War Priest

As most of you already know, I really loved that Easterling army!  Part of it had to do with the very different look of the figures, but also fact that it was the opposite of Gondor in many ways.  They all had heavy armor, cavalry, archers, etc.

Unlike their Gondor counterparts, they had very nifty elements such as this War Priest.  He was particularly effective when added to a cavalry unit, because it increased their speed.  That doesn't sound like much, but when it makes your armored cavalry faster than a lightly armored version, you can do some real damage!

I tried to keep this in my own alternate color scheme as well.  I had seen plenty of red Easterlings up to that point, so I wanted to create something different.  That is usually my favorite challenge of starting up a new army.

This was probably my favorite of all the Easterling cavalry... I really liked this pose of both horse and rider.

Tiny Tiny Tiny

While I forgot to include a coin to show you how small these figures are, I think you can get a sense just by looking at them.  Their bases are not even as large as a penny!

This was definitely a new challenge for me, which is saying something since I have been at this for almost 18 years.  I had done some 10mm historical figures, but that is a different animal.  These are meant to be 28mm scale, so it was very important to keep the scale of the basing and other elements the same as the rest of the army.

These guys are part of a large goblin army, including those massive trolls that you have already seen.  So, I had to take the same bark and branch basing materials (along with the flock and grass), and make tiny versions of those very large bases that I made for the trolls.

The bark is the ideal material for them, but getting pins into those very tiny feet was not easy!  If I had thought of it, I could have used one of my tiny drill bits and used florist wire instead of the usual paper clips.

I thought that particular tip might be useful in case you ever run across the same kind of challenge!  In the past, I have used the smaller bits and florist wire to pin skinny arms onto delicate figures.

Evolution of the Gods

Whenever you have interesting lines and shapes on a pose/character like this, it seems like it is always a natural candidate to play around with lighting effects.  

While there are areas of very nice detailed shapes, there are also more "open" areas that allow you to try out some fun and creative color combos, especially where there might also be metal surfaces.  That allowed me to get into serious reflected light and colors on the back sections of the figure.

I loved getting those prussian blue hues into the metals!

The base was made with the usual sculpey and cork method, along with a piece from Sci-Bor Miniatures and leaves made with the Green Stuff World leaf cutters.  Now that fall is in full swing here, I am trying to stock up on my leaf supply!

This figure is from Demigods Evolution.  As you can see from the coin reference in the above image, he is pretty large, at least 54-60mm tall.

He's also here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/222699702536?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

A new Arena

This Arena Rex figure was the first 'regular' fantasy miniature that I painted with oils.  I did a portion of the painting in a facebook live session using the Mig AMMO OilBrushers:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209975891047974/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

While I had painted this once in acrylics, people wanted to see how I would approach the skin tones, NMM and transparent cloth in oils.  In effect, the principles are all the same, even though the approach works out a little differently.

The advantage of oil paints is that they have an extended drying time, thus allowing you to mix on the surface far longer.  That is also the down side, as you can't so several layers of glazing in rapid fire succession!  I normally do a lot of glazing on my figures, so I have to be very mindful of this.

The base itself was made from a few elements.  The mosaic tile texture was created with the Green Stuff World texture rollers.  As usual, that was rolled out onto some sculpey clay, and then positioned on top of some thick cork.  I sculpted the column top out of sculpey clay as well.

The first version of this figure was based on a 'legal' sized base, but this time around, I wanted to make more of a diorama around it.  It's not very often that I have a chance to make a very large base with the texture rollers!

She's also here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/222696754149?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Stepping Out

This was an unusual project for me, since I did not prep this or assemble it.  My only task was to paint it, and that presents a whole list of challenges.

I prefer to do all that sort of thing myself, because while I do all that prepping, I start to make a plan for how I will go about painting it.  Also, I had to do some guessing as to what was what, as I didn't see where the bits were coming from myself!

So, I had to make do with what was at hand, and added as I moved along from one area to the next.  There were a few times where I switched the color in progress or the placement of glowing areas, etc.

I could not tell you exactly what was used on this as far as bitz, only how it was painted :-)

Playing Fetch

It has been a while since the Circle Oboros doggies made an appearance, but here is another one that is part of the massive winter force.  That is comprised of several different companies, including Tharn and Oboros figures.

This one had to match all the others that had come before, which means that I rely even more strongly on the Shaded Basecoat and Glazing techniques.  It is so much easier to match a figure when you don't remember what you used in the past, or that is not even available any more.

Just as I stressed in the classes at Reapercon, the idea is to not only simplify your color palette, but to paint as many other figures at the same time which use those colors.  As I was working on this figure, I had at least a dozen other completely unrelated figures on the table.  

Sometimes all you are painting is one small element of each figure, or only a certain amount of that batch.  It is funny how much I realize that figures end up using so many similar tones.

This particular color scheme presents an interesting contrast, with some warm, bright colors right next to cooler and very muted tones.

Rock On!

I have seen these Privateer Press Trolls for quite a while now... this is the first time that I have seen one of these rock toting monsters in person.  This is certainly a lot easier to paint with the Shaded Basecoat and glazing techniques.

This allowed me to get the muted greenish tinge on the rocks while creating opposing purple and blueish tones on the skin.  with so many things going on all over the place, and so many shapes, it is important to have all of those 'relate' to each other as well as possible.

The Shaded Basecoat works in a similar way to regular 2D painting, in that you cover all of the surfaces as quickly as possible, which means that you are also mixing your paint on the figure along the way.  When you do this, you end up with very interesting blends and transitions almost by default.

The basing was done in the usual bark and branch method... I think that I have a video of the making of this base, and several others:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209658916083798/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Something that is entirely metal and this large can really be a challenge.  I learned that using the same rubber gloves that I use when painting vehicles was helpful in not messing up painted areas as I handled it.  Keeping the oils from my fingers away from it really helped!

One of the aspects of glazing that I tried to emphasize at Reapercon was the concept that a glaze could also be a "lighter" glaze.  That is, taking a traditional glazing color such as a sepia, and mixing a lighter opaque color with it.  This tends to create a semi-translucent middle tone, which is what I used in many areas of the skin and especially the rocks.

This was a semi-translucent mix of green that worked so well on those stones...