Christmas, New year, 54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan) done and some Dungeon Saga

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year.  I had a week off but that was for the kids (and shopping) so not much getting done there compared to the previous week off when I did all the work on Conan.

54mm Cimmerian King (aka Conan)

So first up I finished off my 54mm Cimmerian King figure by Andrea.  The last bit was fiddling on the base.  Everything was glued down with two part epoxy or PVA glue for the lighter items.  I added in a blood spattered dirk and broken spear to the base and made a banner from green stuff.

Best flesh I have ever done

The banner was done by rolling out very thin green stuff and then crumpling it into the desired shape and letting it dry.  Once dry I painted in a light purple to add some colour to the base (otherwise a very dull brown) and to catch the eye.  Finally I touched up the black edging and called him done.

Dungeon Saga Salamander

For a break between big jobs I did another Dungeon Saga hero figure, the fire breathing Salamander.  I tried out some Jo Sonja’s paints for the first time (they were cheap during a boxing day sale).  Very nice colours and they cover quite well.  However when they say matte paint, they really mean it.  I tried a bright orange for the skin and it was very orange, and the flattest finish I have seen.  More so than matt varnish.  So when other people have mentioned that the Vallejo paints are slightly satin in finish, I now see what they mean.  Like many things related to painting, it’s all relative.

Dungeon Saga zombie

Finished off three zombies from Dungeon Saga in the quick and dirty method.  Shouldn’t have gone with a brown for the pants and it blends too much.  Never mind, these guys die off pretty quick :)

1/35 Tamiya German 37mm AT crew

Next up in the “in between figures” will be another 1/35 German from the Tamiya 37mm AT gun set.  Really need to have a go at more 1/35 WW2 figures but just not enough time.  2017 will be the year of the Tamiya tank diorama (which I’m sure I will curse like the Violinist) I think.

500 pages!!

On Christmas Eve I found out that The Combat Company (just down the road from me) had the new FAQ Dioramas from AK in stock.  500 pages of diorama love :)  Always best to buy the Xmas presents you want.

Halo Fleet battles bust

Finally also at The Combat Company they had the “2016 Halo Fleet Battles Tournament” box on sale.  So for under $20 I picked up the set as it had two 1/10 (?) size busts in it (as prizes I assume).  I’ve assembled both and prepared them by undercoating them black and then doing white highlights to suggest shadow placements.  I’ll probably do the human figure first.

Halo Fleet battles bust

Four weeks to Cancon and I’ll probably take the Cimmerian King, the Amy Johnson bust and the Violinist diorama down to enter in the painting competition.  I was going to take the old Ral Partha (mini) Death Dealer but I don’t think he is up to scratch.  I love the figure but the others I’ve done more recently are better.  Maybe I’ll be able to do the 75mm version for next year.

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.

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.