Who Wants Pictures?

There are so many to post too!  Relic Knights is in production, and should finish up a few weeks following the end of the Chinese New Year.  What this means is that I have a couple of months to get stuff painted before I dive into a pile of anime-styled minis for a while.  In the meantime I've managed to finish up the last piece of my commission and some various odds and ends.  We'll start with the last piece of my commission, the Shadow Omega:





This one wasn't too bad to paint.  It starts with a medium grey layer that gets stippled with black dots.  I top it off with alternating black and blue-green washes.  I then picked out various highlight colors along with the engines.  To get the right balance for the Omega I did up a bunch of my own Shadow vessels for practice:





It was definitely a lot of fun to paint the shadows.  It's always nice to do something simple yet straightforward.

I've had a couple of Samaritan soldiers sitting on my desk for months now.  They only had a basecoat and a wash, and I kept telling myself I'd finish them up someday.  With my commissions being done I decided to finally do so:



You'll notice the pool of blood on the one Samaritan's base.  This is my first time using Game Workshop's Blood For the Blood God.



It certainly gives a good blood effect, and it can be a handy paint to have at hand if you're in a hurry.  I'd rather use a 2-layer effect of light red over dark as I feel it achieves a richer look.  The shiny effect can also be added with a paint-on gloss coat.  I'll keep it around as it has its uses, but for my bases/blood effects I feel more comfortable doing my own.

With Adepticon just around the corner I'm starting to gear up to compete.  Thankfully there's not a lot of models I need to get painted (most of them were done last year), but I have a few to show off:





I've gotten so accustomed to doing commissions that it feels weird to see my own models getting painted.  I admit that I have a lot of fun painting my own models following a commission.  Not painting my own stuff for a while because I have to be responsible has helped to keep me interested in painting over the past couple of years.  I just have to figure out a good balance.

One last peak before I go.  I started work on my Guild master Sonnia Creed, and it's easily one of the best faces I've done so far:

Another Commission

Having resumed The Babylon Project once more I find myself idly browsing ebay for more miniatures.  I happened to come across some of the harder to find ones I've been looking for.  A friend of mine made me an offer I couldn't refuse:



What you're looking at (aside from the patches) are 2 Shadow Omega Cruisers and an Earthforce Civilian Transport.  The Shadow Omega Cruisers are ones I see from time to time, and while it would take some digging I know I'd eventually find one.  The real treasure here is the transport.  For the past several years I've been looking at Babylon 5 Wars, and there was a point where they were picked up by Mongoose Publishing.  When I did my original order the Civilian Transport was one I remembered seeing, but when I went looking for it I couldn't find it.  It started to become mythical, and I was feeling kinda down because you see it show up in a lot of episodes.  The point is that my friend came across one, and it is now mine!



There's a LOT of cleaning up that needs to be done.  Flash to be removed, and I've already had one issue with glue.  I'll talk more about that later though.  The other piece I got is the Shadow Omega:



Going to need to do a lot of fiddling with these two cruisers.  At a glance it looks like there's only two points for attaching the fiddly bits that compose the "shadow" portion.  I'll have to do some research into these before I really dig into them, but for now I'm going to put them to the side.

With all good finds there is a price.  My friend is rather fond of doing trades, and this time around is no exception:



27 Bretonian Archers, a Shadow Omega Cruiser of his own, and a handful of WWII German Tanks which will probably find their way onto an OGRE battlefield.  I've been doing some experimenting with my paints and if things go well I may be able to start taking commissions a bit more regularly.  I just have to see if I've improved my painting speed, but I'll talk about that next time.

An Explanation

It's been a while since I posted anything, and I wanted to take a few moments to explain why.  Back in April I was in a car accident while attending Adepticon, and as a result I was unable to participate in a tournament I had spent the last five months preparing for.  Time painting and assembling different miniatures, many of which appeared here on my blog.  Since then I've been having a difficult time painting, and I wasn't feeling the same joy or passion that I used to experience.  Well earlier this week I attended court to testify against the person who hit my car.  While there I learned enough things about him to know that justice would be served.  Even though it doesn't undo the damage or the financial strain I walked away with a sense of closure. 

So how does that affect my painting and this blog?  How about a renewed sense of vigor as I revive The Babylon Project:



I sat down and started painting some Babylon 5 miniatures that had been lying around and staring at me for almost a year.  Six Raiders that I knew would be a quick session, and I was right.



For the first time in months I felt that old flame burn true once again.  As much as I love spending time breathing life into intricate models I also enjoy sitting down and knocking out a handful of minis in one sitting.  The Babylon Project was a fun diversion, and I plan to continue it with painted models here and there.  Nothing but good clean fun where I attempt to paint up models from a different faction each month.  Except that this time I'm just going to paint what I have, and if I get through a lot or a little it won't matter.  Painting should be fun, and I have returned to that point where it is.

So how about a little walkthrough?  Let's use the Earth Alliance Hermes-Class Transport.



This is my experiment to try and get the look of the Earth Alliance ships down.  In the series they have a grey base with blue trim.  The hard part was determining if the, "grey," on the ships was actual grey or if it was metal.



I went with grey as it would be easier to add trim and weapons in metal.  My first choice was a bit darker.  You can see where I started to drybrush on a lighter grey over the rear, and the original basecoat on the front half.



This is where I mixed in a grey that was pretty close to white, and while it was closer I think my next attempt will be a bit of the darker grey mixed in with the lighter. 



One thing I've started to do is a wash followed by drybrushing afterwards in an attempt to help bring out the plating on the ships.



When all was said and done everything looked a little bland.  I went looking for a pic of the ship, and while I could have sworn that I saw this ship on the show itself there was no real pic to be found.  I ended up deciding to add some blue, metallic, and a light grey to help spruce things up.  For now though I'm calling this complete.  My next project is the iconic Babylon 5 station itself.  I'm pretty excited about it and look forward to the post as I have known exactly what I'm going to write for it since I started the project.

Alert the Docker's Guild

Life ever conspires against me, but I have managed to get myself back on track for the month.  Continuing The Babylon Project, my plan this time around was to start with the bases.  In previous months I had pre-assembled/painted models, so doing the bases was a difficult prospect.



This round of bases turned out really nice.  There's plenty of variation, and while there are clusters it's more because of many dots rather than blobs.  Finishing the models is going to be so much easier without having to worry about the bases.

To start off the Civillian month I decided to go with the two fuel tankers and a cargo freighter.



When I first looked at these models I was worried about them being rather monochromatic, but after sitting down I decided to add touches of brown and red to help make them stand out more.



The blue on the Cargo Freighter turned out really nice.  The model itself actually has a flat piece of metal that attaches to the engine pod.  The design of it is pretty clever, using the flat metal to help stabalize the entire piece.



I've always liked civilian ships in Sci-Fi shows.  They end up having a design and charm all their own that is fun to look at and play with.  Hopefully they'll have a safe trip on their journey.

Preperations

Having finished up my Centauri month I felt the need to prepare for the following, "Month."  Yes I am aware I'm going by some non-traditional calender.  I actually have a few things on my plate this month.  First is a commission for a friend who has been patiently waiting for me to turn some old Warhammer Fantasy Miniatures into something he can display.



He is ok with me not painting to my full ability.  This will be a new experiment for me since whenever I paint a miniature I tend to paint it as though I was going to display it.



I have about sixteen Wights in all to paint, and I hope to get them done in short order.  I also have some Malifaux miniatures to get done, including some of the stuff from the recently released fourth book.



You may recognize those two from an earlier post where I started building terrain.  Well I found some polystyrene strips that were shaped like I-beams at Leisure Hours Hobbies.  They worked perfectly and I plan to make use of them for the rest of my railway Arcanists.

Last but not least I'll have a miscellanious month of Babylon 5 miniatures. 

 

This month the focus will be on Raiders, Civillians, and the Babylon 5 Station itself.  I'm also prepping an Earthforce Hermes Priority Transport since my Earthforce month is going to be chalk full of Earthforce miniatures.



Since all of these pieces are not attached to their bases I plan to sit down before I start on the Babylon 5 miniatures and just paint all of them in one fell swoop.



This will make things easier since I'll be able to focus on the miniatures and just glue them to their bases when I'm done.  Going to be a busy month!

A Return To Glory

I finished the Centauri month with five days to spare!



I was going to make this two separate posts, but things have been going so smoothly I figured I'd get them all in one fell swoop.  Consequently these are the last of the original Babylon 5 miniatures that I purchased years ago.  There's a certain feeling of gratification at having finally completed these miniatures that sat in the back of my closet for so long.

First up we have the Mograth Frigate.  I couldn't find a paint job that I liked so I went with a combination of several different ones.  This isn't a ship that ever got CG'd into the series either, but it was still fun to paint.  In fact I actually had this one mostly painted long ago; which means that I get to do another old vs. new!



VS.




As you can see the paint scheme is very similar.  Big differences are more silver got added, and I used a darker shade of purple. How about a few other angled shots?



VS.



And one last shot.



VS.




The other two models in this set are Centauri Haven Patrol Boats.  These guys are a bit simpler looking, and I think that they were a little mis-cast.  I still went with it.



One of the big things I noticed with these two is that there isn't a discernible engine on the ships.  There's a spot near the tail where it looks like it's supposed to be an exhaust port, but both models only have one side fully defined.  Ah well.

Having finished up two factions I thought it might be fun to play around with things.



That first shot is of all the stuff I've painted thus far.  You'll notice that it doesn't include all my Narn models since some of those were painted years ago.  Things look a little lopsided don't they?  That's because chevrons make the Narn cooler, and thus giving them a better chance at winning.  Not buying it?  Ok fine.



With all my Narn and Centauri on the table it becomes a different story.  I hope the Centauri have some allies waiting in the wings just in case.

Next month I plan on doing misc/unaligned ships.  This will be the raider squadrons and civilian transport and cargo ships.  Oh, and the Babylon 5 station itself.

Nice Shark, Pretty Shark

My painting project continues, and today I present to you the Centauri Primus-class Cruiser!  I can't say enough at how amazed I am.  Things are going along at a really good pace, and even though I'm not being as intense as I was last month the final product is still looking really good.



I tend to be a stickler for accuracy, and so far I've tried painting all the models as close to what's been on the actual TV series as possible.  The way I originally had the Primus painted had no gold on it at all, but that left it feeling lacking.  Once I put the gold on, the model popped and I have another example of how important contrast is.



There were lots of nice little details on this that added more color, but the surface area was just too large to add the definition that I wanted.



While mainly purple and silver the other smaller colors are the white and turquoise for the engine fire, and orange and red for the fighter launch bay.



One thing I am happy with is the bases.  The more I do the simple technique that I've been using the better and better it gets.



I'm finding that using pretty thin paint works pretty well.  The thicker it is the more it clumps up, but if you keep it thin and rinse your brush pretty frequently you get a nice dispersal pattern.  All that's left for the Centauri are a few unofficial models in the TV series, but were used in Babylon 5 Wars.  With about a week left I feel confident that I'll have these models finished.

I Want a Renaissance of Power

I started coming down with something sinus related, and my weekend slowed to crawl painting wise.  I did manage to get the Vorchan finished though.



I think I wanted to put more detail and touchups on it, but my head is a little foggy right now so I'm running with it.  I'm rather enjoying the simple combination of purple and gold that the Centauri are so fond of. 

 

This one had a lot more detail on it so I decided to spice it up by painting some of the areas in metal and hitting it with a black ink wash.



One issue I encountered while assembling this model was that it wouldn't sit on its base.  I had to trim down the peg a bit and do some extra drilling, but it was able to sit on the base just fine after that.



I was actually surprised at how well it sits on the base.  I was convinced that I'd have to construct a base with a larger footprint, but it stays up pretty well.  It's still a bit top heavy, but not so much as to get me thinking about weighting the base a bit.

One last thing I've been forgetting.  I found this in my mailbox after I got back from Gen Con.



When I got my original order from Agent One I found that my Nova class cruiser had one of the holes for the bases on the top instead of the bottom.  A few quick emails back and forth with Agent One himself and I had it back in the mail.  I told him not to worry about the return shipping when he asked about it, and instead told him to throw something nice in if he was so inclined.  I was surprised that he decided to throw in a Hyperion Heavy Cruiser!  That was very awesome of him, and if you like seeing my Babylon 5 miniatures and want some of your own he still has a good selection to choose from!