Progress Report 8/20/14 - Saw on a stick.

Been a busy couple of week for me with not too much time to paint or build miniatures (and no time to game). Did manage to knock out a commission paint job in just a couple days with pretty good results. It was for a half-orc assassin type character in a Pathfinder Societies game at GenCon. Good to finally make it to the convention in some form!

Client asked for a mini painted in all blacks and yellows. Very challenging for me as I don't think I paint those colors very well and they take time. I was happy with the balance of the mini and the way I managed to avoid the "bumblebee" effect. This mini was originally a vampire character but I think it looks suitably orcish too! If it was my mini I would have cut off the pointy bat shaped ears. I did learn a new recipe for dark black which I will use on my Grave Guard and other skeledudes for the upcoming Nagash vampire madness in WHFB!!

Meanwhile I spent time painting some Goblin/Gnoblar secret weapons for the Bulltimore Bullies to field in the upcoming Chaos Cup.

Just the basecoats and washes on these minis for the most part. I did spend some time today getting the skin layered up a bit. Looking forward to getting these guys into some Blood Bowl! Blowing up people with bombs and attacking them with chainsaws is always fun (on the pitch).

Oh yeah and this cyclops/big guy is getting some love too.

Lots of work to do here. If it turns out at all decent I will enter him in a painting competition taking place during Chaos Cup this year for best painted Impact! miniature.

And then there were the beasts... calling my name... a few new additions to the herd. It's growing!

Will they get any paint before I switch over to my VC army in preparation for Nagash!? We'll see..

Progress Report 8/3/14 - Slow rolling... into the grave.

Well I am officially (statistically) half way to dead and another year older. Yesterday was my birthday and I spent it at the movies, making pizzas, drinking beers, and playing games. Not tabletop games (I wish!!) just some low impact board games like Carcassone and Shadow Hunters. I did get to spend just a tiny bit of time painting and assembling some minis too. 

Here is where things sit on the table at the moment...

This big guy was a pain to assemble

Hoping to paint him up for a painting competition in September

Look familiar?

A new addition to our Pathfinder Societies party

Just working on base coats here

Dwarf Cleric on Sarenrae done except the base

I like how it turned out

I wanted to give the red a softer tone

Not so soft there is the Gnome Barbarian

I like painting bright orange hair!

Human (was Dwarf) Druid

Kinda looks like a Ranger but whatever!

Halfling Rogue ready for action

If by action you mean missing a lot of backstabs

Goblin conversion for a BB secret weapon (chainsaw)

I like the chainsaw on a stick idea

A goblin chucking explosives

Another conversion for BB secret weapon action

Need to get all these finished plus a commission that just rolled in all in the next few weeks! Should be a busy bit of painting time. Really itching to finish my Mordheim band as well and I think I might compete in a WHFB tournament in a few months which means I need to finish and/or repaint and touch up one of my armies. Probably my Vampire Counts though the Ogres are tempting me...

Progress Report 3/10/14 - Gobblin' Up The Sunlight.

Slowly... ever so slowly... we rise out of the frozen muck and mire which has bogged us down the past few months. A day of 30+ degree weather feels like a summer breeze. Sunlight and the creeping days give way to painting! Priming! Happiness! 

First up on the oil painting front - spent last week of class sealing the under painting of my Smoking Man painting and began work on a smaller painting while it was drying. Here's a quick rundown of that process, which I am using a different style of under painting for, and where I got to last week. 

Original reference photo.

My quick sketch of that photo on canvas.

Starting with an outline.

This under painting will be in three colors.

Working on the head first.

And here is where I ended up.

This style of under painting is called "dead color" and it uses just a few colors, black, and white for the shading. Afterwards You use glazes and lighter coats to bring the color out and make it more vibrant. Reminds me a bit of my current mini painting style actually. 

Speaking of painted minis I got a base coat and a dark wash on a few more Gangers for the Skullkrushas! The gang is coming together nicely now. 

"ARGH OUR HANDS!!!"

Also got the thumbs up from my Dwarf mini client on what might be the last RPG commission I do for awhile (I think I have painted everyone at this point). Behold the Dwarf Cleric and his +1 marker!

Working on washes next then I will bring out a lot of detail on this mini. Not sure who makes it but I like the look of this guy a lot! Looking forward to seeing him completed (then maybe I should finish my own gaming minis). 

There is a slight chance I may actually play some WHFB this week!? Stay tuned for that if it is of interest to you....

Progress Report 10/28/13 - Halloweenies.

Yowza! It's almost the end of October and I haven't managed to paint much at all. Let's see what this nerd tally says about my productivity:

• Started a Streetbowl pitch.
• Lost my first Streetbowl league game. 
• Saw Obituary play live. 
• Spent a week recording new SEPLOPHOBIA stuff. 
• Played a live show.
• Painted a commission piece.
• Played an Arena of Death scenario in the D&D 3.5 campaign and killed 7 of 9 PCs.
• Played another Pathfinder Society module and saved the party from a couple ugly situations. 
• Painted up a cool They Live mask for Halloween. 
• Drank a lot of beer. 
• Started working on two more commission pieces.

There you have it. Very little in the way of proper "miniatures" painting but plenty of gaming and other nerd related stuff. Between my games and radio shows I find less time to paint all the damn time! Working hard to give myself at least 15-30 minutes each day. Here are a few photos of my progress from the last few weeks:

Started off with this mask made of two masks, paper mache, and a bit of sculpty.

Blocked out the main colors.

Added some washes and layers (stuck on the eyes here for a quick look)

Highlights on the exposed areas and mouth/jaw.

Final highlights on the skin and glossy bits on the exposed areas.

Rawrrr shirtless warriors are go!