Heavy Metal Ink Washing

For those one or two of you who actually read my early posts back at the beginning of this blog, you'll know that I used to spend the majority of my time doing commission painting for a client on the other side of the U.S. And while I gave up painting other people's minis about a year ago because it took way too much time away from attacking my own lead pile, one thing I do miss about commission work is the stupendous sense of accomplishment from painting large quantities of minis in a relatively short time. Most of the stuff I painted for my client was stuff that begged for speed painting techniques to be employed- furniture, dungeon decor, large monster forces, etc. And while I tend to pick and choose from my own collection, following whatever whim strikes me at the time, spending considerable time experimenting with new techniques and occasionally lavishing highlight layers, details, and basing techniques, my commission work was all very. . . workman in nature. Basecoat-ink wash-thinned highlight layer-varnish. Done.

Today I decided I wanted to use those techniques again, if only for a day. I recently backed Tre Manor's Red Box Games "Heroic Miniatures" Kickstarter, and I assembled and prepped the minis right after I got them. I hadn't started painting them until today, though. For whatever stupid reason, I decided I wanted to try to finish an entire warband worth of them in a single afternoon's session, so I pulled out the "Njorn" group of five warriors and went to town.

Red Box Games Njorn by Tre Manor

Usually when speed painting, I would use one color at a time and paint all the figures with that color. Today, though, I tried something new- I put all the colors that I planned to use (I limited the palette to 10 colors total), got them good and thinned on my wet palette, and then did one full step on each mini at a time. So, I completely basecoated one mini, then moved onto basecoating the next. By the time I finished all the block colors on the fifth model, the first was dry enough to apply the ink washes, so I did them for each mini in turn. Then the bases got done, and finally I finished with varnishing. All in all, these five minis took about three hours total, which is a rare big block of time for me to devote to the hobby.

I am feeling lucky indeed today.

One of my absolute favorite bloggers, Alexis Smolensk of The Tao of D&D published another book earlier this week entitled The Dungeon's Front Door. Once I get the book in my hands, I plan on doing a review here. If it is anywhere near as good as Alexis' first two books on the subject, I should be in for a treat. If you've never read Alexis' blog and are at all interested in a very well-written treatise on the art of Dungeon Mastering, I recommend checking him out pronto.

I am rambling now, so I should stop. Whiskey Sunday beckons. Good evening, lead brethren.

Rut Breakers

This whole post-on-Sundays is becoming a real habit.

This week, I decided I wanted a small break from my ongoing projects to work on something completely different- different color palette, different basing style, different subject matter entirely. In the past, this has usually meant turning to something evil- my normal slant is towards the good guys, so every once in a while, I break out of these types of ruts by painting up something for the good guys to fight against. In keeping with my recent Jes Goodwin museum curating, I turned to the leadpile and pulled out a pile of delicious old Skaven models.

I wanted to do a little experimenting with desaturating the colors on the robes, so thanks to a suggestion from Asslessman (Cheers, JB!), I mixed varying shades of grey into the primary colors for highlighting. I think it worked better with the green and yellow than it did the blue and red, but I am certainly excited to learn a new color idea. I really like the effect it has on fabric surfaces- quite realistic.

The bases are random hunks of cork, covered with grit and baking soda, and then painted & drybrushed. I finished them with static grass added along with subtle washes of blue and purple ink. All credit for this basing style goes to Delaney King (Cheers, D!). Not the last time you'll read those words in these pages. Since these rats are destined to be participants in Delaney's Skulldred game, I'm hoping she doesn't mind my shameless imitation too much.

I remember reading the original Skaven army book the first year I started in the hobby and being very inspired by Andy Chambers' description of their personality- always scheming and backstabbing one another. I don't know if it got phased out of their fluff over the years, but Chambers' original Skaven even had a mechanism in place for underlings killing off the leaders of the race and then assuming their position, inevitably to be re-deposed themselves. Their reliance on drug-induced sorcery mixed with steampunk-ish technology always hearkened back to one of my favorite 80's animated films, The Secret of NIMH.

Mrs. Frisby almost gets skewered by a pre-Goodwin Stormvermin

If Nicodemus wasn't inspiration for the Grey Seers, I'll eat a wheel o' brie.

Yet another conversation I'd love to have with the Design Studio from those golden days. . . If anyone has an old White Dwarf where Goodwin discusses his Skaven influences, I'd love to hear the issue number in the comments below. I'll search it out for sure.

Hope you are well, wherever you might be.

Firers at the Ready

Another Sunday afternoon, another brief hobby update. Managed to tidy up the last remaining dorf crossbowmen this week, so the army is very nearly done. If I keep telling myself that, hopefully I will put the wrap on the whole thing sooner than later, right?

Dwarf Crossbowmen; Hasslefree (left and center) and Reaper (right)

The first two in this pic are yet more squeeky-clean sculpts from the talented hands of Kev White at Hasslefree. The last fella is my final Reaper dwarf, again looking a bit "heroic" in scale for my tastes, but that's the basic schtick for humanoids in the Dark Legends line.

Here's the full unit, arranged skirmisher stylie for your perusal (and my documentation):

 

Trompin' through the gravel of Ye Olde Worlde. P-Choo! P-Choo!

Wish I had something more important to say than "Hey! Look what I done!" Not feeling particularly deep or wordy these days.

Hope your world is either suitably characterful or 'orribly grimdark, whatever you fancy these days. Take care, brethren.

A Tough Pill To Swallow

This week's hobby goodness features one of my ten favorite Citadel miniatures of all time, Brian Nelson's incredible orc shaman. To me, this mini always stood as a kind of island of old-school character amid an ocean of slack-jawed, GIANT-AXE!!!'d, skull-festooned silliness that the greenskins turned into at Citadel circa 1997.

Citadel Orc Shaman; sculpted by Brian Nelson

My copy, bought as usual at great discount on eBay, lacked the sweet short sword on his back, so I had to sculpt a wee waterskin to hide the peg and open area on his back where the sword was supposed to go:

Given my extremely limited sculpting skillz, I am pretty happy with how the flask turned out.

The reason for the post title today, though, is because of an utter failure on my part to see this great mini through to its planned finish. I really wanted to do a nice checkerboard pattern on the hood opening around the face and on the sleeve ends, but after attempting said pattern six separate times, re-basecoating and starting over each time, I finally threw in the towel and went for this rather drab finish instead.

A few years ago now, I painted these Harlequins up, and they were covered almost head to toe in various check patterns:

So, I thought I'd be able to paint a little black and white patterning with no problemo. Perhaps it was the extremely folded and curved surfaces on the orc's robes, but I think my utter failure has more to do with my advancing age/decreasing eyesight/failing patience .No matter what I tried, or how slowly I went, I ended up each attempt just looking like a very messy painter. Oh well. The shaman will fit into a Skulldred warband just fine as he is. Alas.

It was not an easy thing for me to decide mid paint-project that my plans were too ambitious for my talent and skill to see through. I am sure it won't be the last time, unfortunately. . .

On the topic of Harlequins (by the way), GW finally listened to the 4 bajillion email, forum posts, and comments made in retail stores I have made over the years on the subject and announced this week that the Harlies are finally going to be their own army, with a brand-new hardbound codex (do they still call them that? Dunno.). I assume that there will be several plasticrud sets released as well, to go along with the $60 army book and $30 painting guide coming out in a few weeks.

Too little, too late for me, I'm afraid. I admit I got a little excited at first, but those price tags just hammered home how done with the current iteration of GW I am. When I paint more harlies, it will be my old metal Jes Goodwin figs languishing for too long in the pile. My checkerboard patterns will probably end up looking like crap, but I'll still love them so much more.

//End grumpy old man rant.

Until next time, brethren- may the paint brush gods grant you a nice pointy, hairy bit every time you need it.

Brain Games

Today's mid-80's monstrous offering comes from the days when 28mm actually meant, well, 28mm. One of the more interesting monsters to grace the early days of D&D, and still going strong through every edition since- the mind flayer. I doubt he was used much in the early days of D&D; at least not as he was originally designed by Gary Gygax, since the mind flayer relied heavily on using the psionic rules. If you've never read through that appendix to the original AD&D Player's Handbook, go have a look now- just realize that, about two paragraphs in, you're gonna be using math skillz you probably haven't had to utilize for quite a while. Those psionic rules, as written, are easily some of the most complicated calculations ever needed to make a victim (first) feel inadequate and afraid and, (second) pliable enough to wrap your head tentacles around, bite off his skullcap, and suck out his brains.

Ral Partha Mind Flayer. He wants to eat your brains.

I went for a much more "natural" octopus look on the head (obviously), rather than the more standard TSR/WOTC mind flayer color scheme, which I have always seen portrayed in pale aqua/teal shades. I wanted to keep the robe simple, so I went for this satiny black with gold trim. The model was pretty boring after my first pass, so I added the scripting on the skull and sleeves to jazz him up just a wee bit. The fluorescent green spot color on the eyes and gems was chosen just as a complement to the orange flesh.

Older Ral Partha sculpts like these do have the unfortunate design feature of these really large fixed bases. Unlike the Grenadier or Citadel fixed bases which are much slimmer, there is no real way to remove these, so I opted here to simply gouge the metal base with my hobby knife to "match up" with the textures on the flagstone base. Hopefully, the mind flayer appears to be standing on a rounded step or platform- that's what I was going for, anyway. My favorite thing about slotta base figures is the ease with which I can cut that tab away and mount the figure however I want. . . Ral Partha got it figured out eventually as well.

Take care, brethren. Thanks for the look in.