Daughters of the Emperor

Flower Knight Base WIP-2

2012-01-31T07:46:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of quick cell phone snap shots from yesterday.

The glue has been drying over night so hopefully I'll get to add more details and paint today. I also added some gore (not shown) so it could set up for today.

Flower Knight Base WIP

2012-01-20T15:03:00.000-08:00

So after my first serious fail of trying to make a base for the flower knight (it looked like a Tennis Ball on LSD and Dr Seuss and not in a good way). It went straight into the trash can.

I decided to go for something a bit more somber so I came up with this. So far I'm pretty happy with it.

I find I tend to make bases larger than they need to be (or compared to other painters) as I want to convey a larger story or at portray a scene on a larger scale. Granted i'm not very good at it yet. Thankfully I got some awesome feedback from my boyfriend which has put me in the right direction. Hopefully this one will be a "level taker" for me.

Flower Knight WIP 2 & Sneak Peek!

2012-01-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a lot of free time recently due to the holidays and trying to keep up with my business. But I do try to take an hour out of my day here and there to get some painting done as it helps me relax.

Here are a few Work in progress pictures of my Flower Knight i did have some troubles with the colors as I didn't have enough different greens to do what i wanted so i've added in some browns, yellows and oranges. I think they are working out well so far. I'm of course struggling with the colors on the sword but I have a feeling I'll get it after some more blending and noodling with it. Tonight just might be the night for it.

Also If you are still paying attention here is a little preview pic of what my boyfriend has been putting together for me to paint. I'm sure some of you will recognize the base piece. Start drooling now because it's going to be made of awesome by the time i'm done with it.

Flower Knight - WIP

2011-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

A little preview of what i'm working on right now. Kingdom Death's Flower Knight. I've just started laying down colors and have done a little blending but there will be much more to come.

I really plan to experiment with color blending which means a lot of time and many thin layers of paint. It should be a lot of fun.

Oh and of course my boyfriend's response to when I asked how he looked was "Garish" ... which equals "PERFECT!" in my book.

Also since I noticed a bunch of web searches coming to my blog looking for parts break down on the Flower Knight here it is!

Along with the Female Survivor:

And the Butcher:

X'Stacy - Finished

2011-12-18T09:29:00.000-08:00

Yay! I was finally able to grab a few hours and fix all the issues I found from before. I blended her skin tones a bit more to my liking, I detailed a bunch of little bits and I also trimmed off those pigment covered grass strands.
This time around I used a background color that worked a lot better with the mood of the figure. I'm much happier with it now.

Also you might enjoy a quick snap shot of my light box set up for taking pictures of minis.

X'Stacy - WIP?

2011-12-15T09:02:00.000-08:00

Here is X'Stacy from CMON. I actually picked her up at my local game shop. I had passed her over a few times and she kept taunting me with her silly name every time I went in there. So I snagged her up about a week and a half ago. I thought I had finished up this one until I started looking at the pictures on my computer. I didn't follow my normal routine of taking wip pictures to see all the flaws on screen that I can't see with my bad vision, and now I have to go back and fix a bunch of stuff. There is a bunch of blending I need to do and I need to sharpen up and clean up other parts. So for now here is a few WIP pictures of what I thought was going to be a finished picture. I was experimenting with some new unconventional colors for flesh tones and they have been kinda a pain to work with but so for I really like them.
I also ended up getting some pigment on the grass so I need to go in and trim that out. I went with a simple base design as I didn't want to overwhelm the figure especially after working on my last figures (picnic piece).
So tonight it's back at it and hopefully i'll have updated shots tomorrow.

Not all Sable is equal : paint brush review

2011-12-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Not all sable brushes are created equal, at least this is something i've found out after buying a few different brands.

Let's start with my least favorite which I've already sent to the crap brush graveyard.

Winsor & Newton Artists' Round Watercolor Brushes

These promise to be great brushes, I mean hey look at the pictures they look awesome! I really liked the fatty handles on them as well. But They are horrible at painting.. wait, what? Yes they are horrible at doing the job they were designed for.

In the pictures they are lush and pointing all the while promising to hold a lot of paint and paint a great line. Well I've found just the opposite. I originally wanted something for my larger projects that would give me a smooth paint job instead what I got is a brush that frays like a mohawk with day old hair spray and bed head. This is the bad part : the paint is pushed to the outside of the bristles on the canvas/miniature. So yeah it paints two lines instead of one and well I wouldn't say "line" I would say puddle of paint. As far as the amount of paint they hold it is pretty much a joke. So my advice would be to skip them at all costs.

Raphaël Kolinsky Red Sable Fine Pointed Round

These are the brushes I ordered for my boyfriend since I kept stealing all the good brushes we had around the house. Well since the W&N ones I ordered for myself (see above) turned out to be junk I tried out one of his and Oooh Myyyy they are amazing. They are exactly what I wanted those other brushes to be like. They hold an amazing amount of paint and they have a nice tip on them which actually can paint detail work. They are smooooooooth while painting a little pressure will take you a long way. The paint goes on evenly and there are no brush stroke lines just like it should. These brushes will improve your paint jobs because they are made of magic. I also like these because the bristles are longer than the current ones i've been using and it make it easier to paint the nooks and crannies on miniatures. A size 0 is the perfect 'paint all' brush it's just small & large enough for most projects. You can't paint eyes with that size but you should know that already.

So of course I had to order more for myself since I have a bunch of big projects coming up.

I only wish the handle was fatter but I might go out and buy some of those fat pencil grips and stick them on the brushes.

Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Miniature Brushes

These are great brushes but they have a high learning curve the short bristles and sharp tips really make you work to get the paint to work with you. It took me about 2 miniatures and 30+ hours of painting time to really conquer this brush. I really enjoy the 0 size for all purpose painting but the Kolinsky is going to replace it. My favorite size is 2/0 for serious detail work. The sharp tips are wonderful for detail work because the bristles are so short they don't hold much paint and you need to add medium / flow release to your paints to really get the full potential out of these brushes. I've noticed that my 2nd size 0 brush has softer bristles than my first one (1 year old) and it's harder to paint details with it. Literally i'm bending the bristles on the mini and no paint is coming off. So i'm not sure if I will order these again if they are going to continue with the softer bristles.

So over all i'm going to say that the Raphaël Kolinsky Red Sable Fine Pointed Round

are the best of the bunch. They are a great price although they cost more than synthetic brushes. If you want the bristles on your brushes to stop hooking/curling stop buying synthetic and get yourself some sable brushes. As far as I can tell Sable brushes don't hook a the ends. Also get yourself some good brush cleaner and clean after every use or every other use if you are lazy like me. * I've been told in the comments that you should space out your brush cleaning. however I'm notorious for getting paint gunked up in the ferrule and need to clean my brushes after every project if not more. The Masters soap is awesome, along with pink soap. The mona lisa brush shaper is great for when you aren't going to paint for a while. After you clean your brushes dip them in the brush shaper and use your fingers to shape the brush into a nice shape and it will dry stiff and keep the shape until you are ready to paint again.

Anyways I hope this helped some of you who are wondering what brushes to get.

Inspiration Pictures for Dioramas

2011-12-03T09:07:00.001-08:00

While i'm working on a couple of projects at once I thought I would share some of the awesome pictures I've found to help with making diorama bases. I know it's not nearly as cool as posting a new figure i'm painting but maybe it will help some of you out with your current or future projects.

Perfect Spot for a Picnic

2011-11-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

Ok she is finally finished! This is quite a large diorama so it was pretty difficult to take pictures of. My little Nikon D40 doesn't have a macro lens yet so it didn't know what to focus on.

Here is a list of what was used:

Steampunk Dorothy, Steampunk Jen Hailey, Malifaux Mobil Toolkit & Brass Arachnid, Kings of War Zombies, & Lovecraft Tombstones from Ebay.

I originally envisioned this piece a little more comical but it actually turned out pretty dark. My original idea was to have the copper bot waving the blanket behind him as he ran over to the spot to lay it down but the blanket was really too large and would block off a large portion of the scene when viewed from certain angles. So I tried a few different options one being the blanket still half rolled up and spilling onto the grass. That didn't work for me either as I made it too thick and it just looked out of place. But luckily I was happy with my third try. I made it a little smaller and a thinner.

The gravestones were painted like any other stone with some green washes and a little standard green grass flock to represent moss. The dirt is a dark earth pigment mixed with sand, plaster, and water effects and let set over night.

Hopefully the little story i'm trying to tell with this is showing because it would suck if it wasn't. I know I have my own story in my head but I will let you fill in the blanks.

Here is the link to CMON I could use some voting love over there. http://www.coolminiornot.com/292222

Steampunk Jen - WIP

2011-11-11T10:31:00.001-08:00

Figure 2 of my newest project is almost done. Here is the final WIP picture before I do all the touch ups needed.

Also for those interested in pairing up these two figures here they are side by side, They pair up pretty well the only issue I have is that the head on the SP Jen figure is much larger than the SP Dorothy.

Steampunk Dorothy - WIP

2011-11-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a little taste of the first figure in a 4+ figure diorama that i'm currently working on which will include Steampunk girls, robots and zombies.....
Normally I would say you could get your own here -->Steampunk Dorothy But they are sold out at this moment.
I have a bit more touch ups to do but she is pretty much finished. Sorry I didn't get more angles but the photos came out blurry and I think my eyes were blurry from all the tiny touch ups I had already done.
Now it's onto the next Steampunk Girl....

Suicide Queen and Rollo

2011-11-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

New mini is finished! Suicide Queen and Rollo by Soda Pop miniatures.
Now I don't know what I was thinking going from 54mm to a tiny 30mm I know Soda Pop Minis are smaller than average and I should have known better. Looking at my photos i'm mad about all the stuff I messed up and the paint that chipped when I put her on the base. I also had major problems at the end taking Rollo off his peg and smashing 2 out of 4 feet with complete removal of one of them. So I had to sculpt some new ones and hope for the best. Maybe I should rename him Stumpy.
Overall i'm pretty happy with her as she looks great in person. I'm also looking forward to the rules for Relic Knights to come out, as it stands I should have enough painted minis to play already.

I've just added her over at CMON and she needs a little love. I always find the ratings on cmon interesting especially when I compare it to other ratings. I find it very interesting that my Soda Pop minis get lower ratings than my other minis with one exception. It makes me examine what a high rated mini looks like and what mine is missing from that example.

What big teeth you have grandma....

2011-10-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've been holding onto these pictures for a while. I actually started them then decided to enter them into a contest on the WAMP forum where judging starts at the first of next month.
So Red Riding Hood is Kingdom Deaths 54mm Twilight Knight and the Wolf is Privateer Press's Warp Wolf Extreme (which my boyfriend designed and sculpted). The warp wolf is the same one I started painting brown last year and put up on a shelf because I wasn't happy with how it was coming out. So it got a simple green bath and since simple green kills green stuff i also had to refill all the gaps.
His skin tone was painted using many shades of blues, blacks and purples and his fur was done with blacks and reddish browns. I really enjoyed painting his skin as it seemed much easier this time than it did before. A year of practice really made a difference for sure.
Red Riding Hood was my first practice subject for painting metallic paints (before Sebastian a few posts back). I really enjoyed experimenting with the browns, red, purples and blues on the silvers.
I trimmed down her cape because I really wanted her butt to show I know i'm a perv but seriously this miniature has a great ass. The body shape of the KD figures really reminds me of go go dancers from the 60s. Anyways I also added a few holes into the cape and trimmed down how thick the cape was in the shoulders and on the inside length of it.
The base is one of those cheep wooden plaques you can get at the craft stores for a buck. The end where the tree trunk meets the base was hollowed out and then the tree was pinned to the wood and covered with magic sculpt to make sure it wouldn't pop out at any time. Jason's Dremel really got a work out. Roots were sculpted with Fimo and the rock is well a rock from the front yard. Fluffy green flock was used for the forrest floor and tiny dried flowers and moss were added. The mushroom on the tree I sculpted and the magic mushroom on the ground Jason sculpted for me. They were actually demos for me so I would know how to sculpt them of course his demos are going to be better than any I can put together the first time around.
Lastly the wood base was painted last and then covered in 2 layers of dark wood varnish - voila she is done!
*Updated with new images*

*Edit : Butt Shot added per request!

I call him Zorak

2011-10-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

A couple more baby dragon WIP shots.

The blue one I call Zorak as his eyes were inspired by a suspicious Zorak from Cartoon Planet.

WIP - Baby Dragon from Super Dungeon Explore

2011-10-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

I'm working on something totally adorable! I know some people have already seen them at or in pictures from Gen Con and PAX.... Here is the first of 4 baby dragons that will be available in Super Dungeon Explore as far as I know you won't be able to get them anywhere else. Once you see them in person you will want to paint them all. [pimping]So seriously pre-order your copy today! [/pimping] ;)

But my little dragons won't be used in the board game, I'm working up a special scene for them on a scenic base. I'm also planning on painting them all different colors because well I can! I also plan on testing out some water effects that Jason bought for me from Japan.
Here is a preview WIP shot of my baby green dragon I still need to play around with his freckles, toes and eyes a bit.

Soda Pop - Sebastian Cross and Rook

2011-09-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well I think I finished this bad boy in record time and let me tell you that is no easy feat! Sebastian is HUGE compared to the other soda pop miniatures i've painted.

So my boyfriend encouraged me to try to paint something with metallic paints. Now this is a big deal since i've been shying away from metallics since i've started playing around with NMM painting. Just recently Miniature Mentor came out with a metallic painting tutorial and it was fabulous and helped push me in the direction with metallics I would be happy with and enjoy painting. It was basically painting the same way I would with regular opaque paints and adding washes to enhance the colors and shading.
I had to take the miniature on one limb at a time due to the hugeness of him, which seemed to work out well.
I used all Vallejo paints both game and model colors combined and made washes out of the opaque paints I thought would work well. I use PP mixing medium to make washes and while blending to prevent spot marks/rings and to release the surface tension of the paint so I don't have to press as hard when painting.
I used smokey ink for the browns, and a dark purple mixed with a dark silver for the shading. For the highlights I used a light blue mixed in with a super light silver. I avoided using any white to avoid making the metals look pastel.
As for the Gold I used 3 different golds and smokey ink as well as a bit of green to get the right look.

Little Rook was my testing grounds for the colors and you can see that I used some whites in with the silver to highlight and I think it worked fine on something as small as him but I didn't want to put it on the large mech.
I also experimented with glowing objects and I'm not sure i've got it yet i think i need to look at some more references and practice a bit more but I'll get there.
The base detail I sculpted right on top of the base he came with. I wanted to give it a tiled court yard feel so that the impression that he is protecting a sacred place.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the way he came out.

WIP - TwilightKnight Pinup

2011-08-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a little preview of what i've been working on. I still need to finish her touch ups and smooth out some blending in places. I also need to buy her plinth and get her base set up.

So this miniatures is the 54mm version of her and this is my first 54mm mini i've ever painting and i have to say i had a ball with it. Jason was looking over her and was like "I think you found your size" (of miniatures to paint) and I think he is right. I have a bunch of other 54mm figs on my wish list on CMON but have been scared to order the, now I will probably break my bank account buying more.

Game over man! - Leona Lobo

2011-08-03T12:18:00.001-07:00

So I finished her up last night and waited until the sun came out this morning to take some decent pictures. After the last WIP pictures I really increased the shading and midtones on her skin and I found they translate a lot better than before. I'm much more happy with her now.

The Alien wall was a bit of a challenge and I didn't get exactly what I wanted but it was close enough that I didn't want to redo it. Next time I know I just need to punch up the highlights and midtones before I add the Tamia smoke gloss. I actually had a bunch of turquoise and green washes in some areas as well as purple and blues in others. Now you can't see them in the pictures all to well but they look fabulous in person.

Oh and I also sculpted the floor she is standing on with some green stuff and sculpting tools. I'm pretty proud of that since I suck at working with green stuff. I guess Jason's teachings are finally rubbing off. I'm sure he will be happy to read this.

WIP - Leona

2011-07-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

A little work in progress pic to keep me on track. Of course the lighting i used sucked and the colors look off but you get the picture.
I've mostly been playing with her skin tones and trying to get them to look right. I've found that what i paint sometimes looks horrible in pictures compared to some of the master painters. So i'm trying to figure out what the difference is. I think i'm painting too subtle for the details to really show. Now i need to figure out how to make the shading and highlights pop with out her looking like a clown.

Summon - Kingdom Death Pinup Preacher

2011-07-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is by far the most ambitious base I've attempted to make and I have to say that by the end I was very overwhelmed and just threw in the towel. I really had grand plans to do some crazy source lighting and well that didn't happen. I think I honestly made the base too large and that effects wouldn't have worked properly. I haven't sealed her yet so I can still go through and do some touch ups which i'm sure it will need after seeing these pictures. But i'm going to leave her in the display case for a bit first.

The base is made from one of those cheep miniature books you can buy at the book shop as well as a few sheets of styrene for the back pages as the real pages i cut out due to them looking like crap after I applied glue to them and couldn't get them in the position I wanted. The bookcase is made from balsa wood, books are card stock and styrene, scroll cases are aluminium tubes, and the scroll is paper.

As for the preacher I had a heck of a time getting the pinks right on her clothes she actually got a simple green bath after a few hours of noodling with paint and being very unhappy with it. I let her sit for a month before I even looked at her again I figured out what problem i was having with the pinks and it worked it self out after a couple hours of painting. once that was done the rest was cake.

She originally had another piece of loin cloth in the front and a warhammer but my smart self cleaned off my work bench and accidentally threw them away with a bunch of styrene bits.... ooops. Go Me!

Anyways I hope you enjoy!

Also extra points to those who can figure out who or what she is summoning.

SDE - Elf Ranger

2011-07-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

Giving a new soda pop miniature some love .

A little speed painting at hobby night. Less than 5 hours. It was actually hard not to add more details to her.

Oh and she is also up on CMON go check her out!

Wait.. What? $50 Seriously????

2011-07-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

Ok ok so I was looking over my army the other day and had a great idea of repainting my female commissar or possibly getting a new one and painting her up in the same paint scheme. As I could totally rock it now verses 10 years ago.

I went onto ebay to see what she was going for only to find out people are charing $50 freaking dollars for her. I bought mine in my shop for like $8 -$9 back in the day..
*bangs head on desk*
I remember her being a blast to paint so i'm totally disappointed to see the price hike. Maybe I'll get a PP Sorscha and paint her instead.

And don't get me started on Bertha from Mordheim....

WIP Pinup Preacher

2011-06-30T12:07:00.000-07:00

I've finally got the painting bug again, I hit a major roadblock with this one due to the colors on her. I had a really hard time with the pink leggings so I left her for a month and came back to her and figured out I was neglecting my midtones and all was good.

Yes, Yes I know she doesn't have her head attached but I wouldn't be able to actually paint the back of her since her hair covers half of her back.

I take WIP pictures because they help me figure out what touch ups I need to do I already see a lot of blending in the skin and leggings I need to smooth out and a few blotches that need touched up. Plus her face is very lack luster but I was more concerned about getting her glasses with out making her face a blob. Now i need to figure out what the hell i'm going to do with her eyes since the glasses are hollow and her eyes are under there.

And for those of you wondering yes this is the miniature that will be living on the base from my previous post. This little nerd will be summoning some type of Elder thing of the deep into the world.

I swear I've been working on something!

2011-06-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

Ok I know it's been a while since i've updated but work has been kicking my butt and I haven't had much free time. Hopefully that will change soon.

I did however start the base for my newest figure. Can you guess what figure gets to live on this awesome base?

Here is a preview:

Kingdom Death - Grand Mother

2011-04-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

Grand Mother is finished and how grand she is! I loved painting this miniature, it was quite a challenge for sure. My first idea was to put her on some sort of marble or stone floor and I managed to get a decent stone floor with steps while playing tetris of sorts with hurst arts wall tiles I mounted them on a 2 inch block/plinth and got nice even sides with the help of our newly acquired belt sander. Jason was nice enough to volunteer his fingers for that job as my hands are not going near that machine of flesh sanding death. I had wanted to put a pillar on the back end of the base but that with her wing span would have made it too busy. The other detail I wanted that i did work into this piece was the blood gore trailing from the face of horror between her legs (which you can see in the detail pics at the bottom of this post). I wanted to give the impression of her walking away from a fresh kill. You can read her back story here for that reasoning.

I know most of you have been searching for a good technique for blood. I'm not sure if mine is the way to do it but or how long it will last. I'm sure it wouldn't travel well that is for sure. But I used fabri-tac glue and mixed Tamia clear red and bit of black wash into the glue and applied the glue with a tooth pick to create the strands flowing from the horror to the floor. After it dried fully I added some more fresh red to the glue by lightly painting it on to make sure it had the color I wanted.

After spray sealing her I went back with a paint on gloss sealer and painted over the blood to give it a nice wet sheen.

For the Black wings and her black hair I added a bit of purple to the mix to give it a different hue than the black fur and scarf on her outfit. The light grey tips of the wings also have a bit of turquoise in it to give it depth. The effect I wanted didn't come out as clean as i hoped on the wings but it's a learning experience. This is the first time i've painted feathered wings with out dry brushing and I have shunned dry brushing for a few years now. I save it for stones and tiles.

Speaking of which the stones on her base were 'dry brushed' of sorts. it was more like wet brushed than anything else as the brush was never 'dry' as I hate that chalky look that a true dry brushing gives a mini.

Overall I think I spent about 40 hours on this miniature. I could probably spend more making small adjustments but I have to stop at some point.

Now I just need to figure out what to work on next. I have a box full of awesome miniatures to paint.

WIP 2 - Grand Mother

2011-03-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

I put a few more hours in painting her last night. I noodled around with the flesh tones and had to back track on the gold armor as I went to dark on some parts and now it's being a pain to get it back to where I want it. I am however very happy with her belly plate so far.

New Dark Young

2011-03-02T10:10:00.001-08:00

Jason's newest sculpt The Dark Young has been released today by Blackball Games.
We got our copy in the mail the other day and it looks amazing, and yes it is as huge as it looks.

WIP - Grand Mother

2011-02-27T13:29:00.001-08:00

Since I'm not posting a ton of new painted minis I figured I would start posting WIP pics of what I am working on.
I was one of the lucky SoBs that got one of the 200 Grand Mother Figures from Kingdom Death. So yesterday, I made her base (in the first picture) I actually wanted to put a pillar of sorts on it as well but I think due to the figure's wing span it would limit where I could put her on the base and crowd it quite a bit. Once I get her finished and off the cork I'll decide on the pillar.
The base is made from pieces from a mold that we bought from Hirst Arts - Gothic Additional Accessories Mold #44, It really didn't have exactly what I wanted but what we have worked.
So basically there are a few layers of paint down, I was playing with where i wanted the shadows and highlights. I still have a lot of layering and blending to do. I'm still not sure what color i'm going to do the wings, well i'm going to make them white, but i'm not sure what hues i'm going to give the wings. I don't want them to clash with the yellows of her outfit but I don't want them to blend in either. hummmm......

kingdom Death - Pinup Forsaker

2011-02-16T15:53:00.001-08:00

I've finally finished a new piece. I seriously enjoyed painting this mini. If you want one of your own I think coolminiornot.com still has a couple in stock. They are limited edition so pick it up while you can.

Seriously this miniature is amazing, she is about 45mm tall with legs that go all the way up. This was my first time working with a resin miniature I've been painting metal minis for so long along with a few plastics here and there I really didn't know what to expect with resin. Now i've made resin things before for my own business but none of them are as small or intimidating as this little gal is.

So of course my first time around I missed a bunch of mold lines then I discovered a tiny piece of 400 grit sand paper did the trick for the most part. My metal files are so corse they really ripped up the resin. Now I'm ready for the next one.

Paints used were all vallejo along with a couple GW washes. I went with a darker tone this time around, I wanted the feeling that she spent most days outside.
I also chose a lot of natural colors -browns and greens which is outside of my normal range and I came to find out they are a lot of fun to paint.

For the base I used half of a wooden yo-yo that I found at Michaels craft store, Corse & Fine Pumice, crushed/broken seashells, random little rocks, static grass, and some corse sand flock, & plastic leaves from a cherry blossom branch.

I put a pretty thin layer of paint on the shells so their natural color would bleed through and give the rocks depth. Some more paint was added a little dry brushing and voila she is done.

Sneak Peek - WIPS

2011-01-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes I really have been working on a few projects since my last update.

So for my pink gunner here I'm thinking about picking up some bases from Dragon Forge. But I need to finish painting her first.

Now this figure from Malifaux I actually bought it because it inspired me to make a base for her. Jason was kind enough to take over the basing for me after we drew up a few ideas. So now the stone steps have been made and the Torii is half way finished. We just need to sprinkle some more rocks on it, add a few coats of paint and snow and it will be ready to go.

This year I've decided to only paint minis for fun and not for an army or any sort of game. I'm not going to paint another Sister of Battle until a new box set and Codex comes out for them (I hear rumors but we shall see). I held out for 10 years (and got a half assed codex in the middle) then painted for 1 year. I think I can hold out again for a little while longer.

So until then there will probably be a lot of crazy minis posted here and not very much WH (unless something comes along that looks totally fun to paint).

What are your painting goals this year? Fun, Army Building, Poo flinging, etc??

Ayu Beat - Starchild

2010-12-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Well it's been ages since I updated or painted anything for that matter. The rehab on my shoulder took a lot longer than i thought it would. But as of Dec i finally have full mobility in my arm with out pain.

My day job (seamstress) left my arm exhausted at the end of the day and I didn't have the energy or time to paint for the last 2 months. Finally it's christmas vacation for me and I was able to actually put some paint to this metal.

So this one is Ayu Beat from Soda Pop Miniatures and I have to say she was quite difficult to paint. Very very small miniature, I actually had to break out the magnifying glass lamp in order to finish her. It felt as if my eyes were crossing while I was trying to get the details on her. I actually didn't get the amount of detail that I wanted to get. I think how long I spent on her wore me out. (about 10 hours) and most of it was touch ups. Because it's not about how well you paint it's how well you do touch ups right?

She actually went through two paint schemes and I didn't like the first one so she got a simple green bath.

Overall i'm really happy with her and I need to do a few more touch ups as the goblin fairies (cats) came through and moved her around last night and scuffed up her base. I also noticed a few other spots I need to fix the color on.

long time no update

2010-09-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Image by http://punchyninja.deviantart.com/

So in my last post I promised my next piece soon, well as it turns out I went roller skating for a fund raising event and it didn't go as planned. I crashed and burned down a hill and almost dislocated my shoulder and couldn't move my arm for a good 3 weeks. I won't be skating out-doors for a long long time, at least anywhere that has hills.

So any plans of painting went down the drain as i couldn't lift my arm or use it for an extended period of time. I'm a seamstress for a living so all of my energy went towards my orders in order to keep paying bills. I'm also preparing to vend at a local pirate festival in two weeks so all my spare time has been going to making eye patches.

After the pirate festival I plan on relaxing at night so hopefully i'll get something painted then.

Calico Kate

2010-07-29T14:31:00.001-07:00

Just Finished up Calico Kate.

I went with some different colors than i'm use to especially the pinks and purples. Painting the blues felt like cheating honestly. I primed the mech black which is different than what i'm use to, it's been a long time since I actually primed a figure a color other than white. Kate herself was primed in white so I could get the brilliant pink colors on her suit.

A lot of custom pinning was done to get the mech in this pose as some of you know this mech comes in a standing pose and I really wanted it to resemble the original art work. So my Boyfriend was kind enough to pin it all in this pose for me. Cause seriously I just stared at it blankly while trying to figure out how I was going to pin it. But he is a pro and had it done in no time.

The bases also have custom wood planks that were all sculpted in green stuff. Since she is a pirate she is running along a deck of a ship before she messes it up.

Anyways this was a ton of fun to paint, it's also a beautiful model and well worth the price especially if you love painting to paint. I find it quite relaxing after a hard day of work.

And of course after taking these pictures I've already spotted areas I need to touch up.

Next up is something small from soda pop Ayu Beat

Menoth Jack

2010-07-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

So my newest finished piece is finally done! Yay! I know it's not 40k but this girl needs a break from painting little metal nuns every so often. Although this piece really isn't much of a stretch.

At this point i'm painting for enjoyment and not for building an army so i've gone through a box of minis and set aside all the ones I think will be fun to paint. Seriously I have more than an army's worth to paint at this point.

I'm not super happy with these pic as the ivory shows up a bit to yellow due for my liking due to the conversion to web jpg. Also who ever sculpted the squigglies on the shoulder pads and other do-dads SUCKS, worst job ever.. seriously I could do better than that..ok maybe not but i don't get paid to sculpt and they did. They could have at least taken the time to smooth out the groove bumps, you know those raised edges you get when you drag a needle through some clay.. yeah those.

But besides that this guy was fun to paint, a lot of nice surface area to shade and highlight, nothing at all like that evil penitent engine. At the end I didn't do a lot of touch ups that I would normally do (out-lining every piece to make sure colors are crisp) Since I could have spent about 3-5 extra hours on that alone.

The next piece i've already start on : Calico Kate from Soda Pop Miniatures.

Riding Wolves

2010-07-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

Recently my boyfriend Jason sculpted some awesome (IMHO) wolves for a small company: Paulson Games. <-- click to order some for yourself!

These wolves can be used for some of your favorite fantasy and space games.

The heads are inter-changeable and they also come with 'space legs' I believe 'fantasy legs' will be available soon. They also come with custom bases. You can see actual 'greens' pictures Here.

WarpWolf Extreme - WIP

2010-06-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

So I'm working on something a little fun and a little crazy! I've always been a fan of werewolves and my boyfriend sculpted one crazy one for privateer press a while back.

I let this figure intimidate me for long enough. I finished putting him together and i've added the first few layers of paint to him as of last night. It's actually kind of fun being able to work with larger brushes on something that isn't a tank.

Tank Finished.... I think..

2010-06-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm pretty much finished with my tank, I spent a few hours detailing it and I have to say after painting this I have no love for painting tanks at all. I'm not entirely happy with it but it's table ready. In a week or so I might go back and fix all the little stray bits of paint I missed this time around. Although I did have a little fun with wet blending on the little blue windows.

I've decided I really enjoy wet blending and could spend way to much time noodling with the paint and getting nothing done.

So yeah exorcist 1 done now to finish the other two I have still in the boxes. Although the other ones are the more traditional exorcist tanks with the pipe organ so those might actually be fun to paint.

BOLS smack down / Nerd Rage

2010-05-05T08:38:00.001-07:00

Image by hoxiaowei on deviant art

Is it bad that I really really really enjoyed reading the bickering and smack down on the last BOLS Poll about the inquisition?
Seriously just because you are female in a primarily male hobby doesn't give you the right to be a total jerk to everyone who doesn't agree with your opinion. It's off putting and makes people avoid you and the forums that you post on.
I'm sure there is the same problem with certain people that are not female and it's just a 'human issue also known as Nerd Rage' but when there are such a small amount of female players in this game one bad apple makes the rest of us just look bad.

Jason's Sculpt

2010-04-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

Since I've had the hardest time getting Jason to post to his blog I figured I would post it to mine to help get him inspired to update his own blog.
New Warpwolf Stalker for Privateer Press
I'm not sure who does the photography for PP but they always pic the weirdest angles to present their figures. Check out the 360 view for more detail.

WIP Tank

2010-04-14T10:00:00.001-07:00

Ok so here are a few more pictures after I did a little bit more noodling on the tank. Most of the detailing has not been finished or cleaned up. Most items only have a wash on them (if that). I also darkened up some of the shadows I was painting in.
I still have a long way to go, hopefully i'll get to work on it again in the next few days.

'

Tanks Ahoy!

2010-04-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

So after getting Fed up with that darn PE I decided to start work on my first Exorcist Tank. It's modified from the traditional tank and a lot easier to work with as far as modeling and painting goes.
For the paint scheme I'm going with subtle shading and I'm also going to be adding a bunch of dings and such as well as dirty up the treads quite a bit.
So here is the first bit that i've worked on. When i told Jason i worked on my tank he walked over to it and was about to call "Shenanagins" on me until he picked it up and looked turned it around to a different angle.
So I'll label that as a success!

Oh and The Rocket Launcher is from Quantum Gothic
http://www.quantumgothic.co.uk/
You can pick one up for £15.00

Army Pic

2010-02-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

A little bit of fun before I post about my hate twards the Penitent Engine..
We finally got a new display case from Ikea so we can display our armies. Here is a quick shot of mine I took this morning. You should be able to see the old paint jobs and the new ones very clearly in this.
I left it full size so you can click on the image and see it much larger.
After playing a small game 1250pts against RC and getting my @ss handed to me I realized I need more heavy weapons... some serious firepower. I have 3 exorcists in various stages and 1 land raider partially completed.
Not sure if these will help much at this point, as i'm having the 'I need a new codex' blues. My boyfriend suggested I play a different army, and well the only other one I would want to play (BT) doesn't have a new codex either. I think i'm going to have to make my own SM chapter or something. although i'm not even sure I want to paint up that many SM models. I think I just want to paint up those terminators that I bought cause they are fun models.
So question for you: How do you deal with the 'new codex blues'?

BOLS Tyranid Challenge

2010-02-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

So my man Jason finally entered an online challenge and his Tyrannofex made it to the top 10 for voting! Check out BoLS and Vote for your Favorite!.
I of course voted for Jason, there are some awesome conversions shown and they are all winners in my book!
I should also add that he finally started a blog, there is nothing on it yet. but he plans on doing a lot of tutorials. here is it : http://monster-zer0.blogspot.com/

WIP PE

2010-01-26T20:25:00.001-08:00

So I finally managed to find some sort of Zen while painting the penitent engine tonight. Now that I have the body and legs (almost) done here is a sneak peek. I don't even want to mention that even after painting all those purity seals I still found another hidden one on the main body I missed painting. Seriously how many does this thing need?

PE continued

2010-01-19T10:54:00.000-08:00

I gotta say working on this Penitent Engine has got me hitting the wall. I'm use to painting very small things and this monstrosity is killing me. I'm painting small bits at a time, at this point it's been blocked out, washed and I'm now working on the purity seals and other banner objects. I'm not getting the colors I want out of my paints and I feel rushed because it's so large. I'm also thinking too far ahead, i'm trying to plan out the source lighting for the flamer and i'm no where near close to that point. Any inspirational words for me?
Maybe I need a second smaller figure to work on at the same time for when i get frustrated.

PE work has started

2010-01-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

So i've finally put this monster of a mini together. some work was done to the legs as I hate the chicken walker look it to, always running forward and never able to turn leg stance it has. So a fake ball joint was added to it and the actual bar the legs slide onto has been bent. Hopefully this will give it a more dynamic pose once it's finished.

I also need to get this off my chest, The other day i was on ebay bidding on some sisters with melta guns, because i'm cheep and hate paying full price. So it was a great deal, half price and then some nob outbids me and is paying MORE than full price from GW for them. Wtf is up with this. I just don't get it. They were unpainted and probably needed some work. Why would someone pay more than retail for them off of ebay. *shakes head*

Exorcist Follies

2009-12-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

So my Boyfriend was awesome and got me a fancy Exorcist tank kit for Xmas. Of course when we opened it up and started playing around with the pieces we discovered that the main U shaped pewter piece was warped. Basically the right side was smaller than the left side and bubbled up.
He had to shave of the fluer de lis on the sides and hammer the frak out of it, and bend it back into shape with some pliers, along with shaving down the plastic piece that it sits on in order for it to fit. And of coure the round servitor's hidey hole didn't fit properly and again the plastic had to be shaved out in order for it to fit.
The topper is the actual pipes don't fit together properly either. they are pretty warped and look like they bow in along the edge.

I sent GW an email with what we did and the pics but of course i haven't heard back yet. I've been told to call them. although i'll probably wait till after the new year holiday to do so. I dont' really want a replacement or anything i just want them to get their ass in gear and fix the damn problem with the mold.

SoB Blue Squad 2009

2009-12-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

Inspired by my Blue SoB squad from 1999 (Check it out here!) I decided to paint up a new blue squad with the same paint scheme.
Here is the Sister Superior that can double as a Canoness (i've always wanted one with a jump pack)
Also i should mention the bases are from Dragon Forge Designs http://www.dragonforge.com/ a fabulous small company that is worthy of support! Seriously go and buy some for yourself today! For those of you like me, who hate making your own bases this is the way to go.

Here is the whole squad and as always you can click on each image to see a larger version.

Now it's on to building that Penitent Engine!

Tutorial Non-Metal Metallic Armor

2009-12-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

Ok Guys and Gals here is my second tutorial, this is how i paint those elusive non-metal metallics. I won't say this is easy or fast because, well it's not. It's time consuming but it can be lot of fun, or you could honestly be throwing your mini across the table halfway through.

Here are the paints we are going to be using today... Warm greys, a crazy green and a few washes.
Scorpy Green, Stonewall Grey, Basalt Grey, Black Grey, Black , White, and Turquoise (not shown)
Badab Black, Asurmen Blue and Skin Wash

As for brushes i'm using mostly a 3/0 round, 5/0 round, a 12/0 round and a 20/0 monogram (which is just a longer bristle round)

So here is how we left off: just a base of Badab Black over the Basalt Grey.
Notice where the darker areas are and what color your miniature is.
Mix your paint at this point, I like using a wet pallet as it gives me more working time with my paints. Mix your Black Grey with your Basalt Grey until you get a color slightly lighter than the current color of your mini. cover 95% of the armor with this while leaving the black wash to show in the creases. Don't worry if it looks funny right now.. ok so this was the easy step.

Now mix a little bit more of the Basalt Grey into your mix and cover less area than you painted before. you want to basically build color steps. at this point you should figure out where your light source is coming from. to make it easy just assume it's above the mini. you can use your painting light to see where the shadows are cast and which areas are brighter than others. Start to mimic this with your paint.

At this point you should mix more of the Basalt Grey into your mixture and you will probably be at 90% of Basalt Grey at this point. (I always like to have a small amount of the darkest color mixed in to keep the hue of the paint consistent.) highlight even less areas while using your desk light as a reference. As you can see by the picture above there isn't much difference at this point but don't fret it's moving along just fine.

Now add a bit of Stonewall grey and just a dash* of scorpy green into your mixture and highlight the peaks. You can go lighter at this point if you want by mixing up to the stonewall grey but you don't have to. You could even go as far as white but just painting a few tips with it. it's all up to you.
* by Dash i mean a very very tiny amount just to give your grey a green hue.

Now it's time to dirty this girl up!

Bring out your Skin Wash and water it down a bit and apply to the areas you would like to dirty up a bit. i've added it to the flamer front, the funky cables around her neck and on the back of the gun and the fuel pot on her back.

Now here is the trick to really make your NMM pop. Mix together some Black Grey and Turquoise paint. I also like to add some P3 mixing medium to it to avoid wash rings. Get it nice and dark with a hint of the turquoise. then just like a wash make sure your paint it thin but not too thin. and start adding it to the areas you want shaded. Around the rivits, between the fingers, in the creases, any and everywhere you want. I also put a couple coats of it on the top of the skin wash on the gun. I use this mix to blend the darker greys together. In the darker areas feel free to do more than one coat of this.

This wash usually helps blend in the darker areas so that your lighter areas really pop. Also in this pic I added a coat of Asurmen Blue to the end of the flamer to simulate a scorched weapon. you can also add a bit of black wash to really darken it up.
Also to help sharpen up your paint job, use the 20/0 brush and line the creases with a watered down black mix. After all it's not how well you paint, it's how well you do touch ups!

Here is a side by side view of each step. I hope that helped...

Tutorial How I paint Sisters part 1

2009-12-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

Ok first off I was going to put this all in one post but i figured i would break it up into segments since these SoBs take me so long to paint.

Of course first clean, file off all the mold lines, and drill out the gun barrels. If you miss any mold lines they will show up when you prime your model and should be easy pickins after that.

Here are the paints i'm using for this post:

I chose white primer because it's easier for me to see all the details. I use krylon primer, it's cheap (about $5 a can) and works great. These models are a bit harsh as they had been painted before and recently had a bath in simple green.

First I used a flat brush with a rounded tip to block out the areas i want to paint. I tend to do the whole squad at once. Basalt grey first then flat blue. I try to be good and color within the lines but it doesn't always work. no biggie. Nothing a little paint can't fix later on.

Then it's time for the black wash. I like to black wash the whole thing to give me an idea as to where the shadows are going to lay. No skimping on the wash, i added a second layer into the creases of the armor for later. Granted this could be seen as a waste of good wash. but i find that it helps with the process.
Now it's time to paint the blue, using a size 0 round brush I start off with with Dark prusia blue as seen above and water it down and add some mixing medium to it.

I cover all the blue quickly so the paint is still wet when i add the next color.

I add a little flat blue to the dark blue and lighten it a step up then apply it to the hills of the robes and make sure to leave the valleys the darker blue to imply shadow.

I continue mixing up to almost flat blue but i make sure to leave a little of the dark blue mixed in. (Switch to a 3/0 round brush) Then I mix in a bit of the Deep sky blue to lighten it and continue to paint the hills on the robes while painting less and less area each time.

For the final coat i add a little bit of white to the mix just to make it pop but not over powering.

All of the layers are watered heavily but not so much they get splochy. I guess to about the consistency of 1% milk.
Granted you probably don't need to do all that layering to get the same effect but it does stand out from over 12 inches away.

After i finish i check over the mini and make sure the steps blend in enough for my tastes if they don't, i take a really watered down Dark blue wash and add a layer or two over those specific areas till it looks ok to me. You could also do this step and the first blue step with a GW blue wash as it's about the same color.

At this point I don't bother with the super fine details like the weird rivets on the robes as i save those for the 'touch up' session when everything else is done and I have out my 20/0 paint brush for the finer points.

Let me know if you have any questions or if i'm out of my mind.

I'm not dead yet!

2009-11-15T13:05:00.000-08:00

So the last batch of Sisters really drained me as far as creativity goes. So this next batch is going to be a simple squad of Sisters. But i'm going to do a step by step painting tutorial so you can see how I paint my minis. Then you can give me hell, use my tips or tell me better ways at doing what i do.

xoxo

Seraphim Squad Done?

2009-10-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

Ok everyone the day i know i have been waiting for since i started this crazy project. I finally mostly finished my new Seraphim squad. It has been slow going and near the end of it i started to get frustrated with not being finished. As i go over the pictures i realized I've forgotten to finish a few touch up and blending on the bases. So those will be finished tonight.
But they look fabulous together and i can't wait to make a custom display base for them.

As always you can click on each image to get a larger view.

Since RC requested it, I took pictures at 4 different angles so you can see all the way around the mini.
This one is one of my favs but the pictures turned out like hell and i'm going to have to retake them at a later date. But i love the bronze paint job i did on the I beam. Cray Havoc issue 4 (i think i'll have to check on that) has a small tutorial on it. I also painted their guns in NMM style and let me tell you that if you start a squad in NMM do it all in one sitting because you will come back to it later and have totally forgotten what you did the time before. But i believe my next squad will have NMM Armor same as the guns. If you haven't figured it out yet i'm not one to paint my army all in the same style because seriously that would be boring.

This one i wanted the lamp to look transparent but have the glass still intact. Not sure if i pulled it off but it was fun to paint. I tried to find examples in all the magazines we have and failed but i'll keep looking for next time.

This was the last one i worked on and by the time i got to it i was wishing i had made all the bases easy to paint. I need to go back and rework some of the shadows on the back of the door. I also made both sides to the door and the other superior in my 2nd squad will be mounted on it.

The flamer is my other favorite in the group. I loved painting the base as determining where all the shadows would fall was a fun little puzzle.
I'm least happiest with this base or i should say where i have the seraphim placed on the base as it looks like she is pushing off the wall with her feet.

Ok there you go! Now it's time to get back to work for me. Let me know what you think!

Why my Boyfriend needs a blog .. part 2

2009-09-21T15:04:00.000-07:00

His Published works:

The man already works full time sculpting awesome miniatures for Privateer press www.privateerpress.com and has an amazing portfolio. I would love to see him have an actual online portfolio and a place to post tutorials. He is an amazing teacher and i think the gaming community would benefit from what knowledge he could share.

Anyways I'm sure some of you already own his work.
Here is a sample:
First the Trolls...

DTMX
DTM

Mulg

Earthborn

One of my Favs simply for his pimp daddy fur collar

Now the Jacks: I'll only post a couple here

Drago
Little Known fact that the extreme Jack was actually sculpted before Drago so a lot of the techniques that the extreme uses were also used in making Drago.

Now he has a LOT more work i could post but i really want him to post it on his own blog.

Primed and ready to Rock! \m/

2009-09-10T21:08:00.001-07:00

Here is a quick sneak preview of my Seraphim on their new fancy bases along with an objective marker. Sorry no Individual pics yet but there will be once they are fully painted.
The objective marker organ i originally made as a base but then got a lecture from my man that the more crazy the base the more it takes away from the figure. :\ I still think it would make a killer base but it will also make a neat marker so I win either way.

I've already started painting them up so they should be done soon.

Why my boyfriend needs a blog .. part 1

2009-09-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

I've been on an ongoing quest to get my boyfriend to have some sort of online blog or portfolio of his amazing work. He is always working on something be it work from Privateer press or something Orky for his 40k army.
So this morning while he is sleeping I snuck some photos of his 'in progress' Ork Looted Tank that he is scratch building. Now this sucker is so big we could probably play a game ON IT, it also doesn't fit in our light box and i had to snap some pictures in front of our fireplace..
Please feel free to post comments or questions here and help me try to persuade him to at least get a blog going cause I know others out there could benefit from his knowledge.

Seraphim Bases WIP

2009-08-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so i know this isn't much, but i've been working on the custom bases for my Seraphim Squads. I say Squads because i have enough minis to almost max out two squads. I already have two different color schemes in mind. White and Red like my Celestian Squad and Blue and Silver for the 2nd squad to match my old SoBs.

So the bases are inspired by the rubble and wreckage of war. i wanted the Sisters to be suspended but look like they belong on the battle field. I thought about repeating the cotton/smoke effect from the jump packs i did 10 years ago but i just wasn't feeling it. So with a little help from Jason we are on our way to have a ton of killer bases.

These are made from Bits of Styrene, tiled styrene for the base, some copper rod along with some cast up ruins from Hirst Arts, and the stone wall is Magic Sculpt. I still need to pin some of the pieces together and to the bases so they don't fall over and break. I can't wait to add the Sisters to them and get them painted, they are gonna look awesome.

I've been crazy busy with my business so my Sisters have been slow going, but there will be more soon.

Old Skaven

2009-08-20T20:37:00.001-07:00

While taking pictures yesterday I dug up what was left of my skaven army after i sold it off years ago.
There isn't much left anymore this is about half of what i have left. I did have a lot of fun painting these buggers 10 years ago.

Not much to report on my sisters yet, Most of them have made it out of the Simple Green and have been scrubbed clean. As for the rest of them i need to get a harder bristle tooth brush to clean them with. I don't know what i painted them with but it doesn't want to come off.
I also got my new little painting station set up, i just need to get a lamp for it. I have some horrible color schemes in mind for them, chartreuse is one of the colors i want to use... so yeah prepare to have your eyes burst into flame due to how bright my girls are going to be... humm maybe i should go the opposite way and do some dirty green armor. I guess i'll just have to see what happens when i take brush to mini.

Lost n Found & the Dip!

2009-08-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

A while back before I moved I said that I came across a treasure trove of SoBs. Well here is a pic of it all for your drooling pleasure. All except for the rhino, terminator & Dante have gone for a dip in simple green. I believe most of the Sisters were given to me by one of my old Gamers from when i worked in the game shop. It seemed to be a trend of guys buying Sisters then giving up on them and handing them over to me. I can tell you I never complained. out of this batch i only painted Dante, the Terminator, and half painted the sister in white.

The only bummer part is that there are no back packs except for the two jump packs. But that problem has been solved already. ;)

So speaking of the Dip my Seraphim have also joined this band of misfits in a simple green bath. Here is a before picture of them. As I said before i just couldn't handle the eldar wings anymore.
Although after taking the pic and looking at in in photoshop the flying bases look much cooler in the lightbox than on the gaming board. I use to have loose cotton surrounding the bases so it looked like there was exhaust coming out of the jump packs. I don't know if i would do that again or not. But I plan on putting some effort into making custom bases for these girls. Man i hate that model with the Sword pointing up, I'm trying to figure out some decent conversions for her, cause i'm gonna rip out my eyes if i have to paint 4 of them.... Any suggestions? Eviscerator? Holy Symbol? Kitten? convert both weapons to bolt pistols, inferno pistols or flamers?

Can't we just get "Beyond Thunderdome"?

2009-08-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

Art from Deviant Art Check it out

Seriously I can't wait for this move to be done. We move to our new place in 2 days and it's gonna be a brutal moving day. But once it's all over I'll get to set up my work station and then also have a dedicated painting station next to my honey. After all the bonus of this hobby is spending more time with my man.
So my goal for this month is to get all the 'in progress' minis finished up and based. Then Start on my Seraphim squad. First they will all need to take a bath in simple green for at least a day to get all the old paint off and i'll need to snap those ugly eldar wings off of them. I'll try to take a 'before' picture of them so i can do a before and after once i'm finished.
I think I'm going to paint them up white like my newest squad of sisters, At least one squad of them anyways, I have enough for two squad i might paint the other ones blue and black.. I'm not sure yet. I'll have to see how it goes.

Also while packing up my miniatures i finally realized how I learned to paint, I unearthed my dwindling Skaven army. Nothing will teach you how to paint more than painting a 2500 pt Skaven army. (well any large army) Of course i started my skaven army before they came out with plastics. I did paint up a couple of boxes of plastic skaven to round out my army but i really hated them. The metals ones were more fun to paint. I wish i didn't sell all my cool larger models. :( My Rat ogres, Doom Wheels, and Bell all gone. I really had a lot of fun playing my skaven army. I know i fielded it way more than i ever played my Sisters back in the day.

I finally got to play my first 5th edition game and well it wasn't much different than 3rd edition at least from what i remember. We played a small 500pt game Sisters Vs. Chaos and of course the typical 'learning' mistakes happened but it was a lot of fun. I 'won' but i really can't consider it a win since it was my first game in ages and the beginner is always suppose to win.
But since i've played it has helped me figure out how i want to expand my Inquisitor Retinue and i'm going to have to do some conversions to get what i want. Muahahaha

Ok more later as I have some packing to do for the big day.

Saint Celestine

2009-07-20T16:32:00.001-07:00

Now here is a mini that i had a lot of fun painting and also cussed at quite a bit. After i took pictures of it i have noticed a few areas that i need to touch up but that will have to wait after Jason and I have moved to our new place. We have been packing and going through old boxes this past week and while i was having my go at the book shelf i found an old box full of sisters of battle along with an unfinished old fashion rhino tank that need a nice dip in simple green. I'm debating turning the rhino into some sort of terraine piece or if i should make another immolator out of it.
In the bunch of sisters were two more multi-melta Sobs, along with some flamers, 3 or 4 seraphim of course too many sister superiors. The awesome find was another old canoness which is an awesome mini and after reading a ton of army lists i've been wanting to add a serephim jump back pack to her.
I've decided i'm going to repaint all of my old seraphim and take all the crappy eldar wings i stuck on them off. I'm so over the whole 'winged' phase of modeling. I think with them i'm really going to work on some fun bases since they are all flying bases right now and i might want to change that.

Ok on to Celestine and the creepy Cherubim holding up her cape.

Chainsaw WIP Rizzzzzzziziziz

2009-07-17T08:22:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty much done painting one of the two priests i have, since my boyfriend got them for me on ebay with a bunch of other figs they happen to be the same one. I'm amazed at how fast painting them is. I don't know if it's just cause they are fun to paint or if they have less details than the sisters i'm use to painting.

i have plans for my next one, I plan on sculpting crazy eyebrows on him because after painting this i decided he neeeeeds eyebrows. I also think i'm going to draw some tattoos on his head as well, it's a perfect canvas. I also tried to show off the dent in the back of his head with out overdoing it. Also on my next one i want to try doing blood on the chainsaw, jason at one point found a tutorial for stringy blood and we just need to find the right glue to do it with. I would really like to have some strings and chunks of bloodly flesh on the chainsaw and his robes/face/beard. but i have to make sure not to overdo it.

Also right now i'm packing up my apartment as we are moving on the 6th so i won't be doing a lot of painting :( unless i start going crazy from packing boxes. I have a sage i still need to take a picture of and celestine to post.

Crusader WIP

2009-07-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

So this Crusader has been giving me a hell of a time. I've repainted his robes about 4 times and i'm finally happy with what i have. But his armor and other fabric folds on his legs and waist are eluding me. I found that his robes were a bitch to pain since it was just having a giant canvas to work on with out any depth. So i free hand painted a Fluer de lis on it. it's not perfect but it's fun.

So i took a pic of him and figured i would let him sit for a few weeks and i would come back to him.
I really want to dunk him in simple green and start over, but i think he just needs some serious clean up and it will be ok.

Flame On!

2009-07-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

Ok here are some more oldies! I finally finished editing the last batch of pictures i took of my army. I'm also thinking about taking a full army photo before i begin my expansion.

I think these are some of my first experience painting white robes.. and wow are they bad! I think painting all my squad with silver metallic paint back then really turned me off to using metallics now. I like metallics but i need to find a way to make them look awesome and not so fake. Although i'm very fond of the heavy flamer paint scheme.

Veiled Squad 1999

And of course you can see that all of my sisters are punk rock with their hair colors.

Now because i wanted them to be girly i gave them real veils. Hot plasma really mixes with nylon quite well. Yes this is the figure that usually holds the sword, I've always hated that sword. So now her pose is quite gangster and she is going to pop a plasma cap in your ass.

This one always cracks me up, a heavy flamer with a veil, seriously funny when you think about it. I'm going spray hot liquid fire all over my foes while i wear a highly flammable garment over my face.

And yes i was crazy enough to take teeny tiny pieces of netting and glue them onto their heads, I would have done the whole squad if i had the time back then. But i have the time now! lol

It's Not 40k but it's made of awesome

2009-07-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

So i know this isn't 40k related but it related to my Significant other who sculpts miniatures for a living. Privateer Press just released one of his awesome sculpts and of course i want to see everything he does succeed i'm going to post it here for your enjoyment. The Extreme Juggernaut it fully poseable down to the fingers and is made of pure awesome. Sculpted by the amazing Jason Hendricks by hand with a lot of love, elbow grease and quite a bit of blood. It's an amazing figure even if you don't play Warmachine.

You can Get your own Here Or you can view more pictures Here
He also sculpted the Extreme Dire Troll Mauler and Extreme Warpwolf

Ok my pimp work is done here. ;)

Painting thoughts

2009-07-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

I've been taking my time painting my minis so far i have a handful of 'almost' completed figures some of them just need tiny touch ups and to be based. I also like to set my minis down for a few days or more just to get a new perspective on them. Usually after a rest i can move past any issues i was having before.

So with this Acolyte for my HQ retinue I decided to try painting purple. i got out a blue based purple and a red based purple. I have to say i'm not a fan of the red based purple it's too much like pink after adding the highlights. Also with the blue purple i think i went a bit harsh with shading and highlighting but after a second look with the pictures it seems to be ok...
He has been removed from the cork base and onto a normal base I still need to figure out what i want to do with his base. I've been trying to get past a basing 'block' 'hate' or what ever you want to call it. I find basing a chore and put it off as long as i can. I'm hoping to find some sort of zen or love of basing but i'm not sure how that will happen.

SoB Blue Squad 1999

2009-07-09T09:26:00.001-07:00

So what do we have here today? Well i went through and photographed most of my old army to share with everyone. So here is my blue squad, so i basically painted all the squads different color themes so i could keep track of them when making army lists and on the playing field. let me tell ya it made it much easier in the long run. some people put little dots, numbers or symbols on the back of their bases.. not me i have to paint the whole damn thing differently. Now that squad sizes have changed well all that color coding pretty much went out the window. I have to mix and match in order to get full squads now. So much for that cunning plan. I barely have enough to fill out each squad anymore.

I pulled out the old 2nd Ed SoB codex the other day and i realized where all my painting inspiration came from. There were a lot of little things that i did that the minis in the codex also had. for example i'm sure most of you will notice the black lining around the inside of the robes while the base color is white.
Also again these were punk rock sisters with their crazy colored hair. I'm debating if i want to start doing this again (If i paint up any more basic troups).

SoB Blue Squad 1999

My first conversion 1999ish

2009-07-08T08:25:00.001-07:00

Way back in the day when i was managing that game store Mordheim was released for the first time. So of course i had to learn how to play it and paint up a warband.
Bertha was my favorite figure and it looked like she would fit right in to my Sob Army.
At the time my Ex played Orks and i was quite adept and kicking his Orky butt on the battle field so like the horrible gf i was i rummaged through his bits box and made a nice base for Bertha to stand on. I also gave her two standard poles with ork heads mounted on the top. I had always meant to give her two crazy banners flowing off those poles but it just never seemed to happen.

My paint job on the orks is quite bad, i'm almost ashamed of it when i look at it. I really just slopped the whole thing together.
Now Bertha i really enjoyed painting. (If anyone has a Bertha figure they want to sell/trade please let me know) I would love another one.
So yeah i chopped off her hammer and gave her a plasma pistol and then on her other arm i gave her a power fist. Seriously i didn't care about if she was playable at the time i just wanted to have a huge figure for the game board to taunt my Ex with.. It worked.. I don't think he ever won a game against me. Hell I don't think he wanted to play me again. LOL I'm sure he was pissed I looted his orks for my conversion. But since I was the store manager and got 30% off GW products and gave him my discount he could suck it.

Oh and I found my original sisters warband I think they are going to take a dip in simple green for a night and get repainted. The figures are so fun i don't think i could pass up painting them agan.

Repentia Mistress Conversion (WIP)

2009-07-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

So since i'm a cheapskate and i'm saving up money for a move next month I'm not spending money on anything extra. I had a few extra sister superiors laying around with no use for them since i don't have enough troops for more squads i decided to convert a superior into a Repentia Mistress.
My boyfriend was kind enough to run with it and Chopped off the sword and the gun and then rolled out some green stuff on floral wire and made up a couple of whips.
1 Mix up your green stuff
2 cut a piece of floral wire longer than what you need for your whips
3 cover your floral wire except for the base leave at least an inch sticking out so you can move your whip around when it's wet.
4 roll your whip between two smooth surfaces so you don't get your grubby finger prints on it (we used 2 pieces of Chip board (super thick) covered in packaging tape) make sure to taper the tip of the whip.
5 Now only handle the exposed wire and move your whips aside or under a heat lamp and let them dry
6 Once dry you can bend your whips into the shape you want, be careful not to break them.
Voila

He also made some hand guards out of an =I= icon we had laying around.

So yeah she isn't too pretty right now, i had started to paint her up before the conversion started but I think she is ready to go again. I'm not sure when i'll get to paint her but i'll post her when she is done.

Inquisition

2009-07-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Now we move on to the Inquisition, so far i have two models painted up for my either HQ or Elite choice. I'm not real fond of the male inquisitor models so i might just use this one as a proxy for a Lord. Although Mr. Crazy Inquisitor lord Karamozov in his throne is looking tempting. I can't justify spending $50 on a model though. Maybe if i stumble on a cheap one on ebay or something.

Anyways here is my Inquisitor She was my first attempt at painting red robes i discovered it's actually pretty easy to get the look i want but it just takes time.
I was quit annoyed with painting the face on this model, i swear they didn't sculpt her any eyes so i painted some on her. I was pulling my hair out on this one. Then i painted the Hospitaler who looks like she has been punched in the eyes, well at least i gave them both eyebrows.

Anyways i'm currently working on the rest of the retinue right now. I have an acolyte almost done and the crusader almost done. I will then work on a few preachers and servo skulls that I plan on customizing a bit. I can't stand those huge stands they have them on. I'm gonna clip them off of them and put them on some wire or clear tubing depending on how strong it is. Maybe get some purity seals added or something like that. After this post i need to take more pictures of what i have painted including my old army to help fill out this journal untill i finish painting new models.

Here is the Hospitaler and i feel i was a bit heavy handed with shading and highlighting the robes. I'm going to try to even it out in the future. As you can see i tried to match the armor i did for the inquisitor since i had such a blast painting it.

Canoness

2009-07-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Next is my Canoness, since i am revamping my old army i needed a new canoness and i actually like the model for it. She was actually a lot of fun to paint and i'm pretty happy with how she came out.
I got to experiment with Non-metal Metallics which i'm not sure worked or not but I'm happy i didn't have to paint with metallic paint. After looking over my old models i've been trying to avoid the use or over use of metallic paint. Although i think i'm going to experiement with shading and highlighting metallics and see if i can reach Zen with them again.
Back to the Canoness, it turns out i painted the flames backwards and they should be white at the base and black at the top. Ooops, next time i'll fix that. (I also did it on my inqusitor so don't be surprised when you see it again)
But i did get to play with the flame coloring on her hair and cloak. Hell i don't even know what that technique is called in the painting world. Realisim?
I found her armor to be over crowed with junk everything was squeezed into such a tight area it was quite hard to see what was going on.
I would list all the paints used on this one but i honestly can't remember all of them since there was a lot.
Also this was my first attempt at painting white robes and they didn't quite turn out how i expected i found the white to be quite difficult to blend and i ended up blending my colors right on the miniature to get the effect i wanted.

Retributor Squad

2009-06-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

Now this squad was painted 9+ years ago so don't judge me! Back in the day all of my SoB were punk rock sisters and had make up and funky hair colors. I love the color scheme on it and I'm planning on adding a few more sisters to the squad. My paint job is quite poor on these and I'm fighting back the urge to repaint them all. But as it is i have too much on my painting desk right now to even consider it.

Celestian Squad

2009-06-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have quite a bit of catching up to do as far as posting pictures in this blog.
Since the last time i played was third edition it seems like a lot of things have changed in the game since then. I figured a squad of my sisters needed a change as well. This squad was given to me by one of my store customers already painted. I was never fold of the paint job i just never had the time to repaint them. So the other week they were soaked in simple green for a night and the paint got scrubbed off of them. Those fabulous white Immolator tanks in my last post have inspired the color scheme for this squad. White and Red.... What was i thinking? Basically It was like painting storm troopers (star wars) with red robes.
I painted them all assembly line style which is really the way to go when painting a squad although i think I left too much for step four and step five since they seemed to blend together.

Step One: Prime/Drill out the gun barrels
Step Two: Red Robes /Wash/ Highlights
Step Three: White Armor/Blue-Grey Wash/Black Wash in the cracks/ White
Step Four: Guns/Shoulder Pads/Pouches/Fiddly bits/Faces/Hair
Step Five: Clean up the white again adding black when needed.
Step Six: Paint all the Back Packs
Step Seven: Base

Brushes used:
Round 0, Round 3/0, Round 5/0, Round 12/0, Round 20/0

Paints Used:
Vallejo:
Flat Red
Ivory
White
Black
Bronze Fleshtone
Skin Wash
Livery Green
Blue Green

GW:
Bleached Bone
Badab Black Wash

Now the Sob with the Melta is missing her back pack i guess i didn't have one for her as well as two other sister superiors i have that aren't included in this lot. I'll get a new back pack some day for them.

Intro Post

2009-06-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my new blog. I've started this blog to keep track of my Witch Hunters army. But let me back up a bit. How did i get started with this hobby? Well about 10 years ago i use to manage an awesome game shop in Seattle. We had a whole floor dedicated to Warhammer 40k & Fantasy, unlike most stores now we carried the full line of Games Workshop Miniatures. Like all of my employees as a manager i was required to learn Fantasy and 40k at the time GW was just switching over from 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition and for our little store it was a big deal. But anyways as a girl i really didn't like any of the male based armys and i'm not really into space elves at that point i had seen way to many power gamers. So naturally i decided on a SoB army. If you are wondering for Fantasy i had a killer Skaven army, unfortuanatly a few years back when I hit rough times I sold most of my big pieces including my white rat ogre named "Fluffy". *sniff* But at least i got to pay bills and eat for that month, so it was worth it I suppose.
So after my store hit rough times in 2001 and closed down my Sob army was packed away and not seen again until this year. I finally have a group of friends who actually want to play, my boyfriend Jason has finally put together an army after 20 years of collecting different GW miniatures simply because he loves the modeling aspect of the hobby. I also have time to enjoy the hobby part of this game now, i'm no longer rushed to put together an army for my job and can actually enjoy painting my miniatures instead of slopping on some paint and calling it good.
Even after not painting a miniature for 8 years my skills as a painter have increased quit a bit. i'm not sure if it's due to patience or just the amount of tutorials and information for painters that is available now.
So now that this intro is out of the way lets have some pictures right? Ok so these tanks were not painted by me they were painted by my good friend Alfonzo at the time he had a kick ass IG army and made amazing terrain, some of which i still have. Well tanks were never my thing so i bought a couple boxes of Immolators and handed them off to him to assemble and paint for me.
I absolutely love these tanks and they are the inspiration for my army. So you are sure to see more white & red Sob models.

Immolator 1:

Immolator 2:

Daughters of the Emperor

Flower Knight Base WIP-2

Flower Knight Base WIP

Flower Knight WIP 2 & Sneak Peek!

Flower Knight - WIP

X'Stacy - Finished

X'Stacy - WIP?

Not all Sable is equal : paint brush review

Inspiration Pictures for Dioramas

Perfect Spot for a Picnic

Steampunk Jen - WIP

Steampunk Dorothy - WIP

Suicide Queen and Rollo

What big teeth you have grandma....

I call him Zorak

WIP - Baby Dragon from Super Dungeon Explore

Soda Pop - Sebastian Cross and Rook

WIP - TwilightKnight Pinup

Game over man! - Leona Lobo

WIP - Leona

Summon - Kingdom Death Pinup Preacher

SDE - Elf Ranger

Wait.. What? $50 Seriously????

WIP Pinup Preacher

I swear I've been working on something!

Kingdom Death - Grand Mother

WIP 2 - Grand Mother

New Dark Young

WIP - Grand Mother

kingdom Death - Pinup Forsaker

Sneak Peek - WIPS

Ayu Beat - Starchild

long time no update

Calico Kate

Menoth Jack

Riding Wolves

WarpWolf Extreme - WIP

Tank Finished.... I think..

BOLS smack down / Nerd Rage

Jason's Sculpt

WIP Tank

Tanks Ahoy!

Army Pic

BOLS Tyranid Challenge

WIP PE

PE continued

PE work has started

Exorcist Follies

SoB Blue Squad 2009

*Tutorial* Non-Metal Metallic Armor

*Tutorial* How I paint Sisters part 1

I'm not dead yet!

Seraphim Squad Done?

Why my Boyfriend needs a blog .. part 2

Primed and ready to Rock! \m/

Why my boyfriend needs a blog .. part 1

Seraphim Bases WIP

Old Skaven

Lost n Found & the Dip!

Can't we just get "Beyond Thunderdome"?

Saint Celestine

Chainsaw WIP *Rizzzzzzziziziz*

Crusader WIP

Flame On!

It's Not 40k but it's made of awesome

Painting thoughts

SoB Blue Squad 1999

My first conversion 1999ish

Repentia Mistress Conversion (WIP)

Inquisition

Canoness

Retributor Squad

Celestian Squad

Intro Post

Tutorial Non-Metal Metallic Armor

Tutorial How I paint Sisters part 1

Chainsaw WIP Rizzzzzzziziziz