New paint rack and work on Tribal Warrior (orc)

New paint racks

I’ve purchased some Jo Sonja paints recently for terrain painting and also for general painting.  However they have been sitting in a pile and always seem in the way.  So I decided it was time to make a paint rack for them.  My painting area is next to an Ikea Billy bookcase so under one of the bookshelves I attached some home made paint rails (like the ones the paints are sold on in a shop).  Just some pine strips with some 3mm ply glued on underneath and then the whole lot was painted and screwed into the shelf.  Gets the paints out of the way and under the paints I have room for some more bits and pieces.

Tribal Warrior

On the Tribal Warrior I spent a bit of time playing around with him.  I’m trying a new idea of around zenithal lighting where the areas in light should be highly detailed and the areas in shadow less so.  This was one of the ideas I picked up from the book “Colour and Light”  by James Gurney.  On the fur cloak I gave this a try.  As I progressed down the cloak the contrast between the base coat and the highlights and shadows was reduced.  At the top of the cloak I tried to maximise the colour variation.  All of this is to try and draw the eye to the top of the figure and the face.

I’ve still thinking about the flesh colours.  I tried for the light green/yellow orc skin and had some trouble.  In my first attempts he ended up going the full zombie so I had to add a lot of yellow to bring that back.  Also adding some red and purples to the mixes helped.  It still isn’t great.

Next up will be the armour that I’m trying with metallics first.  I’m not sure the cool temperature metals are really working.  However bone armour doesn’t work and I’m a bit stuck for what colour to try instead.

Heat induced time off

Well I planned to have a week off after Cancon but that kind of stretched to two weeks due to the heat wave going through Sydney currently.  Over 30 degrees C isn’t much fun and over 35 painting just isn’t possible.  Even in a wet palette the paint dries out too fast.  However today it cooled off a bit so I could get back and do a few things.

Battlefield accessories row boat

The small mdf rowboat I purchased from Battlefield Accessories I glued together and used some wood putty on the outer hull to smooth it out.  I simple paint job and it’s ready to be added to the box of 28mm terrain.  I am thinking that I need a person fishing…

I helped both kids with their mdf building from Knights of Dice.  The daughters farm house is put together and she has started painting it.  We did the tile roof in the old school “cardboard packing cut into tiles” method and put glue everywhere.  Just needs the ridge caps to finish off.  My son glued many rocks/etc onto his ruins and that is currently in the shed airing off after undercoating.

Little farm house

I got out the “Tribal Warrior (Orc)” from the Twelve Elements of War range that I purchased at Cancon two years ago.

Tribal warrior

I’ve pre-shaded him and now need to work out a colour scheme other than boring brown with red-brown fur.  Not even sure if I’ll paint him green.  Maybe go for more of an ogre look (he does have slightly pointed ears).  While thinking about that I made a small wooden base for him.  I used the top of a resin rock I had cast (yes, it’s lime green - the overrun from another job) to add a bit to the base.  I won’t do anything more as he is more an experiment in smaller scale while I think about what larger project I’ll do next.

Tribal warrior arms

Cancon 2017 and Crystal Dragon

Well Cancon is over for another year.  I failed to place with any of my entries in the Crystal Dragon but my daughter not only got a Gold in the Hatchlings (Junior) section she also got Best in Show!  The Darth Vader quote “The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.” seems rather apt.  At least she was nice and asked “When are you going to win an award daddy?”.  Pictures of the mermaid piece, award and prizes below…

Mermaid in the sea - Gold award

Hatchlings Best of Show

Prize pack

The second hand store was run differently this year with staggered entry which I think worked out ok.  The horrible crush from last year was missing thankfully.  I also scored pretty well.  There were also some great purchases to be had however I already had the items in question.  This means I’m getting older and my classic cool games are now moving into the “old crud no one wants” category ;)

Second hand store purchases

- Urak-kai scouts $18 - Always wanted these to add into my existing force.

- Gondor Knights $22 - I’ve got one box already so now I have enough for a decent size force (5 calvary figures alone don’t do much in LoTR I found).

- Gondor bolt thrower x 2 $12 - Only wanted one but at that price why not.

There were a number more LoTR box sets but I resisted.  It was hard.  I’m sure I’ll regret it later.  Maybe I did need another 10 wargs..

- Divine Right $10 - I purchased mine for $70 off eBay many years ago :(  This will be gifted to a friend who remembers the good olde days.

- Reaper Bones Wyrmgear dragon $15 - Clockwork dragon for $15, why not.

- Ex-Manus Explorer in Void Suit $3 - Really like this figure and can see a sea (narf) diorama with it.  Plus I saved $5 over the normal price!


Purchased

- Ex-Manus  Sinister Suit  - love the Cthulhu head on a carnival ring master.

- Reaper  Bones animals - animals good.  Just because I could really.

- Eureka Miniatures  figures - Count Brass and an Order of the Wolf from the Hawkmoon range.  Love the wolf figure.  Some more animals as I wanted some lions for my gladiators and some ravens for the Mr Sinister figure.

- Rowboat - cute little mdf rowboat from Battlefield Accessories  Some great stuff there.

I also got some more Reaper Bones for the kids (Son got some skeleton archers, the daughter a female wizard and a female rogue) and some mdf buildings from Knights of Dice for them to make as they have been enjoying playing with the existing 28mm terrain I have.

Halo Fleet battles human captain bust finished

Halo Fleet Battles Human Captain bust

The week I finished off the human captain bust from Halo Fleet Battles just in time for Cancon.  Wasn’t planning on taking him down but he went rather well and in the end I will take him over the Amy Johnson bust.  She is painted with straight out of the box flesh colours and it shows.  Long live the new flesh (colour mix)!

Back view

For the captain bust my colours were as follows.  Very much a study in blue.

Main Shirt
- VMC Sky Blue 40%
- VMC Flat Blue 50%
- VGC Ghost Grey 10%
Highlights with more Ghost Grey and white, shadows with Prussian Blue

Under shirt
- VGC Ghost Grey - base
Highlights with white, shadows with VMC Dark Sea Blue (very small amounts and glazed)

Hard Amour
- VMC Prussian Blue 50%
- VGC Night Blue 50%
Highlights with Flat Blue, Shadows with more Night Blue and Black.

Flesh base
“Cimmerian King” mix 50%
VGC Bleached Bone 50%
Highlights/Shadows as per Cimmerian King

Hair
- VMC Black/Brown 50%
- VGC Cold Grey 40%
- VGC Ghost Grey 10% - I found the Ghost grey makes this a bit purple so later on swapped it out for a straight grey mixed from black/white.

Under the sea...

My daughter has finished up her mermaid diorama.  Just needs the mermaid to be glued to the base.  I wish she would paint more than once a year :)  My son (a bit too young to enter) is very keen on painting currently so I will get him some figures at Cancon (probably Reaper Bones) just for him, so he has his own figures rather than getting them off dad.

Swim time

Now the wait until Friday.  Going to be a long week at work waiting…

Halo Fleet battles human captain and lots of terrain

Halo Fleet Battles human captain

Had a bit of a heat wave this week so in 34 degrees painting isn’t really an option, even with a wet palette.  January is always a bit of an enforced quiet time.  I did a bit of work on the Halo human captain bust.  I used the Cimmerian King flesh range but I started with a lighter base colour by adding in more VGC Bonewhite.  I wanted the bust to have a very pale look (fluro light tan ;)), tired and not that well.  After all he has been in space without any real sun for most of his life (well that’s my story).  He is going rather well and I’m thinking he may even make it for Cancon.

Just add mermaid

My daughter is slowly getting her mermaid diorama underway.  Should be able to get there :)

All the toys..

Keeping the kids occupied in school holidays time I got out all my 28mm gaming boards and terrain and let them have a play with it.  I had some 28mm Wargames Factory Persians that I had made up but were never going to be used.  So now they have been adopted by the kids to become guards of the various houses.

I also had some 28mm Wargames Factory (more bring and buy specials) Celtic calvary so I made up a figure for each for them so they can have some riders (for taking messages between houses).  Looking at all the terrain laid out I was thing that my 12 year old self would have killed for all this terrain.  Never too late for a happy fulfilled childhood.

Guarding the keep, with cars at the ready..