Spookytoberfest 2015, Part Deux: Return of the Dead Guy
This past weekend I primed the minis I would be painting for Spookytoberfest. My bottom feed airbrush didn’t seem to want to keep pulling the Stynylrez primer through so I switched to a gravity feed airbrush which worked fine.
Of course, when closing the primer top it splashed droplets of black primer all over my face. If this would have only happened a few days earlier I could have submitted it to Models Workshop: for their injuries and funny stories podcast.
I also primed some other miniatures for Lady MacDeth. We both entered a miniature painting competition (or two) and we ended up picking a few Hordes miniatures to paint. I’ll discuss those in another blog post later today or tomorrow.
I started base-coating Darkrasp on Sunday. I finished up most of the base-coats today. I’m painting him as a priest of Nerull from Greyhawk. Their raiments apparently are often rust red so I figured I’d go with that.
I first used my wet palette at my last painting competition. I put the paint in it on Sunday and it was still wet Tuesday when I sat down to paint again. I’m sure I’ll improve my wet palette technique as time goes on.
Spookytoberfest2015 Question of the Week: What is the best Halloween memory that you have? Could be from last year or from decades past, could be good, bad, ugly, whichever you like most.
Answer: I think a few years ago when I dressed up as the Phantom of the Opera. The makeup was just awesome. I absolutely love horror stuff!!!
P.S. I also got a shout-out on the Warboss Tae video!
Spookytoberfest 2015
This year I was on the ball and decided to join Warboss Tae’s Spookytoberfest! I’ve followed the previous ones but didn’t have the chance to join them. The general idea is to paint a spooky miniature for October.
Here are the three miniatures I’m going to try to finish for October. Left to right we have 77151 Darkrasp, Evil Priest, inspired by Mocha Minis’ blog; 77160 Judas Bloodspire, Vampire; and 2281 Crypt Wraith, who is being repainted. All of them are Reaper miniatures. The first two are from their Bones line and the last one is metal.
Today, I’m going to wash all of them, clean up any mold lines, and prime them.
Spookytoberfest2015 Question of the Week: What movie scared you more than any other when you were growing up (or even now!)? If you want to be more specific, describe the scenes that terrified you the most and how they made you feel!
Answer: The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_at_20,000_Feet
I watched this when I was probably 7 or 8 years old. The scene where William Shatner moves the curtain covering the window and the gremlin is right there looking at him had me running out of the house…
Or was it William Shatner’s acting. *cue Twilight Zone music*
Stripping with Simple Green
I stopped by a local hardware store yesterday and decided to purchase some Simple Green so I could strip a few models. When I got home I used two dishes that I shouldn’t have used (ask Lady MacDeth) as painting palettes and such. I filled them with Simple Green and dropped in these two guys.
The black/green is a Reaper 2281 Crypt Wraith metal miniature and the gold/white one is a Games Workshop Stormcast Eternals Prosecutor which is plastic. The Crypt Wraith is one of the first miniatures I painted. I liked the green glow but the black didn’t have enough variation. The Prosecutor was painted in three hours with a fairly limited palette and I wasn’t really pleased with some of my color choices (or placing third in the contest). I allowed them to sit overnight. In the morning I took them out, gave them a nice brushing with an old toothbrush, and this is how the wraith looked.
The wraith could probably use another bath to get paint out of the deep crevices that I couldn’t pick out using a paper clip. I should probably remember to pick up some toothpicks…
The dish I used for the GW Prosecutor wasn’t quite deep enough to cover the whole miniature so I had to clean him and give him another bath. I suppose I’ll drop the wraith in with him.
This is after two overnight cycles and using the old toothbrush to clean them up. The metal miniature is easier to scrub since there is a small chance of breakage. The plastic though has a ton of very fine parts that I can’t really clean too roughly so there is still a bit of leftover primer.
Not bad for there being very little actual work involved. Both dishes are looking pretty nice now too.
Heroes in a half-shell!
It isn’t a miniature but it used to be Michelangelo’s belt.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Event or Baby’s First Painting Contest
Emerald City Comics, my local game store, ran an Age of Sigmar kick off event on Sept. 19th where they had a small skirmish event with rules and minis provided. In addition, there was a painting contest which was $5 to enter. They also provided the miniatures, paints, and brushes for this. There were also free miniatures to paint which weren’t entered into the contest.
Lady MacDeth and I arrived at Emerald City just before the 2 p.m. start time. There was a table with a selection of miniatures to pick from for the contest. I picked my miniature which was a Stormcast Eternals Prosecutor. It was pre-assembled and already primed white. Lady MacDeth looked at a selection of Wood Elf Dryads picking the one with an alternate skull head because it wasn’t as scary looking (so, the skull isn’t scary). We then went to sit with several of our friends at a long table with Citadel paint pots scattered about and a few cups of water.
Going in I wasn’t sure what to expect so I proceeded to unpack my Emergency Mini Painting Kit: wet pallete, my 3/0 detail brush, matte medium/water mix, and a jar with lid for mixing. I think I’ll adapt my Kit for future painting events where I don’t know what will be provided.
This was my first time using Citadel paints. I absolutely loathe the paint pots. Could they have picked a worse manner to store them? Nevermind, don’t answer that, they don’t need any ideas. Is Ceramite White always that thick? I could seriously repair drywall with that stuff. Thankfully, I brought my mix and I didn’t have to use much white. The paints other than that aren’t that bad. Just the paint pots and the Drywall Repair White…
I spent about three hours working on my Prosecutor. There was a ton of gold armor to paint. The wings are pretty delicate so those took a little while to thoroughly cover. The color selection was pretty narrow too I had to mix some of my own. The color I used for the scroll work on the Prosecutor was too similar to the armor. In retrospect I’m not overly fond of that but you live and learn. Below are both of our finished miniatures:
Lady MacDeth started a second, free miniature because I was taking so long. She picked a Tyranid Termagant Brood. She only got the base coats down since I was ready to go eat at that point too. Several other people came in over the time I was there painting. I think about ten people in all entered the contest. There were several that also came in to do the free painting. I enjoyed seeing some of the younger kids in there painting. One guy came in and painted with his son.
When I finished we proceeded up front where we would leave our freshly painted miniatures for staff at Emerald City to judge on Sunday and Monday. Once they determined a winner they would call the winner to come pick up their prize and miniature.
Guess who took 1st? Not me… Lady MacDeth did with her creepy tree person! I managed to squeak by with 3rd place. She got to pick a sprue from the Age of Sigmar boxed set. The sprue she picked had Khorgos Khul and “The Gang”, Threx Skullbrand, and Vandus Hammerhand, Lord-Celestant riding his Dracoth! I received a Stormcast Eternals Retributor and a Chaos Warrior.
So my take-away from this first event: don’t teach your significant other the trade secrets of miniature painting. Seriously, she has painted a handful of minis. I think she has a better artistic eye than me though.
P.S. If anybody from Emerald City reads this: thanks for having this event and I look forward to more in the future.