I am BACK!!! and this time I have company!

That is right folks, I am back in contact with the real world. I will be ramping back up to full painting production with in the next week, still have a few boxes here and there to unpack. In the meantime though I was able to get this guy painted up. He will be auctioned off at a charity event called "Clash for the Cure" I was trying to strike a balance between playable and showcase. In addition I was also trying out some new wet blending techniques, I think as time progresses and my skills increase, it will definitely be a technique that I will use often.

Another unique thing that I tried out with this model was playing with colors. Typically my go to color for shading reds is Vallejo Black Red. I decided to try something different this time and I shaded with a Vallejo color called, "Dark Sea Blue" it is a really nice deep greenish-blue color. I really like the resulting effect as it seems to add a richer deeper red to the over all scheme.

Another new thing I tried was the base, it was actually colored using pigments form Secretweapon Miniatures. Pigments are not a new thing to me, I had used them quite a bit in my military modeling days, but I found that using them on mini's was no fun. After talking to Justin over at Secretweapon, come to find out that many of the weathering powders out there have a binding agent in them, like a wax or some other thing...in the small scale of mini's this often translates into a mesy, or blotchy look, Secretweapon's powders are pure pigment, no binders, so they go on much smoother and have a more even appearance. The base turned out a little darker than I would have liked, but I am happy with the results.

Lastly, I know things have been a little sporadic around here on updates, going forward I am going to have weekly updates, talking about everything from recent completed projects, to tutorials, and possibly rants on my own gaming experiences. Look for those updates to come on or about Friday of every week!

Ashton