Cold Snap-to!

Here's another Bolt Action German soldier trying to stay warm!  As with the rest of this army, I used the Secret Weapon crushed glass to create the snow.

The boxed set is very nice, and all of the weapon teams for artillery, etc, are also available to complete the army:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/products/german-grenadiers-in-winter-clothing/?utm_campaign=jamiet&utm_medium=click&utm_source=fbba

Among the many advantages that I have discussed before, my favorite aspect about this material is that it works quite well on unusual surfaces... such as foliage and even the figure itself.

When it is added to the tips of thick grass or branches, it really sets the scene, since it is transparent and crystallized.

Still much more to come from the winter Germans, so stay tuned!

Age of Aquarium

I originally used this Reaper figure as part of a basing class, then for an exercise in working with the Reaper clear paints.  It was well suited to that role, and once more I used it for an experiment...

I have added plastic aquarium plants many times to my bases and dioramas, but they always had a very fake look.  While painting them completely cured that disease, it took a long time, and the leaves had a tendency to move around quite a bit as I did so.

Last year I discovered that painting the leaves with a simple wash of the Vallejo wash colors would be a great solution.  They are a little thicker than most washes, and dry with a very matte finish.  This is ideal for getting rid of the shiny plastic texture, and they really cling to that unprimed material as well!

It settles into all the crevices, and even works with the slightly transparent nature of the plastic material.  I was very surprised to see how this simple solution could have such an amazing effect!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/322543216892?

Centurion

These Junkers figures from Urban Mammoth were used for the "Raging Reds" video from the Painting Pyramid series.  This focused on the entire range of reds... warmer, cooler, saturated and muted.

It was one of 5 "color theory" videos, which included greens, blues, yellow, and even gray!

The idea was to show how many different reds could be achieved, so that you didn't need to have 200 bottles of red paints!  Over the years I had many questions about reds, as many people tended to get chalky pinks when they attempted to lighten it.  I wanted to show them how to get a great variety of lighter reds.

The bases were fun too... since I had not painted red marble since my old Demonhunters army!

This also turned out to be a nice exercise in gold NMM, playing off the reds that were on the figure.  I tried to add my usual purples and greens for variation and contrast.  In this case, the greenish gray colors would give the golds a little extra bounce, since that would contrast against those deep reds.

Olaf Wolfmane

Here's another rendition of an old favorite.  Cathy and I have painted this guy so many times over the last 16+ years :-)

Each time, we try to do something a little different with it...

This time around, I put him on one of the Green Stuff World texture roller bases.  I really enjoy the Celtic Knotwork version!

The wolf pelt is usually painted the same way each time.  In this instance, there were a lot of muted grays everywhere, so I tried to accentuate some of the tans and browns that you often find in a wolf face.

Out in the Cold

It's been a long time since I last showed the winter Germans from Warlord Games.  This was the first use of the Secret Weapon Miniatures crushed glass on an entire army.

I had never gotten the opportunity to create a winter Army for myself, so this was very fun!

The set of metal figures is a nice one... I really enjoy the poses, with a lot of character.  This is the main infantry box:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/products/german-grenadiers-in-winter-clothing/?utm_campaign=jamiet&utm_medium=click&utm_source=fbba

The crushed glass snow is ideal for these kinds of projects, since you can make the snow any consistency that you need... more melted, more icy, or more like a powder.  It also has a slightly transparent, crystallized appearance when you place a bit of it on clothing or helmets.

This is also another interesting exercise in muted colors and limited palettes.  It is very essential to keep all the colors more in the cooler range, and very grayed down... even skin tones! 

End Zone

Another blast from the past!  Here we have a few converted skeletons and zombies for an Undead Blood Bowl team.

I had some fun with the skin tones on the zombies... varying the colors from one to the next, and balancing all the greens against the purples, pinks and reds.  The purple was the key element in the transition between them, since green and purple make a grey as opposed to brown.

That grey is a nice 'dead' flesh color, as opposed to brown, which is what you will get from a green/red mix!

The purple is also handy, since that's part of the uniform colors!

Nothing crazy on the bases... just something to make them look like they are on a Blood Bowl pitch :-)

I went with a more intense green set on the right hand zombie, and that turned out to be a great contrast to the warmer purple color.  The colors on the guts were cooled down a bit to compensate.

Jungle Hero

This conversion was made for my Lizardman army to keep "super weapons" from wiping out my very expensive Temple Guard unit.  It's been a while, but I believe that if Chakax fought in a challenge, the opponent's magical weapon would only count as mundane, thus eliminating the 400 automatic unsaveable wounds those stupid things did!

The base for the conversion was a standard Saurus figure, of which I had many!  I attempted to make it as close to the original metal version as possible, but I did take some liberties to keep it in line with my scratch built Temple Guard unit... made from those same plastic Saurus.  

At the time, there was no plastic Temple Guard set.

A few more views for you.  There were a lot of interlocking surfaces which certainly made it more challenging to paint!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322517855142?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

I used a lot of brown stuff for the sculpting, since that holds an edge better than regular green stuff.  It is also a bit stronger and rigid, which is why I use it for things like horns, banners, parchments and other unsupported pieces.