NMM trials and Wood elf bases

Firstly apologies for the picture quality, just didn’t have the right lighting at all today.

For the end of last week and this week I have been trialling Non Metallic Metal (NMM) on an old Ral Partha Ravenloft figure (from set 11-111 “Lords of Ravenloft”).  He had a nice large metal breastplate and sword with minimal details which made for an excellent trial piece.  I’ve never tried NMM before so as a painting exercise off I went.

My first trial was to use a mid grey (VGC Cold grey 72.050) then darken with a darker grey (VMC Black/grey 70.862) and highlight up with a lighter grey (VGC Stonewall grey (72.049).  At the end I had a very nicely shaded grey breastplate.  But it didn’t look like armour.

On the second trial (and after some more web research) I went of a base with more blue in it (Cold Grey mixed with VGC Night Blue 72.019 and black) as that seemed to be a common technique.  Also I used just black for the shading and white for the highlighting.  This worked much better and I was starting to see a much more armour look at the end.  The sword worked better but that was more due to the narrower space which worked well with the highlighting.  I probably could have gone up a few more levels on the highlight.

Another technique that I practised was trying to get my glazes working.  I wasn’t until recently that I got the difference between a wash (flood the area with watered down paint so some pigments ends up in the cracks) and a glaze (paint on watered down paint so that when it dries the whole area has a tiny amount of the glaze colour).  It was also a experience thing to get my eye into recognising when the paint was at the correct consistency.

So for the other areas of the figure after the usual base colour, shade/highlighting was done I then did a glaze of the base colour over the entire area.  This resulted in the visible layer difference (i.e. between one colour and the next) dropping quite dramatically.  Or to put another way it go much hard to see the different shade/highlight colours.  Everything just started to blend.  Definitely one of those “so that’s how it’s meant to happen” moments.  Now I just have to get good at it.

Also I finished off the bases for the wood elves.  Although I have another 20+ to paint they will probably go on hold as I keep trying to skill up to do one of the 54mm figures I have.

LotR Wood Elves wip

I have a lot of Lord of the Rings (LotR) figures from Games Workshop, almost 350 on last count.  Among the last to be painted is the plastic set of 24 wood elves (not the new Hobbit versions).  They have been undercoated for some time as I wasn’t really sure I wanted to paint them.  I impulse purchased them, then put them on the back list and did the LotR dwarves instead and then stopped painting LotR figures as I wasn’t playing the game that much.  Then I considered selling them.  Not much love there to be honest.

The sculpts have that unfortunate blending of detail that some of the single piece GW figures have.  Ie a cloak becomes a leg without any clean separation in the mould.  This put me off them a bit.  Long enough for the Hobbit movies to come and and so I waited to see what the Hobbit version of the wood elves would be like.  They are ok, but with half (only 12) the figures and prices at $50+ it was back to the old ones.  The last of the LotR forces…

I wanted to go for an autumn colour scheme so I spent some time getting a combination of greens/tans/yellow/oranges to go together.  In the end my colour palate was

VMC Flat Yellow (70.953)
VGC Orange Fire (72.008)
VGC Charred Brown (72.045)
VMC Goldenbrown (70.877)
VPA Shadows Flesh (70.343)
VGC Dark Green (72.028)

The Goldenbrown and Shadows Flesh were the primary colours, Dark Green and Charred Brown the secondary and the Orange Fire/Flat yellow tertiary.  For the flesh my base was VGC Dark Flesh (70.927).

Again I’m attempting the zenithal painting technique and spending a lot more time on the blending.  These figures are the first two trials.  I’m thinking of replacing the Dark Green and it pops out a bit much.  Then again that does add a bit of contrast to the flatness of the other colours.  Also I had the most trouble with the shading on this green.  Out of the pot the paint is quite thin.  Next time I’ll try some underpainting to bulk up the colour.

The faces are really small I’m finding.  Maybe my eyes are getting old.  Lots of deep breaths and occasional harsh language was needed for painting the eyes.

I’m happy in the most with the result so far.  However quick this process is not.  The cloak alone I almost spent an hour on (I hope later figures will be a bit quicker).  Normally I would take 1.5 hours for an entire figure.  But these two figures do look a lot better than my usual army standard.

Eureka Miniatures miking set

Late in 2013 I won the up coming “Milking Set” from Eureka miniatures.  This diorama set consists of a cow being milked, a woman milking the cow, a woman carrying two buckets and a boy churning.  Simple figures very much designed to be added as background to any wargaming table.  Which is exactly what I intend to do.  The figures will be put on a oval base with some ground cover, etc to add flavour to the table.

Base laid out

Once this set got out of the lead pile and onto the painting table it’s been an in-between  project.  So progress has been rather slow.  Also I have been trying to do a bit better on the shading and glazing so these have been trial pieces for that.

Milking time

For the cow I went for the Brown Swiss variety.  Not 100% with the end result as I made the off white stripes a bit too uniform.  Also my white shading needs a lot of work.  The boy is my favourite figure as he looks suitably bored in his activities.  The woman carrying the milk buckets has a bit of an odd face.  The woman milking the cow is fine with a reasonably smooth face.

Dreaming of a better life?

As can been seen the figures are pretty much done and I have glued them onto the base and started the ground work.  I have to smooth the figures bases into the ground, paint the ground and then flock.  Hopefully some completed pictures coming later.

Peasants love brown

MOAB and Sy-Co conventions 2014

Once again I made the annual pilgrimage to MOAB and the Bring-and-Buy store.  I never get that much as I don’t play Warhammer or 40K which is probably 75% of the content.  However I’m always on the lookout for old Ral Partha figures, boardgames from the 1970’s that no one plays (but I have fond childhood memories of always wanting) and hopefully some special thing (like getting 30 back issues of WGI from Cancon on year at $2 each - yeah!).  So below is the swag from the Bring-and-Buy.

Academy German tank crew at $3

More 1/35 figures are always good practice, and this included 40 odd American and German jerry cans which someone had added to box - score!

Hail Caesar at $40

I managed to avoid collecting Fields of Glory (which I never would have played, just wanted a copy) but couldn’t resist Hail Caesar.  All those battle reports in WGI were definitely a factor.

Pegaso Models St John Order Knight at $40

This was the special item.  I’ve been wanting to get a large scale, good quality figure as part of my painting journey.  I keep looking at ordering one online (from Pegaso, Scale75, etc) but keep putting it off thinking I’m not ready, etc, etc.  However I was hoping that there would be something like this at MOAB this year and there was.  The god of lead dollies was kind to me this year.

I had to resist strongly a box of 28mm Warlord Romans at $20 and various Germanic war bard figures.  Still have that little voice telling me I need to have a large historic army (or two) before I die.  Buying Hail Caesar was an effort to get that voice to quiet down.  But 200 28mm Romans would look so good…

After enduring the smell of the Bring-and-Buy I made some retail purchases to get the swag bag up to size.

7 norman infantry (Conquest Games) at $9

I wanted a Norman war band for Saga but I’ve put that on hold for awhile.  However these two loose sprues (5 figure normal sprue and 2 figure command sprue) is enough to make up most of the 8 figure Flemish mercenary unit from Saga.

Vallejo air colour - basic colours at $50

16 air colour paints, what’s not to like

Vallejo Black surface primer at $19



That night I went out to The Combat Company for their Sy-Co convention and big kids night.  Had fun, played Zombicide, chatted about painting with Luke from The Sound of Machines, etc.  I went in the 20 minute speed painting contest which was great.  Wet on wet blending whether you like it or not.  Tried my hand at the dice rolling game but lucked out.  While there I picked up something from the specials bin.

Degra Miniatures - 54mm El Torres at $9.50

A really interest looking large scale figure which at that price was an easy purchase.  Another adventure into non 28mm scale figures.

So a good, long day in what is usually the second biggest figure shopping day for me after Cancon.  New rules, new paints and some great new figures.