Finished commission: Lord and Lady Volker (Inquisitor Hector Rex and his retinue, Survivor)

Finished the latest commission.  Lord and Lady Volker! Based on the Lord Inquisitor Hector Rex, his Retinue, and a Survivor from Kingdom Death.  This was a labor of love, as the client had a very specific idea for the project.  He's very happy, and I had a lot of fun doing it.  I added the 'scenic base' at the end so he would have a little display.  It's a group that's very important to him, and I wanted them to stand out.  Bases from Dragon Forge Design, of course.

Workbench update!! In-progress pile is a little much....

A quick WIP of the desk today. While finishing two more Space Wolf Dreadnaughts I got inspired to try to get as much of the basecoating done for the rest of the Space Wolf commission as well as a fun little project for a friend of mine.

Almost finished: 

- Space Wolf Ironclad Dreadnaught and Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnaught. 

- Ujahu, from Enigma Miniatures, for my Daemonic Menagerie 

WIP:

- 5 Skitarii Ruststalkers and 5 Skitarii Infiltrators (my army, Skitarii Ludi)

- Diabolist for my 30k Word Bearers Legion

- 5 Axes of Carn Maen from Mierce Miniatures, also for my Daemonic Menagerie

- White Scar Land Speeder Storm (gift for a friend)

- 4 Thunderwolf Cavalry

- 6 Space Wolf Bikes

- Space Wolf Attack Bike

The good news is I'm excited about each one of these projects!! Hopefully I'll finish up the airbrushing tomorrow and make some good progress.

I'm waiting for a Word Bearers transfer sheet from Forgeworld so when that arrives I'll finish the Dibolist and Ujahu. I also have a few more creepy minis on the way to join the Menagerie. 

After finally getting some paint on my Skitarii, I'm eager to get going with painting the rest!!! I'm going to try to keep it simple, as I don't want to get bogged down on my own gaming army, but the models are awesome and I love how my color scheme is coming along so far! 

Also in the wings, but not pictured, is a small 5 miniature project that I'm really excited to start. I'll have to squeeze it in between everything else, but it'll be worth it as it's an amazing project for a great client.

Just have to keep painting!!!

S'erum from Rackham Confrontation

What a fantastic miniature to work with! This project started from the bottom up, literally.  I bought Painting Buddha's 'Basing Alchemy - Earth' DVD because I wanted to start doing more of these kind of projects in between commissions.  I haven't done scenic bases before, so it was a huge learning experience.  There are, of course, many things I can improve on for the next base; but as it is I'm very happy with it.  After I built and painted the base, I needed a miniature for it! Digging through my boxes of shame I came upon S'erum from Rackham's Confrontation line of miniatures.  I'm proud to say that I have many of their miniatures waiting for my brush, some of which are already prepped and ready to go!

I really wanted to experiment with new techniques and materials.  I keep trying to push my understanding of color theory and contrast, but each time I feel like I come up short.  I look at it and think it needs more contrast, more definition, etc. etc.  Such is our pursuit.  I also have to point out that I painted S'erum over maybe 10-20 hours.  I don't have the will or the patience to spend hundreds of hours on a single mini; so I'm very happy with the results for the time I spent painting.

One of the new materials I used is an artists' acrylic from Golden.  I used Titanium White for Ben Komet's "Loaded Brush Blending" technique.  It's life changing.  Really.  I tried using Vallejo/GW/Scale75 white for the technique but it never worked.  They're all too thin! The travel up the belly of the brush! The artists' acrylic is very very thick, and thus sits on the tip of the brush and acts as a barrier for the rest of the paint!!! I nearly fell out of my chair.  I won't use it when just painting armies and such, of course, as it's incredibly delicate and time consuming, but I can't wait to practice more on future one-off projects such as S'erum.

Also, the new Scale75 Metal 'N Alchemy - Copper series of paints is beyond amazing.  I wish I had done more with the howdah, but that's life.  The gun, however, turned out better than I could have imagined.  It looks exactly like the polished copper you find with cookware and jewelry.  I have another fun project on deck that will make great use of the copper, so that's exciting!

These one off projects really help to cleanse the palette (forgive the pun) after doing a bunch of commission work.  When I have a longer break I'll start painting my own armies: Skitarii/AdMech/Knights for 40k (about 4,000 points worth), and soon a return to 30k with Word Bearers accompanied by a Daemonic Menagerie (which will be insanely fun to collect and paint).

On to the photos!

Space Wolf Armor rolls off the assembly line!

At last, some photos of finished work! Woo!!! Just finished up 3 tanks for my client/friend and managed to get photos this time.  Grateful that I enjoy painting Space Wolves as much as I do and grateful that I'm getting so much practice with my airbrush!  It's a good thing I like painting the Sons of Russ as much as I do, because he keeps buying stuff! A pitfall of the hobby, to be sure.  This batch was 3 tanks - a Rhino/Razorback, a Predator and a Land Raider Crusader; all magnetized/module for maximum flexibility.  I think they turned out really really well and I'm looking forward to finishing the next batch of Wolves.  On the table right now are 10 Skyclaws that just need basing.  After that it's a couple dreadnaughts, some bikes and (of course) some Thunderwolf Cav.

As always, more photos after the jump!