Sunday, May 7, 2017

Hammer Time


There have been a few add ons to the Masons team, including this guy.  A lot less of the "Masons blue" on him, with much more armor surfaces instead.


This meant trying to work in as many subtle color changes as I could to distinguish that surface from the marble colors of the base.


As you can see, this base was done to match the original set, with the Masons symbol included :-)  A few more to come yet, so stay tuned!


Saturday, May 6, 2017

On Fire!


Here's some finished images of the Reaper Fire Elemental painted with the Vallejo fluorescent paints.  This link takes you to the facebook live session in which he was painted:



There's nothing quite like the fluorescent paints.  When they are mixed with the Reaper clear paints, or the MSP colors, you can really get some nice results.


He's also here:



I will keep on painting these glowing figures using the various fluorescent paints, so stay tuned!




Friday, May 5, 2017

Going Places


This C3 Transporter from Gates of Antares is the first large sci-fi vehicle I have painted in years, since the Dark Eldar army.  I had a lot of fun with it!

I even have a live video of the painting session here:



I wanted to have a very different color scheme on this vehicle, so I chose a pattern similar to the one I had used on that old Dark Eldar army.


I think the base is around 80mm round, so that should give you a good indication of its size and scale.


The base was made from bark and branches, and there's a live video of how that was made here:



These views from above show how that freehand pattern was varied across the entire surface, with emphasis on different sections of the hull.


The combination of very organic and mechanical shapes was really interesting.  Usually you have to "choose" between on or the other.


This is made by Warlord Games, a nice plastic kit which is easy to put together.


I have a few more similar versions of this vehicle, and I will be exploring more freehand patterns in future facebook live sessions, so stay tuned!


Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Skink Fest!


It's been a very long time since I have taken any images of the old Lizardman terrain board, known as the Temple of Blood!  Since Skinks were always my favorite part of my army, I thought I would pile a bunch of them on the board for new images.


Each level was designed for movement trays, so that actual combat could take place.  This upper level is usually occupied by Mage Priest Babo and his Temple Guard.  Here we see some brave Skinks with one of my scratch sculpted Terradons.


I have a number of articles on the construction of this board:



The Temple of Blood is featured prominently in the story of Stikki Wikkit!



Here's the original Temple of Blood, made from Sculpey:



Here's a close up of some skinks, and that upper level.


These secondary levels were designed for skirmishers to fight on, and as movement cost for units on movement trays.


Normally this position of honor is occupied by a Skink Priest, but this time the freshly rebuilt temple still has its Skink laborers restoring it to its original state!


We have a mix of blowpipe skirmishing Skinks backed up by another Terradon scout, searching the skies for Chaos marauders.


I used foam core to make this back in the day... if I had it to do over again, I would have used the 1/4 inch thick pink foam.  This would have given me a lot more options in terms of texture.  It is a lot easier to carve and shape than foam core!  Also, I learned that foam core (with paper on either side) will warp once it is painted.

This doesn't happen when you paint the pink foam, another huge advantage.


One last view!  I will keep posting images of the individual Skinks, so stay tuned!!


Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Asharah


The very nifty Raging Heroes figure was the commander of my Blood Star Dark Eldar army.


I had a lot of fun with the bases for this army, since it was supposed to be centered around this massive Hippodrome, where they would race their Reaver jetbikes and kill off slaves.


I have many posts on the army itself, as well as the giant display board!  That is all found in the Dark Eldar section of the blog.


She's also here:



Monday, May 1, 2017

Steam and Snow


This was a color test piece for a buddy who was trying to come up with an alternate theme for a Khador army.


I have only painted a few sporadic Warmachine minis... a few Menoth and one Cygnar.  So, when I started to mess around with this, I didn't have too much bias towards a certain color scheme!


I thought that this much lighter winter scheme would allow me to play around with more weathering than the traditional red.  That color tends to force you to go more intense with those effects to make them appear.  The snow effect was done in the usual way, with the Secret Weapon crushed glass method.


He's also here:



Sunday, April 30, 2017

Meet the Masons


Here are some finished images of the Masons team.  I don't know what any of the players are called, but I am sure that fans of the game know far better than me. :-)


Sorry that I didn't have any WIP images of the figures being painted... I have the article on how the bases were painted:  



It was requested that I stay with the traditional color scheme for these guys, which turned out to be pretty nice.


Again, not sure what everything is, but it was certainly different!


The view from above to show how the figures integrated with the base designs.  I could not resist putting the Masons symbol on the marble!


I have a few more guys for the team, including the goal post.  I will post those pictures next week!  Stay tuned...