July HPC Pledge

Here are the guys I'm planning to work up for the July Pledge

I wanted these guys to be a harded edged squad ready to kill who ever needs it with whatever they have on hand.  So I equipped three of them with Knives in addition to thier Bolters.

Yes the guy on the far right was part of my initial test paint scheme, he will be primed over and repainted like all the rest.

June HPC Complete!

Finished off the Initial half of the HPC Challenge. 1000 points of Minotaurs ready to kick ass in Zone Mortalis.

Montage of the work so Far!

HPC 2014 June Pledges

First a quick WIP on The Minotaurs Chapter Master Asterion Moloc

Pretty happy with the airbrushing on him, and really closer to what I originally envisioned.  Really let the tactical Squads get away with minimum effort, and they are far too dull brown.  But this, this is what I was looking for.  Glad I tested it on the Dreadnought first. Still needs some shading, highlighting, and edge highlighting.  But a solid start on the figure I think

Now for the June Pledge, only option really so I might as well go ahead and post it now.  That way if I start working on them everything is documented.

As I mentioned previously the Terminators were in really bad shape. Extras from several trades, and were looking awfully sad. Thick paint, fuzzy sections from the primer, all in all a sad state of affair. After stting in pinesol for a month I finally got around to working on them and still had to hand scrape the red army painter primer off several of the models.  Two of the terminators had about three layers of different color paint on them.  But now they are looking pretty good.  Should be able to ge these guys into a decent table top standard by the end of June.

Yes that is a headless Terminator Sgt. Just couldn't get all the paint scraped off the old models face. So I have two solutions ready to go. Either a new helmet less head, harvested from the previous Tactical Squad sprue, or a shiny new Anvil Industries Spartan Head

Sartorius on The Independent Characters Forum is also building a Minotaur list, and showed some Terminators with these heads on. Really like the look so ordered up a batch for myself. Planning to only use them sparingly for Sgts, Veterans, etc.  Should give  a nice look.  If the Anvil Industries order doesn't arrive in time, then I'll paint the helmet less head on and tack it in place. And then replace it when these guys show up.

HPC 2014 COMPLETE!

April is Complete!  Much happier with the way this coloration works on the figs.  Much brighter with better contrast than before.  Not going to immediatley re-work the tac Squads ofcourse, but I think I'm going to be looking at this route for my remaining challenges.

HPC 2014 April

So the Terminators are in pretty bad shape and need to be stripped so I'm switching to the Dread

And here is the Final March photo for the Independent Characters 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge. They look pretty good, and I think fall nicely in the Table Top quality range, but I'm starting to move to the elite slots next and think I need to up the game a little bit.  Going to change up the airbrushing on the next set.  As for April, it's time for the the Terminators!

HPC 2014 February Pledge Complete!

First pledge knocked down and on to the next!

 

Yes the picture is a bit, hmm sub-par.  But it should suffice for the HPC challenge rules

10x Man Tactical Squad including a Flamer, Heavy Bolter, and Veteran Sgt, with a truly wicked looking power Maul.  Will likely go back and fix up the power maul later, but for now continued production

And Of course I've taken a few better pictures.  Think these will work just fine for the Table top

HPC 2014 Minotaur Airbrushing Progress

 Finally got all of the airbrushing finished on the first squad of Tactical Marines.  These marines were primed white, and then airbrushed with a base coat of Vallejo Model Air Tank Brown.  The goal was to get nice even coverage accross the entire figure for a good solid deep brown base coat












Next I took Vallejo Game Color Cobra Leather and airbrushed the figures.  The goal here was to get a good strong mid brown tone, strongest on those areas that would catch the most overhead light.  Helmet, Pauldrons, tops of the feet, knee pads etc..  Great thing about the airbrush is being able to get smooth transitions, when everything works right that is.

 And finally here is the final airbrush stage.  Using Vallejo Model Color Goldenrod I selectively airbrushed the strongest area highlights.  Once again focusing on those area that will reflect the most light.  At this stage the airbrushing is finished and I'll start working in the shading, dark lining and edge highlighting, before working on the details of the figures.

Minotaurs 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge

Trying to start up my Minotaur chapter of Space Marines and decided to throw in with The Independent Characters 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge.  Here are my starter shots.  I'm planning to get some flavor text and "character" added to these4, but first they MUST be painted

Now here's my first shot of the Planned Brass paint scheme.  I like the overall coloration, but the mid tones need to be brought up a bit more, and the brushed on highlights cleaned up.

Yuan Yuan Part Deux

HOLY CRAP two updates in a week?!  Well I'm dooming myself to stop updating here.

They guys at WAMP took a look at my first photos and gave some recommendations to consider.  Tried to re-shoot the miniature at a higher angle and softer lighting, also I decided to re-do her eyebrow.  Images are a bit darker than I would normally go for.  However the images I normal ygo for are clearly not doing much for me.

Yuan Yuan

I've loved this miniature from the first moment I saw it.  Angel Giraldez, the studio painted for Infinity and several other companies, really is fantastic.  His technique is spot on and the speed at which he is able to finish figures is frightening.

Overall I'm very happy with the painting on this figure.  She was part of my exhibition at NCMSS 2011 show.  The judges did not find the piece as compelling as my Duke Gerard, and I contend that is the due to the base.

I built three bases for this figure, and I probably should have kept with the first one.  The figure screams "saboteur" to me and I decided the first base did not line up with that theme well enough.  But now I have no idea what this base is supposed to be.  Hooking up an undetonated bomb to a "laptop" the size of most desk top PCs now?!  On a far future themed model...

Yeah this was a brilliant idea!

Guild of Harmony Mae'Viir Dark Elf Sorceress

That's right not ashamed to blow her up this large.  Yes she doesn't actually look that great, but it's what I did.  When I first saw this figure from Guild of Harmony I was really interested in her.  By the time I finished painting her I thought I did a pretty good job.  Blown up like this I'm seeing all sorts of issues.  The details on her are not as "crisp" as I'm used to now.  And her eyes gave me numerous on going problems.  Had I taken the up close shots a few weeks ago There would have been some serious re-working last week ahead of the NCMSS show. 

edit: Huh...  Apparently I blew her up a little TOO Large for the blog formatting.

NCMSS 2011 Show

Yesterday MamaGeek, Shades and I,  (all members of the Virginia Mini Painters Group from WAMP) met up at the National Capital Model Soldier Society annual show in Annandale, VA.  Each of us brought several pieces for the exhibition. 

I entered 6 pieces into the SciFi Fantasy Advanced Painters exhibit and was awarded Gold for my Reaper Duke Gerard piece, shown on the left.

MamaGeek was awarded a well deserved  Gold in the SciFi Fantasy Advanced Open exhibit for her "Visiting GrandPa" Piece.  This is a really impressive diorama.  Although her pictures of the piece are fantastic, they do not do justice to the overall execution.

Shades put both of us to shame with exhibits.  He was awarded silver in the SciFi Fantasy Advanced Painters exhibit for his Kroot Ox, but his exhibit in the Wargame category was outstanding.  A complete Lizardman Army, Malifaux goblin force and a Freebooters Fate pirate goblin gang.  The whole exhibit was awarded a Gold as well as best in show for Wargame. 
 
I'll be posting individual shot of my exhibit pieces over the course of the next few weeks, maybe actually get semi regular updates on here again.

While there I ran into several of the guys from the Yahoo Groups DC Area Mini Painting Club. A club that I joined when it started, over 10 years ago.  But I haven't made any of the painting sessions in a LONG time and I'm planning to change that.  Painting in a group setting, and getting instant critique and feed back on pieces, really helps the end product and overall technique.

Monolith Project

So as I'd stated previously I'm going to wire up some Necron Monoliths with LED lights. The one shown above got abducted from a random website for reference Unfortunately the modles are already completely built. Luckily thats the practice I need to take on the next LED project. Luckily these models aren't actually mine.

Since they are already built I have to work with what I can get access to, or make access to. I'd probably go about this differently if I was starting from scratch but thats not an option. My intent is to place a bright white LED in each corner gun to illuminate the corner gun green plastic rods. Put a green LED on the top to illuminate the top crystal and a green LED in the interior to illuminate what will be a siwrling green portal where the large golden symbology is on the picture above. I'm intending to install a 9v battery on the bottom with a switch, then have all of the wires running up thhe center support column inside. From there wires will branch out a hole I'll drill near the top of the column to complete the circuit.

Should be interesting

First Shots of the Monolith Project

I've been spending the bulk of the time on this project so far planning things out. Looking closely at the Monoliths and seeing how I'm going to go about running all the wires, get the LEDs in place, and figure out the necessary resistors for it all while I'm at it. I recovered two monoliths from the Tyrant after he cried his eyes out about them being ruined and I set out to try and fix them up. The models were already mostly assembled excepting the corner guns and the clear green plastic tubing. I cleaned them up, and then set out to destroy them

As you can see I ripped off all of the arching structures above the pyramid structure, to give my self easier access to drill holes in the top and help me run the necessary wires on the inside.

















From here I drilled holes in the very bottom of the pyramid, Shown on the right. And drilled a hole in the very top, shown below.











As you can see this drilling expedition was not nearly as effective as the bottom hole. I need the hole to be in the center, but when I started the drill up I hadn't yet decided to rip off all the upper arches. I tried to get the hole done at an angle, and well you can see the results. I'll fill the hole with a bit of epoxy, cut a plasticard disc to size and put a new bottom layer, then I'll re-drill that hole.





Here I've drilled a hole into the side of the center collumn to allow a channel for the wires to the corner guns and the interior lighting.















Because the 9v battery is thicker than the available space I'll need to add a spacer ring. This adds a bit of height and facilitates hiding all of the wiring during game play.






Finally I've got the cuts showing how I opened up the Corner guns to get LEDs in there. Also I needed to drill out the interior to make sure there was a path for the light to get to the gun Barrels.

Next up Cybernetic Monoliths, now with extra wire!

New Project: Fun with Resistors?

So I've got this crazy Idea that when I pick up all of the upcoming ONI miniatures for AT-43 I need to to make all of thier flashing lights actually work. Yeah it's not a terribly original idea but for whatever reason this has sparked my need to play with solder and electricity. As I normally like to do I sucker some poor slob into getting me to try out new techniques on their figures first. So in preparation of working the ONI stuff I'll be wiring up 2 Necron monoliths with LED lights first.

Already have the wiring diagram all finished thanks to the marvelous LEDCALC website. I've identified all of my parts necessary and I'll be putting in an order for the LEDs, resistors, battery connections and switches. I'd like to use a 9v battery to power the whole she-bang but I need to figure out if there is a place I can HIDE the 9 volt battery first. Otherwise I'll need to use a 3 volt Li ion battery. And looking at the numbers that sucker won't even last a full game.

So my plan is to actually document how I go about this. Unfortunately both Monoliths are already pretty much built. But I think I can open them up just enough to run the wires and get the LEDs in place.

Plans plans and more plans

Writing things down on the blog doesn't really do much to help me follow through on any actual painting. But that doesn't mean I'll stop doing it!

Finally making some headway on the Tyrant's Gladiators. Dug myself I nice deep ditch of painting debt and I'm starting to see a bit of an end to it. Here's what I've got left to do on it

• 2x Secutors
• 2x Myrmillos
• 2x Amazonian Decurians
• 2x Junker Exo Suits
• 6x Junker Auxilla
• 3x Greater Pit Beasts
• 1x Pit Beast
• 4x CLAWS

Plus I've got two competition pieces i want to finish off for WYRD's Rotten Harvest painting comp.

Progress will be made, eventually

Final Brennus Pics

After about another 2 hours of honest work I'm calling Brennus done! There was about an hour more work put on Brennus himself and about an hour finishing off the Scenic base. I was damn close finishing off everything for the Uban Mammoth Painting Competition on the WAMP forums But there was no way I would have gotten the same results as I did a few days after the fact. Painting quality from 2400 - 0200 just wouldn't have been the same. Additionally there is a series of shots all around the figure. To give an up close view of him in all of his gladiatorial glory.

Brennus After Photoshoping

So I decided to try and run Brennus through photoshop again, and try yanking him off his base background onto a photoshoppped gradient. Just messing around really and wanted to see the difference side by side with the original.

Urban Mammoth Brennus

Well Summer is pretty much gone now and really I couldn't be happier. Not really a fan of heat and humidity. To top things off my entire summer mostly consisted of home renovation projects. I'm putting the final touches on those and sarting to move forward on some serious painting again.

I started thig guy while vacationing on the beach at the outer banks and finished him off at about midnight before the contest entry. As usual I'm only mostly pleased with him but didn't have any time to execute the changes photo and update before the contest closed. I'll re-post him when his custom scenic base is done and I think he's really finished. At any rate this was the picture used for the contest