28 posts tagged “hirst arts”
I'm currently working on painting the Dragon Turtle and pretty much everything I painted today is going to get repainted. In short I picked the wrong colors and I was trying to do too much.
Longer story.
He's got plating on his arms, legs, neck, tail, etc. I had already painted the skin to match the guy down below and was working on the underside of the shell, the plates under the tail and all those other places I just detailed. And some around the face. All those other places I was going to use the same tans as on the body wrap of the grunt so that the shell would stand out more. And I was trying a new technique that suggested taking the base coat a shade darker to make the effect really pop.
I did all that and it just didn't work. The colors were completely wrong against the bright skin. I should know better than to pick colors when I'm in an unhappy mood.
A friend gave me links to his painted figure. His has the plating the same color as the skin. Only the shell, underneath the shell and the plates under the tail are a different color. That looked much better. So I pulled out the skin colors and painted over all the stuff I did. And yes, it looks much better. I still need to highlight it and I'll probably pull the highlights one shade higher than on the rest of the models just so he pops more.
I also prepped 2 more minis that I need for this demo army. I'll be pulling out the epoxy tomorrow and these guys need to have their arms attached. Since I'll have epoxy mixed I'll use it wisely.
Oh - I put the base coat on some new arena pieces.
I'm doing all this in preparation for doing Warlord demos at Oshcon next month. With the new rules and datacards I need to make sure my armies balance. I did get new models for new armies so I really need to get painting. I need 4 demo armies that balance. I need to check my Crusaders to make sure those are the same and then work up 2 more. I don't think they'll take as long as these since they're not nearly as complicated.
I seem to keep posting variations on the "I promise to have pictures soon" theme. It's true, I do want to take pictures and post them for your delectation. But it just doesn't seem to happen as I would like.
To cover the items in the last 'Yeah, yeah' post.
I did fix the lace/hankie issue. I unpicked the offending ring, made a new (correctly attached) ring, then assembled the whole thing into a continuous band of lace and finished sewing it to the fabric. And then made the mistake of bringing it to show Grandma Mr. Rastl on our weekly visit and she confiscated it. Before I could take pictures, of course.
As stated in a later than 'Yeah, yeah' but prior to this post all the undead pirates are base-primed and ready for paint. I'm putting these on the to do later list since I don't need them as quickly as I need the dwarves.
The bear riders are coming along nicely. I'd say they're at least 3/4 done if not more. I'll have them done in 2 more evenings of work unless I find something really futzy or really wrong. Then I'm on to the captain. Higher ranked figures tend to be unique so I paint them separately. It's much easier to paint X number of the same figure in a session since it becomes assembly line work. Adding in different figures means actual thought.
I'm going to work on the Mancatchers at paint night tonight and I hope to have some more good progress. I normally can't paint a figure to completion there due to lighting but I think I still have enough of the larger areas that I can get to the detail part and finish them up at home.
The terrain is still waiting for base coat touchups. I was planning on doing that during online gaming last night but my GM wasn't feeling well. I'm debating about trying that again tonight since our side adventure ties into the game we're playing on Saturday.
I made a couple more master walls while building other pieces and after adding another size into the mix I realized that I really did just triple the number of molds I have to make. Given how the walls connect at the corners to add another size means adding 4 walls. At least I can have a nice variety of sizes and configurations when this is all over. I already have a couple of people asking to borrow the molds once I get them done. I think that's a compliment.
The undead pirates all have the sand on their bases. That still means primer, paint and vegetation but it's better than nothing. I know the last post had 'everyone except the monster' but now it's just everyone. Yay everyone!
The bear riders have the bears finished and varnished and the riders are primed. So I can work on painting the riders without as much worry about scraping/wearing the paint off the bears. When I get them done the entire figure will get a coat of varnish so the bears get a double helping.
This weekend was supposed to be very, very busy but now it's just very busy. It looks like the only time I'll have for hobbies is Sunday night. And I'll try to be good and finish up the base coat on the arena pieces then so that project is ready for finishing.
I will try to get pictures this weekend so you can see how things look. I've been talking about them a lot but it's really cool to actually see them.
A quick update on various and sundry things.
The hankie/lace issue hasn't been resolved. I need some time on the couch without too many distractions and that hasn't happened in the last few days. It's on the list.
The undead pirates are painted, varnished, and have the sand on the bases. The monster is one step behind because he needed to be attached using epoxy and I was waiting for another project to get to the epoxy state as well. That has been achieved.
I'm also painting one of my personal armies to bring to ReaperCon so I've been working on those as well. 5 dwarf bear riders are well underway. The bears are painted except for a couple of touchups where they were lying down and are currently letting their epoxy set as well. See above for 'another project'. This was it.
The bear riders need to be painted yet but now that I will be able to handle the model without fear of damaging the paint it will go much easier.
I also have 3 mancatcher models (nasty models with reach) that I started at paint night so those are the next ones up to be done. I'd say they're close to 1/4 done already. I'm such an optimist.
Terrain-wise I did get the final arena-in-trade pieces base coated but they need the touchups. I'm hoping to get those done over the weekend even though it's a busy one. That's looking for the holes and seams where the paint didn't get so it's kind of a finishing thing. The drybrushing goes really quickly and his decorative painting is easy.
Also regarding terrain I'm stealing a really good idea from a friend and making mold masters for village houses. The masters are completed walls with knuckle joints so I can pour an entire house in just a few pieces and assemble them quickly. It's an easy way to build a village. I'm currently making pieces in 4, 5 and 6 inch wall lengths so I can make some real variety. I'm out of the 30 degree blocks that are great for the roof angles so I'll need to cast some of those to make the roof sections. Gee, me having to cast more blocks to complete a project. Who would have thought it?
Maybe pictures this weekend, maybe not.
First off, it's a good thing for me to have found the missing parts and assorted bits that I had purchased but had set aside. That being said, I did a bad thing overall.
You see, letting OCD off the leash isn't like turning a dial from 1 to 3. It's more like one of those huge knife switches you see in the Frankenstein-style labs. And once you engage that switch, things happen.
I've been playing an online game for a bit. No, not a MMORPG like World of Warcraft. It's a little flash-type game on Yahoo. I've been playing the free trial when I've got some time between stuff.
(You can probably see where this is going.)
I knew that I was having issues with controlling the OCD lately but have been mostly successful in staying on top of it. I should have known better than to decide 'to use it for good purposes'.
Last night I realized that I had centered on that stupid game. "I'll stop after I lose one" turned into clicking on the play again option no matter what happened in the previous game. I played for hours. Yes, hours.
This morning I was seeing the game while my eyes were closed and I was trying to get out of bed so I could get to work on something like a timely basis. That was the final straw.
No more. As of today I'm self-banning myself from the game and from extended internet time at home. I need to work on balancing parts of my life again before I can trust myself not to fall into the same trap.
The first step in making this work is realizing where the problem is and taking steps to correct it. That's what I'm doing. And just knowing that makes me feel much better and in control of things. Tonight is paint night and then I'm going to either work on some paper terrain or paint up some Hirst Arts stuff that needs to get done. The computer time will be limited to checking my e-mail a couple of times. No chat, no games. Nothing that can suck me in and keep me there for hours.
Maybe I'll actuall get some of these projects done.
Well, at the weekly paint night I did a basic cloak paint job but since the lighting is less than optimal I'm going to have to do all the detail work here at home. I'm going to try .. plaid. Wish me luck.
And then after discussing the website changes that will be happening this weekend (far too much discussion for a paint night) I did get some other painting done.
I got the base coat on some of the Razig undead pirate army. I wanted to start on something easy so I grabbed the 4 sword mooks. Turns out they're zombies, not skellies. The bone paints went back in the caddies, the undead flesh came out. I got all the skin painted up, which is not bad at all.
I'm debating about how to paint the eyes on these guys. During the brief pause in posting to take the dogs outside I got the idea of grey for that blank stare that zombies do so well. That sounds like it might work.
On the housework front I did pretty well today. The kitchen is back in order and I was able to get Scooba running during my lunch break. So the living room floor is nice and clean. I'm going to try to get the dining room done tomorrow. I love coming home to a nice clean floor that I didn't have to scrub myself. Robot servants!
I got another 3 Hirst Arts casts done today. One before I left for work, one while I was waiting for lunch to cook, and one poured after paint night and staying in the molds overnight. I switched out the Gothic Arena for the basic wall builder since I was running very low on basic building bricks. I can still cast the two little pieces from the arena mold that I always seem to need off the same mix so I'm doing just fine. If I can get 3 casts done per week night and maybe 5 per day over the weekend then I'll be in very good shape. I'm going to let them air dry while I work on other projects since that only takes 2 days and I have lots of things I can be doing. Like redesigning part of my challenge build that needs the bricks I'm casting right now.
I'm hoping to keep posting rather regularly this month. In the past I've gone days between postings and since there's no limit on how many times you can post I'm going to take advantage of that. I really don't like posting more than once per day so the end-of-the-day post kind of contains everything that's been in my noggin for the day. Makes it more of a mash-up sometimes.
I was going to LOLcat the subject but decided against it. Mostly for my own dignity.
I'm trying to get back into the groove of building and painting. I completely slacked for about a week now and getting back into the mindset isn't proving very easy.
Here's my current list of rationalizations. Enjoy.
- I don't want to dig out my mini paints just to have to pack them back up for Wednesday paint night.
- I don't want to work on new arena pieces until I've finished the ones I've started.
- I don't have enough bricks to keep building my own arena now.
- I don't have time to do casting, even though I have the materials upstairs.
- I keep getting started late, which limits how much I can reasonably accomplish,
I think that's a pretty darn good list of rationalizations, don't you?
Having said that I heaved a large sigh and did some actual work tonight with the time left to me. I did get started late. Then I just stared at the stuff on my paint table for a good 10 minutes. But I did paint a few things.
The doors to the arena are painted. I want to put some tougher paint-on acrylic varnish on those since they seem to take more of a beating.
I cleaned up the accent paint on three mostly painted pieces and started on the accent paint on one more. I also put the base coat on some areas I missed on two other pieces.
So for those keeping track. that's 6 completed doors (sans varnish); 3 arena pieces waiting on gold paint; 2 arena pieces that need stonework drybrushing and all accent paint, and 1 arena piece with partial accent paint.
The rest of the arena is 99.9% built. There's these little finials that go on a few of the pieces and I never seem to have enough of them. So I need to dig through the casts from the two molds that have the piece and see if I have enough to finish this up. If not I will be casting more. And I always epoxy them on instead of regular glue because they take as much if not more abuse than the doors. Actually they tend to get 'pinged' off unless they're firmly attached. I can fix one of Mr. Rastl's decorative shower curtain hooks while I have epoxy mixed up as well.
My own arena is progressing slowly but steadily. I've glued most of the floor sections that I have cast even though I'm torn on using raised plaster pieces or just patterned felt. I can keep making the floors anyway. I'm working more on the basic arena set rather than the decorative one since it's a lot easier and I had the pieces for that one sitting in the bin. So now I've used up some of the specialized ones and need to cast more. See rationalization above.
And this month I really want to get that Razig demo army painted up. I put it off last month since I knew I wouldn't have time but I need to make progress or I'll never get to demo the game much less practice for the tournament at ReaperCon.
Finally, I won't be able to make the convention in Indy this month. Without getting into uninteresting details Mr. Rastl is having a small surgical procedure and I rather need to be around. Timing is everything.
I gave up on trying to get the right light, etc. Instead I just wanted to get some pictures out there so folks could see how things are progressing.
These are the completed ones. There's a number with the stonework painted but no decorative painting as well as built pieces that haven't been painted at all. Those aren't pictured.
So there. I have been working.
I guess I better find a way to get some pictures up and soon. I keep building and painting but I can't prove it to anyone unless there's a picture or seven. It's one of those 'I want the right light' but I don't want to actually set up my lights kind of thing. Yes, I'm a slacker that way.
I did finally send off those Darkspawn after having them staring at me from my paint table for a very long time. Slacker, remember? I didn't send off any of my own army figs because I don't know what army to send and I felt really bad about how long it took me to send mine back. The poor, patient recipient has renewed his offer to paint some for me and I think I'll have a look-see and decide what can be sent. At least I'm not the last one, thank goodness. I have to poke her with a stick to get this round completed.
I decided that I also needed a basic arena set to go with my decorative arena set. The good news is that these are pretty simple builds and only use one mold. The bad news is that I'm out of a lot of the bricks I need now. So I brought up the casting supplies again. I was torn between casting the arena mold and casting the basic brick mold. I still need to build the rest of my decorative arena but I also need to build a piece for a challenge that will use a lot of the basic bricks. Right now I have the arena mold but I'm not completely certain that's the second mold I'll be casting.
I did get the base coat on more of the finished arena pieces for trade. Except for some finials I think I have all the pieces built. There is one large piece that needs to be sent in sections and he's aware of that. I'll paint it, he'll just have to do the final assembly. Much easier to ship that way. And base coating is a nice way to end the evening.
I figured out why it takes me so long to paint these rather basic terrain pieces. I can't help but paint to the standards of my own personal pieces. So that means going over them a couple of times and finding all the little spots that didn't get a base coat. I know I could just hit the glaringly obvious ones but I just can't do it. So I spend a little more time at the beginning and I'm pleased with the result. The current pieces are being done in the stone color but none of the accents have been painted. I'm kind of holding off until I have a few since I'll have the paint out and all. Exactly the same reason I paint several of the terrain pieces at the same time. It's more time effective. Kind of like army painting.
And finally I decided to clean my brushes. I hadn't done it for a while and I've been using them quite a bit. So I went through my entire set of main brushes (about 12) and then my terrain brushes (about 10). This means using the brush cleaner to get out all the dried paint, rinse, then add mastic and shape. All my main brushes are sitting out and getting some air. The terrain brushes sit upright in a container so that's not an issue. I even cleaned all the dried paint off the tools I use to open up clogged dropper bottles. Those were done by softening the paint with brush cleaner then taking a craft knife and scraping off all the paint. There was quite a bit but I could tell that just by looking. It was one of those things I had been putting off.
I know I could get more paint out of some of the terrain brushes but it was getting late and I was getting tired. So for now, they're better.
And that was my evening, after a very nice dinner with Mr. Rastl and watching a show we had recorded. Kind of a busy evening.
Or, more to the point, is Rastl still working?
Sure, I'm going to use that as my excuse for not posting anything.
The Crusader demo army is done. Fini. Complete. All ready to go slaughter something.
The Hirst Arts pieces are coming along nicely. Of course, I need to cast more bricks to complete the main set much less the cool extra piece. But that's not such a big deal. I need more bricks anyway. And yes, I've slowed down and am making them to a higher standard. It means that it takes longer (of course) but I'm not nearly as frustrated as when I rush along and find all the problems when I'm painting. By the way, paint covers a whole lot of issues. Kind of like ivy.
As you can tell, no pictures. I just haven't been able to set up anything to get good lighting. That's what is keeping me from doing this. And yes, I know all about light boxes and other equipment. The problem is space here, not equipment. I'm hoping that if the craft room gets organized and some more shelves put in place I can have a spot to put a light box and use when needed. Hope, mind you.
The truck is back from the shop and looking sharp. There's a lingering odor of paint when you get into the cab but overall it's not a bad thing. I'm hoping that it fades out rather soon tho. I'm not sure it's good for the ol' brain cells.
Right now I'm working on a few miscellaneous minis to get them to their respective destinations and/or off the unpainted shelf. That's why I pushed back the next demo army until next month. I knew I would have more than enough to fill this month without setting myself up for failure by trying to work on that too.
Oh. I showed restraint. Yes, honestly. One of my favorite online gaming stores is having a clearance sale on Mega Minis. And I so wanted a few things for something that's been in progress for a while. I even had them in my shopping cart until I really sat back and thought about it. I ended up removing them. I did want them and I even had a use for them but it was a single, specific use. So rather than clutter up the place with more minis that gather dust I gave in to my practical side. But if anyone is feeling generous - the cows, the pigs and the rabbit swarm. Really.
And I don't think I mentioned this one yet. I'm going to be running some games and teaching a terrain painting workshop at Who's Yer Con in March. So I'm still trying to design the terrain piece that people will be detailing so they have something to take home. I've had a few ideas but nothing really jumps out. And no matter what, more casting will be involved. Of course.
