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Agreed - water pool looks great. Is Poseidon's trident meant to be curved?

The elemental came out really well. The water effects look really cool, I need to give some a try for puddles on my Orks and Crimson Fists.

That flaming skeleton looks great, but like youwashock, the knitting skeleton is Creeping me out!

Everyone said it before me, but again that water objective is amazing. That is more than good form what you did there And good to hear that MCP is fun. How long do games usually last?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
That's VERY impressive. I'm just lazy, I go down the PVA and superglue route

Thanks, fam. I appreciate it. I've also used wood glue; if it's contained within a feature so it won't dribble down the sides, if tilted at a slight angle it will dry in a way that suggests movement. In fact, that might come up at the bottom of this post...

 Sherrypie wrote:
I like how those western games always just look so nice and characterful, especially on dense boards with pretty scenery. Takes me right back to Tex Willers I read by the bucket as a kid.

Oh for sure, and I was surprised how much scale terrain there is for 28 mm westerns. There's a very rich world out there of western games and many of them feature that Weird/Horror Western feel that I love so much. Dracula's America is pretty fun, quick to learn and plays in about half an hour/forty-five minutes.

 youwashock wrote:
That water pool is the business. Great use of the elemental.

Cheers bud, I appreciate it. I spent about 15 minutes in the FLGS trying to find the right one!

 Arakasi wrote:
Agreed - water pool looks great. Is Poseidon's trident meant to be curved?

Eep! It is not. Thanks for pointing that out; I will unbend it anon.

 gobert wrote:
The elemental came out really well. The water effects look really cool, I need to give some a try for puddles on my Orks and Crimson Fists.

That flaming skeleton looks great, but like youwashock, the knitting skeleton is Creeping me out!

Thanks! It was pretty easy to use but there's no shortage of good tutorials; the sky's the limit! It's not terribly pricey at $14 a bottle, but it's in the category of what I'll call Accessory Hobby Materials that are probably just outside the skillset/budget of a younger gamer (or at least a pre-teen gamer, the period where I believe many of us started the hobby).

 Viterbi wrote:
Everyone said it before me, but again that water objective is amazing. That is more than good form what you did there And good to hear that MCP is fun. How long do games usually last?

Cheers, I try to be conscientious. MCP is loads of fun - although at this point we've played maybe eight games with the ten heroes that come in the box and we're ready for some more variety. That in no way is a dig at the game; rather I think it's a testament to how good the base box is. Our first game lasted about an hour, once we got comfortable with the rules it's gotten down to consistently half an hour/forty-five minutes.

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Thanks for helping me reach seven pages, all. Glad to be updating at more regular intervals. Today we've got some WIP shots. This is the last bit of Olympus before I finish my 1000 point warband; a special chariot for the demigod of Poseidon, pulled by one of daddy's own Hippocampi.



So the component parts for this are the Reaper Hippocampus and the Warlord Games Achaean Chariot I. There's a bit of a size mismatch but I'm not terribly bothered. I wanted to make a water base as if the Hippocampus was bringing water with it - kind of like the Idoeneth Deepkin, I suppose. In my hubris I thought this would be a simple process. I realized quickly that I couldn't only use water effects; I'd have to do a bit of sculpting as well to get the effect I wanted. Here's me blocking it out.



What follows next is a series of experimentation and failures. I set the chariot up at an angle and put some card around the sides and drizzle down water effects, let dry, drizzle, let dry. Maybe three days? I pull it away (and much of the cardboard came off as well) and saw I wasn't quite getting the effect I was looking for. Plus it was difficult to tell what would be visible once the base was painted. So I did a quick basecoat to see where more detail was needed. During that time I also sculpted the reins and bridle, and a wooden floor for the chariot. Used green stuff to crudely block out the basic shape of the current. Hoplite driver given a breastplate of sorts and a crop that's probably a bit too short.


(also not the best collage I've ever done)

Another drizzle of water effects and another layer of basecoating begets another layer of greenstuff and water effects. Sculpt a wood-panel base for the driver so he can detach if need be.



At this point I am satisfied with the water base; it isn't super naturalistic but I think it is clear what it is supposed to be, and so I present it as slightly abstracted. Plus I'm hoping the hippocampus will be the focal point for the model. So with that in mind I went ahead and primed the thing and basecoated the chariot and driver.

Here's where we got to last night; Hippocampus based with Ironbreaker and a combination of blue and green contrast paints. Hoplite just done up like hoplites do. Hopefully finish them by the end of the week.




Thanks for reading, all.

That's a fun idea. Best of luck wrapping it up!

The water looks pretty cool to me. It might look better if it was a smoother transition in to the base. That side edge on the last photo looks to have an unnatural overhang. He’s gonna look EPIC with sea foam frothing from the wheels!

That's a whole lot of very impressive work there. Keeps bringing me back to wanting to work up a full Amazons of Themiscyra force for general playing about with.

That is quite the sea chariot.

Cheers,

CB

That project came out very well, nice modeling of the water!

 youwashock wrote:
That's a fun idea. Best of luck wrapping it up!

Thanks! I put in a bit of progress over the weekend and am happy with where it's at.

 gobert wrote:
The water looks pretty cool to me. It might look better if it was a smoother transition in to the base. That side edge on the last photo looks to have an unnatural overhang. He’s gonna look EPIC with sea foam frothing from the wheels!

You're totally right - I think I understand where I messed up a bit. The size disparity is actually pretty severe so I elevated the chariot with the foam block before adding water - and at the time, I was planning on having the sides be flush with the sides of the base. That might have worked if it was a 5-10 mm difference, but the chariot's almost an inch and a half above the base so it would have looked pretty odd. Instead of shaving the foam down I tried to sculpt over it, which I think helped contribute to the effect you describe (also the fact that sculpting water is like, really super hard, you guys). I decided to treat this as a rough draft/proof of concept. Next time around I think I'll plan ahead a bit more and spend a little bit extra on a nicer chariot model.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
That's a whole lot of very impressive work there. Keeps bringing me back to wanting to work up a full Amazons of Themiscyra force for general playing about with.

Hell yes. I'm sure you already have it but the alternate head with a helmet from WW's DCU Figure is pretty sweet - it wouldn't be difficult at all to have an ancient Greek Wonder Woman-themed army!

 Captain Brown wrote:
That is quite the sea chariot.

Cheers,

CB

Cheers, CB! I appreciate it. As I said above, still a rough draft, but happy with how it turned out considering.

 Viterbi wrote:
That project came out very well, nice modeling of the water!

Thanks, fam. I'm not super thrilled with it but I appreciate the good vibes. Rough draft, I say!

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Still working on the chariot, but also made some progress on some MCP stuff. One thing that's really fun about comics is how many different versions of the same character there are - or how many different characters have the same theme/costume/abilities. So when I'm building up my own team (as in, not painting my brother's figures from the starter set) I decided to do alternate costumes/identities for each figure. Some it might be trickier than others (the only option with Captain Marvel would be to do the old Ms Marvel black-and-yellow costume, for example, but I like her current costume better), but most of my favorite characters are pretty old and so there's been plenty of stuff to play with.

Case in point: here comes the Hobgoblin!



Smaller image:



Always liked the Hobgoblin, always liked the Green Goblin. Just like Goblins I guess (my first WFB army was a no-orcs-allowed Night Goblin army). He does have a cloak in the comics and I do plan on giving him one eventually, but I am all out of green stuff at the mo. I'm not stressing about it.

Also picked up the Hulk, which I'm planning on doing as Red Hulk. Very excited for that!

So next thing I'm gonna post is Red Hulk and the Hippocampus Chariot. After that the blog will be quite for a bit - after a long summer I'm heading back to SD. Won't be able to do a lot of hobby for a while, although I still plan on being active throughout the forum. You guys know how it is; sometimes the winds of hobby blow powerful, and sometimes they blow weak. All we can do is adjust our sails accordingly.

Thanks for reading, all!

Wise words old son. I do indeed have that WW head, and in fact it's spare as I went unhelmed for mine. I plan on a few more Amazons and then having a big battle with the forces of Apokolips.

Hobby looks rad. Looking forward to Red Hulk. Nice to see some permutations of the Crisis Protocol minis.

Hobgobbo looks great, very Haloween!

Nice alternate color scheme for the Goblin. And already excited for your Red Hulk!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Wise words old son. I do indeed have that WW head, and in fact it's spare as I went unhelmed for mine. I plan on a few more Amazons and then having a big battle with the forces of Apokolips.

With the rate at which you produce, I believe you could get that done in about 36 hours. Really like to see you tackle that project!

 youwashock wrote:
Hobby looks rad. Looking forward to Red Hulk. Nice to see some permutations of the Crisis Protocol minis.

Thanks! Yeah, I don't mind the bespoke poses that much because they are all named characters, so it doesn't rankle me the way that monopose generic 40k characters do. That said, I still wanted to put a bit of my personal stank on it. Red Hulk is in good shape and will be posted soon!

 gobert wrote:
Hobgobbo looks great, very Haloween!

Cheers! I like to get a head-start on Halloween. I would say it's the best holiday. Love gettin spooky.

 Viterbi wrote:
Nice alternate color scheme for the Goblin. And already excited for your Red Hulk!

Thanks Viterbi, the Red Hulk is incoming!

----------

Heading to San Diego tomorrow. Got the Red Hulk done and the Hippocampus chariot as well. I'll share the Red Hulk anon, but wanted to post up the chariot first because it was started first.

Here we go:





And with Babby Poseidon. Notice how straight his trident is!



So that's a 1000 point warband for Wargods of Olympus! Quick fun warband shot:



Wow, that's some bad lighting. Pretty happy with how they all turned out. I really hope the game succeeds. I'm planning on picking up an Athenian warband once I clear out a little bit more of my backlog. Remember how this blog started with a promise to not buy any more models, and then I did exactly that?

Thanks for reading, all.

The waves look great! Nice work on the warband.

Yeah, really ace. More green than I expected, but not in a bad way.

Beautiful wine-dark sea!

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:Beautiful wine-dark sea!

I see what you did there

The waves turned out amazing. They look really cold and uninviting!

Safe travels back to San Diego and we’re all eagerly awaiting the Red Hulk

Straight trident - check! How does the water on the chariot look in real life? I think the nice clear water on the previous terrain is tricking my mind into seeing it as stone if I don't pay close attention... I like the green though

Very nice Red/Green contrast on the final mini, the colors look great.

 youwashock wrote:
The waves look great! Nice work on the warband.

Cheers bud! It always feels good to get an army project done, even if it's a small one!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Yeah, really ace. More green than I expected, but not in a bad way.

Thanks, Graven! I went through a couple different layers of color on the Hippocampo, from more blueish-green to a bright venom green. I like the more metallic color that it ended up with.

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Beautiful wine-dark sea!

Cheers! Another epithet for the ocean I like is "whale-road," from Beowulf.

 gobert wrote:
The waves turned out amazing. They look really cold and uninviting!

Safe travels back to San Diego and we’re all eagerly awaiting the Red Hulk

Thanks, fam. Arrived earlier today, made the trip in 2.5 days - a personal best!

 Arakasi wrote:
Straight trident - check! How does the water on the chariot look in real life? I think the nice clear water on the previous terrain is tricking my mind into seeing it as stone if I don't pay close attention... I like the green though

Yeah, I see what you mean. I think that's due to the texture; the foam base is peaking through at the bottom and my attempt at water sculpting gave it a kind of stratified look. I think rather than trying to elevate the chariot on a single block of water I should have done plumes on either side of the wheels, like are produced in water-skis. Always learning, always improving!

 Viterbi wrote:
Very nice Red/Green contrast on the final mini, the colors look great.

Thanks Viterbi, I wasn't sure if it would work but was happy with how it turned out. I think going for a more pastel red was a good choice.


----------

Anyhow, last update for a bit, here's Thunderbolt Ross himself. It's Red Hulk, the Hulk who is Red!




Smaller image:

T-Bolt looks awesome! Nailed those angry yellow eyes.

Excellent skin tones. After doing a bunch of Hellboy I sympathise!

That’s really cool, not often you see a non-green Hulk. The red looks great, especially in the better lit pics. Congrats on the new record travel time, good luck settling back in

You definitely wouldn't like him, if he's angry. Great work and nicely layered skin!

that muscle definition is off the chain! Nice work

I like the red hulk who is red! The red hulk who's periwinkle would have been a lot stranger.

The hippocampus is just plain lovely, it's funny how the driver ends up looking a bit nervous when you put poseidon next to him.

Thanks for the kind words, everybody. Some of the feedback I got was that I could have done more with the shorts, which I think is fair - I've never been particularly good with getting dark colors to look naturalistic.

Anyway, I though I wouldn't get to update for a while but I have a small fun project that I thought I'd share; a big ol' space ship.



Not really having time to focus on other projects, and most of my gear still being in Chicago, I decided to scratch the itch by doing a fun one-off project that I can display somewhere. I used to do that more often, but since I got back into 40k and AoS I haven't really been doing many non-wargaming models - except for the odd bit of terrain, I suppose. I picked up some green primer, five pots of paint and three brushes. Off to the races!