28mm - Reaper - Spectre

The final and fourth session of my experiments with Citadel Contrast colors yielded the final three miniatures of the original 39. Pretty good looking figures for a minimum of effort. Plus I cleaned out several small storage drawers of ghosts and other haunted things, making room for newer stuff near my increasingly overcrowded work station. 

All this brought up new problems however: storing nigh 40 mostly oversized minis. I already have tons of troop trays for rank and file figures, but not much for these relatively big-based and tall models. 

These last three were last as I had to do a fair amount of detail work of layering up the skin after. The robes, of course are one thick coat of Contrast Templar Black, but the skin is Basilicanum Grey over which I reapplied the brush-on Grayseer and highlighted up in my usual manner. That's the most traditional painting work of any in this grand experiment.

This model would have been a candidate for a solid Aethermatic Blue but there were too many painted versions out there in her more corporal state that I preferred such that I changed my mind early on. Also I has some red "flower" flock I sprinkled on the bushes for color to poor effect. Experimenting is half the fun with fantasy figures and shortcuts and haste can sometimes give you sub-optimal results.

I do adore the Contrast Templar Black and have about 10 more wraiths I've found that will get near identical treatment. Then I think I'll tackle my many werewolf factions with some of the browns and the still sold out Wraith Bone primer. 

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Warlord - Railor, Necropolis Sergeant

The final and fourth session of my experiments with Citadel Contrast colors yielded the final three miniatures of the original 39. Pretty good looking figures for a minimum of effort. Plus I cleaned out several small storage drawers of ghosts and other haunted things, making room for newer stuff near my increasingly overcrowded work station. 

All this brought up new problems however: storing nigh 40 mostly oversized minis. I already have tons of troop trays for rank and file figures, but not much for these relatively big-based and tall models. 

This one was painted identically as the Reaper Spectre also posted today with almost the same considerations: principally that blue and black don't look great together,and two, all translucent blue feels cheap for this great figure. Like that spectre, Contrast Templar Black for the robes, Contrast Basilicanum Grey on the skin followed by some highlighting with the brush on Grayseer in the traditional three, four layer manner. Glowing red eyes finished it off.

The gravestone also got a light drybrush of off-white. I do like these Contrast paints, but to me they have a very specific purpose: to quickly cover large models with a single coat of paint. i would not want to be doing Napoleonics or much in the historical side of things where there's a lot of equipment or complex uniforms. The three colors I've been using though have been great for this project.

It's weird that this guy is a "sergeant". Cowardice, leadership deficiencies - is this what plagues undead armies in the field that they need supernatural NCOs? Robot leaders are similarly stupid conceptually. That's a bit a lore I'm going to jettison immediately.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Spectre

The final and fourth session of my experiments with Citadel Contrast colors yielded the final three miniatures of the original 39. Pretty good looking figures for a minimum of effort. Plus I cleaned out several small storage drawers of ghosts and other haunted things, making room for newer stuff near my increasingly overcrowded work station. 

All this brought up new problems however: storing nigh 40 mostly oversized minis. I already have tons of troop trays for rank and file figures, but not much for these relatively big-based and tall models. 

This one was among the last as I hemmed and hawed over the final approach. I knew a full Aethermatic Blue approach wouldn't do any justice to the sculpt as this one has clearly a bone, skinless face and fleshy muscular arms. Plus, I've not been happy with the look of the blue and black next to each other. I also prefer this one emerging from the shadows as a more corporal entity despite having no physical means of locomotion, i.e., legs. So Templar Black was the principal color, Basilicanum Grey on the face, arms, and gravestone. I then went and, unlike the vast majority of the others, highlighted the skin back up with the Grayseer brush-on, with a drybrush of off-white at the end. The gravestone - an extra from the Grave Wraith figure seen earlier - was also drybrushed with an off white.

I think generally, the one thick coat worked out quite well here - I see several gradations of black and gray in all the right spots. The flesh could have been a bit lighter, but I was focusing on speed and simplicity here. No eye sockets meant no red eyes to drop in so this was mostly 10 minutes of principal painting, many more as is typical for cleaning, assembling, priming, drying, gluing, basing, etc. 

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Grave Wraith

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day. 
 

One thick coat of Contrast Templar Black for the bulk of this one. I'm pretty happy with him except for the glowing runes on the sword. Looking at other examples it seems like a lot of folks just ignored them outright.

This model came with three headstones in addition to the integral one seen here at right. I used one of the extras on the left and distributed the other two to other models.
They were painted with Contrast Basilicanum Grey.

Army Painter Highland Tufts seen here

That leaves, of the original 39 model undertaking, just three - two Reaper spectres and a Warlord Necroplis Sergeant. When I started, I was stuck on what to do with the handful of other Reaper and Ral Partha wraiths, but I think this Contrast Templar Black is going to work fine for the bulk of them. Those eleven (at the prep station now) will bring the total up to 50 figures done in just a handful of sessions - not bad.  

Then there will be a new project involving furry beasts and werewolves requiring a new set of Contrast browns and the eternally sold out Wraith Bone primer. More to come on that - meanwhile I continue to have numerous models - both historical, and fantastic - in various stages of completion to fold in along the way: witches, Cossacks, dwarves and more.

Stay tuned and thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Spirits

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day. 
One of these sculpts is almost identical to the "spell effect" model and since I had two sets I did one pair with simply Contrast Aeterhmatic Blue and then Contrast Templar Black with my home brew Pledge + ink wash for the bones on the other. That way they can be used as just spirits or minions as the need arises.
 

One sculpt I don't have is the hunched one with the cowl over his head. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled and pick that up sometime.

At any rate, neat models and useful for all sorts of things.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Spell Effect: Spectral Minion

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day. 

Yes, I suppose this could just be a spell effect - but he certainly could be an entity in it's own right as well.

This one came with the option of having a two handed sword but it would have made him tremendously tall and awkward and it also had a fiddly broken hilt. Luckily there was an empty hand option.

I had to mix up a Pledge and ink wash for the bones (over a hand painted, off-white basecoat), followed by a matte medium to kill the shine. Otherwise this was a simple coat of Contrast Templar Black.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Labella DeMornay

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day. 

This one was the easiest- one thick coat of Aethermatic Blue and done. I had kept her aside as I thought I was going to do her hair or the robe a different color, but changed my mind at the end.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Ghost

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day. 

Robes done with Contrast Templar Black, stones: Contrast Basilicanum Grey. Still a little gloss in the eye socket but this one is not yet dullcoated and sealed.

As for the hair - I undercoated the hair with white to see if I could just get a different lighter shade of gray and it does kind of work, but the Contrast (Basilicanum Grey here) adheres differently to paint than it does to the smooth primer so it just looks weird. I may go back and do the hair again conventionally.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm HackMaster - Sivian Banshee

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day. 
 

I missed the kilt when I bought this guy for a couple bucks at a store closing sale. Still - a neat figure and a nice alternate to the female banshees that predominate.

A reminder: try and get the priming right on the first pass. You can see some splotchy effects due entirely to the fact that the brush-on Gray Seer does not have the same properties as the spray on version. I had to touch up this one a lot with the brush on and applied the Contrast evenly and yet there are many unpleasant effects that came into focus after drying - especially that bigger piece of the cloak at left.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Ghost

Day Three of my Citadel Contrast paints experiments yielded up 10 more completed figures. Sorry for the delay - I took off some time for vacation and some of the ones in this batch took a bit longer as I had to do bones, weapons and/or other equipment in a traditional manner. The principal work was done in one session however - hence the third day.  

This is easily one of the ugliest models of the entire nigh 40 figure lot. The charitable view is that he's warning you to not proceed, but he instead appears to waving a tearful farewell. Kind of a goofy figure. And if he's undead, why does he need a pouch at his hip that I had to go paint? Maybe he's a reanimated, long deceased wizard?

 I was going to use the Aethermatic Blue again for the bones, but had not enjoyed the look of that and Templar Black together. I did the bones with a wash where I tried to hack my own Contrast and it came out ok. This was Pledge floor polish mixed with brown ink with a drop of black ink in there. (There will be more of that later.) I then went over it with a matte sealant after to kill the shine.

Pledge mixed with ink was a neat idea, but I don't like the high gloss finish and so will try ink and matte mediums in the future. Pledge is indeed cheaper than medium by a long shot but for time saving it's another unneeded step. Stones done with Contrast Basilicanum Grey

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

I'd Buy That #1 - New Category

I'm starting a new category here called "I'd Buy That" to encourage or inspire sculptors out there to create figures based on photos or art that would make cool figures. I don't have the wherewithal to sculpt these myself, but I 'll create a gallery of neat images that I'd love to see in miniature form. I'm always coming across these ideas but haven't thought of a way to store them in a way that makes sense until now. You can click on the category cloud entry at left to see them all as I expand it.

This is a Vietnam era US Marine officer - found it in a recent issue of American Rifleman. (Heheh my joke name for my own miniature company would be called "Firing Pistols Miniatures" as I love the pose. This one is close enough.)

28mm - Reaper - Borley, Male Ghost

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. This is another that turned out just great. Putting the eyes in after, really brings them to life, er, death.

Like many of the others, one undiluted coat of Contrast Aethermatic Blue. I put in the red eyes over it, but that and the basing was it - five minutes work minus drying time.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

25mm Citadel Vampire Counts - Banshee

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. Contrast Black Templar on the hair and dress came out well enough, but this is one where I think I should have done her skin corporal instead. It's terrifying enough that this is floating around that making her skin "translucent" doesn't really add anything.

Less than totally satisfied with this one though I love the model. 

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Warlord - Gauren, Necropolis Hero

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. This one came out great - one of the better ones! I added the rounded base for stability.

Pretty simple to do - one undiluted coat of Contrast Aethermatic Blue. I put in the red eyes over it, but that and the basing was it - five minutes work minus drying time.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Death Shroud

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures.This one came out great (a single undiluted coat of Contrast Back Templar). I had trouble putting it together as there was a disguised chunk of pewter in the interior that needed carving off to make it fit. Stones done with Contrast Basilicanum Grey.

In the end though, beautifully spooky model - five minutes work minus dry time.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Lurien, Ghost

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. I gave this one the white eyes and the other visually similar model, Aysa, the red ones - I should have reversed it. It's a tiny enough detail to not matter all that much. Leaving the eyes blank and blue-stained just felt like it was unfinished.

These models turned out pretty good - and again took about 5 minutes with basing, minus drying times.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Warlord - Aysa, Ghost

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. I gave this one the red eyes and the other visually similar model, Lurien, the white ones - I should have reversed it. It's a tiny enough detail to not matter all that much. Leaving the eyes blank and blue stained just felt like it was unfinished.

 

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - The Ghost Bride

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. I do like this ghost bride model- she could work in either a fantasy or a horror setting. I may even pick up another one to do in a more traditional manner. I thought about doing white eyes to suggest benevolence, but decided a gal wot dies on her wedding day is not gonna be too happy. Red eyes it is. Stones done with Contrast Basilicanum Grey.

I also lightly dry-brushed white over the bridal bits, but it may be too suble to notice here.

I'm no wiz with the visual effects, but I tinkered with some filters in Picasa to a mild degree of satisfaction.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Reaper - Harkus, Ghost King, Ghost Queen & Ghost Warrior

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. These three were blistered individually, but now comprise a single "classic" set. They are thematically similar so I put them together. These were also the low hanging fruit in that they required no detail work apart from the bases. Each done in a couple minutes with one undiluted coat of Contrast Aethermatic Blue.

Harkus, the Ghost King - (I didn't vote for him.)

On complex minis like these, one does have to take care to cover it completely - missed spots are glaringly obvious - especially with the Black Templar. Even here I found spots I missed that I went back and filled in.

The Ghost Queen - it did occur to me that I could make a good chess set with all these - just enough duplicates for the key rear-ranking figures fronted by the miscellany as pawns.

The Ghost Warrior - In a world where ghosts don't exist this could be frightening, but in fantasy settings his "weapon" is somewhat less than threatening - Beware The Tickler!

The stones under this one and Harkus were done with Contrast Basilicanum Grey. I doesn't get simpler.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

25mm WOTC - Silver Anniversery - Lesser Vampire

Day 2 of my ethereal creatures project with Citadel Contrast paints yielded up twelve completed figures. These are among my least favorite - I already have two more totaling four now, having picked them up cheap at store closures years ago. The other two are painted as I think intended, as lesser vampires. But they seemed ethereal to me with the floating heights of the model. Hard to tell here, but the eyes are glowing red; there's not a lot of real estate to work on for the eyes but it's evident up close.

Stones done in Contrast Basilicanum Grey, hair on the figure at right in Contrast Templar Black. It's tempting on this one on the right to do some other part on it like the cloth or the skin but I know I'll never get around to doing it. I probably will do the stones that got kicked up in the shroud - there's no reason why they would be ethereal.

Here's my first attempt at this model in what I guessed was a burial shroud.  I have another finished one around somewhere too. This one was finished and photographed in the early 00s.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

25mm Ghost Miniatures - Wizards 4/6

Reminds me of a 70s Kung Fu character. I did the black trim on the robe (it's not sculpted).

Got sidetracked on ghosts (and witches now too) and still have just the fine details on the remaining two Ghost Miniatures wizards. They're coming along.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!