Sea Dog Rifleman 3

Whew! Last rifleman done! Again, still out of dullcoat, so I have to seal it, but close enough. This was also the first model painted using my new lamp! This was the lamp I mentioned a few posts ago. This lamp is AWESOME! It's the limousine of lamps. I need to replace the bulbs though since they have a bit of a blue tint to them currently. The lack of heat from this lamp is a noticable change from my previous lamps. I can totally see why ArkenTyre said his painting improved once he started to use this lamp. Like making the move to Series 7's, it was a leap of faith for me, and turned out to be worth every penny.

Freebooter

Finished the Freebooter today, although I ran out of dullcoat, so it's not really "finished". This model's "paint like I have a pair" elements are the dirtying up (after doing all that shading work, and also the metals got some extra love this time. I read a post on the Privateer boards under the "Ask the Studio" thread where Quentin talked about how he works on metals. I took this opportunity to try out the techniques. I'll talk more about it in a future post, but basically it involves using multiple black paint washes to darken and shade the metals.

Sea Dog Rifleman 2

Whew! One more done. I actually have 1 last rifleman left to paint, but I'm itching to get working on the Freebooter, so I demoted him in the queue.

Just a note about this batch of Sea Dogs, as I work on models, I always leave the paint pots out that I've used and then they get returned to my mobile trays once I'm done. For these last 8 models, I just kept leaving them out so that I could try to use as many different colors as possible throughout the entire squad. By the time I finished this one, I was down to about a dozen assorted paints, metalics and inks.

Weekend Roundup

Yesterday I played in the WM tourney at my LGS. I got a Menoth coin by default, being the only Menoth player, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful. I had a by in the last round, so I only played 2 games. The first was against a very standard Cryx Witch Coven assassination list, which, assassinated me (but not before I destroy the Deathjack!) The second game however was against a Madhammer list, and was extremely entertaining.

I've also decided to bite the bullet and upgrade one of my lamps, mostly based on this thread on the Privateer Forums. I hadn't even noticed before how much heat my current lamps throw off. I'm hoping this upgrade will help as much as the Brushthralls claim they do.

Today's a catchup day. Getting lots of misc tasks done, and reorganizing/cleaning my painting desk.

Sea Dog Rifleman 1

First rifleman done. I took the opportunity here to try out painting some pattern on the bandana like the studio painted one. It turned out fairly well I think. Could have been a little more cleanly painted, but these guys are just rank and file. The next one is already about 30% done too. Probably this weekend he'll get finished as well. However today is tournament day, so no painting today!

Ahoy Ye Scabberous Dogs!

I finished up my 6 man Sea Dogs unit this weekend. These guys were a blast to paint. I took a few shortcuts in order to stay under 5 hours for each one. Below is the group shot of all 6 together. I uploaded seperate pics into seperate posts per scabberous dog and postdated the entries to match when I actually finished them. Now, on to the riflemen!

Sea Dog 5

Sea Dog 4

Sea Dog 3

Sea Dog 2

Sea Dog 1

First of the Sea Dogs (after the mate). The pics are kinda washed out on this one since he's so much whiter than most things I photograph in the lighbox with this background. Overall the Sea Dogs are a blast to paint. Just the right level of sculpted detail to allow them to be quick and yet have plenty of character. I'm getting braver about painting stripes now too.

Freebooter Sorceress

In contrast to pretty much everything else I've shown here, this is not a Privateer model. This Freebooter model is something my wife asked me to paint for her, so I put it into the queue and finished it just the other day. I spent alot of time on it and am relatively pleased, although this model felt cursed. She kept losing her arms, and at one point I dropped her off my painting desk (which is 4' high) and onto the hardwood floor. Miraculously she merely fell apart, and no paint chipping or damage was incurred.

Parallel Projects

Lots of stuff going on lately, and unfortunately painting time is at a premium. However I'm getting lots of projects moving and/or completed lately. Here's an update on painting/miniatures projects:

Display Case Enhancements: A couple years ago I bought one of the Ikea Detof display cases, which I have to say, for the cost, has been a wonderful investment. It's provided a great way to store and display my miniatures... until recently. I've got enough paintined stuff now that it has nearly run out of space. So, my wife made a quite clever and remarkably obvious comment of "Why not add more shelves?" So, this weekend I got some additional glass shelves cut (because Ikea doesn't sell the shelves individually), and some metal rods. Using some florist wire to suspend the rods in place, and then some 2-part epoxy glue, I secured the rods in place. Then a few rubber washers around the rods and BAM, 2 more shelves added securely and easily. The project probably took me about 2 hours once I had all the materials.

Troop Transport Options: I've been having a little frustration with laying out trays for my Army Transport case. I've got the small one that only holds 8" of trays, which I very much like, but it does create some challenges around planning trays flexibly. I saw a post on the Privateer Forums by bugbait_nz where he shows some custom trays he made. This gave me an idea to make some of my own trays. So after some hunting, I found a nearby store that sells foam (interestingly named House Of Foam). My plan is to create some half-sized trays similar to bugbait's so that I can have more flexible configuration options. The foam is ordered and should arrive next week.

Painting: I did actually get some painting done. I'll post those pics next as seperate posts though. I'm slowly working through my Sea Dogs, and hopefully will have them done by next weekend. This weekend though is full of entertainment (Cirque du Soleil and a Superbowl party).