Confrontation Part IV: Plastic & Putty

Last time, I presented the heavily engineered mounting post that I crafted to support the metal knight & pegasus combination for this diorama. Any hope of suspending such a heavy, metal figure from a single point required a solid structure. This time, I will explore some of how I approached the dragon at the opposite end of the scene, as well as some of the initial rough terrain layout for the base.

First, and foremost, this base is going to use up a massive amount of Super Sculpey modeling clay. The material is easy to work with, cheaper than Green Stuff, and won't dry out, or set until I bake it. That means I have weeks to fiddle with it, and add detail before I run off to bake it. You can see the first few stone forms in the photo above, as well as the clear delineation between the little fired patch around the brass support post, and the fresh Sculpey.

Confrontation Part III: Engineering for Metal

It has been quite some time since I posted the last installment of this series. Even though I knew this would be a long one, I had not intended to go five months between updates! To provide a brief recap: I had assembled most of the parts of the dragon Narthrax, but the other participant in the scene was sadly lacking in readiness:

Since the, I have been trying to get the metal half of this duo assembled, so I could get back to blocking out and building the base that will support both of them.

Enough Terrain! Paint a Figure!

In the midst of my mad dash to CaptainCon, I took a brief detour through the Reaper forum winter gift exchange to paint up a traditional miniature. My assigned exchange partner requested something that showcased Non-Metallic Metals, so I took on Reaper SKU #02551: Monique DeNoir. I thought her full-body armor and elegant cape would provide a good canvas to try.

Photo courtesy of Aaron G.

I used a combination of different NMM colors for this project. The most prominent was a deep brown/black scheme using Reaper Walnut Brown and Linen White. It was a fun experiment in a new NMM color formula for me. Up until this project, I feel like I was in a bit of a rut, using just the same steel and gold formulae over and over. (Of course, both of those feature here too.)

Confrontation Part II: It's Not Easy Being Green

As expected, I have been proceeding slowly with this giant diorama WIP. In the past few weeks, I have been mostly painting tabletop miniatures for my Dropzone Commander armies (more on that in a later entry.) Still, I have done a lot of work preparing the dragon Narthrax for paint.

I need to get both the dragon and the knight mostly cleaned and assembled before I can begin construction of the scenic base to support them. I can't really complete their assembly or paint until I get that done. As is usually the case, prep work is key.

Confrontation Part I: Storytelling

With convention and tournament season over for 2015, I am starting to think about show-piece painting again. I have a few projects percolating at the back of my mind, but one thing I have never tackled is a diorama.

Dioramas are all about telling a story in miniature, and in a confined space. A good diorama presents exactly what is needed to convey its story to the viewer, and nothing else. For my first try, I am going to attempt a classic showdown of knight versus dragon. The two models are large, dynamic and iconic. It will be up to me to bring the piece together with base design and arrangement.

Fey Project 9: The Voyage Home

At long last, the Fey Project is winding to its conclusion. During the weekend before ReaperCon 2015 I managed to get the final shading and finishing done, and pack the miniature up for transport to Dallas. This project was exhausting, but I am pretty happy with the results, and it was fun to experiment with so many new basing techniques. Rest assured that some of these will return in the future.

Naturally, I am never 100% satisfied with my work. There are lots of little details that could be shaded or blended a little better to refine the piece, but I do not think the differences would translate into the photos.

Fey Project 8: The Home Stretch

In the past week, I finished my basing work on the Fey project, and I am almost done with the basic shading for the whole figure. Once I add some highlights to the edges of her wings, all I have to do is refine the light and shadow across the model to perfect the finish. (OK, to improve the finish. Nothing will ever be perfect.)

As you can see, I finished up the bracken leaves, and added in a couple of additional mushrooms to break up the yellow-green monotony of the base. Not visible in this picture is the fact that I have now gotten the yellow-orange blending roughed in on the back of her wings, making them more or less complete, even if the blends are not as butter-smooth as I might like.

Fey Project 7: Return of the Bracken

I have not had a huge amount of time to paint in March, but I still made some process on the Fey Project. This entry will just be a quick progress check-in, rather than a deep article on technique. Hopefully, the next one will include some finishing touches and a complete, or nearly complete product.

The biggest change is, as you can see, that I glued the figure down to the base. At this stage, I am close to 80% finished with the ground cover basing, and I have also nearly completed the paint on the tree stump and roots that frame the scene. I still have shading and finishing to do on the figure, but it makes the project feel much closer to completion to have the parts put together.

This brass-etch bracken looks nice, and it is far sturdier than any paper equivalent that I might construct, but it is a huge amount of added work. Individually painting each leaf only takes around 1-2 minutes, but there are already more than 40 leaves glued to the base. At a guess, I need another 15-20 to finish up, and move on to other painting.

Fey Project 6: Basing Without End

I took a major hiatus from this project at the start of the year. A big part of it was the wings. I just couldn't wrap my head around shading all the little cells on all four surfaces. The base was also a bit vexing, since it involves a lot of repetitive work with the photo-etch brass.

Thankfully, my local group paint day came to the rescue and pulled me out of my project funk. I am now forging ahead with a serious hope of bringing this thing to ReaperCon for display.

Miniatures Without Paint

This past week, I received a bounty of Kickstarter Toys in the mail. Not only did I get my classic-style demons and devils from the Fractured Dimensions Kickstarter, but Reaper's Bones II arrived, and with it, hundreds of plastic toys to play with and play.

The question of which Bones II miniature I will paint first remains a mystery, but the first miniature assembled does not:

I immediately grabbed and opened a pack of clear plastic slimes and oozes to get at the beautifule gelatinous cube within. Anybody who grew up with Dungeons and Dragons will hopefully appreciate my delight in obtaining this carnivorous, dungeon-dwelling, platonic solid.

Fey Project 5: Colors Revisited

In this installment, I will talk about color choices of for the Fey project, continuing the discussion I began in part 4. I will lay out how I built a color scheme abstractly in my head, executed it, and then cleaned up the mess.

First, a reminder of where we left off:

The big question looming over me at this stage was: How do I fill in those yawning white voids mady up by her tunic and her wings?

Fey Project 4: Color Choices

Hey! A new naming scheme: Now you can tell which WIP this post belongs to, and see my unhelpful tag line all at once!

Some may recall the Reaper Warlord Fairy miniature that I had decided to turn into a display piece this past Fall. When last we left the Fey project, all the way back in October, I had been playing around with eye painting techniques, leaving things here:

Surprisingly, this project has not been lying completely idle for two months. While progress has been slow, I have been chipping away at it, adding details and color. I am very much hoping to finish her by the end of the year.

Arena Rex

I just received a package from Red Republic Games. Inside were a handful of figures from their freshly launched skirmish game, Arena Rex. I haven't painted anything yet, but I am impressed with the resin castings they shipped to me.

Each model is rendered in a low-density, light-weight resin. I was a bit surprised by how light everything felt, but it captures detail beautifully, and it seems to hold up to the process of normal figure preparation perfectly well.

I took the time to look over what they sent and assemble the one figure you see above. I wasn't in love with all of their concept art, but I did like a lot of it, and, in spite of some unexpectedly long delays in the sculpting process, the resulting sculpts are quite impressive.

Fey Project 3: Gaze into my eyes

The sheer number of awful eye cliches and puns available to title this post boggles the mind. Would "An eye for an eye" have been better? What about "The eyes have it?" I'll spare you the other options. Chances are that at least a couple have already popped into your head whether you like it or not.

This installment is about one of the most daunting parts of any miniature: the eyes. Since my woodland fey project is all about playing with advanced techniques and pushing myself, I decided it would be a good time to tackle some of the more complete eye painting methods out there.

Eye of the tiger, baby.

Fey Project 2: Overkill Basing

As a part of the "Woodland Fey" display piece, I've been working on, I built my very first scenic base with Sculpey. While I am very happy with the tree stump and associated textures (at least for a first crack at the problem), the rest of the base was still pretty bare.

In past cases, I might have covered it with some basing grit before painting it, and then stock on some assorted clump foliage or flock to add color and interest. I have had good results with that kind of technique in the past. For thei project, on the other hand, I wanted to keep pushing for some more interesting basing materials.

Woodland Creatures - Fey Project, Part 1

My latest project is the result of a very special request. I am working on a display piece, based on one of Reaper Miniatures' Warlord figures. The request was to paint up a fairy, or similar creature of the wilds, and this figure fits the bill. As an added bonus, I am experimenting with large-scale display base construction, using Super Sculpey polymer clay. This installment will focus mostly on that. Future entries will cover paint and other basing work.

Super Sculpey is a a bakeable clay. The polymer remains pliable and sculptable for months, or even years, left on its own. To harden it, you need to make it in a 140°C (275°F) oven for 15-20 minutes. That alone makes it way different from the two-part epoxy putties that I am used to, and that is not the only difference...

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.

Darksword's Hawkman

I thought about naming this post for a certain popular novel whose title revolves around a tremendous variety of monochrome, but didn't think it would drive the right sort of Google traffic.

As a part of playing around with Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder game, I built a Tengu character and decided to build up a miniature for him. Sadly, Tengu miniatures are in rather short supply in the industry, and about half of the ones I could locate don't really fit the look Paizo has chosen for their bird-men.

Fortunately for me, Darksword miniatures has an absolutely beautiful sculpt that is close enough, and, I am pleased to say, is turning out to be an absolute joy to paint.

Finishing Touches

After a brief interruption from my Battletech Wraith project, it is time to fill in the last few details from my Fantasy sword-mage build.

When we last left the project, I had most of the figure painted, but many of the details, including the metal components, the flame were not done. I also had a lot of highlighting left to do on his gauntlets and boots.

Breath of Life

With all of the trials of design and construction behind me, it was time to paint my sword mage. I really enjoy tinkering and customizing models, but a project never really comes fully to life until it gets a coat of paint.

I started off the paint for this project, as with many others, by applying a thin coat of black paint on top of my white primer base. I did not try to get full and thorough coverage everywhere. As you may be able to see in the picture, the white still shows through a little bit, especially in the raised areas of the model.