Reaper Yvonne for SE NMM

Here is the Reaper Yvonne figure for the painting video concerning Sky Earth Non Metallic Metals.  A classic older figure that was just right to show a variety of surfaces.

I don't get to so the shiny steel much these days, except for that regiment of handgunners that I painted last year. :-)

Ice Queen for "Painting the Blues Away" is next!

Abbadon and Loki continue...

You have seen me working on the base for the Forgeworld Abbadon and Loki set.  This set of images shows what they looked like during the shaded basecoat stage.

As usual, the goal here is to make the colors as light as possible... as quickly as possible.  

Once all these lighter layers have been established, then it's time for glazing and shading!

For those of you not familiar with what I am talking about, the top bar of the blog has a shaded basecoat article.  There are also numerous articles of a similar nature in just about every category!

Stay tuned for that next exciting episode :-)

Final images of the Ultraforge Demon Prince

OK!  Time for the final images of the Demon Prince.

I had to keep things relatively simple, so that there would be enough time in the video to show all the flesh tone action.

The armor and sword will only get a cursory show in the video, to illustrate how those colors are set to interact with those flesh tones.  For instance, how the greenish tint to the armor is designed to make the reds of the fleshtones look even warmer, without having to add orange, etc.

That will be going on in many of the videos... manipulating one color to create an illusion.  You can see in this view that the sword is more of a bluish tinge.  That is to reflect some of the floor color, which is very close to the blade.

The back of the wings could be much warmer, since it was not facing the floor.

The underside of the wings were made a bit cooler, in contrast ti the top of the wings...

You can see that pretty well in this view.

And this one, along with the greens in the armor.

To reflect  some of these cooler colors, I put some on the face as well, and on the feet.

A few more figures were finished last night, so stay tuned!!!

Glazing and tinting the Utraforge Demon

When we last left our Demon Prince, he was just about ready for all the shading and tinting with the glazes.

These next few shots show what he looked like with the first few layers of washes and glazes...

Remember, we will still be going back in to work on the middle tones, and creating the bright highlights as well!

The idea behind all the dark shading and tinting is to eliminate all the exotic color blending that would have been necessary to get all the variations in flesh tones which I did on this piece.

This stage helps to set the tone for that final stage, where I take the colors further and further.  

These images might illustrate that a bit, in particular on the face, feet, hands and armor.

If the glazes and washes made an area slightly more green, for example, I can either take that green even further with the opaque middle tone layers, or work in the opposite way with my lightest colors, thus creating more contrast.

I know this is not a typical approach to miniature painting!  However, I have said many times (and many ways) that I view miniatures as three dimensional watercolors or pastels.  I approach each one in this manner, worrying about center of interest, value patterns, hard and soft edges, etc.

I will post the pictures of the finished Demon Prince tomorrow!!!  Stay tuned.

The Sisters Kurganova together

Here we have the set of Sisters together.  I will post another group of images with Charlie soon!

These were very fun to paint, and now I have the first miniatures for next year's Adepticon army painted!!

I look forward to painting many more.  There are so many new units and characters included in the upcoming Kickstarter, it is a bit scary :-)

On we go!

That's how we roll...

Hey!  Something fun from Chessex!  This is the sample which Chessex sent me yesterday.  The pictures were obviously quite small, but they did a nice job shrinking down the design.  I sent them a 6 x 6 inch version, so that they would have lots of resolution to downsize it.

The choice came down to 3 of the Gemini colors, and we ended up going this way, since it seemed the most "painterly", and conflicted with the design less.  They really have a vast selection, which is great.  Of course, the design is printed on the '1' side, since all the dice I roll seems to have them on every facing!

If you don't believe me, just ask anyone who has ever watched me roll one of these random cubes of doom.

In any case, they are now in production, so I will post images when they arrive!!

This is a new image that Raging Heroes just posted today, along with info about their own imminent kickstarter.  It just keeps getting better and better!

How to keep the line moving...

When you have the kind of insanity which went on this week, it can be very hard to keep a production line going at all, much less at full tilt. This is a conversation about ways to keep the train on the rails, and to maximize any time that you have.

While very few of you will have to paint vast numbers of commission minis and keep a kickstarter program going,  there are long term army projects that all of you do, like armies!

One way I try to maximize time is by working on tons of projects at once.  This allows for a lot of flexibility.  For instance, when I am working on bases, I will make a few bases for my army miniatures.  That goes for times like yesterday, when I am running around cleaning floods and sealing basement walls.  Or even during the allergy attack, when I could not speak and barely see!

Instead of giving up completely on miniature related stuff, I do those "simple" grunt work tasks like filing mould lines, making bases, priming figures, and so on.  While my brain is useless for high level tasks, I can at least sleep walk through those parts of the hobby.

I think most folks tend to just say the heck with it, and prefer to wait until they are 'in the groove'.  Well, even for someone who does this 12-19 hours a day every day, you are seldom in that groove.

Another way to help get that army painted in less than 10 years is to have other figures on hand that might be using the same colors you already have on your palette.  I have an example here.  Over the last few days, one less demanding task was putting the initial 'shaded basecoat' layers on the color test Ultraforge Demon Prince.

In these images, you see him just about at the point where I start glazing and tinting darker.  That is another less intensive task, which I will be doing at the same time as the darker glazes on the Abbadon / Loki project.

The whole time I was painting this, I was also putting colors on the Abbadon / Loki set... such as Loki's cloak...

Some of the colors that I used on the base were also applied to some bases for more Dark Eldar Kabal warriors.

And here they are!  As I was assembling the second Ultraforge Demon, I brought out these extra Warriors that were never used for Adepticon.  The goal is to make more boots on the ground, and what better way to start by getting back to the most basic infantry?

I already had all the basing material out for Abbadon and Loki, so why not make a half dozen more bases for these guys at the same time?  You would be amazed at how much time that saves in the long run.

The base color I used on the Demon just happened to be the same one I used on the Dark Eldar, so guess what... yes, I used it on them as well!

This gives you an idea of what was under way...

As I applied lighter colors to the Demon, I did the same with Loki's cloak and the Kabal Warriors.

In this way, I kept a minimum of 3 major projects going during a week of hell.  There was no risk of 'messing up', since these were tried and true tasks which were either very fresh in my mind, or done so often that I could practically do them in my sleep.

That was good, since there was more than one occasion where I just about fell out of the chair as I was working.

There are even more colors I can put on these guys as I continue with other projects, which will help keep the line moving!!!