Carver

As mentioned previously, this is my Sketch Style experiment. I'll be taking a Sketch Style class from the great Matt DiPietro in the near future, but prior to that I wanted to take a practice run at the process by myself to figure out where I may or may not have big questions. Boy did that experiment turn out valuable. The end result is actually better than I anticipated, but it did open up specific questions for me:
1) What does Matt use when actually "painting" the sketch colors in? The underpriming process is very straight forward, but the coloring process is elusive to me.
2) How does he handle metallics?
3) How does he handle OSL?
4) Am I leaving my overall brightness too high? Should the piece as a whole be darker? I aimed for a high amount of contrast, but it might actually be too much.
In any case, I'm really looking forward to the class!

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #139.5 and Desk Rescue Update

Fake roundup post. Just cause!

First update is that I finished building a new paint rack, clearly pictured here. It holds all my paint! And conveniently takes up less footprint of my desk. It is not quite as good quality as the previous one, but it's pretty close and definitely meets my needs. The project is pretty easy and below I have included a sketch of materials for my own reference in the future. However I am going to note some key learnings for the (potential) next time that I try to build a paint rack:
1) Next time, get access to a table saw to do all the cutting to make all the cuts perfectly aligned.
2) Build each level one at a time, using rods to do the joining to make it more modular.
3) Stain it before doing the final assembly. Perhaps also find a better wood glue choice that takes stain and/or works on already stained wood.
4) Measure stuff a little bit more accurately. There's some jamming happening because the width is a little off, and the pigment pots on the top don't fit as well as they could.
Other than that though, it was fantastic. I'm super happy to have an expanded paint rack and clear space on my desk.

And on the desk front, things are still moving along slowly. Carver here is nearly done, and has been an interesting experiment of Sketch Style. I'll post more about that when I finish him of course. Beyond Carver I really don't have a good plan of what's going to get done next. I've got 2 primed Shredders, and 2 primed Beckoners, but neither of those really interest me, so today my goal is to review my sizable backlog of models and figure out what will stir my muse to action.

I'm also going to start working out my 2016 wrap up post. That will no doubt take me a while to do.

Paint rack reference notes:
Wood was all project pine wood from Lowes. 1/4" thickness, with mostly 2.5" width pieces. The edge parts are 1/2" square pieces.

Lilith Avatar

Likely my last finished model for 2016. This old metal sculpt of Lilith's avatar form is really nice to paint, although it was a bit of a challenge to assemble. None of the pieces fit cleanly together and I had to do some cutting and greenstuffing to make everything look reasonable. I'm really happy with the final results for the base, where I was able to blend together my normal Nephilim basing style with the actual Lilith sculpted base.

Holiday Happiness

My gaming bros (Lance and Henry) and I had our annual gift exchange which is a fun and relaxing end to the year. Gifts from those guys included:
* Miss Fire (limited edition) - Such a crazy awesome detailed model. It's a really challenging project that I'm excited about.
* Barbaros (alt sculpt) - Although I already have the regular plastic Barbaros, this sculpt is simply amazing. Gotta paint it.
* Amphibious Assault (Swamp Mother + 3 Gupp Swarms) - I'm on a quest to get all the scenario boxes assembled. This one also includes the translucent green version of the Swamp Mother so I have a nefarious plan for how to paint that.
* Master of Puppets (Collodi, Vasilisa, 4 Marionettes, 3 Wicked Dolls) - Just... yeah... so awesome. Can't wait to play Collodi.

And so now I have a bunch more Malifaux painting projects to keep me busy. Hooray!

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #139

Probably my last roundup post of the year.

My muse is still somewhat on holiday, but I'm still finding a little inspiration. More progress on Lilith Avatar, and started working on a this memorial-style terrain piece.

Played another two games of Malifaux this last week, wrapping up week 4 of our campaign for me at least.
Total games played this year: 56

Angel Eyes

The face is unfortunately quite muddled, and the photo isn't great, but she's done. Honestly the parts of this model I'm the most happy with are the pants/scarf (which only took 3 layers to accomplish), and the boots (which only took 2 layers to accomplish). The coat was also a specific practice in focusing highlights not only using zenithal techniques, but also specifically modulating the highlights to draw attention around the torso and head. Not entirely successful I know, but I feel like I'm getting there.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #138

Doing this post extra early just because of expected timing issues.

My muse seems to be on holiday, but I did get some stuff done. New Nightmare base for Carver is finished, and I did the extreme whites/blacks for Carver as well as prep for sketchstyle. Angel Eyes is done except for getting on to a base. I also got the Lilith Avatar model assembled and primed, which also included attaching it to one of my blank Neverborn bases and getting it gap filled. Other stuff got done too, like priming my 2 plastic Shredders and assembling a bunch of other things (2 Transmortis, the 4 Guild models from the starter box, and the Batman model).

There was also a backslide for my painting percentage as some of my Wyrd Black Friday order arrived this last week, which included the Titania box, Will-O-Wisps, Bandersnatch, and 3 limited edition models (alt Nicodem, alt Guild Guard and alt Bishop).

Played another game of Malifaux, wrapping up week 3 of our campaign.
Total games played this year: 54