Back after a break

So been a few weeks.  A few reasons behind that.  Got rather sick for the better part of a month, did a lot of machining work, added a gas struct to my milling machine, worked on some robot stuff for the kids and generally just ran out of steam for painting.  So gave up for a bit and had a painting break.

Terminator Genisys figure

So getting back I started with a gentle start and did a few more Terminator Genisys figures.  Another 8 to go and then I'm onto LotR figures as my "other" painting project.  Nothing special here just some quick tabletop level painting.

..and another one

Second up was a Ral Partha figure that I think I got from the bring-and-buy at MOAB one year.  It's been in the box for awhile.  Really liked the almost Gary Chalk feel to this figure.  I had another go on painting wood texture on the spear shaft and I'm getting happier with the result.  I used four main colours

Ral Partha how I love thee

- Blue tint on the armour
- red on the cloak
- green on the clothing
- light brown on the horns/gloves

Reasonably happy with him.

Next was getting back to the Orphan 9 figure and base.  I worked on the base as I was still warming up and wanted to get the background colours sorted before moving onto the figure.  The two holes are the mounting point for the figure.

Starting to look like a base

The wall was undercoated a red/brown.  I then picked out individual bricks and painted them lighter/darker to add some variation to the wall and then painted in the mortar.  The mortar impressions in the foam are very slight so I couldn't go for a 'cover everything and wipe off' paint trick to do the mortar.

The posts around the top will have some wire on the so I started with the off white to pretend the ends are porcelain insulators.  The large door I went of green to give some contrast to the wall to and make it obvious that the second point of interest in the diorama after the figure is the door.  Just got the base colour down for it.

I used some Vallejo stone paste on the ground to add some texture to the plastic card.  Then I painted it grey and did some dust glazes followed by some dark brown/black glazes.  It was still not looking like much so I added the pavement lines.  There was still a bit of moisture from the previous glaze with allowed the dark brown/black paint I used for the lines to bleed a bit.  This resulted in a great effect of making the pavement lines look much more natural.  I then added in some extra cracks.  Need to add a few highlights next, but more as splotches/stains of colour.

Orphan 9 kickstarter figure and base

So I've mainly been making fidget spinners this last week or so.  Resin casing up some and making and casting an additional bar spinner for the kids.  That is now into the final spray painting stage so almost done there.

I finished up the 28mm barbarian I was working on.  Putting him in the cupboard with the other (and much older) figures it's pretty much chalk and cheese between the old and new.  Even with figures from a year or so ago there is a huge difference.

I am still not sure on how to get started with the 54mm knight.  Not sure what is going on there.  Didn't stop me from buying some more 54mm figures from eBay however.

Orphan 9 kickstarter figure

The figure from the Orphan 9 kickstarter arrived a few weeks back and I got a really strong idea for a diorama base for her.  She is very much a true 25mm (think old school Ral Partha) figure with super fine detail.  I seriously am doubting if I have the brush control to paint her face it's that small and fine.

Start of the base

For the base I got the idea of her waiting around the corner in a cyberpunk environment.  Using pine as the base material I used some pre-printed brick styrene sheet for the walls.

The bits..

The railing that is a great source for odd shapes

Then with some card I made up a door.  I have a Victorian era railing that I cut up for various details.  I used the rails for electric wire holders around the top of the building, the round rail decoration bit for wall bolts (to show age in the building) and some of the circle detail bits for the door handle.  Max level repurposing.  To attach the figure to the base her legs are almost too thin for drilling and adding pins so I am thinking of cutting down the support tab to make small pins under each foot.  Going to have to be rather careful there.

all together

For colours I need to trial some ideas.  Currently black boots (of course), red jump suit and dark blue padding/armour areas.  Really going to need the optivisor for this figure.

Now for the paint

Cosplay shield and a few figures

So for the last few months I have had a side project to make a cosplay style shield for the wife with an Elder Scrolls theme.  She worked out the design (slightly organically) that she wanted and I got to make and paint it.

Warbla and craft foam, light areas the wood putty

I used warbla as the base material for this.  Previously for the kids I had made shields out of foam (ie garage floor mats) as they were going to be beat up a bit.  This shield would be handled a bit more gently.  Also I wanted a large project to learn how to use warbla.  There are 2-3 layers of warbla over most of the shield.  The was a main backing layer, a top layer so that the centre could be appear recessed and then a another backing layer as I found just one layer of warbla was too thin and bent a bit in places.  On heating one layer of warbla tends to wrinkle.  I found that with multilayered areas sometimes the warbla would de-laminate.

Gesso coat

Craft foam was then glued on top to form the petal pattern and the stylised hand in the centre of the shield.  Unfortunately I had a seam line (due to the size of the pieces of warbla I had) across the centre of the shield which despite filling with wood putty and sanding still showed through.  I was thinking it would be blended in pretty well but that was not the case.  The petal design was a late change to the design and if I had known about that in advance I would have hidden the seams under the layer of craft foam.  So more planning in advance would have helped like always.

Undercoat

After everything was glued/puttied/sanded I coated everything in three coats of gesso.  The pro builders use spray on plastic-dip and I can see why.  However it is rather expensive.  Following on from the gesso I undercoated everything black.

Done

The red sections were airbrushed on after I masked off (so much masking) the rest of the shield.  I used JS paints for this.  The gold was from the AK wax metallic range and painted on.  Very much like Rub-and-buff but it paints on much easier.  Almost like painting with soft butter.

Following on from the paint I did two clear coats (spray can) before the weathering with oils.  I thin the oils down with white spirit to do basically pin washes along the edges and some highlights.  However despite the clear cost some paint was still lifted by the white spirit.  I think next time I'll just stick with 100% acrylics.  I highlight blended up the red areas (to more plum red) and the black (to light purple/grey).  Totally monotone areas look very odd so variation is needed.  The gold got a raw sienna wash to tone it down slightly.  On the areas that the paint lifted I went back and padded/finger stamped on some black/grey to redo those areas.  I find this blends better than just straight painting.  More of a stipple than painting.  The petals and the hand were repainted in flat black to make them pop a bit.

Again once that was dried out (I left the oils 3-4 days to dry) some more semi-gloss clear coats.

Witch

Eureka samurai

Old school is the best school

Away from the shed I painted up a few old figures.  A witch from Warlord Games (I think), a samurai from Eureka Miniatures and an old Grenadier figure.  Just something to keep the brush going.  Still very much stuck in a rut on painting.  I cast up a new copy of my alien bust I did last year as another thing to paint and experiment on.  Still haven't gotten going on my 54mm knight with maybe a horse added.  This didn't stop me however going to a scale model show and buying some new 1/32 figures.  They were cheap however.  I've always wanted to do some American civil war project so the box of figures from Master Box seemed like a good idea at the time :)

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.