Mordheim Reiklander youngblood

Here's another figure I've had for a while. Nothing special here you haven't seen before- well, I guess I got a few new Foundry paints, and this fella's shirt was painted with "Storm green." So that's different.
I painted this figure up to go as a tempest fighter for D&D. I have way too many figures painted up to play in D&D, and this one will probably never see an encounter. Oh well, at least I got a decent paint job done.

Wings of War Sopwith Camel

Just another quick repaint of a Wings of War mini. I repainted this Camel to look like a civilian plane... armed with .303 twin Vickers Machineguns, of course.
I saw a rules variant for this game in which players can race the planes; This may be cause enough to purchase a few Wings of War WWII planes (Spitfires mostly) to paint up in racing colors.
Maybe I should paint what I have on the table already.

Something a little different: Wings of War mini

I tried something a bit different and painted this Wings of War (a game from Fantasy Flight Games) Albatross D5. Like the Prepainted D&D minis, it was mostly a bunch of layers of dry- and overbrushing.
Unfortunately, I am good in neither painting insignia or applying decals, so I've solved the situation by creating my own squadron of "Sky Pirates" (note the skull ((sans crossbones)) on the fuselage.) I'll probably purchase one or two more planes to repaint, then bring them along to games at the local shop as my own personal fighters. Once I DO learn to apply decals, I'll probably add some to this and any future planes I plan to paint.

Next: I got a few more D&D prepainted monsters from my friend Jeff. Those will probably be the next to be painted and posted here.

Nightmares and horrors (D&D repaints)

A friend of mine (Jeff) gave me these great Cthulhu-esque figures from the D&D miniatures game. I've finally painted up a bunch of them for use in a game (D&D rpg). These were fantastically easy to paint. Most of it was just a lot of dry and overbrushing, a little bit of blending and some minor detail work (eyes and teeth.)
I'm especially happy with how the corruption corpses turned out (the zombie-looking figures.) Up close, the detail isn't the best, but the colors (in my opinion) work great together. I used a couple flesh tones, a couple red tones, a touch of white for bone and some citadel sepia ink.
I'm gonna have to hit Jeff up for some more! :)
Then again, I think I might just be able to make my own chaos beasts (the three giant masses of flesh and tentacle) using Sculpey; this has made it onto my list of potential projects for next week.

Quick note on repainting prepainted minis: I tried Testors primer on a couple of these, but the primer made the soft plastic tacky. I solved my problem by simply painting on a layer of black acrylic paint to act as a primer (I used craft paint). And there was no trouble at all. I don't plan on varnishing these; I think the paint on plastic will be durable enough, especially since there aren't a lot of soft, bendy tentacles or antenna.

Ramos, Steampunk sorcerer

This is Ramos, stemapunk sorcerer, made by Wyrd Miniatures. He was easy to paint. This was also a chance to work on source-light painting. If you can blend well, your results with source-light painting should be great; I don't blend well, so my attempt came out a bit high-contrast and rough (also note; I darkened the background to enhance the effect.)
Still, I'm happier with the mediocre sourc-lighting paint job than a better paint job without the lighting. In fact, I tried the lighting, painted over it with a regular paint job, didn't like it, and repainted once more with the source lighting.
I'd love to find an in-depth tutorial on source lighting. Until then, I'll just stay away from figures with a strong light source nearby.
Anyway, I like this figure; it would make a decent wizard, warlock or artificer for D&D (especially Eberon.) It's also the first magic-user figure I've done in a while. My thoughts are now on that unpainted Rackham wizard I have sitting in a figure case. No source lighting needed for that one, but still LOTS of detail to worry about. Maybe that will be my furlough project.

Update: Aug. 19, 2009

I've been working on the odd figure here and there. It's been a busy week at work, so nothing has been finished just yet.
I have a week of furlough coming up in September, so I'm trying to think of a small project to undertake. One possibility: I've done a dead mammoth using Sculpey, so I'm thinking of trying a live mammoth. It would be a challenge; I know I can get the anatomy down ok, but I have to get the movement correct as well. I also would cook it in layers, mostly so I can sculpt the fur on a solid model without risk of leaving unwanted fingerprints.
Otherwise, I may just purchase a couple figures to paint for the week. I DO have other stuff planned for the week. Maybe a trip, possibly some painting in the wild (painting some landscape in watercolor.)
In the meantime, I'll try to get a couple figures painted and posted. Don't forget to check out my gallery on Flickr.

Reaper Vampire Bloodseeker No. 14184 converted

I decided against entering this into Steve Dean's painting comp. I don't think I lack the skill to be a contender; I just don't think this figure is yet good enough to beat what others enter into that competition.
The tab and integral base were clipped away, and the figure mounted on a base of dark rocks made from Sculpey. On the figure itself, I clipped away some of the cape because it was making the figure top-heavy (since the figure had been raised higher on the rocks.) This figure is inspired (again) by Conan the Cimmerian, this time as he might have appeared during his days as a hetman of the Zuagir. Since the original figure was a vampire, the addition of the long hair was also helpful in covering up the pointy ears.
This figure is almost exactly as I imagined it in my head, except the part where it's supposed to look like a Golden Demon entry; I still need to work on that.

Photo Gallery

I've set up a Flickr photo gallery. You can see the link right under the photo of the Mad Painter. It's going to take me some time to get everything from here uploaded, but it will be nice if you just want to peruse through my painted figures without having to wander through my archives here.
So far, I only have my pulp 1930s stuff uploaded. More to come including Reaper fantasy figures, 40mm Old West figures, converted figures, terrain and scratchbuilt models. There also may be figures or alternate photos of figures I upload to Flickr that I won't upload here.

I hope you enjoy!

Some finished, some not (Goblins and Ogre)

Here are a couple more goblins I've finished painting, and an Ogre who still needs work. The goblins are mine; the ogre is Jeff's.

Vampire update: I got the figure, and it is sweet! I've done a little conversion work, but I don't want to show the results just yet. The figure and conversion came out good enough that I want to take my time and try to do a better job than usual with the paint job. I also want to enter this figure into Steve Dean's painting competition, and since the competition is anonymous, and since a lot of those fellas visit this blog, I wanted to keep photos of this figure under wraps for now.
I'm also questioning my original idea for the paintjob. Originally, I wanted to do a warm white, but I'm thinking all black might be nice too. Either way, I'm going to get practice in one of two difficult colors.
The base I have also affects what color scheme I will choose. There are flag stones on the base, and I want them to contrast with the figure; so, it the figure is white, I'll do some volcanic glass stones. If the figure is black, I'll go with basic grey stones with a tufts of scorched grass. Also, if I go with black, I'm wondering what color I'll paint the inside of the cape. Stick with the gold/ochre? I guess just about any color is going to work with the black. The only color I don't want to do is red- too cliche I think...Then again, so is the all-black scheme. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

Waiting for figure: Reaper Vampire Bloodseeker

Some of you may have noticed a quiet lull this week. I'm waiting for a new Reaper mini to arrive from the Warstore.
I wanted another go at sculpting some hair, so I settled on this Vampire Bloodseeker. Enough bald head to work the hair onto; and I don't mind it's a vampire model- I can cover those ears up easily enough. Yes...sigh...it's going to be another Conan-influenced effort, this time representing the great warrior during his times as a pirate. I know there were specific descriptions of Conan in these times, but I'm going with my own mental image this time.
The colors I'm planning on (without having figure in hand yet) will be off-white/light beige for the breeks (pants) and outside of the cape, brown leather jerkin, silver greaves and an orange/gold (not metallic) cape liner. I'm hoping the appearance (along with added black hair) will be very light and somewhat Arabic in look.
I am a bit daunted because I'm not very good at painting white. The color I'll probably settle on may match the color of this samurai's shirt. I'll see how light I can get it. I'm still debating whether to do a tan base for the white, or a blue-gray (Reaper Pro paint's Slate color) base to compliment the orange cape liner. I'm not sure if I prefer the contrast of colors (with the blue) or keeping the entire figure "warm" (with the tan base.) I'll have a better idea when I see the figure in person.

8/4 Update: Still waiting. It's only been a week; I guess the Warstore has spoiled me. I'm hoping the models arrive Friday. That would mean cleanup, filing, greenstuff on Friday night; priming on Saturday and Sunday (I do it in steps) and painting beginning on Monday. Ugh. I hate waiting. In the meantime, I've painted up a couple more goblins- Maybe I should post those.