It's that time- Reapercon!!!

   We leave tomorrow morning and the levels of excitement in our group are immeasurable!  Everyone has finished their painting entries... except me.  Of course!  These last couple of months have been very busy and definitely forced my 'socializing' skills while trying to manage a brutal painting schedule, so I wasn't able to finish my major project.  Ironically, this was already after a late replacement and a significant equipment failure, so I should have assumed failure from the beginning.  Not one to fail, I did finish the other two entries; let's take a look!

Male Paladin 77303

  Everyone knows I'm one of the very few Paladin-class fans and any holy warrior model I see grabs my attention.  Reaper produced a kneeling knight meant for a Chess set and I was sold- this must be painted!  It wasn't a difficult model at all, but I originally made the mistake of priming the model with a spray can.  It turns out that Bones miniatures uses that PVC plastic that doesn't like spray primer at all- it was super-sticky and unfun to paint.  So I pulled out another model and just slapped paint on it- it's not my favorite thing to do but the model came out okay, I think...

  I decided to make a couple of adjustments- I added hair to the bald man and I painted the eyes to be closed to reflect him 'in prayer'.  The hardest part about painting this model was putting paint directly on the plastic and still having the colours solid and smooth.  But I'm not unhappy with the results and I especially enjoyed painting the leather.  

Run Away, Goeffrey!

  Now for my favorite!!!  I've had this model in my collection since around 2005 when it was released in the GW Giant kit.  All my years of D&D gaming with monsters and heroes found a significant lack of regular people.  It turns out that regular people tend to be everywhere.  I finally painted this model after decades and I am so geeked!

  I guess this dude is a character in the Warhammer fluff and named Johann or something.  But I've never seen him and I don't know how he's supposed to look, so I went with stripes and chevrons to refine my brush-control skills.  Better, I had fun painting the flesh and even the hands- he has fingernails and knuckles!!!  And, of course, I had to add a skull to the base- this is a Warhammer model after all!

If you happen to be at ReapercCon this weekend- find me!  I'll probably be painting at a table or running games of Relic Knights.  Otherwise, wish me luck!

As always, Happy Hobbying!

I love dragons!

  Now we're only days away.  Most of this month has been high-activity trying to get all the projects done.  I have multiple games I'm working on and I'm painting miniatures and terrain like it's going out-of-style!  Long work-weeks have meant nothing compared to all this stuff- I feel like I'm back in the Emprah's service!  But it shall all be worth it.

  We're only days away from the new annual tradition- ReaperCon!  With this being the 2nd year that I'm going, I feel compelled to enter the paint contest.  I had multiple ideas throughout the year, but one absolutely had to be a dragon!  I originally was going to use the awesome Devil/Dragon model from Joan of Arc, but the extreme southern heat in my garage has melted the plastic behemoth in a project-killing way.  Not a great start....

  My buddy came through for me- he had 3d printed a dragon from a set he had bought for his resin printer.  I love dragons, he didn't have time to paint it (he has his own ReaperCon models to work on!), and so he donated it to my cause.  The dragon model is amazing- detailed and has a pose that you can sense personality from.  But, like all models (metal, plastic, or resin), there was work to be done.  

  After building everything, there were some noticeable gaps at the joins.  No worries- I busted out the 'ol green stuff strip, mixed a marble until my hands were cramping, grabbed my dentist picks and a bowl of water, and went to work.  It took a couple of days and a couple of layers and it still didn't quite turn out perfect (putty shrinks while setting), but it was good enough for a paintbrush...

  After all that, I had to prime the model and the base.  in this case, it was in the 'zenithal' style where I primed the whole model Black but then primed the top White to really lay out that highlight-shadow transition.  The base is going to be so much fun- nature loves a zenith!

  Now that he was primed and ready for paint, it was time to slap some colour on.  I had to do a little survey to find what colour I was going to make him, and it all settled on red.  Did I ever mention how much I love painting red?  It's, like, the easiest colour to paint, man!

  I had a full plan on this project.  This year is supposed to be the 'learning new skills' year with practicing techniques that I'm not used to, especially if it's anything outside the Citadel System.  Part of that is using an airbrush and this was supposed to be that project.  Well, it didn't work.  Me and my airbrush are not friends just yet and I had to shift gears.  This sucked because I was also planning to use the oil-wash method on this big boy to build out the shading, but no airbrush equals no wash.  

  So I reset to the 'glaze' method.  Coincidentally, the Contrast paints work very well for this and I was able to start the fade that this method can give you.  Over the zenithal prime- this was much easier than I expected!

  At this point, I've stopped with a couple weeks left and the plan to 'massage' the model.  More orange, red, and yellow are to be added in glazing layers to really blend the model's colour scheme.  This is the 'artist' part and I won't be taking pictures for a while.  Once I'm done and have gotten the feedback rubric from the Con, I will certainly post.  But for now, this is the progress that a camera will capture.  

  I will have more projects as well.  There is a fleeing civilian, a praying Paladin, and another model that I may pick up before the deadline.  But this is my main project.  Did I mention that I love dragons?!?

Happy Hobbying!

Candy and Cola

   I painted the Starter Set and I got the promo model at the ReaperCon.  I guess I know what my next project is supposed to be...  Just like before, I forget to take pictues of all the progress , but I can show a couple.  This is Infiltrator Candy and her little pet Cola.  She can work with either the Void or the Radiant and she's pretty good at pecking off damage and disrupting the enemy's best-laid plans.  

  The model was a blast to paint like all the rest in this line.  The only problem I had was with the cloak- for some reason, I switched back to the Citadel System on that and it doesn't match up with the rest of the style of thje miniatures.  I have no idea why; habit, I guess!  Otrherwise, she was fun to paint and her little three-tailed companion really let me stretch my reverse-shading skills.  

Before painting the pet

  As I was painting her, I found that her rear-end was a bit too... obvious to leave alone.  Besides her very gifted bust, she definitely had a great pair of pants for the back.  This was ironic considering that the whole style for this game is high-detail paint and dark, shadowed backs.  But she forced me pay attention to the other side.    

Finished product

  And that's it!  She's done, ready to be allied to another force, and prove her mercenary value!  

As always, Happy Hobbying!

Relic and Ork terrain

  If you haven't heard the incessant excuse-making from the last posts- I've been working on a lot of projects on top of working very hard (jobs gotta be done and bills gotta get paid!).  But I can't stay limited to one game or system currently as I have that gamer ADHD- a pretty board and a detailed miniature creates desire and inevitably leads to another whole product-line in the pile-of-shame.  But I'm on a deadline and am actually sacraficing my weekends to the paintbrush and model.  Well, instead of reading my whinging, let me show you yet another of my distractions.  

  A pretty board means good terrain.  I'm working on two games right now- Space Gitz and Relic Knights.  I have tons of 40k terrain and a good deal of natural terrain to use for fantasy, but I don't have Ork/Orcish or just regular generic sci-fi terrain for these two games.  Many bucks and a 3d printer-going-brrrr finally added some of that but now I needed to get it ready for use.  

  I didn't take a lot of pictures this time, but I can promise that the Ork terrain is already looking great with so many colours added.  You'll see if and when I get to posting those.  Now the T'au terrain on the other hand...  The airbrush absolutely failed me a few times and I've had to revert to the 'ol paintbrush to get that coloured.  The set still isn't completely done, but it looks great so far!

  Now I would be completely remiss if I didn't mention my buddy's terrain company- it worked for my last game of 10th edition and I'm sure they'll be updating for 11th.  The ruins are so detailed and the templates are not intrusive to the table at all (it's surprising how much that matters!).  I definitely recommend checking out Only War for a tabletop set.  I got two!!!

  Happy Hobbying!