Tonights Accomplishments

So tonight between rounds of Fallout Shelter, I finally got back to painting. A coworker gave me some Star Wars figures that he wanted painted.

So I decided that I should dig in and start painting again.  In addition I pulled out some my Bones Kickstarter miniatures and started in on them as well.

So here we have the Shadow, a Pathfinder goblin, a Dwarf sword and board fighter and a rat swarm, in addition to the Rebel Trooper.

I also built something I should have a long time ago.

A block of wood with some poster tack on the end of it.  I've read about painters using them to hold miniatures while painting, but I never thought of myself as a serious enough painter to use one.  Well, wow, was I wrong.  This made it so much easier to look under an arm and paint without smudging or messing up the rest of the of figure. So yeah, I highly recommend making one of those to paint. 

Long Time, No See

Ever since going back to school I've had to put a bunch of my projects and hobbies on a shelf.  Some of those literally. I've also picked up another hobby. I bought a tiny quad copter off of Amazon to learn to fly quads. So far I haven't hurt myself or anyone else. My copter of choice for this endeavor was the Hubsan X4 H107D. Mostly because it was on Amazon Prime and had a camera on it. I watched a few videos on Reddit about fpv video quads and wow are they pretty fun. So reading into the subject, the common wisdom is to buy a cheap little quad to learn how to fly and then move up and build a quad for whatever purpose you'd like. I believe I'll be building one for aerial photography eventually. This hobby brings in my electronics knowledge and training as well, which is a nice bonus. When I decide on a build I will document it for anyone to follow.

In other news I feel an itch to go back to painting. A friend at work asked me to paint up some of his Star Wars miniatures. I haven't painted anything futuristic in quite some time. I think it'll be a good change of pace, and it will be a chance to flex my painting muscles again.

Holy Cow, Two in a Row.

So I've added Circle Warlock Mohsar to the rotation. I've liked his model for a long time but never quite had an idea for what colors to go with on his cloak. I've seen some that went with the desert theme and done the tans and browns and some kept with the rest if the Circle theme and used the greens. I avoided making a decision on this by working on his scythe and inner tabard.  I also did some work on my Circle Warpwolf Stalker.  I really like how the bronze armor has green seeped into it.  I'm still working on making the green pop a little more.  I am learning as I paint more armor for Circle.  I did do some more work on Captain Kraye.  I keep getting to the point when I paint of not wanting to pull the trigger on doing a lot of the metal work.  I need to line up a bunch of models that need metal work and hit them all at the same time.  Yeah, that will be the fix for it.

Painting Update

Finally getting back to painting after quite a bit of time away.  I started on my second Circle Argus and Cygnar's Captain Jeremiah Kraye. Im slowly remembering how to paint again.  At least all my paints I've opened up so far are still paint and not sludge.

Updates with Painting

So I've been lazy lately.  You can say it was the holidays and lots of other things popped up that kept me from painting and doing lots of other hobby related things, but the truth of the matter is that I just couldn't be bothered to get the paints out and start in on some miniatures.  So thankfully last night was another gaming night and I just happened to bring my carrying case along with me. It felt strange but comfortable to get the paints out and start applying brush to model.

So mostly this is going to just be an update on which models I've been concentrating on and how far along they are, so here's models...

First up is Krueger the Stormlord.  I had him mostly done for a bit of time now, but I wanted to do the same highlighting I did to Morvahnnas cloak to his.  So it came out really watery across his back which I really liked.

Next up are some more Circle minis. My first crack at the Tharn Bloodweavers.  I was originally going to go with a more brown color scheme like I did with the Bloodtrackers, but I had the green on my palette already from working on Kruegers cloak so I went with it.  So far I'm liking how its looking.  Im going to have to go back over the skin with some of the new flesh paints I picked up. I think a pale skin with the green highlighted on the skirt and top will look cool. Especially with dark brown hair and mask.  Then there is my Woldwatcher.  I really like this model and I should probably pick up another one.  I followed one of the tutorials for making the green runes glow from all over his body.  Now I just need to go back over and clean up some of my work and he should be ready to go.  I realized how bad that mold line was after I started painting him and now I'm going to leave it.  I was debating trying to find a way to make it look like two pieces of stone that got smashed together but that might be a project down the road a few decades.

Then we have Morghul, Kreoss and Ryan.  I think I used a bit too dark a red on Morghul so far. I might go back over him and make it highlight up a bit more.  Kreoss has the opposite effect. Since he was primed white the red is coming out almost pink on parts of him.  So I might have to wash this a few times to get the red to darken to a more magenta.  Ryan is going to take some figuring out.  Im not sure if I want to do like their pictures and paint every buckle on their outfit, but I keep really like their artwork so it might end up happening that way. I just want to finish one of the Black 13th so I'll have something to go on for the other two.

 Finally we have Katherine Laddermore.  I've always liked this model and I wish I used her more when I actually got to play.  Maybe I will now when she is painted.  I'm a huge fan of the Cygnar blue color.  This will be my first time using the highlight color for blue.  After my experiments with the green on my Circle figures I think I'm finally comfortable enough to do it on the blues.



So that's what I worked on last night.  Hopefully I'll be able to do more weekly and post them.  Maybe even finish another battle box and talk my gaming group into Wargame Wednesdays.

Painting On The Go

Lately I've been painting mostly at my two gaming nights.  I carry my Army Transport about half full of trays of various miniatures I want to paint. I have the foam tray for paint pots they made which is full of my P3 paints. I also carry my water cup and the folded paper towels I use as well as my makeshift wet palette as a to-go painting surface. My brushes take the brunt of carrying everything this way as they are just laid down between the rows of paint pots.  I've looked at various ways to carry my brushes in hopes of not damaging them as much as just laying them on the foam is doing. I've seen a couple of paint brush boxes with foam to hold your brushes up and away from each other. I may go with a homemade variant of that solution. Then I could modify it to carry other tools along with the paint brushes;glue, files and my pin vise. That way its not just a paint on the go box but a modeling on the go box. What does everyone else use? Do you model or paint on the go or only do either at your home station?

Painting Update

Been working on a variety of miniatures lately.

StormguardRanger

Firefly Light Warjack                 

Sword KnightSword Knight back

Kaya the WildbourneTharn Bloodtracker

I've also been working on a Khadoran Warjack and Warcaster.

Juggernaut












 Kommander Sorcha








Also a couple oldie but goodies, my first completed Warcaster and first completed unit.

Commander Coleman Stryker

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

I just bought a couple of new brushes, as I was brutal to my last couple, and am attempting to take better care of these. I also went back to using my wet palette as that seems to be the best way to thin out the paint and make clean up the easiest. I will also be going back through and taking pictures of models I had completed before I started documenting my progress.  Not that there is a terrible lot to that category yet, but that's why I'm broadcasting this.

Original Hardcore Army

Once upon a Gen Con, I took part in the first Hardcore tournament. I hadn't been home for very long and I hadn't been playing Warmachine very much recently. But that tournament sounded like the kind of fun I wanted to have. Only thing was you needed a fully painted army to participate. So I made an army list and started on my mission to get them fully painted.

I painted all the time. After work, on weekends, I could usually be found at my desk painting away. Unfortunately I was a perfectionist and a beginner painter. So I would constantly second guess myself or be afraid to experiment with just putting paint on the model and seeing what it looked like. Needless to say this made my painting take a much longer time then it should have.

Gen Con kept getting closer and I kept painting. Finally finishing the painting the night before I left. I was down in my parking lot spraying matte finish over them when I should have been sleeping. But I was able to take my Hardcore army to Gen Con and play in the first Hardcore tournament.  Turns out I really should have practiced more.

More Painting

Lately I've been taking my miniature case with me to RPG nights and getting some painting in while we play. It has actually helped me pay attention to the game more as I'm less likely to be surfing the internet on my iPad and listening is much easier when I'm not self sabotaging myself with the internet. So as I've been going I've been getting faster and faster at painting. Not necessarily finishing multiple models a night. But I have been actually finishing models and that feels pretty fantastic.  I also have a large supply to draw from with both the Reaper Bones kickstarters worth of miniatures and my own armies worth of Warmachine and Hordes.

So without further ado, my painted models from the last month or so.

Kruger the Stormlord

More Kruger the Stormlord

She needs a bit more work and a better picture.

Morvhanna The Autumnblade

Minuteman

Grenadier

There are a few more that I will endeavor to get pictures of. I've finished some more but haven't taken pictures of yet. So hopefully you'll have some more pictures incoming.

Circle Battle Box

More work done on the Circle box set. I put most of my work into Kaya. I need to go over the mettalics again and then green wash them again but I like the color scheme so far.

I also worked on the face of the first Argus. Not sure I'm happy with them yet but paint to miniature is a step in the right direction.
Next will be finishing up Kaya and then starting the other Argus and the Feral Warpwolf.

Also have to work on my camera skills.

Two days in a row

Continuing from yesterday I threw another coat of red on the Juggernaut. I definitely think that looks better.

Next I started on his battle box mate, the Destroyer. Definitely need a couple coats of red over that black primer.

Next, I also finally started on painting my Circle Orboros warlock Kaya the Wildborne. She was part of the first set of Hordes miniatures I bought so its about time I finally started painting her.

I hope to keep this momentum going this weekend. I'd love to have a whole battle box force painted by this time next week.