Comfy Chair

We've heard of Fat Cats in politics before, but now the political track of Song of Ice and Fire has its very own.  Meet Caster, one of the new figures that is part of the Free Folk Starter box!

I had a lot of fun painting this piece, utilizing a number of subtle glazes to get pink and purple in shadow areas of greenish colors, and vice versa.  The idea is to keep what is a very sedentary figure looking more interesting than if it were all shaded in the same boring gradients of brown!

You can also see shades of blue incorporated in the upper parts of the figure, which help to provide even more contrast to the beet red parts of the face.  I tried to follow the concept art on the card as closely as possible.  You can see that at work in the Free Folk Savage Giant video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LvJv3dyjEw

I already have about 16 hours of painting videos strictly for Song of Ice and Fire available to the Patrons on the Patreon Page, and more are being added every week!  I have Night's watch under way right now for the Army Painter pledge level, with Spearwives about to begin.  You can check that out here:  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

A Fungus Among Us: A future basing tutorial

I had a lot of fun creating bases for these little goblins from Aenor Miniatures.  So much fun, I thought I would film a quick how to video on that process!

As I mentioned, most of these are from Aenor Miniatures, and here's a link to the site:  https://www.aenorminiatures.com/en

The main parts of the bases were made using the tree bark and oxide paste process.  The mushrooms were made from green stuff, and painted with a combo of regular miniatures paint and the Moss & Lichen texture paint from Vallejo.

I had to match previous bases that you have already seen on the trolls, so the mushrooms had to be kept to the same scale and color.  This tutorial will be available on the Patreon Page for the folks who have signed up for the Basing or Army Painter pledge levels!  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Cracked Earth

As some of you who have seen the earlier posts on this project know, there were many things in this "reclamation project" which needed to be fixed or changed.  I have done some posts to show how the metal areas were changed from the original drybrushed metallics to the desired NMM.  Here's a link:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/12/reclamation-job.html

While the most noticeable change was the metal, I think you can also see a lot of differences in the skin tones and the horns.

Finally, there was one more fix that was required, and that was the basing.  The original request was for a cracked earth look, but plain rocks and gravel is all that had been done.  So, I thought this might be an interesting test of some GW material that I had gotten for my Bolt Action figures.

I had tested this on some much smaller bases, and I was very surprised at how well it worked.  If you apply it in large blobs, you will get those nice large cracks.  When you thin it down a bit and apply it a little more lightly around the edges of your deep cracks, it starts to look even more interesting and natural!

This is certainly something that I will try to fashion into a basing tutorial for the Patreon Page!  I think I will even try it on some of the Song Of Ice and Fire units, which should be very nifty.  There are already a number of basing tutorials available on the Patreon Page... here's a link so you can check that out:  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

More Giants!

After painting the first Savage Giant from the new Free Folk army box, I was really looking forward to painting his buddy!  If you want a peek at the first tutorial, here's a link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LvJv3dyjEw

As always, I start out with the Shaded Basecoat and glazing process, establishing all the lights and darks as rapidly as possible.  Once those initial colors are in place, it makes is a lot easier to build off of them.  For instance, having the blueish gray skin colors already on the figure from those first layers means all I have to do is put some additional layers of pinks or greens.

Just like the original giant, I did some snow and ice effects.  Since he has a pretty hefty beard, I tried to get some frost effects around his mouth.  That was very fun!

Here's some images of the completed giant, including his movement tray.  The balance of greens and umbers play off each other, and the more grayish skin tones.

You can see that play out in these images.  I also discuss how to work more variety in surfaces such as cloth, and how even that surface can reflect color and light (even though it is not reflective like metals).  The parts of the cloth that are closest to the ground have a cooler, blueish tint, while those facing upwards are a warmer, more yellowish green.

At one point in the video I turn off the saturation completely, making the screen black and white.  This means that only shape you see is provided by the shadows and highlights.  The cloth retains all of its shape, but now you don't see that blueish color tint.

Each of the tutorials I create has that kind of in depth process.  You see every brush stroke possible, and you get an explanation behind every color choice, every highlight, and so on.  I try to repeat these things during the recording to reinforce the information, and make it easier to remember.

I have dozens of painting tutorials on my Patreon Page, which cover every possible technique and topic.  Not just painting, but basing, terrain, and more.

A pledge of just $5 can get you access to tutorials such as this.  Each one is about 100-130 minutes long.  The Army Painter pledge level of $15 will provide access to all tutorials that I do each month.

Joining in on the Patreon Page will provide you with access to a vast number of tutorials, and brand new content every month.  I already have several Song of Ice and Fire unit tutorials in progress, including the Night's Watch Ranger Hunters and the Free Folk Spearwives!

Here's a link to the page... once you sign up, I immediately send you links to tutorials to get you started: www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Listen to the Trees

This is a sneak peek at a new set of tutorial videos that I will be doing on some older GW Dryads.  It has been many years since I last painted one, and I thought I could roll the camera as I work on these!

These new videos will be more of an "At the Workbench" setup, where I show you how I go about painting things for commissions. It is not very different from how I do everything else in terms of technique, but the mindset does change quite a bit.

I will also be going a little more "Old School", where I have these brush primed with 1 color, as opposed to the "Primer Painting" you see more now.  I wanted to show you a more classic Shaded Basecoat technique!

This episode from another ongoing series should give you an idea of that kind of priming.  Then I will work my way trough a few of these figures using a variety of glazing and other techniques.  A few of the episodes will be available to the general public, with the rest for my patrons of the Patreon Page:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTHBkXNCDlw

Hammer & Sickle

This very old hunk of metal really took me back to the early days of our painting experience.I remember when I first saw the old Confrontation figures, and noticed how different they were sculpted from everything else at that time.

I think the next transition which was that noticeable was the ZBrush phenomenon a few years back.  You can tell when something has been digitally sculpted quite easily, just by the flow of the lines, and how most organic surfaces are rendered.  I remember how intricate these Confrontation minis were when they first hit the scene.

There were many more details on those figures than you had typically seen on sculpts of that 2001-2003 period.  Now with the digital sculpting, it is commonplace. 

These solid metal figures are certainly a lot heavier than the resin and plastic figures you will see today.  It is so strange to think that metal figures are the least common materials nowadays!

Combo Platter

The latest Painting Dark Sword tutorial is up on the Patreon Page now!  I really love using the Dark Sword figures as subject matter, because they have a lot of fine detail, and always plenty of character.

In this episode, I was trying to show how to combine several techniques that are usually broken out into individual episodes.

This time around, I wanted to show how to combine Object Source Lighting, Freehand and Non Metallic Metals all in one lesson.

I showed how I go about transferring a pattern onto the figure, sketching it out first to get the "muscle memory" and also a sense of what might have to be eliminated or added to make it work.

It is not unusual to have to put several major techniques into one figure, which is something I have to do every day.  The idea is to give you a few easier ways to execute these techniques, so that you feel more able to do so yourself.

I think most tutorials only do this kind of combination on huge figures or busts.  Very seldom do you see 28mm figures get the same treatment!

Well, since 28mm figures are what I use (and my commission buyers), that means doing all those nifty things you see on 75-100mm figures on the "little guys".  It also has to be done in a timely fashion!

None of us has infinite amounts of time to spend on our figures, even though we wish we did.  In this lesson, I show you some ways to do that... and even play around with some home made static grass tufts!  If I can bring in the funds to set up a second recording station, I will be able to make an entire video series on creating those tufts as well!

When you pledge to my Patreon Page, you will get a great deal of content, in the form of one video tutorial after another (the Army Painting pledge is about 15-20 hours of videos each month!).  I try cover all aspects of miniature painting... basing, oils, acrylics, weathering powders... whatever it takes to get the job done.

The special $10 Dark Sword miniatures pledge not only allows you to check out all the Dark Sword tutorials, but all of the other 'general technique' episodes.  These often focus on experiments with new materials or techniques!  That's all right here on the Patreon Page:  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel