Advance!

As more of the cavalry is filled out, the more I realize how many horses I have painted in recent months. :-)

I have painted a lot of them over the years, but this is even more than my Lord of the Rings armies combined.

It has been very strange to be so restricted in the choices of colors...

Aside from white horses, there's not much variety.  However, that will change with the Wild West Exodus Warrior Nation!!!

Pack of Rhinos!

As promised, the group shots of all six rhinos together!

These guys are so huge, it was no easy tack getting them to all fit!

Hopefully these views also show the color variations I tried to make from one rhino to the next...

Seeing even more subtle grays and browns on these guys makes me even more glad that I went with the more fluorescent green on the Eye of Balor.  It's the one little 'oomph' of color.

However, it still has enough related colors around it to keep it from getting too noticeable. :-)

More to come!  Stay tuned...

Sunday, December 7th

On this particular Sunday, I am reminded even more of a future project I want to attempt.

It would be a split waterline diorama of the USS West Virginia, BB 48.

The concept is to create two models on one rotating display base.

One side of the diorama would show the West Virginia as it appeared on December 8th, 1941.

The 'waterline' style display would let me create the sunken version of the ship, with a painted backdrop to separate it from the other part of the diorama.

This would be the raised and refitted West Virginia as it was in 1944... primarily during the Battle of Surigao Straight.  Once again, a painted backdrop will divide the two eras.

This particular model scale intrigues me.

It might be very difficult to deal with all the brass etched parts, however.

This is also a very expensive it!  It's $135.

I look forward to painting the markings...

And to creating the damaged version from a pristine kit.

Amazing to think that these two ships are one in the same!

This is probably far in the future, but it is definitely something on the hobby bucket list!!

Sound the Bugle!!!

You can just hear the sound of the cavalry charge being played by this guy!

No respectable cavalry unit goes without one!

Lots of different poses on this unit... about 4 main types of horses...

Which meant a chance to create a little variety in the tones, despite the fact that type of horse breeds to choose from is quite limited.  Brown, dark brown, and darker brown. :-)

I thought I saw a pussy cat...

You saw the glazing process on this bad boy, and now some finished images for you!

I wanted to have some lion-like golden browns and sienna on this, but I also wanted to give it more of a Chaos appearance.  So, I tried to work in as many greens and purples as I could.

Those colors are also nice compliments to the golden browns and such, which helps to create more variety and depth this large creature, avoiding lots of monotonous areas of color.

While it's even more necessary to do such things on these big guys, it's also a little easier.  You don't have compressed areas which might look too crazy with so much color variation.

I also was aware that I had the snow as a contrast... but it was also something that had to influence the colors facing the ground.  Much more green in the shading there!

And now for a size comparison. The Beastman is on a 30mm base.  Yup... big kitty!!!

Sabertooth Secrets

Glazing time again!!

Among the usual tools for this task, we see the Secret Weapon washes.  

When you compare these two images to the original Shaded Basecoat image, you will immediately see what a difference it all makes...

Here is that original image.  This is the "middle up" shading that leaves me so much leeway to change color tints and more.

Bam!  Lots of fun variations have been created in the thick fur around the head, switching between a number of glaze colors.  I even allow them to mix together on the figure itself, letting gravity take hold.

I wanted some areas of this fur to be not only darker, but more of a cooler shade as well.  Thus, blue and greens were added to the brownish glaze colors.

You can see that some shading was added down the spine, which was not my original intention.

This is what I mean by flexibility and the ability to change directions from the original plan!

A number of the Secret Weapon washes have a semi transparent/opaque quality, and I took advantage of that property here to create a bit of inflammation around the protruding spikes.

If you recall the last few articles on rust effects, you will know that this has been very fun for me.  The orange wash also has that transparent/opaque quality, used to create this look.

Getting there!

I also mix regular paint with my washes and glazes.  I did that here with some Reaper Solid Black, which really absorbs light.  This was useful in the cooler shadow areas of the neck fur, especially near the armor.

Finished pics soon!!!!

Thrilled with Thralls

More of these guys.  Not sure what they do in the game, but it must be something nasty with these guns! :-)

I would imagine that there's not much of an armor save, but you might need one yourself if you are caught on the wrong end of one of these.

Lots more on the way!