Sunday, September 28, 2014

More Vikings than you can shake an Amon Amarth at...


Or in this case two. Granted, I have about 30 in my unpainted pile and the bulk of them are from Wargames Factory, but that's still quite a bit.

Right now the one I'm focused on is the handsome fellow in the middle. All he really needs is his fleshtone, woodgrain, and final metal bits painted and he's done. The part you don't see that I have to finish is his shield (which I still need to primer). He is pretty close to being done...I'd call it 80%. Might need to do some minor bits of black lining around the armor areas...maybe add some final highlights to his trousers. Still should be able to wrap him up by Tuesday evening if all goes well.

Other two are guys that happened to be on the table when I had some extra blue on my palette. The Huscarl on the left is #3 of the six I'm currently working on. The last three still need to be prepped as they are still just bare metal superglued to a fender washer. But those four remaining Huscarls are my goal for November. 

The six were originally bought to be used as Norse Raiders for Mordheim. I had also picked up a couple of other models that were similar style and scale for use as Berserkers and even a werebear. I've toyed with doing a Warhammer Ancients or Saga army with them, but now they are pretty much just part of the collection. Luckily, since I based them the same as my D&D models...I could absorb them into that collection as some sort of Norse themed band of brigands.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

"We are the guardians of Asgard..."


Started on the three of these on Sunday with the intent of painting all three simultaneously in an effort to speed up my painting. Didn't go so well as my workflow doesn't really lend itself to that sort of paiting. So once I finish up these fellas, I'm going to find some models that have similar color schemes and try to paint multiples again. 

I did manage to basecoat all their bases and drybrush the chainmail at the same time... so I got that going for me. Once that was done and I figured out that green/tan have nothing in common with blue/red or blue/brown, I decided to focuse on the green/tan viking. I really should be tired of green and khaki/tan after the Zombicide Fatty, but apparently not.

Colors used for viking dude thus far:
  • Tunic - GW Loren Green (or Gnarloc Green if you still have Foundation Paints like I do).
  • Chainmail - Vallejo Natural Steel with glazes of P3 Armor Wash and AP Strong Shade ink.
  • Pants - Vallejo Khaki and shaded with AP Strong Shade ink.
  • Leather, Axe, and Base Edge - Ceramcoat Autumn Brown. For the edge of the base, I mixed in a little Future Floor Polish to give it a smooth finish as that stuff is self leveling.
  • Flesh - My own mix of Ceramcoat Medium Flesh, Ceramcoat Charcoal, Ceramcoat Autumn Brown, and a touch of Testor's Model Master Skin Ton Warm Tint.
  • Beard and Hair - Ceramcoat Antique Gold mixed with a little Ceramcoat Charcoal. It was built up by adding Ceramcoat Sandstone.
As always, the style I'm using for these models is a hybrid of Classic GW and Foundry styles It's a very simple "graphic" style of painting, but looks really good when models are in large groups.

Still don't know if I'm going to finish out all three before moving onto a new project. I had thought of attempting painting two space orks at the same time (as all of those pretty much have the same color scheme). I've been really wanting to paint up my Ork Mob in the style of Boss Grimskull's Waagh! from the Space Marine video game. Also thinking of working in some WWII color motif's like Cyril Abati does (that dude is amazing).

Monday, September 22, 2014

Photo Experiment....

In olden times, I'd have taken the shot against a white background and inserted the blue gradient and futzed with the levels to get the colors on screen to match the actual colors.However, if you do that now the d-bags on certain sites accuse you of "shopping" (and god forbid you use metallics...which is apparently "easy mode" now).

So, this is my Fatty on my good old standby background...a gray pillow case. Yes, probably should iron it next time.


If this format looks familiar, this is how I used to shoot everything back in 2008 and 2009. Then I got obsessed with the whole "catalog" presentation thing again. All I did on this piece is lighten it so the colors match up the actual model and put together the collage.



Someone break my hands before I pick up a camera again...


Yay...another photo with terrible lighting. I guess I should be happy it's in focus at least. Just a snapshot of the two most recent completions and the In Progress Huscarl. Looking at the photo, I can see he needs some work on his tunic as the shading isn't really coming through (not even going to talk about how dark his chainmail is...I hate painting chainmail).


Friday, September 12, 2014

Before the filth and gore...

Apparently I am still on a streak of awful photography. Wish my phone had a tripod mount on it. Maybe I should just break down and replace the batteries in the real camera. Yeah, probably.

This is the first Fatty out of my Zombicide box set. As you can see, I am completely ignoring the suggested color schemes and going for more realistic color pairings. As there are four Fatties, I will be going with Khaki (as seen here), Blue, Red, and Medium Gray. As they are all insulated coveralls, I'm still pondering what the inner liner colors will be.

The fleshtone is the same zombie color scheme I've been using for a few years now. It's based on the Reaper Bloodless Flesh Triad...although I used Vallejo Undead Flesh this time out as a change up. It's shaded by a wash of Agragax Earthshade and Lich Purple...that way you get filthy and bruise coloration in the recesses. I figured this works more for a Biohazard styled zombie outbreak than a supernatural one.

This is the stage before I start adding all the funky effects...eye glow...gore...extra dirt. For that stuff I start out neat and then get sloppier as I go on. I will be trying out Blood for the Blood God on this one...so wish me luck.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

"There was no sickle...but there definitely was a hammer..."

First Soviet Rifleman finished...although not entirely historically accurate. I had to take some liberties with the colors as their uniforms were sooooo drab. And sweet jesus this photo is horrible... I have got to set a side a weekend for photography (and use my new backdrop).

As you can see, I used my "historical" style on him... which is just a fancy way to say layering. It's very evident on his tunic although I did a little blending on his pants (and even on his helmet). While I don't think he looks particularly awesome on his own, when he is joined by the other 19 guys in his squad they will look great.

And sorry again about that photo. 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Historically Delicious...

Over the holiday weekend, I had but one goal...to paint the Vor Neo Sov Mutant Handler guy (also known as Russian Guyovich). But as my two weeks of "stuff turning to crap" continued well into Saturday...I decided to change gears. I looked at Russian Guyovich closely and decided to cut that turd loose and work on something else. 

So, I decided to pull out the historicals again as at least I always manage to get something decent looking from those. I opted to start things off with a WW2 Soviet Rifleman and a WW2 German with a Panzerfaust & SMG. Both are from Black Tree Design (I think) and are actually pretty nice for the price. I think you end up paying about $2.25 per model (but Black Tree runs specials all the time so you can pick them up for a lot cheaper). True, now you can get some really nice Bolt Action stuff from Warlord...but when I picked these guys up back in 2003, your choices were Westwind, Battle Honors, or Easy Eight. Personally,  I like the Black Tree Russians more than the Warlord ones...not as frail and I'm not spending a ton of time assembling them.

As you can see, I've only started on the Russian guy. I've opted to use Citadel Gretchin Green mixed with a dab of Loren Green to paint the uniform. I used straight Gretchin Green for the tunic (it's worn over his blouse and I wanted to have a little contrast). His helmet is Russian Green from Vallejo and his web gear (or "belts") is Ceramcoat Autumn Brown with a little black mixed in. I've opted to base him on a 1 inch metal washer... which is my usual SOP for historical models. I had thought about putting him on a slotta base, but it just didn't seem right.

Thus far, really happy with him. Colors are nice and warm...yet not overly saturated. I've opted to go with my historical painting style rather than the style I use for models from Reaper or Games Workshop. Not really the kind of model where a lot of blending and glazing works out too well. However, I have been slipping in a few glazes here and there and some extreme highlighting on the highest points of the clothing. 

Now I'm off to feed the dogs as Bruno is yowling from downstairs.