reaper
Spookytoberfest v 5.0, The Final Chapter
Wow, there were a lot of minis to paint! Two contests, six commissions, three for Spookytoberfest. I got a little overwhelmed and fell behind on everything else.
So, here is a montage… a training montage!
Darkrasp in all of his evil glory.
The Crypt Wraith in all of his re-painted glory. He was also my first use of the <washes>
I made.
Judas Bloodspire didn’t get finished. I just didn’t feel motivated when looking at him. No colors popped out at me.
So, see everyone next October!
Spookytoberfest2015 Question of the Week: What is your favorite dish with pumpkin as one of its main ingredients?
Answer: None, pumpkin is gross. Vile. I actually used to like pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that my mom made but I was like 8 years old then.
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Commission Update
Here is the finished Reaper 02489: Black Legionnaire that I was sent. I painted the surcoat like the hockey jersey the recipient is wearing in his Facebook photo.
I’ll be mailing this out as soon as I get a chance to run to the post office.
P.S. Also, this is my quick and dirty photo booth. I should probably get on the final version since this doesn’t quite do the job.
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Home Made Washes, or It Puts the Lotion on Its Skin
Normally, I just take a drop of paint and liberally apply water to make a wash. Since I’ve known about Les Bursley’s wash recipe for some time I finally decided to take the time to sit down and make some.
I purchased flow improver, some inks, and dropper bottles during the week and got to mixing Saturday morning. I followed Les’ recipe which is located here.
The Liquitex inks that were available locally were Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Burnt Sienna. These sort of correlate to his mixes for Parchment, Flesh Wash, and Dark Sepia.
As you can see, I also discovered my Reaper Black Ink which I then mixed up. This one doesn’t seem as dense since I tried to make Soft Body Black and I think I’m up to 40 drops now and it still doesn’t come out that dark. I’ll likely pick up a different black ink in the coming days and other colors as I see fit.
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Spookytoberfest, Part 4
I have a feeling I’m finished with Darkrasp minus some basing. Or I might apply some more washes to him. I’m not terribly happy with him but I’m not disappointed really either.
The Crypt Wraith is coming along. I did some washes last night. I need to finish painting his cloak and the front of his shield. And check out that snazzy freehand on the shield! Dang, there is a lot of white cloak… that might warrant some freehand on the cloak.
Oh, Judas Bloodspire… I’m just not sure what I want to do with you.
So, that is where I’m at. Still two weeks to go so I should be fine even with my other projects.
Spookytoberfest2015 Question of the Week: “Congratulations! You’ve been chosen by lottery to be the new President/Prime Minister/King/Queen/Big Cheese of your country, but in a hilarious turn of events, your second in command has been implicated as the head of a group of criminals who produce shoddy knock offs of expensive miniatures, and he goes to jail. Replacing him is a monster/villain/entity from literature, film, or television.” Who is it, and how will s/he help you get your country back on track? If there are more than one iterations of your character, for example The Terminator, choose which version you’re going with!
Answer: Our Dark Lord, Cthulhu, of course! He will work tirelessly to drive everyone insane so that we won’t even know the country is off the tracks.
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First “Commission”?
A member of the Reaper Miniatures’ Facebook group offered up seven miniatures in payment for painting one miniature for him. This was a general offer and he had several he wanted painted and quite a few to give away.
I looked at the pictures of what he was offering and what he wanted painted. Nothing in particular jumped out at me. I told him to pick my seven and his one at random and I’d gladly paint it for him. Here is what I ended up with:
There are a few Reaper and a few Ral Partha miniatures in there. The oldest date stamp I could read was 1988. Talk about some old school miniatures!
So, this could be my first commission. Does it really count?
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Spookytoberfest the III
I’m juggling painting five different miniatures for various projects but I did get to put some washes on Darkrasp the other day. Then I highlighted him back up to smooth that out.
I started laying down basecoats on Judas Bloodspire. That hasn’t went too far…
I also basecoated the Crypt Wraith. I’m actually using various colors this time rather than going for black/grey with spooky green eyes and such. I’m actually going to paint him sort of like a Templar… and maybe some freehand on the shield. We will see.
I’m still debating on his cloak’s color… white or red? Freehand on the back?
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.