Dragonfall 2

This beastie from Mierce Miniatures was an interesting exercise in the full range of greens!

As I have tried to show in a number of my painting videos, these can range from blue green to almost yellow from cool to warm.

Saturation is another added element to this difference in tones.  You can even have the same kind of yellow green or blue green, but if it is toned down with even a little bit of red, it begins to read as more grayish to the eye.

You can see in some of these images how the yellowish intense green on the underside of the wings contrasts with the more muted, blueish greens on the back of the wings.  This is a subtle way of getting that contrast without resorting to radical differences in how light or dark the colors might be.

During my tutorial videos, I like to turn off all saturation at a certain stage to show how you can get "sneaky" contrast like this.

If I were to make this a black and white image, the two sides of the wings would look identical!

I also incorporated some reds in certain places to get one extra level of contrast.  So, the reds are placed where the green and the yellow of the two sides of the wings joins.  This is also a bit darker than the rest of the wings, adding one more type of contrast.

I already have a number of tutorial videos on painting greens available to the patrons of my Patreon Page at: www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Stark Marble

While much of my focus has been on the Night's Watch and Free Folk lately, I have not forgotten about the original Starks and Lannisters!  Tutorials are under way for the full range of Starks... Outriders, Archers, Berserkers, Greataxes, etc.

I am also doing some tutorials on the NCU's of course!  Sansa and Caitlyn will certainly be part of that.

These will try to follow the concept art as closely as possible, but tossing in a few extras where I can.  I have been creating some marble bases for them with a bit of wolf iconography.

It's been just as much fun to work on these as it has the "new" stuff, so stay tuned!!  Speaking of new stuff, here's the link once more to the Savage Giant tutorial video, as and example of what is on the way!  https://youtu.be/1LvJv3dyjEw

Sand and Stone

It is only now that I am able to step back from Operation Sting and think about how much I was able to complete for that event!  I really enjoyed making the display board, which was featured in a number of step by step articles... https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/11/monte-cassino-part-4-more-rubble.html

The army was really unusual for me, since most of what I have been painting all these years has been for early war!  Some of these weapons seemed like space age tech at one point :-)  Of course, I especially enjoyed the basing on the army, and matching that terrain board... https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/11/amidst-rubble.html

I suppose that I was able to get in some practice on sandy Mediterranean colors for my upcoming DAK, Italian and British desert forces.  Those have also been under way for a while in terms of prepping, basing, etc.

When I researched what I should do for the uniforms, the variety of what I found gave me an opportunity to make each figure more unique.  This really helped when it came to playing in the tournament, because I never had any opportunity to play test the army before the event!

I wasn't able to do everything that I wanted to on the army due to time constraints, but as I tell folks all the time in my instructional videos, there is nothing that says I can't go back and add more details!

I also have to start making additional terrain pieces so that my display board can become the centerpiece for an entire Monte Cassino table.  The idea is to make more modular mountain style sections which could be used for several theatres, such as the Caucasus, etc.

It all worked out in the end, and I was very glad to receive the Best Axis Appearance award!

https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/12/final-report-operation-sting-2018.html

The Blue Bloods

As we head towards Adepticon, I have been working on all of the various Guard squads created by Victoria Miniatures.  In this case, we have the Tanneburg Fusiliers.  Since I am already filming a number of Army Painting series for the Patreon Page, I have turned on the camera to capture the methods I use for tackling whole units such as these.

The Army Painter series is usually 5 episodes long, starting with the basing process and color test figures.  However, with the basing being a simpler rock and gravel, I went straight to the painting of the unit.  A typical series covers about 10-12 hours of total instructional video.

In addition to the Army Painter series, a $15 pledge also gets you the other tutorials created during the month, such as the Dark Sword and Black Heart Models videos.  This means you get around 16-20 hours of brand new videos every month.

Those are available on the Patreon Page now... and keep in mind that I am filming Series 6, 7, and 8 right now!  Don't miss out on a ton of instructional video covering all aspects of painting, basing, etc.  Here's the page: www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Here's a link to the first video, which will show how I set up the process and get things started!!

https://youtu.be/nTHBkXNCDlw

The Red Horde

I never thought that I would enjoy a "reclamation" project as much as I did this one!  As I have mentioned in some previous posts, this batch of monsters from Mierce Miniatures had a number of things that needed to be fixed.

There were mould lines, gaps in seams, mostly drybrushed painting, and the requested NMM was done in metallics instead.

I have a step by step post that I made on switching from those metals here:  https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/12/reclamation-job.html

The idea here was not to completely start over from scratch, but to use what had already been done as an underpainting.  Instead of wiping out the skin colors and hair, I was able to enhance that with more dramatic highlights, and putting more subtle glazes into the shadows.

The difference was even more dramatic than I thought possible!  Not only in the metal areas, but even the skin tones and hair.  In the shadow areas of the skin, I used some glazes of the dark blue.  At the same time, I was "warming up" the lighter areas by adding some orange and bright skin color to those highlights.

Once I started to see them all together, I was even more surprised!

This is not the full batch... more pics on the way!  I hope that this might give people hope that if they might not like the results they see, it is not necessary to strip away paint and primer.  Instead, try to use that initial layer of colors as an underpainting, and make it an advantage!

Giant News!

While the release of the new Free Folk army from Song of Ice and Fire is still in the future, I have been busy creating as many painting tutorials as I can so that you will be ready to work on yours!

This Savage Giant was the first tutorial of the Free Folk.

I begin in the usual way, with my initial glazes and Sgaded Basecoat technique.  Those who have seen my other tutorials are quite familiar with this :-)

Once those critical lights and darks have been determined, I can get into the "middle tones", or that vast range of shading between light and dark.  Believe it or not, most of the real action happens here.

With the figure itself completed, it was time to do some snow and ice effects!

I tried to show a few different methods for creating those effects.  They will feature very prominently in all my upcoming Free Folk and Night's Watch tutorials.

Here he is!  I have already completed the second Giant that comes with the starter box, and he will be made available to the patrons of my Patreon Page.  I already have a 5 part army painting series on my Lannister Halberds (series 4 of the five Army Painting series I have done so far!)  here is a quick review of that: https://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/12/shiny-lannisters.html

Each army painting series guides you through the entire process of basing, initial shading, the midtones, finishing details, and so on.  A typical series is about 10-13 hours long, and helps you figure out how much of your "currency of time" that you might want to invest in a project.  

I will asses how much a given effect took to make, and then ask if that (multiplied by a given number of figures!) is worth it.  I have even started showing how you can paint your army "on the fly", that is making it look good enough to put on the table before it is actually done.

All of us are in the same boat... never enough time to paint all the minis we have.

I often see people get discouraged, as they are convinced that they won't be able to paint their armies to the standard that they would like, and end up not painting them at all.  My goal with the tutorials is to show you ways to get those nifty results, but not have to invest 3 lifetimes into painting one unit!

The armies that I paint for the Patreon Page are my own, and are featured in my battle reports (or what I take to tournaments, etc).  I do this because there is no better way to understand what a fellow army painter goes through than to be one yourself!

As I mentioned early on, I have 5 Army Painting series up on the Patreon Page now.  That pledge level is $15, and it gets you all of the video content, not just the series.  This means that you get some additional bonus techniques that you can try on your unit champions or special characters.  Here's a link to the page:  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Here's a link to the video, so you can check it out!  https://youtu.be/1LvJv3dyjEw

Night's watch: Color Test Figure

Here's a peek at the next Army Painting series which will feature the Night's Watch!  This is the "color test" figure which I always try out first when working on a new army.

I can get a sense of not just how it looks, but how long a given effect might take to create... especially when you are talking about an entire army! :-)  

Normally the Color Test figure is the second episode in the series (which is 4-5 episodes long), but I had not painted any Night's Watch figures yet, so I needed to get familiar with the figures themselves.  As I go about painting the rest of the unit, I will be working from these images.  Those are up on the screen, along with the palette camera.

While "black" is the color of the Night's Watch, very seldom is that color truly black.  It tends to be blueish, greenish, and every other color, as even non reflective surfaces such as cloth can still take on the ambient colors of the environment around it.  

Sky colors, ground colors, etc, can really influence the tone.

I try to have a lot of conversations about all this during the painting process.  Showing the "how" is not as important as the "why".  It is the primary reason that the unit painting series are broken down into these separate episodes.  The total running time is usually 10-13 hours.

The basing is the same type of Oxide Paste and tree bark which I have been using on the other units.  This is the next unit being featured on the Patreon Page.  The first episode always starts out with basing, so you will see plenty of it when you join in on the Army Painting pledge level!  Here's a link for you:  www.patreon.com/JamesWappel