Sunday, April 29, 2012

Azhag with a flag

So, a major milestone reached - I've actually made a second post, and on time. I finished Azhag's flag today, so now only (only!) have Skullmuncha and the base to do.

Azhag's flag, on a pin vice for painting.

I'd originally pinned it through the base of the flag. This was a mistake - the resin will slowly, but inexorably, bend in heat above 25°C. Since this would also happen once the flag was mounted, I decided to pin it in the middle. The pin came out three times during painting since it's a very shallow hole and a very big flag.

It was painted in acrylic (mostly Citadel and some Vallejo). I used the new GW Mephiston Red on the sun face - this is the best red I've used for a deep, rich red. The material of the flag is based around GW Kommando Kahki, but had the texture buit up after the acrylic was done using oils. Raw sienna for the body, burnt sienna for the light shadows and burnt umber for the deep shadows. This added a slightly richer texture than just acrylics. The metals are loosly based on the Massive Voodoo true metalic metals tutorial, but with only a vague light source.  Everything else is pretty standard techniques, with patience making up for skill.

Azhag - front

Azhag - left

Azhag - rear

Azhag - right
In these you can see the bend in flag pole didn't straighten out when mounted. It's not ideal, but It'll have to do. I'm call this 99% done. The only part I'm really not sure about are the claws on the dessicated wyvern wing (the ones up the top). Since they're shaped more like dog or cat claws, I've painted them with the inside liek a dogs claw. They're a little clean, and I may make them more like horns.

The pin stopping the flag from sagging.
The background I used is from Massive Voodoo. Corvus' Miniatures has another good set. Photo's were done with overhead room lighting and a spot from a cheap halogen. No space for a lightbox or more lights yet (apologies for the obvious shadows!), but I'm moving soon so hopefully I can rig on up.

Now on to Skullmuncha!


Monday, April 23, 2012

Starting at the beginning

Back four years ago I signed up for blogger so I could follow a bunch of painting, modelling and 40K blogs easily. I thought maybe I'd start blogging my own stuff someday. Blah, blah, four years later, I'd been slacking off hobbies and I read Joel at Mordian 7th had hit four years and 250 posts, while doing a whole lot of stuff, while I'd painted a few guys. I mean, I had recorded a few albums for people, changed jobs a couple of times, so it's not like I wasn't doing anything, but I thought maybe a weekly blog could help me be a little more consistent in my output of minis.

So here's the first post. The aim for this to be a Sunday blog; one post a week, every Sunday. It'll mostly be 40K for now, and mostly painting since I don't play much. I'll kick off with a state of play.

The current project is Azhag the Slaughterer. I don't play WFB, but I do like the model. Azhag is done, I'm working on the banner with Skullmuncha still to do.Since this whole thing is a bit of whim, there are no fresh photos. But here are two showing the putty work and pins on Skullmuncha.
Skullmuncha - lots of liquid greenstuff. You can also see the pin for his other wing. He's attached to a small piece of craft fibreboard for undercoating.

I've totally removed the stock base resin so I can mount him on a custom base.
Skullmuncha - none of his limbs fit very well so they were all pinned and filled with grey stuff. This was left a little hollow, and once hardened, more grey stuff was put on an sculpted.

I have a few (!) other things that are waiting to be done. A few Dystopian Wars armies. The plan is to keep them fairly simple.
Kindom of Britania landship - watching TV and sanding resin.
The big one is the 40K marine company and guard irregulars.

Jump marine
Jump Chaplain
Terminator
The hoard
There is a plan for all these guys, but it might take a while to get through them all. On to next Sunday!