Unintentional Halloween Post

This pair of Night Horrors just happened to get painted this month - no other reason. But, at least the theme is apposite. First, a Jes Goodwin Wight. Only took three days from first application of paint to varnish :-/

I confess to be very pleased at how well and how easily the Wight came out. I think my style is well suited to undead subjects. I would happily paint a whole army. Am annoyed that I sold nearly all the skellies I had.

Next, an Elizabethan Ghost from the Perry's. I was going to use an airbrush on the base. I cut out a rough mask to spray through for the glow area. Came unstuck when the white ink I had suitable for airbrushing turned out to be very thick and gloopy, even after some thinning with distilled water. Had to make do with dry brushing.

The painting was simples. It already had a 20 year old base coat of Citadel Electric Blue. I went over that with Horizon Blue to bring down the intensity (and garishness), followed by washes of blue with increasing amounts of white. This created a shading inversion to promote an ethereal effect. White shading, in other words. Slightly concerned that the head doesn't draw any focus, but that would do more to detract than add.

My basic lighting set up doesn't do anything to help bring the paintwork to life - they look so much better with the unaided eye. The Ghost needs a proper lighting tent to eliminate all that self-shadowing.

And. Earlier in the month I chalked up my 16th finished and varnished mini - a classic Nick Bibby Minotaur.

When budget allows I'll get some of those nice resin bases rather than muck about with milliput, though I have used some of that putty on my renovation of Nurgle's Palanquin. Hate using it.

There was a time I would paint like a demon. I would go three months straight doing nothing but paint and would do a hundred figures. Then something or other would come along and break the rhythm, and it would take weeks to get back into it. Weeks turning into months and then years.

The fact I had suddenly got three figs done, the Wight done over a couple of nights, is a good sign that my recent 'more is more' rationale is working. I've dug out every miniature that already has a coat of primer, primed a whole bunch more, assembled and primed even more, on the basis that the more things lying around begging to be painted, the more likely I am to get a sudden bout of inspiration and start chucking the paint on. The Wight was done like that.

To future productivity.

(and a happy All Hallows Eve)

~J~

Stone Troll

Somewhat late, this post, seeing as I finished this only a couple of days after the Apostate. I took some inspiration from a paintjob by Ali McVey (Kifaro at Studio McVey), the result is the dark scales. Nowadays I apply a somewhat scientific thought process to my use of colour. No more 'Eavy Metal styled rubbish (bit of red here, bit of green there). If this monster was really real, what would look plausible? For the Apostate below, I took into consideration the colour of its blood, which I decided to make blue. From that starting point, all else follows naturally, with half a nod to fantasy, half a nod to realism.

Yes I know the base hasn't been done - my excuse is that I have two more of these to do now. These will be the first figures painted with the gaming market in mind. I think this job compares very favourably to those I looked at on eBay recently. 

Still painting... barely.

~J~