Happy holidays!

Well, as you can tell, I have been absent for quite some time now. My computer has had something go terribly wrong and I just haven't found time to get it in to be looked at.
Once the holidays are over and done I should be able to finally have it fixed!

Things have been progressing (albeit slowly) on the hobby front, so once I do get going again, there will be updates.

Hope the holidays find you well and that all your stockings are stuffed with Figures.

5 Dwarf Miners in 5 days: Day 5

Well, I got em all done. Had the candles, basing and a few assorted details to finish on them.
 I didn't keep great track of the paint I was using for these guys but it seems pretty self explanatory for the last bits and bobs.
Perhaps you are wondering why there is gold glitter on their bases or why they wear all blue.......Well read on and you shall find out.

Reaching well above the mountains around it, Azure peak stands as an unyielding fortress of stone and earth. 
The Dwarves who reside there are a different breed of Dwarf (according to the other Dwarven kingdoms). Valuing gold and jewels even more than most other Dwarves, they have delved near to the very heart of the world looking for their coveted riches. 
A mere 15 centuries ago, the miners and prospectors opened up a previously hidden Cavern. What they found there was wholly unexpected and mysterious. An ambient blue glow filled the natural hallways and caves for as far as their Dwarven eyes could see. 
In time and through much study, the Dwarves of Azure Peak came to believe that this blue glow was the very essence of their Dwarven ancestry. They believed they had stumbled onto the resting place for countless Millenia of past Dwarven spirits.
Realizing the gravity of this situation, Tagrin Ulthas, Lord of Azure peak, posted an elite guard at every known entrance to the caverns, vowing that these venerable Dwarven spirits never be fouled by any outside corruption. 
To this day, Azure peak is one of the few Dwarven strongholds in the old world to never allow a successful breach of the defenses from below the mountain, though many a foul horde has tried. 

When Going to battle, Azure Peak Dwarves Dress themselves primarily in blue out of deference for their ancestral caverns.  They also bring heaps of gold with them to battle as a good luck charm per-say. Spreading it on the ground around their feet before battle is met will bring them fortune in the coming battle. When the battle is won they retrieve the gold to take home. The Dwarves never pick up the gold of a fallen comrade, as this would be considered terrible luck to bring upon yourself and household. 

Slayers of Azure peak fittingly dye their beards a bright, garish blue rather than the traditional Orange of other clans.
This is a fairly new practice as Azure did not have any slayers to speak of until recent.
So focused and stalwart in their protection of the lower halls, the Azure peak Dwarves became lax on the defense of the front gate to their very fortress. 

A gigantic Orc Waaagh attacked and breached well into the fortress. It took months to repel the invaders and root them out from side tunnels and settlements. 
At the cost of a great many Dwarven lives, the battle was won and the green tide was cast out.
Many Dwarves who lost friends or family took up the slayer oaths in shame for their failures, but in sticking with their clans customs, dyed their beards and hair blue.
High Lord Tagrin Ulthas would never allow such a travesty to fall upon his people again. 
A full battalion of Elite Ironbreakers now stand guard at the front gate, day and night. 
resplendent in the bright lacquered blue armor, it is said that even a fully armed and armored cavalry charge could not break their stalwart ranks.

5 Dwarf Miners in 5 days: Day 4

Today was all about getting the beards highlighted and getting the boots, belts and bags all done.

The beards were line highlighted with GW Codex grey  and very sparse highlights of GW fortress grey.

They were a bit on the rough side, so I threw a VMC grey green wash over them to help even things out.
All the leather for the bootas and straps were basecoated with GW Scorched brown
Two of the Dwarves got highlights with P3 bloodstone and the other three got VGC earth.
Finished up tomorrow!

5 Dwarf miners in 5 days:Day 3

The third day was a fairly large step in getting the Dwarves more complete looking. I laid down the bronze colored metals and base coats for the beards.

GW Tin bitz was used as the base for the bronze. I really use this  any time I will be doing a yellow or orange metallic color, as I think it helps add a nice, rich tone to start with.
I followed up with a slight highlight of VMC copper. Didn't want this layer to be too terribly bright so as to keep the darker look that Miners ought to have.

The beards were based with VMC grey green. As a side note, I really don't understand why they call it grey green, I see no amount of green hue in it myself.
I then went ahead and washed the beards with VMC German grey.
The beards are not finished at this point but this was all the further I got.
I also went ahead and painted the weapon hafts flat black.

5 Dwarf Miners in 5 days: Day 2

On day 2, I moved to the blues. My Dwarven horde is very heavily blue so I needed a fair amount on these guys so they would easily blend. Fortunately, blue is probably the color I enjoy painting the most. (purple is dang close though) 

I started with a base of GW Enchanted blue followed by a GW regal blue wash. Highlighted back up with Enchanted and followed by GW Ice blue.

I also added a bit of a red wash to the Dwarves noses and cheeks to give them the proper ale drinking, lush look, as well as bring a little life to them.
More tomorrow!

5 Dwarf Miners in 5 days: Day 1

With the various armies I have collected over the years, I have ended up with a rather large amount of figures.
Most of which, unfortunately, are still unpainted.
The best way to deal with such things is Assembly line painting. Is it fun? Not really. Does it yield pretty quick results? Absolutely!
So, I thought I'd start a segment showing you how I go through a small group of grunt style soldiers relatively quickly.
They are not the prettiest things, but in the massive blocks and formations of infantry grunts they should look just fine.
Here is the initial picture before the painting and the very first step in the painting.

Basically, I am going for a basecoat, one shade, re-basecoat and then one highlight. Simple and effective.
First was metallics  with a basecoat of GW Boltgun Metal, followed by a black wash, Bolt gun again and a highlight of GW Chainmail.
Skin was Dwarf flesh (fitting no?) followed by a Gryphon sepia wash, Re layer with Dwarf flesh and finish with an Elf flesh Highlight.
All in all, about 20 minutes, not including drying time. 
More tomorrow. ;)

Janissa Stonetide

Wow! Another slow start for posting this month, I have got to stop that! I have worked on quite a few things and we did have our first IK encounters.......unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of it. We had a great "LEROY JENKINS!" moment in the first encounter which actually worked out for the better in the end.
That should teach us to pair up an Ogrun and a crazy dwarf with no sane player anywhere near them.

Anyway, our IK night was paired with a paint night so some of us peeled off the group and sat down to paint after the first encounter.
I finally got Janissa finished, since she just needed a few details and some touch-ups. . She ended up a lot darker and more biker chick/Dominatrix looking than I had originally intended, but I like it so hopefully the client will  as well.
 The base was left bare at the clients request.
i also went ahead and threw in a later WIP because it actually shows her quite a bit clearer than the two final pics.

Memory lane and the Obligatory Halloween post

That's right, the obligatory Halloween post, a Halloween themed Memory lane and of course, the naughty trick or treater pic that assuredly brought most of you here.(Shame, shame)

Tis the season for all things undead and nasty, so I thought I'd post up some Memory lane pics of a few of the grosser Cryx things I have painted.
Of course the Grossest of all would have to be the Bloat thrall(don't think privateer makes a nastier fig)
My wife wouldn't even pick this one up when I brought it for her to look at after painting. I thought that was a fantastic accomplishment at the time! :)

                                         HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Cygnaran Poster Boy

I really cant tell you what possessed me to pick this guy up after years of sitting partially painted. I rarely play my Cygnar. So rare in fact that I haven't even picked up a MKII Card set for them.
Regardless though, something made me pull this guy out of the drawer of shame and start working on him.
I'm glad I did though,  as I think he turned out fairly well. The base may be a bit fruity, but I thought he needed a little color and visual appeal to help with all the dark metals and blue up top.
Perhaps having a "new" caster all finished for Cygnar will give me the push I need to finally get around to that awesome Thunderhead which has been sitting, only primed for nearly as long as Stryker had been!

And a WIP from earlier.

 

Red Box games Diorama

I have had a diorama in my head for quite sometime now, and I've been tossing around ideas for different figure manufacturers to meet my vision for the diorama. My plan is to have a small band of elves on a wooded trail that are ambushed by goblins.
Perhaps a little unimaginative but it will be my first endeavor into dioramas, so I wanted to try something that I could easily picture and find the right figures for.
The Diorama is intended as a gift for this Christmas, so I am on a pretty strict timetable to get a lot of painting done. 

Well, I got an email from redbox games the other day that Tre Manor(the owner) is liquidating his metal stock to start casting his line in plastic. So everything left in the shop was 40% off, woohoo! After looking pretty extensively over the entire range, I found the figs that seemed to fit just right.
Unfortunately, I went back just yesterday to order a few more and they are all basically gone. Yikes!

The ones I did order came in the mail yesterday, and man, they are awesome! I knew they were on the small side being that they are true 28mm scale, but they are even smaller than I had first thought, which I think, adds a different and cool feeling to them.
the goblins I ordered are by far the smallest of the bunch but now that I see them, it seems much more fitting to have them be tiny. Goblins in general have been getting bigger and bigger over the years, and I think that really goes against the original vision of what they were supposed to be. In my mind, I imagine goblins barely reaching a mans waist.
So, needless to say, I am pleased with the figs.....although, I may have to buy a magnifying glass to paint them.

Heres a few pics to show you what they look like and I went ahead and put a Privateer press man sized fig in there to give you an idea of how tiny they really are.

Hers the whole group of figs that will be present in the scene. I think I will have to find a replacement part for the far left elves sword. Was bent pretty bad in shipping and doesn't seem to be salvageable.

Extreme Ivan!

Well, after paint night, I powered through and got this big bugger finished. Really had a good time painting him, that is.....after my fingers un-kinked from their seemingly permanent, claw like position!
This is another commission to go with all the other Khador stuff I've been doing.
I think its pretty fitting to have Ivan based on an Extreme jack chassis, as it makes him very imposing.
When he was finished I sat him on the shelf next to the rest of my own Khadorans, and he made them look pretty small and pitiful. :(
Now Ive just got to make it through extreme Beast 09, and this part of the commission will be completed.

EndZone paint night and IKRPG start

Well, after a bit of a break for the end of summer activities that always seem to zap everyone's time, we were able to get together and have another very enjoyable paint night.
Lots of painting going on of course, but a lot of people were there to get help on setting up a character for an Iron Kingdoms RPG session that will start early next month.
As of right now, I will be playing a Dwarven Ranger/Arcane mechanic.
That could change as I get more familiar with the rules though. Really just going for what sounds cool at the moment. My good buddy grim will be playing a Dwarven Military officer(retired)/bounty hunter.
Our Dwarves will be brothers that were booted out of the Rhulic military for some unknown reason, and moved to Northern Khador to open up a mechanics shop.
My dwarf does the work in the shop and Grims dwarf hunts down those that don't pay up.
That's how our back-story sits as of right now anyway.  More as things progress over the next few weeks!
I really only ended up painting for a small portion of the night, but I did get some good progress done on the Extreme Black Ivan I'm working on. as soon as I get some decent pics snapped, you'll be able to see him in all of his beat up, rusted glory. :)

 The table where most of the paint was happening.

 And, the character building table.

Weekend WIP's

Well, I found a few more minutes this weekend to put some paint on a few figs.
Black Ivan and Janissa are both commissions for locals. This is the first Troll I've ever worked on (barring Boomhowler that is) and so far it has been pretty enjoyable. All the large, exaggerated features really make painting a breeze.
The owner of the figure asked for an orangey-brown skin tone along with purple cloth as the base colors. Hopefully she is looking Orange enough.
Black Ivan is just base coats for now, but by the end he will be severely beat up and battle damaged. Oh, and if you couldn't tell....yup, he's an extreme jack. Oh, the hand cramps in store for me. :(

I also busted out my alt Stryker fig to work on. I'm finding it very difficult since he is primed black, but I did add a few glazes here and there and get some paint on that wild hair!
He was one of the few dozen figs that I had already primed when I decided to make the transition from black to white primer.
Most of those figs are sitting in partially finished states as I really just dont enjoy painting over black any longer.
I know i could strip all of them back to bare metal, and I probably will someday, but that never seems to be top priority when I find some hobby time.

Thanks for lookin!

Confrontation: Tir-Na-Bor Khor warrior

Decided I needed to power through painting a fig just to try and get myself out of this no-hobby funk.
The Khor warrior from my weekend WIP's was the lucky winner.
I'm still bummed that hes such a crappy cast but other than that, I like the way he turned out.
I may try to incorporate more Orange into the next one as the silver did get a tad overpowering on this one.
Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.

Also, since reading seems to be the thing that is taking up most of my hobby time lately I thought I'd turn you on to the series I'm working on.                                                                                             

After finishing up the most recent Dresden files novel by Jim Butcher, I was scrambling for more Urban fantasy Novels. 

M.L.N Hanover's  "The Black Suns Daughter" series has fit the bill nicely.  After burning through the first one in just a few days, I'm well into the second one and I have to say they are a very good, action heavy read.

Weekend WIP's

Actually found some time this weekend to sit and paint for a bit. Got a little work done on a bunch of figures, so I thought I'd show you the WIP's.
If you are wondering why the Khor Warrior looks so pitted and nasty.....that's because he is! Geesh, what a joke. It has definitely made him a lot more difficult to paint. Hopefully he turns out and looks just fine after all said and done.
I also threw in a pic from a challenge over on my other collaborative  blog the Geek Garage. We were supposed to be finished with our entries at the end of August, so needless to say, I have been slacking all around.

Epic Skarre Deja Vu

Nope you're not going crazy, this really is a different figure from the last one.
This a commission for a guy who wanted a pretty close duplicate to the breast cancer brawl Skarre I did earlier this year. Sans Pink hair stripe that is. ;)
Second time around on this figure and she was till pretty enjoyable to paint, I may have to finally get one for myself.  Though I think I had better steer clear of the Burgundy coat. Don't want that many duplicate eSkarre's running around.

Memory lane and a bit of an explanation

Well, first off, I guess I had better address why my posts are so few and far between at the moment.
As seems to be the typical case in September, my Job goes absolutely bonkers and I rarely go home for more than just dinner and sleeping.

All can't be blamed on a hectic work schedule though. The free time that I do happen upon has been taken up by a Mr. Jim Butcher, and his amazingly awesome Dresden Files novels. 
Once the temperature begins dropping more rapidly and the days get considerably shorter, working should ease up and hobby updates can commence as usual.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you a fig I painted a couple of years ago who holds the top spot in my collection as being the piece I am most proud of.
The Cyclops of Mid-Nor.
I finished him in 2010 just in time for Gen Con. I entered him in the Gen Con painting competition and was pleasantly surprised when he made it past the first cut and into the top 8 for "Large Figure category"  He didn't earn me any sort of medal or anything but I was more than happy with my first crack at a real, legitimate painting competition.
He also happens to be my only figure currently rated above an 8 at CMoN which landed him in the Cool Mini or Not annual for 2011.


Thanks for having a look.

Memory lane: Dwarf Lord

This guy is a relatively recent piece. Recent as in, he's only been collecting dust on my shelf for a few years now, rather than just shy of a decade.

I tried a lot of new things on this guy. He was one where I felt like I broke through on some new techniques. Zenithal Highlighting and learning how to shade and highlight metallics properly were the things I really tried to push with him.
I am still very pleased with how he turned out. i think this Dwarf will go down in history as my all time favorite GW sculpt, he's just got such a bad ass "Bring it on, I aint afraid" type of vibe going on.

The Butcher of Khardov

Finished this up as another piece for that never ending commission to go along with the Gun Carriage.
Tried a little different technique for the rust spots on his armor which ended up being very similar to how I do my silos.
Decided to add some blood to the axe and ground as a bit of an afterthought, I mean, what kind of Butcher would he be if he were wasn't covered in blood?
As a side note, I must say that this figure is a great sculpt! Very crisp details. Was a real joy to paint.
I'll have to grab one for myself and give my old, Original Butcher a break from the field. 

New Online Wargames Magazine worth checking out

Looks like some of the guys from the Dragon Painting forum have put together an awesome  gaming ezine that is definitely worth a download. Kinetic7
Focusing on some of the amazing Skirmish style games out there now. 
I've looked over it pretty extensively, and Ive got to say that I am very impressed.
Some really great hobby articles by very talented artists and a couple interviews with some of the best Miniature painters around.

Free to download, so why not go have a look!?

Infinity: Señor Massacre finished

Well, I am very happy with how this guy turned out after all. I'm a bit sad I have to give him away at the tournament, but he should go to someone that will make sure he sees far more table time than I would.
I could not get this guys head to focus in any of the pictures....How frustrating!
The checkered Kitchen style floor was a bit of a leap but I am pleased with how it worked. I had originally just assumed I would go with grey blocks as the color for the ground but realized it wasn't going to work once his pants were all finished up.
Couldn't have him all melding into one color! 

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks for looking.