When everything goes wrong - November Oath Complete

I've had a hell of a month.  Between working late hours and weekends doing repetitive physical tasks, running, and attending an after-work training course, I've had little time to paint.  When I do snatch a few hours, I'm rushed and stressed.

Ugh. Awful. Look at that mould line.

 So it's little wonder that this month's Oaths are some of my worst paint jobs ever submitted.

A budget lightbox and a birthday haul

This weekend I discovered that you can make a more that serviceable lightbox out of a white plastic bowl and a single swing-arm lamp

Simplicity!

Not only is it super easy to set up and use, but it appears to work better than my (probably over-large) "proper" light-tent.

Plastic bowl on the left, light-tent on the right.

Much less glare, and much less photoshop needed to make the colors true-to-life.  I may have to buy another bowl just for photography.

November Oath WIP

Well, my Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord finally arrived, just in time for me to Oath something completely different for November.  The winner of the Infinity quarterly prize decided that it should probably go to someone that actually plays the game, so a special challenge was added for November. 

Anyone that paints an Infinity model goes into the draw to win October's unwanted prize.  Something I had to take advantage of.  Rummaging through my collection, I decided on an eclectic mix for this month - The Guild of Harmony Yi Ling I won with my Fire Imp, a totally-not-Nick-Frost-in-Hot-Fuzz "PC Sam Ford" from Hasslefree, and a Hassassin Mujib to qualify for the Infinity prize.

October odds and ends

So much for October.  The Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord I won on ebay is still in the post, but since it's already half way though October, I won't have time to Oath it.

Mine isn't going to look half as good as this.

It's a shame, I was really looking forward to getting a Nurgle color scheme on what is frankly a gorgeous miniature. 

September Oath Complete - Part Two

Because this month was a Quarterly Prize month on the Something Awful Oath Thread, extra prizes were up for grabs if we painted markers of some kind.  Turn markers, objective markers, wreck markers, camo markers, whatever. 

This ain't no place for no hero...

Because I already had a fine set of camo tokens from Warmill, I decided to paint up some objective markers for my Haq forces*.  And since I'd been playing a lot of Borderlands 2, what better objectives than these lootable crates from Fenris Games?

September Oath Complete - Part One

Oath complete! And as usual I was painting right up to the deadline.

Like a less murderous Charlton Heston

The final product isn't too dissimilar to the last WIP I posted , but everything has been pushed a little further. Final orange highlighters were added to the top edge of each cloak plate, and black ink was carefully brushed into the grooves.

That's it, I give up

"It's just a jump to the left!"

What is this I don't even... Is she dancing?  Why would a diplomat dress like that?  What? Who? Why?

You know what, I got nothin.  The figure speaks for itself.

Especially when compared to all the other new releases.

More September WIP

Painting continues at my usual torturous pace, I can't seem to find the motivation to paint after or before work, then weekends are spent being social and/or being lazy.  But I'm confident I'll be able to finish this guy up on time, he's turning out to be quite a joy to paint.

Last time I'd given Nemesor Zahndrehk an all-over silver drybrush to bring out the details.  The next step was to bring out his golden armour, which was a simple matter of drybrushing with Dwarf Bronze, Burnished Gold, then finally Golden Griffon..  A Gryffonne Sepia wash smoothed out the highlighting and added more shading and depth.

September Oath in progress

A quick rundown on what I'm painting this month for the Something Awful Oath thread.  First up is Nemesor Zahndrekh, the Necron HQ choice.  I picked him up on a whim, mainly as a way to play with some more Verdigris techniques.

Unlike most of the painting I've been doing recently, I started with a black undercoat.  I then gave the entire figure a Mithril Silver drybrush, both to bring out the detail to make it easier to paint, and to act as a kind of under-highlighting. 

Diorama-rama part 2

With the build complete, it was time to get painting!  The miniatures would be attached to the scenic base via the miracle of magnets, but I also left the trees off to paint separately, making sure to mask their position with lumps of blu-tac.

Once all the glue was completely dry, the board was given a coat of black spray undercoat.  The ruined bridge, Genestealers, and sides of the display base, were then masked out with tape, paper and blu-tac as the diorama was given a brown spray basecoat.

Chaos Lord Complete

With only hours to spare, I've completed and photographed my August Oath!

Diorama-rama part 1

A few years back, I decided to make a large-scale diorama.scenic base as part of a Something Awful oath thread.  The requirements were that the diorama be of a clash between at least two models of similar points values/strength.  Since I was painting Tyranids at the time, and because I had a crapload of bits still lying around from the Chaos Terminator Lord (the kit that keeps on giving), I decided to make an epic showdown between a Hive Tyrant and a Thousand Sons sorcerer and his demonic minions.

 I already had an idea of what I wanted - the sorcerer holding a bridge against the towering monstrosity, and I already had the perfect base - a display case for model cars I had bought some time ago just on the off chance I needed to make a diorama. 

Chaos Lord WIP2

Got a bit of painting done on the weekend, in between a trip to the museum to see inside-out animals, and attempting to survive a heatwave in a top-floor flat with no air conditioning or airflow to speak of.

Increasing layers of highlights from left to right.

Starting with the Screaming Skull basecoat, I liberally applied extremely watered-down Balor Brown to the recesses and shadowed areas, not worrying much about overspill.  To bring out the detail further, I applied a more careful Devlan Mud wash to armour seams and carvings.

One of these things is not like the others

Today, Corvus Beli showed off the miniatures for the "spec ops" special campaign characters from the upcoming campaign book "Campaign Paradiso".  Unique, elite members of each faction's forces, they represent the best and most badass the Human Sphere has to offer.

And of course, the lone female figure is wearing a crop top and posed ass out, hand on hip, while her male counterparts are in various stalker/action poses.  Oh and she's wearing combat heels.  Because of course she is.  It's a shame too, because they're all great sculpts.  At this stage though, all I can do is sigh and shake my head.

More pictures after the cut.

Chaos Lord WIP

Just a few quick WIP pictures of the Chaos Lord.  The photos are grainy and the paint job looks like ass, but hey, progress!

The gold is done, as is the loincloth and armour joints.  I've gone over the drybrush-splatter with white, then given the armour a base coat of Screaming Skull.  Still deciding exactly how I'm going to shade it, as I don't want it to blend in with the gold too much.

Back from the burnout

Ever few months I go through an alternating cycle of being really excited about painting tiny spacemen and not wanting to ever touch a paintbrush ever again.  After failing June's oath, I took July off to do things that didn't involve being hunched over a desk.

He's coming right at us!

But now I've got the itch to paint again! So I'm starting off with the lovely individual above, a Chaos Marine Lord, one a member of the Emperor's Children but now the leader of his own warband.

I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you...

Fire in the disco! Fire in the disco! Fire in the... Taco Bell!

Back in this post, I had some work-in-progress shots on a Tzeench Horror that I had converted into something I called a Lava Imp.  There was no sign of it in the May Oath Complete post, but I did finish the little devil, and ended up winning a prize for it!

Warmill Jewel Bases - Followup

Warmill found my review, and sent me this email;

"While checking our referrals I came across your review of our bases. I saw the mention of one of the designs not being centred correctly, I had created a couple of extra designs to go with the original designs prior to cutting your order and clearly I hadn’t aligned  that one as well as I had thought! From the start we’ve aimed to make quality products, and this oversight doesn’t sit well with us, so we’re going to correct the error and send you some new bases to replace the incorrect ones. Apologies for the inconvenience, especially with the delay due to the lack of acrylic."

 That's some damn good customer service right there! Thanks Warmill!

Review: Warmill Jewel Bases

Despite not actually having played a game in month, I decided to order some Warmill jewel bases to use for camouflage and holo-projector tokens.

I opted for Futuristic Hexagons in a mix of dark blue and light blue, to match the blue spot colors on my figures, and I'm pleased with what I recieved, with a few caveats.

May Oath Complete

I had far less painting time than usual this month, so it was a bit of a struggle getting everything done.

But they're finished, and just in time.

Combat heels are really, really stupid

Back in this post, I applauded the female Lasiq Sniper model for being sensibly dressed for combat, and similarly armoured to her male counterpart.  Commenter Faust pointed out that I was being a bit hypocritical, considering the model was wearing Combat heels.  I decided not to comment until I had a figure in hand to judge for myself.  Well, now I do, and guess what?

DAMN YOU CORVUS BELLI, YOU WERE SO CLOSE.

More May Oath work in progress

It's like a George Lucas movie in here!

 Haven't had much time to paint or write this week, this is just a minor update of the figures I'm working on, as well as something different I'm working on. 

May Oath and basic painting tips

No in depth discussion today, just work in progress pictures for my May Oath.  I also promised a friend I would take step by step pictures, but I kinda forgot (sorry Ari!), so I'll settle for talking about painting process. Again.

What a terrible picture

Sexism in miniature 2 - It's not all bad

In a previous post, I went over the worst offenders in the Infinity line, and generally groused about how sculptors seem to design female figures as sex objects first and everything else second.

Today I thought I'd point out the figures that show that it's entirely possible to sculpt kickass women without inexplicably removing half their uniform and/or posing them in some weird knock-kneed stance.  This isn't a "well done, Corvus Belli!" post, it's more a "you've proven you can do it before, why can't you do it again?"

April Oath - Complete

I'll make the follow-up to the "Sexism in Miniature" on Wednesday.  Today I'm going back to basics and posting what I've been working on - finishing the figures for this month's Oath Challenge on the Something Awful Forums.

STOP. Hacker Time.

Sexism in miniature - The worst of Infinity

Wargames and wargame miniatures have a problem.  It's a problem shared with roleplaying, video gaming, comics, and every other form of media aimed at the young male demographic.  It's an old problem, heavily entrenched, and one that is almost guaranteed to start scorched-earth level flame wars.

What the hell, Corvus Belli?

The problem being that wargame miniatures are, generally, sexist as all hell.

Review: Dragon Forge "Lost Empires" bases

Dragon Forge are one of the many small companies making sculpted resin bases for 28mm wargaming.  I recently picked up a set of their Lost Empires round bases, since I was fed up with waiting for my local games store to get in more Micro Art Urban Fight bases, and didn't want to order online in case I got duplicates.

Plus I'm terrible at sculpting hexagons.

And you know what? They're not half bad. 


Material:  The resin used is soft enough to easily work with a blade or drill, but doesn't feel bendy or weak.  There was only a small amount of flash on the bases I received, thin flat pieces extending from the bottom rim that were easily broken off (though the edges still need to be trimmed a little)

And now for something completely different - Verdigris

Due to a completely different but equally nerdy hobby, I had no time to paint over the Easter weekend.  So instead of yet another work-in-progress post, I thought I'd talk about something completely different.

Terrifying horses! No, wait... (photo by Alice Palace)

Verdigris!  Like rust, it's caused by the oxidisation of metal - iron for rust, and copper, brass or bronze for verdigris.  While they're very different in terms of color, the same techniques can be used to paint them.

Oath of the moment

Over on the Something Awful Forums they've begun another of the yearly "Oath" threads, where members pledge to paint a certain amount of miniatures every month for a chance to win regular spot prizes and a selection of impressive grand prizes.

Triple threat triad territory

This year they've opened it up to submissions from all game/miniature lines (previously it was limited to Games Workshop figures), so I have thrown my hat into the ring and pledged to paint the bare minimum of three figures per month.  This month, it's another Ghulam trooper, a Ghulam hacker, and a cute little Nasmat remote.

Ghulam on film

Google tells me that "Ghulam" translates to "slave", or maybe "slave solider" which is a really weird thing to call your basic line troopers, but I guess they're going for this historical reference.

 Being called "slave" has to be terrible for moral.

 

Finished Naffatun

Finally got around to finishing the Naffatun I started way back in a previous blog post.

And when I say "finishing" I mean "oh god look at those mistakes, those missed spots and that shitty brushwork fffffffffffffff

New Citadel paints, first impressions

Got to play with a few demo pots of the new Citadel paint range on my lunchbreak today.  The Bases have a much better consistency and don't seem to be prone to separating like the old Foundations.  Very impressed by Mephiston Red and Ceramite White, they went on smooth and provided surprisingly even and bright coverage on a black undercoat.

Dries are..interesting.  Only tried the silver Necron Compound. A lot easier to drybrush with than normal paints, though I worry that they'll be prone to drying in the pots.  Speaking of pots, the new design with the shark-fin latch is a much needed improvement, now lids will stay open if you need them.

Shades are okay, somewhere between the old inks and the previous-edition washes.  They flow like washes but are much "stronger" color-wise.  Sadly there were no Glazes to play with, I'm really interested to see how they go on.

Textures are a bit unnecessary, good for mud on tank tracks or the bottom layer of a base I guess, but that's about it.

An experiment with DPM

"How not to be seen"

Disruptive Pattern Material, or camouflage, is a mainstay of modern military forces, but not something we see much of on tiny space dolls  miniatures outside of ww2 historicals.  There's a couple of reasons for this; firstly because DPM is hard to paint, and secondly DPM is hard to paint right.

Which meant, of course, that I had to attempt it on my recently aquired Hunzakut Sniper, who handily enough has the special skill Camouflage.

Quick Naffatun step-by-step

Originally written for Smurfs In Space

What do you do when you've spent more than 24 hours and whole forests worth of carbon to travel to literally the other side of the planet to visit old friends?

Fresh air? What's that?

That's right, you sit inside and you paint tiny space men* with them.

Ragiks against the machine

Originally written for Smurfs In Space

I swear, Infinity miniatures exist purely to make me feel like a terrible painter. I consider myself a mid-range painter, not golden demon worthy but able to implement standard techniques to get a passable result. But something about the Infinity line makes me feel like I'm a 12-year-old learning to drybrush again. I think it's the dynamic posing and realistic* scale, they really make you step up your game.