Merry Christmas!

Yea!!  It's Christmas!!!

That can only mean one thing... time for a Holiday Sophie from Reaper miniatures!

It's been a long time since I last painted one of the Sophies, so this was extra fun!

Sneaking a smootch from Mr. Snowman...

It warms his heart, but hopefully not too much!

I hope everybody has a great day, and gets tons of new miniatures to paint!!

Golden Boy

Like those old decorations that you keep putting on your tree year after year, thinking that you will replace with newer shinies... those really old minis never actually die away.

Here's another 1996 Ral Partha, brought back to life!

Obviously, today's minis are far different, but it is nice to know that these old timers can still take some paint!

Cathy and I have discussed many times how figures that are this old tend to be dismissed even more due the fact that the paint jobs are often as old as the figure!  This can really distort a view in an unexpected way.

With a fun base and a touch of NMM, a twenty year old figure can look a lot different than it might have when the internet was dial-up and you had to do a special ceremony just to connect!

MEDIC!!

I used this medic figure as part of my command squad for my Imperial Guard army at Adepticon in 2014.  I had a lot of fun adapting this old Battle of Maccrage figure for this purpose.

Yes, I also could not resist lots of blood spatter!

I had a lot of fun painting his white blood stained lab coat :-)

The view from above!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221976432494?

Golden Girl

What's old can still be new!!!  Yes, another ancient Ral Partha figure.  The date on the sprue said 1996, so she's almost twenty years old.

I had a lot of fun with the metals and the cloak, since despite the advanced age, the details were actually quite crisp.

I have been intrigued as I compare these very old minis with the very latest creations of all the new companies.

I can remember a time when most figures had been sculpted by a far smaller range of sculptors, so they all had this kind of appearance.  There are now many new and different styles and approaches, which makes everything a brand new painting experience every time :-)

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321956913973?

"Base"ic Change

I thought it might be fun to take a few pictures comparing the re-based Skeleton cavalry on the right to the more original appearance on the left.

I used a razor saw to slice the feet of the horse from the pewter "broccoli base" which was hidden beneath oxide paste and gravel.

I had made a few bark and branch bases during a previous session, and as it turned out, both of the new bases were absolutely perfect for the skeleton cavalry!

This image shows the second cavalry figure on its new base on the right.

The difference is even more stunning in these side by side images!  It's amazing what a newfound technique can allow, and give new life to a "regular" skeleton horse and rider.

War Clouds Gather

Reaver jetbikes strike again!

This is one of the few jetbikes that I didn't make any dramatic changes to... no additional wings or anything :-)

Nevertheless, I still had lots of fun doing the freehand design and the blood splatter!

These views from above let you see the pattern a little better, and the touch of mosaic design on the base too.

At some point I will try to get all the bikes in a group shot.  With 18 of them total, that won't be so easy!

Bad Doggie!!

This rather large critter from HellDorado miniatures is yet another example of matching from several different companies as part of one wider range project.

The color scheme on this was done to match the previously painted Circle Oboros hounds.  There was a lot more gold surface on this figure, so I had to go more in depth with the transitions.  I had to reflect a lot of the snow and rock surface onto the plates.

This is not so easy, as the natural tendency would be for those to become quite greenish.  So, I had to be sure to incorporate enough of the reddish hues as well.  That would make a nice contrast with those cooler shades in the golds.

These views show that I tried to focus more of these warmer tones from above, leaving the cooler shades reflecting the ground.

A few final views.  Many of these principles are discussed in the "How to Paint Gold NMM", which is one of five NMM videos that I created.  All of them are now available at Kings Hobbies and Games.

http://www.kingshobbiesandgames.com/James-Wappel-s-The-Painting-Pyramid-s/130.htm?searching=Y&sort=13&cat=130&show=30&page=1