A day at Draxtar

A slight shift of plans over the weekend.  I had the studio all packed up and ready to go, but the location changed suddenly.  

Scott came up with the idea of visiting the folks at Draxtar Games, out in Batavia.  So, we loaded up the vehicle, and were on our way.

First, it was very nice to see some old faces from the Bunker!  Gregg, Mike, Homer and more!  It's been years in some cases!

Speaking of cases, there is a wide array of painted goodness in this one!  Fantastic work, covering a wide variety of game systems.

And there are plenty of hobby supplies to be had at Draxtar.  It was hard to fit them all in one image!  Vallejo, Privateer Press, GW, Secret Weapon and more!

You need minis?  How about a wall of Reaper figures.

Tons of other stuff as well, such as the X-Wing and Trek craze.

Oh, and Flames of War!  Nifty!

As you can see, wide open, nicely lit, easy to see, paint and play.

Yes, places to play.  Full size gaming tables with lots of fantastic terrain.

Remember the paint bar?  Well, this is about as close as you can get to those glory days.  Even better, I think.

So, thanks again to Scott, and to Draxtar!

A link:

http://draxtargames.com/

Stowing away some Secret Weapon

I have been compiling and saving a bunch of stuff for a special project... putting stowage on a Secret Weapon tank.

I did some google searching for some ideas...

That's quite a load!

In addition to the RAV 6 x 6 tank from Secret Weapon, I have a variety of items.  I have some sandbags from Secret Weapon, some Highland Guard bits from Victoria miniatures, as well as model tank bits from Tamyia and even some metal pieces from Reaper Miniatures!

I wanted to have a tank commander, so that meant carefully shaving off the top of the hatch.

Applying the first of the sandbags.

I had to make sure that the sandbags didn't interfere with the heavy bolter/heavy flamer... and even the main turret!

Stuff is starting to pile up!

I also want to have some Victoria Mniatures Highland Guard sitting on the outside of the tank as well.

This view shows you some of the GW bits I had been saving.

Much more to come!  I will also be 'wetting down' the sandbags so that they sit a little more naturally.  I didn't want to do that until everything was glued on.  Stay tuned!!

Preparing the Ancients

Here's a few shots of the completed bases.

I can see the designs changing as I fell my way through the look of the army.  Ideas will come to me as I work on these initial test figures.

Obviously, lots of fluorescent paint.  I am leaning towards pinkish glow for the Gauss weapons.

That should be a nice contrast to the green, just as it was for the Tomb Kings!  The Ushabti were a great example of that.

The Necros themselves will definitely be getting a lot of blue.  Not so sure about golds at this stage.

I will see how that all works out.  And so will you!  Stay tuned.

Being a flake

Armed with my new jar of Mica flake gel from Vallejo, it was time to try out the material on an actual base for a figure.

The figure is a Reaper mini... Alastriel.  The broken column pieces are from Secret Weapon Miniatures.  First, I applied some Oxide Paste to fill out the open areas between the columns.

The Mica flakes were added to create the ground cover of leaves.

Time to get to the painting!  Starting out with some neutral grays and browns.

Lightening with some green/gray.

Now for the splash of color on the leaves!

Getting warmer... and lighter.

A little more color on the skull.

A few glazes helped to tone down and tint the ground cover.

More darks applied.

A few tufts of grass, and it's all set!!

Starting the bases.

Starting out with the gray primer...

Some quick layers of warmer colors for the undersides.

Like the marble that I painted on the Tomb Kings bases, some Deep Sea Green to get the marble under way.

The experiment continues.  I wanted to see what the conduits and pylons would look like if they were glowing.

Working up the marble.  I have to be careful to keep this subdued enough so that the iconography will show up.

I decided to 'Chaos up' a typical Necron symbol to see how it might work.

I certainly wanted to work in some Eye of Tzeentch!

Some more lights applied, getting set for the dark washes on the underside!

Quick glazes applied.  This tones down all those warm light colors, and gives a boost to the marble, and the lighter glowing stuff.

Stay tuned for the final images!

From junk to treasure... part one

Many years ago, I snagged a bunch of junky Necron minis.  They have been waiting for many years for something to be done with them.

After creating the Tzeentch tainted Tomb King army, I thought it could be fun to try the same kind of thing with the Necrons!  Lots of crazy colors, glowing stuff, and so on.

First I had to rescue a few figures... getting rid of mould lines, strengthening joints, and so on.

I also needed to make some test bases for them as well.  I had some pylon shapes from another project that I stuck on the bases.

I needed a bigger version for the Destroyer Lord.

Pinned figures being put into place!

Ready for priming!

Here's something new as well.  Chicken and black bean sauce.  I think I will have to try and make this for myself!!

A little different, eh?

It's always fun to see recovered junk at this stage of development!