Relic Knights Unboxing

IT'S HERE!  IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!



After waiting nearly two years I've finally received my Relic Knights miniatures.  I ordered a whole bunch of minis, and spent hours last night going through and inventorying them to make sure I got everything.  Aside from missing inserts, and some pieces that are missing that has become a known factory issue everything is there!

I'm taking pic requests over the weekend for the SPM forums while I begin cleaning and assembling some of these pieces for Gen Con, which I'm sharing here. 




With luck I'll have some paint on before the day is out.

After looking over things there I'm pretty satisfied with the minis.  There is a lot of variance in both detail and scale though.  Some minis are smaller physically and in scale, which is going to make it difficult to assemble and paint.  Thankfully there are more good miniatures with some pretty sweet detail.  Overall, at a glance, there is softness to the miniatures, and it's a mixed bag what you'll get.




Now I'm getting back to cleaning and assembling.  I'm still deciding what I want to do for a color scheme for my Shattered Swords, and I'm leaning towards white.

Gamers Kickstarter Miniatures

After a long wait I finally got my swag from the Gamers 3 Kickstarter, the most anticipated of which was the miniatures of the fantasy counter-parts from Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising.  The only non-Gamers 2 miniature I got was The Shadow, whom the group is shown dueling with at various points in Gamers 3:



Pretty standard looking bad guy, and not too shabby.  Let's explore the rest of the party then.  Both the male and female versions of Luster were included, and they look pretty accurate compared to their real-life inspirations.



Up next we have Flynn The Fine and Brother Silence.



Flynn the Fine is looking a lot better than his prior version, but Brother Silence looks a bit off.  His face is contorted in what I'm assuming is a martial arts yell, but it looks a bit ape-like.  I think it'll paint up nicely though, and hopefully convey what I think it's trying to.

Last up are Sir Osric and Joanna, both are the only multi-piece figures in the set.  Joanna is looking pretty close to the movie costume, but I get the feeling she'll be a little tricky to paint up.  Sir Osric is in two pieces, and is the most disappointing of the group.  He's got the sword, but is missing the cape and shield.  Both of those are with him throughout the movie, so I don't know why they got overlooked.  I'll have to sit down and try out a bit of grey stuff and see if I can't mold my own.



All in all I'd say the miniatures were a worthwhile buy.  $20 for six miniatures in metal is a pretty low price at a time when companies are switching to plastics due to the high cost of metal.  The sculpting is good and will paint up nicely.  One downside across the minis is a bit of a fuzzy/unrefined look that seems to be from the casting/mold process.  This could go away after they've been cleaned up and painted, or it may not.  I'll just have to paint them up and see.

Friendly Work

With confirmation that Relic Knights is at the warehouse and getting sorted before shipping I'm feeling glad that I got my last minute commissions finished up.  First we'll start off the piece featured previously, but now completed:






This miniature is just like my Mei Fang crew, where the eyes are super tiny (barely more than slits).  The friend I painted this for requested eyes, and so I painted some lovely eyes on her (she's watching you).  I added a bit of OSL from the fire coming from her staff which turned out a little more subtle than what I was wanting, but that's ok because I'd prefer it to be more subtle than to have it be overbearing.

Up next is another go at my sweetheart, Kaeris.  This one is for the same friend who gave the awesome suggestion for a sakura tree on the kimono of Kirai, and the idea for this Kaeris was just as good.




Shining wings, firey red hair, and a union jack on the back of her trenchcoat.  I could easily see Kaeris in this outfit, and that made it so easy to paint!  Let's take a look at how I got here:



Skin, hair, pants & shirt.  Also the wings.  My previous entry I used her to test the chrome silver, and here I've gone ahead with a black ink to help get the recesses.



When I was originally asking for how she was to be painted I was told, "white or silver."  I decided to take things to the next level.  After the wash I added a layer of bright silver to give definition, and then highlighted it with Reaper Master Series pearl white.  RMS' Pearl White is a white metallic reminiscent of their silks and satins line, and it blended beautifully with the metallic wings.

Up next is the start of the Union Jack.



So I tried to get close to a navy color without being too dark.  The color I used for this one turned out a little shinier than I wanted.  After some decision making I decided to give it a wash of GW's Drakenhof Nightshade to dull it up a bit while following up with some highlights.



Much better!  Looking at the pic though you can definitely tell that it's a bit rougher.  I went with another wash to smooth it out, and then I hand-painted the colors for the Union Jack, and was ready to call it a day.  Overall I'm pleased with how she turned out.  Kaeris is truly a miniature that looks good no matter how you paint her up.

An Adventure in Airbrushing

The long awaited moment finally arrived last Friday.  My airbrush paints were finally in hand, and it was good:



So why did it take so long?  That's a story in its own right.  As I regale you with what's been going on behind the scenes I'll be showing off what my airbrush paints can do:



Previously I mentioned that the first place I went to ended up dragging their heels, and was awaiting word from a second place.  My order with Atomic Games (which I do not recommend) was constantly in a, "Waiting," status.  I called them for a status update, and all I got was, "We have until 'X' date to get your order shipped," and when I inquired when on that day they clarified that they had till the end of day.  Well, the awaited day came and went with no change to my shipping status.  I promptly called and cancelled my order with them.




So at this point I'm getting a bit frustrated, and I decide to give it one last go.  My line of reasoning so far is that the orders haven't gotten filled due to stocking issues, and with that in mind I hit up ebay with the reasoning that the auctions listed means items in stock.  I ordered a small number of paints from Macabre Games, which arrived rather promptly (unfortunately these were secondary colors I wanted to round out my collection). 



The other order was with Noble Knight Games.  At first things were going normally, but then NKG stepped up the communicaiton and got me a tracking number right away.  I watched with great interest, but no change came in the tracking number.  After about a week with the tracking number not tracking and nothing in hand I sent them an email. 



I got a very prompt response stating according to the tracking number the package had been delivered via Fedex not long after I had ordered.  Turns out there was a glitch in their system that sent out tracking notices with USPS as the carrier and not Fedex.  After double checking their numbers I saw that indeed the package had been delivered.  This would be the first package I have ever had swiped from my doorstep. 



In steps Rick from Noble Knight Games asking me to check with my neighbors first, and if that fails then they'll replace my order.  After confirming that no one had gotten my package by accident, I worked with Rick to get my order replaced.  I had him send the paints to an alternate address, and after some small delays (they had to wait for paints to get restocked) the paints arrived at their location.



The communication from Noble Knight Games was spectacular, and their customer service is above and beyond what I've gotten from other companies so far.  I plan to make use of them for my future airbrush paint needs.

There is just so much that I love about my airbrush.  Even with a conversion kit I'm going to be a little limited with what I can do, but even for doing basecoats and scenery it is quite impressive.  Over the coming months I plan to experiment with it, and my first batch of test subject will be my Relic Knights pieces (assuming they show up before Gen Con).



So far I have been satisfied with all the colors.  Some are thinner than others and will require a white undercoat to use, like the yellow and chrome silver.



There's a red basecoat underneath, and you can easily see it peaking through.  But the chrome works ok on a regular/grey basecoat:



It's been a long time coming, but I'm glad my paints are finally here.  A special thanks again to Rick and Noble Knight Games!

Consistency Matters

The anticipation for my paints keeps growing, and I'll have a nice little story to tell in about a week or so when I finally (hopefully) get my airbrush paints.  I've gotten a couple, and after trying them out I can say definitively that consistency matters.  A lot.  I've got a few things I need to take pics of that show some demonstration, but for now we'll start with this:



What you're looking at is Vanessa from the Malifaux line.  I had a bit of luck using light drybrushing to get a weathered/layered effect with the two colors of Minitaire that I do have, and figured I would try it with thinned out vallejo paint.  Turns out it didn't work.  I mixed Sepia ink with leather, and was hoping for a good mix.  The above is the result, which is to say that it ended up being another basecoat.  Here's Vanessa restored to her original (intended) basecoat.



I originally got this coat by testing out the sepia ink in my airbrush, so it was simple to get it back.  The problem I'm encountering with thinning my own paints varies from consistency to amount used.  The Minitaire specific paints I could use a few drops and get the same coverage as if I thinned out my vallejo paint and filled half the well.  In short: I want my airbrush paints!

Waiting For Paints

Having an airbrush is pretty awesome.  I can do basecoats in a fraction of the time it would normally take, which leaves more time for details.  The hard part I'm coming across, however, is getting airbrush specific paints.  While I can thin down my own paints I can see the potential for inconsistency, which doesn't make me happy.  Airbrush specific paints use a finer pigment, and are really really thin.  I could use them as a wash on my miniatures without the airbrush, to give you an idea of how thin they are. 

So why is it difficult to get my hands on airbrush paints?  Paint comes in different mediums, like acryllic or enamel, and there are multiple styles of paint for airbrushes.  These styles include paints for body paint, car paint, clothes, tans, and models.  There aren't too many lines out there, and the two I've heard of so far are Minitaire and Vallejo Air.  I mentioned both of these in my previous post, and that getting ahold of Minitaire paints has been rather difficult.  I have gotten my hands on some minitaire paints, and I'm trying to find an order for the bulk of paints I wanted to try.  It was delivered to my doorstep, but either disappeared or wasn't actually delivered.

The results from my last airbrush session can be found on my friend's site.  I've been a bit busy trying to read up on coding, exercising, and work.  I've actually taken a video that I need to upload to my PC and check out and see if I can upload it to the blog.  With any luck I'll find a free moment this weekend to take care of this.

Airbrushing: 1st Taste

So I've finally gotten most everything gathered to do airbrushing.  Compressor?  Check.  Airbrush?  Check.  Face protection?  Check.  Paints?  Che-wait, no.  Out of everything I have I'm still missing the most crucial piece.  Thankfully you can still water down your own paints and they work pretty well...mostly:





My first attempt was to lay down a solid coat of a medium-dark grey on a piece of scenery that has been lying around for...a while.  I must not have had enough paint in there as the pigment was very wet and spotty.  Since that was my very first attempt I decided to play around a bit and try a different color:



This turned out MUCH better!  I can see why they say using an airbrush saves time.  Doing the basecoat for these guys took seconds, and it would normally take me a good half hour or so to do by hand.  Too bad they were the wrong shade and I had to go back to do another coat:



It's exciting how easily I can go over a darker basecoat with a lighter shade and not have it be affected by it.  Another benefit of airbrushing is that if you're doing it right the paint won't pool in the details, leaving a more defined surface.  I was getting a bit eager at this point and decided to try out a few things.




Airbrush specific paints use a finer pigment, and have to be really thin, like a wash.  I decided to grab my green ink and try that out.  What you see above is the end result of that process.  A little more neon than what I was looking for, but it makes me excited to get my hands on some actual airbrush paints.  If only it were that easy.  The line I had decided to try out is called Minitaire, and is sold by Badger.  Unfortunately their site doesn't sell it directly, and my first attempt to purchase it from their main web distributor, Wynwyn, did not yield great results.  The site was difficult to navigate, and there was an issue during billing where it generated an invoice but didn't actually charge me.  I didn't find out about this until four days had passed.  I, "Cancelled," my order and am waiting for a different online retailer, but that seems to be taking a long time as well.  Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of paints that I can thin and use, but there is something to be said for the convenience of just being able to put a few ready-made drops into your well and airbrush to your hearts content.  If I keep encountering issues with Minitaire I may just switch over and try Vallejo Air as it seems to be easier to get your hands on.

The compressor I picked up actually had a few regular styled airbrush paints for Iwata's Medea color line.  I gave those a try:



What you're seeing is their Opaque Red and Opaque Black.  The red is obviously a bit more pink than what I'd like, and the black is standard fair.  I'm uncertain about using these paints for my miniatures, and there seems to be fumes to go along with them, which means making sure I have adequate ventilation.

After trying out the Medea paints I decided to go back and try out the grey again, but with more concentrated pigment.  The result was very worthwhile:




The coating was much darker.  I suspect it didn't coat as much/well because the scenery was still a little damp from the first coat I did.  Even still it's very exciting to see paint go on as fast as it did, and I look forward to exploring airbrushing even more (if my paints ever get here)!