Struggles

So I realize I have made a bad start with my posts this year.  There's some difficult things going on with my personal life that I'm attending to, but it doesn't mean I've stopped working on my miniatures.  Let's start off with the first miniature of the year, the Female Gunsmith for the Arcanists.




I REALLY like this model.  It's simple but there's a lot going on.  Very action oriented and reminiscent of The Matrix.  The hair and coat were a lot of fun to paint, and getting layering/blending techniques to synch up is a bit of a challenge some days.

With the Female Gunsmith aside I was able to begin focusing on other models.  Over the weekend there was a day with some beautiful weather that was warm enough to justify some fervant assembling and primering.  Here's the result.



For those of you wondering, primer tends to clump and pool in colder weather, or humid weather, so when you want to primer models make sure it's around 50 degrees approximately, and not after a strong rainstorm.  It helps to give you an overall smoother coat of primer.

All of those models are lovely and I look forward to painting them, but they're on the back burner.  My next focus is the Collette Crew for the Arcanists faction, and the coming months will see me paint a lot of those models.  The models in the above pic are from the Guild faction, and some of them will be painted before Adepticon, but they're a bit lower on the priority list.  With that I started my Mechanical Doves tonight.



These are a WIP, and I'm getting close to finishing them.  If you look closely you'll notice some lovely ladies waiting for their spot in the limelight.  One of them is the Female Gunsmith, and the other will come later this week with any luck.

You'll notice that the last pic, and the pics of the Female Gunsmith are a bit sharper.  This is due to a friend of mine taking some time off from her busy schedule to do some lighting correction on my pics.  I've been hearing lately that my camera doesn't quite capture the essence of my models, and I hope that this shows off their quality a little more.

Beginning a New Year

With the holidays finally behind us I hope/pledge to start painting more miniatures and doing more updates!  I have two entries today, and these are the last miniatures painted in 2012.

We'll start with my trio of Fire Gamin for the Arcanists of Malifaux:




I love how the eyes turned out on them.  They REALLY catch your attention, and make you look over your shoulder.




In the pic with the gamin facing left you can see how I did the eyes.  The base color was a brownish yellow, and I used it to cover not only the eye, but the skull/nose around it as well.  This is the, "glow," of the eye.  Closer in you can see a brighter yellow, almost lemon colored.  At the very heart I've just painted a dot of white.  With light he center is brightest, and it darkens going outward.  You can also see this in the flames and fireballs.




When an object catches light, it's the point closest to the source that is brightest and the point furthest from that is darkest.  When you are painting a source of light though it's the exact opposite, with the brightest point in the, "center," and the darkest point further out.

Here's a comparison of the WIP I did of, "Jug," (cause he's juggling fireballs).




The other piece I finished is my Rail Golem.  A monster on the board table, he has earned his paint job 10x over!




When I first primered him I was unimpressed with the sculpt.  It looked lackluster and dull, and not a lot of fun.  I was worried that it would look a little stupid on the battle field after I put down the base layer of metal.  All of that changed with the ink.  I used a combination of Vallejo sepia (which is darker than GW sepia), and black ink.  I had used different shades of metallic as well to create variation.  The end result is one I'm rather excited about!  The steam boiler is what really breathes life into the whole piece, and now he stands ready to look good while demolishing my enemies!


In other news my paint schedule is going to be thrown for a bit of a loop in a week or two.  I got in on the kickstarter for Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster Pass some months ago.  Well according to the latest update my copy should be here soon.  I'm pretty excited about this game, and plan to spend some time getting things ready.  I guess this means I should really try to get some more models done over the weekend.

Hobby Day!

Today I took a day off of work to sit back and relax.  I ended up having a couple of friends over to work on Malifaux miniatures in all ways shapes and forms.



Just a bunch of the guys working on hobby stuff!  There was so much going on, and much was accomplished.  Both of my friends are getting into the hobby feet first, and today I showed them the simple joy of basing.



Since basing is a requirement for many miniature games at conventions, having your models based is becoming an important factor.  The above picture is about 95% of the models we based, and nearly all of the ones that are in my buddy's collection. 



After basing we kind of split into two camps.  On one side was Grey getting his new Lucas McCabe box cut off the sprue and glued together.



There's only one or two figures left for him to do, and they're looking pretty sweet!

Meanwhile I decided to get some paint on my Fire Gamin.  They're almost done, but I'm saving them for later.  Instead I'd like to focus on Mordequi's (not his real name) Punk Zombie.




This model ranks as one of the first he has painted.  I gave a little assistance with the flesh/eyes on the skull, but otherwise it's all his vision.  I really like how he got the colors to go together.  The blend of purple and blue seems to give the model a shimmer/sheen look which is pretty cool!

Overall it was a wonderful way to spend the day.  Painting, hobby stuff, and friends.  A great start to the weekend!

Kaeris Ascendant

So I finally get a chance to sit down and paint some Malifaux again!  I knew several months ago which piece I would paint.  She had been in my possession for a while, and it's pained me somewhat to leave her in grey primer for so long, but at long last she's completed!  My Mechanical Angel, Kaeris:



Sometimes I do step-by-step or progression pics.  Usually I'm aware that I want to do something like that, and I keep my camera nearby so I can remember to actually take the pics before I move on to the next step.  Sometimes I just snap a pic with my phone and send it off to friends.  I enjoyed painting Kaeris so much though that I'm going to share my phone progress pics.



I started with the skin, hair, eyes, and torso.  The eyes turned out really well, and I can't help but feel a sense of presence when I look at her.  My skin tones keep getting better and better, which makes me really happy.  Overall this took me 1.5 hours to complete.  It seems like I'm starting to get a bit of an edge to my painting skills.



At this point I've completed the pants and started her coat.  I've said it before, but working from the inside out has a nice charm to it.  I worry less about getting mishaps and mistrokes on the larger areas since I'm going to be painting over them anyways, and it's easier to be cautious with those than vice versa.



The mechanical feathers were quite fun.  I mixed in a touch of orange with my gold to use as the base, and then followed it up with a sepia wash.  Once that dried I redid the wings with the base color, and added highlights to the edge of the wings with a brighter gold.  I topped it all off with a thinner sepia wash.  They turned out gorgeous, and the above pic doesn't capture the feel of those shining wings.




This was a labor of love, and a long time coming.  I've very happy with the results, and look forward to see her on the battlefield time and time again!

Victory!

It's been a long journey, but I've finally come to the end of my commissions!  I present for you the OGRE Custom Mk. IIIb!



The Mk. IIIb was one of the OGREs primarily used by the Nihon Empire in the OGRE setting.  Obviously based off of imperialistic Japan, I used the traditional naval flag for inspiration.



The first step was to get the Mk. IIIb painted up in white.




Once that was done it became an issue of painting the flag on.  Easy right?



Turns out that there are sixteen rays emanating from the central sun, and the spacing between them is fairly even.  Now try free-handing that entire thing.



My spacing wasn't perfect, and the proportions are obviously off.  The back end turned out ok in how it looks overall, but it probably could have been a touch more accurate.



Overall though I feel it turned out well.  I went with the aesthetic over reality since it would be easier overall.  What this translates to is the striping going over the cannons and gun pods in order to get an artsy effect, but realistically it's impractical.  As soon as the cannons locked onto another target the art would be lost.  Since this is art though I decided to go for the art instead.  Here is the finished product.



It's worth noting that the Mk. IIIb came with a little token to represent the OGRE underwater.  I painted this as well since it was quite simple, and it was fun to do.



Since I am done with the commission I shall finally be returning to my own pieces.  I have a lot of Malifaux to get painted before Adepticon, and I'd like to do more work on The Babylon Project.  My copy of Sedition Wars: The Battle for Alabaster should be arriving soon as well.

Approaching the Finish Line

The holidays this year have been a busy time, and even though I haven't had much time to paint I've still eeked out a little here and there.  For starters I managed to get the infantry for the last OGRE camo unit painted.



I looked at a bunch of Australian landscapes and found that there was a considerable amount of reddish-orange mixed with white and green.  I mixed up a bunch of ruddy orange to use as a base, and then did some drybrushing with bone to pick out the grains.  Once all of it was painted I used a little bit of grass flocking to add patches of green.  I'm pleased overall with how it turned out.

Moving down the list I was left with six skeleton musicians and an OGRE Mk. IIIb.  I opted to go for the skeletons first since overall they would be easier than the OGRE Mk IIIb.  I spent the afternoon on Saturday getting them all done in one fell swoop.




This completes the skeletons!  Now my only objective left was the Mk. IIIb, but with all the weather changes I had to grab a nap.  My intent was only to lay down for a little bit, but I came to several hours later.  I didn't pick up my brushes until later in the evening, and while I didn't finish it I made significant progress.



You'll notice that the white on the back portion of the IIIb is a much more solid coat than the front.  Some miniatures paints have a thinner consistency than others, and makes it a necessity to use multiple coats.  White is one of those colors, and if there is a darker undercoat it further compounds the issue.  The IIIb was primered with a medium-light grey, given a quick white basecoat of paint (two or three coats), and then I used a VERY thin black ink.  Normally thinning out an ink will reduce how visible it appears on the miniature, but as you can see it still shows up very visibly against white.  The arduous task in this whole process is the repeated number of coats to get a solid white.  Some areas take the white better while others require an unending number of coats.  The whole point of this process is to get nice solid separation between the plates.  Ultimately the white is the first part of a custom paint job for the OGRE, and the rest of it will be revealed in a post coming in the near future.

Wyrd Birthday Sale!

Wyrd is having a sale to commemorate their Birthday.  The sale includes some limited edition models, as well as an early release for two of their upcoming sets.

Buy stuff here!

I have fed my addiction by picking up some gifts for friends, and expanding my own collection.  I had cashed in my hard earned credit for my work as a Henchman, which has made this order that much easier.   I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to see about edging a little closer to finishing my commissions.  There's a lot of stuff on its way in to be painted.  Anyone know where I can get more hours in the day?