Kids...

I was on the DC mini-painting Yahoo group tonight and happened across some old files from the first time we met back in summer of 2001 at the Chantilly Game Parlor (back then it was the only Game Parlor). These were posted by Jason Moses who was living in the DC area at the time. Oh my goodness - look at these pictures - the kids would have been 5 and 8.



That was nine years ago - they did some Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Lord of the Rings, and a few Reaper's for a D&D game over the years - but both love the ballfield which is where they spend all their time. This is a pic from this summer - on a Saturday at the ballfield prior to them both having a game...



There's one more coming along - who knows when he'll be willing to sit down and paint with me. I have a feeling it will be awhile as he's a real handful and full of energy - doesn't sit still. He turned 4 this summer and is the main reason for my mini-painting hiatus these past five years (pre-baby year prior was spent painting bedroom and getting ready!) as it's hard to do anything with a baby in the house. A bit of family resemblance?

Hobby Desk...

Thought it would be fun to show off the hobby desk tonight.

* hobby room is the only unfinished room in the house - it's about 10'x12' in size located in the basement - I bought a piece of inexpensive carpet from home depot to cover the cement floor - desks are made from 2x4's and topped with that wood made from sawdust (it's cheap, light, but extremely sturdy).

Going from left to right...

* newish laptop computer - used to play cd's (not very often), pandora radio (very often), and update the blog.

* two shelves of opened and unpainted miniatures.

* old laptop computer - runs a custom piece of software I wrote to enter in step by step instructions as I'm painting, then a routine categorizes all the paint used, also displays a picture of the finished miniature - I use this for reference on past miniatures I've painted or experiments performed.

* a spotlight from Littlite (pronounced little light) - this is a company that I worked with when I was a consultant implementing enterprise software systems - the company has a very interesting history to it in that the company originally (and still does) made custom sound and light boards for rock bands (Emerson Lake and Palmer was first client). They needed a small and flexible light to see controls during the concert and the littlite was born. I use two daylight florescent bulbs hung from the ceiling but this puts a little spot light on the actual work without getting in the way.

* a shelf of spray paint, glue, and air canister.

* a shelf of painted miniatures (except for the pile of in the blister mage knight special editions).

* above that is a third shelf with years of dungeon, dragon, and white dwarf magazines.

* a paint color highlight/shading reference chart.

* three boxes of GW paints - most of them have gone bad - I'm trying to decide between reaper master or vallejo game color - problem is that I can't find anyone who stocks either in the area

* a pile of based miniatures - some are primered.

* water cup and folded paper towel for cleaning brushes.

* pop.

* Jim Beam barbeque sunflower seeds and spit cup - absolutely the best seeds.

* old version of how to paint citadel miniatures.

* paint brushes stuck upside down in styrofoam.

* paint sticks for whatever.

* roll of paper towels for cleanup.

* 2 old wireless g network cards that I need to get rid of - any takers?

* a clear, 3 drawer, fully loaded filing cabinet bursting to the seems with in the blister miniatures (it's clear so I can constantly be aware of how many unpainted minis there are!).

Reaper's Dirk, Male Rogue - 2555

2010-09-27 - updated - thanks to comments from "bighara" - this is indeed a sculpt by Sandra Garrity from Reaper and is number 2555 - Dirk, Male Rogue.

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An old reaper fighter that was sitting on the shelf (probably early 2100/2200 series sculpted by Sandra Garrity) - my goal was to paint something Friday night (Saturday morning) to a nice tabletop standard within the few hours given of the evening after the family went to sleep - basically to push a time limit and get back some painting speed. To that end the color scheme is basic brown and green.

Overall I achieved what I was hoping to do - there's parts that came out which I'm very happy with and there's other areas I don't care for - but the success was getting the paint down in rapid succession for each layer.

Games Workshop's Armoured Skeleton With Spear 3

This skeleton from Games Workshop is circa pre-2000 - I've always liked the strong look of GW's armoured (british spelling) skeletons. Long ago I went to a GW Games Day in Baltimore and picked up some bits including shields with skeletons on them - I used one of these instead of the boring round plastic shield. I also tossed out the tiny base and mounted him on GW's one inch base - then gave it my standard dungeon look.

There's no drybrushing on this model - all painting was layered from dark to light colors including the metal. I used a copper color on the breastplate to ease the brightness of the silver scale armor.

Wiz Kids' Wraith - WZK558

Finished something a bit different - I wanted to work up a mini where I could focus on layering to get back into a groove - therefore I found this Mage Knight Limited Edition piece and went for it! I already had done something similar with red, purple, blue, and green on other ghosts/wraiths in my collection - therefore yellow was chosen.

Using yellow was a good/bad choice. Yellow has to be the most difficult color to work with as it doesn't cover very well and needs many many many layers to get good looking results. Therefore I received numerous amounts of layering practice and in the end it turned out ok. Started with Fiery Orange and worked up to Bad Moon Yellow and then continued by adding Skull White to the mix.

ZN Games Goblin Dungeon Scout - 23-004

Yahoo!! Another mini painted in 2010 - maybe I can get another one or two cranked out, but then I think the kids sports and projects at work are going to sap my time - but here's a miniature from ZN Games' Unearthed Hyperborean Age straight from the package - as you can see, it has the same 2d sculpting feel as the other goblin and fighter and uses the same hexagon 1" base. I'm fairly certain that the other two are from ZN Games as well.

2014/12/30 update - found the sculptor to be Chaz Elliot.

This is kind of a goofy miniature whereby the sword is twice the size of the figure - and how about them antlers. I kept with the same blue skin tone to match up with the other gobo. I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable and the non-metalic parts are a slight step up from the previous figs. The metal armor - and there's a lot! - I painted on versus using a drybrush technique - I tried to leave blacklining between bits and used the metallics extremely watered down building up multiple layers.

A did a slight variation on the side of the base - instead of the striping as in the previous gobo, it was more of a drybrush - not sure if it really works - not bad, just different.

Painting Instructions for Goblin Dungeon Scout:

Step 01: Undercoat with black primer
Step 02: Use 50/50 mix of Dark Flesh and Blazing Orange on hair
Step 03: Use Blazing Orange as highlights on hair
Step 04: Use 50/50 Blazing Orange and Skull White for hair final highlight
Step 05: Wetbrush Dark Flesh on horns
Step 06: Add Bleached Bone - continue to white - then wash with Dark Flesh
Step 07: Use Enchanted Blue on skin
Step 08: Use mix of Enchanted Blue and Skull White on skin - continue adding Skull White until 2 parts Skull White to 1 part Enchanted Blue
Step 09: Use Boltgun Metal on all armor and sword
Step 10: Use Mithril Silver for armor and sword highlights
Step 11: Use Snakebite Leather for leather
Step 12: Use Vomit Brown for leather highlights
Step 13: Use mix of Vomit Brown and Bleached Bone for leather highlights
Step 14: Use drybrush of Codex Grey on stones
Step 15: Use drybrush of Fortress Grey on stones
Step 16: Use drybrush of Skull White as final highlights on stone

ZN Games Goblin Dungeon Boyo - 23-006

Hey - another painted miniature within 8 days! More painting then I've done in 3 years.

I believe this is another ZN-Games model (2010-09-24 - I happened to come across one in the package at my local hobby/gaming store - it is the Goblin Dungeon Boyo number 23-006 - title has been updated) - they all have the same one inch octagonal base and what I call a 2d look - there's a front to the model and a back to the model but no real effort at making the model look good from the side. This is typical of the smaller casting shops that kept the mold making simple.

2014/12/30 - discovered that the sculptor is Kev Adams.

I've grabbed these two models as they're easy to paint and I figured that would be a good place to reshape my skills and a blue goblin with orange hair is a bit whimsical but hey - they're on opposite sides of the color wheel so I'm within good color theory!

The fighter below looked like he was a barbarian out of the north - so I modeled a bit of snow which was a first for me. For this base I went back to my traditional in the dungeon look - but I did a bit of what can be best called a drybrush swipe along the sides. I've seen this done previously by another painter to good affect and tried it way back when on a model of a small lizardman using blue and white on the base. It's a bit different and breaks up the monotony of a black base.

Painting Instructions for Archived Goblin:

Step 01: Undercoat with white primer (should have been black)
Step 02: Use Enchanted Blue on goblin skin (something different)
Step 03: Use Chaos Black on all armor and weapon bits as well as hair
Step 04: Use Boltgun Metal on all armor and weapon bits
Step 05: Use Dark Flesh on all leather and wood
Step 06: Use 50/50 mix of Dark Flesh and Blazing Orange on hair
Step 07: Use Blazing Orange as a wet drybrush on hair
Step 08: Use Snakebite Leather on all leather
Step 09: Use Bubonic Brown on all leather as highlight
Step 10: Use 50/50 Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone as final on leather
Step 11: Use Bleached Bone on skull
Step 12: Use Skull White as highlight on skull
Step 13: Use Vomit Brown as wood highlight
Step 14: Use 50/50 Vomit Brown and Skull White as final wood highlight
Step 15: Use Blazing Orange as highlights on hair
Step 16: Use 50/50 Blazing Orange and Skull White for hair final highlight
Step 17: Wash of Regal Blue on skin with focus on crevices for shading
Step 18: Use 2:1 Enchanted Blue and Skull White for skin highlights
Step 19: Use 1:1 Enchanted Blue and Skull White for skin highlights
Step 20: Use Chainmail on metal highlights
Step 21: Use Mithril Silver on metal for final highlights
Step 22: Use Chaos Black on base
Step 23: Drybrush Codex Grey on rocks
Step 24: Drybrush Fortress Grey on rocks

ZN Games Human Hero - 23-014

2012-03-25: I came across a webstore today called Ahzz'z who happened to have a few of the Hyperborean Age miniatures and therefore this is no longer an unknown "archived" miniature - it is indeed from ZN-Games and is figure 23-014 the Human Hero.

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The paints still live! Well sort of - it's been a couple of years and there's not much wet paint in the buckets - even the year or two prior to the past two years had only one mini - this is the post Matthew era. But nevertheless, I've managed to find a bit of time to paint a miniature this past weekend - yahoo!

Not my best work, but far better than I actually anticipated - between the dried up paint and the rusty skills, I'm surprised it doesn't look like a big blob. This miniature was hanging around and it had a black undercoat on it - additionally, it was a lot of chainmail armor - easy to drybrush as a welcome back. I think it's from ZN-Games and their Unearthed line - however, I no longer have the blister package and ZN-Games is defunct - I couldn't find a website out there with their products to match up a picture.

Might notice the pics are a bit different. I've tossed out my really old computer (it was 13 years old - one massive piece of iron - they don't make them that way no more!!) which had a SCSI card in order to run the HP scanner I was using. I'm now using laptops, so I'm not able to hook up the old scanner. Therefore the pictures were taken using a digital camera, tossed into ms paint, zoomed up to 400x, and edged out by hand.

Painting Instructions for Archived Fighter:

Step 01: Undercoat with Black Primer
Step 02: Use Dark Flesh on face
Step 03: Use Skull White mixed with Dark Flesh for highlights
Step 04: Continue adding white until final highlights on tip of nose
Step 05: Use Red Gore on beard
Step 06: Drybrush Blood Red on beard
Step 07: Use Boltgun Metal on all armor and helmet
Step 08: Use Snakebite Leather on leather bits
Step 09: Use Bubonic Brown as highlights on leather bits
Step 10: Use Bleached Bone on horns
Step 11: Wash horns with watered down Dark Flesh
Step 12: Highlight horns with Bleached Bone
Step 13: Use Snot Green on shirt and pants
Step 14: Use Skull White mixed with Snot Green on shirt/pants highlight
Step 15: Use Chaos Black on eyes and dot with Skull White
Step 16: Use Skull White on snow
Step 17: Wash snow with watered down mix of Skull White with a little drop of Enchanted Blue
Step 18: Drybrush Skull White on snow
Step 19: Use Chaos Black on base