Fun Times at Windy Con

Even though I'm entering into the new weekend I'm finally posting about my experiences at Windy Con from the previous weekend.

Windy Con is a small Sci Fi con held at the Westin in Lombard, which coincidently is the same place I've gone to for Adepticon (though Adepticon is going to be held at a new location this year).  Overall it's a small con, but nice.  While my big attraction to the con was seeing friends up north, I happened upon some really neat costumes.  First up is a member of the 501st on his way to judge a costume contest:



Unfortunately I either didn't get his name, or forgot to write it down, but he had important business to do.  I've been following the 501st on Facebook and admire the group.  They have a very positive message for people who want to costume, and are very anti-bullying among other noble qualities.  Getting to meet one was pretty awesome!

As if meeting one of the 501st wasn't awesome enough, I saw an incredible fallen Chamberlain costume from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal:




Seeing a costume like this is always a wonderful treat, and there was a lot of hard work and TLC that went into this.  I was so taken aback that I didn't think to get a picture *WITH* the Chamberlain.  I'll not be so surprised next time!

Last but not least is a bit of swag that I came across:



I was surprised to come across these two gems.  I have been hunting for Nyan Nyan and Captain R for a while, but they have been in short supply with no relief in sight.  The dealer's room at Windy was a bit lacking for my tastes since it's more of a sci-fi/local con rather than a gaming con, but coming across those two minis was a pretty nice find!

My painting has been lagging behind a bit, but now that the ZOE-miniatures are done (and on display this weekend!) I'm back to focusing on commissions with a few pieces of my own mixed in for flavor.  Currently up on deck is a Snow Storm model I'm doing for a friend.  The first piece, Snow, is done and below.  You might notice the start of a holiday theme, but it will become more apparent once I've finished Storm:




Now that I'm not traveling as much I hope to get some more painting time in on the weekend.  Once Snow Storm is finished I'll be painting up an NPC referred to as Alta which uses an Elf from Reaper's Warlord line.

The Shadow!

So the final piece of the puzzle is now in place.  The heroes have a villain to face off against:




Being as he's called, "The Shadow," I decided to go with a black on black motif.  There are a few ways to approach painting black that I've discussed before.  My preferred method is to lighten up black to a grey, but the alternative way is to use blue.  In this case you can see that I used turquoise.  I am exceedingly pleased with how the final result came out.  I was worried that I'd struggle with getting the right shade of blue, but using a turquoise worked a lot better than if I had used a straight blue.  Now to look at the cloak, starting with the inspiration pic:



The big question I had to ask myself is: What color is his cloak?  When I look at the above pic I keep alternating between grey and a very light/silky beige.  In the end I decided to combine the two and go with a beige base and highlight up to a grey:





The end result is pretty much what I was hoping to get, and I feel that it is a good representation.



If you haven't guessed by now it should be pretty easy to tell that I am a fan of Zombie Orpheus Entertainment.  I've had the pleasure and honor to meet the crew and cast on multiple occaisions at Gen Con, and when I asked if they would like to display them at ZOE-Con I was given a very enthusiastic response.  So stop on by ZOE-Con if you're in the area and check out these lovely pieces in person!

The Heroes Gather

If you've read the title then I'm going to assume you're here for the heroes.  Let's start with the finished (and alive) Flynn the Fine:




Out of all the miniatures from the Zombie Orpheus Entertainment group that I've done; this one is the most detailed.  I feel that he turned out very nice, and there are only a couple of differences from the movie costume.  On the right shoulder there is more of a guard rather than a ruffle (like on the left), and there seems to be an extra arm guard on that arm as well for some reason.  The other noticeable difference is that the face is clean shaven.  It's like the sculptor mixed up the two heads for Sir Osric and Flynn.

With the completion of the original party there was only one thing that needed to be done:  A group shot.



Seeing everything come together is one of the most satisfying parts of painting.  Each piece fits in its place, and then the whole group together seems to take on new life.  The only thing that's missing from this picture is a good villain.  Oh wait:



Guess what's up to be painted next?