I ATEN'T DED

Yep, I am alive, just about, and still painting!  As Terry Pratchett fans may have worked out by the post title, I got my hands on one of the fantastic Discworld sculpts from Micro Art Studios, and in particular, Granny Weatherwax:

The sculpting on this miniature is fantastic, and  is very true to the (later) art work from the books (Calendars, Maps, Graphic Novels, etc).  I've been having some issues with Testor's Dullcote recently so she's a little shinier than I had hoped for - I'm seriously considering going back to the trusty Humbrol stuff, as that seems to work better than anything else.  

The colours are all my standard way of doing things recently, so I won't bore you and repeat the details.

The face is fantastic (the photography isn't) and was a real joy to paint.  I love it when the faces on models have so much detail, and the eyes are so nicely defined.

Her trademark boots are another nice touch (the shine actually works here), as are the hairpins.  All in all she's a really nice model, with all the cool details that make Granny, well, Granny.

In other news, alongside a few other ongoing projects and my next Ancible article, I've started on my next Reaper model:

Not made a huge amount of progress yet, but I'm really pleased with the head and cowl - again, it's nice to have well defined eyes to paint.

Gaming wise, I've had a go at Warlord's Bolt Action (28mm World War 2 for those who haven't seen it), which so far has proven to be a fun ruleset, quick to learn and get to grips with.  If I can do a bit of clearing of my ongoing projects, I might be tempted to get some British Paratroopers...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Calling in support...

Another of the "to be finished" list has been completed and this time it's one of the Regimental Advisors blister:

A bit of a quick and dirty paint job, he's designed to fit in as part of the small Rogue Trader set of miniatures I've been painting over the last year or so.  Therefore he's got the white and red uniform of the good ship "Siegfried and Roy".  The white was simply a base of Karak Stone, highlighted with Rakarth Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh and Ceramite White.  These were simple layers, so no blending - I didn't want to mess about with this mini, just get him done and off the workbench

The metalwork was simple - AP Gun Metal, Nuln Oil Wash and Gun Metal plus Chainmail highlight, for the steel, and then my usual Dryad Bark and Auric Armour Gold for the gold.

For some reason the red came out a little shiny, and I'm still toying with the idea of re-varnishing the model, to knock the shine off.  Dryad Bark is the base again, washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with the old Scab Red and Blood Red.  The Leather is Dryad Bark highlighted with Steel Legion Drab.

Quick, and fairly easy, he didn't take too long to finish off (he'd been sat there with only the gold and steel done for months), and he fits in quite nicely with the other members of the crew so far:

His jacket's a little lighter than the rest, but it doesn't look too bad.

Not sure what's coming next, I'm quite unamused by this, so I may be taking a break from Games Workshop stuff for a bit, so the next few posts will be a bit random in content.

Situation normal then?

As always comments and criticism welcome!

Your humble Space Marine, Andy.

Ymrilix the False

Six months ago, I bought a tube of Crawford and Black metallic red paint from a local book/art store, and promised to experiment with it (I said a month, but you know how that works with me...).  Well, over the weekend, I did get to play with it, and I'm pretty damn pleased with the results!

The miniature is Ymrilix The False from Reaper. It's a bit of an odd pose, and not entirely natural in my opinion, but he's nicely detailed and was really fun to paint.  There are only 4 colours on this model, red, gold, steel and leather, so he was pretty quick and simple to do too.

The red was very straightforward thanks to the Crawford and Black paint.  It took 3 or 4 coats to go evenly over the black undercoat, which was particularly time consuming as the paint seemed to take an age to dry. I may have thinned the paint too much, but I think next time I'll use a grey undercoat.  Once the base coat was dry, I washed it with Agrax Earthshade, which while not my favourite shade for brown, does the trick with red.  With the wash dry, I then highlighted first with the red and then added more and more GW Auric Armour Gold, until it was pure Gold on the top edges.  Without the solidity of a non metallic colour mixed in, the gold was a little trickier to work with, but it's come out pretty well.

The gold is pretty much the usual method, starting with Dryad Bark and mixing in the gold for highlights, but rather than going up to pure gold I stopped around half way and then mixed in the Mithril Silver, making the gold a little duller and less yellow/orange.  I think this stands out from the red nicely, and works better for an "evil" miniature.

Nothing too exciting for the steel (i.e. the sword and chainmail), Army Painter Gun Metal for the base, washed with Nuln Oil and highlighted up with Chainmail and Mithril Silver, with some carefully blended in Abaddon Black shading where appropriate.

The leather was even more simple than the steel - Dryad Bark base, with more and more Bestial Brown, and then Snakebite Leather mixed in for the highlights - job done!

So not too bad for a few hours work over the weekend - the metallic red paint is definitely a winner in my opinion, and I'm going to be finding the occasional armoured vampire model, and maybe a few Khorne warriors to use it on.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!