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Ramos, that looks, if I may use a parlance of our times, "Baller as feth"

The only thing I could think to do to improve it would be to fix that smidge of white on the inside of the left (our right) that seems to be messing up the gradient. It's hard to tell, and honestly I had to go looking for imperfections, so sue me

I find it interesting to see you and Tides working together. Usually you only get to see one side, or I'm the other side.

Ship looks pretty good too.

Yeah, it's actually pretty cool for me too because the only other thing I've commissioned recently was a small Infinity force to a local painter. So we'd chat occasionally, but I didn't nearly get to see the process like is shown here! Very, very cool and of course the results are looking awesome.

@Alf: Ooooooohhh... good eye! I didnt even catch that till i went back and looked. All fixed now!
These minis have been a damn treat to paint.... Definitely wouldnt mind making this our weekly game (well, depending how I feel once I read the rules xD)

@WM: Thank ya kindly! And yeah, I can see whatcha mean. Its a little refreshing having another client who frequents these boards. Generates new thoughts and interactions that might not have happened otherwise in a closed pm!

@RiTides: The behind the scenes extras are a bonus to commissioning me, I guess
Glad you're super happy with em thus far, and I cant wait to start tearing into the army as a whole this weekend!!

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Today I spent a good bit of time with the airbrush running, and decided to lay down the base colors for the Relic Knights minis I have assembled thus far. It ended up being a day of pink and yellow (Im starting to know what moonpie feels like!!)

Example of the pink: The Big HQ Relic Knight. I'm particularly pleased with how this turned out. Keep in mind that a good chunk of the internal "skeleton" will be gray metallic, black, and white, so it will be considerably more broken up!



On the yellow side of things was Lug. I think I need to go a few more layers on him and desaturate the color a touch. at the moment its a little -too- yellow.





In other project news:
Yesterday I got a package from tenebre with some fun toys inside. Recently he had considerable issues with Blue Table Painting regarding a commission (I wont go too far into describing here... Heres the thread, for those interested), and I, like many other studios, offered a helping hand to fix the botch job BTP did.
After my initial message, he mentioned that he had already gotten with another commission painter to fix the army, but he had other projects that I might be interested in. Cut through a little more back and forth discussion and thinking, and we decided on a pair of minis: A "super" grot, and a WeirdBoy!



Very fun, very characterful models (Major reason they caught my eye!). His scheme is Death Skulls, but with a Soviet twist. Touches of olive drab clothing, red stars, blue and white paint... Lots of potential for interesting conversions and freehand. I must admit that I kinda enjoy the Soviet Ork aesthetic. It just works really well together for some odd reason!

With the grot, he mentioned that he wanted a "Rambo" sort of paintjob on him (fitting, as hes got the very Stallone-esque bandanna and mop of hair) so Im thinking bright red bandana, dark green jacket with a red star on the back. The Weirdboy, on the other hand, is a whole lot crazier- pretty much whatever over the top bizarre job I can think of!
Soon as I saw the mini, I had an idea for the cape- a big ol' USSR flag! Or rather, a tattered, Orky equivalent.



And so he's getting a big red cape (complete with yellow hammer and sickle somewhere on it), Blue and white feathers, some blue facepaint... Perhaps even some glowing green glyphs and tattoos bursting with warp energies! Gonna be a fun mini to paint, for sure.

Anywho, Til next time, guys!~

Oh man! i'm itching to see that Weird Boy :-) that's really caught my eye and i'm keen to see what you do!

Thanks nerd!

I think I might actually get one of these minis for myself.... its really a fun model to paint, and has lots of cool detail!

Todays progress:

Nice progress! Lovin' that skin tone

And very cool of you to help Tenebre out.

And that everyone is how you do Ork skin like a boss!

If the Ork continues like that it might just be the best thing I've seen on the page, seriously that skin is just the definition of what ork skin should look like.

Yeah. nice work on the skin, Ramos.
What colour are you highlighting that with?

love the skin!!! and thanks again for the support and help!

Also you got my ideas nailed down perfect for these guys. looking forward to seeing the progress.

anyone wondering ill make a video about my ork army which will better explain the insane theme i am doing. It all makes sense... in Ork logic. which is the only true logic.

@ckig: Thanks! Helping him out has its perks as well... For instance, I finally get to paint the AWESOME Wazaag model. Ever since I saw Ifalna paint one for her client, I've had my eye on him... Just never had a chance to get one myself! Theres a lot of character in the sculpt, and tenebres theme really got my mind rolling.

@nerd: Thanks in no small part to your ork skin! Seriously dude, I think thats where I started to pick up some of the technique Now I just need to decode your human skintones.... hmmmm

@IG: Wow thanks!!

@Dr.H: The skin is based with a mix of Goblin Green and Orkhide shade, then ends with a mixture of Goblin Green and Ushabti Bone. Tenebre told me he used Goblin Green on his, so I wanted to keep that color in mind. I dont even know how I did it... It just worked xD
(Now Ill never get this nice of skin ever again, hahaha)

@tenebre: Absolutely! Super excited to help out, and Im very pleased you like it thus far. Hopefully the final product meets your expectations
Brilliant army concept with a lot of fun potential to it!

========================


Speaking of the painting front, I got the base for the weirdboy done and painted up the grot skin. Kept it more on a Gretchin Green color, so lots of yellow tones to it. Different enough from the ork skin to stand out, but close enough to match. (no pics, though, sorry! :< )

Around midday, though, a giant box came in the mail from RiTides- The entire Shaltari force!


(not pictured are the two display boards from Secret Weapon Minis)


Really, REALLY cool models! Everything from the teeny tiny tanks to these massive things called Caymans. Still in the process of cleaning the hundred or so models, so it might be a little bit before we see any assembly or primer on em!



Oh, and The Lego Movie was playing on HBO, so I -finally- watched it. AND I LIKED IT. So there! Ramos doesn't hate everything!

Dang, how many little buggers are in there?!

A lot, simply put

=====================
Coyote Warstrider
2 Jaguar Warstriders
Dreamsnare Warstrider
Ocelot Warstrider
2 Caiman heavy grav tanks
4 Tarantula battle striders
4 Haven gates
3 Kukri grav tanks
2 Yari light grav tanks
1 Gaia heavy gate
1 Firedrake gate
2 Eden medium gates
3 Spirit light gates
14 infantry stands (8 standard, 6 elite)
2 SWM rolling fields tablescapes tiles
==============

So 27 vehicles of various sizes, 14 infantry bases, and the two display tiles.

So yeah, a LOOOOOT!

14 infantry bases?! Psh I've got at least 30 US Rifle stands if you want them

I pared down the list as much as I could, honest . Tried to make it varied and balanced both for gameplay and painting / display purposes! I do think the 14 infantry bases could be a bit of a grind, but that's an integral part of most small scale games, so hopefully you can find a good assembly line method for them.

Needless to say, I'm very much looking forward to seeing these painted (and using them!). Ramos sent me some pics of the metallics and basing of the yari, too, which he tweaked (I wanted darkish metallics and RED dirt) and I think it looks awesome!

Loving the progress on that weirdboy, too!

Thanks guys!

Weirdboy and grot are continuing on, but the past couple days I've been on an assembly kick! With so much fresh resin on the bench, I couldn't wait to tear into it. Now, everything in RiTides army has now been assembled!



Huge pile of resin stuff... This doesnt even include the bases and the infantry!


Speaking of... the bases:
As all of the land based vehicles are skimmers, I mentioned that we should make bases for them. It would add that extra level of professionalism to the army and make them easier to move. Additionally, the base will protect the bottoms of the models from getting torn up.

I was just going to whip some up out of plasticard or cavalry bases or whatever, but then RiTides pulls out his laser cutter and shipped me some gorgeous black acrylic bases.


Very sharp! Though as I planned to put grit on them, the glossy surface had to go. Nothing likes sticking to a glossy surface, especially the putty that I had in mind. A bit of sanding later and we were ready to go.



Next was the grit. I wouldnt be able to use my normal mix, as the reduced scale would make it look like the ground was covered in large gravel or boulders. As a sense of scale, the large basing grit I later put on these bases would be fist-sized rocks in 40k scale minis. On these, they grow to boulders several feet across!
And so I used a common trick familiar to those of you who play Flames of war- Pumice!


This is little more than ground up pumice in an acrylic binder, and it spreads like paste. . Keep in mind, this stuff does shrink when it dries, so the coarse grit (like the one pictured) will end up looking like rough concrete or gravel. I mixed it with a finer texture paste to fill the inevitable gaps between pumice chunks, then carefully slathered it on the now textured bases. I made sure to thicken it in some areas, leaving others with only a light coat in order to make it look more natural. Then a few "boulders" and it was set!


Heres what it looked like dry:


Note that the black is still visible. This is from the shrinkage of the paste and binder. Not to worry, though- Thats why we mixed in the fine sand paste! After priming, all you'll be able to see will be the texture!


Until next time, thanks for reading!

Whoa, very cool trick with the pumice on the bases! Glad the acrylic worked although I will note it's not my personal laser cutter, I have to go to a fablab for it (I do hope to get one eventually, but that's only if some things I'd like to make and sell work out and I could make full use of having my own... right now it makes sense to use a shared one).

The assembly looks great! What glue do you use for things like this? I found the models quite finnicky to put together, but it looks like you have done an excellent (and fast!) job of it

Gorilla Glue!
Ever since I grabbed some to fix up WMs Titan, I've been hooked. It sets super fast, and is awesomely strong. I rarely need to use accelerator anymore, unless its a really huge gap between parts. For everything else, it sticks fast! The infantry, for example, needed little more than a dab of glue and a few seconds of holding them steady before they were locked in place.

=======================

Todays update, Mail Call!!

Got an unusually large amount of mail today from a combination of online orders and other stuff. One envelope was full of replacement minis for some miscast DzC stuff, but one in particular caught my eye...

One from Tasmania....


One from the nerd!



As some might recall, I got 3rd place in the Nerdcademy Awards, and as such received a rather.... peculiar... first prize
( Warning! Potentially, nsfw? )



Moving on down the line, another package had a blast from the 90's packed inside.... SURGE!!


I had to get a pack after they re-released it through Amazon for the nostalgia factor, if for nothing else. Tasty stuff, though I think I still do prefer Mountain Dew!



And finally, a bit of paint to show that Im not just goofing off around here xD



Nearly done here. I wanted it to look like the cape was lined with a torn up Soviet flag, thus the odd placement of the star on the right. Kinda happy how the hammer and sickle turned out on the left. Not bad for a first shot!

Gonna need to think of how to paint the scales on the back of the cape pretty soon, though... Any thoughts?

I was literally about to PM RiTides to see if he could commission me some custom Netrunner tokens with his personal laser cutter...

But thankfully I finished reading the unread posts before I did.

The infantry is coming along nicely. I know, no paint, etc... but still assembly is still progress! I had to convince someone to build my FoW infantry

Oh good lord Surge, rereleased you say, that stuff was the sweet nectar of the childhood years I spent in Florida, looks like I have a new mission.

Looking forward to seeing how the itty bitty models come out, never painted anything smaller than 28mm.

That makes sense, I love gorilla glue

The rest of the... swag... is pretty interesting/hilarious/etc

Good job on the Orc.
So.. good.. no farm animals
so...bad.. Hows those Marines Errants coming along

( all in good fun my friend )

Congrats ( pause ) ... on the ( pause ) Nerdfest ( pause ) Prize...Well deserved!

@SL: Weeeeeeell.....

I've kinda sorta been.... neglecting my Marines....
New years resolution, though- Get em looking good before Adepticon!!

(I just had so many other projects... :X )

=========================

Weirdboy complete!
He was done yesterday, but the water effects looked awful till now (even then, theyre still drying! xD


Then I put the finishing touches on "Da Red Menace". Shown here atop his latest victory.
I was thinking on how to go about painting the dead ork ever since I got the mini. Then it hit me- If the orks had found old Soviet propaganda and based themselves off that.... what if a similar thing happened to another band of Death Skulls, but with US stuff instead!



And finally, the prototype for Ritides massive Shaltari army (of which I just got the last replacement models in today )
Slowly working out this camera/lighting xD These are ok, but make it look a bit glossier than Id like!


Looking into a better backdrop or better lighting for the future... One day Ill get this sorted out!

Awesome work!! I just have a few questions / requests, since this is the prototype and it's "now or never"

1. I know I originally asked for it, but upon seeing the dirt on the bottom of the legs, I think I would prefer it to be clean. I think this should be easy to change, and better to catch that now! They just look so sweet and clean overall, that it doesn't make sense to me to dirty up just the tips of the legs, and I like the clean aesthetic here better. Maybe the "toe" of the leg can look like the brighter silver on the raised areas of the gun?

2. On the "solar panels" of the Yari, there are some nice orange dots... I feel like there might be something on the above warstrider solar panels there, but I'm not sure if it's that you just hadn't added the dots yet. I think this touch looks really good on the Yari, so would make sense to do to all the solar panels . I also like how on the Yari body there are the green dots in some areas (the back, not visible here) and also some orange dots on the body, as you can see four in this pic here.

Pic shamelessly stolen from your gallery, although the test basing was still being tweaked in this pic (the basing near the nose of the Yari is the correct color, very "red").



3. Finally, on the "head" of the warstrider in the first pic of your post, some of the circles seem to be slightly darker, while others are pure white. Is there a reason they aren't all pure white? On the turret of the Yari, and further back on the warstrider body, the circles are just the same color as the gradient they happen to fall on, which looks great to me.

Looks absolutely fantastic overall, cheers . All the other things I totally love - the gradients, the metal, the cockpits, the green dots, etc!

The warstrider needs a 4th leg... because 3 is just such a ridiculously poor design.

Boo, Gits! Science fiction at it's finest . There's clearly antigrav technology helping hold it up, much like the tanks

(The small walkers do have four legs, though)

I am gonna pick on you! :-) not really about your painting but the other images on your wip show it and the skin so so nicely and really focuses on how good you are but the finished ones seem a little 'blurry'? I know we can't always get those final pics right but you're doing yourself a disservice because that guy is painted WELL!!!!!

mine look cool

what game is the Shitari?

 tenebre wrote:
mine look cool

what game is the Shitari?

Hehe Shaltari

They are from Dropzone commander I believe.

The orks look great all finished! In my head the red menace looks like a gretchin who finally got sick of his herder and 'took care of business'