Monday 31 December 2012

Unpublished 2012

Here are some shots (taken by none other than Reagan Lee ) of minis I painted earlier in 2012 but for some reason forgot to put on the blog. 
I really like GW's Lotr Rangers minis as they're full of character and they gave me a chance to work with warm colors that I really like. Faramir's rangers are even better than the plastic ones as they're more detailed and the quality of sculpts is slightly better.
I used Micro Art Forest bases - they are awesome and I cannot recommend them enough. I've used many different resin base/base inserts but those from MAS are definitely the best in terms of quality.


Faramir and Damrod leading the rangers



Duinhir, Arathorn and Halbarad



And that's pretty much it for 2012, it's been a pretty good year in terms of hobby for me but I'll write a separate entry with summary in January. 
Happy New Year to everyone who visits Independent Painters, I'm really happy that some people find the blog interesting enough to stop for a while and check out new posts as they come and even more grateful for the comments that are left. See you in 2013 - in hobby terms I'd call it the year of... Hobbit.

Sunday 30 December 2012

Skaven Warlock Engineer

Not much to say about this one. I painted him a few weeks ago but kept on forgetting to post pics on the blog.




It was a good exercise in painting the weathering effects, both the rust and the turquoise residue.

Saturday 29 December 2012

Where's your head at?

Here's a small conversion I added to a Teddy miniature. I thought that since I plan to use two of these I'd add some variety and do a simple head swap. The ideas seemed to be an easy one to put into practice but chopping off the original head wasn't as easy as I had expected. I pretty much ruined my hobby saw while doing it and ended up chopping it off with an axe (no kidding!).



It does look over sized and grotesque but despite that I really like the effect.. I think it goes well with the Teddy fluff and I can always say that the imperfections are the result of Widow having a bad day ;)

A quick comparison with the "normal" Teddy

And to finish off a video that used to haunt me when I was a kid:



Wednesday 26 December 2012

Greenskins WIP #4

Started working on the last batch of Moria Goblins and prepared them during Christmas.


I plan to finish them quickly and jump into the Hobbit stuff - saw the movie today and loved it!

Taking care of your brushes

The Christmas break gave me a chance to do something I've been putting off for a while now - bringing my brushes back to life. I know it should be done on regular basis but I tend to neglect it and end up cleaning them too rarely. 


Anyway, I can highly recommend two products - brush cleaner and brush restorer. I use Vallejo products for that along with Zahn cleaning set for brushes - the Brush Shampoo does wonders!

Sunday 23 December 2012

Greenskins #3

I've just finished painting a batch of Moria elites and here are some pics. First off, Gundabad Blackshields and their commanders. They're all finecast minis and it felt a bit weird painting a mini that weighs next to nothing. The main thing that distinguishes them from regular Goblins are the heavy fur cloaks. I painted some spots onto them, following the "official" paintjob but making them look darker. And as gross as it is, the one holding a drum made out of dwarf is my favorite here. 





 The Prowlers look so much out of control, especially the ones swinging the axe above their heads. Those are really tiny minis so getting all the little bits there was a bit tricky. I think it worked out pretty well in the end.



 Last but not least, Grobolog - the goblin king. Possibly one of the best sculpts in the range and I really enjoyed working on him. For some reason the red cloak looks a bit orangish in the pics...





Now I have some regular Goblins that await painting but there are a few elites among the batch so I shouldn't be too bored working on them ;)

A Nightmare before Christmas

Here's little something I prepared for a painting contest at Dakka Dakka. Sadly, it didn't get enough votes to grant me a place in second round but I still had fun working on this one. I'll probably end up putting it on ebay sooner or later ;)
It basically includes various bits from Wyrd games - a base "orphanage" insert, bricks, cat, ghosts and a chubby little boy that I got in a box with nTeddy.


I used a special semi transparent glowing medium on the ghosts (you can see the effect in the middle). It takes a few layers to get a solid shining in the dark effect. I plan to use this medium on some other minis (brilliance!) in the future.

Friday 14 December 2012

Dear brother...

Today's your very special day and I wanted to wish you all the best. You're a very talented and creative young man (yes, you're officially a MAN now!) and I hope you're able tomake good decisions and use your talents well in the future. And you can call on me later to pick up a small gift :)



As far as the gift is concerned, I enjoyed painting Snow Storm thoroughly. The beast is made of high quality resin (apart from the thorns that are cast in metal).
I really like his pose, looks like he's gathering energy and preparing to get into some serious action. The Silent One in front of him completes him nicely with arms extended to her sides.


I chose to place them on a tall base that would resemble a mountaintop. U used a few wine corks and plenty of GS for it. I thought that it would add more dynamism to this duo, making it look as if they were observing the battlefield from a distance.
And just to make the beast a bit more special, I used a special medium on his arms and eyes. It didn't affect his look as it's semi transparent but it makes him look more interesting when the lights are off.


His story is quite interesting. Rasputina (one of the masters from Malifaux) was successful when she faced December (an ancient tyrant entity) but part of his power entered one of her acolytes, a Silent One called Snow. As a result, a spirit that would become known as Snow Storm came into existence.
In game, the duo adds a lot of mobility to Raspy's crew along with some offensive and defensive spells. Add to that the fact that Snow Storm is basically bulletproof and very dangerous in close combat and you have a force to be reckoned with. The only downside is his high cost (11 soulstones) but I'm pretty sure that he can wreak havoc if used properly.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Greenskins WIP #2

Moving on with the Goblin elites. I started working on the bases of Gundabad Blackshields. I cut the tile texture on the bases with a hobby knife and glued some gravel to conceal the area where the models are glued to the bases. I used various bits of different types of ruins for the command to make sure they stand out among the rest.



I basecoated them black and lightly sprayed brown on their backs - it will make painting the cloaks easier and faster. More coming soon so stay tuned!

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Some WIPs...

Lots of non-hobby stuff happening in my life now so I haven't had much time for painting. I thought I'd show some works that are currently in progress.


First off, the goblin elites. Metal Prowlers and finecast Gundabad Blackshields. The finecast ones are not bad, just a little GS was needed. The details look very sharp on them. In the front row you can also see Grobolog - now that's what I call a dynamic pose. I'll probably wait with painting him until I've started dealing with regular greenskins. Anyway, all of those now have their bases prepared (some gravel and sand was added) and I also primed them.

Now some Malifaux stuff. I've put together Santana. I used GS for the base as without a thing layer there, the sand tends to sink in ans the base looks hollow.


A slightly modified Teddy. I'll be running two of these and since I got rid of the Nightmare version (didn't really like the scale - seemed too large), I wanted to introduce some variety and used the spare nTeddy head. Cutting off the original one was a slow and painful process and I ended up... chopping it away with an axe ;) I resculpted the fur around its neck and it looks OK after priming. You may say that he looks too grotesque or that the head doesn't fit there very well and my answer to that would be simple: Widow had a bad day.

And finally, three Witchling Stalkers. Those are one of my favorite sculpts from the Malifaux range and their fluff is nice too.
Also, their magical runeblades will come in handy when dealing with spirits.


And a quick shot of my little helper ;)




Wednesday 5 December 2012

Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites?

I've painted three Alps for my Dreamer crew. I used some random bits for the bases as I wanted to reflect in them Alps' ability to pop into existence out of nowhere and land wherever they're summoned. I've done some repositioning of their arms and added a bottle to the one smoking a cigar - I thought that he'd look more like a party animal with it.


I've also used water effect for the first time and poured some of it into the bucket (having painted the bottom blue first).



They were fun to paint and now I'll probably start working on the Gunslingers if I find some time while working on other larger projects I currently have on my plate :)

And something I've been neglecting on the blog recently - some music to go with this one.


Monday 3 December 2012

Malifaux December releases

Here are the new releases set for December with their prices:

WYR1058 - Riflemen Guild - $21.00
WYR2062 - Izamu, the Armor - $16.00
WYR4060 - Beckoners (2pk) - $16.00
WYR8001 - The Thunder Box Set - $35.00
WYR8002 - Ten Thunders Archer (3pk) - $21.00
And some pictures:
I have a feeling this one is going to be popular among Ressurectionist players, a tough heavy-hitter

I love the artwork and the visualization of sculpts looks great to, this box is a must for me
And some stuff scheduled for next year:
WYR1056 - Relic Hunters Box Set - $40.00
WYR5075 - Freikorps Strongarm - $16.00
WYR5079 - Burt Jebsen - $11.00
WYR4059 - The Depleted (3pk) - $21.00
WYR3058 - Metal Gamin (3pk) - $21.00


I wasn't planning on getting this one but now I am tempted. Seven great looking models for $40 seems reasonable enough. And this master should be fun to work with with his versatility (choosing the most useful relics before the battle is a nice thing). Other than that the Depleted will be an obvious pick for me as I'm really going to need them for my Lynch crew.

As far as I can tell from my experience, Wyrd is pretty good at casting its new minis in a way that they look very close to the original artwork and these seem to be examples of this trend. 

Saturday 1 December 2012

Hobbit stuff - pics and first impressions

I picked up some of (actually most of) the new Hobbit releases and thought I'd upload some quick pics of the sprues along with my first impression.
First off, my favorites - Hunter Orcs. The sculpts are very dynamic and the details are pretty amazing. Even elements like quivers and blades of swords have well defined texture. The orcs themselves are twisted and ugly, which im my opinion suits them just fine.
The new Wargs are quite different from the older plastic versions. Their poses are much more dynamic and their snouts are much more detailed. There are some areas without any fur on their backs, which may be a problem while painting but overall I really like them.
There are six of the riders, which means that in the box you get the same thing twice. Seems like boredom's creeping in until you realize that there's multipart involved!




The new orc heroes are even better. The details are fantastic and there are surprisingly few problematic areas. Has GW finally come to grips with finecast? Pics may not reflect that so well but Narzug's my favorite here - absolutely amazing sculpt.





 I have to admit I wasn't sold on the trolls when I first saw them. The awful paintjob was probably the main reason. However, after opening the box and seeing them up close I have to admit that they're pretty nice. Hard to tell their size based on pieces from the sprues but they seem to be  somewhere between Cave and Mordor Trolls.






I wasn't sold on the White Council too. Their poses are quite static and the paintjobs didn't help either. But then I saw the quality of these casts and had no more doubts.


And last but not least - the new starter set, Escape from Goblin Town (Limited edition). There are two sprues with new Goblins, 18 different poses on each. These little buggers are ugly as sin, which suits them just fine. There are differences in height, build and weapons wielded by them. As you can see in the pics, there are hardly any mold lines. Also, the plastic is pretty tough, which means that preparing them for painting should be nice and easy.


There's also the sprue with terrain and one with the Scribe and Goblin King. The big dude is even uglier than his small subjects but I'm sure he'll look great surrounded by his shorter kin. He's massive and he's also extremely fat with a double chin that looks like final stage of cancerous growth (or swollen testicles). Still, there's so much character in this model that I'm completely sold on it.
The terrain is quite nice too (check out the details on king's throne!). There is also a ruler for new players who haven't bought a tape measure yet along with 8 dice and a small, condensed rulebook.



 The limited edition Radagast mini has already been seen on the web. The only new thing for me was that apart from the tiny hedgehog that the wizard is holding, there's also a spider on his base - nice touch.


And finally - new Gandalf and Thorin's Company. Overall, I like these very much. They's a huge step forward in comparison to the plastic Fellowship from the "Mines of Moria" set. There are more details, better scale for the whole company (anyone remembers the giant plastic Aragorn?) but there are some areas that I feel could have been sculpted better. Still, a solid paintjob will fix that.


And to anyone who has read until the end of this lengthy entry, here's a small surprise - some pics from the mini rulebook.

Looks like there's finally going to be official elf cavalry, something the fans have been waiting for since the original release of the game in 2001
An alternative Radagast. I guess we can expect quite a few of alternative versions in themed boxes, just like it  worked in the past

Another interesting alternative, I'm actually digging this one more than the original
 So there you go, my take on new GW "Hobbit" releases. I'm happy with most of them. There are still some areas that can be improved but overall it seems to me that GW is going in the right direction with the aesthetics and quality of "Hobbit" miniatures.




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