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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

BoLS Article RE: Victor Hardy

I saw the following interview posted on Bell of Lost Souls where they had interviewed Victor Hardy.  Victor built and painted some simply beautifully evil pieces a number of years back.  His dark style has definitely been one of the influences on my style of painting miniatures over the years.  I highly recommend you read the interview.


http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/01/miniature-painting-masters-victor-hardy.html

Sunday, January 19, 2014

FOR SALE: 40k Chaos Spacemarine BITS

Having built my latest Chaos Spacemarines which I recently sold on Ebay, I've essentially ran out of legs and such.  As a result of this, I've decided to thin out a bits box that I could use for something else.


So that said I have put up the following on Ebay, a sort of winter cleaning:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/331111141531?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


Approximately a 4 ounce bag worth.  Great for someone that does a bit of converting.  Some of the Items Included, this is not all of the items, there is more than what is listed in the following:
  • 3-OOP Terminator Combo Weapon Arms - Metal
  • 1-OOP Missile Launcher
  • 1-OOP Terminator Power Fist - Metal, Black Primer
  • 1-OOP Metal Plasma Pistol
  • 2-Heavy Bolters
  • 13-Khorne Berserker Chest Plates
  • 39+ Heads
  • 24+ Shoulder Pads
  • 12-Back Plates
  • 2-Backpacks
  • 5-Bolt Pistol Arms
  • 4-Chest Plates
  • 2-Chainsword Arms
  • 10+ Plasma Pistols (Don't roll a one)
  • 8-Backpack Trophy Poles
  • 15+ Battleroad Games Chaos Heads (great for conversions)
  • Miscellaneous Icons
  • And Much MORE   
And don't worry I have more Chaos Spacemarines.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

WIP On the Desk: How I Paint Red for my armies.....

Over the years, I have painted a lot of miniatures in a red paint scheme for my armies.  I have often been asked what colors I use and when I tell people they think: 
A.  Games Workshop is the only one that makes paints.  or
B.  They think its too many colors and too hard to do.
Above are the paints that I often use.  Now when I painted my 2008 GT Khorne Demon army, I used a lot of 50/50 in between blends.  When you paint just one off show piece models, you can get away with using just a couple of colors and wet palette.  Super time consuming for me if you are painting an army.  I prefer a formula that can be written down or remembered from sitting to sitting and works with an assembly line style of painting.

So the following is what I did today on a couple of Romans and couple of Normans in the next batch of minis that I am working on.  For my initial stage I block in the reds with a large No. 4 round brush, using Vallejo Model Color - Hull Red.  If you do not have that you can substitute Reaper Master Series Red Brick.  If you have just GW colors, I can't help you.
So next up I did a 50/50 blend of Hull Red with Reaper Master Series Deep Red.  If you don't have that you can substitute GW Scab Red or Vallejo Game Color Scarlet Red, pretty close to the same colors.
For these colors I want to put them on pretty fast, as we are army painting after all, so I'm using a worn out Round No. 1 that gives me a bit more control than the No. 4.
Below you can see the worn out brush, all splaying and beginning to curl, a Simply Simmons brush.
 Next up I paint on Vallejo Model Color Red.  A bit more controlled, painting like I'm building a contour map of highlights from dark to light.
 Following that step, I use a 50/50 VMC Red and VMC Carmine Red blend.  Now I know these are historical minis and often times the reds in real life fade to a sort of pinkish color, but I'm just not into pink.  I prefer a bold bright red.
For the final step I pull out a Red Sable for better, finer, brush control and pick out the sharper edges and high spots for highlights.  So there you have it, how I paint army reds.  I probably later go on and apply some dark red washes in the recessed areas to make the shadows and a bit more depth, but I will wait to do that when I address the armor and skin tones.