The week of basing... more images

Every so often during the filming of the various basing videos, I snapped a shot here and there.  With so much set up and take down in each video, there were plenty of chances to do so.

That is very unlike the 'regular' painting videos, which have nowhere near this activity.  For instance, just showing how to make one element of the wood planks video required 9 different set ups and take downs.  

It was similar for the chests.  Each time a new element was worked on, it meant setting up a new set of materials and tools.

In contrast, a painting video involves far fewer set ups.  You talk about paints, then about brushes, and commence with the painting!

You can see in this image how much 'stuff' is set up just for a segment that could be a short as 3-4 minutes.

Originally, I was not going to have miniatures included in the basing videos.  However, it seemed important to include a few words about how they will work with actual minis on them :-)

Along the way, I have discovered some other pieces from past projects that show a 'mega' version of the type of base I am featuring.  It was fun to include those!

I will post some closer images of these Lizardman pieces, which were originally designed as movement trays.

Once I began using magnetized trays, these were no longer practical.

At this point, I will embed them in future terrain pieces.

Green with envy

This guy was originally going to be used for the "Painting Greens" video, but circumstances dictated otherwise.

As it turned out, I needed to have a miniature to show the 'practical' use of the crystal base for that video.  I had all the other bases represented by at least one miniature, but I needed one for the crystals!

So, I painted up this guy real quick to splice into that video...

Ranger Rick will guide you

Sometimes, when just about everything is frustrating the heck out of you, it is necessary to go off the reservation.  Since I had set aside a bunch of the Reaper Bones figs for Zombicide, there was a ready made project that would be quite different from everything else.

I got the idea after seeing Rich's very cool character that he created for Zombicide:

I quickly sketched out what Ranger Rick's abilities might be.  The miniature was already selected!

Guillotene Games has all sorts of great resources for you to download... scenarios, cards, and player sheets!  Using one of the player sheets that I downloaded, I did some machinations in photoshop and voila!

While watching the last of the All Star game at the end of a very very long day, I painted up the miniature.  So if Zombies ever find their way into the National Parks, consider them defended!

Playing in the mud

Amongst the myriad tasks of this week, I did a lot of work with weathering, focusing on the Secret Weapon Miniatures tank.  I decided to paint it in the colors of my new IG army.

You have already seen several of the WIP images showing the painting process.  These next few pictures were taken as I did the initial application of rust.

In this instance, I was using regular paint.  I want to show a few different ways to do the weathering... with paint and with the powders.

I also did as much freehand as I could, so that I could demonstrate the very nifty effect that the weathering has on it.

Just about ready to start applying those powders!

I had been doing tests for several days on the mud technique.  This involves taking the Realistic Water from Secret Weapon and mixing it with the powders.  There was a lot to discover!

I have a few images of the application process...

At this point, I began to put on the 'powdered' version of rust and soot...

I made a few streaks of rust...

This area looks much different now with some mud splatters...

But I didn't forget the underside!  Some fresh mud there :-)

I went back and forth with the powders, starting with the darker shades, making them lighter, and then putting darker mud over the top of the lighter and 'dustier' shades.

Skaarlys from Raging Heroes

I did the last few tidbits on my latest Raging Heroes figure.

She is Skarrlys, and she will be added to my Dark Eldar army.

She has a number of different options, which is normal for all Raging Heroes figures.  This is a more standard arrangement.  I figured it would be a little more 'flexible', and possibly let me choose a named character or two.

Perhaps even Lilith Hesperax :-)

The Three Amigoes

Back to the Napoleanics!

I will never get over the sculpting commonalities with earlier era GW sculpts.

My guess is that the next time I need more horses to pull my Khandish chariot conversions, I could probably find some great horses (minus saddles, of course), for a great price.

I think Cathy would prefer that to me continually pirating more Riders of Rohan horses! :-)

Some of the mould lines do end up in more 'unfortunate' places on these guys than they do on your typical fantasy miniatures.  

These are a nice 'step away' kind of miniature, keeping the other kinds of work a tiny bit fresher, as it offers that change of pace from Fantasy and 40k.

Tanks again...

Here we have some of the work for the Weathering and Battle damage video.  In these first few images, you are seeing the shaded basecoat work.  All of the colors are made lighter, with the plan of darkening them with glazes and washes.

The wheels were probably the most complicated element to do the shaded basecoat with, so I put each wheel on its own pin.

Let's not forget all the extra tank weapons that come with these fine tanks from Secret Weapon.

I used a variety of products here... GW, Vallejo, and Secret Weapon washes and glazes.

Once all those glazes and washes are completed, then you move on to the rust.  After that, I did the freehand.  From there I moved on to the paint chipping.

In the finished images, you will see all the weathering with the powders.  The mud as well.  That should be particularly interesting, since I have not tried that out except for a few tests!!  Stay tuned...