Thanks a lot RiTides! It seems my iPhone 6+ takes 3264x2448 pics, which the downsampling algorithm obviously doesn't like AT ALL (and also is way too big to post at native size in a thread). So what I should do is manually resize to 1200x900 before I upload?
Ramos, really sorry for hijacking your thread, but that lovely picture of your beautifully painted army made me think of this
With my iPhone, I just email myself the pic, open in MS paint, and resize to 25 - 30% size and save as a .png. There are different versions of paint and you can also resize by pixels, but that range should work perfectly for the iPhone 6
Since I've resized it, I generally select "full sized" instead of "medium" when posting from the gallery, so that nothing else is done to it, but this process helps it look sharper either way!
PM me if you want further detail and we can go through it as much as you need . I think this is basically required for iPhone 6 users, and helpful for other cameras too. Hoping lego can fix it eventually but it's good to have a manual solution for the interim!
@ whale and ritides - thank you two so much for the tips - the whole blurry photo thing has been driving me bloody nuts for ages now. Cheers fellas @Ramos - that army is awesome. Seriously beautiul work there
The basing is something Im particularly proud of. Since I started painting things for OTL, I've made it the unofficial "studio scheme" after seeing one of the GORGEOUS display boards they've had built. Glowy crystals and gray rock. The rail was something I experimented with when I painted the Beastman figures a while back, and I'm told its one element that constantly gets complements/questions when they take the minis to shows and conventions. With that in mind, I just had to bring it back for the dragon
So on to the next project!~
Assassins!
Object here is to do the Callidus in a white suit and the Vindicaire in snow camo. They're eventually going to match with a client's Space Wolf army, so snowy bases and the like. Very quick basecoating and washes here- Because it's white, its really a case of doing very little to the main color and making it shine on the details!
@SL & wy: I think the trick is to not glob it on too thick and actively mop up recesses and pools. I'm also thinning it down a bit with water and matte varnish so the color isn't so intense except in the recesses. The mat varnish is particularly important as it stabilizes the paint so you don't get tide marks and uneven coverage.
@SL & wy: I think the trick is to not glob it on too thick and actively mop up recesses and pools. I'm also thinning it down a bit with water and matte varnish so the color isn't so intense except in the recesses. The mat varnish is particularly important as it stabilizes the paint so you don't get tide marks and uneven coverage.
SL: I use Liquitex Matte- Super cheap for how much you get. I got a big 473 mL bottle of it for 13 bucks on sale. Use it to varnish all my minis too. Goes through the airbrush pretty easy with a little thinning.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Hmh... So did some camo on the Vindicaire. Not quite sure how I feel on it. Camo just feels so unintuitive to me
RiTides Gators look fantastic! I am going to be SO ashamed putting them next to my half painted Circle Jerks
OTL dragon looks pretty awesome as well. Such a nifty little guy.
As to assassins, I think your camo looks fine. Add a third color blotch though that overlaps both base colors a bit, and it will come together a little more for you. I hated doing the camo I did in the... wow very distant past, but I found that third overlapping color is really what made it look "right" in my eyes. At least as camo; breaking up outlines on a model seemed about as natural as an oral bowel movement.
That looks like solid advice. It feels risky to do it probably, but the third color probably needs to be a darker one, right? I.e. like this massive camo pic:
Spoiler:
Maybe not quite that dark, but this helps give contrast and make the whole thing not look like a blur.
Add some spots of Space Wolves grey (or whatever the blue grey color is called. I'd avoid black, though he has enough of it that the point would be moot anyways.
Ok, so added a little bit of Shadow Gray as you guys recommended... I think its an improvement. Looking a little more urban camo than snow, but I thin it can work.
@SL: Straps are going to primarily be a dark gray, so closer to black. Pouches and one or two straps will be in a brown leather.
I think I would've preferred something not from the blue family of greys (not sure what the other type is called - the black greys?). I.e. like this eye candy:
If you wanted to try a test spot of it you could probably cover up the blue-grey with something that isn't black, but is still on that side of the spectrum... might just be me, though!
@RT: That makes sense. Pattern thats mostly white, just a touch of color there and there to break up the lines... Hmmm that makes a lot of sense...
@WM: I see. Well, for what I'm working towards, as per clients request, is something like this swatch he gave me of "snow" camo... Whether or not it really works in said environment is beyond me, though- I know a lot of things, but not much about camo!
Spoiler:
So for the box on the gun- do you think it should be the same pattern as the suit or a different pattern but same coloration? ie like a tigerstripe or a more blocky camo?
I think the trick with that camo pattern (if you were going for identical) is that you started with the white, where the base color is actually the medium dark blue color (2nd darkest). Can be hard to tell on camo, which makes sense, but you want to look for the color that doesn't have blobs, making it the bottom. It is also a printed pattern for clothing, not a painted pattern for hard surfaces, as there is no masking order that would makes sense without having to spray like 9 layers.
Blocky camo (digital, marpat, etc) is not designed for guns or other solid objects, it is for fabric that has some motion to it. Presumably it wouldn't work on a skin tight body suit either. Tiger stripe would work, but be really hard to pull off on such a small level and still have the "torn" edges. I'd go with the same pattern.
Camo science.
Edit: Using some gauze and draping it on the gun might looks cool too. Similar to a gillie suit, which is used to break up the hard edges your brain sees.
"Camo science" blows my mind, apparently . Since the client wants blue, that makes sense! Based on the example pic, maybe one more shade layered in of an even darker blue?
Well, I can definitely say I learned something today. And starting with that medium blue would have probably been WAY easier! I think I might bug the client about using gauze, though... I think my only fear is that it might ruin the rather nice lines of the model. Hmmm.... much to think about.
@RT: Maybe, maybe.... I just poked him to see what hed like to do. Could do from some dots of an almost black blue. Just tiny little dots of it.
@Alf: Oh god no... My mind nearly melted just looking at it.
Heres the Callidus so far- Just about finished with her, with just the base, leathers, and the metals to go. I figured that with the stock one a redhead/brunette, this one struck me as a blonde.
@RT: I don;t really want to go too terribly crazy with the hair- Just a case of making her fit with the rest of the rest of the client's space wolves (definitely doing some crazy stuff if I ever get some of these assassins for my own... Like some kind of active camo effect on jumpsuits maybe? Crazy punk hair on the Callidus? )
For now she'll have to stick with the very Nordic Blonde colorscheme!
So report back from the client: Too blue! (also, no go on the ghillie suit)
And so I respray and wash him and get Vindicamo try number the third one! This time, he's MUCH more tundra/snowy, with a neutral gray (thats the word you were thinking of, Tides!) and a near black. Think the straps are going to need to all be leather now that he's had both gray and black on his camo scheme... We shall have to see!
I like that so much better . Esepcially from the front view, very nice! Something strikes me a little off on the back of his calves compared to the rest (a little more or thicker black needed maybe?) but I think this is a huge improvement and much more convincing to my eye, even if it's technically urban camo according to WM
I think maybe In need to add another little spash of black to the back of his left calf... I think a lot of what else is bothering you is gonna be solved once straps go on. Thatll break up the camo more.
@Knightley: Alas, yes! One day I hope to get a set for myself, so hopefully we'll get to see all 4 of them in the future!
@nerd: Yeeeeeeah boiii! She fine, she really fiiiiine!
Thanks Nerd!
@SL: I tend to have a really intuitive paint style, so unfortuately I cant give you an exact method or mix. I tended to thin the wash first with a few drops of varnish, then applied it to the model. Then I dipped my brush in my water pot and thinned the wash on the model itself. It was really a case of carefully dragging the color and controlling where it pooled. You really have to baby it. Where I wanted the base color to come out more, like raised areas and flat areas, I wet my brush and used it to wipe away the thin layer of wash.
The whites were all airbrushed, and I actually didnt go back over them after washing. I just let the colors set how they may. Biggest thing to it was babysitting the colors and not letting the wash pool too much.
Hopefully I proved at least a little bit helpful.
@Wehr: Thanks- It really surprised me how well it came out once I put that pillar and the snow on the model.
@moonpie: Warlord is still in the box- sorry! Really need to finish these orks, as the client has been waiting an awful long time for these. Then I can start washing them and getting some assembly done.
Soon, moonpie.... SOON!
@youwashock: Thank you!
=========================
So as I mentioned, I had some basing to do for my Space Wolf client. In addition to the usual resin bases plus glass snow for the Wolves themselves, I had a big group of Legion of the Damned to do in lava basing. This was a pretty quick application of Vallejo "Black Lava" paste, then a bunch of red/orange/yellow paint.
Also started work on the Flash Gitz- Just the base for the skin right now, plus some washes.
On goes the ork skin (been a while since I've painted this color! ), and on go the metals. Nice grimey silver to match the Gitz I've already painted for this client. From here its on to touch up the blacks then start adding in the various colors. Since the last squad had primarily blue-colored plates on their guns, this squad will have more yellow. Also present in this group is Kaptin Badrukk- a model with tons of gorgeous details and challenges all of its own!
Yup! My metals are super simple. Base Boltgun Metal (or AP Platemail Metal, in this case), then wash with SWM Armor wash. Then edge with pure silver. Works out to be a nice bright chrome when its all set and done.
No progress today as I've been on and off napping due to a bit of what I assume to be tonsilitis. damn throat has been a mess the past couple days. Been sleeping most of today :/
Ramos Asura wrote: No progress today as I've been on and off napping due to a bit of what I assume to be tonsilitis. damn throat has been a mess the past couple days. Been sleeping most of today :/
I told you to stay away from those dreadlock hair women at whole foods!
Get better soon!
So feeling a little better now- no clue what that was all about, but Im glad its gone!
@WM: Rest assured, the Titan will get some love soon. I just need to clean out the stationary sink in the Basement so I can wash it all! Soon as Im a little further into these CSM bikes, Ill be starting the assembly
@SL: B-but, DREADLOCK WOMEN! Come oooooon!
Never let me have any fun
================================
So while I'm healthy again, I managed to finish off the Flash Gits and Kaptin Badrukk!
As mentioned previously, the earlier squad was colored Deffskullz with more blue on the guns. This squad is decidedly a little more Bad Moons, but still a fair bit of blue on them.
The group!
Badrukk!
Other Gits!
In other news.... EXCITEMENT!!!
After three years and nearly unbearable waiting, Kingdom Death has finally dropped!
So much stuff in this.... I mean... Wow. And it looks so cool!!! Its a really awesome looking box- matte black, save for the glossy designs on it. Plus it is incredibly thick cardboard. All the better to keep the innards nice and safe! All 17 pounds of it.
The minis inside are also incredible. Detailed as all get out!
Expect a bit of unboxing project log-style later in the week!
Awesome. I wished I hadn't missed that band wagon. You are right about the models. Simply amazing. Something I haven't heard any more about is the actual game part of it. Does anyone really care about that part any more?
@Ice: Poots & Co. had been really hush hush about the game until very recently. I believe it was GenCon that they finally had demos and stuff. Seems to be a really solid system! From what I was reading in the rulebook (which, by the way, is something like 220 pages and is filled with art), the game seems to play pretty simply. Lots of random events, too. Gain population for your settlement, gain skills, randomly get eaten by a massive demon-faced antelope with a giant mouth on its chest....
I've actually assembled all of the basic minis, so soon as I have the people, I can get a game started
@Gits: Thanks! I really think they best fit my preferred paint style- lots of pure, bold colors. WM once put it as "cel-shaded"
@RiTides: Hmmm... You know, I think it might actually be the KD box. There is a surprisingly large number of cards in the KD box, so really dense.
To be fair, a lot of it is art. The rules pages are in a larger font, and still have plenty of graphics to go along with them. Then there are events that you need to refer to that take up two page spreads.
I have to say, there are a few campaigns that have recently delivered / are delivering really late, but just hit it out of the park and totally made up for that (which isn't usually the case!). I just received my pledge from the DoubleSix campaign and they're stellar despite being almost as late as Kingdom Death. Awesome to see them deliver so well!
Alright, so I've been working on the CSM Bikers the past couple days (in between a couple rounds of KD:M, which is awesome!), and so far I have the base colors down. On the marines themselves, I think that the color is solid. The bikes, on the other hand, look a little too hot pink. The client wants them to look older and faded complared to the armor of the marines, so I have a feeling Im going to respray much of the existing paint. Maybe more blues/grays mixed into it... actually, perhaps a black undercoat instead of white! That would certainly fade the color from the very bright pink it is now... Will update once I do that
Fun: Combat on the hunt is pretty quick, and the AI rules are well developed. You can kind of cheese the mechanics if you plan it out well, but the hit location deck sometimes puts a damper on your plans. In the span of about an hour and a half we went through two years of Ramos's settlement and we almost did a third, but I demanded he build The Butcher first.
Complex: The settlement management is where the game slows down because these decisions can have lasting effects on your survivors. In year one or two, one of the survivors suffered a derangement and became immortal (as long as he was insane). So he was the mighty Warrior of the settlement, and then he died when our Archer got jealous and murdered him. We then killed the killer and were down two experienced people. So we had a bit of a setback in that regards, also lost one of our women in childbirth, so some weird gak can happen
Settlement phases can make or break your next hunt. For example, in our first settlement phase, we had the option of making a bone axe or a bone dagger. The former had a higher strength bonus, but the dagger gave an extra attack. We went Dagger. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake!
We spent hours and hours hitting the next lion but failing to wound him at all. Had we gone with the axe, the issue would have been nonexistent.
I've been doing some peeking in the Butcher control deck (still waiting to get a play through with him!), and... Well... I think we'll be feeling a lot of what we did in the early game. He's crazy brutal, playing TWO AI cards per turn, including one attack that keeps rolling new attacks as long as he hits. Like the Blood Claw Dread on Blood Angels. Thats going to be a rough one.
==============================
Anyways, had a busy busy weekend, gaming with Alf Saturday and then with a friend of mine in Avon on Sunday. Unfortunately that group didnt take much to KD:M as much as when we played with Alf. Attention kinda just drifted off and we called it off to play something else.
Yesterday I came back to the painting desk and got the faded pink colors I wanted on the bikes. This is a perfect demonstration of the effect of a black undercoat vs a white one. Other than that, the paint blends are IDENTICAL!
Crazy! But this, I think, is what the client was aiming for. The bikes look colder than the armor and have an older faded property to them. They look a little stark right now, but Im sure once the details go on theyll come together
Now its all a case of picking out details. Lots and lots of stuff to pick out.
It started with a trip to Pittsburgh on Thursday, as we spent all day moving my younger brother into his dorm. Ended up finding a really awesome burger/wings joint there called WingHarts- cant recommend it enough if you're in the area!
Then Saturday, I finally got my driver's license! I figured I really did need it after all, as my normal chauffeur (the afforementioned younger brother) is now in Pennsylvania! I've some RPG groups I still want to play with, so while he unfortunately needs to drop out of those, I dont have to! (yaaaay.... Ramos gets to keep playing games) From there I met up with Alf again to do Kingdom Death, where we got brutally mauled by The Butcher.
Sunday was a paint day like any other, when suddenly we heard an odd noise from the back yard. Cut to the following day and... well.... We dont have to close up the pool anymore....
We've been breaking it down and cleaning up the past couple days, so Im unfortunately behind schedule on the CSM bikes! :/
Metals are now going on the bikes and marines. I think then that'll leave just the gold and tiny spot colors to go!
Hey I got my license!
*crash*
Hey I lost my license!
No, no... FORTUNATELY I wasnt the cause of the Poolsplosion. Guess the guys who repaired it several years ago used trash parts that rusted!! The side split open at the seam :/
Crazy, too, as theres debris on the hill behind it that goes up at least 6 feet. Cant even imagine the power that was pent up there.
@Tides: Tis the season for candy!! Hopefully Ill have some frog-shaped ones for you before the season ends
I do have a list, actually... bothers me a little bit how I'm falling behind, but hopefully I can make up time before too long!
CURRENT: 9CSM Bikers- Due Oct. 10-11
OCT-NOV: Deathroll Mk II (More gatormen and some frogs)
NOV-DEC: Admech Army
DEC: Big ol robot for Alf
DEC (also): Start assembling the even bigger Giant Robot for WM (DEFINITELY needs a name this time around!)... might get to this earlier for the change of pace.
DEC (also): Start assembling the even bigger Giant Robot for WM (DEFINITELY needs a name this time around!)... might get to this earlier for the change of pace.
Hell's Daughter - A Warlord-class Titan commanded by High Princeps Cadmon Krom during the final Loyalist assault on Badab Primaris during the Badab War.
whalemusic360 wrote: Hell's Daughter - A Warlord-class Titan commanded by High Princeps Cadmon Krom during the final Loyalist assault on Badab Primaris during the Badab War.
whalemusic360 wrote: Hell's Daughter - A Warlord-class Titan commanded by High Princeps Cadmon Krom during the final Loyalist assault on Badab Primaris during the Badab War.
DEC (also): Start assembling the even bigger Giant Robot for WM (DEFINITELY needs a name this time around!)... might get to this earlier for the change of pace.
Hell's Daughter - A Warlord-class Titan commanded by High Princeps Cadmon Krom during the final Loyalist assault on Badab Primaris during the Badab War.
Problem solved.
Munda's Daughter - A Warlord-class Titan commanded by High Princeps Phillip J. Fry from the final Loyalist assault on Omicron Persei 8.
No maniple YET, but i'd consider WM well on the way. Timmy needs some friends, after all! And sorry to disappoint you, graven (you piece of vile Chaos scum!), but Hell's Daughter is going true blue (rather black and white) loyalist!
CSM bikers are nearly complete- just a few tiny areas of spot colors and the golden trim!
Here you can see what I did with the bare skin areas on the models. Decided on a gray-purple Slaanesh-ey skin- very close to the Daemonettes I painted for WM last year.
So these took an unusually long time to finish. Really thought they were further along than they were Friday I blame all the gold trim! (And, you know... Me continually missing bits here and there )
But at long last, they are indeed complete. Emperors Children Bikers!
=====================
KD:Monster Update:
So Saturday I got together with Alf and we played some more Kingdom Death. Had a blast and wrecked the Screaming Antelope. Had a spectacular Hunt phase preceding the Showdown proper, too. How it all came down was that one of the first hunt events we encountered made the monster move away from us on the Hunt Board. Normally this is no big deal- We've had the Lion scoot one space towards or away from us, but nothing drastic. The Antelope moved THREE. This took him well beyond the "Overwhelming Darkness" space in the middle of the board. I'd never encountered this before, and from memory of my rulebook readthrough, it wasnt going to be pretty.
Another event we rolled was "Madflies", little bugs that flew into our brain and laid eggs. (ew) Wasnt terrible, though, as it gave us bonus strength until Turn 4 of the showdown, where the eggs then hatch and give us a random disorder. During the boosted strength, we all took extra brain damage, so Ikari went sane (super sane), Hubert went sort of sane, Alf stayed insane, Tara developed more disorders...
Surprisingly enough, we managed to roll well enough to escape relatively unscathed in Overwhelming Darkness (except poor Alfandrate, who nearly killed himself as he walked the Path of Madness). The fight with the Antelope went similarly well, save for the brain worms popping on turn 4 and the Antelope giving poor Tara Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
After returning to the settlement, triumphantly dragging chunks of the Antelope behind us, we are greeted by a group of heavily armored men brandishing great steel halberds. The population of Braburg is silent as the strangers count each in turn. Upon their tasks completion they draw their weapons and lash out, slaughtering 5 of our 13 villagers. And just as silently as they arrived, they departed.
Well that sucked... Hmm... Well, we still have all of our kit, and some very good weapons, including the Butcher's Cleaver, a rare axe that hit HARD! You just had to be insane to use it! And what's this? A merchant came to town. I buy a "Pink Stone" from him, content with the possibility that we were more than likely just going to end up with a Founding Stone (little stone dagger with a one-shot critical ability. Nice in a pinch). I remarked to Alf how funny it would be if a rolled a 10, meaning that the stone wasnt a weapon at all, but a mystic artifact that made the one who bought it immortal!!
So of course a 10 was rolled
We innovate some new tech and set our sights on our next quarry. "Hey, you want to try a Level two White Lion? I think we could take him!"
*Famous Last Words*
We met the beast in a field of tall grass and quickly took to hiding in order to avoid its attacks. Key among its abilities was the special behavior of "Cunning", in which at the end of his turn, if he was next to a survivor he grabbed them, running away with the unfortunate victim in tow. We severely underestimated the gravity of this situation...
First to fall was the Immortal Tara Lioncrusher- Earlier in the fight she criticalled the Lion's groin, resulting in.... *ahem* "losses" for the lion. Though hard to hit, she simply couldnt avoid its ire and was eaten.
Then the Ranger Alfandrate met his end (guess who's character that was ). He was getting chewed up left and right and barely managed to survive this long. He was hit with a number of mental disorders and severe injuries before succumbing to blood loss.
Next was the tragically-named Ikari Inari, wielder of the Butcher's Cleaver. Over the Hunt, he had lost his insanity as well as the only item that could have given him some back. The relic weapon was lost to the mists of Death...
Finally, the bearer of the King Spear, Hubert the Rat, met his end... As the last survivor on the board, he simply couldnt get away from the Lion's Cunning ability. He was ALWAYS knocked down, and ALWAYS adjacent to the lion, so there was just no chance for him to avoid being dragged along...
Settlement Destroyed!
Sure we had 4 remaining after The Hand's cull, but they were the weak and infirm. Furthermore, they were all GUYS!
Impossible to continue...
And then we also played the new Game of Thrones LCG from Fantasy Flight Games.
Ramos asked for dragons since he doesn't know much about that world (I can't blame him up until a few years ago I didn't like the series and had barely finished the first book). So he played a House Targaryen with Banner of the Lion deck that combined the cunning of House Lannister with the power of House Targaryen. I played the king of the Realm, Robert Baratheon and the rest of his house.
First game was very balanced with Ramos pulling out the victory, and then we played again and it was far less balanced. Ramos' characters spent half the game kneeling before Robert and Stannis as they powered their way to victory.
That HQ bike is insane - so much bling! Really love it
Re: Kingdom Death, I got to try it out as well (just the combat part), and it was neat, and I could see how equipping your heroes each "year" could be fun all on its own. One of our friends is house-ruling the settlement events, though, since he said they end up killing more of his survivors than the beasts!
Also mentioned that there's a really crazy jump in difficulty as the beasts level up... the Level One Lion was quite easy to tackle, I thought, but apparently Level Two makes it crazy... as you found out
The settlement events can be a bit rough. A lot of potential death, but in most cases its a case of rolling a 1. Murder is the worst event as far as killing characters, but I do think it adds an element of danger/randomness.
One house rule I've read is that a survivor can evade a "you die" result on events and hunt events by spending ALL survival (minimum 2 or 3) to avoid it. Might be useful.
Gotta admit I was a little curious and apprehensive about these guys! I couldn't see where you were going with them and I had concerns they would look a little too chalky or would have too much of the pink..... But I had NO reason to be worried :-) the choice of colours to offset the pinks and purples are perfect and the conversions and bases are simply epic and suit the background of the EC, you've done a great job dude I really like them well done!
Thanks you guys! Champ conversion is my favorite of the bunch as well- particularly the bitz for his upper body. I've really got to ask where he got them. They were in a very peculiar white resin that I'd never encountered before.
@nerd: Yeah I definitely hear where you were coming from with the pink. When I was painting them, I really didnt anticipate them being so fluorescently bright! Warlock Purple interacted really oddly with the white undercoat and just blew it out. Im just super happy that it all toned down after adding extra colors. Glad I could make a believer out of you in the end
@SL: I know, I knoooow. The front wheel is a real oddity, but thats what the client wanted. It does add a particularly unique bit of Slaanesh-y color to the model, though.
====================
So! Next project up is more of Project Deathroll!
These guys are really really cool frog models. Set up for football/Blood Bowl-esque games, but with the addition of a spear they turn into some Croak Raiders.
There are 20 in total, to be split into two squads. One blue skinned like the squids of wave 1, the other a bright tropical orange! Very much looking forward to throwing the bright colors around!
Ramos was working on some more assembly stuff first, but I think that should be mostly done now so probably will start to see some painting progress soon
Ramos should have plenty of time to paint this weekend, I won't be around to play KDM with him... but I did give him an Xbox controller so he can play Dark Souls...
@Alf: Yeeeeeeeah.... <3 Dark Souls.. I really love how the game is laid out... brilliant level design. I also discovered I cant run past the bridge dragon xD
@SL: Just give me her number, man.
============
Today I finished assembly and priming Deathroll Mk II, and threw down the first few shades of color on the frogs.
Close up of the squad leaders' colors.
And a close up of two Deep Wars guys I threw in along the blue frogs.
Still a ton more work to go on these colors- lots of washes!
Yeeeeeah! Frogs!
Its so weird but im just super excited to be painting these super bright colors. So vivid! Kinda want to paint more of them in even more colors.... haha Theres something wrong with me
@Alpharius: You know, one of these years Ill get a demo game in at Adepticon. Always walked right by on my way to other places and just never thought of it! 2016 for sure, though!!
Today was a really slow day- All washes! I desaturated the orange frogskin with a bit of white mixed into the orange to knock up the contrast. After two coats of SWM Orange wash, the colors came back to a heavily saturated orange/yellow. The blue skinned frogs got a layer of SWM Sapphire, then a layer of SWM Blue.
The Cephalids got more colors as well, in particular the octopi they are holding were painted orange to go along with the frogs. (this is before I hit them with various washes to make the blue more blue.)
Oh dang I totally missed the spear tip in the wallpaper at first glance . Looks excellent! These guys have flaming spears in the rules, so we figured red-hot spear tips would convey that
We were also discussing colors on the squids earlier, but man that orange turned out marvelous on them! The skin of the frogs is fantastic, too, and you're right that they're a refreshing change of pace
@wyfox: Bingo! Exactly what we were aiming for! Think I'm going to put just one more highlight on them at the very tip, but Im glad the glowing effect is as convincing as it is now
@Ritides: yeeeeeeah, my wallpaper here is preeeeeety awful....
TIME FOR A TANGENT! Earlier today, these guys arrived at their destination, so I can reveal them
Chaos spawn inspired by "The Thing"
So a little backstory on these models... Way back in the space-year 2010, I bought a huge crate of random sprues from a guy at the gamestore I frequented in Columbus. Inside were a lot of bits and surprisingly a TON of models! Some horsemen, some nids, Skaven (including a full screaming bell already built), GW Zombies/ghouls... You know, Ive never actually done a tally on what I have in there.... One of these days!
Anyways, as I was following his Halloween-themed "Monster Mash" army (which you guys should totally be following by now... Seriously, its fun stuff!), I remembered that I had some Chaos Warhounds and Chaos Spawn bits, so pulled those out and threw em together! The inspiration just really hit me and I had to paint them up! I didnt even know if he could use em in the army, but it was just such a fun project! Fortunately enough, it seems they found a nice niche in his army
Ok, ok... enough sidetracking... Im back to work- Frogs wont paint themselves, after all! Thanks for reading guys!
Love "The Thing" models, that was definitely needed for the Halloween Monster Mash and really cool of you!
One more highlight on the end of the spear tip will make them just that much more awesome . Is that going to be almost white? I do love metal glowing "white hot" (in googling for the hot metal I know a lot of times it ends in yellow, but you know it's insanely hot when it's almost white!).
hmmm...my software filtering service is blocking pg. 115 as being provocative? Any chance someone posted a naughty picture If so, could they spoiler it? I missing out on the flaming orange frogs that Ramos is most expertly painting
The only images on this page are from Ramos' Dakka gallery. It could be something from a poster's avatar or signature, though (I usually view without those so not sure if there's anything obvious).
Well not sure why but my filtering software doesn't like page 115 . (I'm posting on page 114 . I'll just wait patiently till the page rolls over to 116.
wyomingfox wrote: Well not sure why but my filtering software doesn't like page 115 . (I'm posting on page 114 . I'll just wait patiently till the page rolls over to 116.
...Any time now...
Your work must be blocking it due to the amount of frogs
Ya know, I betcha its all this talk of HAWT FROG SPEARS that is kicking off wyfox's filter
Maybe we can trip it again with FROG SPEARS!
FROG SPEARS FROG SPEARS FROG SPEARS! on fire!
(bye wyfox! )
As to the Hounds' blood effects, thats totally not the blood of my enemies! Totally not. (Shhhhh! Dont spoil it, Solar... I might need to get more "blood effects..." >=D )
It's one of my favorite paints for this effect: Tamiya Clear Red (X-27)
It has the perfect color right out of the pot for fresh blood, and with a little additional black or red ink mixed in gives it a more dried look. It also has the perfect consistency once it starts to gel and dry. Gets really gooey and you can make it form threads and chunks. Highly recommended!
==================
So oof... Sorry for the absence, guys. Internet went down here a couple days ago and it took us a bit to get it back up and running.
Since last we spoke (or last I wrote, rather), the frogs have gotten more colors on them and are looking properly decked out now. Dark leather and tan cloth/fur areas are complete, and the armor just needs a highlight of silver and a bit of rust.
It's at this point that I need to ponder gem and eye colors for these guys. I was thinking all green gems (there aren't that many to paint, mostly just on these guys' necklaces and another sculpt's gauntlet.
Then eye color, I was almost thinking a magenta sort of glow. Dark at the outside, but fading to a pinky color in the middle? Almost like the Albino Vault's eyes, but no pupil to them.
I could dig a green gem, although for eyes I'm thinking white-ish. The two examples I could find are below, I think there's no pupil no matter what:
That second pic has a little color near the edges but still has most of the eye "whitish". Does that come close to what you were thinking? I'm partial to the first pic which almost has a bit of cream to it, though. What do you think? It'd fit right in with the color of the horns, too! I'm hesitant on the second pic because the magenta at the edges makes them look a bit angry
It looks like the belt buckle and horns especially are also TBD, but I really like where these are going! My only worry from the start was color balance (hard to make an identical scheme work with both orange and blue skin as far as balance of colors) but I think you're doing really well with it! If it were possible to see the details on one model before finishing the rest I think that'd really help but the cream-ish eyes and horns should brighten up / add a balancing color to the scheme nicely.
Belt buckles are gonna be picked out in a little bit of gold, just to get that splash of color on them. Then the horns will be a bone color, unless you'd rather them be the yellowy color of the Nautiloid shells. Think that'd be too strong for these, though
Glad to hear that the color balance is working for you. As Im looking at them, its crazy how different elements of the individual colors are emphasized. The blue makes the leather look more red, the orange makes it look darker.... COLOR THEORY!
Sounds pretty solid on the creamy white eyes, though. When I get the horns and gold on these guys I'll pop up a picture of one with cream eyes. Im thinking I know what to do with them- have them fade to a very light sepia tone. You dig?
Yeah that sounds great, the only thing that's in flux is the eyes so makes sense to go ahead with the rest! In that first pic above, how do you think they do it? I see what looks like a little black edge (maybe from a black wash?) and there's almost a hint of yellow in the center? Not sure if sepia will look like that but that's just the one thing we need to test
Looks like they blacked out the eyes (like I did for the vault), then worked up from some kind of bone color to white in order to give it that glow. Sepia wont be as yellow, but will instead have a chestnut shade to it.
Ramos Asura wrote: Looks like they blacked out the eyes (like I did for the vault), then worked up from some kind of bone color to white in order to give it that glow. Sepia wont be as yellow, but will instead have a chestnut shade to it.
Hmm, would it work to try it on one? I really like the above eyes but it sounds like a lot of work! The black edge would be nice to have, and we could see if the eye shade looked right with the sepia on one.
The frogs look really nice! I think a green for the gems will be good, as the orange frogs are all warm colors, all the time, so something to set that off would be nice.
Thanks wehr! Thats exactly my line of thinking... Probably going with a purplish blue for their tongues as well for the same reason...
Gems are green and fitting nicely now, and all of the horns are painted up!
Here is the test for eyes... on the left, a more yellow eye. The camera blows it out a little, but this is more of a true yellow fading to white in the same way as the Right eye, which is sepia.
Man that frog is looking sharp! Ramos is just going to brighten up the tips of the horns, and then this bad boy will be ready to kick some serious arse!
The purplish tongue color sounds great btw, and matches the earlier unit's tongues which looked fantastic! And I just love the yellow eye color in general so we're going with that . Ramos also mentioned that the rust comes after everything is done being painted since it's a powder and comes post-sealing. Not that these need a ton of it anyway (they're already so "warm" in color) but just a tiny bit here and there. Other than that, these look done!
I can't describe how pleased I am with how these came out, such a unique unit and you have pulled it off in spades!
Frog Spear dudes are looking great. I saw your Wolves in the Halloween project; totally awesome. I love The Thing, so I was fist pumping when I saw them.
Thanks drcheese! The Hound Spawn turned out exactly how I envisioned them, and that they were so well received by Gits and everyone else... Im just super stoked to see how far Git's project has come (and how my minis fit within it ) Just goes to show how far getting really inspired by a project will take you!
Sooooooooo....
Frogs are DONE!!! Only thing missing is some grass on these guys, but thats something Im gonna take care of all at once at the end of the project!
Order now, and get Frogs in two spectacular flavors!
Blueberry:
And Tangerine!
Tomorrow Im going to Pittsburgh with the family to bother my brother at school... He needs to go grocery shopping, ya see! So no work tomorrow, but after that its back to some green gators and blue squidmen!
These guys are destined to be counts-as Croak Raiders for WarmaHordes.
The models are Frogmen from Gaspez Arts and are usually for games like Blood Bowl. Though with the simple addition of some spears and a little finagling, they work out pretty nice as armored infantry!
This is absolutely incredible work!! These are my favorite units you've done by far, the colors worked brilliantly! So glad we decided to go with one blueberry and one tangerine flavored unit
There is a skull helm bit we discovered for the unit leaders (even though it's not on the website pics) so that may get added later to help them look like more badass rather than just the "fat frogs" (although clearly in froggy hierarchy the fattest frog is the boss!)
Re: Bases, Wehrkind may take offense . Actually you're spot on, but if you look most of the cast defects are on the flat front face. I'll be covering the front face with laser cut base labels to both identify the figure and show the front arc. They will likely be a darkish green material. So that won't be visible for long
Frogs look good! They do cry out for Kermit style pupils though
Re: Bases: Some of those are pretty rough up front... are those the old style or the semi-deep dish ones? If the old, you should have bugged me for some replacements Though I am interested to see how the laser cut bits fit on the front; that might be a good fix for a surface that tends towards issues. When I make new molds for those, I want to switch the pour points to be off the flat face (isn't as easy to clean as I had hoped) but to do so I need to add some mass to the backs of the flat part so they don't catch bubbles. That might not be as aesthetically pleasing as a flat "plate".
Your new base casts are great (where you moved the pour points) these are the old! But that face will be fully covered with the nameplates, so it won't show at all, anyway
Regarding Kermit pupils, I like them with just the empty eyes - that's how all the pics I've seen of these have been done. Pupils are always risky - if done badly they make the models look much worse! I love the pupils on the big Vault gator that Ramos did, but for the smaller models I tend to prefer pupil-less (particularly for nonhuman models).
Didn't mean to be insulting Wehrkind, my apologies. They were just such a contrast to Ramos' amazing paint job. Sounds like it won't be an issue at all for RiTides though. Again, I apologize if my language was a bit rough.
OH, no worries Gits, those do look pretty iffy I throw away about half as many of those old style bases as I use anymore, as the last few pours before the molds crapped out don't always clean up well.
Actually, looking at the bases and the models harder, are the models glued to the base part? I ask because some of the models look to be moving/facing different directions than the base arcs, and if they are not glued down that can be fixed, as well as getting some better bases attached
The models are all generally facing forward, but to mix things up some have their sides to the front and some are pointing right at it. Arcs will be super clear once the green nameplates are on there, I promise
RiTides wrote: The models are all generally facing forward, but to mix things up some have their sides to the front and some are pointing right at it. Arcs will be super clear once the green nameplates are on there, I promise
Whatever, Mr "Why wouldn't you assume he would be facing in the most opportune direction?"
Much of the roughness on the bases is on that front face, so the labels should clear them right up (very curious how these end up looking, myself!)
When are we gonna get to see some, Tides? (I mean its not like you have anything else to do, eh? )
==============================
Today was a bit on the unproductive side, as I mostly just sulked around the house... Just a weird off day... I dunno...
Anyways, once I actually started to work, paint flew on pretty quickly. The remaining lizards got their skin tones up (just need to go through with a bone color to bring their bellies out), complete with washes of differing colors. These are all tones brought over from the first section of the army and should make these guys fit riiiight in!
First up, the big Gator- From what I've been told, this is likely one of the first casts of this to get paint
And some smaller character minis: Calaban the Grave Walker, Bloody Barnabas, and another Squamata Spitter from Helldorado (another Bull Snapper!)
Looking forward to getting more colors on the P3 characters... They just really strike the right chord with me in terms of detail and design.
Anyways, thats for another day- Till next time!~
Looking great! My favorite green is the brighter one that Calaban and I think the big gator got, so that's great . Barnabas is a pretty dour guy so he should work fine with the darker green, especially as a character with all the other details he has. But really, that big gator is looking sweet even with just a basecoat, love the model! It is Deathscale from Minion Miniatures, and so far I've only seen their studio model painted (they just shipped these).
Base labels will be happening in a big batch once I get these wave two models back . Hopefully early December!
Good to hear I made the right choice in colors All of these are various mixes and blends of SWM washes which I've just taken to calling Green, Dark, and Yellow. Caliban got the "Yellow" tone, while the spitter and Deathscale got the "Green" tone. Barnabas got the "Dark" tone.
@Wehr: I far prefer this version of him to the other version. I love his expression, as if hes slightly amused by what he's lumbering towards. His other version is a bit too stumpy for my liking. Not a fan of his tusks either:
Spoiler:
More color on Deathscale! Now with teeth and bone.
I painted some of his back spikes as bone, and all of the gators got a yellowish underbelly, as seen below.
I also got the helmets painted on the frog leaders, so now they're finished up!
For Deathscale, can his back frill be the same color as the one under his neck (so it will look a bit like the gatormen posse you did previously). I love the gradient on his back! But am thinking the frill itself would make sense as the lighter color
Oh man, I love them both so much . The big gator is going to be in basically every list I run, so I am really glad it turned out so menacing! The extra dark green "speckles" on the forearms is a really nice touch
Love the snapper too, and there will be a bit of grass / moss to help blend in the "foot on rock stump" pose (he needed the extra height since he's so short otherwise).
@Ritides: Excellent! Always glad to hear that.
The green speckles were actually something of a last minute addition- I figured he needed just a little something more on him. I didnt want to put that much more warpaint on him, and it was looking kind of bare. The stock paintjob from Minion gave me just the right inspiration for it.
@Gits: Haha! Skintones. Absolutely skintones. Always have a terrible time of it and it just never seems to come out how I want it!! Its something Im always experimenting with and trying to learn.
Nevertheless, I sincerely appreciate the compliment
@graven: Do it! Its a fun model! Its going on my short list for minis I want to paint for myself.
@Wehr: Thanks! As far as spots on the frogs... I was tempted, definitely was tempted. However, spots would have admittedly taken a bit too much time, and may not have even ended up working just due to how much skin is actually visible on them! If they were shirtless, it would work better, but as is I think its best to keep them solid.
@Dr H: Yessssss Im not alone So that means nerd's next door neighbors are a group of Tasmanian Devils and/or brightly colored dingos/bush mice!
It all makes so much sense now...
===================
Worked on the squid guys some more and got most of the colors blacked out. Starts to look at least a little bit cohesive once the lines are neatened up.
And the second dude, who has a bunch of really nice details...
Including the adorable Octopus, Bloop!
Ok! So I wont be getting any more painting done tonight or tomorrow, but this time its for a really good reason! I'm heading out to the gamestore tonight to participate in a charity event for extralife.
The store will be running a Twitch stream of the festivities, so if you want to check out a group of weirdos playing all sorts of boardgames (or just wanna waste some time ) give a look! http://www.twitch.tv/whatimplayingnow/profile
Come to Tasmania, bow before Big Willy and offer him your sacrifice with trepidation, he shall be the eye to glean the apprentice to undertake the arduous path of the skin. if chosen your undertaking will be stage by stage, step by step and interspersed with games and cakes
@Zerg: I'd highly recommend them to paint, especially the big Nautillus I painted a while back. Allows the chance to use really bright colors that one doesnt usually have, and Im all about the bright vivid colors!
@nerd: One day, I hope to make that mighty pilgrimage... I pray only that my faith is strong enough to do so. In the mean time, I shall align all of my brushes pointed towards the promised land (down, ya see), in order to channel some of its power!
So.... Apparently there is a Cleveland, Tasmania. Randomly stumbled on that on google (I live near Cleveland, Ohio, to explain the source of my amusement) How about that, nerd? We're almost neighbors!
=========================
So Im all back and rested after an insane amount of Gaming on Saturday. The event kicked off at midnight, and we stayed wide awake and rolling dice/throwing cards until the next midnight! Somehow I managed just about 39 hours awake... Genuinely shocked I made it that far...
Played a lot of games including one called Favor of the Pharaoh. It was a dice game where you "bought" tiles with certain die rolls (eg a pair, three of a kind, etc). These tiles gave you more dice and other abilities which were then used to get even more tiles. The final goal was to get 7 of a kind and buy the "Queen" tile, and gain the favor of the Pharaoh!
Anyways, you guys dont care about my gaming... you want to see minis!!
Next up in Project Deathroll are two Privateer models (in a hordes army!? Im shocked! xD)
Quick little progress shot of the two characters-
If all goes to plan, these guys should be done tomorrow. Then its just 3 figures (plus one to be shipped to me later) and Deathroll Mk 2 is complete!
Are you planning on putting some bright colors to punch up Barny there a bit? He always looks so bland most of the time. I am looking forward to seeing what you pull off after those blues and oranges on the frogs!
Hes mostly going to be the very drab colors you see so far, but will be getting very bright red blood on his snout and some bright rust effects on his axe. Should brighten him up considerably!
Ramos Asura wrote: Quick little progress shot of the two characters-
If all goes to plan, these guys should be done tomorrow. Then its just 3 figures (plus one to be shipped to me later) and Deathroll Mk 2 is complete!
Very nice!! That's a good comment Wehr, although Barney is a serious guy. Love Calaban and all his details! Is that the final color for the head he's holding or just an undercoat? Would love to see it a bit voodoo, it's supposed to be a "crystal skull":
@Tides: The skull was only a base color, no worries! Wanted to try out some washing and stuff.
@Wehr: Oooh... Uka-Uka... That'da been a pretty sweet idea!! *logged away for future project* I certainly see where you're coming from about too many earth tones... I wanted to stick close to the studio scheme, though in this case... Attempted to use the white on his face and the blue skull to give some focal points.
Calaban and Barnabas are complete! Hopefully they have enough spot color...
Ramos actually tweaked the blood to look a little less fresh. My thinking is he chomped on somebody earlier - his name is "Bloody Barnabas", after all!
Blue Skull is a nice touch!. I like the muted tones. Have you thought bout adding a shine to some of the scales. Might be interesting to bring out the scales.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Slow day on Dakka?
Re: the blood- I was mostly working off the stock image for him, which has blood on his jaw but not on the axe. No idea of the reason, but I suppose its along the lines of he chomped on someone. Its now a bit darker (so like dried blood), and is matte rather than gloss.
@SL: I considered doing something like that, but Im not really confident that I could pull it off. At this point, Im mostly relying on washes to darken recesses and the natural colors of the scales to bring them out. On the larger stuff like deathscale I mottled the big scales with a darker green to give it some texture.
So... Im sorry to be a croc block, but the next three minis I have for this project are anything but coldbloods! We have a purple tentacle monster (Thrullg), a Predator (yes, that kind), and this chappie- A gladiator!
I'll never understand how some people (Im looking at YOU, nerd!) do such good skintones... For this guy I tried a new technique on him. This was all done in light glazes of the skintone color, alternated with mixes of Ogryn Flesh and Army Painter Strong Tone. Its... better than some of my past attempts... I guess... (I hate skin! >< )
Although the model is a converted one from Arena Rex, Ramos isn't going for a gladiator paint scheme - hopefully using the same heavily rusted, beat up metal as the army and some earth tone clothes helps him blend in with the swamp folk. I love this model, and this unit needed a throwing chain / net / entanglement weapon - it's amazing how few models there are on the market with those!
The last few models in the project are super interesting I think (just 4 left counting this one). You're doing a great job on this one Ramos, skin looks fine and can always give it one more wash to deepen the recesses towards the end like you said. Looking great!
Best way I have found to do skin quickly and pretty nicely is a fairly dark base, then 2-3 highlights up to an ivory/pale skin tone. Wash it with an Ogryn Flesh or Devlan, then add a few highlight glazes with the pale flesh where it needs some.
I may have started to have a bit of a breakthrough with skintones...
As I had mentioned, I was experimenting on this model using various glazes of paint rather than solid color. I'd mix in a bit of matte varnish to my color, apply it, then go back and feather it out with more matte varnish. Then I sought to darken the recesses. I chose to use a mix of P3 paints Traitor Green and Coal Black, so chosen because they're roughly on the opposite end of the spectrum to the extant skintones (a technique I heard about at the Skin tutorial class I took last Adepticon- It just never clicked until now!). I watered this down and added a good deal of varnish, then applied it just to the very darkest spots. Really pleased with the result. It muted the warmer tones and darkened them considerably, and actually gave me what looks like a "normal" shadow!! I will definitely be using this technique more often... I WILL figure this out!
Finished Gladiator!
LAstly, before I sign off I thought I might give you guys a little taste of one of the more peculiar projects coming soon to a workbench near me...
I swear also that on the tabletop his sword doesn't look so big (I'm picturing Wehrkind / Gitsplitta / Solar_lion commenting on how he's casually wielding it with one hand but how would you model a weapon armed with a net, sword, and bow all at once!?). He's the Hordes fantasy equivalent of Rambo
RiTides wrote:I swear also that on the tabletop his sword doesn't look so big (I'm picturing Wehrkind / Gitsplitta / Solar_lion commenting on how he's casually wielding it with one hand but how would you model a weapon armed with a net, sword, and bow all at once!?). He's the Hordes fantasy equivalent of Rambo
He's certainly well armed... Armor on the other hand... well... At leas this head is well protected.
His sword is definitely "normal"-sized (for a given value of normal), the angle of the photos does make it seem a good deal bigger though!
Wehrkind wrote:Maybe it is a normal sized sword, but he is just your size?
HEY-OOOOOOOOOOO!
I like Gladiator Pendrake there, but I think he needs some blue. Might just be me though
OOOOOOOOOOO! You gonna take that, Tides? Man, you guys play rough.
I added a little bit of a blue tone to the feathers on his arrow (black highlighted to dark gray-blue), but other than that I really couldnt think of any areas to add color. He's mostly just skin and burlap!
whalemusic360 wrote:Man, do Steve's models ever end?
Almost there... So close... WHY DOES HE HAVE SO MANY MODELS!!?!?! [/foaming at the mouth]
But seriously... Very close to the next projects. Before the new year, I still have the aforementioned Gundam as well as some Purple Admech! (Gotta make nerdo proud on that one!! Lots and lots of metals on them! )
Plus... you know... I have this even bigger Giant Robot to finish assembling for somebody...
That model is representing Viktor Pendrake, who is armed with a chain bola, bow, and huge sword. I think I went as WYSIWYG as I could (really wanted to represent the chain bola, which is why I picked that model with a net - it can throw it to entangle models / knock them down up close, which is really important to remember!).
Gits and Solar_lion, you have covered the issues with the sword admirably in Wehrkind's absence (but I still love it!). Hopefully it distracts Wehrkind during our games
You know, I hadn't noticed the lack of any sort of pommel. I had sort of mentally assumed it had a handle like a machete, but now that I see it.... that will bother me during games Maybe I will make up a pommel and sneakily glue it on while you use the bathroom.
So last two minis I have in hand for this group- Now basecoated and washed. Aim is to get the purple people eater to the studio paintjob for Thrullg (Who is purple. Ya see? )
The other guy is a stand in for the Totem Hunter- A "Predator", if you will
The purple model is Autaia from Kaha miniatures, with its mandibles replaced with the tentacles from Thrullg. It's a really great company and model! The turtle is also theirs (called Whati).
That a Predastore predator? Because I keep trying to come up with excuses to buy a handful of them and use them for ... something. If/when Necro returns I might do up a Malcador Spyrer spam list or something, though there are plenty of really small skirmish games on the market now ...
WHICH is to say awesome work Ramos, everything continues to rock
It is indeed! This one is their "Lord Snow Hunter", although I was tempted by a few of the others - they have a really nice range of them! It is interesting to me that there is enough of a market for those models that they can sell only that, with just a bunch of variations of them
The last model, which I had sent to Ramos but gotten back to do some more converting on, is in an overnight box on its way to him now!
Here's the really cool art for the model:
Spoiler:
And the conversion!
Ramos is going to paint it up just like the big gator under the Sacral Vault (with a whiteish skin with hints of red, albino looking). Should be perfect for a spooky spell-gator! I like this build a lot more than the upcoming official model for it which has been previewed... but I'm biased
Spoiler:
Anyway, this really is the last model in Project Deathroll! Really appreciate everyone else's patience in the queue as Ramos completed this incredible project for me! I'm all tapped out, so he's all yours... for now (and for some time to come, given the queue for his excellent work!).
I will try to get some group shots of both halves of Project Deathroll together, along with some action shots when they finally face off against Wehrkind!
I think you may be ahead of me for total model count at this point between Dropzone and Deathroll. Maybe if 40k gets it's act together we can get you in on a Badab War army. Return of the Wardens in the Team Tourney 2022.
I like your model better too! That is a pretty bit of gator, and is going to look really nice all painted up. Not as over the top busy as the PP gator I think.
Predastore is a fantastic case of finding a niche market and having fun with it. Fantastic to see all the different Predators, and from what I've seen with the Snow Hunter, the detail is really nice. This model in particular had a very peculiar method of assembly- His spear actually was designed to be inserted between his cloak and his body, a difficult prospect given that he was cast all in one chunk, save for his front foot. I was genuinely surprised how easy it was... The cast was nearly perfect, and I needed only to drill just a tiny bit to make it all the way through.
@Tides: The big gator coming is gonna be a fun one. Im lucky I started taking so many notes- Hopefully I can duplicate the albino skintone Official mini looks like one hell of a chunk of Gator... What material is he cast in? That pic almost looks like Bones material... Which I hate....
@WM: I think he just might have beat ya out, though i have a feeling it'd be a close race. I've done a lot of small stuff for him (and one or two medium things), whereas for you there have been several much larger scale projects, like the Titan and Terrain!
=======================
Next two minis in Deathroll are complete, so from here on its just the candle gator mentioned above.
First up, the stand in Thrullg
And second, the Predastore Lord Snow Hunter, standing in for a Totem Hunter.
Now I say its all complete... This isn't 100% true. I actually still have to put on tufts of grass.
The product Im using is some loose packed stuff, the same I used for the Dropzone Commander display board. I like this stuff for the color and for the fact that you can get really nice long tufts. What I dont like is how long it takes to make the tufts!
Fortunately, Ritides sent me a link to a tutorial for making dozens of these at a time. You can find it HERE Definitely pleased with the results so far
Oh man, that Predator Totem Hunter is absolutely boss! Love it!!
Glad the swamp grass method is helping with the assembly line, Navarro is a genius!
The preview of the PP Blindwalker I think was just a prototype, but theirs will likely be in the restic / PVC material they do most of their organic models in (which isn't necessarily a bad fit for the Blindwalker, but does mean it will be extremely hard to convert).
Good suggestion on the pink, Wehrkind! Forgive the horrible photoshop mockup, but I finally figured out (at the End of the commission ) that trying things out in photoshop is a lot easier than doing it with painting and then having to redo/undo! What do you think:
Spoiler:
Still keeps the purple look of the Thrullg, but makes it more visually interesting by having a pink in the breaks in the skin... not a screaming pink, just pink. I think it could work, will see what Ramos thinks
Yea, that is pretty close to what I had in mind. Just enough to show a distinction between the tough outer skin and softer bits (or whatever is going on with those little cut outs). The eye glow helps a lot too, drawing attention to the face and telling us where the face actually is.
I just wanted to note that the Autaia (thrullg) model above was painted Exactly as I asked for, it's just there's only so much you can do with all purple, all the time . Ramos and I discussed the pink idea a bit over PM and I think it will do the trick!
Also, Ramos is an absolute a saint! Although that title might not be totally appropriate for someone who creates voodoo gators...........
Ya mon. Be Voodoo saints everywhere!
Crazy evil juju be on da mon who be doubtin' me, mon.
*note. This was probably funnier in my head! Results may vary.
Pink was added to Thrullg, and the final gator arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Project Deathroll is in its final moments!!
As mentioned previously, This guy is destined to be the same albino color as the Sacral Vault, albeit a little more dead- he's pretty well mummified, ya see! One last-minute edit I had to make to the build is the jaw-wiring. Initially it was string that I had wound around it before sending to Tides. After priming, these "poofed" (yeah theres no better way to describe it) and turned into nothing more than a collection of lint and fuzz. So I took it off and replaced it with thin wire. No chance of this fraying!
Currently, this is the basecoat and first fleshwash, so he looks way more pink. Tomorrow Im going to start with the white layers to get him to that gross, ghostly color!
Also took a bit of a sidetrack today with the final wave of a SW rebasing project for another client. Simple and to the point, but I do like these bases. Think theyre from Dragonforge.
@Wehr: Well, this fleshy chest area might be a bit old and dried for you... Not the freshest- I mean look at him hes skin and bones!
@SL: Glad you think so! Really happy that I found the thinner wire- thick stuff would have been way too chunky :/
Skintone is done (it's seriously highlighted up to pure white, but the camera seems to have squished it out! D: ), and the stone/metal areas have been blacked out. Starting to get a feel for the final product here! Next up are the many bandage wrappings and the stone platform on his back.
EDIT:
Also, Registration for Adepticon 2016 is now open!
Looking sweet!! And I'm registered, too (although I actually had to pay weeks ago for the vendor registration, still have to decide if I can squeeze in some events!)
I might bring the gators with me (depending on space and if I'll have time for the Iron Arena!) but I will Definitely have Boss Monster 2, of course . Without you guys here, I have yet to play the new version!
Looking forward to it... Only regret is not having a Warlord Titan to play in the Titan game.. ( Run at your enemies and explode!!! )
Will have the most time on Saturday to help man the booth! With the Modcube launch done and people out there using them should generate traffic to the booth.
I'm up for late night Boss Monster. I'll bring my sets as well.
As always, I look forward to hanging with the Wardens and inevitably losing to everyone I play in 40k xD
*le sigh*
At least I'll always have Seducia....
@Tides: I'm sure I'd be available to help out a day, too. As always just lemme know And you should TOTALLY bring the Gators... Be a nice reunion for me and my little lizards xD (Plus, you know... Wanna see the army crush everyone else!!!)
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Albino update!
Just need to highlight the wrappings and paint the metals and stone, and he'll be done!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, looking forward to seeing you at AdeptiCon . I will likely take you up on it, and will bring the gators if I can do do safely!
I'm considering investing in a KR foam box at some point, since local friends consider Battlefoam to be "sandpaper" by comparison for their nicely painted models. If anyone has suggestions there please let me know, I am cringing at the idea of harming Ramos' masterpiece!
I've got a KR box, it's nice I haven't noticed any paint issues, but then again it contains my mostly unpainted FoW army with a few painted Russian tanks.
That is great to hear - do any of you know of a good place to get them in the U.S.? I haven't found many places online (Warstore / Miniature Market don't seem to really carry them). If there is a black friday sale somewhere I might spring for it so I can protect the army when it arrives.
Sorry for the tangent Ramos . I've just been eyeing the heavy metal models in some existing foam I had, and feel like the extremities could already begin showing a little bit of metal... really want to avoid that happening much! The resin models seem much less prone to it, thankfully.
Im definitely a fan of KR- Been considering picking up a case or two come AC.
Not sure of any US distributors... Iirc, they can ship from within the US, so theres no insane postage from the UK... Im not sure though!!
At least as far as Deathroll is concerned, HOPEFULLY they're a bit more protected from damage than normal... I put a double layer of gloss on all my commissions before matte varnishing...
Ah that is great to hear! I think I'm just scarred by my Infinity models that seem like they'll chip if you look at them funny, but they weren't so well sealed, either.
I have found that gloss sealant first provides so much more protection... I did the same on my bugs and had no chipping at all (but then again they are also resin). So thanks for being so thorough on that
I got my case from Warstore at GenCon 2 years ago. It was on clearance so I'm not.surprised that they don't really carry it anymore. Are they doing any Black Friday deals?
Ahhh Tis the time of year to climb into the old Harddrive, poke about in the old photos of years gone by, and bring down the big old box of Christmas stuff!!
Yeah its a crappy string of lights glued to the top of my Avatar again... Deal with it
ANYWAYS! Amidst all of the excitement of Thanksgiving (including Exploding Kittens with the Relatives) and miscellaneous weekend madness, I managed to polish of the final component of Project Deathroll- the Blind Walker!
And the obligatory group shot!
With these guys done and the year drawing to an end, Im switching gears to a most unusual project... Time for some GUNDAM!
Till later tonight, guys
Solar_lion wrote: Awesome work on the lot. They turned out exceptionally well for the " farm animal" genre. The squidy's are my favorites.
What the hell kind of farms do they have where you are from?
Looks great Ramos! We have a game scheduled for Dec 14, so slam that gator in a box and ship it! It needs to chew on my mostly primer grey Circle jerks
How is he at squeezing blood from stones? Or monies from wives?
This blog has been a pretty good motivation for me though. Unfortunately, most of that has been counteracted by just how much I hate the Nyss Hunter models. Hate hate hate! I think I am just going to epoxy the 3-4 I broke in the past 2 days and put them back in the box to focus on Tharn and pigs.
Blindwalker kicks butt, and the whole army is amazing! I can't decide between blueberry and mango flavors, personally
I will take some pics of these on the table with Wehrkind's stuff, along with a full group shot since this is only half. What an incredible job Ramos did on this, I am so pleased!
Probably the last Big commission I'll have done (other than a dwarf one I already mostly paid for) and man has it ever been a great experience. Ramos put in so much to this project, and it is just a killer job!
Today we bring you a unique project from our Mobile Suit Division-
This is a SYSTEM ∀-99 ∀ Gundam to be customized with a paint scheme akin to a WWI British Tank. Currently, the suit is in various stages of dissassembly in order to facilitate its repainting.
Future plans are to deepen the panel lines and recesses with a darker color, as well as highlighting the more raised edges with a bright green. Additional livery and details will be added following these steps.
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Re: Solar Lion: Thank you for your support of our Biological Systems Division. Your comments have been referred to the Division Manager.
Re: wyomingfox: Thank you for your comment. The "Mango-flavored" frogs are some of our favorites as well. They complement the cooler colors of the rest of the units quite pleasantly.
Re: Gitsplitta: We are pleased that the Albino gator meets your expectations. Thank you. We endeavor to continue bringing you the finest products available.
Re: Wehrkind: We are pleased that our projects inspire you in your own ventures. Unfortunately, we cannot confirm nor deny the development of any Lithoensanguination programs at this time. We are delighted, however, to mention that De-Primer projects make wonderful gifts for the holidays. Frequently this makes their justification far more reasonable to spouses.
Re: inmygravenimage: Your input regarding the "creepiness" of the specimen in question has been noted and submitted to the R&D Department for further review. Thank you for your valuable input!
Re: RiTides: Once again, thank you for your continued support. We at Asurion Heavy Industries remain ever grateful for your patronage and look forward to seeing the specimens in Project Deathroll in action.
Thank you for continuing to choose Asurion Heavy Industries!
So I go to my "My Subscribed Threads" link and "Asurion Heavy Industries: Mobile Suit Division (12/1/15)" pops up. I stair blankly at the screen for a few moments and then realize I must have clicked on the "My Friend's Threads". I then reclick on the "My Subscribed Threads" link and "Asurion Heavy Industries: Mobile Suit Division (12/1/15)" pops up again. I then try to decide if I was sleep surfing or if my account got hacked. I click on this thread scroll down a bit and slowly realize that I shouldn't have gotten up this morning.
. I think this is basically required for iPhone 6 users, and helpful for other cameras too. Hoping lego can fix it eventually but it's good to have a manual solution for the interim!
