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Sunday 15 December 2013

Space Wolf Rune Priest

Thoughts on Basing miniatures, a simple base can be just as effective as a big base it all depends on how well it is executed. The colours I have used will aslo be used to paint parts of the miniature. Im going overboard with the colours on this base as its a little bigger and and I want it to reflect the harsh cold nature of Fenris and tie into the Power weapon and runes on the space wolf.

So After looking around at some fancy basing and spending A LOT of time over at Massive Voodoo. I have decided to deviate from the standard rock drybrush. Starting by airbrushing some colour variation on to the rock base before I go for the highlights.

The colours I used are Matt Black, German Grey, French Blue, Livery Green, and Wolf Grey. I didnt use pure Livery Green I mixed it with the blue and grey to get a teal colour.

A shout out to Zab at Almost Perftec nice Idea to put the paints in a pic so you can match to the closest colour you have, and I can remember later what I used too!



Next I used a mixture of the same colours for each area but lighter than the airbrushing, I started off with near black and brushed with a slightly wiped brush into the deepest cracks and areas where there would be shadow. After that I used wolf grey with a touch on green in places and wolf grey with a touch of french blue in places, then pure Wolf grey. I have not highlighted up to white as I'm not sure if I the white will get lost in the snow effects.



I have decided that I'm going to go with woodland scenic soft flake snow and a mixture of  realistic water for an icy feel and pva for softer powdery snow. Still waiting on my snow to arrive, post man must be busy.

 

Saturday 14 December 2013

Arcane Paintworks


So I have recently found out that Meg Maples is coming to Australia and New Zealand for a tour and will be holding master classes across the two countries.

I had a look for something like this months ago and now I have this opportunity. I have enrolled and I'm looking forward to the 2 day course.


 I'm looking forward to painting the Steampunk Dorothy from Guild of Harmony for the class.


Meg will be covering the following topics in my class and leave the remaining time for open Q&A. ( I hope I can squeeze in some basing Q's)

  • Mini prep--cleaning, gluing tricks, priming
  • Basecoating--paint consistency and undercoats
  • 2 brush blending
  • Glazing
  • Freehand
  • Faces, skin and hair
  • Colour theory
  • True Metallics vs NMM vs Sky-Earth NMM
  • Pigments--weathering, color shifting, pearlescent, dayglow
  • Display base discussion
  • How to store minis
  • Competition vs tabletop vs display
  • Palettes; Well vs Wet
So Im looking forward to the class in Feburary and Im sure it will arrive faster than I expect.

Friday 6 December 2013

Chaos Lord

I have been quite busy getting things done before Christmas but I managed to lay down some colours on the inside of the cloak, I will put a few glazes to define the folds on the cloak.



Blocked in the grey for some NMM unsure if Im going to pain the shoulder guard gold or silver.

I'm a bit sad I took of the chaplains shoulder pad to paint the bolter and came back from the wedding last weekend and have tuned the desk upside down, I do know that my little girl was giving my keyboard a good mash, So its possible I have lost it or once I paint a new one it will turn up. I will have to wait and see.

Friday 22 November 2013

Black Templars - Birthday Present

Black Templar Chaplain

After a discussion on the CMON forums I have chosen to use a chequer patten for the shaft of the mace. I have pencilled it on and used sombre grey and white to block it out. I will go over most of the grey with black to give a firmer chequer patten but her is what it looks like so far.

Its harder than I anticipated keeping the squares paralle and even I have a small twist in them down the center but I think I can fix that with out too much problem.  I plan to make each square have a slight gradient to represent some shadow and light on the mini.
 I have not gone down to the bottom of the shaft because I plan to give it a worn effect where he grips the mace.

Enjoy!

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Chaos Lord

I have been looking at this guy on the web for some time, He will be perfect for our villain, with a trusty red cape. I had thought a purple on the inside would work but its not looking the part, so I'm going to put a few blue washes over the inside to make it a dark blue with lighter blue highlights.

I was sure I snapped some pics of progress but it seems they are not on my camera. A little recap on what I did. Laid down the pure red with a fine coat so it was a pinky red mixed purple and did the folds in the cape and slowly added some black to it for the deepest parts.
 Then applied a few glazes with pure red and worked up to a full pure orange glaze, Once happy with the reds went back and touched up the black/purple and to bring it all together used a 50/50 water and red ink to get the red to pop.

it would have been good to get the before and after the ink i will make sure I get it next time.


I think I will push the lights even further this time with a tiny bit of white on the ridges and edges.

Monday 18 November 2013

Black Templars - Birthday Present

Black Templar Chaplain

I have pretty much finished the gold NMM, it just needs a few white highlights. The face is pretty much done too I may tinker with it as do the armor. I'm having a difficult time deciding what colour to paint the shaft of the hammer.


In other news started a Chaos Lord, its been churning over in my head for a while, so when he arrived I could not resist cleaning him up and starting his cape. I have layed down some red and dark purple in the shadows. I will get a bit more done and load a pic up next time.

Thanks for taking a peak and feel free to make a comment.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Space Wolf Rune Priest

I Have taken a liking to Space wolves, the story and back ground all feels exciting for me.
So I am undertaking a little display piece which my Rune priest can stand on while not busy.

I was amazed at this piece from David Rodríguez which won a Golden Demon in 2007. Its just uber, So with my skills improving I'm going to make my own little piece of Fenris. I'm a builder by trade and during some demo work I recovered a piece of Rimu. Its a beautiful wood and this piece is going to get a new life.
Once the danish oil dried I began placing cork to form an overhang at the front and the idea of a cliff at the back. My reference pic, my end goal is something like this, very layered geography will lend its self well to cork.

So I pulled off the cork around the edges and stacked it up and cut cracks and layers and ended up with this. I left some pieces flat where the snow dumps will settle.


I will have to drill out the base area for the mini, he will be too high as I will put some cork on his base. My goal is to have heavy snow fall much like the picture and add some icicles on the overhang and back of the cliff for good measure.

On a side not I'm testing the Detol paint stripping technique on a Limited edition DA chaplain. He was given to me buy the local Games Workshop, I'm going to repaint him and give him back.
The solution is 100% detol if you mix water with it the paint will come off all gloopy.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Black Templars - Birthday Present

So The sargent is coming along well, hes almost done. Check list gold on combi melta. Finish the gold, metal, and handle on the axe, do his pupils and some spot details here and there.


Also finish the gold skull on the back of the cape.

Thanks for looking comments welcome.

Saturday 9 November 2013

Black Templars - Birthday Present

Just a little update tonight. Finished the bases and quite pleased with the new purchase of pigments, I have watched a few videos about pigments and I have to say they have turned out pretty well. I picked up the Secret weapon Dry Earth set of 4 colours and here is the result.

You may find this helpful I know I did. . ByPainted video about basing.



How I did it, Black base coat followed by a heavy dry brush of VGC stone wall grey and then a lighter one for edges elfic flesh. then I went mad with the pigments mixing them on the base and getting some good trassitions, mainly darker tones to the middle and lighter around the edge to give some depth. Dont forget to seat the pigment I used satin varnish but you can also get pigment binder.



Last but no least a celebration for Zab over at Almost perfec and a competition he has on his Blog for Movember.

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Black Templars - Birthday Present

Tonight I have done quite a bit of work. The Cape I base coated in a mix of pure red and sick green and a pinch of black which made a nice dark purple I should have snapped a pick but I go carried away with the NMM. After that I used the same mix and slowly reduced the green until it was pure red. Then I added lava orange and slowly increased it to about 75% of the mix, I don't want it to be an orange cape!



The NMM was a mix of mahogany brown, sandy brown, Demonic yellow, and final touch of white, I went mad with the mixing back and forth so I cant really give a specific amount for the mix.



Last but not least was the tabard, mahogany brown, sand, elfic flesh, and white to finish. while I was on white I used a little to spot highlight.

I'm pretty Happy with the gold NMM it has worked much better than my 1st attempt.

Stay tuned next up I think I will need a little break so will make some bases for the 2 Mini's.

Black Templars - Birthday Present

A little work tonight.

For the Skin tones I used a mix of elfic flesh, sandy brown and lava Orange, mixed until I got a good base tone, fairly dark and just enough lava orange to match the brown to keep a fleshy tone. I have gone gone fairly brown on the undersides of the eye brows and have done 2 highlights quite watered down for a smooth transition. I think I will give the head a coat of satin varnish before I go for the pupils so I have a chance to fix any mistakes.



I have put a free hand chequer on the knee pad just to add a little bit extra, Done the wolf grey highlights and will get to the spot highlights.

The tabard and and areas that will be gold NMM base coated with sandy brown. I mixed a small amount of sick green to the sandy brown to get the variation on the pouch and holster. I will go for a more leathery look but would like it to be a little different.

I have base coated areas that will be white in wolf grey, I may end up painting the shoulder gold also, not quite decided. . .

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Black Templars - Birthday Present

I was quite excited  to get home and start, I primed them last night in preparation. So after mowing the lawn and getting my little one to sleep I started.

I used Warpaints Black as the base then layed down a small amount VGC german grey followed buy the smallest highlight of a mix of 2 -1 german grey and bone white.

Its best to keep the highlights small so you don't loose the black armor and end up with grey armor with black shadows. It may look a bit over done now but after the next step it will tone them down.

I used a 50/50 water and black ink on the sargent and a equal mix of back and blue ink to the Chaplain and applied a couple layers until I was happy with the result. It may look like I have completely covered my previous layer fear not they have added depth and are still visible.
The Blue was added to give some differentiation to the rest of the army as chaplains are usually black this one has a black with a reflection of blue to it.

Next I will be working a few highlights wolf grey and some spot highlights pure white to make sure the armor has a shine to it.

Monday 4 November 2013

Avatars of War Orc Shaman

An earlier Avatars of War miniature painted up. Enjoy!

Black Templars - Birthday Pressent.

My cousins birthday is in 3 weeks and he Plays WH40k
Black Templars, He has sent me 2 figures a Chaplain and a sargent to paint. I have not seen them before and found no pics of them so here ya go.

Looking forward to painting them, trying out some inks and the challenge of painting black armor. The Chaplain will have a slight Blue to his armor just to help him stand out on the table as the rest of the army have a plain black style.

Im planning on non metalic metals (NMM) Something like this this video but I dont quite have the skill with an airbrush yet so will be finishing it with a brush and glazes.

101 NMM
Cheers

Golden Brush Single Miniature 1st place

Its pretty exciting, I won the wellington Games Workshop Golden Brush Single miniature catergory this year. Its nice to know that your on track and it adds to painting and posting. Their plan worked . . I think I will go down there and have a paint sometime.

 So im pretty Pleased with the win and was a bit surprised. I think next year I will aim for an entry into each catergory.

Next up I have a hell Dorado Miniature " Andre De Montbard" to paint.