21 September 2014

Elmore giant - WIP 4

So it turns out that a black background works well for photography... as does "borrowing" my six year old son's camera, which is distinctly better than mine thanks to a rather indulgent grandma!



As part of my record of this project (which I'm now thoroughly enjoying after the early grunt-work of getting good coverage with the first flesh layer), the paints used were:
  • Foundry Boneyard triad (9A, 9B and 9C) for the teeth and fingernails
  • Very thin Army Painter Soft Tone ink wash over teeth and nails
  • Various combinations of Foundry Flesh (5B and 5C) for the highlights, including an incredibly thin layer of pure 5C and water to bring the highlights together
  • Almost water layer of GW Ogryn Flesh wash over the skin to bring back the wrinkles and crevices to visibility
  • Foundry Musket Stock Brown (72C) as the base for the hair
  • Wetbrushing and drybrushing of the hair with Foundry Tan (14B) and increasing amounts of Foundry Base Sand (10A)
  • Wash of Army Painter Soft Tone ink on the hair
  • Foundry Spearshaft triad (13A, B and C) and Army Painter Strong Tone ink as a wash on the club
  • Foundry Tan 14B mixed with Foundry Yellow 2B to give the irises a little 'pop'
I forgot to add a white dot to the pupils to make them look shiny and alive, but otherwise I'm really happy with how he's coming along. I'm also glad I followed Erny's injunction to stick with the brown hair of the painting this model is based upon. I'll save grey for some of the furs he is wearing.

I hope you have a good week ahead of you,
Rab


19 September 2014

Murder-hobo evening



Beer is good. Free beer is better. And if some old guy in a decent pub starts buying the drinks then, well, it would be rude not to listen to his stories while he keeps your glass full. It had turned into quite a night and among the rest of the group freeloading off the rich codger oaths of friendship had been sworn, plans made, along with promises to the man with the open purse.

Which is why, thought Ladro, he was shivering his hung-over nuts off at the mouth of some gods-forsaken cave at a distinctly unholy early hour with an elf, a dwarf, a jumped-up nobleman's son and his tea-making lackey, an apprentice wizard, and some oddball from out East who stank of stale milk and could only grunt, whinny, or say the word "horse". There'd better be some decent loot in this. I mean, an elf, for Randal's sake! The knightling was making some noble speech that no-one was listening to, not even the tea-boy (who at least had a lantern), the elf was pirouetting and making odd noises which was really winding up the dwarf, and the rest looked just as hungover as he felt. Ohhh, this was going to be a disaster...

17 September 2014

Elmore giant - WIP 3

Eye-eye!

One more highlight on the flesh should probably do it (a touch of Foundry's Flesh 5C is my intent) on the topmost points; cheekbones, tips of ears, bridge of nose etc. The eyes are about done, too. I'm going to mix some Yellow 2B or some GW Yellow Ink into the mid tone Tan 14B I used for the irises to get a highlighted glow, and then of course a dot of white to show a glint of light in there.

I'm pleased with how he's coming along, despite the photo showing I've missed a bit of skin behind his left tusk -sigh-


Without flash, and oddly focussed on his shoulder rather than face...


With flash and looking all garish. There's a slight bulge to the face that isn't there in real life; the eyes really aren't facing in different directions. Honest, guv!

After the completion/tidying up of the eyes and cheekbones, it'll be teeth and then hair, of which there is quite a bit. How barbaric! I can't decide, though, whether to go grey or brown for the hair - what do you reckon? Let me know in the comments below.

How are your projects coming along?
Rab

15 September 2014

Project Alchemy


Right you lot, you may have seen this on the Oldhammer forum, axiom's Magpie and Old Lead blog, or on another online site where the love of old lead is strong. It does, however, bear repeating. This is a great opportunity to support UNICEF while giving yourself the chance to win some delightful pieces of original art, signed rulebooks, unreleased models etc. (although hands off the evil sun cuff-links - I wants them, my preciousss). Well done to Jon and his co-conspirators for getting this set up.

I reckon if you were to choose some suitable benchmark - a couple of pints of beer, packet of cigarettes, can of spray undercoat, postage for a small parcel across the Atlantic, lunch from a sandwich shop, whatever - and donate that, we'd get there in no time and help out disadvantaged kids while indulging our love of toys.

They take paypal too!

http://project-alchemy.weebly.com/

Now, go and donate but don't forget what I said about the cufflinks!
Rab

14 September 2014

Ladro and friends

As I mentioned in a previous post, I felt my main character thief would need some assistance in his underground procurement of other people's treasure so I had a go at sculpting some fire. Now that it's painted up I'm pretty pleased with it and I got a little carried away and painted up a third fellow as well to provide both a little more muscle in case things should turn nasty, as well as another pair of hands to lug the loot back to the surface.

First up, the muscle:


13 September 2014

The Brotherhood of the Burning Brand


Ranald, god of thieves and tricksters
in some of his many guises: cat, 
crow or magpie, and charming 
chappy. He achieved godhood by
tricking Shallya, goddess of mercy
into letting him drink her tears. 
A good con, eh?
Mael crept forward nervously, his breath ragged and harsh in the silence of the night-filled corridor. Nearly there, he thought, nearly there. And, as he stepped out into the larger hall, he saw he was right. There, nestling upon a velvet cushion, atop a little but finely carved stone altar, was the object of his criminal intent - a gently glowing firestone. One cautious step into the room. No sound. Another step. Still nothing. A third step and... click... as the flagstone shifted slightly. That was when the crossbow bolt hit him in the back of the head and the world went even darker than the dimly lit temple.

He woke to a splitting headache and the wry chuckle of a hooded man crouching beside him and repeatedly tapping his chest with the padded end of the bolt that had floored him. Mael groaned with the pain in his head, but more from embarrassment at having been caught out so easily; he'd been avoiding that particular sort of Tilean two-way trap for months without any bother. The groan brought another chuckle from above him.

"Don't despair, little novice," came the voice, heavily accented with the nasal twang of Altdorf's Reiksport and rich with amusement, betraying the speaker to be Brother Gregoire, "But do learn!" The good humour vanished. "I have no intention of burying another over-confident boy this year."

In the silence that followed, Mael tried not to groan again and struggled up onto one elbow, vibrant colours bursting across his vision with every tiny move of his head. When Gregoire spoke again, his tone was light once more. "I tell you what, boy, to soothe that aching head of yours and because you got so close, I'll give you your three answers. Ask away."

Mael licked his lips and cleared his throat. "Thank you, Brother. I do have questions or I wouldn't have struck this deal with you. First off, why do we have a torch as our symbol when we're thieves and don't want light? Second, what do I have to do to become a full Brother? And third, why were you and that spice merchant talking about me a few days ago?" The words had come out in a rush, but he hoped that keeping the most important question to last would work in his favour, that Gregoire would get more talkative as he went along. He held his breath.

Gregoire nodded slowly. "Good questions, boy. Where to start? With the torch, I suppose. The Brotherhood of the Burning Brand! Sounds mighty fine, almost like the sort of thing Sigmar would approve of, eh? That's the first reason, gives us an air of... respectability. Something that's sure to amuse Randal*. Second, without a torch, there is no light and therefore no shadow to hide in; people get false confidence when they've a lantern or the like illuminating a small patch of their property. And third? Gold, my boy, gold glitters wonderfully by torchlight; always take a torch underground into storehouses and strongrooms so you can spot your prize." Then he stopped. Mael waited for him to continue... then felt the crushing disappointment wash over him as he realised he'd been tricked and groaned aloud. Gregoire laughed delightedly at the groan of realisation and clapped him gently on the shoulder. "That's right, my boy, three answers promised, three answers given, but all to the same question. Now, go and get some rest; you're going to need it!" 







* In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Randal is listed as the god of thieves and tricksters who exhorts his followers to lie, cheat, deceive and steal but without violence. The trickery is the thing and a well executed con is almost an act of worship.

9 September 2014

Milady d'Oswald

Ok, whatever you think about the quality of this week's episode of Dr Who, I want this pleasing-to-the-eye image reproduced in 28mm; she'd make a great character for my Bret. army and chivalric dungeon-crawl project:

Kind of annoying as a character, Clara has certainly improved the visual appeal of Saturday night sci-fi!

Any suggestions for existing miniatures that I could convert it from?

Rab

6 September 2014

Mighty Mop of Doooooom!

No sooner had I completed my thief for our upcoming OGRE meet and dungeoncrawl, than I thought "I need a flunky miniature with a torch!" Unfortunately, that peskily prolific Whiskey Priest had obviously been spying on my brain again (note to self - wear foil hat all the time!) and produced not only a lantern-bearer, but a meat-shield as well. Cue much gnashing of teeth at being gazumped...

Not to be disheartened I fished a likely candidate with cloak out of the lead mountain and turned his staff (I think it was originally a downward pointing spear?) into a great big, two-handed burning torch that could be used for belabouring the ungodly (or just the "in the way") as easily as lighting the way to the gold and treasure successful completion of the quest. I've never sculpted fire before but had a go following this youtube tutorial and came up with this chap:

1 September 2014

OGRE

Not being up to painting, what with having to return to work with the beginning of term and all that, I decided to pootle about a bit with Adobe Illustrator. I always learn best when I'm trying to achieve a particular goal, rather than in the abstract, so I thought our little nascent gaming group of Oldhammerers in the Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire/Buckinghamshire region could do with a logo or emblem. Here's my first stab:



The text font is Moria, made into an outline and, in the case of the "O", twisted about a bit to give a roughly circular centre for the Blanche-esque ogre face (seemed apt, given the group name) to be contained within.

And a "squiggle-free" version, because I think that might be jumping the shark....


Oh, and a third idea...



What do you think? What works and what needs tweaking?

Rab