What we were talking about...

There were many conversations about basing during the week of Reapercon.  I was only able to squeeze in one 'official' class, but there were many spontaneous eruptions of basing the in the Main Hall!

Messes were made everywhere as shards of sculpey and cork went flying.

Fortunately, everyone caught on to the principles of the basic sculpey technique so quickly, we were able to spend nearly an hour painting various forms of marble!

I think it will always be my favorite, even though I have dozens of other bases that I like to create.

There's just something wonderful about a marble base that sets up a theme for the figure, but also makes a great 'platform' for it to rest on.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and joined in on the madness!!

Still a first time for everything... Man of Steel :-)

As you know, I do a lot of painting of just about everything.  However, despite all that, there are some things I have never painted before.

I didn't even know what this was a few years ago.

Somehow, I got a look at some Steel Legion figures online, and then the mystery was solved.  I thought it could be an interesting color scheme for me to do, given the yellowish greatcoats and the brown/gray of the helmets, gloves and boots.

He is also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321396962068?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Broken tank? That's terrain!!

For those of you who saw the pre-Adepticon posts showing the unboxing of the Ruined Tank from Secret Weapon Miniatures, I finally have some painted images for you!

This set of three resin pieces replicates a destroyed Leman Russ tank very well.  Like all Secret Weapon resin, you don't have to scrub and soak it in cleaner!  Yea!

The three pieces are really cool, and offer you a lot of fun little painting areas that means you can customize it to your army.

They are also scaled up very nicely to regular 28mm figures, so they make fantastic terrain, or as a marker for a destroyed vehicle (which is still terrain!)

This turret is more than tall enough for someone to stand behind for cover.

The other hull pieces are just as good for terrain...

I have some more images coming of a whole squad of Highland Moss Guard hanging out inside the ruined tank... stay tuned!!!

Irina from Raging Heroes!

Hey folks!  Still a huge mess in the studio.  

I was unpacking all the stuff I hauled back with me, making a bigger mess, when the boxes showed up with the rest of the stuff that I could not carry back from last week. :-)

Between that and shipping out a bunch of boxes today, I have not gotten a lot cleaned up!

However, I was able to get this figure completed.  It was just posted in the Raging Heroes update on the Toughest Girls of the Galaxy!

She would certainly make an excellent addition to any command squad.

These views also show the neat digital pad she is using, as well as the Flight Deck base from Secret Weapon Miniatures.

I will be working on many more of these wonderful minis in the next few weeks, so get ready for more of the TGG.

One last mini from Reapercon

Here's one more Bones mini painted at Reapercon.  I added the tree and other foliage once I got it back here.

The base, as you saw in previous posts, was made from bark and oxide paste.

Once again, you can see the the Bones line can still allow you to create some very fun figures!

Thoughts on paints

First day back from Reapercon.  It's been a pretty insane combination of various forms of mayhem.  The usual unpacking, but also a ton of reorganization.  Between Adepticon and Reapercon, the entire studio is destroyed top to bottom.  I have no idea where anything is right now.

It is going to take longer than I thought to get all of that into any form of sanity.

I never did get a chance to take any 'real' images of the dwarf wizard.  As you know, he was a Bones figure.  Numerous Reaper colors were used on him... ones that I had never seen before.

In fact, a great deal of discussion on paints went on at the factory from Monday to Tuesday.

Since it is much less convenient for me to get GW paints these days, the focus has shifted back to Reaper in a very heavy way.  We used to use them all the time, but being in a GW store so often meant that it was a lot easier to get them.

Wage surveys his new factory, looking down at the paint area of the facility.

A few views of other parts.  Everything in the operation has its place.  It is a very big building!

Ovens!  Not for sculpey baking though...

The Reaper employees are very multi talented.  This is a very impressive art quilt!  We discussed the finer points of Chartres stained glass windows, pilgrimage mazes, and much more!  Loads of fun!

Here are some of the artists packing up boxes to send home.  Many thanks to the Reaper folks who made my life getting back a ton easier.  And to Ron, for cruising around the Dallas Fort Worth Airport in the van a dozen times!

I learned that the HD paints are specially formulated for many tasks.  Quite by accident, I chose to use them for my painting classes.  I had been struck by how well they flowed, mixed and covered.

They really are very high pigment colors.  I did not know that they were designed to cover just about anything... but they do.

Since I was not aware of this, I had experimented with them in many ways besides just 'coverage'.  In every area, they offered a wealth of opportunities.  They performed well no matter what technique I fooled around with.

They hold up very well to be thinned with water.  And by that, I mean a lot... enough for glazing.

I do use a number of Vallejo paints, and will continue to do so in certain specific areas.  However, I am leaning more and more towards these yellow labels.  It's all about what paints are going to work well with your techniques.

Constant work has shown me that the Vallejo colors have their niches, but the broadest applications might be best suited with these pigments.

Jeero was glad to see some of his buddies return home!

Your in flight entertainment!

Breakfast lunch and dinner were all served at the airport as it was time to head back to Chicago!

Babo had ice cream... with cookies!!!  Blueberry had some Sesame Chicken.

On the way back, I had to sketch out an idea for a possible diorama for Reapercon next year.  I could not get my hands on my notebook, so the boarding pass had to do.

I was working out a few different ideas for a diorama using the Kristiana figure from the Warlord line.  #14212 I believe.

By the way, the passenger next to me was kind enough to furnish me with a pen, since all of mine were in my checked bag.

Two main ideas started to coalesce... but I was definitely leaning towards this concept.  I think it will be more practical and open.  There were some other annotations on the sides, as I attempted to come up with some freehand for the cloaks and such.

Fooled around with this for a while too...

The other possibility was to place her in front of an alcove.  I had done that once before on another diorama, but that felt too heavy and 'closed'.  I think I will save that for something else.

It was a little difficult to do much on the second leg of the flight, since the cabin was almost pitch black.

However, as we approached the spires of my hometown, I had to jot down a quick skyline! :-)

Once Cathy got me from the airport, all the Uglies had to find out how much fun it was to ride in the Reapercon swag bag!

IceBatMan meets Sally!