tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45767679159968535042024-03-12T16:47:58.971+00:00The Black Hand's BlogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-32185645017304653702016-11-28T00:00:00.000+00:002016-11-28T00:00:54.545+00:00Kingdom Death Stone Effect Tutorial<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was asked several months back to undertake a commission for Kingdom Death, to paint the entire contents of their boxed game, Monster.<br />
Monster contains over 40 miniatures, including some pretty big beasts, and I had a pretty tight deadline, as they needed them done in time for Gencon.<br />
Fortunately, however, I didn't need to paint them as individuals; quite the opposite in fact, as they were needed to resemble slightly crumbling statues, reminiscent of some of the artwork found on the "Innovation" cards in the game (and in a few places in the rulebook).<br />
I was provided with a guide by one of Team KD's sculptors, Thomas David, and I was off! :)<br />
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I managed to get the full set done within the time required, and they debuted at Gencon 2016.<br />
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Now, this might ordinarily be the end of the story, but Kingdom Death have run a Kickstarter to unfeasibly huge success, and the miniatures that I painted feature heavily in the campaign video and on the front page of the campaign too.<br />
To this end, a great many of the backers have asked about how the stone look was done - and indeed many theorised that the miniature moulds had been deliberately "scarred" to create the cracked stone look, which I can reveal to no great surprise that they are just a really old painting trick known as "<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l'%C5%93il">Trompe-l'œil</a><span id="goog_740843223"></span><span id="goog_740843224"></span>".</i><br />
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So, without further ado, here is how the look was acheived. This process is ideal for block painting of at least 4-8 survivors or 2-3 monsters at once, so that you don't have to wait for paint to dry. I managed to paint this one model in less than an hour, so no great investment to get your minis looking good ready for a game!<br />
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<u><b>1) Prime in black.</b></u> </h3>
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I used an airbrush, but a black spray primer would be fine.<br />
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<u>2) Basecoat in a grey-brown</u></h3>
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I used an airbrush to cut down the time aspect, but brushing on would be equally fine.<br />
The paints used at this stage were GW Zandri Dust and P3 Ironhull grey at 50/50 ratio. Any stony grey could work, so long as it has a bit of brown or khaki to stop it looking too monochrome.<br />
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<u>3) Highlight by adding ivory/cream to the mix</u></h3>
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Again I'm still using an airbrush, spraying on from diagonally above.<br />
I added about 50% P3 Menoth white base to the mix in 3 stages - each stage adding equal Menoth to the amount of paint in the airbrush. In reality it's a couple of drops of paint each time.<br />
Each stage I increased the angle until I was spraying directly down on the mini's head.<br />
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<u>4) Drybrush with a light tone</u></h3>
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It is fairly important to use a quite soft drybrush, and do this sparingly. I used GW Pallid Wych Flesh, which has a really pale, very slightly pink stone colour, but again, anything along these lines will work fine.<br />
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<u>5) Wash</u></h3>
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I used GW Agrax Earthshade with a little GW drakenhof nightshade - a dirty brown and dark navy wash - and diluted it about 50/50 with water. I then applied this liberally to the model.<br />
Once I had covered the mini, I then blotted my brush and used it to pick up the puddles of wash on the mini. This avoids staining rings where I don't want them, but allows me to leave a little more here and there, and indeed encourage a little bit of streaking where I imagine dirt running down the model that is now beginning to resemble a statue.<br />
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<u>6) Cracks</u></h3>
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Taking some black paint and mixing it with my wash I quickly, but CAREFULLY, painted on some cracks using the tip for a good brush with a fine point. I allowed a little natural shake to my hands to create lines that weren't straight, and it's easy to find real world references of cracked stone to create the pattern if you're not sure.<br />
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The final touch is to highlight the BOTTOM edge of the cracks with a near white colour. I added white paint to my final highlight mix - but equally a little white mixed with the drybrush colour will work too.<br />
The important thing is to be careful to follow the previous line, don't make the white thicker than the black, and if your black lines are a little thick, paint slightly onto them, to make them smaller.<br />
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Aside from using this white to just lightly edge highlight a couple of spots, that is it. Done.<br />
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The cracks are the only part that require any expertise with a brush, and really aren't necessary, they're just an effect to tie into the art.<br />
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I hope that you find this helpful, and who knows what the rest of this campaign may unveil.<br />
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Happy painting! :)<br />
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ScottAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-25277528395573395292016-06-16T12:35:00.000+01:002016-06-16T12:35:08.104+01:00Gallery Round UpI think that I may stop putting entries onto Coolminiornot and P&P in the future. CMON in particular has really lost a lot of (sensible) voting traffic, and unless you paint a certain brand of model then you are unlikely to get many votes at all.<br />
<br />It's no great loss, as I don't have a burning desire to either be or be acknowledged as "teh best painter evar", so rankings are kind of arbitrary, but it is a shame that a small group within the community that are negative in their use of these sites (almost all CMON I should add) get to take over.<br />
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For what it's worth I've put up final photos of Atalanta from JoeK minis...<br />
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Views/Voting Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399687<br />
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Then I also added the recently completed Lion Knight...<br />
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Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399688<br />
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Plus Blanche from Hasslefree that I did back in April...<br />
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Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399689<br />
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And the various protagonists from the Berserker at the Bridge diorama...<br />
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Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399691<br />
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Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399692 <br />
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Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399693 <br />
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Link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/399694 <br />
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Each of the links provide additional views of the models shown above, and if you fancy popping a vote/comment on, then that's nice of you.<br />
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For the future I think that I shall just show the models here and on Facebook and see what happens from there. I shall also look at creating a gallery page on here for future reference too.<br />
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But for now, I hope that you do take a look, and I'm off to watch the football... ;-P<br />
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Seeya.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-66772593062070506962016-06-01T14:49:00.000+01:002016-06-01T14:49:59.243+01:00Fix up, look sharpIt feels like forever since I've had something that I feel is "worthy" of a full blog post, especially as the last post was about tidying up the desk. However, I'm happy to say that I have finally completed what I feel is a display level piece, and better still, it is a gift for a friend who will hopefully like and care for it better than I am likely to if left in my own possession! lol<br />
Seriously, some days I swear that there is more painted super glue than resin in my cabinet some days..!<br />
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I have also carried out enough of a purge that there are just two part painted pieces sat on the desk right now. With enough effort I could have a completely clear space by the end of next week. The joy of a clean slate... *sigh*<br />
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I also had a trip to the storage solution Mecca that is Ikea over the bank holiday weekend, and now I have tidy spaces where paint and various other fluids once stood, and easily accessible/portable boxes for said paints/fluids.<br />
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Soon it will be time to make a mess again, no doubt... ^_^<br />
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So, the project that I've done? Well, it's a return to Kingdom Death, and this time it's the big beastie that is the "Lion Knight 1st". In the write up it is some kind of failed experiment that wanders a labyrinth in the KD world in anguish, somehow out of sync with time and with only some wailing smoke for company. In short, he's not a happy chappy!<br />
As a sculpt he's a mixture of challenging textures, with loads and loads of fine details. A really really strong piece by Thomas David. I don't know why I chose the desaturated teal for the "skin" other than I wanted it to look like some kind of exoskeleton in a Giger-esque alien type of way. Also I had already decided to go with a ragged leathery coat, so the contrast was sort of obvious.<br />
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Anyway, pics...<br />
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So, there we are. :)<br />
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I hope to have the other 2 pieces up soon, and then I'm likely to be working a commission and preparing a couple of pieces for Euro in September, so hopefully I'll have more pretty pics here or on the Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/theblackhandsblog/<br />
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Until then. I hope that you enjoy :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-61402328139252453972016-04-29T12:09:00.000+01:002016-04-29T12:09:19.577+01:00Everywhere and Nowhere!I'm all over the place at the moment...<br />
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In my work life there's absolutely loads going on, and at home we're gearing up for our (not so) little one's 4th birthday, plus starting the preparations for him starting school in September.<br />
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So, my hobby stuff usually provides a bit of quiet of an evening. However, just lately I feel like I'm flitting around and not quite following my normal pattern of working, which is to take a piece from start to finish and then move on. Instead I'm prepping pieces, priming others, experimenting with colour on others, painting bases, and tweaking another.<br />
I'm certain that multi-tasking like this is less efficient for me because I'm not getting into the work flow that allows me to concentrate and focus. I also think that it will be to my detriment in terms of quality IF I don't get it under control shortly. I have a short list of commission bits in the pipeline, of which I have another two pieces for <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/254891487/mythos">Paranoid Miniatures' Mythos Kickstarter</a> to do. Pics will follow there shortly.<br />
After the current list I think that I am going to have a little break from commissions and just do my thing for a few months. I have plans to work on a few slightly larger scale pieces, but I also have a lot of half formed ideas that I need to work through too.<br />
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So, what have I been up to that bothers me so much?<br />
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Well, first I received a couple of big stone faces designed to complement KD:Monster a little while ago from <a href="http://www.jun-chu.com/">Jun Chu Minis</a> (These are being produced under permission from KD towers by the way). I said that I would get one painted for Jun to put on the site and so on, so this is my effort...<br />
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I'm really not used to working on terrain beyond the odd plinth, so this was an interesting challenge. I really like the sculpt and it was good fun to play with some colour contrasts on what is essentially just stone. If you're a KD player, the face has been done in such a way that the face can easily be used in the game - I have done so - and your survivors will stand on it quite nicely.<br />
I have a second one to do for myself, which I originally intended for the game. However, I have just recently thought that it might make for a nice collective base for the 2nd set of KD pinups... We'll see ;)<br />
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Next, I've been working on the alternative (female) sculpt for <a href="http://www.infamyminiatures.com/">Infamy's</a> Tesla. She is finished and based, but now that she is on the base, I think that it looks under populated. So, I think that there will be some additional flora and fauna to add. However, this is her up to this point...<br />
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She's ever so small, in fact James at Infamy has recent said that he plans to run a 54mm version of her, which would be helpful because some of the details, like the clock on her chest, are almost invisible at this scale. That said, she's still a really nice sculpt by Joaquin Palacios and I've enjoyed doing the various textures, especially the various leather types that I wanted to look distinct from each other - hat, jacket, straps, boots, holster.<br />
The walls/pavement scenery are from <a href="http://www.modeldisplayproducts.co.uk/">MDP</a> by the way. I've had it for a couple of years now, and just not got around to using. Like I said above though, I need to add a bit more character to the setting, so I'll have a little think on that...<br />
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Next. <a href="http://www.joekminis.com/">JoeK's</a> Atalanta. I've done the base. Next will be the model herself (after the Paranoid pieces are complete)...<br />
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Not a lot more to add on this one. Again it's an old base that I've had sat in the drawer for a while. She's the right theme for the base. Job done! ^_^<br />
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Finally. The KD Lion Knight (1st). I've not progressed this much other than doing the basic stone work on the base, but I'm also playing with the colour tones that I plan to use when I get down to painting it properly...<br />
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It's quite funny that it looks like a kind of primary colour triad of red/blue/yellow. I very much doubt that it will be anywhere near as "simple" as that when I get to painting, but still, it's a bit of fun.<br />
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OK, that's me up to date. Maybe I'll get a little bit of painting in this weekend, but being a public holiday on Monday, I suspect that there'll be lots of family time, so we'll see.<br />
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Until next time,<br />
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Scott ^_^<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-65087174525120944592016-04-18T20:49:00.000+01:002016-04-18T20:49:10.593+01:00Salute Winners Mini Post 2016<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, Salute 2016 is over and this year I think that there was a much warmer feel about the painting competition, especially as the Warlords decided to ask 2 previous best of show winners - Pete Bell and Conrad Mynett - to guest judge with Lawrence and the Warlord guys on the day.</div>
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I believe that a good day of trading was had by most, and certainly there was no shortage of people in the hall throughout the day. I personally got asked at the last minute to help on the Studio McVey stand with the man, the legend, Mike himself, and the Swedish wunderkind that is Robert "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/RoglandPaintingArtist/">Rogland</a>" Carlsson.</div>
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Speaking of the Swedish, it was a great day for them, as Robert and his compatriot Stefan Johnsson took away 7 first and second awards between them. </div>
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I personally only entered once and picked up a finalist pin, which was expected, especially as I had not prepared anything with competition in mind this year.</div>
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Chatting with Mike is always enlightening, and the steady stream of fans and contemporaries that came over just to say hi shows how well loved he still is, and probably always will be. Robert was similarly good company, and it was great to see his work up close and chat some about his approach to painting.</div>
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Other than that, I handed over a few painted pieces to Hasslefree Minis for their personal/show collection and received an armful of jerky in return! And Mike gave me a full set of the beasties from <a href="http://7sins.com/">7 Sins</a> that are truly, fantastically disturbing, coming largely from the hands of possibly my favourite sculptor, Jacques-Alexandre Gillois (JAG), whoi incidentally I also had a good chat with too - Kingdom Death fans, watch out! ^_^</div>
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So, without further ado, here are this year's winners, in no particular order...</div>
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And the Best of Show was this piece "The Hunt" from Stefan "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/SkelettetS/">Skelettet S</a>" Johnsson <br />
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Enjoy (and share if you like too!)<br />
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Until next year,<br />
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Scott :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-14586896579286862242016-03-31T14:43:00.000+01:002016-03-31T14:43:17.392+01:00Facing up to Reality...Don't worry. I'm not falling into a pit of depression and gone and burned my brushes! :)<br />
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This post is two fold but based on the title in very different ways...<br />
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The first is facing up to the fact that I am unlikely to produce anything new that is "competition worthy" for this year's Salute. It would have been nice to have gone all out on something, but I simply don't have the time/energy to do so. My commission schedule has filled so much of 2016 that I've not had a chance to get my teeth into anything personal for the past few months. It has still been good fun though. The Kingdom Death commission allowed me to try out some ever evolving techniques and further refine my speed and style; I've done some work for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ParanoidMiniatures/">Paranoid Miniatures</a> that have presented me with some different types of models that I have needed to create a similar vibe for, and pay homage to the concept art at the same time too. The latest piece that I completed should be up on their page any day now, but the raw print and digital sculpt are already there.<br />
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Coming to this acceptance is quite liberating. I would normally be thinking of pulling several late night sessions to get entries ready for the day. This time I shall more than likely pull something that I like out of the cabinet and pop it/them into the competition on the day with no expectation. I took a similar attitude last year, but I did have a mini ready well in advance that I felt expressed the level I was at at the time in M'Dusa.<br />
This time I would very much like to have finished some models to take to the show, but they will be to take along to the sales stands, to chat with the people that took the time creating them in the first place. :)<br />
Even then, I'll be under some personal pressure, as a matter of pride more than anything!<br />
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And this kind of brings me along to the second part of the post (which will have pictures for those of the tl;dr persuasion! lol), and that is how much I love to paint faces...<br />
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When I abandoned Space Marines about 6 years ago, much of the reason for doing so was that I really just preferred painting faces, skin, and females in particular. And most GW faces have an expression akin to a small child trying to pass a particularly hard poop! So, I vowed to only paint what I personally liked from then on, and that wasn't marines any more.<br />
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Some sculptors really "know" how to make a face on a mini work. I put the likes of Jacques Gillois, Kev White and Yannick Hennebo on this particular pedestal, with several others close by, like Thomas David and Joaquin Palacios, and plenty of others. I'm not talking about busts, because then we are into a whole different area of brilliance, and something that I am still to tap (strangely considering my love of face painting!). I was greatly reminded of this while doodling away on my latest effort, Blanche from <a href="http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=resin-master-%252d-blanche~hfmaster-h096&category=fantasy-%26%0D%0Asteampunk~resin-masters-%252d-fantasy">Hasslefree</a>...<br />
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I had been working on the shiny acidic green colour for a couple of hours, and wasn't exactly happy with how things were going, but I didn't want to chuck the mini down and pick up another, so I thought I would start on the face... Now, believe it or not, but the colours in the face are just colours that I had been using in the armour! There's no skin tones, just green, yellow, red and purple, with the ivory that I had been using for the highlights. All just loosely swished together and applied. Even the eye makeup is the same with a touch of black ink added.<br />
Immediately I felt much more enthusiastic about the piece. Kev has pulled and pushed a seriously good expression out of the putty, and I somehow just seemed to get the feel of it right away. Some sculpts, and I'll use the next piece as an example seeing as she is also a Kev piece, can take a lot more work to get anything out of the expression, whilst others you see the subtle contours - or in male faces often less subtle - and all you need do is effectively follow the lines. In the case of Blanche, the arched brow, playful mouth and slight tilt to the head just made sense to me immediately. I could emphasise the brow and direct the eye to reinforce the expression and that was pretty much it. 20 minutes later I had a face that I really love the look of. ^_^<br />
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Foxtrot (finished) below, also from <a href="http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=resin-master-%252d-foxtrot~hfmaster-a157&category=modern-%26%0D%0Apost%252dapoc~*new-moderns*">Hasslefree</a>, was a slightly more difficult task as the raw sculpt has a more neutral expression...<br />
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So, whilst I was happy with much of the technical aspects of the painting - especially for a mini that is so tiny - I was less pleased with the atmosphere that I could conjure out of the sculpt. Like I said, I still enjoyed this piece as a whole, I just haven't necessarily squeezed the best out of her.<br />
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The starting survivors from KD:Monster were already amazingly hand sculpted by JAG before the KD team pulled a bit more expression out of them in 3D digital mode. So much so that I've been able to create a slightly different look and feel each time - 3 times so far - that I've done them. Here's the finished commission 7 by the way...<br />
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I have a Patrick Keith lady and a Joaquin one primed up for when I finish Blanche, both of which I like the look of the faces, and the amazingly anguished face of the Kingdom Death 1st Lion Knight too, so I should be kept entertained for a while...<br />
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That's it for now. I hope to get an update in before the Salute show, but, if not, I plan to take the camera along to the show again this year, with a view to getting a winners post up again.<br />
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Cheers! ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-82030238312948952442016-03-04T11:45:00.000+00:002016-03-04T11:45:32.202+00:00And they went in two by two...2016 for me so far has been really busy, and in terms of output I've been pretty prolific. A quick count back and I think that I have completed 11 minis since the 1st of January - 9 Kingdom Death models and 2 for Mythos.<br />
I've not painted anything "display level" for myself, but I hope to rectify that in the next week or so.<br />
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I'm working through a commission of starting models for Kingdom Death: Monster for a client, and I'm on the final model of this phase for them, the Butcher...<br />
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The one on the left is my own tabletop version. The new version will be a much colder scheme, and I've only worked on the armour plates so far.<br />
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I most recently finished the client's White Lion...<br />
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The lower pic was a nearly finished image, plus the lion on the left again is my own one.<br />
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Just before that I painted the client's Screaming Antelope...<br />
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You'll probably notice that I focused on the furry texture with both of the lions and this antelope. I'm quite pleased to be adding this to my regular repertoire, and adds a certain realism to the monsters which have smooth skin on the whole.<br />
The image at the bottom here was a quick sketch that I did for the base using a stylised version of the Antelope's crest in the KD:M rulebook. It was a bit of fun and will either end up on the base of my own Antelope or the clients one.<br />
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Before that I did the 4 starting survivors for them too...<br />
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The lower set are my own, which I also completed recently.<br />
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So that rounds up the glut of KD models that I've worked on so far this year - there shall definitely be a lot more to come too!<br />
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I also completed 2 models for Mythos ready for their Kickstarter later this spring, and I'm currently waiting on a couple more I think that they want done before Salute in April.<br />
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These are Abigail and Maharal...<br />
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Abigail was a pretty straight forward paint job, but Maharal was more of a challenge of textures and sheen. Both were pretty fun though. You can find out more about Mythos/Paranoid Miniatures here - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ParanoidMiniatures/">LINKY</a><br />
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Right, that's me up to date! Just in time for the weekend! <br />
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Have a good one.<br />
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Scott ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-37962571540981529672016-02-03T16:41:00.000+00:002016-02-03T16:41:30.049+00:00Winner Announcement<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sorry it has taken a little longer than anticipated to decide on the winner of the "Name that Diorama" contest.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I decided to pass the decision to the person for whom the diorama was created and painted, and they had their work cut out with around 50 entries.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you all so much for you input. There were humorous, snappy, poetic, descriptive and one or two left-field ones too. Many of them made you look at the scene from different perspectives, and the winner gives a slightly ambiguous view of the scene too, which invites you to look at the scene and decide who the title refers to.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, the chosen entry is from Ray Miller with "<u>The Berserker at the Bridge</u>"</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u> </u></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ray gets the choice of a painted Survivor or Monster from the game, so congratulations indeed, Ray! :)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I had a personal favourite from the rather poetic Miguel Sanchez with "<span lang="EN" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto auto;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box;">We passed the bridge of broken faces, we passed the stillborn sun". I'm sure that I can come up with a prize for Miguel too, not least for the sheer number of entries that he thought up!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto auto;"><span style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-origin: padding-box;">Cheers again, and here's another look at the diorama, The Berserker at the Bridge ^_^ </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-37816464745689179432016-01-11T12:06:00.003+00:002016-01-11T12:06:53.840+00:00January busy-nessWell, it's been a few weeks - 6 I think! - since I last posted here. I've been pretty busy with mini-updates on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theblackhandsblog/">Facebook</a>, mostly showing the progress on the Kingdom Death diorama that I was working on. I was also showing the progress of my own Kingdom Death:Monster character pieces which I have been working on in between commissions - just quick tabletop stuff - and I squeezed out a Hasslefree Xmas special for fun too. I had hoped to get a couple more seasonal minis done, but the diorama was the priority as it was a commission piece.<br />
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In the mean time the Facebook following passed 1000 "likes", which is just awesome! It's been 2 years almost to the day since I first started this blog up and the audience just seems to keep growing and growing. I'm amazed that so many worldwide are checking up on me and my toys! lol :)<br />
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I held a competition/giveaway when the blog reached 500 likes, so I think that I shall run another as a thank you for reaching 1000. Check out lower down what I have in mind and what I propose as a prize.<br />
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So, as a recap, this is what I've got done since the last post...<br />
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<u><b>Kingdom Death:Monster</b></u><br />
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Like I said, I've been doing these in between commissions, or as little colour or texture studies - I am getting more into working textures into my paint jobs now. It's quite a nice challenge at this scale to make it believable too. So, so far I have completed two of the starting survivors - Allister & Zachary - who have each had no more than about 5 hours total paint time...<br />
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Zachary<br />
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Allister<br />
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Then I have done the White Lion and the Butcher, which are the first two adversaries that you are likely to face in the game...<br />
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White Lion<br />
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Butcher<br />
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The lion was great fun working in that fur effect. You can kind of cheat with the blending by first airbrushing on a rough light and shade, then "scratching" on hundreds of tiny fur lines with a brush in ever lighter colours from a khaki tan start up to pure ivory.<br />
The Butcher was more conventional painting, though I airbrushed in the reddish base colour to the majority of the model.<br />
Both of these also had about 5 hours total paint time too. I've yet to decide what to do for basing on these two. I'm not sure whether or not to press mould something like the base from the Lion Knight (more on Lion Knights later in this post!), or just airbrush on a skull stencil. Whatever I do, I shall try to follow that through with the rest of the monsters - though the Phoenix may need something more substantial...<br />
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<u><b>Xmas Mini, Paige</b></u><br />
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I've had this mini for a couple of years and felt she was long overdue a paint job. The unboxing idea just made perfect sense to me too and solved a potentially tricky basing dilemma. Again, she was a very quick and simple paint job, purely for the fun of it. So often I reach for a Hasslefree mini when I just want to have fun. It is the relatively uncluttered style that Kev gets into most of his sculpts that allow you to do as much or as little as you want, but the model will still look great. I have loads of them in the cabinet where I've just had an idea in my head and then rocked it out in a single session.<br />
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<u><b>THE KD Diorama</b></u><br />
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This has been a learning journey about myself and painting projects. As a whole, I don't like being tied down to a single subject for too long. Even when I'm knocking out these survivor models, I am usually doing different colour combinations or working between wet palettes or well palettes, sometimes wet on wet blending, sometimes glazing and layering. In order to get through this piece without my head exploding I had to kind of treat it as individual projects. I needed to limit the colours in use throughout so that the end result didn't look like an explosive fart in a Skittles factory, but I wanted to paint the base and each model largely independently.<br />
The base was planned and built largely to the client's brief, though I decided to add the rope bridge just because that was the idea that I had in my head. The idea of dismembered corpses and people turning to skeletons in the KD world is not that much of a stretch, but I did want to convey that (most of) the protagonists in the scene still found it pretty frightening. Each of the sculpts had their own characters and features to push out, but the faces for all were a joy to paint. In the end I'm quite pleased with the final look. There's lots of tea leaves in there, kebab skewers, coffee stirrers and tinfoil too! This hobby is nothing but thrifty at times! ^_^<br />
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January has already seen me on the way to completing 3 miniatures. The first is the Zachary model above, but the other two are for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ParanoidMiniatures/">Paranoid Miniatures' Mythos Game</a> in preparation for their Kickstarter and for their presence at this year's Salute. I can't show the models just yet, nor the art, as the client hasn't previewed them themselves yet. I'll be sure to show them when I get clearance though. I did the Sea Queen model for them last year, which proved quite popular. There will be 5 that I should be getting done by April for them.<br />
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I have a good few months of commissions ahead of me, not least because several people have asked me to work on their KD:M starting models & monsters, plus a few pinups too. I also have some different scaled work to come hopefully, which should be interesting.<br />
In between, I also have the monstrous Lion Knight (1st) to do for a friend. I've built the base and model and got it all primed. I need to decide on the colour scheme still. I have thought that I may do the cloud of faces something similar to my <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/272871">Y'Sala & the Darkness piece</a> from about 5 years ago, but we'll see. Speaking of that particular piece, there is a chance that I may be revisiting it later this year too. That is exciting for me! ^_^<br />
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So. That's me up to date...<br />
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Oh, wait. The 1000 likes competition. I so very nearly forgot ;)<br />
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The last giveaway was stuff from the grey pile. I should think that I can go one better this time. I have enough of Kingdom Death's plastic crack around the house that I really ought to go one better.<br />
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<u><b>How about I give away a fully painted unique miniature for the game? </b></u>The winner can choose either a custom survivor or a monster - I have several spare armour sets and monsters so there will be plenty of choice.<br />
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<u><b>How do you win?</b></u> Well, the diorama above has stumped me for a name. I can't decide what to call it, and neither can the client. So, I'm asking you, the reader, to think of a name. "Simple" as that!<br />
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<u><b>What I need is a name either here or in the comment section attached to the original Facebook post.</b></u> It can be a short couple of words or a sentence, and in English please.<br />
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<u><b>I will choose the winner during the week commencing 18th January and will announce later on that week.</b></u><br />
The painted miniature will be fitted in amongst the schedule, but I will try to get it done asap. It will come on a "basic" gaming base rather than a plinth.<br />
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Good luck everyone and thanks for all of your support!<br />
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Scott ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-29156259677996079242015-11-24T13:45:00.000+00:002015-11-24T13:45:15.864+00:00At first I was afraid...If you follow my Facebook feed or G+ presence you'll know I've not been idle the last 5 weeks. Far from it in fact - though I did need to take a few days off after a misunderstanding between my painting hand and a hob plate. All is fine now, and I've been pretty busy working in several different directions at once. I'm not convinced that this is the best, or most productive way of working, but it's a method that I'm going to have to get used to if I want to ever paint any of my own toys in the near future. I currently have a "promise" list of people waiting for me to decorate their toys, which is great - it's always good to be busy - but I have got to temper and balance it with wanting to do things for me.<br />
With increased demand for my services I also came to a pragmatic decision that most of my grey pile wasn't going to get painted any time soon, so just about everything Games Workshop related that I owned was shipped off via Ebay and private sales. That provided a bit of a distraction from productivity, but also encouraged me to rearrange the man cave and put lots of stuff away, which I always finds helps my productive brain to function.<br />
Another factor for the clear out was the eventual arrival of the huge black monolith that is Kingdom Death: Monster. I was at first just overwhelmed by the sheer number of toys in the boxes. Panic set in. How was I ever going to even make a start on them all!? It didn't help that I had made a start on a diorama involving 3 Kingdom Death models either, so I was slightly apprehensive of the job there. So when faced with 3 models, the prospect of painting more like 70 odd just made me freeze!<br />
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Time to put thoughts and plans in order. First get properly started on the diorama. So lets get to pictures...<br />
The diorama involves the Thief sculpt, the Fighter sculpt and the Ammo Slave sculpt. The construction brief is that they are a band of adventurers on a trail beside a bog/marsh towards some upcoming peril. I thought that the recurring themes in Kingdom Death of faces, hands and lanterns needed to be represented. Lanterns are easy enough. The faces I needed to sprinkle around the ground and stones, again not too difficult. There are several grasping hands reaching out of the ground in the Thief's sculpt, so I spread them around and added one or two to the edge of the bog. To add to the trail feel, and create a bit of interest, I decided to build a rope bridge. Never done it before, but it has actually been quite a fun challenge.<br />
This is the base so far...<br />
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I've added some corpse and skeleton debris and there's still plenty to add, like soil texture, scrubby grass and some water effect puddles, but it's taking shape.<br />
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For the models, the Ammo Slave is almost complete. I shall add pigments when she is on the base, and probably a couple of blood effects here and there...<br />
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I have just started on the Fighter sculpt...<br />
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The hair will be a totally different colour in the end, I just blocked in some tones to work over the top of.<br />
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I haven't begun work on the Thief yet, other than assembly and priming.<br />
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The priming part brings me to what else I've got up to, and that is to make a start on the pile of minis associated with Monster and figuring out how to paint them fast and not too dirty! I emptied out the first sprue of plastic, containing the 4 starting survivors, White Lion and Butcher models.<br />
These were assembled, cleaned, filled and primed, ready for paint...<br />
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In the priming process, I then added some atmospheric preshading (you can see some parts from the diorama here too, and the Thief with her umbrella).<br />
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After that I worked on my favourite of the survivor sculpts, Allister. I wanted to paint him fast, but get a detail in that I find important to the mythos of Kingdom Death, which is the inky eyes that the people have when they "awaken" in the world. It probably made the painting slightly easier that I didn't have to paint in tiny eyes too. Anyway this is the result of about 4 hours of painting...<br />
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He needs a base, but I've batch primed a whole load of bases for the models, so he'll likely get it when they're all done, or I'll change my mind and do a load of them just because! lol<br />
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I'll try not to take 5 weeks before my next update... Sorry! ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-67035632933366075912015-10-14T15:36:00.000+01:002015-10-14T15:36:35.721+01:00Trick or Treat...This update is quite a straight forward one. I finished the Halloween Twilight Knight well in advance of the actual date. The motivation to do this is two fold. The first is that I'm still waiting for the delivery of my copy of Monster, so my distractions have been reduced somewhat. The other is that I am beginning what I hope will be a really cool storytelling piece involving 3 Kingdom Death models which I don't already own (shocking as that is! lol). I'll tell more on that when I've got things mapped out, and work is underway.<br />
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So, back to the finished article...<br />
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She's also up on my galleries - <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/387647">Coolminiornot Link</a> and <a href="http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/8209">Putty & Paint Link</a><br />
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And that's about it today. Though if anyone spots my big box of toys that are stuck between Germany and my house, please be nice and send it on to me!<br />
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Cheers! ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-18678193286769114072015-10-02T12:53:00.000+01:002015-10-02T12:53:39.004+01:00Euromilitaire, at season's end...It's October, and for me that means that I retreat to the man cave and wait out the winter, ready for Salute next year. In fairness there are absolutely loads of shows that I <i>could</i> attend, like Scale Model Challenge, Monte San Savino & Hussar, but finances, day job and family time just don't allow for me to disappear for 3 or 4 days right now.<br />
I keep saying to myself that I'll go to some of these shows <i>next year</i>, but "next" always seems to stay one away from the actual next one! :)<br />
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So, my last show of the year was <a href="http://www.euromilitaire.co.uk/">Euromilitaire</a>, and it was a great weekend for me. My wife and I headed down to Folkestone at a leisurely pace on the Saturday morning, and I popped my entries in to the competition. The Fantasy category this year was absolutely <b>HUGE</b>! So much so that I had to re-organise the shelves to get my entries on and create enough space for others to do so too. Fortunately I am lucky enough to be a judge at the show, so I was allowed to do this (very carefully), as the adjoining shelves for the next category at the show (there are over 30 categories, by the way) were swamped with pieces.<br />
The judges of the Fantasy category really had their work cut out for them, to the point that they were still deliberating over final placings a good hour AFTER the best of show had been decided!<br />
The Euromilitaire website - <a href="http://www.euromilitaire.co.uk/">LINK</a> - gives a quick insight to the weekend, but I (as always) didn't get virtually any photos, I'll here's a link to a good gallery from <a href="http://mrleespaintingemporium.blogspot.co.uk/">Kyle Kruickshank aka Mr Lee</a> - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Grisnik/media_set?set=a.10153647172767940.1073741852.696177939&type=3">HERE</a> -<br />
there's a few of my own minis in there, but there's also plenty of rather lovely minis in there that had me gasping at times.<br />
<br />I decided after a little cajoling to enter 8 pieces this year, far more than I have ever done before, but I feel that I've been relatively prolific this past 12 months or so, so it was worth a punt. The result? 8 entries, 8 medals!! 2 silvers (M'Dusa and Kassandra), 2 bronzes (Steampunk Boudi and Virago), 3 Highly Commended (Clio & Erato, Dragon Huntress and Gandalf) and a Commended (Shido'ni). I'm still hunting <i>that</i> Gold medal, but I'm getting closer, and to get my overall standard up to a level where every piece is considered prize worthy... Wow! Happy days! :)<br />
I drove home having competed, judged 2 categories, shopped just a little, caught up with some friends old and new, ate well, drank well, slept well and at the end felt pretty encouraged by it all.<br />
Overall, the show seemed to be a much happier place this year. The attendance was up, the competition entries were well up, there didn't appear to be much controversy over winners and losers, and the sun shone for the whole show too! I'm already booked to be back next year...<br />
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So. Euro in the bag, like I said at the beginning, I shall now retreat to the cave and tinker away until the days start getting longer again.<br />
I've been pretty motivated since the show to get some pieces finished off, first was the Poppy's Angels piece, "Of Saints & Angels" which I've been showing here. I have already posted her up on Putty & Paint - <a href="http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/8080">LINK</a> - and she was "Editor's Choice" on the front page for a few days, which was great, mostly for the positive input for the charity involved, but also on a personal level. The raffle draw is being held today (October 2nd), so good luck to those who have entered, and thanks for donating too, as you've contributed to a great cause. On an extra positive note, Poppy herself has very recently completed all of her cancer treatments and been declared "free of cancer". Such good news, and hopefully she and her family can look forward to putting the awful past 12 months behind them. The Poppy's Angels group will continue though, with the intention to keep supporting families with child cancer. Good effort! :)<br />
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I also have been working slowly through the second collection of Kingdom Death Pinups over the past year, with the <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/363725">Phoenix Dancer</a> and <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/367654">Lioness</a> done and in my galleries (click on the names for links), more recently I completed the Sunstalker Dancer, but haven't shown her. This week I also completed the Leather Queen. I've followed the Lokman Lam concept art again with them and these two are in the new plastic which the Kickstarter backers have been receiving since the beginning of September. The Leather Queen is a really unusual sculpt, and definitely not the easiest to make work, as the hair and leather are all intertwined. I kind of struggled with her, but I wanted to do her so that I could do another collective shot of the pinups when they were all complete. I'm very much looking forward to the next lot, though it will be a little while before I finish the gang due to commissions and other minis that are higher up my list. I've also not yet based these latest models, as I'm contemplating doing them all on a timber plinth or similar...<br />
The Sunstalker Dancer was a little more straightforward, though the half green hair took a little bit of thinking so as to not make it look a part of the cloak - I seem to have done a lot of green hair recently!<br />
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I've had a commission come up just lately that I'm excited about getting my teeth into, and will show soon. But, while I wait for the models to arrive, I have decided that this year I would get some seasonal models done. I have more than one Xmas model, but I also have one specific Halloween sculpt that I picked up last year and felt obliged to get done this year, and that is (unsurprisingly) the Kingdom Death Halloween Twilight Knight. I am intending to do this as quickly as I can, not through lack of interest/motivation/similar, but because I want to get straight on with the commission when it hits. I also wanted to try out the Scale paints in the airbrush for the first time, and use the PK Pro masking putty that I've had, barely used, on the desk for ages now. This is the result of about an hour of airbrushing. The black is kind of complete, barring a bit of edge highlighting and picking out a couple of folds. The photos don't really pick that out too well, but I'm not worried right now as these are not "studio" shots, as such. The orange though is much nicer and very nearly complete. This will just leave the skin, hair, sword and detailing to do, which really shouldn't take me too long to complete. While I don't like to rely on the airbrush, this does take so much donkey work out of the painting, and gives fast and effective results, so I'm happy.<br />
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I shall get some new images in the galleries soon, as I have a couple of finished models to put up. But that's me for now. It's time to prepare for hibernation! ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-16278906747512533672015-09-16T15:16:00.000+01:002015-09-16T15:16:00.711+01:00Last DashEuro Militaire is imminent, so it's time to finish off/tidy up pieces for the competition and for the judges' display case - a rare privilege that I always find a little intimidating when my little ladies get to rub shoulders with extravagant dioramas and large scale pieces done through the years by some of the other judging Illuminati! ^_^<br />
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For me this means getting the Dragon Huntress finished and have a check on the condition of a couple of other pieces done since last September that I intend on entering - likely M'Dusa and Virago, maybe one or two others.<br />
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The Dragon Huntress just needs a tidy here and there having completed the painting as such last night and fully assembled everything. She's been an unexpected project piece that I've thoroughly enjoyed having effectively had her on the desk for a whole year before deciding to finally get on with it! The last piece that went like this was the <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/355231">Agora "Cassandra" piece</a> from a year or so ago. These are pieces that start out as an "I'll just have a laugh and paint this the way I feel like it" and end up being a proper display piece that I've ended up trying new techniques and pushed myself on with.<br />
I know that I say that you ought to challenge yourself with every piece, but this is one of those surprises that rewards you with the (almost) final result.<br />
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Pics thus far...<br />
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There's a couple of fixes that I can see from the photos, and some matt varnishing here and there, plus I want to do some kind of plaque or name on the plinth, but she's mostly done.<br />
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The other piece that I'm trying to get over the line, though not for competition, and that is the Poppy's Angels piece which is similarly mostly painted now, but needs some fixes and the IV drip needs to be painted and attached...<br />
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Again this has been a project that I've challenged myself with some new stuff, and in a size comparison she is easily twice the size of the Dragon Huntress - I really ought to put a ruler or coin next to the dragon huntress to show how teeny she is!<br />
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I need to have her done very soon because the raffle draw is coming up at the beginning of October. You can still donate and get your tickets, so if you are interested, go to my previous post and click on the link there - <a href="http://blackhandpainting.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/a-one-off.html">HERE IS THE PLACE TO CLICK</a> - thanks!<br />
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The next post should have a round up from Euro plus some news of what's next. Until then have fun, and if you're coming to Euro, say hi and mine's a bitter, ta ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-78765138194522021842015-09-04T11:34:00.002+01:002015-09-04T11:34:46.184+01:00Tidying and Preparing...The dust is settling on a manic August personally, but September has been even more of a challenge, so far. However, when things are this crazy, I tend to find that I am drawn more and more to the calm of the painting table.<br />
Add to this a new momentum brought about by last weekend's Wamp Workshop, where I met a great bunch of painty types, shared some knowledge, thoughts and stories, and drank copious quantities of rum - and beer with slices of orange in! Don't ask... - I have got it very much in mind to have a little clear through of part painted models from the desk, and to get on with my winter projects.<br />
Mix in the fact that my first Kingdom Death shipment is en route, with the big box to follow in around 6 weeks, and I think that I ought to get on with it!!<br />
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The Workshop will get its own post in the very near future because there's a fairly large amount of photos to put up, but big thanks go out to <a href="http://wampforum.com/Landing/index.html">Brett of WAMP</a> for setting up the Kickstarter that provided the weekender as a pledge, and to <a href="http://www.4tk.co.uk/store/">Andy of 4TK gaming store</a> for providing a comfortable, well set out place for our event. It really is ideal for painting and gaming gatherings - at the same time too, if needs be!<br />
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So, once I rebuilt my man cave, having dismantled much of it for the event, I sat down last night with some new brushes and some new paints and got busy tidying and progressing two models. It was one of those sessions where for the first half and hour I was wondering what the hell was going on, and by the end of it was wondering where the hell these new toys had been all of my life!<br />
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The paints were the Scalecolour flesh and Steampunk sets (both available via the Wampstore in the link above), and the one particular brush which may have changed the way I paint forever was the No2 Blender from the Wamp Select Series. This brush is a kind of "Filbert" shaped Kolinsky brush - basically a small flat brush which comes around into a tapered point. It allows fine detail work with the tip, wet on wet blending, glazing, and goodness only knows what else. So far it also seems equally at home on a 54mm model as it does on a 28mm one. It is just magic!<br />
Now, I have a very particular style, so it may just be me that this brush suits, but the combination of this brush and the very particular properties of the Scalecolour paints made for some rather satisfying results, even over existing paint works. Base colouring using the Scale paints takes some getting used to, as they seem to move around a lot more than paints that I am used to, but the blended finish is really nice. With some more practice I am looking forward to seeing what I can come up with. I am also itching to try them out through the airbrush. :)<br />
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So, pics of what I've been on...<br />
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The JoeK minis Dragon Huntress herself is mostly painted, barring a few details, the hair and some tidying up. Then I will work on her shield and the actual dead dragon in the base.<br />
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The Poppy's Angels piece is mostly finished in terms of skin, stockings and gloves. Need to do the scarf like the one on the chair, then add a little texture; then the final push will be the lantern/drip and books...<br />
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I'm thinking that I should actually use some metallic paint for the glasses and the details on her leg and gloves.<br />
The shoes will be done in patent black finish, no tricks, just glossy black, which will be done when the whole piece has been matt varnished.<br />
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I'm keen to get these through now. There are a lot of toys on the way which will distract me, so I need to clear the decks and get myself set for the "end of term" after Euro, where I retreat to the cave and see out the winter! ^_^<br />
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Until next time :)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-50176549450942881232015-08-28T13:51:00.000+01:002015-08-28T13:51:46.769+01:00Teacher's PetI've been a bit quiet again, sorry.<br />
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This has partly been because the progress on the Poppy's Angels charity piece has taken time to keep tweaking the skin tones and smooth things out. It is surprising how much you need to alter your technique when working on larger scale. I want to do a bit more tidying up before I next show her, especially after seeing Bohun's recent jaw dropper! <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1179665232060110.1073741874.834873026539334&type=3">LINK</a><br />
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The other reason is that I have been preparing for a class that I shall be holding this weekend. I haven't taught for a couple of years now, so it's quite exciting, and I've managed to sort it that the class is being held in my own home town, which is a real bonus, especially as I know where the pubs are that sell the beer that I like! ^_^<br />
The class came about as part of a Kickstarter by Wamp where they launched a new paintbrush line. For some reason it was thought that I would be useful in helping people actually use their new brushes! lol<br />
The course is happening over two days of the weekend, with myself teaching on the Saturday, and my friend John Keys, aka <a href="http://mzmmm.blogspot.co.uk/">Megazord Man</a>.<br />
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I managed to get those wonderful Blacks & Whites of <a href="http://hfminis.co.uk/">Hasslefree Miniatures</a> to help out with the subject matter, which on this occasion is the relatively new release, <a href="http://hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=steampunk-boudi-%28green-resin%29~hfh105g&category=fantasy-%26%0D%0Asteampunk~*new-fantasy*">Steampunk Boudi</a>.<br />
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She's a lovely little sculpt (emphasis on little. I forget how tiny and delicate, yet characterful Kev's sculpts are), and I spent a couple of evenings this week preparing an example piece for the class to look at. The sculpt is based on the wonderful concept art of one of my favourite pinup artists, <a href="http://www.mattdixon.co.uk/index.htm">Matt Dixon</a><br />
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She was great fun to paint, and hopefully the students will enjoy working on her too. I had to spend a while getting their minis ready, and now I have a mini legion of tiny Boudis!<br />
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I shall very much look forward to showing off some images of what the students themselves managed during the class, so that gives me a subject for the next post straight away!<br />
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Enjoy your bank holiday! ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-31433840745449097712015-08-11T11:46:00.000+01:002015-08-11T11:46:17.831+01:00A One-Off...In my last update I showed the early stages of my piece for the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poppys-Angels-Super-Raffle/">Poppy's Angels Super Raffle</a>.<br />
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To remind you, you can buy tickets for this raffle at the Poppy's Angel Go Fund Me page - <a href="http://www.gofundme.com/vd57g8s"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><u><b>HERE</b></u></span></span></a><br />
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As I understand it, for each £2 donated you get a ticket. Make sure that you add a comment with your donation saying "Super Raffle". If, of course you, just want to donate, then leave the comment section blank.<br />
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Since that last update I haven't made huge strides because I've been painting walls and building furniture. Our little man had outgrown his bed which started out as a cot 3 years ago, and his bedroom was ready to be changed from the nursery look that we created for it when we moved in. He is pirate crazy so we've had a wall papered in a really cool pirate map pattern and he's now got a single bed that he looks tiny in! Still a fair bit of finishing off to do, but his little face was a picture when he saw the room so far ^_^<br />
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What I have done is get the conversion work finished off on the Poppy's piece, get it all primed, and begun work on the scenery part. I'm glad that I got the chair all painted because the fragility of the sculpt is ridiculous! lol<br />
The drip/lantern stand obviously needs to be set so that the post is upright and the drip itself is hanging correctly, but I just slipped it into place for the photo...<br />
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The fabric still needs some blending and texturing, plus I need to follow it on with the bit around her neck. I shall most likely do a similar, but darker tone for her underwear and stocking tops.<br />
The colour of glow for the drip/lantern is as yet undecided, but I shall create a bit of source lighting with it accordingly.<br />
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I am very pleased to now be able to reveal that this piece has its own unique concept art too. Having already built the model, I contacted Kingdom Death's main concept artist, <a href="http://lokmanlam.com/">Lokman Lam</a>, about the piece and he was happy to revise the original concept to match what I had done. With the blessing of Kingdom Death I shall be printing off an art card to accompany the piece, making it a true one-off original just for this event...<br />
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How cool is that?! ^_^<br />
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Got to be worth a couple of quid, wouldn't you say?! Here's that link again... <span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.gofundme.com/vd57g8s">LINK</a></span></b></span><br />
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My only other news right now is that I have done a Q&A on the Noobs and their Paintbrush blog, which you can find here - <a href="http://noobsandtheirpaintbrush.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/q-and-with-scott-hockley.html">NOOBS & THEIR PAINTBRUSH</a> - it's a little insight into me and my thoughts about painting.<br />
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Until the next update...<br />
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Cheers,<br />
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Scott<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-14504025782185215622015-08-05T22:54:00.000+01:002015-08-05T22:54:45.858+01:00A moment in time...I posted that last Friday on Facebook I woke up to find that all 5 of my latest entries onto the Coolminiornot gallery made it to the "Best of the Week" page, with 4 of them actually occupying 4 of the top 5 spots at that moment...<br />
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I commented at the time that it wouldn't stay like that, but nearly a full week on and all 5 are still there (albeit with lower scores than on this picture, but nonetheless), which gives me a lovely boost, especially after some of the sniper fun I have had in recent times on CMON.<br />
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The 4 pieces in the image are the 2 finished Ilyad barbarians, plus the group of Kingdom Death Pinups and Clio & Erato. The fifth piece was the Hasslefree Lt. Thoran mini which I finished a little while back, but just hadn't got around to final photos.<br />
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Speaking of photos, I reckon I've got enough done of late to start a gallery on here, so keep an eye on the menu on the right of the page for that to be added soon. :)<br />
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There are links for each of the 5 pieces below. The Putty & Paint links also include larger images of each of the Kingdom Death girls, some of which haven't previously been shown.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Vorag Champion</span> - CMON link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/383488<br />
- P&P link - http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/7737<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Virago <span style="font-size: small;">- CMON link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/383489</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> - P&P link - http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/7738</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pinups of Death</span> - CMON link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/383496</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> - P&P link - http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/7742</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Clio & Erato</span> - CMON link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/383495</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> - P&P link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/383495</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lt. Thoran</span> - CMON link - http://www.coolminiornot.com/383490</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> - P&P link - http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/7739</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Big thank you must go out to Julien at Blacksmith Miniatures also, because I placed second in their Clio & Erato painting competition and received a piece of original Veneri Blu art work plus a copy of their latest model, Mahe le Marin...</span></span><br />
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The art work is up on my inspirations board, whilst the pirate gobbo type will most likely be my first dedicated model for my little boy, who is currently pirate mad! :)<br />
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What was going to be a short post is now getting big! Onto what I'm doing now...<br />
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I still have the Nightmare Ram diorama on the desk, but it has lost steam lately, so I shall come back to it when I'm in the mood again.<br />
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I am also working on some KD pinups, but they aren't for show yet.<br />
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I then started on the <a href="http://www.joekminis.com/">JoeK</a> Dragon Huntress model. I have a feeling that he has sold through on this model now (though I'm sure that she is in stock in a few stores if you look around), and I know that she is one that he has mixed feelings over, partly to do with the original sculpt's head...<br />
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I wasn't keen on the head either, so I decided to do a little transplant, adding the KD Nico head instead, plus a little collar made from some Etch Master parts. I then started painting her and got this far (which I am quite happy with I might add!)...<br />
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She is absolutely tiny, and I have to be extremely careful with the spear thing that she has, as the resin is quite brittle, but beautifully detailed. I'm thinking of doing her in a kind of Chinese/Japanese styled outfit, seeing as the new head has a kind of oriental look about her and the dragon head is also kind of like the dragons in some oriental art too.<br />
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However... I recently started to see a lot of mention of a particular page on Facebook called <span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/poppysangels/">Poppy's Angels</a>.</span><br />
This page has been set up to support a family whose daughter, Poppy is suffering from cancer. The dad, Paul is a member of the mini community and several painters, sculptors and mini companies are donating their wares to the cause. The guys running the group are then planning shortly to raffle (and auction too, I think?) the models and games that have been sent in. There are already some mind blowing contributions, including a special one-off bust by probably the top guy around right now, Kirill Kanaev (aka Yellow One) and of course those good eggs at Painting Buddha too, to name just two.<br />
I felt that it wasn't just enough to click "like" and move on, as is too easy to do when you're browsing along. I have my little boy, who is my greatest blessing in life. He has had his own share of health scares, but I simply couldn't imagine the kind of gut wrenching fear that this family go through on a daily basis. I also felt that a donation, click and move on wasn't enough either. I had to get involved. Cancer is a word that resonates strongly in my family currently, and I wanted to do something that would pick up a little of what someone with cancer may have to go through.<br />
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To this end, I had a look through what I had in my pile, and a strong idea hit me. The piece below is a conversion of the piece<a href="http://shop.kingdomdeath.com/products/distracted"> "Distracted" from Kingdom Death</a>. I have left the hair off for obvious reasons, she also has a scar across her breast and the part which was originally a lantern is now an IV drip. I've not yet decided exactly what the books will contain, other than it might make sense that they were some kind of family photo album. There is all kinds of symbolism that could be added, but for now this is pretty much as far as I've got. It is kind of ironic that the original piece is called distracted, as that is exactly what has happened - I've been distracted from all other works until this is done. At the bottom of the post is a link to the Poppy's Angels Go Fund Me page. You can buy tickets for the raffle to possibly own this or any of the other donations, or just to give. I hope that you do, and I shall keep you all posted on how this goes...<br />
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Thanks in advance if you do join in and I hope to have some exciting news with the next post too.<br />
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Cheers ^_^<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The link - http://www.gofundme.com/vd57g8s</span></b></span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-54519591958009836422015-07-23T13:46:00.001+01:002015-07-23T13:46:57.985+01:00Nearly, nearly...It's been a little longer than hoped to put up a worthwhile post. There's been several reasons for this. Mostly it is down to being a bit too warm in the cave to do much painting these last few weeks. It's not so much paint drying, it's more the fact that I would need to be just about naked to sit there, and the heat does my concentration in too. The other thing is that I've had too many projects on the desk at once. It ruins my work flow to have more than a couple at once there. I suspected previously that this would challenge me, and so it proved to be true.<br />
My solution... I re-arranged the display cabinet (to help incorporate my most recent award from Salute), cleared a space in the lowest shelf for in progress/nearly finished stuff and cleaned the desk.<br />
I had also been waiting on some special wood from a friend, which I have since had made into new plinths. 4 hours of sanding and varnishing later and I have over 30 spaces for new minis! Better get on with it! lol<br />
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That meant that I needed to get some cool air into the cave and get down to the paint, and a bit of mess making for the bases of the Ilyad pair from a little while ago. I prepped up the bases made out of cork, slate, coarse sand and sandy paste - oh, and a little bit of driftwood that I squirrelled off of the beach in Kos! - which I created as a kind of topper for the plinths - I quite like the effect of keeping some of the top of the plinth clean, particularly when using good looking wood. Last night I then painted up the toppers, which just leaves some blood effects, vegetation and a dusting of pigments to do, then I can call them done, at last...<br />
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The second image is actually a position where the two base toppers kind of interlock. It would take a bit of jiggery-pokery to place them on a single plinth, but I'll see if I can do just that once everything is finished.<br />
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While I was waiting I did do <i>some</i> painting, and one piece in particular was done as an experiment for the impending slew of Kingdom Death:Monster models. I wanted to see if I could paint up the survivor models quickly to a certain look, so I did the guy from the last update. I actually re-painted him from scratch, and did the whole thing in 2 hours, not including assembly and priming (probably another hour, but I built a whole crew all at once). There are still a few mould lines and some rough bits, but the effect for such a quick job was quite satisfying...<br />
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The effect was achieved almost entirely using heavily diluted acrylic inks (Scale 75 plus some old GW ones), some matt medium, and some GW washes. The skin was done with two skin tones. The inky eyes are a feature of the KD art that I really love, so I expect to do that a lot.<br />
Hopefully I'll do a little step by step on another survivor soon to show the simple method involved. :)<br />
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I also started to put paint onto the Nightmare Ram. It is going to take longer than the Lion God that I completed a little while back. This is mostly because it is more intricate, so will need more brush work and less airbrushing. I want a kind of albino look to it in the end, so the odd purple tones fit my vision...<br />
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Everything is still rough on this. I think that I will paint all of the skin like this, then tighten up later (like I normally do) rather than finish anything before moving on. It's going to be a(nother) crazy one. I like that ^_^<br />
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Other than that, I had my birthday on the 16th. I did receive one lovely mini, with a second to follow apparently. The one that I got was a Pegaso piece that I've loved for years...<br />
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It ticks loads of boxes for what I love to paint - aside from not being a lady type - lots of skin, detailed armour, expressive face and weird monstrous sidekick. Just about perfect! lol<br />
Can't wait to make a start, but lots to get on with before him!<br />
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Final note, I shall be at Figureworld in Oundle this weekend - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FigureworldModelShow">DETAILS HERE</a> - and will be bringing some of my toys with me. So if you're about, pop by and say hi.<br />
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Til then... ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-79756558338385309652015-07-03T10:29:00.000+01:002015-07-03T10:29:16.091+01:00Just Kos...I've been quiet just lately. Why? Well, fortunately I managed to dash off for a week in Kos with the family. It was a superb week where I nicely recharged the batteries - not least because we were sharing our room with the little one, so it was a load of early nights, which were were more welcome than I had realised. July and more so August are very busy months with my day job, so it was good preparation.<br />
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On my return, all keyed up to get back to the painting desk, I discovered that we brought the good weather back with us! The thing there is that when your man cave is touching 30 degrees at 9pm, it's not really conducive to painting. So I managed less than I might have hoped in terms of progress to show - but I have made progress on something that I can't yet show for Kingdom Death... ;)<br />
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Basically, I've thrown some pale skin tones down onto the Nightmare Ram ready to do some proper painting shortly. It is intended to be a kind of albino tone eventually, so it is probably a little too colourful right now, but I gives me plenty to work from...<br />
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In the last post I showed the kit bashed survivors that I cobbled together in anticipation of Kingdom Death:Monster finally shipping very soon - <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/poots/kingdom-death-monster/posts/1280610">LINK</a> - (Congratulations to Adam Poots and Anna on the birth of their baby boy too) and I have had a little play with some washes to see what can be done quickly and effectively, so that the game pieces can be put on the board with some colour on them.<br />
I also want to explore the inky eyed look that is prevalent in the early artwork associated with Monster. There's something about it that just adds that something "more" to the people and I fully expect to do more of it, especially with my starting survivors. In fact, I just remembered that I actually did inky eyes on Allister and Zachary when I first painted KD's own starting survivors. It was eventually decided that the ink would be reduced in the final version, which you can see here - <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/332710">LINK</a> - but I don't think that these photos have ever seen the light of day!<br />
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Funny, but these models seem like a lifetime ago in terms of personal painting progress, but I do still remember how much I loved painting these sculpts from JAG (of course!!).</div>
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Anyway, this was probably no more than a half hour to an hour's work on this new survivor's head...</div>
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Just slapping washes and inks onto models like this can produce some striking effects at a tabletop level. Sure, they won't stand up at display level, but I'm looking at quantity over refinement when I have between 70 and 100 minis coming!</div>
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A final thing which may be of interest to people who would like to see what I do up close...</div>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wamp/wamp-select-series-paintbrushes/description">WAMP ran a successful Kickstarter</a> a few months back and amongst the pledges was a weekend workshop...</div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: black;"><i><b>"Wamp Workshop<span></span></b></i></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: black;"><i>If you really want to take your painting
up a level then this is for you. We are offering the chance to receive
two days of hands-on personal tuition from two of the painters featured
in this very Kickstarter. Scott Hockley and John Keys are renowned UK
painters winning numerous awards between them and both experienced in
delivering first class workshops. Each day you will spend with one of
the tutors learning great techniques such as weathering, NMM, OSL and
colour theory. You will also receive a miniature from the weekend and
follow up advice after the event that allows you to go home and try
things out and get follow up help meaning you can iron out any problems
you may encounter.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: black;"><i>The workshop will take place one weekend later
in the year in the South East/Midlands area of the UK (the location and
date will be confirmed later)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: black;"><i>The Workshop is only available as
part of the Ultimate pledge and the price includes a complete set of
brushes, the brush soap and either a brush roll or case. Places are
limited for the workshop.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: black;"><i>(Please note the price includes Workshop Ticket, Brush package, miniature and paint. It does not include travel or accomodation)"</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Now. Due to the date chosen for the workshop, two of the original participants can no longer attend, so we have two vacancies at time of writing. The class will be held on Saturday 29th August and Sunday 30th August in Colchester, Essex. The cost is either £100 for the two days or £150 and you get a full set of the WAMP brushes as detailed in the link above.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">If you are interested, contact me ASAP via email or PM on Facebook (though things do get lost in the messenger there if you aren't a FB friend...) and I'll give you more details.</span><br />
<span style="color: white;">I expect to be concentrating on female flesh and faces for my part of the workshop, John's part is TBC, but it is sure to be great, as you only need look at his gallery - <a href="http://www.puttyandpaint.com/megazord_man">LINK</a> .</span><br />
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<span style="color: white;">Until next time. Have a lovely summery weekend, and don't burn your sausage!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: white;">Scott B-) </span><i> </i></span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-31419017466139524852015-06-17T15:03:00.000+01:002015-06-17T15:03:00.731+01:00Having a bash...I've been busy lately making a mess and generally being covered in glue/glued to something that should be attached to a model rather than the side of my thumb...<br />
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I'll be frank, I don't much enjoy scratch building bases, and kit bashing can quickly become tedious to me too. I know that some absolutely love the "messy play" part, but for me, I can't wait to get to that primed stage where everything is tidy and my desk is no longer covered in shavings, saw dust and sand/tea leaves/off cuts of wood and cork/plasticard/sculptiboard.<br />
What I'm also not keen on is waiting for stuff to dry. I guess that most people assemble more than one thing at a time and just move on, but I usually can't work with more than one, two at most things on the desk at once.<br />
With that in mind, I'm breaking all of my own rules with 2 unfinished commissions, a painted but non-based piece (Virago), a diorama and what has become 6 individual kit bashes standing on or around my desk!! And I'm really not enjoying the mess and lack of focus.<br />
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So what am I doing?<br />
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Virago and her beau are sat waiting for their bases before final touches.<br />
I've prepped the next commission piece ready for priming, but I can't reveal that yet.<br />
The diorama is largely "built". It needs the floor to be finished and a load of flora will be added once the base is painted, and the models are built ready for priming.<br />
And while I wait for putty, filler, caulking, PVA, superglue and sandy paste to dry, I decided to start putting together the prototype Kingdom Death: Monster survivor armour kits that I've had for a while with a view to seeing how I might go about some table top level painted models to go with the game when I lands *this summer*.<br />
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I'll start with the gang...<br />
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I was quietly impressed with the differently expressive dynamism I could make from the kits. There is still some tidying to do, particularly with the last girl who is a partial bash from an Architect Pinup too. I plan to add some more brass etch here and there too (<a href="http://etch-master.com/">Etchmaster brass etch</a>) to further individualise them, but they make an interesting rag-tag bunch! ^_^<br />
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Expect sporadic progress with them when I'm in the mood or have some paint mixed up that is going spare...<br />
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The diorama of doom is already a heavy old lump...<br />
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There was quite a lot of filling and fixing on the Nightmare Ram - not a kit for the inexperienced modeller - but the sheer quantity of stuff to make the cave is silly, especially because I'm trying to keep it "lightweight"! lol<br />
<br />It's in that "looks crap" stage right now, so I fully expect you, the viewer, to be less than impressed, so I'm fine with that, and that's also part of why I am not enjoying this phase of the project either.<br />
The other thing is that so much of this will be obscured with foliage when painted that it's kind of pointless to show this stage, but there you go! lol<br />
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Hopefully the next episode will have paint!<br />
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Fingers crossed ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-71202934397240511382015-06-05T12:59:00.000+01:002015-06-05T12:59:05.550+01:00New Faces...Since my last post quite a lot has happened, painting and social media wise that is...<br />
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First of all, I did the *final* touches to Virago - I actually need to add blood and pigments, but that will be done when I do the bases for the two of them. The second thing is that I moved onto the big guy and painted his skin and essentially *finished* him too.<br />
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The micro updates were shared on the FB page - https://www.facebook.com/theblackhandsblog - and I'll go through them again shortly, and in turn what I shared got shared around some more, and before I knew it my little page got rather busy! As a result, I have a healthy crop of new friends on the FB page, and hopefully here too soon. So, thanks for looking and sharing. Hopefully you'll stay around, and at this rate I shall be looking at another give away when I reach 1000 likes sooner than I expected! ^_^<br />
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So, the big guy got painted. The pics below show him from two nights ago, but I decided to repaint his hair to be similar to Virago last night. I would have taken photos, but I decided to move quickly onto some assembly work for a personal project that I've had in mind for a good few months, and some other assembly work for a commission which I can't show at the moment.<br />
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Anyway... Big guy...<br />
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Some newer shots of Virago with a re-tweaked face...<br />
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And the happy couple!<br />
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Aside from feeling quite pleased with myself over how the two of them have turned out, I'm most pleased about getting the subtle difference between the painting of the skin *right*. What I mean by this is that the big guy has massive muscles with deep furrows, poking out sinews, and his pose is more bent over, so I've increased the contrast and made a feature of the muscle groups and his angry expression. Virago in contrast has a much subtler, smoother look to her skin. She looks athletic, and her intense, angry expression meant that she was more than capable of removing the poor victim's head, but she still has a feminine feel to her. The exact same colours were used on both models, just a different method.<br />
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Now, since these photos, like I said I decided that I didn't like his red hair, so I repainted it in the same colours and hers. I then put a quick coat of matt varnish on the pair of them and popped them aside in the cupboard until I get the materials for the bases in. I'm currently waiting on some wood to make up the plinths, which will form a part of the bases. I will also add pigments and blood effects once they are installed on their bases.<br />
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And speaking of wood, I was out with the family at the local country park last weekend and I came across something that was absolutely ideal for a diorama idea that I've had in my head for a while now. What I found was a piece from a huge old oak tree that at sometime in its history had been destroyed and now makes a nice climbing space for children. What it looks like is a perfect cave mouth for a fantasy monster, and my diorama plan fell into place...<br />
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The models aren't in the right place yet, and the wood itself needs to be trimmed at the bottom to form the cave mouth, plus I'll do more to put Pan, the model on the right out of the Nightmare Ram's (on the left) field of view.</div>
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The idea of the story is that the Ram eats fairies by luring them in using the lantern in its hands - like moths to a flame... - and Pan has tracked the Ram to its lair to hunt it.</div>
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I plan to create a full cave in the space and back the Ram partially into the space, with Pan hiding behind the cave mouth. There is every likelihood that I will mess around with levels and which direction the models will be facing. I also want to add lots of insect wings to the area around the mouth of the cave to back up the idea of the Ram as the Fairy Eater...</div>
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Lots to do, but I think that this will be fun! ^_^</div>
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Until next time, happy painting!</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-78440379066059712872015-05-26T23:22:00.001+01:002015-05-26T23:22:09.293+01:00A bit of a leap...Well. Since the last post I got a bit carried away! I painted the jewels and earrings on the big fella, then popped him to one side to allow me to catch up with Virago...<br />
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Now it was time to push Virago forward. Well push turned into shove, and I rather fired along. This was brought on by two particular sessions; one where I managed to pretty much complete the non-metallic metals, and a second where I decided to paint her face and hair.<br />
Now, I believe that I've described before just how great JAG is at sculpting expressions into his models at this scale, but I wasn't quite prepared for the little wrinkles in her nose and brow; or the strong set of the jaw and mouth; and the eyes. Oh, the eyes...<br />
Anyway, I kind of almost finished her where I was just so enthused by the amazing face...<br />
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Dat face...<br />
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Suffice to say, I'm now charged up about painting the skin on the big guy. I should expect another update to that effect pretty soon! ^_^<br />
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'Til next time :)<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-64657388468881051372015-05-19T09:55:00.000+01:002015-05-19T09:55:12.469+01:00Small steps...It's kind of disappointing when you don't feel like you're moving along as fast as you want to be moving at, but sometimes you need to just slow it all down and invest a bit of time in the "polish" of a model.<br />
These Ilyad barbars that I've been working on lately almost feel like they've ground to a halt because I've got well and truly fixed into the NMM of the armour and the axes of the male barbar. Virago has barely moved at all since the last update, but she will get the same treatment as the male as soon as I feel that he is at a stage to put down ready for the skin section.<br />
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Then, since these photos I've completed the axe heads and added a little more polish here and there to the (non) metals. I wasn't in the mood for the SLR last night, so I committed the cardinal sin of phone photos, and they weren't as terrible as I expected...!<br />
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Not the sharpest focus and doesn't show off the nuances of colour, but at least it shows the contrast.<br />
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I shall finish off the axe hafts now, then do a few jewellery bits here and there, after that the male barbar will be put down so that I can move Virago along. That shouldn't take long as I've already started on her *tiny* bit of armour, so it will leave her swords, belt, glove and jewellery before I can move onto bringing the pair of them to life with the skin part.<br />
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Short and sweet today, but it feels like the hardest part of the models at the moment just before reaching the top of the climb, ready for the easier descent. I am still massively enjoying painting both models, but, after a few days off, I need to pick up the tempo again ready for my favourite part.<br />
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Until next time ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-33493957289034628192015-05-08T16:12:00.000+01:002015-05-08T16:12:59.649+01:00The Silver LiningWell. It looks like the UK is going to be an <i>interesting</i> place to live for the next few years. So, until a rich benefactor decides to employ me to paint their minis at their studios in the Caribbean/Oz/Indian Ocean (maybe the US ^_^ ), I'd best console myself to painting things that I really like.<br />
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And like doesn't go anywhere near touching how overjoyed I am to be working on these two Ilyad models. Truly staggeringly beautiful models. The mini world is worse place without this kind of piece being made on a regular basis. But, the flip side of that is the feeling of sheer privilege when you are asked to do them.<br />
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Virago, the girl, I have had in my collection for a couple of years, but I felt that I needed to level up my abilities with the brush before I would be ready to do her justice. Having started, at last, oh my...<br />
The. Actual. Joy of her and her *little* friend ^_^<br />
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The leather texturing was loads of fun experimenting with applying and removing paint. Really pleased with the result. The fur was more a matter of using the right paints/washes to get the effect to be realistic, as the sculpt had already done the hard work. The loin cloth thing on Virago was a fun mix of blending and texturing. I'm right into trying to get some texture into cloth and such at the moment, particularly because patterning isn't my strongest skill, so more "loose" stuff like this gives a nice effect, and probably suits too in the circumstances.<br />
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The eyes I just couldn't resist at this time! lol<br />
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Can't wait to do the next update ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4576767915996853504.post-21107140955136789742015-05-01T12:06:00.000+01:002015-05-01T12:06:08.380+01:00Salute come down & what next...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So. Salute is over for another year. As a show, I think that I enjoyed it. It felt a LOT busier than in previous years - in fact it was uncomfortably warm as a result in some areas of the hall, particularly the corners - and there was, as usual, too much to take in. We (as in myself, my wife, friend Gary and his future wife) stayed the night before on the rather lovely Sunborn Yacht Hotel, took in the cable car ride over to the O2, ate chicken, drank cocktails and returned to one of the traditional pre-Salute drinks haunts, the Custom House, for a couple of drinks. We were quite surprised at how low the turn out of familiar faces was this year, but it would appear that we were probably at the wrong end because much of the meeting up seemed to have been done at the Connaught bridge end of ExCel.<br />
No matter, a good night's sleep was rather nice, and as it turned out, needed as awaking on the day of the event I wasn't quite right - not hungover, but definitely a degree under - and this has since turned into one of the more unpleasant illnesses to lay me low - a rather acute sinus/ear infection that has left me mostly deaf, exhausted and constantly nauseous - I am thankfully now on the mend and I can say that spending much of a week like that has made me appreciate my hearing!!<br />
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Enough of that though. Salute, the show...<br />
I didn't take any photos of the stands, but there was plenty to see, with several new(ish) companies making their first appearances at the show. I had a commissioned piece on show at one such stand for Mythos Games/Paranoid Miniatures, who are about to start a Lovecraft type line of minis with a corresponding game as I understand it.<br />
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This little model is absolutely TINY! Barely 28mm to the eyes, but the concept was good, and I added the Victorian dock to tie in with the venue ^_^<br />
The event went well and the model was particularly well received too, so happy days there!<br />
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I was going to add some minis to the Hasslefree stand, but, to be honest, we didn't stroll into the event until about 11.30, so I settled for a nice chat at the stand with some of the regulars (I even helped out with a sale or two which may have been due to me wearing a HF t-shirt on the day! lol).<br />
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I managed to completely miss at least two stands that I had every intention of visiting, mostly due to getting sidetracked with chatting to friends, but the good side of that is that I only spent on two minis - the new Muse model from <a href="http://www.agoraminiatures.com/en">Thomas David's Agora line</a>, and the new <a href="http://www.joekminis.com/">Atlanta model from Joek minis</a> - the bad being that I didn't get some stuff that I "needed"... Oh well.<br />
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Aside from this, there was a "Sherlocked" convention going on plus the usual London Marathon sign up at the same time. So the central concourse was awash with mostly young women in deerstalker hats, 60s styled outfits and expressions of hope of some form of eye contact with a certain Mr Cumberbatch, along with an awful lot of nylon and lycra clad running type people, plus us wargamer/painter/general nerd types. People watching over lunch was quite amusing!<br />
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Back into the (rather hot by this point) hall and over to the painting competition to see how things were progressing. I entered 4 pieces - M'Dusa, Clio & Erato, Gandalf and the HF girl that I had been working on in the week leading up to Salute (I've yet to show final shots on her because I rather crammed her and her base still needs a little work). My friend, Gary entered 3 pieces.<br />
The judging had begun when we returned, and one of my pieces had been selected as a finalist. I'll admit that I didn't have high hopes at this point. Gary had 2 of his 3 pieces on the finalists tables, so he was already pleased because he had not reached that stage previously.<br />
While the judging went on several painters began congregating in the area, so it was a good time to say hello to old and new friends and acquaintances. There were a few glum faces unfortunately who had had their works passed over in the competition, and from what I understand were given less than constructive critique when they collected their pieces. That was a shame, but it is difficult for the judging guys as they have barely a couple of hours to judge hundreds of pieces. I know that I have gone with high hopes in the past and been passed over for one reason or another, so I could understand the frustration. For me, I had no expectation this year, so anything was a bonus. A finalist spot was par for me - often as much due to me painting slightly left field minis! lol - so I was rather pleased and not a little surprised when the judges started moving winning pieces from the finalists table to the winners table, and almost the very last piece picked up was mine! 1st or 2nd, my M'Dusa was a winner... And so we waited for the announcements. When it came we briefly had Darth Vader helping with the awards, but he got bored and flounced off halfway through! lol<br />
The winners were each announced, and a steady stream of familiar faces and friends were called up. When it came to my section, I fully expected a second - I have a history of second place finishes - but another person was called for the second... Nope, it was a first place, no less! Glee! ^_^<br />
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Having spent that little bit of extra time and effort on M'Dusa had already seen her very well received based on the photos that I'd shown on line, but to have her do so well in a real life competition was very satisfying indeed. Also, I don't think that I'd shown the lettering and Steampunk kind of cogs design that I had added to her plinth. It was something done with real life in mind much more than photos, but it helped to give a "complete" look on the day.<br />
I've already shown the very worthy best of show by two time winner, David Soper, plus (almost) all of the other winners in my previous post - <a href="http://blackhandpainting.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/salute-winners-mini-post.html">LINKY</a> - so I won't go too much more into the rest of the awards, other than to say that I was pleased both for myself and for several friends who had all produced some amazing works.<br />
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If you wish to see (and vote too) more of M'Dusa, then you do so either at Coolminiornot - <a href="http://www.coolminiornot.com/375656">HERE</a> - or alternatively at Putty & Paint - <a href="http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/6891">HERE</a><br />
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So. With Salute done, it's time to get back to the table, and I think that I am likely to let out a little "squeee!" of joy with what is being prepped for next...<br />
Not one, but two, rare as rocking horse poo, Ilyad barbarians! One is mine, the other is a commission piece, but I thought it would be great to do them at the same time as side by side pieces, so that they can be seen together as they were originally intended, before I pack one up and send him away, halfway across the world! lol<br />
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Think that in the presence of such miniature "royalty", I'd best get my game face on!<br />
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I'm already looking forward to the next update... ^_^Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03882025670948490964noreply@blogger.com0