Friday 29 October 2010

Men of East, men of gold



Here's the finished group. Not much to say really. I simply completed the missing spots. Black was done using mainly old trusted Andrea Black set, and the swords were painted using Citadel silvers (probably my favorite metallics). As I said earlier, I also made the bases brighter. I think the bright static grass adds a nice element of contrast to the dark brown base. It's a classic example of speed painting but I wouldn't say I was cutting corners. And one more shot.



And that's it, another part of the large commission work completed. Khandish cavalry is next in line + chariots (one of the coolest minis in the entire Lotr range). But that will have to wait until next week.

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Work in Progress

I thought I'd post a quick update on what I'm currently working on. So, here they are, 20 Easterling warriors painted as part of a larger commission.



At his point the gold metallics are pretty much done. I have to say that I simply love paints from the Vallejo liquid gold range. These are great time savers, but also work extremely well with regular acrylic paints/washes. I started off with a solid basecoat of old gold, followed by some drybrushing using brighter shades of gold and a final, very light touch of mithril siver. After that, I washed it with devlan mud. The characters (captains/heroes) were given one more touch of mithril silver, followed by leviathan purple and thraka green washes. This is supposed to give the armor some more definition. Works pretty well in my opinion,though the pictures (especially at this stage) do not do the painting justice.

Having dealt with armor I moved on to their clothes. I started by giving them a solid coat of mechrite red. This function as a base, from which I gradually worked the color up to finish with Flat Red (Vallejo model color). I find working with reds a bit time-consuming but I guess that after laying a couple of layers of each highlight the colors look decent.



I will move on to painting their shoes and belts next. They should be ready in a couple of days. The bases are dark at this stage but this will be improved as I plan to add some bright static grass. The rims will be painted with dark brown, which should also add some warmth.

It's a typical speed painting job for me. I work on a larger batch of minis simultaneously to move on with the commission faster. This requires some compromises as it's hard to maintain top-notch quality of painting in this way. Still, I try to use at east a few highlights for each color.

Saturday 23 October 2010

Winds of Change

There, it's done. The winds are blowing. Took me longer than I had expected to get round to it but I've finally added a few changes to the structure of the blog. I tried to put more emphasis on the functionality and the new layout is supposed to reflect this principle. I've removed some bits that I didn't really like about Blogger (navbar, a separate blog header) and I've also chosen a different template. I hope that the new arrangement will be clearer and will make it easier to follow what's new at Independent Painters. There are still some things that I need to work on (I'm still thinking about the colors of text in the topic of an entry and the date, the banner should blend in better with the backgroung etc.). Big thanks go to Stan (the same guy who created the banner for helping me out with some technicalities). Also, I should point out that the background comes straight from the Jungle - it can be found (with several other at http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2010/05/photo-backgrounds.html). If you have any suggestions about the format, layout or content of the blog feel free to leave a comment!


Now, back to hobby-related stuff. I've finally found some time for a game of Warmachine. This time it was my entire Cryx force (the painted part of it - I try to use only painted models while gaming) against a quickly assembled Menoth force based on Reznik.



I should definitely try to get more opportunities to play as it's so easy to forget the rules... I haven't played since holidays! Anyway, we (me and my younger brother) decided to play an open game and try to quickly lead to a clash without hiding around. To make a long story short (please forgive lack of details here as it was my... fourth game ever and I was mostly busy trying to remember the rules), here are some of my thoughts after the game;

- I have definitely misused the Bane Thralls and waited too long to use them in game. Their charge came too late and they failed to inflict serious damage,
- Pistol Wraith is cool and if used carefully can make enemy units' life more difficult,
- I have failed to take advantage of arc nodes as I pushed the chickens into the fray, which rendered them pretty much useless (Bastions do hit hard, especially when they are boosted by some offensive spells).

A bit chaotic and not too cohesive, I know. As I said, I'm still mainly focused on learning the rules and developing some tactics. Time for detailed battle reports will come sooner or later (or much later).


An unexpected guest drops by to check out the situation on the table.


The decisive moment came when I decided to use Denny's feat and charge the remaining two Deathrippers into Reznik. I only needed to get rid of a single and wounded Bastion that was standing in my way. I activated the Pistol Wraith, hit him once and managed to roll two one's for the second shot. Clearly, the gods of dice were against me on this day. Still, it was a very enjoyable game with the momentum shifting from one side to the other on a few occasions. Hopefully, more games will follow in the nearest future! I'll finish at this point, leaving you with a very nice live version of the classic from the title of this entry.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Far East Band

Having a very limited access to the Internet is a pain in the neck. Still, it's better than no access at all. My Internet provider has failed to deliver for more than two weeks now and I ended up borrowing a mobile device from my brother. So yes, I'm back online though the speed of my connection is terribly slow...



Anyway, I managed to paint part of a big commission that I'm currently working on. First off, the Khandish Warriors. Pretty nice minis with great details. Still, I smile when I try to imagine myself running with a banner like that attached to my back. These minis remind me of Mongol warriors, similar style of helmets and clothes. The cavalry in particular, but this will be a topic for a separate update.



I used my old trusted Andrea black set for their clothes and mixed vallejo game red with model (flat red) red for the helmets and banners. Somehow, I've never felt comfortable using GW blood red. It dries too quickly (even on a wet palette) and the paint needs several carefully laid layers to look decent.



I also managed to finish a small group of Abrakhan Guard. I like the concept - no other minis from this range of minis are sculpted similarly. I like working with GW purples so it felt nice to work with liche purple and warlock purple. These colors nicely complement each other and it's fairly easy to create smooth highlights using these two.

The Golden King of Harad is another example of interesting concept and a very decent sculpt. My wife said that his pose and his mask remind her of some of the common images of death. I guess there is some truth in it as the mini has a slightly menacing look to it.



Now, onto the Easterlings - a solid group of twenty infantrymen is waiting to be painted. It shouldn't take too long as I will only need to focus on the two dominant colors - gold and red.

And here's one of the songs that was in my head when I was working on these minis:

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