Clawz

Well, after a significant hiatus of doing various things (including forgetting to post pictures to here) I have managed to start fooling around with laser-cut terrain! I very much dislike mdf: it's toxic to cut, not superbly durable, soaks in water and swells when you try to paint it... So why not try basswood? Natural wood, locally grown for me, cheap, and makes awesome things come out the other side like this: From Basswood Crates Which becomes this when assembled: From Basswood Crates I still need to run a paint test on it, but it's so durable, and doesn't seem to swell up at all when painted. I do have some fear that the grain will show in spots, but that's what a test paint is for! (And even if it does, I'm sure starting the painting process with a coat of varnish will seal that all in.)

Beautiful on Kaeris' wings! Where'd the different gunslingers come from? I didn't think they'd released new ones yet.

These are going somewhere! Sorry for the delay on response for this, I've been hesitant ever since I got told to cut it. With the new Create Your Fate contest though, my deck may yet see the light of my gaming table! It's been updated, cleaned, and posted for the contest!

@BewareTheYalcrab - "After a year with Malifaux, I haven't had a problem yet." - Oof, that's like saying it's been a quiet shift before you get home! I hope that doesn't come back to haunt you! I'm a huge fan of pinning models. I did have the same reaction though: All three have tiny contact points and may be challenging to get a paperclip sized pin into. If people don't have one yet, a good set of pin drills from a hardware store like Lee Valley (or better ones from model suppliers) plus modeling wire (much thinner usually, slightly less durable sadly) and you can pin almost anything.

Ha! No, I hadn't even seen that. I was just figuring silly 1950s concept space suits with the bubble dome. I claim he used my idea! I should get money for that

At long last another update! I had previously done a post on my blog about how I paint red, which you're welcome to wander over and see, and the culmination of that post is these guys: From Mobile Brigada From Mobile Brigada Mobile Brigada are heavy infantry, and some of the heaviest Nomads can get pre-tag. (Possibly heaviest, I'd have to look.) As such, I did them up almost identical to the Geckos: Loud, obvious, and hopefully the focus of fire over the squishier line troops. I wish I could say the pile of unpainted models is reducing, but that'd be an outright lie. I'm trying to swing back and get my quartet of dire trolls finished up, then it's back to Infinity for a while I think. I'm hoping to jump into Malifaux painting again, once I see what the next contest entries are, so I can decide if I want to hold off for that! Enjoy and keep painting!

Wow, I am soon to bite on a Ninja-force and possibly a Guija-based menagerie, and was trying to figure out paintschemes, but hadn't considered anything along these lines! Patterned kimonos may have to feature more heavily...

It's time for more completed minis! I'm having a weird time of trying to photograph things, causing odd blurriness or weird lighting effects. I'm amazed how much a change of location can mess with model photography! That said, Geckos! First up is Sankuru in "Huntress": From Geckos I left the armour gloss, and the weapons drab. I figure these guys are trying to be as loud and aggressive as possible, drawing fire from the squishier infantry. Who knows, it might even have real tabletop distraction benefits! From Geckos You can also see here the various decals I've used, imitating the various markings on every military vehicle ever. In this case, they warn about what I assume are the Zero-G mobility pods on their backs, suggesting it might be good not to get near them. There's similar ones on the guns (at this size, ejecting a magazine could itself be an injurious act!) and inside the left thigh, meant to be a warning/advice to pilots getting in. Next up is Mwene in "Space Gecko": From Geckos Not much different to say for this one: you can kind of see, I've been working at refining my NMM-with-metallics technique, so the peculiar jump from Chainmail to Mithril Silver isn't as obvious. From Geckos Likewise on this one, warning labels on what I assume is the barrel/danger zone of the Chain Colt. Descriptions of that weapon make it clear you do NOT want to be in front of it when it's triggered! From Geckos Finally, the aforementioned warning label inside the thigh to assist pilots with getting in and out safely. I've also finished up Alguaciles, photos of which can be seen on my blog, Counting Rivets - I may do another post of pics of them on here eventually. I've got another pair of Malifaux crews purchased, but neither assembled nor converted. I'm waiting for the next painting contest to go to town on one of them, and waiting until I'm in the right state of mind to attempt the other. In the meantime there's loads more Infinity to be painted!

Thanks! The Pan-O stuff is awesome, and boy do I know the pain of too many models to do. I have just the biggest pile, and more inbound that's been ordered! Luckily I've been in a painting mood of late, so I'm burning through the Icestorm. Just got the Alguaciles painted up and soon to be photographed this last week!

More Painting at long last! Wow it's been a busy last few months. Even my blog isn't getting updated faster than once a month or so! (as an update to before: Tamiya ultra-thin cement and acrylic sulk at opposite sides of the room and don't interact whatsoever, as near as I can tell...) I've been working on my Trollbloods, and was recently pinned at my Parent's place, cat-sitting for a weekend. What better way to spend that weekend than airbrushing! I've put preliminary cellphone pics up on my blog, and I'll put a few highlight shots here: From Cell pics First up: the entire setup. An Earthborn Dire Troll, three Dire Trolls, and all 18 of their possible hands! From Cell pics After skintone, the first layer was of a purplish darker colour to tint around the weird rocks on their backs, and shade their palms and the like. From Cell pics Then a highlight layer of skintone plus pale sand, layered up nice and thin, and varied troll to troll to make them all not look entirely uniform. From Cell pics This guy for example ended up on the darker end of the spectrum. I do have the orignal trolls finished, and am just finishing up decals on the Nomad Geckos, and then both will be photographed and put online.

Oouh, that koi on the Torakage is begging for a good thick (wet) gloss varnish

Nice soft highlights on the skin on her back! What's going into the colour schemes: are you trying for a particular coordination or more of a randomized set?

Hmm, hand-holds... I wonder if I can subtly insert that in the next run! This one was a prototype that I really, really wanted to get settled. For my desk it's unlikely to move (I hope... I pray..) and the baseplate of it, when properly measured, will act as a means to pick up the entire tray from the bottom. That said, I need to revise the file, reprint it, and have a go at seeing how Tamiya Plastic Cement and clear acrylic get along. I'm also hoping to actually get time to paint in the near future, and get to work on Trollblood tartans, Operation: Icestorm, Morats, Desert Raiders, Late-war German Panzergrens, Late-war American Paras, Malifaux Samurai, Kirai; metal and/or plastic, Freikorps... *sigh*

And now for something completely different! I did something cool this weekend I've wanted to do for a long time (say, since these existed) and finally got to play with! From Cell pics I laser cutted things! From Cell pics As you can see it going together, I will, just before the last picture, say that for a long time I've been frustrated trying to find exactly the right paint I needed, shoving paints on whatever shelf I could fit them on. I finally have a custom-sized, carefully measured, (heh... except for something I mis-measured. >.<) and snazzy paint display rack! From Cell pics It's got enough room for all the paints I currently own, including duplicates, and enough room for 5 more besides! There's more fun stuff I worked on with the laser cutter on my blog at Counting Rivets, and more painting on the way.

Hmm, I think something that might work on the white to imply the OSL more smoothly would be to imagine shining light on white surfaces (if you want to change him) - it essentially changes the quality of the white. Perhaps subtly wash/glaze most of his shirt with a kind of cream to imply sunlight or lamplight, and then go brighter blue-white on the nearer edges? Or, as I look at it, fade the white into the blue, and lighten the blue overall... Dangit DGraz, now I want to experiment with this a bunch too!

Daaamn dat helmet blending... Well done on the source lighting too: it's a very painterly effect, but doesn't come off feeling strange to me. I'm now curious to see more in the same line!

Thanks! It was rewarding if very, VERY challenging to my brain. I'm painting a Morat force too, while I decide where decals are going to go, but in trying to come up with a colour for their armour, and as a result of a sale that was going on at the local gaming store... well... From Trollbloods ...I kinda went and got an entire Trollbloods force. Starter, Dire Troll, Troll Warder, and Fennblades, likely to be soon followed by the starter army box to give me just all the dire trolls I could ever want. It's fun though: it'll give me a chance to experiment with painting leather, since there's so much of it side by side, and to paint tartans (so many tartans)... and I'm trying out a new way to paint metal armour and weaponry. I'll have more when I get it photographed and edited!

Mwahaha, I'm picking up what you're putting down, hep cat! And now, More Pics! (Finished ones here, progress on the blog) The same TAG that had the Escher shoulder I decided would be called "Space Gecko" (The Gecko Tags are considered perfect boarding-action and space-combat mechs, so I figure it's an appropriate name). The name of course gave me an awesome visual of a gecko in a 1950s spacesuit, so: From Geckos I had to give him that! Nice cheesy sci-fi font as well. The other TAG was "Huntress", which I had to do with at least one scantily clad woman, because it's nose art. From Geckos A huntress slaying a tiger, holding a shield that looks like the crest of the Nomad Nation, with wonderfully blazing bright blue hair! I debated giving her some loosely fitting wisp of clothing, but decided if I was going to go for old school nose art, I should go all the way... Finally, the off-side shoulder for her was something inspired by the other primary population of the Nomads: While the names are African, the influence for Nomad is both African and Central American, so I decided to switch it up and go more Central American on my final shoulder, hence.. From Geckos ...funky Mexican-styled gecko! With that, I managed to glue arms on, and am no longer panicking every time something moves around them. The shoulders have been varnished to make sure the paint doesn't rub, or get damaged, and soon I'll have even more fun progress pics for them! The difficulty now is in determining where I want to put safety warning decals on the Geckos to simulate real military vehicle styling... I may just end up doing a guess-and-check process of adding until it looks like enough.

So, I've been a bit busy, but I've moved into the new apartment and managed to get a few things painted! (Looking on my blog you'll see other work done recently, but that's not really foto-worthy stuff) From Geckos I decided to go Escher on one of the Gecko shoulders, and this is where it started. (Well, not quite; it started with dots and a hex pattern, but that's a boring picture for here!) ...aand this is where it ended! From Geckos It was a lot of fun painting it up, but man was it a mind-bender. I'm so happy it's done and doesn't entirely suck. Next up is "Huntress" on the Gecko with Mk12! Hopefully that'll go much faster and I'll have pics up soon!

Hey Ikvar Been a while since I've been on, but I'd say this about CMON: They are a rather insular-seeming community that has certain... mores and trends. They LOVE non-metallic metal to the point of obsession. I echo DGRAZ's sentiments regarding reporting. It's one thing for spiteful 1-voting (it happens) - insults and profanity is another. Personally, I'd leave a vote-less comment first: "Would love to rate this but it's been photoshopped too much". I figure that way it's not contentious per se, and you're still trying to get across the message. Also, as regards thick and thin skins among modelers, if only there was a person on the Wyrd forums who'd made a post regarding that! I'd say don't sweat the random 1. Any strong work will bear out over time with more and higher votes, and an errant 1 will fade off. Looking at the comments, a lot of people are saying similar things. Keep in mind the (theoretical) CMON guidelines: 5 is table-worthy, so I'd have given it a 5. It's entirely covered with paint, has a minimum 3 colours, meaning without seeing it un-photoshopped, it's at best table-worthy!

Wow, I have been away from your post for too long! When you say you can post it now, was it in the contest? (I didn't see it or I'd have voted for it! T.T) Interesting choice on the more painterly feel. I love the subtle shades on the striping (and main bits of fur).

Hmm, to me they look good in black (maybe glossy) but if you wanted to make it garish, bright bubblegum pink or gold maybe? I love the subtle blending you're managing on her!