The Azure Maiden

Here's a fun Reaper miniature that ended up being another experiment.  I wanted to see if it would be possible to put a pattern somewhat similar to this on a dress that had significant folds.

Here she is!  It was a real challenge to do the outer skirts, simply due to the way the folds played out.

The inner skirt had minimal folds, and it was therefor much easier!

I did try to indicate a touch of texture to the designs by making some shadows and highlights within the patterns.

I will be trying more patterns like this with different color schemes, so stay tuned!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222024972842?

Basing Your Wereshewolves, Part II

Time for the conclusion of this basing session on the Raging Heroes Wereshewolves!  It's an incredible set of four beasties...

Here's a scale view (the bases are 50mm)

When we last saw the base, I was starting to fill in the gaps between the bulletin board cork pieces and the original rock sculpted into the figure.  I was also adding more chunks to the back of the base to create more interest.

At this point, I have added even the finest grade of sand.  This creates a wonderful transition, which really shines when it's been painted.

The tree roots which I added to the French Artillery certainly look different at this scale!  

Keep in mind that I secured the 'ends' of the roots by drizzling the very thin glue over the top, and gently sprinkling some of the fine sand on top.

From Secret Weapon Miniatures, we will dig into the Sack 'O Skulls and add some victims to the base!

There you go!  I try to set up 'shelves' such as this with the bark, cork, and so on, so that I have a good spot for these extras.

I always try to work in threes... in a triangle shape.  That is, two skulls together, and one on the opposite side of the base from them.

A quick shot of the completed base.

I thought I would put a little bit of the initial layers of color on the base and figure so that you get a sneak peek at what all that crazy mess looks like in a different context!

Things look a tad more realistic once they have been unified a bit in terms of color, shading... even at this very early stage.  Stay tuned for the painting of the figure itself!

Basing your Wereshewolves

Recently Raging Heroes added some wonderful new figures, the Wereshewolves!  I will be doing a number of posts on them soon, but I thought I might dovetail this post onto the recent basing of the Flames of War French artillery.  

That was 15mm scale, so now it is time for the 'normal' 28mm variety.  I wanted to illustrate how the same materials can look radically different depending on the scale of the figure.

This Wereshewolf is standing on a 60mm base.  I need to create a rock face that is on an angle, so that I can make it appear if she is climbing to the edge of a precipice.  

I gathered together some tree bark, and began to "shimmy" the leading arm upward, making sure to leave space for the back feet.

It's OK to use multiple pieces of bark to get what you need in terms of shape.  This is also why I never throw any of my pieces away!

The magical Oxide Paste from Vallejo will be used as "mortar" between the layers, as usual for my "Bark and Branch" technique.

I really like this very cheap, very think super glue for this purpose.  It adds some extra holding power, dries faster than the oxide paste, and can be used for other interesting tasks on the base as well.  Did I mention that the ten tubes were 99 cents?

The initial layers of bark are in place, so I can now build on from this point.

A spare piece of bark with a wonderful texture is going to fill in this somewhat boring area.  You can see the super glue here as well.

To match the texture of the rock under the hand, I used some pieces of my bulletin board cork, which can be broken up easily into all kinds of fantastic shapes.  This is the same cork that I used for the Artillery basing... and it certainly looks different next to a 28mm monster!

The oxide paste and glue will hold the pieces in place...

You can even brush the oxide paste over all the surfaces to make the textures match a little more closely.  In this case, I will be using some more gravel to fill in the gaps.

This is what I am doing on this side.  Biggest rocks first, and then working all the way down to fine sand, just as I did on the Artillery.

I had a few extra pieces of branch which I had broken off another piece being used for a different base.  It seemed to be just right!

You can see the smaller rocks and finer gravel used to fill the gaps between the large stones.  More to come on the Basing Your Wereshewolves, so stay tuned!

A few of my closest friends

Time for another collection series!  Here we see Inquisitor Reva Garanov and his faithful Retinue.

I had a lot of fun making the conversions!  This was way back in 4th Edition 40k, so such things were in their infancy.  I hadn't really done anything like that previously.

The plasma servitor earned his back banner and Slaneesh marine helmet trophy by blasting a unit of Noise Marines with one well placed (sage guided) shot.

The guns of both servitors were sculpted from scratch in sculpey clay, using the edge holding firm grey variety.

That stuff really holds an edge, and it is very strong!

Cheers to the great Inquisitor!

You missed a spot

I think this guy was one of my favorite bloody snow figures from the Red Box Games archer set that I painted a while back.  I did four WIP articles on this group, and the final episode covered the blood/poison effects, as well as how I tried to make it appear as if the blood was sinking into the snow.

That was the most fun part of the painting process, figuring out how to do that on a completely solid surface.  Normally, I would have used more of a flock material which would have absorbed the paint naturally.  This was a real challenge, but unavoidable since I had to continue with the same style of basing as the rest of the army.

Here's a link to that part of the step by step:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/01/blood-and-poison.html

I also created a video for blood spatter and other effects, called (not surprisingly) Bloody Mess!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvAu51YMREA

This and much of the rest of the Painting Pyramid series is available from me on USB drives, and also here:

http://www.kingshobbiesandgames.com/James-Wappel-s-The-Painting-Pyramid-s/130.htm

Keen Eyes, Great Bows

It seems that I forgot to show you the finished Enslaved Guardian Archer unit with its new tray and unit filler.

It was all very simple, but it definitely gave it all a nicer look!

In fact, this "stepped" look makes it seem even more like a temple than one entirely flat surface.

It was very nice to have these open spaces to show the demon marble effect.  I can recall how disappointed I was after I put the big chariot unit's figures on their bases.  The large, complicated figures covered up well over 60% of the excruciatingly elaborate freehand work I had done on all six massive bases!

This unit proved itself to be quite valuable in tonight's game.  I may just have to do a second unit!

As with nearly everything else in the Mantic Empire of Dust army, things that had little value in another system are at least playable, if not seriously deadly.  That has proven itself in each of the three games, as I try to experiment with various units, and combinations thereof.

In an army where many things were my favorite, these guys are very sentimental.  It was in painting these that I got the inspiration to sculpt my own massive beasts for the army, and go with this sort of iridescent blue color for the skin.

Another view from above to show you the floor pattern and the hieroglyphs.

Another battle report is coming soon, and these boys will certainly be featured!!  Stay tuned...