Wings of Angels

This Seraphim is a combination of a traditional GW Sister of Battle with new wings added... taken from an Archangel from the Urban Mammoth line.

Since I had a number of Archangel figures in the army already, I thought this would be a nice tie in to the few original GW versions that I was using!

Once more, it was a chance to play around with lots of subtle color transitions.  There are a number of warmer green/cooler green areas, and the same for the gold/brass.  At one point  I was mixing a very dark Reaper Green Liner paint with a cool off white.

I also have some much more saturated and yellow sections in the metals, but I made sure to try to provide hints of green here and there.

I enjoy these wings because they are a much larger canvas... I can do more freehand, weathering effects and so on with these than the original configuration.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321944799784?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Deadly Skies

Once again we fly the deadly skies with Asharah's legions.

Placing the additional wings onto these Reaver Jetbikes was a lot of fun, so I was very glad that extra bladevanes came with the original kits!

Since these bladevanes are the primary weapon, it seemed to make a lot of sense to create an extra sense of danger with a few more.  It also created a more sinister feel, and gave me more room for freehand and the blood effects!

Getting them into position to make such an attack without getting them shot to pieces was a much more difficult task than converting and painting them.  

Siren Call

Tonight we have another Siren miniature.  Meet Greir, a dwarf adventurer. 

Coming up with a unique look for dwarves is a major challenge, but as you have seen in previous posts here, Siren worked quite hard to make some very interesting characters.

There is an ever expanding line of wonderful sculpts on their website:

http://sirenminiatures.com/store

I look forward to trying out many more of this incredible line!!  The base is made from baked sculpey clay... even the crystals!  I created an entire video on how to make this style of base.  

They are a lot of fun, as you press real rocks into unbaked sculpey clay.  We have a fairly large collection of rock types now. :-)

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321943663185?

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!!

Preying Mantis

Since I was working some very similar skin colors on the Sukubus Studios figures, I thought I would put some of them on one of my last remaining Raging Heroes Mantis Warriors.

The same changes of hue and saturation were done here.  Some parts are a more blueish purple, and others are more saturated pink.  A few areas were lightened with an elf flesh color, which gave it a warmer hue.

This base was sculpted from Apoxy Sculpt, which is especially handy for creating this kind of striated rock base.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321942860440?

From Pearl to Surigao

Some of you might remember a dream project that I conjured up almost a year ago at this time.

The basic concept was to show two very different time periods in the life of the USS West Virginia, which was one of the ships heavily damaged on December 7, 1941.

I want to have a rotating display which will show two different versions of the West Virginia.  One of these will illustrate the immediate aftermath of the attack:

I want to show the transformation of the burned out hulk of this wounded warship into something entirely new.

This is the reconstructed West Virginia.

A stunning difference... from an antiquated "Dreadnought" warship with open mount and casemated 5 inch guns to a vessel which participated in many significant late war actions.

These elevation drawings also show the dramatic transformation that I look forward to rendering in 1/700 scale!!   You can really see the layout of the secondary armament, the lack of AA, the ancient masts and funnels.

I cannot wait to see the two kits side by side.

That moment is here!!  I was finally able to secure both the pre war and reconstructed versions.

As my extreme good fortune would have it, both kits are from the same company, Trumpeter Models.

Better yet, these are of very high quality (more so than many kits I have seen), but not so incredibly expensive.  I had been seeing some prices as high as $120 for a single kit.

This is the late war version of the West Virginia which I will show participating in the Battle of Surigao Straight.

The size of the box was the first indication that I had scored something quite nice.  It was HUGE, with each of the parts organized into various sections, all wrapped so carefully.

The excellent instruction booklet suggested something I assumed that would be necessary, and that is assembling and painting this in many smaller sections at a time.

This is probably going to present even more of a challenge than the water effects.  Since the camo patterns will have to cross over all of these surfaces, I will probably have to map out everything very carefully in advance, and do a lot of touching up after assembly.

This is another element which is not in any of the previous 1/700 scale kits.  These brass etched parts are another major improvement.  I believe the really expensive kits contained a huge amount of these brass etched pieces.

The painting guide was also very impressive.

A hidden challenge will be forcing myself to chop up the 1941 kit so that it looks like this.  While it is not technically very difficult, it will likely pain me to start cutting away at a nice new shiny kit! :-)

Hopefully my finished October of '44 version will look like this.  It will let me create two very different water effects.  For the sunken version, I want to have oil leaking out of the gashed hull.

These Tamyia kits will be my "practice" trials.  Hopefully I will learn enough working on these ships to make my dream project come alive in the way I envision!!

As always, stay tuned.

Psionic Warrior

You will now see one of those sculpey bases in use, underneath this Reaper Psionic Warrior.  I had some fun with a touch of freehand on this side...

But even more on this side!  This was a test to see how such a design might work on a cape, and if it would be practical for a much larger 75mm figure down the line...

The obsidion blade was very fun as well, balancing blues, warm greys, and even teals.