Elemental Forces II

This is an update to the Bones Earth Elemental project I began some weeks ago. Times have been busy, but I have been able to finish assembly and construction, and make a lot of progress with painting the rocky beast.

I decided to keep the "head" that came with the original Bones model, but I cut away 2/3 of the neck connecting it to the torso. Instead, my elemental's head is attached directly to the main body. The result left a bit of a gap behind the head, where the neck should have been blended into the body. I filled that with green stuff, and added some basing grit to add texture to the finished product. I do not have a completely unpainted picture, but the primed shot above should provide some idea of the process.

Metallic Paint Revisited

Some time ago, I wrote an article about my work with metallic paints, and how I went about shading them. Now that I am safely back from ReaperCon 2014, I thought an update might be in order.

Among the terrific classes I got to take at ReaperCon was a session on the use of metallic paints by Clever Crow Miniatures. While I am no place close to mastering the technique, I thought I'd share my thoughts on how I am trying to incorporate them into my own style. (For a complete rundown of this technique, please ask Clever Crow himself - he's full of helpful advice.)

All's Well That Ends Well

Last fall, I started in on another Battletech paint project, based on the Capellan Hussars "Red Lancers" regiment, as a means of getting my shiny new TDR-1C miniature painted up. I started it in parallel with the Reaper Bones dragon project I was working on at the same time in the hope of moving back and forth between the two, making progress on both. For better or worse, things did not precisely work out that way.

I finished Deathsleet in time to enter him in an end-of-year contest, and I'm pretty happy with how he came out, hundreds of individual scales and all.

But, sadly, the Thunderbolt stopped at a slightly less complete stage.

This month I took it upon myself to get this project rolling again to see if I could get it off my shelf of shame, and, perhaps, take it along with me as a contest entry this Spring.

Multiplication

As reported previously, I have been working on a number of things for Firestorm Armada. My latest science project has been to try to create mine tokens for use during games. The old version of Firestorm came with some cardboard counters for mines, but they were pretty unexciting on the table, and the game now uses a larger, hexagonal, form factor for the same purpose.

In this case, I decided to try to cast brand new custom tokens in resin, and make enough for my own use in the game. So far, I have not been fully successful, but I have played around enough to share my experiences as a first time resin-caster.

Elemental Forces

Another WIP, another large Bones model. This time, I am working on Reaper's large earth elemental, also from their Bones Kickstarter. In this case, I have been making extensive modifications to the miniature as I progress.

Photo Copyright Reaper Miniatures, Inc. www.reapermini.com

The original model stands on two stubby, little legs, and is pretty humanoid in shape. I like the over-all concept of the miniature, but I really dislike that kind of massively top-heavy humanoid look. If a model is going to have legs, they should look like they might work. (Although, the market very clearly shows that not everybody shares my opinion.) My idea was to replace the legs with a different foundation. My elemental will be rising up from the ground, like a tidal wave of earth and stone. With any luck, the end look will be a good one.

Ettin Project Completed

I finished up my Ettin project just ahead of my busy travel week for work and for TotalCon 2014, where I was able to deliver him to his proper owner. I am pleased to report that "M" seemed quite happy with his new toy.

I wound up applying a brown glaze to the Ettin's base, followed by a gloss sealer coat to polish up the stone, and make it fit better with the wood floor.

Firestorm Armada Revisited

One of the very first things I posted here was my Dindrenzi Battleship WIP for Firestorm Armada. I was pretty happy with the result, and Spartan's later releases took away the laborious assembly issues, but I still had a problem: That paint scheme was designed with a great deal of hand highlighting and paneling, and it was simply too much work for a table-top fleet scheme.

This month, I set out to come up with a revised scheme that would provide a similar look, but also come together much faster, allowing me to bring a mighty armada to the table in (relatively) short order.