This is the spot to view my current works in progress.
If I am working on a commission for you, my might see some in progress shots here.
If not you can see some of the other stuff I am working on.
Hillbert the Hill Giant
I did not get much time to work this weekend cuz... gaming.... but I did get to get a few strokes in on Hillbert. That is what I have been calling him since he has been cooperating very nicely and Hillbert sounds more or less friendly. I makes me think of the kind of guy who you want around in a bar fight -- he is either going to unleash hell or be so friendly and funny he will defuse the situation.
Painting! Its on!
I am so happy to get my studio (office) back online and to get back to painting. I've been trying to pair down my tools and rearrange things to give it a more open space. Here are some examples of what I have been working on. I need to neaten up the tartan on the first guy. I did the tartan on a whim but I think it turned out ok so far. The miniature is a stone giant from the Reaper Bones series that I picked up at ReaperCon 2016 but didn't start there. The same is true of the female giant also. I don't know why I decided to paint her purple but I really like the way its progressing. I'm starting to doubt the white hair but I can always go dark later.
Lastly is a Hill Giant from Reaper Bones also. Since Reaper is doing a 25th anniversary celebration, they are giving out a free limited edition miniature each month on qualifying orders. This has pretty much ensured that I will be ordering something from reaper every month for the next 9 months to get the special mini. When I am finished collecting and painting them I will post a picture (but there are 9 months to go so don't hold your breath). Anyway, that is a long way of saying that I picked up the hill giant as part of this month's order. It is essentially an experiment with airbrushing skin as a foundation to build on before adding details. I remember Aaron Lovejoy saying once that you can apply the colors to about 70% of what you need with blending. You have to add the highlights and shadows to the deepest parts of the model but it seems to be working out pretty well for a first attempt. Luckily I have a second Hill Giant to try out when this one is completed.
Studio back online.... sort of
I can't tell you how happy I am to get this studio to a point where I can a bit and take pictures. Right now its still crammed with stuff as I slowly sort it out and put it back together. I get slower as I try to weed out the tools I don't use anymore. Anyway here are a couple of quick pictures from my new set up. Its not finished yet but it is operational.
Last of the commission work... before we rework the office... er a studio
okay so I started calling it my studio so my skills would improve.... Ha ha ha ya my family looks at me with that same look. ya the one you are sporting on your mug right now. On one hand it makes me laugh at its sillyness but on the other if makes me take the craft more seriously.
Anyway here is my latest work. enjoy
Twas the night before morning...
Twas the night I was painting
and all through the house
not a trooper was finished
not even the commanders blouse.
The netflix was on
the TV with care
in hopes some new
episodes soon would be there...
Weekend painting spell.
Here are some iPad pictures of the work I did this week. So close to finishing this commission... Just a couple more nights and then I should be done...
Late night painting
Just about finished up these bad boys tonight. Need to motor through the rest of the commission before the weekend is over.
The watchtower. This thing is Beautiful! I totally want one.
Lots of commission work in the queue....
Hey y'all,
You haven't heard from me in a while but with the new job and a butt load of commission work in the queue I just haven't had the time. Yeah I know. Everyone says that.... Well um.... Yeah.... How about some pictures of what I have been painting?
In other news I have found the best, absolute best, primer. You want to know at it is? Well I'm not tellin' you. Really I'm not. Okay I will. Its the Badger Stynylrez series. It comes in varies sizes and in white, grey, and black. I liked it so much that I picked up all threw color of those colors plus a couple of other nonstandard colors. The best thing about these primers is that they sticks really well to resin and reaper bones figures and its easy to get smooth even coverage. Its designed for airbrushes but I can be brushed on (although I did not try it with a brush). Its quite opaque as you would expect from a good primer but its not as thick as other primers so a quick pass from my air brush was all I needed to get the job done. Add to that the ease of being able to pour it right out of the bottle and into my Patriot Extreme and we have a winner.
Thats all for this time and I hope to get some more pictures up this weekend as I plow my way through the list.
Post ReaperCon blues
I have not posted in a while because I have been busy with the new job. So far its seems to be going well and I am pretty happy -- but you want to know what I have been working on right? Well let me show you want I won at ReaperCon 2016 -- three, count them, three silver medals. I could not have been happier with the result. I entered this one in the open competition which means that they take the base, conversion, and paint job into consideration. In case you are wondering, the tentacles and skulls are added on this guy. The skulls on the shield were stamped out of greenstuff and the ones on the "cloak" were purchased from secret weapon miniatures and added to the cloak as I added more greenstuff.
This is my humble diorama entry this year. Its called "Eternal Guard Duty" and the concept is that the spirit of the dead guy is still on guard duty even though 1) the treasury is already looted and 2) He is dead.
Lastly is this guy. This guy fought me all the way to ReaperCon and at ReaperCon and he is STILL fighting me. He trailed in the completed stages as I focused on the other two (they were nearer to being done) and as I left for ReaperCon I vowed to finish him there. I tried, I really tried but he sill kept fighting me. At last we came to blows only hours before entries were due and a couple of friends witnessed my wig out. "F&ck it! I'm just turning him as he is. F$ck it! I'm so done with you! You F&cking piece of SH!T! F@ck it and F*ck you!" And with that I turned him in. As the relief settled in and I started wondering if I could pull him out and work on him some more a friend of mine said "I was looking at him earlier and he looked great to me. What more were you going to do to him if you had more time?" I didn't have an answer for him but I did think it was funny. Anyway I would have been happy with a bronze on this one -- but he won a silver. Not sure how he was able to sneak past the judges but here he is. And yes we still hate each other.
Reapercon 2016 WIP
Reapercon starts in 4 days and I have so far to go to finish these. Got lots done today but I'm too tired to do more. I'm at that point where I'm creating more problems than I'm fixing. Any pictures are below.
At least I have one more full day to get it done
Reapercon 2016 wip
So.... I started a new job after being in the same spot for 22+ years. It's a longer commute but it's way more money which means more miniature money. The downside is that I will have less time to paint for a bit but I'm still pushing to get my entries in for Reapercon this year. Here are a few pictures I took with my iPhone just to let everyone know that I'm still active.
just the horse
This is the horse and rider
This one is completely unconverted
ReaperCon 2016... The work continues
Hi all. I haven't posted in a fair bit of time so I thought I would throw up some quick pics from my iphone. My personal life has been pretty exciting right now with some possible changes on the way. More on that front when things are official.
So here is the skeletal horse and rider that I have been converting. The shield is almost finished and ready to be painted. The runes on the horse are not in their final color yet as I plan on glazing them with another color. The only choice is which one? Should I make them all the same color or mix it up?
And then there is is....
ReaperCon 2016 is almost here!
Well sort of -- I any pretty busy with non-painting activities for a bit so the time seems more crowed than it probably is. Anyway here are some works in progress for 2016. First up is an undead cavalry piece which I have been converting a bit. I am added skulls to the shield and plan on added a cape for free hand work pictured separately. The pictured one is a test piece to get the hang of doing a ragged cape.
Next is a ghostly figure which features no conversion
Lastly some pics of the grave warden from Reaper.
Feel free to post any suggestions or comments below. I am especially trying to figure out how to make the symbols pop on the horse without overpowering the armor color.
