Getting ready for Reapercon

Time to get a horde of minis ready for those Reapercon classes!  Shaded basecoat and Glazing in addition to the basing classes.  Lots of Bones minis, as you can see.  

A pile of Secret Weapon terrain and bits as well. :-)

I used a very thick sheet of plasticard to create simple bases for the minis to stand on.  I grabbed some materials to fill out those blank spaces... those are areas that could also be used as part of the class as well.

I had some thick pieces of baked sculpey that can make some very nice chunks of shale when you cut them along the naturally occurring fault lines.

The horde grows.  I also used a few different kinds of cork.

More bits of material applied, as well as some of the Secret Weapon skulls.

This view from above shows you the difference in texture between the sculpey, cork, and so on.

Can't forget the Trolls!!

Cork and sculpey bits everywhere.  I also tried to get a few of the Secret Weapon body parts on the bases, just in case we get some time to do glazing effects on those!

A closer view.  Normally I would be using a lot of the Oxide Paste, but that is running very low, and nowhere near enough to tackle this project.  So, I had to go to the more 'old fashioned' gravel mix.  I will show that in the next post.

Now the trolls have their piles of sculpey, cork and bits.  Stay tuned for the rest of the prep!!!

Another Squad, another Tartan

I had some fun painting this squad, another unit from Victoria's Highland Guard.

There was a helping hand from Secret Weapon, with one of their very fine set of bases from their sci-fi themes.  I also added some of the shell casings, which I really love!  You can see a few of them on the bases.

I wanted to try out this more unusual white tartan that I had discovered during an extensive internet search.  This is also the only unit with red spats!

Arrayed with a RAV 6 x 6 with another weapon option.  Definitely some long range firepower!

Another brave sergeant leads the way...

Coming up soon, the mass preparations for Reapercon!

Hordes of Bones for Shaded Basecoat and Glazing classes.  A little de-facto basing going on here as well.  Stay tuned!

Some Tiny Tigers finished!

All right!  Some pictures of the Tigers.  I only spent a few hours on the whole batch tops, so obviously I would have like to get more time with them behind the magnifier light.

We were not even sure if we would be able to get primer on them, much less paint, so this whole thing was really a grand experiment!

You can get an idea of how tiny these things are compared to the RAV 6 x 6!

There was a surprising amount of detail on the miniatures, especially when you consider how tiny they were, and that they are meant for a board game.

Once all these figures are painted, it will enhance the experience tremendously!  It was already quite nice with the simple unpainted versions.  Rick is going to paint some of the regular Panzer tanks in this late war scheme as well, so that we have variety.

There are also a few missions that call for special elite units, or something with a special designation, so having some other vehicles in a different scheme should be fun!

Also, I hope that we can get some of the expansion packs so that I could do some Eastern Front winter versions, or Battle of the Bulge, etc.

After painting 'full size' vehicle for so long, this was a very different ball game all together.

You do have to avoid the temptation to disregard these things for their details when you first start painting them.  The longer I worked on them, the more details I discovered!  I easily could have spent hours on each tank.

Uh oh!!! Looks like somebody just wandered into some serious trouble!

Is Oddball at it again?

My War Memoirs

Now this is something completely different!  I have never painted anything from modern warfare (historicals), and certainly nothing at this small scale!

Memoir 44 is a game that Rich and I have played a few times.  It is a lot of fun, especially since it has all kinds of very cool miniatures.  We thought it would be fun to paint up the figures, starting with some tanks.

Rich painted the early war Panzers, while I tackled some late war Tiger Tanks.

I started out by mixing some khaki paint in with the Badger gray primer in preparation of painting some late war Tiger tanks.

Primer is on!

You can see the primer mix, as well as the khaki and tan that I wanted to incorporate onto the vehicle!  My 'palette' gives you a bit of an idea of how small these tanks are.  I think they are less than half the size of a Flames of War Tiger.

I mixed a cavalry red with the olive drab to create the rust colored stripes.

Working my way through the tanks.

I used a beat up liner brush for this part, since it would give me a nice random application across each of the surfaces.

I did the same for the green color.

Now it's time to add some darks.  The Secret Weapon Baby Poop is more of a yellow, while the Sewer water has a greenish tint.  The Brown liner paint is for the deepest darks, and for adding in with the other washes.

It makes a difference right away. As always, these glazes were applied very carefully, not slopped on.  I was mixing in each color on various sections of the tank, so that some parts were 'warmer', and others were 'cooler'.

Getting there.  Again, the Brown liner is thicker than the two washes, which creates a very different property.  It also gives it more of a smokey feel, which is great for deep wheel wells, and even scorched areas such as the muzzle tips.

Almost there!

With the majority of the shading done, it was time to do some freehand!!

I started with the white, so that the darker red and black colors would go over the top.

Here's a few images of the freehand under way.  Keep in mind, these buggers are tiny!  Definitely needed my magnifier light :-)

Next up, a post with some finished images!

Different Sisters, new primer

Here's something from a miniature Company called Svarog Miniatures.  

This is a set of four different Sisters of Battle possibilities... be they Inquisitors, Canonesses, Sister Superiors, etc.

They are resin kits that also come with sculpted bases specifically designed for each miniature.

The kits did have a few pieces, but it seemed to be pretty easy to get all of that together.

Also, not lots of crazy mould lines in impossible places, which was great!  That could have been possible with the relatively complex nature of the poses.

They come individually boxed like this:

This one was my personal favorite.  I am looking forward to painting all of them (in my green Sisters of the Raven scheme) and adding them to various squads.

Since all of the GW flamer Sisters are exactly the same, it is very nice to have this one.  However, I think I will be using it as a Heavy Flamer to add to Retributors, Dominions, etc.

This one is an unusual pose, but it could make a very interesting Mistress to lead a batch of Repentia.  I have tons of those, and this would be a nice change from the ancient metal version!

More flaming death!

The scale of these gals works just fine with the existing Sisters.  When these are painted, I will be sure to have side by side images with GW Sisters.

Here's a link:

http://www.svarogminiatures.com/

This is also a new product for me... from Badger.  This is their new primer set.  I had heard many good things about it, and I think it is a winner.

I primed the above resin miniatures by brushing on the gray (have I mentioned once or twice or a thousand times how I love gray primer?!)  Those miniatures were straight from the package... no soaking, no washing.  The primer stuck right away, and was very solid.

I was even able to water it down in some places to get a little more control in very detailed or less robust parts.

Practice Practice Practice

Once again, I think you will recognize all the elements here... tartan, tats, and even hair color :-)

All part of the campaign to get the color scheme of the Highland Guard and Sisters rendered to muscle memory as much as possible. That really paid off when I had to start painting one of the squads at 2 am the morning of the tournament!!!

This is heavy, but is slices pretty good

A classic Reaper mini, which was obviously another practice figure for the Highland Guard.  I did a number of these, testing out the tartan pattern, which you will recognize.

I also tested out the tattoo patterns as well!