Two more for a combat squad...

Collaborative work between my son and myself. Well, I did the white Grey Knight to the left last year. But over the past 2 weekend my son has painted the two others drybrushing the metal in two stages, and painting in the gold, the basic dark red, and the basecolour for the powerweapons. He also painted the white shield, added a wash to the gold, followed by a drybrush of silver/gold-mix. I helped out with highlights on the red, some lightning effect on the long blade, painting eyes, and detail-work on the white shield. So a lot of help, but certainly also a lot of stuff done by himself. But the best thing was enjoying the process and sensing how proud and happy he was when he had the finished model to move around on the table.

These are his models number 4 and 5. And we still need to do the bases. However, I'll be assembling the remaining two models over the next weeks for the squad to get gaming-ready! Currently the 3 mighty Grey knights are fighting 4th edition High Elves and a half painted Wood Elves Dragon...

Halloween 2013 - coming up...

Preparations for the season event...

Gaming

 
Back at the working desk after a busy month of lots of things - among these some gaming.
In early September I ventured to Nottingham to share some hobby moments with a group of friends. We spend a full day talking hobby and gaming. And I am hooked on gaming again. But at the same time I also had the chance to see the miniatures gallery in Warhammer World. Always a pleasure to see 'Eavvy Metal stuff up close. Now I feel like doing both armies and gaming AND painting display pieces in the crisp and precise 'Eavy Metal style. So many ideas and projects and so little time. Oh well...

The image above shows my gang's big dude and the newly recruited juve overlooking the myriads of staircases leeding down into the lower hive. All my models got taken out of action during the game, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun.

So, I should be back at the hobby enjoying both painting and gaming and sharing the projects during the coming dark months of Autum and Winther. Stay tuned.

A minion for the Skulker

Painted the little minion-creature in no time last night: A rat with a man-face for a man with a giant rat-skull for head! The Skulker has gotten his rat-creature to on the base to chew the flesh and bones of his enemies.

Of other news I am working on a big mounted medieval knight. Challenging and exciting.

Astartes finished

Will be used as an inquisitor Lord who has gone Heretic...

I have had a few questions regarding the process so here are a few notes on the main parts:

CAPE was painted using Coat d'Arms 222, Horse Tone Roan, a nice beige with a dap of old purple ink. Sprayed on with an airbrush, gave it two highlights adding more and more white. A little shading mixing a little more purple and some chaos black into the base colour, and then final highlights dapped on with a sponge and using almost pure white.

On the ARMOUR I washed on a yellowish green, then picked out some shading and damage. Then highlights, then some brown glases of rust like colours, blacks, and oranges. And then final highlights of almost pure white. A fun trick was to use a broken but light green for the basecolours and then for highlights I based it on Reaper Master Series Moth Green with white added. Very much like the old billious green from GW. Classic. It is all about going back and forth until you find that it is there...

WIP Astartes, #2

Well, it is actually finished, but today only available in small and black and white.

 
The model is for a Danish painting challenge which has the dealine tomorrow so I am saving the full sized images of the paintjob for that. Our biggest national hobby forum has been around for 10 years so there is much celebration... and also some miniature painting. The fun thing in regards to my comtribution is that I have had very little time and therefore I have had to make some very conscious choices in the the process. It also called for some quick decisions with very little time to think. Choosing a Nurgle-like colour scheme was one of the choices. Where to put the effort (and especially the limited time) was another.

If in doubt; go Nurgle...

Colours for the Astartes I am painting. Nurgle is fun, straightforward, and rewarding.
And did I say fast and great for weathering effects?

WIP - Astartes

Finally got around to start up on an Astartes character I have been working on for quite a while. So far it looks like he is going to be a rather sinister guy.

He will go on one of my yellow-themed =I= bases, but I haven't decided on the main colour yet. Dark red or a broken white are good possibilities. Also yellow maybe which would work well with black and boltgun metal for contrast

Victor Bela, muscle, and sniper

A Black and white image of Velk's interrogator, Victor Bela, in company of two of the retinue's henchmen:

Then an image of the three lined up for a quick photograph:

And last: A close up snap-shot of the muscle guy during one the INQvitational 2013 games that were played in Warhammer World last weekend:

Somehow I find that I like the various ways that the brute comes through visually. In the black and white image the black eyes look quite sinister and the way he towers behind Bela also adds to the appearence. In the line up the colours comes though nicely and you can enjoy the strong red, the weathered armour, and the dust and dirt worked into both base and the lower part of the model. Finally, on the action-shot the angle of photography and the close-cropped image gives a dramatic touch - I could believe he is has been falling back from heavy enemy fire and now with his back against the wall he will either make it or fall. You can just imaging the bullets hammering into the beached red of the wall. But also, miniaturepainting-wise, you get so close to the model that you for instance can see the quite simple way the white has been painted. You see the pinks, reds, and touches of ochre that makes up the flesh tones, and you see the traces of drybrushing on the base.

Inspiration - rust and weathered paint

Saw this fantastic piece of old junk in the weekend.

A detail from some kind of farming machine. Pure inspiration.

Scribe Machiarus

Expressive painting. Rough, yet precise. Classic photo-shoot.

WIP - Veteran Hedge Knight

 
With this little project I am charting new ground, since I have not painted many classic knights or historical miniatures. The "Veteran Hedge Knight" from Dark Sword Miniatures is a nice crisp model with some basic surfaces and areas to have a go working with heraldry. Still a little way to go, but overall I think it is working out nicely. Colours on the cape are just blocked in. Next up is shading and highlights on the cape, a few touch-ups here and there, and finally some subtle weathering and painting the base.

High Elf Champion - anno 1996

Remember the 90s? Bright clean colours. No online painting guides. Learning by doing and by visiting a friends house. This champion was painted for my High Elves army back in early 1996. I also painted 5 reaver knights, 20 spearmen and 16 archers. And two repeater boltthrowers obviously. I don't really remember painting this one, but I clearly remember painted the plastic spearmen and archers in batches of about 4 or so models. I cannot believe that I managed to get every single colour available onto this mini. So many details on this classic sculpt. And "yes" ... my red was very orange in those days...

Teddybär Total

It's all hobby, but not my own. A friend of mine is just as passionate about sewing teddy bears as I am painting miniatures. This weekend she has ventured off to a competition in Münster, Germany to compete in the "Golden George", and I think it would be worth posting the link here. The Golden George is akin to our Golden Demon, so it is one of the biggest shows for teddy bear hobbyist. The Teddy bear-sewing community is interesting to compare to our hobby since it is also a hobby niche with events, competitions, champions, and passionate geeks, and collectors.

But without further ado, here is the link to their main page. The webdesign is somewhat old-school which means that I cannot deep-link directly to the competition. You will have to go through the front page to "Golden George", then you can go to the "Online-Voting".

http://teddybaer-total.de/

Here you can vote for your favorite. Without giving too much away I would say that my overall favorite (which also is my friend's entry) is among the dioramas (they call the category "Tableau"). Every entry is mixed when you go to the voting section so you need to scroll around. Remember to vote for your favorite and also to "like" the entry on facebook if you feel like sharing some good craftmanship.

But do take your time and have a look at the many bears. Not as sinister and dark hobby stuff as we usually like, but the entries show passion, dedication, and great works of craftmanship.

Now, their process of participating, entering conditions, and so on are something very intesting when you compare it to miniature painting competitions in general, but that will be a good topic for another post.

Scribe

Painted, photographed, photoshopped (slightly). Another go at creating really worn and old-looking clothes.

The humble Scribe Machiarus pauses 

amidst the grand ruins of ancient splendour

 to consult his notebook

Sniper/Soul Seeker/Sorrow Sentinel

Sniper/Soul Seeker/Sorrow Sentinel. Many a name for this creature from the Hive...

Painted February 2013.

Into the WD archive

 
I have a nice collection of White Dwarf. My first copy of the magazine was 144 (if I remember correctly) with memorable articles on McVey's wood elves cavalry and a Dark Elf army by an American painter. Since then I have managed to get hold of a few older issues. Classic stuff!

Mordheim gangers

Remember Mordheim? Released in 1999. Dark and sinister. A black rulesbook. And fantastic illustrations.

I painted these models back in 2002 or so for a few games of Mordheim. Nice and moody models.

Victor Bela

Returning to known space Victor Bela was putting into writing the communiqué to send to his master. So much to report, vast discoveries, secrets within secrets unravelled. The search and persuit had taken him far into the unknown - into the past and into potential futures. And if any succes was to be achieved the report had to arrive in time for the right preparations to be made. Now, reaching Velk in writing with the right words would be crucial for the months to come...

A sneak peak at Victor Bela, Velk's interogator, who was painted in February. While Inquisitor Velk has been working both solo and recruiting on the go, he has had Bela conducting investigations and carrying out the necessary actions needed.

WIP - old tree

I am planning - or rather researching how - to do a diorama centered around a grandiose tree. So far I plan to base the tree roughly on GW's plastic trees. But how to do the leaves?
So far I am testing building up the expression using flock:

 
Another option would be do use brass etched leaves, but I fear this might look too detailed in a way.
Any other suggestions? Or links to pictures showing various ways it has been done in the past?

Inspiration - surfaces and structures

Materials, structures, surfaces.
So much out there in the world to notice if I remember to use my eyes (and the camera).

 

Copenhagen Opera. Foyer.

 

 

Copenhagen Opera. Grand stage, interior wall panel.

 

 

Bus seat. !

 

 

Det kongelige Teater, Copenhagen. Main stage, brick wall.

 

 

Copenhagen Opera. Inside view of one of the 3 gigantic lamps in the foyer.

 

 

Ice on the window at home. 

Light for shooting #2

Last night I took the time to finish these two 40K street lamps. A little digital editing and they look nice and moody. Actually, the little terrain-pieces were already moody, but for a picture it is nice to add what you can to enhance the expression.

I still like the idea of using stuff like this to add odds to gaming. Got to do some gaming to try that out first, I suppose.

Sketches - shield designs

Two pages of sketches elaborating on various ideas for shield designs:

I am particular fond of the ones portraying shark jaws and skeletal snakes.
Certain geeks among the readers might also recognize a particular GW shield design from around 1999.

SNAPSHOT - expressive surfaces

A few snaps of a current project I am working on. Full images in late March or so.

 

Anyway, I wanted to show the attetion to detail in these surfaces. Some deliberately random patterns and blends with strong contrasting colours. These days my painting is more expressive than ever. But that does not mean that less time goes into a surface than when I am doing smooth blends. The expression is just very different.

New Year Greetings + a paper plane

2012. Most busy year in my life so far.
2013 will be exciting as well no doubt. Lots of cool minis on the drawing board.
And I have decided to take on a big project for a competition - maybe for late 2013 or more realistic sometimes 2014. But having bought the stuff for the project is always a go for me. More on the later. Possibly much later.

And among some sorting of papers and house cleaning I found this paper drawing.

It is a technical drawing for a paper plane. Sort of anyway. I did the drawing a few years ago for fun. Red lines mean that the paper is folded one way, and blue indicates folds that go the other way. Anyway, I thought it was a fun was of presenting the "idea" of a simple paper plane.

btw, for a more complex and cool plane have a look at this plane.
Tried it a few times and it is a superb plane. Takes some practice though.