Scattered!

As usual, I'm all over the place with the modeling aspect of the hobby. In talking to my wife one night, she expressed an interest in werewolves (thanks MonsterQuest!). This led me to start talking about how I should make some progress on my basically untouched Circle models. Of course, I dread building models, so I reached out and got a soft tease about how there were only 8 or 9 models to build. I already have the feral warpwolf well along in the painting, so I buckled down and started building. These will be getting some love when I get time to settle down with the airbrush again. Also, having snap-fittes the skinwalkers, I'm excited to try the army again!

Kaya and 2 Argus

Back(ward) to it!

So I bit the bullet and rolled back my work on the bomber, starting again from a VGC Turquoise base.  I failed to take a picture of that, stage, but working from my previous ending point, basing it with Turquoise, and moving foward, the images below show where I currently am. 

I wasn't able to hit the very high, highlights, since my airbrush is BADLY in need of a very thorough cleaning and even getting the coat of Underbelly Blue on became an exercise in FURY management (mine; I FRENZIED) as shown in the thickness of the coat on his belly. 

Still, after a good soaking in cleaner, my airbrush will make short work of the white high points, and I think I'll approach the pigments only after spraying a coat of varnish so that I can just wash off any crappiness that results from bad or uneven pigmentation application.  I went back to, on this attempt, using a mix of water AND alcohol to thin the paint for airbrush application, and tried setting my air pressure very low and using "full" air application (finger all the way down on air trigger).  Before the airbrush became unusable, I was VERY pleased by this technique's very thin application layers and I'll be using it on all subsequent models.

Backward, not forward!

So I've done some thought exercises and determined that I didn't really need, or want, a Mauler in my future trollbloods list, what with the undeniable utility (beatdown) that Mulg brings to the table in a Doomshaper list.  With that having been said, I went ahead and rebuilt the mauler as a bomber; I'm pretty excited at the satisfyingly savage look to the model. I knew that I would be getting into Trollbloods more, so I went ahead and ordered some VGC paints to use in the airbrush and I'm glad I did.

VGC Turquoise, VGC Electric Blue, P3 Underbelly Blue, VGC Dead White

 

 

Bombs!

I went and captured some screens as I layered on the various shades of blue.  What I will warn you of right off the bat is the fact that the colors I chose will ultimately end up with a very washed out blue look to the skin, but I think it'll pan out once the shading is done.

 

 

Turquoise

Electric Blue

Underbelly Blue

Dead White

At this point, I tried something new that may or may not have shot this attempt all to hell.  Using Reaper Auburn Shadow, I tried blocking in some shadow areas.  There were several things conspiring here, including exhaustion (1:00AM at that point), task fatigue, and a clogging needle.  At any rate, the resultant coats were much thicker and darker than I had intended, which was disappointing. 

Auburn Shadow

At this point in the process, the colors I got a bit disgusted, which was a shame; the entire process up to that point had been very enjoyable.  Despite the misgivings and red flags raised in my head, I went ahead and added the first layers of artist chalk shading.  I was at first pleased until I realized how occluded the skin tones had become.  Observe:

It's not at all a lost cause, since the pastels will come off with just water, but I think the block shadowing beneath the pigments may be too broad not to warrant a re-paint.  If nothing else, the one take-home here is that the purple pigment over the auburn looks great in small areas for shadowing and "enlivening" the cool colors of the troll, giving it a look of reddish-purple.  I'll try to "save" the paintjob tonight, but I'm leaning toward a re-do, incorporating the things I learned today and trying to leave just a bit more of the lower level coats showing as I move up through the layers in order to leave the model looking more blue than it currently does.  I'm encouraged, if not totally satisfied.

Belaboring this...

I don't intend to be, but that's the way it is with life in the big city (or real far from it, as is my case).  I have the most heartfelt of intentions of getting this model moved along tonight, but I did at least try the oil-based wash technique and am liking the versatility of that method.  I really should move this blog from "look what I can do!" (I truly hate that character, but it's about right with some blogs out there -- maybe including mine) to a "look what YOU can do (like this)!"

Anyway, I've got this current couple views of the mauler and am liking what I see it going.  As you'll notice, I've included "dirty" yellow images as well as ultra washed out versions, all with the intent of obfuscating the true "glory" of the model until it's too late to go back.  In all honesty though, kindly weigh in, down in the comments, on whether you think the highest areas of the model warrant a very light highlight toward white.  I'm on the fence, so let me know.

A Revitalization

So my brother-in-law over at PlasticCrack guessed (mostly) right on the teaser post I made the other day.  Had he not, I was going to post a new teaser showing some of the pastel shading I did last night after working later than anticipated and never making it down to the painting desk, but I'll add a more complete image showing the work I've got done on the Mauler (Bomber to come from next kit buy).

Not quite revelatory enough???

 As with the Warpwolf work I've got done (which I realize I probably never posted...), I've really come to love the combination of the airbrush and the pastel pigments on these relatively large, fleshy models.

As I thought about getting back into Warmachine/Hordes (I refuse to refer to the system as WarmaHordes; sorry), I realize that I kinda ran out of steam on the game system when I started looking at painting a bunch of infantry models in order to build out the force(s) for eAsphyxious and pBaldur casters I picked.  As a result, I thought hard about what appealed to me about the game:  Large, steam-driven machines fighting huge, enraged monsters. 

Having come to that conclusion, I put an order in for the premier 'jack caster for Cryx.  While the model looks neat, her abilities look amazing for a 'jack list and it's quite exciting to think I can run a list that, while possibly not as "purely" competitive, is likely very fun and at least highly capable.  I figure that I might just add the Trollblood version of Mortenebra, since I like the model and love the fluff.

The biggest shame of this is that I've got a bunch of Circle stuff that I'd like to see painted, but a combination of lots o' brown © and an existing skaven WFB army make that option extremely un-exciting.  In time, they'll likely see the light of day.

I'll get some more work done on the troll tonight and post up ASAP.

Revival Teaser

So I've been revving back up on painting following the hectic period of having moved into our new house while simultaneously doing 50% travel for work.  Having come through this period, I'm poking around with the Skaven some more, as well as this little guy.  I'll post a followup with the completed model in the next couple days, but here's a little glimpse of my second hack at the model with the airbrush.  I think it's very exciting...

So manly, he's growing hair on his chest (damnit!)...

Thus far this is a one-off model, but I'm enjoying painting it so much, there may have to be a plan to expand.  Guesses?