Painting Contest - a different direction

 Howdy folks,

I hope all is going well...we are in our third wave, so I hope you are all coping well and getting some outdoor exercise time! Earlier this year, my newest LGS, Red Dragon Games, posted on their instagram that they were going to hold a contest for February. In spite of the lock downs and various restrictions, the folks at Red Dragon adapted very well and the contest went off, mostly as planned.

The cost to enter was the purchase of a 3D printed model from their inventory...they have an excellent selection of models for print on demand. For this I elected a very 'simple' looking zombie hand and a warhammery-kriegsy-cyberpunky looking skull. I'm sure its from some fandom and 'verse somewhere, but I have no idea...but it looked really cool.

For the most part, I have steered clear of painting contests...partially due to humility and always knowing there are others who paint better than I...partially due to previous experience (I entered a contest at a convention, unfortunately they put all the figs in a corner away from onlookers...so not really ideal exposure, especially since it was a vote based judgement, and another was online, vote based, and quickly degenerated into spam accounts, flame mails, etc...).

Happy to say though, the end result was a win for my Zombie hand and an honourable mention for the skull, and some great looking figures posted on the store's instagram account. For the painting, it was a lot of fun, definitely a different direction, and painting on a much different scale (pun-intended). And yes, there is another contest on the horizon for June...so yeah, I've got my figures, I just have to get painting.

Enjoy some pics! Take care.

Lead Mountain - 2021

Painted:
large scale        +2 (zombie hand, skull)
 

Bought:           +2

Progress:        even steven

 

 

Let the New Year Begin

 Howdy all,

So, just over four months in and I am ready to acknowledge the new year. Not that anything specifically horrible or terrible was thrust upon me...just another moment of cyber-lulling trying to keep my sanity by limiting my time on the internet and online devices. I have been filling that time with painting and even managed to enter in a painting contest to keep me distracted.

 However, I gotta take my mandatory recorded pause for reflection on 2020 and say...damn! A lot happened and a lot didn't...all at the same time, in terms of painting I think it is one of the years where I purchased less. Instead, making my spending habits much more focused (at least in my head) and acquiring less dirt for lead mountain. I did make some deliberate overspends to support various players in the hobby including a new local gaming store that started ops about 4 months before the first lockdown.

 I'm happy to have been in a position where I could support local and some afar.

 As for overall painting, I think I also made some considerable ground on lead mountain and ended up in the positive for my overall progress (over +200)...so, yeah...pretty pumped about that.

 For the next/this year...

1. Always remember that it could be worse;

2. increase my overall painting - LMAO - although my start has been notably slower having taken my time on figures;

3. Get back to Team Yankee, the Nam, and 15mm in general - this scale constitutes the whole reason I got into the hobby...and is a big part of lead mountain;

4. Possibly try my hand at battle report videos and posting online;

5.  Get some physical games...#4 literally depends on it; and

6. Keep challenging my painting pace and technique - there is another contest on the horizon and I am scoping out entry pieces.

Oh...and maybe changes the drapes around this place and work on a new background for the blog. I hope all is well with you and yours and you continue to be safe.

Take care.

The 11th Post Over Christmas

 Ok...getting tight on this one...here goes,

Holy cow! Posting number 11!

So, for this post over the Christmas period, 

I have pictures for you...

12 Veterans of the Watch and 2 Watch Captains...not exactly 11 but hey...

10 bits of scatter terrain...

9...actually 7...scratch built...

...pieces of terrain.

8 (-ish) step basing tutorial...

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Okay folks,

I think this is my last post of the year...so some more figures from the Night’s Watch starter box. I was able to get half way through the box before distracted with other figures earlier this year. Again, I was really impressed with how the minis looked.

I hope you enjoy the pics...and have a safe and happy New Year!

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

 

Painted:

28mm              102 (+14)

15mm              135

Terrain             17

Bought:            40

Progress:          +214

10th Post Over Christmas...

Ok...getting tight on this one...here goes,

On this tenth post over Christmas,

This post has for you...

10 bits of scatter terrain...

9...actually 7...scratch built...

...pieces of terrain.

8 (-ish) step basing tutorial...

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Hey all,

So for this one, I’ve got some scatter pieces and terrain bits that I hauled out a week or two ago. I bought these on a whim a few years back and was able to whip them up pretty quick. If I remember correctly, I got these from my local gaming store and I think they’re from Wiz Kids.

These will be great for any Frostgrave type setting...looking forward to getting them on the table.

Take care...

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

 

Painted:

28mm              88

15mm              135

Terrain             17 (+10)

Bought:            40

Progress:          +200

The 9th Post Over Christmas...

For my ninth post over Christmas,

I have some pictures for you...

9...actually 7...scratch built...

...pieces of terrain.

8 (-ish) step basing tutorial...

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

Evening all,

I just finished up some scratchbuilt terrain that I started putting together early in the isolation. In fact, it was originally my intent to have this ready for CanGames in May...and when I say I just finished, I literally clear coated the last piece yesterday. 

So my main idea behind these pieces was to have some 28mm-ish terrain ready so that I could try my hand at some Zona Alfa, nice Chernobyl inspired setting...as well as something that would work for Fallout Wasteland Warfare. To be honest, looking at the results I think it’s more Fallout inspired and ZA workable. Regardless, it was good to have some terrain that could work, and felt nice getting back to terrain building. When I first started in this hobby, I was really inspired by other folks and I ended up building quite a bit of 15mm city terrain...enough for a 4x4 Stalingrad table.

Anyway, the parts for this was anything that was laying around my work bench, some Starbucks cup sleeves, popsicle sticks, and used spruces.

I hope you enjoy the pics.

I even made a door!!

A couple of Crisis Protocol figures for scale...

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

 

Painted:

28mm              88 (+7)

15mm              135

Terrain             7 (+7)

Bought:            40

Progress:          +190

The 8th Post Over Christmas...

For my eighth post over Christmas,

I thought I would write up for you...

An 8 (-ish) step tutorial...

...for basing the figures you do...

 

7 Harry Potter figures...

6 Marvel Characters (heroes and/or villains)...

FIVE MAIN CHARACTERS...<cough...from the Night’s Watch starter set>

4 ranger trackers;

3 assorted miniatures ;

2 figures from Studio Miniatures; and

1 from HassleFree.

 

 

Hello folks,

 

For anyone that has followed religiously, you may recall that late summer I finally got around to basing my Canadian grunts and Soviet rifles for Team Yankee. Given that this is a special project for me I really wanted to take my time on this and make sure next steps, painting, etc were deliberate and achieved my goal.

Canuck Infantry

Soviet Motor Rifles

 

From this work though, and to be honest, because I needed something that roughly fit into the 8th day slot, I thought I would write up a quick tutorial and guide showing my colour progression for my bases including flocking.

 

As always, I hope all you enjoy the post and that all is well...happy New Year to you, may 2021 be a good one for you all...we'll see how close I can get to #12 by the time the ball drops!!

The end results first...

 

1. Battlefront has been recessing their bases for some time now. It takes away the worry over evening out the surface or need for filler, you can get away with a technical paint from Citadel or just glue and sand. In this pic, I started with sand and then went over with some Citadel Stirland Battlemire and then I  quickly laid down some Vallejo burnt umber.

2. After going over the bases with another wet layer of burnt umber, I then added a wet-dry layer of VJ flat earth...I’ve left one base to show the differences in the colours.

3. Next step was to hit the bases with a dry brush of VJ beige brown...I may have gone over a couple of select spots to emphasize the tone...

4. After the beige, I then put a dry layer of VJ tan earth, reducing the amount of coverage from before and certainly from the flat earth layer...

5 & 6. At this point I want to make my last highlight a very sparingly-applied layer of VJ Iraqi sand...which I then follow up with Army Painters strong tone wash...I don’t apply the wash everywhere! Only in those spots where I want to reinforce tones or a feature, but not over the entire base.

7. At this stage you can paint on any other effects you may have, for example...if you have some urban debris, then you could paint up highlights or touch up details. I did this for my Sov’s with random ‘grey’ toned building debris, etc.

8. Finally, you can get any flock down that you’d like...