Lizards and the vestal

I started the next batch of lizardmen tonight. This is a base coat on their skin. I think I'll need to do another coat to get it good and solid. These guys are going to be a pain - they have lots of stuff, some rough areas where it's hard to see what's going on, and many areas that are hard to get to because they're behind/under other things.

And the vestal. I smoothed her shoulder a bit and put a base coat on her hair. I think there's a couple spots where I need to take the hair color a bit farther into some of the recessed shadow areas where it meets her skin than I did.

Vestal #3

Finished the skin and face on vestal #3. Well, mostly. I have a little smoothing to do on the left hip/side/shoulder, I think, based on the pictures. But next I'll be on to her hair. The pictures aren't great tonight - poor focus.

73!

Painted up the blue bot's feet, so he's done now. Well, I might have some post-glue clean up to do, but otherwise he's done.

And, finished up the second batch of rats. The bad news is, I may have to re-do the first batch. I sprayed them with my favorite sealer, but apparently that sealer does not play nice with the Bones plastic, and over time will make them shiny and sticky. I'm debating whether I want to strip them all now and re-do them, or wait and hope that mine don't do that. Probably I should strip them. Sigh.

And, sculpted the main 'body' on my practice dummy. It's kinda hard to see with all the shine, but there he is, finished now. It's a little large and a little lumpy. I need to work on not using too much putty and getting it smooth. Still, for a very first effort, I'll take it.

60!

Finished two of the bots today. They just had to go on their bases.I had to adjust the angle of their legs a bit. I think when I cut them off the tab that was used to attach them to the old bases, it allowed the legs to angle out too far. They were walking on the inside edge of their feet. So, I used some pliers to (gently!) push their legs back in, repaired the paint, and put them in place.

Now it looks like I have some glue fog to clean up.

I also put new feet on the blue guy. They're a little lumpy, but they'll do. Tomorrow I can prime and paint them, and then he'll be done too.

I also started my second batch of rats. No picture because they look the same as the last rats. I'll put up a picture when they're finished.

Ooops.

So, I was trying to finish off the bots today. I decided they really needed to go on proper bases - putting some dirt or sand down on the existing bases wasn't gonna cut it. What would they be doing out in the wilderness?

So, I found some resin flight deck bases I've got and painted 'em up. Then I tried cutting one of the bots off his base with a jeweler's saw. Can you guess which one? The blue one? With no feet? Yup.

So, the other two I got off the original bases by cutting the base apart with clippers. Worked much better (they still have feet), but I still have some touch up to so on them.

So, tomorrow I have to make the blue guy some new feet, and I'll probably finish putting the other two on their bases.The blue guy has extra long wires because they'll be the frame for his new feet.

You can see where I'm going, here.

Highlighted the bots and did the metal bits. I think they look better in the pictures than in person!

I'm not great with mechanical figures. Since most of what I paint is organic - people, monsters, critters - I haven't had as much practice with robots, vehicles and such.

Tomorrow, I'll shade and highlight the metal bits. I there are some hoses and things that I'll make black, and then the round bit in the middle of their torsos and backs. Haven't decided what color to make those, but I'm picturing them as a power source sort of thing, so I'll probably go for some kind of bright, maybe fluorescent thing.

Back to the Bots

Not much progress tonight, but a little. I lined the bots and gave them some shading. I need to clean up the orange guy a bit. I lined them all with purple.

58!

Finished the rats. The detail work included tails, eyes, teeth, and claws. I'll do the other twelve next weekend, most likely. They do help out with my count!

Airbrush Interlude

So, recently my Bones Kickstarter minis showed up. It's a lot of stuff, and some of it I already have plans for. For instance, I've got 24 rats. I'm doing these as a large group, using my airbrush for as much of it as I can and trying to paint them quick, for gaming use. So, not a super-high quality job here, but decent for the gaming table. I started the first group of 12 today.

I started by airbrushing dark gray on the base for the stone color. Then I used blue painter's tape to cover the base, and then airbrushed the rat bodies with browns and beige. I used three different colors for the rats so they could be easier to tell apart. The plan is to do shading and highlights on these base coated areas, then pick out details with a brush.

Here's the rats post-airbrush. I think it took me an hour or hour and a half for this, including the time spent cleaning the airbrush once I was done. That's longer than I was hoping, but I'm still pretty sure it's less time than I would have taken me to base coat to this stage with a brush.

Then I did some clean up and detailed the stone base and the rat bodies.I think that was a couple more hours.

Tomorrow I'll do the tails, paws, and faces, and they'll be done!

I have 12 more. I plan to air brush those as well, but maybe do the rat bodies first, then tape that part off, then do the base. Taping up the base was time consuming and kid of tricky; I think maybe I can just put a circle of tape around the rat itself and it'll go a little quicker and easier.

I'll get back to the bots and the blood vestal soon!

46!

Finished Omar. As you can see, I put him on a square base. This was in part for stability - his integral base was small - and partly so I could give him a bit of a scenic base.

Now, given that he's in fancy dress, what I should have done was chop him off his integral base to start with and put him on flagstone or marble or something. But, the time to cut him off the integral base is long past. So, he gets sand. I just glued his base to the plastic base, then covered the whole thing with sand.

I have a bunch of guys who are primed and ready to go who have been primed and ready to go for a while now. If I were prepping them now, I might cut them off their bases, or not glue them to their slotted bases, so I would have more basing options when I got to them. But I didn't, so until those are all done they're going to get whatever basing I can stick on 'em. With stuff that I'm prepping now, I'm trying to leave myself more flexibility.

Also started these bots today. They should go pretty quick.

Just the base left.

Got everything done on Omar except the base. That'll just take a few minutes to finish up tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with the freehand. It's a little chunky and maybe could be neater, but for me it'll do. :)

Inching Forward

Put the shading and highlighting on Omar's orange robes. Also practiced freehand patterns.

Here's my freehand practice. I spent some time on Google looking for patterns I liked. I'm working with a modified version of one of the ones I found. I'd include my target image, except it most likely belongs to somebody who may or may not appreciate me re-broadcasting their work. 

I think I will end up going with the green squares with yellow borders. I'm having a tough time getting the squares to come out nice and even and straight, so I'll practice more before I put it on the robe.

More Omar

Didn't have a ton of time tonight, but I got in a bit of work on Omar. Brought up the highlights on the green a little more, and shaded and highlighted the purple. Just gotta finish his robe now.

Omar

Cleaned up another box of vestals today, which took a while. As far as painting goes, just worked on Omar. Shaded and put highlights on the shirt, pants, and turban. Base coated most of the rest of his clothes. I wanted to see how the colors were going to work. I used my color wheel for inspiration, starting with green as my main color. Green, purple, and orange are a triad. I'm not sure about the orange, but I'm going to go with it.

The trim on the robe will be gold. Also, the back of that thing is just begging for freehand, so I need to come up with a pattern for that.

45!

Made a lot of progress today - this is gonna be a big one.Also, I've started working on another blood vestal, so there's a slightly naked mini below.

Finished the lizard men.The basing is not exactly what I envisioned. I was experimenting with a couple different types of vegetable matter. I had one that's called 'leaf scatter' which is green and has a variety of size and textures, including small seeds. I also used another that has a more consistent size and shape, but is more colorful. Then I placed some individual red and orange leafy bits. I kind of wanted brighter greens on the base, but I don't think I can get it without painting the leaf bits. Which is what many people do. For gaming table quality guys...I may just live with the duller green.

Finished Omar's skin and started on his clothes. He's so cheerful! I may need to mess with that highlight on his cheeks, though. It looks a little to stripe-y.

And started on another Blood Vestal.This is just a base coat on the skin.

And lastly, some sculpting! I'm making a practice dummy. This is the sticks used as a frame for the thing. Definitely better than my earlier attempts at sticks. Next will be putting the stuffed sack part on.

Down to the basing

Almost done with this batch of lizards. Just got to finish the basing, and highlight the one guy's arrowhead. I'll get close-ups of each of the individually when I've finished them.

They're meant to be jungle guys, so I'm going to make the base texture dark brown, then cover it with a lot of dark green and colored vegetation. Some of the color I may have to paint on to brighten up. Haven't tried this before...we'll see how it goes.