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Excellent paint job on Zug- incredibly realistic.

The reaver ogre is also a genius model- great use of the ogre head and powder monkey.

Keep up the good work man.

Cheers,

Jack.

Cheers guys.

Funnily enough I never used to like the powder monkey. I always thought it looked a bit too comical and didn't fit with the new style, grim and gritty, empire figures.

Thank god for Blood Bowl humour!



Bought some armatures the other day from Hasslefree Miniatures (28mm), turns out 28mm is a little smaller than I was expecting for scale but I guess once you cover them in GS they will come up to GW type scale (probably heroic 30mm) quite quickly:



Not sure what I'm going to use them for yet but should be handy to have around!

Cheers,

Dante

Looking good that daemon is beautifully painted.

As for the hasslefree mini,can't wait to see what you do with him/her/it.

Love it keep it up!

Cheers
ABH

Zug turned out beautiful - the subtle changes and painting really make it.

Out of interest, how do the large bases go on the BB pitch? Do they fit in the squares OK?

I haven't tested yet though I have heard that they don't and that you really need to make your own pitch with 40x40mm squares.

This then leads to changing the passing ruler etc....

Might approach it like this when I come to making my own pitch but that is some way off for now.

Cheers,

Dante

Blood Bowl and American Football!?! Possibly the perfect thread. 49ers fan here, also ex-coach of of the Sussex Tsunami (BCAFL) and ex player Brighton B52's (BAFA) and Birmingham Lions (BCAFL). Anyone going to Wembly this year?

Love the job you did on Zug and the logo you modled on the other guy's back plate is superb, looking forwad to see how it turns out.

Cheers mate. Good to see more BAFL folk on here!

A little progress shot on Griff:



A little more highlighting and shading needed to really bring it out but happy with how the face is turning out.

The eyes were a total pain to get right. The right eye (left in pic) actually had to have all the paint scraped off of it with a sculpting probe and scalpel I messed it up so many times!

Looking forward to cracking on with him tomorrow and defining some more detail to the features much like Darren's Griff.

I've also just put in some orders for some more sculpting equipment that I was running low on or never had (fimo, 1000 grit wet/dry, wire brush (for cleaning files etc) ) so expect more sculpting in the near future!

Cheers,

Dante

You make faces look so realistic!

Fantastic work once again!

I'll be following this project.

Cheers,

Jack.

So very promising!

It's going towards the subtle and the understated, when I'm pushing for drama and gritty - yet I absolutely love it.

Be careful not to have too little contrast! Flawless can look emotionless, if it's too harmonious.

Ok, managed to make some progress on Griff today. Head and body are pretty much done, just some little bits and pieces like the toecaps, trousers, reflections still needing done/tidied up.

The metallics and reflections look better in full size pics if you zoom in. For some reason the pics kill some of the transition in the scaled down version but they look good IRL.






Really happy with how he is turning out. I have been experimenting some new techniques with the metallics and I think they are some of my best metals yet.

More soon.

Cheers,

Dante


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, my greatswords arrived this week so I set about mocking up a lineman for the team during a break from painting Griff. Unfortunately the figures wont work out of the box due to being much shorter than both Griff and Zug (understandably for Zug maybe but they really looked tiny compared to Griff). Hence the reason for cutting their legs and lengthening them at the knees.

This isn't too big a problem since I was going to be reposing some of the legs anyway. The gaps will also be filled nicely with kneepads, adding to the blood bowl look.



I also got some W&N acrylic flow improver this week. The value of this stuff really cannot be measured. It makes painting fine details such as eyes etc, where paint normally dries out to quickly on the brush due to being in such small amounts, so much easier and more enjoyable!



Finally, a close up of Griffs face to show the detail a little better!



I plan to do some more on him tonight and hopefully finish him tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dante

CMDante wrote:A little progress shot on Griff:

Griff looks great - also love the weathing technique on the holder!

Nice work I have to pick up some of that flow improver .

Nice work on Griff.The newer blood bowl sculpts sure are good.I like the linemen aswell,shaping up to be an intresting blog.I hope to see more conversions and great painting from you.

Cheers for the comments lads.

Finished Griff this evening:





Sorry for the really poor pics. The lighting is terrible but I took them quickly before the batteries died. I'll try and get some better pics tomorrow.

I say finished, but really there are a few things I will probably go back and redo/fix at a later time once more of the team is done.

It's not a patch on razza's, but I feel, in certain areas, it's a step forward for me. It has highlighted my total inability to do even decent freehand work, so that's an area I'll attempt to address in future.

Linemen conversions up next.

Cheers,

Dante

Those pin stripes are great! As are the cuffs of his gloves. They add just the right amount of detail where it's needed.

Good work sir, good work.

Cheers
Dave

fantastic work!

I was going to post something like,"Griff scored a touchdown in my heart."

Yet I thought that a bit strange,so I will just say that is an excellent paint job and that I can't wait to see more.

Looking great he really turned out good I will probably turn great swords into my human team as well , awesome idea . Although I probably might just pick up the reg. models since I don't get in that much blood bowl .

I seem to have set off a trend of this already. Maybe should have kept it quiet until I had one finished!

Cheers,

Dante

Loving this thread. The painting on the face (and eyes) of Griff is fantastic.

One suggestion for Griff. I would revisit the "REAVER" writing on the badge. Maybe add some diamonds to the corners of the letters or paint the letters in a dark brown with a very thin black letter image over it. Something to add depth or interest onto it. Right now I think it looks basic and detracts from the complexity of the other painting.

One more quicky one - the seat of the pants could also use some more interest. Maybe sculpt a quick seam in the center or add some very dirty areas to break it up?

- Blackbone

Yep, it probably is a bit crap but I'm leaving it for now until I get more done on the rest of the team. I added some more highlighting to his trousers though to bring them out a bit more.


Bit of an update on the teams progress:

First off, I forgot to post these pics of Griff's base before, specifically, the severred ear in order to slake the bloodthirst of a particular Warseer member:


Secondly, I've done a little work on the ogre today, just on the face really at the moment and even then, its not done, but thought I'd post my progress anyway:





Quite frustrated with it at the moment. It just looks really scrappy to me for some reason. Maybe I've been staring at it for too long but something just doesn't seem right.

It still needs a few more highlights to really bring it out but I'd appreciate any thoughts and feedback. Am I just going a bit crazy or does it really actually seem scrappy, and if so, where? I can't put my finger on it but something seems wrong.

More over the course of the week.

Cheers,

Dante

Yey you updated! The ogre's face looks really realistic as do the teeth. You've defined the scars quite niceley as well, so to this I say. Good Job!

Dante your so cool mate...

When I say that I mean you have a laid back style of commentary that is easy to digest and your ideas are just fantastic.

Would love to see some more cult figs too!

My favourite games are blood bowl and necromunda, for much the same reasons you say, it's very easy and fairly quick to play, I also personally love the scenery involved too, so reading your blog is wondrous!

Anyway, great work mate. More please!

Dude, your skin-tones are amazing.

I am green with envy.

He is coming along well.You mentioned it looking a bit scrappy,I think it's the shoulder pads,but I think this is more because it is still in the WIP stage and you have not completed painting it,rather then it being a bad paint job.

Amazing work,I can't wait to see the blood bowl ogre done.The skin tones look lovely.

Cheers for the comments lads.

mattstone wrote:Dante your so cool mate...

When I say that I mean you have a laid back style of commentary that is easy to digest and your ideas are just fantastic.

Would love to see some more cult figs too!

My favourite games are blood bowl and necromunda, for much the same reasons you say, it's very easy and fairly quick to play, I also personally love the scenery involved too, so reading your blog is wondrous!

Anyway, great work mate. More please!

Lol, cheers mate , glad my commentary comes across well, sometimes I wonder if it seems like some random, completely mental gobbledegook!

I think the great thing about the specialist games such as necromunda, blood bowl and mordheim are the personal character that each figure has. Everyone is a "hero" so to speak and the fun is trying to convey their particular character traits and persona through conversions and painting. The fact that there are much fewer models involved also makes this much easier!

I think the Dakka community really has taken off lately in terms of painting and modelling, there are far more interesting and exciting threads kicking about lately than there were a year or so ago. People seem to generally be posting more frequently and starting new and creative projects more regularly and I'm glad that some of you are enjoying and drawing inspiration from my work, but I think mainly this recent "re-discovering of the love of modelling" owes a lot to the work of folks like Migsula, Grey_Death, Tael, Modhail, Xanthos, LBursley etc for really inspiring people with their creativity. I know they certainly inspired me.

@ Deff Dread red Edition - Yeah, the neck etc haven't had much done so still look scrappy. I think mainly the problem I have is the lack of definition of the eyes etc. The eyelids need some dark purple shading to bring them out a bit and add more contrast to the face.

More soon!

Cheers,

Dante

You guys even got me to post some more here again.

Exactly!

Now that is something special!

Cheers,

Dante

CMDante wrote:Now that is something special!

Maybe not, but at least I'm enjoying the experience, so thanks.