Hey everyone! I'm back painting again after a long break. In fact I've been painting since november but I was consistently working on just one big order for Dom (A DnD order that was huge!) so I will post pics of that soon. Currently I'm working on some 40 Emporers children for Jody and some Nightswatch for Lukas to go with his collection I painted before the big break. I'll post some photo of the 40K stuff later tody or tomorrow but for now enjoy these first two models from the Nightswatch top up.
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Heading out today is this beautiful and small german motorized devision. A great little collection of models with a lot of character. I particularly enjoyed applying the mud effects to the wheels here, which i achieved by mixing up some of my snow paste and dying it brown with paint, usually i mix gravel right into the wheels but it can look a little large so this new effect is much nicer. I've been working on this commission slowly and intermittently since last winter as i have had a big house move and some other bits to sort out in life. The commission is large and exciting and i have really enjoyed painting a unified and individual force. As with anything uniform (in this case rather asymetrically, being that not *everyone* is wearing a greay cloak) i had a good time working out the color scheme and the unifying elements. I had the most fun working on the deer rider, on this model i took my time to work some soft and gentle blends of brown to light brown/grey and i love the final effect, it's very naturalistic. Some of the troop choices featured a fair amount of colour variation, so i went with a "three-four colours rotation" and the final look is fantastic but most of the troops feature a grey and black pallete. There where so many troops i had the chance to experiment with different types of black, different ways of painting it and different ways of finishing it. As a final choice, once basing was complete i went through the whole collection and added a tiny bit of mud and dust kick up on every single cloak (and many of the shoes). This really ties them to the winter look and every one of the my housemates that i've shown have specifically noted "they love the snow on the capes". The heroes took a little longer and i really took my time to make sure each one stands out from the other. I also added a little more detailing on their bases so that they pop on the battlefield for the player. During the end of this commission i feel like i really mastered the snow effect of the bases that i've been devloping since the first valhallan order a few years ago. These days i've got the "mottled/ stepped in" snow down to a T.
I will be posting high res images later today. I hope everyone enjoys them. Arthur I've been working on some little orders in this new year period as i've recently moved and have set up a new studio. One of these was a fun and unique little order of "not" blackadder miniatures from Scarab miniatures. I really enjoyed this order and it bought back lot's of good memories of the show which i grew up watching and i always loved it. In british schools (at least when i was there) they often use the show to educate people gently on the horrors of ww1 such as the food shortages and the command structures. I am looking forward to sending these back to my client (dave, a long time loyal client and friend) and finishing the next thing on the desk. Check back for more soon.
INFINITY FOR LUKASThis last month i've been working in silence, tying up loose ends and sorting out my order queue. I have had some old clients get back in contact about Flames of war orders which i am super excited to get started on in the coming week or two. I finished some of daves mixed stuff and the infinity bits for lukas, i can't wait for Lukas to get all his work back, due to Covid we went with a "send it all back together" approach (also better because of shitty brexit) and he is going to get a christmas size box of painted miniatures! I had fun painting these infinity bits but i think i may not paint infinity in the future. I've spoke to lukas, maybe i could just charge a little more but i prefer not to charge to much. In my eyes this hobby and job isn't about rinsing people capitolistically, i try my best to keep costs down but with some painting styles (e.g. the "infinity" style) it's just impossible. I give every client i work with some kind of discount, which is ok as most orders vary in style, size and length, meaning i can recoup the "cost" in one way or another with style and technique choices. When you've painted professionally for this long you don't worry about how you're going to paint something, you just do. Sadly infinity takes so long to paint due to the fine edges, this is the reason i don't paint much 40k any more. I was charging £10.00-£15.00 a miniature and it made me feel sick, i didn't want the cost for the client to be that high. Don't get me wrong they look awesome (literally i'm so proud) but due to the cleanliness of the paint job i shall think long before painting more Infinity in the future. As i become a better painter my time and effort input becomes more congruent with my costs and output so i could in fact be pondering a very simple problem that in essence doesn't exist. Most artists undervalue their work (except usualy for the famous ones...) and i think maybe it's time to do another re jig of the costs, being more specific for each range i like to paint. The irony being with these infinity is that they bring me such joy to look at, especially the magnet pinned spider robots, which where a realy adventure and the results look fantastic. LOTR FOR DAVE AND LUKASI also had the oppertunity to paint some Uruks from lord of the rings this month, i adore lotr models. I would paint LOTR all day if i had a choice, sadly a large chunk of the LOTR collecting community are hobbyists themselves so i shall simply keep wishing and hoping. It would be my dream to just paint an entire collection. I shall pop Lukas's orc bow on here to, just in case i didn't share it yet. I also finished Daves covenanters (i hope i'm writing that correctly) and i am as always having fun painting in a vaguely "dallimore" style that Dave always enjoys. Dave to is waiting on the return of this lot as i have some other bits i'm just started yesterday for him (after someone broke into a parcel of his on the way here and nicked some bits! But don't worry i like to take care of my clients so i re purchased the pieces and we're back on track, no cost to Dave of course.) PETES GERMANSPete's SS where a good laugh. I worked on these to provide a style and color pallete that matched his current collection, in fact we spoke a lot about paint styles and colors, and i had a really good oppertunity to think about how i structure the paint costs of the business. I think i may begin to offer a "flat coat" rate, for gamers who fancy the "no bells and whistles" style over high detail. It pleases me so that the high detail obsession of the early 21st century is already wearing off, i personally think gaming should be about gaming, and the super duper high detail paint style of some painters and some companies can get me down a bit as i feel the pressure to match. I knocked up this little base marker for Pete but i forgot to send it so i've popped it in the post this morning and it should be with him soon. I hope he likes it, i had time to kill while i awaited instruction, so it was time to kit bash with those lovely spares. MOVING FORWARD - OTHERWORLD FOR DAVENext up i'm going to whip through some otherworld stuff as mentioned above. The otherworld miniature line is fantastic and just the right amount of character. Taking what i jsut said about detail i want to note, detail DOES NOT MEAN CHARACTER. Take many miniatures from the gamesworkshop lines. They're often repeated soul less high detail mechanical constructs with absolutely no character inside. Then compare them to low detail lines like the 90's warzone. Yes they look gimicky and at times completely nuts but the character pours out. Some sculptors hit this happy medium and the sculpttors for Otherworld manage that in spades. One of the beautiful things about characterful miniatures is that they take paint very well. The more Characterful a miniature the easier it is to decide what type of paint what area. Ultimately this means that the miniature is much quicker to paint and much more fun. THE FLAMES OF WAR BOYS!Pic below - some FOW i did for this returning client many years ago. I always loved seeing those horses lined up. Finally pictured below is the two rather comprehensive Flames Of War orders i have on the go. Luckilly these are (i think but i am not sure) collections of two friends, which is awesome as it means i can color match their armies and they will look great on the table together. So check back for more on the Otherworld stuff and the Flames of war soon. I shall also aim to get some good portfolio pics up of the Infinity bits. The last few weeks i've been bouncing back and forth between painting aqnd my new gaming company. I started a new company under "wicked wargames" (wickedwargames.weebly.com). The company is a splinter off ezpainter as opposed ot releasing more games "under" ezpainter. It never felt quite right and i think it confused people as well as myself at times. On the painting table i have of course been painting a lot of miniatures for the new game but also some commissions. Dave has sent me a nice mixed order of Covenantors and a tribal shaman. I really enjoyed painting the horses for these blokes. I took a bit of a Kevin dallimore approach to the horses straps and saddles and i think it really paid off. One day i'll paint everything that way and it'll defniitely be good for business. People seem to like the Dallimore method. Dallimore is the chunky paint method of the foundry miniatures line. I also just landed a really fun Waffen SS ordfer. I asembled them all and i got a bit creative with someo of them, this is going to be a fun order and i can't wait to continue building a fun working relationship with this new client. The only miniatures i'm paiting for myself right now is these western models, i plan to paint one a day as a warm up excersise and i love western models. It's been many years since i had any of these exciting foundry sculpts on the table (there is two dixon miniatures in there two) and i look forward to getting them on the table with a western gaming system that i plan to develop in the future. I'm still working on the infinity bits but i'm taking my time to work on them slowly so that i make sure to give them the attention they need. Infinity is not a style you can rush, it's sharp, clean and it needs time and care.
Today i finished the War for chicken island starter from Kickstarter. This has been one of the wierdest and most exciting commissions i've had in a long time. With a recent slew of "realistic" commissions and even some that you might consider "hyper naturalistic" i've been slow to the table but with these random and cartoony models i've managed to really flex my painting muscles and get some really fun painting done. My fave from above is the guy with the muscles, he really shines as a character and i added a little tattoo on his arm that says "mom" and an anchor. Despite howbasic the above paint jobs could have been i decided to use a mix of browns and silvers and painting techniques so as to give thme some individuality. Some of these got flat coats and inks with lighter lifts while others got layered drybrushes and wet brush techniques to simulate gashes and scuffs on the stone, wood and metal. I particularly enjoyed painting the dragon chicken who i painted using a mix of red and silver paint that created a really curious tone across the model, almost colored metal. This slide is almost all favorites to, i particularly like the "god of war" kratos and the "not skeletor". I felt like i nailed the purple on that one. In this one it's gotta be the terminator chicken...i mean come on...a terminator chicken. The big boss models (i presume) came out a lot better than expected. Generally painting 3D printed stuff can be hit and miss, print lines can be very distracting but i personally enjoyed layering on slightly thicker layers of paint on these, adding depth and also covering some of those lines as i went along. This week i've finished the basecoats for the rest of the chickens (it was nice to practise some more complicated colors like purple, it's always hard to get a good flat basecoat of purple so that was pleasent.) These guys are seriously some of the funniest models i've seen in a while, i particularly like the "god of war" one and the "zen master". I've also been working on ctaching up on personal projects. I've had a colleciton of toy dinosaurs i have been building up for a while that have needed a good lick of paint for a while. I am painting them to use with my own published wargame "Cretacea: The game of gargantuan survival". I really enjoyed painting this Ankylosaurus (size wise he's probably a large juvenile) and he came out wonderfully with a mix of spray and inking techniques used. He reminds me of "bumpy" from the Juarssic world kids show (which i binged all two series of in it's entirety in a few days recently hehe). I've been catching up on these infinity models. My personal anxieties rarely encroach on my work but they seem to with infinity but i decided not to make a scene and just wait until the motivaiton came up. I believe it's because infinity has a real distinct style associated to it (the reaosn i don't paint space marines) and i worry about not getting things "clean" enough. But i shouldn't worry as the client i'm painting for this time is not only one of my favorite clients but a friend also. These robots are looking awesome, and i do enjoy a chance to practice extreme edge highlighting. Some base coats and some black ink stuff. My current black ink mix is a bit mirky, it doesn't matter i repaint almost all of the model but i may re mix my ink.
Recently i've been having a blast using spray paint in a "airbrush" manner. It helps me to get some lovely faded blacks and greys on bigger creatures. I truly am enjoying the process and i eagerly look forward to painting dragons and such so this new giant bat was a real pleasure. This model is going to be used with Lukas' orcs of mordor (pictured below) and i really hope he likes the muted brown and grey tones i've leant into, not to mention those striking "statement" wings that will make him really pop on the battlefield, especially when playing against dark backgrounds. I've also got some infinity on for the same client, i enjoy infinity but i haven't got as much done as i'd like yet. So far i've gotten some basecoats neatly done, these models will look slightly different of course with finishing highlights and inking. i aim to find a lot more time to paint this coming week, corona time has become a consistently "hard to manage" situation, it always feels liek theres an errand to run but i think i'm settling into 2021 now. CHICKENS ARE COMINGA client has sent me the starter kickstarter box from war for chicken island. I love these odd orders, i truly enjoy the strange ones these days. I look forward to getting started on this one, i'll be quoting it tonight/ tomorrow and then we will grab some appropriate color sprays and dive in.
This photo form the kickstarter updates is the image my client sent me for color scheme and inspiriation so i ought to get familiar with it soon! Now that i've finished my larger orders for this year i'm getting around to some smaller orders that have just come in. First up is a mixed order of tidbits from one of my favourite and longest clients Lukas. Lukas plays lots of different systems and this order brings necromunda, infinity and some little demons to the table. I started with the Necromunda stuff. Painting Lukas's necromunda is one of my favourite memories in the past and i really enjoyed slapping some paint on these three unique characters. I will get some feedback on these before i move onto the infiinity tomorrow! Take a closer look at each one below. I wanted to dedicate a whole post to these fantastic bear riders (rough riders) that my client converted. I'm so proud of my client Bram, he's a genius and he really trusts me to finish bringing his vision to life. It's such an honor and i can't wait to hear his in person reaction when he get's these back. I am also proud because these may be the only bear rough rider unit of this size in the world and i got to paint them. If someone googles bear riders or rough rider bears, these will be the ones that come up hopefully. What an amazing honor. Yesterday i added a second layer of snow mix to all of the bases from this order (my hands where so snowey) and today i added a layer of pva for strength, then i popped them all in the photo booth one last time and grabbed some great snaps. I'm really getting to know the camera i'm using and it's built in brightness and focus settings, notice how in the group shot the focus spreads much further back and the sharpness is on point. I'm really excited to sit down and pack these up tonight. I am literally a little bit emotional at the same time, this has been a long and super fun process. i've literally taught myself to paint white along the way and i have for sure fixed down my snow recipe for life now. I am very glad of the patience bram has shown me but as he says i am a bit of perfectionist and he's not wrong.
Coming up soon - Infinity, mordheim, necromunda and i'm sure much more interesting work will land on my table (not to mention the classic uruk hai i have incoming!) Today i photographed some of the finished valhallan order for Bram. I have been working on this order for most of 2020 and some of the years prior (in segments). I am super happy with the "peak" pieces (the tanks, ogrynn and bear riders) and i am also super happy with the general continuity of the white tones on the vehicles and the weathering and such. I have noticed some lack of continuity among the snow bases in that some of them (the earlier ones) i think had a bit less white paint mixed in the mix i made so i will give some of them a top layer of snow flock tomorrow and then start wrapping this one up for Bram. I took some great photos (and some not so great) of some of the other bits and tomorrow i'll ensure i have finished photos of everything. I am simply so happy to be completed on this, but because of covid and some mental health dips it's taken longer than expected. However there was no time limit on this order, so it's still a very positive achievment for me and my client. I can't wait to hear how they shred up the 41st millenium.
Making headway on this last few bits on the valhallan order. This week i've finished the two last tanks (completeing the order...for now) and i've only got the snow to get around to. Talking of snow i laid out the entire order on a white table and it suddenly became apparent that some of the bases where less white than others. I decided to have a go at fixing that this week. I think i know what happened, i think i used more white paint in the later bases i did (i have been painting brams valhallans for a long time now! Some of the techniques have developed over the order. The entire order put together is vast and impressive. I'm super impressed by Bram's collecting skills but also i'm very pleased with my work, i feel like i have managed to make an army that could very well be a bit boring (mostly white and grey) and made it something unique and something that pops on the table, also something that is undoubtedly uniform. ZOMBIES!Something i have been sitting on for a little while is a new project inspired by zombie movies, zombie tv shows and zombie video games. I plan to mash a few of my favorite together and make a zombie game for my friends to play. I figure zombie are more relatable than fantasy so that's a good start. Also Zombies are super fun to paint. I've taken to finishing the bosses first, they're quicker and simple dry brush jobs. The models i am using are all from ebay and are super cheap. The company i buy them from buys them in bulk from fac tory leftovers (after board game production runs for kickstarter etc). So i may pay a few more pence per mini but i am not paying anything near the prices of zombicide models on the shelf (which are disgustingly marked up, it actually makes me a bit sick). Anyway keep your eyes peeled on this one, it's going to get bloody!
By this point readers of my blog will know that my most loyal client Dave is a real favorite, and so are his little orders he sends me. Dave tends to send me smaller and more digestible work that fits in with the games he's playing at the time (i assume). Here i've painted some old school white metal civilian sculpts for dave in a vaguely post medieval color scheme. Such good fun and such a quick little jobby that i can squeeze in before i get back onto those valhallans again. The order also contained these three riders. As much as i personally adore and prefer the older school chunky sculpts of the much missed white metal era of wargaming sadly they don't draw new customers to well (portfolio wise) as the newer gamers and most gamers in general tend to buy into the obsession with more detail and more features of modern models. As such these likely won't make it into the portfolio (gallery) pages of the website but as with all of Daves orders they will hold a small and special place in my creative process heart. I have begun work on the valahallan tanks that remain to that big 40k order but since it's all washes and drybrushing to start with i shan't overshare that process until i have some nice stuff to photograph.
Alongside my current commissions i have a personal backlog of 100's of miniatures (mostly for roleplaying) that i hope to catch up on in 2020. I decided to start with these fun fantasy villagers i have from ebay. As you can see i'm in the process of basecoats right now, although the one tavern wench wench model is finished. We're far to quick to put ourselves down us artists. I decided to work in relative silence this last week but i got through the entire end bits of the big roleplaying order and by golly am i excited to get these great bits back in the hands of the client Dom. Dom has been flexible, fun and it's been a joy communicating with him. I broke the portfolio sections (on the roleplaying page) down into mobs, dragons and npcs.
Take a look here. I've been struggling a bit this month, i feel that corona finally caught up with me along with a stolen bicycle, broken phone and some personal issues it's been a really hard month. I did manage to move my work studio into another space and that has been helpful to relieve pressures but i have subsequently been doing a bit less work. In saying that i must recognise that i haven't stopped and have been working quietly when possible in private. I have finished the entirety of the DnD order (in basecoat) and i have just the photographed models left to finish properly. These smaller bones models can be really fun because they are simple models, like a "color in the numbers" kind of practise. The rest of the order awaits their bases which i shall do in one sweep when all of the models are painted fully. I can't wait for Dom to get these back and see the completed order in all of it's creative, colorful glory. I finished those riders and the other valhallan infantry a while back but i haven't shared them yet, one of them needs some final touches as the paint came off the wire "reigns" and the other needs a new hand, sadly when attempting to put the reigns through his hand hole the hand cracked off and did the age old classic of "jumped across the room and disapeared" that we all know to well as gamers and painters! I shall sort that soon and then it is only two tanks left on this valhallan order. For the time being i have decided to finish the DnD order as i can get something finished and posted out which i think will lift my spirits regarding work (a sense of acomplishment) and then i shall do the same with the valhallans and then when me and lukas have reconvened in email i can finish off his troll.
So the heatwave passed and was replaced by relentless rain. Not a problem as i needed to re adjust my work times and planning regarding commissions so now i can do just that. Starting with i knocked out this 10mm martians commission for Dave and i had a blast doing them. They may be the most finicky models i've ever assembled and i do think they could be improved massively but the finished look is just great and i really enjoy them now that they're done. Gentle handling will be the key to enjoying these long term for my client. As per the new landing page gallery plan i've concocted i took some war of the worlds shots. In an effort to spark creative inspiration i finished my tmnt models from brother vini and took a shot with them to, as the robots seem to suit the tmnt style perfect. I have also been working on the valhallans but since the color scheme is very similar to before i shan't publically keep sharing lots of pics of these, i shall instead wait a few weeks until the total order is complete and i can knock out one big photography afternoon at once.
coming up- Dungeons and dragons infantry work, more valhallans and tanks, necromunda and infinity. Lots to come! I spent most of yesterday moving my work desk and studio in my home into a spare room and making therefore a better place to work undistracted. I finished this trolls weapon promptly today and i like the outcome but i fear it may be off kilter with my clients idea. I shall ask him for notes. it is definitely brutal and definitely unique. I also popped the final highlights on these troopers for bram and i'm excited to get on with the pasty fluffy snow basing. I may do a little photo tutorial but my technique is really just pva with bicarb and white paint. Pretty simple but a great finish.
These orcs have been a joy from start to end. Their strange color scheme was wonderfully fun and the red flowers on the bases just add that cute little finishing pop of contrast that i love. I looked at the inspiration pic this morning and noticed i'd ended up with a slightly more blue tone on the skin but the specific turquoise blue tone was a bit more difficult and i do know that i was aiming that way, so with that in mind i'm still proud of the outcome. I set up a new permanent photo booth this week and i thought i'd get some better pics of those spray painted trolls. I am still in love with the outcome, i can't get over how natural and real it looks. I had constant trouble getting a pre existing break on the troll chieftan weapon to stay glued. I tried some gentle dremel work to re set the pummel but it wouldn't hold. I spoke to my client and i was told to aim for a hammer or club if i was to convert an alternative. I dug around in my bits box thinking i had some ogre kingdoms weapons but i couldn't find them. I decided to use some poundland skeleton ax heads and make a brutal ax. The main advantage of this conversion is that it weighs nothing at all, so it pins very securely and shouldn't break. I am however to hear from my client and i image it might be a bit to axe-ish. Luckilly it's easy to remove if it's not his cup of tea but i will forge on and paint it today and then i can get a proper opinion from my client. I have the utmost confidence that it's going to look brutally aproppriate when it's done.
Tonight i was bitten by the creative inspiration bug. I am to send back Johns work tomorrow and i thought that before i do i should take some fancy pictures of the models in "action" and the results are great. It has inspired me to start making terrain again as i tend to struggle to find a reason as a non gamer. I hope to do this in some way for all of my future orders, so that the landing page of the website can be more colorful and creative. You can go to any painters website and see picture after picture on a white or black background so now i've got my own little "portfolio" style for the landing page. Definitely more engaging. The uk has been hit with a massive heat wave. It's lasted about two weeks and since i work and live underground it's been particularly difficult to work in the heat. Due to this my mental health got a bit down and i struggled to paint at all. Luckilly my bulk of remaining work at the moment is with one of my most patient and kindly understanding of clients Bram (who is also a creative genius by the way). I have spoken to bram and i'm glad to have finished these base coats today on his valhallans as it has allowed me to feel more caught up and less lazy (although i wasn't being lazy its difficult to not feel that way when the work desk is six feet from my bed!). I really like how these are coming out so far and now i just need to decide what wash i'm using on them. I've alternated washes with all of Brams stuff and as he's so understanding of the creative process (and also he's not anal and particular) so i tend to get slightly varying finishes across the board on his work. I want to master my wash for these white tones, although admittedly bram is a flatterer when it comes to my ability to paint white, as he seems to think me a bit good at it. I also slapped a basecoat on those tiny bloodbowl gobbos, as lukas is eagerly awaiting gallery photos of the lot and that's something else i didn't get around to doing. I can't wait to photograph these guys!
I decided that a little dotting of green static grass and a nice contrasting red flower would add a striking finish to these wonderful blue orcs. I am so chuffed with these, I haven't emplyed any particularly complicated techniques (although i did try some new stuff on the skin to attempt to keep that nice bright blue skin from the get go, which worked really well and it still pops even after all the finishing highlights.) The red flowers add the finishing touch and i was careful to cut the flowers small enough to add but not subtract from all the work that's gone into them. They look especially good on the big dudes base creeping out from underneath the cracks of the bigger pebbles. Next up on the table is the remainder of the infantry pieces for brams wonderfully creative valhallan force. In this small batch is the last of the foot soldiers and the two additional bear riders he's built. After that (for brams order) i will get around to his last tanks. Bram and me have been in discussion about more work near christmas time, so i am excited as always to see what he sends next and as one of my longest running loyal clients i'm glad to get around to his valhallans again after a break of a month or two as i always enjoy his feedback and dialogue when i'm working on his bits.
I had a little photo booth day with all the current orders on the table so i can begin getting them packed up and get back to the usual work flow (pre corona i would not stockpile orders so much but during the pandemic it's made more sense to keep things here under my clients discretion until i can send all their work back at once as they sent me lots at the beginning of things). I also did a little shoot for the romans as i needed some nice big pics of them for my client. Finally i've been quietly working on those orcs and i'm basically done on them now with the bases going on last night/today. I need to paint the two little goblins they came with but they'll be nice and quick to do. i can't wait to see these all finished and in the photo booth. I tried to think back to the last time i painted orcs
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ABOUTA blog for the w.i.p element of the EZPainter process. ARCHIVES
March 2024
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