Big 'Un week

This week was another of Chico's painting challenges. A big miniature. 40mm base (or equivalent) or larger. What better time to paint the Ral Partha Frost Giant?

This was the progress that I had made by the end of Monday. Base colours and the ever handy dark wash. I also did a lightning blue over the navy blue. The transition was too stark between the two colours.

From the side. As I take photos I notice where I didn't paint. I'm chronically bad for getting under parts of a miniature. On the giant it was under the edge of the beard, and under the edges of the loin cloth. 

The other miniature I painted: a citadel Chaos Champion (CH03) from 1987. Again, as I took photos I noticed I'd not got green under the wrists and on the legs under the fur tunic.

I had painted the orange with the intent of working up to a tan brown. But I really do like the contrast with the green. There is a shield that will go on the black stud on his right hip.

The two side by side. The giant is more of a 'big', but being bigger than the other minis is what is needed.

What follows is the finished giant, with what amounted to a lot of frustrating mucking around with the skin.

 

 The skin flows a little better from the navy to the lightning blue. The beard and hair turned out well. I'm slowly learning how to blend colours.

And the two together again. In the end I did layer the orange up to brown and it still maintains that contrast. The boots need some work, the colour is very muddied. My next step is to get some red onto the armour, like blood seeping from the cracks. The fictional story of the champion is that he dedicated himself to the lord of disease and decay, Nurgle.

Warmachine Cryx.

This was the other set of minis that I painted Sunday night and Monday. I got this set in October last year? And had been half-heartedly painting the warcaster. I couldn't work out what I wanted to do with her and had got as far as black undercoat with a very dark gray dry/over brush. The detail on her is so fine, that I was afraid that I would start obscuring. I don't know when I decided to drybrush the skirt white but that is when it started working for me.

Warjack adn Warcaster. I stuck with white, black and various shades of gray. Spot colour of green. I didn't use any metallics. It's not non-metallic metal (NMM) by any means, that'll be something to try in the future.
However, I do want to put in another gray shade to pick out details on the war jack.

My Necrochickens (Defilers and Devourers). Limited palate.

The whole kit and caboodle, ready for me to learn the rules and rock the catsbah.

Stunty Week Challenge, the results.

I survived Stuntie Week! I actually painted more miniatures (stuntie and not) over the week than I had any other week, IN MY LIFE! And some good ones too.

The only thing that they really need to finish them off is texturing the bases (since taking the photos I've painted the bases black) and varnishing. There are probably some highlights that need doing too.

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Citadel halfling. The second miniature I've painted that I've put eyes on. There is a lot of great detail on this one, from the pipe in the hat to the sacks slung across the back.

Marauder Dwarf (MM15/1). This is probably the best paint job I have done to date. Careful basecoating, with a dark wash and then layering of highlights. I love the miniature and I'm going to keep an eye out for others in the range going cheap.

I've decided to do more photos from the back, because on a lot of minis there is some great detail. Of course, on some it's dead boring (cloaks are blah!)

 Ral Partha dwarf from 1979. The difference a couple of years makes in a range. Has more sculpting done with a more dynamic pose.

And here is a Ral Partha dwarf from 1977. Gah. Very flat, very difficult for me to paint. I'm going to experiment with adding more highlights to give it more planes.

WoTC Dwarf Fighter from 2001's chainmail range. She has quite a nice pose. I need to go and paint the hair red at the request of my bronze and brassy haired wife.

Ral Partha gun crew. There is a wick that needs adding to the figure to right

More Ral gun crew. the spotter looks like santa.

Conquistador from, I think, Ral Partha.

Asgard dwarfen dungeon adventurer. This is covered in great detail.

Grenadier dwarf hireling. I plan to try some lighting effects with the torch as the source.

I think this is a Ral Partha halfling. fits in nicely with the citadel. Skinnier. I like the face even though I need to make it a little cleaner.

Another RP halfling. Simple pose with the face of a human child.

RP halfling. I really like the sculpts on these guys.

My big question, which was sculpted first? The citadel halfling with pipe in hat and gaping shirt, or this RP halfling with pipe in hat and gaping shirt. I love seeing similar poses and pieces across different ranges. It's like a dialogue going on. I'm also thinking of shoulder hugging drunken orcs, dwarves on stilts and overburdened hirelings as ideas I've seen in different places. I'm actually thinking that if I were ever to start a miniatures company I'd want to do a line of 'quote' miniatures. Goblins doing inappropriate things with their fingers would probably be in there too.

Dark Elf Army To Date.

Here are the forces of Naghammahd. Dark Elves are the decadent, egalitarian, God-of-Murder worshipping answer to the wholesome wood and high elves that you may have come across in some recent films about rings, dragons and the black and white world of some earth that is between some things.

This is a 'purist' army: simply meaning that I've made it up out of only the Warhammer ranges manufactured by Citadel and Marauder). (The other kind of army is what I call 'eclectic' (rather than 'non-purist') because it'll be made from many different manufacturers. I have a Chaos army that I'm putting together like this.)

I think that I will eventually have enough painted that I can field them under any number of editions. There's no plan to how they're being painted and collected. I seem to be accumulating them and creating units as required.

Here's what I have painted to my satisfaction. I think I'll varnish them and then finish the basing and the shields. There are still lots more to be painted. Some conversions need to be done and repairs made.

Corsairs. The shock infantry.

The corsairs' dragon cloaks. A fairly simple purplish brown affair.

This is the corsair champion. Not actually a corsair, but he 'scales' nicely.

Witch Elves. The murderous followers of Khaine. A mix of two different ranges, one slightly bigger than the other.

Marauder dark elf warriors. There are more that need to be painted.

Repeater bolt thrower crews. The first two are Citadel (around 1986) the last two are Marauder (around 1994). You can really see the difference in scale.

Mengil Manhide's Manflayers. These are my favourite ensemble group of miniatures in the dark elf range. They'll act as warriors.

These are going to be scouts. I'm humming and haa-ing about where to put the one on the end.

I love how this one turned out. She needs a shield.

Detail from the back. Hardly ever do you see details like this in catalogues or magazines.

The 3 sorcerous leaders. The one in the middle will probably be farmed out as the leader of some undead allies.

The insidious assassin.

Three of the multitude of cold ones I will be painting. There are four riders painted, but I realise I didn't photograph them.

Monday's other painting.

Some of the other painting I did yesterday. 

A miniature from Ral Partha. I think it's called 'slave-girl with dragon'. I've seen it listed as 'Dragon Lady' and 'Dungeon Lady with Dragon'. Something to investigate. Details I didn't notice until I'd put colour on: the dragon's tongue and it's feet (which are behind the dragon's owner).

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Grenadier magic user from an early box set. I'd started this one last week with some red for the dress. Ghastly colour to work with. It took 3 coats yesterday to get it to a decent red. Details remain: tassels around neckline, jewelry and she actually has a cord that she is twisting between her hands.

The two together. I choose a lot of minis based on look. Not surprising given how tactile and visual this stuff is. Sometimes I'll be surprised. The grenadier magic user was one I got in a lot of minis for a couple of bucks, and I'm surprised at how much I like it. There's some very subtle detail on the satchel and jewelry.

Stunty Week Challenge. Day 1.

 Chico of http://oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.com/ has started a series of painting challenges. This week's which started yesterday is to paint stunties (here a word which means any miniature smaller than human sized). I had a rummage through and readily found 5 small ones that I could paint.

Here are the 5 minis I selected to paint. I'd already begun working on numbers 2 and 3 before thinking to take this photo. They are a Ral Partha dwarf from 1979, a  citadel halfling, A Ral Partha halfling, a Marauder Dwarf and a Ral Partha Dwarf from 1977.


Here is where I ended up at about 6pm last night. I did some more work on these 2 and also a bunch on the other 3 before hitting 8.30pm. So more photos to follow.

 I love this miniature. It's got a heck of a lot of character and is covered in interesting detail. That's a pipe pinning his hat, and he has a bundle of arrows and  a sack slung over his back.

 This guy has a snake and an awkward pose. Try it: stand, twist your shoulders so they're 90 degrees to your feet and look and point. I got a back cramp. I realised as I was looking at these photos last night that this guy actually had bare feet. A detail that got lost before the ink wash.

The snake is either a staff or a stick or simply a snake. I think of it as all of the above.

Here, I have decided I need to create a piece of ridge to chuck finished minis on to photograph. Coincidentally, these guys ended up being painted the same blue and yellow combo. I painted these at the same time as 2 other minis and was putting colours on all 4 at the same time.

After taking the photos I added details to these guys, put base colours on the 2 ral partha dwarfs and base coated the marauder dwarf. Photos later today. Todays actual wor will be continuing with the 3 unpainted and basecoating another bunch of dwarfs and halflings I retrieved from the storage box.