What Lurks Under the Sea

This is certainly one of the more unusual beasties that I have painted in the last 17 years!  It is one of several creatures that were part of a kickstarter a while back.  Here's a link to the campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/238292504/spawn-of-sharktipede

Once I received the new Mig Ammo OilBrushers, I had to test them out right away!  This seemed to be an interesting test subject, among other things.

I had been saving this figure and a few others for the arrival of the new OilBrushers, and there are 21 new colors, most of them more intense and saturated.  The first set of 21 was more in tune for weathering and working in earth tones, greens, and so on.

I wanted to show some of the main reasons that I like to use oil paints... chief among these is the extended drying time.  Through several hours of painting, I was able to blend areas to very smooth finishes very easily.

This was possible even long after the initial layers had been painted.  I also demonstrated how much less paint application is required when you work with oils.

There is a Facebook live session which shows the conclusion of the painting process... that link is here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212917227339543/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Before I went live on Facebook, I recorded the first few hours of the painting process, along with a discussion of the new Oilbrushers.  This recording has since been edited and processed, and is now a brand new Painting Pyramid tutorial video.

I recently posted the link to my Patreon page, which is available to my subscribers.  New pledge levels have also been added, and more are on the way!  Check that out here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Bark and Branch... Under the Sea

By now, most of you are familiar with the Bark and Branch method of basing, using things like Oxide Paste, wood glue and tree bark to create some very nice rocky/forest style bases.

I needed to put a twist on that type of basing technique in order to base some very unusual sea creatures.

These are fairly large, so I built these bases up from wooden plaques.  The first things you will probably notice are the sea shells (which I have used before on some smaller bases), but now I am trying out some dried moss to see how that will match up to coral at this scale!

This is an example of one of the creatures.  They are combinations of land and sea critters, and certainly have a certain look about them!

These also provided me with an excellent chance to try out the new lower pressures of the airbrush.  Masking off the shells took a little while, but certainly worth it.  I started out with a number of grays and greenish hues, using the Badger Stynlrez primers.

I used a number of the Ghost tints on these bases, especially on the moss/coral.

I went back and forth with more darks, blues, grays, and then back to lighter tones.  Since these were pretty large bases (and quite rough in texture) I wanted to get into as many tough areas as possible with the airbrush.

Those new pressure settings were definitely allowing me to work in a more trasnparent fashion than usual.  I think I had it set as low as 10 PSI, which is shocking for me!  The Ghost Tints are so thin, they can certainly get through the brush with no problem.

When mixed with the primers, you get an intense color which is also going to adhere well!

Plus, all these layers of primer and color would serve as a very nice sealer for all the wood and moss.

I removed the masking material from the sea shells, and it was quite a nice surprise!  As I completed each of the figures that are meant to stand on these bases, I did more finished work to tone down those shells.

Also, I added some more specific shading and highlights to the rocky sections.

Here's a link to the Facebook Live session where one of the figures was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212917227339543/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Now for a sneak peek at the completed BatShark!

If you wanted to see the rest of the video, I have another 2+ hours of painting video on this figure (done with oils) available to the Patreon Subscribers:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Scouting Secrets: Secret Weapon Paints

I have only painted a few U.S. made vehicles so far, but this Lend/Lease White Scout car was the most fun by far!

I used Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering paints to do the shading after my usual "Primer Painting", including the actual weathering.  

Not only are the colors just what you want, they dry ultra matte, so it also matches the texture of rust and other oxidation effects.

The resident early war Soviet commander Royamanov took some of the left over Russian heads and put them on the passengers, along with one of the bottle arms :-)

I finished off the mud effects with the Mig Ammo mud products.  This was a very fun project... and there's much more Soviet stuff on the way!  Stay tuned...

Mob Violence

We return to the mean streets of Rome once more to show the last of the mobs, part of the new Gangs of Rome set by Warlord Games.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the most interesting aspect of the game for me is the random ways in which the mobs will react to the fighting going on around them.

They might run away, they might assist their favorite gladiator... or they may just try to kill him!  One never quite knows how the crowd will react.

For those who did not see the step by step post on the mosaic tile bases, here is a link to that article:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/05/mosaic-tile-basing.html

As you can see, each mob has a very interesting characteristic.  They really did manage to capture all manner of citizens, slaves, and passers by.

Let's not forget the individual figures!  I think these guys aren't sure if they should drop what they are carrying and run away, or if they should bash someone on the head!

I do have another set of these, which I was thinking of using for a series of tutorial videos.  

These would go into much more depth, showing how I did the skin tones on the individual figures as well as the clothing.

There is already a Painting Pyramid Mosaic Tile basing video available for the Patrons who have pledged $5 to the Patreon Page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Low Pressure Painting

While you have seen many different experiments with the oil paints, terrain, etc., over the last several months... there is one other area where I have been trying out some new things!

Until recently, the airbrush was used as a tool strictly for "Primer Painting", working on terrain, and so on.  It was really just a way to do mass prepping for working with my regular brushes.

Not only did several projects demand a slightly different approach, but my curiosity was also nagging at me as I pondered other uses for the airbrush.  This had to do with painting a bit more with the airbrush, more specifically at far lower air pressures than I had used!

Long ago, when I last used an airbrush for painting, I was working with an external needle Pasche which required very high PSI in order to make the mechanism spin up.  I got pretty used to this higher air pressure, and continued to do so when I used the Patriot and Sotar brushes from Badger.

This beast, however, would require a very different approach.  The interior is what posed a major problem, along with the sheer size of the vehicle.

You could see very little of the interior via the hatches, so there was not point in wasting effort on doing lots of glazes and other standard techniques there.  So, I had to figure out a way to maximize the airbrush phase to make it look more like I had done all those extra elements.

Using a pressure about 1/3 the usual, I was able to get some significant shading and color variations... more like what I would normally do with my brushes, glazing, and so on.  The Puma to the right was done at the same time, among several other items.

I also did a LOT more masking than I had done on any other figures.  Fortunately I have a large supply of blu tac!  I was able to mask off this requested camo pattern, and manage to get a lot of shading built into it.

Again, this had a lot to do with the extra effort of masking, and that very low air pressure.

Once the masking was removed, I went back into the shadow areas to get some extra colors and tones, and even a bit of weathering.

I was very pleased at how I could achieve something that was almost transparent at times, as if I was doing a standard glaze with my brushes!  This was something I did all the time with my watercolors (specifically Dr. Martin's Dyes).

Now, the Badger Ghost Tints serve that purpose, and I mixed them in every so often to get a more translucent effect.

As usual, most of the colors used were from the set of 12 primer colors from Badger, the beloved Stynlrez.  I also used a few of the paints that I first used on some terrain a few months ago.  Those colors also have some nice depth.

Most of the camo patterns were painted with those.

I will still be doing a significant amount of work with my regular brushes, but the weathering is supposed to be quite minimal, so you won't see a lot of chipping, rust or mud effects this time!

The other thing I noticed about the lower PSI is that everything was much more quiet, and the spread of paint particles was not quite as broad as I am used to with the more violent priming process.  So, this makes it more likely that I could do some sort of Facebook live or other kind of painting session with the airbrushes in the future.

Stay tuned, because you never know what might happen!

A New War

It's been quite a while since I worked on sci-fi figures, so these have been an interesting new challenge!

First, it is fun to paint something that is not greens or earth tones... and also some metals.  I used the Reaper Blue, Brown and Gray liner paints.  To lighten them, mixing in seafoam green, light flesh tones and light blues gives the mixes just enough variety to create subtle transitions and color shifts.

Otherwise, it is very likely that endless seas of "grey" would get very boring!

I believe that all of this is from Puppets War, made by DreamForged Games

Working within grays has been so important over the years, I even made that part of the Painting Pyramid.  As you might imagine, that episode was called "Shades of Gray".  It was one of 5 'color theory' videos that I did, similar to this:

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

I will be trying to finish off one of these on Twitch once I get that figured out!  

c

Horse and Rider

Here are some more images from the set of figures done completely with oils.  As I have discussed in previous posts, the advantages offered by oils have been very nice to work with!

I already talked about those hard to reach areas, etc., but this set of images shows how much fun you can have with NMM and painting something like the horse.

Both of those elements have a lot of subtle color transitions, and being able to blend that wet oil paint across the surface was a huge help!  The horse had a lot of decently sculpted musculature on it, as well as a good face.  Getting the tan/grey fur colors to transition into the much darker colors on the legs was a matter of blending, as opposed to several layers of glazing!

Here's a live session that really shows how this blending works!

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212917227339543/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab