Do you feel like everyone's judging you?

When we last left our massive heavy support vehicle, gravity was being used to help make the washes flow in the correct pattern.  Again, the idea is to get the darker shades towards the 'top', leaving those lighter colors to show reflected light.

That glazing must be done across all the various surfaces in this manner, which is another reason why I didn't assemble the entire thing from the beginning.

I have the ability to hang onto these pieces at any angle, without wiping away any paint from raised areas such as rivets...

More layers of darkness!!

At this point, I wanted to see if things were shaded dark enough for my RJ-1027 lighting effects, glowing freehand, etc.

Obviously, lots of Vallejo fluorescent orange and yellow!!!

I am also starting to pick out some highlights... balancing that against the brightness of the RJ glow...

Here's a look at the fluorescent paints, and the effect on the rail gun.  In this case, I started with the lightest color of the glow, and gradually worked the edges darker and darker.

Glow complete!  Ready to blast some Outlaws and Abominations!

Time for rust effects!!

Done in the same method as before... mixing regular paints with the Secret Weapon orange wash.  The chemical properties of the orange wash are such that you get some wonderful random effects when it's mixed with those 'regular' paints.

You can see why I made the wheels the cooler seafoam green, so that I could have my brownish-orange rust/stains show up even more prominently.

A bit of rust and staining on the prow.  Once all the weathering was complete, it was time to put it all together!!! Yay!!  Stay tuned for the finished images :-)

Similar but different... Cathy's Shaded Basecoat technique

Yes, Cathy wielding brushes... with bad intentions!  

With the recent bombardment of Shaded Basecoat posts lately, I thought I would hit you with some more, but this time from Cathy's perspective!

The essentials are the same, work globally, rapidly, with large brushes, and lighter.

As you can see, she got things started off with those lighter midtone shades, making some classic Nurgle Pastel shades!

While this all looks 'white', you can see by the previous image of the palette that it certainly is not.  The idea is, as always, to get a sense of where you want basic direction of colors to be headed.

Now comes the fun part!  Cathy sets out some washes, including those Secret Weapon washes.  The purple and ruby are something you have not see me use very much.  I did work with them on some of the videos, but it was nice to see them being splashed about again!

Here is that example of the 'watercolor' style again of the "negative painting".  That is, defining edges by the use of darker shading with the washes.  She is preserving her lights, and concentrating the washes on the other side of the edge where she wants the contrast.

An interesting look at the palette.  You can see her original colors of the shaded basecoat, and then her washes.  Obviously it is far less chaotic (see less messy!) than my typical mayhem.

A look at the demon, which is an Ultraforge piece, by the way.

Stay tuned for the next dramatic episode of Fifty Shaded Basecoats of Cathy.

Preparing to cast Judgement

Ever since I painted the Holy Order of Man heavy support vehicle, and then the Flame Truck, I really wanted to have a Heavy Support of my own.

So, the Judgement heavy support for the Lawmen was eagerly anticipated!

This was an early form of Shaded Basecoat, done to hash out how I wanted the lights and darks to play out.  When you have this many angles pointing in so many directions, it's best to plan that out ahead!

I am using large brushes, as usual... such as the filbert and the #8 round craft brushes.

As you know, I like to use different color mixes to make my grays.  For the wheels, I used a seafoam green and a yellowish brown.  I will be doing a lot of weathering on them, and the lighter color will make that stand out even more.

In addition, the "temperature" of that grey was different than what was around it.  That is, it is a cooler green as opposed to the warmer, reddish gray.

For the forward prow (on the right), I used a  very purple gray... once again, looking for a bit of color variety in order to keep this from being too boring to look at!

With the Shaded Basecoat phase complete, it was time to glaze and tint!

The usual suspects... Secret Weapon and Vallejo washes.

I use them both together, and as a result, I get a huge variety of shades.  Also, the Vallejo washes are a thicker consistency than the Secret Weapon washes, so combining them means that I can alter the way the Secret Weapon wash flows on the surface.

Also, note that some parts are turned upside down.  This is an old watercolor trick, using this exotic force called gravity.

Since the NMM style usually means that the darkest colors are towards the top edge, I let whatever 'loose' wash there is flow to that area.  By turning them upside down, I can force them to do that.

There's even a bit of 'regular' paint included in some of these mixes.  This serves to stabilize them even more, making them darker, but still transparent.

I moved from section to section, turning the pieces to do the gravity attack on the washes.

Much more to come, so stay tuned!

Taking the show on the road.

Given the task at hand for the next several days, I thought it might be interesting for you to see what it is like to haul around a good portion of the studio to another location.

This beast is just one of several containers that were needed.

The Bag of Holding was just that, as it seemed like a bottomless pit when I unloaded the contents!

Containers great and small, holding one kind of project or another.

One of the ways to keep the line moving is to always have a variety of projects in different stages of completion... that is, a project that will fit an available time slot.

For instance, having these bases handy for painting means that I can put some paint on them if I happen to have that color already on the palette.  It might only save a minute or two, but at this volume, that translates into many hours later on.

There's a never ending pile of pewter, plastic and resin to get through.  It's the most basic of all tasks to file or scrape mould lines, and I try to make sure that smaller block of time are filled with these kinds of simple chores.

Being interrupted suddenly is not as tragic as it would be if I was painting something like to Octopus man or the Judgement vehicle.

Priming is a task I do when I am very tired.  Yeah, that's mostly all the time now, but doing brush on primer is a great way to warm up, instead of screwing up painting a figure!

The Sukubus Studios gals have been getting work on the bases.  Cathy and I will be teaming up to sculpt lots of tentacles and other Chaosy kind of things to finish those off!  Stay tuned for more images on that...

Since green stuff is a material that you have to work with in phases, structuring other tasks around it as a layer cures is very efficient.

Take me to the church on time.  Some items from Burn in Designs are also ready and waiting for paint.

When I am going to be away from the home studio this long, it means bringing as much of the photo setup as possible.

This is just a portion of my basing materials.  I left the other half at home :-)

The computer setup for reference images, processing new images, and posting things to this blog...

An overall view of the remote studio nearly operational!!

One still requires workers, especially on the road, so Wage rounded up some of his buddies to help.

A doggie and a buggy

Here's a few more views of the Wild West Exodus Mercenary Sand Buggy, this time putting it in more context next to other figures.

The Sand Buggy is the Adepticon special miniature, limited to 300.  I believe a few are still available for purchase.  If you register for Adepticon, you can purchase it from the web store.  There might be some available at Adepticon itself...

The Sand Buggy is a light support, along the same lines as the Interceptor or Iron Horse.

Light support choices are some of my favorites in the Wild West Exodus game.  When you have a number of light support vehicles on the board, the game takes on a whole new dimension... fast, furious and lethal!

A little more context for you, as I team up the Mercenary Sand Buggie with the Copelie Sisters, Interceptors, and the massive Judgement Heavy Support of the Lawmen.

Light support choices such as this have a variety of "fighting halos"... some can even perform ride by attacks.

I got one for myself, to add to my growing Mercenary collection.  The mercenaries are an interesting and unique way to change your posse dramatically.  These hired guns can provide a little help in areas where your posse needs a boost, or change the entire theme!

The kickstarter for Wild West Exodus looms large... it's just 13 days away!!!  Wow!

Girl Bands

We bring the girls back together one last time!

One can never have too many Reaper minis :-)

There's also an article on how these bases were painted:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-early-stages.html

And the finish:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2014/08/marble-everywhere.html

The building on the left was painted by Cathy, with her Ogre Kingdoms motif...

It was very interesting to see the various grays and tans than we used on our respective buildings.

I can't recall if I ever photographed these together before, except on a gaming table.

It neat to see them in front of the Hangar 18 backdrop.

The Girls of Rock bid you a farewell!!!