Barbaros

Not really sure how much to say about Barbaros here. I painted him at the same time as the two plastic Young Nephilim that I just posted yesterday so he has a very similar look to them. His sculpt is similarly very nice although his giant comb-sword was a little weird to work with because of its shape and angle. I tried to give it a little extra dimension by some shading/highlighting, but it still tends to be pretty flat looking. Nothing much else to say that wasn't already said on the Young Nephilim.

Young Nephilim (plastic)

Let me start by just saying that I love these sculpts, particularly the one in sort of a leap/run pose (on the right). I've had a pretty mixed experience with plastic models before but these are some of my favorite thus far. I really enjoyed painting them. The one carrying the head was a little more challenging to work with due to the tight spaces and awkward posing. I left off the small piece of guts that would normally be attached only to avoid creating more of a basing conflict situation.

What went well:
* Enjoying the sculpts counts for a lot. I could easily see myself painting another one of these just for fun. Maybe even for a competition.
* The wings aren't amazing or anything, but I like how they turned out. They work with the base to help frame the entire visual look of the models.

What could have been better:
* The red sashes sort of jump out oddly. Particularly in the pictures. I think it's cause of the broader use of color for the skin and dramatically less so for the red sash.
* The spines (or whatever) on the wings are sort of odd for me. I tried to create as much visual separation of them from the wings as I could, but I just don't feel like I pulled it off well.
* Little details could have gotten more attention to really make them stand out, but I'm in a full court press to get my Lilith crew on the table so I cut a few corners.

Young Nephilim (metal)

These sculpts were sort of annoying. There's a few gaps I just didn't fill properly but these were fast paint jobs. Nothing specific more to talk about on these so once again, pictures stand on their own.

Cherub

Continuing to roll out the backlog of finished stuff with the Cherub. This model was sort of half success and half failure for me.

What went well:
* Skin tones worked out well for him. I think he really evokes the dark energy feel I was going for.
* Using a pin to attach him to the base was certainly better than what I assume the standard method is supposed to be, which is gluing the tails of his wings to the base. Ick! This is much more stable.
* Despite a pose that is a bit confusing, I feel like I kept the focus of the model appropriate to the action it looks like he's supposed to be taking.

What could have been better:
* Not a fan of the wings. I tried. I failed. They don't look horrible, but I really don't feel like I accomplished my goal of making them seem glowing from within.
* Not a fan of the pin for flying models. It's always a challenge. I need transparent aluminum instead!
* Bow and loincloth both could have been better executed, but then again, those aren't my main focus of the model.

Ok, and done. On to more projects!

Lilith

And here's Lilith, mother of monsters. I have to admit a certain amount of dissatisfaction with this paint job. I struggled quite a bit with this model for some reason. I think part of it was too thick of a primer coat. But still, lots of struggle. However some things went well. In any case, I'm really looking forward to rolling her out.

What went well:
* Challenging myself to paint her eyes to a higher quality than my normal. I feel like I succeeded here. Her eyes aren't amazing, but I feel like I did better than my usual. This was an important goal for me as I'm aiming at having a good entry for the Lock & Load painting competition this year and will need to be able to paint faces and eyes well.
* Metals went well. My process is getting better and I really like the contrast on the metals overall.
* Overall color composition. I wanted the boots to balance out the large sword, and then the various straps help balance out her flesh. This elements were key for me to try to balance given the striking red/blue core combination that I wanted to use.
What could have been better:
* No good color tie-in to the Nephilim. Oh well.
* Face just seems "off". Lots of anecdotal ways to explain it, but when working on it I just never could find a way to correct it without starting from scratch.
* Smaller metals are a bit rough, and I wish the tinting was a bit stronger. Just couldn't pull it off as well as I'd like, but still getting better.
* Totally failed to paint the lacing on the back of her jacket. Superfail.
* Perhaps I will end up painting a second one eventually.

Ok, and that's it. I'm still slamming through updates and there's more to go.

Terror Tots (plastic)

More tater tots! Liked these sculpts quite a bit. I was a bit lazy though on the gap filling, but camouflaged most of the issues with paint. Not a whole lot else to say about these, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Terror Tots (metal)

These little guys were like popcorn for me. I think I spent almost as much time getting the bases made and painted as I did on these. They are so tiny. These were actually the very first of my Nephilim paint scheme that I painted. It was sort of a leap of faith that it would work out ok, but in the end I'm quite happy with the result.

These particular sculpts are not terrible given their size. They were a little tricky to get together since they are so small. I certainly learned a lesson here about drilling pin holes into the feet before doing all the assembly and painting. That's something I'm going to make sure to do for all metal models going forward.

What went well:
* Using small models to test out a new color scheme so it's a smaller investment.
* Using color in a different way to reduce the need for smoother blending.

What could have been better:
* More contrast on metals.

Really not much to say on these. I've got a bunch more Nephilim to post and others that are in progress. Once I wrap up all the Tots/Young/Mature Nephilim, I'll do a post about the color scheme itself if people are interested.

Scather Crew

Ok, this post is chock full of pictures of the Scather Crew, despite the fact that this was a serious speed paint job. Honestly though I enjoyed painting it quite a bit. I'm going to forego the normal analysis of a project and just dump all the pictures here and close out by saying that it was a nice color distraction to work on Legion again after having been so focused on Malifaux lately.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #49

This will be a fast and sloppy post cause it's late and I think I've caught the flu.

Made significant headway on the next batch of Nephilim. Pictured here are Barbaros and 4 Young Nephilim. Their skin is essentially done and I've base coated the sashes. Painting all 5 feels a lot like painting a unit. I'm trying to assembly line them however at some point I'll probably pull out Barbaros and go the extra mile on him specifically. In the mean time, there's still a lot of work to do. The wings in particular will probably cause me fits. But getting this far has definitely given me a good head of steam to keep moving forward.

And here are the Scather crew members. After getting a start on the first one at last week's painting hang out, I got inspired to knock out their robes real fast. Two-brush blending really does accelerate work on larger surfaces like robes. I was swapping back and forth between these guys and the Nephilim to keep progress moving. However once I got the robes done it was easy to just keep working through them.

And I also primed, base coated and washed the Scather itself.

And finally I got bases done for the Nephilim, including 2 large for the Mature Nephilim once I get them started. This was actually a far more amount of work that I had planned for this week.

And that's it. Busy week, but still lots of work to go on the Lilith crew. I still need to post up pictures of the stuff that is done which I'll try to do this week.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #48

My productivity has taken a hit due to Breaking Bad. I need to finish shotgunning down all the episodes quickly.

My desk is a bit of a train wreck right now. I've been dabbling around with my efforts and haven't actually finished anything. It's different than my normal process and for some reason I can't figure out why my muse is touring me around like this. There must be a reason but I have no clue what it is.

As you can see from the picture, my desk is populated with the start of my Lilith crew (Lilith, 6 Terror Tots, and a Cherub) which are nearly done. Bases are ready and the models are sealed. I just need to attach them and do final metal highlights.
I've also started the second wave of that crew (4 Young Nephilim and Barbaros) with base coats for their skin.
I also carved and started painting the bases for the second and third waves of the Lilith crew (5 medium bases and 2 large bases).
And finally I've also got base coats started on the Scather crew.

This last week we also had painting night! It was a blast and I think all 3 of us had a great time and got something out of it. Henry was stoked to have finished his Nicodem model. Lance took advantage of the slot to get feedback on his various Convergence sample metal tests. And I used the time to get a bunch of work done on the Cherub as well as demo two-brush blending for both of them, hence the start on the Scather crew members.
My portable painting kit worked out great as well. I don't really think that it needs major changes. I'll just be challenged when I start bringing project that need more colors to work from.
I can honestly say that I think all 3 of us are looking forward to doing this on a monthly basis. It was also fun to close out the evening with a couple games of King of Tokyo.

And that's it for last week! I expect this coming week to result in several things getting finished and lots of progress on the Young Nephilim. That is assuming I don't get too distracted watching Breaking Bad while painting.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #47

If I wasn't trying to at least do these weekend roundups, my blog would have nearly starved to death.

Lots of random notes this time for the last couple weeks of work.
So first up is a quick shot of painting projects that are in progress. 3 of the Terror Tots are done, 3 more along with the Cherub are barely started, and Lilith is about 90% done. I've sort of been struggling with her. Parts of her I really like, and other parts feel just enough off that she seems distorted somehow. I can't pin my finger on it, so if anyone out there has any insights, feel free to share them. In general I'm going to call her good though once I refine the metals and clean up the grey straps.

Built out my portable painting kit! That was yesterday's post. Looking forward to using it this week hopefully.

I spent a bunch of time getting more base work ready for the Lilith crew. I realized this last week that I would just barely have enough 30mm blanks for obsidian pillar bases so I baked an even dozen more. Then I spent time getting a 2-level base made for Lilith and 7 more 30mm bases carved for the Terror Tots and Cherub. I have to say that this third type of Neverborn base in my obsidian pillar theme is by far the most labor intensive. The Nightmare ones are the easiest, and the Woe ones are somewhere in the middle. But carving the cracks in the top of these Nephilim pillars is definitely the most time consuming. At least I have these first 8 done. I've also got blanks ready for the 4 Young Nephilim, 2 Mature Nephilim, and Barbaros. I may try to put together a miniature kit for carving them and bring it to work with me to work on during lunch breaks if possible.

I also made a 2-level Nightmare base for the Dreamer, who I absent-mindedly based on a single level base. This rounds out the remaining re-basing work that I needed to do, so I figured I'd put together a group shot of all 4 that got re-based. Amazingly it wasn't that big of a deal to pull the pinned models off of the bases, mostly cause I think they were all metal.

Other quick notes... I'm totally failing to do my "painting practices" still. Been crunched on hobby time and just more focused on getting Malifaux models painted despite the clear value of doing the practices. In that vein though, I put together a plan for everything I want to get painted before Lock & Load this year and it amounts to a minimum of 42 models which is going to keep me very busy during the next 4 months, especially since a few of those will be competition entries.

From the Desk: Mobile Painting Kit

So recently I read Meg's post about Social Painting and it got me thinking about whether that's an option for me. The biggest barrier for me is simply being able to transport core tools that I need for painting. So to remove that barrier, and in prep for painting night with my buddies next week, I spent some time to assemble a mobile painting kit.

The first big concern I had was coming up with an adequate brush case. After a bit of hunting I managed to find this small box at a local craft store. It has a magnetic flap to close it. I proceeded to put foam in the bottom and created a second flat piece with foam on it as well. The idea is that the brushes get safely held in the middle and don't shift around mashing the points all up. I put some simple tabs on the panel piece to make it easy to pull out. The foam is just from old blister packs and just happened to fit perfectly with just a bit of resistance to the sides in order to stay securely. The pieces of cork are simply to brace up the ends of the panel since it was just made from old poster board.

As it turns out, there's plenty of space on top of the panel for paints. My dropper bottles (Secret Weapon, Vallejo, transferred P3s) all fit perfectly here too and as you can see it holds 10 paints this way. Not a lot, but enough for basic work.
In terms of the number of paints, my intention for the first couple runs of this is to work on Nephilim models that I already have an established paint scheme for. I'll just bring my paint diary and the appropriate paints from the formulas and work from there. So not having room for my entire selection of paints is not a big concern right now.

Next I needed to make sure I brought some basic supplies. This old container is serving to carry those basics safely. Paper towels, palettes, a brush cleaning cloth (lint free and super absorbent), an a handkerchief to use as a "drop cloth" so I don't accidentally get paint on other people's tables. This container also has leftover space for paints which is helpful. There's no wet-palette option in this kit, but that is still not a heavily used item for me at this point.

And here's everything for my kit (sans models) all sitting together. My travel Ottlite and a jar with rinse water are the only other additions. It's pretty compact, although not quote as amazingly compact as my assembly kit. I've got a cardboard box to put all this stuff into along with models being painted.

Now I want to point out, the only things I went out and actually bought to build this kit were the brush box and the Ottlite (and I got that lamp at 40% off thanks to a coupon), which kept my costs down pretty well. Everything else was just scavenged from my supplies that were already sitting around. Once I had all the materials together it only took me a couple hours of assembling and fidgeting with the assistance of my 3 year old son to get it to a point where I'm set to go. I expect to refine this kit as I use it more. This Tuesday I'll take it all for a test run and try to report back on what worked and what needs tweaking.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #46

Catching up on a couple missed roundups this time.

So a lot has happened across my desk since the last time I did a weekend roundup. I finished 4 models, 2 of which were pretty major. I also managed to re-base Teddy onto a Nightmare-style base (sorry, no picture here). I'm also working on re-basing the Primordial Magic to a plain base to represent his non-particular status. Once I do both I'll post a picture in a weekend roundup.

The last week though was extremely busy for me. I spent the whole time with my brushes in the racks while I did a bunch of assembly work. Pictured here was all the stuff I got assembled and primed just tonight. Of course it turned into a mess cause my low-grade airbrush managed to get a massive clog and cause problems. Here's the complete list of stuff that's now awaiting painting time: Lilith, Cherub, 6 Terror Tots, 4 Young Nephilim, 2 Mature Nephilim, Barbaros, 2 Stingers, and 3 Scather Crew members. I still need to prime the Scather catapult itself, but that'll be done with black. Doing this much at once was sort of an economy of scale but the priming step was a pain. I have to admit though, I am now in love with the Wyrd plastic models. Their plastics are so easy to work with.

So what else has been going on? I made a pile of blanks for building Malifaux bases. And then I also made another upgrade to my Malifaux travel case (sort of pictured here). I got a SnapWare case for craft materials and (after cutting down a piece of sheet metal) and used some adhesive strips to put a metal plate on the bottom of the layer of case. This makes a great and compact case for carrying Malifaux stuff. I've got 2 layers (one for larger models and a second for smaller) and then an additional layer specifically for carrying all the extra stuff like cards, tape measure, tokens, etc. So compact and easy for Malifaux. If people want to see pictures I'll post some, but it isn't particularly amazing to see.

And one last random detail: I replaced my coaster! My old nasty coaster, pictured here, was disgusting. I got this new rubber and steel coaster which I just love. It works great even when my pint glasses of ice water are sweating all over them.

And that's it! Hopefully I won't miss updates as much for the next few weeks.

The Dreamer

This model is tiny. Malifaux models are small scale to begin with compared to most stuff I've worked on before, but this model comes in under one inch tall. It was quite a challenge to paint. Still though, I'm happy with the results given my current skill level. Some quick notes:

What went well:
* Working on this at the same time as the Doppleganger so I could switch back and forth. Really saved my sanity by having the option to take a break.
* Adding some cloth texture to his nightshirt. I spent a fair amount of time trying to give it that "mental hospital gown" look to it. I wanted the right color and a slightly worn look, but not dirty or bloodied.
* Not using the sculpted eye sockets limit my painting of the eyes was key. I felt like the eyes worked out fairly well for the size but I took a page from Meg Maples and ignored the sculpted eyes and painted a bit outside the lines. In exchange of that, I painted irises on his eyes in pale green to give them some life.
* The new base worked out nicely for this model as well. I think the sandy blonde hair color makes a nice balance to the glowing fire look below him.

What could have been better:
* Thinning my paints more and taking way more time might have smoothed it out a bit, but at a huge time cost. This isn't a competition model by any stretch though so I opted for the shortcuts.
* The blanket he's carrying is pretty boring. I could have done something more interesting probably, but I was worried about drawing too much attention to it and away from the rest of the model.

Doppleganger

First model of 2014 completed! This was a fun project. More fun that I expected actually. At first I was pretty intimidated by this model cause of the sculpt but it turned out to work well for me.

What went well:
* Having a plan before starting was key on this model. I went with something close to the studio scheme, but I adapted the particular areas to painting techniques that I've already used.
* Pushing contrast a bit further than normal helped the overall look I think. The lighting is perhaps not realistic, but I like the pop of the overall look.
* Controlled sealing was key here as well. I glosscoated the entire thing, but I only sprayed dullcoat on the front. This kept the back side more juicy looking.
* Generally embracing the joy of this model kept me happy with my progress. The skin got worked over a number of times before I finally was happy enough to call it quits, but I never was frustrated. I even took the time to do a couple glazing coats to help smooth the look.
* Working with 3 different palettes gave me way more flexibility. For this project I used the wet palette, the ceramic palette, and the plasticard palette. Literally I used all 3, and in all cases for different purposes. I am really loving working this way.

What could have been better:
* Still had a bit of a chalky look to the flesh. Can't figure out why this time.
* The wet palette is still not tuned in well for me. I'll need to keep practicing at prepping it correctly.
* Painting the eyes as glowing instead of proper eyes was sort of a cop out for me. I should have manned up on that part.

2013 Wrap Up and 2014 Resolutions

[Disclaimer: This post contains fluffy, introspective nonsense... Just like last year's did.]

This was another crazy year and my painting productivity was heavily impacted. I took 5 international work trips and my son turned 3 which were the two largest impacts on my ability to get much painting time in. On the plus side I also did a number of home improvement projects like install a central vacuum, paint and finish out the guest bedroom, build shelves in the garage, and completely rebuild my painting desk after the bedroom remodel. I can't really complain too much about how much I did get done.

Last year's goals:
1) Attend Lock & Load. - Success! This was pretty easy once I got approval from my wife. I had a blast at the whole thing and really enjoyed the road trip.
2) Get my Croxorz collection up to a "completed" status. - Success! Completed this pretty easily. I'm not sure if I'll keep expanding my collection at all this year, but I do enjoy having them to play occasionally.
3) Expand my airbrush skills. - Success! Sort of. I did use my airbrush a lot more this year but I'm still not doing amazing things with it. I really need a class I think to get better use out of it.

This wasn't as bad of a year as last year, but still not super productive...
Models painted last year:
Legion: 23
Malifaux: 10
Minions: 8
Protectorate: 1
Or looking at it from a different perspective:
Small based: 15
Medium based: 18
Large based: 6
Huge based: 3

I also built and painted 5 objective markers, 8 fences, and an outhouse!

Goals for next year:
1) Attend Lock & Load (again) - Yep, just like last year.
2) Enter 2 painting competitions, which will likely just be L&L and KublaCon.
3) Get 90% of my Malifaux collection painted.
4) Start painting my Cygnar horde. More about that in an upcoming post.
5) Close out my random few unpainted models from my other factions. There's just a few rogue models that I haven't completed that I should just get done. I'd consider this one my stretch goal for the year though. I don't expect to fully succeed at this.

Lord Chompy Bits

Just under the wire, I've finished this last model for 2013. I probably could have spent more time on it but I'd sort of reached a point of limitation based on my color scheme. It's hard to explain but in order to do much more with it I'd have had to shift the colors differently to really get more "range" of quality to it. Still though, I'm pretty happy with the final result. It's got sufficient daemonic feel to it without being completely prototypical demon form hell.

What went well:
* Taking my time, despite getting a little impatient at the end, really helped me enjoy the whole process. I found myself spending a lot of extra time on the vast amounts of flesh to pick out little bits here and there.
* Using blue as an offset to all the red really helped create some balance to the piece. The red flesh is shaded using dark blues which creates a nice cool contrast. And then the loincloth and tongue are both using that same blue shade to tie things together.
* Just starting. Taking this model to the painting class was a great way to get it rolling. To be honest, it was farther down my paint queue and wouldn't have been started for some time if I hadn't brought it for the class.

What could have been better:
* The usual, more time.
* Finding a way to expand the color palette a bit more to give me more range to work with. Highlighting the red flesh is what got me stymied.
* Basing position is a little more forward than I would have liked but it's about as good as I can do. It balances nicely and I like how the basing worked out, but a little bit further back would have made me happier.

I'd like to end this post with a special note about this mode. As pictured below, this guy has two mouths: one normal and one on his belly! Love that bit!

Carnivean Extreme

I'm not going to belabor this post. The Extrevean has already had enough blog time leading up to this point. I'm just glad to be done with it. What started as an exciting project has turned into a torture. This model has been cursed in so many way. And now that it's done, the imbalance of it's center of gravity makes me hesitant to even put it on the table for fear of it tipping over and crushing other models with its many vicious spikes.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #45

Bleh. Holidays. Less painting. Short post.

More Extrevean progress. Remaining to do list:

1) More chitin clean up.
2) Finish base work.


Nothing else to report. Just trying to push through on the Carnivean. Hopefully just another evening of work and then sealing and such.

From the Desk: Oh Extrevean, How I Hate Thee

What originally started as an exciting project has continued to devolve into a soul-crushing pain fest. I just can't seem to keep hold of any excitement to finish this model. However it's been on my desk for months now so I am determined to finish it before the year is out. To that end I'm going to force myself to post progress at least every other day until it's done. I'll keep a running to-do list here as well for my own reference.

Sometimes I have these sorts of models. They threaten to cause painting burnout. However usually they are not this big and obnoxious. I can't really explain why this model is so frustrating either. It really has felt cursed the entire time I've worked on it, but something about the surfaces of it are also a real trial to my painting skills. In any case, I'm making a conscious decision to knuckle down and just get it done to a satisfactory table-top standard so that I can call it done and move on.

Remaining To-Do List:
1) Finish base coating stretched skin.
2) Highlight/shade stretched skin.
3) Finish painting mouth area.
4) Paint remaining spines.
5) Highlights/cleanups of chitin.
6) Paint a rune.
7) Finish base work.