Miniature painting and techniques – Page 2

Ikiryo – Geisha of Yurei

Hello fiends! As I sit here with the tempestuous skies closing in on Chicago, and the tumultuous rumblings of thunder, what better to get into the spirit than to post up my newly completed Ikiryo, one of the miniatures from the Cult of Yurei starter set for Bushido?

I have to say, that I’m really excited about the prospect of getting a painted warband for Bushido. Each of these miniatures has a lot of personality, and I’ll confess that more than once while I was painting Ikiryo, I wondered what her story was. On a whim, this was what popped in my head:

“Many nights she wonders alone with her thoughts, lamenting the day she gave herself to the Cult of Yurei. With each passing Autumn she loses a little more of what humanity she had left. Ikiryo serves a different master now.”

Now while the Bushido rule book is rich with background of the Jwar Isles, and of the different factions overall stories, there’s no actual details of the individual characters. I suppose this is a good and a bad thing, good if you want to create your own narrative for the characters, bad if you don’t, and would be happy using the supplied ‘fluff’. Your mileage may vary.

All that aside, I agonized for a while on what colors to use. I decided to keep the palette limited, with two main colors – jade and another whose name escapes me right now, but a very complimentary pink color.

I did toy with the idea of putting a pattern on her kimono, but decided against it, and opted for simplicity, and just going for a design on her parasol instead. I made her face slightly paler than the rest of her skin, as a sort of ‘it could be makeup or could be a mask’ feel, emphasizing the facial wounds and stitches. I painted the eyes completely over with a pale blue, and highlights white to give that supernatural feel to her.

I love that the miniature and the posing is so demure, but looking at her face you know that she is quite possibly terrifying to be up against on the field.

A few moments of tomfoolery on my phone and I added some fog for atmosphere:

Completing Ikiryo also knocked another dent in my D20 painting table. I also painted up a Deep Wars figured as well from the table, but haven’t had chance to get any pictures yet. Stay tuned, and thanks, as always, for reading!

Terraforming – Bushido style

I was in Chinatown over the weekend with the family, and I picked up a handful of the little red Buddha figurines, thinking that they may work quite well as objectives or just straight up scenery for Bushido.

A mere $6 later and i’d picked up these little fellas. I washed them in warm soapy water and then based them up with some cork and MDF bases I had kicking around:

After the glue had dried, I textured the base with some modelling pumice and left overnight to dry (I prefer using this than the PVA/sand option, as I feel this has more resilience).

A quick blast with some grey car primer and a wash with some Agrax Earthshade, then random washes of the GW green wash (forgot the name!) and we’re on the way:

I used a splash of green to simulate the weathering and discoloration of stone through being left out in the elements. I didn’t want to get too crazy with the paint job on these, just something quick and easy. I grabbed a couple of different shades of grey and drybrushed the little fella, followed up with a last light drybrush of white.

After painting the soil and drybrushing that up too, I hit the base up with some static grass and added some flowers, and voila! a quick piece of terrain to dress my Bushido board. I’ve put my Cult of Yurei Ikiryo figure next to it for size comparison. I didn’t want a huge statue, just something that could be like a roadside shrine or something.

I can’t wait to get the Bushido board finished!

Cheers!

By Chaos You Are Boooound!

Any excuse to have an intro by the mighty Bolt Thrower and I’ll take it! Anyway, it was the lead in to me posting the pictures of the Foul Blightspawn miniature that I finished last week for a painting competition at Grognard Games. He kinda looks like a Ghostbuster, or maybe a Grossbuster? I don’t know. I know I’m not much a fan of the name (some of the Nurgle character names are a wee bit silly) but I had a lot of fun painting him, and it reminded me why I’m such a fan of Papa Nurgle – lots of rust and decay and opportunities to make your miniatures pop.

My only gripe about this miniature, and maybe the newer Plague Marines, is that they have sooooo muuch going on with the miniatures to the point that it’s so busy when it’s done, it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. Sometimes less is more, but whatever!

Thanks for reading!!!!

PanO Fusiliers and Dronbot. Pew pew!

Yes! another strike from the D20 list that I chatted about in my previous post – 3 PanOceania Fusiliers with Combi Rifles. I’ve ordered decals for the shoulder pads, but I don’t have them yet, but the paint is DONE! I’m really liking the overall feel I’m getting with these, and happy that my tabletop quality isn’t looking too bad:

Continue reading “PanO Fusiliers and Dronbot. Pew pew!”

October Rust. Couldn’t think of a title…

Mornin’ all! just a super quick post while i’m enjoying some Dark Matter coffee…

Had a really fun game of Flames of War about a week ago against my arch nemesis Colin. Once again his German forces tried to overthrow the British lines, but to no avail. One thing that scares me witless are those bloody tanks that the Jerrys have, and they made short work of my Sherman armored divisions (I really need to try some other tanks!). I responded in kind with some ruthless artillery strikes (which weren’t always that great, but when they hit, they hit hard!). Also, infantry assaults on tanks are a lot of fun…

Infantry that are dug in are great for holding ground, and are a pain in the arse to get rid of. Colin did whittle down some of my rifle platoons, but true to their nickname of the British Bulldogs, they gave the Hun no quarter.

This was our first game in probably almost 2 years, and we were both relearning the game as the new rule set is out. I have to say that the game seems to flow a little better with this new set, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In other news, I painted up Beastman that I received from Quest Miniatures. I went with the FILMation colors and am really pleased with the results. I used a white undercoat as the colors were going to be primarily brighter than I normally paint, and I forgot how much fun it is to be painting in a vibrant palette. Years and years of painting ‘mighty grimdark’ 40K stuff got me undercoating nearly everything in black. Anyway, here he is:

And finally, I finished another ORC Trooper for my PanOceania Infinity force. I was inspired by Priss from Bubblegum Crisis for the colors, and I think I’m going to get 3 more ORC troopers and paint them up in the other Knight Sabers colors. Infinity is basically a Manga skirmish game after all…

Konya Wa Hurricaine!

Cheers for now!

Deepspawn Reaver from DeepWars

Well, that’s another check off the list! Here is a heavy hitter for my Deepwars Dark Mariners faction. Amazingly, it only took two nights to complete, which for me is supersonic. First I hit all the areas with the base colors:

Once I had a good foundation and was happy with the coverage, then came several washes:

Zesty!

Then the application of highlights. As I’d mentioned in a previous post with my Dark Mariner Vanguard – I like to be a little bit ‘sloppy’ with the highlighting as these miniatures have such an organic feel to them, it seems to work quite well:

Tadaaaaa!

These undersea monsters need to look weathered and algae covered, so washes of greens and purples really help with that look I feel. I really need to figure out a better camera as my phone one seems to be getting worse, but still, hopefully you can see the work here OK.

I’ve been making some scenery for my Deepwars gaming table, which I’ll be posting up soon 😉

Now… on to the next! >fistbump<

Dark Mariner Vanguard finished!

“Most curious, the morphology of these creatures. I have dissected one of the recovered bodies and found that its structure has a basic skeletal form of calcareous bone, but replaced in some sections by soft tissue, supported by a surgically embedded alloy lattice. The techniques used in this type of surgical work is far beyond anything I have witnessed, and the alloy is much stronger and lighter than any we can produce. I must determine the origins of these technologies if we are to repel these creatures…

Research Journal – Pilny the Aged, 1689″

Finally, after what seemed to be an age, I managed to finish up this underwater lurking creep. I had a lot of fun painting him as I wasn’t as ‘tidy’ as I am on other miniatures, and that was mainly due to the fact that I wanted a more organic feel to his look. This guy does, after all, live under the sea and his armor is going to be rusted and barnacle covered, and worn down with the elements, so I wasn’t looking to have a ‘clean cut’ paint job like I would do on say Infinity miniatures for example.

I’m pretty pleased with the lighting effects I have on the ether crystals, I always dread doing that stuff as if it looks crap, it’s hard to rectify it without repainting the area!

I’m looking to get two starter warbands painted up so that I can start running some demo games of Deepwars, and now i’m a step closer to that goal. I’m actually really looking forward to making the gaming surface (more on that later).

I’ve started a painting tracker spreadsheet which is (hopefully) going to help me rage through the Heavy Metal and Plastic Pile of Shame that I have accrued (I’ll be writing an article about that shortly too, that’s going to run for several posts). So, first entry is completed, it felt good to fill the first line in lol!

I’m excited to work on these figures, it certainly gives me something a little different to go at, and I love the fact that it’s a game set underwater (cue JAWS music…). You should all really do yourselves a favor and check out the Antimatter Games website/store and take a look at the worlds of Shadowsea and it’s sister game Deepwars (most miniatures are compatible for both games).

Alrighty… on to the next! >fistbump<

Let there be rot…

Another quick post today to share my newly finished Nurgle Plague Lord. I started this guy a couple of years ago, and then he got shelved when we moved, so I’m finishing up the few figures that are half done. I went old skool on this guy with the Dark Tongue runes on his base:

Nurgle has always been my favorite of the Chaos powers, so it was only right that this guy got finished. Next on the ‘need to be finished cuz they’re only half done are a couple of lizardmen skinks and a Genestealer. Then onto the obscene amount of miniatures that are only undercoated lol!

Poor financial decisions recently saw me acquiring the new 40K Dark Millennium box set (hey, it has Nurgle marines, hell YES!!!). I packed it away in the nerdcloset as soon as I bought it home as an incentive to get other stuff painted up before I tackle that stuff. I’m not sure how I feel about the introduction of the new Primaris marines. This is GW phasing out the ‘old’ style marines. Mark my words. Anyhoo, I thought it would be something that me and my son could play, especially with the new different styles of game play. I commend GW for their recent 180 with listening to their fanbase and being actually pretty cool and fun again, but I’m still sulking until I get new Sisters miniatures. Nyah!

TTFN!

Infinity Swiss Trooper

Just a quick update today on my newly painted Swiss Trooper for my PanOceania Neoterran Capitaline Army:

Painting Infinity miniatures is very satisfying, and I love the fact that I don’t need dozens of miniatures to be able to play. I may actually be able to paint an entire force lol! Next up, Peacemaker Dronbots!

In other news, I’m starting to sell off some miniatures that i’ll never get around to painting, you can see my ‘for sale’ stuff HERE – I’ll be adding more stuff shortly, so take a peep!

Cheers!

Under the sea… under the sea!

Welcome back my lovelies! I apologize for putting that awful Disney song in your head, but it seems appropriate with this first painted mini I wanted to put up, my Siren Maneater:

This beautiful resin miniature is from a game called Deep Wars by AntiMatter Games Which is a small scale skirmish game set “in the watery abyss” and a sister game to Shadowsea. I recently picked up this little gem and another miniature by way of their Blood Reef Kickstarter campaign, and I’m thoroughly in love with the miniatures. The Siren Maneater is a personality character from the Dark Mariners faction, who are I think my favorite faction in the game. She essentially disables enemy models with her siren song which then allows the heavy hitters to move in and wreak havoc. Lots of tentacles, barnacles and slithery Cthulhuesque goodness in this group for sure. I picked up 3 other creatures from this group which I’ll be painting shortly and then I’ll have a playable 300 point force 🙂 I’m really looking forward to making the gaming surface for this too, as most of the items will be from the local pet stores aquarium section!

Now, I’m sure you’ve all probably seen/heard that GW have recently released some new Sisters of Battle miniatures (what the whaaat?), comprising of an $80 box set of Celestine, 2 ‘Geminae’ Seraphim and some big Mechanicus monstrosity; as well as a ‘resin’ Canoness Veridyan. Veridyan is a faithful reproduction of the iconic battle sister as envisioned by John Blanche. Despite my pretty much ignoring GW and their nonsense for the last few years, I was pretty giddy when I saw a leaked picture of Veridyan on my Instagram feed. Then a week or so later I saw leaked pictures of the Triumvirate set and was beside myself with excitement. Had GW finally got their sh!t together and started moving forward with a re-visioned Adepta Sororitas force? Well, the jury is still out on that, as it seems that the Sisters still only have metal miniatures available outside of those I listed above, so thanks GW for giving us sisters supporters some serious blue balls. I guess it’s a step in the right direction, but I’m really hoping these couple of releases aren’t it… If that’s the case, I’ll just look forward to Adeptus Titanicus and the new version of Epic coming out later this year.

Harsh feelings for GW aside (they DO seem to be pulling their socks up lately, and I did pick up last month’s White Dwarf and actually enjoyed it), I bought the Canoness miniature (which still made me grimace at $25). I still can’t find it in myself to drop $80 on the box set with something in I won’t need. I guess I could go halvsies with someone though I suppose.

I’m a little nervous about the material they’ve used for this figure. It seems awfully close to Finecast, and some of the pieces (like the sword blade) are super flexible.

One of the things that kinda jars me about this miniature is the pose. I understand that this is a rendition of the John Blanche painting, but I’d have used a little artistic license on the leg that’s up on the stack of bones. It looks awkward and unnatural, unlike the painting, which works because her legs are a lot more slender. A minor gripe, really. I’m excited to add this to my Sisters force, and I did wonder whether I should paint her the same as the original, or paint her in my army’s colors? I guess her get up is probably her signature gear so stay true to the original, right?

That’s it for now, I’ll be posting again very soon!

Cheers!