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!

Imperial Knight Quartet Finished. What a blast!

Recently finished a very fun project: 4 Imperial Knights! All four were built using the new Imperial Knight Warden kit, though only two of the four are magnetized. The Knight Crusader and Knight Warden (rusty wasteland bases) are static, as they are for my personal army. The Knight on the snow base and the knight on the grey sandy base are for clients and are fully magnetized. I knew I would enjoy painting these beasts, though I had no idea just how much I would love this project. It is truly one of those moments where the experience outstripped expectations. Hope you like the end result!

SQUATS!

What a trip down memory lane.  I thoroughly enjoyed painting this little warband of Squats.  The client put together this group to use in a house-ruled Necromunda style game and thus wanted a post-apocalyptic feel to them.  I wanted to keep the palette to mainly earth tones but also wanted to make sure they weren't totally washed out like a lot of post-apoc stuff.  The Bounty Hunter is from Necromunda, which to this day remains one of my favorite games to play (along with Gorkamorka! and Epic).  Painting miniatures like these really take me back to my childhood and to the origins of my hobby, which is a wonderful experience.  Hopefully someone has some Necromunda gangs lying around that they want painted!? (must..not...check..eBay...must resist!).  I really like how they turned out, and that they look like a cohesive gang while maintaining a certain individuality.

More pictures after the jump!

Blood Angels Commission Completed. Tactical Squad and Razorback

Finished a quick Tactical Squad and Razorback commission.  Also have Captain Karlean finished, just need to take some pictures of him! The new Blood Angels Tactical Squad set is a really nice kit; tons of detail! I just did a quick re-paint of the Razorback without stripping the old paint, which isn't ideal but I think it turned out pretty well in the end!  Just realized I forgot to do the headlights though, but it's a good thing the client is a friend of mine and so I'll be able to get it back for the finishing touch.

I'm working on a Squat warband for an INQ28 style game right now, which is a lot of fun.  I really enjoy painting the models of my youth.  After that, it's an Imperial Knight Extravaganza! I have 4 Knights to paint, and they'll be my first ones, so my excitement can barely be contained.  As always, more pictures after the jump!

Finished Commission - New batch of the Sons of Russ!

Latest commission completed: more Sons of Russ! I'm having a blast painting all these Space Wolves, which is good because there are more coming down the chute! This is one of the things that really attracted me to commission painting in the first place: I wouldn't build and paint a Space Wolves army myself, but this has given me the opportunity to paint what is quickly becoming a sizable force.  The top dog (pun intended) in this batch was Logan Grimnar on Stormrider.  This model gets a ton of grief online, but I really enjoyed painting it! I mounted it on a Runic Mountain base by Secret Weapon Miniatures, as I wanted him to stand out a bit more than he already did.  It was a challenge to shave and mount all three elements of Stormrider so that they worked together, but I think it paid off in the end.  Without further ado, the pictures:

Full gallery after the jump

Salamanders Firedrakes Terminators - painted for eBay

In an effort to do some advertising of sorts, I picked up some Salamanders Firedrakes Terminators and painted them up for an eBay auction.  When they were released I knew I wanted to paint them up but as I wouldn't be playing Salamanders I had little impetus to purchase them and paint them.  Since I've shifted to doing commissions, I can justify painting almost anything!

I had a great time painting them, though there were some challenges.  The green mid-tone went on very glossy for some reason, and was only toned down with the use of Tamiya matte sealer (amazing stuff).  I also had some trouble getting good pictures of them, as I prefer the black background to the white.  The black background was just too dark; and while I'm not 100% happy with the white, they look pretty good.

Products used:
Paints: Badger Minitaire, Vallejo Model Air, GW, P3, Game Color, Secret Weapon Miniatures Washes
Airbrush/Brushes: Badger Patriot, Badger Sotar 20/20, GW Brushes
Bases: Secret Weapon Miniatures
Pigments: Secret Weapon Miniatures

Finished Comission - Blood Angels Land Raider

Had a lot of fun painting this model.  It's nice to paint such an iconic tank in such a vibrant color scheme.  The client wanted it to be close to the Codex Astartes color scheme, though I wanted to break up the red so I painted the gun housings a bright yellow.  I think it turned out really well! Really pleased with how rich Badger Minitaire's Angelic Blood is.

Finished Space Wolves Commission

Really enjoyed this project! I've never actually painted Space Wolves before, so it was a great opportunity to paint the puppies! This project presented a particular challenge in that the client already had a sizable army that had been painted by another studio and as such I had to match the color scheme as closely as possible.  I enjoy a challenge though, so I was happy to do it!

It was also a great opportunity to use Secret Weapon Miniatures' Instant Scenery Kit: Winter.  I haven't played around with snow basing very much, but Secret Weapon has a great snow basing tutorial on their website here, I highly recommend checking it out if you're going to do snow bases.

The Long Fangs are painted to a High Tabletop Standard while the Fenrisian Wolves are painted to a Tabletop Standard.  Without further ado...

My Personal Horus Heresy Death Guard Army - 10,000 points (TONS of photos)

I'm doing this post to show off my Horus Heresy Death Guard Legion army that I collected and painted over the past year or so.  I love the Death Guard fluff pre-heresy and jumped at the chance to realize my vision of a true foot-slogging, grinding, attritional but elite infantry detachment that had been in theatre for a while; with all their accompanying mud and dirt and grime that comes with sustained combat operations.

From a professional standpoint, this post will serve to illustrate the extent to which weathering techniques can be used and how I am able to execute a cohesive theme across such a large force.  I'm in the process of selling the army to contribute to the family's savings and also re-invest in my commission business (lamp, paints, etc.).  While I'm sad to see it go, my wife has given me carte blanche to rebuild this army and others in the future (that alone is worth the sale!).

Other than re-building this army, I have plans for a Word Bearers heavy assault themed force, A Dark Mechanicum army with accompanying Knights and Titans, as well as expanding my Solar Auxilia to include the yet-to-be-released Imperial Militia army list (Book 5), Knights, and Titans.  I'll also probably do a loyalist legion down the road, maybe Space Wolves or Raven Guard or something.  I just love the Horus Heresy and am looking forward to modeling themed forces for the foreseeable future.

All bases by Dragon Forge Designs.

Enjoy the pictures!