Feeling a little bloated?

So in addition to finishing up my Bloat Thrall last night, I also got some work done on my McThrall attachments. My 2nd Necrosurgeon unit is done, so that leaves me with the four brute thralls. But before we get too far off my train of thought, here's the finished Bloat Thrall.

Front:


Left:


Back:


Right:


Alright, so back to my tangent. I got my 2nd Necrosurgeon unit done, but no pics since they came out really crappy this morning. I'll take more later. So back to my tally, that leaves me with 12 models left. Hopefully I'll only have 8 Cryx models left to paint by the end of the weekend.

While I don't have pics of the Necrosurgeon, I do have pics of my first joke model. I'm going to need to go back and redo some of the GS work (i.e. the shoes) because I got distracted while I was setting stuff up. I threw some paint on them to see if they would pass inspection...but they look like crap, so Imma redo it. Anyways, here's my Brute Thrall WIP. They should all be done fairly soon.

Brute Thrall WIP: Soon to be Ronald McDonald & the McThralls!!!

Moar painting!

So I'm attempting to finish painting every single last Cryx model that I have before I move on to painting anything else or buying new models (unless they're more Cryx models ;) ). As of right now, I have 17 models left unpainted, with some others needing finishing touches.
The Breakdown:

Witch Coven (4)
Morty + Deryliss (2)
Brute Thralls (4)
Necrosurgeon UA (4)
Bloat Thrall (1)
Bane Thrall UA (2)

I also have several models that will be falling into my hands very soon (a Harrower from that painting commission, as well as a full unit of Blackbane's raiders comign with Venethrax and my Cryx book sometime in May). Hopefully I can finish painting everything I have now before my next batch of models comes in so that I can be fully painted for the next league.

Anyways, in my ongoing effort to finish painting my Cryx, I started painting my Bloat Thrall last night.






So what I'm happy with so far.
1) I love the dull look that Devlan Mud gives to my metallics. Very fitting for old & reused parts.
2) The skin really seems to be coming together right now. The purple bruising looks quite gross and elicited an "ewwwwww" from my girlfriend.
3) The guitar string piece gives a nice broken look to the missing portion of the leg.

We'll see if I can stay happy with the model as it progresses. Hopefully I can finish the Bloaty this week and move on to finishing my McThrall attachments by the end of next week as well.

I Can't Stand It (up without pins)

Here's another update on my Avatar conversion. I made a base for him to stand on and starting piecing things together. He's finally at the point where he can stand up on his own two feet. I still have a lot of work to do, filling in gaps in the rubble on the base, more putty work to cover up my joins, positioning the sword arm and so on.

The biggest obstacle is going to be staying focused on this project. I won a Legion battlepack at Kingdom-Con and traded it with a swell gentleman on Bartertown for the Malifaux Death Marshall's box. The urge to start modeling and painting those up is strong, but I must resist...

Oh, and here you go.

First Commission Finished

So I've finally finished my first painting commission ever. I don't think it's quite my best work ever, but there are sooo many fiddly parts. At least I feel like I'm getting better in general. Anyways, wihtout further ado, here are the pics of what I've done so far.











So I'll be giving this to Brandon (the guy at my LGS) this Tuesday. Hopefully that means that I'll be getting a Harrower from him on Tuesday too. In a related note (to getting new models), I got a trade on Bartertown for a bunch of my Legion stuff. I still have about 45 points of Legion I think, but I'm getting 50 points of Searforge. It should be a nice basis to have two warmachine armies. Also in the train of thought about new models, Micah just traded some stuff for a Malifaux box... meaning, I should be buying my Seamus box relatively soon. So much to buy and so little money for it all. Ah the life of the addicted gamer.

Get It Together

I got some work done on my Avatar conversion yesterday and even remembered to snap a few pictures

Here's what we're working with, one chopped up Avatar. Remember, before construction there always has to be destruction.

The head is glued on, and rods are used to connect the torso to the legs. I was trying add just a bit of height without making the avatar look too spindly. I am still working on bulking out the gap a bit more.

Both arms were re-attached to their shoulders. I was going for the option to have a different pose with the arms and a bit more length. I don't know if I really accomplished either goal just yet, but we'll see in the final steps of assembly.

One leg was straightened out but still needs to be bulked out and refined a bit more.

You didn't think you were getting off that easy were you? Listen

How To: Mosaic Tile Bases

I've had a few people ask me how I make my tile bases so I thought I'd put together a little tutorial.

1. First off here's what you will need need:
- A base (duh)
- An epoxy putty (like green stuff) or epoxy clay (I use Milliput because it's cheap and has worked well for this type of project)
- A scrap of window screen (I found a scrap at work, but I'm sure this stuff is dirt cheap)
- Wax paper or a plastic baggy
- Water



2. Mix up some of your putty and stick it on your base, like so





3. Use your fingers to spread the putty over the base (wear gloves if your skin gets irritated by the putty, it also would remove the chance of leaving fingerprints in your base)



4. Wet your fingers with water and rub the base in a circular motion to get the top of the base smooth and even (you could try baby oil, olive oil or any other kind of lubricant if you're using greenstuff)



5. Put some wax paper down over a table or some other hard flat surface, then place the window screen on top of the wax paper and wet it down. You want to use enough water (or oil) to make sure that the putty won't stick to the screen when you're pulling it up. You probably can't see how much I'm using in these pictures, but be very generous with the water.





6. Now the moment of truth. Flip your base upside down and set it on the wet window screen. Then take your fingers and press down on the base. Give it plenty of pressure. Make sure you push down on every part of the base. I usually run my fingers around the rim of the base and then give the center of the base a few good pushes. Also, be careful not to wiggle the base around or lift up pressure as this could result in wonky shaped 'squares' or double stamping.




7. Now gently peel the base up while holding down the screen. And viola! If you are unhappy with the way the pattern came out you can always smooth it out with your fingers again and go for another try. If you see depressions in the putty that weren't stamped with the pattern you can either try to fill them in with more putty and smooth the base out and stamp again, or just leave it. Unless I'm going for a perfect base for a special model I usually leave the depressions as is. When you paint up the base those areas look like they have been worn and smoothed out from foot traffic. I think it adds some nice visual variety.


8. If you are using Milliput you might want to take a paper towel or napkin and clean up the rim of the base. When I do this it makes me feel like I'm plating an entree at a fine restaurant, so that's exciting for me...


9. Once that's done you have your base! Leave it to dry overnight before you begin to paint, I usually wait 24 hours on mine.



10. Now that our base has dried we can start to paint (this is actually a medium sized base that was already dried, not the large base that I just made above). You can prime your base if you choose (I'd recommend it if you are using green stuff) but since milliput dries close to the same color I want my base to be I generally skip priming.


11. Start with a basecoat of Menoth Base (Or bleached bone)



12. Start painting on your pattern. A few things to remember:

- This is definitely a case of measure twice, paint once. Often times I'll draw out my pattern on a piece of grid paper or even paint it onto the base to test it out before putting on the base coat.

- As you are planning your pattern keep in mind that you don't want your entire pattern contained within the base. Let the pattern run off the edge. Don't center it, instead have about 3/4 of a pattern on the base. This is the same thing that artists do when they are planning a scene. If you have your painting (pattern) end right at the frame (base) it seems staged and artificial. If the painting seems like only part of what is happening in that world, that there is action happening outside of the frame, then the painting is much more real and immersive. I have to admit that I don't always follow this rule with my bases, but when I do I think the result is much more visually appealing.

- You'll want your paints a little thicker than normal to avoid runny paints seeping into the cracks. I'd say get your paint about the consistency of cream, rather than what you normally paint with being the thickness of skim milk. (You are thinning your paints enough right?)

-When you're choosing the colors for your pattern go about one shade brighter than what you want the finished product to look like. The Gryphonne Sepia wash we are going to use will bring the brightness of the colors down a notch.

-Use a brush with a nice sharp point, but that can carry enough paint to do multiple squares in a single load. I use my size #2 Windsor + Newton series 7, but then again I use that brush 90% of the time anyway. Get one, you won't regret it.





13. Once your pattern is complete load up your brush (any old brush will do) with Gryphonne Sepia wash and go to town. Really slop this stuff on there, you want to make sure it's pooling in the cracks because that will add the right depth to the base and make sure your pattern pops.




14. Let the base dry completely and then clean up the edge of the base with some black paint.





15. Pin your model's feet to the base, apply glue and you're done. Congratulations!

Menoth come here quick, and bring that Licking Stick

Well the Avatar's new sword is about 90% done. I sculpted the other side, and then resculpted the original side to even out the width and allow for deeper carvings. I think it's looking pretty good. I still need to sand it down a bit and work on the join from the sculpted part to the original model.

Here's a closeup of the sword


And a reference model for scale. Yeah...I'd say that counts as reach.



I have also been working on sculpting a new head. I pretty much stole this idea directly from youngwolf7, but it's the bottom half of a repenter's head flipped upside down and a new face grate sculpted on.



And most importantly. The inspiration for today's title, I'm sensing a pattern here...

Papa's Got a Brand New Scimitar

Jon recently got me the Avatar for my birthday and I hastily slapped it together in time for Kingdom-Con. Now that I'm back I've started chopping the Avatar up and hoping I can put the pieces back together again. This morning I finished one side of the Avatar's new, improved, and reach-worthy weapon.



I still need to sculpt the other side once this side dries and then sand the whole thing down to perfection. So far I'm hopeful that I'm not going to botch the whole thing.

And for your listening pleasure:

Kingdom-Con Pictures

Kingdom-Con has come to a close and I have to say that I have rarely had so much fun packed into a single weekend. I played some great games, met some awesome people, and learned a lot from repeatedly having my ass handed to me. I don't want to bore you with detailed descriptions of everything I did so here are some highlights:

-Fire Step assasination runs with eFeora

-Reznik wracking a forge guard and then destroying the wrack to blow up more forge guard

-Seeing the Blessing of Vengeance wrack the Deathjack and then one shot morty off an epic Amon synergy chain

-Getting steamrolled by a 100 point Karchev tier list

-Winning the open painting category with my Dire Troll Mauler

-Cashing in eternal war tickets for Prime Mk II and then realizing that it was a signed copy

And here's a slideshow of some pictures

Kingdom-Con Day 1

So Micah and I recently got back from the first day of kingdom-con. Quite the event if I do say so myself. After getting there at10.30 and registering for the 25pt Mangled Metal + 1 solo tournament, we proceed to play a quick game to earn some tickets for the amazing prizes they have (including signed artwork from Privateer, battleboxes for each of the 4 major factions of hordes and warmachine, and random models from hordes/wm/monsterpocalypse). I was thinking of going to try and get 50 tickets to get some of the signed artwork, but it takes a lot of games to get that many tickets, and the tournaments take a lot of time from eternal war. Thinking of the tournaments, Micah and I both went 2-2. It was a lot of fun. I ended up facing Tony (aka Killionaire from the PP forums) and lost to him playing Siege. I then proceeded to beat Garryth on scenario with eDenny, as well as pButcher by assassination with pGoreshade (with very lucky rolls, but if I had played smart, I wouldn't have needed the lucky rolls), and lost to pGaspy with pGoreshade. 2 freaking damage points and I would have gotten 4th overall... *shrug* oh well. It's still not enough to get me to the top table, but I'm hoping that everybody else wears themself out at midnight madness tonight. That way my chances of winning more during the 50 pt takedown lists will be higher tomorrow. At least, that's my reasoning. We'll see how it works out tomorrow. Anyways, I'll let Micah tell about his part later.

Quick Painting Update

So what with Kingdom Con this weekend, a new laser being installed in the lab, and just life, I haven't been able to grab good pics of my commission as it goes on, but here's a quick update with some pics I snapped this morning.

Kromac Painting Update

So I primed Kromac before I left for work yesterday, and started my work on my first commission last night. I've never done white skin that I liked before, but I haven't tried it in quite some time. I was only given a little direction, but I had an idea about where I wanted to go with this.

Instructions to match his current theme:
armor should have a silver inlay with blue filigree
beast skin should be white
basing should be snowy

My thoughts on the progression:
1) lots of bleached bone w/gryphonne sepia washes for all of the skulls and bone parts.
2) The "crown" should be brighter and go well with the brown/red of the hair. Probably brazen brass.
3) The cloth: there is already going to be lots of brown with all of the leather and hair and stuff, so some other color is necessary. Possibly a dark blue to tie in with the armor, but I'm going to start with a green.

Other than that, I'm just seeing how it's going to come out. I think I may repaint all the cloth since the green is very bright. Anyways, here's what I've gotten done on the 2 models.

Beast form skin + hair + base colors on the cloth
Human form basecoat skin + hair + base colors on cloth.





So far, I'm happiest with the skin and hair on the beast form. I'm actually surprised how well the white skin is turning out.

Anyways, comments, criticism, and suggestions are always appreciated.

Nightfall League + Painting Commission

So I've been playing in the nightfall league at my LGS (Adventurer's Guild of Riverside, if you happen to be in the area). So far, I'm 3-2. I've played against Kaelyssa (eGaspy 50 pt loss), Harbinger (eGaspy 35 pt win), eDenny (Terminus 35 pt win), pHaley (eDenny 50 pt win), and pKaya (eDenny 35 pt loss). So far it's been a learning experience, and I think I'm towards the higher end of the players down here, which is cool. Not that I will never lose, but I'll be fighting for the win with any caster but eGaspy. Against a few people, I'll prolly have a tough time even with eGaspy, but that's cause elves are blatantly undercosted (not to deny the skill of those elf players out there, many of them are still very good). As of now, all these games are unreported, so I haven't made any difference yet on the global map, but oh well.

Also, it turns out that Brandon (the guy who I lost to with pKaya) used to play Cryx, but now plays Circle. As such, he has a Harrower that he doesn't want....which I don't have yet. He said he'd sell it to me, but after finding out that I painted all my own models, said that I could just have the Harrower if I painted Kromac (human & beast form) for him. Freaking sweet! I'll post pics tomorrow of the WIP. I primed them this morning before work, and I'm planning on laying down the base colors tonight. The goal is to match his color scheme, but he doesn't have a whole lot painted (just his Dragoon at this point, with some started on a feral warpwolf). The basic pattern is really just blue filigree with silver inside for the armor, with white skin on the beasts. Other then that, it's at my discretion for what looks good, so who knows where we'll end up.

More Painted Protectorate

I borrowed Jon's lightbox and took some pictures of models I have painted recently, or never got decent pics of to begin with. I was remarkably close to being fully painted but then I worked out a trade on Bartertown and had a birthday so I am once again a long way away from having nothing to paint. I'm pretty happy about that.