Borka!

Title says it all. In a post prior to Templecon I was said I was trying to get the Rob Hawkins Borka conversion finished prior to leaving for Rhode Island. While I never got a chance to play him (see Templcon recap post) I am happy to say I was able to finish the big guy prior to making the trip. Here are the WiPs of the Kegslayer from the days leading up to Templecon:

Primed with black Vallejo Surface primer via the airbrush

Blocked in the base colors via the airbrush. Skin is my trollblood blue mix, fur is P3 trollblood highlight, leather is P3 bootstrap leather

I decided to try something new on Borka and paint the fur with a snow leopard pattern. I was a little worried going into this but followed the tutorial from a NQ GnG. When I went to bed after finishing the fur I wasn't too happy with it but upon second examination in the am I was very happy with the result and that I took the chance.

I also did the snow leopard pattern on the fur coming out of the gloves.

After cleaning up the base colors I washed the skin on Borka and pGrissel with my standard skin/metal wash

Different angle of above photo

Skin highlights. Also washed the leather sections and basecoated the metals.

Since I was working on my new Borka I took this time to touch up my old keg carrier. I reworked the keg and his skin.

Painted the tartan in Cygnar blues. I attempted to paint the tartan pattern from the trollblood forces book but didn't have time to get it right so just repainted it blue for now.

Detail work

Picked out the runes on the skirt with P3 hammerfall khaki

DONE! I have to say I am very happy with how he came out and in only 2 days. The matte varnish I used, after this photo, knocked down the highlights a little more than I would have liked so I may go back over him with satin varnish to see if I can bring some of the highlights back.

While she didn't get finished 100% pGrissel was very close and did get used three time at Templecon. I need to finish the red scarf and light brown tartan and she will be done too

Templecon Paint Push (Borka Begins!)

What would it be if I didn't have a paint project I was trying to finish the days before Templecon? I really didn't have anything going so I decided I would try and finish a mini I had started months ago and paint one that was still unprimed. Those that are new my not have seen this unboxing but back in July (sad it took this long) I got a great box from Rob Hawkins. The crown jewel of that package was the sexy sexy Borka conversion. I have been putting of painting him cause I wanted him to be "perfect" but the more I thought about it I am doing this beautiful model a major disservice leaving it unpainted and that a quality paint job, even if not perfect, is far better than leaving him "naked". I have wanted to play Borka a bunch at Templecon this year so no better time than the present.....right?

 Borka with some of the "family"......anyone need a refill?

All primed and ready for paint

 

While not nearly as sexy as the Borka I all had a subtle Grissel1 conversion in that box from Rob as well. I have heard over and over that she is amazing to play and a local play Lord Sorrow aka Tim has been playing her a lot lately and singing (no pun intended) her praise. I had started her a few months back but finally put some more paint to mini. I did the yellow metal trims last evening before work. I need to clean up a few spots but then a wash of the skin and metal will pull the mini together pretty fast. Here she is as currently stands:

 



 

Well I have two more nights of work then Monday and Tuesday off before we hit the road for Rhode Island. Will I be able to get Borka done in time? Will Grissel be signing the blues? If you're heading to Templecon hit me up in the iron arena for a game and see for yourself and feel free to talk some



$%@# if they aren't ;) Most of y'all don't know me so I'll be the big guy with the goatee wearing a Team Spite shirt or just ask a Team Spite player to point out Nog. Hope to see some of y'all at Templecon and maybe I can make a Templecon deadline for a change.

A Tale of Two Grissels

In one of my last posts I showed some WiPs of Grissel1 in her early stages. I haven't had much painting time lately as I picked up a bunch of hours at my other job last week to cover some holes (stinks working on weeks off but extra hobby money is nice). After starting Grissel1 I decided I should try and paint Grissel2 at the same time to keep them as uniform as possible. Once I made this decision Grissel2 went into the stripping solution (using Purple Power currently) and the wait began. I have to say this may have been the best strip job I have seen as nearly all the paint came off perfectly. After that she was primed via the air brush and base colors were painted both with the airbrush and with standard brush. Here is their current status:

 

The metal was airbrush on and was painted with VMA gun paint. The red were airbrushed with VMA mahogany (you can see the overspray on the metal). Skin was painted with my trollblood base color, tartan with Froundry drab, red was paiunted with VMC burnt cad red leaving some mahogany in the cracks.

I drybrushed the heads of Resounder with my typical trollkin stone set up: P3 thornwood green, P3 bastion grey, P3 trollblood highlight, P3 Menoth white highlight. I will need to paint in the metal sections still but they look ready to roll.

 

Here are the girls next to each other. Man does Grissel1 need a resculpt. I am toying with changing the skirt section on Grissel1 to red like on Grissel2 but I don't know. Thoughts?

pGrissel WiPs

I got started working on most of the minis from the latest what's in the box series. I primed everything (except Borka) via the airbrush. Once the primer had time to cure a little I basecoated the blue skin on Grissel, the bomber, the scattergunners, and keg carrier with my standard troll blue via the airbrush. The storm troll got basecoated with my standard elemental troll skintone. I then roughly blocked in some of the leather sections via the airbrush on the minis. That was all done two days ago. This morning I did some extra work on the queen of jams pGrissel. This is Ms. Grissel in here current state:

 

After the skin and leather skirt were airbrushed I painted her scarf with VMC burnt cad red, the tartan with foundry drab, the boots with P3 battlefield brown, and blacked out the metals in preparation for metallic paints. There is obviously a lot to do still but she is coming together pretty nicely. I think I am going to try and add details to the tartan on her seeing as it is a large portion of this mini...we will see. My work week starts tonight and one of my regulars is off this week so could be a long one. Fingers crossed it will be ok and I will have some more photos for you. This latest barch of minis had me excited to paint so gotta ride that wave ;)

Oh Buddy! What's in the Box Part VI (I think)

I was up until well past 4am last night with a coughing child so I took a little nap this afternoon. When I woke up my wife brought me a package I received while sleeping.....oh happy days. Those of you that follow along can probably guess whom sent this pack but for those newer to the cave it was from Mr. Rob Hawkins. OK you don't care what I have to say lets get to the shinnies!

 Pretty straight forward....unit of scattergunners cause eGrim demanded it dammit :)

Storm Troll. One of  the last light I didn't own 

 

Bomber #2 cause what's better than two boostable 4" AOEs? Four of them. Once again at the request of eGrim and Gunnbjorn. You can see more angles and info on this conversion here: http://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.com/2013/07/bomber-conversion.html

Here is a little pGrissel conversion. pGrissel was the last of the trollblood 'locks I didn't own and mainly because I don't like the sculpt. Well I figured it was time to pick her up and rob did minimal cosmetic work on here since it is a tough model to convert without major work. He swapped out the much nicer hammerhead/end cap from eGrissel in exchange for the original (they are the same hammer they should look the same now?) This brings us to the best part of the post.......

What can you say but badass! You can see step by steps from Rob here: http://robhawkinshobby.blogspot.com/2013/06/building-better-borka.html the only thing that has changed from Rob's blog post can be seen in the final picture above. Rob sculpted some fur coming out of the gauntlets to match the artwork even more closely. I am so thrilled with this mini I cannot truly put it in works. I cannot wait for the plastic champ kit in September so I can properly fill out my family reunion list.

 One big happy family of troll beat down heading your way!

 

When I took that final photos I realized how much it looks like the cover of Forces of Hordes: Trollbloods. I may have to re-stage this photo when everything is painted up nice and pretty. OK I have to run I think I have a date with my priming stations :)