Well, almost a year since my last post, but this post comes with some information and the announcement of some changes coming up!!  I will be graduating in 2 days, this means more time to get back into painting and and updating things around here on a more regular basis!! So I thought I would take some time to post some of the stuff that is in the pipeline so that everyone knows what is coming up.

I have been doing a lot of gaming commission lately, and I have been feeling the need to get back to my roots and do some regular modeling.  Over the next few weeks I have a few projects that I will be posting on that I am making progress.

The first of them will be for all those Star Wars geeks out there!!

I have picked up a couple of 1/144 scale model kits form Fine Molds!!  The Millennium Falcon and Slave I are the once I currently have, given some more time I will probably pic a few of the 1/72 scale fighters, like the X-Wing, Y-Wing and Tie Fighter.  Rest assured it will be enough to pin to geek meter for just about any one!  If you are interested in picking up any of these kits swing on over to Starship Modeler's web store, they usually have all this stuff in stock!!

The next piece of modeling that you can expect to see in the next weeks is this beauty here!!

 

This is a 1/35 scale mech called the "Fiddler" it is produced by a company called White Dragon Miniatures . This is probably the model that I am most excited to start!!  I have had it for a while, but due to school and other demands it has been collecting dust.  I pulled it out today to asses things a bit better in preparation for working on it....

Some other things that you can expect to see from me some time in the next year would be a few of the models over at Industria Mechanika. It is a very cool website by a very talented modeler.  Specifically I am looking at their Dust Buster and The Rook.  There is some other items that I will definitely be picking up as well as there release schedule dictates.

In addition to these I have some more commission work that I am working on for Jay and Trevor over at Chainattack Podcast.  For Jay I have already done quite a bit of stuff for him, here is a link to a gallery of some of his stuff. Also worth mentioning is that Jay owns Discount Games Inc.  He has some fantastic prices on what he sells, I highly recommend him for all your gaming needs, and his increasing hobby line as well.  Some of you know Trevor from Chain Attack as well, I have slowly been working on his Orange Skorne.  There will be some more contributions to his army as well over the next few weeks.

The other thing I will be working on is some reviews for some of the mini's that I have painted.  However, what I plan on doing is assessing them from a assembly and painting standpoint.  One thing I have certainly learned is all model and mini's are not created equal.  I am working on a grading system that will asses a models assembly, paint-ability, convert-ability and over all fun hobby score.  This is something I have always wanted to see that I think will be interesting to do.

Look forward to seeing how this year goes, thanks for checking in!!

Malifaux; Never Borne Battle Group

Well, those few followers I have may have noticed that I have not kept up on my weekly updates.  I was hoping by doing weekly updates it would generate more discussion, but that has not changed, and putting together weekly updates take considerable time.  I will continue to update things regularly as I finish projects and write up a few articles, but until more discussion happens on a regular basis, the weekly stuff will be put on hold for a while.  In addition to this change, I have also added a feedback page and changed some things up for my commission pricing to more accurately reflect the interaction and effort I have and put into my clients projects....nuff of the technical stuff, lets get to some pictures.

So a several weeks ago, a friend from the gaming store I use to hang out at before I moved asked me if I would be interested in painting up some Malifaux, we talked about some ideas and through some numbers around and eventually I ended up with the commission.  What really interested me about this commission is the rich character of the figures that Wyrd produces.  Each model is unique and has some really life to them, in addition Josh, the client, wanted the basing of the figures to represent a "child's nightmare" this presented some interesting challenges from a painting and basing standpoint.

One of the things that I really tried to do on this commission is to work with and use color to provide the shadow and highlight to all the models, in addition I wanted to keep my pallet very limited so that the battle group would have a cohesive look to them, lastly I knew I needed to keep things dark, and shadowy, yet retain the vividness that we have all had from time to time with our dreams and nightmares, so that meant things needed to be painted with high contrast.

So to start things off here is the first of the figures to show.  His name is "Lord Chompy Bits".  When I first pulled this mini out of the box, and I saw the post of the arms, I immediately knew that I needed blood, but I didn't just want painted blood, I wanted it too look wet, and fresh, something that could be very scary to a little child.  I started researching blood effects and found an interesting technique that uses UHU Glue, and Tamyia Clear Red.  I really love the effect and I am very happy with the results!

The other figures were all painted in similar colors and fashions, some received an additional degree of semi-gloss after the dull coat, and others did not,it was all dependent on the effect I was going for.  These guys were a ton of fun to paint, and I am looking forward to doing more Malifaux again in the future!

Here is a sample of a few of the pieces;

Blog Update #4 , Sorry missed a week

Well, it looks like I missed a week in my updates. Though I have good excuse, last week I was nursing an infected tooth, and the week ended up with me having a root canal and a new crown. As one who hates the dentist, let me say that one should never underestimate the power of laughing gas It takes the edge off and really makes the experience more enjoyable.

Well onto some updates!

First up are some Bretonians. This is a rather large commission and I will probably have weekly updates with it. The customer, a friend from the local hobby shop where I used to live, wanted this band of knights to all have a cohesive element to them. So all the barding is painted blue, while the shields on the barding and their personal shields will bear unique heraldry. The client provided me with some older Bretonnian decals for this purpose. The horse on the left has the decal placed, a little touch up with a brush, and some highlights and I think it will look great.

Another interesting thing about this commission is the gold on the helmets. As many in this hobby will witness too painting gold is a major PITA! So I thought with this project I would try something new, and see how it went. Basically I did what has been done before. I painted the area in GW Mithril Silver, then once dry I added about 4 to 6 coats of Gryphonne Sepia. This really brought the gold color out. Then once I achieved the look I was after with the sepia I went back in and added some black, this really made the gold pop!

Next up is going to be an ebay project. As part of a trade a while back I received a Forgeworld Dreadnought, a World Eater one. I was playing around with what to do with it for a while and I settled on this pose. The "tortured" victim on the wrack is a converted Privateer Press mini that I had in my bits box. The wrack was built out of aluminum and copper tubing, with some Chaos bits.

Lastly, I have made some more progress on my Imperial Fist army. Many of the "Bad Ass Space Marines" that I posted pictures of in an earlier
post are going to be for this army. I am really digging the yellow, the Cadmium Yellow is such a bright and vivid color. These guys have been painted with oil paints, the bases are a mixture of bases from Secretweapon and Base Contacts, they have been weathered with pigments from Secretweapon.