Kitty Litter

Time for some images, now that the final miniature has been added to the base with the kitties!

I believe this Dark Sword figure is part of the Game of Thrones set.

It was important to keep the colors toned down here, but yet have enough difference from the cats and the base to be visible.  I used muted reds and light greens to play off the grey on the base and the yellowish tan of the Siamese cats.

Green and red are opposites, so those had to be muted as much as possible.  It would be quite festive otherwise! :-)

Toning them down is simple... greens were mixed into the reds, and vice versa. As you can see, imparting just a small amount of the opposite color is a way to make hues which would normally contrast work in harmony.

Once again, I used some foliage to tie in a color from the figure down into the base.  The red flowers were perfect for this!  They also brought a splash of color to the base, and helped to make the blue eyes of the cats a little more distinct.

Scenes and vignettes like this one are possible by "going vertical" on a base.  In this instance, it only involved creating a second 'level' to the base, so that the cats could be spread out a bit, and leave the central figure less obscured.

You can also see the "triangle" composition and the 2 to 1 ratio in effect.  That's the basic of composition.  Never have two equal sized objects standing side by side equidistant of each other, as that is very disturbing visually.

The triangle form of composition like this is closer to the golden ratio, which is the ideal mix of large and smaller objects together.

The cat's out of the bag

I thought I might snap a few pictures of this for you before the main figure is added.  I made a multi level base out of the pressed sculpey Green Stuff World textures, and then added a few things.

Like skulls... and KITTIES!!  

Yes, cute little kitties from a recent Dark Sword kickstarter campaign.

They seem to lend themselves to Siamese, so I have been painting them that way.

As for the base, you can see that it is a lot of fun to "age" the broken pieces of sculpey once they have been painted.  I also tried to make sure that the various shades and colors would not blend in too much with the kitties.

One more set of playful cats.  Who says that I don't post pictures of cats?

Ingrid

Ingrid is one of two very nasty sisters from Siren Miniatures.  They are also my two favorite figures from the fantastic Siren line!  

You can see more of those Siren figures here:

http://sirenminiatures.com/

I tried to have some variations on both the leather of the figure, and on the base surface, positioning greens next to subdued warm tans and even purple.  The purple was incorporated to bring in the bright red hair, as the same color was used to shade the darkest portions of the hair.

This is a sneaky way to tie colors together without it being too obvious.  I learned early on in my 2D art career that all colors must have some kind of link to each other.  Should one be too out of place, it will cause the viewer some discomfort to look at, which is never good!

You can also see that I used one of my recently created Celtic ruins bases made with the Green Stuff World texture rollers!  Now that I am finally getting a chance to paint some of these, and put figures on them, I love them even more!

I will always have fun carving my own sculpey bases, but now I have the ability to make very intricate designs with a variety of themes in no time at all!

These ground level views show you a little bit of the reflected colors that I attempted to place on the white mask and the ribbons flowing from it.  There are hints of red along the sides of each, which helps to tie those very light colors into the rest of the figure, which has a lot of darker tones or highly saturated hues.

Garden Variety

This classic Reaper sculpt by Sandra Garrity was yet another opportunity to see what I could do in a limited space with a variety of foliage products.

I have a few flower sets from Hangar 18, and some tufts from Gamer's Grass.  Not only were the flowers different colors, but they were also different heights, which was especially useful!

I tried to have those flowers play off the colors of the miniature, using the blueish purple as a contrast to the golden flowers and bright green tufts.  The red flowers were designed to tie in the color of the hair down to the base itself.

While this is essentially a simple method of basing, some strategic placements and color choices created something substantial and interesting to look at!  I like to have as many types of flock, tufts, leaves and other foliage products on hand as possible.

That presents me with a lot of options, no matter what kind of figure I am basing, or the color scheme, etc.

Large Caliber

If there's one way to keep the Bosch out of France, it will be with heavy duty firepower!  In this case, we have the scratch built 105mm French Medium Howitzer.  

The four crew members were taken from the French set on the Warlord store.  I fashioned the gun from plasticard and polystyrene tubing.

Here's what it looked like as it was being constructed, in step by step form!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/medium-sized.html

Now for a few shots of the completed scratch build:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-bigger-gun.html

I modeled this after the Flames of War version.  The wheel and stabilizer assembly was designed to provide additional protection for the crew, as the wheel swing out along with the stabilizer bars.

This artillery piece gave me many opportunities for weathering effects, since the gun shield and wheels were so heavy and solid.  I'm thinking that my opponent should need a +7 anti tank gun to get to that crew! :-)

The views from above show how I placed the crew.  It was a real challenge to get them all in that space, but not so crowded that it would look cramped.  I hope that you can see a hint of the shells which were placed at the feet of the loader.

The ground level views were really rewarding, as it seemed more like a gun, and not a miniature.  I look forward to these types of views on an actual table, with some hapless foe locked in its sights.

I mentioned earlier that I modeled this after the Flames of War French 105mm.  It was very handy for scale, since I had already done the 75mm Howitzer in both scales!

One last set of views for you.  Yes, I will certainly be sculpting the huge 155mm Heavy Howitzer, so stay tuned!!!

Ancient Power

And yes, I do mean ancient!  This guy has probably been out of print for many years.  I remember when we first started painting minis, you could find small boxes containing 8 miniatures.  There were a few different sets, and one of them had a variety of Chaos type characters in them.

This set had a few sorcerers, Chaos warriors, a few Beastmen... and possibly a few Skaven.  I also remember an "Adventurers" box, and a space marine one as well.

I thought it would be fun to see something this old painted up in the usual current techniques, and on a nice base.

It was a very different feel to paint one of these old one piece plastics, especially with all of the super elaborate resin kits of today!

Still, going back in time like this to a much older style of figure is a great exercise.  In some ways, it makes me more aware of the progress and advancement we have seen in sculpting, especially in recent years!

It's incredible to think of how this has all progressed with the advent of new sculpting and casting technologies.

Spell binding

This Dark Sword miniature has been around for a little while, but it's every bit as nice as all the new releases.

Dark Sword has also maintained more of a "true scale" to their sculpts, which is always a welcome change from the more frequent Heroic scale.  It can make painting certain elements more of a challenge, such as the hands, but that added touch of realism has rewards as well.

There is also a lot of precision in the sculpting of the faces and hair, which is much appreciated by me!  Those little things matter even more when you paint as many figures as I do on a regular basis!

One last set of images.  I have some newer Dark Sword releases on the way, so stay tuned as always!