My brushes finally arrived....along with my Chaos Knights I won on Ebay (the marauders will be here Tuesday I hope) and thus painting has resumed.

First up, Fabius Bile's Chirugeon...Part One.

I had to break it down into sub assemblies. The color is Gnarloc Green that I shaded with Cryx Bane Base. The highlight was done by adding in small amounts of Rain Grey and then final highlight with Eucalyptus. I then applied a light glaze of Dark Burnt Umber. The metals are plain old Bolt Gun Metal with a wash of Dark Burnt Umber. I did add a glaze of Bestial Flesh around the edges of all the metal to give it a weathered look. The green light thing is just Necrotite Green. Its a small step to getting Fabius Bile done, but a step none the less.

And for my barbarian Kord:


Slowly but surely. I base coated the fur on his bracers and loincloth with Adeptus Battlegrey. I also base coated the skulls Charadon Granite and it was at this point that I realized new paint brushes were needed.....

So that's it for now...not a lot done in the last few days, but brushes are here so things should pick back up.

I really hate waiting on things. Today, I had to order new some new paintbrushes...namely fine detail brushes from GW and some Kolinksy 10/0 liner brushes as the brushes I have currently are worn out. I'm not complaining about the brushes being worn out...far from it. The Citadel ones have lasted me the better part of three years and my Reaper 5/0 liner has lasted since Gen Con 08 (I generally used to pick up replacements there).

No, the problem is living in Atlanta. You see, we don't have many gaming stores left...seriously, there is one at the Gwinett Mall and one around the airport...and that is it. The GW store (if it is still there) is an hour drive one way.

So that leaves me with few options...one of them being ordering online. Convenient as I don't have to leave the house, but god awful when you end up waiting 5 days for stuff to arrive.

Odds are, I'm just gonna rest my eyes for a few days and wait. New brushes will make the painting easier and some actual rest for my eyes will make stuff not so blurry.

Yep, my first cold of the season is upon me. I've been fighting it off for the last week or so but it looks like it finally got through (much like everytime I participate in the AV Battleground...).

But I am starting to get back into the painting groove...not full on like I was back in the spring, but getting there ever so slowly. So I'll open up with a group shot.


Yep, barbarian guy is moving right along and I added his buddy the dwarf explorer....the blister pack said Trapfinder but I say Explorer. Both of them are experiments for me...one using GW White Primer and the other using Krylon Gray Primer. Both have their benefits...the white is great for the barbarian guy as he has tons of exposed flesh while the gray is good on the dwarf as his color scheme is much darker but not "evil dark". For the record, I am still hesitant about using the gray primer on plastic....last time I did that it was an expensive mistake.

So, let's take a close look at Kord the Destroyer.

Since you saw him last, I have finished up his upper torso, his head, his bearskin cloak's exterior, and his armor shoulder pad. You can also see I'm starting on the metallics for the rest of his body. I'm really the most pleased with his shoulder pad armor.


It was first basecoated black and then with Reaper Tarnished Metal. I had though about Boltgun Metal, but I prefer the Reaper metallics. I then washed over the entire thing with Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber. I then lined in some dlluted Dark Burnt Umber in the recesses and around the base of the spikes. Then I layered on some Tarnished Metal in the raised areas and on the spikes. I then added some Folk Art Silver into the Tarnished Metal and then highlight with the Silver. I then lined in some Rackham Bestial flesh into the recesses, but very diluted. I did this a coupe of times until it darkened up nicely. I then painted a very thin glaze of Reaper Rust on the edges of the large gouges.

And for the dwarf...which I started before Thanksgiving on a whim.

Thus far, I've only done up his face and beard....mainly to give myself an excuse to tryout Reaper's new Red Hair Triad. I really like it, even though I had to mute the highlight a tad....I wanted red hair not his face to look like its on fire.

So that is all for tonight. I'm shooting to finish Kord this weekend as his completion marks the end of my self imposed painter rehab and then I get back on to my commission works as they are stacking up.

Starting to paint once again....taking it slow and trying to keep my approach to the models as organized as possible. The creative juices are beginning to thaw...but they are still at a slow drip. The Ice Age didn't end in one day and my creative "freeze" isn't going to either. In the picture above are the four main models I've been working on for the past few months...some longer than others.


Kord the Destroyer here is a model done by Tre Manor and this is one of the coolest barbarian models I've ever painted. He is huge...that washer he is on is the equivalent of a 40mm GW base....and the style is a perfect marriage of GW and Rackham stylings. I'm not kidding, if I had a Chaos Marauder army...this dude would be at the front of it along side the Avatars of War Marauder Champion. True, the weapons are a bit tiny, but I like to think those are some weapons he grabbed off another dude after his own sword got stuck impaling six other guys. This is the model that got the juices flowing again....or maybe its the combo of the model and primering him white....all I know is this is a model I really like painting.

Yep, another Victor Pendrake. This one is for a friend of mine...who is using it for D&D. His original color scheme was literally the Burger King color scheme. But after some discussion, this is the new one thus far...more Vash the Stampede than the Burger King. The face has a much warmer approach than the first version I did...along with no 5 o'clock shadow. I figure only badasses have 5 o'clock shadow...and ultimate badass mofos have a beard.



This is a close up of the Warhammer Zombie. While yes he is just a plastic zombie, I am pretty pleased with him. For this one, I tried out doing some creative glazing and selective washing in order to make his decay more disgusting. The one that I like the most is around the eyes....washed with purple, red, and finally a dark blue....really accentuates how much the flesh around the eyes has sunk back into the sockets. Around the mouth, I used a dark red and a magenta was....I wanted blood stain rather than blood...more victim of a plague than a major slaughter....which is more in keeping with the older Warhammer Undead lore. I still have a hard time believing they haven't revised Nagash since 93...or mentioned him since they split up the Undead armies.

That's all for now. Leave some nice and encouraging comments...trust me, they help out a lot.

So, for the last week and a half I've been sitting around playing a lot of GTA 4 and Half Life 2...and while "doing nothing" is a worthy pursuit, it just doesn't seem to do anything for my compulsion..."always be doing something". So, I'm gonna try some baby steps to get back into the swing of painting.

Step 1-Paint something personal. I have a closet full of minis and so I'm going to pick one and paint it. It just so happens that the model I picked is a Goliath ganger for Necromunda. Not a heavy, not a juve, and not a leader...just a ganger. Lots of stuff to practice on him...like fleshtones, metallics, weathering, maybe even tattoos.

Stay tuned for Step Two....which comes right after I paint the goliath dude...

Lately, I've been wrecking every model I've touched...mainly by trying to over do the shading or the detailing. Luckily, those models have been metal and not any commission pieces. But "working" through the dry spells of inspiration is really not doing it for me. It sucks, but its the truth. I am going to resubscribe to White Dwarf and see if looking at all the pretty pictures again will inspire me to paint again like it did in 06 and 07.

I'm gonna take a step back over the next month or so off from painting. Odds are, I'm gonna work on my art skills as they have taken a back seat to everything else over the last 6 years and they are in dire need of some lovin'. And of course fit in some time for playing some video games....or as I like to call it a job skills seminar.

So..if I'm doing some commission work for you at the moment, don't worry...just a temporary set back until I can get the painting mojo working again.

It finally recognized PAWS Atlanta in their non profit donation section and so I have it set up where 25% of the final amounts goes to them. In case you were wondering, it is where we adopted Hattie in 1995...and where I played with a small German Shepherd puppy named Miller.


eBay Seller: chaney insaney: Toys Hobbies items on eBay.com

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eBay Seller: chaney insaney: Toys Hobbies items on eBay.com

Shared via AddThis

That my website is missing. Long story short....we have to move it over to the new webhosting guys and as soon as we have their info, it'll be moved. So for now the only galleries that I have are the ones on CMON....which is by no means all of the ones I've painted, but they are the best of the bunch (IMO).

Oh, and the inspiration drought has returned....I guess I'm just burned out on painting at the moment.

Well...one new one, but I did finally pull out the photography rig and snap shots of stuff I've done over the last couple of months. Sadly, yes this is all I have done. Basically, I finished up Viktor Pendrake 01 Friday night....and of course the priest back in August.

So, meet the fellas. Two, yes TWO, Victor Pendrakes in there. The one in the foreground is a commission I'm working on....the model is commissioner's Ranger character which apparently is a sort of Aragorn meets Judge Dredd kinda thing...so I've kept his colors very dark and brooding along with weathering and fading the gold trim.

Viktor 2 belongs to Oscar and it would have been a lot further along now had it not been for the two weeks of rain we had making the humidity horrible. Four days for the primer to completely cure out.

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while my recognize the space marine. Yep, the Deathwatch guy I converted for GD 07 is finally back on the table. I have a method which I like and I am comfortable with for painting black armor. I did cheat though and used a molded Ultramarine shoulder pad instead of handpainting the chapter symbol on his right shoulder pad.

Next up, Psyker dude. Not much on him...I think I did a dark brown wash on his leathers.

And that leaves the fellow at the far right....Fabius Bile, former apothecary of the Emperor's Children. Another commission and it will allow me to get a trial run in before I work on my own Fabius Bile model...along with his 5 gene enhanced troops.

Some more pictures...

For years, I have used nail polish remover to strip my minis of various painting mistakes....and there are like 6 jars of minis from the last 15 years sitting in my mini-room. But today, a new era has begun as a friend told me of the wonder of Pinesol. Yes, I was very skeptical as I associate its uses with cleaning bathrooms and kitchens....however my initial test results have proven Pinesol superior to nail polish remover.

Not only did it remove the paint and primer...it removed the primer that I tried to strip off 9 years ago. Seriously, the mini looks almost brand new. All it took was three days soaking in some Pinesol, a firm bristled toothbrush (2 for a dollar at CVS), and a little effort. I am now in the process of stripping the old paint remnants from some of my older GW minis including the first Chaos Marine I ever purchased (the one with the heavy bolter from the early 90s).

If this goes well, I'm thinking Grimgor Ironhide is going in there next.

...[insert generic Mike lewd comment].

Painting once again...not back up to full speed but getting there.




Viktor Pendrake...he got a bit of a redo. I went with a more subdued greenish brown as opposed to just a green. The green I was using made his tunic look more like it was made of some sort of plastic rather than cloth. I have also been doing glazes of Khardun Flesh over his face to warm it up as the flesh went a little to desaturated.

Sanctioned Psyker...his greatcoat was painted with a mix of Vallejo Japanese Uniform and Vallejo British Uniform. His sash is Rackham Mutant Flesh. He's going to be a part of my Valhallan collection as he doesn't fit in with my Catachan guys or my Traitor Imperial Guard collection.

Whilst waiting on some technical stuff today, I was messing around with Maya, the Occlusion Render setting, and photoshop....
Basically, I did a top down occlusion render in Maya in the perspective mode....then basically painted and textured over the greyscale image. I've been toying with idea over the last couple of months...especially as I wanted to try my hand with some environment paint overs and such. But I think I'll keep working on these...actually kinda quick to do once you figure out all  your shortcuts and cheats in the various programs.

The Warstore had a deal where if you ordered something and asked, you could get a sample set of them...basically two sprues that make about 6 dudes with a lot of equipment options. I kinda woke up later than usual today, so while I didn't get too much painting done, I did get some assembly started on one of these guys (and a commission model of Fabius Bile....I soooo cannot wait to start him....not a fan of Space Marines per se...but Chaos...wooooo yeah). I based him on a 20mm WFB base as I figure IF I actually ended up playing ancients again, Warhammer Ancients is the only one even in the running for me (I know the rules set and I don't like change).

So hopefully if painting gets back into full swing for me this week, I'll be putting up some nice finished shots of stuff this weekend. Unless we actually find a house we want to buy...then it'll all go to hell.

Yep...Mentor Freezer. Thus far I've only painted his head and chest armor. I find it really annoying that Rackham uses the photos of the "minor retouched" figures for the photos. And by minor, I mean primered and repainted. Me, I coated him with a really nasty dullcote as a primer. That way I can use the underlying color as a guide for matching it up as opposed to using the picture.
This is the Templar I'm painting on commission. He's almost done, I just need to shade the black on his left arm and do the gems on the sword. And the coolest thing of all is he'll fit in Mentor Freezer's box so he won't break in shipping
Calus Darklore....I've been using him to experiment with green earthtones...mainly for my upcoming batch of Cryx models and possibly my Chaos Renegades. The runes on his cloak were done with the same green I'm using on a Privateer model I am painting on commission...mainly to get an idea of the best way to shade them. The runes themselves were inspired by the runes on some of the Death Knight concept pieces in the Wrath of the Lich King artbook.

About giant space snow monkeys..well, ones that are majorly pissed and want to blow shit up. Luckily for me the WarStore was having a sale on AT43 stuff and I picked up the Karman commander/special models. Yes, AT43 is prepainted...but it doesn't have to stay that way...although my previous attempts at repaints were less than stellar. But this time, I focused on good poses and good sculpts...and space monkeys. So, while I don't know if I can get the same result as the above photo from Rackham...I'm damn sure gonna try.

Anyway...just one of the many random thoughts that run through my head. Well that and me moving this bad boy over to another blogging site...

Despite some setbacks this week...including a really whammy on Wednesday night...painting has gone on. So for your viewing enjoyment I present:
The Emperor's Champ here is moving along...slowly but surely. Since you saw him last, Metallics were added and shaded...along with his tunic and gemstones. You can't see it, but there is a freehand Maltese Cross on his shoulder pad. Originally I was going to base him with a servoskull attached, but as he is being used for something other than 40k, I figured it'd probably a better idea to keep it generic.

Viktor Pendrake....although I've been calling him Luther Pendrake as his color scheme is gonna differ from the Privateer version a good bit. His flesh tone has gone on...and I really dig it. Some nice gradual transitions and the tinting of the nose and lower lip went well too. His tunic is going to be getting the "Aragorn" treatment as he represents someone's Ranger character for D&D.

And lastly, Callus Darklore. I posted the version of him I painted in 2001 and here he is again...in all his in progress glory. His color scheme is inspired by some of the old Warhammer Undead and Nurgle, the Cryx Faction in Warmachine, and my really wanting to work on shading various green colors. His flesh tone is actually my usual Flesh Mix (from about 6 Ceramcoat colors) with a little Hippo Gray worked in. Gives him a nice pale and sort of greenish palor. The metallics are a mix of P3 Metallics and Folk Art. I'm also painting his shoulder pads a more Cryx green (pre glow effect)...odds are I won't be doing glows on this guy as I just don't think they would fit in. Okay..maybe on the vials on his belt.

Oh yeah...and the bodger...but he goes with the Cygnar guy I painted a month or so back. Hopefully those two will Ebay nicely or some one will get them as a gift for a birthday or Christmas.

See for yourself!


 
...sigh. Might finish the Emperor's Champ this weekend...been having trouble with him as he is a commission and the client actually supplied the color to shade it with. Haven't used Citadel Midnight Blue or Shadow Gray since about 2001, so it is taking some getting used to again. It does not play well with the Ceramcoat black as it dries much glossier and it makes trying to blend the highlights in a nightmare. And people wonder why I don't have any Black Templars or Black Legion troops...

Now...Mr Warmachine there is also a commission, BUT he is one of those models that I myself have been eyeing for a while and just haven't picked up...so he's getting some extra love from me. Honestly, I really think I've been in more of a mood to paint fantasy and modern horror rather than sci fi lately (hence the Priest model I knocked out last week).

Oh yeah...bike is pretty much where it was last time. I did shade all the red on the other side....now i just have to line in some stuff on the front end. If I don't end up working on the Emperor's Champ there this weekend, I'll probably knock out the gray on the bike.

On the bright side...I did pick up some new Reaper stuff today...quite a bit. So hopefully I'll pull some inspiration off of there.

www.thepaintshopofhorrors.com/inst_chart.html

Web only at this time....although honestly it isn't that hard to print out if need be.