Hello again, Dakka.
About 4 years ago, I lost all of my Warmachine minis in a move. Or somebody stole them. I don't know. The point is I lost several hundred USD worth of figures, into which I had poured who knows how many hours of painting and playing. This killed miniature gaming for me, and I haven't looked back since. But then I traded off some of my old bits and pieces for some store credit at the
LGS in my old hometown. In talking with my old friends and browsing the new models released in the meantime I realized just how much I had missed the hobby.
I can only afford modest investments at a time these days so it'll be fun to blog the progression of the army. The ultimate goal is to get everything in the Gatorman range, maybe a few Farrow units and other Minion solos. But first I need to build to a 15 pt army, starting with my warlock:
Bloody Barnabas
Pucker up!!!
Not very surprisingly, few of my paints survived the 4 year entombment in a cardboard box so I didn't really have much to work with. I ended up heading to the store for some essential Citadel colors (Chaos Black, Snakebite Leather, Golden Yellow, and Blood Red) and a new brush (I do pretty much everything with a Citadel standard brush and a beat up old 3/0 for stippling).
Finished this guy in 2 afternoons. Like most of my painting projects, I like to just wing the process on the first model while paying attention to the techniques I use and taking notes on the paint/ink/wash ratios. I'll have pics of the individual steps in future posts, but for now, here's the quick and dirty:
Skin:
1) Basecoat in Dark Angel Green
2) Basecoat 2 in Goblin Green
3) Wash of Black Ink, Brown Ink, Thraka Green Wash, Chaos Black and
DA Green (2:1:2:1:3)
4) Highlight 1 in Goblin Green
5) Wash applied selectively to even transition
6) Highlights 2-4 adding a touch of Skull White to my Goblin Green.
Leather:
1) Basecoat in Scorched Brown
2) Basecoat 2 in Snakebite Leather
3) Wash of Flesh Wash, Brown Ink, Black Ink, Scorched Brown and Chaos Black (1:3:2:2:1)
4) Highlights 2-3 in Snakebite Leather
5) Wash applied in layers to deepen shadows
6) Highlights on stitching in Snakebite Leather with a touch of Skull White
The bone bits, skulls, and metal are all pretty standard procedures. The blood on his snout is just a stipple of Red Ink and Blood Red, followed by a brief stipple of pure Blood Red.
I wanted to use a brighter, more exaggerated green than I've seen on most people's gators. The rationale being that while it's not very true to life, neither are giant anthropomorphic alligators. I also wasn't planning on adding the blood, but it really needed some contrast. All those browns and greens are a little boring without something dramatic to set them off.
Started working on his base, going with a swamp style with poured water effect:
The sunken log is from some old Woodland Scenics tree kit, chopped off the branch and twisted the branches slightly to pose it. Once the epoxy cures, I'll prime and paint it, then pour in the water and add some grass flock. Still trying to figure out what to use for the water. I might just go with PVC glue. I've done that in the past and while it's not ideal, it doesn't look bad. The pourable stuff from Woodland and whatnot is nice, but it's kind of expensive. Any ideas about quick and dirty water solutions would be most welcome!
In the next post:
RAWWWRRRR!!!
