Dante's Inferno - CMDante's Blog

Sons Of Medusa Space Marine Captain Commission

2012-01-16T12:00:00.001Z

My first miniature finished in 2012 is this Sons of Medusa space marine captain done as a Christmas commission for my good friend Aaron (Grey Death) from The Painting Corps.

The first marine I have painted in a number of years, this project was a lot of fun. Not only is the SoM colour scheme great fun to do - if a little challenging due to the poor coverage of scorpion green (thank god for my airbrush!), but it was a cool challenge trying to keep the model in keeping with the look and feel of the rest of Aaron's force.

The model has had a few subtle conversions, namely the plasma pistol and the bionic eye. The eye was a late addition due to the horrible cast quality of the model around the face making the right eye unpaintable and the face covered in excess metal on that side. Luckily it turned out pretty well and fits with the Sons of Medusa theme (being successors of the Iron Hands).

Here's hoping Aaron likes him and be sure to let me know what you think in the comments.

Check These Out...

2012-01-14T21:01:00.005Z

So 2011 is in the books and all in, despite the fact I only painted 3 models in the entire year (I know...), it was a pretty good year for the blog. There were 21 posts in 2011 with a good mix of tips, tutorials and reviews but I want to do even more in 2012.

But enough about my blog for now. For this post I want to share with you all a few blogs and sites I have found recently that I would strongly recommend you check out.

Sproket's Small World

Sproket's Small World is the blog of former Golden Demon UK Slayer Sword winner David Soper. David is an extremely talented painter and converter with a bit of a "modern classic" style. While his blog is fairly new at only 6 months old, he has already shared a number of excellent step by step tutorials and tips, making this blog well worth a look. Check out his tutorial on painting Dark Eldar Scourge wings - brilliant and makes it looks so simple!

RuneCast Blog

RuneCast Blog is the blog of the almost sickeningly talented Gregor - a freelance miniature sculptor combining a blend of classic marauder miniatures style with more modern 40k sculpt style. In particular check out his conversion work on a Black Templars Contemptor dreadnought and his Dwarves. Cracking stuff!

Fantasygames

Fantasygames is not only one of the slickest designed hobby blogs/sites around, but also the home of a talented group of Polish painters. While mostly a place to display finished models there are the occasional WIP posts and some innovative ideas on show. Be sure to check out "The Puppet Master" diorama - really cool magic effects going on there.

So there you go, three great blogs to kick start your 2012 with!

Return of the Fimir

2011-12-23T12:24:00.008Z

Today in the Forgeworld Christmas newsletter they revealed their teaser jigsaw image, which turned out to be a Fimir from a unit of such models set to feature in the forthcoming Warhammer Forge Monstrous Arcana book. Cool stuff!

For those who don't remember the Fimir, or who are sitting with a blank expression reading this and wondering what the hell they are - the Fimir were a long defunct race from Warhammer, created by Jes Goodwin and Graeme Davis back in the late 80's.

Inspired by the Fomorians of Celtic myth, they are hulking cyclopean humanoids with barbed tales and sharp beak like faces. If I remember right, they died out of inclusion in the Warhammer universe around 4th edition due to a lack of popularity. Ironically, the old figures (one pictured below - it's not mine, if you are the owner let me know and I'll reference as required) prove popular with collectors now and many still hold up well in terms of sculpting quality.

I love what is coming out of Warhammer Forge at the moment and the fact they are bringing back many cult classics (including Chaos Dwarfs) with modern revisions to fit with the current background is pretty cool.

In fact, I have it on trustworthy recommendation that Santa will be bringing me the wonderful Theodore Bruckner model for Christmas - I can't wait!

Have a great Christmas folks and keep your eyes peeled for some posts with new painted stuff in the coming weeks!

Hobby Halloween!

2011-11-05T13:57:00.005Z

Well, given that it was Halloween this past Monday, aside from carving pumpkins (seen above, mine is on the right), I thought it would be fitting to take a look through some of my long dead projects and see if anything could inspire me back into working on them.

Fitting the "resurrection of the dead" Halloween theme, I thought I would share some pictures of these withered "ghouls"!

Kislev Boyar

First up is the Kislev Boyar I had been working on in Summer 2010. An almost complete scratch sculpt, this was originally intended to be my main entry into the Warhammer Fantasy Single Miniature category at Golden Demon 2010.

Sadly, as it came time to get painting I begun to notice a lot of nagging flaws in my sculpt work which put me off ever finishing him. At the moment, he resides on my shelf of unfinished projects in the state currently seen above - a few roughed in base coats and a wash on the skin. In the end I opted to paint up a slightly converted Averland Captain as my entry for Golden Demon 2010 instead.

Genestealer Magus

Next up, a "spooky" Genestealer Magus that I based on a Forgeworld Tau Air Caste figure and sculpted extensively over to get to the point you see him at now.

As you can see, I started to paint parts of him, but as this was done in early 2010, just before I moved to a new flat, he got sidelined and was never returned to. Looking at him now, I have no doubt I could have sculpted and painted what has been done much better now.

Vespero of the Vendetta

This figure was inspired by the Assassins Creed 2 computer game and my desire to create a more enigmatically posed version of Vespero - the old Dogs of War character.

I actually still quite like how much of this scratch build has come out, I've just never been able to find the concentrated inspiration to go back to it!

Demon Prince of Slaanesh

This one is really quite old now (2008?) and from back when I was just getting back into the hobby again after a few years away. The sculpt work on the head leaves a lot to be desired and, as you can probably see, is a little worse for ware now too.

I'm still quite fond of how the paint job on the flesh was turning out on this one though. Oh well!

I guess to sum this post up, I get a lot of ideas for projects. Typically quite elaborate and involving a reasonable amount of sculpting or conversion work. Usually being time poor for the hobby, it is quite common for a project to get to a particular stage before I begin to lose the inspiration and motivation required to complete it (much to the continued frustration of my beloved girlfriend!).

For each unfinished piece here, there are at least 2-3 times as many on my shelf - sad but true!

Anyway, I hope you have all enjoyed this little walk down an eerie memory lane! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

AK Interactive Streaking Grime and Filters

2011-10-08T21:37:00.009+01:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I had used a number of products and techniques which were new to me on my Ultramarines Contemptor Dreadnought. Among these were the AK Interactive Streaking Grime and Rust Streak products.

The Streaking products are all enamel based paints, but much more diluted than regular enamels. This means that, once applied, they can be worked further with a brush moistened with white spirit. Using a flat brush and up and down brushing motions, you can quickly and easily create the kinds of weather markings typically seen on vehicle armour plates as a result of rain and rust - as can be seen in the following pictures:

As you can see, this example was produced rather quickly and roughly to demonstrate the products and the technique. On an actual model, with a little more care, the results look more like this:

The main strength of these products is the ability to continue to tweak and alter the effect even after it has dried by going back in with a brush that has been moistened with white spirit. By doing this you can knock the effect back if you have done too much, or make streaks longer etc.

If you are looking to pick some up, in the UK I would recommend Scale Model Shop. As I was running around in trying to get my entry finished in the run up to Games Day, I made a couple of orders for necessary items and they arrived within 2 days of ordering - top service!

Golden Demon UK 2011 - 40K Vehicle Bronze

2011-10-03T23:01:00.001+01:00

Back from a week off after Games Day and have finally got around to taking some decent pictures of my main entry for Golden Demon 2011 which took Bronze in the Warhammer 40k Vehicle Category.

This is the first vehicle (let alone large model) I have painted in around 10+ years so it was a much bigger challenge than I had at first considered - particularly given that I had 2 weeks from clean up and assembly to finished and mounted on it's plinth (using rare earth magnets)!

Next year I hope to do a few more entries well in advance so that I don't feel so rushed and under pressure. Having left it until the last minute, there are a few things I know I could do better/more on which may have helped improve the final placing, but I am definitely still very pleased to have taken Bronze for the second year running (and my second year entering) given the quality of competition.

Click the images for a bigger view.

Links to CoolMiniOrNot listing for those who like to vote :)

I tried a lot of new things on this model (a risky strategy on a competition entry when under time pressure) and was pretty pleased with the results. I don't have the time or energy for a full write up on them right now, but expect to see posts on using enamels, AK Interactive Streaking Grime, making icicles and making your own decals in the not too distant future.

Cheers,

Dante

Golden Demon UK 2011 Sneak Peak

2011-09-24T08:58:00.002+01:00

A quick sneak preview of my main entry for Golden Demon UK 2011 as I pack away all my stuff for the trip down to Birmingham this evening. The lighting and photo setup (there really wasn't any!) is far from right so the colours are out a bit and any shading and highlighting is lost in the pic but it should give some idea as to which entry is mine on the day:

Hope to catch up with and chat to plenty of fellow painters on the day, so if you see me please feel free to say hello! (Cheesy identifier pic included below!)

Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought (Forgeworld)

2011-08-07T14:18:00.006+01:00

Just ordered one of the new Contemptor Patter Dreadnoughts from Forgeworld and I have to say, it looks like one awesome kit.

I haven't really been excited by Space Marines of late. The only SM kit in the last 4-5 years that I've purchased and put together being the FW Raven Guard Captain Korvydae that I bought at Games Day UK last year and finished back in February.

However, this kit I most definitely am excited about. I think it's in part because it looks like a really big marine, part because it looks like a really big robot (I love Transformers btw) and part because it looks like a very flexible, pose-able kit with a great silhouette.

At the moment the weapon options are limited to power fists (which look very nice) and a twin linked lascannon (cool, but I'm less sure about how it fits with the kit as a whole). I've opted for the dual power fists.

Fortunately the weapon options won't be limited to just those mentioned above. Recent pictures from Games Day Chicago show some very nice looking additional weapons, including twin assault cannons, conversion beamer and cyclone missile launcher, and a slight variation on the body.

In general, the quality of releases from Forgeworld lately have been excellent and I'm definitely looking forward to a lot of the upcoming releases. In the meantime, it's back to the work desk for me to get cracking on some Golden Demon entries!

Plans For July

2011-06-28T19:16:00.004+01:00

Well it's July...already (!) and I have a few things beginning to mount up on my hobby desk so I figured I'd put together a quick preview of things to come:

1. Forgeworld Empire Manann's Blades

It was my birthday in June (the 10th for those looking to mark it in their calendar!) and one present from my lovely other half was the new FW Empire command group for the Manann's Blades swordsmen.

They really are lovely figures and some of the best cast quality I have seen from Forgeworld - minimal clean up and crisp, clean detail. Excellent!

2. Forgeworld Event Only Chaos Dwarf Hellsmith

A treat to myself for my birthday, I picked this one up from eBay for the cheapest I have seen him go. What I like about this figure is the fact that it maintains the key style elements of the original Chaos Dwarfs, combined with some more modern Chaos style ques.

Unfortunately, as this guy is probably a bit too small and unimposing to make a good Golden Demon Fantasy Single entry, he's probably not too high on the priority list at the moment. That said, I am keen to get paint on him as he looks nice and "easy" to paint.

3. Storm of Magic "Pimp My Wizard" Contest

PDH from Dakka Dakka's P&M forum has put together a little friendly invitation only contest ("Pimp My Wizard 40k!") to convert one of the new Storm of Chaos plastic wizards into a 40k character and I was invited to take part.

As I was intending on picking up one of the figures anyway for exactly this purpose, I duly accepted his invite and placed my order for this figure last weekend:

Again, another very nice looking kit with bags of conversion potential!

4. Suffer Not The Heretic Project

Finally, I will be continuing with my Inquisition Warband models I have been working on of late. I finished the sculpting and conversion work on the Inquisitor below the other day and have begun applying basecoats. Hopefully I will get at least the bulk of the paintjob done before the model above arrives!

Busy month ahead!

Suffer Not The Heretic (Part II)

2011-06-05T22:33:00.005+01:00

Well, I figured it was about time to reveal the figure from the teaser image I had posted previously. I managed to finish the paintjob on this guy last weekend but have only just got round to taking pics - as usual, they are far from perfect!

Regular readers may recognise the base model from an old conversion job of a Rogue Trader. I was looking at the figure a while back and realised that I could do a much better job now - plus, a Rogue Trader would be a perfect addition to the Inquisitor warband I'm building!

Finally, my finecast Dark Eldar Archon has undergone some serious conversion work already, and while far from finished, I figured I'd share a pic of my progress. This conversion work would have been almost impossible to reasonably achieve if the figure was metal since large areas were cut into and carved.

Still lots more work to do, but you can expect to see this guy again soon!

Citadel Finecast Review

2011-05-28T15:42:00.006+01:00

If you frequent any hobby forums (Warseer, Dakka Dakka etc), visit the GW website regularly/receive their newsletter/read White Dwarf, then you probably can't fail to have noticed all the talk about Games Workshop's new Citadel Finecast range.

Citadel Finecast - Summary

If you are wondering what Finecast is, then to summarise, Games Workshop have decided to move away from casting character figures, monsters and elite units in white metal, instead opting for a new resin hybrid - the Citadel Finecast range.

In the first wave, there are around 120 Citadel Finecast kits, cast using the new resin. These include a range of the most popular figures previously cast in white metal for most armies, along with all the new character and elites/monster releases. The word is, all new models which would have previously been cast in metal will now be cast in the Finecast resin and the change will also sweep back through "most" of the existing miniatures still cast in metal.

What I've heard is that, as a metal figures stock expires, the decision will be looked at whether to cast it in the new resin, or just continue to cast it in metal, though I suspect resin to be more likely.

First Look

Anyway, with all the hype about today's big release of the Citadel Finecast range, I decided to pop down to Games Workshop Glasgow to have a look for myself and pick up a figure to experiment on.

The fact that the new range is cast in resin excited me from the moment I first heard about it. As regular readers will probably already be aware, I hate working with metal miniatures. Resin offers excellent conversion potential to a range of miniatures I previously would never have considered due to being easy to cut, carve and clean compared to metal.

While in store, I was given a look at a range of the new Citadel Finecast kits, large and small, and I have to say - I was very impressed with what I saw. The details were crisp and sharp, there was little flash and what there was is easily removed and the figures were very light and resilient (Steve the manager dropped a LOTR elf with bow from about 2 feet onto the table and it simply bounced - the bow, which was very thin, didn't even bend or break).

Best of all, because the material is so light, large kits which were once a pain to assemble when cast in metal (such as the Nurgle Demon Prince and Shaggoth) are now extremely light and easy to put together. So much so that you could simply glue all the parts without pinning (though I probably still would just to be 100% cautious).

The Review

Anyway, as I mentioned, I decided to pick up one of the new Finecast figures to do some experimenting on. In the end I settled on the Dark Eldar Archon.

The first thing I will say is that I was impressed by the relative lack of flash on the sprues for the figure. Earlier in the week there was some serious "scare mongering" going on following a blog post on an early opening of the Grey Knight character Draigo which seemed to have a lot of excess flash and generate a lot of negative comments.

I looked at a couple of the Draigo blisters in store and a few did seem to have more flash than other kits, but I guess the advice is to look at what you are buying to make sure you get a good cast before you put your money down. I expect the casting quality to get much better now that the big push to get a worldwide release out has passed.

As you can see from the pics, the amount of flash on this particular figure is insignificant - a couple of thin filmy bits but nothing a quick trim wouldn't easily remove and certainly much quicker to clean than metal flash.

This figure comes on two small sprues, one for the body and right arm and one for the head options, shoulder spike and weapon arm.

The detail on both sprues has come out perfectly - no evidence of tearing, warping or air bubbles/detail not filling. The mould lines are also very small which is always welcome. I had seen some people commenting on forums that the Finecast range requires more vents to be cut in the mould, meaning more contact points for flash which would obscure details.

Honestly, on this model I don't see what all the panic was about. The flash is no more than was ever present on a metal model (excluding the spure of course) and the contact points between sprue and figure are very small and do not meet at any detail points.

Like all models, whether metal, resin or plastic, I think I will still be sanding most surfaces to get as smooth a finish as possible, but for the casual painter and those who game, I really think the Finecast range will be welcomed as an improvement over metal miniatures.

I know that personally, I am really looking forward to being able to use some new and existing sculpts for conversions and have already been eyeing up the current Citadel Finecast releases, identifying models with interesting "new" conversion potential!

Feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments.

Suffer Not The Heretic - New Project

2011-05-22T09:46:00.003+01:00

Bit of a teaser this blog post, but I've been working on something "new" (yes, I know...) that has been sparking my hobby muse.

I don't want to show too much yet (there are probably enough clues to get you thinking anyway!) so I'll leave you all with this picture:

My Hobby Room

2011-04-28T19:50:00.007+01:00

A bit of something different for this blog post.

A common topic on many hobby forums and something I always find pretty interesting is that of hobby spaces and hobby rooms. The little (or sometimes large!) sanctuaries we all have where we work away at what we love.

When I lived with my parents and family I never had a permanent hobby space that I could set up and leave projects for "hobby fermentation" (the creative kind, not the smelly, foosty kind!). I always looked on at threads where forumers posted their glorious hobby spaces with envy, aspiring to one day have my own full time space for modelling and painting.

Now that I'm older and have my own place with my long-suffering girlfriend, for the last 2 years I finally have a hobby place to call my own and here's some pics to prove it! (and because I don't think I've shared "my setup" before here):

My desk, complete with paint ranks (could use a couple more to be fair!), hobby mat, spray booth, manequins, lamps (with day light bulbs), a pretty view along the river and plenty of drawers and storage for bits and pieces!

A rather empty miniatures cabinet - because everyone needs somewhere to keep their work and still be able to see it for inspiration and to measure progress agaisnt.

The drawers beneath my desk, full of all manner of hobby tools and materials, along with the numerous boxes of models and parts that have started to accumulate here.

Finally, the model cupboard (well, one side of!), each white drawer is full of boxes or sprues of miniatures (because you can never have too many...!).

Thanks to the Royal Wedding tomorrow, I'll have a rare opportunity to spend some extra time in here working on some of the recent projects I've shared so hopefully I'll have something to show from these over the weekend.

Why I Hate Metal Mini's + On The Workbench

2011-04-24T16:32:00.007+01:00

I hate metal miniatures. There is nothing more frustratingly time consuming than preparing a metal miniature for painting.

With resin and plastic you can remove mould lines, flash and imperfections relatively quickly with a scalpel and files/sand paper. With metals though, it not only takes much longer to remove these, since the material is much stronger and more brittle, but you also have to put up with pitting on almost all surfaces.

Yes, sometimes resin miniatures get spots where the finish is a little rough and pitted, but with metals it tends to be all over the figure. Very annoying!

There is a couple of ways to deal with this:

Sanding

Sanding pitted and rough surfaces with fine grit wet/dry paper (starting with 800 and finishing with 1000+) is a good starting point for cleaning up the surfaces of a metal miniature. For tighter nooks and crannies, you can cut small strips and glue them to pieces of wire or cocktail sticks to get in at them.

However, sanding will only go so far to clean up a metal miniature. Often the pitting involves both raised bumps and recesses, so unless you want to spend forever sanding a couple of mm off the entire model, you are going to need to do some filling too...

Milliput

Milliput is a two part epoxy putty that is water soluble, meaning it can be diluted to create a milky solution that can be applied with a brush and used to fill small recesses. Larger mould shift line recesses can also be filled with it as, while still fresh, it can be worked into shape and smoothed flush with the mini. It can then be filed to a smooth finish once cured. The only downfall is that it takes a couple of hours to fully cure and can take a while to ensure all gaps have been filled flush.

Mr Surfacer

Mr Surfacer comes as a grey liquid in a jar which cures in about 15 minutes to a plastic like finish. It can be applied neat from the jar to fill bigger gaps, or thinned (using Mr Colour Thinner) to create a more fluid mixture which can be painted on to fill smaller, shallower recesses. Mr Surfacer (1000 or 1200) can also be thinned and used as a primer through an airbrush, leaving a smooth finish.

One of the main benefits of this product is that no sanding is necessary on the finish as it is self levelling. Of course, if you aren't covering the entire surface, you will likely still have a small seam where the edge of the dried Mr Surfacer meets the metal surface of the model. In these instances, some light sanding with wet dry will be all that's needed.

On the Workbench

Why this outburst of hatred towards metal miniatures? Well, recently I decided to start working on an Inquisitor scale Eversor Assassin miniature from Games Workshop which I've had lying around since last year.

A nice sculpt, though with a horrendous amount of mould lines, mould shift, flash and pitting. The armour plating in particular required a lot of work to get it back to it's smooth shapes and hard edges. I also chose to remove all of the protruding injector type things from the armour plates. Partly to allow me to get them smooth and in shape again, partly because they were badly cast and would have required a lot of work to get back to their intended state and partly because I just think it looks cooler and more fitting of a sleek, deadly assassin.

All in all, I've spent about 3 days on and off just cleaning this miniature up and re-sculpting, detailing and filling areas to get it ready for paint.

Urgh!

First and Only (Part III)

2011-03-27T16:11:00.003+01:00

It's been a little quiet on the blog front over the last 3 weeks or so but I have found snatches of time here and there to progress this project. I'm finally at the end of the sculpting and converting stage (excluding a little bit of gluing) so painting and work on the base is up next.

The arm holding the weapon and the cape were probably two of the things I was kind of dreading having to do, but in the end they were actually a lot of fun to do and turned out quite well.

All in all I am very pleased with how he has turned out and I'm looking forward to slapping some paint on him. I've learned a lot during the converting and sculpting process on this figure, including finding a putty mix that I am really enjoying working with - hopefully this will carry over onto future figures too.

Feel free to let me know what you think, or any questions in the comments below.

Crystal Brush 2011 Awards - Jakob Rune Nielsen

2011-03-13T11:23:00.005Z

Today's blog post is something a little bit different.

The Crystal Brush

Last year, CoolMiniOrNot.com announced that it would be organising a special painting competition, the Crystal Brush Awards, to take place at AdeptiCon 2011. With a $10,000 top prize and $2,000 and $1,000 respectively for 2nd and 3rd place, this is certainly the most valuable prize of any miniature painting competition I know of.

The competition is also a little special because of the way in which judging is handled. In addition to judging, which will take place at Adepticon in Chicago by a panel of experts including the legendary Mike McVey, the other 50% of the final scores will be determined by internet voting on the CoolMiniOrNot website.

Without getting in to discussion about the judging system (of which, personally, I am not a fan), it certainly makes things interesting in the run up. For a change, entrants are actively promoting their work in progress on entries in order to generate public interest which could pay dividends come the online voting.

Jakob Rune Nielsen

One entrant in particular, who's work I have long admired, is Jakob Rune Nielsen. I have been fortunate enough to be privy to the entire development process of Jakobs entry and I have to say, it is quite simply one of the most captivatingly unusual miniatures I have seen - embodying a great blend of John Blanche-esque "Gothic Sci-Fi", with Jakobs own creative abilities.

In the interest of helping a friend out therefore, I thought I would share with you a couple of pics of Jakob's progress and point you in the direction of his wonderful website (which, if you haven't already seen, you really should!):

Jakob has begun to share his WIP progress photo's on his website on a regular basis now, so if you want to follow the development progress, check it out. Having seen the final piece and painting begin, I can promise you, it is well worth following!

First and Only (Part II)

2011-02-27T16:04:00.005Z

Since my original post on this I have spent a fair amount of time doing some research and amassing parts and ideas which have begun to find there way into my initial test model (shaping up to be Tanith scout Bonin) seen below.

As I wanted to keep my guardsmen to a realistic scale and proportions I've used Elysian guardsmen legs (from Forgeworld) as a base and sculpted the torso, neck and arms on top since there is a lack of pieces in the GW and Forgeworld ranges that fit with the look I'm going for for these. I have also removed the kneepads, thigh padding and harness straps from the legs and replaced them with a look more fitting with the Adrian Smith artwork I am using for inspiration.

There are still a lot of details to add, and this is obviously still very WIP, but I figured I would share it since I feel it is a sizeable step forward in the progress. Incase you are wondering about the pose - he's going to be moving silently to the edge of the wall he has his back to, weapon raised in his left arm ready to break cover and bring down the enemies of the Imperium.

More soon! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section.

Captain Korvydae Finished

2011-02-06T20:35:00.007Z

Finally got around to finishing this figure - first of the year! A nice sculpt but with a few headaches due to typical Forgeworld cast issues (though much improved over the quality from about 3 yeard ago!). The jump pack in particular had a few ugly areas.

The other area I always find a little frustrating is the round metal dimples on the jump pack - painting metal over white is always an issue!

The paintjob is a bit predictable being fairly similar to the one on the Forgeworld site with the exception of the fully gold hammer and the gold raven on the jump pack top. I felt that it was important to emphasise his captain status with plenty of bling.

The base was a bit of an after-thought on this figure as I really just wanted to get him finish. It turned out ok, but there are areas I think could be improved. Still, I think the sand/dirt colour contrasts the armour quite nicely.

I spent the afternoon doing some early work on the first test model for the upcoming Tanith project too. I've settled on putting together (at least some) of the Gereon mission team.

More on this soon...

First and Only (Part I)

2011-02-05T19:30:00.004Z

The Tanith are coming. A few years ago I converted up a couple of Blood Pact warriors inspired by the fantastic Gaunt's Ghosts novels by Dan Abnett. At the time I had always intended to get round to doing some Tanith and that time has finally come.

While there are metal models for Tanith guardsmen released by GW a good few years back now, these don't fit with either the cover artwork for the novels by Adrian Smith (below), or my own personal mental image of how they should look. Therefore, the majority of the models I will be putting together will be sculpted.

At the moment I'm pulling together inspiration artwork and bits and pieces for the models. I do have a question for any of you more knowledgable readers though...

Does anyone have any good descriptions for appearance of the following characters and their tattoos:

Ceglan Varl
Hlaine Larkin
Brostin
Oan Mkoll
Elim Rawne
Beltayne

Any descriptions would be much appreciated!

More on this project soon!

Sculpting Charts - Gone

2011-01-24T08:32:00.002Z

Yesterday I put a sculpting chart up as a resource for folks to use, but after some good points from a friend (cheers Migs!) I've decided to scrap it and start again.

Looking again with fresh eyes, the proportions for the marines and humans don't scale 1:1 at all sizes - some creative modification is required in order to produce sculpts that both look realistic, yet also allow room for detail and characterisation.

Therefore I intend to rework these from scratch for each scale - it'll take a bit longer but hopefully be worth the effort.

Cheers,

Dante

Painting Tips - Collection I

2011-01-16T13:20:00.012Z

The following is a collection of painting tips that aren't commonly discussed on painting and hobby forums, but which I have found incredibly useful over the last 10-12 months or so. This post will mark the first in what will hopefully become an ongoing collection of hobby tips lists.

Preamble

As you'll no doubt have noticed if you are a regular reader of my blog, I've been doing some painting of late. Last year I only completed about 2, possibly 3 figures, so this year I've set myself the target of painting up at least 7 figures this year. As such, I've been doing a lot of reading and video watching on painting techniques etc to try and get myself not only working more quickly, but also to a higher quality. Through this process I have picked up a number of tips from other painters, and also learned a few myself through trial and error. I figured that some of you may not have heard these tips before, and that for the rest - there may be something of use in here too.

So without further rambling, here are some of the miniature painting tips and techniques I have learned in the last few months:

Use a BIGGER brush

I used to do 90% of my painting with, at most, a size 00 brush. This, I have realised, is madness. Not only does it take you far longer to get the miniature painted due to being able to hold less paint on the brush, but it also increases the likelihood of brush strokes.

Therefore, I recently picked up a Raphael 8404 size 2 brush to use to apply my basecoats and initial blending and transitions. I can't tell you how much of a difference this makes to blending on large surfaces. The best way for me to demonstrate is to show you the video by Jeremie Bonamant Teboul from which I learned this from:
Change the angle of your brush strokes

If you continually apply paint with brush strokes from the same angle, you are more likely to create unsightly tide marks and will also struggle to get smooth highlighting and shading.

Think for a minute of how a professional decorator would paint a ceiling. They apply the paint from the roller in one direction first, before applying a second coat from a direction at a 90 degree angle from the first. The diagram above explains what I mean - think of the line pattern as being the brush strokes, if you cross the angles you get more complete and uniform coverage without building up too much paint going in the same direction.

How to hold sub-assemblies such as arms without using glue

I came up with this one the other day while getting frustrated with the arm I was painting falling off of the cocktail stick with blu-tac on the end that I had been using to hold it. I didn't want to glue a pin in as this leaves an uneven surface where the dried glue was which can effect the join when it comes time to attach it to the model - it can be cleaned up but it takes additional careful work so as to avoid rubbing off any of the paint job you've just done.

In place of gluing, I decided to drill a small hole in the join surface of the arm, but instead of gluing wire in, I decided to cut a little off the end of a cocktail stick and press it into the hole. If you cut enough off to make a snug fit, you don't require any glue and it holds firm without rotating while painting. Best of all, when you are finished the piece, it comes off easily without much force - meaning you don't ruin any of your hard work and don't have to clean any dried glue!

Use a wet palette (the bigger the better!)
I had been using a small home made wet palette for the last 3 years or so, but I was beginning to get annoyed by how quickly I would run out of space for colours and the uneven surface causing some paints to pool, or dry out quicker. At the turn of the year I decided to buy a proper wet palette (a large Masterson "Sta-Wet" Palette to be precise) and the difference already has been huge.

Wet palettes in general are great because they suit painters, such as myself, who paint in fits and starts and don't want to keep trying to mix up the same colours. They also allow much more control of the paint and how you apply it by giving you time to mix it and use small quantities. The big benefit of a large wet palette is the extra space, however as it is a professionally made product, I have also found the palette paper and sponge to be much better than any I had previously been able to find. The sponge is totally flat, meaning no pooling or accidental colour mixing, and the paper doesn't curl up at the edges leading to annoying drying.

The only downside is that, because it is so large, you need a lot of space to put it on. Fortunately, my work desk has a second slide out worktop so it's not really an issue. If you are pushed for space though, I believe they do make palettes in medium and small sizes too - best to measure how much space you realistically have on your worktop while painting and buy whichever fits best if you intend to get one!

Take proper care of your good brushes

Final tip for this post before it runs on forever! Take proper care of your good brushes.

Good brushes aren't exactly cheap, most run at between £6 and £12 a brush. Take proper care of them though and they last a long time. What do I mean by proper care?

Don't use your good brushes to apply paint from pot to palette. This causes the bristles to rub against the edge of the ferrule (the metal collar that holds the bristles), which can cut into them and damage the bristles - leading to splaying and fish-tailing.

The same goes for aggressively mixing paint and how you rinse your brush out. When cleaning your brush, don't push the bristles against the side or bottom of your water pot. It should only take a quick shake in the water pot for a few seconds to remove the paint unless you've overloaded your brush and got paint right up to the ferrule - which is a big no-no!

If you want to go the extra mile in brush care, you can apply a little hair conditioner (the type you'd normally put on your head) to the bristles after painting. Leave it on for an hour or so and then give them a rinse in your water pot and they should be good to go again. Why do this? Well bristles are just hairs anyway so the conditioner will stop them from drying out and keep them soft and supple. After spending so much money on them, "they're worth it!"

Feel free to share your thoughts, or any other tips you may have picked up that you have found useful in the comments below!

Captain Korvydae WIP

2011-01-15T16:33:00.007Z

I posted a WIP pic of Korvydae a couple of weeks ago, however I've been working on him a bit more here and there since then so figured I'd post a couple of updated WIP pics here.

I got a new camera (Canon Powershot G11) from my family for my Christmas, but due to customs and postage issues, it only arrived this week. Therefore, I'm still experimenting with my setup for pictures - these ones are a vast improvement on the last set, though I messed up the lighting so they're a little burnt out on the highlights. Particularly on the face.

Anyway, here they are, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments:

Finally a close up of the face - bear in mind this is about 400%+ zoom!

(Technorati Code - WACYXQHYBCME)

Knight - Photoshop Effort

2011-01-08T17:18:00.003Z

Bit of a quick post this one...

I've been using Photoshop more often at work recently and decided to do some practice during my lunch hour on a few techniques I don't get to use so often. Here's the result!

Ultramarines - The Movie : Review

2010-12-31T14:48:00.006Z

Preamble

When I first heard the news that Games Workshop were planning on releasing a movie I was excited and sceptical in equal measures. I could still remember the promise that the Bloodquest movie held before it was ultimately and unceremoniously canned.

However, following the big announcement at GD UK '09, and the raft of details which followed after, it seemed that this time something would actually be produced.

When I saw that Dan Abnett (my favourite Black Library author) was attached to write the script and the quality and pedigree of the voice actor cast (including the likes of John Hurt, Terrence Stamp and Sean Pertwee), my excitement levels were on the rise and I was filled with hope that the incredible and rich 40k universe which GW has created over the last quarter of a century would be done justice in its official screen debut.

In the run up to the special edition DVD launch of the movie the creators, Codex Pictures, begun to release teaser trailers and screen captures from the movie. I have to admit, what I saw in these gave me some concerns - particularly the trailers. So by the time the DVD finally arrived (4 weeks late after a lot of delays which made the £8 for postage seem ludicrous), I was probably more nervous than excited.

The Review

Sadly I was right to be nervous. Pretty much from the off I was disappointed and I don't think this was entirely due to the movie not meeting my lofty expectations for a 40k movie.

I sat through the first 10 minutes hopeful that it would get better as it went on, but sadly it didn't, instead just crushing my optimism the longer I watched.

So why isn't this movie a good first foray into the glitz and glam of the movie world for 40k? Well, lets look at the basic elements of the movie...

Animation

The animation isn't terrible - but it's not exactly anything special either. The space marines just don't seem to be animated to convey any kind of size, power or weight - they skip along without any real weight shift taking place or much movement in the armour. The shoulder pads are also quite oddly shaped and curved and most scenes seem to lack any real detail. The backgrounds and environments in particular being very poor for the most part - it felt like I watched 40 minutes of marines walking in poorly animated fog, a cheap cop-out for rendering environments.

The lighting is also pretty poor on characters faces throughout, often having too strong contrasts between light and shade and ruining any sense of realism.

Yes, some of these seem like nit-picking points, but for a short movie that aims to convey the core elements of what a space marine is, it's pretty important.

There were a few decent points, such as the armour on John Hurt's character Chaplain Carnak and elements of the few fight scenes there are, but the negatives far out-weigh these few bright points.

Sound

The sounds of this movie were very noticeable throughout due to there almost complete absence. Be it speech, sound effects musical score or environmental sounds, there was very little given the movies length and the lack of any kind of noise was often quite jarring - detracting significantly from the viewing experience.

Whole scenes would go by without any speech, sound effects or accompanying background noises or music, making quite boring viewing.

Voice Acting

On paper the voice acting cast looks amazing, sadly in the movie it seems like they either don't reach their full potential, or aren't given a chance to shine. The speech often seems emotionless and stilted with the exceptions of Sean Pertwee and Steve Waddington who are the few bright points in some otherwise uninspired voice acting.

Script/Story

I'm not sure of the constraints which were put upon the scripting/story for this movie due to length, budgets and marketing/IP usage, but it's hard to believe this script came from Dan Abnett.

I won't spoil any of the story for those of you who may still choose to watch this movie, but suffice to say it's bland and un-engaging throughout, leaving the viewer caring little for what happens.

As I said before, much of the movie is marines walking in fog with little dialogue - no bright points here I'm afraid.

Conclusion

All in all a very disappointing first effort for Games Workshop on the movie front. For a universe and IP with so much promise, coupled with what is, on paper at least, a great cast and author, this movie falls so far short of expectations.

Even for a low budget, "hardcore" space marine movie, aiming to typify the character of space marines, as the makers have claimed was their aim, it's poor.

I wanted so much to love this film as I really want to see more efforts made to bring Warhammer and 40k to the screen, but it just feels like the makers have missed all of the subtleties that are essential in creating the character of space marines as they are frequently so well described in novels and army books.

Things like the weight, value and scale of power armour for example. There is one scene where the squad have to cross a rickety old wooden bridge - I actually cringed. Seriously. Mankind's superhuman elite, 7ft of power and genetically enhanced muscle, encased in what one can only imagine to be around 700 - 1,000kgs of ceramite power armour, crossing a bridge from a Scoobie-Doo cartoon.

They skip across unhindered and without so much as a creak.

And on that bombshell, good night and have a happy New Year!

Airbrushing, Photography and Miniature Painting DVD's

2010-12-28T19:07:00.008Z

Well, since I've been a bit ill since Christmas, and busy in the build up to the holidays, I never got as much done as hoped - hence the lack of updates!

That will hopefully change over the next couple of weeks as some nice presents and a bit of rest have helped my hobby motivation return. So what were these gifts? Well, firstly I decided to treat myself to a portable airbrush booth to make sure I get more use out of the airbrush I bought last year. The booth I got is an Expo Tools Airbrush Portable Spray Booth #500 - a bargain at £70!

The booth is a nice, compact piece of kit with everything folding away neatly into a roughly shoebox like size. It is also modular, in that if you buy another of the same booth, they can be linked together to create one long booth for larger projects. The extractor fan is powerful enough to remove any fumes, yet silent so as not to disturb your painting mojo. I'm looking forward to giving this a whirl while spraying some Hellion skyboards.

I was also received a nice fold out photography light box from my girlfriend as one of my presents - which hopefully means better quality pics as I get the hang of it! I did a few hurried test snaps earlier (below) of my GD UK 2010 fantasy single entry and a current WIP to test it out. The lighting setup was a little hurried though so they aren't perfect.

Finally, I also received the excellent Miniature Painting with Jeremie Bonamant Teboul DVD from Figone. I've purchased and viewed plenty of painting and sculpting books and videos in my time, and while all have proved beneficial, none have provided me with such valuable knowledge and understanding as this has already.

There is over 7 hours of theoretical and practical examples and applications over 2 discs, along with a gallery of images. While the camera work isn't quite as sharp as say the Miniature Mentor videos, you can still clearly see everything that is being done and the technical demonstrations and theory are well explained.

If your looking to improve your blending and understanding of miniature painting theory then I'd thoroughly recommend giving this a look. Also, the guys at Figone produce some incredible looking figures (Furgol and Carlos being among my favourites) and from the examples in the DVD, they look a joy to paint.

So, its back to the DVD (got another 4.5 hours still to go!) and some festive drinks and food for me before I get down to some serious hobby time and begin planning the coming year's GD entries.

Hope you all had a good Christmas and have an even better New Year! (oh and here's the quick pic of my latest WIP)