Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Running in for the score!!


From RN Estudios, we have the first of the painted Lizardman Blood Bowl team.  

They are sculpted by the talented folks at Txarli Miniatures.

This is one of the skinks.  I went with a more traditional color scheme on him.


I thought that I would do something fun with the base, making a water splash under his foot!


These images show that effect a little better.  I love the tortoise shell shoulder armor!


Check out the team on their webstore!!



It Begins!!


It's just a few hours away for those of us in the U.S.!!  The start of the Twisted Game kickstarter campaign.

As I mentioned last week, I have some of the figures here, and I will be showing the painted images over the next few weeks.  Starting off, we have some of the assembled and primed minis.


As nice as they look individually, they are even more impressive when you see them together.


I used these Secret Weapon bases for the photos, but I might play around with a few other designs as well.


This is a very nice pose... very relaxed, but with an eerie sense of danger!


Tesla... yes indeed!  I love the little mechanical bird!!


Nightingale is going to present a great opportunity for object source lighting!


Lovely and dangerous, Nancy seeks power and knowledge... at any cost.

Here is a link to the facebook page, and more information:



Monday, February 15, 2016

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:



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!


Sunday, February 14, 2016

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!