Finished! Trollbloods Bouncer

All finished and ready to complete the battlegroup. If you saw my last post, this guy was painted up to join a battlegroup with mulg and hoarluk. Those two are nearly fixed up and I'll have to get some group shots but for now, here be the bouncer.

I'm also going to start a new subsection. Music and other audio motivations are my main ingredient for productive painting. Metal is in my heart but there is still a lot of empty space for other kinds of music. So in the future, I'll be posting links under the bumper "What have I been listening to".

This time being the first, I'll start with some metal. Enjoy the sour taste of Gath Smane

Battlegroup Revival Part 1

The final project to wrap up before Gencon is a Trollblood battelforce. Both Mulg and Hoarluk are commission pieces that were mailed back to me. The two of them have seem many battles and are in need of a touch up before the big show.

Many, many battles...

While I'm doing that I have a third warbeast to add in order to complete the battlegroup. After discussing it with the client, the idea of a troll bouncer came up and I went with it.

Moving right along while his buddies wait for surgery :)

WIP Stormwall Part 4

Finally! He's standing on his own two legs. After keeping this project in pieces for so long, I could finally start assembling :) The base finally passed that awkward, bald state and now has a variety of foliage which brings it to life a little more. I had been nervous about the base, I usually make things much more broken but I had little different vision for this one. Can pink flowers be described as bad ass?

Finished! Brom Hardbark

Here is the end result of the Chicago jam I attended last weekend. This is the first bust I've painted and I wish I hadn't waited so long. When I looked at busts I didn't see as much room for customization, no base to build, no pose to tweak with, but It puts a different emphasis on a miniature. Obviously the head is much larger which makes it a focus piece but I'll look at painting faces a little differently from now on. I also put more attention into the plinth and connecting point. His name is Brom Hardbark so I wanted to represent that on his mounting. I bashed the block with a hammer (bashed it good) and added a shield which displayed Brom's favored cudgel.

 

Samson Goes to the Movies, Part 9!

This time around Adam and I took a look at some quick and effective scenery painting. Enjoy and as always, check out the Tabletop Minions page, which has broken the 2500 followers mark! Congratulations to Adam, he's certainly put his time in.

Chicago Paint Jammin, Day Two!

Yes yes, we did continue our most important work. Happily painting away and feeding off eachothers work :)

Jeff and Tom thinking deeply about what a dwarf wears.

Not to forget this year's gencon on the horizon , I aslo brought along some pieces of the storm wall to work on.

The weekend wrapped up nicely with everyone getting a good point of time in on their dwarf. It was also the first bust any of us painted. Which is another lesson in focus and I'd suggest to any painter who wants to improve, that they paint a bust. 

Almost done at this point. I just have a few more details to clean up and see that this plinth get the right "accents".

Chicago Paint Jammin

Whooo! Doing a little posting from my phone so please excuse the mess. This weekend's mission is a paint jam with Jeff Bowden and Tom Ales. We got our hands on three of the same busts to swap ideas and have a real good time.

Above is a midway shot of the three dwarves. Below, is a chronological arrangement of painting progression.

The table is set. Later we found a way to block the oppressive sun out.

A wet blended start and basecoat.

Then, the brushed tickled away at the dwarf. It felt good to put asked the cygnar project and care a little less.

Three dudes, the same, but different!

The chaos continues. Perception meet ritual equals reality. Dream it and actively be it. You'll understand when you're older.

Stay tuned for part two!

WIP Stormwall Part 3 (white lines)

It's a long road when you can see every step ahead of you. But in order to get this model past the shitpoint I had to embark on that long, white, mazelike highway. I wanted to capture more of a reagal look befitting of cygnar. Not wanting to mess with symmetry I pulled my focus back and decided to add the spirals and swirls to specfic armor plates. My past employment at a tattoo shop designing stars and swirls definitely paying off here.

Once the mile of so of ivory lines were laid out, I set about the first of three series of highlights. Which were then battle damaged with a shred of foam.

I also started the electricity banks. A rough sketch that will come together with some more highlighting and washing.

White lines

The Scenic Route

Recently I was shooting another tutorial video, this time involving some scenery and some hairspray. Here are the stills I shot of the finished piece..I'm kicking myself for coming across this scheme a little late into the game, having painted a large amount of the same scenery previously here. But that's what experience will bring you.

Enjoy!

WIP Stormwall Part 2

Now that everything is blocked in, I began the lengthy process of shading the metallics. If the phrase "I've been painting the color black for 4 hours" is appealing to you, then this is your heaven.

I also spent some time on the base. To me it looks a little too red to have as much foliage as I have planned but by washing in some more tan and deep brown I think I'll achieve the desired result.

The next objective will be smoothing out the blues and plotting a course for the freehanding I plan on adding. Large projects like this are usually a little touch and go and this one is no exception. You must keep pushing, past the shitpoint and on to glory!

WIP Stormwall Part 1

For the last three years I've painted up a colossal for the P3 contest at Gencon. This year I plan on doing the same and this time I chose the Stormwall. I like the Cygnar scheme but wanted to deviate a little from the norm so I aimed for more of a warmer turquoise blue.

Once the airbrushing was done I started blocking in the metallic areas.

For the base I wanted to make something a little less wartorn and muddy. I had the idea of a more serene walking garden area in mind. Which will look a little plain until I add the foliage. I traced out the footprint on a piece of corkboard and went to work. All those botched banners I've been saving were finally going to be put to some use.

I also rolled up some pillar shapes from some milliput. They don't need to be perfect as I'll add some moss and vines to cover up the simplicity.