Been a while..

Like the title says, it's been a while.
The last month I've been working on my thesis, so there's been precious little time for painting and other fun stuff. That's handed in now, however, so I'm back in the game. I'll defend it on the 18th, and after that everything should be back to normal hobby-wise.

Since last update, I've completed the metro, not to a great standard, but I've never been too fond of the sculpt anyhow. At least she's painted and ready for the table:

Next models for Ariadna will likely be the Spetsnaz with boarding shotgun and the unpainted parts of the Loup Garou link.

I've been looking at the JSA I've gotten as a side-project too. Eventually, I'd like a few smaller armies that I can field as 150-200 point forces with a bit of variation to help introduce people to the game, and these'll be the first of those. Right now I've got the JSA starter plus the Keisotsu with ML and HMG to make a full link team. I might add a support pack, a bike and some other stuff eventually.

Right now, I'm basically playing about with the colour scheme, trying to tweak the way I paint white and black and attempting to decide on an accent colour. I think I'll go red, but I might still need another for a bit of contrast, for instance on the rifles. Any suggestions are more than welcome!

I have to thank Cloak88 over on the official infinity forums for tips on how he does his white, having his recipe as a baseline saved me a heap of trouble.

In the absence of actual productive work, I've fiddled with some bases for the rest:

And that's about all I've done in almost a month. Living up to the blog name, I think.

Painting guns and skin

Alright, time for an update. It'll most likely be the only one until after the start of June at the least, as I'm struggling a bit with uni at the moment.

A while back, 4apples on the infinity forums asked me how I did my skin and the metal on guns. I gave him a quick rundown and promised a quick step-by-step after I found the female metro in a deplorable state. I had to strip her and start over, she got knocked around a bit during transport and she was only half done anyway.

Luckily, she's got a nice area of skin right next to the rifle, so I was able to do both at the same time and only had to grab the same pics. 

For starters, she got undercoated with GW spray white, as I much prefer having something bright to work from, at least with models as detailed as CB ones. All paints are Vallejo Model Colour unless otherwise noted. GW should be obvious as an abbreviation, VGC is Vallejo Game Colour while VMA is Vallejo Model Air. Most mixes are thinned with a mix of water and Vallejo thinner.

Step 1:

Skin: 

Her skin got a basecoat of Brown Sand and Salmon Rose in a 70/30 mix. Brown Sand is my usual skin base colour, and I tend to mix in a bit of the highlight colour to accent it and make the blends easier. The highlight colour varies depending on what I'm going for. This time, I went for Salmon Rose, since I wanted a bright, pinkish tone to accent the gun and the blue jacket, but I've used Flat Flesh, Basic Skintone or GWs Kislev Flesh or Cadian Flesh as well, or a mix with English Uniform for a more southern-european kinda tone.

Gun:

For guns, I tend to start with a mix of Dark Sea Green (VMA) and Heavy Charcoal (VGC). The Dark Sea Green is a nice colour to work with as the slight green tint makes it more interesting, and the Heavy Charcoal is good for darkening it up and providing some heft - VMA paints are quite thin. The mix was about 80 Dark Sea Green/20 Heavy Charcoal, I think.

For both basecoats I went over the model 2 or 3 times, to get a proper covering layer with thinned paint. 

Also, I painted her jacket, hair and glasses. They're adjacent to the skin, and I wanted them basecoated so I didn't mess the skin up later. Normally, I'll do all of the basecoating at the same time, to avoid this, but here I got lazy and only did the adjacent areas.

Step 2: 

Skin:

First, the eyes got painted black, while correcting it would still be easy. Then, the skin got a wash all over with GW Reikland Fleshshade, thinned 50/50 with water. Went back over the recesses and gave them a bit more, to shade. Use it sparingly, as always.

Gun: 

Blacklined with GWs black, then thinned it with about 30% water, 30% Vallejo thinner, 40% black and shaded the gun. I place the shadows towards the upper end of the elements - it's probably most visible on the body of the gun, right above the magazine. Placing the shadows takes some getting used to, but eventually it sorta makes sense. 

Step 3: 

Skin:

First highlights, a mix of Brown Sand and Salmon Rose again, this time in a 15/85 mix respectively.

Gun: 

Blended the black shading into the basecoat by going over the transitions with pure Dark Sea Green. I like the Air paints for blending since they're already thin and the pigments are very fine. After this I went back over the edges and lined them with the same paint. The black shading towards the top should be more visible here, btw.

Step 4: 

Skin: 

Next highlight is the previous mix with 50% Ivory in.

Gun:

This step is a 50/50 mix of Dark Sea Green and Pale Blue. I tend to use Pale Blue for guns, since the bluish undertones gives a good steel-ish look, plus it fits with the blue theme on my Ariadna and makes sure the warm tones on her skin and the contrast-bits stand out more. It gets blended into the down-wards facing highlights and on most of the edges.

Step 5: 

Skin:

Same procedure, I just added a bit more Ivory to the mix for the very highest highlights. Fingers, tip of her nose, her underlip, stuff like that where pushing the contrast helps a bit. Did her eyes too, by adding a dap of Ivory in the corner.

Gun: 

Exact same concept as the skin, added a bit more Pale Blue, did the edges and blended the highest highlights on the metal.

Step 6: 

Skin:

Final touches! I gave her lower lip a bit of red wash, the GW one that I can't remember the name of, deepened a few shadows with some thinned Reikland Fleshshade and called it a day. If the model had been a bit more of a display-quality one, I'd probs have given her a bit of red on her cheeks and possibly some blue or purple above her eyes, but frankly, I didn't bother since I'm not THAT into this sculpt.
It's mainly useful to add some contrast to the skin anyhow, but here I'm using the skin to contrast the blue jacket and bluish steel of the gun and I don't want to dilute the effect.

Gun:

Final highlights to give a bit of a sheen is done by adding a touch of white to the previous mix. I used Dead White from Vallejo.

That's about it, everything else I do with skin and metals basically follow this recipe with some modifications.

If any of you have any comments or ideas for stuff that could be done differently, I'd love to hear them!

Slight progress

Not much has happened the last week or so model-wise, but there's still a pic or two to post.

Uxia got entirely done, with a couple of glazes on her face and the hair to better blend the layers.

Gotta say I'm pleased with her, she was a joy to paint.
I'm getting closer to finishing a friend for her, a Spetsnaz with boarding shotgun who's currently WiP:

I'm thinking I'll carry the camo pattern over on most of my Ariada, with blue being reserved for non-russian units.

Speaking of WiP models, this guy's needed finishing touches for about a year or so, and I finally got around to it.

He's one of the Hasslefree modern troopers. Excellent quality as usual, but sadly the age of the paintjob is showing, most of it got done a year ago. Still, any repaint will have to wait until I'm through the lead pile, and that'll never happen.
I'm using him as either a chasseur, SAS, scout or spetsnaz with sniper depending on need. I don't think he's done anything yet, but he still gets fielded on occasion.

Digging out stuff from the mini box, I also found my version of Zoe. I've never been a fan of the official model, and when I saw that Hasslefree does a suitable stand-in I had to pick her up:

I haven't posted her anywhere since I mainly go to the official forum these days, and they're not that crazy about third-party models for obvious and understandable reasons. That being said, I needed a proxy and HF does some of the best quality sculpts and castings I've ever had the pleasure to come across. I can wholeheartedly recommend them.
The Pi-Well proxy is a PanO bot I got off ChoKonnits split box service.

That's it for today. My GF just came home from China and my thesis is entering the last stretch, so there might not be an amazing amount of activity here for the next bit. 

Mordaci Blaylock painted

Alright, wasn't really planning on updating today, but I got Mordaci done yesterday bar the freehand.
That'll come later, if there's time.Or perhaps transfers, if I can dig some up.

Might get some more infinity work done later tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for looking!

More Ariadna

...this time of the sneaky sort.

I've loved the Covert Action Uxia model since I first saw it, but despite this I've taken my time getting some paint on her. I've played her once and she performed brilliantly, infiltrating right up to the enemy deployment zone and making a right nuisance of herself.

I finally got started on her yesterday and even got quite far. I went for a camo-ish scheme with a blue coat to tie her into the rest of my Ariadna.
There's a lot of fine detail on her, and I thought I'd try grabbing a pic of her to better let me see where I needed to tweak her a bit more. Of course, that means I might as well post it as a WiP, albeit one that's fairly advanced.

I'm thinking I'll try to improve the eyes a bit, glaze her freckles with some skin colour to tone them down slightly, and see if I can't blend the highlights into the braid better. The leather might get a glaze or two as well, to stop it looking so stark.
Not sure if I can or should do anything with the mouth, even if I'd like to give her more or a smile. It seems like it'd fit her better than the more placid expression she's got now.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome!

I've even gotten started on the prepwork on the next model, the Spetsnaz.

Not a lot to see here though, it's just the basecoats being put down. I'll most likely be going for something like the studio scheme but with the same camo as Uxia above. I was fairly pleased with that.

Thanks for looking, and as always feel free to leave a comment.

Malifaux project completed!

Greetings all,

Been a weird week with thesis trouble and research regarding potential jobs but I've managed to get  a bit done, even if it isn't that impressive.

First of all, there was a malifaux meet planned and I wanted to get my crew ready for the table. You'll have to excuse the awful pics, my setup does NOT want to take pics of more than 2 models at a time I've found.

Despite the rushed paintjobs and the disappointing photography, it does mark an (almost) new experience for me: I've finished a project. This feels strange....

And, naturally, I'd marked out the wrong date in the calendar, so I managed to miss the meet up. No matter, they're done for whenever I manage to get a game.

It's not all Wyrd Plastics however, I decided to get some much needed paint on the 112 for my Ariadna. It's not my favorite sculpt by any standards and he's never actually managed to do anything for me on the field besides supply an order and catch the occasional bullet, so I figured I'd try and force myself to paint faster than I usually do.

Turned out ok-ish, even if I'm not too proud of him. Still better than shiny metal, though!

I started Uxia, so she'll probably be next, at least in a WiP version with slightly more paint on:

I really, really like this model. There's something about this little psychotic SAS redhead that just works for me. I had to file off the combat heels though, they're an awful fit for her aesthetically IMHO.

Other than that there's a Santiago that's slowly being worked on as a side project and a Reverend Healer that I hope to finish soon. They might make an appearance soon.

Also, in a move that horrifies my wallet and still brings a smile to my face, my local game store has started selling infinity. Limited selection, but I had to pick up something to support them. Meet Ivan, the friendly neighborhood Spetsnaz with boarding shotgun:

I have to say I was impressed with the casting quality on the body of this guy. Perfectly crisp details, almost no mouldlines (and I'm incredibly picky with those), excellent casting all round. His arms, however, was rather disappointing, with a massive gap and some significant moldlines.

Oh well, at least they're getting better. If they can get the general quality up to just half as good as the quality on the body of this guy, they'll be better than most manufacturers on the market that I've handled figures from.

Right, time for dinner - as always, your comments are very much appreciated. :)

Marines and a bit of infinity

Finally got some stuff done so I can update.

The exorcists have been slow going, but the second vet is done, minus his backpack. I've run out of Khorne Red and managed to buy Mephistron Red instead, so until I can swing by the LGS there won't be any more exorcists. 

That being said, the libby isn't red so he got some paint:

Mainly to see how difficult it was to match the two red with some brown glaces. It'll serve on this guy, but I won't be using it for the other marines.
Obviously they still need bases, but that'll come. I'm planning on doing all the bases for the killteams at the same time. Dunno how well that'll go, but it's the plan for now.

Almost done with my malifaux crew too. Been using them to test out some new ideas, and while it's not been a great success it's been good trying it out. I'm not too impressed with the models to be honest, some of the detail isn't great and there's a lot of work in removing the gaps where the parts have gone together.

Finally, infinity. While I've been playing a fair bit I haven't really painted much but I'm planning on returning to it. I messed up this loup tho, since I mistook a satin varnish for a matt - he's shiny now.

And with that, I'll return to dog-sitting for the mother-in-law, and perhaps some sunday painting.