Cloud WIP New Progress

Howdy folks!

Did some fun progress on Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 and wanted to give an update.

I didn't snap any photos before this step, but essentially I did the excruciating work on the sword.

I started with blacklining all the shading of the sword, which takes a good wet palette, a teeny pointed brush, and some infinite patience. Making sure your brush point is, well, on point, and having thin black paint is critical. Holding your breath before you draw the line and exhaling once you start also helps, and a big factor is confidence in your brush stroke. Committing to the line without stopping makes things so much easier for you in the long run, as picking up halfway is really tough when making the black line consistent in line weight. Also being ready with a wet brush with only water helps erase mistakes before they dry, but that's a last resort for only big mistakes as the result is unpredictable. Also keep in mind that your highlights can fix the majority of your mistakes in blacklining will help prevent unnecessary modifications that you can't undo.

For the tiny little squares in the blade I used a wash to line instead of paint, it gives you more leeway in application and you can always add more to darken the line, but with paint you're giving yourself more chances to screw up in such a small space.

I then had mixes of my greys and whites for the edge highlights, which is what makes the finished product look awesome. Until this step you won't see the fruits of your labor, but once you get done with this you really see your NMM silver come together. Without this step it just looks bland and unintentional. Here you have to keep in mind how the light will reflect off the edges, and to not just have a single solid white highlight on the entire thing, it has to play with the colors beneath and only be a step above where it's reflecting. Because the blade edge is on a different plane then the flat of the blade I stepped up the white so it looks like it's reflecting harder than the flat space. I also kept in mind that the hilt of the blade needed to appear as a different material so I kept the color closer to neutral gray than the blade to give the impression of a block of sturdy metal rather than steel.

Lastly I carefully placed a very very very light glaze of turquoise in select areas of the blade to give the impression of steel reflecting sky. This makes the grey stand out much more and gives more of an impression of reflection than just using greys and whites.

Here is where I completed the hair, eyes, and a very small touchup of the face. The hair was based earlier with VGC Heavy Brown. I lined the shadows with GW Agrax Earthshade to give it definition. I then highlighted with a 50/50 VGC Heavy Brown and VGC Heavy Gold Brown. The trick to painting hair is to treat it just like NMM, where your reflections are coming from the bends of the hair and concentrating more on the middle portions of the shape rather than the traditional top-down edge highlighting technique most are familiar with. Once that was done a tighter highlight of just VGC Heavy Gold Brown followed by another highlight of adding white to the mix finished the hair.

The eyes, as almost all my eyes, are a happy accident. Every time it's a gamble and likely takes multiple attempts until I feel satisfied enough to leave them alone, especially when a model like this has a tiny eyeball. My normal technique was applied here. Earlier I did a small wash in the sockets to guide me and give more contrast to the eyes. I then painted the entire eye black, and finally come in with two small dots in the corners. This is a much better technique than painting the eye white then going in for the pupil in my opinion, as it is very tough to get the bottom of the pupil to meet the bottom eyelid, and if you don't you'll either get crazy eyes or the model is always looking up/down. It's also much harder to get the pupils to look in the same direction that way. With two dots in the corners you get a more pronounced pupil that stands out on the table better and is more likely to be the same size and look in the same direction. Granted, when I zoom in on the eyes, like, super zoom, the left eye is absolutely perfect and the right is just straight wonky, so take the advice with a grain of salt. Like I said early, it's a gamble, and I usually just leave it alone if it works well enough.

Here I started repainting the base. Although the previous base looks okay in photos, it's under a harsh light. When in normal lighting it's just too dark and he doesn't contrast well. I decided to go lighter and stuck with grey. Even though this whole model is almost entirely black, grey or white, I figured it would look different enough, especially with some washes and grass.

And here he is as he stands today. I ended up redoing the base twice essentially. I drybrushed some grey and white to bring up the brightness after washing the base with Secret Weapon Soft Body Black wash, but it was looking super bland and remedial. So I then added GW Agrax Earthshade and GW Nuln Oil to various areas to increase the contrast. I think I'll go back in with more drybrushing of grey/white to pick up more detail now that the contrast will show better.

All I'll have left after that is to paint his clothing and add some details to the base and he'll be ready to continue not getting over Aeris and moping around with existential quandaries and whatnot.

The Walking Dead - Andrea Complete!

Hey internet people!

So on Saturday I managed to paint my first survivor for the Walking Dead miniatures game, and I'm very very very happy with how she turned out, especially for the time I spent.

I knew since the game arrived that this model would be the first survivor I'd paint. Andrea was my absolute favorite character from the comic (who was given a disservice in the television series, yet her character was still enjoyable). She was a person who didn't want to be a victim and took training into her own hands, and managed to become one of the most reliable soldiers of the group and the best shot.

It didn't hurt that she had the best sculpt of the game in my opinion. Very rarely do we see sculpts of characters squared up for shooting. There's a possibility of this pose being a difficult sculpt or something, or perhaps it's not a dynamic pose, but I find myself wanting to see more of this in miniatures. It's also great to see a female character not cheesed up with skimpy outfits or over-emphasized body shapes. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy these models, but they permeate every game I have or look at and we need less emphasis on games overall. I like a good cheesy model, especially in anime based games, but it's not needed everywhere, and in this game it would betray the character anyway.

So I started out with my mantra in mind (get it table ready) but wanted to spend a little more effort on the survivors as they are the stars of the show. With this in mind I thought of quick techniques to utilize that still look professional - smooth textures for the shirt and leather, but drybrush for the jeans for speed. Lighter washes throughout the clothing to give smoothness and speed.

So with a light grey basecoat I sprayed 50/50 VGA Wolf Grey/VGA Shadow Grey for a lighter blue gray base. I then zenithal sprayed Wolf Grey then a light spray of Wolf Grey/White for the final highlights. I took SWM Storm Cloud Wash, which is a close color to the blue greys of Shadow and Wolf, mixed it with a few drops of GW Lahmian Medium to give more matte to the finish while keeping the wash viscosity properties, and a drop or two of water to make it more runny. I took this wash and heavily washed the shirt to tone down the white/lightness and provide soft shading throughout. Secret Weapon washes are excellent for this, as they're one of the only companies I know of that make light toned washes. They even have one that is a bright yellow green called Fallout. Having light washes is a good way to shade really bright tones and maintain its lightness, and most companies make very dark washes because it works most of the time.

With the jeans I based it with a few layers of GW Shadow for a solid opaque coating. I heavily washed with GW Nuln Oil, then drybrushed with GW Shadow and GW Space Wolf Grey (forgot the new name of this) to build up the highlights lightly and create that rough texture. Drybrushing has been a nice relief of a technique to use lately. Although I don't like the messiness of it (I like a lot of control for my blends) it's been nice to accept it as a valid technique for speed.

I used my usual Vallejo/Angel Giraldez recipe for the red leather on her straps and boots. For the hair I based with VGC Goldbrown, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with VGC Goldbrown mixed with successive additions of VMC Dark Sand. I think I successfully reenacted Andrea's dirty blonde hair!

I was really proud of her eyes, as I tried a different technique for painting them. I'm getting much more accurate with these, although it is a frustrating element of painting. It's one of those details that is just so annoying to do, and I always have to redo eyes for every model which risks parts of the paint drying thicker in different areas and affecting the dot of the eye's application. But when you get this right it unlocks a higher level in your miniature and draws the attention to the face even more.

Of course, I had to include a picture of playing around with my toys!

Pretty soon I'll have a demo set up fully painted! I'm concentrating on getting two crews of equal level survivors painted, which means I have to figure out what combinations are good for demoing the game first. I am not much of a fan of having Rick/Carl going against the generic scavenger gang, as it doesn't inspire much enthusiasm in me. I was thinking of having Rick/Carl go against Andrea and her sister as an even match, and maybe including one more beater on each side. Fans of the Walking Dead may not like Andrea going against Rick, but I think they are better models to display the game's range - Rick and Andrea both reflect strong characters with support models like Carl & her sister Amy that need protection give the leaders some synergy.

Anyway, let me know what you think! See you next time.

The Walking Dead WIP & Other Stuff...

Paints... Paaaaaaaaaaaaints...

Howdy folks!

Long time no post, as usual!

So I did quite a bit of hobby stuff recently and thought a good update was in order.

First up: my Novus building that you may recall from waaaay back in the day.

I took entirely too long to actually slap paint on this bad boy

I kept it simple like the other building. I under coated it with blank, then highlighted VGA Cold Grey and VMA Light Grey, then came back over with VMA Scarlet Red, an excellent vibrant red. Lastly I painted the interior walls with VMA Khaki or something. I still have work to do on it, like paint the debris and machines, but I've held myself to my 2018 mantra:

Get your crap at least table ready.

The flood in Houston forced me to consolidate all my hobby stuff and move them around the house, which when all piled together really became overwhelming when seeing all the stuff I have, and how none of it is completely painted.

So I'm going to try to get things at least presentable when I can, meaning actually painting rather than just thinking of painting. An hour here, and hour there, it all adds up and gets crap done.

So when I saw this building again I decided that's what I'll do, starting with this building, and did it.

Which transitioned into the next project:

The Walking Dead: All Out War Miniatures Game

I Kickstarted this game a while back, and even though I was hesitant when it first came out by the end of the campaign I was really excited to back it and get it on the table. When it arrived I played a few solo games but nothing serious, I mostly used the cars for terrain for other games and even the supply token pieces. I never really tried to get it on the table for our regular gaming group, though, as we usually played Malifaux and it just collected dust.

Recently, though, one of our regulars expressed interest in other games as Malifaux is starting to feel tired - this will happen when it's what your main game is (in our group) and it's played multiple times a week since 2013, which is when at least I joined the group so it's even longer for this player. When I thought about my catalog of games that might be interesting to introduce during this opportunity I brushed by my copy of TWD and figured why not.

I got really motivated to get this table ready and started on two of the walkers:

These were my test models for quick-painting concepts. I figured I'd rely heavily on washes and drybrushing (I hardly drybrush ever, so this shows that I really want to get these done lol) and came up with a recipe/paint order that may very well get the job done, and it's similar to how I painted my old horde Vampire army in Warhammer Fantasy.

For the skin, it's 50/50 VMA IDF Green/VGC Dead Flesh airbrushed on, then zenithal with VGC Dead Flesh, then a heavy wash of SWM Stone wash, then a drybrush of VGC Dead Flesh and a bit of white, followed by a spot wash of GW Green for shading and tone. A few dashes of GW Blood stuff adds contrast to the overall green tone.

For any other elements like clothing I just base, wash, drybrush, repeat as needed. As I said, really trying to get this done fast and not get held up on details like I normally do, and I feel like this recipe is a good balance between speed and aesthetics.

While I painted those I got started on the trucks that come with the game (for the KS version). I knew I wanted a red and a blue truck, as my wife used to own a cool red Chevy and when we first met we drove around in her blue Chevy, so I undercoated one with Black/Cold Grey/Light Grey then hit it with Scarlet Red like the Novus building. Then I washed it with GW Agrax Earthshade for quick weathering and did a few other elements like the windows.

Where it's at so far, these walkers are a breeze and fun to paint

The vehicles aren't done fully, as I need to pick out elements like the grill and hubcaps, and weather it even further with stippling and paint chipping, but as I said earlier - just get my crap table ready, so I did.

Speaking of table ready:

I couldn't help myself! I recently bought a Walking Dead mouse pad mat from our FLGS in anticipation of my recent motivation to get TWD table ready. So I plopped on some Battle Systems terrain, a few trees, etc. and before you know it I've got a pretty sweet table ready to rock this game! With its small model count I may actually get a game fully painted and ready for demos!

I have to admit I really like the small table size and model count, but when you have about 10 or so zombies on this set up you can see exactly the claustrophobia that this game meant to induce in players! It's going to be fun and intense.

And as a side project:

I started and almost completed Rosamu from the board game Yashima. I've always liked this game and its miniatures, and thought it could double as a model in A Fistful of Kung Fu. I painted it mostly by brush, so it felt like painting with one hand tied behind me as I've heavily airbrushed for the last few years, but it's nice to get back to your roots - I just shouldn't have done so after picking orange and yellow as my colors, because man I forgot how tedious and painful those colors are when painting by hand! The difficulty and disappointment actually led me to stop painting this guy for now, but - and this is my new mantra - he's table ready!

That's it for now, I'll keep in touch when I can!

Descent Miniatures: Merriod WIP

So cool!

The red tentacles help it stand out as the Master model

Howdy folks!

So today I got a chance to put some paint to plastic! I wanted to get started on significant work for my Descent miniatures. Although I've already painted the Zombies for the game as a test on basing I consider these Merriod models as my true first tries. The Zombies are absolutely hideous, the sculpts are some of the worst I've dealt with, and I lost a lot of motivation after trying those models out. Content-wise I can't complain about the Zombies, as you get a ton of cool stuff in the box and one batch of bad models doesn't ruin the whole thing (especially with cool models like the Merriod). Also, outside of the missions where they're mandatory, they aren't going to get any use so a bad paint job isn't the end of the world.

So as I was deciding on what to work on next my wife suggested the Merriods, as they're simply the coolest sculpt in the box tied with the Shadow Dragons. They are also my favorite monster in the base game due to their awesome abilities and annoying defense. So I got to laying some base coats on the guys, then after getting into the groove I found that I got almost the whole thing done in a sitting! All I have left to do is shade and highlight the blue skin, after that add the water effects and other basing elements and they're done. They're suitable enough to play as is in fact. If I'm not especially lazy I'll shade the grey on the stomach and tentacles.

It was also a cool coincidence that the base matched a tile in the game. I didn't plan on it matching, as I tried to do so with the Zombies and didn't do such a great job. I just wanted to make an interesting base and figured even if it didn't match it would look cool.

Overall it was a simple paint job, I didn't want to spend too much time on the monsters as I really am trying to follow through with having a fully painted set (at least of what I own). Lately I've been trying to keep in mind that not every model has to be perfect, and to try to get a standard that not only leaves me happy with the result but is also timely. I can't have every model done to the same 3-4 session standard, it's just not feasible especially with the new job demands.

Anyway, here are some more pics and WIP, when it's done I'll give an update!

Keep slinging paint!