Hear Me Roar

Alright. So first a confession. I stopped painting there for a while. Then I started again with the figures I am about to show you... But my painting ADD kicked in and I started painting two other different groups of figures.. After a good month of jumping around from figure to figure I gave myself a deadline... Paint these two before I leave on holidays for a week..

So as I sit here packing up for my trip tomorrow morning, I present to you Beowa in human and bear form from Mierce Miniatures. Cut it close, but I made it ;)

BEOWA - HUMAN

Sorry for the poor pictures of this guy - they get a little better for the bear - I am just rusty ;)



I think I am finally getting a little more comfortable with how far to highlight certain areas. Still hate painting red though. Only way to get good at it is to paint a model with half the surface area red!

Here, on the cloak, is a better example of my use of highlights. Definitely a lot more pronounced then some of my previous efforts ;)

Yes, I noticed the little flesh paint on his armband, and I have since rectified the problem!





BEOWA - BEAR

Where I struggled both take pictures of, and at times painting, the human form.. I feel Beowa-bear has got to be my best attempt at painting yet. I am pretty proud of him... no glaring errors that I am aware of. I also feel I had much improved brush control while painting this model. Enough talking, pictures!

In particular I think my blending on the browns in the leather has improved (if you haven't yet, take a look at my previous posts to see what I mean ;)
I also attempted a bit more of a zenithal light source, as is most evident in the reds and metals.
As always, I know I am far from a pro, so constructive criticism, or compliments, are always welcome in the comments down below :)
Now back to packing!

Drake: Rivercrest Scouts

I decided I would step away from resin to try my hand on a new painting medium for me; metal.
I recently (well.. a couple months ago now) received a package from the kickstarter Drake: A Dragon Wargame. So here is a review of the figures, and some pictures of course!

There were 6 figures in 3 different poses (2 figures each) and before I started painting them of course I had to assemble them.

Pose A

 This Figure came in just 2 pieces. The quiver and the main body and required very little cleaning. This one is probably my favourite of the three poses, there is a lot more muscle definition and motion. My only complaint is, as a result of it being cast in so few pieces the bow sort of bleeds into the cloak, not overly bad and that is more looking for a complaint then anything.

 I spent some time trying to figure out what colours to paint the scouts, in the end I decided to go with a grey-blue, giving them a subtle camoflauge. However, over the highlighting stages, it quickly turned a lot more blue than anticipated, but I think I am ok with the results.

 

Pose B

 This one is my least favourite, I didn't see much detail on the arms and some of the surfaces (the pouch and strap across chest) were very shallowly detailed and hard to pick up on anything. If I remember correctly this guy was a little harder to clean as well, and was in 4 pieces. I also had problems putting him together as there was very small contact points on the arms, and for the bow I actually had to glue the bow to the cape as well.
My second figure for this pose also had a miscast bow, but it wasn't overly bad and I was okay with it. 

 

 

Pose C

 What can I say that hasn't already been said in this review.. not much. so instead just look!

 

 

Here is a hot of all 6 of them..

I haven't based them yet because the tabs do not properly fit into the bases provided (some to big some to small) so I will likely be purchasing some non slotted bases and pin them onto those instead.

This post may have come across as negative but to the contrary I really enjoyed painting these guys and cant wait to paint some more from this company! I don't think these are anywhere near my best painted figures, but that's just because I've been spoiled with the highly detailed figures mierce provides!

As per usual.. comments are more than welcome! Let me know what you think! Now, back to some resin I think... ;)



Aaaand... I am Back! With a Surprise!

Hey everyone! I really must apologize for the lack of posts. It really has been too long of a time, I will be more diligent to prevent this in the future. I've been very busy with stuff that I won't go into, as this blog is not a story about my personal life, as exciting as that may be :P

 

I did however, manage to get a bit of paint on some figures, so with that enough babbling, here is Eric Longaxe in all of his glory! Hopefully the pictures are good enough for the time being.

At first, I was looking into trying some different skin paints, unfortunately there wasn't any close by so I made do with what I had, and I must say in the end I was glad I did, I enjoy the bronzed look he has. It fits well with the rest of the colors I used. I think he will look great with a unit of infantry at his back, maybe with some trolls to reinforce him as well ;).

 

And now, a (bad) comparison between Penda and Eric;

 

 Here, and in following pictures, you can see how much I've improved in some areas (at least I think so), such as smoother shading on the skin, and all around better brush handling, I also got much more comfortable using thinner paints, which might have helped with the smoother shading. I think I got better control over metallic as well.

The title did say I have a surprise so here it is, the Norse standard, Kjartan (spelling?)

 I really was afraid of whether I would like this miniature or not, but once I took a paintbrush to him, I found him incredibly fun to paint, not to overcomplicated, but not lacking in detail either. He has probably been the most enjoyable figure I have painted in the last couple years! His color choice goes along well with Eric's, while remaining different enough to look unique.

I still have to base the two of them, but I am trying to look for some good products to use for water effects, so if any of you have any suggestions please let me know in the comments below! :) thanks

Finally, a picture of all three together! Thanks, and until next time! Adios

Quite The Journey

     It's sure been a while since I last posted hasn't it? I apologize, I had a real busy last couple of weeks! Didn't even notice the last weekend pass by.

     To make up for it I have sine great posts coming up so keep your eyes open! One actually may be really soon hopefully. I'll have a throwback Thursday ready for you all soon as well, didn't have time for pictures tonight. WIPS might be a little slow here for a little while longer, but I should be in the clear next weekend! Just got to study 24/7 for a few midterms coming up.

     'That's nice, but what are you writing this post for?' you are probably all asking. well, instead of talk about my projects, I want to talk about a kickstarter going on that I am really enjoying.

     Journey Wrath of Demons.

     Journey is a kickstarter inspired by the old Journey to the West story. It revolves around 4 pilgrims (5 now) and their quest.

      I have tried, rather unsuccessfully, to stay away from kickstarter recently. I have spent way to much money and have been burnt a few times by it. For that reason I planned on sticking with companies I knew and trusted and wanted to support. I stayed away from bones and I am even avoiding two other big kickstarters that would have drew me in a few months earlier. (un?)fortunately I discovered Journey, from Marrow Productions.

     I strongly recommend you all check it out and get involved with the comments, if you decide to pledge. You really couldn't join at a better time! The first Major expansion is looming on the horizon and if you pledge for a collectors level before Monday you will receive a bonus resin figure free!

     Let us talk about the resin for a bit (I AM a painter first and foremost ;) They look great. simple as that. Marrow could put them up against any boutique resin company out there and still look good.  And for an incredible price too. The 180$ pledge gets you 10 figures plus the game and all game related stretch goals. I like to think of it as '18$ a resin mini plus a free game!' Or, if you are really nuts like me you can pledge at the 320$ level and get 9 extra resin miniatures. 2 of which are HUGE... 90mm and 127 mm respectively.

      I have been conversing with the people at Marrow and they are really stand up fellows. It's obvious they care about the hobby as well as there backers. They remind of a lot of mierce miniatures kickstarters; nice communication, listens to backer suggestions and enthusiastic creators. Even if you aren't interested in the game but have painting questions, pledge a few $ and ask away in the comments thread! a lot of really helpful people over there that would love to answer any and all painting questions.

    Overall, a great kickstarter and easily on my top 5 favorite kickstarters so far.
    1. Darklands; World at War
    2. Journey: Wrath of Demons
    3. Darklands; First Edition
    4. Myth
    5. Drake: the Dragon War Game

     Here is a link if you're interested :)
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1588487845/journey-wrath-of-demons

Eric Longaxe WIP #1; Tale of X Painters

     Ok, many of you have been waiting for this, so here it is.
      I am actually painting this miniatures for a little friendly 'competition'. Along with a handful of people from the Darklands kickstarter. We decided to all try and see what 500pt force we can get done by the end of the year. So this is the first out of hopefully 4 Norse miniatures I will have done by years end. Along with a few side projects.
     I know the next 3 I will paint, but I think to make this a little more fun I will keep them secret for now ;) though if you were to dig around I have revealed them somewhere.

     I started painting Eric in much the same way as Penda, I used black and white primer to give my self a little lighting from the front right of Eric. I then started on flesh, using a nearly identical process as I did with Penda. First I basecoated with Cadian Fleshtone then heavily washed the miniature with Reikland Flesh, making sure to apply it on even the raised surfaces to give him a nice bronzed tan. I then built up with Cadian Fleshtone and slowly added Kislev Flesh into the mix, making sure to bring the highlights up towards the top right of the raised surfaces. I think I achieved a much more obvious lighting effect this time around.


     Onto the cloak! Once again borrowing from Penda, I decided for a grey cloak. However I must admit I stole an ide from a fellow Darklands backer and lightened the cloak as it approached the sides, its subtle but noticeable. I think I managed to do the cloak with 7 different drybrushes this time (opposed to the ridiculous 9 last time).

     I am really proud of the trousers, I think I found a perfect color for them and managed to produce a very realistic shading. I watered down the basecoat even farther then I usually do in an attempt to allow the white undercoat to lighten up the Loren Forest (GW) I then washed the whole of the pants with Athonian Camoshade (GW). then highlighted back up with  Loren Forest (GW) and added in some Nurgling Green (GW)for the parts in direct sunlight.

     Planning ahead I decided to go for a khaki colour for the rest of the cloth. By planning ahead I mean that when I get to painting trolls I plan using a similar colour as I used for trousers and cloth. So it ties the figures together nicely. Basecoated with Graveyard Earth (GW). Layered with heavily watered down Kommando Khaki (GW)
  
  I also quickly threw some paint on his hair, for the quick job I did I think it turned out pretty good, gives him a ice classic Viking look. Simply used red brown colours and highlighted up.

     You may notice throughout the pictures more skin being added, that is because I forgot to paint the chest muscles and the neck the first time around :P

     Criticisms and comments welcome as always!