Captain Nimue

Legendary Captain Nimue is the first new figure that I have been able to add to my Wild West Exodus forces for well over a year!  It was quite a complex way to restart that task.

It is quite obvious how complex she is with the various parts and angles... but the water effects definitely raised that level even more.

Not only were several layers of water effects added, but many of those were tinted various hues of seafoam green, blues, and so on.  The hope was to create a translucent appearance, giving it the raging greenish waves while also making the tentacle seem as if it was still wet from rising out of the water. 

These images show those lighter greens at work, with subsequent layers of clear water effects over the top to make that have more depth.

You can see the water drops hanging from the tentacle, which also took many layers to create.  They must be made in the same way a regular water drop forms... one little blob added onto the previous blob, so that it looks like a drop and not an icicle!  

Here she is with her stat card.  I really look forward to using her as the boss for my Mercenary force!!

Hammer Time

There have been a few add ons to the Masons team, including this guy.  A lot less of the "Masons blue" on him, with much more armor surfaces instead.

This meant trying to work in as many subtle color changes as I could to distinguish that surface from the marble colors of the base.

As you can see, this base was done to match the original set, with the Masons symbol included :-)  A few more to come yet, so stay tuned!

On Fire!

Here's some finished images of the Reaper Fire Elemental painted with the Vallejo fluorescent paints.  This link takes you to the facebook live session in which he was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10210069480067641/?type=2&theater

There's nothing quite like the fluorescent paints.  When they are mixed with the Reaper clear paints, or the MSP colors, you can really get some nice results.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322505474869?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

I will keep on painting these glowing figures using the various fluorescent paints, so stay tuned!

Going Places

This C3 Transporter from Gates of Antares is the first large sci-fi vehicle I have painted in years, since the Dark Eldar army.  I had a lot of fun with it!

I even have a live video of the painting session here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209626582475478/?type=2&theater

I wanted to have a very different color scheme on this vehicle, so I chose a pattern similar to the one I had used on that old Dark Eldar army.

I think the base is around 80mm round, so that should give you a good indication of its size and scale.

The base was made from bark and branches, and there's a live video of how that was made here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209658916083798/?type=2&theater

These views from above show how that freehand pattern was varied across the entire surface, with emphasis on different sections of the hull.

The combination of very organic and mechanical shapes was really interesting.  Usually you have to "choose" between on or the other.

This is made by Warlord Games, a nice plastic kit which is easy to put together.

I have a few more similar versions of this vehicle, and I will be exploring more freehand patterns in future facebook live sessions, so stay tuned!

Skink Fest!

It's been a very long time since I have taken any images of the old Lizardman terrain board, known as the Temple of Blood!  Since Skinks were always my favorite part of my army, I thought I would pile a bunch of them on the board for new images.

Each level was designed for movement trays, so that actual combat could take place.  This upper level is usually occupied by Mage Priest Babo and his Temple Guard.  Here we see some brave Skinks with one of my scratch sculpted Terradons.

I have a number of articles on the construction of this board:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/construction-of-great-temple-of-blood.html

The Temple of Blood is featured prominently in the story of Stikki Wikkit!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-legend-of-stikki-wikkit.html

Here's the original Temple of Blood, made from Sculpey:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-first-great-temple-of-blood.html

Here's a close up of some skinks, and that upper level.

These secondary levels were designed for skirmishers to fight on, and as movement cost for units on movement trays.

Normally this position of honor is occupied by a Skink Priest, but this time the freshly rebuilt temple still has its Skink laborers restoring it to its original state!

We have a mix of blowpipe skirmishing Skinks backed up by another Terradon scout, searching the skies for Chaos marauders.

I used foam core to make this back in the day... if I had it to do over again, I would have used the 1/4 inch thick pink foam.  This would have given me a lot more options in terms of texture.  It is a lot easier to carve and shape than foam core!  Also, I learned that foam core (with paper on either side) will warp once it is painted.

This doesn't happen when you paint the pink foam, another huge advantage.

One last view!  I will keep posting images of the individual Skinks, so stay tuned!!

Asharah

The very nifty Raging Heroes figure was the commander of my Blood Star Dark Eldar army.

I had a lot of fun with the bases for this army, since it was supposed to be centered around this massive Hippodrome, where they would race their Reaver jetbikes and kill off slaves.

I have many posts on the army itself, as well as the giant display board!  That is all found in the Dark Eldar section of the blog.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222495434009?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Steam and Snow

This was a color test piece for a buddy who was trying to come up with an alternate theme for a Khador army.

I have only painted a few sporadic Warmachine minis... a few Menoth and one Cygnar.  So, when I started to mess around with this, I didn't have too much bias towards a certain color scheme!

I thought that this much lighter winter scheme would allow me to play around with more weathering than the traditional red.  That color tends to force you to go more intense with those effects to make them appear.  The snow effect was done in the usual way, with the Secret Weapon crushed glass method.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322493634780?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649