Contrast Paint Rocks

I didn't intend to crank out 3 figures as fast as possible, it just kind of happened. How? It's really a combination of complementary techniques.

Start with a zenithal over gray, a simple palette (3 colors plus white), and selective use of contrast paint, that's it. The end result is super fast painting. Beside the face/head and body, all the annoying bits and bobs got a single pass of Contrast/SpeedPaint. 

This saves a huge amount of time and frees it up for the face and body. Sure I banged in a bunch of edge highlights and tried to pull off a NMM, but the time cost was free. 

In the above we're nearly complete, and it was super relaxing. Had I not tried a different fur scheme on one of them, I would have batch painted them in under 3 hours.

Keep your brushes clean,

HMP

Palette Problems?

Do you, or someone you know, routinely make bad palette choices? Does this lead to ugly miniatures and/or incomplete projects? Help is available, but only if you act now...

Previously I started this goblin, and today I finished him, and even added this to the gallery.

Talarand, Blackguard Reaper 02789

 Another "old" project reaches completion. Maybe it's not that old, I dunno. He was on the shelf of aging for quite some time, or at least is seemed that way.

 

Continue

Wraith (Reaper 07005)

 So the Wraith is done!

Reaper Wraith 07005

 Click below to continue...

Wyvern from Reaper

I the last post I was having trouble recalling the name, it's a Wyvern.

It was supposed to be a fast paint, and it was. I started by painting it black, because it's really hard to prime Reaper's Bones any other way, you can't see white on them.  Then I did the quick drybrush, and realized that it still had mold lines... No shits were given and after dry brushing with white I decided that this Wyvern would be orange and red.

Doombull brown as a base on the scales with Ushabti Bone for the wings. Then I used a flesh tone to start adding to the wings, and I layered up some oranges, Troll Slayer and Fire Dragon Bright.

To try and draw attention to the head I painted the tongue an opposite color, if the model was better I would have gone crazy on the face, but it's not and the detail is soft.  To finish I used oil washes on the wings and body, then used a Q-tip to remove the excess.

It's definitely ready to kill players in DnD, but the poor sculpt, (there's no good viewing angle), and low detail made me call this job done. I'll add some dirt to the base the next time I'm basing something.

Cheers, 

HMP

Talarand Blackguard

From Reaper Miniatures, maybe it's already a classic, I dunno.

Talrand Blackguard

 

Happy COVID Isolation, Week # Unknown

Who knew not working could be so fun?! Answer: every retired person, ever.

So, here's the Gold Guy.

All Gold NMM Armor

We are sort of shut down due to COVID-19, but instead of getting 2 weeks off, we had to work from home, or WFH, as it's now commonly referred to [here I thought NASA had already invented every TLA (three letter abbreviation)].

On the Workbench

Lots of silly things on the go. I've completed some "Screaming Fungus", the adventurers should have trouble sneaking into the goblins lair...

Screaming Fungus

Ragnaros Evil Warrior

  Here it is at last, Ragnaros the Evil Warrior, in all his glory. This piece took a bit longer that I would have liked, but in the end I'm super happy with how it came out. The sword looks great, (according to me). With a red reflection on the inside and a blue tint on the outer side, it really adds to the model. With it being such a big part, I really wanted to invest the time to make it look decent. Because the flash really hits the metallic paint it's hard to photograph, but in the off angles it is obvious in the pictures.

Ragnaros Evil Warrior

  I didn't manage to totally crush the OSL glare off the eyes, but I think the balance that I achieved isn't terrible.

Freehand Skull!

 Note the red tint in the darker portions of the blade in the above view. This really added to the feel of the sword.

A little surprise when you turn it around

 I really didn't want to distract from the front of the model, especially since I went for the glowing eyes, but I thought it might be fun to add some extra effort tot the back. In the end I think it turned out pretty good. From the front angles you can tell that there's something back there, but it's not distracting.

Metallic paint + flash = fail

Get the angle right (That's what she said...)

The shield, spinal cord, helm, femur, all reaper parts

 All right, we're done here. Remember, don't miss good while looking for perfect (DMGWLFP).

HMP

Ragnaros Evil Warrior

Mission complete! Be advised, good photos to follow (project "lightbox" will have to be completed first). The grass tufts are Gale Force Nine 2 mm static grass that I applied by hand. To find out how, you can click here.

Ragnaros Evil Warrior

Ragnaros

I was going to put more stuff on the base, but I didnt want to distract from him on the front, so it's quite plain, with a hint that there could be something going on behind. On the back I added some skeletal remains, to add more interest to this side of the miniature.


Dont miss good while looking for perfect.

HMP

Ragnaros, Evil Warrior, Pt. 2

Ragnaros, dude, that's a big flat shield...

Free handing is hard, or at least I thought it was. The other day I figured that I was getting pretty good at coloring inside the lines, and although I can't draw, I reckoned that if I could, I'd be able to "color" whatever it was that I drew. So with drawing being the problem, I set about looking at pictures of skulls, studying their proportions, and then translating each part into a simple geometric shape. With the help of the internet and the phone equivalent of MS Paint, I wad able to work up some sketches for Ragnaros' shield (dont laugh, I told you I can't draw, and all photo credit goes to the bloke who posted his picture for me to rip).

An Orc could do better

Below is a more, ahem, refined version.

I think this starts to hint at what I envisioned

This somewhat cold analytical approach seemed like the easiest method for a nerd like me, and indeed it was. If it came from rigorous practice, or was a moment of pure idiot savant, we'll never know, but I arrived at this.

Ragnaros Skull Shield!

 All right, my work here is done. Just got to finish the sword, head, base, horns...

Cheers,
HMP

Ragnaros, Evil Warrior - 03374

This is Ragnaros, Evil Warrior (Reaper) sculpted by Bobby Jackson. I'm trying to crank this project out ASAP, (the boyz are on ice at the moment), as a gift for my coach at the gym. Unfortunately, the gym is closing, and I'm not going to get to see Sean after the 14th, (not without paying for private training). Anyhow, I wanted to give him a little thank you, for his general awesomeness, and this was the first thing that came to mind. Ragnaros is of course a perfect fit as his hulking physique is so similar to Sean's.

Ragnaros, Evil Warrior

That's where the similarities end. Unlike Ragnaros, Sean is pretty much the opposite of evil, also, Sean is not red. 

Ragnaros, Evil Warrior

The base is the now the "usual", cork, sand, plaster chips, coffee grounds (some family members don't approve), and liquid green stuff.

DMGWLFP

BONES 4! The Adventure of Mr Bones

The BONES have arrived.  It's an insane amount of stuff. The material has changed from earlier Bones in that it is now visible, and possibly slightly harder.  It seems that there is a lot of variation in the quality of the process, some of the little guys are good, some even great, but some is poo. A lot of the Bones specific stuff seems alright. It does smooth bug well (see pig and cart).

The BONES 4 box

The undead stuff is great! 

Bases galore

Huge Dragon

Mountains of stuff

Goblins

More Goblins

Oink oink!

Love

all

Of

These

Things

Gorilla or Yeti (very large)

Impossible to see pirate ghosts.

WTF! Bobble heads...

Black Paint Comparison Citadel vs MSP-HD

The executive summary is as follows; Not all blacks are created equal!

I discovered this essentially by accident! I was low on black paint and while placing an order with Reaper Miniatures I added some paint to my basket, to be specific, Solid Black 29843. This specific paint is part of Reapers "Master Series Paint HD" (MSP-HD) line. I didn't realize this at the time, and I don't know how the HD differ from their other paints (on the bottle it says High Density Pigment). I have several of MSPs now and I like them all, I also have one of the "BONES" formula, but I'm not sure how it differs since I haven't used it yet.

Anyhow, wile blocking the Broodlord I switched blacks, and it was immediately obvious. 

Citadel Abaddon Black vs MSP-HD Solid Black

Since a picture is worth a thousand words see above, it's not the lighting, the MSP-HD Solid Black is super flat. I'll add more data as I get it.

DMGWLFP

Display case unboxing

As you may be aware, this page is advertisement free! However, I do occasionally include part numbers so that interested readers can get what I purchased, if they want... anyhow, this is a little different in that I don't know the part number. Or who made it. The case was purchased from Amazon, and the reviews were only mediocre, however as with all interweb crap results vary.

The reviews didn't like it because it was, "insert complaint here" (cracked, wrong size, etc.). Now, the average American isnt known for their great intellect, so half the problems probably arose from something mundane, such as the units being metric...

Anyhow, I hope to show in this unboxing, exactly what I got. Keep in mind that this box was inside yet another bigger box (with all the shipping details), and other Amazon crap we ordered. 

So there you have it. It was in a box, (that was inside yet another box, with other stuff, including air padding things), and, inside the former it was, wrapped in a soft foam, which was supported above and below by 2 foam plates, which were themselves supported at each corner by foam corners! Probably one of the better packing jobs I've seen. Now, it might not survive use as subflooring at a Jenny Craig square dance, but really, if yours was broken either your post man, or your old lady jumped on it... LOL

 

DMGWLFP...