Monday 31 October 2011

Forest Rangers

I put some of the Gondor heroes on the new forest bases. I needed to slightly alter them so that these guys fit better but overall I'm really pleased with the effect.

They look more dynamic and will definitely pop out among the rest of rangers.
I put some of the LotR heroes on the forest-themed bas Here's a quick pic to show them next to regular rangers. I used pieces from old LotR ruin set (not sure if it's still available. I plan on adding more static grass and different types of forest flock to make it look as it they were scouting in the forest among some old ruins.
I also finally had a chance to use GW tools from the new Cleanup kit. I really like the mouldline scraping tool. It's got blunt edges and removes the mold lines easily both from plastic and metal models. The fact that it's blunt is a big advantage as I cannot even recall how many times I've managed to cut myself while working with Citadel hobby knife. The handle is made of rubber so it's comfortable to hold too. The other one, a flash brush, is something that I still have to find good use for. So far it seems like a really unnecessary tool. I've also tried the Liquid GS and it seems very promising but I'll write more once I've worked with it a bit more.

Saturday 29 October 2011

Forest bases and a dead troll

I've recently bought a few 25 mm round forest bases produced by Micro Art Studio. |I've worked with their products before but never mentioned them on the blog. I thought I'd take this opportunity and write a few words. First of all, the quality is amazing. I've used many other resin bases and in each case I had to deal with numerous bubbles (the ones that are left in a resin base/model after casting) that needed to be removed. Here there are just a few tiny ones, as you can see in the picture below.



Apart from the quality of cast, the level of detail is amazing. The texture of these trunks looks really great and the shape of each one is different. I plan to use them for Gondor characters (such as Faramir, Arathorn, etc.) so you can expect an update soon.
I bought mine at maelstromgames but if anyone's interested in MAS's products, you can check out their website. And to finish this post off, here's an example of a MAS base that I painted a while ago. The scales on the back were sculpted (not by myself, I bought this one slightly converted) and the snow flock was added after painting.
With long weekend ahead (four days off in total) I plan to do some painting and catch up with blog backlog so you can expect a new post tomorrow. For now that's all and I'll leave you with a nice song.

Sunday 23 October 2011

Dwarves again

Here are a few pics of LotR dwarves I painted a while ago that haven't been posted yet. First off, Gimli - version in cloak. Very nice mini with lots of details. His face is particularly well sculpted which is an achievement given the scale. I followed the classic red color scheme. I also wanted the cloak to look worn and dirty and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The axe looks bad in the pics but I worked on it later on to smooth out the highlights. Of course, I forgot to take the pics.


And here's another one - dwarven captain. I really like the "come get some" pose of this model. I positioned it differently that it normally is as I thought it gives him more dynamism. I use Andrea red set so often that it's hard for me to imagine working with this color using different paints now.






And finally, a quick shot of the Iron Guard. The pic is really bad as the lighting was very uneven but it gives a very general idea of how they look like. Maybe I'll have better pictures in the future ;)

Sunday 16 October 2011

SM Terminators Painting Day 1: Armor


I've started as usual with main parts of mini , which in this case is armor. Only difference is that this time I decided to use airbrush to do whole thing. I must say that I'm really pleased with the effect. Of course there are some parts that are in need of remaking and I think that I should take now some dark colours like Regal Blue to emphasis shades even more but in the end...4-5 h of painting instead of two weeks.
Who wouldn't like that deal, plus transitions are far smoother than any I could create with standard brush. Now to finishing touches on armor like creating shades on plates and in deepest parts which couldn't be done with airbrush. I must say that it would be shame to damage those pieces with scratches and rust but all in all that's what's supposed to be done to them so It's not my call :) I'm sure that they will look amazing. Also I must decide which parts will be repainted as metal plates, I think I'll choose them randomly for each model to add some more personal feel to it. Also squad and individual numbers will be given to each one to customise them even more (as usual). In the end it has been very, very productive day. I leave the results up to your judgment. As always any comments and critisism is deeply apprecieted.    

And for music corner (yep our little tradition), music piece by Kaisers Orchestra , very dark and full of climax, and with history that's really adequate. I'm posting live version since it's a lot better plus mentioned background of that composition is explained. I think it suits Terminators theme very well.


Saturday 15 October 2011

Elven Royalty



Yes, you're right if you think that title of this post is a reference to Viruk's earlier Dwarven Royalty. On my part I was working on set of heroes containing mainly of elven heroes such as Rumil, Gil-Galad, Gildor and Stormcaller (Elrond and Cirdan still in progress ;) ). These are made similar to codex painting as you may see. Only unsual thing is look of "Aiglos" i.e Gil-Galad's spear. Friend asked me to fix it with part he supported so no decision on my part here, just plain old "do what you're told to". Definitely it looks...different :D

Stay tuned for more updates involving mentioned heroes and some wolf-releted hero (feel free to guess who ;) ) 


To top that some lovely music that accompanied me for duration of work on this set. 


Thursday 13 October 2011

Sir, yes sir !







Two days ago I submitted some pics of Terminator squad. As we all know what's a unit without a leader. Now it's time to present 3 Sergeants for each equippment variant, so we have one with Power Claws, one with Thunder Hammer and one with Storm Bolter and Power Sword. In my opinion the best is the one with Thunder Hammer, really badass looks reminds me of Chapter Master ;) But it's up to you to decide which, if any, you like the most.


Some energetic music piece that accompanied me during assembling those bad boys , it's Polish band , hot debeut of 2011 ;) 


Wednesday 12 October 2011

Malifaux!

I've already mentioned Malifaux earlier on to show some awesome models released for this game. There are quite a few articles about Malifaux spread around the blogosphere. I became interested in the game after reading Kerrys' entry at his blog - check it out here. Great models, amazing atmosphere and a quite interesting approach to playing the game (flipping cards instead of rolling dice) are some of the most interesting features of Malifaux. Another great thing is that it's a skirmish-based game, which means you only need a few models to play it. The rules are quite interesting and you can actually download them for free.
My main criterion in choosing models to paint and play is how they appeal to me. It wasn't an easy choice but in the end I decided to start with the Guild and Lady Justice crew. I was particularly impressed with Death Marshals so I had to start with them - definitely one of the most original minis I've seen so far.
Death Marshals are basically men who have been exposed to necromancy to such a degree that they've pretty much became undead. All of this for the greater good as it made them better suited for hunting... the undead. They use special pistols and... coffins (no kidding!) as their weapons.
Painting them was very enjoyable as the quality of the sculpt is great. Just a few mold lines, excellent quality of details (especially their grim, undead faces that are full of character at the same time).
I decided to use a color scheme that's slightly different to the one used in the Wyrd Games catalogue. Instead of brown cloaks I went for slightly darker colors. Since the coffins are the biggest part of each mini, I paid extra attention to painting the wood, making sure it looks more realistic. Resigning from the drybrush technique was the key here. It helps with quickly getting the basic highlights but if you want to have a more detailed surface, traditional highlights are more effective. Their skin was another important detail. I needed it to look like not-quite-dead-but-still-pretty-much-undead. I started with two thin layers of dheneb stone, followed by ogryn flesh wash. After that I added some highlights using a 50/50 white and dheneb stone mix and a pure white highlights. At this point they looked a bit too pale so I started adding glazes (leviathan purple and baal red) to add more depth. In the end I added another very light highlight of pure white to the most protruding elements. I also left dark surface around their eyes, which were paintet using only bright yellow (I aimed for the "evil eye" look). So, there you go, my first Malifaux models are here. I still have Lady Justice and the Judge to paint from this set but I'll definitely buy more minis (and at least one more crew) from this range, they're really fun to paint.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

100 and counting!

First hundred followers are the hardest but here they are! Yesterday we reached this nice number. I'd like to take this opportunity and express our thanks (mine an Haldir) to everyone who subscribed to the blog as well as to all of you people who visit, read and leave comments on our blog. All of this keeps us motivated and encourages us to paint, take pics of our works and share our ideas and thoughts.
We decided to celebrate this fact by starting a FB fan page. You can find the "like me" on the left upper part of the main menu of the blog or you can simply visit the page here. We'll be using it more frequently than the blog so if you want to stay in touch with Independent Painters, feel invited to join us there :)

And to finish off this post, here's a nice little song :)


Monday 10 October 2011

Another batch of Terminators

Close up on Heavy Flamer Twins
Guess I should start my newest post as almost each and everyone so far this year...but I won't ;) Though truth be said I finally managed to steal some time to reintroduce myself to paints and brushes. My newest project is revolving around 40k (suprising heh? :) ). Up on the agenda are three sets of Space Marines Terminators: Assault Team with Power Claws, Assult Team with Thunder Hammers and plain old Squad with Storm Bolters each squad in power of 10. Idea is to achieve more machine like look than the usual Space Marines. Hence more plasticard will be involved :) As you can see on attached pictures, even some ripped limbs (so far only one that still needs some cosmetics so it would look more natural, I'm thinking some GS and PE foil should do the trick.



Whole happy family

Gatling Twins
Also I've decided to add some multipart function to some of the fellas. As a result we get squad of 10 Terminators with Storm Bolters and Power Fists that can be equipped just as that or we can do some switiching and have 1:1 ratio of Heavy Flamer and Multicannon, also we can decide to use either one of them in count of 2. Also Two additional Termies have some magnets in top part of Armour in order to allow attachment of Cyclone Missile Launcher systems ;) Pretty usefull I guess. No I just can't wait to lay my brush on them as Terminators are pretty much my favourite mini of 40k universum :)

Caulties of war

Cyclone System focus

And for the finishing touches music piece that should suit climax of such "cheerful" team. (I know for sure Viruk would love this pick ;) )

Saturday 8 October 2011

Pick of the Week

Taking good pictures of models isn't easy so it's always great to find some good advice. I've recently come across this blog and found a really great tutorial on taking pics there. Not only the author shows how to set things up for taking photos using artificial lighting but he also gives some good hints about post-editing the pictures. Check this out, it's definitely worth reading!



Click this link to see the whole thing.

Friday 7 October 2011

Dwarven Royalty


As promised in my previous entry, I'm catching up with my blog backlog. There are quite a few pictures I haven't posted yet. So, here we go. I described my impressions of finecast in one of the earlier entries. They were rather positive and painting these guys hasn't changed them. Paints flow really well on this kind of resin and the fine details (they both have eyes, though it's hard to tell by the pictures - you have to take my word for it) are a little better than on the metal versions. I used resin bases and more vivid colors to mark them as royalty (see the warriors color scheme for comparison).

Durin and Mardin is another due that is used together. Durin was one of the greatest dwarf kings and Mardin served as his personal bodyguard. He uses a trident - the same type of weapon that is common for Vault Warden Team as he is a veteran of this unit. Here I also tried to keep the colors richer than on the regular soldiers. I also painted the metallics using brighter shades. And that's pretty much it as far as dwarven royalty is concerned. There will be one more here, a captain and some elites so stay tuned.

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Hobby news

I spent last weekend in the hospital and had a knee surgery. It went well and I'm already back home, recovering quickly. Now, having this surgery meant a compulsory two week sick leave. I need some time to fully recover before I start walking normally again.
This situation has some undeniable advantages. The most obvious one is that I basically have two week long holidays now and can spend more time on hobby - you can expect the effects soon. I still have a few pics of dwarves I haven't uploaded to the blog yet. I also want to finally catch up with my painting backlog - one jack from WARMACHINE and a crew for Malifaux.
Now, back to the main topic of this entry. GW has recently released some information on the new hobby supplies. I'm particularly happy about this one. Liquid GS that is water soluble and can be applied with a brush? I'm taking two!

Other than that, there are a few other new items:
- Citadel cleanup kit: Contains a flash brush with right rigid bristles for removing flash from resin and a mouldline scraping tool, ideal for metal, resin and plastic.
- Citadel Emery boards: Pack contains three emery boards that are great for smoothing resin surfaces. Contains two fine-grade and one super-duper-extra-fine-grade board.
- Revamped Citadel tool kit: Contains all previous tools along with the new clean up kit.

Looks to me like GW's trying to make up for the first batch of finecast minis that wasn't received very well by many of the customers. Still, GW makes really good hobby tools (hobby drill and hobby knife are top-notch). Even though it may seem like GW's trying to rip us off by introducing new tool that aren't really that necessary, the quality of this stuff is the key factor.
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