Hot pants!

Got up to the pants on Huey, Louie, and Dewey. Not really much else interesting with them. Some different hair colors.

Also some progress on Hannah. Finished her hair, and base coated her dress. Her eye shadow will be purple, like the dress accent. The other parts of the dress and probably the stocking are going to be off-white. I'm not sure about the binding on the bottom half of her hair. Maybe the purple. I might also do the bags on her hip in purple; haven't decided yet.

10!

Finished the bases on these guys.

Just a drybrush on the texture. The paste contracted when it dried, so it ended up more textured than it was initially. I've decided I like my other textured pastes better; this stuff was stiff and clumpy enough that it was hard to get it spread out the way I wanted. 

Anyway, they're done. I've started another three, just base coated the skin so far, but since they look pretty much like these three did at that stage I'm not putting in new pictures for them.

Also worked on Hannah's skin and face.

I put some lipstick on her, and will probably also put on some eye shadow once I've done her dress and have a better idea what color would be good. I think I have a little touch up on her skin to do, too.

Almost done.

These guys are almost done. I've just got to finish the basing.

I've used some Citadel texture paint on the bottom. This stuff is basically thick paint with grit in it. I like it well enough, but not better than some of the other texture mediums I have - and those are cheaper, and you can make them any color by mixing in whatever paint you like.

I have to wait for the texture to dry, but then will hit it with a wash and some drybrushing to highlight. Then these guys, in all their leathery glory, will be done. And I'll only have 9 more to finish!

7!

Topless mermaid at the bottom.

First, the seaweed experiments after they dried.

It doesn't show up great, but this is what I learned:

• The gel base worked better than the glue. It had more body left to it after it dried, where the glue really didn't have much mass left, especially with the flock mixed in as texture. The flock just socked it all up. That would be great if you wanted the flock texture, but that wasn't the look I was after - I wanted some texture in a smooth volume. Also, it dried semi-transparent, which again was not what I was after.
• Don't try to judge color until the medium is dry. It looks too different.
• For this purpose, the scatter basing was the better texture. The flock was too big and chunky.
• Both the glue and the matte blase shrink a fair bit when they dry. You can't see it very well in the picture, but the wax paper curled right up where there was stuff on it.

So, I ended up using the mat base with the darker gray/green, and the scatter base for texture. Finished pictures below.

And, some more work on the gangers. No, they're not very stylish. Half of them are going to have the shiny red leather pants, and the others will have black. They're going to be pretty ridiculous when they're done. Then again, I think they kinda started out that way.

And, the finished mermaid. After all that about the seaweed added to the base...it doesn't show up much.I put it on, let it dry, then gave it a wash, a drybrush, and a coat of gloss varnish (that will have to be done again after she gets her spray-on matte top coat in the spring, when the weather is warm enough to use spray paint outside).

More on the gangers, and something new.

So, I did some experimenting in creating some seaweed-y gunk for the mermaid. Here are the experiments:

The top row is Vallejo Mat Gel Base mixed with green paint. Three different textures are mixed in; two different colors of flock, and one green scatter from Gale Force 9. The bottom row is Elmer's with a different color of green paint mixed in, and the same textures. I won't really be able to tell much until they all dry, but so far I'm liking the scatter texture better, and I think it doesn't matter what color flock you put in because you can't see the difference once it's mixed in with the goop. I'm not sure about either of those greens, either. Again, have to see what they look like when they dry.

Highlighted the gangers' skin, did their eyes, and hair.

I think I'm going to have trouble getting distinct hair colors for all twelve of them. But so far, Larry, Curly, and Moe here are coming along as expected. They're not high quality, but they're adequate for table top, which is all I'm after.

And, starting another. This is Hannah Blackruby, a Reaper mini sculpted by Werner Klocke. I'm using the Olive Skin triad. She has a very elaborate and detailed dress. Her leg there could be bare or could have a stocking; I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning toward stocking.

Mermaid done...maybe.

Topless mermaid at the bottom.

First, update on the gangers. I slapped a flesh wash on them. I only got a picture of one, because they all look pretty much the same at this stage.

And, the mermaid. I put shading and highlighting on her tail, but left it all blue. Also did her black rock base. Tomorrow I may try putting some green slime on the rocks. I may leave it alone. We'll see.

Here's the part where I screw it all up.

More mermaid at the bottom. She's topless but has hair over her breasts.

Also, I started a Necromunda gang. I'm pretty sure this is one of the gangs that came with the box set. They're old plastic minis, and they're pretty bad. With these, I'm focusing on getting them painted 'good enough' quickly. I'm doing the arms as separate pieces and will glue them on after. For the pictures, I just stuck them to the tack. The arms will probably end up on different guys than they are stuck to.

They're going to be in black leather, I think. They just look like they need to be. I also plan to entertain myself by making their mowhawks all colors not found in nature.Why? Look at 'em. They're clearly some sort of mutant. 

And, the mermaid. I finished her hair, and put in a lot of work on the tail.

This is what I'm using for the model for her tail. I got him off Google. 

I haven't done anything with her fin yet; I'm debating between continuing the pattern, and doing the orange stripe as shown in the picture. Hmm. I think I might also need to lighten the red stripes a bit. I also did her with a blue base coat and red stripes, but in looking at the picture below, I see the fish is kind of the other way. Oh well...not going to go back and re-do that now. Also, I made a mistake - I failed to shade the tail before I put the stripes on it. So, I had to try to shade the blue without going over the stripes. This worked out better than I expected, but is not something I'm keen to do again. :p Anyway, I'm not sure I'm in love with the tail. I don't think it's awful, but...enh. 

I'm thinking of putting her on black rocks. She has a integral base that's all rocky. If I were a sunbathing mermaid, I'd do it in Hawaii...and Hawaii has black rocks.

6!

I worked on the mermaid today, so there will photos of a topless mini with strategically placed hair at the bottom of this post.

Finished the barman. I'm fairly please with him, though it looks like I've got a couple chips to fix on the bottom of the mug.And I definitely should have done his shirt in orange...but oh well.

Here are all the bar folk together.

And, the mermaid.I finished her skin and face, and put a base coat on the hair. The highlights on the skin took a while. I'm using the RMS Tanned Skin triad for her, and the highlight color was coming out a little cooler than I was happy with. I glazed it very lightly with the base skin color to warm it back up. I also haven't put eyebrows on her yet. Many people don't do eyebrows on this scale of mini. I usually do, but I'm trying this one without to see how it goes.

I'm going with a 'surfer girl' kind of look for her, so when I finish the hair I'm going to try taking the highlights up more than usual to see if I can get that sun bleached look.

Some more on the bar man

Shaded and highlighted his shirt and pants, and base coated and shaded the boots.

So far, I'm pretty happy with him. 

5!

Only painted for about an hour tonight, but I did manage to finish the elemental. I think. As it's continuing to dry, some of the highlights are going darker than I'd like. I may touch 'em up tomorrow. I also dulled down the shadows a bit with a couple glazes of the darkest teal; they were a little starker than I wanted.

Here's a group shot of all the small elementals:

The earth elemental got banged up when I was putting him back in my storage cabinet after the photo, so I have some repair work to do on him tomorrow. :p

Should've gone with orange

NOTE: at the bottom of this post, there will be pictures of a mermaid. She is topless, but does have strategically placed hair. Still, if somewhat naked semi-woman are a problem for you, you may wish to skip this post, or at least stop reading early. There will from time to time be undressed or only slightly dressed minis in this blog. I will try to provide warning when that is the case.

Base coat on the bar man's clothes. In retrospect, I should have made his shirt orange. Enh. It's blue now.

Put some shading on the water elemental. The darker teal that's the shadow color for this triad wasn't really dark enough for my taste, so....purple shadows to the rescue! A couple drops of purple mixed into that shadow color, and problem solved.

I may decide to soften the shadows back up. Also, I have some decisions to make with her. I had been thinking of making the central, human-shaped part lighter than the rest. Well, it occurs to me that it might make more sense to make the outside part the lighter part - that's where the foam and spray would be, like the top of a wave. On the other hand, light colors tend to draw the eye, and I'd rather have the attention going to the central part of the figure.

And lastly, I am starting on a mermaid. Just the base skin color so far. She's tan, because apparently she spends all day sitting on rocks sunning herself. 

This bar is full of cranky people

Here's the bar man. I finished his skin, face, and hair.I love how not only does he have a unibrow, it actually meets up with the rest of his hair.

And, the last of the little elementals. This is my least favorite of the sculpts in this group, I think. She's been base coated with RMS Marine Teal. That's an awful lot of blue, so to break it up a bit I think I'm going to make the central, human-looking part of her lighter than the rest.