This Little Light Of Mine

When Summer began, I had five miniatures primed and awaiting paint. The plan was to complete them all by the end of June. Where does the time go? It's September already and I've only just finished the fourth.

Quick I ain't.

Figure number four is part of Gamezone's Landwehr III blister. I see him not as a mere peasant but rather as a cleric/monk with a drunken-master vibe: the besotted agent of a higher power, following his calling armed with faith, an improvised weapon, and an ample supply of booze.

I originally intended to have him going toe-to-toe with an Otherworld type II demon thusly:

I experimented with a few things on this mini; most notably OSL (object source lighting). This took a couple tries as initial attempts using Vallejo florescent yellow paint produced consistently awful results. In the end I went with a more subtle look and P3 Sulfuric Yellow.

 

I'm in line for a DVD on how to paint OSL from a recent Kickstarter campaign. It can't get to my door quickly enough. I'd really like to add this technique to my bag of tricks.

With the changing of the seasons,  I'm eager to move on to some new miniatures. (Plus I still have that pesky fifth miniature to deal with.)

Bones Tutorial Video

I should have known better. The warning signs were there.

Having succumbed in small measure to bones-mania by purchasing two newly arrived Bones minis from my LGS, I must report that I am disappointed.

Here is where I launch into a diatribe against the minis in question. Having started to do just that, I realized that A) I was coming across as a wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth, crazy-person, and B) my criticism was off target as I am really not the consumer for whom  Bones miniatures are intended.

To point A: While I may actually be a wild-eyed, foaming-at-the-mouth, crazy-person, I try to conceal this fact whenever possible.

To point B: Bones are meant for gamers, not painters. They may be made from a very flexible, almost rubbery, plastic, lack the crisp detail of metal or resin minis, feature mold lines that are difficult to deal with effectively, and suffer from mis-molded details here and there, but they are cheap. In this case cheap carries the day. 

The Face That Launched A Thousand Frustrations

As Adam and Jamie learn in the video above, it actually is possible to polish a turd. I must concede that the problem may lie in part with my unfamiliarity with the material (cheap, bendy plastic that is; not lion dung). With that in mind, I'm putting my ill-considered purchases aside for now. Hopefully I'll come back to them someday, armed with better info on how to turn them into acceptable minis.

Stadium Seating

No more fumbling through a drawer full of paint to find that needed color. Drawers are acceptable vessels for the storage of paint but fail miserably on the retrievability scale.

In an attempt to rectify the problem, I have cobbled together my very own DIY paint rack from Elmers's Foamboard. If I had to do it over again I'd think through the design of the side panels a bit better, but other than that I'm happy with the result.

 

One thing I definitely wouldn't change is the material used. The foamboard turned out to be perfect for this application; sufficiently rigid, easily cut and glued together.

It appeals my cheap side too. The finished rack holds more paint than commercially available versions that cost three times as much.

Nifty Shades of Grey

Ever wonder what a yellow-grey cyclops would look like?...  Me neither. Regardless, I have completed Heresy's cyclops in that very color.

 

 

This is my first Heresy mini; a great sculpt with multiple head options (assembly details here). Apart from its reduced size, which I prefer, the sculpt hits all the appropriate Harryhausen notes: goat-legs, hooves, horn, three-fingered hands.

The yellow-grey part of the equation was inspired by James Wappel's Blog and some recent experience gained with the color yellow in its non-desaturated form. 

The mini was basecoated Army Painter Ash Grey mixed with a small amount of P3 Sulfuric Yellow. Highlights were added by progressively adding more Sulfuric Yellow to the mix followed by Reaper Linen White. Shading utilized Army Painter Uniform Grey mixed with decreasing amounts of Sulfuric Yellow and ultimately a little GW Naggaroth Night.

  

Some WIP pictures:

 

 

 

 

I intended the club to be simply bone colored and painted it accordingly. Adequate but somewhat bland I felt.  In the end, I livened things up with some blood splatter. (In this case some should be read as considerable.)

A side-by-side with Otherworld's medusa and some more pictures of the finished product:

 

 

Medusa Make-Up Tips.

Otherworld Miniatures' medusa is complete. I started with a straightforward human skintone as opposed to something more reptilian (i.e. green). At the same time, I tried to avoid making the face in any way attractive. To that end, I broke a general rule of painting female faces and shaded with a cool color (purple). The result is suitably harsh and hollow-cheeked

For comparison's sake, this dwarf wizard shows a more conventional approach. The area below the cheekbones has been glazed with a warm color (orange) to achieve a fuller, healthier appearance.

Returning to the medusa, I used Reaper Bloodless Skin to highlight the flesh, hit the lower lip with a nearly white highlight to make it look glossy, and painted the eyes with a blue OSL effect.

The basecoat on the dress is the same purple used to shade the flesh (GW Naggathroth Night) , while the red belt and sandals are highlighted with the color used to basecoat the flesh (Vallejo Beige Red).