66 - TOEMP Challenge #5 Finally Finished!

5 days past the deadline, 3 days past when I wanted to finish them by, but here they are - my Vampire Counts Skeleton Warriors command group. Almost zero highlighting done on them, but overall, I'm glad I took my time with them. Usually, I consider painting skellie models kind of a mindless activity - you know, just basecoat in White or Ivory depending on the look you're after, then wash in Devlan Mud or Badab Black and, voila!, you're done. But these 3 command group fellas (or at least the Champion and the Standard Bearer - the musician was kind of simple) had plenty of fun fiddly bits to fuss over.

All 3 Skeletons are, again, a mixture of Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. The Musician, for instance, is basically a Tomb Kings Skeleton with a Vampire Counts shield; the Champion is a Vampire Counts torso, head, and swordarm on Tomb Kings legs; and the Standard Bearer is essentially a Vampire Counts Skeleton holding a Tomb Kings standard pole with a Vampire Counts banner affixed to it. Even though the primary reason for all this mixing and matching is one of necessity, I'm actually digging it. It gives the models a bit of a different look compared to if I had just used all Vampire Counts parts.

By the way - the piles of skulls and tombstones in the background are actually extremely cheap yet nicely detailed and pre-painted bits I found at my local Michael's craft store. They were selling them for Halloween dioramas, and they were exceptionally cheap - about $1.99 each for a pack of 6 skulls and 6 tombstones. They're also just the right size - well, the skulls are a bit big, but not strangely so. I also changed the background color for these pics, swapping out the powder blue for a light purple. Overall, these 2 minor changes to my usual light box set-up added nicely to the models, I think.

Okay, so TOEMP points wise, here's the rundown:

7 Foot Sloggers = 7 points (even though my previous rank and file Vampire Counts posting had 7 skellies, only 4 of them were newly painted)
Missing Deadline = -3 points

I wonder if the Standard counts as an Icon/ Symbol or Mark? Well, either way, it wouldn't really change my tally all that much. Grand total? 4 frikkin' points! Whoohoo! I'm livin' the high life now, baby!

Well, my GRE test is this Saturday, and after it's over and done with, I think I'll have time over the remainder of the weekend to start in on my TOEMP Challenge #6 committment. I'm going to paint up an Imperial Guard Company Squad, I think, composed of a Company Commander converted from the Baneblade Tank Commander, a Company Standard Bearer, a Vox-Caster, a Medic, and I really would like to put together a Meltagunner and a heavily converted Bodyguard, but I'll have to see if I have the parts and the inspiration and the time laying around somewhere this weekend.

Click here for more pics.

Leia Mais…

65 - TOEMP Challenge #5 Almost Completed

Since I've discovered that blogging does help me stay motivated, hobby-wise, I figured I might as well throw up a post showing how far I've gotten with TOEMP's Challenge #5. The main option for the fifth challenge was to paint up a heavy support unit, but since the only heavy support unit I have in my collection is a Land Raider which I've yet to muster the courage to tackle, I decided to go the alternate route and paint up 60 points of Troops. My initial plan was to paint 10 Vampire Counts Skeleton Warriors with a full command, but due to time constraints, I paired that back to 4 new rank and file Skeleton Warriors plus full command. (I already had 3 Skeleton Warriors painted up, so I figured painting up 7 more would give me 10 - halfway to my planned 20 man block of Skeletal Spearmen for my Vampire Counts army.) Well, even that proved a bit daunting because as of October 2 (the deadline), I've only managed to paint up the 4 rank and file skellies while the musician, the standard bearer and the champion languish at my painting station. Oh, well...the best laid plans and all that.

So, here they are. The four up front are my newly painted skellies while the ones in back were previously painted. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've mixed and matched Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts parts for my Skeletons. This is because prior to committing to a Vampire Counts army, I was toying around with the idea of a Tomb Kings army, going so far as to buy a box of Tomb Kings Skeleton Warriors and a box of Skeletal Horsemen. When I finally did decide to go Vampire Counts instead, I picked up some bits off of eBay and went about converting the Tomb Kings models into Vampire Counts models. I'm pretty satisfied with the results, although converting one type of skeletal footsoldier over to another isn't really all that difficult. I think the real challenge is going to come from converting the Tomb Kings Horsemen into Vampire Counts Black Knights.

Of the previously painted skeletons in the back of the pictures, I had to make some minor alterations to them in order to better fit them into my army list. I originally had assembled them with hand weapons, but I then decided that I wanted my Skeleton Warriors to have spears. So, I tore the weapon arms off of 2 of the Skeletons, trimmed the area around their shoulder joint, then glued spear arms onto them and re-painted the area.

Well, I very likely won't make the deadline again. I very much want to take my time with the command portion of this Skeleton mob, but who knows? I do have a day off tomorrow...

Leia Mais…

18 - Vampire Counts Zombie

This Vampire Counts Zombie was very easy to paint. Broad swathes of solid colors, very little in the way of fiddly bits, and plenty of nooks and crevices in the sculpt to allow for clear and distinct shading. And because it was quite a simple model to paint up, I used it to practice my highlighting to a degree I've yet to attempt. If you look closely, you can see the second - lighter - colors I added to the basecoat of the tunic and the undercoat of the pants. The tunic was painted in Rookwood Red (an Americana craft paint) and the highlight was an Opaque Red from the Delta Ceramcoat line. The pants were the original black primer highlighted with Bridge Grey also from the Ceramcoat line of craft paints. Finally, the hair was also given the highlighting treatment. I basecoated it in Bridge Grey (over the black primer), then highlighted it with white before shading the valleys with the Badab Black Citadel Wash.

Personally, I'm pleased with the progress I made concerning highlighting with this model. Granted, it was a very easy model to experiment with. As I said before, the lack of tiny fiddly bits definitely made the highlighting process less imposing. Also, the many folds and wrinkles in the tunic and the pants were almost like signposts telling me where to apply the highlights. My highlighting usually turns ugly when I'm forced to guess where exactly the light would catch a certain part of the model. I guess that comes from a lack of artistic training in my life - I just don't naturally see shading and lighting. This deficiency in my painting is most glaring when it comes to the near-metallic metal technique. If you look at the pitchfork the zombie is wielding, the highlighting and shading there are non-existant at best and miserable at worst.

A word on the skin color for the zombie - this was fun to do. First, I basecoated with Bridge Grey, then I slowly added very thinned down layers of Light Flesh (from the Folkart line of paints). I was going for a pallid, but not pale look. I wanted some of the Bridge Grey to seep through in order to give the zombie a dessicated appearance. When I was satisfied with the coloring of his skin, I then added some Opaque Red lines (following the contours of his muscles and facial structure) to signify broken and rent skin before finally giving it a wash of Ogryn Flesh. Because the wash darkened the skin too much and gave it a very un-undead like flush, I gave the skin a few light, thinned down coats of Bridge Grey and then Light Flesh before calling it a day.

For more pics, click here.

Next up - I'll probably head back to my Imperial Guard Veterans Squad.

Leia Mais…