Monday, May 21, 2012

Last of the Legion - for a bit

Proteus!

Last of the Legion stuff for a bit.  This is part of an ongoing comission army, and I need to trim down my project list a little (currently 4 projects going), so I can clear some things out.

This guy was fun to paint, but not my favorite.  I really like the model (probably because of a teenage obsession with HP Lovecraft), but the Carnivean body is not the coolest in the range, and the tentacles are fairly uninteresting to paint.

I do like how the tentacles turned out, though.  To me, it looks like a mouthful of earthworms, and I like how disturbing that is.  They were painted thusly:

- Gray Primer
- dilluted Elf Flesh/White Glaze mix
- Black Glaze
- Pink Glaze
- White Glaze for highlights



Friday, May 18, 2012

Return of the Lord of the Rings Projects

These are the first LOTR minis I've painted in over a year.  They're also my first foray into the interesting conundrum that is Finecast.

The first thing I noticed upon receiving these from my client was the price tag.  Holy Crap!  2 models (1 with a foot model included) costing a total of $56 with about 5 cents worth of plastic between them.  Unbelievable.

I mean, I'm not one to typically complain about miniature prices, but this enough to make me sick to my stomach.


Next, upon un-boxing the minis, I found what a lot of people have been saying about Finecast models to be 100% true - the casting is crap.  None of the models in the blisters were without flaws.  The Dragon Knight's sword had a gap that spanned the entire blade and had to be filled and sanded.  Mounted Amdur, Lord of Blades was missing one of his helmet horns (which I cannabilized from the foot model), and the foot version - which my client does not need - had only half a sword.

So not only are these models sold at something like a 10,000% mark up over materials, but they are also horribly flawed and in some cases even useless out of the package.

Anyway, here they are primed and assembled.  Rant finished, we are off to the races. . .




Thursday, May 17, 2012

Crucible Grand Prize - Krea and Agonizer

Last two warbeasts finished!  While not as impressive as the last two, these were neither difficult nor terribly time-consuming.  For some reason, the pictures didn't come out crystal clear.  I'm going to assume it was because they were taken on an overcast morning.


This little bugger is almost all glazes.  The skin started as just Elf Flesh mixed with a little White Glaze, and then there are several layers of Black, Purple, & Magenta glazes.  The eyes were done with a simple White Glaze (Vallejo) to make them look milky.

Ugh, I just noticed I need to retouch the flesh hooks. . .

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Epic Thagrosh Conversion

When my friend for whom this commission is for gave it to me, I said, "Man, wouldn't it make a great conversion if you added some Balrog wings to it?"

To which the friend replied, "I've got some Balrog wings. . ."

And so this project was born.  Its taken me about a month to complete it, though I've not devoted anywhere close to that amount of actual TIME on the model.  He's gotten a little love here and there as I worked on other projects.

Usually I would spend some time breaking down the recipe I used for everything, but there's too much.  I'll let the pictures do the talking. . .




The wings are done with a crazy mix of colors and washes that I can't even remember all the ingredients for.  I just kept changing it up as it went.  Its mostly Bleached Bone.


Sunday, May 6, 2012

Look Ma, No Feet!

Its a bird, its a plane, its. . .one of the coolest models Privateer Press makes!

The Archidon is complete!  Actually it was complete last Friday (I painted him at the same time as the Rhinodon), but I'm just getting around to posting it up.

The wings on this guy were fairly unremarkable, and that made them kind of a challenge to do.  They constitute a majority of the model, so they have to be right.  I think, deep down, they need some freehand in there, but there's pro-painted and then there's Pro-Painted.  Sorry, Mr. Galvin! :-)






Friday, May 4, 2012

Rhinodon, use Iron Tail! - Crucible Grand Prize

Just finished up the first of the warbeasts for the Crucible Grand Prize - the Pokemon-esque Rhinodon!

I tried mightily to get away from Pokemon territory with this guy, and I think by and large I succeeded, but what can you do?  The model screams, "Rhinodon, I choose you!"  :-)



Here's a shot of the back colors.

For the record, here's what I used:

Scab Red
Vallejo Red/Scab Red 50/50
Vallejo Red
Black Glaze (Matte Medium + Black Ink, diluted 50/50)
Red Glaze (see above)
Vallejo Red


I'm particularly chuffed with the way the belly turned out.  Its mostly just varying degrees of Bleached Bone and a Flesh Wash glaze, but there's Black Glaze in there too as you get further away from the belly.