Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Syro_ wrote:
That's great detail on the face of the one you're sculpting

Not yet... but now its better! With tentacles... (a little tutorial on their making is here)





Sculpting is slow, this week I'll probably have some Badgers and Burrows mice finished instead.

Let's add some more weird happiness from Oathsworn! Badgers do not own all the burrows, mice do!



Neat sculpts, very well sculpted and cast, nothing worth fixing or mentioning. Fun to paint, but I think I'll try to switch to some more serious subject for a week or two now.

Wow that shield looks amazing! Could you explain how you did it? Both minis look good

 Syro_ wrote:
Wow that shield looks amazing! Could you explain how you did it? Both minis look good

It is Angel Giraldez recipe, adapted to P3 paints. Basecoat with Umbral Umber (any dark chocolate brown color would be good). Paint upper half of the shape with something brighter (beast hide). Add some weathering marks with something sand-colored (menoth white) and paint any details with metallic paint and what not. Now wash everything with dark earthly or smoke (dark tone by Army Painter). Finally I've restored metallic glimmer with some more paint and added black wash in the recess of the rim. This was repeated for his sling but there I've used much more menoth white.

No, I haven't forgotten the fantasy stuff, it is just that I want to roll other projects while rolling is good - or at least somewhat decent. I promise to have something finished on this side already this month, but for now - prepare for a WIP flood!

Transpanther is finished, well, sculpting him is finished, at least. Now I plan to undercoat him with polyurethane spray, polish it with Tamya paper and then try spraying him in the most eye-bleeding greens and blues I can manage.




I have also finished my owlynx "kit". No plans to actually cast it, too many parts would have to be cut out, but I do plan to assemble, paint and base it on 40mm round. It will serve both a bearowl and Warmachine-Hordes Griffin, whichever needed. Not the best, but extremely fun to sculpt beastie, I hope not to damage that impression of him while painting...



To celebrate the glory that is Rackham Confrontation (and mark the disaster that current Kickstarter is...) I've pulled my "wolfen" out of the bag and will try to finish at least something in the coming week or two. Poses are heavily inspired by Eclipsantes, both standing and charging versions, but they will be of less Devourer-BDSM looks. The coat of arms piece will be closer to the original... if, IF I will be able to pull that off.



Finally, I think Oathsworn is taking too long with their latest Kickstarter delivery. I want more and now, hear this!!! Anyway, this will be a wolfhound executioner, see, how frendly he is smiling? That is if You are not a bad, bad wolf...



That's it for now. End of flood, back to the paintbrush mopping.

Woohoo! This is what I've been waiting for. I'm loving the sculpts I'm especailly impressed with the detail of the paws on the transpanther. And wow that's a lot of detail on the bearowl/griffin, that must have taken a long time.

 Syro_ wrote:
Woohoo! This is what I've been waiting for. I'm loving the sculpts I'm especailly impressed with the detail of the paws on the transpanther. And wow that's a lot of detail on the bearowl/griffin, that must have taken a long time.

Thanks! I am trying to keep pushing for more and more details from miniature to miniature, they just not always work. Paws are almost easy, but these wings... Ugh! My choice of sculpting method was essentially a row of feathers after row... waiting for greenstuff to fully cure before starting a new one, which meant over two weeks just for them. Boring. Will try stamping method when I forget this one.

I am currently trying to finish some more Oathsworn beasties for the Badgers and Burrows campaign in June, so here are cats... well, one cat, the second is still very much in progress. I call him Prince, maybe he is Danish? Or maybe he is just a Prince of Thieves, who knows?




My usual attempt to make miniature to look bright even in low light gaming room. Plenty of metallic colours and whites. We'll see how it plays later on.

Oh, and I am very close to finishing the first "wolfess"...



... this week, probably...

Prince looks good, and I'm excited about Wolfess being so close. One of these days I want to try to sculpt a custom Sanguinius for the Blood Angels in 40k, so I may be calling on your experience with feathers to beg advice.

Thank You for encouraging words, Syro. And do not beg for advise - experience is something that has to be shared, that's how it grows and matures. I'll bne happy to help.

Meanwhile, the second cat. I was thinking about him as a bill (Bill Sikes, perhaps) but he turned into Grumpy so fast that I didn't even noticed. So he will be Grumpy Bill, not really a meanie, just not a someone You will be all too happy to hang with.



No idea why, but he is a dust magnet of unnatural proportions. You can literally watch dust particles being drawn to him. No iea, why, I've used all my usual paints and varnish, nothing special.



He had his share of mishaps, but I am somehow sure he will be luckier on a gaming table than on the painting one. I'll spend next week finishing something smaller. More mice or another rodents, perhaps...

I really like grumpy Bill, he has so much character.

What a cool figure- the possible stories going on around him are myriad:

1) What is he contemplating (you caught the expression perfectly)?
2) Why is he carrying an axe?
3) Where did he get that cool waistcoat?
4) Why is he a discharged FIFA scoring official? (Okay, I made that last one up.)

Really good job all around on Grumpy Bill!

Thanks! I'm afraid it is not much of my own part - Oathsworn makes such a wonderful animalistic personalities... I'm just trying to give them justice and paint them as best as I can.

Speaking of Oathsworn and Badgers - our campaign starts this Friday and this is the last critter I am likely to have finished before then, squirrel druid. A bit overdone with basing - all that stuff is obscuring little but very well sculpted feet. No idea how Michael sculpts them so sharp, mine always end up plain stumps at this size.



I've tried to make it look like a coloured light on his hand holding that crystal, but it came out more like dirty paint job. When not so enlarged (that squirrel is barely 30 mm tall) it looks a bit better, but not by much. Sigh. Well, at least it is rightfully dirty in all other places too.



And, just to put victims of some painting accidents to rest (and back on the table), here is the last of the last Khaliman guard. His spear was so mangled by my awful handling (more like my awful dropping) that most of it now is a solid brass rod. I swear - one more drop and that pretty spear tip is being replaced by something steel-sharp too, like a syringe needle.



This means no more Alkemy for me in the foreseeable future. Sigh once again. They were very fun to paint - when not falling to the floor.



Since I will try to shift more of my hobby time towards gaming, I am likely to slow my painting drive. There's not enough hours in a day!

I hope you have a great time with the campaign! The squirrel druid looks great. it looks like you spent a lot of time on the fur, face, and hands. I'm also impressed with the way you did the stripe pattern on the shorts of the Khaliman guard. Followed the folds of the fabric really well, looks realistic. It is annoying how models at this scale, and especially certain models seem to have a need to constantly throw themselves from great heights. The way you replaced and fixed up the spear looks really nice.

Campaign had a good start. Home-pack for Badgers-n-burrows was well received except for one sad moment. Small mobs are really too deadly when encountered in numbers. This is all good and fluffy but a normal, sensible party having a mixture of creatures in it stand almost no chance of surviving. Will be thinking more...

Meanwhile - another flood! Transpanther is finished and with it - the stampede unit, the last item I really wanted to add to the options. Ork army list has no equivalent, it is specific to the Herd in Kings of War.




Could I have done it better? Maybe, but one thing I've learned over the time - do it now instead of dragging on indefinitely. These miniatures can be revisited again and again to try new tricks or just to fix inevitable tear and wear. Another picture with more focus on legs...



Mantic panthers, as pathetic as they are, are a nice filler. Easy to paint, but a total pain to clean and prepare and I still have plenty of them... The full insert (10x5 cm footprint):




And a complete unit, basically a big scary fire-and-forget missile to be launched at enemy horde. Not really survivable, not even to a dedicated shooting, but opponent will have to dedicate these efforts - or suffer the consequence. Instead of having just one unit with a big target painted on it get more of them!



There is also sort of "alternate layout" for it...



... and "parts" of the unit can be used as individual monsters too!

Speaking of repairs... time to fix and finish more things, feathery and random.

That unit of big cats looks like it would be intimidating to see charging down the field. Are they a fire magnet to make sure they are taken out before causing too much damage?

 Syro_ wrote:
That unit of big cats looks like it would be intimidating to see charging down the field. Are they a fire magnet to make sure they are taken out before causing too much damage?

Well... they are - sort of. Lets see. The Stampede costs as much as a very good horde. It has less attacks, but these wound most things on 2+, so You can expect 15 wounds on whatever has been charged. Not certainly, but enough to weight it seriously. Considering many things (read - hordes) in KoW become wavered at 18 and dispersed at 22, it only takes a 2D6 morale roll of 3 and more to have Your expensive horde to stop for a turn or 7 to lose it immediately. The Stampede is also faster than most things and with a special/magic item in can easily get movement of 8", making sure it will get its charge. It also has a very small footprint compared to any horde, making its placement and maneuvering easier. Of course it is possible to lead it astray with chaff and shoot it to pieces from afar, but this means other things will advance unmolested. And if You let the Stampede to turn the flank, doubling its attacks... Well, You better be the player controlling that unit.

OK, another random thing is finished - necromancer from Kings of War. Strange miniature. I liked the concept enough to get him for RPGs and Frostgrave, but it is really on the bigger side of "28mm" scale... More at home with Hordes than Frostgrave. Other aspects are also mixed. It is a resin, and a rather brittle one, meaning his outstretched hand had to be resculpted. Most surfaces bear layer marks of 3D printing. Good thing - it somewhat imitates cloth texture. Bad thing - it really interferes with washes. And it has had really bad affair with Army Painter undercoat despite all the soap and rubbing.



I think I need a new set of skin tone paint. Mine is showing its age... Despite that it was good experience to paint something very different from my usual tropes. Fun, bright and straightforward. Than - and the fact that I've finally found a place for that dragon hand I've had in my bits box for at least 10 years.



I need to finish some other accident repair jobs before moving onto Hordes...

Sveiki! I have tried to sculpt with Milliput and Green Stuff myself but not much... That is some wonderful work sir!

Some lovely sculpting here. The transpanther and wolfen in particular catch my eye.

Great sculpting, painting and ideas! How have I missed seeing this blog. Will be checking in to see how the wolfess’s turn out.

Thank You for kind words, everybody. I really love sculpting, but lately there are so many new things on my table that it is very difficult to show any actual progress. A bit here, a nibble there, You know, this kind of things.I do try to keep the promise to have something finished every week, but those are mostly pickings from "the time before", projects I've already started long ago.

Like this one. It is the "Griffon Lady of the Realm", a resin miniature from the Titan Forge. Possibly some kind of alternative for Bretonnians or the Empire of the WHFB, gone but not forgotten. Got it long time ago, assembled.. two years ago? Started painting last year, broke his front leg this winter, repaired about a month ago and now, finally, am done with it.



An unexpectedly crude kit, I must say. This is "officially" (or so I hereby claim) the ugliest female face I have painted, rat-like Chinese recast Kaya included. Forehead, sharp nose, sharp chin and nothing inbetween. Eyes? What eyes? Well, I took it as a little challenge and tried to paint in on.



Birdie bits were not much better. Wings went on with a generous greenstuff application and pinning. Tail had to be fixed. I've started reworking his hindquarters but luckily stopped before scrapping it altogether. Broken risen front leg is my usual unluck... Originally this miniature should be mounted on a 40 by 40 or 50 by 50 square, but with a bit of fiddling and tilting it went onto 40 mm round with even better balance than intended.



Painting was slow. I am still learning to do feathers, both in sculpting and painting sense. Here flash has eaten most of the washing and highlighting... On the table it is much less white and grey and more ash-brownish. I gave his rider a mix of leather and steel armor, a bit tweaking mixes. Stone base is a usual for me Menoth White with highlight, Dark Sand and various greys.



So, what will be finished next? Something really new or something really old?

Wow, that griffon's front legs are super skinny, no wonder one snapped. Your love of sculpting payed off with how skillfully you had to piece this guy together. I think the feathers look good, but if you want tips on painting feather, you should try asking Gitsplitta. He just recently painted some eagle minis and blew everyone away with how he did the feathers.

Agree with Syro- consult Gits for feathers and alrge avians.

I love this figure though- despite the difficulties you describe (and have overcome) it has tremendous animation and power. You've done very well with it!

Syro_ wrote:Wow, that griffon's front legs are super skinny, no wonder one snapped. Your love of sculpting payed off with how skillfully you had to piece this guy together. I think the feathers look good, but if you want tips on painting feather, you should try asking Gitsplitta. He just recently painted some eagle minis and blew everyone away with how he did the feathers.

I try to follow his one monster of the thread. Definitely not through all its almost 600 pages, but there are many inspiring pieces and helpful advice for sure.

Meer_Cat wrote:Agree with Syro- consult Gits for feathers and alrge avians.

I love this figure though- despite the difficulties you describe (and have overcome) it has tremendous animation and power. You've done very well with it!

Yes, I was hoping to get this figure just for painting ever since it was announced. One of the best griffin miniatures of the time. The more of a disappointment was the box that arrived. Anyway, it will stay on my painting table for a while before being moved onto a showstuff shelf - its wings make a beautiful paintbrush stand!

And - another project is finished, the Sphere Wars.Wonderful sculpts, good casting quality, all metal, not mental, but faded into obscurity due to not enough interest from community. This is Mihaulo, an owl-man, a magic user for Adepts of Malesur faction.



He outlasted his brethen due to the most silly feature - his constantly bending and breaking tree branch. This winter I have finally snapped, cut it up, drilled everything and stuffed all holes with brass pins. So far it is holding its weight...



Almost good fit of parts, almost good cast. Some things to file, some things to fill, some things to clean up - all the usual stuff. His pose is a bit difficult in access sense - some parts are nearly impossible to get to and they have to be painted first. And, being an owl... My eyes still hurt from all the striping! Ouch!!!



He looks disapprovingly. Weird thing. No matter how long I shake my bottle of skin tone ink, it always leave some creepy white dusting in the deepest places. But if I use it straight from the bottle, neither stirred nor shaken, it gives what it is supposed to give - a nice shading, although with glossy surface. And painting skin with dry pink pigments may be all the hype in 1:35 and larger scales, but in "28mm" it is just pain and no win.

Anyway, it was a fun project to pull through, maybe even educating a bit. And look what I've found!



A marauder horse, some bits and a... ork boar rider torso, probably? With a resin goatman head from then Maelstrom Games, may they forever be remembered in a Gunpowder plot sense. I think I've put all these things together back in the age of 7th edition of WHFB hoping one day to assemble an alternative Ghorros Warhoof, always drunken centigor champion - with hooves! 8th edition came and go, End Times came and went off with a fizzle of beginning Age of Sigmar, and all these bits of plastic waited patiently. Should I return them to their dusty resting place or finally give them some spotlight and paint?

Wow, beautiful painting on the owl wing pattern, I can see why your eyes were hurting after staring at that so long. I hope the model finally holds up under its own weight after all the work you did.

 Syro_ wrote:
I hope the model finally holds up under its own weight after all the work you did.

Heh! Three months and holding strong. I should have done it long time ago, perhaps even before assembling it. When You see a solid white metal horse standing on a single hoof or this owl (all 30 grams) on branch of a tiny cross-section - pin at once and do not hesitate. Tin will bend, no matter what, now or a month later, but it will bend.

Now, to some totally useless critters, shrews. Again, Oathsworn miniatures, again very good quality. At this size You can't really argue over lack of details, but Michael overloaded that shaman to the brim, making it easy to miss something and then go back painting in back in.



I've tried to make them brighter and bigger with some basing help, but... the idea to make shrubs out of steel wire is my worst patented idea of the year. The rest went OK. They overhang their 30mm bases a bit, but with facing not important in B-n-B (and You can always agree on that in other games) it is not a problem. Now, when I'll get to doing even smaller moles and mice... that will be a problem alright.



I've also started working on that centigor. One thing I remember too well - these marauder horses have really thick asses (to put it bluntly), so out comes a saw and 3 mm wedge of plastic is gone. Now to weld it together with a proper glue and start smoothing things over...



This closes out the first half of 2018. A very productive by my usual standards, over 30 miniatures finished. However, this brings up a dilemma. Considering I have recently finished everything there is from Sphere Wars (unless I get really insane and sculpt a huge 80 mm bull) and Alkemy (them not leaving resin production is sad), with Kings of War nearly finished and not much to add to my Circle Orboros despite honest effort from PP side to intrigue me - should I start a new project?

Or, to put it other way, should I start a new project NOW and work on it for a month or two, considering that I will not touch it next year and the year 2020 is so far away that I may not even be around by then?

I always enjoy your sculpts, so my vote is for that 80mm bull

I'm glad to hear the owl has been holding up strong for 3 months now. All of my minis have always been plastic, or made by me with apoxie putty, so I luckily don't have any experience trying to get metal minis to work right. The Shrews look good, by the way.

 Syro_ wrote:
I always enjoy your sculpts, so my vote is for that 80mm bull

I'm glad to hear the owl has been holding up strong for 3 months now. All of my minis have always been plastic, or made by me with apoxie putty, so I luckily don't have any experience trying to get metal minis to work right. The Shrews look good, by the way.

An it is still standing without any sagging. Will check after a year has passed. But that bull... Unlike other brands like GW or CMON or Rackham, it was way too realistic. It will take a lot of learning to try and reach that, if it is at all possible for me.

Ironically, now that this mini was mentioned, I've checked and Battlefield Berlin lists it as "available in a few weeks". Hmm... either they have some secret stash somewhere, or they just didn't update their page in ages! Check it here!

In other news - I've finished B-n-Bs for this year... unless I too dig some more when running out of stuff - or get inspired! This time more recent miniatures and... they actually have flaws! Breaking news! Quite a few double mould lines, a tell-tale of the casting process used. First a master is produced from the hand-sculpted "green", then a production run mould is pressed from the metal master. Because rubber mould is always cut by hand, these pesky mould lines never coincide and... But this time double mould slippage happened, making material between individual lines recessed. Filling it with putty would be a very difficult task for me, I struggle to make my own stuff smooth enough. Filing it down would remove a lot of metal - and detail. So, I chose to do minimum filing. It shows mostly on mutt-in-arms cuff and witch-hunters sleeves. They may not be very eye-poking, but they are there. :(



Painting was quite fun and easy, unusual for me. Knight and his squire were just asking for white cloth of crusades, even though Michael has overloaded them with cross-bows and lots and lots of pouches. Witch-hunter was very obviously brown leather through and through, but the recipe somehow didn't work exactly as planned. In case somebody prefer white background...



And now I need to return to some really old unfinished pieces I've found...

Wow, that bull mini is quite an intimidating piece, and I can see what you're talking about. Very fitting choice of crusade white for the knight and squire, I like the look. So what's coming up next?

Next come bout of stormy weather, deteriorating health and cat-girls. Lets start with cat-girls and stay with them!

I think these two predate my involvement in tabletop games by a few years. Good, old Reaper models, sculpted by Julie Guthrie who always had a special hand for animal-folk figures. They are still available from the Reaper catalogue (cat-a-logue) as 02140 and 03495. Marvelous single piece casts, but really, really on the small scale, 25mm scale, perhaps, if You really want to believe tem to be weretigresses. If not for the trouble ordering them directly from Reaper, I would like to get a full set of everything Julie has sculpted for them... but I digress.

Got them for RPGs, when moving to WHFB re-purposed them for beastmen ungor raiders... Sort of. Basically, just put them on big bases to make them seem taller next to GW plastics, gave them bows and undercoated red enamel (that still shows no sign of giving up to any thinner). Then forgot about them because harpies/gor-whatevers were much better at war machine hunting. They have stayed in the box for at least 5 years until I've dug them up and decided to give them another try.



I have more than enough big tropical cat themed miniatures for now, so these two are dedicated to a pair of local "feral" cats of my neighborhood. On a photo they look terrible, but that is the only thing I've finished last week and I am sure I can't make them look any better. So, back to the boxes for these cats, in hopes I will need them for RPG, Frostgrave or another attempt at Alkemy.

Achievement unlocked - making cat-girls sad...

If everything stays as it goes, I will switch from painting to terrain or sculpting. Or just stay in bed, hoping for something to improve...

Nothing finished this week. I have been dabbling in several things but nothing came even close... Perhaps the most progress was with the second wolfess. With her I've tried to depart further from Confrontation - Wrath of Kings style. She is less skinny, longer legged, but what will be the final result remains to be seen.

If nothing else she will be more at home with the B-n-B crowd...