Furry Friends

When you are matching previously painted figures from the distant past, it can be interesting to adapt new methods and approaches to look more like things that you painted long ago.

It is definitely a challenge, since that usually means altering your palette significantly.  Even with something "gray" like this, the more updated approach would involve many different hues and tones that would give the appearance of 'gray' as opposed to using gray itself.

What really makes this even more prominent in my mind is seeing sets for "painting gray".  There are 10 jars of 'dead' gray paint in the set, with no life to them at all.  Making gray is very easy, and there are countless ways to do so.

I suppose this is one of the reasons that I made "Shades of Gray" one of the 5 color theory videos for the Painting Pyramid series.  I will be including that video as part of the Patreon Page next month, where colors are discussed in more detail.

Gray can be brownish, greenish, blueish, or even have a hint of purple!  That is so much more interesting to look at than lighter and darker versions of the same dead gray tone.

Stay tuned, as always!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Playing Fetch

It has been a while since the Circle Oboros doggies made an appearance, but here is another one that is part of the massive winter force.  That is comprised of several different companies, including Tharn and Oboros figures.

This one had to match all the others that had come before, which means that I rely even more strongly on the Shaded Basecoat and Glazing techniques.  It is so much easier to match a figure when you don't remember what you used in the past, or that is not even available any more.

Just as I stressed in the classes at Reapercon, the idea is to not only simplify your color palette, but to paint as many other figures at the same time which use those colors.  As I was working on this figure, I had at least a dozen other completely unrelated figures on the table.  

Sometimes all you are painting is one small element of each figure, or only a certain amount of that batch.  It is funny how much I realize that figures end up using so many similar tones.

This particular color scheme presents an interesting contrast, with some warm, bright colors right next to cooler and very muted tones.

The Great Beast

This Oboros champion figure was a bit tricky to paint.  Aside from all the different pieces protruding in the way of potential brush strokes, I had to do some major shifting of the colors on the fly.

As I have mentioned many times about the Shaded Basecoat technique, one of it's many advantages is that changing the entire color scheme in "mid flight" is no trouble at all.  To keep in harmony with the other figures in the project, the armor really needed to be more of a grey.  However, the wolf also had to be black/grey, which resulted in way to many things being the same color!

Right off the bat, I knew this wasn't going to work, so I tried a bit of gold for the armor, which made an instant difference.  By using some grey mixed with the golds, I was able to shift that more towards green, and that meant it would not be too jarring.  Also, there were a few other instances on other figures where a gold had been used as an accent on certain champion figures.

I have demonstrated many times in front of a live audience how completely changing around a color scheme as you are painting it can be a lot of fun, and very liberating!  You know that you are never "locked in" or trapped by what you have already done, as you are not investing vast amounts of time on any one area.

Working "globally" as you do with the Shaded Basecoat also reveals these color theme issues right away, instead of remaining hidden because you are only working on small portions of the figure at a time!  As you alter your color scheme, you can even use what's already been painted as an underpainting, as was done here.

Biggest doggie

This rather significant chunk of metal was quite hazardous to work with... given his protective spikes!

I actually had to file those down so that the 'red' would only cover parts of the armor plates, and not the whole mini! :-)

Mad Dog!!

More doggies!  I am really digging the black fur with the armor tones!

While I enjoyed painting the red ones, this has been a nice break from that.

The wolves you are seeing here are all metal, and the details have been nice and solid.

Stay tuned for more!

Howling at the Moon

It's been a while since I have posted a Privateer Press figure, so I thought I would get back into that range by showing you a little different color scheme on the Oboros doggies.

Previously, all the dogs have been painted in various shades of deep red.  I had a lot of fun doing the dark grey/black color scheme!!

That neutral color really set off the red and gold armor quite nicely!

I painted three of the wolves in this color set, so stay tuned!

Mad Dogs

Here's another group shot set for you, this time of the recent Oboros hounds.  

There are two of the older metal versions, and two plastic.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I preferred the plastic to the metal versions.  

This is quite the opposite from the larger mauler figures, where I definitely liked the metal versions much better!

The bodies of the hounds were more clearly defined on the plastics, and the faces were also a bit more fun to paint.

I hope that you've enjoyed another Warmahordes journey!!

The Dog Pound

Another one of the Big Dogs for you tonight!

This one is very unusual, since it's not the usual wolf shaped hound.  It did make it kinda fun to paint!

As with all the previous versions, I had to stick to an existing color scheme.

Hound of the Baskervilles!

Time for another demon doggie from Privateer Press.

Just like the other Circle puppies, I had to play around with some subtle changes in the reds here to get some shape, while still matching previously painted figures.

This is an interesting case where I actually liked the plastic versions more than the metal.  In particular, this guy was very nice.  Even though the mould lines were in some unusual places, I liked the pose, and the way the faces and fur were sculpted.

Ironically, the cool colors of the snow are helpful, since they make even the coolest reds still seem warm!

Mean doggy...

The pack of red doggies continues!

I don't know if I have ever painted armored hounds before.  If you count the Raging Heroes Thunderwolves... then yes :-)

I have a huge 'champion' version of one of these coming, so stay tuned!

Two heads are better than one?

I've thought about painting some Circle Oboros for myself for a while, but in the meantime, here are some Oboros hounds that are part of the massive project including all the Red Box and Mierce miniatures.  Thus, you will see this sort of Hellhound type of color scheme.

There will be a number of these included in this project.

Stay tuned for more!!