Monkey business: cheeky little monkey...

Well, after spending a lot of time monkeying around with those kickstarter proposals, I had to do some serious painting.  Well, this was not as 'serious' as you would think. :-)

He was a fun little guy, that's for sure!

Here he is with the unit...

More to come!!!

The view from above, some images of the painted Plague Hulk

More from the archive today.  We start out with some finished images of that Plague Hulk, with views from above.

You can see the dramatic difference all the glazing and darker shading made.  That stage is not the end of the story, of course, as it still took many hours to go back into the middle tones and lighter areas.

This is to create even more color variations.  For instance, the teal color on the torso was mostly added at this point.  I make lots of adjustments like this as I paint any miniature, but especially on figures such as these.

To strengthen the joints where the legs met the main body, I used the oxide paste to fill in any gaps, and to add an extra layer of support.  It was fortunate that this was a Nurgle piece, since the oxide paste was used in other areas to balance it out.

I did use some weathering powders for rust and soot.  Once that was dullcoated, I used some 'ardcoat on a few glistening areas.

Giant pieces such as this represent all sorts of challenges.  It does help develop techniques that much faster. :-)

I will be posting more finished images as the day moves along!  Stay tuned...

The Great Resin Hulk: more WIP shots of the Plague Hulk

After many hours of discussions and consulations, we have made some adjustments to the 'yet to be submitted' Kickstarter proposal.  It does mean that I have many hours of creating new graphics ahead of me tonight, however.  The learning curve is quite steep, especially when you are doing something that is relatively unique, as we are.  All those examples we looked at really don't translate all that well to our own specifics.

Anyway, enough of that!  Here are some more shots of the Hulk itself.  And man, was this a giant hunk of solid resin!  I was so worried that it was going to collapse the legs when I put it all together!

You will see what I did with that later.  For now, we have a few pics that illustrate that Shaded Basecoat thing. :-)

I think I even used a bit of fluorescent magenta on the pinks.  I am pretty sure that I mixed in some Fluorescent yellow with my green for the slime!

After this stage, I spent many hours glazing and tinting away!

More news as it comes in...

Having a leg to stand on: starting to paint the Plague Hulk

I will be continuing with the Plague Hulk project here as I continue my efforts to figure out the Kickstarter proposal.  There were enough unexpected elements involved that adjustments had to be made.  It would also help if the "save" button truly meant save (sorry to blow off steam there!)

Anyway, back to the painting.  I should mention that all these images are near the end of that "shaded basecoat" stage.  At this point, my main goal is to have color everywhere, so that I can judge how light or dark I want something to be.

For example, if something is primed white, and you only paint little parts of it at a time, even a relatively light color, such as fortress grey, is going to appear very dark.  If the mini is primed black, that same color will seem very bright!

So, I try to eliminate that effect by starting out with that all important middle tone.

When I used to teach my pastel classes, I would demonstrate this concept with 3 different colors of pastel paper (light, middle tone, and dark).  It had a very dramatic effect!  It is something I plan to do on the Shaded Basecoat DVD.  It will be in that first 20 minute segment where I discuss what the technique is, and why I use it, the benefits, etc.

When I am painting these initial greens, for example, I try to have a few different kinds of green on my palette.  Some more yellow green, some that are practically teal, etc.  This promotes the variations in colors that would not be possible if I were to dab away at small, isolated parts of the figure.

It's even more important when you are working on monstrosities such as this!

Well, that's it for now folks.  This busy day has gotten 3 times busier, so I must try to put out all these fires with my empty can of diet Root Beer...

Feel like the Plague? Creating the Plague Hulk

As I spend a very late night battling with the Kickstarter proposal, I have dredged up something from the archives... making a Nurgle Plague Hulk.

So, after lots of scrubbing down of the resin parts, I attached them to the plastic kit.  It was clear that I needed to "Nurglize" those parts!

So, out came the green stuff... mixing more yellow than blue.  As I did with the Decimator, I added alots of pustules and other nasty stuff!!

After the green stuff cured, I added some oxide paste to realy get some nice corrosion going.  This also adds some extra strength to joints, as you will see in later posts.

I never thought that the oxide paste was something I would use on anything else besides bases or terrain!!  It never hurts to experiment, I guess :-)

Well, it looks like the battle with the proposal will have to resume later.  My head is hurting...

Starting the second rank: Empire Gunners and some SE-NMM

As I get ready to spend a long evening writing and re-writing a proposal to Kickstarter, I have one more piece for you.  The wee hours of the morning post could be delayed a bit, with so many other distractions going on, so bear with me!

It's nice to dive into the second rank of the unit. 

I do want to attempt to do some kind of reflection on the helmets of this rank that show the gunners to either side.  I didn't do this on the front rank, as it would be almost impossible to see those kinds of reflections.

That is one of the disadvantages of Fantasy regiments, bemoaned by painters everywhere. :-)

Here he is hanging out in back...

These next two views show you what I mean about getting a better look at those helmets!

So, I will keep you up to date on the unit as it progresses.

Also, I want to pass along more thank yous to all those who touched base with me in the last 24 hours.  It was very uplifting, and I think that the amount raised is just about right for the better than average software!

That's good, since my first try on the shaded basecoat will finish filming tomorrow.

Best wishes to all on a rather rough day here in America.  It definitely makes me even more thankful to have so many people to discuss fun things like painting with!!

Bringing the Hobbit to us! Opening the boxed set

Well, we won't be going to see the movie for a while, but look what happened to show up today!

Jon has observed my current obsession with Lord of the Rings SBG ad-nauseum for months, so he sent us an early Christmas present.

This one had the special Radagast figure included, so I can bring him back into my 1000 point Elf army!

Here is Cathy excitedly opening the box...

What could be inside?!!!  Note the Bilbo's Bash dice bag sitting there.  How did that get there?

So excited, the camera cannot keep up!  

I must say, I was way more impressed with the figures than I originally anticipated.  Cathy loved the Goblins!

She already found a favorite goblin.  I am sure he will have a name.

These gobbos are definitely a giant improvement over the original set from years ago!

Here's my Radagast.  Get ready, Rich!!!

These extra items were neat as well.  Having fun terrain is always handy!  Cathy wants to use the Goblin King as her big nasty troll with her Groblog army.

The mini rulebook was nice, and Cathy read certain parts that had worried me in the lead up to this release, trying to talk me down from the ledge.  I was terrified that the game would be completely redone, as the other two systems had been.  I didn't want to see a plasma pistol toting Gandalf and a Mordor steam tank showing up to battles or anything...

The quick reference guide is very nice, and much appreciated!

This image was in the mini rulebook.  It caught my attention right away, as I was going to get a bunch of plastic toy eagles from Michaels to fill out the rest of my Elf army.  These guys look a lot like the new big monster in the Empire range, don't they?

Certainly not the existing metal eagle they have now.

Is it safe to assume that we won't be seeing these for a while?  I don't have the Hobbit story memorized or anything, but my understanding is that the eagles would not show up until the second movie.  I could be very wrong, of course!