IG Vendetta - Working Lights Conversion

So this is a project I did a long time ago when trying to customize my IG army. I learned a LOT from it, and while I am looking at doing a few more with working electricity, I will definitely change how I wire and what I wire.


Ideally my next one will actually have the turbines rotate on fans, and the battery will be better hidden. Live and learn.

First some shots of the bird without her lights on. 

I fully painted the cockpit prior to assembly, including the instrument panels. This is one area I would change, in that I think a light needs to be in the panels giving a glow to the pilots faces.

Simple, poster board counterweight on the base

And now with lights on

Underwater Skitarii Conversion: Cult Neptune WIP

So I've added some more weathering (in this case oxidation) and some OSL to the Skitarii army. This is a project I put on hold almost a year ago when I lost interest with the split Skitarii / Ad Mech codices. With the detachment and rumored coming combined codex, I'm a little more interested in seeing it through as I don't feel as limited now and can build the army more along the rule of cool, which is important when I'm look for a conversion based army.

The basic soldiers are mostly a color test for me, before I try to tackle the rest of the army, which is going to have major conversion work. I'm probably going to try the onager next. Like the AoS Chaos army, I'm attempting to 'speed' paint this army seeing what I can achieve with as few colors, layers, and time as possible.

The only conversions on these guys is the 'technically' mismatched helmets for their weapons (these just felt more 'atlantis' and '20,000 leagues under the sea' than the hooded robes) and the scales on their cloaks, done with a layer of greenstuff that I think stamped with a wire mesh.

The ruins and buildings around I'm trying to make feel like an 'atlantis' ruin, thus the glyphs and color choices. 

I've never really been happy with my OSL. I'm getting better compared to when I started, and one of the biggest lessons I learned was that you can't use just one color. You have to start with the darkest going the farthest, then build up to your lightest color dry brush only near the source. I know that's obvious and easy for most of you, but I honestly never knew that. The colors on this are a little off too, in that the sources are more orange than the reflections, which appear green. This is probably because I'm dry brushing on top of a metallic for the latter areas, and it's not working well. Not sure though.

Criticism? Compliments? Concerns? I always love comments on how I can get better. Thanks for reading.

-PB

Stormcast Eternal: Finished Model?

Back to the Forces of Sigmar

Taking a break from all the Chaos I've been painting, I went back to the Sigmarites to keep my motivation high. 

I finally have one of the Stormcast Eternals at a point that I feel comfortable showing it and calling it 'finished'. I have a terrible habit of never being truly done with a model or an army, but if these guys are ever going to see the table top I have to stop somewhere. 

I can always add more detail to each model later, after all. 

 

Hopefully I'll be able to get a few more done, then when I truly feel comfortable with the final paint job I'll move to the characters. Thanks for reading!

WIP - Bloodreavers with Chrome Paint

First Bloodreavers Underway

Not much to report here, other than the first few bloodreavers have been started. I need to clean up the paint job and finish the layering and bases, but these are fun models to paint - they give a lot more 'flesh' to the army and help break up the silver and purple that was overwhelming the other models. I'm still painting the miniatures unassembled for the most part, which is greatly slowing my assembly-line strategy I'm used to. 

New Photo Setup - Thanks to Mengel Miniatures

So I was lucky enough to get a quick email back from Tyler Mengel, with http://www.mengelminiatures.com. I have been simply inspired by Tyler's work for a long time, and while I always am learning painting technique from him, this time I got some help on the set up for my photographs.

Previously I had been either using my iPhone or a Nikon that I have, but never had invested in any sort of light box. After reading an article over on Mengel Miniatures I decided to invest in one and purchased what Tyler said he was using. I'll let the before and after shots below speak for themselves.

With the light Box

What a huge difference compared to my previous posts. I'm really excited as this does two things for me:

1) Good photos of models help you pick out the mistakes. Seriously. I mean, I would fully admit the guy above is a work in progress, but it is so much easier to see where the blends need to be cleaned up, where I had some flesh color get on the armor, where I need to put in edge highlights, etc.

2) It hopefully will make reading the blog a bit more enjoyable

A huge thanks to Tyler again for even responding to me with his personal opinion!