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)!

Painting Challenge

Today is the conclusion to the Super Dungeon Explore expansion: The Forgotten King.  In anticipation of the upcoming minis that will follow this year (hopefully) a painting challenge thread has been started on the SDE forums.  As I picked up some SDE minis from Adepticon; I decided to throw my hat into the ring.

I decided to paint up my Vandella Succubus because she's cute, assembled, and ready to be primed:



Aside from the base game, all the SDE miniatures come pre-assembled.  This is good for the boardgame crowd as it means less tedious work or a need for tools, but less good for the hobby crowd.  Having everything assembled means it's much more difficult to get at the recessed areas, and this model was no exception.  The braids/bangs hanging down made painting the hair around her head difficult.  This was problematic because I couldn't leave it unpainted as I primed her white.  I started with the skin first though:



You can see where getting into the nooks and crannies would be difficult.  I had originally planned on doing the wing bones in black, but after consideration I ended up doing them in the same skin tone.  I like how the result came out, along with the start of the hair:



One of the fun parts about SDE models is the big eyes.  I've been spending a lot of time observing the eye colors of anime characters so I could paint up anime-style eyes on my own.  Being a fan of anime, this was a real treat for me.  I think the finished product looks pretty awesome:



While there is room for improvement I feel that this is a good start.  I've also ordered a setup for airbrushing and plan on trying that pretty soon as well, so expect some good posts about that in a week or so (once I have all my equipment).

Last but not least I've gotten the revetments painted up for my commission:

Mydnight Goes Fourth!

So my weekend at Adepticon was amazing!  I got to have a lot of fun playing games, seeing friends, and even tried out a demo!

Friday I played in the team tournament with my best friend, and although we didn't do well we had a great time and got to catch up afterwards.

Saturday was the first day of the big Malifaux tournament.  Unlike previous years where they did a qualifier on Saturday and a finals on Sundy, they were doing three rounds on each day.  Saturday I had a great showing with 3-0 for my games.  I also got the time to try out a demo of Relic Knights in advance of getting my kickstarter models. 

 

It looks like it'll be a cute and fun game to play, and I look forward to getting my own models.

Sunday was the conclusion to the tournament.  The organizer took a vote and dropped the last game of the day due to people needing to catch flights and make long drives home.  My showing for the day was 1-1, and I ended up taking fourth place out of a 44 person tournament using Arcanists/Rasputina.  It was an incredible run, and it's got me thinking about competing at Gen Con.

I came home exhausted, but satisfied.  It's hard to argue with a weekend filled with great friends, great games, and great models.  Oh, and here's a pic of the swag that I got:




I got: a book, the plastic Lady Justice box for Malifaux, a Skorne battlebox for Hordes, several promo minis, a Succubus for Super Dungeon Explore, some bases, a Druid Gone Wilder, and Bombadier Bombshell for Privateer Press.  A modest but nice haul if I do say so myself.  Expect a few pics of those after I get my small commission out of the way.

Thawing Out

My attempts to overcome my lack of motivation have proven difficult, but here's hoping I turn things around with the winter finally starting to loosen its vicious stranglehold.

Adepticon is happening this weekend, and I'm looking forward to bringing my pieces again to the table (and hopefully avoiding any cars this time around).  So let's go ahead and get some pieces out that I've gotten ready for it:




First up is Sonnia.  I'll be fielding her as my master for the team tournament.  This was a fun and straightforward paintjob.  I actually went a little further than normal and tried to give the lips a little saucy definition.  I think the efforts paid off though as a friend and fellow painter commented that she looks just like Drew Barrymore.

Another addition for my crew during the team tournament is my third Witchling Stalker:




Unlike my other two Witchling Stalkers I went with more of a desert theme.  I normally like to have consistency across the board, but felt that these guys looked sneaky enough to branch out.  If I had to paint up another one I'd do him up in white and grey for a snow look.

If you have enough Witchling Stalkers you're going to want someone who can keep things in line:




The Witchling Handler came out pretty decent.  I hate using multiple browns in one figure as it becomes a challenge to actually get them distinct enough.  I was happy with how the boots turned out though, and feel that the model stands really well.

For the Malifaux 2E qualifier I'm going to be fielding my Arcanists.  I had a few more minis left to paint up.  The first of these is Joss:




There's a lot that I like about how this model came out.  The jeans and shirt were pretty close to what I was going for, and I think I might need to use a little more water when I do the grey basecoat for my whites.  The skin came out a bit darker than I was intending, but I'm still very satisfied with it.  There's enough definition and highlight to help the details stand out.  Special thanks go to a friend of mine who suggested a blue jay feather for the one in his braid.

Last but not least is the Arcane Effigy:




This guy was a little confusing to paint.  He looks different, has two coats, and a bunch of little details here and there.  With only one thin contact point for the base I'm going to have to be careful how I handle him.  The other thing that I really need more practice with is doing jewels and gems.  I keep thinking about taking an art class with the goal of getting a better handle on lighting, which I think will help strengthen my painting overall.  Personal note: I am very please with how the picture came out.

This weekend I'll be engaged in games and hunting for swag.  Meanwhile I'll be watching the Super Dungeon Explore: The Forgotten King kickstarter, and scouting the dealer's room for some SDE minis to paint up in practice.  The only thing on my table otherwise is a small commission for my friend.