It's Con season!

And with Con Season comes painting contests!

This means this blog is going to go dark for a while. 

When I start to paint for contests I sometimes loose interest in what I'm painting, which results in me sitting figures down knowing they will never get finished.  Normally, when I paint figures to a table top standard, like I'm doing with my Trolls, I can push through and throw pictures up here.  When I'm painting figures to a competition standard, I can't just work through the figure unless I'm feeling really good about it.

In past years, I've been able to get Silvers in the single figure P3 painting competition.  I came in second to Jennifer Haley one year and second to Marike Reimer in another, which to me was pretty awesome.  To see my figures next to theirs was pretty encouraging.  When Privateer changed the process to coins, I received a gold coin for me entry, and instantly knew what I could have done to push him over the edge to get that trophy.

I plan to enter a figure in every category except the diorama portion.  I have an idea, but time constraints may prevent me from making one.  I will post pictures of my entries here once the contest is over and hopefully there will be some pretty shiny things to accompany them!  There may be a few posts here and there of figures I've painted in between, but posts wont be as reliably published until after Gen Con.  

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to posting some good news in a few months!

Butcher, revisited

What happens when I have a lens I've never worked with before?  I wait until the night before I like to post to my blog and get a bunch of out of focus, over exposed pictures.

All is not lost, however.  I got a glimpse of what I can achieve with a different lens, as the following pictures show.  This guy won me a gold coin in the 2010 Privateer Press painting contest.  I know I have pictures of him on the blog already, but those pictures were taken with a pocket camera on the floor of my old basement apartment kitchen.  To say the least, they were not as accurate of a representation of the figure as I would like, and I think these are a little closer to what it looks like in real life.  To this day it's still one of my favorite pieces, so he was an easy choice to test a different lens with.

If you want to take pictures of you figures and accurately represent them on the internet, you must not get discouraged when the pictures don't turn out like you want them to.  There are a lot of different factors that must be taken into consideration that can affect the outcome of your photos.  Lighting \and focus are the two biggest things I need to improve and become more comfortable with.  I'm using too much light right now, and I need to figure out a good way to position the light so it's diffused properly and doesn't wash out my figures.

I also learned not to wait until the night before I post to my blog to take pictures of 5 different figures.  I'm too tired to keep up the trial and error.  In order to really learn this camera and develop my skills, I need a good day to just get the feel of this.  What keeps me motivated is the idea of fantastic pictures of my figures, and working out a process that works for me.

Comments and questions welcome!

Fennblade Warder

I've had my Trollbloods since about 2006 or so.  I've never been able to settle on a skin tone, or a way to paint it that I've liked.  Surprise, surprise, the airbrush changed everything.  

I love the studio skin tone color, but was never able to replicate it to my satisfaction.  I basically used the same build, but applied it with the airbrush, which of course cuts down on time, and easily places the highlights and shadows.  Base of Trollblood base, and highlight by adding TB Highlight, then straight TBH.  On larger surfaces, a little bit of white is mixed in.

Photographing the skin is proving to be a little tricky, the highlights are getting washed out.  I'm not getting discouraged by it, though.  I'm painting the rest of my Trollbloods up and can't wait to smash some face with a force that is a little more resilient than my Scyrah. 

The tartan is a straight copy of the studio tartan.  It'll probably be the pattern of my force.  

I made a Borka conversion a long time ago that I've actually begun to put paint to as of this writing.  Hopefully he should be up in a few weeks.

Comments and questions welcome!

Spriggan

I much prefer the metal version over the new plastic one.

This is yet another model I've had for a loooong time.  I cant even remember when I bought it.  

I pushed the highlights a little further with the Spriggan than I did with the Juggernaut, and painted the pieces separately to make it a little easier.  I airbrushed the Khador anvil on the airbrush, but it looks a little more graffiti like than I would like, but it's done.  I wanted more battle damage on it as well, and I'm pleased with how it looks.

Also, I found out that every season of Daria is on Amazon Prime, so I watched the first three seasons while painting this.  I can't look at this model without seeing Daria, so I think I'm going to call it Daria.

Comments and questions welcome!

Painted Gorgon *Gasp!*

I know this guy gets a lot of hate, but I can't help but love him for it.

As with a lot of my other Retribution figures, I've had this Gorgon since the Angry Elves made their debut at Gen Con so long ago.  I was in college at the time, and with a full time job, I had very little time for painting.  I wanted to get models done in a very small amount of time, so that led me to purchase my first airbrush.  It was plastic, bottom fed, and of pretty poor quality.

I painted the Gorgon for the first time in a friends workshop, since they had a compressor I could use.  I applied the paint with the finesse of a freight train, and slapped on glow effects that didn't even come close to being the color I wanted.  In an effort to make the model look better, I tried applying battle damage with a sponge.  Of course, this did nothing to help the appearance of the model.

The Gorgon sat languishing in a case until a few weeks ago, when I pulled him out, intent on using him with a Scyir.  I quickly determined he wouldn't fit with my present force, and quickly chucked him in the Simple Green.  A quick application of paint with a little more finesse than the last time, and viola!

I was able to use him in a game recently, and he didn't quite perform as I wanted him to, but that's because he was the only thing on my flank that I could throw at a bunch of angry Doom Reavers.  Next time, I hope to use him to lock down another 'jack.

Here's a little preview of next weeks post.

Comments and questions welcome!

Painted Juggernaut

This guy represents a lot of firsts for me.

This was the first Khador 'jack that I painted with an airbrush, And I was a little surprised with how it turned out.  I was originally going for a drab green-brown, but the more I highlighted it, the more it took on a desert/winter camo feel.  I'm pleased with it, and I'm bouncing around the idea of painting an Epic Sorcha force in this scheme.

The second first was the sponge applied battle damage.  It's a great time saver compared to manually picking and choosing where to place the damage and it looks much more natural.  It's a handy little trick to take advantage of, and I look forward to refining it.  

Lastly, this is my first experiment messing around with a different background than what I've been using.  This helps the figure pop more, and makes the image a little more interesting then a plain grey background.  I found this background over at BlackDog Painting.  They have a few other colors that will probably be making appearances the more photos I take.  So far, working with this one, I can attest that the backgrounds are fantastic.  I highly recommend them!

As always, questions and comments welcome!

Display case quickie

I took these photos last night and thought I'd share them here. 

I bought some risers a few nights ago, and I live the difference the height change makes in the aesthetics of the case. 

I want to get more, but they can be a little pricey.  If you have a case, I highly recommend getting a few!