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Felt so much better today, I think the antibiotics finally kicked in, yesterday was mostly being asleep on the couch from the painkiller!

The poor unfortunates are no longer unfortunate! All repaired and based, work started on one of the harlies ( they had the most casualties of far, likely due to their very silly poses!) and the two older guys on hover platforms



And, more grots all done



Great fun to paint as always, though the guy on the right has some extremely interesting feet. I know grots aren't exactly the most perfect creatures on the evolutionary chain, but I can see why the others have guns and this one is left to manual labour. I like the one looking worryingly at his finger too, as if trying to do complex math in his head and struggling. If he is the one in charge of maintaining the mechanics, I would have a worried expression too

Of course the picture instantly highlights all the faults to me :( Spot of paint on the rights foot that needs fixing up asap and thats a grenade, not a scroll as I painted it as for some reason. Will clean those up

What faults? They look awesome to me!! Also, that little Grot looking at his finger reminds me of my little bro...

Keep up the hard work, Ifalna!
_Tim?

Ha, those grots are funny dudes. Not the smartest though.

The grots look great, it seems that they are the most characterful 40k sculpts nowadays.

The look GREAT Iffy! Wonderful jobs. I'm guessing after the eldar you needed some grot therapy!

Those grots are looking great, Especially the WW2 themed one on the far left!

As a side not, where are these from? I know the middle-left one is standard plastic grots box, but the others not so sure (although middle-right looks like battlewagon to me?

As I recall, the outside ones are FW, the one with the wrench comes (I think) with the battlewagon kit. Can't remember where the blunderbuss grot is from.

Love the grots Iffy, they are funny little fellas.

Haha, thanks for the feedback, guys

Yesterday had lots more work done, the eldar have their turqoises and whites finished and just need their bleached bone and gems done, and I got 2 more little grots.

The grots were difficult because I have no idea what they are! They are grot oilers according to their bag, and they definitely have a little creature each, but they are different to any oiler I could find on google :O I am guessing they are very old as they have that Brian Froud goblin look to them, all wrinkly and smiley. Very cute indeed. I had no idea what to do with the little creatures as I couldn't find any source material, so I did one yellow and one blue, with worried faces. I would be very worried too if an old grot was squeezing me while smirking. I will get some pics up tonight of them and the eldar, nice to see models getting done ( sigh) and I have 3 more days off to get more finished!

I had to make a stop to my local art supply store today. My trusty size 0 series 7 which I have lavished affection on since I got it has magically gone missing. My apartment is very tidy so I couldn't for the life of me work out where it could be, I turned the place upside down trying to find it. It eventually clicked that just after I last used it, I may have not put it on its pot properly, meaning it rolled off the table and was picked up by my extremely diligent Roomba.

So in a nutshell, I accidentally threw my most used brush in the garbage and didin't realise till too late. Trying to paint without it was horrible, I did not realise how dependant I had become on using it. I bought 2 more size 0's today, one spare, the other to be placed with the models on the shelves and not left on the painting desk. I don't want to go through Series 7 withdrawals again!

Those are old, metal oilers Ifalna. Should be fun to see what you've done with them. I've gotten very attached to my really good brushes... they aren't as expendable as the normal hobby grade ones so I get much more attached to them.

I love grots and goblins - they are cute and vicious - just like my nieces

Shame about the brush. I've come to love my series 7 as well, though I still kind of suck at painting. Me + art = failure, usually. At least I can get straighter lines with it!

Grots are cool looking forward to seeing some more, especially the old oilers.

I still haven't taken my series 7 out of it's container, and I've had it for a couple of months now Worried I'll forget what I'm using and start dry-brushing with it Very unlike me, normally I'd be rushing to try my new 'shiny' out. Still, guess that means it'll last a good while.

Gitsplitta wrote:Those are old, metal oilers Ifalna. Should be fun to see what you've done with them. I've gotten very attached to my really good brushes... they aren't as expendable as the normal hobby grade ones so I get much more attached to them.

They are gorgeous. Very fantasy-ish with all their bags and little trousers, but super detailed. They even have tiny round fingernails and really great facial detail considering how tiny they are. Do you have any idea what their little critters are called? I guess they squeeze oil out of them, poor things. Only a few grots to go now, I will be filing down the ones that still have some lines while taking breaks from the Eldar over the weekend. My chair is awful and I can't justify getting a proper one what with likely moving so soon, so I just have to slog it out!

And aye, I got far too attached to that s7, I originally only used it for extreme detail work but as time passed it became my no 1 brush. I used it for everything and made sure to condition it when done, was convinced it would last me forever :( I will be extra careful with my new one now, lesson learned for sure. It will be on my model shelf and not left on the table. Hopefully this will last for a good few years.

weetyskemian44 wrote:I love grots and goblins - they are cute and vicious - just like my nieces

I think gobbos and grots are based on sugar hyped kiddies with weapons, there are too many similarities for it to be coincidence.

Lt. Coldfire wrote:Shame about the brush. I've come to love my series 7 as well, though I still kind of suck at painting. Me + art = failure, usually. At least I can get straighter lines with it!

I gurantee you don't suck as much as you think but aye, a good brush makes a pretty crazy difference. I had a friend over recently who is just starting to get into painting, and he is absolutely excellent considering he has 10 paint pots, a basic brush and basic tutorials so far. He was showing me the faces and saying how hard it was to detail them, he really wanted to but he just couldn't seem to get the brush to do what his hands were trying to make it do, and that was all down to the brush being sub par. Series 7's have really shown me that a brush should work for you, never against you. If you are ever struggling to paint because of a split hair, or a hook, well thats the brushes issue not your lack of skill. A perfectly pointed slightly elastic brush makes such a difference it is crazy, I tried going back to synthetics while I was without the size 0 and it drove me crazy ><

In other news, I hear a couple of Dakkites who know me from the forums came to Cork to visit my friend Conor O'Shea! Whoever you were, hope you had a good time, he's a great guy.




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And heres a shot of the grots, chunk of flash on the rights foot only realised once I take photos, of course ><



Can be zoomed a bit, the blue critter is really worried bless it. These really don't look 40k, they look like amazing old school fantasy. Considering all their little leather bags and pants, I'm not sure how I could have made them fit in better. In fairness though, they look like a pair of older gents, and so they should be wrapped up nice and warm!

I originally shot this with a new white light thinking I was being awesome, but it looked terrible, the light is just too harsh. What I currently use for shots is actually a makeup mirror, with a soft daylight bulb all around it. It gives a nice light without leaving reflection glares or miscolouring mini's, but I think it can mask details sometimes, like how those satchels don't look highlighted when they very much are. When I move I am looking forward to a permanant shot area being set up, so I can have lights and my lightbox in the right place and a tripod, expecting some awesome improvements in photo quality

Those guys are too funny. Even in the midst of battle they have time for puppets, or whatever those things are. Classy.

I think they were just called "oiler squigs". Wonderful work on them Iffy. :-)

yup - I remember them - oiler squigs. I wonder if there is a salad dressing squig or ketchup squig? mmmmmm

Very nice little grots! I love the faces on the squigs, and the smug little looks on the blokes givin' them a squeeze!

Glad to hear you are feeling better, and glad to see you are back to painting!

The blending on those harlies is incredible.

Gitsplitta wrote:I think they were just called "oiler squigs". Wonderful work on them Iffy. :-

Glad you like them Gits, I could not get over how hilarious their smug faces are

weetyskemian44 wrote:yup - I remember them - oiler squigs. I wonder if there is a salad dressing squig or ketchup squig? mmmmmm

Condiment squigs would be incredibly handy, if not messy ;D

Wehrkind wrote:Very nice little grots! I love the faces on the squigs, and the smug little looks on the blokes givin' them a squeeze!

Glad to hear you are feeling better, and glad to see you are back to painting!

Thanks Wehrkind, it is indeed nice to not have that horrid sinus infection, crazy how much those things floor you.

Ouze wrote:The blending on those harlies is incredible.

Its all cheating with an airbrush, for serious Definitely worth getting one.

So today I finished off Eldrad, he was meant to be tabletop but I pushed him further as the model is stunning. He needed to look like a character rank model while still matching the army, so hes turqoise green, with white armor matching the exarch and the black and white guys on the platforms. Red trim + gems matches him with the units, and gold and slight glow effect ties him with the harlies and warp spiders, he looks really nice with the army behind him but also looks unique, so it went well. Might do some more work on the helmet, going to darken the slight green shading between the white panels I think.

- Click for huge



I had a very ineresting weekend that could lead to some good news in the near future, fingers crossed for it!

edit: Hmm, the little extra shading finished him I think-

I love me some grots, and those gits look fantastic. Eldrad looks epic as ever.That cloak is amazing.

Eldrad looks delicious!
I never noticed his 24" waistline before.

Sweet Eldrad!

Very nice work Ifalna... clean and simple... love the work on the wraithbone. Congrats!

Those gems are gorgeous, make me think of Jafar in 'Aladdin'! Beautiful work, as ever.

Eldrad is looking really nice Iffy, I really like how you've done the sword and the green in the gaps in the helmet really help to pull it together with the white.

he is a cut above the rest isn't he. Very nice. you must love painting so much you cant resist going the whole hog! The sword is particularly sexy

Glad hes being liked! The sword was an experiment based on the warp spiders glow weapons, I wanted something bright and coloured as a focus point on him as if that sword was black, or bone lets say, he would seem a lot more pastel and washed out than he does now. It turned out nice and I'm definitely going to be using it again

I'm getting frustrated with my photo shots though, they seem grainy no matter what I try. Perhaps the camera itself just is not the best for micro shots. There is tons of light so it should not be a problem, but I can never seem to get sharp zoomable details. I think I should spend a full day when I next can testing out each of the cameras one by one to see which gives the cleanest macro shots, as the ones I am taking now really don't give a good representation of the mini IRL :(

Weety, I think it's some kind of crazy mental block. When I find a model really gorgeous I tend to feel a compulsion to paint it as nice as time permits. Just such a nice feeling to see a mini come together on it's own as opposed to only getting it's full bang when it's inside a unit.

Your camera is at least as good as mine. But all that really says is that we should both get new cameras - mines like 6 years old now! I hate replacing something until it is good and proper broke though.

Wow Eldrad looks great! I don't think I have ever seen him fully painted before; usually he is "Lord Eldrad of the Douche-world Eldar" in some primer grey tourney list

I hear you on sinus infections too. I had two this year, and after 7 or so years of not getting them (used to have 4-5 a year till college due to allergies) they put me down pretty well. Sounded like I had been smoking for 79 years at 6 packs a day and then ran a few miles. Felt about like it too :(