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The Road to Adepticon 2012


Tauwolf

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"I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?"

... I can explain, really...

In the process of painting my Bad Juju, I was adding flock over the sculpted moss and added a bit too much on the top of his head, which made him look like he had a pretty impressive afro. The glue had dried and there was nothing to do about it, thus I decided just to accept it. He was dubbed Bad(ass) Juju at the next meeting of our gaming group, and we all decided that he clearly needed a nice shiny medallion with "BMF" stamped across the front to top it all off.

And there you have it. Badass Juju.

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"Did you see a sign in front of my workbench that says 'Dead Puppet Storage'?!"

Awesome.

:1_Happy_Puppet1:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4648[/ATTACH]

"I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?"

... I can explain, really...

In the process of painting my Bad Juju, I was adding flock over the sculpted moss and added a bit too much on the top of his head, which made him look like he had a pretty impressive afro. The glue had dried and there was nothing to do about it, thus I decided just to accept it. He was dubbed Bad(ass) Juju at the next meeting of our gaming group, and we all decided that he clearly needed a nice shiny medallion with "BMF" stamped across the front to top it all off.

And there you have it. Badass Juju.

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@ Nilus - you won't be the first or last person painting at the 'con. But I learned my lesson a couple years back. that really doesn't work for me.

@ Karn - weirdly, Puppet Wars doesn't seem to be generating the grudginess I just naturally accumulate in every other aspect of life. hmm.

@ LaFemmeGeekita - "Malifaux rat might taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know because I wouldn't eat the filthy <mumble-mumble>."

:1_Happy_Puppet1:

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Yeah I know. I have not painting and built like this ever. I am busting out 2 to 3 minis a night. At this rate I might actually get some puppets painted before the con(or I will be painting at the con)

Take it from me: You DO NOT want to be painting at the con. I have done that the past 2 years. Never again.

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Take it from me: You DO NOT want to be painting at the con. I have done that the past 2 years. Never again.

Seconded.

Thanks for all the compliments, guys :) Juju's going to get a bigger 'fro, if I have time.. 15 days to the PW event!! EEK!

This next week is Paint Break for me (formerly known as Spring Break), so I'm getting my crew all ready to go! I just finished my Witchling Stalker and, while not as cool as Joe the Witchling Barista, I'm pretty pleased with him! He took a total of about 6 hours from start to completion.

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This little guy is somewhere around the 20th model I have painted, and I wanted to take some time to talk about some things I've leaned since starting painting. I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have some amazing people helping me, like Fullborer (who has a number of Slayer Swords, and enough Golden Demon statuettes that he could probably field a large army of Chaos Daemons using them as proxies) and Tauwolf (who also has some Golden Demons, and is a saint for putting up with me when I project my frustration with a model onto him). So, here is my little list, which I hope to turn into a class at Adepticon called "Painting is HARD!" (working title).

1. STOP TOUCHING IT! or, There is no 'Undo' Button in Life -- This is one of Borer's Rules of Miniature Painting, and those of you who are fortunate enough to be signed up for his class will get a much more eloquent explanation. On this guy, I kept messing with his face mask. It was FINE, there was nothing WRONG with it, but I just kept going "But what about another highlight? Oh crap, that's bad. Wash it back down.. oh crud, that's not right..." Seriously. When you're satisfied with it, step away.

2. Don't be afraid to experiment! -- I wanted his kitchen knife to be rusty and icky, so I decided to experiment a little. I threw a base coat of black on it, then used Reaper Master Series Blackened Steel as my base metallic, and slowly built it up from there with Honed Steel and a itty bit of Polished Silver. Once that was dry, I glazed a little watered down P3 Menoth White Highlight (which is an eggshell color) on the places I wanted to look rusty. It gave it a little bit of opacity, because I went over it last with a Red Iron Oxide glaze from Golden Fluid Acrylics (which is totally my favorite now. It has such a cool effect!). After that, I went back and picked out the edge of the blade with silver (since Tauwolf reminded me that the edge of a tarnished blade will still be shiny, since that's the part that is used!) and voila. Now he has a pretty terrifying blade for a combat 0 model..

3. It's all about the layers. -- You can not just slap full strength, undiluted paint onto a model and expect to get smooth, blended highlights and shadows. I've learned to layer these with lots of washes, and my favorite technique I stumbled onto by accident. I paint a thick highlight in white or off white onto a model, then come back and layer paint over the edges of the highlight until it blends smoothly into the original color, leaving only the tiniest bit of the original highly untouched, or in most cases, painting an extremely diluted final layer over the last little bit of highlight, turning it a brighter version of the original color. This is MUCH easier than trying to paint a little tiny bit of highlight using the smallest brush you have.

4. The smallest brush is not always the best brush. -- The puppet models are TINY, but that doesn't mean that you need to use the smallest brush you have to get the best results. I started out using the tiniest brush I could find, but found that a size 0 brush is actually my favorite. The bigger brush holds water better, which makes the paint flow more smoothly off the brush. Smoother strokes make for smoother models, and everyone knows that smoother models play better (jazz, that is).

And so.. that's it! Light on the puppet battle-y goodness, but hopefully informative! I'll be posting models all week. Next up: Piggy!

Edited by LaFemmeGeekita
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Nice models LaFemmeGeekita, and I'll be sure to keep those tips in mind when I finally get round to putting paint to puppets sometime next week.

I just can't fight it anymore, I have to paint something!

Unfortunately I'll need to wait till I can buy a new brush (and maybe some paints), but I'm going to try real hard to overcome my painting phobia. Now which should I start with...

*Looks at a very blue Silurid*

Wish me luck! :1_Happy_Puppet1:

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She really is turning into a heckuva good painter. Good eye for color, good feel for thin paint, great imagination. She figures stuff out on her own that took most of us years of trial and error and experience to learn. It's pretty cool to watch her progress.

We were joking around that we're going to do our own seminars at Adepticon. Her's will be the previously mentioned "Painting is HARD!" Mine will be "Three Colors For the Win: Powerpainting for Powergamers"

*grin*

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@Hugor, It's never too late! Join us!! You just might have to find a room at a different hotel, since the hotel is full.

Yes Hugor, join them... *eyes glaze over, arms rise*

@Panda, Add a new rule to that list: Don't give up, because it'll look like ass until it doesn't! -- Because, well.. it does.

Well when you have an ass like mine that's not much of an issue, but I get your point ;)

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@Hugor, It's never too late! Join us!! You just might have to find a room at a different hotel, since the hotel is full.

@Panda, Add a new rule to that list: Don't give up, because it'll look like ass until it doesn't! -- Because, well.. it does.

Yep, unless you know someone that will let you crash on their floor, the hotel has no room (although it might be worth giving them a call in case there were any cancellations). But without a doubt, the Adepticon is worth it.

And +1 to Panda and any other relatively new painters. After 20 years of painting, I *still* need to tell myself this with almost every model. Until a model is like, 90% done, it going to look like a train wreck. It's that last 9% coming to the finish line where the model really comes together.

Why 9%? Because that last 1% is saved for the matte coat. That matte spray has completely transformed quite a few of my models over the years. It's amazing how much better a mini looks after a matte spray. I've done commission work before that I was so unhappy with that I was just going to give the minis to the customer for free. After the matte spray, I couldn't believe they were the same models. The more washes/glazes you use, the more this becomes true, by the way.

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These models all look FANTASTIC in person. Tauwolf has a really stylized looking crew. It all meshes so well.

She just admitted to me that she forgot to use the macro setting when taking the pics for me. I believe it was a purposeful sabotage so that all her puppets would look better than mine.....

But, to be fair, they kinda do lol. Great job on Peeeeeeeeeg!

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