Calandra Truthsayer WIP

After my initial troll-related success, a friend of mine who's just starting to play them asked me to paint one for him. So I bring you Calandra Truthsayer! A work in progress (though she's juuust about done).

I'm trying to get away from my comfort zone colors (purple and green), so I went with a yellowish skin tone and lots of warm-spectrum colors, with turquoise for contrast.

Okay, so a little purple snuck in there. Shhhh.

Also wanted to minimize my metalics use. I'm very comfortable with silver and gold metal (not GOOD at them, per se, but comfortable!), so I turned the edgings on the bustier into sturdy brown leather. The only part I'm really unhappy with is the leather of the arm guards. I may need to revisit them.

ALSO, pretty darn pleased with the base. My first real adventures with cork. I went for a swamp scene, with a little dead tree in the back for flavor. Regular super glue over paint for the water.

Ongoing Legion Color Scheme Challenge

I've been working on a Legion of Everblight army since the beginning of the year, and it's starting to take on the features of a Learning Experience.

Let me regale you with my painting movie montage:

Just the base coats on the warspears. They're getting an extremely pink skin and purple/magenta scales. Redish leather, gold and silver metals. Honestly, the only thing I liked on these guys was the leather. 

Here I started experimenting with washes: Reikland Shade (red) and Seraphim Sepia for the golds, and Reikland Shade and Druichi Violet for the skin. I really loved how it came out, but I couldn't get it to highlight back up without looking like poo. It's cool with just the washes, but I want more.

Also, that carnevean lurking in the back was the first model I painted for this army. She's a little too purple, but I'm not sure how to fix that yet. Add that to the list of things I haven't figured out yet.

Thagroooosh. I'm avoiding washes now and trying to paint his skin with straight-up mixing of paint for shadows and highlights. I'm also trying to incorporate some skin spots, which was what I wanted from the beginning but am only just experimenting with now... I would love for it to look like bruising, and gather it around where the plates and spikes come through, like they're tearing through old flesh. Work in progress.

Very early version of the Ulk's coloration, and just base coats.

Going more and more natural on the color scheme, which means I keep getting comments like "Wow, I've never seen that Circle model, who is she?" Sorry, guys, she's with the Legion.

The latest mini. I was testing out my new expensive brushes on him. I washed his skin with the red just to see where the low points were, then did some highlighting. Liking the skin better, but thinking the cartoon-purple for the scales might have to go. Not sure what else to do with them, however. Hm.

Reorganization

About a year ago, I strolled into my local hobby shop with a vague nostalgic urge to hang out with geeks and work on art. I figured I'd buy one model and a few paints, get it out of my system, and move on.

Hah.

So I bought a box of Skaven clanrats and put my primary colors in an Easter basket I had lying around.

Soon enough I outgrew the basket and leveled up my hardware.

To a larger basket.

Why yes, that is a picnic basket.

I have this stubborn streak about doing things the traditional way. The Skaven Warbasket has custom-built shelves (plucked-foam leftovers hot-glued together) and carted my army around very competently for some time. However, it's big and not incredibly sturdy (bought it at Goodwill) and just not customizable enough for the variety of stuff i needed to haul around. 

Eventually I put my paints and miscellaneous supplies in a craft tackle box. Then, when I had too many paints, the spillover was stored in a Ninja Turtles metal lunch box. But this was starting to feel ridiculous, so I finally caved. Our shop had a Bizarre Bazaar, where I got a $20 citadel case, and now I'm putting it to good use:

I threw it around for testing purposes, and everything seems to be willing to stay put.

(Day #429, still haven't caved to the GW or Battlefoam man...)

Jumpmaster's Challenge

Definitely a mistake.

Last weekend was my local hobby shop's second birthday, which included their second annual Jumpmaster's Challenge miniatures painting competition. Extremely unexpectedly, I won 1st in the Fantasy Unit category.


I'm still pretty sure it was a mistake. But they can't have the plaque back now, I've licked it.

But much more interestingly, I got to meet some absolutely incredible painters and sponge some of their wordly painterly guruship. In particular, Mike Schaefer (who's blog is over here and has loads of pictures from this competition) and his adorable schnauzers were in attendance. Like most truly passionate artists, the guy is humble and eager to share tips and tricks of the hobby.

Also, the guy in the picture next to me is Joe Neet, one of the judges and another talented multiple-contest winning painter. He also frequents Dropzone Games; I was lucky enough to get to attend the first in a series of workshops he's running. Great teacher and super friendly guy.

These guys (and Rob Chandler, who both terrifies and inspires me) and the general support of the community at Dropzone are inspiring.

Even if winning was a fluke, it makes me want to paint more, experiment, dig deeper into techniques and color theory, and get to know more people enthusiastic about the hobby.

It also inspired me to go buy some really expensive paintbrushes. At this rate, I really need to get good enough to support my addiction with commissions, or the bank account gods are going to have a word with me.

Morvahna the Dragoness, Miniature Conversion

A friend of mine asked me to paint his D&D mini a while back. Now, he's a close friend, so I wanted it to be special, something he could show off and be proud of (even if the character was doomed as soon as he got his mini painted). So I decided that instead of just painting the Serpentfolk Evoker he was using as a poor symbol of his much more interesting character, I'd convert something for him.

When I suggested sculpting a dragon face onto a model, the folks at my local hobby shop were politely skeptical. But I was pretty sure I could manage it. I hadn't told my friend about my cunning plan, so if it didn't turn out well, I'd cry a little and move on. I could still just paint his regular mini and pretend I'd meant to do that all along.

His character was a golem made of stone in the shape of a curvy woman with a dragon features including face and tail. She's a sorceress, and is kept animated by a ruby-inlaid tiara.

SO. For the main pose and body, I chose Morvahna the Autumnblade, sliced off her sword, and went to town with the green stuff. It's a little cartoony and lacks a terrible amount of detail, but I'm pleased with how she came out.