Hi all and welcome back to my purple dragon saga. I've been playing with colors and I kind of like this result -- so far at least. It is in no way close to the image I had in my head, and I have been arguing with Jimi the whole time. Did I mention that I named him Jimi? No? So I named the dragon Jimi. I had to name him because it hard to argue with someone who doesn't have a name. Don't believe me? Just give it a try and see how it works out of you.
Anyway, here are some pictures just to keep me honest.
Lately, things to don't seem the same. Painted it purple. I don't know why.... Excuse me while I post this guy.
----(Sorry Jimi)----
I have somehow got it into my head that I want to do a purple dragon. Why? I don't know but it doesn't seem to be leaving. In fact, it has ensconced itself in my brain like a brain bug. These are the first tests in order to make the voices in my head shut up and mainly to get an idea or what it will look like. Or more accurately, see how the picture in my head will translate into what the finished product will look like. My first thought is that it needs to be darker - a lot darker -- the wings need to be handled more carefully. Not really sure what I mean by that but maybe make them darker and hint more at the color I want them in the highlights.... Any, here are some test shots I took...
First up is just a fun side project involving a fire giant and transparent washes... You know the ones from army painter, secret weapon, and GW. Ya those ones. I splashed in a little of the reaper inks into the mix too just to keep things spicy and experimenty and what not. I started using some liqutex white straight from the tube for edging and man does it pop. I saw it in a Miniature Monthly video and thought I would try it. (If you have not seen or joined the miniature monthly service, do it now. It is the best 5 bucks you can spend on miniature painting) Anyway, all these washes were applied to some scale 75 metallic paints to give it depth and color variation. I'm going to have to incorporate this technic into my reapercon entry this year.
Next up is one of the zombies from Black Plague. He is just a quick job so I can get to the game playin'. He has also been subjected to the Secret Weapon Washes, specifically Sewer water and baby poop.
Lastly are some commission pieces which I have finished up. The birdmen are not the same ones as last time but I did try to make the "match" so they would all look like they belong together. There is also a dwarven thief and elven fighter. You can see that I couldn't stop myself from playing with the washes in order to give a golden glow to her chainmail. Someone should really take those bottles away from me.
Its been a bit busy round my house this month -- there was a water leak and my youngests birthday party and a major software project at work... blah blah
Anyway, I finally got a chance to get some painting done so I thought I would share. In no particular order, the shoggoth. This little guy was a blast to paint but I don't feel like a captured what was in my head on this one. I've been listening to HP Lovecraft stories on my commute this month which lead to me picking this one up on a whim. If you look closely inside the thing there is a skeleton. I'd like to add some gore effects I learned at reapercon but that will have to wait a bit.
I have been mounting all my zombicide miniatures on clear disks which gives me a sh!t ton of practice pinning. These two are next to be painted.
Lastly are four commission pieces -- an elf, a dwarf, and two bird men. The elf and the dwarf are comming along nicely -- especially the dwarf. I have been playing with some armor effects on the elf's chainmail to make it look more... elfy... and I like the way its coming out. There are also two birdmen which I am trying to paint with a different scheme than the ones I did before.
First off, I've been working on Hillbert just to get him finished and happy. It has been so much fun that I have broken out my other Giants and will start painting them very soon. I imagine that he is talking to me in a voice like a english Jim from Taxi while I'm painting him. He will say things like "A bit more around the cockles... Careful of my bitters" -- makes me laugh every time.
I did not get much time to work this weekend cuz... gaming.... but I did get to get a few strokes in on Hillbert. That is what I have been calling him since he has been cooperating very nicely and Hillbert sounds more or less friendly. I makes me think of the kind of guy who you want around in a bar fight -- he is either going to unleash hell or be so friendly and funny he will defuse the situation.
I am so happy to get my studio (office) back online and to get back to painting. I've been trying to pair down my tools and rearrange things to give it a more open space. Here are some examples of what I have been working on. I need to neaten up the tartan on the first guy. I did the tartan on a whim but I think it turned out ok so far. The miniature is a stone giant from the Reaper Bones series that I picked up at ReaperCon 2016 but didn't start there. The same is true of the female giant also. I don't know why I decided to paint her purple but I really like the way its progressing. I'm starting to doubt the white hair but I can always go dark later.
Lastly is a Hill Giant from Reaper Bones also. Since Reaper is doing a 25th anniversary celebration, they are giving out a free limited edition miniature each month on qualifying orders. This has pretty much ensured that I will be ordering something from reaper every month for the next 9 months to get the special mini. When I am finished collecting and painting them I will post a picture (but there are 9 months to go so don't hold your breath). Anyway, that is a long way of saying that I picked up the hill giant as part of this month's order. It is essentially an experiment with airbrushing skin as a foundation to build on before adding details. I remember Aaron Lovejoy saying once that you can apply the colors to about 70% of what you need with blending. You have to add the highlights and shadows to the deepest parts of the model but it seems to be working out pretty well for a first attempt. Luckily I have a second Hill Giant to try out when this one is completed.
I can't tell you how happy I am to get this studio to a point where I can a bit and take pictures. Right now its still crammed with stuff as I slowly sort it out and put it back together. I get slower as I try to weed out the tools I don't use anymore. Anyway here are a couple of quick pictures from my new set up. Its not finished yet but it is operational.
okay so I started calling it my studio so my skills would improve.... Ha ha ha ya my family looks at me with that same look. ya the one you are sporting on your mug right now. On one hand it makes me laugh at its sillyness but on the other if makes me take the craft more seriously.
Here are some iPad pictures of the work I did this week. So close to finishing this commission... Just a couple more nights and then I should be done...
You haven't heard from me in a while but with the new job and a butt load of commission work in the queue I just haven't had the time. Yeah I know. Everyone says that.... Well um.... Yeah.... How about some pictures of what I have been painting?
In other news I have found the best, absolute best, primer. You want to know at it is? Well I'm not tellin' you. Really I'm not. Okay I will. Its the Badger Stynylrez series. It comes in varies sizes and in white, grey, and black. I liked it so much that I picked up all threw color of those colors plus a couple of other nonstandard colors. The best thing about these primers is that they sticks really well to resin and reaper bones figures and its easy to get smooth even coverage. Its designed for airbrushes but I can be brushed on (although I did not try it with a brush). Its quite opaque as you would expect from a good primer but its not as thick as other primers so a quick pass from my air brush was all I needed to get the job done. Add to that the ease of being able to pour it right out of the bottle and into my Patriot Extreme and we have a winner.
Thats all for this time and I hope to get some more pictures up this weekend as I plow my way through the list.
I have not posted in a while because I have been busy with the new job. So far its seems to be going well and I am pretty happy -- but you want to know what I have been working on right? Well let me show you want I won at ReaperCon 2016 -- three, count them, three silver medals. I could not have been happier with the result. I entered this one in the open competition which means that they take the base, conversion, and paint job into consideration. In case you are wondering, the tentacles and skulls are added on this guy. The skulls on the shield were stamped out of greenstuff and the ones on the "cloak" were purchased from secret weapon miniatures and added to the cloak as I added more greenstuff.
This is my humble diorama entry this year. Its called "Eternal Guard Duty" and the concept is that the spirit of the dead guy is still on guard duty even though 1) the treasury is already looted and 2) He is dead.
Lastly is this guy. This guy fought me all the way to ReaperCon and at ReaperCon and he is STILL fighting me. He trailed in the completed stages as I focused on the other two (they were nearer to being done) and as I left for ReaperCon I vowed to finish him there. I tried, I really tried but he sill kept fighting me. At last we came to blows only hours before entries were due and a couple of friends witnessed my wig out. "F&ck it! I'm just turning him as he is. F$ck it! I'm so done with you! You F&cking piece of SH!T! F@ck it and F*ck you!" And with that I turned him in. As the relief settled in and I started wondering if I could pull him out and work on him some more a friend of mine said "I was looking at him earlier and he looked great to me. What more were you going to do to him if you had more time?" I didn't have an answer for him but I did think it was funny. Anyway I would have been happy with a bronze on this one -- but he won a silver. Not sure how he was able to sneak past the judges but here he is. And yes we still hate each other.
Reapercon starts in 4 days and I have so far to go to finish these. Got lots done today but I'm too tired to do more. I'm at that point where I'm creating more problems than I'm fixing. Any pictures are below.
So.... I started a new job after being in the same spot for 22+ years. It's a longer commute but it's way more money which means more miniature money. The downside is that I will have less time to paint for a bit but I'm still pushing to get my entries in for Reapercon this year. Here are a few pictures I took with my iPhone just to let everyone know that I'm still active.
Hi all. I haven't posted in a fair bit of time so I thought I would throw up some quick pics from my iphone. My personal life has been pretty exciting right now with some possible changes on the way. More on that front when things are official.
So here is the skeletal horse and rider that I have been converting. The shield is almost finished and ready to be painted. The runes on the horse are not in their final color yet as I plan on glazing them with another color. The only choice is which one? Should I make them all the same color or mix it up?
