Thursday, May 1, 2014

Thoughts on paints


First day back from Reapercon.  It's been a pretty insane combination of various forms of mayhem.  The usual unpacking, but also a ton of reorganization.  Between Adepticon and Reapercon, the entire studio is destroyed top to bottom.  I have no idea where anything is right now.

It is going to take longer than I thought to get all of that into any form of sanity.


I never did get a chance to take any 'real' images of the dwarf wizard.  As you know, he was a Bones figure.  Numerous Reaper colors were used on him... ones that I had never seen before.

In fact, a great deal of discussion on paints went on at the factory from Monday to Tuesday.

Since it is much less convenient for me to get GW paints these days, the focus has shifted back to Reaper in a very heavy way.  We used to use them all the time, but being in a GW store so often meant that it was a lot easier to get them.


Wage surveys his new factory, looking down at the paint area of the facility.


A few views of other parts.  Everything in the operation has its place.  It is a very big building!


Ovens!  Not for sculpey baking though...


The Reaper employees are very multi talented.  This is a very impressive art quilt!  We discussed the finer points of Chartres stained glass windows, pilgrimage mazes, and much more!  Loads of fun!


Here are some of the artists packing up boxes to send home.  Many thanks to the Reaper folks who made my life getting back a ton easier.  And to Ron, for cruising around the Dallas Fort Worth Airport in the van a dozen times!


I learned that the HD paints are specially formulated for many tasks.  Quite by accident, I chose to use them for my painting classes.  I had been struck by how well they flowed, mixed and covered.

They really are very high pigment colors.  I did not know that they were designed to cover just about anything... but they do.

Since I was not aware of this, I had experimented with them in many ways besides just 'coverage'.  In every area, they offered a wealth of opportunities.  They performed well no matter what technique I fooled around with.

They hold up very well to be thinned with water.  And by that, I mean a lot... enough for glazing.

I do use a number of Vallejo paints, and will continue to do so in certain specific areas.  However, I am leaning more and more towards these yellow labels.  It's all about what paints are going to work well with your techniques.

Constant work has shown me that the Vallejo colors have their niches, but the broadest applications might be best suited with these pigments.


Jeero was glad to see some of his buddies return home!


Your in flight entertainment!


Breakfast lunch and dinner were all served at the airport as it was time to head back to Chicago!

Babo had ice cream... with cookies!!!  Blueberry had some Sesame Chicken.


On the way back, I had to sketch out an idea for a possible diorama for Reapercon next year.  I could not get my hands on my notebook, so the boarding pass had to do.


I was working out a few different ideas for a diorama using the Kristiana figure from the Warlord line.  #14212 I believe.


By the way, the passenger next to me was kind enough to furnish me with a pen, since all of mine were in my checked bag.


Two main ideas started to coalesce... but I was definitely leaning towards this concept.  I think it will be more practical and open.  There were some other annotations on the sides, as I attempted to come up with some freehand for the cloaks and such.


Fooled around with this for a while too...


The other possibility was to place her in front of an alcove.  I had done that once before on another diorama, but that felt too heavy and 'closed'.  I think I will save that for something else.

It was a little difficult to do much on the second leg of the flight, since the cabin was almost pitch black.

However, as we approached the spires of my hometown, I had to jot down a quick skyline! :-)


Once Cathy got me from the airport, all the Uglies had to find out how much fun it was to ride in the Reapercon swag bag!


IceBatMan meets Sally!