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:

Putting the Pieces Together

Every hour is one step closer to Gen Con, and I'm continuing the time-honored tradition of trying to get as much painted as possible.  It seems like every year I tell myself that I won't do this, and I have only been successful once...kinda.  Right now I'm trying to get the last few figs for my Relic Knights Cadre painted.  The big showpiece for my faction, The Shattered Swords, is Sebastian with his Relic.  So far I've managed to turn this:



Into this:



As awesome as that looks it's not yet done.  There's still a shield and a front console to be attached (I had originally meant to do this post on Monday, but got sidetracked), as well as Sebastian himself.  The console and shield are done, and I have plans to paint Sebastian and his cypher Rook tonight.  Then over the weekend I plan to hit up two more pieces, one of which isn't even fully based or primed.  Did I mention it's going to be a photo finish?

Eternally Guarding the Portal of Space and Time

Today's post is going to feature the first cosplay model I've done for the Relic Knights line.  The cosplay minis are just what they say they are: alternate sculpts of some of the characters as anime icons.  Darkspace Fiametta is cosplayed as a sailor soldier, very reminiscent of Sailor Pluto from the anime/manga Sailor Moon:



The sculpt came out looking pretty awesome, and it is definitely a solid piece all around.  I'm really excited about how she came out that I'm having a hard time thinking of words to write, so let's just get on to the pretty pictures:






All I gotta say is WOW!  I love how everything came out...except the eyes.  They look just a little off, and I'll probably go back and redo them once I can figure out what's going wrong with them.

In my previous post I hinted that something about this piece has me wanting to go back and do more with the other pieces I've done.  What aspect is that you ask?  Her hair.  I had some great input from a fellow painter about doing more with her hair than I had originally done:



Eeeeee! I look at it now and can see why I didn't put up much of a fuss to go back and do more with it.  Usually it's difficult to pick out individual hairs, and I do a bit of a wet drybrush to pick out the highlights, but DS Fiametta obviously has long luxurious locks that just demand more attention.  So I decided to go back over them again and add a few more coats:



Already you can see that it's looking much better!  Still, it needed to shine just a little more.  So I added in some highlights, and then used a wash to help bring the colors closer to each other:



Absolutely gorgeous!  For some reason the highlights came more naturally to me while still not taking as much time to paint.  The end result is a confidence boost, and the desire to try more!

You may have noticed that DS Fiametta is on an interesting base.  From the moment I knew I was getting the miniature I kept debating over what to do for her base.  My favorite idea is one all my own:  I wanted her to stand on top of the universe.



I was very happy to have something that was all my own in an artistic sense, and the end result came out looking wonderful!  Rather than an insert I used the base itself as my canvas, which turned out exactly as wonderful as I had hoped.  Believe it or not though this is also the result of a different friend's influence.  Here's the original:



Not bad in its own right, but you can definitely see that it came a long way as well.  Artist friends are the best, and can be a great resource to draw upon.  This particular friend has a facebook page you can check out to see her amazing works! /shameless plug

What started off as simple advice turned into a late night, online, mini-painting jam of sorts.  I got some great advice on getting the shading for a spherical object (turns out planets are vaguely sphere-shaped), and a little touch that adds is the brightest star in the sky underneath her feet.

More Progress More Minis

The clock is ticking down to Gen Con, and I'm painting full steam to get everything done.  Up this week - Purifiers and Isabeau:


Purifiers



The Purifiers weren't that difficult to paint up overall, but were still a little on the smallish size.  What this means for me is that it requires a little more precision, and usually ends up with a few muttered curses when I have issues maneuvering my brush to hit the hard to reach areas.

The other piece I painted up is the Purifier Officer, Isabeau:




Not too shabby if I do say so myself.  I've got a thread on the SPM forums for my finished pieces to share with my fellow RK fans, and one of them mentioned that her eyes were not up to my usual level.  I wanted to brush this off, but he was right.  I went back and started the face over again fresh.



The end result here is much more passable.  I'm not completely satisfied with it, and I don't know if I need to go back again or if it's just my difficulties with having the sculpt fully assembled.  If I do go for the repaint I may just pick up the metal version and avoid the difficulties of the sword.  The reason why is that the eyes in that pic are starting to go 3D because all the layers are starting to create a bulge.

I've already started work on my next piece, and it's really coming along.  The way it's turning out is make me consider going back and doing more work on all my Shattered Swords so far.  Here's a small teaser that I shows a little bit of the work I had started on, though not the part that's making me want to go back and add more (that comes later):

Pair-a-gons

Last week was busy both in terms of painting and work.  I got stuff done but didn't get it posted, and now I gotta go back and touch up some stuff from this past weekend.  So today you get the finished Paragons!



As you can see they both look pretty awesome, but it was a rather arduous journey to get them finished.  When I finally got my Relic Knights order in I was quick to assemble most of my Shattered Swords so I could start getting in games before Gen Con (of which I have only gotten one in).




While I was prepping the Paragons to be assembled I noticed that they would be difficult to paint if fully assembled first; so naturally I assembled them anyways.  I've always been a fan of giant robots/power armor, and the Paragons' artwork really got me excited for the models.




Part of me wanted to just rush through and get these guys done quickly so I could get to the rest of the models, but the more I painted them the more I realized that I wouldn't be satisfied if I didn't give them my full.  I started with the base layer, hit it with a dark blue wash, and then went for a very light grey:



Every time I use my a light grey it always looks white, and that's exactly why it's my mid-color.  Once you start putting on the actual white as the highlight the armor really starts to shine. 



How to paint both black and white is one of the more common questions I hear when it comes to painting miniatures.  As you can see, the trick to painting white is to remember that actual white-white is the brightest you can get, which means your middle color needs to be close but not actually pure white.

Here's a group pic of what I have done, which is also the Shattered Swords starter set:

A Knight and his Bird

I made some good headway on my Relic Knights over the weekend.  Finished up my first Questing Knight with his Esper, Mallory and Quill, from the starter set:





I'm very happy with how Mallory came out with one exception: His cape.  I painted his cape along with the capes for the Swordsworn, and Isabeu, but while painting Mallory himself I ended up making the highlights on the cloth around his shoulder a little brighter than the cape.  I went back and tried to lighten up the cape, but the more I look at it the more I see myself fixing it when I next break out those colors.

Some of you may have noticed that Mallory looks a bit stunned.  While I did not intend for him to end up like this, I did intentionally leave it that way because it makes me think of Batman:



There's a small gap between Mallory's lips, and I put a little black in there with the hope that it would look like he was making a warcry.  Instead his mouth is now locked in shock and astonishment because it makes me think of Batman.

Quill came out well overall:




I was wanting to do more with him, but couldn't figure out where to actually add more pizazz.   I left the eyes white as the fluff is that Espers are pure energy from one of six aspects that takes a solid form, and the idea of him having energy eyes pleases me.

Over the long weekend I started work on the Paragons.  I got the base coat done, and then washed, and I started to put the next layer of grey down, and it was tedious!  Thankfully I can see that it's going to look pretty damn awesome:




That's about three hours worth of work.  I've been dragging my feet on the second one because I'm worried it'll take an equal amount of time and I don't want to do it in two sessions.  Looking at him earlier today though I think he will be easier to paint since he is in a standing pose as opposed to Mr. Action-shot up there.  Maybe I'll give it a go tonight...

Relic Knights on Deck

So the unboxing has passed, and time has been spent assembling, priming, and now painting my Relic Knights.



Those are just of a few of my Shattered Sword pieces.  For those wondering why the big guy in the back is missing an arm it's because I opted to leave it off until I got the full thing painted as it got in the way of some detail.  I'm hoping to play Shattered Swords at Gen Con 2014, so most of my pictures are going to be focusing on them.



Getting the mold lines off the pieces is slightly easier than the Sedition Wars models, and I have to wonder if that has to do with their placement.  Speaking of which the placement does actually seem to be better for these models as well.



The first part of my cadre (as your group is called in Relic Knights) is just a simple squad of Sword Sworn.  I wanted to tinker a bit with the colors using white and blue as my primaries with gold as a backup.



The capes came out very well, and what you see above is all the loose capes for my Shattered Swords.  I decided to just sit and spend an evening getting them painted and get them out of the way rather than coming back and doing a little here and there.  Overall they look nice, but here's how they look when attached to the Sword Sworn:




I think the gold can work really well as a light trim, but I think it'll be a fine line between heroic warrior and minor league baseball team.

I picked up a small commission to strip the paint from some OGRE infantry a friend picked up.  This will eventually lead to another OGRE painting commission I'd wager.

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.