Wednesday, May 14, 2014

C'mon . . . Gimme a Quickie

I'm finding that the last few rounds of commission jobs have really sapped my hobby ambition. I told my client I needed a wee break, thinking that I could take a couple weeks and make some serious hay on my collection, but I am having a hard time finding the desire to head back into my paint cave. I keep telling myself that this is a hobby, this is my free time, so I am not going to fight it- but those damn little lead men keep looking at me with those sad eyes making me feel guilty for not providing the gentle caress of my Windsor & Newton #2 . . . sigh.

I did find a few hours earlier this week when my blood was up and I banged out a couple of "quickie" projects: first were some more undead for my Barrowmaze / Otherworld D&D project. These ghouls arrived from OW a few weeks back. Painting them was a very simple matter; over my standard grey undercoat which I pre-shade with Army Painter Dark Tone and then give two highlight dry brush shades of light grey and lighter grey, I gave these fellers a bluish-grey base coat which had been mixed heavily with water and matte medium; I'd guess probably about 1 part paint to 1 part medium to 2 parts water, giving me a nice grey milk on the palette. Using very thin coats, I hit each of them twice; just enough for the pigment to give the basic color to the mini while allowing the shaded undercoat to shine through. I gave them each two highlight coats, adding increasing amounts of bone-white to the mix, first hitting all the raised areas and then for the final highlight pass, I just concentrated on giving the minis a highlight coming from a light source directly overhead. I used dark red to outline the blood, and then highlighted that with a fire-engine red color just in the center of the red, to hopefully give the impression of blood drying on the ghouls. A quick, heavy wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, and then gloss-then-matte varnishes, and done. Probably an hour and a half total painting time for three more fell fiends of undeath:

Who's been eating the nail polish again?
The second mini was even easier. I picked up this Rogue Trader-era Sensei from Steve a few weeks back, and he was already painted. From the pics Steve had on his eBay listing, I figured I would probably strip and repaint him, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw him in person. The details were nice, the base coats were very neatly applied- so I decided a simple re-base and mild augmentation were all that was needed. After taking him off of his old skool grit base and clipping off his slotta (gasp! the horror!), I refitted him on a modern lipped resin base with a sweet diamond deck finish, and then added a couple of quick highlight layers to his base coat. Two or three glazes to deepen his armor and cape colors, and viola! Sensei Fonzarelli is ready to smite a galaxy near you.

OK- hold that pose, and on three, say, "Cheese!"

I should probably, some day, try to do something with that face. That grin is. . . very disturbing. The face sculpt doesn't appear to be all that detailed, though, so I think the original painter did what he/she could, and I am not about to strip off all those cool checks just to find out that that grin is gonna be there regardless of how many times it gets repainted.

Cool mini, though. Definitely a needed addition to my RT Adventurers.

Sweet dreams, lead brethren.


5 comments:

  1. I'm actually painting this sensei model and it's far less eye-popping than this one. I will just add that the model is very fine in some places while rougher in some others but th eface is very nicely sculpted.

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    1. That's good to hear, Assless. Perhaps in the future a facial do-over may be in order, then. It's funny- it was on your post on your blog back several weeks ago that I first read the background to the Sensei- somehow I had missed it through all these years. Reading your blog raised my radar for this mini, and when he popped up for sale, I managed to nab him on the cheap. So, in a way, I have you to thank for this addition to my collection. Cheers, mate! :)

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    2. Thnaks ! You know, he really is a classic amongst classics, you would have come across him one way or another.
      Funny thing is when I first painted mine in the mid 90's, I thought the sculpt was very poor. 20 years after, I realise it's actually very sharp and precise in some places.
      It's a "painter" model, nothing fancy to help beginners but very rewarding for talented people. I hope to make him justice in another 20 years when i'll paint him for the 3rd time ;)

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  2. I recently picked up the same OW ghouls for a potential project of my own. The grey skin-tone looks great on them.

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    1. They are really fantastic sculpts, with details very well-defined and easy to bring out with the most basic of techniques, which is all I used. I think these fellas would fit in very well with the group of undead you recently photo'd on your blog- your post got me looking for that Studio 2 Revenant. That's a fine ghoulish mini you have there, sir!

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