sculpt is very refreshing, and makes for fun painting.



There was pretty much three stages to this pair.  Flesh, hair/eyes, and the red.  Painting flesh can be interesting in regards to shading and highlights.  Usually the more sculpted the flesh the easier it is to paint, which is the case with this pair.  I'm happy with how the flesh came out on these pair, and feel it works pretty well.



Painting anything close to platinum blonde can be quite annoying.  I want to reach for my yellows, but platinum blonde is closer to white, and thus requires really bright shades of white.  I ended up settling for something a bit closer, going for more of an idealized blonde.  The other rough part was painting up the eyes.  Eyes on miniatures is always difficult as they're small, and I had to take several shots at these sets.  I think they turned out ok though, but not my best work.



Finally was the red (and their gold sash).  I usually lay down dark layers and go up from there, but the first layer I put down was more of a mid layer, and the highlight was too close.  The solution was to go back with the darker layer and again layer up.  It ended up working out, and I smoothed things over with a red wash at the end.  All in all this pair was pretty simple to paint up, and was both relaxing and casual to paint up.

Gen Con 2014 Retrospective: Sunday

So it goes without saying at this point that I need to do these updates in a more timely manner.  Work and personal life have been surprisingly busy, and I think I'm just now starting to recover.  Onto Sunday then.

The last day of the con is always the most tiring.  Everyone is burnt out, and everyone is preparing for their trip home.  I normally don't have much to do on Sunday, but this year I was able to get in on the first official Relic Knights tournament.  I had managed to get the last few pieces painted up the night before I was to come out to Gen Con, so here they are starting with Sebastian:




Sebastian wasn't actually that difficult, but he took a while due to his massive size and surface area.  His Relic stands astride an 80mm base, and for reference I haven't put a model on a base larger than 50mm.  I admit that he is a lot of fun to look at, but wherever Sebastian goes he is accompanied by his Cypher, Rook:




This little guy wasn't that hard to paint up actually.  Very straightforward and enjoyable, although I still felt the tension being so close to Gen Con when I painted him.  Up next is Navarre Hauer:




This is a model that turned out ok, but I'm not as happy with the sculpt.  It looks like there's lots of activity, but he just didn't appeal to me.  He was still a good model on the table.  The final miniature I painted up is Cordellia Clean, sort of:




Not bad looking right?  What isn't done you ask?  Well, when I originally assembled this model I left off the backpack with the intent of painting it separate before gluing it on...and I kinda forgot to do that.  Otherwise she looks pretty good to me.  I tried out a pink skin tone, and that required mixing up a pink wash.  While the result isn't bad, I think I need to try for some darker shardows in the recessed area.  I've also been getting a lot of comments on how much I've improved in a short time, and this makes me feel pretty good.  My goal currently is to improve my highlights and lighting technique.

Ok, so how'd the tournament go?  We started off with eight people, but people left after the first two (of three).  We had a three-way tie for first place, and the point spread landed me in third.  My painted miniatures won me a battlemat for Relic Knights, which was cool but I already had one.  The guys at SPM were cool enough to let me trade it in, and I used the credit towards my own copy of Super Dungeon Explore!  Expect a bunch of Super Dungeon Explore models in upcoming blog posts while I wait for Robotech miniatures to arrive for both myself and my friend (who is commissioning me to paint them).

Another successful Gen Con completed.  Much fun was had, reunited with many friends, and played many games.  Gen Con 2015 will you be as good?

Obligatory swag pic: