Taking the show on the road.

Given the task at hand for the next several days, I thought it might be interesting for you to see what it is like to haul around a good portion of the studio to another location.

This beast is just one of several containers that were needed.

The Bag of Holding was just that, as it seemed like a bottomless pit when I unloaded the contents!

Containers great and small, holding one kind of project or another.

One of the ways to keep the line moving is to always have a variety of projects in different stages of completion... that is, a project that will fit an available time slot.

For instance, having these bases handy for painting means that I can put some paint on them if I happen to have that color already on the palette.  It might only save a minute or two, but at this volume, that translates into many hours later on.

There's a never ending pile of pewter, plastic and resin to get through.  It's the most basic of all tasks to file or scrape mould lines, and I try to make sure that smaller block of time are filled with these kinds of simple chores.

Being interrupted suddenly is not as tragic as it would be if I was painting something like to Octopus man or the Judgement vehicle.

Priming is a task I do when I am very tired.  Yeah, that's mostly all the time now, but doing brush on primer is a great way to warm up, instead of screwing up painting a figure!

The Sukubus Studios gals have been getting work on the bases.  Cathy and I will be teaming up to sculpt lots of tentacles and other Chaosy kind of things to finish those off!  Stay tuned for more images on that...

Since green stuff is a material that you have to work with in phases, structuring other tasks around it as a layer cures is very efficient.

Take me to the church on time.  Some items from Burn in Designs are also ready and waiting for paint.

When I am going to be away from the home studio this long, it means bringing as much of the photo setup as possible.

This is just a portion of my basing materials.  I left the other half at home :-)

The computer setup for reference images, processing new images, and posting things to this blog...

An overall view of the remote studio nearly operational!!

One still requires workers, especially on the road, so Wage rounded up some of his buddies to help.

A doggie and a buggy

Here's a few more views of the Wild West Exodus Mercenary Sand Buggy, this time putting it in more context next to other figures.

The Sand Buggy is the Adepticon special miniature, limited to 300.  I believe a few are still available for purchase.  If you register for Adepticon, you can purchase it from the web store.  There might be some available at Adepticon itself...

The Sand Buggy is a light support, along the same lines as the Interceptor or Iron Horse.

Light support choices are some of my favorites in the Wild West Exodus game.  When you have a number of light support vehicles on the board, the game takes on a whole new dimension... fast, furious and lethal!

A little more context for you, as I team up the Mercenary Sand Buggie with the Copelie Sisters, Interceptors, and the massive Judgement Heavy Support of the Lawmen.

Light support choices such as this have a variety of "fighting halos"... some can even perform ride by attacks.

I got one for myself, to add to my growing Mercenary collection.  The mercenaries are an interesting and unique way to change your posse dramatically.  These hired guns can provide a little help in areas where your posse needs a boost, or change the entire theme!

The kickstarter for Wild West Exodus looms large... it's just 13 days away!!!  Wow!

Girl Bands

We bring the girls back together one last time!

One can never have too many Reaper minis :-)

There's also an article on how these bases were painted:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-early-stages.html

And the finish:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2014/08/marble-everywhere.html

The building on the left was painted by Cathy, with her Ogre Kingdoms motif...

It was very interesting to see the various grays and tans than we used on our respective buildings.

I can't recall if I ever photographed these together before, except on a gaming table.

It neat to see them in front of the Hangar 18 backdrop.

The Girls of Rock bid you a farewell!!!

As darkness falls...

All right!  It's time to shade and tint these huge bases!  So, we deploy our Secret Weapons...

The colors are placed on the palette just as if they were regular paints.  There will be a lot of mixing, both here and on the bases themselves.

As you have seen me do before, I am working "watercolor style", the negative spaces around the areas which I want to have lighter.  You can see how much this brings out that shape!

As I moved around those dark areas, I made sure to change the colors that I was placing, allowing them to mix together on the base.  For the most part, this whole area had glazes which were warmer.

The same process will happen on this base, with the exception that the warmer colors will be used on the rocks more than the other base (which is another one that will be splashed with water).

The blue/black mix I am using on the rocky areas is watered down, and even dabbed away with a paper towel here and there.

Back to the other base, to put some warmer darks on the skulls...

Things are starting to take shape.  I am already starting to mix regular dark paint colors into these glazes, such as Reaper Brown Liner, to make them more opaque.

This is for areas that I want to be very dark.  However, since there is some wash mixed in, they are still slightly transparent.  I can still wipe away the excess when necessary.

With the primary sections of the base finished, I had to work on the ruined Fire Bringer.  The main goal for the color scheme on that was to create a grey that was different from the rocks.  I was using that seafoam green with some very light elf flesh in places.

It was weathered in the same way that I have done on things like the Flame Truck.  I have another WIP series coming up that will show that process once again.  Stay tuned for that!

Hey, I could even put my hapless victim (or foolish hero) on the base (I painted him separately).

More details will be added, such as tufts, etc., as well as many layers of water effects on the other base.

Guess what... stay tuned for more!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big time basing

So, with the two massive bases constructed and primed, it's time to get some paint on them!

Let's begin with the shaded basecoat phase.  I have a few nicely worn #8 round craft brushes, and a filbert brush.

I have a variety of colors available.  Some grays, light greens and an ochre color.

I started out with a bit of the ochre mixed in with a dark gray.  Just like the previous base designs I have been making, this will have a greenish gray rock surface.

And thus we have green and gray together at last!  The filbert brush allows me to apply this color lightly over a broad area very quickly.  The rounded edges of the brush mean the strokes can be feathered as the are applied.

More of the seafoam green is added to the mix.  Next to the warmer background tans, it appears quite cool.

As the layers get progressively lighter, you will notice that I am trying to create a center of interest, or focus, by making one area lighter than the rest.  It's almost like a spotlight.

When I shade other areas darker in the glazing stage, this effect will be even more pronounced.

Lighter shades of tan give some depth to the value pattern, or division of dark and light colors on the surface.  In another sense, it will make the dirt look more like... dirt.

The little extras are also lightened, such as the skulls and skeleton!

The final applications of light colors in the grays means that the shaded basecoat is nearing completion.  That feathering of brush strokes that I mentioned earlier is very crucial... as a light touch will keep my darker shades preserved.

I also added the lighter tans to the tree branches.  The whole concept behind the shaded basecoat technique is to create a generic set of lighter colors which I can tint and shade with later glazes.

I can keep color mixtures simple this way.

Some lighter shades are applied to the ruined Fire Bringer as well...

Coming up next... the usual suspects!  Stay tuned.