Bring out your dead!

Let's get these graves finished!

I brought out the craft paint again, using the normal colors.  The black was mixed with a red, and placed near the headstone.  Tan colors (to match our gaming mats) were added around the edges and blended together.

This shot gives you a good idea of what it should look like.  I also carried these colors onto the headstones.  Note that the craft paints don't dry as quickly, so this will allow me to mix in the grey colors of the stones into this 'waiting' color.

It was a little tricky to work around the zombie, but a slightly smaller craft brush did the trick.

As I mentioned earlier, the grey colors will be mixed in to the brown on the stones.

A light greenish grey was used to lighten the stones.

Some of that was also used to lighten the dirt around the grave.

I will write some RIP, names and dates, etc., on the stones later.  These were pretty time sensitive, and I want to have some good names on those stones! :-)

The painting progresses with more light tans around the edges.  Again, this is an attempt to match the gaming mat colors.

That's about it for the painting!  Time for a little flock and static grass!

The flock is added first, making sure to put more around the edges of the grave and a little on the headstone.

The static grass completes the effect.  They are now ready for the table!!

When combined with the tree stands (which also got the same flock and static grass), the burial ground around the church is looking good.

Until the nearly departed start showing up on the streets of Wappelville, that is!

Who's ready for a ride?

Here's something extra special for you!  This is the Triaros Armored Conveyor, and it is huge!

The treads alone are bigger than a Land Raider, and it dominates in scale over the Krios heavy support vehicle.

This massive hunk of resin weighs in at over two pounds.  Yes indeed.

It was painted in at least a dozen individual pieces, and then assembled later.

That final assembly took over three hours, and had me making lots of loud, unhappy sounds.

I will be taking some shots of this surrounded by the troops it is hauling, as well as a side by side with the Krios.

That will give you a true indication of how gigantic this really was.

In the meantime, I hope you like these images!

Gone fishing... time for Reapercon 2015!

It's that time again... time for all good little kiddies to get their filberts and craft brushes ready to do some fun painting at Reapercon!!

As you saw in the last post. I was hashing out the colors on the Reaper Fishman.  It's at this stage that I start to mix other dark colors with the washes.  In this case, Reaper Blue liner paint.

Those who frequent the blog know how much I love that stuff!  It's got a lot of pigment, but it is still somewhat translucent, and very thin.  This makes it an ideal addition to the darkest glazes.

With those dark glazes completed, it's time to move on to that fun mixture of regular light paint colors and the washes.

I mixed a small amount of light flesh color with the green and with the blue washes as well.  This created a few middle tones that were both opaque and transparent.  They are excellent for evening out any rough areas left by the glazes, and add some depth to the overall color.

I worked my way around the figure very quickly to build in more definition and detail.  Another factor to keep in mind is that all of this has to take place in about 25 minutes maximum.

This is what approximately 30 minutes of total glazing can yield.  Not too shabby :-)

This is fun.  When I worked with watercolors, I used to take a few special colors that had an odd chemical property and "drop" them into existing washes on the paper.

The colors would react to each other, often repelling each other, and creating very nice random effects.  I took a few drops of Vallejo Sepia was and added them to the storm cloud Secret Weapon wash.

Now it has a very corroded look in about 3 seconds of work!  Life is so hard sometimes...

A little stage by stage setup.

The three figures to the left are the figures I will be using during the initial demo.

Since I don't have time for washes to dry, I wanted to have one that was all set to go, so that I could grab it and keep up the rapid pace, leaving more time for the students to try this out for themselves.

As always, the goal here is not to create a masterpiece, but rather to bring out the essence of the technique, and make it something that is easier to absorb in a short period of time.

Eventually, I want to do this sort of thing via Google Hangouts.

All the fishies in the deep blue sea.

All right!  Some fun with glazing, just in time for Reapercon classes!

Let's get things started with some fish dudes...

And bring out some handy wash colors.  We have a fun selection of Secret Weapon washes on the right, and a few Vallejo washes on the left.

The miniature is not completely white, but I did much less action with the shaded basecoat.  I wanted to do as much with glazing as possible.  Since this is all about the glazing class, I need to get much deeper into the various elements right away!

The colors arrayed on the palette.

I started adding glazes to the base, darkening the edges a little more, and using sepia around the bottom section...

Here's another base.  I am trying to create a bit of a spotlight effect, almost as if a diver is shining a light on the sea floor.

I took some of the green Secret Weapon wash... adding a touch of the cool grey.  This is just an initial layer, one that will be built upon several times with additional glazes.

Some of the very bright blue was mixed with the cool grey, and I started to darken the carapice and fins.

Keep in mind, I am pushing this much more than normal.  Typically the color would already by here via the Shaded Basecoat.

Another darker layer is added...

Looking at the other side of the figure, prior to these darker shades, illustrates the difference.

In the next series, I will be working in 'regular' paint colors into the dark areas, plus mixing light colors together with the glazes.

I want to demonstrate that semi-transparent light color scenario which you see me use so often on my own minis.  Stay tuned!

Ready for a dive...

Every time I look at these guys, all I can think of is a Jules Verne diving helmet... can't help it!

This is the proverbial 'cracker' in between terrain meals.  Enjoy!

You can't keep a good zombie down...

Time to show some step by step images of those graves you have seen 'popping up' in the various posts about the town of Wappelville.

These pieces are not just for decoration.  They are specifically meant for games in which the Enlightened are involved.

In effect, Carpathian and his gang are trying to get as many fresh bodies as they can... relative as that term may be.

The graves serve as markers.  If one of Carpathians's living crew gets within 2 inches, they can spend an action point to "open up" a grave, which is then removed from the board and replaced by a zombie.

I began with some textured matboad, and a few quickly carved pink headstones.  A few Zombicide figures were cut in half to make them look more interesting.

My new Desert Sand paste from Vallejo was perfect for adding a bit of piled dirt in front of the headstones.

Some of it was also carried onto the headstones for additional texture and strength.

A little bit of rock and ballast was added...

The two open graves were given some more chunks of rock and gravel.

My next episode will show how these were painted and finished off with flock and static grass.  Stay tuned!!