Colorul Ladies and new approach to taking pictures

A few weeks ago some cables in my old trusty Foldio lightbox snapped and I was no longer able to take decent pictures. I bought a new , smaller one from Green Stuff World and started experimenting with different backgrounds. My initial goal was to start taking pictures with black background but... well, that will take some time to master. I have, however learnt that you can easily adjust exposure while taking pics with iphone (duh! should have started doing that long time ago!). 

What it means in a nutshell is that I can adjust the focus on miniature(s) so that the background becomes pure, bright white. A good friend who is a professional photographer has once told me that the less work you do with editing pictures, the better. In the samples below there is no edition and no filters needed to be used.

Let's start with Cassandra and Arcane Effigy.

Followed by Baritone Lola - really great sculpt and I had some fun working on the skin tone with oil paints.

The last one is the most interesting example. Hinamatsuri, also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is an annual festival in Japan. Celebrated on 3 March of each year, platforms covered with a red carpet-material are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period (info from Wiki). Hinamatsu is a Doll that made it to the world of Malifaux. It took some considerable effort to buy it as it's been unavailable in pretty much all stores worldwide for months. I managed to get it on eBay from the US with a bundle of other M2E boxes.

In game it is one of the most efficient pieces. Armored, can deal damage that ignores armor, has a lure and good mobility. I can't wait to try it in game!

Long-overdue update

It's been almost three months since my previous post. It doesn't mean that I haven't painted anything during that time. On the contrary, these last three months have been pretty good hobby-wise, but let's start from the beginning. 

August and part of September were a bit challenging due to lat renovation. We initially wanted only to repaint the walls but ended up doing much more. I used this opportunity to prepare a new hobby corner. One of the main goals was to make sure both of my daughters have their own room, which meant that I had to move my workspace to bedroom. I wanted to have plenty of storage options so I chose modular workspace from hobbyzone.pl I also bought desk with adjustable height from @easydesk_biurka_gamingowe Solid and heavy with some additional options (such as led lighting or media port). Now that I work from home most of the time I wanted to have plenty of space to combine work section with hobby part. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result as it uses the space to the fullest, combining high functionality with very good quality of all the elements. Below you can see the space before renovation and pictures "after".

I also finally played some games of third edition of Malifaux and even took part in two tournaments. My results were rather poor but I did enjoy several games I played. M3E does eel much faster and more streamlined and the keyword system means that I got to use miniatures I had painted for years but never used them beore (such as Gorar, Adze). I played a ew games with Eurypides, Titania, but in the end settled or Zoraida as my main master - still the aesthetics appeal the most to me and the way this crew plays is fun too.

And as for painting - more pictures can be found on my Instagram account here but below you can see an overview.

Fire Brigade

 It felt a bit odd painting these fiery minis while the temperatures outside reach their annual peak. The new sculpts for Arcanist minis are pretty well designed and the flames are places in a way that adds a lot of dynamism.The Fire Golem is a believe a third version I've painted so far. No airbrush was used - I initially planned to do so but became frustrated after it got clogged again and ended up using brush only. I've used more flue colors this time. While their pigment is a bit weaker, adding a few layers affects how the overall brightness is perceived and adds a nice touch.

Blessed of Decemer + moar cats

Seems like painting winter-themed models while the weather outside is all sun and heat (and occasional thunderstorms) is a bit counter-intuitive, but it works for me. Two Blessed of December, one with scratch built base (that makes it look as if it were 50 mm rather than 40), and one that had positions of her limbs slightly changed. Otherwise it would be really tough to fit her into a 40 mm base.

Also two more hoarcats. I've added some watered down Aethermatic Blue around the crystals to tie them better together.

Nightmares and cats

A few small minis I've painted recently. I like the new daydreams as (similarly to previous versions), each one is distinctly different. I've split three hoarcats into two 40 mm bases as it's really tough to fit them all onto one base and that way these can be used as two separate minis in game. For the Stitched together I've tried to get a color that was something between old sack and skin tone + some random blood splatters.

Steampunk Spiders and Robots

Some steampunk spiders and robots this time round. I've used mainly colorshift paints from Green stuf world + spider serum on the bases. I felt they needed an extra touch so I used some oil paints and added light blue/purple washes in some recesses. 

Translucent Raspy

Painting these was a major challenge as I was asked to make an effort to retain at least partial translucency while applying highlights and shades. I think they turned out OK.

More Malifaux crews

Two more crews to add to 2019 painting pool. I've been neglecting my blog for a good while now. Too easy to just add pics to Instagram, will need to rethink whether it still makes sense to keep the blog running.

Mighty Scorpius and Paul Crocketts

Two minis I've painted recently with extra copies. Always a pleasure to paint a model for the first time. UV lime fluo resin used for the first time to, great stuff!

Chimera keyword project continues

Despite apparent hiatus on the blog, I've been painting a little every now and then. Here are some of my latest efforts. I finally got to test GW's contrast paints. Some quick thoughst:
- these are not an end in themselves, rather a tool with some speific use,
- only using contrasts allows you to get a decent result without much effort,
- contrasts have a tendency to pool and require paying a lot of attention when applied,
- 2 -3 layers -> deeper shades.

Here I used them over Wraith Bone basecoat and followed with some highlights/glazes of red and brown to create the effect of irregular, dirty fur.

For Molemen (I don't care too much for these sculpts), I started with a layer of Guilliman Flesh, folowed by two quick highlights and some washes with glazes of brown and purple. In the end I picked out some facial details too.

Marcus x3

Marcus the beastmaster. One of the most interesting characters in the world of Malifaux An educated man who combines deep knowledge with profound understanding of wilderness. Here in three versions.

Myranda warning

This one was meant to be painted as a Native American. I used Foundry paints for the first time here (Native American Flesh triad) and I really liked it. Good coverage, nice consistency (only a little water needed to make it run smoothly off the brush). I also wanted her clothes to look like some primitive, hand-made garb and followed basic highlights with some very thin brush strokes to imitate material texture.

The miniature is OK but while I like the ultra dynamic pose (fitting her onto those resin hunted tree stumps was a bit tricky), it looks a bit off, especially her right leg seems to be positioned in an unnatural way.