Showing posts with label Ilyad Miniatures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ilyad Miniatures. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

A company gets the axe


Once again, lamentations over the fact that Ilyad Miniatures no longer exists.


I think they could really have done some great things with the technology that is currently available.  The details were always very finely sculpted, no matter what kind of surface or texture.  

Weapons, armor, fur, cloaks, faces, etc., were always made extremely easy to paint.


Figures that are not well sculpted or cast can take 2-3 times as long to paint, since you are quite literally fighting the texture of the miniature.  I have been through this torture all too many times over the years!


When you have finely sculpted musculature, for example, you can be even more adventurous with skin tone colors.  Here, I was able to incorporate a lot of greenish grey into the shadow areas, creating even more interest.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

FANtastic... finding one more Ilyad figure


I know I have said this at least 3 times before... that I have uncovered the last Ilyad figure in my archive.  Well, somehow I managed to discover one more!

This is one more fun figure from one of my favorite miniature lines.  As always, I lament their demise.

I also liked this color scheme.  Green and purple combos show up quite a bit on my minis. :-)


The clean details in both sculpting and casting really help a painter out!  Seeing this gal reminds me of the Raging Heroes figures I have been painting...


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Ilyad Skeleton Character



We return to the wonderful world of Ilyad Miniatures.  This is yet another example of how nice the sculpting was on these figures.  While the armor and swords were almost always very intricate on these, it was almost easier to paint them than the simpler swords on other miniature lines.


Sometimes undead figures can be more difficult to paint as the sculpting is not so great.  In the attempt to make the armor look aged and damaged, all the detail is muddled.  Not so where!

The base is made from sculpey, as usual. ;-)


I had some fun with a bit of verdi-gris on the armor.



Gunther: Ilyad Miniatures Guardian



This post has some close up images of the miniature I used for the diorama.  Ilyad always sculpted the armor very nicely, without those crazy anomalies that leave you guessing how the heck you are supposed to paint it!

The cloaks were always straightforward as well.  Each figure had a lot of personality to the armor, but they were fun to paint!


Here are some more close ups of the mini and the diorama...



One last view of the mural before all the foliage materials were applied!



Monday, February 25, 2013

Minis and Murals, an Ilyad diorama...



As I was preparing the new area for filming the painting videos, I ran across a few CD ROMs with backed up files on them.  I figured that I already had most of these somewhere else, but it turns out that it was a veritable treasure trove of 'lost' images!

Among the galleries I uncovered was a set of images I had been searching for for over a year to put on the blog!  All I had found before this was some tiny little images.  Here are the original images that I shot of one of my favorite dioramas.  It's a mural, which is so much fun to do in miniature!


The figure itself is from Ilyad, and I will be posting some more images that show it a bit closer, and without the diorama.  As usual, this diorama was made with baked sculpey.


It was done in layers, like the lost shrine and the Anastasia dioramas.  I would do one layer, bake it, add some more decoration, bake it again, and so on.


One all those layers and details were complete, I took some carving tools to it and chipped away!


The vines are from Woodland scenics.  This is probably the best example of using that product.  It can be a little messy with the super glue, and you will get lots of stuff on your fingers in the process!  However, it really is worth it, as it truly looks like vines when you work it correctly.


This view shows you a nice look at how it interacts with the terrain piece.  It's a two part medium.  You attach the vines first, and then glue the 'leaves' later.  That's where things can get a little messy.


I would love to try something like this again using all the new weathering powders and pigments that I have now!


Perhaps I will try some things like this with the Raging Heroes figures... or some Kingdom Death figures...


Here's a few images of the mural:



I will post the images of the figure later tonight!  Stay tuned!


Saturday, December 29, 2012

No hockey? No problem. The rest of the Ilyad band...


This is the last of the Ilyad figures I recovered from the archives.  The weapon and armor were typical of the detail and fine casting these folks did.  It sure made a painter's life much easier!!!


Forget the lockout, this guy is ready to play!


For those of you who did not see most of the original posts, here are a few of the other figures from this batch...




And then a couple of group shots...


Friday, December 28, 2012

Still working from the archives... more Ilyad!


Until I can get the RAM situation resolved, I am going to be doing a few other things for the Kickstarter over the weekend.  I have a few other Raging Heroes figures set up as tests for certain flesh tone instructional DVD's.


I will be painting a Mantis warrior as an example of Non- Human flesh tones.  Basically, painting a Slaneeshy kind of color, with some accents of spot patterns, etc.


Also, I am still working on graphics for the Kickstarter page, which will hopefully be able to evolve of the course of its run.  I have to do some more tests to see if I will be able to do the things I need.


So, it's time to get back to work, since a very long night is before me...

Back to square one.. more hidden Ilyad gems


Yes, more images recovered from the abyss!  I think many of these were in group shots, but the individual pictures were never processed.  So, we have a few more barbarian heroes coming your way!



The flesh tones on this guys were very interesting to paint.  Fortunately, there was a lot of detail and finely sculpted lines.


The "Wish they were still here" category... Ilyad minis uncovered!


I accidentally ran across these images as I was searching for something else.  A number of of of my favorite minis from Ilyad.


These were always very fun!  I have more of these to show you.



Our quest for the expanded RAM capabilities met a major snag, as just about every attempt to increase RAM has over the years.  Not sure why, but it always works out that way.  So we are stuck at 1 Gig for now.