Back from Gamesday 2013, Memphis

What a ride what a ride..11 hours actually. I did perfect the art of sleeping with a sweatshirt on my head though. That's something right? So what do you do exactly when you've been in a van for 11 hours? Our first idea was to drive another hour across town to GW's headquarters for a friggin barbecue! :)..I'm vegetarian but damn if that wasn't some good tater salad.

This was what made Gamesday memorable to me. The actual saturday may have been a little less than expected but GW stretching it out a bit by throwing a cookout the day before helped. We walked around the place and then back and forth again. There was a lot to see :)

We rolled back to the hotel and went to restaurant for some beer and eats..Yeah, barbecue again. I shared a greek a salad and some red beans & rice with the other herbivore in our clan. The next morning with our nerves in a bundle we headed to the Cook convention center for Gamesday proper...

In no particular order here is a pile of pictures. The disorder is probably a result of rushing in and then wandering around in when the afternoon hits and you've seen it.

This was a great gamesday over all. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a speed painting contest or and art on display. But I was happy as hell to see my painting pal Tom grab the Slayer Sword and not one but 3 Golden Demons as well as the Forge World best in show. Hi five my man! I was a little disappointed in myself when I only took home one bronze but it's hard not to get wrapped up in the competitions on the day of. No big deal, I was thoroughly inspired and got some good feedback from the judges. I'm already planning on next year's conventions and taking it a step further. 

See you at Gencon. 

Finished! Lord Putro

The internet's been running dry in these parts. Makes it hard to update my blog, soon I'll have new neighbors though..So here he is, better late than never, Lord Putro.

He's also up on Coolminiornot. I have to admit one regret with this mini. I should have done one large portrait on his banner instead of three fiddly ones. Maybe some bells on the ends of the bannerpole? Next time I'll get it right.

Cloth of the loin

Today's mission is to spend some quality time with the Mountain King..and what he will wear. Loincloths of course, but what will they be made of? I wanted the cloth to look more like it was sewn together from scavenged materials but not look to busy. It could turn into a cosby sweater if I wasn't careful..Maybe it should have been. Anyway I decided to use a limited amount of colors and the tones of the highlights and shadows would be the same colors. I stuck with red and terra cotta with ivory for the highlights and a dark olive tone that gave way to black for the shadows. Here's a little step by step of how I went about it.

We'll start at the end so the title picture looks Zazzy.

First the base coat. The blue section will be a former Cygnar banner..but you saw that.

Next I mixed in some bleached bone to wet blend some highlights on.

A few passes in the crevices to get a unifying color into the shadows. I'm using this color on many other parts of the model. The name on the bottle is Charadon Granite, it was from GW's foundation range. I'm not sure what the name has been changed to but it reminds me of a dark olive if that helps. I also added some freehands which were shaded with they're own tones before I made the broad strokes with my olive mixture.

After a few layers of glazing the shadows in I concentrated on some of the deeper areas as well as some highlighting.

So far so good, I still need to add many highlights as well as choose a color for the stitches.

Wippin it good

Well, first an apology. Sorry I don't have  final pictures of lord putro yet but he's all done :) What I do have is some progress shots of my Mountain King :) He's huge and it's a challenge, I love that about him.

Here's a shot of the pallet, just painting the blues and purps baby. I'm reminded of the ninja turtles every time I put the brush to this guy hah. He very much resembles those old action figures. Good thing I love the turtles. Why doesn't somebody sculpt that? Maybe I should? Maybe I'm at a coffee shop, caffeinated and writing too many thoughts?

Here's a shot from a couple days ago. Just me, Lord Putro, and some Fooly Cooly trying to beat the heat.

Finished! Eldar HQ's on waverunners

I mean jetbikes..makes you think though.

Stay tuned, Lord Putro is next. 

WIP Jetbike Mounted Eldar HQ

Here's where they are so far. Still more to go but the plan is to finish them today..even if that means midnight.  Not much else to say :) just make it smooth and do it again!