Halt!

We return to the front lines with the Warlord Games winter American figures.  This is a metal set which contains 10 sculpts.  There are also a number of support and command sets to complete the army.  

This was my first experience in using oils to paint an entire unit of 'regular' miniatures.  Up to that point, I had only used them on vehicles.  It was a lot of fun to use the oils on infantry figures, and this link shows you some of the steps involved.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/oil-slick.html

There are a number of obvious advantages to the oils, such as the extended drying times.  Another upside to the oils is the ease of initial blending, and the ability to mix right on the figure!

I also used the Secret Weapon Miniatures crushed glass for the snow effects.

Also, the use of oil paints makes getting the muted tones quite easy, since you are already mixing the colors quite frequently.  I will be using the oils on subsequent armies, such as my Italians.  That extended drying time is ideal for working on mass amounts of figures all at once, keeping more consistency in the colors from one to the next.

Being able to come back after a few days to continue painting the figures means that I can be more relaxed in the approach, as the paint on the palette and the figures will still be workable for quite a while.

I will be incorporating more materials in the oil painting process, such as the Mig AMMO OilBrushers.  Stay tuned!

Barbarian Blades

The past becomes the present once again with a very old figure that I believe is from Excalibur.  I seem to recall that eventually parts of this line became Celtos... a line of figures that I really loved back in the day!

This figure might be over 17 years old, and long out of print.  Again, I can't be sure, but it was something that I had run across on ebay 15 years ago. :-)

Painting older figures like these is always a reminder of how things evolve and change in the miniatures industry over the years. While today's poses tend to be far more dynamic, that does lead to more interactions with mould lines.  "Simpler" poses such as these tend to offer more protection from those lines, as it is easier to 'hide' them.

There are some larger, bulkier surfaces, and these offer some opportunities for subtle color varieties and even freehand designs.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222539250589?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Savage Terror

This is one of my favorite Lizardman figures that I made for the army, and one of the larger conversions!

I added the old style dragon wings to the ancient metal Carnosaur, as well as armor and even some chains.  I could not resist doing some firey object source lighting on those wings.  In fact, at this time, you could give the Saurus units 'marks', which would give them different traits.

One would be marked as 'Fearless', which would be represented by a unit that was painted in this set of colors... a dark grayish blue, with lava OSL.

It was a challenge to mesh the wings with that body, and a lot of green stuff was required.  I was able to use the continuation of the scale texture to achieve that blend.

The head crest was made from plasticard and brown stuff.  The character is painted grayish white, as was traditional for an Oldblood.

Now for some views of the lighting.  It was a huge challenge, because he was really heavy, and there were endless amounts of edges that would catch that light!  Ironically, that's why I chose to do that effect!

This was also the last Golden Demon winning figure... I forget which year that was, but GW stopped doing Games Days in Chicago after that.  It was a Silver Demon for Loq-Qar, which is what his head crest spells in Lizardman glyphs.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322546263032?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

The views from above show off the texture that had to be sculpted on to the wing joints to make them look like they were part of the original sculpt!  He was the centerpiece of the first Armies on Parade figure that won the overall in the U.S. back in 2012!

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.