Four and Change

Where the heck did Summer go? More to the point, why does that countdown clock in the margin show only four plus days until Zomtober? That can't be right, can it?

It can and it is. Zomtober '15 is upon us.

For the full scoop, check out Pulpcitizen's post HERE. (Also the source of the banner at the top.)

I've got five minis under construction as we speak. More ghouls than zombies but hopefully still in keeping with the spirit of things. Removing the broccoli-bases from the Reaper offerings took some doing but everybody's now ready to move forward.

On the Fractured dimensions front, Dispater is done save for the varnish and mounting to the base. My problems with brush-on matte varnish persist, otherwise he'd be finished.

The next FD minis on the table are the larvae. I'll see if I can push forward with them along with the Zomtober ghouls.

There's also a rather bizarre conversion project in the works that ties in with the larvae but that stays under wraps for the moment.

Idle Hands do the Devil's Work

My attention's been elsewhere lately and any semblance of miniature-painting productivity has flown right out the window. I took steps towards overcoming my inertia by pressing forward today with FD's Dispater. A clean sculpt by Ian Mountain that offers the triple challenge of NMM, object source lighting, and freehand in one 28mm package.

The WIP pics show the mini after the application of washes for shading. Further progress has been made since.

The Cat's Pajamas

Business Cat approves.

Leaving behind two figures of speech and resorting to a third, it's time to lay my cards on the table. I'm painting for MortalArrow LLC, the new distributor of Fractured Dimensions miniatures. Mike at Mortal Arrow has been hard at work behind the scenes and the online store should go live shortly.

Also involved are artists Bobby Penafiel and Lloyd Metcalf. Bobby did the concept art for FD's IMotOP Kickstarter and has recently immortalized your humble author in pen and ink. (OK, my humility is an open question. What can I say?)

Consider my ego stroked.

I have no inside info on this point but a perusal of Bobby's DeviantArt page seems to offer clues to future FD releases. That's right campers... future releases. Fractured Dimensions has resumed product development. A couple new Paul Muller greens are on display on Mortal Arrow's FB page. Sweet.

Paul Muller can do no wrong.

As for yours truly, a personal matter has been demanding my attention, resulting in limited progress on the painting front. Ideally, as the situation improves, I'll get my ass in gear and paint some stuff. Towards that end, FD's Dispater has received some initial attention.

Ian Mountain's no slouch either.

Seeing Red

 

EDIT 05/28/16

Mortal Arrow will only be distributing Fractured Dimensions miniatures until the end of this month (May 2016). A word to the wise: get them while you can. 

*******

The Fractured Dimensions' bodak is complete. Actually the painting was done a while ago, the application of matte varnish and picture-taking (simple tasks) proved challenging.

Army Painter's Anti-Shine has worked well for me previously but here it fought me tooth and nail. The initial application dried glossy in spots. The second wasn't any better. I thought the weather might be to blame. ( horror stories of humidity adversely affecting matte varnishes abound, and it has been very humid here of late.) I thought too that the fact I was using an old bottle of the stuff or that I wasn't shaking it sufficiently might be at fault.

I armed myself with a new bottle of the product, waited for the humidity to break, and got good results... on everything but the minis bright red kilt. This stubbornly refused to cooperate despite repeated applications. Eventually I got a result I could live with and called it a day. (Still, I wouldn't call it matte.)

The Kilt in Question

To its credit, Anti-Shine dries crystal clear. Five or six coats of any other matte varnish I know of, would have ended in hazy catastrophe.

I then took some pictures and the fun resumed. Cut to the chase: red background (my initial choice) = glossy red bits while purple or off-white backgrounds = reasonably good results. Same camera, same lighting, same everything. Eventually I got where I needed to be but Lord only knows what unrecognized principle of physics/digital photography was causing me so much trouble.

Bottom line: outstanding mini, great fun to paint, some delays getting over the finish-line.

Oooo! Brassy!

I was trying for NMM brass with the metal bits. Everything but the kitchen sink went into this paint-wise. Colors used pictured below (plus GW Sotek Green & Vallejo Ivory for the verdigris).

Base & Highlights

Shading

Bases painted separately

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Two points in closing:

1) FD may call this guy a bodak, but he works better as a death knight from the old Fiend Folio IMHO. I'm going to consider him as such and use him to jumpstart my long dormant Fiend Folio Project (maybe).

2) FD's Dispater is next up (the base is already done). There figures to be a good deal of red involved here as well. Wish me luck.

PTS XI: Those Lowdown, Dirty, Bodak Blues

I'm back.

July has been something of a bust as far as painting/blogging goes. Can't let that continue. Here then are some WIP pics of the paint-table's current occupant: Fractured Dimensions' bodak.

Another gem from Paul Muller. That multi-horned skull-head is a thing of malevolent beauty.

The skin and kilt are pretty much done. Everything else (armor and leather mostly) needs further attention.

Chap-Stick: The official lip-balm of Minis by Finch

The Chap-Stick is used mostly for lubricating sculpting tools. Here the packaging serves as a reference when adjusting the picture's white-balance. The mini is mounted to a pin-vise which is mounted in turn to a Gatorade bottle.