Mosch's Mini abominations and my reply to comments

[Mosch]

Now that the contest is over I would like to showcse my minis yet again and say what I thought about them when I painted them...

Here's my Vampire. Many have complained about the skin colour and that it should be more sickly looking. I say: Why? Who actually defines these conventions about fictional creatures? The skin looks more healthy on purpose - I for one was sick of the sick looking vampires Imagine a Vampire that just had a drink - fresh blood in his body, feeling a little more alive than he is - why shouldn't he look more healthy too? I was going for that "kinda healthy" look, but I tried to make it look a little dusty and "incorrect" anyway.

The NMM. My NMM sucks and I need no one to tell me otherwise The only NMM that looks even remotely like metal is the belt buckle and that's about it. I should practice more, but up to now it didn't help

The teeth were the hardest part on this guy. They are so small and I tried to highlight them - unfortunately my efforts are not visible

The face itself is incredibly distorted and that really made it hard to paint. the eyes are asymmetrical, the nose looks like it was pushed around several times and the cheeks look banged up. A challenge for me.

By the way, the eyes have no pupils to give him a more "inhuman" look.

The mold on the sword was pretty easy to do. The blacklining was a nightmare though I think I started with khaki and highlighted up to white, followed by a brown glaze.

I like how the green looks. Not on this mini actually, but the green tone on itself - that I like. It's Vallejo sick green highlighted with yellow + bleached bone.

The Vampire ahs one thing that came out exactly how I wanted it to: The book. The leather strap has exactly the colour I was aiming for and the book itself looks like I wanted it to look. This is a novum in my history of painting: Something looks like I wanted it to. I'll have to lie down now for a second.

Thinking about it, the hair looks crappy. I wanted a grey-white with a high contrast and I think I missed that target by several kilometres. The hair looks like it has not been painted at all....

"I get a kick outta you"

I actually wrote a story for that one - alas, it was too long! I shortened it. Several times. Severely. Now it fitted - guess what, no description in the contest. W00t

The little green monster is a Fenryll resin mini and, as far as I know, is simply called "Eye".

My attempt at highlighting the tongue got lost in the picture, just as the highlights on the teeth. The claws looked OK I think.

Now Duende thought it looked like a rushed piece. It wasn't. I just suck

Most people agreed that the monster's skin could have used more highlights. I agree on that point but just couldn't get it to work properly. In the end I settled for highlights on the more pronounced parts and the heavy blacklining I am so fond of.

the ee itself was really no big deal. Painted Bleached Bone, then heavily highlighted white, with a black spot in the middle; also blackline it. Put in streaks of three different greys and add another black spot in the middle of that. A reflecting point in the pupil and the eye is done. It was rather easy, especially since that eye is soooo big.

The poacher is courtesy of mickc22 who generously sent me some prues so I could piece him together. He actually has two right feet, by the way (the poacher, not Mick), but I figured that you couldn't see it anyway.

The sign was actually planned from the beginning, but I did not manage to paint on Balsa wood without ripping the surface apart. In the end I settled for an unpainted signpost with a very carefully applied wording.

Now I wanted the monster to actually fit into the base, but I couldn't for the life of me make a hole that fitted to the resin base the monster is on. I gave up after several tries and just went for the ghetto way.

The Warpbeast.

I don't have a lot to say about that one, actually. I spent most of my time on the eyes which are blended from sick green to bleached bone in more than 40 layers. Suffice to say, my enthusiasm was dashed to the ground when people suggested I work on them some more

I had no idea how to paint the tail. The stinger at the end.... what to with it.... well, in the end I settled for black glazed with red so he wouldn't stand out too much.

The tongue took a lot of layers too, although not as much as the eyes. Unfortunately, the transition is pretty much invisible.

The fangs were blended from brown to white. Once again, that can not be seen, solidifying the fact that I suck

The Darknymph really was too dark and not enough nymph That is because one of my lamps broke. I got a new one though and will take some more pictures if you want me to.

[EricJ]

I like the warp beast the best, very nice work with the red.

the vampire, the thing that stands out the most for me is that there is way too much contrast in the hair, which I think brings down the overall look of the piece

the green guy is funny, the paint job is fair on him, definately doesn't stand out as smoothly done as the warp beast