Terminator Genisys and some terrain

So spent the first bit of the week tidying up the 3 eyed alien bust.  Nothing major, just some so touch ups and fiddling.  I seem to do this every time.

Terminator Genisys figure

Next was a couple of Terminator Genisys figures.  Tried going for the black/grey tactical look on these two.  I've decided painting grey is pretty dull.  Six human figures done, ten to go.  Really need to get through these so I can say they are done (bit of OCD there) and move onto all of the LoTR figures I have waiting...

Terminator Genisys figure

While in the shed painting up the new cosplay shield for the wife (putty and undercoat done, started the main colours) I went through my box of resin terrain and pulled out a piece to do.  This one was from Fernvale Scenics.  I just like to do terrain pieces every now and then.  Not really playing miniature games any more (other than Dungeon Saga with the kids) but I still like doing these.  I'm thinking a few more years and the kids will be ready :)

Paint work done

For the rocks on this piece I started with JS Raw Sienna and shaded up with Cadmium Mid Yellow and then Warm White.  I did this in as a mixture of layering and then some dry brushing to ease the transition between layers.  The shading was done by adding in some VMA Armour Brown.  A great brown/purple colour.

Sorry kids, no lunch boxes for you...

I then glued on various scatter to the base with PVA.  The key is to make it random which can be harder than it seems.  You mind naturally wants to do things in an ordered way.  I went for a darker scatter near the base of the rocks and a lighter scatter further out.  I label all my boxes of basing materials with the name from the packet.  This way I know exactly what I purchased, hence names like "Field Balk".

Scatter applied

Once the scatter was done I let it dry and then applied a very watered down layer of PVA over the top.  This bonds with the previous layer and makes the scatter rock solid.  No more scatter dandruff after the game.  Next will be adding some vertical variation with static grass and grass tufts/flock bundles.

This week will probably be shield work so hopefully will get that well underway.

3 eyed alien bust and a bridge

Got sick over the long weekend so didn't get up to much.  I spent most of my time making a costume shield for the wife.  Maybe more on that later when it's done.

54mm horse with a whole lot of putty

The first block of time was on the 54mm horse I'm thinking about using for the knight.  This horse needed a lot of work.  Putty and filing on the joins (the 2 halves and a head).  Also there were mould failures on the head and leg (ie areas where there was a large step) which needed to be filled.  Finally there was no tail provided so that had to be done from scratch.  Very much an old school figure.

For the tail first I glued in a paperclip and made up the rough bulk with milliput.  Then I used used a milliput/green stuff mix for the tail but after an hour the end result was terrible so I just scraped it all off.  The second attempt with just green stuff worked a lot better.

Bridge from Corsec Engineering

I found a $7 28mm bridge at my LGS from Corsec Engineering.  It's a mdf flat pack with two acrylic rods for the rails of the bridge.  Due to the curvature of the bridge I used my heat gun to soften the plastic rods and form it into the curve of the bridge.  Then I glued it together and used some wood filer on the gaps.  The bridge planks are made out of a single piece of thin plastic card which is quiet a good solution.

Finally I did some painting on the 3 eyed alien I purchased from eBay recently.  Seem to be suffering from painters block currently.  Want to do some pieces, but just can't get the brain into order.  Luckily things came together over the weekend and I got this piece going.

Paints used

As per the picture I had a pretty limited palette due to the limited number of features on the figure (skin, scars, eyes and some odd strap thing).  I really wanted to try yellow in a large piece.  After about an hour I was pretty close to dipping the figure in paint stripper.  The Cadmium Mid Yellow is very intense and was making it very hard to redo areas as they would end up too yellow compared to other areas already painted.  Everything was getting very patchy.  However I just kept painting and hoped to come out the other side.

Original colour scheme

Once I did the eyes the figure suddenly came together.  I found compared to my original paint trial I used a lot more purple in the shading.  Also I used some of the blue in the shading (to take things into a more green shade) later on to add some other colours.  I tried again to do more contrast with the light source from the top left.  The scars I did in a very dark brown/purple.

3 eyed alien

I'm not sure what the strap is.  It looks like a strap but just ends at the collar bone.  I used Armour Brown as the base for this.  The sculpt has the strap very cracked so I went with that.

I want to have another go on the right eye socket area as it doesn't quite match the left.  Also the back probably needs some more work.  Throughout I kept fighting the yellow as it was so intense.  I usually added some warm white and hexed lichen to tone it down and then in some cases used some yellow ink in a glaze to get the yellow back.  Yellow isn't something I paint with as a base usually :)  However I am happy with the result so far.

Stormcast Eternal vers 1 and prepping new figures

So a bit of a mixed bag over the last two weeks.

Stormcast Eternal

First up was finishing off the Stormcast Eternal I was working on.  I didn't get the bottom of the shield quite right but I'm pretty happy with the hammer and cloud effects around the top of the hammer.

Next was getting back to the ruined house I purchased for Terminator Genisys.  I airbrushed on the majority of the colours.  After I had all the base colours done I then did a smoke overlay over the top of the horse in grey/black to emphasise the battle damage.  That was a bit stark so I used some VGC Bleached Bone and dry brushed top to bottom on the black areas to lighten things up and get a bit of a 'burnt ash' look.  I also added some green mold in the corner of one room and some rank marks just to trial a few techniques that I had read about but not tried.

3 eyed alien

I prepped up a three eyed alien (?) bust that I purchased some time ago off eBay.  Something different to try.  Thinking about doing some kind of ochre colour for the skin.

I got the 54mm knight together and undercoated him.  While thinking about basing him the wife mentioned that he would look good with a horse.  Luckily for me a I have 54mm horse (again, another random eBay purchase).  Not sure if the figures together will work so I'm going to build up the horse (it's lead and needs some work to clean up and put together) and see what they look like together.  The knight is a good standing figure so would fit with a standing the horse which I didn't have any real plans for.

I keep getting distracted by milling machine projects so I'm finding my painting time is going down.  Plus I'm finding it hard to sit and do any painting at the moment.  The desire is there but not the motivation unfortunately.

Stormcast Eternal vers 1

Stormcast Eternal base coats

So got a bit done on the first Stormcast Eternal I have (purchased from Cancon in January).  Sick kids and work did put a damper on things.  After much paint shuffling I went for a turquoise and red/brown mix.  The turquoise is

VGC Falcon Turquoise base
Shaded with VMC Dark Sea Blue
Highlights VMC Light Blue and white

Stormcast Eternal with the turquoise done

The red/brown is

JS Red Oxide/VMC Flat Red base
Shaded with black
Highlights with VMC Flat Red/JS Orange, JS Light Yellow.

For the red/brown rather than using the red oxide as the base I used a lighter mix made from adding Flat Red as the base.  This is because the red oxide is too dark compared to the turquoise.

Colour chart for Stormcast Eternal

Trying to (re)learn a few things I did make a colour chart first.  This did help as it made it obviously that the red oxide was too dark.  Prep work for the win!

Resin fail :(

My second attempt to base coat the spacecraft failed.  The resin is bad/weeping so it went in the bin.  In the picture you can see that half the paint is still glossy (ie not dry) after two days.  Sigh.

Lots of pinning...

I need to have another go at a 54mm figure so started prepping up a knight I got off eBay awhile ago.  A very traditional knight figure.  I was thinking about a head swap (as I find helmeted figures a bit impersonal) but decided to stick with the figure as it is.  Slowly gluing and pinning all the parts together.

Klaus Copperthumb

This week I was working on Klaus Copperthumb.  I'm really liking these Reaper Bones figures.  The exaggerated 28mm scale compared to the old school Ral Partha 25mm figures makes them a bit easier to paint (for older eyes).  Plus they have some great classic fantasy archtype figures and are only $5.  I always wanted the nirvana of buying a single figure a week and painting it that week  (ie no pile of shame).  The bones range seems to meet that for me.  But to be honest I really should save some money and break out the older Ral Partha figures again.  I guess I've had the older figures for so long the interest level in them has dropped.  Plus the bones figures fit in nicely with Dungeon Saga.

Klaus Copperthumb by Reaper

Most of the figure went well, except for the cloak.  I was trying for a slightly purple grey but really failed to find the mid-tones for this.  My mix was

VMC Deep Sea Blue
VMC Red (small drop)
JS White

In the end I found highlighting up with white and JS Cadmium Medium Yellow didn't work as well as just using VMC BoneWhite.  The final highlights were just glazes of the Bonewhite on the top of the hood.  For shading I tried adding more red (to make the mix more purple) and Black.  That was less successful.

The shirt was more of a surprise.  My base was VMC Golden Yellow and a drop of AP Black.  Obviously the AP Black is pretty high on the blue scale as I ended up with a great looking green.  Highlights by adding yellow, shadows by adding some VMC Violet/Red.

The armoured belt base was VMC German Medium Brown and Black.  I highlighted strongly with the Bonewhite and White which worked out quite well.

I worked on the spacecraft for my Ex-manus void suit figure.  I have a nice idea of a "working outside the space station" in mind.  I used resin in a plastic cup to cast a rounded hull shape, which I then glued various bits onto to 'junk it up' a bit.  Looks really cool.  I undercoated it and then...sad face.  Looks like the resin has gone off as although it set fine it seems to be weeping sticky oil which means the paint can't dry.  I've had this once before and there was no solution.  I suspected the resin was not 100% as the colour of one part of the resin (I use Easycast) had gone a bit funny but hoped for the best.  So now I've cleaned off the whole thing with kerosene and will leave a day or so before trying the repaint.  If this fails again I'll have to start again (and probably chuck the rest of the remaining resin).

Maybe next week?

So up next probably won't be my void suit guy.  Instead maybe a Stormcast Eternal and try something different on him.  I've got 5 of them so I'm using them as test figures (ie not of any game and probably not good enough for display).  I'm also wanting to do a bust again or a 54mm figure.