Dark Eldar Combat Patrol WIP

Slowly I'm building up some momentum to finish my combat patrol. The event I want to have them finished in time for is 3 weeks away, well counting this week.(http://www.oshcon.org/) I want to finish my Wyches and their transport by the end of the week and here's where they sit at the moment. 

Punk as Fuck.

A few steps remain but I'm confident I can have them done by Sunday.

I started the freehand design on the raider's sail as well. At this point it's a simple plotting of light and dark to guide me when I start to apply the colors.

"You still don't have these finished yet?" You may ask. Here's why...

I'm also trying to churn out a Sanguinary Priest by Sunday for the wilds of E-Bay. I think I can handle that :)

Lord Morphus in progress

A few days ago I managed to put some more time into Lord Morphus. I've still been keeping track of the time I spend on him and he's just around 8 1/2 hours in counting assembly time.

Soon I'll take the final pictures of him and he can begin the rest of his existence as a dust collector. Mucked in with the rest of the crew being displayed on my shelf...I really need to find a cabinet.

While I was working on him my fellow painter Jake stopped by with some of his works. Jake is a master when it comes to display bases. His work is definitely an inspiration for me. He's the only other guy I know around here who is really into miniature painting. I'm kicking my self in the ass right now because some of the following photos came out blurry. I decided to still share them as you can see what's going on. 

Very cool and I've been planning out a similar setting for a miniature I want to get my hands on in the near future.

Here's a model from Anima Tactics. Very cool steam punk base featuring some watch parts Jake ordered from Hasslefree miniatures. http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/pack.php?pack=2255 I need to get my hands on a set of those gears.

Next pictures you see of Lord Morphus he'll be finished ;) I had to put him aside for the moment though. I want to get my combat patrol army finished in time for Oshcon, an event put on by my buddy Adam http://atomsmashing.wordpress.com/ At the moment I'm only slightly behind on the Dark Eldar. Hopefully I'll have completed pictures of some Wyches and their Raider. I have three weeks until Oshcon and I need to complete 10 Wyches, 1 Ravager, 1 Raider, and a Venom. We'll see what happens...

Chaos Lord Finished! Now with Magnets

After much deliberation I finally settled on a color scheme for my Chaos Lord. Black Legion Baby! Mostly inspired by my friend Adam (http://atomsmashing.wordpress.com/) who's recently chosen the Black Legion as his introductory force for 40K.

He was plenty of fun and he has plenty more magnetic options :) It's always fun to paint something you haven't painted and sell it on E-bay. A nice change of pace from my usual Sanguinary priests.

Just a nice tabletop quality on this guy. 

Here's the E-Bay auction :)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330619455689?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1156

W.I.P. Log Chaos lord/Dark Eldar Raider

I've been a very busy beaver lately and it's been hard to find time to blog. I've had other things on my mind, trying to find a new place to live before the winter and doing many tattoos. It's been nice having a short break from the minis. 

I did manage to start painting a Raider for my Dark Eldar Combat Patrol list though. Here it is with some edging and basecoating. The picture looks a little gritty because I moved the camera back in order to fit the Raider in the frame.

I'm liking how ghostly it's looking and I think once the crewman are added, having red armor, it will have a nice composition of colors. I plan on freehanding biomechanical designs on the sail like I did on my squad of warriors I've posted here before.

I've also started, after much deliberation, to churn out my latest E-bay project. This time I've chosen a chaos terminator lord. I wanted to try and magnetize every option he could have out of the box. I also couldn't find his staff that would denote him as a sorcerer...

With a small stretch of imagination he can have a demon weapon, pair of lightning claws, combi bolter, or combi meltagun. I'm not sure what legion to paint him as so we'll see what happens. I think I'd like to paint him red...

Today's agenda has me happily adding more color to Lord Morphus :)

Finished! Space Wolf Lord and Njal

By now I'm guessing these guys have safely arrived in Switzerland and sharing the pictures will not spoil the surprise for my client.

First up is a fantastic model from Scibor Monstrous Minis (http://sciborminiatures.com/) This model was a delight to paint as well as a challenge but that's half the fun.

This may be a surprise but he's also on Coolminiornot

http://www.coolminiornot.com/287548

This is my second time painting Njal Stormcaller. Painting a second or even third of the same model can be fun,(am I right Ork players?..) I believe in second chances.

Go rock the vote if that tickles your fancy :)

http://www.coolminiornot.com/287545

Moprhus, Chaos Lord WIP

In the midst of all the commissions it's nice to have a few personal projects going. 

I've had this guy sitting around since last year's Crystal Brush where I picked him up. I've had illusions of entering again this year and morphus being one of my entries, it doesn't hurt to dream. Anyways I put him together after watching the new Conan movie in the theater. Maybe it was a coincidence but I was motivated that night for whatever reason. 

Here's where he got to after the old clip & trim and base and reposition and add a bit here and add a bit there and reposition again.

So far so good, I really like the skeleton attached to the base.

Last night I sat down and watched a movie while I worked out a color scheme and a basecoat. It was nice having the movie on because I realized I could keep track of the time it took and I've never timed my self. Here's where I got in an hour and maybe 10 minutes or so.

Of course I painted his armor green. Kind of a cop out but I happen to like Nurgle and gross limey greens so fuck off :) I'm not completely sold on his skin tone though, I think I might try it again using some blue hues this time. I like the way the blue cloth fits with the greens and maybe I should simplify the paintjob a little bit and change his skin. I do plan on the skeleton's shield being maroon colored though...maybe I'll paint the severed head mounted on his back with maroon tones to drag the eye back up top. Hmm...decisions decisions. We'll see what happens...

Hey Dogface! Instantmold Wolf Priest helmets tutorial

Recently I've been commissioned to build 3 wolf priests for my internet pal Noam. He, like Kevin, (http://myworld.ebay.com/teachermickeymouse/?_trksid=p4340.l2559) is an E-bay bits pimper. Sorry Noam I don't know the address for you store or I'd link it, why did I have to clean out my messages?! Hopefully these models will make up for it.

Here's the coolminiornot video detailing the ins and outs of Instantmold.

Great video, after finally conducting some experiments with this stuff I can honestly say every modeler out there should get their hands on some.

So I had to make Wolf Priests and the only wolfskull helmet I could think of was the one Ulrik the Slayer wears. Noam sent me his Ulrik to have my way with. 

I had to trim back some of the fur to get at the spot I wanted (hah reminds me of my days as a tattoo artist) Then I applied a blob of instant mold in a cone shape making sure I had plenty to cut through. The reason I used so much was so when I removed the mold I could cut my own key into it. That's the one thing they should have put into that video. It's hard to line a mold up just right when both sides of it are flat.

I cut a triangular shape into it so it would match up right every time.

Shazaam, 4 copies of that ugly mug. Always make some extras ;) So after cutting the faces off three Space Wolves(satisfying, I'll pretend they were long fangs). I glued on the faces and puttied in the join.

Here are the three priests, they all have magnetized jump packs too. All the pieces came from the Grey Hunters box. The crozius was made from the frost blade and the icons found in the box.

Now for some paint!

Basing from top to bottom

More like bottom to top but here goes.

I picked up a unit of Forsaken Junkers from the Coolmini booth at Gen Con and it's about time I make some bases for these three babes.

I wanted to keep these bases somewhat simple as far as clutter goes. The idea was for them to have large features that complement the pose of the figures. This is what I came up with after examining the miniatures I had to work with. Some simple pieces of scrap I found in the mechanic's parking lot when I was desperately seeking a brake job in South Carolina. We were stranded but I didn't miss an opportunity to pick up garbage for my tiny dolls...

After gluing down some dried out soil I wet blended a basecoat. The colors used were mixtures of the following: graveyard earth, scorched brown, black, and bleached bone. Having previously planning where these models would go I made sure to leave the darker tones around the areas their feet would be to add a bit of a shadow and another point of contrast. For the metals I used Vallejo Oily steel, black and mithril silver.

Next some drybrushing. Just 2 coats, graveyard earth and a bleached bone/graveyard earth mix.

Then I applied a wash of Devlan Mud and a rust wash to the metal. 

You can make your own rust was by letting some non-stainless steel steel wool sit in some water for a few days.

Now it's time for some highlighting on the metals with mithril silver and extra glazes of black in the shadows. while I was glazing I also added some darker patches. Once I got to the highlighting process I edge highlighted the lower edge of the dark spots to make the metal look dented. It is scrap after all.

After they were finished I painted the rim of one base with graveyard earth. The idea was to neutralize the black line going around the base. The models that will be mounted on these bases will be painted with dark colors and I think the colored rim makes the shadows pop out more.

Now for the models...

Finished Dwarf ala Armorcast and some local scenery

Here's the first of three Dwarfs I painted for Armorcast (http://www.armorcast.com/) these models are full of character. The first one I'd like to share is this haggard old veteran. Missing limbs always excite the imagination. Is he a veteran of some long ago clash where he valiantly defended his Kin and future generations? Maybe it's the result of a life altering futon accident?

I'll have more Dwarfs to share in the upcoming week so stay tuned ;)

I also devoted a few hours to getting some new scenery done for the local store. There was a tournament on Saturday and since I was playing Dark Eldar I figured I'd get some of these citadel forests into the mix.

Also some barricades. I thought the fall colors appropriate for the season.

Hey what's that sound in the distance? Why is the ground shaking!?.. Monster!!

It's a giant Italian babe stomping toward the village! She's also a good sport haha.

Armorcast models finished!

This has been a busy week but I still managed to hit all my painting goals. The most important one was to finish the commissions from Armorcast. I'm happy to present the wip models from last post completed.

I also have three grumpy dwarfs that are completed at the moment. I still have to put the photos together though so more on them later, or sooner. I'll also have some commissions to show off but I want to wait until they reach their destination before I spoil the surprise so those will have to wait until the "later" as well. Sooner though.

Diorama re-shoot

My feelings from the last post were seconded by anonymous comments on the internet. What other choice do I have? I re-shot "The Center of the Hive" last night. this time I tried for some more dramatic angles. 

Enjoy.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/286461

I've also begun the slow method of painting my Dark Eldar Combat Patrol. I have big plans for my DE army and it's good to get a start of some sort. Tomorrow I should find time to prime everything.

Slow and steady ;)

I actually have a start that's not pictured, there's a five man warrior squad not pictured. I'll have proper pictures sooner than later as they're the squad that won silver at this year's US Gamesday.

Tomorrow's painting schedule should show some finished commissions. The first group is the commissions I received from Armorcast. I have a start on two and I plan on finishing them tomorrow.