Ice Ice Baby...

Here they are, my contribution to the Song of Baldes and Heroes Backlog Challenge on LAF. I think these turned out well. There are a few things loft to do. I want to string the bows and hit a few area with an extra highlight. I tried to keep the palette cool with a lot of blues and cooler grays.

I decided to sculpt some masks for the ice demons. I really like those Ral Partha orcs. They are easy to paint but are not too ridiculous in their proportions. I may go back and add some tattoos.

Here is a closeup of some of the characters. I'm still practicing source lighting on every figure I paint. I think the lighting on this one is a lot more subtle than my previous attempts. I think the trick is to use thin layers of paint that shade the existing painting, rather than covering it up.

Chilling

A quick mid week update. My friend Scott Pyle made me aware of the Song of Blades and Heroes Backlog Challenge on the Lead Adventure forum. Even though I had a whole lot of orcs and ancient Germans that could do the trick, I wanted to do something different. After rummaging around my backlog, I decided to do a fantasy Inuit band. These are based off of the Copplestone Inuit warriors pack. I wanted to show off the unpainted conversions because i did a lot of greenstuffing on these figures. I use a lot of reference material from the net but my biggest influence is this picture. The two creatures in the back are old Ral Partha Gigantic Orcs that I'm using as ice beasts.

Stay tuned for Painted pictures of these.

More Magnificent Malifaux

I've been going forward with my Malifaux figures. Todays pictures are my Arcanist converted from the West Wind european vampire hunters set. I originally was not too keen on these figures. Some of the old West Wind figures suffered from strange poses and some odd feature(club hands, no ears, etc.). However these figures provided a really good base for some resuclpting and positioning. I so far have used every figure from the pack save for one. They fit the Malifaux feel pretty well. These guys will the the fleshy component for for a Miners and Steamfitters Union themed crew. Next thing to paint is the small horde of steam spiders.

First is the Victor Strausborg, budding mechanical sorcerer and tinkerer. I think the source lighting turned out better this time. Its a lot more subtle. I think this will make a good alternate(I don't like the word proxy) Ramos. I can honestly say that this is the first time I have ever sculpted eyebrows on a miniature. I'm not really happy about the flame in his hand. Fire was always something that i have had trouble painting. It goes against every painting instinct that I have accumulated over the years. Instead of highlighting the tips of the flame you need to highlight the base, where it is brightest. Its good enough for government work. I find there is a point on every figure where you should jsut stup messing with it, or you'll make it worse. I think I'm at that point with this figure.

Next up is the Slobodan the hunchback. He will standing in for Johan, Renegade Steamfitter. I wasn't too keen on the stock figure from Wyrd. He just didn't look like the "working man" that the fluff portrays. He looks more like he just stepped out of the Ultimate Fighting Ring. I did a lot of conversion work on this figure. The goggles, bandanna, and hunch on his back were all added with greenstuff. I tried to make the figure look greasy, like hes been elbow deep in some engine all day. I use liberal amounts of Valeo Smoke to acheive this effect. While Devlan Mud is a better general wash, Smoke is really good a for a variety of special effects. I use it for deep shading when I'm doing source lighting and as a grease when painting machines of various sorts.

I also received my Malifaux rulebook in the Mail today. There are plenty of other more extensive reviews out there, so I will not go into too much detail. Suffice it to say that I really like the rules. Not only the system, but the way it is written as well. Despite being a departure from the norm, the books is well laid out and written. I'm having no trouble understanding the rules and getting a grasp of this very innovative system. I hope they later release a system for constructing our own custom characters, since I think these rules would be great for some light role-playing.

Back Again and Building Steam

Again the heady responsibilities of studenthood keep me from my Blogging obligations. That and not having anything worthwhile to show you. Anyway, I have been working on some cool steampunk miniatures in preparation to play the new skirmish game Malifaux. I love historicals, but sometimes one needs to work on something a little whimsical. I really feel that deep down, fantasy steampunk is my favorite genre to paint and play(cyberpunk be a very close second).

I included some pictures of the unpainted conversions. You may recognize the Captain Alister Cain conversion I did a while ago. It now has a coat of Paint and is ready to shoot down neverborn and witches of all stripes. I haven't bought the book, but I think that I will be using these as Guild gunfighters. The figures from Wyrd are very nice, but I wanted something a bit different. The other miniatures are the Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team. I really like these figures, they are finely sculpted and are not too busy with details, something that modern miniatures are prone to be. Also in the picture are the steam spiders that I constructed out of beads from our local bead shop(which is called Libeado, clever). I like the Wyrd Brass Arachnid, but I am poor student so I had to improvise. I did buy one Bras Arachnid to get the stat card. I think that these would also be very useful for role-playing. I am particularly proud of the the small centre spider. The legs are made from suspension struts from an Airfix kit that I had been converting into a grav tank.

I sculpted all the bases out of greenstuff over standard lipped bases, which was not as hard as I though it would be. I carved a manhole cover for the top had wearing character's base. I'm rather pleased with the result. Although I wish I had my Dremel here so I could mill more circular pieces of styrene.

I had a lot of fun painting these. Took my time and really tried some new techniques in painting these. It felt like I spent just as much time trying to get the bases to look right as I did painting the models! There was plenty of reference material to go around. Durham is full of cobbled streets which I could observe and really get a feel for. The advantage of living here instead of just visiting is that I can see cobbles(and other surfaces) in various conditions, which is real help when painting. How do cobbles look when they are under a street light? All I have to do is look at them when I go into town next.

I tried to do a bit of source lighting on the magic user. This technique is really a holy grail of fantasy painting for me. It gives a sort of mysticism that really suits certain universes. Malifaux is one of those dark settings where the bleakness is punctuated with glowing magical effects that really stand out. I'm not entirely convinced that I succeeded with the overall effect. The more I look at it, the more I think its off somehow. I would appreciate if any of the expert painters on the intertoobz could shed some light on the subject.


Thats all for now. Stay tuned for more photos and ramblings.

A squad here, a squad there

Here is a quick pic of some GZG alien mercenaries that I painted a few days ago. These were a test to see if my new wash over white undercoat technique scales up to 15mm. I'm really pleased with how these turned out. They painted up very quickly with a good result. I have few more packs the need to be painted.

In Medieval Russia, figures paint you!

Here are two units from my new 10mm Medieval Russian army for the Warmaster Medieval campaign that's starting up at the club. These figures are Kallistra with a few leftover Irregular and Pendraken mixed in for flavour. I really like the Kalistra Medievals, but they are huge! They are much taller than Pendraken and dwarf Irregular.

I tried to paint these a little brighter than usual. I think it went a little overboard on the blue. I'll have to tone it down on the next batch.

Over all, I have 7 units finished with another 8 to go to make 1000 points.

Guess Who's Back...

...back again, Joe is back, tell a friend...

Alright, school has has grabbed a great deal of my attention and I've neglected the blog a bit. However, I am back and I will hopefully get back to a more regular posting schedule.

I'm going to start some heavy playtesting for Blue Moon's new Galactic War I rules and I figured that I had Better beef up some of my 15mm sci-fi forces. I have been painting 10mm ancients for the last month and Its time for a change. Although stay tuned for pictures of my new medieval Russian army that I'm going to use in a club Warmaster medieval campaign.

Here are a few vehicles that I plan to use to bolster my gang militia that has been previously featured on this blog. I'm modelling the army after my concept of African militias that one sees on the news occasionally. These are the first three vehicles that I have converted from mainly GZG models. However the pick-up truck looking thing is made from a Pendraken 10mm "not aliens" colonial marine APC. I tore off the turret and turned it around backwards. I think it looks pretty good in 15mm.

I hope you enjoy the picture. Stay tuned for much more 15mm sci-fi as a hastily create two serviceable forces for GWI.