The ladies in red...

Here's the first of the minis meant for those bases!

I wanted to do a cooler, somewhat subdued red for these.  The idea was to compliment the white marble on the bases.

This views gives you a good glance:

Back to Base(ics)

Here are some new bases for a batch of Sisters of Battle.

I am following the color scheme that I mentioned the other day on the Warhammer 40k group.

It's the usual cork and sculpey method.  Next, the Sisters that stand on top of them!

A devil of a time...

Sorry for the delay folks!  Lots of DVD burning and a million other things.

I am not sure what it is about this color of armor, but it is very fun!

It might have to do with the kind of variety of shades that I can put in the all important midtones.  You have heard me mention those a lot here.  I mention them in the videos just as often!

This area is where miniatures are "won and lost".  While highlights and shadows are very important, they don't exist without that all important middle.  This is where you can put in all those subtle color shifts and so on.  It sets up those lights and darks.

So, always remember the middle!!!!!

The pipes are blowing

Here we have something fantastic from Victoria Miniatures!  It is something you will see much more of on the blog.  This is the fantastic Highland Guard set.

Obviously, it is a set of ten.  Legs, heads and pouches in this image.

Now we have the guns, packs and torsos.  They all fit together very nicely.

These are the command sprues, so that you can make the Sergeant and Piper.

All the parts after filing and washing...

Assembly under way.

The piper comes with an alternate head.  It is so cool that he can be stylin' with his goggles but still slam the pipes!!!

Here's the Sergeant.

And the Piper!

There are a number of different heads, torsos, gun options, and so on.

More shots.  Everything was very easy to work with.  No air bubbles, or any of those other annoying things!  Spectacular work by Victoria.

I am going to enjoy painting these so much.  Also, if need be, the scale and proportions of these are close enough to work some conversion magic with a certain other company. ;-)

More poses!

And now for that size comparison.  If you need a chain sword or grenade launcher, etc., it should be easy pickins to do so!

Many thanks to Victoria for allowing me to do some work with these guys.  As I mentioned, you will see much more of these as time goes by.  Also, I will be working on her new set of  guardsmen... straight from the stockade!

Here's a link:

http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/products/highland-guard?pagesize=12

In full command... Drow style

Back to the Underdark where we find these stylish ladies.

They may look sexy, but you don't wanna mess with them!

Quick on their feet and even quicker with a blade, they will make 'short' work of you if you are foolish.

It is very cool to see the Drow version of the command squad after seeing the Dark Elf versions for so long!

As usual group shots just provide the most satisfaction, even if they are less dramatic than the single pose sets.

And I do love the very simple but elegant marble.  It sets off both skin tones equally as well.

Chorus line!

Time to get choppin'!!!

Prepare to defend yourself!!

One more stunning lady from the Underdark, courtesy of Raging Heroes!

This is one heck of an action pose for a one piece miniature!  That's one way to make a delicate miniature much more stable and sturdy.

Wait... she sees something.  Like only a Drow can...

Packing up...

As I was furiously constructing these boxes, Lyn Stahl of mini painting fame happened to ask me why I didn't just get boxes from the Post Office.  She then got a dissertation on my experiences of 20+ years of shipping artwork of all kinds.  Sorry about that!

So what do you do when you have to ship minis?  With recent changes by the Post Office, I have had to adapt my methods yet again... slightly.

I told Lyn that I construct all my own boxes for a variety of reasons, the first being strength.  You can see here that I have created these sections inside the box... which is also lined with a layer of cardboard.

Everything is glued together.  All of these extra pieces provide protection against vertical and lateral crushing, which is real important shipping these fragile minis! 

I also custom build them to avoid having lots of extra space inside the box.  Not only will it be more expensive to fill that will all kinds of packing materials, it will be heavier, and the figure inside has more chances to move around.  None of those things are good!

While most of our boxes are generously donated by our recycling minded friends, I also find giant boxes made of heavy cardboard out in the alley.  Or, I save them on the rare occasion when something heavy comes our way.

This board is perfect for those interior pieces!

Here is a box that I have specifically shaped for 2 pieces.  These days, you must have a box that is big enough to fit those computer generated labels that you have to print out.  Those are usually around 5 x 7 inches.

However, boxes of certain weights and sizes will whack you with all sorts of extra charges, so beware of that.

Here you can see the interior pieces being glued to the inside walls.

Getting there.  You can already see the mutual support these pieces offer.

Then it's time to pre-fit the miniature for the all important cross piece.  This is the one that really keeps the compression to a minimum from the top and the sides...

When one piece is a lot shorter than the other, I use white styrofoam to fill the void.  Light and soft.

This is what I use to cut all that cardboard.  It is my old mat-cutting machine.  A little sad that this is what it does 85% of the time, but the 2D art is mostly a thing of the past.  The other 15% is building terrain.

I used this to prefab a lot of the parts that went into the terrain making videos.

Once all the glue has set, it is time for the minis.  Those are wrapped in tissue first, making sure to fill the 'voids' between arms and weapons, etc.  Then some bubble wrap around the tissue.

Finally, if I have it available, I will use foam pieces to plug the additional gaps around the bubble wrap.  These were kindly donated by Phil!  Thanks!