More Ogres

We return to the unit of Mierce ogres once again.  This was a group of 8 large figures that was painted with oils for the most part, with a few details mopped up using regular acrylic paints.

The advantages of oils really stand out when you paint whole units, even more so when they are this large!  This one is towering over a 40mm base!

I have a number of live sessions that I have already done showing how I approach oil painting, but this month I will be recording my first "hard copy" oil painting videos.  These will mostly feature the way I tackle units with that material.

They will be posted especially for my patrons all throughout this month... where I will be painting some of the new Games Workshop Dark Elves!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

A Bull By the Horns

It had been a very long time since I had done this much of a patina on a figure, so I had lots of fun on this guy!

I used the Secret Weapon Weathering paints for all of this figure... the bull, the axe, the armor, and so on.  They are very flexible, as you can go with a lot of glazing, and yet still use them in an opaque manner.

That element of glazing was very key, as most of the detail areas like the filigree were sculpted into the armor.  This meant that the patina would sink down into those areas, and look very natural!

I have used the Secret Weapon paints on a number of my live sessions... everything from tanks to beastmen to Dark Sword figures.

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212119155668250/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

The Serpent Staff

I will have to call upon the hive mind once again to fill me in on the manufacturer of this figure, but my guess is that it is from Blood Rage or Black Plague.  It is yet another example of how you can still get some fun results from those hard (or soft) plastic board game figures!

I think I have mentioned in previous posts how those two sided emery boards used by model railroad and kit builders are effective at removing most of the brutal mould lines on these figures.  Everything else I have tried to use just tears away at the material, or cuts into it in the case of hobby knives.

So, don't be afraid to snag a few of those emery boards and invest a little extra effort into your board game pieces.  After all, once you paint them and seal them... you have something virtually indestructible! :-)

The Lash

This member of the Escher gang was definitely may favorite of the bunch.  As soon as I saw the power whip, I thought that I could do some fun Object Soucre Lighting!

Since the whip wrapped around the figure, it meant that I could spread out the effect much farther than I normally would be able to do.

I love doing OSL on figures, as it tends to give the eye more of a sense of scale, making them seem larger than just a tiny figure barely over 1 inch tall.  That is why Object Source Lighting is part of the "core set" of Painting Pyramid videos.  Here's a link to one of the sample versions on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXqIo-UMSr8&t=764s

Here is a link to the original live session where I painted a batch of 5 in oil paints.  I have just secured some more units (this time Dark Elves) which will be the source of many more tutorials and live sessions.

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211936982874044/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I have been posting more links to special Patreon versions of these tutorials, with more coming this month.  Five have been posted thus far, including the Shaded Basecoat and Glazing videos.  

I will also be creating more new versions of the Painting Pyramid videos, which will focus on basing, army painting techniques, oil paints, and much more!  A $5 pledge is all you need to see those full length 100-200 minute tutorials.

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

A Wilder West

This 54mm figure from Knuckleduster Miniatures was a very fun exercise in painting skin tones, eyes and freehand on a larger scale figure.  I don't get to do this very often, which is why I painted it in a Facebook Live Session:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211778560793591/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

There were a few challenges to this piece, since I had to match the character which inspired the sculpt (as you saw in my photo references!).  I also had to choose what portions of each reference that I might use, such as which colors to place and what possible freehand might work well.

You don't want a miniature to simply become a 3D fresco, with so much in the way of designs and images that you forget someone is actually wearing it!

This meant trying to come up with some kind of pattern that fit the era, the color scheme of this particular figure, and did not take away from the face.  The whole point of having a larger scale figure was to be able to do more details on said face...

I chose a simple flower pattern that matched the flowers on the dress and the hair, and restricted that to the wide open areas of the skirt.  I toned it down as much as possible.

You can check out more great figures on the Knuckledusters website, and see what is coming from the recently completed Kickstarter campaign!

If you want to see more live sessions and other videos about painting these bigger figures (as I do!), any contributions to the Patreon Page will go a long way towards making that happen.  As you already know, these figures can be quite expensive!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

This Ain't no Bull

I think this might be my favorite of the old Confrontation minis.  This is a massive hunk of metal, but I love the pose!  The only other figures I can think of that I enjoyed this much would be the mounted characters (possibly the Lions of Alahan?).

This one was painted entirely in acrylics, while others have been done in oils.  While there were many practical reasons I used these mediums on different figures, I also wanted to show folks that figures painted with oils or acrylics (entirely, that is) look exactly the same.

I thought of this after a few queries and replies to some of my oil painting posts, where folks have said that the figures look different.  However, this was due to an entirely different photo setup rather than any difference of medium.  One batch of oil painted stuff was shot in a massive group shot, while most tend to be individual set ups like this figure.

We are in the early stages of Adepticon right now, so fatigue is already setting in.   It's been no stop prep for this convention for months, and it only accelerated as the date drew nearer and parameters seemed to change by the hour!

Such an Ogre

As I have mentioned many times before, the primary reason that I use the oil paints is that it allows me to work on many more figures at the same time, no matter how large or small!

I had about 15 large scale Mierce Miniatures and other creatures going at the same time as I was painting this big guy.  Since the oils stay wet on the figures as well as the palette, I can take as much time as I need to move from one figure to the next, rotating back around again to the figures that I started with.

Obviously I can do more blending on the figures too, which means that I can be more efficient with the application of colors.  It is possible to just place a few colors onto the surface and then mix those right there.  

It makes it easier to get interesting colors in key areas, like the swords.  I think at one point I just plopped some bright green onto the blades and feathered it in with the rest!

Here's an example... a Facebook Live session:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211515280171740/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I have done a few of these larger style figures on the live sessions.  My goal is to create more permanent videos for YouTube and to place on USB drives.  The more support the Patreon page gets, the more time I will have to do these edited videos.  Those can take a while to film, edit and render!

Thanks for all the support thus far!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel