Hobby Before I Die!

Ladies and Gents, I'd like to recommend you all visit a new blog page posted by my good mate Dan.

 

There's a heap of great stuff on there already, including some cracking Chaos/Space Marine conversions, a host of great Dystopian Wars pics and some particularly amusing shots of Heroclix minis.

So don't delay! Head over to Hobby Before I Die! now. Go now I tell you! Enjoy and be inspired :D

Laters all

The old man of the sea

Hey everyone,

I know it's only been a couple of days since the last post, but really wanted to get this post on.

This one started out as an experimental piece to try out some new colour theories and actually ended up quite nice. I picked the figure up in the recent Black Scorpion metal overstock sale at a real bargain price. It's a cracking figure with bags of character and seemed like a good piece to try this technique out on.

The figure has so much character, you can practically hear the wind howling and see the rain chucking down. The theory was to use a pallette of three main paints (plus a metallic) and use them all to mix the various tones across the model.

The model was based on a resin scenic base before applying a sprayed Chaos Black undercoat. Using the airbrush, the figure was then basecoated Stegadon Scale Green (SSG). The rest of the palette was comprised of Rakarth Flesh (RF), Scorched Brown (SB) and Tin Bitz (TB), which is essentially metallic Scorched Brown. (Although Astronomican Grey is pictured, it wasn't used :D )

This is the model at the basecoat stage. The outer jacket and hat remained neat SSG; the boots, rifle, hair and inner clothing were 50:50 SSG and SB. The sword, telescope and other metallic areas were straight TB. The face, hands and skull were approx 30:70 SSG and RF. The base had the same mix, but was subsequently re-painted SSG.

The figure was then washed with Asurman Blue. As an aside, from time to time there are some hobby products that stink a bit (Citadel Skull White spray, for example). Asurman Blue from the old wash range really chucks up.... the smell is un-godly!

Once the wash was dry, each area was re-layered up. All mix ratios from this point on are really just guidelines (much like the pirate code...) and the mixing process was quite fluid, changing tones as it was applied.

The inner clothing, boots and hair were layered with the initial 50:50 mix of SSG and SB, with straight SB highlighting. A little RF was mixed in for a final highlight. 

The jacket and hat were layered first with SSG and then with a little RF mixed into the SSG. The metallics had another coat of TB and a final highlight with a little RF mixed into the TB. The flesh areas were re-layered with 50:50 SSG and RF, with a highlight stage adding more RF to the mix. The skull had a further stage with more Rakarth Flesh added in.

This is the figure at about 90% complete. The telescope lens was SSG with a layer of SSG and RF and a spot highlight of straight Rakarth Flesh. The base (having been re-painted SSG) had a water effect applied by mixing increasing amounts of RF to SSG and highlighting up the rock surfaces to simulate water frothing around the base.

Anyway, hope you like the finished piece. I'm really stoked with the way the final piece turned out.

Laters all

Alice? Who the f*** is Alice?

Hey all,

Quick post again with a few shots of Alice from Hasslefree Miniatures. First up, apologies for the image quality. In my wisdom I thought it would look cool to stand the figures on an ad-hoc plinth (the lid from a spray-can), but the camera had trouble focussing beyond it, hence the slightly blurry pictures...

Hasslefree do some great sculpts, and this is a new take on the tradtional fairytale character, wielding a revolver and a mangled bunny. As I was digging through the bits box, I found some resin bases that my brother sent my way a while back. They seemed like a good fit and the finished piece looks fairly good (no really, it's just poor photography!)

The base colour was Ice Blue, laid down with the airbrush and shaded with a thinned down wash of Shadow Grey, before being layered back up with Ice Blue. The skin tones were then based with Tallarn Flesh, washed with Ogryn Flesh and re-layered. The hair was trusty Dheneb Stone. The rabbit was based with Scorched Brown and layered with Ceramite White. The revolver and other metal areas were Boltgun Metal and washed with Ogryn Flesh. The base was finished with Citadel static grass to create a pathway across it and bring a sense of motion to an otherwise static piece. This also gave a stronger colour than the normal basing material I use, which lent itself to the more traditional day-glo colour palette associated with the story.

Anyways, head on over to the Hasslefree site, they've got some great pieces up at the moment!

Master and Commander (and Helmet Guy)

Hey all,

Quick post today with a couple of shots of Commander Azrael and the little guy who tags along with him.

These figures were given to my brother all those years ago when we first got into the hobby. We got round to assembling and undercoating them but didn't get any further, and they've sat around in a box for the last few years.

When I went about reclaiming old pieces a few weeks back, I cleaned these up and ordered a new backpack and banner for Azrael. They were both reassembled, based and spray undercoated Chaos Black. I then put down a Dark Angels Green basecoat with the airbrush.

The articulated joints in the armour and the sword hilt were painted Charadon Granite, before the armour was washed with Thraka Green and then with Badab Black. The cloth areas, banner, and iconography were basecoated Dheneb Stone and the red areas basecoated Dark Flesh. The sword blade was painted Boltgun Metal. All of these areas were then washed with Ogryn Flesh.

For the highlighting stage, the armour was blended up with a 50:50 mix DAG and Snot Green, with SG on the edges. The extreme highlights were Scorpion Green. The light cloth areas were layered back up with Dheneb Stone. The red areas were layered up with Dark Flesh and Vermin Brown. The bases had the usual treatment of Scorched Brown with the tops drybrushed Dheneb Stone. Army Painter grass scatter and jungle tufts were added for a little extra detail and to compliment the green armour.

Olly, next time I see you chap, you can have your figures back :P

Laters all!