Sunday evening WIP

Just a quick WIP shot from my painting table: My first Slasher from Shadows of Brimstone. I played a bit around with my airbrush and tested a bit of (pre)shading. In the end it was a bit too orange and I had to glaze it down.
As base I like it so far, have to think how I will continue with that one (thinking about either black claws or more natural ones pending to a nearly eggshell color). And yes there are some moldlines which I didn't see while prepping the miniature. But to be honest I just don't care anymore at this stage for a plain test/gaming miniature. That's why I also saved me from stuffing all the holes and stuff.

And I want to give a short shout-out to Quidam Corvus who once again gave a back link to me which gives me today some nice traffic and visitors :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Playing around on Sunday morning

Just a short update on early Sunday morning. I am just testing (fooling?) around with my new camera a bit. And I wanted to quickly show you some of the pictures I shot (and had an IMO nice effect by chance). After posting that I will return to priming the first miniatures from Shadows of Brimstone but I had to take a break because it really stressed me out that my airbrush was totally clogged  although I gave it a thorough cleaning after the latest usage. Nearly killed my motivation to continue at all....

WIP - Chaos Dwarf

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and didn't explode from all the delicious food you got :) Since here the weather is really bad (rain instead of snow and most of the time pretty windy) I couldn't prime my harpies (I have black as spray can primer) so I loaded up my airbrush and searched for a victim for my painting madness :)
But before starting to paint I had to pimp my working space since I got some really nice presents from the "Christkind" and additionally did some shopping in a big swedish furniture store. But more of that later.

Perhaps some of you remember that I had won a Scibor Chaos Dwarf some time ago. Since I have some days off at the moment I started painting this one. While basecoating two of my brushes died a miraculous death (the points just bended and the hairs feathered out) although I had always treated them well (even cleaned them with brush soap). But these where old ones so I don't have to mourn about them, I just switched to the more expensive ones

Nonetheless here are the first WIP shots from the chaos dwarf (I really have to adjust to my new painting setup especially for WIP pictures).
Everything seems a bit blotchy at the moment but the idea behind this massive brown basecoat is to give my bronze a nice base. And on black/white or pure grey the color just doesn't "shine" enough.
The fur I want do shade down a bit and give it some drybrushing and the coat should be a dark red. The washing didn't tune it down enough, so I think I will start shading it manually.

Before starting to basecoat the armor in brown, I did a short test with the shield of this chaos dwarf. And I really really liked the result. It was just a basecoat in brown, one layer of Vallejo Glorious Gold, a heavy wash of Gryphone Sepia, some highlights with a  mixture of the gold and Vallejo Gunmetal Metal, a final highlight with nearly pure Gunmetal and a final wash with sepia.

For me this gave exactly the look of a used but well-kept shield I wanted.

Stay tuned for more WIP of him. I really like the details of this miniature and are happy that I got it from Mr. Lee (even if I had some nightmares while preparing it for painting).


So long,
Paradox0n

Dark Elves - Harpies WIP (color scheme)

Just a short update on my Harpies: I tested out a color scheme with just priming them gray, heavy black wash and cleaning the puddles up... Didn't work and don't like the result so I repainted the whole miniature in black, the wings purple and gave it a heavy drybrush of increasingly lighter graytones. Then glazed the wings to tone down the gray tones again to purple.
One thing I want to try after cleaning everything up is to gave it a marble look (yes my Harpies will be made of stone as I use the Gargoyle models from Mantic here). First time I try this, curious how this will turn out.

Please excuse the crappy picture but my camera goes havoc at the moment and I just didn't want to use my photo bucket for this short update (or buy a new camera :) ).


Have a good start into your weekend,
Paradox0n

Dark Elves - Harpies WIP

After pillaging through my whole Kickstarter stuff I found the Gargoyles from Mantic which could be a nice
replacement for my Harpies I used this far. So I spent the last two evenings (first time using my laptop cushion) with removing the mold lines and trying to get these thingies into a state that I can prime and paint them.

And oh boy... They have lots of mold lines. I am somewhat disappointed by the quality of these miniatures (as with the Orcs I started for Orctober and stopped painting before I threw them out of the window). But at least here the details work and you don't have to question yourself which part of the model this is you look at...

To be honest I like the sculpt pretty much, the mold quality is the problem here. But as with all the Mantic stuff: Its cheap and you get a good deal for your money.
The first miniature is already primed and awaits color getting brushed on. I want to do them in a very easy and simple color scheme: black/gray with the folds of the wings in purple. That should be just a lots of drybrushing and stuff.
So lets see what I can do here :)

Stay tuned and have a nice Sunday.

Paradox0n

Orctober - First WIP: Mantic Orcs

A while ago I read a nice article on Sean's Wargames Corner about the Orctober.  The original post comes from Erny's Place and as I read it, the Orctober is also a giveaway contest.
As I have a lots of stuff in various packages I pillaged through the stuff and found some Orcs I wanted to try out some time ago and now seems a pretty good time.
As you can see, the Crazy Christmas Box contained (among lots of other stuff) some fantasy orcs which I wanted to test out because in the Kickstarter Armydeal there are lots more and they are part of the Abyssal Dwarves army from Kings of War. This small sprue contains three Orcs with axes & shields and two minions (which I will use for something different).

I chose to build one with two axes (he could also be build with axe & shield like the other ones) and the other two with axe & shield as there is no other option for it. As you can see in the picture there is one head, one shield, one arm and the two minions left from the sprue which will happily wander into my bits box :) Already freed from molding lines but not completely glued together because than some places would be pretty difficult to paint.

So lets see if I am able to paint them up. A short vacation is also waiting for me and I will do a short trip to Majorca next week :) Stay tuned.


So long,
Paradox0n

WIP - Ramshackle Games Dunny

Some fast WIP shots from the Dunny. As said I am experimenting with the weathering a bit. So far the Dunny is primed, base colored with some dark metal paint, washed with Vallejo Smokey Ink, with some selfmade wash from Vallejo Halcon Turquoise and with a selfmade wash from different pigments.
I think I will try some more pigmenting perhaps in a mixture of glue, baking soda and pigments to get the rough rust feeling. And some painted on pigments without any solvent.

At the end I will drybrush the whole thing to get a more metallic look back. And weather it again a bit down, depending on the overall result. I know it doesn't look very clean but I want a rusted look as far as I can get it :)

[UPDATE]
Just realised that something weird happened while uploading the pictures. Therefore I adjusted the post a bit.

So long,
Paradox0n

WIP - Base for the Cauldron of Blood

And another WIP for my Cauldron of Blood today. At the moment I am trying to build me a base for the Cauldron. Since it should be a bit more scenic I thought of a small "hill" where the cauldron stands, two witches behind it and the standard bearer in front of it.
Since I have lots of bark in my box I used some of it to get a rough layout (which will be painted like rock). Too bad my Fimo dried out, so I couldn't finish the other parts of the hill. Any suggestions how I could do it without Greenstuff or Fimo? aybe just sanding the whole thing could work too...
For a better understanding how this should look like in the end, I placed some models on the base (sneaky skaven-ratlings are everywhere!).

What do you think of it?

So long,
Paradox0n

Sunday Afternoon WIP - Dark Elves: Witch Elves

2K primed Witch Elves

A day off, a delicious asparagus menu and a painting afternoon with a friend, what a wonderful and quite ending of a long weekend. And since I really managed to paint something I can show you some WIP shots of my Witch Elves for my Cauldron of Blood.

First I did a two component priming for a better definition of the lighting of the miniatures. You don't believe how tricky this is when it is a stormy weather like today. But after seeing of some pictures from Mr. Lee I know now that I can achieve this with my airbrush too. Therefore as soon as my aerosol cans are empty I will buy me a black primer from Vallejo since I am really pleased with their primers.

Saturday Night WIP - Dark Elves: Cauldron of Blood

After a rather restless night, I can show you some WIP shots for my version of the Cauldron of Blood for the Dark Elves.
The Cauldron is not the one from Games Workshop it is the Spawning Vessel from the Legion of Everblight. The acolythes will be used later as beastmasters for my hydra :)
Since I am a rather classical RPG player the thought of a statue carried by three wicked witches was not really appealing to me. It is too heavy, too clumsy and doesn't fit to my imagination of the Cauldron. And I was not willing to pay ~40€ for a modell I don't like and where I had to cut off half of it... The old model (more a chariot than anything else) is also not the best one (but fitted to the old rules) and only buyable via the Bay or similar places. So I bought myself a witch commando, the spawn vessel and a battle standard (more of her in a future article) and started thinking.

Necromunda Cawdor WIP and Mastermini Giveaways

Necromunda Cawdor WIP

As promised, I used the time Father's Day gave me to finally paint a bit. Gosh this was a long time without swinging the brush. I almost forgot how to use them... But after a short time reactivating my wet palette and my paints I spent some time with basecoating the rest of my Cawdor gang. I had them spraypainted with white but that gave me some trouble (old miniatures with lots of "empty" space) so I decided to reprime them with a heavy black wash. Then I painted the reds and blues and the rest of the flesh were given. Painting red always drives me nuts, but after 4 or 5 thin coats it slowly seems to work... Next step will be doing the rest of the colors and then the weapons and masks. With the Chainsword I want to test something if it works I may have another article to post :)

Sneak preview - Something with bite

Just a short sneak preview of something that has arrived in the last days and now lingers on my table. At the moment I am experimenting a bit with the base, the positioning of all the stuff and how much I still have to re-model at this thing. Will be also my first try at a more "dioramic" base. So cross your fingers that I won't break the miniature or cut myself a finger :D

Perhaps the one or other may already know what it is?  Have a guess in the comments I will "unravel the mystery" soon.

So long,
Paradox0n

WIP - Lava bases

Finally having the time to try out my 0.2mm needle in my airbrush I did a quick test for the lava bases I plan to do for my Chaos Dwarf army. I cut out an appropriate piece of cardboard, glued some cork onto it and primed everything. Then I loaded the airbrush, beginning with red, mixing in more and more yellow and finally some white. Then (big error!) I painted the cork black.

Test for a lava base

Since it was only a quick test for working with the 0,2mm needle and how much pressure I need for the different layers, it is OK. I now know how to do things for my Chaos Dwarves. First I have to use real bases or some MDF or some plastic card as base, then I'll have to prime everything black and drybrush the stones and THEN the airbrush comes into use. Think this will work much better.

And I'm really scared by the amount of work this will be *looks in fear to his Skaven, Dark Elves and Chaos Dwarves* :) 

Heavy WIP - Bullcentaurs?!

Hidiho, with the new Bullcentaur Renders from Forgeworld and my Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds from Mantic Games, I'm in the situation where the models aren't really fitting together now. The Halfbreeds of Mantic are way too small for the bigger bases needed for the new Bullcentaurs. Therefore I tried to fit them together on a base to represent the "multiple wound model" and perhaps give them the appearance of something bigger.

Count as Bullrender

It is really heavy WIP. The models are held together by bluetack and the base will made into a scenic base. But what do you think, could they represent the bigger Bullcentaur Renders in this setup?


So long,
Paradox0n

Rebasing some of my old models

Perhaps you have seen some of my old models in my review of the Feldherr XL and wondered: What the *** are those ugly based miniatures. And you are propably right. But before you judge them I will tell you something about those poor Skaven :-)

Old Clanrats

WIP - Plague Furnace

After some terrain making and a big motivation leak while painting my Verminlord, I switched to painting my Plague Furnace. Only bad thing about this modell: I bought it used and everything is glued together which makes it not as easy to paint as it should be.
Nonetheless I will give it a try since I want to use it in one of my next battles :)

Primed and ready to paint

Damn this thing is so big, its even too big for my photo bucket! I will try some things and will look how it will turn out in the end.

So long,
Paradox0n

Articles to come in the near future...

Happy news, i finally should have some more time for the hobby and blogging in the near future. The project I worked for the last and a half years has finally launched and therefore 14 hour shifts and working in the night should have an end :) Therefore I want to give you a small preview of some of the stuff I have done in the last view months respectively articles I will post in the near future and give you the first hints with this post to raise your curiosity.

Starquest Miniatures - Marines WIP

Another peak on my working table. Today I show you some pictures of the GSG from Starquest. They are stongly WIP I've only done the basic shading with my airbrush. First thing I learned to love in preshading with the airbrush is the soft color transitions you get. Especially in this easy way, with a normal brush I could never achieve this. Again my camera blurred some of the transitions :( I must look to get some better photo equipment.