Banner for the Banner God

Occasionally I do things that make me sit back and wonder when I developed the skills to do certain things. That's the fun of continually pushing yourself and trying new things every.chance you get. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes.

If you told me last year, I'd be good enough to paint in par with the 'Eavy Metal team over at GW, I'd have said you were crazy. But I really feel like my guys are at least the quality you see on the boxes and you really can't ask for much more without better tools (like, say, an airbrush) and more time and money than I can currently devote to the hobby.

This particular mini, I did for my friend Erik. The Khorne icon on the banner is freehand. Layering up browns into yellows to create the illusion of gold is challenging, and rewarding. First, paint the entire outline, inside and out, with your darkest brown. I use Rhinox Hide. Next, skip over to a light dustier brown (I used Baneblade Brown for this) leaving just enough of the really dark parts where you want the object to have shadows. Freehanding is actual art, unlike most skills actually utilized in painting miniatures. Those shadows you have to create yourself. No wash to bail you out now.

Next, use a brown that has some orange to it. I utilized Tau Light Ochre for this, and now you have to really pay attention to what you want to be pure shadow or not. At this point, you can jump into the yellow shades and apply upward like normal (Averland Sunset -> Yriel Yellow -> Flash Gitz Yellow), with a final highlight of white along the edges you want to look like they are glinting, as well as in corners and behind edges that are super dark to create a backlit effect. The first time I tried doing this technique, I didn't realize how important that white behind the darker parts was in creating a full metallic effect. If you ever try this out yourself, just give it a shot and hopefully you'll see for yourself.

The abominable snowman (who is actually a snow man)

Next stage of project Christmas 2013 is complete. My friend Roger has been collecting miniatures for years and years and years, so he has this hodgepodge of weird, random, unfinished and unpainted stuff. This was one of said miniatures.

Its actually Christmas themed so I think I sort of kind of really majorly love it.

Also: blame the slight yellowish tinge on my light and the fact its on a background more pure white than it. It is not that way at all in person, I promise.

Drazhar, the Fallen Phoenix Lord

So, next Christmas gift painting all done. Well. 95% done. I still have to do the base but like with a few of my previous models done for friends, I haven't discussed all the details yet. Last guy I did for this particular friend, he still didn't know how he wanted to base his army so I left this blank for now.

The lore for this guy is pretty cool. He just showed up one day in the dark Eldar world and just killed a bunch of dudes, then killed a really important dude, and simply bowed to the audience as they made him leader of the Incubi, which are elite warrior type dudes. Fun fact: he never said a word. Think the creepy clockwork dude from the first Hellboy.

Rumors persist he's the original Phoenix Lord for the Eldar Striking Scorpions aspect warriors. Gameplay suggests it as he functions very similarly to the current striking scorpion lord. Same stat line, same end goal of how you'd run him on the table. Good guys who break bad are always the best.

Christmas Gifts!

Welp, looks like I got my first miniature done as a Christmas gift done up quickly. I worked on it a lot last night, so that's why. Make sure you go read my previous post before this one, seeing as I published it like two hours ago or something. Productivity comes in waves, I swear.

This guy was a blast to kit bash. Zack and I spent maybe 30 to 45 minutes just rummaging through parts to come up with the idea for this guy, which is to say captain of his 8th company. He is going with a pre-heresy Emperor's Children color scheme, and is saying its a faction of that chapter who remained loyal, and is therefore Codex Astartes compliant. (If you are reading this and lost, don't worry. This is legit nerd stuff.)

Their symbol was a wing that ended in a claw. I realized awhile ago many symbols on my Ravenwing guys were essentially that because whenever they had the eagle wing on something not holding the sword that usually part of the symbol, it ended up looking like exactly that. We took the helmet out of the Ravenwing Command Squad box and you'll notice its the same as the one my champion is wearing from a few posts prior.

The claw and hammer set up was Zack's idea as he just liked the weapon combination. Its pretty nasty on the table top because it turns him into an all-comers close combat warrior. Its also extremely costly points wise, but hey cool captains are more important to imagine than to actually run. We searched high and low in his Vanguard Veterans box and grey knights kits to find the rest of the gear, I believe. His right shoulder was out of the Sternguard Veterans box, and we're not even sure where the Mk6 studded shoulder on the other side came from as it was half painted already when we put it on. Basically, anything with an Aquila or that looked like it'd be pretty in gold, we put on him. The emperor's children turned to chaos out of their own pride so making sure his captains are really coordinates and gaudy was important.

For the base, I thought it'd look cool if he was at the highest point on an outcropping of rock, as if he was about to leap. It looks great, but I fear it wont last. The cork board I use for rock looks great, but is really flimsy so there is a good chance it breaks some day. Plus, posing him this way made the model extremely top heavy so I had to glue two washers to the bottom for weight instead of my usual just one.

Still, I think the end result speaks for itself. The only thing I want to add is his name on the scroll on his right shoulder and something else on the white part on his right leg, but my thinnest brush is not holding a point very well anymore and I also need to talk with Zack about what we're going to name him.

Next up: Drazhar, Dark Eldar inccubi bad-ass.

Ravenwing Apothecary

All my command squad specific black knights are officially done! Yay!

I tell you what, I never want to paint up an entire dude in white like this ever again, ever. Getting it smooth was extremely time consuming and one of the most challenging things I've done as an artist so far.

First issue is I primed him black. That's not a BAD thing to do for the model because the majority of the bike is black, and I've primed all the other bikers black so golds, reds, and whatever other color will go along better with his other squadies when its all said and done. However it means doing large areas of white were going to suck. I had to layer upon layer of my white grey (Celestra Grey in the citadel line) just to make the white base smooth. Then came the black wash, which is pretty standard.

Then came layer upon layer of thinned out off-white Ulthuan Grey. Its the majority of what you see and most people associate it as simply "white" but the reason I do not is because pure white is a totally different thing. I had to use the pure white to edge to make his detail pop.

It was extremely time consuming. But ultimately worth it as the eend result speaks for itself.

Lastly, we've got his tubes of liquids. Making them seem like glass was a challenge. I'd done a few glass like tubes before and they were alright but I wanted a more complete effect. I had to repaint all of the ttubes solid black, as paint from edging the whites and reds close by had spilled. Then I simply watered down the color I wanted in the tubes and built up to lighter shades as normal. I left anywhere between 10 to 75% of the tubes black still, to give the illusion not all his tubes were full. Then, leaving a thin black line in between, I used my two brightest blues, same color I do for painting energy on weapons. (Teclis and Lothern by name).

Then, using Lothern blue, I made as small a streak down the tubes as possible, from the glassy looking blues directly into the colored part. Follows that up with an even thinner streak of white, and Viola, glass with streams of light down the sides. On the larger tubes on his backpack, I made two such streaks per tube trying to make one shorter than the other. My friend Roger who is easily the best painter alongside myself at our local hobby center loved it more than any other part of the model so I must have done something right.
Enjoy! Til next time, me amigos. Expect lots of non-space marines and just random minis in the coming weeks. I don't have much to give but my time and talents for my friends this year so I am doing a miniature apiece for all of them, starting with that sniper from last post. I have made a lot of friends this year so I knew I needed to start soon! Thanks for the support, everyone.

 

It reads "Vitae Mortis" which is latin for "Life" and "Death" respectively.

Elves, in space!

Did this guy for a friend who lost his job. I wanted to cheer him up. He's partially lucky he just happens to be running the army I wish I was, but also he's a good dude anyway.

The base was fun. Its funny how my favorite parts of the model go unnoticed. I blended my most desaturated brown with grey to do the vines on the ruins he's standing on to make them look brittle and dead. I suppose the fact everyone is too busy looking at the camp cloak means I must have done that part right.

Technology works?

No it doesn't. I lied.

Productivity!

I guess after how awesome my Ultramarine came out, I feel reinvigorated to just paint things so I started working on my backlog. Here is the standard bearer for my biker squadron, and an evil wizard guy.

The biker's flag I finished well over a month ago, but I never got around to actually painting any of my black knights, as the unit is called. Shame really, because are my favorites. 5 more to go!

The wizard was a mini I picked up awhile ago, back when Game Haven picked up a box of plastic Reaper minis. I had been meaning to join a DnD campaign but real life got in the way and so too did painting up this guy. Glad I got him done now because he's very fun and swell to be around.

 

Space Marine painting competition - Entry Final

Welp, here is it. Finished product. Going to take it down to the hobby store tomorrow to get it officially entered into our little painting competition.

Leave comments! Tell me what you think. Ask questions! Let's get some some interaction going here.