Alas, poor Yarrick! I knew him Horatio...

The next of my backlog of unfinished miniatures is done.  Like the dragon in the last post, I had to get myself over the ridiculous mental block I had over finishing him and yet again I'm glad I did, as he's come out really well.

Still not totally happy with the red on the claw, but I figured that as an old Ork weapon, it's likely to look a little patchy.  The yellow is my normal method, which I really need to get away from as my pot of Tausept Ochre is on its way out, and my stocks of Gryphonne Sepia are running low.

I went for a paler skin tone, using a base coat of P3 Beast Hide, shaded with GW Ogryn Flesh, and then highlighted with the base coat and increasing amounts of P3 Ryn Flesh, until it was pure Ryn Flesh as an edge/point highlight.  The gold is a base of GW Dryad Bark, which is then highlighted with increasing amounts of GW Burnished Gold mixed into the base, then some GW Mithril Silver added in for a final highlight.  I'll admit now, I'm damned if I can remember how I painted the green leaves...

The black areas are a base of plain black, with the highlights built up using Vallejo German Grey, the old GW Adeptus Battlegrey, and old GW Codex Grey.  If you recognise the miniature, you'll have noticed I clipped off the back banner from the skull ammo hopper.  I'm not a big fan of back banners on Sci Fi miniatures anyway, but on this chap it really didn't work for me. 

I love this old miniature, it brings back memories of my childhood, when I first really got in to the hobby, it's a typical, static posed, one piece(ish) miniature, that really typifies that period at GW

So with two miniatures finished in the last week or so, I've got a few new projects to start (along with future articles, Cultists, Nurgle Marines, etc, etc).  The Commissar theme continues with Kapitan Ivanka Kurganova from Raging Heroes.

I've gone for the big crazy gun-sword thing rather than the delicate alternative, partly because it looks cool, and partly because the scabbard doesn't fit the smaller sword at all and would have looked weird.  I also left off the gas mask option, because I wanted to paint the face.  As her feet are spread wider apart than a 25mm base can comfortably fit, I used a piece of etched brass from the old GW WH40K basing kit to give her something to stand on, then added a couple of pieces of chopped up sprue with metal in the ends to look like steel reinforced concrete pillars that had been broken off.

Next up is one of the Space Marine Chapter Masters (minus his shiled which I'm painting seperately).  I'm not entirely sure about the chapter yet, but I'm veering towards Hawk Lords.

I bought the boxed set with all four in a long while back.  I got motivated to paint him when I picked up an alternative head from Anvil Industry's head range - I've got to say these are pretty damn good, they're sharp, with minimal flash or mould lines, and I think it really works well with this miniature.  Their hooded and grill ranges of heads would be good for converted guard/cultists too.

Last, but most definitely not least is a Griffin Inquisitor from Confrontation:

Si and Jez (who very generously gave me this miniature) from the Ancible team wax lyrical about Rackham miniatures, and it's not hard to see why.  This chap is fantastic, a beautiful sculpt, hardly any flash or mould lines, and in bone coloured armour, with dark clothing and a dark metal sword, I think he's going to look pretty damn good.  I have some other Rackham stuff to paint too, Si (also very generously) has given me possibly one of the best miniatures I have ever seen, but that's for another time...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Confrontational...

The Tale of 3 Painters is over, and my article for the Ancible has been published, so what next?  Finishing up all the little finished miniatures on my painting desk is what, before I start on the Dark vengeance boxed set.

First up is a Confrontation miniature (originally started a long time ago) - you'll have to forgive me my ignorance of the Confrontation fluff, but this chap is known as (an) Ashkasa as far as I can tell - he looks like an elf.  He has a couple of "hook" bits missing, the spike on his back in particular, which is a bit of a shame, but I think he still looks good.

I tried to keep to roughly the standard paint scheme for him, the blue is a base coat of Necron Abyss, highlighted with increasing amounts of Fenris Grey.  The gold is a base of Dryad Bark, highlighted with increasing amounts of Burnished Gold, and then Mithril Silver.  This seems to work really well, and could become my new method of doing gold.

The "skirt" and sleeves is a base of Zandri Dust, shaded with Agrax Earthshade, then highlighted with the base colour, plus Karak Stone and then some white mixed in.  The leather bits were Dryad Bark, highlighted with increasing amounts of Snakebite Leather.  I've used the new Balor Brown on other miniatures (see my latest article), but it's no substitute for Snakebite - thankfully I think I've found a proper alternative, Vallejo Leather Brown, so will be ordering some of that soon.

I reworked the face too, using Rakarth Flesh and White to smooth out the transitions between light and shadow, and then I redid the eyes.  The hair was also highlighted better to improve the contrast.  

To be honest, I'm kind of glad he's finished.  He wasn't actually a lot of fun to paint, and if I did him again I'd probably choose a completely different colour scheme.  He's certainly nicely sculpted, and the end result is something I'm happy with, but he was just very, very fiddly, and required a crap-load of concentration.  I've learned a bit from painting him though, so it's all good in the end.

Next up on the conveyor belt of half finished stuff is this young lady (a bit naughty), the original Commissar Yarrick and something from Reaper, with maybe a Bushido Dragon thrown in for good measure.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Festivaled-out...

The wife and I attended WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) again this year, saw some fantastic acts, particularly Ayarkhaan, AnDa Union (Music to paint miniatures by I reckon), Lau and Booker T Jones (legend!) and ate some fantastic food.  I'm now knackered and looking forward to a quiet weekend.  Unsurprisingly no painting got done (living out of a tent would make it difficult), but some of the costumes were good painting inspiration!

A little progress has been made on the Rackham miniature I started a while back - the face needs some work, but I'm very pleased with the leather around his midriff, and a really simple scheme too:

• Base coat:  Calthan Brown
• Shade:  Devlan Mud (surprised?)
• First highlight: Calthan Brown
• Second highlight: Snakebite Leather blended in

The buckles were outlined with a targeted wash of Devlan Mud and then highlighted with Chainmail. The blue was also something different, with a base coat of several thinned coats of Necron Abyss highlighted with a mix of Necron Abyss and increasing amounts of Hormagaunt Purple added in.

I'll be adding to him in and around my other projects - but he's such a delicate and interesting model that he really needs some dedicated time and effort spent on him.  So don't expect him finished any time soon!  I went for a grey undercoat for this model as I wanted to experiment with some different methods for different colours - I really think the leather work has benefited from a different approach.  I'll admit I get very stuck in my ways and tend not to experiment too much with colours - this is going to change from now on, so while I will go back to some colour schemes I know work, I will be branching out a bit more.

In other news, the article work is ongoing - the photography element really does slow things up from a painting perspective, but it does mean I'm concentrating that much harder on getting things to look right at very close up.  The Reaper miniatures from the last post will be undercoated tomorrow (hopefully), and should be started (and maybe completed?) this weekend.

The football season starts this Saturday, so I'll have something else to distract me!