Iron Painter WIP

I decided to participate in the Iron Painter on-line painting competition for the first time.  To be honest, I never really paid much attention to it before.  I forget why it attracted my attention this year, but I like the notion that it allows models from any manufacturer. 

The competition also plays to some of my strengths, which are more logistical strengths than they are painting-talent strengths -- namely, 1) I have a large collection of miniatures and accessories on-hand from which to devise themes, and 2) I paint fairly fast.

These two advantages play into Iron Painter, since there are only two weeks to paint for each round of competition, and each round has a unique theme, which is announced at the beginning of the two weeks.  There is practically no time to acquire any miniatures or materials for each round!

Iron Painter announced Round 1 on Friday, April 3rd, and the deadline is Monday, April 20th.  They made a mistake, because the competition is supposed to start 2 Mondays before the deadline, so they gave us an extra weekend by mistake!

It turns out I could really use that extra weekend, because I'm taking on some actual sculpting, and it's taking more time than I planned.  I've never attempted sculpting before, actually.  I've only ever done gap-filling.  The most advanced thing I've done is try to blend in fur texture.  But to complete the story I want to tell for Round 1's theme, "Fool's Gold", I need to build scratch-build an element that I don't have handy.

My vignette is based on a fairly rare GW set of models, called "The Chase".  A goblin is chasing a baby squig, I suppose to capture it for a squig herd, and the Momma Squig is chasing the goblin, ha, ha! 

The goblin in the set wears a hat that looks like a jester's hat, so I have my Fool.  But for my Gold, I wanted the baby squig to be running away with the Fool's scepter.  Which is where sculpting comes in...

Here are the miniatures, with flash and mould lines removed, and there is my foundation-piece for a jester's motley collar.  Three pieces of wire smushed together with green-stuff putty.

I'm pleased with how it started out.

Unfortunately....

When I tried bending the wires down, it all fell apart.  Had to start over. 

This time I bent the wires first.  The center was a blobby mess, and I had to pick off the excess.  The wires are not as symmetrical as the first attempt, and the ring connecting it to the rod is not as clean.  I hope to make corrections, when I add later layers.

Here are my first two attempts to sculpt a head.  They look awful right now, but that's because they're just initial forms, which need more refinement.  Not to say that the final version won't look awful either! 

I built the first head from the bottom-up, but it was coming out too large.  50% larger than the actual goblin miniature!  I started over, building from the inside-out, instead of bottom-up, like I see every professional sculptor do.  I don't know why I didn't just start out like that the first time, since I knew that's how they work.

Adding more elements.  Yup, still looks horrible, but I have a plan....

I had to make a trip to several craft stores, before I found beads that I could use for the ends of the collar and the hat.  By the way, this is as far as I've progressed in two weekends.  So much for my speed.  Wait, I said I could paint fast.  Something tells me I'm going to be painting all next weekend...

Here's an example of refining a yukky mess into something smoother and closer to final form.  I hope I can achieve the same for the head!

Back in action

I had a mostly successful move from Alexandria, Virginia, to Huntsville, Alabama.  I say 'mostly', because I did suffer one miniatures-related casualty.  This....

...became this....

Long story, which I won't dwell on here.  Suffice to say, some movers are idiots and choose to ignore simple, repeated instructions.

On a more positive note, I am settled in enough to comfortably assemble and paint again.  My collection and supplies are more organized and more discreetly tucked away in the hidey-holes of the new place.

I eased back into the hobby with some low-pressure projects, beginning with batch-painting 15 Orc pikemen for War of the Ring (I don't have any pictures of them handy).  Then I moved on to Zoraida, the Hag, for Malifaux.

I started Zoraida probably 4 or 5 years ago, when I first started playing Malifaux, in fits and starts, until I and the game found a satisfactory common ground.  I have a few other "Swamp Fiend" models to paint to add to her crew, and then I'll have another crew to field in the game.

My next project was to finish up another couple of models for Malifaux, the Night Terror.

I wanted to push myself towards that altered mental state where Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Simon Bisley, and apparently every French artist resides -- one where the colors are pronounced and slapdash, and somehow still work coherently.  I'm pleased with my progress on this one.  I'm not quite sure what my take-away is with it, though, in terms of a repeatable skill or frame-of-mind.

I use these models to proxy for Malifaux Raptors in the game, which I enjoy using to harass and, if I'm lucky, neutralize enemy models anywhere on the board.

My Swamp Fiend projects will have to wait, as it turns out.  I signed up for the Iron Painter competition, which will keep me occupied anywhere from 2 to 10 weeks.  More on that in the next post. 

On the move

My postings have been sparse, since I've been attending to a change of job and an associated move since the beginning of November.  I'll be attending to the latter half of this life-change for the next two months (which may impact my plans to attend Adepticon and Crystal Brush, unfortunately).

I need to deliver these figures to my buddy, Mark, before I leave.  I would have liked to have devoted more time to their faces and some other details, but I'm going to have to call them done.  They should look good on the tabletop, I think.  I hope they see many an adventure in his Metamorphosis Alpha campaign.

My buddy, Steve, and I had planned to paint our Colette crews together, before the job/move interfered with our plans.  I wanted to at least finish assembling the crew, though.  There's a deceptively large amount of work to get them to this stage:  filing, cleaning, pinning, assembling with 5-minute epoxy (long pole in the tent, that one), initial basing (including adding washers on the bottom).

The lower picture shows Mannequins and Coryphees.  Coryphees are Mannequins outfitted with blades.  It's almost impossible to find the official Coryphee models, since Wyrd Miniatures has still to re-release them in a plastic box set.  I converted mine from Mannequins by adding spare Rackham bits.  All of the arms are pinned at the shoulders, which was a bit of a trial!  But definitely worth it, given how much more solid they feel.

Holiday Haul

Some of my Kickstarters finally rolled in around the holiday season.  I had some orders redirected to my parents' address, so that I could open the parcels on Christmas morning.

One of the most pleasant new arrivals is my new collection of World of Twilight miniatures... :-)

World of Twilight is a totally original fantasy setting by Michael Thorp. 

(studio paint job)

(studio paint job)

The style is reminiscent of Dark Crystal, with hints of Ralph Bakshi and Vaughn Bode.  I've collected Twilight figures since Mr. Thorpe first introduced the range.

The Kickstarter enabled Michael to consolidate 3 separate rule pamphlets into one A5-size booklet.  It is beautifully illustrated, and it appears much of the typography is hand-written calligraphy!  The hand-drawn illustrations include maps, characters in the margins, and other charming appointments.

Oh, and my name is listed in the book, along with other contributors, like game designers, Gav Thorpe and Jake Thornton!

The cover illustration does a great job placing you in the flavorful world of Anyaral!

Another treat to myself that I was able to open on Christmas included a set of jack-o-lantern characters, having traveled all the way from Poland from a company called Spellcrow.

The packaging is gorgeous, a reflection of how much Poland is a bedrock of talent and love for this hobby.

My only disappointment is that the box says that it includes a ruleset to use the characters in a game, but the ruleset was omitted, unfortunately.  The rules are available for free on their web site, but it comes in a .rar file, which requires downloading an extractor called RAR Expander.  RAR Expander is also free, but the whole process is a pain, and I don't like installing weird utilities on my machine.  Apple's Help site recommended it, but that recommendation probably came from a volunteer, so I'm not entirely comfortable with it.  If you decide to try it, be sure to 'Decline' the 3 other utilities that the installer offers.  Ugh.

Lastly, I ordered this nifty set of base inserts, after having seen it suggested by Chrissy Dubois on the Facebook group, 'A Wyrd Place'.

I've never seen inserts made this way.  Or packaged this way.  Really cool. 

On the left side, there are four sheets of varying diameters.  I plan to use them for my Colette crew for Malifaux.

Holiday Heroes

I painted these little fellas over the holiday break.  Painted from bare metal over the course of 2 days, I painted these up as a Christmas gift for my mother.

These wonderful models are by Dark Sword Miniatures, and I have had them in my collection for probably 3 years or so.  I was amazed when I came across them, because not only do I have 2 Schnauzers of my own, but the studio paintjobs almost perfectly resemble the coloration on my little guys, Bootsy & Geddy.

Geddy on the left and Bootsy on the right.

The background story by Dark Sword Miniatures is pretty neat.  Painting master, Marike Reimer, worked with an artist named Des Hanley who owned two Schnauzers that just so happened to have the same coloration as my guys.  Dark Sword wanted to expand their range of anthropomorphic characters, and the Des' Schnauzers were the perfect answer, lucky for me!

Not only do the colorations match my dogs, but the personalities do, too.  Bootsy, the paladin, is the ever-alert sentinel (watching for squirrels who dare to set foot on his patio), and Geddy, the archer, is the crafty tag-along.  Plus, Geddy is such a diva, that I often mockingly call him "princess", so the dainty gem on his forehead is very fitting, too.

The shield cracks me up.

I decided to use the same color scheme as the studio version for Geddy, and I modified Bootsy's color scheme from blue to purple.  The paintjob is not quite as refined as I would like it to be.  Some of the blends are little rough, and some of the highlighting is unfinished, but I was pretty pleased with what I accomplished in two days.

In case you're wondering, the dogs are named after famous bass guitar players.  Bootsy Collins of Parliament/Funkadelic and Geddy Lee of Rush.  I figured it wouldn't be a good idea to name one of them for the bass player from the Red Hot Chili Peppers -- "Flea"!

A Jackalope gone bad

This is my proxy for the "Blessed of December" for Malifaux.

The model is the "Wendigo" by Reaper.  But I like continuing the Jackalope theme for my Marcus crew.  And the model looks very similar to Wyrd's actual "Blessed of December", so it should still be easy to recognize on the tabletop.

I did some touchup to make its eyes a little more blue, but I lost patience to take photos and upload them.  :-P   I actually wanted to make a translucent "dead-eye" with a hazy pupil. But there's not a lot of area there to pull off the effect.  And I was ready to move on to another project....

Malifaux & New Terrain

Cleaning off my desk over the last few weeks forced me to do something with the terrain project that's been sitting on my printer for about a year, in perpetual 'on deck' status.  I've actually had the larger project in my head for literally years (probably 5 or 6), to build an industrial site for 40K, Malifaux, etc.  The project sitting on my printer, a pumping station, was the first substantive element for the overall project.

It's made of packing material for, I think, a hand-vacuum.  I have another piece waiting in the wings to serve as a comms station, and I have another piece to serve as a small generator.  I've attached various resin pieces from ArmorCast and Micro Art Studios, and I've added some pieces from home items, as well as the ubiquitous 40K bits-box.  The piping is modular, and it's from Ziterdes.  I custom-built the connector from the pumping station to fit the piping at the right height and position.

I experimented with different highlight colors on the dark brown, and I have a ways to go before I decide what I like and what direction to go from here.  But I do like how the piping turned out.  I just need to color the cement supports and the ground pads and probably throw on some pigments.

There's also a collapsed storage tank, oozing noxious toxic waste into a big pool, which, naturally, counts as Dangerous Terrain.  That piece is also by ArmorCast, and it's still a work-in-progress, but I scrambled before the game to paint the overflowing goo.

Erik and I played a light game of only 35 Soulstones and a pool of only 3 Schemes:  Breakthrough, Protect Territory, and Bodyguard.  I forgot to include A Line in the Sand as one of the 3 Schemes...  We also played Turf War as the Strategy, which requires maintaining at least 2 significant models within 6" of the center.

Erik's Outcast crew:  the Viktoria Sisters, Vanessa (the blue one), two Friekcorpswomen, and two (out-of-frame) Friekcorps Trappers.

My Arcanists' Ramos crew, including Joss, Willie the Demolitionist, the Mobile Toolkit, the Soulstone Miner (offboard for now), and two Steam Arachnids.

The demolished holding tank.

Turn 1.  The crews take cover close to the center objective.  Ramos' crew is still exposed to shooting from the right flank, but some ridiculously lucky card flips apparently mean that the heroes are hugging inside the doorway, Han Solo style.

Hugging the wall.

Hugging the pipes.

 

Ramos launches an Electrical Creation to wreak havoc and threaten any clustering amongst the enemy.  Only to be reminded that the Friekcorps armor entirely protects the Friekcorps soldiers from the exploding time-bomb!

Luckily, the Soulstone Miner erupts through the wasteland sand to save the day!  "Surprise!  I'm in your backfield, suckas!"

A lot happened next, but I missed some photos to explain the story well.

1. The Soulstone Miner drilled the face of the Friekcorps Trapper, who tried to escape with only 1 Wound remaining.  The Electrical Creation actually turned out to have a purpose, as it chased down the Friekcorpswoman and zapped her for exactly 1 automatic Wound, with his Electrical Touch.  
2. The Soulstone Miner on its next turn returned to its spawning hole to claim it as a Scheme Marker for Breakthrough.
3. The Steam Arachnid at the corner of the building tried to not look too conspicuous in its attempt to draw fire and grant Ramos a Scrap Marker.  Having succeeded too well, it makes a play into the open, ready to drop Scheme Markers for Protect Territory.  If left alone, it will interfere with the shooters' shoot-at-will luxury.

Vanessa is dispatched to deal with the Soulstone Miner.  She can gain control of Constructs, which she succeeds in using to force the Miner to destroy its own Scheme Marker.  Well played, Mr. Erik, well played.  Why do I keep bringing Ramos against Outcasts?  They're anti-Construct and anti-Armor....

Ramos finally gains the Scrap Marker he needs, and he gets busy summoning more Steam Arachnids.

The Friekcorps Trapper makes a break for the corner in an attempt to work the Breakthrough Scheme.  One of the spiders goes to intercept!

"Every marker you drop, I will destroy -- bwahahahaa!  And I will chase you tirelessly to the ends of the....gaming table..."

"Unless, of course, you really go to the actual end of the gaming table, where I don't have room to stay out of engagement range, preventing me from destroying the marker.....   Foiled!"

 Ramos summons enough spiders to form an Arachnid Swarm, having it escape the threat range of the Viktoria Sisters in just the nick of time, before they used their Whirlwind attacks to wipe out all the weak, individual spiders.

Joss moves to a spot to claim the Bodyguard Scheme.  Surprise!  Ramos wasn't working Protect Territory after all.  Although he wishes he was, since there's no one left to work Breakthrough....

End of game, and both sides score 7 points.  Joss had one more point for Bodyguard (turns out Viktoria of Ash was Bodyguard, too, but she was too close to her deployment zone to claim it on Turn 4), and the Friekcorps Trapper gained one more point for Breakthrough.  Tie game!

Just as Joss and Viktoria of Ash were about to get jiggy with it.