Playing in the sand

Continuing with the massive Scale 75 diorama, it's time to start adding some trees.  This means I will put a paper clip in the bottom of my carefully selected tree branch so that it is easier to anchor in the bark and base.

I really wanted that branch to hang over what will be water.  That took some manipulation of its positioning, but well worth the effort!

On the 'back' side of the diorama, I decided to fill in some of those gaps with additional pieces of bark texture.  I had to shave these down in order to make them fit.

This is the mortar for the entire construct.  Along with super glue, I add plenty of this material in between the layers.  It fills those gaps, and helps to lock those layers in place.

Here's an image of that process.  Once the piece is where I want, I can work the extra paste material to look like sand, or even sculpt it a bit to resemble the additional pieces.

This broken stump was melded into the original branch by using that same sand paste to mimic bark.

In order to have that desired "composition triangle" of three differently sized and shaped trees, I added two more to the back of the diorama.  This would be a 'curtain' behind the figure.

The other two trees are now pinned and in position!

Now for some gravel, including the fine medium and heavy ballast.

I always put down the heaviest first, and the fine sand last.

More of the finer foliage branches will be added as this base moves along.  These branches are dried foliage from Michael's art store.

I waited for all of this ti set up, and then began to add more items.  Stay tuned for the next episode!!

The Winter Guradians

This is a very quick color test figure that I did to help out a friend who was trying to come up with a color scheme for his Khador.

The working time on this piece was very very brief, as the point was to work out an alternative to the standard red Khador scheme.  Also, it had to be something which could be repeated very easily over a large number of figures.

So, we came up with this "Winter Guard" scheme.  I also added the Secret Weapon crushed glass and water effects snow technique.

It was a lot of fun, and hopefully it won't be too painful for him to replicate a number of times!!

A different type of archer.

 

We return once again to Red Box Games and the realm of the muted browns.  While I will be continuing to paint more of these particular figures, some new RBG figures have arrived that should be quite interesting.

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That would take the form of cavalry miniatures! 

 

I am really looking forward to painting those, and as always they will find their way to these pages once complete.  Stay tuned.

Chief Raven Spirit

The energy of the Great Spirit is focused in this most powerful of summoned apparitions.

Chief Raven Spirit is a new Warrior Nation boss for Wild West Exodus, and he can channel some serious energy!

With a whopping 5 influence, Raven Spirit is more than a match for Cartpathian, and even the Legendary characters.

The threat range is enormous on this pair.  A fire causing, armor piercing blast can deal with the long range enemies, while the Spiritual Flame template can clear out entire buildings.  Yes, and set fire to enemies along the way!

Not to be outdone, the apparition itself has an enormous 3.5 inch combat halo, comprised of his two massive spiritual claws.  Once again, they cause fire damage.  Fire season is about to begin!!!

But wait, that's not all!  In a case of "Now you see me, and now you don't",  they can teleport themselves up to 18 inches in any direction.  Wow.  No front line can hold against that!

He can also call 'regular' apparitions as well, up to two of them at a time.

I am visualising an all fire causing list, with Raven Spirit, War Priests, Iron Hawk, White Buffalo, a Fire Bringer, and an Eagle.

This will be a very interesting contrast to my Monster Mash list that I have already created for my Warrior Nation.  It will be a real blast! :-)

On a more massive scale

Scale 75 that is!

This fantastic 75mm sculpt is about to get a new home, which is under construction now.  Scale 75 is the manufacturer, where you can find a host of these amazing beauties!!

Along with my first large scale bust, this will also be the first 70+ mm sculpt that I have ever painted.

The experimentation will continue as I also test some new paints... at least for me.  This is part of the ScaleColor line.

I may secure one or two other colors as well, in the yellow range, but I will see just how far these can be taken.  Using the lime green as a yellow should be quite interesting!!

To the miniature, where we see the pieces prior to assembly.

I have seen a great many of these lager scale figures perched on plinths, but I wanted to try something different.

Years ago, I worked almost exclusively in diorama form.  I still have a number of the wooden plaques remaining, and one was chosen as the base for this vignette.

This image shows most of the supplies, such as the various tree bark textures, branches, glue, gravel, and so on.

A quick look inside the bark box shows four distinct textures.  I try to find as many as possible.  At various scales, the texture can take on an entirely different look.

I had a general notion of what I wanted to do, but the available pieces and the figure itself will be the final arbiter of the design.  I usually allow these things to work themselves out as I place various pieces and see what forms they take.

I did want to have some water in this diorama, either in waterfall form or as a stream.  The time of year will most likely be fall, but early winter is not out of the question.

I have a few of these extendable utility knives on hand to shave down the part of the bark that I want to attach to the larger base.  Since this is a large metal figure, it is vital to have as strong a bond as possible.

Placing the branches will be covered in the next post, as will the application of the Sand paste and gravel.  A number of posts on the construction of this diorama will follow, so stay tuned!!

More color experiments

Trying out new color combinations seems to be the norm rather than the exception for me these days.  I suppose when you are doing this as many hours each day as I am, the sheer entertainment value of it has a definite function!

Everything is new when you are seeing what kind of new mixes you can create, especially in the realm of subtle color transitions.

I was trying to see how many different hues I could establish on the skin colors.  It's a color test for a Blood Bowl Deamonette team, primarily purple in hue, but I don't want that to get too boring.

A few different types of green and teal were introduced into the skin colors, as well as bright pink and burnt sienna.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221851126862?

A steady hand at the wheel

More pirates!  This time, a little fun add on, in the form of the rudder wheel.

I had wanted to do a vignette like this for many years, and getting the wheel to just the right height for this figure took a bit of planning.  All worth it in the end!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221850858691?