54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) banner and base work

Started a new job this week so not much time/energy for other things.  I redid the eyes on the figure at least 3 times trying to get it right.  The first time the eyes were a bit small (i.e. too much white), second time too bug eyed, third time better with a couple of retries.  I need to go back and do some more eye practice.  Still need to put on the light spot (if I can) on the pupil.  Usually my hands aren’t steady enough for 54mm eyes.  Then he will be done I think.

I also finished off the loin cloth and add some more highlights using VMC Iraqi Sand and white.

Battle banner

I finished off the banner.  I changed the red ribbon (?) on the centre of the banner to yellow to add some more colour and so that it didn’t clash with the red of the shield.  I’m pretty much call it done.

Barren hillock

The base was painted and grass/etc was added.  It’s pretty barren and uniform so I decided to add in a fallen banner (i.e. a defeated opponents banner) to lay in the dirt at the foot of the hillock that the figure is on.  I made this out of green stuff by rolling it very thin and then shaping it in place on the base.  I put some cling wrap under the green stuff so it wouldn’t stick to the base while it dried.  With lots of water the thin green stuff is almost like tissue paper so you can shape it quite well, and once dry it hold the shape even though it is very thin.  Thinking about painting on the ‘two snakes, like this’ design on the banner :)

Fallen banner (undercoated)

I might need to add some green/colour (maybe flowers?) in addition once I’ve done the banner.  When everything is glued together I’ll do some pigment work on the the base/figure.

Dungeon Saga Zombie

Also started doing the next set of Dungeon Saga figures, some of the zombies.  A quick base coat of necrotic flesh and then brown flesh washes, nothing fancy.

54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) flesh work

I was on holidays this week and strangely had lots of time for painting in between all the house holiday jobs.  So not only was flesh painted but most of the figure was pretty much cracked and the banner and shield were also started.  I even got a base coat on the base and sneaked in three Dungeon Saga figures with some quickie dry brushing.

54mm Cimmerian King

First off I had to balance my painting stick as the figure has one leg stuck out.  Some old lead bases were taped onto the piece of dowel to counter balance him.  Also some white-tack secured the figure as he only has a single pin (in his rear).

My new flesh colour really paid off.  With just the base coat on the purples in the mixture meant that the shadow areas were already looking darker.  I followed the colours as described last week and it all went pretty well.  I did some near pure Violet Red and Dark Sea Blue glazes in parts to help out with the shadows and some VMC Flat Yellow glazes the top of the figure to try and warm him up a bit.

His hair has muscles

For the boots my base was VMC Leather Brown and VMA Yellow Ochre (really starting to like this colour) with a touch of VMC Violet Red and VMC Iraqi Sand added.  Highlights by adding more Yellow Ochre/Iraq Sand and shadows by adding more Violet Red.

The loin cloth is the second attempt (the first one was too close to the flesh colour).  This one is a mixture of VMC Red, VMC Leather Brown and Black.

The hair base coat was VMC Black/Brown with some extra black.  I only highlighted it using Yellow Ochre, a touch of red and Violet Red and some white.  I had to be very careful that it didn’t start going green because of the yellow mixing with the blue (in the black paint).  Very much a case of less is more.

The bracelets are VGC Tinny Tin and VMC Dark Sea blue, highlighted up with AP Plate Mail and VMA Aluminum.  Shadows by adding more Dark Sea Blue and black.

The banner is still a work in progress.  I need to do some more on the rusty metal and the yellow tassel as they are looking a bit dirty.  Most of the front of the banner will be hidden by the shield.

Chipping fluid attempt number one

With the shield, I am trying out using chipping fluid for the first time.  Getting some nice results but my colours are all off.  I first added too much rust (as per the picture), then tried yellow, that went ugly and I ended up stripping off all the paint and trying again.  Now I’m back to the red without the rust.

Dungeon Saga ghosts

Between bits I dry brushed up the three ghosts for Dungeon Saga.  Quickie bake painting style.

This week I’m back to work so progress will slow again.  Need to finish up the banner and shield if I can.  Maybe some base work but I think I will leave the figure alone.  Need to come back to it with fresh eyes.

84 Leds of pure light love

Lastly Christmas came a bit early and got me a Daylight Task Lamp XL from mektronics.  It was on special and I’ve been wanting one for awhile.  It is lovely.

New flesh, bases and finishing Dungeon Saga figure

A page of flesh mixture failures

I’m still not happy with any of the flesh colours I’ve managed to make so spent some time going back to a few 28mm test figures and trying out new flesh colours.  I want the figure to be very dark (he gets a lot of sun) and weathered.  So not the standard ruddy red/orange that you get from the usual flesh colours.  That said making a flesh colour is something I’m finding rather hard to do.  I keep ending up with these odd grey/purples with flat chalk highlights and overly crimson shadows.  Too much yellow and blues make things green.

In the end I’ve mixed up a colour that I think may work.  Even if it doesn’t I need to force myself forwards as I keep dithering and wasting time.  By this stage I wanted the figure well underway and I still haven’t started.  Seven weekends until Cancon so not sure if this figure is going to make it.

My current dark flesh attempt is..(which ends up light a lighter VMC Brown Sand).

From many parents, a new paint is born

Base

VGC Beasty Brown
VMA Yellow Ochre
VMC Violet Red
VMC Iraqi sand
VMC Light sand
VMC Red

Shades

Base + more brown and violet red
VGC Dark Flesh
VMA Mahgony
VMC Dark Sea Blue

Highlights

Base + more yellow ochre and light sand
VMC Iraqi Sand
VMA White

I’m keeping the base light as its always easier to go darker.

The base is all undercoated.  I did the finish coat (in black) of the base and varnished it in satin varnish.  So it’s all ready to go.

Base all undercoated

I finished off the Dungeon Saga figure from last week.  Very happy with him/it.  I made a point of using a mix colour for all parts.  I used VMA Intermediate Blue in with most of the mixes do harmonize the colours.

Dungeon Saga character

Some of the colours used were

1 - VMA Intermediate Blue
2 - VMC Green Brown
3 - VMC German Med. Brown
4 - VMC Smoke

Skin - 1+2
Hard skin/bark - 3+1 (and some 2)
Cloak - 1 + VGC Night Blue
Staff - Smoke + Black

This week - flesh must be painted.  Lets hope it doesn’t end in tears and paint stripper.

More base work and some Dungeon Saga

Base work looking better

Slacked off this week.  I cut down the resin rock and glued it (with pins) onto the base.  I then made some ground work with some DAS clay and then covered the clay in PVA glue and added my normal rock scatter mix (made up of sand, small pebbles and slightly large rocks).  Since the photo this has been undercoated in black.

Nothing but rock

Dungeon Saga figure

Since it’s been two plus weeks since painting anything I’ve lost the mojo on painting flesh.  However I need to get back on the horse so started on one of the Dungeon Saga characters I have.  A tree spirit/being so lots of good wood textures to play with.  It’s one of the best sculpts in the game I think.

So more of him/her/it tonight hopefully.

54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) base

Figure on rock base

The shed life continued this week but by Sunday morning I had finished the large outside bench (3.6m x 0.6m) attached to the back wall and also painted up and finished my new mobile shed bench.  Now finally back to painting (and making foam weapons for the kids).

On the figure I undercoated all the components.  I did a little presiding on the banner too.

Nope, just doesn't look right

With the rock that I want to use it is 7cm at its widest.  My normal wooden lounge leg that I use as a base is too small so I found I had a nice piece of 7x7cm pine in the shed (no idea what it was originally purchased for).  So I cut a 5cm long chunk and tried that out as a base.  The wood looks fine, but the rock (in order to fit) is off centre, and thus the figure is off centre.  Not what you want for a single figure.  After trying a few options I decided that perhaps a round base would be better.  Rather than find a large chair leg to cut down I tried to make one out of resin.

Mould and new base size

Finding a nice sized circle from the inside of a masking tape roll I then used the same tape roll as the resin mould.  I covered the inside with PVA glue and then hot glued the roll to some foam card.  In order to save resin I put a piece of wood at the bottom which was 2/3 the height of the base.  I also put some nails in the wood so the resin would have some good attachment points.

New base

The resin (I use Easycast brand) bubbled a bit probably because the PVA glue wasn’t fully dry.  Or I mixed it too long?  Either way I had a lot of little bubbles in the side of the base.  I sanded down the outside (starting at 180 grit and ending at 400) but as I sanded more bubbles would be exposed and result in pock marks.  To get a smooth finished I used wood putty (watered down so runny) and filled in all the small holes this way.  I finished off with more sanding switching to wet and dry and going up to 800 grit.

Wood bottom to save on resin

Next thing to do is trim down the rock a little to fit better.  But now the figure is in the centre of the base and having no straight edges means the hard edges of the rock are easier to work with.  On the square base I found that it was hard not to have one rock edge parallel with the base edge which doesn’t look very good.

Much better

54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) base work

Well the only painting this weekend was in the shed and so far I’ve gone through about 3.5L of exterior paint on some new benches.  But on the miniature side not so much.

I did however try some different base ideas out.  The ship idea with the figure sitting on some barrels was ok, but not great.  I also tried the figure sitting on top of some ruins/broken up columns, etc but that didn’t work either.  The columns resulting in to much of the overall composition being down at the bottom and made the figure look smaller.  That was no good as Conan should be larger than life.

The original tree has a very nice line that matches the figures outstretched leg.  Ie the leg and the top of the tree make one long diagonal for a nice composition.  All those painting and diorama books have sunk in a bit so I’m thinking more about composition than I use to.

A new base

I then tried the figure on top of my resin rock as it has a nice long slope that would draw the viewers eye up to the figure.  Also with the figure on top of the rock the two slopes of the rock result in the head of the figure forming a triangle.  Again another good composition shape.

My resin rock needed some bulk cut out so I used the Dremel for that and then sanding down the area to make it smooth again.  I pinned the figure in the bum to secure it to the rock.

At this point, I was still at a simple figure, no diorama.  However I couldn’t help myself and decided the figure needed a banner in the background.  Kind of a captured flag/war trophy.

Banner and shield.

I had a bag of 28mm banners and this was the largest so it fitted quite well for a 54mm figure.  I had to cut off a few heads as the were out of scale for 54mm.  The shield is off the original tree base.  I just cut off the shield and hollowed out the back.  Again I will pin this to the rock.

So a new setup and I think I like it.  Once the shed life settles down back to painting.

54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) by Andrea Miniatures

Well the flesh trials from last week went ok so I’m going to try the 54mm Conan figures I got a few months ago.  My new flesh recipe uses..

* VGC Leather Brown
* VMC Red
* VMC Light Orange
* VGC Dead White
* VMC Voilet Red
* VMC Flat Yellow
* VMC Yellow Ochre

The last thing I want to try out on the test figure is some tattoos.  Never done that before so need to work out how to make tattoos instead of just painted on skin.

Yeah, not going to be able to paint it this well...

On the Conan figure there is nothing but flesh, hair, undies and boots.  The figure comes with a nice tree for Conan to sit on too so hopefully the base work will be minimal (read - not spend months on diorama base work).  However I am thinking of transposing him from the forest to a ship deck (maybe sitting on a barrel).

Pins for everyone

The figure is made up of 5 parts and the sword, with the base being in two parts.  So lots of drilling and pinning.  I pin every part on metal figures as I’m paranoid that something will break off over time.  After quite a few hours I’m really wishing for a resin figure again.  So much easier to work with.

The base

For the pins I just use cut up paper clips.  Nice and cheap and a 3-5mm paper clip rod isn’t going to bend at all.  For glue I use the cheapest two part epoxy glue I can find.  Save the Araldite for where it matters.

Not looking too happy, probably because he has no arms

So more pinning and gluing coming up and should be ready for some paint by the weekend.

New flesh, mermaids and Dungeon Saga

Dungeon Saga Skeleton - quick and dirty

A bit of an easy week this time.  I finished off three Dungeon saga skeletons in the quick dirty method.  I even used dry brushing.  If felt so wrong.  Next figures to do may be some adventurers or more undead.  Happy to just putt along on these.

After doing the Amy Johnson bust I was fully sold on trying to do my own flesh colours.  Bubblegum pink premixed flesh isn’t really flesh like.  So I spent a few hours try some various colour recipes.  Sometimes I just end up in pink land, other times in mushroom grey.  Once I have something better I will probably make up a batch and store in a spare empty bottle for later.  I found an older 28mm figure and did some early tests.

New flesh trials

Test figure - Pale flesh

I spent a lot of the weekend making things with the kids.  I started on a new cosplay sword in an effort to up my foam crafting skills.  For my son I made a small wooden car (which he then painted) and with my daughter I did some work on her mermaid diorama that she wants to do for Cancon.  I’ve made a wooden base and we glued on a sponge (for coral) to it.  I had previously modified a 75mm figure to be a mermaid (by chopping off her feet and bending the legs) and today I mixed up some green stuff/milliput for my daughter to start making the tail.  This will take awhile but hopefully we will get there before January.

75mm Mermaid underway - peg for scale

Next week will probably be more flesh trials.  I have a 54mm barbarian (aka Conan) figure which I’m thinking about doing but want to get better doing flesh first.  I also have my original 54mm Pegaso crusader knight (the first 54mm figure I got) that I’m also thinking of doing.  If I pull the figure out I may have another figure ready for Cancon.

Amy Johnson bust part 4 and Dungeon Saga

So a bit of fiddling this week on the Amy Johnson bust.  I did some experiments on trying to do some sky reflection painting (i.e. where the sky is reflected in glass) and they went ok.  Not great but I decided to try this out on the googles.

Googles underway

I used VMC Light Turquoise as the base of the sky reflection and shaded down with VMC Dark Sea Blue and up with white.  Kind of got the look but not that well.  Might have another go later.  I also did a gloss varnish coat on the googles too.  I might do a few more and see how they look (perhaps with glazes between coats).  The rim of the goggles were painted in metallic colours (AP Plate mail and VMA Aluminium) and the washed down with VMC Smoke.

Pretty close to done

I shaded down the bottom of the bust a bit more and did various touch ups around the place.  Nothing major, just fiddling really :)

Base ready

The base is ready too.  A pine block stained a red/brown with the usual green felt glued onto the bottom.

Finally I glued in her head and redid the black on the back of the figure and I’m close to calling her done. Maybe have another go on the google and then glue her onto the base.

Skeletons!

While waiting for glazes to dry I started on the base coats of a few more Dungeon Saga skeletons.  My plan is to just keep knocking off these figures a few at a time in between other projects.

Amy Johnson bust part 3

I got another few good nights in painting this week so some good progress was made.

Amy Johnson bust

I started on the leather jacket after my trials on a test figure last week.  Although I started with a colour plan in the end I kept changing and adjusting mixtures and adding in new glazes constantly.  The first plan was

* VMC German Pale Brown (1/2)
* VMC Dark Fleshtone (1/8)
* VMC Medium Fleshtone (1/8)
* VMC Iraqi Sand (1/8)
* VGC Dead White (1/8 or less)

These were the base colours.  Highlighting up I added more Iraqi Sand, white and VMC Light yellow.  Things got chalky, so I added in more glazes of the original base.  I also used the old Citadel Brown/Purple/Black inks as glazes. Brown ink all over a few times, purple and black in the shadows.  VMC Dark Sea Blue was also used for the shadows.  I went back and forth at least four times going too far in the highlights, trying to reglaze to bring things back, add more shadows, etc.  Finally it started to come together.  I still have trouble doing light highlights without things going chalk like.  Although you can’t see any of the inks, they did make a difference.  However my old inks are near gone (some being 10 years old) so I’m going to have to find a new supply.

As a final touch the jacket I added a number of random colour spots (some darker, some lighter) all over the jacket.  These were very thinned down to make almost little stains.  This was to give the jacket some more texture and make it look more lived in.

After the jacket the fur looked much too cool in colour so I did a number of glazes in yellow and tan to try and ‘warm’ up the fur.  I think I need to go back and get some of the highlights back.

Next was the flying cap (tis was a good week of painting!).  More brown so I had to make sure it was a different brown.  I also needed to make the wear points much lighter than the base colour and have them on the fold/scrunch areas.  Luckily I still have my grandfathers flying cap so could check that out for reference.  Either the cap shrunk or he had a very small head as it doesn’t fit on me at all.

Colours for the cap were

* VGC Charred Brown (1/2 base)
* VGC Leather Brown (not the VMC Leather brown) (1/2 base)
* AP Black (shadows)
* VMC Dark sea blue (shadows)
* VMC Iraqi Sand (highlight)
* VMA White (highlight)
* Citadel Brown Ink - wash
* Citadel Purple Ink - wash
* VGC Khaki - goggle strap
* VGC Parasite Brown - goggle fur

The Charred Brown is too cold so the Leather Brown mixed in and gave a base colour that matched the jacket in colour temperature.  Again the brown ink was used as a wash a few times to add some depth to the material.  I went too far again with the highlights so had to redo the edges of the highlights (there were too harsh) and soften them down.  I used the purple ink to colour the creases of the top of the cap.

On the strap of the goggles I did a number of vertical lines in a lighter colour and then white to try and show that the strap was a type of elastic type material that was bunched up.  I also added some much darker lines to add to this.

The goggle fur was heavily washed down with charred brown and black and highlighted up by adding in white to the parasite brown.

I haven’t done the lens of the goggles yet.  Need to work out if I’m going to try the light blue (i.e. sky) look with a light spot that seems popular in 28mm or go for the layers of transparent colours and vanish technique that seems to be used in larger scale figures.  So some experiments first.  The goggle lens are quite recessed so there is plenty of depth to play with if I go for the layers technique.

Lastly I did some more fiddling on the face and changed the eyebrows a little (making them more sculpted and tried to add the light dots to the eyes.  One was good, the other so so.  Had to stop today as my eyes were just fuzzing out and couldn’t do it any more.  Also I did the lips.

Amy Johnson bust part 2

So this week was all about Amy.  I first redid her eyes.  I had tried for a hazel (ish) colour and that hadn’t worked out.  So I repainted them in a light blue (old Citadel Lothern Blue).  However I kept missing on the left eye and messing it up.  The resulted in a very lumpy looking eye.  In the end I scraped off the paint back to the resin and started from scratch.  That worked a bit better.  Still not as good as the other eye which I just fluked.

New eyes

For her flesh colour I’m trying a mix of

* VMC Violet Red
* VMC Beige Red
* VMC Flat Red
* VMC Light flesh (the main base colour)
* VMC Light Yellow
* VGC Dead White

Lots of glazes, lots of layers.  Seems to be working out so far, but she may still be a bit too pink.  I’m leaving the face for awhile now until the rest of the figure is done so I can tone her face in with the rest.  Keeping the glazes very diluted and trying not to rush and make any colour steps that are too much.

Fur collor

For the fur collar I wanted a dark brown.  This will also make the much lighter face pop some more.  My colours for this were

* VMC German Black/brown - base
* VMC Leather Brown - base
* VMC German Pale Brown - highlight
* VMC Brown Sand - highlight
* VGC Dead White - highlight
* VMC Dark Sea Blue - shadow
* AP Black - shadow

The base colour was a mix of 2/3 German Black brown, 1/3 Leather Brown. Rather than painting totally over the highlight areas instead I selectively highlighted on the tops of the fur ridges multiple times.  This layering gives extra bulk and texture I find.  The shadows were more of glazes under the folds with the most extreme highlights on the tops of the folds.  Also around the face area at the front of the fur I took the highlights to the highest to be closer to the lightness of the face and also to draw the eye more to the face.

Leather jacket trial on the right

Lastly I started doing some trials on the leather jacket.  I think for this scale I need to have some real sheen to the leather.  So I’m experimenting with my old Citadel Inks (Brown, Black, Violet - in the hexagon bottles).  These haven’t seen daylight for a number of years but are still usable.  The ink dries very glossy to satin.  On a test figure I did some experiments and am starting to get the look I’m after.  I found trying to highlight after the base coat doesn’t work so well.  Instead I found pre highlighting the figure and then applying the inks worked better.  The highlights are better and smoother.  Again pre-shading working well.

So on the real figure I’ll start with a very light base coat, highlight it up to near white as appropriate and then start the ink washes.  The violet ink also worked quite well in the shadows.  All the inks are being applied diluted as straight out of the bottle they are way too intense and glossy.