Start your Engines!!!

Here is the other Engine of the Gods!

I tried to do as many different things with the colors on this one as possible.  Obviously the sculpt is a bit different as well.  Just like it's buddy, this one could be used as an ancient stegadon.

The spacescape on this version was inspired by the Eagle Nebula, and the Pillars of Creation.  I have painted that scene many times in my regular 2D paintings...

I used a different foliage on this one that I enjoyed a great deal.  The big plastic leaves really conveyed that jungle look!  I want to make some specialized pieces of terrain using those!

This view gives you a hint that the priest is removable...

This particular view shows terrain that has either been built or is under construction.  I have already made the Temple of Blood, which I am sure most of you have seen by now.  The terradon aviary is another piece of terrain I have been constructing for a while.  That will be the subject of a how to for sure!!!

Another view that shows the inside of the howdah.

More views of the skink on the back, and the foliage...

Here we see the priest on foot.  By removing him, you get an even better view of the howdah floor.  His base was made to match that floor as closely as possible.

Close up of the priest.

And one of the skinks...

I have some more views coming of both Engines together!  I am pretty sure I have not taken any images like them before...

Glazing and shading Angron!

OK everybody!  My apologies for the delay.  Not only was it the Holiday, but my computers seem to be in massive revolt, making it almost impossible to even get to my blog.  Yikes!

Anyway, as you all know, Angron was ready for his shaidng and tinting!

The idea behind the shaded basecoat is to make a series of lighter colors so that I can go in with all my glazes (a variety of GW, and vallejo  washes and  glazes) and adjust all my colors as I shade things darker.

My first task was to work the golds.  I had a few shades of brown, black, green and even purple!

You can see my first layers on the arm and the legs...

It is important to note that my glazing is done with small liner brushes for the most part.  My glazes are very controlled washes.  I will sometimes do 3-5 layers in a given area to get my deepest darks.

More work on the golds, making sure to vary my glaze colors, such as mixing that purple with my sepia in one place, but black in another.  This really helps generate that offsetting cool vs warm color shading.

I mixed in a blueish green glaze for the condiuts on the back of the head.  These colors wold be carried onto the cloak as well.

Here's the cloak.  At this point, I even started to mix in some Reaper Brown and Blue liner colors.  These are very interesting.  It is like mixing paint and glazes together.  It is a bit hard to describe.  They are very intense, deep darks.  When they are watered down, they make a nice shading glaze.

The skull got a reddish brown glaze, with a hint of that reaper brown liner.  On very rough areas like this cloak, I will even use a paper towel (or even my fingers) to wipe away excess liquid.  All of this will be much clearer in the DVD's!!

As I start to tint some of the last areas such as the face and the reds, it begins to take shape.

The chainaxes were given a series of blue/black glazes.

For the cloak, I even began to mix in regular paint with those reaper liner colors.

I left the inside of the cloak much lighter, barely touching the inside with glazes.

This is where we find ourselves now.  As this dried, I did the same thing on the other elements.  I did some experimentation with a few Secret Weapon washes that I won as prize support at Bilbo's bash.  They have some very interesting properties.

I am still experimenting with them as I get more to play with.  This time I used the concrete wash, which is nice on its own, but gets really interesting when you mix it with other glazes!!

OK, hopefully I will be able to get my normal posts in tomorrow!  Take care, everybody, and I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

Over the river of blood and through the jungle to Babo's house we go!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  What better way to celebrate than to go back to the very first Thanksgiving... when the Old Ones walked the Earth, and the child races had yet to be born...

This is one of two Engines of the Gods which I scratch sculpted, using my trusty tinfoil and apoxy sculpt method.  The howdah was made mostly from sculpey.  If you do a search (brand new gadget!) for Lizardmen or Engines of the Gods, the work in progress images should appear in an earlier post.

As I love painting spacescapes, I could not resist the temptation to paint a tiny one on the portal!  It was a blast.  The skink priest can actually be removed if you need him on foot in a regular unit.  Or, if you are me, when he is shot off the howdah on the first turn!  Therefore, the portal can be taken off as well.

This view really shows that spacescape, which was a painting I did many years ago called Chaos and Creation.

I had a lot of fun sculpting the stegadons.  I loved making the scales and the horns... adding the extra bits, etc.

Here are some views of the back, showing the terradon nesting grounds.

My army was comprised of skinks, terradons, salamanders, and these Engines of the gods.  Before 8th edition came along, I did not even have a Slann Mage Priest.

I used some old edition skink archers to fill out the crew.

The base was designed to match the rest of the army, as well as the Temple of Blood display board.  If you are new to the blog, and are not familiar with the Temple of Blood and the Legend of Stikki Wikkitt, I suggest you do a search on that as well. :-)

There was quite the story behind the army.  It lead the way for the Tainted Pharaoh and his legions.  Many games were played with this army, including a very fun four part campaign against the forces of Chaos... who else?

This could also double as an ancient stagedon, with giant blowpipes (you can see the stanchions for them towards the front of the howdah).  I had a skink chief that could also ride on this monster.  I don't think I ever played a game with that setup, however...

I will post some images of the other Engine of the Gods later tonight, so stay tuned!!!!!

Yes, it is Thanksgiving, and that means it's time for Cathy's Cranberry Sauce!!!!! Yummy. :-)

More Angron management... the rest of the shaded basecoat

All right folks!  Time to finish off the last of this shaded basecoat stuff, and get set for glazing and tinting this piece.  

You can see that I did some more work on the chain axe since the last post, as well as the face.  Precise colors are not important right now, since the idea is to tint it during the shading process.  This allows us to make adjustments on the fly.  This is very handy when you are trying to match colors from something you may have painted a long, long  time ago! :-)

Hey, where'ya goin?  Don't run away!...

After all the golds and other metal surfaces are complete, we can get into a nice red accent color!

I mixed the red with a bit of grey to cool it down as it was darkened.

The lighter reds are created by mixing in some vomit brown.  This is a good way to get the reds lighter without becoming pink.

As I work on those reds, I also think about some OSL, as in some glowing conduits on the back of the head and under the chin.

More lightening on the reds...

And for those of you wondering about the rest of the set, here are some images of those other pieces...

Just as with Angron, the whole point of what I have done thus far is to make these ready for that dramatic glazing/tinting shading process.

I will post the images of that process after the holiday tomorrow!

Looks like Abima is getting ready for a game of full contact Uno, Wappel style!!