Get to the Point!

I am getting more and more excited about painting the Song of Ice and Fire miniatures the more I work on them!  I have been painting several of the character figures for tutorial videos, and now I am getting ready to film the first Unit Painting video.  This will feature the Lannister Halberds.

The first episode will focus on basing and integrating the movement tray into the basing... similar to this:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/10/ground-attack.html

I have a few tutorial videos on Sky Earth Non Metallic Metals already available through the Patreon Page, but this will be the first time I try it on an entire unit!  

Should you be more interested in seeing how to do this with metallics, never fear, as I will be making another series showing how to do that as well!  There are 2 units of swordsmen in the starter box, so I will be painting one in each style, to maximize options for you.

Filming has started for this new series, and I am very excited!  It is part of the Army Painter pledge level, which is $15.  A series is usually 4-5 episodes, and 10-13 hours of tutorials!

You can check that out on the Patreon Page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Girl Power

This unit is from Victoria Miniatures, called the Rausenbergs siege corps.  Some of you might recognize the uniforms, as they are the same ones provided with the large cannon unit from the BONES 4 kickstarter campaign!

One of the most unique features of Victoria's line is that you can field female troops such as these.  You can mix and match them with their male counterparts or just go with an all female Guard army!

Here's a link to the site, and the Rausenbergs:

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/rausenburg-siege-corps

It was interesting to use much of the Field Green colors from my early war German forces on the great coats.  That very distinctive greenish gray...

You can mix and match the torsos and arms, like the good old days!  This means that you can use these as tank commanders, rough riders, just about anything you need.

The arms and weapons swap out easily, and there are loads of extra hands, grenades, packs and other gear as well.  I am filming some how to tutorials on the next army, the Svargan Shock Soldats!

That will be posted to the YouTube channel soon... so stay tuned!

Wild Fire

Here's another fun figure from Wild Assent, a Kickstarter Campaign that is just under way!

Here's a peek at their website to give you a sense of the game and the figures:

https://wildassent.com/

This Phoenix was painted in the usual manner, working with the Vallejo Fluorescent paints and the Reaper Clear and liner paints.  I have a Facebook live session that shows something similar in action:

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

And now for a link to the campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1449412950/wild-assent-survive-the-arena-and-tame-the-wilds?ref=581896&token=e363c08e

Monte Cassino Basing

Operation Sting is fast approaching, and I needed a brand new army to fit the era of the tournament.  

This is an army that I have thought about creating since I first started playing Bolt Action, and that is a Monte Cassino Fallschirmjager army!

I visualized a force well entrenched in the ruins of the abbey, which would let me combine some classic sculpey carved bases and a late war Bolt Action army.  Yes, that is right... and army that is post 1940... ;-)

I gathered together as many reference images as I could find, including several of the Abbey.  The display board will be made to appear as close as possible to the lower right image.  Obviously things will have to be tweaked a bit to make room for the actual units themselves.

Much research has been done on the uniforms worn, and it has revealed a mix of gear.  In fact, that image in the upper right may reflect the variety which I will include.  It is late war after all, and by this time, equipment replacements were erratic at best.

I do think it will be interesting to see the Mediterranean style helmet and trouser color, however!

Many of the poses were of the kneeling variety, which meant that I could have a lot of fun creating bases for them to hide behind.

The plain white Sculpey is very easy to break and carve.  When you break the rolled out pieces, it gives a fantastic texture, and sometimes all you have to do is chip away at some of the edges to complete the look.

You can also use all those smaller chunks as additional rubble, which helps to achieve the effect of ruins.

I also tried to utilize some of my Secret Weapon Miniatures resin basing pieces like the broken pillar that you see on the figure to the right.  Eventually I would start making my own smaller pieces of broken pillar, which you can see a little later in this post. 

I have a number of basing exercises on the patreon page that show urban rubble style bases, such as the Army Painter Series 2.  In that set of tutorial videos, I tackle my winter Soviet army, all of which are based on rubble (including weapon teams, etc.)

You can check that out here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

On this base, I was able to match the chunk of resin pillar by carving a larger piece of Sculpey.  This is part of my Sniper team... and he has a buddy in a similar type of base.

The Great Stag

This Reaper Miniatures Great Stag gave me a chance to balance cooler grayish browns against more saturated, warmer browns.

You can see this in the shadow areas of the fur. I believe the color in question is Secret Weapon Miniatures Woodland Brown.  This same color was used in the 'mane', so it made sense to carry that through the rest of the figure.

It is even more important to have this kind of variety on a figure which could potentially get very boring to look at if you stayed with simple variations on one tone of brown.  While the shading from light to dark would still be interesting, it would still appear somewhat artificial and static.

While the shadow colors are still brown, the warmth and intensity of the mid tones make the color appear more greenish.

These are the kind of subtleties that are discussed very frequently in my tutorial videos.  There are a few different pledge levels available on my Patreon Page, even a basic $5 pledge that gives you a chance to check out the Painting Pyramid episodes, as well as a large portion of the new content being created!

You can see that here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Into the Wild: Wild Assent

This is one of several interesting minis that I have painted for the upcoming Wild Assent kickstarter campaign which is going to begin on October 16th.

The figures are 1 piece, and very solid, of the board game variety.  I will be posting a number of them here while the campaign is running!

A link to the preview:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1449412950/14064883?ref=581896&token=e363c08e

Here's a little background on this character:

Gurantev is a defense-heavy healer, able to provide area of effect healing and damage immunity for those under his command. He has high health and respectable physical and magical defense, but it’s important that he doesn’t overextend. Always selfless, Gurantev cannot use Heal Dice on himself, so pushing too deep into enemy ranks could result in his untimely demise. Instead, he should circle the edges of his opponent’s front lines, taunting or stunning big threats to keep them off his weaker allies.

You can visit the website to find out even more!

https://wildassent.com/

Blue Notes

It can be very interesting to see how the same technique can look quite different depending on the primary color choices that you make.  In this case, the blueish ethereal glow was requested, but with the "weathered" look I had done for my Army of the Dead.

Here's a view of some of those Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead:

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/04/army-of-dead.html

Just as I did with the Army of the Dead figures, I tried to change the intensity and hue of the blues.  In some areas, the color was more pure, and in others as grayed down as possible.  This time around I had the Secret Weapon Weathering paints, which is very handy!

I will be redoing my Army of the Dead force for Lord of the Rings, and this time around I will be filming it in tutorial form for the Patreon Page.  Once I get that painted, terrain videos and battle reports will follow!