This is my personal diary of painting experiments and Warmachine, Hordes and other miniature adventures (and perhaps a splash of real life thrown in occasionally too). This blog is as much for my own motivation as to share my experiences with others. My self imposed rule for my army is that I only field painted models. If you're a fellow painter, I encourage you to challenge yourself, learn new skills, try new things, and most of all, paint like you have a pair!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Thursday, April 25, 2013
From the Desk: More Archangel Assembly Progress
Life really erupted on me the last couple weeks. It also doesn't help that I picked up the first Dresden book and spent a few evenings reading instead of painting. However there is some progress to show.
So more assembly on the main body. Everything except the wings at this point, along with green stuff work on all these parts as well. Something in particular I'd like to point out is the tail. I opted to run a pin from the base, outward, and then up into the tail to help stabilize it. This also allows the tail to curve upwards a lot more and give just a hint extra sense of movement overall. I really didn't like the idea of having the tail simply resting on the ground.
I appreciate the previous comments about sending in the wings for replacement. After pondering it I have opted not to, mostly because I actually want to take on the task of the repair work myself just for the experience of it. Hopefully some of that will start this weekend.
So more assembly on the main body. Everything except the wings at this point, along with green stuff work on all these parts as well. Something in particular I'd like to point out is the tail. I opted to run a pin from the base, outward, and then up into the tail to help stabilize it. This also allows the tail to curve upwards a lot more and give just a hint extra sense of movement overall. I really didn't like the idea of having the tail simply resting on the ground.
I appreciate the previous comments about sending in the wings for replacement. After pondering it I have opted not to, mostly because I actually want to take on the task of the repair work myself just for the experience of it. Hopefully some of that will start this weekend.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Victor Pendrake
Finished Pendrake (finally) towards my April painting goal. I'm already halfway through the month and still a long ways from my goal. It's been a brutal month for work and I'm just getting crushed. It'll be a miracle if I pull this one off.
Just quick notes on Pendrake here. I pretty much speed painted this one and took a few shortcuts. The primer coat was also terribly grainy which screwed up some things as well. However I muscled through it and got it done. I spent way more time on the base for no particular reason than to add some flare and offset the other glaring mistakes. In any case, he's done!
Just quick notes on Pendrake here. I pretty much speed painted this one and took a few shortcuts. The primer coat was also terribly grainy which screwed up some things as well. However I muscled through it and got it done. I spent way more time on the base for no particular reason than to add some flare and offset the other glaring mistakes. In any case, he's done!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Archangel: Trimming and Disappointment
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Archangel: Beginnings and Unboxing
The new Archangel model is a majestic thing to behold. This will now be the 4th huge-based model that I'll be working on and I decided that this one above all the others really deserves special attention. To that end I'm going to chronicle my progress here as I go along. It'll be a slow process since I'm also working on other projects, but my goal is to have it completed in time for Lock & Load. So with 7 weeks to get it completed, I now embark upon my quest!
The first step with any model is to take all the parts out of the box, make sure everything is accounted for, and look for anything obviously mis-cast or broken that would need replacement. Fortunately I was able to do a quick scan of the pieces at the store to make sure everything looked intact. With that first step out of the way, let's take a quick survey of the parts.
So that's 20 pieces, which is significantly less than many other Colossals have been. And unlike my Judicator project, I expect to be able to assemble this entire model before painting which will be nice.
At this point I did a quick dry fit as best I could to get a sense of size at this point. My best estimate is that this model stands between 11 and 12 inches tall.
Now that I've unboxed and accounted for everything, my next step will be to start trimming and build a plan of attack. My top concerns at this point are the assembly of the tail so that it's solid, and the trimming of the wings. As I said above, my hope is to have frequent progress updates here, even if they don't seem very significant, just to keep my motivation high.
The first step with any model is to take all the parts out of the box, make sure everything is accounted for, and look for anything obviously mis-cast or broken that would need replacement. Fortunately I was able to do a quick scan of the pieces at the store to make sure everything looked intact. With that first step out of the way, let's take a quick survey of the parts.
So that's 20 pieces, which is significantly less than many other Colossals have been. And unlike my Judicator project, I expect to be able to assemble this entire model before painting which will be nice.
At this point I did a quick dry fit as best I could to get a sense of size at this point. My best estimate is that this model stands between 11 and 12 inches tall.
Now that I've unboxed and accounted for everything, my next step will be to start trimming and build a plan of attack. My top concerns at this point are the assembly of the tail so that it's solid, and the trimming of the wings. As I said above, my hope is to have frequent progress updates here, even if they don't seem very significant, just to keep my motivation high.
Sunday, April 07, 2013
From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #28
Three weeks have passed? Ouch! This is going to be a whirlwind post due to some recent events in my life. For those actually interested, read all the way to the bottom.
First up are the Secret Weapon terrain pieces I finished recently. I'd been working on them very slowly for a couple weeks but I finally got on the brush and finished them a couple days ago. I really enjoyed painting them actually. I used them as an experiment opportunity, combining airbrushing, two-brush-blending, washes, pigments, oil paints, and some alcohol-based paints as well. I think they turned out pretty well actually for fast-painted terrain pieces.
Next is a quick terrain piece that I got from the Gold Rush Rampage tournament. They had these as flag markers. I used this as an opportunity to experiment with the "dot oil filter" technique. The original tutorial that I referenced was this one from Secret Weapon Miniatures, although I'll freely admit that my results are dramatically different due to the texture of the piece I was painting. In any case, it was a fun experiment and I'm looking forward to trying it some more.
Next is the progress on Pendrake. This model has suffered from a poor primer coat that's a bit grainy, but I'm muscling through it. This will be the first model in a long time where I'm painting it attached to it's base rather than separate. Normally I hate to do this, but I figured it would be good practice to do every so often.
And here's the Extreme Carnivean. It's a monster of a model and it's going to take a while. I'm starting with the exposed muscles and trying to get a good bloody/fleshy look to it. My buddy Lance described it as looking like "a sausage factory exploded", so I feel like I'm right on the mark. It still needs a few more coats though to really darken it up to make the blood look more ichor-ish.
And finally is just a little preview picture of an Afflictor being assembled. It's pretty easy to guess at what's going on here.
On a personal note, I was in a car accident this last week. Specifically I was in the middle of a 4 car pile up where the last car slammed a BMW into the back of my Outback which then squashed me into the back of an F150. Fortunately no one was injured, but the guy that hit us all from behind sped away from the scene. What the hell is wrong with people? In any case, I'm a little sore but otherwise unharmed. Mostly I'm just ticked off cause I need to get my car repaired.
First up are the Secret Weapon terrain pieces I finished recently. I'd been working on them very slowly for a couple weeks but I finally got on the brush and finished them a couple days ago. I really enjoyed painting them actually. I used them as an experiment opportunity, combining airbrushing, two-brush-blending, washes, pigments, oil paints, and some alcohol-based paints as well. I think they turned out pretty well actually for fast-painted terrain pieces.
Next is a quick terrain piece that I got from the Gold Rush Rampage tournament. They had these as flag markers. I used this as an opportunity to experiment with the "dot oil filter" technique. The original tutorial that I referenced was this one from Secret Weapon Miniatures, although I'll freely admit that my results are dramatically different due to the texture of the piece I was painting. In any case, it was a fun experiment and I'm looking forward to trying it some more.
Next is the progress on Pendrake. This model has suffered from a poor primer coat that's a bit grainy, but I'm muscling through it. This will be the first model in a long time where I'm painting it attached to it's base rather than separate. Normally I hate to do this, but I figured it would be good practice to do every so often.
And here's the Extreme Carnivean. It's a monster of a model and it's going to take a while. I'm starting with the exposed muscles and trying to get a good bloody/fleshy look to it. My buddy Lance described it as looking like "a sausage factory exploded", so I feel like I'm right on the mark. It still needs a few more coats though to really darken it up to make the blood look more ichor-ish.
And finally is just a little preview picture of an Afflictor being assembled. It's pretty easy to guess at what's going on here.
On a personal note, I was in a car accident this last week. Specifically I was in the middle of a 4 car pile up where the last car slammed a BMW into the back of my Outback which then squashed me into the back of an F150. Fortunately no one was injured, but the guy that hit us all from behind sped away from the scene. What the hell is wrong with people? In any case, I'm a little sore but otherwise unharmed. Mostly I'm just ticked off cause I need to get my car repaired.
Tuesday, April 02, 2013
Play It Painted: April Goal
Super fast to document my goal for April (mostly for my own motivation):
- Paint Extreme Carnivean
- Paint Pendrake
- Assemble and paint 2 Afflictors
- Assemble Archangel
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