Berlin

No painting done, but plenty of inspiration from a recent trip to Berlin with wife and children. Snapped lots of pictures of cool stuff. Here are a few that might correspond with the domain of toy soldiers.

#1 : The mix of snow, signs (one of them bearing very significent artist's name btw), the road repair blockings, and the stickers on the garbage canister makes a great scene with the warm light in the background.

#2 : Museum für Naturkunde. A snapshot of one of the rows of glasses with stored animals. Such a strong visual image. Just imagine a whole room with row upon rows of these. Cool in a creepy way.

#3 : Storm trooper on a wall outside Ost Kreuz Station.

#4 : Art store on Kastanie Allé. What a place! Bought some of the lovely Winsor & Newton artists inks.

#5: Also from Kastanie Allé. A fantastic little scrap metal sculpture handcuffed to stand in the public street. A strange kind of a gargoylesk creature that appears in the same space as you on the pavement. Great piece of art.

Wolf Rider

Another look way back towards the early 90s. I painted this Marauder Miniatures Wolf Rider for my bright red and green Orc and Gobbo army. I revisited the box with the army this weekend and really enjoyed looking at the bold and bright colours. The paintjob must be from around 1992.

However, this particular wolf rider was something special. We had Siberian Husky when I was a child and this model dates from back then. Naturally, I painted facial markings on the model just like on our dog. Apart from remembering the old dog, I also really liked seeing those strong highlights and the deep shading on the green and the simple bright red. Works quite nice. Also, I remember using a really matt Humbrol green to shade the bases.

Silently Drifting Thoughts

Silently Drifting Thoughts, 2011.

With no mini-painting done these past weeks I thought I'd post another painting instead.
Actually I thought about the painting after having studied a recent post on the Legion of Plastic-blog where a fantastic winged man-bird-creature is among the three latest conversions.

Anyway, the canvas about was done last year. Spring 2011. The first big canvas I have done. After painting to enter the Crystal Brush in April 2011 I really had to put my mind into painting on another scale, detail-level, and style. Therefore I picked up the canvas. Dimensions are 120 x 90 cm.

Hivescape

Promised this WIP  in the discussion of the previous post. I used a corner of this unfinished painting for background for the Grey Knight.

Started back in Spring 2012, finished... Not sure when that will be.
The effect I am aiming for is a dark silluette of a city with a sky that suggests more than just weather and atmosphere. I want the sky to be more subtle, so there is a lot of blending and painting over to do there... Dimensions are 120 x 40 cm.

Grey Knight - paint phase #2

A moody picture of the miniature. Need to add a little detail-work, but I am actually quite happy with the way he has turned out so far. I still have to get some more terrain for photos sorted. Backdrop is a detail from a half finished canvas painting from early Spring.

Grey Knight - paint phase #1

First painting session in a while. Worked the basic colour onto this Grey Knight.

Not sure about the direction yet though. An interesting tweak of direction couold be to go for White knights instead of the traditional silvery grey. White can be hard and time-consuming, but also fast and dirty I believe. Just look at Brother Migula's recent take on his Dread Knight. I would try for something similar to what I have done on the shield details on some of my inquisitorial henchmen from early 2012.

Halloween Costume accessories

First design lesson with my daugther I guess.
A skull design for accessories for my daughter's Halloween Costume this year.

I helped out with the actual drawing and we created these various skull-designs on paper. Then we ... (yeah, right!) ... she decided which on to use made the necklace and earrings herself.

Stuff to read - PARIAH and White Dwarf

Finally, got my copy of Dan Abnett's Pariah yesterday.

Just after having bought the latest issue of White Dwarf. The new style of the magazine is both nice and clean - somewhat oldschool. I have really enjoyed the latest two Blanchitzu-articles with the grand mix of miniatures and artwork backdrops. Strange enough it seems that I miss the traditional 10 or so pages featuring new releases. But back to Pariah... I really look forward getting more into the 40K universe as Mr. Abnett envisions it.

Halloween - cane and witch costume

Preparations for a Halloween party...

 

 

A magic wand for a witch or possibly a deadly walking cane for a vampire lord.

 

Greenstuff and a little Milliput over a ping-pong ball. First sculpting session was the skull except the teeth. Then the skull was secured in place on the cane with a glue gun. Second and final sculpting session was doing the teeth. Then painting. A dark red basecoat, two coats of gold and a few washes for final weathering.

 

Anyway, my daugther was wielding it at a Halloween party.

 

 

First painted mini

Going through some old cases of miniatures I discovered the first mini I painted. Ever.

Painted back in 1990 or so I believe. Funny enough the colour scheme is a classic one. Black, bone, metal, and a touch of red. I worked with Humbrol acrylic paints and I believe we had about 10 paint pots. I also found some of the models from the bright days of the mid 90s. Quite striking stuff actually. Digging through old issues of White Dwarf  from back then is fantastic. Vivid colours, strong poses, classic I think. Speaking of old models and paintjobs I also found a few classic Chaos Champions from around 1990 or so. Jes's stuff. Good stuff. A cool thing about models from this era is the fact that most models except from monsters and cavalry were one-piece casts. This gives most models a strong frontal style. Head on. Posed with the weapons ready. Visually, they all have an obvious strong front. I love picking up one of these from time to time. Fast to paint, rewarding to present and photograph, and classic! Based up nicely they stand the test of time.

Techwraith and guardsman, WIP#1

Guardsman is to be basic muscle for an Inquisitor Retinue. The Techwraith is more interesting. A daemonhost-like creature, but with a tech-feel pointing towards Mars possibly.

Inspiration for the Techwraith comes from the original Ratspike artists, Blanche and Miller.
I am not there yet with the conversion but I think the imagery featuring spheres, tech bits, spikes, and ragged cloth has a lot of potential.

Guardsman trooper and Techwraith

1 hour of work tonight. Started one guardsman and a techwraith.

Half of the Spiky Rat Pack asked about the sketches in the background.
A sketch trying out dark blue on the Falcon Inquisitor and a quick bold and drawing of a henchman.

Coloured with pencils on Sunday afternoon while the children were busy drawing as well.

Forest Beast

Enjoying a walk in the forest with my children we encountered this monster:

A strange snake-like creature, a shape looking both growing and in decay.


Also, tonight I actually got out some miniatures to work on over the next few week....

Lost in the Warp

 Among other things this mini was lost over the Summer. But somehow he found his way back. Looking forward to having at go at getting him ready as well as preparing some Grey Knight Terminators to go daemon-hunting. Just need to gather enough momentum to dive back into hobby mode.

There is always a reason to get the airbrush out...

With the Summer finally hitting Denmark bigtime I brought out the airbrush for some domestic chores today...

I believe the airbrush saved us about 1/3 of the breath needed to get the childrens bath tub working...

Tulips or are they roses?

Found these very small flowers on the way to the beach last week.
I think they will work very well as regular flowers on miniature bases.

Question is whether they should represent tulips or roses? They will probably work as both...

Painting competition entry

Other entries in the expert category can be seen at: http://www.powerfist.dk/forum/index.php?topic=58829.0 Overall a great selection of nice paintjobs. Great company.

Competition entry - background story

To the youngsters the call for arms came as a nice surprise.

Leopold Oakmill was in a great mood having dug out his grandfathers old shield and carried it proudly along with his spear.
Adi, his servant, was less excited. Probably due to his obligations to his master.

However, even as they strode forth to the mustering at the Red Hen Inn the unholy powers had already infested the lands. Thus the sharp-eyed could spot the signs of evil in both beasts and plants. Strange fungus growths with vile scents sprounting from the ground and mutations among the creatures of the soil were obvious marks of discord in the natural order of things.

*   *   *

A bit of fiction to go with my entry for a Danish painting competition.
I posted a teaser a few weeks back.
The actual model will be revealed one of the next few days...

A Gathering of Daemons

They need to be carefully kept apart. If not, they fight between themselves knocking off horns and elbows. The golden breed are particular vicious...

Treasure map

Made this treasure map for my son sometime last year. There was no actual treasure, nor any hunting. He just wanted a map.

We found it today and after a short talk about it I thought it would be worth sharing. I drew it using only a broad calligraphy pen, and it was a fun exersize. Choosing a limited "tool-bar" helps to create a uniform and coherent look, and the specialised pen worked alright in this sense. Just like choosing a limited pallette of colours for a miniature I guess.

First bit placed - a competition entry started...

Found use for the first of the newly purchased bitz:

The GK terminator shield fits this little and (for the moment) somewhat secret project nicely. It is a contribution to a local painting competition in Denmark. "Local"... well, it is a arranged on a Danish web-forum and after some pondering I decided to join in and have fun doing an entry, ignoring the risk to get beaten by an up-and-coming painter. But thinking about it I quite like this "risk". Entering a small painting competition might give some encouragement - both because of the support and for the competitors in the same category to give it all their best to beat a Deamon-Slayer. There is an expert level category as well as beginners and average. The topic is "single model" with monstrous mounted characters being the biggest entries allowed. So far the people who have joined in have shown great enthusiasm and skill so I am expecting a good competition and some great miniatures to look when we have reached the deadline in mid July.

Bless the mailman

A nice thick envelope was waiting for me in the mail today. A packet of bitz:

Stuff for building some Astartes to go along with my =][= retinue hunting for heretics.
Bless the mailman...

Cape fabric effects

While occupied with paperwork I recieved a communiqué from the Spiky Rat Pack asking questions regarding my recent endavour with Inquisitor Velk. The Pack wanted knowledge about my dealings with the cape. Here is my return message in brief:


The cape was painted using airbrush over the zenith primed mini. The airbrushing work was done before any other areas were painted.

About 4 successive layers of grey going from dark grey towards light grey/Bleached Bone. The final two layers or so layers were sprayed on at an angle straight from above to get the zenith effect.

Over this I worked in some shades (using various browns, greens, reds) now and then as I was working on the other areas.

When most of the model was done I sponged on some almost pure black with a bit of blister foam. And over this I sponged a light colour - Bleached bone. I also did few "scratch"-highlights on some of the black spots using bleached bone. "Scratch"-highlights meaning that the black sponge marks were highlighted illusionistic by adding a highlight to the grey cape just under the black spot. This makes the black spots looks like tine holes in the fabric.

Finally, I worked in some more washes in certain areas - mainly to emphasize the folds and areas that are in the shadows.

*   *   *

I hope you can use the information provided above. I plan to bring this technique to good use on some Astartes within the year...

Thaddeus Velk - studio shots

Took the time to snap some studio style photographs of Thaddeus Velk:

The expressionism and aggressive painting style is showing very clear in these shots. Mood, colour, and contrast were main goals. Cape was painted using mainly sponge technique. On the head especially I took care to paint the right colours, but to leave the expressions open to be interpreted the viewer. I am quite happy with the overall look and feel of the character. 3 hours of painting. The style and speed might suit a future small army project...

Velk is not part of the yellow-based-up bunch of models painted over the Winther. Rather he is an enemy that they might be hunting to bring down.

Velk versus his past

Going through my archives I have recovered some information about Thaddeus Velk...

Light for shooting

Created these little terrain pieces for fun:

But then I thought about the use of areas with light sources in the gameplay. A lamp on the gaming board might have influence on the gameplay. Maybe models operating near these should get bonus for the aim, or possibly some minus for shooting against the light if the enemy hides behind the light source,... and so on. Jumping from this mindset I was considering glowglobes hovering about in underground cityscapes constantly changing the odds by random movement from turn to turn. Might be fun for a necromunda campaign or some =I=munda setup...

Pimping fantasy buildings 40K

Got a few simple unpainted fantasy building from a friend to use for my inquisitor models.
Thus the buildings has to be pimped up to the 40K era. First building is just about done and ready to be painted...

Thaddeus Velk unleashed...

Settled on the name and put in the last hour of painting tonight. Proper dark moody pictures for a sinister villain-type character.

Studio style pictures when I find the time and interest...

Thaddeus Velk, paint phase #1

Next up - and already well on the way - Hieronimus Hector Velk. 2 hours so far.

Edit: Unsure about the name... Hieronimus connotates too much artist or cronicle writer to me. Hector has a harder pronounciation and a sharper edge to it. Had to do a list of names to work out what to use instead of Hieronimus. Hector, Franz, Hannibal, Hugo, Ignatus, Matthias. Speaking of names - both Gregor Eisenhorn and Titus Endor are such cool names.

Anthor editing of the name. From Hector to Thaddeus. More subtle and mysterious.

Cabinet close-up

So what's in the cabinet? Well, usually my most recent projects since they seem to correspond with each other. My display cabinet is about 35 x 35 cms. A single cubic space in a bookcase, two shelves. Duchess Death lurks in the back, the Deamonhost takes a central position in the second row.

Front row has another 40K character standing by ready for the first layers of paint. I see him as a sinister personality - a worker of schemes, no concience, and obsessed to overthrow the Imperium and bring discord into the known Universe.

Servo Skull Collector - studio shots

A few studio-style photos of the Servo Skull Collector.
Not the big setup with blue-white backdrop but enough to show the colours more clearly I hope.

I want to get a some more terrain done to add variation to my mood-shots and possibly even to get a game going at some point. A small 40K gaming board will also have to be done at some point.