Duke of the Blood Keep

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Eyes of Terror

2011-12-12T17:26:00.000Z

So, last time I talked about how to use washes over a light base to create a nice blended finish. Much of what I said will be applicable to this paint job as we look at one of the most iconic not-D&D monsters out there… the Beholder.

I started with a black undercoat and then plastered the mini with a coat of Bleached Bone.

I washed the whole thing with Ogryn Flesh and then picked out the eyes in Iyanden Darksun.

Next I washed the inside of the mouth with repeated washes of Leviathan Purple and Baal Red until I was happy. Then I began the longest process of the entire model, the highlight stage. Each individual scale was highlighted around it’s edge using Bleached Bone, as was each eye stalk and all the suckers on the arms. This took me over an hour (actually it took over three weeks) but it is vital to making the wash stages work.

Next I mixed up some white and Scab Red and painted the tongue and gums, mixing up a lighter colour for the highlight. I then filled in the teeth with Desert Yellow, followed by Bleached Bone and then white. The whole thing was then washed with Baal Red before the teeth were picked out again in white. The eyes were highlighted with Golden Yellow, then Golden Yellow and White.

Next it was time to add Pupils. This was done using my pointed clay shaper. I simply added a dot of black to each eye, roughly the same size and position. Each eye was then washed with yellow ink before I added a dot of white highlight. I like to overlap the white and the black to give the illusion that the pupil is behind the lens.

Finally I used a wash of Baal Red to give the eyes some depth by applying around the lids.

Next I started work on the washes. I began by mixing up some Bleached bone and Gryphonne Sepia. I applied this around the mouth and eye and to the underside of the body.

I needed to work quickly at this stage to make the washes blend and to keep my mixes wet enough to work with. Next I mixed up some Gryphonne Sepia and Desert Yellow and worked outwards from where the bleached bone finished. I also applied this mix to the underneath of the eyestalks and to the tops of the arms where they meet the body.

Adding Bestial Brown to this mix I carried on around to the back of the mini where Brown Ink was added to the mix. The bestial brown mix was also applied to the tops of the eye stalks, the bottom of the body fronds and the bottom of the arms.

Finally, Brown Ink and Gryphonne sepia were added to the the very back and top of the model, the bottoms of the fronds and arms and the tops of the eyestalks. Then Gryphonne Sepia was washed over the lighter areas.

I finished off by highlighting the claws. Finally I took a pipette of realistic water put some on my palette. Using an old brush I applied this to eyes and mouth, allowing it to pool in the lower lip to look like drool.

And that’s how I painted my Eye of Terror. Come back next week when we’ll be taking a look at Otherworld’s Lizard King.

Mono-Colour Models using Washes

2011-11-14T23:38:00.000Z

Let me explain what I mean by the title. Sometimes you have models that are essentially the same colour all over, which can present an interesting problem for a painter as you need to create large areas of colour that don’t look flat. In this tutorial I will be using this Jabberwocky miniature to show how you can use washes to create a paintjob that looks visually interesting and naturalistic using a very limited colour palette.

So, I start with a coat of black primer, although white is better is you have it. Then I used a light colour, in this case Fortress Grey, I would recommend using something off-white, not white itself as that will give you a starker finish. Once this was dry I washed the model with Badab Black. What this does is fill in all those crevices so I will be able to see them better in the next stage of the wash. Again, depending on the end result you’re aiming for depends on the colour of wash to use.

It is important to let the model dry thoroughly at this stage or you’re just going to be fighting a losing battle with it. The next thing to do is choose a base colour, this is going to be a shade or so darker than what you want for the midtone. For this mini I went with Fenris Grey. Mix this colour into a wash, you can just use thinner or water but I tend to mix it with one of the GW washes because of how they work. In this case I mixed it with Asurmen Blue. Wash everything with the colour and wait for it to dry. It should leave you with darker recesses and nice highlights.

When you mix up your basecoat wash you want to mix up a lot of it because it will form the backbone of the remaining colours. For the next stage I needed to create a much lighter version of the basecolour so I mixed in Fortress Grey, making sure to leave enough of the original colour behind to work with later. The mix I made was wet, but with enough paint in it for it to stick to the model rather than run. Using this mixture I painted in all the highlights, this included both the underbelly which I wanted lighter and the top of the body too. On the top I picked out mostly edges, like the scales and the muscles and the features on the face. Underneath I blocked out larger areas of flesh that needed to be a lighter tone.

Although this is the “final” highlight stage you don’t need to be super accurate as the wash will take care of a lot of the gradation that needs to take place. Next I mixed Desert Yellow into the basecoat wash colour until I created a wash shade that I liked for the underbelly. Using the original wash colour to do this creates a more unified feel to the model than if I mixed up an entirely different colour, but it really depends on the over all feel that you’re going for. I added more Asurmen Blue to the colour to make sure it was wet enough and applied it to the underbelly, washing right up to where I wanted the underbelly to meet the topside.

Next I washed the lower underside with a lighter mix of the underbelly colour, using Bleached Bone to lightened it. I didn’t wash all the way to the edges this time as I wanted that gradual change from blue to remain intact. The lighter wash will still allow the dark tones beneath to show through so I still washed over the dark recesses, which creates a more natural end result.

I then washed the topside with Asurmen Blue, I could have used the original base colour instead, this would have softened the highlights, but I wanted the harsher feel. Again, don’t be afraid to run the wash on one area right upto and even into the next area, if they are watery enough they should just add a touch of shade rather than completely changing the colour of the area.

Finally I completed the model by adding in the finishing touches. The wings were painted in a similar way to the body, the upperside were painted with a lighter version of the base colour, then washed with the base, then with a layer of Devlan Mud. The under sides were done with Bleached Bone and then washed with Bleached Bone and Gryphonne Sepia. In addition I added a touch of Gryphonne Sepia to the darker areas of the underside just for some extra shade.

The eyes were done using a base of Goblin Green, followed by Goblin Green and Golden Yellow, then a thin stripe of golden yellow. Finally I ran a line of Green Ink along the bottom of the eye and added a thin pupil in black.

And that’s it.

Using the same techniques but different colours I achieved wildly different results with other models.

Well that’s it for this week, I hope that next week I’ll be able to bring you a How Not To Paint Otherworld Eyes of Terror!

Editorial

2011-11-02T22:43:00.001Z

Hey Guys,

I just wanted to put out a post explaining why Unboxed and Duke of the Blood Keep have been stagnant for the last couple of months. Primarily the reason is work, I have a casual job which means I have to take the work when it’s available and I know that there is a long dry spell over Christmas so I’ve needed to work as much as possible the last two months. The upshot has been that I’ve had less than a handful of days off in the last two months.

However, it’s not just that. I’ve been feeling a little burnt out lately and both Unboxed and Duke of the Blood Keep have started to feel like work, rather than fun and both game playing and painting have started to be less enjoyable because of that.

All that said I plan to come back soon, I’ve started playing games again and painting again and work is beginning to lighten up as we wind down into December. So here’s a little taste of what is coming up:

Duke of the Blood Keep

In the next week or so I’ll finish my commission meaning that I’ll be able to get back to doing my How Not To Paint articles. The next one I have planned is a tutorial on creating convincing looking single colour minis using washes. I also have my Beholder primed and ready to paint and I have ton of other minis just waiting for the touch of my brush.

Unboxed

In the next couple of weeks I intended to return with some excellent reviews. I have Nightfall Martial Law and Thunderstone from AEG, two more LOTR LCG Scenario reviews from FFG, plus a couple more games from Right Games in Russia.

Unboxed will also see a return from regular contributors Board Game Guru and Boxed Up Fun.

Thanks for sticking with me guys, both sites are in need of some TLC and I hope to spend my downtime from work improving and updating both.

I’ll be back soon… I promise, until then, have fun gaming!

How Not To Paint–Otherworld Carcass Scavengers

2011-08-16T15:50:00.000+01:00

Have you got your glue at the ready? Good then come with me as we tackle this 25 piece monster!

I started out as usual with a black primer. Then I used Knarloc Green and Desert Yellow to do the body. The maw was painted white. The flag stones were painted with Fenris Grey, Desert Yellow, Battlefield Earth and Greatcoat Grey.

Next I painted the underside body segments using Bleached Bone. I washed the top side with Green Ink and the mouth with Leviathan Purple. The flagstones were highlighted with Bleached Bone, Fortress Grey, Bestial Brown and a mix of Fenris Grey and White.

I added Scab Red to the eyes and highlighted the centre sections with Khador Red Highlight. The teeth were picked out with Desert Yellow. The main body was highlighted using a mix of Golden Yellow and Dark Green. The Nodules on its back were painted with Battlefield Earth and highlighted with Bloodtracker Brown.

I added more yellow to the mix and highlighted the body again, this time I was just aiming to hit the areas that would be hit by the light, this will help when I wash it later. I also added Bleached Bone to the teeth and washed the mouth with Baal Red. It was then time to attach all the limbs…

Some time later…

All of the limbs were attached using Gale Force 9 grey stuff and GF9 super glue. They were then primed black and then base coated using Knarloc Green.

I highlighted the legs and tentacles using the same colours as the body. The legs were only highlighted along their straight edges. The tentacles were highlighted to about half way down.

Next I added some Yellow to the end of the tentacles and left them to dry. I mixed up some washes and washed the flagstones. I used Bleached Bone and Gryphonne Sepia, Fenris Grey, White and Asurmen Blue, Fortress Grey and Badab Black and finally Bestial Brown and Devlan Mud.

They were then washed with just the wash without the addition of the paint. If I wanted to darken the stones further and bring the colours closer together I might wash the whole base with Gryphonne Sepia too.

I washed the tentacles with Thrakka Green to bring the colours closer together. I added a dash of Baal Red to the eyes and I washed the underside of the model with a mix of Gryphonne Sepia and Desert Yellow.

Finally I washed everything, body, legs and tentacles with a layer of Green Ink. I highlighted the underneath and the tail spikes of the body using Bleached Bone and then, to give it all a slimy feel I added a layer of gloss varnish.

And the finished result…

And the second one I did. I positioned this one crawling down a wall to give it a more dynamic feel…

And the two of them hanging out together discussing how best to kill any intrepid heroes foolish enough to enter their lair.

Well, that’s for this week, come back soon for more…

How Not To Paint: Giant Leeches

2011-08-01T18:30:00.001+01:00

I’m keeping it nice and simple this week. These disgusting little blood suckers will be at least part of my entry into this months Vermin-based Otherworld Painting Challenge.

I started by priming the mini in black and adding Scab Red and White mix to the mouth.

I then washed the mouth with Baal Red and then added the pink mix in again to the central sucker and the gumline.

Teeth were then added in Desert Yellow before the mouth was once again washed with a mix of Pink and Baal Red.

Next I mixed some black with Scab Red and then watered it down with Baal Red. This was applied to the whole model with the exception of the recesses.

Mixing in a bit more Scab Red I highlighted the top side of the model. I was aiming for it to look mostly black, but deep red where light would be hitting it.

Next I added Deep Red to the mix and did the same thing again.

I then highlighted the edges of each body segment using pure Deep Red

Adding Fortress Grey to the red mix I highlighted the edges of all the underneath body segments.

I added another wash of Baal Red to the mouth, then I picked out the teeth in Bleached Bone, followed by White.

Finally I mixed up a wash of 1/4 Black Ink and 3/4 Baal Red and washed the whole mini. When that was dry I added a coat of gloss varnish to make the whole thing look horribly slimy.

The stone work on the base was done using Battlefield Earth, followed by Bestial Brown, Greatcoat Grey followed by Fortress Grey, Desert Yellow followed by Bleached Bone and Stone Green followed by Stone Green and White.

And there you have it, a blood sucking beastie suitable for any dungeon adventure.

And let’s not forget the rest of the family.

That’s it for this week, who knows what I’ll have for you next time, but until then, have fun gaming!

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Shambling Mound

2011-07-18T00:07:00.000+01:00

This may well be one of the most complicated models I’ve tried to do a painting guide for, so bare with me.

The current Otherworld monthly challenge is “If you go down to the Woods” in which we are all attempting to paint a model from the Otherworld Wilderness range, I chose the Shambler.

I started with a Black undercoat and then I used Knarloc Green over the entire model. Once that was dry I used Thraka Green. This made for a nice basecoat but it also helped me to see more clearly what was going on where as there is a lot of detail on this mini.

With that done I began blocking out the basic colours. First I used Stone Green on the hands and nose and eyes. I used Knarloc Green on the leaves, Bestial Brown on the branches, Desert Yellow on the mushrooms and parsnips, Royal Purple on the radishes, Khemri Brown on the potatoes, Mechrite Red on the cherries and Macharius Solar Orange on the carrots.

I then washed the hands with Devlan Mud and set to work on the detail beneath the branches. Using Stone Green I painted all the areas beneath the branches trying just to catch the upper layer of detail, this is difficult because the space is very tight. Luckily wash can help correct the mistakes.

Next I washed all of that with Thraka Green and added a layer of Knarloc Green and Golden Yellow to the edges of the leaves, creating a “V” on each leaf.

The next stage is long, like, really long. Using Desert Yellow I added a woodgrain-esque effect to all the branches. This took me a solid hour to do across the entire model, but the effect looks good in the end. I simply painted dozens of lines on each branch, generally trying to follow the natural shape of the branch, until it looked like this.

Next I mixed up some Dark Green and Golden Yellow and added another highlight to all the leaves, including the broad leaves on the back of the model. I also used this mix to highlight the nose.

As you can see in the picture above I’ve also added a layer of Rust to the tops of all the mushrooms. Next I washed the mushrooms with Devlan Mud and, along with the potatoes and parsnips. Then I set about highlighting all the veg. Mushrooms were highlighted using Rust on the top and Bleached Bone on the bottom. I also added a speckled effect using browns and yellows with my pointed clay shaper.

I highlighted the Carrots using Elf Flesh, the parsnips using Bleached Bone, the Radishes using Royal Purple and White and the Potatoes using Khemri Brown. The Cherries were darkened using Battlefield Earth in the recesses and then Scab Red all over. They were then highlighted using Bright Red followed by a dash of white.

Meanwhile the nose and the hands both got a highlight of Stone Green.

Using Bestial Brown and Moldy Ochre I highlighted the fingers and the branches that stick up out of his shoulder. These were then rehighlighted with Bleached Bone, then Moldy Ochre was painted onto the areas where the heart of the wood is showing. I also used Moldy Ochre for the eyes too.

Next all the wood was give a wash of Brown Ink mixed with Gryphonne Sepia (which helps reduce the shine of the ink). The nose was washed with a mix of Thraka Green and Deep Turquoise. The hands were also give another coat of Devlan Mud.

Around the back I washed the radishes with Leviathan Purple and the carrots with a mix of Orange and Baal Red. The Parsnips and the underside of the mushrooms were given a wash of Desert Yellow and Gryphonne Sepia.

Finally I added a touch of Baal Red to the eyes, highlighted the inner sections of the finger and shoulder branches with Moldy Ochre and I highlighted the edges of each segment of the nose with Deep Turquoise and White. And there you have it, one completed shambler.

Gloss Varnish was added to all the broad leaves and the vegetables to give them a nice healthy shine.

And that’s it for this week, I’m not quite sure what next will hold in store so stay tuned, but in the meantime, have fun gaming!

How Not To Paint: Zombie Halflings

2011-07-11T23:43:00.000+01:00

So, this week I’m going to be showing you how I painted Matt Bickley’s quite excellent Zombie Halfling from Otherworld Miniatures.

As usual I started with a black primer undercoat, then I set to work on the flesh. This was a mix of Tanned Flesh, Stone Green and Bleached Bone.

Next I added some more bleached bone to the mix and highlighted again. Notice that I didn’t bother painting eyes on this mini, this was because they are only half open, so instead I emphasised this by highlighting the lids and, later on, washing the recesses.

Next I used Battlefield Earth to paint the hair, waistcoat and trousers and I used Desert Yellow for the shirt.

Using bleached bone I highlighted the shirt.

Then Bleached Bone and White for the final highlight, this concentrated on just the edges as this stage will be made more subtle by later washes. I also started highlighting the hair and clothes using Bloodtracker Brown and Chestnut Brown.

Next I mixed up some Bleached Bone and Gryphonne Sepia and washed the shirt, muting the deep shading and the extreme highlights to give a more pleasing natural finish.

Mixing some Moldy Ochre with Bloodtracker Brown I highlighted the waistcoat, while I used Chestnut Brown and Bleached Bone to highlight the trousers.

Both were then washed with a mix of Chestnut Brown and Gryphonne Sepia.

Buttons were added using Dwarf Bronze and then highlighted with Burnished Gold.

Finally it was time for a bit of gore. Simply using Baal Red I added touches of blood to the face and sleeve cuffs and to anywhere the clothing seemed to have been slashed. To make the blood look darker you can also add some Leviathan Purple to the deeper recesses.

The last stage was to use some Thraka Green in the recesses of the face and the hands and feet. Note I didn’t wash all the flesh, I just used a brush to apply a small amount right into the creases to add a bit more depth to the skin.

I used my premixed earth and some static grass and a couple of leaves to give a graveyard feel to the base.

And that was it, of course, with a Zombie Frodo you have to have a Zombie Legolas and a Zombie Gimli!

Next Week: Painting a Shambling Mound!

How Not To Paint - Otherworld Wraiths

2011-07-04T23:29:00.001+01:00

I’m back! It’s been a little hectic around here, but I’m back, at least for a bit anyway. So, the paint job I’m showing you today uses a single colour across the entire model, in this case Grey, but the technique could easily be used to paint a sepia scheme or any other monochrome effect.

To start with I undercoated the model with black, then a layer of Astronomican Grey and then I washed the whole thing with Badab Black.

Next I mixed up a wash of Greatcoat Grey and Badab Black and washed the entire model again.

Next I added a little Fortress Grey to the mix. This should thicken the mix from a wash to a thin paint, this will give a very smooth finish and flow, but it may feel different to paint with because it’s so thin. Using this I painted everything but the recesses. As you can see on the sword I feathered the edges so that it fades slowly into the darker layer. This is relatively easy to achieve with these watered down layers.

Next I added more Fortress Grey to the mix, adding some more Badab Black to keep the consistency of the mix about the same as the previous coat. This layer was applied to all raised areas of the model. This was the final layer of highlights for the cloth and skin. I used different levels of highlights to add definition to the finished model so that the cloth, skin and armour would have a different feel without needing to make them a different colour. If everything is the exact same colour it can look more like a statue than a living thing.

Finally I added some white to the mix and highlighted all the edges of the armour and weapons. I also added highlights to the various adornments on the fabric, like the chain and medallion. This final layer of highlights was very much about painting lines because the armour needed to feel the most solid part of the model. You may be able to see how this effect works on the sword. The original blending is still visible but the edge is also very defined.

The final step was to wash all the flesh with Badab Black to bring it all down a shade below the clothing. I also added a touch of Badab Black to the very deepest recesses of the armour. I based using my premixed earth flock, adding extra stones using superglue.

And that’s how I painted an Otherworld Wraith using only 4 colours and one wash. Shame I don’t get to keep it!

Next Week: Zombie Halflings

Big ‘Uns Challenge Mini

2011-06-27T04:38:00.000+01:00

So, it’s been a while since I posted, but I’ve been busy, really busy! I do however have 2 how to paints ready to go once I get the time sit down and write them out. This week though I’m just going to show you my entry for the Otherworld monthly painting challenge.

The topic was Big ‘Uns, any model on a base larger than 25mm, which gave us all the chance to paint a wide variety of stuff. So far we’ve seen ogres, minotaurs, bugbears, demons and rust monsters. However I decided to go with this!

Yup, that’s a hill giant and he took a whole lot longer to paint than I had anticipated. I had planned to paint two of them for the challenge but by the time I had painted this one the month was almost up and with the commission still ongoing I really couldn’t justify another 4 days on the second giant.

Hopefully all the work has paid off, I think he looks great, he needs a couple of touch ups and corrections but other all I’m very happy with how he turned out.

What do you guys think?

The Duke

Next Week: How Not To Paint Zombie Halflings

An Overview of Painting Otherworld Ropers

2011-05-23T01:43:00.000+01:00

Wait… What? Is this a How Not To Paint? Well, no. Basically when I painted my Roper I did take stage by stage pictures, but because most of the painting was wet blending it was hard to stop and take pics.

So, yes, while this post will be a step by step of what I did, the pictures will be few and there will be quite a few steps between them.

So I started out priming black as always. Next I used Khardic Flesh on the mouth and eye. Then working quickly I blended Battlefield Brown into Thornwood Green into Greatcoat Grey, working from bottom to top, I then repeated this down the tentacles, but ending with Battlefield Brown.

Next I washed some Devlan Mud into the fleshy parts to bring out the detail for me. I then used Bloodtracker Brown to highlight the Battlefield Brown, while the other two colours were highlighted using whiter versions of the base coat.

Next I picked out the eye and teeth using Moldy Ochre. I also mixed Moldy Orche into the Bloodtracker Brown and highlighted the edges of the brown stone. Mixing an even lighter shade of Thornwood and Greatcoat Grey I highlighted the edges of the upper sections too. I also added the texture to the ends of the tentacles where they join the main body using these highlight colours. These were done using my pointed clay shaper, which allowed me to make the dots bigger or smaller as I chose.

With the eye I started with a black pupil, which again I created with my clay shaper. Then using Chestnut Brown I added lines coming out from centre. Next I added more lines this time in white.

I washed this with yellow ink before shading the edges with Gryphonne Sepia. I wasn’t happy with the finish so I washed the eye with a mix of yellow ink and Moldy Ochre, redid the lines, washed it with more things, did more lines and honestly I can’t remember how I finally got the look I wanted.

To Finish the eye I added the pupil back in and added three dots of white using the clay shaper. I would also later varnish it to finish it off and give it a slimy look.

Next I washed the mouth and outer eye with Brown Ink. I then picked out all the flesh again using Khardic Flesh, followed by Kardic Flesh and white. The teeth we picked out using Moldy Ochre followed by Bleached Bone.

Breaking out the Clay Shaper again I added dots in Bloodtracker brown to the ends of the limbs, leaving only the final washes to do.

I washed the lower rock and ends of the tentacles using a mix of Gryphonne Sepia and Bloodtracker Brown. I then used Thornwood Green and Gryphonne Sepia to wash the lower grey green and then I mixed in some white and Greatcoat grey to do the upper areas. This wash was more “Rubbed on” than washed on as I was trying to soften the starkness of the low lights and highlights. The mix was constantly adjusted, adding more of the Thornwood wash to the Greatcoat wash and repeatedly rubbing this coats onto the model. It’s hard to describe, but I kept going until I was happy.

Finally I added some Khardic Flesh to Baal Red and washed all the flesh followed with touch of Baal Red wash to the inside of the lip and into the creases in the flesh around the eye.

To base the model first I used Gale Force 9 Earth, then I got a small pot and mixed a few varieties of small stones from different companies, dabbed super glue into various spots on the base (because it holds stones better than wood glue) tipped these over the base and then shook off the excess. I add three tufts of grass from Noch Scenics and he was done.

I would later add a drop of gloss varnish to the eye and the flesh around it and the flesh of the lower lip, which isn’t shown in the pictures…

And so that’s it. Hope you liked.

Next Week: Something Else

Lord of the Rings: Elves

2011-05-16T01:00:00.000+01:00

So, I have over a thousand Lord of the Rings models, a lot of which are less than fantastic plastics and nearly all of which are painted to my old old standard, which is not too great… see…

(P.s. This was probably only painted 6 years ago)

I dont want to get rid of the old LOTR minis because they are an ideal scale for use with Otherworld and Hasslefree, but I also dont want to use them in their current state, so that means they need to be repainted.

Quite frankly, my current painting speed is about 2 hours per model and a lot of the plastics aren’t detailed enough for me to spend that long on them. In fact, with over a thousand minis, maybe closer to two thousand, it would take me decades to paint them all and that’s not a commitment I’m willing to make.

So instead I’m batch painting them. Five at a time I intend to bring all the plastics up to a good table top standard and I’ll paint heroes to my usual standard.

So, these Elves took me around 30-45 mins each (it’s hard to say because I started painting 20 at a time before I realised that was ridiculous.)

And here is a close up of one.

The intention really is to create a scheme that looks pretty good from a distance so that I don't need to paint super super detailed (which most of the plastics don't reward anyway.) Although these five turned out ok next time I will use a darker wash on the flesh and armour to give a better definition.

Five down, many hundreds to go!

Next Week: An Overview of Painting Otherworld Ropers

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Leprechauns

2011-05-09T23:41:00.000+01:00

Painting models at this scale (18mm) may seem pretty daunting, I know it did to me. So I thought I’d share my techniques for painting this with a few explanations why I did things the way I did.

As usual I started with a black primer, then I added the base coat. Because I knew I wanted the model to be mostly green I picked out a series of different ones to make telling each item of clothing apart easier.

I started with Orkhide Shade on the waistcoat and boots , with Desert Yellow on the shirt underneath. The trousers were painted Knarloc Green and the hat Deep Turquoise. The flesh was painted with Khardic Flesh and the sack with Bloodtracker Brown. The coins were painted with Dwarf Bronze.

As always I go right to the edge of the next colour with the base coat because I am aiming to create shades in the recesses. Also, don't be afraid to be a bit messy at this stage, especially with things like the the shirt. It will be difficult to fix the shirt later on without messing up the waistcoat so I made sure I painted it thoroughly leaving no black.

The flesh was painted next, using Khardic Flesh and White, mixing in more white for a second highlight. The Teeth were also picked out in white. I tend towards using a very long brush, all the time, because I get better coverage with my paint than I do with a small brush. This does give my minis a broad-stroked finish, but I often soften this effect with washes.

Next I picked out the shirt using Bleached Bone. Because of the model’s size there was no reason to give a second highlight and the flatter, two tone paint scheme works well with the more naturalistic style I am trying to develop.

The sack and gold were washed with Ogryn Flesh and rehighlighted with Bloodtracker Brown, as was the hair.

Next I mixed up some Dark Green and Golden Yellow and highlighted the waistcoat and boots. I concentrated my highlights on the extreme creases in the coat, this prepares the model for the later wash that will help blend the highlights. As always I tend to not spend too long working on the boots because they are often obscured by the basing.

I highlighted the trousers using Gretchin Green, again focusing on the extreme edges.

I added Arctic Blue to the Deep Turquoise and highlighted the hat.

The coins were then highlighted with Shining Gold followed by Burnished Gold and the hair and the sack were given a coat of Desert Yellow,

Mixing up a washed of Dark Green and Thraka Green I washed the waistcoat, trousers, hat and boots. This tones down the highlights and deepens the shade in the recesses. Because the wash-paint mix is runny but with more pigment than a normal wash, you can control it and push it into the edges of the section, eliminating any black or dark areas and generally neatening up the highlights. It is easy to continue to add layers of the same wash to reduce the definition between shade and highlight in different areas. For example, around the bulge of his stomach, but not in the recess between coat and arm.

Finally I added some Gryphonne Sepia to some Brown Ink (the point of adding the wash to the ink is to tone down the shine the ink leaves, while retaining the strength of colour and the fluid properties of the ink) and painted this over the sack and the hair. Using my pointed clay shaper I added two buttons in Burnished Gold to the front of the waistcoat and I was done.

I based the model using my premixed Gale Force 9 earth (which has small stones and other bits of flock in it). I added GF9 spring undergrowth, Javis Summer Mix static grass and various leaves from Decour Plus. Finally I added a small weed bush from Silflor.

I hope that helps, all four of the Faerie Folk miniatures were great to paint, if a little daunting, but certainly worth it in the end…

Don’t they look stunning?

Until next time, keep up the good work guys.

The Duke

Next Time: Lord of the Rings Elves

April Painting Challenge Plus Wargames Objective Marker Part 2

2011-05-02T00:35:00.000+01:00

So this months challenge over on the Otherworld forum was “A Bad Day To Be a Guard” in which we had to paint low level humanoids. I just managed to get mine done with a day or two to spare, bad form really considering I run the challenge!

Here they are:

Two of John Pickford’s best Kobold minis. And here’s their bad day:

Grimdalf and a horde of Angry Dwarves retake their mountain home.

Also, I got this guy finished off a while ago…

This objective marker took me about a week as I only painted a few bits at a time and only after after completing commission minis. I wasn’t aiming to paint it to my usual standard because it’s just an objective marker, but I think it’s turned out rather nicely despite that.

The Paymaster and chest are both removeable meaning that you can use the cart for other items than the chest, as well as opening up rules possibilities for the chest, cart and paymaster as a whole or separately.

I’m really enjoying repainting old minis and using them for Objective Markers, as I paint each one new ideas and stories flow into my head about how to use them. I’ve still got a huge box of old Warhammer stuff, plus some brand new trees so keep checking back for more from my Big Box of Stuff!

Next Week: How Not To Paint – Otherworld Leprechauns.

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Firenewts

2011-04-19T13:15:00.001+01:00

So this week’s (day late) How Not To Paint will focus on a miniature that only a handful of people own. However, if you really really want a copy of it, it is still possible to get one, you just have to ask very very nicely!

So, I started out using Macharius Solar Orange for the flesh. Boltgun Metal for the armour and Dwarf Bronze for the gold detail. Battlefield Earth was used for the backpack and scabbard. Desert Yellow for the undergarment and the boot tops. Thornwood Green for the boots and Bloodtracker Brown for the trousers.

Using a mix of Baal Red wash and Scab Red I washed all the flesh. Using Devlan Mud I washed the armour and using Ogryn Flesh I washed the trousers, boots etc.

Next I added another coat of Macharius Solar Orange to the flesh.

Then using a mix of Macharius Solar Orange, Iyanden Darksun and Orange I highlighted the flesh. This was applied to all the raised areas without being too extreme.

I then applied a final highlight by mixing in some Sand.

Adding even more Sand to the mix I then painted the underside of the model. By this I mean the inner arms, under the jaw and the lower eyelids. Adding some bleached bone I did this again.

Using Scab Red I began to add a mottled effect to the skin. I did this using a pointed clay shaper, which is better than a brush for a few reasons. Firstly it always gives a rounded effect and depending on how much pressure you apply you can alter the size of the dots. Secondly, doing this kind of effect trashes the point of your brush! I then added a second series of dots in Orange.

I then washed all of the flesh with a mix of Orange and Ogryn Flesh. This has the effect of muting the dots as well as helping to shade the join between the light and dark flesh parts.

Finally, using Scab Red and Baal Red mix I added some shading around the nose and other recesses.

Next I rehighlighted the lighter flesh with Sand and added in the eyes using Bloodtracker Brown, then a lighter mix of bloodtracker brown.

The eye was then washed with Brown Ink. After it had dried I added in a dot of Bleached Bone using my clay shaper. I also added in the teeth using Bleached Bone.

Next I used Greatcoat Grey to pick out the bed roll and Desert Sand for the backpack. I also picked out the undergarment and boot tops using Desert Sand.

Using bleached bone I picked out the edges of the backpack, boot tops and undergarment. Mixing up a lighter shade of Bloodtracker Brown I picked out the straps around the bedroll. Mixing some Bleached Bone with Greatcoat Grey I highlighted the bedroll, adding some more bleached bone for a second highlight.

The trousers were highlighted with Bloodtracker Brown, followed by Bloodtracker brown and Bleached Bone. The boots were highlighted with a mix of Thornwood Green and Bleached Bone and then washed with Devlan Mud.

Finally I added a coat of gloss varnish to the flesh to bring out the pattern in the skin.

Next the armour was highlighted first with Chainmail and then with Mithril Silver. The gold areas were highlighted with Shinning Gold followed by Burnished Gold.

The armour was then washed with a mix of Boltgun Metal and Badab Black. When this was dry the details were put back with a wash of Devlan Mud. The gold was washed with Ogryn Flesh.

Finally the shield was added. The gold was painted with Dwarf Bronze, washed with Ogryn Flesh, then highlighted with Shinning Gold and Burnished Gold before being washed again with Ogryn Flesh. The wood was done with Battlefield Earth, followed by lines of Desert Sand and Bleached Bone. This was washed with a mix of Brown and Yellow ink, followed by a wash of Ogryn Flesh. The Green gems were done with Knarloc Green, followed by Golden Yellow and washed with Vallejo’s Dark Green Ink.

And that’s pretty much it. I based the minis using Decorplus extra fine cork and basing grit. I added a couple of stones from Gale Force 9 and a tuft of Noch grass. Finally I sprayed everything with GW Sealant.

Right, I’m off for some sleep. See you all in a week!

The Duke

Forges and Firenewts

2011-04-11T23:31:00.001+01:00

So, I’m in what can only be described as an epic work week, which has ended up with me working 13 days in a row… today is day 6! In fact I managed to work almost a full “normal person” week in 2 days, managing a whopping 32 hours work!

This is why my updates have been… well… not there. I’ve been so busy I haven’t even managed to get some commission painting done. I’ve literally been too tired to do much of anything. I did however mange to get this nice Dwarven objective marker/scenery piece done.

I basically painted this in 10-20 spurts, doing a little bit here and there as I could manage. Pretty happy with it. The forge and the anvil can both be removed for just a standard scenic piece.

I still need to paint the dwarves to go with the piece. I also need to find the bellows that go with the forge and I’d like to add a little animal in the cave beneath the small tree. All that will probably have to wait until the commission is done though.

I have plans to make quite a few more scenic pieces as I go through my massive box of old minis.

I can now also reveal what I’ll be painting for the April Painting Challenge over on the Otherworld forums! It’s this guy!

Or, to be more precise, three of these guys, but I’ll only be keeping the one shown above, the other two are part of the commission. The base for this mini is complete, but as yet the newt is only undercoated. I’m sure if you all ask nicely I’ll add a How Not To Paint guide for him too!

Right, where’s my grindstone, I think I still have a little of my nose left!

The Duke…Out!

March Painting Challenge

2011-04-04T04:07:00.001+01:00

So, March has been and gone and my posts have remained fairly irregular. This is not going to get any better I’m afraid as my job is now in a weird state of flux, which wont resolve any time soon. Add to that the commission and the commitments that come with running my other blog and you begin to see why things are a little wonky around here lately.

Anyway, firstly I thought I’d share my entry for the Otherworld Monthly Painting Challenge. This months challenge was to paint a model produced in the year 2010. I gladly did so with this fellow…

This Satyr was sculpted by the talented Matt Bickley and was his debut mini for Otherworld, but the model didn’t release for, maybe over a year. Personally I love it, although it got a lot of hate on the forum. I also really like how it turned out in the end, with the gold being some of my best to date.

Next I wanted to share some of my other projects. I took this photo last night as I was working… I literally couldn’t get into bed because of my gaming addiction!

You probably can’t see everything that is going on here, but I’ll point some bits out.

Lined up along the edge of the table you can see the next eight mini’s I’ll be working on for the commission. In the middle of the table you can probably see a dwarf objective marker (or Anvil of Doom) which will be built into some new scenery bits I’m making. In the corner of the shot you can also see the forge that goes with it.

Here, in a very fuzzy picture, you can see the completed, or nearly completed, base for my next OW Challenge mini… guys, go ahead, guess what it is… you’ll never ever guess… well maybe Cthulhu will!

Over on the bed you can see a 5th Edition Warhammer box, this is full of old minis I’ll probably never use. I have an even bigger box in the loft filled with even more. Over on the left of the shot you can see some more objective markers I’m working on. The first is the Dogs of War Paymaster. Behind that is the base for the Anvil. The paymaster is pinned so can be removed from the piece for a more generic look, and the chest can be removed and other items substituted in place. The Anvil and the Forge have also been drilled so that they can be slotted onto the pins in the base, or left off.

Also on the same piece of foam core you can probably not make out an old Ghost, this will make a nice undead objective marker or just some nice undead themed scenery.

Basically, I’m going through my collection and seeing what I can make use of, the rest will end up on ebay! However, after 4 hours I had to stop, I’m not sure if I really got anywhere, but my back was killing me.

Until next week, have fun gaming and don’t let your gaming habit get this bad!

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Spiders

2011-03-14T23:43:00.001Z

Ok, so this week I’m going to look at painting Otherworld spiders. The first step in this guide will be to locate your copy of the extended edition of the Fellowship of the Ring (or any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy really, well, except Return of the King…!)…

Ok, do you have it? Good, slot it into your computer/laptop/dvd player and we’re ready to start!

I started with a black undercoat, followed by a layer of Khemri Brown (any brown with a lot of white in it will work just as well). Finally I washed this with a mix of Yellow and Brown Ink.

I have not yet glued the model to the base so I can paint the two parts separately without either getting in the way of the other. Once this was dry I added a layer of Desert Yellow.

As you can hopefully see I just left the recesses dark. Next I used Bleached Bone to highlight each segment. To do this I left around a millimetre on each leg Desert Yellow doing the rest in Bleached Bone.

Note I left the abdomen alone because I plan on painting it a different colour later. Next I used White and Bloodtracker Brown to add highlights to the legs. First I painted straight lines in white that had a slight curve towards the top end. Then I used the brown to emphasise that line.

Next I took some Desert Yellow and mixed it with some Gryphonne Sepia and washed the entire model with it. The pigment from the paint, when mixed with the gw washes remains dominant, but the wash makes it act more like a shade and gives a very pleasing overall finish.

Now, this next step is definitely not recommended, what I did next was mixed up some brown and yellow ink and washed the entire model. The result was a mess and if you’re painting along at home, this will take you from meeting “Mr. Bilbo’s Trolls” to “The Mines of Moria” to put right…

Once you’ve fixed your disastrous error it’s time to move on. Using Chestnut Brown I painted the head. I mixed up some Bloodtracker Brown and some Moldy Ochre and painted the abdomen. Then using Battlefield Brown I added the wavy stripe, which I outlined with Bleached Bone. Further, sporadic dots were added to the abdomen in Bloodtracker Brown and Bleached Bone.

Dots were then added to the brown stripe in Moldy Ochre. The whole abdomen was then washed with Ogryn Flesh. The head of the spider was washed in Badab Black. Ogryn Flesh was also used to deepen the recesses in the segmented legs.

The head was then highlighted using Chestnut Brown and White, just on the segmented areas, followed by a Devlan Mud wash. The Eyes were painted black, and then a thin line of white was added to the upper edge of each. The Bleached Bone lines on the abdomen were added back in again. And the brown strip was painted again using Brown Ink.

Finally I added a dab of gloss varnish to each eye and a thin coat over the whole abdomen.

And that’s it The base was painted using Desert Yellow, Greatcoat Grey, Battlefield Brown and Thornwood Green. This was then washed with Gryphonne Sepia. Highlights were then added to each stone, just adding white for the grey and green and using Bleached Bone and Bloodtracker Brown for the Yellow and the Brown. Finally each stone was washed with a mix of the base colour and Devlan Mud.

Right, back to the grindstone. Time for the Two Towers and the other 3 spiders… until next time, keep on gaming!

Some Excuses and a Shameless Plug

2011-03-08T14:08:00.001Z

So, I didn’t post yesterday, but I meant to. Unfortunately, work is quite demanding at the moment and most of my painting time is devoted to the commission.

On top of that we’re having a massive clearout here, which is constantly impeding on my ability to paint. Not only is tidying time consuming but all the dust has triggered my dust allergy, causing my eyes to become inflamed and itchy and I kinda need my eyes to be able to paint!

Finally, I spent most of yesterday nursing my computer back to life after it decided that 3 1/2 years was a long enough life. She’s back to life again now, but I still figured it’s time to buy a new machine just in case.

So, there you have it, many, many excuses for why my painting work is progressing very slowly. Oh, I almost forgot the shameless plug… Due to the clearout I have lots of stuff going up on ebay, I also have lots of stuff I’m simply giving away for free to people on various forums (keep watching the forums for more freebies). So why not check out the stuff I have for sale by clicking that conveniently located FOR SALE button in the sidebar.

I currently have some 2nd ed Blood Bowl and 40k minis going very cheaply, they end on Thursday so hurry. Going up today I have the now OOP Cleric and Wizard Spell Cards for 2nd ed, plus more stuff to come. So, why not help me buy my new computer, get cool minis and books, help clearout my house, rid it of dust and get me back to painting pretty miniatures!

Thanks guys…

The Duke

P.s. here are some pictures for those who haven’t seen them!

February Painting Challenge

2011-02-28T23:38:00.001Z

I am 100 posts old today! Here’s to the next 100!

With the commission and a lot of work I really didn’t have time to do more than one miniature for the February Painting Challenge over on the Otherworld forum.

But first, the backstory…

Somehow, Denethor, Grimdalf, Tiriel and Luke escaped the encounter with the goblins and the wolves, their lives barely intact. However, that encounter changed their destinies forever. Following clue after clue of a mysterious, shadowy presence, that dogged their every step, the band was led this way and that on adventure after adventure.

Things did not go well for them. As they sought to force an encounter with their ultimate adversary they were drawn into deadly combat. Tiriel was the first to go, she met her demise at the hands of a ferocious Owlbear that their nemesis had let loose on a local village.

Some years later Denethor too was killed as the group headed into the snow capped mountains, following a lead that promised to show them the way to their evil oppressor. The mighty warrior gave his life valiantly to delay the Titan that guarded the secret to the violent villain's lair.

Together, Luke and Grimdalf followed the map, their quest now a sacred mission of revenge. The trail lead them into a fiery mountain in the heart of a dense jungle. Together they fought off crazed cultists, huge cats with mystic powers and giant reanimated corpses. Down they delved into the heart of the dungeon where at last they believed they would finally confront their fearsome foe.

They battled long and hard against what they found there but the Tarrasque proved too powerful for young Luke and he too was slain. Only with the help of a powerful Wish Ring was Grimdalf finally able to put the beast to rest, only to learn the horrible truth, that this was not the beast he had sought.

Returning home, or to what had once been his home before the nefarious ne'er-do-well had burnt it to the ground, the little wizard followed the final clue. With unparalleled skill he dispatched the golems that guarded the inner sanctum and at last he was face to face with the beast that had caused him all the pain and heartache in his considerably long life... And upon seeing who it was Grimdalf could only muster two words... "It's You!?"

This is the Kobold Chief from Otherworld and he is a fun little model to paint. I decided that his cloak looked like it was made from leaves, hence the autumn colours. I also tried a little experiment with his armour trying to add highlights to the gold using silver. I also used a thin coat of gloss varnish to compensate for the matt finish of the washes on the armour.

Overall I’m very happy with him, although I have no idea when I’ll finish the rest of the tribe.

How Not To Paint: Myconids

2011-02-22T01:21:00.001Z

As part of my latest commission I was sent a four pack of the Agarix models from Hasslefree, which are Myconids or Mushroom Men by any other name. Anyway, Cthulhu wanted a different paint job for each mushroom and so I present my very simple guide to creating entirely different Mushroom Men.

As you can see each one started out the same, although I did later repaint one of them Greatcoat Grey. The others were all painted White, they were then washed with a mix of Moldy Ochre and White that I had mixed up for something else, before being washed again with Gryphonne Sepia.

Next I mixed some Thornwood Green with some white and painted all the flesh leaving only the recesses showing through, this includes all the stuff under the cap.

I added a touch more white and highlighted all the raised areas with particular focus on the face and hands.

Next I pained the cap Fenris Grey and washed it with Asurmen Blue. I then added lines of Fenris Grey running outwards from the centre before washing it again with Asurmen Blue. As a last step I added a dotted pattern using a mix of Royal Purple and White.

The final step was to wash the underneath of the cap, plus the ends of the limbs with Devlan Mud. This breaks up the flat colour nicely and adds a root-like earthy feeling to the model.

With this one I started with a coat of Pale Flesh and then highlighted using White. The cap was painted using Deep Red with lines added in Khador Red Base, followed by Khador Red Highlight.

That was then washed with Baal Red. After it had dried I added large white spots. I also used Gryphonne Sepia to wash the underneath of the cap and ends of the limbs as I did on the previous model.

This one painted first with Sand, then a mix of Sand and White. The Cap was painted using Rust. The lines on the cap were added in Bloodtracker Brown and the dots were added in Sand and White. The cap, the underneath of the cap and the end of the limbs were washed with Gryphonne Sepia.

The final model was painted using a mix of Greatcoat Grey and White. Followed by the same mix with more white.

The cap was painted with Royal Purple and the lines added in with Royal Purple and White mix. Black Spots were then added before the cap was washed with Leviathan Purple.

All the flesh was then washed with Grephonne Sepia. The underneath of the cap and the limbs were washed with Devlan Mud.

Finally all the eyes were painted Black, a dot of white added to each and then given a coat of Gloss Varnish to make them standout. The toes on each foot were painted with Bloodtracker Brown. Then all the caps were given a light coat of Gloss Varnish to bring back some of the vibrancy they had lost due to the matt finish of the wash.

And that’s it. Four very simple, but very different paint jobs.

Each Myconid was based using my premixed earth which contains mainly Gale Force 9 earth mixed with various bits of other stuff. Then some Javis stones were added for flavour.

Hope you like… Until next time, have fun gaming!

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Otyugh

2011-02-07T23:46:00.001Z

So, I’ve got a lot of work on this week and no time to paint so this will be my only update until a week on Monday, so I thought I’d make it a good one.

As you can see here, this is a pretty big beastie. You’ll notice that the arms and legs both need a little filling with green stuff but that’s easy enough to do. I also primed the mouth white. Next I used Vallejo Violet Ink to wash the gums, teeth and the inside of the mouth and then let it dry. I then washed it again with Baal Red. These two washes are just intended to add some basic shading before I start properly. Next I added a thin layer of Royal Purple to the whole mouth, as you can see the washes from above are still visible through this layer. Then using Moldy Ochre I picked out the teeth, front and back all the way down to the gumline (that’s important for the next steps.)Using Bright Red and White I mixed up some pink and highlighted the inner mouth, gums and tongue. The inner mouth I concentrated solely on the ridges, the gums I picked out the tops and added some texture to the sides with lines. For the tongue I simply did dots. Adding more white I repeated the highlights and then I washed the teeth with Ogryn Flesh. Finally I highlighted the teeth, first with moldy Ochre and then with White. This was a simple a case of loading the brush with paint and dabbing it to the tooth, ensuring to be less heavy handed with the white. Next I painted the whole model with Stone Green and then I wet blended the arms to a nice brown finish using Chestnut Brown. This is a simple process because the arms are quite big it’s almost like mixing paint on your pallet. Then I left him to dry. Next I picked out the spikes in Battlefield Brown, the eyes in Khardic Flesh and the toes in Greatcoat Grey. Then I washed everything but the arms and teeth in Thornwood Green. The pods on the ends of the arms were washed in Ogryn Flesh. Next I picked out all the flesh in Stone Green again, really only leaving the deepest recess with the base coat showing through. I also highlighted the flesh around the spikes closest to the body using Stone Green. Adding some white to the Stone Green I added more highlights. I also picked out the two eyes on the stalk. (I skipped the top eye as I knew I’d still be handing the model a lot) The eyes were picked out in Pale Flesh, then White. The Eyelids were done with Khardic Flesh and then highlighted with Kardic Flesh and White before they were both washed with Ogryn Flesh. Next I used some watered down Thornwood Green to dirty the model. The trick was to not leave too many bush marks, this meant lots of water as I was just aiming for a stained effect. I then added Ogryn Flesh around all the lumps to represent poo clinging to the model. I also rubbed the wash into various patches of flesh particularly the legs, mouth and eye stalk. Adding a second layer of the wash or some Devlan mud deepened the effect. Next I mixed up some Stone Green, Chestnut Brown and White and highlighted the skin around the spikes. I also mixed up some Chestnut and White and highlighted the back of the pods on the ends of the arms. I picked out all the spikes using Moldy Ochre. The eyes were rehighlighted with White and the pupils enhanced. Also the lids were given a highlight of stone green. The eyeball on top was painted Pale Flesh, then White, a iris was added in Royal Blue with a highlight in Arctic Blue. A pupil was added in black, before the white was washed with Ogryn Flesh and rehighlighted. The spikes and the pods at the ends of the arms were also washed with Ogryn Flesh. The spikes were then all highlighted exactly like the teeth. Bloodtracker Brown was added to all the poo blobs. And then I did the toes. This was a simple job of painting lines of Greatcoat Grey and White, followed by smaller neater lines of white and then washing the top part of the toe with Badab Black. For the base I went with simply rock and procrete sculpted dung piles and tiny turds. And that’s the end result. I added Gloss Vanish to all the eyes and poo blobs to really make them stand out. It’s just a shame this was part of a commission and I have to give it back…

Well, I hoped you enjoyed that and I’ll be back in two weeks time with more…

Until then, have fun gaming!

Buy, Buy, Buy!

2011-02-01T02:18:00.001Z

The Otherworld Voucher Scheme has been officially extended to February, for more info on this excellent scheme check this thread.

January Challenge Complete

2011-01-31T22:31:00.000Z

So, this week marks the end of the first Otherworld Monthly Challenge and so I present my entries..

The Wolves

And the Goblin Kill Team

And… A party of Adventurers to kill…

And lets not forget that the proof is in the pudding, so here’s some shot of the Wolves doing what they were painted to do!

Hope you guys like. This week I received a package from the great white north… Canada, filled with all kinds of goodies for me to paint! So I’m going to be very busy painting up this commission but there are still plenty of mini’s included in it that I can bring out and do a How Not To post on, plus I’ll be working on my February Challenge too, although it’ll probably be smaller than this one.

Also, the Otherworld Voucher Scheme has been extended until the 5th February.

Until Next Week… Have fun gaming!

How Not To Make Scenics: Rivers

2011-01-24T01:09:00.000Z

Ok, so every project I do is generally an experiment, whether it’s painting or scenery making. However, I have a heck of a lot more experience with painting so the experiments tend to work most of the time, with scenery it can be a bit hit and miss.

The following guide shows how I turned a sheet of Foamboard into a section of river. I made some mistakes along the way but I am happy with the end result. However pay close attention to the areas I felt I did wrong and learn from my mistakes.

I started with a sheet of 5mm A4 foamboard. This river is intended to be used as modular wargames prop, if I were building a full table I’d be aiming for something much deeper than 5mm. As you can see I marked the board 1 inch in on both long sides and half an inch on the shorter sides. This will be important for making the river work in a modular fashion.

I then added wavey lines but made sure that each end of the river would be at the 1” markers.

Using a Stanley knife I cut through the top layer of card, ensuring the bottom layer remained intact. Then extending the blade (as a sort of bladed fish slice) I cut away the entire inner section.

As you can see this left a very rough river bed. I also left some islands at the far end. This is both awkward and time consuming. I also punctured the base several times so I used gaffer tape (which I have easy access to) to seal the base on the back side. It would also be a good idea to mount the section on some thin mdf or hardboard to stop it warping. I had neither.

Once again I used the knife to cut away the edges. This time I was cutting at an angle to give that sloping edge. I then used a file to smooth the whole thing down.

Using Battlefield Brown, Bloodtracker Brown and Moldy Ochre I painted the river basin. As you can see this section will include a ford. I didn’t paint the banks at this time but I will later paint them Battlefield Brown. When I make further sections of the river I will purchase larger cheaper paints to accomplish this effect as it used quite a lot of my paint to do just this one section.

Next I used various packs of stones from Javis and Decor Plus to build the banks and ford. Random larger stones were used at the far end of the river. GF9 Spring Undergowth was used for the islands. Noch Scenics tufts were placed in various areas and some GF9 Clump Foliage and Javis Static Grass was added for flavour.

Until it looked like this. I didn’t bother shaking off the excess stuff as the resin water would seal it nicely. Then I took dropper bottles of Flesh Wash Ink and Brown Ink and randomly used these to add different amounts of shading to the basin. This is very easy to accomplish as the rough pitted surface created by knifing the foam out of the way creates a great surface for the ink to run into.

HOWEVER leave it to dry, preferably over night… I did not!

The next stage was to pour in the Water Effects (Woodlands Scenics from Antenocitis Workshop). This is a little difficult but once I got the speed right it was easy enough. There are several things I did wrong here. Firstly the ink wasn’t dry so the resin picked it up and became brown. Secondly, I poured it over all the grasses, which instead of poking through like they would through water, were doused with a layer of resin, which they soaked up and turned dark green and rock solid. The final thing I did wrong was that my desk is not level, so as I left it to dry, all the resin ran to the one end of the river, leaving the other end bone dry.

It took me two days to even this out. TOP TIP: pour resin water ONLY onto a flat surface and leave to dry overnight.

Once the river was dry I cut away the end pieces, this was easier than I thought it might be, I was expecting disaster. I then mixed up some procreate and built up the river banks. When I do the other sections I will use the much less expensive Milliput.

See, banks painted brown, I knew there was a reason I waited until now to do it.

After that was dry I added a layer of Gale Force 9 Earth, followed by patches of Spring Undergrowth. Using Superglue I added a grass verge of Javis Summer Mix Static Grass to the Procrete bank I built earlier.

More Decor Plus Basing Grit was added to the banks and ford, along with some larger stones from the park, a couple of weed clumps from Silflor and some patches of static grass, again using superglue.

As this picture fails to show piles of leaves and more Weed Clumps were added to the bank, along with single leaves, added using superglue as a bonding agent. Once again, I used a wetted paint brush to pick up single leaves and place them onto a dot of superglue.

I actually found this effect much more pleasing than the clumps of leaves. The other bank was then completed using the same method. The islands in the stream were re-covered with spring undergrowth and a couple of single leaves were added to the river to give the effect that they were floating on the water.

And that’s the finished result. As you can see, it’s a little warped, but gluing it to something stiff like MDF would solve that. I made a lot mistakes but it still turned out ok in the end, or at least I think so, plus I learnt a lot about being patient when dealing with resin…

Well, what next? I have no idea but I’m sure I’ll come up with something, so until next week, have fun gaming!

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Wolves

2011-01-17T18:06:00.001Z

Welcome back. Since last I wrote I’ve been very very busy. As well as finishing four wolves, I’ve completed three PC/NPC characters and a foot of river, as well as finishing the basing on my Carrion Crawler.

I also have a new follower none other than famous composer John Williams! Well, maybe it’s not that John Williams, but new follower, Yay! *Waves*, right lets get on with today’s post.

To start I primed everything black and attacked the wolf to the base. To do this I added some white primer to the pins and touched the model to the base, then using my hobby drill I drilled through the base where the paint marks were, glued the wolf in place and then using snips I cut the pins down because they are longer than the base is deep. Next I defined each area of the fur using Dark Grey, Bloodtracker Brown and Dheneb Stone. I wanted to be reasonably accurate here as I will use this pattern to inform all my highlighting later, so as you can see the base coat is a lot neater than usual. Next I washed the whole model with Devlan Mud and then left it to dry. Using Blue Grey I added highlights to all the grey fur, this was done by painting straightish short lines approximately where they appear on the model. I could have dry brushed the fur but I generally dislike the result. Next I added a lot of white to the Blue Grey and highlighted the whole section again. This time I was less worried about being neat, the point of these highlights was to show the edges and folds in the fur. This was then followed by the brown section. I used a mix of Bloodtracker Brown and Moldy Ochre followed by highlights in just Moldy Ochre. Again the second highlights were focused on defining the edges and creating a sense of movement, as can be seen with this model. Finally I highlighted the lower body using Dheneb Stone followed with highlights in Pale Flesh. The last stage is to add the washes. I used Dark Grey, Bloodtracker Brown and a mix of Pale Flesh and Sand and simply washed each section individually, making sure to give each area an equal coat. The washes were quite watered down so as not to lose too much of the detail work. Using Black I added the nose back in and made sure the mouth was still visible. Then I added a dot of Pale Flesh to each eye and he was ready to base. With the base I was going for a woodland feel, so I started out by supergluing some rocks and some branches to the base. These are just picked up from the park, but they work great. Then, using PVA (actually it’s super strength woodglue from the pound shop) I added the ground cover. This is a premixed pot of Gale Force 9 Earth, small rocks and GF9 Spring Undergrowth. The “pre-mixed” pot comes about through pouring all the excess bits left on the newspaper after building scenery into the same pot, but it does make a great base coat for basing. Next comes the foliage. Here I using “Tufts” from Noch Scenics and Weed Tufts from Woodland Scenics both of which are available through Antenociti’s Workshop. I also added some more Spring Undergrowth from Gale Fore 9, using the end of my glue brush to push it into the areas where I needed it. Finally, I added some summer-mix static grass from Javis and some Leaf Litter from DecorPlus. The leaves were added by putting superglue on the area that I needed the leaves, then I licked the bristles of an old brush in order to pick a single leaf from the pot (you get a lot of leaves for your £4.50) and put in it place. I recommend not using a good brush for this method just in case you touch the superglue by accident. And so there you have it, hopefully a great looking model and base. I would just like to make a comment here about the service with Antenociti’s Workshop. I picked up quite a few new materials from them for this project and I was amazed at just how quickly they arrived and how securely they were packed. I was very very happy with the service. And I think the products they supply speak for themselves, Don’t you?So, there you have it, a completed wolf pack and some pretty bases. Next week I’m going to bring you a How Not To Make Scenics post as I try my hand at Rivers…

January Challenge: Level 1 Party Killer

2011-01-10T00:33:00.000Z

But first a welcome to some new Followers. I think there have been 5 since I last did a welcome, so hello Alex, Ragna, Kam, Jagatai and Imredave. *waves* I hope you find something you like! And now, onto the Challenge…

So, hopefully, starting this year I’m going to try and run a monthly challenge on the Otherworld forum. I wanted to theme each challenge in a way that lots of people can participate, for example it could be “paint a Single Monster”, or “paint something from the Vermin Subrange”.

However, the first Challenge will be to paint something capable of taking down a first level party, whether it’s a single monster or a group is up to the individual painter. I however went with this…

That’s a Dire Wolf, four wolves and a four-man Goblin kill team. I then set to work painting up the Dire Wolf.

It’s a homage to the paintjobs on the same models done by Andrew Taylor and overall I’m very happy with how it turned out. As you can see below, everything else is prepped and ready…

Next on the list will be the other wolves and I’ll make sure to take lots of photos and post a How Not To Guide soon.

If this sounds like fun, why not get involved and get some of your Otherworld lead painted up too!

How Not To Paint: Descent Beastmen

2010-12-20T18:05:00.000Z

Sorry this is a bit late, I did finish these on Thursday night, but since then I’ve been working and had no access to my Camera. Anyway, enough with the excuses, let me present the next model in the Series, Beastmen, the last post before Christmas, which was the deadline for finishing this set!

I started out with a coat of Black Primer, this was followed up with Bloodtracker Brown for the Flesh, Mechrite Red for the clothing and Dheneb Stone for the hair and beard. The eyes were picked out with Sand. The Hair and Beard were then washed with Yellow Ink (Vallejo) and the clothing was darkened using Burgundy. Next I washed the Beard and Hair with Ogryn Flesh, picked out the tongue with a Bright Red and White mix and the teeth with Pale Flesh. The Doll was base coated with Bloodtracker Brown. Next I mixed up some Tanned Flesh, Moldy Ochre and Bloodtracker Brown (25/25/50) and applied this to all the flesh, leaving only a little of the base coat in the deepest recesses. Adding White to the mix I highlighted all the muscles and the other raised areas. Finally I mixed up some Tanned Flesh, Moldy Ochre and Dheneb Stone and applied the final highlights. this time concentrating on painting just the edges. Using Dheneb Stone I picked out the hair and the beard again. I followed that up with the occasional White streak as a highlight. Next I picked out the leg wrappings and claws with Pale Flesh. Finally I set to work on the loin cloth. It has to be said, I hate painting red, which is probably how this ended up being orange. First I used Macharius Solar Orange to pick out all but the deepest recesses. Then I used Moldy Ochre to pick out all the edges. Boltgun Metal was then added to the fringe and finally highlighted with Mithril Silver. The Doll was painted with a mix of Bloodtracker Brown and White, followed by a highlight with even more white. Lastly the loin cloth was washed with Baal Red and the leg wrappings with Ogryn Flesh. The edge of the base was painted with Pale Flesh and then I’ll base them like the other models in the series. And that’s it. I’m going to continue to work on the Descent models over the coming months and at some point I will return with a How Not To on the Dragon and the Demon, but for now I’m going to focus on some other stuff. I’ll also be taking a small hiatus over the Christmas period, so that means I’ll be back in two weeks.

Until then, Merry Christmas everybody and I’ll see you all in the new year!

The Duke

How Not To Paint: Descent Ogres

2010-12-13T23:57:00.001Z

Monday seems to have come around really quickly. Anyway, it’s time for another monster from my How Not To Paint Descent Series. This time, Ogres.

One thing I will say about this model is that I wish it wasn’t so bent over. As models go it’s not too horrible, but looking at it from above as you would when you’re playing, he looks like he’s falling forward and it’s just not pleasing.

Most of the major issues with the models in Descent could easily be solves by removing the model from it’s base and repinning and positioning the model on a proper hard plastic bases/resin base, however, that just felt like too much effort.

Anyway enough complaining, on with the model. I started out with Black Primer as usual. To that I added Bloodtracker Brown to all the flesh and Adeptus Battlegrey to all the armour. The padded armour about the neck along with the mouth were painted with Battlefield Brown and Chestnut Brown was used for the scabbard. Boltgun Metal was used for the Chain. Next I mixed up some trusty Moldy Ochre and Bloodtracker Brown mix and painted all the flesh. I also added the eyes teeth and claws in with Sand. Adding more Moldy Ochre to the mix I highlighted everything again. Finally I added a dash of white and did the very extreme highlights about the face and muscle edges. Next I added Dheneb Stone to the loin cloth and foot wrappings and then washed them and the chain with Devlan Mud. Using Blue Grey and very small brush strokes I added in the chain mail. This is reasonably easy to do as you can ignore the underliying texture somewhat as long as your brush strokes are very definitive. I also added Bloodtracker Brown to the padded leather about his neck. Using Shining Gold for the fastenings and Mithril Silver for the chain. The last major thing to do was the armour. This was simply Dark Grey and White mix, applied to most of the armour but leaving some recesses, with a lighter mix then added to the extremes and details.After I’ve sprayed the model I’ll add a coat of Gloss varnish here to pick out the armour a little more. Finally it was just a case of picking out details. I used Chestnut Brown and White to highlight the scabbard, adding some more white to do some extreme highlights. I used Moldy Ochre washed with Ogryn Flesh to do the hilt, using Sand to pick out the details after the wash dried. I highlighted the ball in the same way as the armour and then used a wash of Badab Black to finish it off. I used Astronomican Grey to pick out the hair and a mix of Mechrite Red and White to do the insides of the ears. Finally I based everything using the same stuff as before and used Pale Flesh to do the rim of the base.

Overall I’m very happy with the model. The paint job is nice and clean and it looks good without being overly taxing to do. As I said before the pose and the base could be better, (It was still that warped after doing the Hot Water into Cold Water thing) but generally it’s a pretty pleasing result.

I also got everything else painted to date based, including the 12 Heroes from Runebound that also appear in Descent and my spiders!

I don’t know how well that webbing will stand up to being sprayed with Purity Seal but for now it looks pretty good. One final tip here, prime your bases all the way to the edge, PVA glue (or super strength wood glue like I use) does not stick well to the bare plastic on these models so primer will definitely help here. I forgot and now I have nasty red patches showing through the basing.

The final How Not To Before Christmas will be Beastmen, so I’ll see you back here, same time next week!

How Not To Paint: Descent Manticores

2010-12-06T04:33:00.000Z

I’m back, hopefully real life will leave me alone for a bit and I’ll manage to get the Descent series done by Christmas… Well we’ll see how that goes.

So, without further ado, lets get into it. I started out with a black undercoat, I used Bloodtracker Brown for the head and Adeptus Battlegrey for the rest of the body. For the stone I used Fenris Grey just for some variety. The tail was done with Battlefield Brown. Next I set to work on the face. I added a dash of white for eyes and used Tanned Flesh for the head. Moldy Ochre was then used to paint the mane.Taking some Bloodtracker Brown I dragged a thin layer of paint across the mane. I also added two highlights to the flesh with successively lighter shades of Tanned Flesh. Next it was time to add the Moldy Ochre back in, this time I left some shading in the recesses. Taking some more Bloodtracker Brown I worked it into the recesses between the mane and the face. I then added White to the tips of the Mane. Finally I added a layer of Yellow Ink (Vajello) to all of the mane but the tips and I also added a drop of Ogryn Flesh to the recesses. As the focal point of this model the mane is really worthy of a lot of attention. The next step was to add a layer of Dark Grey and Blue Grey mix to the body. This was followed by the same mix but with some additional white. The body itself if fairly flat and featureless so highlighting the muscles and individual toes helps give it definition. I added more white to the mix and did one final highlight. While this was still wet I set to work on the tail. Although the original artwork shows a green tail I didn’t like that so I went with a more traditional brownish red. Using Bloodtracker Brown and the top highlight colour I blended the rear portion until I felt the tail looked like it belonged. I then did the same further down the tail using Burgundy mixed with the brown to turn the tail red. Finally I blended the very tip of the tail with Bright Red and added White to the claws.

The final job was the wings. These were very simple, I added some white to some Dark Grey and painted bold straight lines. Mixing up some Moldy Ochre with some Bloodtracker Brown I highlighted the spines of the wings. Adding some more Moldy Ochre to do a final highlight. To finish the wings I added a washed of Gryphonne Sepia to the spiny bits and Badab Black to the wingy bits. The rock was highlighted with Blue Grey and then White on the extreme edges. To base I added the various rocks and grasses that I’ve used on all the previous models in the series and did the rim of the base with Pale Flesh.

Now all that remains is for me to gently brush the excess flock off the model with a dry brush and then spray the whole thing with Purity Seal.

Right then just Ogres, Beastmen, Dragons and Demons to go… See you next week for more of the same!

The Duke

How Not To Paint Descent: Bane Spiders

2010-11-22T00:07:00.000Z

Welcome to another post in my series on How Not To Paint Descent.

Ok, so the pictures look pretty bad at the end of this post but the model looks pretty good, It’s supposed to be viewed from above so these ground level shots are a bit “meh!” Anyway, on with the post. So I started out with a layer of Adeptus Battlegrey and then Hormaguant Purple on the ends of the legs, and the front segment of the body. Mixing Dark Grey and White I then added highlights to the legs, making sure to leave the recesses between the segments and around the raised areas dark. I also drybrushed the hair on the spiders abdomen. I usually don’t drybrush but with 9 of these to do I wanted a quick result. Next I added more White to the mix and highlighted just the ends of the leg segments and any raised bits. Again I added some highlights to the drybrushed abdomen as well. Mixing Royal Purple with a lot of White I highlighted the face body and ends of the legs. Here I just wanted to add the most extreme highlights because the next stage would tone them down and add midtones. Now, taking undiluted Royal Purple I dragged the colour across all the purple areas. The paint is translucent enough to allow the highlights I just did to show through while providing a more pleasing finish. The final stage is to wash the body with Badab Black, add the fangs in white and the eyes in black (with a dash of white as a highlight.)(Looks much better from behind no?)

I plan to spruce these guys up with extra attention on the base. After I spray them to seal them I’ll probably add a layer of Gloss Varnish to the none furry parts to give them an extra shine and make them feel more insectoid.

Overall a quick and easy paint job that gives a nice enough result.

How Not To Paint: Descent Razorwings

2010-11-15T00:48:00.000Z

Woooooo! It’s been a long time since I did one of these. This post is part of my series on How Not To Paint Descent. Now, firstly I apologise for my absence, real life doesn’t like me too much at the moment. I’ve had so much work that I’ve gotten ill and that pretty much put the kybosh on me actually doing any proper hobby stuff.

Happily I’ve gotten all my commission work done and I’ve made a lot of progress with my sister blog “Unboxed” including co-founding a Media Network for all Uk based gaming blogs and podcasts (details here). And I’ve put in another order with Otherworld, which means that I should have some more lovely models to paint soon.

But now to the guide and stay tuned after the credits for a cautionary tale. I started simple with this guy. No primer, just a coat of Foundation paint in Calthan Brown, for the record you should always use a primer, I’m just lazy. When the base was dry I added Dark Grey to the wings, underbelly and lower legs and White to the eyes and teeth.Using Bloodtracker Brown and Moldy Ochre I highlighted the face, upper body and the tops of the legs. I added some more Moldy Ochre to the mix and did a second round of highlights. Finally I did some extreme highlights using just Moldy Ochre. Next, as you can barely see in this pic, I added some White to the Dark Grey and painted the tops of the wings. I also highlighted the ears, lower jaw, legs and underbelly.Adding some more White to the mix I added highlights to the lower jaw, underbelly and legs. Due to the pose it was hard to work in detail here, so I just settled for some definitive strokes in the light colour. I also added White to the Claws and Toes. To finish I added Blue Grey to the ridge down his back, painted the base black so that the cream colour wouldn’t show through the basing and retrimmed the edge with Pale Flesh. I also washed the insides of the wings with Badab Black just to add a little definition without expending too much effort. So there you have it, a simple paint job but pretty effective. Now for a cautionary tale…

I am ashamed, but being faced with so many models to do I tried to cut corners and do these guys with mostly washes. I was wrong…Yes, he took about half as long to do, but the end product just felt cheap, so glad I changed my approach and did the second one properly…Now I have to go back and do it again, will I learn from my short cutting ways, probably not, but maybe you guys will! Until next time, have fun gaming!

Otherworld’s prices are Changing

2010-11-04T18:38:00.001Z

Good news and bad news friends. Otherworld are changing their prices, however some are going up while others are coming down. The price changes are listed below and will come into effect as of the 15th November so if you’ve been putting off an order, stop it and get it in now!

Demons & Devils Old Price New Price
↑ DD1 Demon Idol £18.00 £20.00
↓ DD2 Barbed Devils (2) £11.00 £10.00
→ DD3 Type I Demon £11.00 £11.00
↓ DD4 Type II Demon £9.00 £7.50
↓ DD5 Bone Devil £11.00 £10.00

Giants
↑ BS5 The Otherworld Giant £65.00 £90.00
↑ G1 Hill Giant £11.00 £14.00
↑ G2 Stone Giant £12.00 £14.00
↑ G3 Frost Giant £15.00 £16.00
↑ G4 Fire Giant £16.00 £18.00
↑ BS2 The Giant Alliance Boxed Set (4) £50.00 £55.00

Kobolds
↓ KB1 Kobold Warriors I (5) £11.00 £10.00
↓ KB2 Kobold Warriors II (5) £11.00 £10.00
↓ KB3 Kobold Warriors III (5) £11.00 £10.00
↓ KB4 Kobold Command (5) £12.00 £11.00
→ KB5 Kobold Tribal Pack (6) £7.50 £7.50
↓ BS4 Kobold Tribe Boxed Set (26) £45.00 £42.50

Goblins
→ GB1 Goblin Warriors I (4) £10.00 £10.00
→ GB2 Goblin Warriors II (4) £10.00 £10.00
→ GB3 Goblin Warriors III (4) £10.00 £10.00
↓ GB4 Goblin Command (4) £12.00 £11.00

Pig-faced Orcs
↑ O1 Pig-faced Orc Warriors I (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ O2 Pig-faced Orc Warriors II (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ O3 Pig-faced Orc Warriors III (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ O4 Pig-faced Orc Warband (9) £24.00 £27.00
↑ O5 Pig-faced Orc Command Ia (3) £12.50 £15.00
↓ O6 Pig-faced Orc Command Ib (3) £12.50 £11.00
↑ O7 Pig-faced Orc Archers (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ O8 Pig-faced Orc Crossbows (3) £9.00 £10.00
→ O9 Pig-faced Orc Tribal Pack (4) £9.00 £9.00
→ O10 Pig-faced Orc Command II (3) £10.00 £10.00
↑ BS1 Pig-faced Orc Tribe Boxed Set (25) £60.00 £70.00

Hobgoblins
↑ HG1 Hobgoblin Warriors I (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ HG2 Hobgoblin Warriors II (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ HG3 Hobgoblin Warriors III (3) £9.00 £10.00
↑ HG4 Hobgoblin Warriors IV (3) £9.00 £10.00
→ HG5 Hobgoblin Command (3) £11.00 £11.00
↑ HG5d Hobgoblin Standard Bearer £5.00 £5.00
↑ HG6 Hobgoblin Guards (2) £7.50 £7.50
↑ BS3 Hobgoblin War Party Boxed Set (18) £50.00 £55.00

Ogres
→ OG1 Ogre Warrior I £11.00 £11.00
→ OG2 Ogre Warrior II £11.00 £11.00

Dungeon Monsters
↓ DM1a Bugbear Warriors I (2) £11.00 £10.00
↓ DM1b Bugbear Warriors II (2) £11.00 £10.00
↓ DM1c Bugbear Warriors III (2) £11.00 £10.00
↓ DM1d Bugbear Chieftain £8.00 £7.50
↓ DM2 Gargoyles (2) £11.00 £10.00
→ DM3a Ogre I (Spear & Hammer) £9.00 £9.00
→ DM3b Ogre II (Club & Sack) £9.00 £9.00
→ DM3c Ogre III (Axe & Fist) £9.00 £9.00
→ DM4a Troll I £7.50 £7.50
→ DM4b Troll II £7.50 £7.50
↓ DM5a Gnoll Warriors I (2) £11.00 £10.00
↓ DM5b Gnoll Warriors II (2) £11.00 £10.00
↓ DM5c Gnoll Warriors III (2) £11.00 £10.00
↑ DM5d Gnoll Chieftain £7.00 £7.50
↑ DM6a Minotaur I £8.00 £9.00
↑ DM6b Minotaur II £8.00 £9.00
↑ DM7a Slimes, Oozes & Jellies I (4) £9.00 £11.00
↑ DM7b Slimes, Oozes & Jellies II (6) £9.00 £11.00
↑ DM8 Purple Worm £30.00 £35.00
↓ DM9a Stirges (4) £8.00 £7.50
↑ DM9b Stirge Swarm (20) £30.00 £32.50
→ DM10a Troglodytes Warriors I (3) £11.00 £11.00
→ DM10b Troglodytes Warriors II (3) £11.00 £11.00
→ DM10c Troglodyte Chieftain & Shaman (2) £11.00 £11.00
↓ DM11 Shriekers & Violet Fungi (3) £11.00 £10.00
↓ DM12 Harpies (2) £11.00 £10.00
→ DM14 Medusa £4.00 £4.00
↓ DM15 Djinni £11.00 £10.00
↑ DM16a Gelatinous Cube (standard) £12.50 £15.00
↑ DM16b Gelatinous Cube (deluxe) I £22.50 £25.00
↑ DM16c Gelatinous Cube (deluxe) II £22.50 £25.00
↓ DM17 Hook Horror £11.00 £10.00
↑ DM18 Rust Monsters (2) £11.00 £12.00
→ DM19 Giant Slug £22.50 £22.50
↑ DM20 Roper £11.00 £12.00
↑ DM21a Carcass Scavenger I £11.00 £12.00
↑ DM21b Carcass Scavenger II £11.00 £12.00

Dungeon Vermin
↓ DV1a Giant Centipedes (4) £8.00 £7.50
↑ DV1b Giant Centipede Swarm (20) £30.00 £32.50
↓ DV2a Giant Ticks (4) £8.00 £7.50
↑ DV2b Giant Tick Swarm (20) £30.00 £32.50
↑ DV3a Giant Rats (5) £9.00 £11.00
→ DV3b Giant Rat Pack (20) £32.50 £32.50
→ DV4a Fire Beetles (3) £9.00 £9.00
↑ DV4b Fire Beetle Swarm (15) £32.50 £37.50
→ DV5a Giant Leeches (4) £10.00 £10.00
↑ DV5b Giant Leech Swarm (15) £30.00 £35.00

Undead
↑ UD1a Skeletons I (3) £9.00 £11.00
↑ UD1b Skeletons II (3) £9.00 £11.00
→ UD3a Zombies I (3) £11.00 £11.00
→ UD5a Ghouls I (3) £11.00 £11.00
→ UD6 Shadows (2) £10.00 £10.00
→ UD7 Wights (2) £10.00 £10.00
→ UD8 Wraiths (2) £10.00 £10.00

Wilderness Encounters
↓ WE1 Owlbear £11.00 £10.00
↓ WE2 Dryad, Nymph & Sylph (3) £11.00 £11.00
→ WE3a Centaur with Spear £7.50 £7.50
→ WE3b Centaur with Lance £7.50 £7.50
→ WE3c Centaur with Bow £7.50 £7.50
→ WE3d Centaur with Club & Shield £7.50 £7.50
→ WE3e Centaur Patrol (4) £27.00 £27.00
→ WE4a Giant Lizard I £9.00 £9.00
→ WE4b Giant Lizard II £9.00 £9.00
↓ WE5a Lizardman Warriors I (2) £11.00 £10.00
↓ WE6a Faerie Folk I (4) £11.00 £9.00
→ WE7a Wererats (2) £7.50 £7.50
→ WE7b Werewolf £6.00 £6.00
→ WE7c Wereboar £7.50 £7.50
→ WE7d Werebear £9.00 £9.00
→ WE8a Wolves (4) £12.00 £12.00
↓ WE8b Dire Wolves (2) £10.00 £9.00
↑ WE8c Wolf pack (10) £27.00 £30.00
↑ WE9a Satyr £4.00 £5.00
→ WE10a Large Spiders (4) £12.00 £12.00
↑ WE11 Shambling Mound £11.00 £12.00
→ WE12a Giant Frogs (3) £9.00 £9.00
↑ WE12b Giant Frog Swarm (15) £32.50 £37.50

Henchmen & Hirelings
→ HH1a Expedition Mule I (unladen) £5.00 £5.00

Remember, the 15th November, get them while you can.

Time for me to make an order…

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Gnolls

2010-10-30T00:01:00.001+01:00

Well, this is a long time coming huh? Sorry about that but work is running me ragged at the moment. Good news (for you guys at least) is that it’ll stop again for most of November, so expect more Descent stuff soon.

Ok, so I started by undercoating the model with Black Primer. Then all the flesh, fur and leg wrappings were done with Calthan Brown. The hands, feet and muzzle with Dark Grey, the skirt with Chestnut Brown, the weapons and armour with Chainmail, the inside of the cloak with Fenris Grey, the front of the shield with Orkhide Shade and the gold bits with Shining Gold. Next I washed all the metals with Devlan Mud, rehighted the armour with Mithril Silver and then attached the arm. The arm was attached using a small ball of Procrete pressed into the socket followed by Gale Force 9 Superglue (highly recommended). The procrete method does two things, it forms a stronger bond than just superglue and it allows me to attack prepainted parts together without worrying about them being attached to each other only by the paint. Next I added a black slit to the eye, using Battlefield Brown to edge the eyes in and make them the right size. I also added White to the teeth, originally basecoated in Moldy Ochre. Finally I mixed up a batch of colour for the flesh. This was Khemri Brown and Moldy Ochre mixed until the colour was reasonably yellow. Then I added some Sand to the mix and added highlights to all the raised areas. Then, working quickly, I added Sand to all the raised areas on the fur on the cloak. The reason I was working quickly on the cloak was the fact that I needed to use the flesh highlight as a wash for the cloak, so I needed it to still be wet when I finished the sand highlights. I know at this stage it looks like I just did all that highlight work for no reason, but trust me, it’ll all work out later. Next I did the wood grain for the shield. This is simple, just paint reasonably thin straight lines in Sand. Followed by Pale Flesh. The same was done to the bindings on the legs, Sand and Pale Flesh. Finally I added Blue Grey highlights to the hair, it doesn’t really matter what colour you use here as long as it is a lighter colour than the base, however Greys do work well with washes. I also added spots to the sides on the head, eyebrows, forehead, hair and arms. Now it’s time for the wash. I added Ogryn Flesh to all the flesh and fur, the Skirt and the leg bindings. (Told you it would work)

I also made sure to get the teeth and eyes, although I wipe most of the wash out of the eyes to stop it obliterating the detail. After that I let the wash dry before doing anything more. The next job is to pick out the teeth and nails in White. Then I highlighted the muzzle, hands and feet with a mix of White and Dark Grey. Next I set to work on the Skirt. I rehighlighted it with Chestnut Brown, followed by a mix of Chestnut Brown and White, this time only highlighting the leading edge. For the belt I simply rehighlighted with Shining Gold, making sure to get some paint in the gaps, but not to lose all the shading that was already there. Then I added a second highlight in Burnished Gold to the edge of the belt and the top of the buttons. The wood and straps were highlighted with Bloodtracker Brown. Mithril Silver was added once again to the Armour, along with the chain and studs on the nunchuck (Don’t argue, they are nunchaku). Finally I added Dark Green, followed by Dark Green and Golden Yellow to the shield.

That just left a large number of washes to finish off the model. First I added Badab Black to the inside of the cloak. Then Black Ink (Vallejo) to the Muzzle, Hands and Feet. A mix of Brown Ink and Yellow Ink (Vallejo) was added to the inside of the shield, the wood of the Nunchuck and the Hair. Ogryn Flesh was washed over the Belt. Thraka Green was added to the front of the shield. And finally more Devlan Mud was added to the armour and the chain to give the weapons a grimy feel.

After a quick touch up this was the result. The basing was done with Gale Force 9 Earth, Javis Rocks and GF9 Spring Undergrowth. Overall I’m very happy with the way these guys turned out. Simple and quick but very effective. And here’s a few of his buddies. A gruesome lot, no?To really finish the models I will spray them down with Purity Seal which will take the shine off the inks and give them more of a matt feel.

I hope to be back on Monday with another How Not To Paint, but I make no promises. If I am, it will be the Gnoll Chieftain. Until then, have fun gaming!

This is an apology…

2010-10-19T14:33:00.001+01:00

And this is a poorly photographed Gnoll…And this is an empty space where there should have been an explanation of how it went from bare metal to that finished product.However, after working what was effectively a 25 hour shift with only a 4 hour break, an additional 8 hours of travelling and only 4 hours sleep in the last 72, I went home and fell asleep. And yes, that was an excuse, but I hope a valid one. I hope to get the How Not Paint guide up tomorrow/Thursday, but until then I hope these pretty pictures will suffice.

Yours, The Duke

Descent Heroes – Part 1

2010-10-11T01:30:00.000+01:00

Being true to my word, I’m not doing a how not to paint post on the heroes in Descent, for one thing that would take up 20 posts and I’d rather be doing other more informative articles.

However, I’ve been soooooo busy this week with 2 different commissions that I didn’t get chance to paint anything (well, I did so some Otherworld Goblins but that’s beside the point.) So as an apology, here are the first five of my painted Heroes. First up is Sir Valadir. With this guy I made good use of my Gloss Varnish on the armour, gives a good sheen and certainly saves on attempting NMM. Runewitch Astarra is brought to life by the detailing on her staff. Easy enough to do with a steady hand and some pink paint. My favourite part of Ronan of the Wild is Pico on his shoulder, getting the markings on the face right do a lot to bring this fellow to life. Red Scorpion is definitely the worst sculpt in the box and nothing I could do would save her. Look how small her head is compared to her… thingies!Varikas the Dead is not far behind Red Scorpion in the Worst Sculpt states, although his lower half redeems him slightly. Adding skull like details to face with a brush are a necessity here, because they simply don't exist. Again I used the Gloss varnish on the armour and the blade to make them look metallic.

Well that’s about it for this week, all that remains is for me to welcome aboard my new follower Carsten Lambert, who I believe goes by the name Clam on the Otherworld forum. Welcome aboard, glad to have you here. Hopefully next week I will be doing a How Not To Paint post on the Otherworld Gnolls I’m doing for a commission!

How Not To Paint: Descent Skeletons

2010-10-04T23:10:00.001+01:00

Warning, the following paintjobs do not photograph well. However, they look pretty good on the table top.

Anyway, welcome to part 5 of my series on looking at how not to paint your descent minis!

With the skeletons I decided to take the lead from the art, which meant many different shades of brown.

I started out with a coat of Calthan Brown all over. All the bones were then painted with Pale Flesh and the clothes with Sand. You’ll notice I Painted the clothes without leaving any shading. Much of the success of a paintjob, when doing skeletons, comes from the ability to paint a good edge. That’s something I still need to improve on. Next I washed the robes with P3 Brown Ink. I then rehighlighted the clothes with Sand. I’ll deal with the nasty shine the ink left later. I then added all the other details. The belts were done with Battlefield Brown, followed by a mix of Bloodtracker Brown and Sand. The arrow shaft and the grip of the bow were done with Dark Grey. The arrow head and belt buckle were done with Chainmail while the flights were simply done with white. Turning the model around I did pretty much the same on the back. The hands were done with Tanned Flesh and then highlighted with Pale Flesh, a combination that is generally too harsh, but works in this case. Also the string attaching them to the belt was done with Pale Flesh. Next I washed everything I’ve painted so far, with Gryphonne Sepia. Or as I call it, the miracle wash. This stage does several things. Firstly it tones down the bones and cloth to a more earthy brown colour. It dulls the metallics to something a bit more befitting a creature raised from the earth, but more importantly it gets rid of the shine created by the ink. Next I added Golden Yellow to the bow in segments. This was followed by a highlight in sand that focused on the edges. I also highlighted the grip with Blue Grey. Finally I added White to the very edges of each segment. Next I set to work on the bones. Firstly they were highlighted again using Pale Flesh, really focusing on trying to get a straight edge. Then they were highlighted again using pure White.

Highlight the mark on the skull with a pink or orange and it’s all done except for the final washes. Gryphonne Sepia was washed over the bones again, while Yellow Ink (vallejo) was washed over the bow. And that’s the final result. Not the best skeletons in the world, but quick and easy to recreate, after all there are nine of the fiddly buggers!. I love how the hands on the belt turned out after the wash was applied. The bases were painted with Pale Flesh (or Burgundy for master monsters) Gale Force 9 earth was added. Followed with a sprinkling of GF9 Spring Undergrowth and Rocks.

I’ve not painted a Descent mini in a week, so next week might be something different, we’ll have to see. Hopefully I’m still on track to have these done by Christmas.

How Not To Paint: Descent Naga

2010-09-27T13:48:00.001+01:00

I’ve spent a lot of time this week working on how to make D&D (3.5) simpler for me to run. Firstly I bought Herolab (for £2) and spent an hour or so dropping all the heroes into that. Took me a lot longer to get the swashbuckler in there because I had to build her up from scratch, but I think it’s working now.

But the major thing I’ve been working on is a DM tool. I had a look at D20pro, DunDjinni and Fantasy Grounds, but I didn’t really like any of them. So in the end I set about using flash to design my own tool. The idea is to have a flash map, which when you click on a room opens that room in the main window. Then each object and monster in the room can be hovered over so that vital stats are displayed. For example a door might have the hardness, hps and break DC’s listed, a chest might display its contents including trap info.

Unfortunately the map I’m designing is for the Sunless Citadel campaign and so is completely copyright protected, which means I can’t put it up for download to show you guys how useful this tool is, but I may do some generic stuff in the future…

Anyway, on with the show. This week we’re doing Nagas. After undercoating with Black Primer I painted the eyes Astronomican Grey, the teeeth with Tausept Ochre, Mechrite Red for the tongue and the body with Hormaguant Purple.Next I added white to the eyes, a mix of white and burgundy to the tongue, pale flesh for the teeth and then painted the whole body with a thick layer of Royal Purple. Like so. (10 points to the first person who can name the show I’m watching. Minus points for anyone who names the episode.) Next I added White to the Royal Purple and painted all the texture on the body. Yes, that really does take as long as you might think, a whole hour in fact. I wasn’t following the details of the model exactly with this stage, I’m just trying to give the impression of texture to the paint work. The next stage was to drag a thin coat of Royal Purple over the whole thing. The paint is very thin so works well for this. I just dipped my brush in the pot and dragged it over the body, making sure the paint wasn’t allowed to pool in large amounts. The result you’re left with is certainly a reasonably stopping place for this model, however I wasn’t done with the self flagellation yet! The next stage was a lot faster. I added a line of Blue Grey approximately two thirds of the size of the original ridge to all the top sides of the body. I aimed to put the blue grey between the purple lines, but I was working quickly and not overly neatly. Now with Astronomican Grey I added a line approximately a third of the size of the original. This time I was aiming to get each line between the blue grey lines. I also used this stage to add a bit of detail to the face, especially the eyes, lips, nose and ears. Both sets of highlights took about half an hour and were applied quickly rather than scientifically. Next I added Cygnar Blue to all the spikes. I also added some details to the face in White, these will be painted red later. So, I added Burgundy to the white areas to make them red. I then set about highlighting the spikes and yes, that took ages too! Each spike was given three or four lines of Blue Grey as a highlight. I could have then done a second highlight and wash, but that seemed a bit much for a boardgame piece.

The final stage is wash the whole model with Leviathan Purple. Let it dry and then wash it all again. Lastly I picked out any details that may have gotten lost such as the eyes and teeth and then did base. I went with Gale Force 9 earth, rocks and clump foliage. The grey rocks are Javis. The edge of the base was painted with Pale Flesh. For those who want to put in the time and effort, this would be a great model for adding custom elements to the base. For example an egg clutch would look great. I could have added more depth to the model by doing another couple of layers of Blue Grey and Astronomican Grey ridges, but I feel this is enough, considering there are three of these bad boys in the box.

The very last thing is to spray the model with some Purity Seal to stop the basing flaking off and making a mess of the box.

So, that’s Nagas. Join me next week for more monstery goodness.

How Not To Paint: Descent Sorcerers

2010-09-20T14:53:00.001+01:00

Welcome to part 3 of my series on how I painted all that plastic in the Descent box. But first a warm welcome to two new followers, Dr. Willett’s Workshop and Sam. Thanks for coming aboard, all comments and questions are welcome.

Right, onwards… First I blocked out all the colours, unfortunately that picture didn’t come out, so here is the next stage…

Firstly I did the eye in white, with no pupils. The flesh was done with Calthan Brown, the robes in Mechrite Red, the cloak in Mordian Blue, the beard in Astronomican Grey, the boots in Charadon Granite and the staff in Adeptus Battlegrey. I then added a second base coat to the flesh using Tanned Flesh.

Just a quick note, some of the paints I mention are made by Miniature Paints (part of Ral Partha Europe) however, as far as I can tell they have stopped making paints and certain colours are now becoming difficult to find… sorry about that. Next I mixed up a batch of Tanned Flesh and White and set about highlighting the flesh. Note how I added forehead ridges by just leaving the basecoat showing through. I added some more white to the mix and did the highlights again. Next I added White to the beard and painted the belt and trousers. These were done with Battlefield Brown, followed by Bloodtracker Brown, followed by Bloodtracker Brown mixed with what was left of the flesh highlight. I then painted the tops of the folds in the robes with a mix of Mechrite Red, Bright Red and Orange. I then added a bucket load more Orange to the mix and highlighted everything. Next I added a drop of White to some Cygnar Blue and painted all the folds in the cloak. With that done I added even more white, but this time I concentrated on just adding thin strokes to the very edges of the cloak. As you can see in these photos, trimming the flash on these models was a bitch! And, now we’re onto the finishing touches. Firstly I added a pair of Burgundy triangles under his eyes, and a pair of Burgundy lines across his forehead. I also painted the skull with Sand, followed by a highlight of Pale Flesh. The Staff simply got a highlight of Astronomican Grey. The final stage is to wash the robes, skull, belt and trousers with Gryphonne Sepia and leave to dry. And that’s what I’m left with. This model has a lot of room for customisation, for example runes could be painted on the robes or cloaks, the cloaks and robes could easily be varied in colour. For my purposes it doesn’t seem worth it, but it is a good way to individualise each model. The only thing left to do is the base, which I’ll do when I put the finishing touches to the last three.

Note, I didn’t highlight the the boots in any way. This is something I often do, partly because it can be difficult to get in there, but mostly because you end up concealing the work behind the basing materials anyway.

Well, that's about it for this week, join me again next week for more from my growing collection.

How Not To Paint: Descent Giants

2010-09-13T01:03:00.000+01:00

And we’re back, but first a big hello and welcome to my 11th Follower, Hans! HELLO! Big enough for ya? So, I’ve just put the finishing touches to the last Hell Hound, so all six are now grinning at me evilly. I’ve also finished the first 6 heroes, so I’ll try and get those pics up soon. Plus, don’t forget there is a Sale on at Otherworld Miniatures, 20% off everything!

Anyway, continuing my How Not To Paint Descent Series, we move onto Giants. There are only two of these mammoth creatures in this box but that’s still quite a lot of paint. This one took me three to four hours and I could have spent more time on him if I had really wanted to.

So, to begin with I primed the model black. I always use Black Primer and apply it with a paint brush to ensure that all the nooks and crannies get covered. You may have to apply two coats of primer because the plastic doesn’t much care for it.

Then I painted all the exposed skin with Calthan Brown and the eyes with Astronomican Grey. There is really no need to be neat at this stage. Next I used Tallarn Flesh over the top of that. As you can see I left some of the basecoat showing through but I’m still not being too neat. Next I washed everything Gryphonne Sepia. While I waited for that to dry I added a coat of Fenris Grey to the hair and beard. I also picked out the eyebrows in Fenris Grey. Next I mixed up some Tallarn Flesh with some Pale Flesh, probably about 50/50. Because there is so much flesh on this model I had to work with thin coats to stop him look splodgy. As you can see I was now working much more neatly. I added in some muscle details on the arms, some furrows in the brow and the eyelids above and below the eyes. Then I added some more Pale Flesh to the mix and gently massaged the highlight onto the upper areas of the arms and chest. I finished the skin off with some extreme highlights of Pale Flesh on the face, knuckles and around the muscles. I toned the arm and chest highlights down again by brushing some of the previous highlight over them. I then set about work on the beard. First I painted it with Adeptus Battlegrey. As with the Hell Hounds, I painted each strand individually and it took FOREVER! Then, horror of horror, I washed it with a very watered down coat of Astronomican Grey, so that it look like this… I know, it looks like I temporally lost my mind, but trust me its all part of the plan, because next I did the whole beard again but in White. This highlight coat doesn’t take as long as the first because you don't need to worry about catching every strand all the way from top to bottom. With the beard done I moved onto the pants. I’m not a fan of the red, but I wanted to stick pretty close to the original artwork. So, I painted the pants using Tausept Ochre for the insides and Mechrite Red for the outsides. I also painted the toggles with Tausept and the giants fingernails. I always have trouble with red, especially on big areas like this. But what I did was cover the basecoat with Burgundy, then highlighted with Bright Red, followed by a second coat of Bright Red, followed by a mix of Bright Red and Orange. The insides were highlighted with Golden Yellow and the toggles and fingernails were done with Pale Flesh. Finally I moved on to the hammer. First I undercoated the string and wood with Calthan Brown and the stone with Fenris Grey. Then using Tausept Ochre I picked out the string. I used Astronomican Grey for the stone and Khemri Brown to paint the wood grain. I then used Pale Flesh to highlight the string and Khemri Brown and Pale Flesh to highlight the wood. Finally I washed the whole thing Gryphonne Sepia and left it to dry.

And that’s it, just base to taste, paint the edge with Pale Flesh, and it ends up looking like this…

Well that’s about it, check back again next week for fresh take on a different monster. Until then, have fun gaming!

How Not To Paint: Descent Hellhounds

2010-09-06T01:48:00.000+01:00

So, for Christmas I decided to pick up the big box game of 2005, Descent: Journey’s in the Dark. However, because my little brother likes to have all the mini’s painted when we play games I am aiming to get all 80 minis painted before wrapping it up.

With that in mind I plan to do a How Not To Paint post for each of the monsters in the box. I won’t be doing a guide for the heroes because, frankly, the sculpts aren’t that great.

So, to start I undercoated the model with Black Primer. (Side note: from now on when I mention a colour there should be a hyperlink to a place you can buy it. It should also be noted that I name colours for completeness, if you want to follow these guides feel free to read the names as Dark Brown, Light Green etc)

I then did a base coat of Calthan Brown and then I did the eyes, teeth, claws, mane and tail tip in Tausept Ochre. With that done I set to work on painting the fur. Again, this was done using Tausept Ochre. The lines follow those on the model. I don’t like the effect drybrushing gives so I do things this way. I’m not overly neat here because the next few steps will relegate this work to the background. Next I took some Golden Yellow, wiped my brush on my pallet until there was almost nothing left, then dragged the brush over the top side of the model. I then did the same with some Khaki on the lower portions. This step stops the definition in the fur being too obvious and unnatural. (sort of…)

With that done I ran a wash of Gryphonne Sepia over the whole model. Leaving it to dry I did something else for a while. Then I picked out the eyes, teeth and claws in Pale Flesh. Next I added the final set of highlights to the fur using Sand. These highlights were added only to the portions of the model that had been brushed with yellow earlier. They were also used to pick out the mouth and the eyes. As you can see, I also added Golden Yellow to the mane and the tail. I then washed all the none mane/tail areas with Gryphonne Sepia again. The final stage was to add Pale Flesh to the tips of the tail and mane. Paint the nose black and add some Adeptus Battlegrey follow by Astronomican Grey to the inside of the ears. Finally I added Yellow Ink (vallejo) to the mane, tail and eyes.

Then paint the edge of the base in Pale Flesh/Burgundy depending on the monsters level and then base to taste.I went with a layer of Gale Force Nine Earth, a scattering of stones from GF9 and Javis and some small patches of Spring Undergrowth from GF9.And, as you can see, they look pretty good. I will spray them with some sealant before putting them back in the box to stop the basing coming off and making a mess! Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this instalment, I shall endeavour to bring you more as I do them.

But until next time, have fun gaming!

Commission II: The Sequel

2010-08-09T02:52:00.000+01:00

I’ve been rather busy this week, not only keeping up with all the developments at Gen-Con and all the new board games coming out from Fantasy Flight based on the Warhammer and Lord of the Rings IP, but with the commission. It’s been just over three months and I’ve now finished 45 of the 47 models.

I did intend to do a How Not To post on the model I painted tonight, but I totally forgot until I was halfway through. So instead I’m going to present some of my favourites from the commission.

This is just a sample of the characters and creatures from the commission, there are plenty more shots on Photobucket, but what I am very proud of here is just how much variety there is. Each of the paint jobs is unique and different and personal to the model. Each of the Meazels for example is a slightly different shade of green, the Rust Monsters are slightly different shades, the Blink Dogs have different skin tones and patch colours.

For me this is very important. I could use colours straight from the pots and produce near identical results every time, but what I try to do is to produce something “real”. That is why I don’t production line models, why I don’t mix up colours and keep them in pots.

To me models are not united as a group purely through colour, but rather through through style and feel. So I guess my point is that by treating each model as an individual, rather than as part of group, I achieve what I set out to and that is a group with charisma, a group of individuals.

Anyway, that’s enough of my ramblings, enjoy the pretty pictures. I’ll try and post next week as scheduled, but I may not have internet access, if not I’ll see you all in three weeks!

The Duke

Unmasking the Avengers!

2010-08-02T02:17:00.000+01:00

As I promised last time, I’m going to make an extra special effort to welcome new followers. This week we welcome Doctor Warlock to the blog. The good Doctor is a big Dr. Who fan (we can’t all be perfect) but is clearly a Superhero and self confessed 1st ed D&D fan.

Hopefully he’ll find plenty of interest here as one of my favourite companies is Otherworld miniatures, the finest producer of 1st ed style D&D minis on the web.

In other news I think I’ve decided on the Avengers line up. They are as follows:

Captain America – Grant from Hasslefree

I will add a shield and mask to model but leave everything else as is.

Iron Man/Tony Stark – Nuclear Jones/Gentleman from Pulp City

Gentleman will become Tony Stark, the robot head under his foot has been painted to look like Iron Man’s helmet

Thor – Joe from Hasslefree

Joe will have his Mohawk removed and hair extensions added, while his bat will be replaced with a hammer.

Hulk – Mutant Joe from Hasslefree

Joining the team for a second time, Joe will have a hair resculpt and join in as the Green Machine.

Antman – Captain Hadron from Pulp City

Hopefully Hadron will eventually feature a Giant version too.

Finally Nick Fury, Black Widow and Janet Pym

Although in this case my mind could still be swayed, so I’ll keep an on what Pulp City has to offer. Other models will also join the line up including Wasp’s small form (possibly Hawkeye and Vision) and obviously Bruce Banner. After that the Avengers will be free to recruit any Marvel Superhero the players can convince to join.

Right then, that’s about it for this update. See you next week.

Avengers Assemble

2010-07-26T13:58:00.000+01:00

This week I started work on some new ideas for my Superhero RPG. For the last two years I’ve been trying to cobble something together from various rules sets and by the time you’ve accounted for every super power the character is unplayable because of the sheer amount of statistics.

When I started looking at Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, I loved how the same simple mechanic could be applied universally and it made me think that with the right amount of adaptation the system could be used to apply to Superheroes as well.

Then, while listening to the D6Generation, I heard about a system quite similar to the WFRP system, called the Cortex System and finally I have a rules light, story heavy system that can support Superhero Characters with dozens of powers, without all that number crunching.

So now all that remains is to get my Superhero team assembled. I’m using S.H.I.E.L.D as a base, not only because it is the most famous team of Supers, which most Superheroes have been a part of at some time or other, but also because it has a very current popularity!

With that in mind then I am looking to build the iconic Avengers line up, starting with Iron Man.

This is Nuclear Jones from Pulp City miniatures and he certainly makes a good Iron Man substitute. Mutant Joe from Hasslefree will join him shortly, minus the Mohawk obviously, as the Hulk. I’m considering adding an Otherworld Frost Giant as Thor, although I might go down the Ultimate Avengers route have a leather clad hippy instead.

Fury and Black Widow are easily added, I’m thinking Kitty from Hasslefree for Black Widow. Hank Pym (and Giant Man) may prove more difficult. Janet/Wasp should also be easy, which really only leaves me with Captain America causing me problems. I wanted to use a dynamically posed Soldier of some variety and possibly convert the head and add a shield, but I can’t find anything I like. Obviously the Cap is such an iconic figure I want to get him just right. He has to be 28mm and in pewter… Any ideas?

I’ll post sporadic updates as the team comes together and once I actually manage to get the RPG off the ground I’ll let you know how it goes…

Excelsior!

Spend, Spend, Spend…

2010-07-19T14:14:00.001+01:00

It’s that time again, Hasslefree is having a sale!

There has never been a better time to buy from HF, not only do they offer fantastic customer service, a selection of buy one get one frees, but all of my orders during bonus time have included a fantastic goodie bag of bits… And of course there’s the sweeties!

So what are you waiting for, hot foot it over to Hasslefree and check it out for yourself.

How Not To Paint: Otherworld Goblins

2010-07-18T23:31:00.000+01:00

I was born in 1984, I started gaming in the year 2000, all my life, Goblins have been green and no one shall convince me otherwise. So, what follows is a step by step guide to greenskins in all their gobliny glory!

So I started with a basecoat. The shirt and boot tops were Calthan Brown, the other browns were Chocolate Brown. The skin was Orkhide Shade and the pants were Royal Blue. The eyes and teeth were done with Sand. Next I dropped the model head first into a pot of black primer, although I recommend skipping that step… With the black cleaned off I then added a coat of Knarloc Green to the face and arms, this was followed by Snotling Green. The highlight was applied to only the edges of the face and raised areas. This was then all washed with Thrakka Green. Next I added Tausept Ochre to the shirt and boot tops, leaving some of the undercoat in the creases. I then added a layer of Sand to the top of the folds in the material. With that done I set to work on the pants, Here I added a highlight of Arctic Blue, followed by a mix of Arctic Blue and White to just the knees to give them a little more definition. Washes were then added. Asurmen Blue to the pants and Ogryn flesh to the recesses of the shirt and boot tops. Next I set to work on the details. I added Tausept Ochre to the boots and the grip of the dagger on his back. Then I added Khemri Brown to edges of the belts, the soles of the shoes and the wood grain of the spear haft. Finally I added a coat of Boltgun Metal to the toe caps, spear tip and helmet. A further highlight with Deneb Stone was added to the haft and then a wash of Ogryn Flesh was added to the spear, boots and helmet. All of the metal was then highlighted with Chainmail. I only highlighted the edges so that the metal retained a natural shading from the wash. Finally base to taste. I used a coat of Gafe Force 9 Earth, followed by Summer Mix static grass from Javis, Spring Undergrowth Clumps from GF9, GF9 Clump Foliage and then a couple of small stones from Javis. And there you have it, one goblin ready to defend his home from pesky adventurers. Overall I’m pretty happy with him, the silver bits work from a distance, although they are a bit shaky close up. As I do the remaining ten members of the tribe I will vary the skin tones, woodblends and possibly even armour colour, although I will probably use the Blue and Yellow scheme to tie the group together.

Well, that’s about it for another week, until next time…

Have Fun Gaming!

The Duke

More From Otherworld

2010-07-12T23:34:00.001+01:00

This week has been rather Otherworldly… I received my big order, along with a couple of extra goodies (have I mentioned how good the customer service is with OW?) so now I have a whole Gnoll Tribe, Goblin Tribe and Kobold Tribe to paint up, plus I got me one of these…

Yup, that’s a Gelatinous cube, possibly one of the most iconic monsters from my childhood! Every dungeon had to have at least one and now I have my very own.

I also made a start on the Goblins. Scuplted by John Pickford, these were minis I never really meant to pick up, but I’m glad I did. They are certainly very characterful and very sturdy for such small models.

I will try and do a How Not To Paint post on them next week, but I make no promises because I’m still working on the commission, speaking of which… I did this this week too!

He is a converted version of the Otherworld Bone Devil, not a model that I ever intend to own but certainly an interesting one to give life to.

Right then that’s about it for another week. Keep an eye out for more Step by Step guides for the Goblins, Kobolds and Gnolls in the coming months. I hope to get the Goblins done before the party take them on in the Sunless Citadel so I’ll be doing those first.

Until next week…. Keep on Gaming!

Progress?

2010-07-05T22:54:00.001+01:00

Well, I’m officially tuckered out. I’ve just finished a 74 hour week! But I did manage to get the rest of the Dork Tower guys finished!

My personal favourite is the archer, but I’m pretty happy with how the group turned out as a whole. I’ve also been playing with my new pin vice trying to get my Pulp City minis onto their clear resin bases with limited success.

I’m still plugging away with my new RPG books for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay which is very interesting and I ordered the original Cortex system, Serenity, because I’ve always wanted to run a space based RPG which closely resembled the old Acorn Electron game Elite!

I’m expecting to receive a package in the mail very very soon containing a whole host of Kobolds, Goblins, Gnolls and even a Gelatinous Cube, so you can look forward to some more step by step guides coming soon.

How Not To Paint: Games Workshop Ungors

2010-06-28T00:03:00.001+01:00

I recently picked up Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition. The game includes a number of stand up cardboard tokens, but not enough to run full campaigns. As I had some spare Ungor’s lying around from decades ago I decided to have a go at paining them.

They are really only painted to a tabletop level because I’m not sure how much use they will see. I also painted them in a production line, which I rarely do.

Anyway… onto the model…

I started out with an undercoat of Leather Brown, Chocolate Brown fur and Black accessories. Next I painted in the eyes and teeth and added a coat of Khemri Brown to all the flesh before washing everything over with Ogryn Flesh. I then picked out the teeth again in Sand and redid all the flesh with mix of Khemri Brown and Sand. Next I added Leather Brown and Sand mix to all the fur by painting small straight lines. The whole model was then was then washed again with Ogryn Flesh, including the eyes and teeth.I added Dark Grey highlights to the hooves. Tausept Ochre to the horns and twine. Chocolate brown was added to the spear shaft and boltgun metal to the tip. The loincloth was painted in burgundy. The shrunken head was painted with Leather Brown, followed by Tanned Flesh, then Tanned Flesh and White mix. The teeth were picked out with Sand and the eye with white, the hair was done by painting thin straight lines of Blue Grey. Next the loincloth was painted with Bright Red, followed by Orange and then washed with Baal Red. The Horns and the Spear were highlighted with Sand, washed with Ogryn Flesh and then highlighted again. The spear had some texture applied with Leather Brown and Sand mix and was washed with more Ogryn Flesh to tone it done. The Spear tip was also washed with Ogryn Flesh and then highlighted with Chainmail.

You will also notice I added Procrete to the gaps in the slotta base to help with basing later. And that is that. Next I set to work on the shield, I pained a basic wood grain pattern on both sides in the same colours as the spear and applied a wash. I then added a blob of procrete to the front of the shield and poked it and prodded it with tool for about 30 seconds until it looked like a torn cloth covering, with the wood grain showing through the tears.

I painted the red in the same way as the loincloth and the underside with Leather Brown, followed by Sand, followed by White and, you guessed it, a wash of Ogryn Flesh. I glued the shield in place and I was done. The basing consists of Gale Force 9 dirt, stones and clump foliage to give a Forest feel. The finished result is a model good enough for table top use that actually looks pretty good even close up. The whole thing took about an hour, which is pretty quick and I’m happy with the results. At some point I intend to dig through my old lead pile and find some more models for WFRP 3, so keep your eye’s peeled for more Classic GW lead.

The Duke

How Not To Paint – Dork Tower Mini’s

2010-06-21T02:13:00.001+01:00

Well then, how about that, we have a cool new look to the blog. With the extended text block I can now include big pictures so you can all see how bad my painting is up close.

I also fixed the Workbench page, whenever I update the bench there will be a notice at the bottom of the flash link. Also the out now and coming soon sections are vaguely up to date.

But that’s not why you’re here, so lets get right into the Dork Tower stuff. For those who don’t know Dork Tower is part of Steve Jackson Games (not Steve Jackson who founded Games Workshop… a different guy.) and most famously they make a game called Munchkin, well this model and the others in the series come right out of that game. The art for the game is done by John Kovalic who is known for his very distinct style and these minis represent that style perfectly in lead.

So, before I begin I have to say I expected the painting style I would use to paint this guy would be radically different, but to be honest the mini did most of the work for me.

I started out with a black undercoat. I then painted the inside of the mouth Deep Red, then I added Bright Red and then Bright Red and White to the tongue to make it stand out. I also picked out the teeth in white. While this is sort of difficult to do the effect really adds to the character of the model.

With that done I added the rest of the base colours. Adeptus Battlegrey, Tallarn Flesh, Chocolate Brown and Boltgun Metal although you could easily read Dark Grey, Tanned Flesh, Dark Brown and Dark Silver, instead of the specific names, they are really only included for completeness. Next I ran a wash of Ogryn Flesh over the flesh and armour. I followed this with Astronomican Grey and Burgundy on the tunic and shield. I painted these with a reasonable amount of shadow to give a more comic book feel. I highlighted this with white. I added a reasonable amount of water to the white to try and stop it clumping. I also highlighted the red with Bright Red. Next I added Tanned Flesh to the all the flesh areas, making sure to leave some significant shadows around the nose and between the fingers. I then mixed some white into the Tanned Flesh, along with some water and added another layer of flesh. This time I left significant portions around the eyes unhighlighted. Next I added the eyes in with Black and in keeping with the comic book feel, a single dot of White. The hair came next, I simply added Leather Brown, followed by Tausept Ochre and then washed it down with more Ogryn Flesh. The shoes also recived the same treatment, with his socks being Leather Brown highlighted with Sand and washed with Ogryn Flesh. Finally the armour received a light drybrush with Chainmail to just pick up some highlights. The hilt of the sword was painted with Tin Bitz, Shining Gold and then Burnished gold. The blade was done with Chainmail, with extreme highlights in Mithril Silver. To finish, the whole model was given a coat of Gloss Varnish, to give it that glossy comic book feel. I’m not sure how Cthulhu will want these guys based but part of me likes the simple black.With 7 more to go you may still see another of the Dork Tower miniatures, but what I can say with absolute certainty is, I will be sad to send these guys back!

Until next time… Keep on Gaming.

The Duke