Feb Wrap up.

Hi guys its been a busy month, I have not had as much time to spare as I would have liked but I have enjoyed looking after my 5 week old.

So Pics are better than words .

 Small amount of work on the spear blade NMM next step is to get some crackles of lava on the blade. The horns have been painted also, I used a few glazes and blends.

I went to a Master Class run by Meg Maples in February which was extremely useful, So to anyone out there who has been thinking about such a course I would highly recommend it. She teaches 2 brush blending which is the main focus of the course and you can get some great effects with it the steam punk Dorothy has been painted that way.Here is the link to the other students work enjoy.

Imperial Fists Basing

After playing around with the base and carving out some moon rocks for my scene, I think I have got it looking much better.

Here are the 2 options for his right hand, a bent elbow or a semi straight one with the same bolter. I Think I will go for the semi straight one, My reasoning is that it creates a triangular shape and the top of the triangle is his head which will be the focal point. Any thoughts on severed head position under the foot? 

I need to suck it up and fix the marine into position and sculpt his joints that I've cut to get the stance. Not forgetting his right foot, I might have to pop some extra milliput under and resculpt some moon rock for a steady footing.

Then I will hack up the genestealer (GS) in a dead pose. I am a little concerned about the size of the GS thigh it looks fine IRL but quite big in the shot, I'm thinking with the darker colours on the base to simulate sunrise it wont draw too much attention.

Imperial Fists, Base Re-Think

I have had an hour or so each night for miniatures, I'm currently addicted to getting the scene right for the imperial fist marine.



So after putting a base together I decided it looked too static and cut the mound off. I  looked up some scoria and squeezed some brain juice for a dynamic looking rock.


After thinking about it all day while on Daddy duties I had this idea.

I made the cork smaller and removed some of it so the finished piece will be a similar size to the cork.(once covered in milliput)

I think it looks much better, slightly positioned diagonally from the top view to create some depth also. 

 I was going to make it removable but my goal is to improve my painting skills not really use them for gaming. After fluffing around deciding if it was going to be socketed or not I reduced the height. THEN Thanks to Zab I cut another 2 layers of cork off so it looks much more like the sketch.

I have just glued the new formation to the old base, 2 hours to set. In case you are wondering what I used to glue it, expanding epoxy adhesive. That way I didn't have to bother getting a flat surface between the two pieces.

I will have to put a bit more milliput on to fill up the joint so I can sculpt it later.

Stay tuned. .

Miniature Conversion / Modifying Miniatures

In my research I have discovered modifying miniatures is called Miniature Conversion. In my last post it was pretty basic chop up a marine and blue tack him together to get the feel I was looking for.

Pinned the joints that I have cut, green stuffed the angles that I'm happy with and left it to set.

 I also put a magnet in his torso and waist so I could see how he looks with out going blue tack mad.

I have a fair amount of trouble getting the stance looking good, I had to widen it so it was equal to his shoulder as it was looking a bit out before.I've raided the Sean Connery head head from another kit, will need some TLC as there is a tiny mould line down the right side of his face.

I'm really starting to think about a banner for him to hold rather than the gun, it might loose the original concept, although if you lasted the night with monsters looking at you for dinner I think it would be a victorious morning.

Space Wolf Rune Priest Update

Looking at the base for the priest I just felt it needed to have that one last highlight so I did it, I think it looks a lot better now.

Happy Painting :)

Modifying Miniatures and Inspiration.

I quite like the Imperial fist marine done buy Thor here is his link and his finished mini below. Now its seems to me that a high end painter starts a trend with an award winning miniature and every one else replicates the idea in their own style and finesse. 

Thor Modelling Studio

So Thor painted his one for a client who was was inspired buy Volomir's work on Brother Fonsel. This was His entry in GD Germany 2008, it was awarded gold in single 40k.

Volomir's Blog

If you go to his blog you will see where his inspiration came from too!

 My Project pre stage 1

I'm still working on getting the pose right. I think I will have to shorten the bent leg's thigh to get it looking better.

Chainsword arm, cut his wrist and arm to adjust the sword to rest across his Knee.

I think I will swap the helmet for a face and put the helmet on the ground.

Change the helm that he is standing on for a geenstealers head.

Do I keep the bolter or swap it for something else or just give him a clenched fist and adjust his arm too.


I have chosen plain chest armor so I can hopefully nail the yellow transition and have it look really neat, I could be diswaded for a different on as I could need some thing to break up  the yellow too?

Scene

My Mind is thinking "Ridick" styles, monsters in the dark kinda thing. So having a dawn theme with him looking out to the sunrise on a clif type thing and a defined line on the base where darkness is below and a corpse of the headless geenstealer lays. It feels pretty epic to me.

Its Bold enough to challenge my skill with a different angle light source and modifications are all new to me. Currently stuck together with blue tack and missing half a foot Im still playing with compostion. Once Im happy with how he looks I will snap some reference shots so I can pin and milliput his new pose with references.

Ideas and expertise are appreciated.

New Baby Girl

On wednesday 15th, I had the pleasure of meeting my little girl. Her big sister is very chuffed about the "buba"

Baby duties for a week and a half and then back to work.

Descent Second Edition and happy New Year!

Happy New year to all!

 I am still deciding what my goals are this year for painting. All I know is that I want to keep on improving, Being active in the CMON forums is a great help so I will keep on with that. I'm looking forward to Meg Maple's Master Class in February, I expect I will learn a lot, somethings I know about and others I don't even know I will learn until I do!. 

I would quite like to score an 8 on CMON buy the end of the year, we will see what happens.

I'm going to enter the Wellington Golden Brush again this year run buy the local games workshop. I will try for all categories, I have until September to get them all done, So Ideas would be cool. I know they have been getting hauled over the coals for a while now but I still like their miniatures and try to paint a variety of brands. On a side note I'm looking forward to painting some rackham steam dwarves with Zab too.

News. .
My brother and I have been painting the board game Descent off and on for almost a year, having finished most of the monsters.Last weekend we  decided to start some hero's.

Our goal was to make the hero's as much like the cards as possible. Bear in mind these are works in progress, the only monsters that are finished (just need basing) are the fish bad boys!

Fish Monsters

 Dragon 1 the other will be green like the card, a few extra highlights to be done and details.

 Base colours have been laid, next is details and some small pure white highlights.

last but not least table top Ultra marine.