Spacewolf test paint-job

I'm considering painting up some stuff for the OZ Golden Demon this year (as I do most years) but this year I've gone so far as to actually paint up a test piece for a Spacewolves squad... If I do decide to go ahead with it I'll probably neaten up a few things on this piece but I am relatively happy with how it turned out.

Blackjack - Reaper Miniatures

I've seen a few miniatures over the last year or so painted using a monochrome colour scheme with accents of bright colour (usually red, blue or green). I always thought that it looked pretty cool and when I purchased this miniature, decided that it'd be perfect for trying the technique out on.

There's maybe a few things I'd change - the red is a little overpowering for one but I quite like it on the whole.

RBG Dwarf.

Finally finished off the RBG Dwarf I started back in September of  2011.  It's such a great little sculpt, no idea why it's now OOP but I guess Tre's minis are all varying degrees of excellent so maybe he thought it the least good of the current dwarves.

The base was inspired by Ben Komets' work on his Miniature Mentor video although next time I'll try for the floating tile look which he achieves so well. I had actually finished a base for this miniature before I'd even started on the figure but as often happens with me - the miniature would not fit on it when I tried to put it all together and had to start again. Quite a happy error though as I think this one looks far better.

A Little More Spring Cleaning.

I quite enjoyed the feeling of clearing away one of my long-term, half finished projects so I decided to revisit one that's been bothering me longer than most.I purchased Gurm not long after it was released and started on the painting soon after it arrived in the post but nothing went right and it was soon abandoned. That was possibly 8+ years ago now. For the next unfinished project I thought it'd be a good idea to choose the miniature I was least likely to ever return to and this was an easy choice.

Once again I didn't strip or re-base the miniature, I just continued on from where I left off. Nothing much worth mentioning about the paintjob other than the armour - I used a variation of the hairspray technique minus the airbrush. It was a little tricky trying to stop the hairspray from 'activating' whilst brushing on the subsequent layer of paint but I found that heating it with a hairdryer so the paint dried immediately helped. The rest of the technique then proceeded as it normally does with out too much difficulty.

And as it was for the best part of 8 years:

Spring Cleaning...

I guess most people who've been painting for any length of time will have half finished miniatures lying around, waiting for that inspiration that never comes. Unfortunately, I have more of these projects than I generally care to confront but over the weekend I decided to delve into long forgotten shoe boxes to see just how bad the problem was. I won't go into numbers but it was a tad depressing so I thought it best to do something about it and what better way to be rid of unfinished miniatures than by finishing them, well one but it still proved cathartic....

The lucky miniature was Nord Kegbreaker by Reaper Miniatures. No idea how long ago it was started but it must have been a while back because I (thankfully) came to the realisation of just how bad a cyanoacrylate and coarse sand base was many years ago. My guess is pre-2005 but who knows...

I decided it'd be fun to work with what was already painted rather than stripping and re-starting so the face and beard were basically just tweaked with a few glazes of various colours and whilst the base pained me greatly I also made do with it as best I could...

Before

After (hopefully obvious)

WIP - CAPT Kara Black - Sedition Wars Pt. 2...

Slow going on this one due to being too knackered to be bothered with painting after work at the moment... Thankfully (?) some mechanical problems with the car gave me the perfect excuse to stay home today and get a little painting in.

I'd decided a while back that I'd try for a brown leather look on the vest - similar to an aviator's jacket. I'll probably add some subtle edge highlights here and there but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. The colours for those who might be interested are - VMC leather brown, VMC camo black brown, VMC dark sea blue and VMC desert yellow.

WIP - CAPT Kara Black - Sedition Wars.

I was looking forward to finishing up Inigo but with the deadline fast approaching for my WAMP challenge entry I decided that it was time to make a start. 

It's always a pleasure to work on miniatures like this - beautifully sculpted and cast - McVey's resin along with Kingdom Death's is peerless.

The face is almost finished - just some more nuances of colour to add here and there, same with the hair. I was however at a bit of a loss as to what colours to use on the uniform - was thinking of a dark brown to get away from the official version but ended up going with VMC dark blue grey - different enough but still blue just because it works well...

WIP - Inigo Wilde by Statuesque Miniatures

Well I was going to make a start on CAPT Kara Black for my WAMP challenge entry but the milliput was taking too long to cure so I thought I'd get cracking on Inigo. I was hesitant to paint it because I've never painted black skin and wasn't sure how to go about it to get a realistic result... I had a look at some of Ali McVey's work for inspiration and came up with some colours. I ended going with VMC cam violet brown, VMC leather brown, VMC German cam black brown and VMC dark sea blue. Early days but I'm happy with how it's looking thus far.

Four A Miniatures - Sea Demon #3

I could just squeeze in an hour and a half's worth of painting this evening so I thought I'd try to finish the third of the sea demons... Didn't quite get there and after looking at the pics I'm not sure what to make of it, a little dull to be certain, almost like it's primed and nothing else... Will see what I can do with it tomorrow, it's the better halfs night to cook so I'll make the most of the extra time

Four A Miniatures - Sea Demon #2

Thought it'd be nice to see all three of the Sea Demons painted up so I spent a few hours this afternoon painting up this guy. It was a much quicker and simpler job than on the first but I'm happy enough with it.

I used the airbrushed zenithal highlighting technique again, it definitely speeds up the painting process but I think it might encourage a bit of laziness. That said - certainly a great technique for tabletop standard PJs.

Old School Grenadier Pt. 3...

After noticing a few things that I wasn't happy with I spent a little time today fixing them up - nothing major - the boots were pretty awful before so I added a little more depth to them by deepening the shadows, the same thing with the staff. I also found something that I hadn't painted at all so that was sorted also (photos are great for noticing things that would otherwise go unseen).

Old School Grenadier Pt. 2...

Arrived home after 5 days in Sydney, 5 days which basically consisted of over-indulging in food and alcohol and little else... I should say that it was fun while it lasted but it's nice to be home but the truth is, I think I could quite happily make a career out of it... Ah well - back to reality.

Spent a couple of afternoons on the Grenadier miniature since getting back and thought I'd post a quick pic. Was one of those miniatures where the colour scheme was all over the shop and seemed only to be getting worse with each new colour applied. I was tempted a couple of times to throw in the towel and start on something new but I stuck with it and actually ended up being quite happy with the result. Once again it was painted largely with just VMC and VMA paints, I'm really enjoying painting with the Model Air paints with the only downside being that they dry a little glossy when brushed on.

Old School Grenadier...

I really like Julie Guthrie as a sculptor, I think there's a certain elegance to her sculpts that few others can achieve. I'm not sure of the precise age of this sculpt - maybe from the mid 90's at a guess - pretty good for something 15+ years old. Originally from Grenadier's Personalities line, now produced by Mega Miniatures...

Anyhow this guy has been primed black and then airbrushed with mid and then light grey from the light source to begin the highlighting.

Was hoping to get a goodly amount of this finished today however some of that real life rubbish conspired against me... Flying to Sydney tomorrow so I'll get back to it next week...

'Four A' Miniatures - Sea Demon Warrior

After reworking the monumentally bad base and touching up a few other areas, the miniature's finished.
I tried out some Green Line moss from Fredericus Rex for the first time and whilst it doesn't look at all like moss on a miniature this small I think it does work well as a semi-aquatic type plant. I also mixed up some pigments with gloss varnish to make some boggy puddles.

WIP - 'Four A' Miniatures - Sea Demon Warrior

I'm not terribly fussed with anything the larger miniature producers are coming out with at the moment, I think most of the good stuff is being created by the smaller "boutique" studios. As long as Four A hold onto Paul Muller as a sculptor they'll continue to come up with cool miniatures like this guy - a Sea Demon Warrior (1 of 3).

This is still a work in progress, nearly finished but with a few tweaks still needed - in particular the base which is and absolute atrocity... Not much to add - it's basically a fun, relatively quick paintjob but using Vallejo Air Color as a brush on paint which I seem to be doing more often these days.

 

Latest Miniature Acquisitions - Kingdom Death.

Whilst browsing Frothers I believe, I saw the latest Kingdom Death releases and was, once again stunned - the Flower Knight in particular was one of the nicest sculpts I'd seen in a long time - I reckon it'd be in my top handful if I was the type of person to compile such lists...

Anyhow, being a little short on cash due to Christmas related expenditure I decided I'd hold off for a week or two before buying what I wanted thinking that if the Butcher (another brilliant sculpt) hadn't sold out in a couple of months then neither would these. Ofcourse KD sold out of the Flower Knight in a ridiculously short amount of time and the Female Survivor wasn't far behind. The search was on...

I found the Female Survivor easily enough on CMoN and snapped one up but the Flower Knight was not going to be so easily acquired . After much investigative work (checking alternative stockists on KDs site)  I contacted Taka at Full Metal Planet in Japan who had not yet received his allocation of KD minis and was able to secure the Flower Knight. :) It did end up being a little pricey but Taka's service can't be faulted - a great guy to deal with.

Both miniatures turned up yesterday (only opened the packages today) and I was certainly not disappointed - both sculpts are quite literally amazing. In my opinion Kingdom Death are at the forefront of keeping this hobby interesting, their more recent sculpts with the exception of the Sunstalker Infant are near peerless. The quality of the casting is faultless, even better than Studio McVey, it might sound more than I little wanky - but they really are a pleasure to behold...

*I've since discovered that Maelstrom Games is also a stockist for KD which is worth noting...