Sword Maiden

I think I have painted this gal once of twice before in years past, but I had much more fun this time around.

My goal was to make it look less like a paladin, and perhaps something darker or sinister.  

I also had another one of my new Celtic theme bases made with the Green Stuff World texture rollers.  I have done a number of articles on how I made these, which are all in the basing techniques section.

At some point I will have to find those older versions and make some side by side photo sets, to show just how dramatically a few color choices can alter the theme of the very same figure.

I have painted other figures as many as 5 times... and each time I used a very different set of colors, basing, and so on.  I never get bored, even when painting the same figure!

King of the Jungle?

We've got another one of the 1/72 scale tanks from the Little Wars demos (done in the Badger Airbrush booth) which has been completed... even with leaves.  

Just like the previous "Chia Tank" experiment, I love the added dimension that the leaves create.  My next vehicle to have leaves with be the French Laffly W15C tank destroyer.

If you want to see the original posts where this tank was painted, here's a link to part one:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/little-wars-part-one-new-arms-race.html

The view from above gave me a new perspective on how desperate the Axis forces were to hide their few remaining precious tanks from marauding P-47's!!  And be darned if that wouldn't be much tougher to spot from the air.

Here's part two of the painting of the toy tanks, courtesy of Badger Airbrush.  You will be seeing a LOT more Badger brushes on these pages very soon.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/little-wars-part-two-more-than-toys.html

I will have a much finer airbrush to work with now, the Badger Extreme.  Up until this point, I have been getting myself re-acquainted with the airbrush using the standard Patriot:

http://www.badgerairbrush.com/Patriot_105.asp

What you have been seeing thus far is really the beginning of the beginning.  A lot of research, testing and experimentation has been going on behind the scenes.  I have tried to give you a few glimpses at this where possible.

A lot of things had to be tied together, and that has taken several months.  Starting the Flames of War and Bolt Action French armies has been the laboratory for all the testing... basing, terrain, special effects such as weathering, and so on.

For example, most of the weathering on this vehicle was done with regular paint and brushes while I was at Little Wars.  Some additional work was done with Secret Weapon weathering powders as well. 

The foundation was established back in May, where I got to try out the airbrush on miniatures for the very first time.  It truly has been a Blitzkrieg on this process!!

Heaven forbid... you will even see some decals!  Oh my!

There is a practical reason for this.  Some of the markings involve tiny lettering and symbols which are not practical to do with freehand.  I also want to have these be as correct as possible.  As you can see, there will be a LOT to learn.  

Hopefully I can make the journey interesting for you as well. :-)

Kitty Litter

Time for some images, now that the final miniature has been added to the base with the kitties!

I believe this Dark Sword figure is part of the Game of Thrones set.

It was important to keep the colors toned down here, but yet have enough difference from the cats and the base to be visible.  I used muted reds and light greens to play off the grey on the base and the yellowish tan of the Siamese cats.

Green and red are opposites, so those had to be muted as much as possible.  It would be quite festive otherwise! :-)

Toning them down is simple... greens were mixed into the reds, and vice versa. As you can see, imparting just a small amount of the opposite color is a way to make hues which would normally contrast work in harmony.

Once again, I used some foliage to tie in a color from the figure down into the base.  The red flowers were perfect for this!  They also brought a splash of color to the base, and helped to make the blue eyes of the cats a little more distinct.

Scenes and vignettes like this one are possible by "going vertical" on a base.  In this instance, it only involved creating a second 'level' to the base, so that the cats could be spread out a bit, and leave the central figure less obscured.

You can also see the "triangle" composition and the 2 to 1 ratio in effect.  That's the basic of composition.  Never have two equal sized objects standing side by side equidistant of each other, as that is very disturbing visually.

The triangle form of composition like this is closer to the golden ratio, which is the ideal mix of large and smaller objects together.

The cat's out of the bag

I thought I might snap a few pictures of this for you before the main figure is added.  I made a multi level base out of the pressed sculpey Green Stuff World textures, and then added a few things.

Like skulls... and KITTIES!!  

Yes, cute little kitties from a recent Dark Sword kickstarter campaign.

They seem to lend themselves to Siamese, so I have been painting them that way.

As for the base, you can see that it is a lot of fun to "age" the broken pieces of sculpey once they have been painted.  I also tried to make sure that the various shades and colors would not blend in too much with the kitties.

One more set of playful cats.  Who says that I don't post pictures of cats?

Ingrid

Ingrid is one of two very nasty sisters from Siren Miniatures.  They are also my two favorite figures from the fantastic Siren line!  

You can see more of those Siren figures here:

http://sirenminiatures.com/

I tried to have some variations on both the leather of the figure, and on the base surface, positioning greens next to subdued warm tans and even purple.  The purple was incorporated to bring in the bright red hair, as the same color was used to shade the darkest portions of the hair.

This is a sneaky way to tie colors together without it being too obvious.  I learned early on in my 2D art career that all colors must have some kind of link to each other.  Should one be too out of place, it will cause the viewer some discomfort to look at, which is never good!

You can also see that I used one of my recently created Celtic ruins bases made with the Green Stuff World texture rollers!  Now that I am finally getting a chance to paint some of these, and put figures on them, I love them even more!

I will always have fun carving my own sculpey bases, but now I have the ability to make very intricate designs with a variety of themes in no time at all!

These ground level views show you a little bit of the reflected colors that I attempted to place on the white mask and the ribbons flowing from it.  There are hints of red along the sides of each, which helps to tie those very light colors into the rest of the figure, which has a lot of darker tones or highly saturated hues.

Garden Variety

This classic Reaper sculpt by Sandra Garrity was yet another opportunity to see what I could do in a limited space with a variety of foliage products.

I have a few flower sets from Hangar 18, and some tufts from Gamer's Grass.  Not only were the flowers different colors, but they were also different heights, which was especially useful!

I tried to have those flowers play off the colors of the miniature, using the blueish purple as a contrast to the golden flowers and bright green tufts.  The red flowers were designed to tie in the color of the hair down to the base itself.

While this is essentially a simple method of basing, some strategic placements and color choices created something substantial and interesting to look at!  I like to have as many types of flock, tufts, leaves and other foliage products on hand as possible.

That presents me with a lot of options, no matter what kind of figure I am basing, or the color scheme, etc.

Large Caliber

If there's one way to keep the Bosch out of France, it will be with heavy duty firepower!  In this case, we have the scratch built 105mm French Medium Howitzer.  

The four crew members were taken from the French set on the Warlord store.  I fashioned the gun from plasticard and polystyrene tubing.

Here's what it looked like as it was being constructed, in step by step form!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/medium-sized.html

Now for a few shots of the completed scratch build:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-bigger-gun.html

I modeled this after the Flames of War version.  The wheel and stabilizer assembly was designed to provide additional protection for the crew, as the wheel swing out along with the stabilizer bars.

This artillery piece gave me many opportunities for weathering effects, since the gun shield and wheels were so heavy and solid.  I'm thinking that my opponent should need a +7 anti tank gun to get to that crew! :-)

The views from above show how I placed the crew.  It was a real challenge to get them all in that space, but not so crowded that it would look cramped.  I hope that you can see a hint of the shells which were placed at the feet of the loader.

The ground level views were really rewarding, as it seemed more like a gun, and not a miniature.  I look forward to these types of views on an actual table, with some hapless foe locked in its sights.

I mentioned earlier that I modeled this after the Flames of War French 105mm.  It was very handy for scale, since I had already done the 75mm Howitzer in both scales!

One last set of views for you.  Yes, I will certainly be sculpting the huge 155mm Heavy Howitzer, so stay tuned!!!