Tale Of Skirmish Painters season 2 - Month 4 finished pictures, WIP month 5

[Bubbatron]

@Rotokultaxe - they are quite small, they are on an a5 sized book so that should give an idea of how small, about 50mm long(ish) each !

[Grisnik]

More comments of newly finished work..

@GomezAddams.. nice work on the Lucius there. Though the jacket looks a bit flat, but it could just be the photo.

@Hairy.. cool knights.. I like those mounts. They are just different enough to make you really appreciate them. Nice work on them!

Replies..
@Bubbatron.. see the status of the WIP of this comms below
Nice conversion on the Waka though.. I really like these models, and am thinking of picking some up. Either these or the Relic Knight models from Soda Pop.. both have great potential.

@Little Joe.. thanks.. and no that is the updated version of the Van Saar. He wanted them bright and in a checked pattern. Very empire ish so to speak.

@Rotokultaxe.. Thanks.. the yellow/purple Necromunda was difficult, but I liked them as a group ( and from 2 feet away, not close up! ).

You can actually see a lot of the models finished already too on my blog.. - Mr Lee's Painting Emporium Blog Link - and this week is Naked Storm!!! Where all the nudes are put up, and I really went to town on trying to blend in the skin tones.

The final photo here shows the status.. everything with a grey base is finished. I have completed 134 out of 280 models since July 28th. Not bad! Plus I have some holiday time coming up next week, so hopefully I can get the rest finished before Aug 28th, when I take them back to UK to deliver the final result!

What is left are the 124 Renegade IGs, 10 Gors with guns, 12 Redemtionist Necromundas, and 8 Satyrs from Privateer Press. Should be an interesting 2 weeks ahead of me. I might even attempt to get that damn Moran Hunter for my Nomads finished.. if I am feeling extremely brave!

[GomezAddams]

Comments time

EN - Sad to see you didn't do any Retribution but happy to see another Mali crew ticked off. Looking forward to Gencon?

LITTLEJOE - Congrats on winning those grenadiers I'm waiting on the Vaettir till I start busting my wallet out. Excellent work on the snipers, especially the one up against the wall which has always been one of my favourite all time figures.

BUBBATRON - Low months happen, don't let it worry you at all. Besides, you have stacks of lovely Bushido figures to paint (still considering whether to do those for the next tale - Temple or Ito, what do you reckon?). Really looking forward to seeing how you do the swarm base and the fire kicking chick - both should be interesting challenges.

THE JUDGE - The gun is a vast improvement scale wise and again I find myself spoilt for choice when it comes to your selection. The hail kin are figures I've had my eye on for a long while now (would look cool in a Rasputina crew), and the same goes for the deamons of greed, whilst the scribe is a wonderful conversion (I did something similar recently, but would never have thought of using that head). My only crit if any is that the demons of greed; I'd suggest adding some UHU glue to the tongues and some more color to the flesh just to bring them out a little more.

KERAVIN - Nothings progressing fast? Could it be that your finally slowing down Lovely work as ever.

GRISNIK - Thats a rather high total you've set yourself - you do realise that if you pull it off then I believe you'll have painted more models then got painted entirely in the last tale? Looking forward to it

WHITWORT STORMBRINGER - The scale comparison is very cool, I like it. How many painted Quar do you have at this point?

ROTOKULTAXE - Humble maybe, but lovely. The nice bright spot color works well and the eyes really seem to pop out of the sockets. Great work. I wouldn't worry about getting the eden miniatures finished as it seems a few people struggle to get there heads around them.

HAIRY NORSEMAN - Knights of Naralon? Are they new?


And some replies!

BUBBATRON - It is indeed Liquid gold, proper gold this time

LITTLEJOE - Exactly what I was aiming for, so thank you!

ROTOKULTAXE - Thank you very much bud!

GRISHNIK - Unfortunately its because the jackets been given a wash with red ink over a fairly dark surface. It looks like very dark red leather but the lighting kills it completely.


Over the hump now guys, two months to go and glad to see so many still ploughing away - Anyone got WIPs to show this month?

[EmperorNorton]

@Little Joe: Is that one Sniper wounded or is he simply lying in wait? For some odd reason I felt a surge of sympathy when I saw him lying there.
Nice work on the water splashes. Another recipe from you that I’ll have to keep in the back of my head should I ever want to try something similar.

@Bubbatron: Solid work on the frigates, although I have to admit that find the prospect of what you have lined up for next month more exciting. Not least because I am not familiar with Bushido and it’s always nice to see something new.

@The Judge: A very cool conversion of the Wraith and overall a group of interesting and extremely atmospheric minis. The daemons are suitably horrifying.

@Keravin: Rover looks good to me, don’t know what you are unhappy about. I have to admit that I like Rocinante the best out of the three, though, but I am partial to that name. I am looking forward to the pink Everblight.

@Grisnik: 280 models in one month? That’s insane, even by my standards. I wish you the best of luck. I like the Hasslefree girls, makes me want to go back to my zombie hunters, which have one or two of those amongst their number.

@Whitwort Stormbringer: Now there’s even smaller Quar? I am baffled. And they smoke pipe? I feel like now I’ve seen everything, but I’m sure next month you will present something else I never even dreamed about. The shading on the Snipers’ coats is very nice.

@Rotokultaxe: It’s a fairly odd colour combination, which makes him look extremely alien. Well done. What is that bright green thing?

@GomezAddams: Lucius looks good, the gold is very nice. The pants appear a bit flat in the picture, though. I read your tutorial for the bases and found that very interesting. Regrettably I don’t know where to get the required materials. I am also not sure the savings would be worth it when I figure in how long it would probably take me to make a single base. I don’t think I could get them to be as evenly round as you have. Up until this moment I did not even know there was a Colette avatar, I am greatly looking forward to seeing that.

@Hairy Norseman: A slightly bigger picture would have been nice, because I can’t even make out what those are. Little green men riding ducks?

@EM.. Always a great pleasure to see your work here.. the Mad Hatters are great with the teal/purple colorings.. The ladies of the night are also really well done. Especially the skin tones. Whats the recipe there?

If I recall correctly the skin on the Belles was very simple: Basecoated with Vallejo’s Dead Flesh, washed with Gryphonne Sepia, highlighted with the base colour and some extremely highlights with the base colour with a bit of white mixed in. Easy peasy.

@EmperorNorton - another amazingly good Malifaux crew, you just keep churning these out dont you !!! lovely blues on Seamus

Thanks, I like painting things turquoise. Overall, though, I don’t think this crew compares favourably to the last couple of crews I have done, because I had to cut some corners due to time constraints.

@EmperorNorton: Nice smooth skin, good looking eyes, some well painted dead hookers and an overall good choice of colours but most of all I am impressed with the hat and the coat of Seamus. The bases are basic but well done, nice and muddy.

Thank you. I am far from the expert on bases that you are. In this case I am keeping them fairly simple on purpose so that they don’t get in the way of the intermixing of different crews possible in Malifaux (which, of course, is a moot point, because I never get to play anyway).

@Emperornorton: Nice, clean paintjob. Love the skin on the rotten belles.

Thanks!

EN - Sad to see you didn't do any Retribution but happy to see another Mali crew ticked off. Looking forward to Gencon?

I’ll get back to the Retribution eventually, although I am not sure when that might be.
Can’t say that I am looking forward to GenCon, really. The Malifaux con exclusives don’t particularly excite me this time around.

[Little Joe]

More answers:

@Rotokultaxe: I wanted to, but was unable to find any at the local hobby store. The window color works fine but needs a lot of time, many thin layers are a lot faster as just dripping it on. The dripper bottle does allow for a good application though.

@GomezAddams: I think my mind was switched off at the time because I just did not care how much it would cost me. Luckily it was within safety limits. I will give them a group base of some sack cloth and that is it.

@EmperorNorton: I think he is hiding behind a rock, pulling himself up to shoot at a target or to run to the next cover. He has this "Rambo" like silent scream on his face, the miniature is just really nice, I love these sack dollies.

[Grisnik]

Thanks for the recipe EM.. I actually just found a bottle of that the other week in my paint collection, and used it with GW Ogryn Flesh to do something similar. Never thought of using Sepia though.. will give that a try next.

And I have next week off.. so there is a fairly good chance I will get them finish this month, and maybe even some others Will see..

[Hairy Norseman]

@Emperor Norton - A grizzly group of zeds and Leprechauns you have there - not sure about the big mumma in lingerie though

@Little Joe - Nice work with the Boglin base though I would say glossing the whole model does take a bit away from the water. The snipers look cool.

@Bubbtron - The ships look good but could do with some markings or something to split tell which models belong to which groups.

@The Judge - Cool collection of grimdark 40k and alien scum.

@Keravin - Interesting choice of colours, I don't think I've seen that scheme on Warmachine minis before.

@Grisnik - A very colourful and characterful group of ladies and wow, that is a lot of minis.

@Whitwort Stormbringer - Liking the Quar and love the blue skin colour.

@Rotokultaxe - Love the seed-soldier, both the mini and the paintjob.

@GomezAddams - That is one dignified looking chap!

I've had a few requests for some close up shots, here goes...



@Little Joe - Thanks though the markings on the chest and shields aren't freehand but sculpted detail.

@Rotokultaxe - Cheers, hope the pick above helps.

@Grishnik - Merci sir! They are cool mounts

@GomezAddams - In the Empire there are many different orders of knights, the Knights of Naralon are one and herald from around the Naralon Forest to protect the local Fubarnii from rogue Devanu and any beasts that wander out of the woods.

@Emperor Norton - :P I hope the pic above helps.

HN

[Keravin]

@EmperorNorton: Really nice vibrancy on the colours which works well contrasted with the dead flesh.

@LittleJoe - Great water effect on the Boglin.

@Bubbatron: Some good detail on the frigates so your friend should be happy.

@The Judge:Love Larence as a model and been looking at converting him myself. Again much like you've converted the other one I think he'd be much better with some 40k looking weapons. Golic is a great model. Malifaux model?


@Grisnik: Good collection of the Hasslefree females. Be interesting if you manage all that lot, but can't really tell which bits are skirmish related.

@Whitwort Stormbringer: The kneeling sniper is a cracking model.

@Rotokultaxe: Really like the skin effect you've got with him.

@GomezAddams: So I'm taking it the base on him isn't the one he'll end up with? Hopefully this month we'll see comments from you.

@Hairy Norseman: Great to see the closeups and looking forward to the Dragon.

Replies

@Grisnik - Never had any issues with these jacks. Rocinante and the Rover are primarily metal models whilst the Mule is based on the new plastic.

@Little Joe - paint scheme evolved as another jack I did had to work for two different armies - one purple focused, the other black and gold hence black and purple halved.


Not getting much painting done though might get Everblight models based this weekend so the figures that have been painted the last two months will count. I have converted an entire new retinue for a friend for Inq28 as we're playing that all day tomorrow.

[The Judge]

Holiday is over, time for the replies!

@EmperorNorton – Love this crew, and have always liked the models so it’s good to see them in nice clear pictures here. The blue on the jackets and hats is especially good, though I do wonder if the bases couldn’t do with something extra?

@LittleJoe – Some crazy little characters here, and it’s nice to see the fish finished. Really good work on the splashing water, very characterful piece.

@Bubbatron – Nice frigates, I painted fifteen of them myself a couple of months ago so I can identify with your issies – they’re very difficult models to make look “awesome.” Nonetheless, I think these are perfectly serviceable and think the Prussian flag really makes them pop.

@Keravin – The Warjacks are looking good, the blue is particularly strong on the first jack. Nice work!

@Grisnik – Certainly a unique scheme on the Van Saar! It’ll take some getting used to though I’m sure a whole gang of them will be striking. The selection of ladies is very good and must have a trail to paint so many different models. The bright scheme really works well on them.

@Stormbringer – Another selection of those odd models; they’re always interesting to see, and it’s nice to see that the quality of painting on the 15mm version is not diminished.

@Rotokultaxe – Really great vibrant colours, makes a model I’m otherwise not a fan of look lovely. Great stuff.

@GomezAdams – Lucius looks nice, the white on the trousers is good. Interested to see what you can do with the future releases.

@HairyNorseman – Good to see the unit finished, they a looking good. Funny models, I’m sure they must have been something different paint! Good to see the close-up shots.

In reply to a few people, I have since changed the guns on Asche in the same manner as I did Clemens the month before. I will post these pictures with next month’s entry, if I can actually manage to finish it!

Although not clear in the pictures, the Daemon of Greed do have glossed tongues that look suitably gross in real life. The camera is still not my friend. The big one is on a 40mm, the smallest his fat ass can fit on.

The Daemons of Greed are from Hell Dorado, Golic and the Hailkin are from Dark Age (the most underrated miniatures out there, I think) while Asche and Clemens are from Infinity. Felmeyer is a Studio McVey Sedition War Corpsman. The Scribe is a converted Wraith from GW.

[Rotokultaxe]

Thanks for the comments, guys!

@EmperorNorton:The bright green thing on the seed-soldier? I...don't...really... know... Some kind of cables popping out of the back of its armored shell. In the background and in gameplay, the seed-soldiers are dropped on the battlefield in bio-mechanical seed-pods. I guess these cables are some kind of ombilical cord. That's the thing when you're painting Combined Army models, you never really know what is bio, and what is mechanical.

And some Eden WIP:

Sister Ilona, from the Matriarchy (kinda sisters of battle gone wrong...BDSM wrong...)


It's a football player? it's a Bood Bowl player? No, it's a mutant slave of the Matriarchy inquisition.

[GomezAddams]

I've also been painting, feel like I'm building up steam again - hooray!



Not so happy with the lips but.. I'm not sure I have the nerve to go in and fix it up, and its close enough so it'll do

A few replies while I'm here.

EN - Thanks bud. Try on line, theres several suppliers in the UK and Europe from my quick search but your right, for most its probably easier and cheaper to buy them in resin form. As for the collette avatars (three models), its pretty basic overall, nothing that distinguishes it from the rest of the show girls apart from the one pulling the rabbit out of the hat - that models wonderful.
As for gencon, I ordered nothing. The only model I vaguely wanted was Miss Terious and having seen the pics, I don't think I missed much.

KERAVIN - I have been slack, what can I say, gym then work has kicked my rear hard but I'm back and bouncing with excitable energy

THE JUDGE - Did you mean the plastic stuff? If so which ones in particular out of curiousity. I'm always interested in knowing what people think I should be doing, as that general tends to push my painting a bit more

ROTOKULTAXE - Beautiful flesh work on the mutant slave, what recipe are you using to get him there? I tend to find my flesh always ends up looking a little pallid.

[Rotokultaxe]

@Gomez: love the Geisha. Great job so far. As for the skin on the mutant, I tried a dark, dirty, post-apocalyptic look. I started with a basecoat of Midlund Flesh(P3). I then shaded with a mix of Midlund flesh+scorched brown(GW)+Adeptus Battlegrey, adding more brown and grey for the more shadowy areas. Highlighting (which is not finished yet) is done with midlund flesh+bleached bone. Areas that are hit directly by the light are pure bleached bone. Hope that helps!

[Keravin]

Ok I'm largely working on the pink Everblight over here.


These are legionaires and I'm trying to get the armour effect I want for the army sorted. The current method is a purple ink wash (very watered down) over metal and then metal highlights from that.


A Carnivean in progress. This will be the second large monster done for the army. This is the base coat for the pink done.



The first large monster done except for the base. This is a Scythean. Quite pleased with how the pink has worked out.




Starting to do the bases. The idea is for a snow effect over dark rocks. Having done the tests we're thinking maybe some more slate in the mix and also looking to add some tufts of dead grass as well as some intermittent blood trails on the snow.

[GomezAddams]

ROTOKULTAXE - Yeah he kind of reminds me of Blaster from Mad max in the skin tones so thanks bud, Ill pick up some P3 paints soon

KERAVIN - Liking them a whole lot, and the basing is really nice. Wheres your snow from?

So I got my Geisha finished.



Theres a few bits I want to redo - I'm not thrilled about the sash and I missed the purple eye shadow. Aside from that, shes easily my best face to date, so I'm kinda glad I didn't over work her with detail. Once the tales over I might go back and add in some kind of detail to the kimono but thats for later - for now, its not with the showgirls!

[GomezAddams]

And another one down - no where near my best but I'm glad to have one of these out of the way. The whole Lucius set so far has been horrid.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Whoo, finally time to sit down and comment on everyone's work:

@Emperor Norton: Love Seamus and his devilish little counterpart, the vibrant teal on the jackets came out very nicely. The rotten belles are less my kind of model, but the painting is great nonetheless! Nice work on that pallid flesh tone.

@Little Joe: Hadn't noticed until seeing yours that the Britanan snipers each have a little magnifying lens or scope built into one of their eyes - cool touch. Nice job on the bases although the obvious thing to comment on this month is the catfish-riding boglin. The splash effect on his base came out perfectly, kudos!

@Bubbatron: Hey no need to be down on yourself - the whole point is just to keep each other motivated and paint something! the Prussian frigates look good and are nothing to sneeze at. I do like those Bakemono minis quite a bit, looking forward to seeing a few of them next month.

@The Judge: nice batch of minis, Heironymus is a great re-purposing of the wraith model and fits the Inquisitor artwork very nicely. The Daemons of Greed are gross, but cool, models. So much so that I'm kind of considering the fat one for a Plaguebearer champion, although he's apparently too large to fit on a 25mm base...still I think he fits the look.

@Keravin: good-looking warjacks, and the objective marker is a nice little piece too. Didn't notice the cup of coffee until my second pass. I don't know too much about Warmachine, is the left-arm weapon on the Mule some sort of flame-thrower? I like the look of the cannon with a big keg mounted on top.

@Grinik: I think gold and purple is a welcome change of pace for Van Saar. The Hasselfree ladies look good and despite being some fairly different figures, they look like a cohesive group. Are you using them together in the same game? Also, good luck with that commission! 280 models is more than I could hope to ever paint in a month.

@Rotokultaxe: As with your earlier seed-soldiers, this guy looks great. I love the palette you've gone with and it does the dynamic model justice.

@Gomez: love that mini, and in the colors you've chosen he reminds me a lot of Char from the Gundam series (if you're a fan of robot anime). I think the ivory-colored tile/brick base suits him well, too.

@Hairy Norseman: Woo hoo! I've been anxious to see your fubarnii knights painted up, it was good inspiration for me! Unfortunately I'll probably only have 3 to show for next month (since that's all the knights I own...), but they've been fun minis to paint so far. I like the green armor, not a color I see on the fubarnii too often.

And some responses:

@Whitwort Stormbringer.. More Quar.. nice.. like the grey trenchcoat colors.. what colors are those? They would do well for a Space Wolf army I might be doing one day.. Not as sold on the green, but the blue skin is nice.

Thanks! All the paints for the snipers' coats are Reaper Master Series, and I painted them as follows: basecoat in Midnight Blue (09019), first highlight in Twilight Blue (09020), and finish them off with a highlight of 1:1 Twilight Blue:Snow Shadow (09021).

@Whitwort Stormbringer: Damned I should really start to paint mine, always good to see how good yours look and the comparison shot is great, it sure shows you have the spots mastered.

I should say the same for your Britanaan! I guess that means I'd have to actually go out and buy the minis first, but every time I see yours posted I want to get started on Relics (and especially with the Highlander models now). It's definitely the next game I want to get started on, just have to scrape together the funds for a couple of starter forces. I'd definitely want Britanaan, and I think I'd lean towards either Nuem or Vaettir as their first opponents.

WHITWORT STORMBRINGER - The scale comparison is very cool, I like it. How many painted Quar do you have at this point?

Let's see, I think (unless I'm forgetting anyone), I have 50 including the one 15mm guy posted above. And at last count, I have 42 unpainted quar and 2 tanks.

@Whitwort Stormbringer: Now there’s even smaller Quar? I am baffled. And they smoke pipe? I feel like now I’ve seen everything, but I’m sure next month you will present something else I never even dreamed about. The shading on the Snipers’ coats is very nice.

Haha, yes, for the rules covering larger battles there was just no way I was going to collect and paint a full army (at least of a single faction, I guess at this point after counting it all up for Gomez I would have a moderately sized army if I had focused on one faction), so I got the 15mm minis which should hopefully paint up quickly and are dirt cheap! For the next couple of months I'll be taking a break from Quar to paint up some World of Twilight fubarnii, though. I've got small starter forces for both Empire and Delgon, and one Devanu with some beasts to accompany him.

[Keravin]

@Gomez - snow effect is simply baking soda.

@Whitwort - nah the cannon is a steam powered cannon. He gets extra range if he stands still and allows his boiler use the extra energy for that rather than moving. Keg is where the ammo comes from.

Well finished painting the unit of legionnaires, the deathstalker and the first Warlock for my Legion. Just working on bases now to get them done.

[Hairy Norseman]

@Keravin - Cheers. The dragon is now finished but not much point in putting pics up yet.

@The Judge - Thanks Judge, they were fun to paint.


@Rotokultaxe - Interesting minis you got there.

@Gomez - Your Geisha is looking cool, I like the subtlety.

@Keravin - Everblight? They look cool, nice job on colouring the metallics.

@Whitwort Stormbringer - Merci sir! Yeah the green armour is a bit different as these ladies come from the Forest of Naralon. Makes it easier to track beasties and Devanu without being spotted.

[Keravin]

@Hairy - Legion of Everblight. Corrupted elves etc serving a dragon. Chance to do some very unearthly monsters.