Strain Revenant - flesh done!

Blimey.... February already??

Flesh is done! Made a bit of a faux pas with the trouser colour, but that can be changed... I am thinking of making it blue and yellow like the first revenant I painted. The grey here seems too desaturated for the rest of the model throwing it out of balance. It almost makes it look like I just haven't painted the trousers at all...

A little frustrated...

Please endulge me, I need to vent a touch of frustration at the trouble I am having with the third model for my diorama... In stark contrast to the two chunky cyber-zombies, my third protagonist in my vignette is a delicate girly packing a couple of sub-machine guns. Should be a nice contrast to the gnarly bad-guys and be a different POV for the scene.

So all is good with the world, right? Not quite... read on for my tale of woe

The sound resonating round my head today is that stomach-wrenching *snick* of breaking resin...

Lets start at the very beginning (its a very good place to start*)... I always remove the tabs of my models and pin them to their bases. Whether they are plastic, metal or resin they ALWAYS get a pin. This may have been my first mistake. Sharro has tiny ankles, and early on in this build I managed to snap one when inserting a pin to attach her to a pin vice and eventually the vignette.

I removed the pin and drilled deeper into her leg and re-attached the foot. Rinse and repeat, working further up the leg each time it broke.

Not a happy bunny

She is now in pieces on my shelves at home. Damn her skinny ankles...!


*name the song

The second Revenant - much better so far!

After the previous attempt, I decided to try something a little different... in fact the reverse of what I did last time. Colour first and then shade!

Toosh reminded me of a really lovely Nurgle Demon painted by Bohun where he really went to town on the colour (he was determined to move away from the stereotypical green Great Unclean One). Using that as inspiration I have gone for oranges and purples for the wounds over a yellow ochre base. So far I am still on the 'colour' stage, but it is already looking much more interesting (to me at least). What do you think?

Learning Curve... a steep one! (AKA the first Revenant)

Well, sometimes in the pursuit of that next technique/style you have seen on t'interweb you sometimes leave casualties in the field... That was me this weekend...

I had got myself into a position where I wanted to really go to town on painting models for my small vignette this weekend, so I spent one of my few remaining annual leave days on a day off on friday. The intent was to get to a point by the end of the day where the Strain Revenant that I had prepped was painted. This, however did not really go according to plan...

As I wanted quite a lot of lividity to all the wounds on the revenant, I decided that it would be best to paint in almost a greyscale and then add all the colour afterwards. This may have been a mistake as the glazes I used didnt really sit well over the top of the shading and I didnt get the effect I was looking for. It ended up rather 'muddy' and not as neat as I had hoped.

I will start at the end for anyone who just wants to see where I finished.... after the break I will go into more detail about what I did. This is the revenant NOW:

Looking at the previous post

Its funny... looking at the photos in the previous post has made me realise that I need to do more to the ceiling/walkway section. It looks far too thin and flimsy... I will put in another layer to the roof below the pipes (thanks Toosh for the idea!) and see how that goes...!

In other news, I started slapping paint on one of the models last night - the Strain Revenant 2 has a flesh tone! And a second Revenant arrived in the post this morning after a super-speedy service from Studio McVey once again!

Photos later

Another weekends work

So, another weekend has passed, and I think I have just about finished building by Studio McVey diorama... It is now sprayed black with all of the major points of interest in place. Still more surface detail to go such as trailing cables/chain, toxic waste canisters, fuel drums etc. and a little more tidying up of the edges to make them flat and square, but I am happy with it as it is for now...

 Looking forward to starting the painting!

Nearly finished building it...!

very nearly there now - some gaps to fill and some more small details to add, but other than that, the build is pretty much done. I should have pics of it primed by the end of the weekend. If I really get myself into gear, I am hoping to have a good few coats of paint on Sharro to show you as well...

SF vignette after the weekends work

Here it is after the work over the weekend...
There are a couple of big changes as you can see - the top and the wall/door. It looks a bit of a mess atm due to the mix of primed and unprimed areas (which I hope to remedy this week), but I am pleased with the general composition. After a comment on Platoon Britannica I was a little concerned as to the amount of space in the piece, but now that the door is in, it doesnt seem too large (to my eye at least - what do YOU think?)

I still have more to do in terms of details, but I am really getting to the point where I just need to paint something, so I may well start on the figures very soon! I bloody love the Studio McVey stuff...!

Snosserousses!

That may well be a made up word, but who cares!  The fact is, I was lucky to receive two "Snosserousses" for Christmas and one of them comes from......

Forged Monkey produce a fantastic Rhino bust and the quality is amazing. I took a couple of shots to show the bagged model, then some close-ups of the model as it is straight out of the bag.

This fella is going to be awesome to paint, so without further ado, I'm off to give him a wash :)  Watch this space for an update (very soon I hope!)

T x

The Studio McVey vignette WIP as it stands this morning

So, most of the build of the base has been done now, certainly the most difficult sections, and it is now down to the fine details (the fun bit!). I am thinking of putting a room in it, but can't decide whether that will be a positive addition to the scene or whether it will make it too enclosed. The plan would be to have the roof match the floor, but have car body mesh rather than the slip plate to allow some light through.

Anyway, pictures:

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

A Belated Merry Christmas! :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and that the new year is a good one for you.

Been busy here, but have managed to get some modelling done. First is a lick of paint on my Hasslefree Hustle. I feel like I have stalled somewhat on this, but can't quite put my finger on why. I am still pleased with the composition, but maybe its the similarity between the rusty metal and the orange coveralls that the Grymn are wearing... I have to decide whether the rust changes or the coveralls...

In the meantime (whilst I procrastinate, and possibly run out of time..!), I have started on what I hope to be my main Crystal Brush entry - a small vignette/duel between a Sedition Wars 'Strain' Revenant  (space zombie type thing) and one of the Studion McVey ltd edition resin girls, Sharro.

I have a few other pieces that I also want to get done, including another Barbarian, some new techniques I want to try (dayglow paints that I got for Christmas - thanks Toosh!), and a new camera (thanks Mum & Dad!) so I may post some new images of older models just to try it out... maybe a retrospective of what I have done in 2011. Although it will be quite short!

A quick update on last month's charity moustache growing - my team at work managed to raise just over £600 for some great causes! Thank you to all who were able to make a donation in these difficult times, it was most appreciated.

a WIP by Hasslefree Miniatures

I seem to have this 'thing' about Kev White sculpts, I just absolutely love what he does and there have been a couple of pieces over on the Forum of Doom recently which have really impressed me. One is a Powered Armoured human:

I think its difficult to top the quality of that sculpt even though Kev feels he needs to "sharpen some details". I'll buy this as soon as its released (and would be really happy if they released him in resin!)

The other is an ED209 style Grymn walker (Grymn are Hasslefree's space dwarves). This one is outrageous:

There is also a version with a detailed interior and pilot on its way:

One thing I'd love to see on this model is some kind of arm option for one (or both) of the shoulder mounts... but maybe that can be something for me to work on personally - it would certainly make it different!

I've got to stop fawning about HF minis... too damn good!

Hasslefree vignette

Well, I am pretty much there with the 'build' stage of the small Grymn Vignette now... hopefully will have it sprayed up tomorrow and start the painting. There have been a few 'cast' changes since the last photos, but I am pretty happy with the three I've ened up with. It was the guy on the left who kept changing...

Movember

Hey guys :)

Its NMovember, and as has become tradition in many places, people are growing moustaches all over the world for the good cause of raising awareness (and hopefully money) about two major men's health issues - testicular and prostate cancer.

I am never one to shy away from facial hair - I am often sporting a bear or sideburns, but never normally just a moustache. This year, with some support from a handful of colleagues (my Mo' Brothers), I have decided to grow a 'tache for charity...

My Movember Page

Any donations will be most welcome... and I won't even object to you laughing at silly pics of me!

Bugle Call

Just a quick heads-up to anyone in the vacinity - its Bugle Call this Sunday (20th Nov). This is one of the best model show's I've been to, with some really spectacular models on show and attended by some of my favourite painters from The Basement and WAMP as well as a lot of great traders.

We'll be there with our stand and doing various demos throughout the day (basically painting soldiers and having fun!)

More info here.

Something up my sleeve... the Hasslefree Hustle

Something big going on over at Platoon Britannica at the moment. We have just launched the first in a themed set of competitions which we are calling the 'Best of British'. What we are hoping to do is spotlight a different independent British mini company over a series of competitions and events with the shameless yet selfless intent to encourage their support in this time of economic downturn.

Our official statement of intent can be found here!

The first event is called Hasslefree Hustle and as you can imagine, supports Hasslefree Miniatures. Full details can be found here. It is a painting competition with pretty simple rules - paint a model or group of models which fit on (up to) a 50mm x 50mm base and you can use models from other UK-based companies as long as Hasslefree pieces remain in the majority. Closing date: 15th January 2012

I have knocked up a quick concept of what I am hoping to enter into the 'staff' part of the comp - a group of Grymn pressing forward into no-man's-land... The intent will be to cram as much detail onto the small 40mm base as humanly possible... but it leaves me with some questions

1. Camo or coloured armour
2. Weapon glow or muted matte armaments
3. NMM or metallics

Gaaaaaah!

What are you going to do?

Avelonian bust

This is the bust as it stands now. He needs a little "je ne sais quoi" so I am going to head over to The Basement and see if any of those talented buggers can point me in the right direction! Obviously he needs a plinth and I really want to do something with the helmet that originally came with the model., maybe present it on the plinth...

Fairy Dust(ed)

Well, its taken much longer than I wanted it too, but my Fairy Wears Boots piece is finally done. Big smiles and big relief.  However......this fairy tale isn't quite over. I managed to break her wings (which are extremely delicate by the way) whilst packing her up for Grey Matter.  A few choice words were muttered and I'm now going to glue them on with a two part epoxy glue rather than the 'super' variety.

Anyway, whilst I get that task done, here are some pictures, complete with wings intact :D

More WIPS - painting one bust and sculpting another!

So, next up are a couple more WIPs - the Avelonian bust is heading rapidly to completion (although I keep looking at it wanting to add some kind of freehand), and a Pirate Orc Bust a 'Jolly Bodger' so to speak...

The Avelonian:

The Pirate Orc has been sculpted in my usual 50:50 mix of Super Sculpey firm and regular and has a ball-bearing eye. I used a different technique to stop the sculpey from separating from the armature this time though, and it made a massive difference - I added a procreate core to the armature and before it had cured I started adding the bulk of the sculpey. Then I left it to dry before continuing the sculpt.

This is it now, after the first bake (as you can see, thos one is more GW in style than the last Bonner-esque one):

Domaru complete for now

I think I have come to the point of completion with the Domaru now - I have made a few subtle tweaks and tidied a few areas, but I think he is now done. I will get a plinth for him sorted out at some point (I have my eye on one from BNS Miniatures) and am still mulling over modifying the rocks on the back, but sometimes you just have to know when to stop...

here he is: