Dragonfall

This giant beastie from Mierce Miniatures was definitely a challenge.  The dramatic movements of the body mean that they tend to wrap around each other, and make it more difficult to get the brushes where you need them.

This is another one of those ideal candidates for oil paints, as I have discovered that it is possible to do "blind blending".  Since the paints remain wet for quite a while, you can blend right there on the surface.  

On other figures where reaching the surface with a brush is difficult at best, I was able to stab some paint on that surface, take a second clean brush, and push that paint around as needed, blending along the way.

It would create enough of a blend in that deep shadow or crevice to look like you had miraculously reached in there with some kind of curved brush and done lots of detailed blending! 

Obviously the wings are another surface that could be very fun to paint with oils as well.  A larger filbert brush would allow for some really interesting blends, and the introduction of some additional 'hidden' tones.

I tried to do this with the acrylic paints, infusing as much blue and purple into the wings as possible, along with the warmer reds.  It could have been possible to integrate a bit of green in the shadow areas too, as a compliment to those deeper purple shades.

Time constraints meant that it had to be done in standard acrylics, so I utilized the Reaper Clear paints and plenty of Secret Weapon Weathering paints.  Most of the reddish tones were achieved by mixing the rust colored paints with the brighter Reaper Clears.

The deeper shadows could be created with the Liner paints and the Clear paints.  All of these paints are excellent for glazing, which is crucial on craggy surfaces such as these!

I have some more of this "Draconis" race, which I will be painting in oils.  They are the monstrous infantry that I enjoy so much from Mierce.  I may try a very different color set on each one, instead of trying to make them all one color scheme.

In any case, stay tuned!  I will try and paint a few on the Facebook Live sessions, and a few recorded videos for YouTube and the Patreon Page subscribers.

Oil and Steel

Here's another Morghul Knight painted primarily with oils, and then finished off with acrylics.

As I have mentioned before, the oil paints provide a number of advantages.  First, I can work on more figures at once, since the paint will remain wet on the figures far longer than the acrylics.  This also means that I can blend more interesting colors together in the shadows and mid tones.

It can make Non Metallic painting much easier as well, since the metal needs to have a lot of reflected colors.  We tend to think of more limited palettes for metals, simply various blue gray colors.

I will be creating more demonstrations on oil painting this month for the Patreon page, which will be available to the patrons to view on YouTube or even get physical copies on USB drives.

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211987031365225/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I think you can see some of the purples and umber colors which I worked into the metals, which are also meant to compliment the greenish tint to the blanket on the horse.

Adding in 'new' colors and blending them into what is already there is a much easier task than many glazes of acrylic paint.  Since it is easier to do so, it makes it more likely that you will try to put in unusual colors, as blending them and toning them down happens all at once.

As for the base, that was done with tree bark, while the tufts and leaves were from Green Stuff World. I have a number of tutorials on the blog and on my facebook page in the form of live sessions!

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209658916083798/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

He's also here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323199191338?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Bard Notes

I am asked many times why I take a lot of extra time to cut figures away from sprues or "broccoli bases" like those you see on Reaper figures.  This wonderful bard from Circle of Blood is a reminder of the rewards of that little bit of extra work.

Ridding the figure of the sprue or broccoli base opens up all kinds of wonderful opportunities for basing, such as this sculpey base that I made.  With very little effort, it provides a better story than your typical rock and grass base.

Also, since the figure has a pin in the foot, you can paint it attached to a dowel rod or even a pin vise. This makes it easier to hold onto, reach those hard to get to areas, and also prevent any paint from getting onto your base and vise versa.

I am in the process of creating more basing videos, especially in regards to units.  I am trying out the new Chaos Runes texture roller from Green Stuff World to create bases for the Dark Elf figures.

I have already posted some preview videos of what is to come for the folks who are pledging $5 or more on the Patreon Page.  The new pledge levels have been worked on as well, as I want to have options at $10, 15, 20 and so on.  Some of these involve discussing your armies with you, figuring out a basing scheme and so on.

The goal is to get those put up on Wednesday... so stay tuned

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Time for Tufts!

In the last few years, I have been relying more and more on Grass, shrub and flower tufts for my basing, to the degree that I can't purchase new replacements fast enough.  

Worse yet, the type I am looking for is quite frequently out of stock just when I need it most.  That is why I was quite relieved to see that my first few tests with the Static Grass Applicator from WWS Scenery appeared to have been successful!

Ideally, I would like to have the larger applicators, but this "detail" applicator is what I had to work with.  It is intended to put static grass into hard to reach places on train layouts, but also on your bases.

In many different online tutorials, I saw many versions of this tool used to create grass tufts.  Better yet, I saw how to create the shrub and flower tufts which are eve more difficult (or expensive!) to procure.

It is best to have a mix of grass colors and heights.  I think these vary from 2mm to 4mm.  I am trying to get my hands on 6mm, which would make excellent tufts!

Taping down some basic parchment paper, I used the glue which came with the kit.  I will experiment with Elmer's glue and even wood glue next to see what happens.  This seemed to release very easily from the parchment paper.

I taped them to the cardboard to keep them flat, and give something for the nail to stick into. More on that later!

After making a test sheet with the 2mm Summer grass, I mixed in some Woodland Scenics 4mm fall grass.  This would create more variation in color and height.

That is mixed into the applicator.  Note that it is only a screen covering the 'cup' so you will want to work on some kind of tray to keep all the scattered grass in a lace where you can get it collected.

You clip the grounding wire to the nail, which you can see in the corner.  It takes a number of passes for the grass to start falling out, and you have to keep the wand moving to get the grass to stand up.  Obviously a larger applicator would make short work of these!

You can get a sense of the static generated by the nail.  You will want to keep computers and phones clear from this area, as the grass will get 'around'.  I was really excited as I started to see these tufts emerge from blobs of glue!!!

I tried to apply the glue in a few different ways... flatter and more spread out, and in taller blobs.  Both seemed to work out OK.

I mixed all three colors and heights together for the final sheet.  Again, I have some more materials on the way, like taller grass.  There are also leaves and colored foam which will allow me to add onto these simple grass tufts and turn them into much more!

On this sheet, the glue was in taller blobs, and I have to say I liked the results.  It helped to make the shorter grass just a wee bit taller.

I don't know if you can see the color difference here, but it is actually substantial.  Even if I didn't like the colors, I have discovered that I can airbrush tufts to get them more in line with what I need.

One more peek at the tufts!  Since I am virtually out of the store bought tufts already, these will be utilized on figures that I am painting right now.

I will continue with these experiments, so that I can become proficient enough to make some how to videos for the Patreon Page.  I am not sure if the resolution of Facebook Live sessions will adequately show what it takes in this process.

Who knows... I may even make tufts part of the pledge rewards.  I am already going to do that with my home made bases, so why not?

Here's a link to the page, where I will be announcing the new pledge levels very soon!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

The Tangled Web

I think has to be one of the most unique things that I have tested out in all the time I have been doing miniature painting, and that says a lot when you consider the massive amounts of new materials I have been trying!

This is a new product from Green Stuff World, and I think you can tell what it is.  It is a spider web material that is designed to go through an airbrush.  There is the web material in one bottle, and a cleaning solution in the blue container.

I tried this out on some of my branches, and on a base.  There were a few essentials that I noted.

You will definitely want to have a spray booth and a mask.  Also, the stray fibers will 'travel' as the wind from the airbrush takes them.

The material does not cover large gaps, but does much better when you have bridging material.  If I wanted to have the web cross the branches of my base, I would need to have a thread or two... something for it to start on.

Once the material is sprayed, you can remove the excess, in this case with a simple brush.

You can see how it does better when the gaps are much smaller on the secondary branches.

The webs will be pretty fragile, so I don't think you will want to do this on gaming pieces that go in and out of a case.  I would also not try to ship any figures where I used this, as the webs would be wiped out.

My assumption is that this is for display pieces for the most part.  I could probably get away with using it on my armies, as they are all magnetized and sit in my boxes.  I would want them far away from any parts of the figure or base where I would handle them.

Obviously I will test this some more, seeing how it might work on architecture or undead figures.

I'm sure that I will discover more methods for using it.  In these tests, I was using a Badger Sotar brush.  As the instructions stated, I ran the cleaner through right away after using it.

A few minutes later I was doing some regular painting with the brush, and that did not seem to have any effect on that.  Stay tuned!

Wild Ride

These centaurs from Confrontation are a reprise of some that I painted many years ago.  Just like the original batch, the 'tusks' had to turned into beards, which was a reminder of how much I liked sculpting!!

So, I am hoping at some point to try and do some sculpting videos for the patreon page, utilizing a number of different materials.  Sculpey, Apoxy sculpt, Brown Stuff and Green stuff are all on that list!

Some of those old sculpts have been pretty gigantic, like this Mastadon... probably my biggest scratch sculpt:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/12/scratch-sculpted-mastadon-for-celtos.html

Snow Basing

Here are some finished images of the Soviet infantry snow basing tests!

I tried a few different materials in several combinations, experimenting until I found something that gave me the look that I wanted, but one that could be easy to replicate on many more figures, vehicles, even small pieces of terrain, etc.

Here's a link to the live session:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212572308356784/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I ultimately decided on a combination of the Secret Weapon Crushed Glass method and the Vallejo snow medium.  This provided some of the transparent 'crystallized' appearance of the Crushed Glass, but made it a bit more white and easier to apply.

I could also add in the Woodland Scenics snow flock on top of this!

These winter Soviets were painted entirely in oils, which is something that I will be doing in "hard copy" recorded video form on YouTube for my Patreon subscribers.  I also tried to vary the color of the overcoats, just as I had seen in some research.  I had discovered 3 distinct coat types...

As I mention during the broadcast, the weapon teams is where I really noticed the difference!  By the time I had gotten to the anti-tank rifle, I had definitely fallen in love with the combo of materials.

There are several more of these on the way, and they will make a great subject matter for basing, along with the artillery pieces and gun crews.

These methods will also work on the vehicles.  If you want to check out the live session that I did on the T-34/85, here's a link to that live session.  Just like the basing demo, this was an experiment in various materials and techniques:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211859089046747/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

As I move forward with the new Patreon pledge levels, I will be adding more of the how to and experimental videos to the YouTube account for the Patreon supporters to view.  Right now, a $5 pledge gets you access to these private versions of the usual public Facebook live sessions.

I am adding some other levels, where I can interact with folks in private skype sessions and working out color schemes together!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel