Into the Eye of the Storm... judgement day part one

Lots of storms today, including this shelf cloud that everyone in the area snapped pictures of... then it travelled about 1200 miles to Washington DC!  Wow.

Well, I have been painting continuously since around midnight.  Now it is close to 7am, and I need to start packing up the painitng stuff to bring to the Bunker!  Sorry for such a miniamal post.  Hopefully there will be loads of stuff to share when I return! :-)

Here is a pic I shot while I was painting the glyph on the back wall of the tomb...

Charging towards the qualifier! Armies on Parade

I am not sure how many more posts I will be able to make in the next 24 hours, so here is the most cohesive batch of images I know I can put together!  Lots of work as a hammer away at this project all night long (cue Lionel Richie).  Since it has been just about sunrise when I crawled to bed over the last month or so, this may not be so unusual! :-)

My goal with every skeleton, on horse or on foot is to have no two alike.  Just like the Terra cotta soldiers that guarded the first Emperor's tomb in China, this force is supposed to be as unique as possible from one to the next.  It also makes it a lot more fun!

Prince Apophas, Armies on Parade final countdown!

Well, time is just about gone for qualifer prep.  One last big push!  I guess I am looking forward to seeing this all together for the first time.  Even I have only seen the same bits and pieces I have shown you.

I will try to take as many pictures as I can on Saturday!

Meanwhile, here is Prince Apophas.  I used him once in a game.  I think he survived a point blank blast from grapeshot, only to purse fight with the Gunner captain for 2 turns...

More images:








It is fun to see the upper level get another step closer to completion!

Sneaky Snakes... Stalker WIP for Armies on Parade

Yesterday I spent a few hours painting the Stalkers.  There is lots more to do, but this gives you a good idea of what they look like thus far!  I also painted the other four pillars at the same time...





Here is the sculpting WIP, for those who may not have seen it...


And some individual shots:








More horses next!

Giddyup! Save a horse, ride a skeleton...

Here is a color test figure for the horse archers.  I have been itching to paint the armor section of these guys for a while.  I had been painting on the horses and riders to this point.  It is fun to see one finished!

This image gives you an idea of the armor that I sculpted.  I did the armor in sections, and then made moulds of each part.


Each piece was cast, and then placed on the horses.
  I used sheets of tin foil as a backing, so that the green stuff would not deform or collapse.

Run out to your local store and vote!

The qualifier is just days away.  Yikes!  Let's just say that it is quite a frenzy here in Wappelville. :-)

These guys were an important part of the story of this display board from the very beginning.  I was very glad to be able to include them. I will be doing more on these lads in July, but at least they are out on the board now!






Here are some shots of just the miniatures:


And back to the board:




More to come!

Altars, bugs and bones... more work on the ground level.

Once the Dais itself had been painted, it was time to make it match what was on the board.



That meant I had to match the scorpions and scarabs, as well as get more color and definition on th epiles of boes and broken weapons:





It would have been much easier to paint everything prior to gluing it on the board, but that was not possible.  It was tough to get at some parts, but I did the necessary contortions and shaded away!




I also had to match the cracks:
 

When I get more time, I will put even more details on these areas...
 

Tomorrow you will get your first glimpse at the would be grave robbers!

Painting by "design": more Armies on Parade Tomb Kings

OK, for those of you who have seen the post on how the big light in the center of the tomb was covered, you are familiar with the "dais" that Cathy suggested.  It was great, and it gave me a nice blank canvas on which to do a design.

I had the perfect one in mind... it is the one that I used on the bases of my big chariot unit.  Here is the image:


So, I got started by laying out the design:


I then worked in the colors I wanted:


The scarabs also got some color:


Now some lighter shading:


At this stage, I started to bring in my fluorescent colors:




Then it was time to get some lights into the other areas of the design.  There was intentionally some gold left of this design, to show that not everything is completely tainted.


Now some cracks are added:


More definition:




Tomorrow I will post the images that show how this looks with the rest of the upper level, which also got some attention with the brushes!