On a Roll

I woke up early again this am which is not atypical the first few days of my week off. What is atypical is that my work station was free for me to use. Well this am I was able to once again spend a little time on pMadrak. I washed the metals, glazed the yellow metals, washed the 2 different leather, attached him to the base, and put down a layer for varnish. I still need to go back and work the skin, highlight the leathers, decide what color to do Rathrok's grip, paint the gem, and work on the tartan but he is in a good place for the time being.

I have to get packed up as I am heading down to the FLGS in a half hour to get a few early games in. I will be playing a few games against Cash aka The Professional so I expect to see some sort of eHaley, eCaine, eStryker nastiness. I will be bringing my Cally tier list to try out and an alt eMaddy list I have been toying with. I will try and take a few pics and put them up later tonight or maybe tomorrow. I intend to play all games on a timer for the foreseeable future so we should be able to get a bunch of games in before I have to come back home.

Early AM Progress

This am I woke up a little before 4am. This isn't all that uncommon the day after my work weeks ends so now I just try to be productive during that time period while the house is quiet. This am I sat down with my iPod and Madrak. While listening to a podcast I put an hour into Maddy and an hour into assembly before one of the boys woke up.

So much for painting Maddy the "proper" way and working inside out. I layed down all my white metal. Then I went back and put in the gold metal highlights. I actually use VMC brass for all my "gold" sections. I also painted some of the scroll canisters with VMC bronze. These metals are all set for my metal wash....the only issue is I ran out so I need to find a quality substitute. I also layed down the base color of his tartan as that color was in the room with me as I was painting. This all took me ~55min. Next up will be wash the metals, basecoat the leather sections, and then work on the skin. I hope to get a little time later today but have stuff I need to get done around the house so prognosis is doubtful. I don't want to jinx myself but I am making good progress to have this months PtT to Gday before the last night, like usual.

The rest of my am was spent finishing the assembly on my Kriel Warriors for the Calandra/eGrissel theme list. I need to break out the liquid green and regular green stuff to fill some gaps but they can start hitting the table (hopefully tomorrow). At this point and time it is more likely it will be Calandra that get played seeing as I have not assembled the Long Riders and Mrs. Bloodsong hasn't received any attention either. The first picture shows the warriors minus one caber (he was already assembled/primed). The second picture is my warriors and whelps who will be hit with primer in the not to distant future. If you look in the backgrounds you can see Maddy and the 4 colors I used on him this am.

Random Miniature Monday

This week for random miniature Monday I am posting my Dire Troll Mauler Extreme. This mini was sent off for assembly and subsequent conversion. My original intention was for the mini to me stock but to my surprise it was converted. The conversion was done by retired Brushthrall Dan "Young Wolf 7" Smith. His project log can be found here. Dan did a bunch of assembly work for me for a bit until he went back to school and stopped picking up work. I was following his wips one day and saw what my DTMX was becoming and was excited and a little scared. Despite the fact that the DTMX is so big I build a large cork base with a slant in it so that the front arm was raise and allowed a little easier game play (little is the key word). I painted this guy up about two years ago as (if you have been following RMM you are going to be shocked) part of PG_Blklotus' escalation league.

I have been tempted to go back and bring the highlights up a bit more but seeing as I have so much more to get done first that will be a long way off if it ever happens.

I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open so I don't for see much painting going on today unless I have issues sleeping tonight and work in the wee hours. C+C always welcome and hope to have some good wip pics later in the week.

Calandra Done...?

I was able to sneak about 45min of painting in yesterday and worked on Cally's skin a little. This morning I was able to sneak another ~30-40 min on my girl and made my first real attempt at a gem stone and tied up some loose ends.

I need to do better photos with my backdrop but I wanted to get her out there and maybe get some C+C. This was my first shot at a gem and I am not sure if I like the result or not? I think the highlight might be a little thick and have to be faded in a little more. What do you think? I am also playing with the idea of doing gems on the ends of dagger.....again I am not sure. This is why Calandra is in the done? category.

I was able to get a few more warriors assembled with only 2 more to get my full kriel warrior deathstar (10 warriors, ua, and 3 cabers) for my Calandra/Grissel tier lists (January Vox submission). I have neglected Mr Madrak while working on Calandra and really need to get back to him. Tonight is the last night of the work week so hopefully I can really make some progress on the fearless leader of the kriels.

Goals for this week (so far haven't been the best at hitting theses) are first to paint pMadrak, get the kriels primed/started, prime/start my second set of whelps, and do some work on the Boomhowlers getting them close to done. More importantly I hope to get a few games in this week.....we shall see.

A Little This A Little That

I did a little painting over the last two days but didn't really focus on a single mini. I did the stones around Madrak's neck and Grissel's Hammer, did a little work on Janissa's skin, did some highlighting on Calandra's clothing, and painted up Maddy's base. Calandra received the most work of all the minis. 

Calandra is one of my favorite 'lock in the Trollblood faction. Cally has been in a state of "partially painted" for over a year. She sees a fair amount of table time (for me) I just never got around to finishing her up. I decided to put her on the work table as well. I went in and highlighted the purple cloth, red cloth, and tan tartan. I am still up in the air about putting the pattern in on the tartan. I think I want to do another highlight or two on the skin and clean up some details (such as paint the gem) and she will be done...after the base is finished obviously.

Nothing too exciting here just did my standard rock drybrush routine as described in the Gudrun build a base post. The base is all set for Maddy once he is finished. once he is glued on I will put down some of the "dirt mix" like Gundrun and then it will be truly done.

I made a little progress yesterday on my assembly and got the two cabers cleaned and assembled, the kriel warrior ua cleaned and assembled, 2 warrior grunts done, and the blister of whelps. Five more warriors to go and they will be ready for the airbrush (hopefully this weekend)

Madrak wip

Well after the snafu this am with the Dec PtT I decided to get going on my Jan PtT the alt sculpt pMadrak...I also need him for Templecon (if I go). I blacked out the metal areas and layed down the initial basecoat on his albino skin. I usually don't like doing skin this early in the process but I figured I'd give it a go the "proper way" of painting inside out. I tore up some cork to make his base as well. I cut the back edge of the cork off to give it an upward angle in the attempt of having Maddy appear to be standing on a cliff edge or large rock outcropping.

Random Miniature Monday/Target Missed?

Happy New Years all. Back again for another RMM....and unlike last week it is actually Monday. Today's mini I painted a little before Wrath came out. I was in a Khador kick and I wanted to throw him in with the Iron Fang Pikeman I picked up. Well the Khador stuff never got finished but Ragman did.

I always enjoy painting purple yet don't seem to use it that often. I was happy how he came out. Part of me wants to try and do a glow effect from his eyes but I usually chicken out with doing effects on finished models as I don't want to mess them up. He needs to have a little grass put on the base but I have been putting off grass on all my minis for the time being and plan on doing a large batch at once. I am also looking into picking up some of those pre-made grass tufts to try out.

So I put target missed? in the title 'cause I am apparently an idiot. I check out Lost Hemisphere on a daily basis to see what Gday and the guys have going on. I always look forward to the Paint the Target days as I like to see what Gday does for a caption up on my submission. Today was PtT day and as I was scrolling down I notice my 'swarm and snapper were not there.....what gives? I know I sent him my submission. Sure it was last minute but that hasn't been an issue in the past....hell I even had my time stamp which he likes to comment on. I went to my email account looked at the sent fold and there it was my email....oops never attached the photo (I'm an idiot). Well at least I got some stuff finished. This month the target is to paint a model with a magic ability. Since I need to paint up my alt Madrak and have done nothing on eBloodsong there are two perfect candidates right there. I expect I will be doing Maddy first seeing as I want him for a Templecon list.

I also decided I am going to try and do the painting challenge over at Trollblood Scrum. I will be doing Trolls/Minions (if that is allowed) as if I decide to batch a troll unit I can instead do a single minion model for that weeks submission. I also figure this will be a good way for me to finally paint up them Fennblades while killing 12 weeks worth of submissions.