Brun and Lug

From Stuff I Have Painted

These guys have seen a lot of table time lately, albeit in bare metal. So I figured they would be a fun project to take on. Also, my dwarves had a good showing at a local tournament this weekend, with Gorten and crew winning the whole shebang (Though these guys were not in the list)! I decided to ride the victorious wave and turn it into painting power, always eager to use alternative sources of energy.

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

Lug was a lot of fun, actually, he was the main reason I wanted to paint these models. This model has never looked very realistic to me, so I decided I had carte blanche when it came to painting him. From there it was just a small step to the realization that the only sensible thing one can do when presented with such an opportunity, is paint an eff-off huge blue bear.

Once I had succumbed to that, the rest of the model unrolled. I used dry brushing on the bear, which I am actually not very good at. The technique itself is always rusty with me because I use it so rarely. It is always fun/challenging/infuriating to try something you are not practiced at. I ended up using a lot of glazes after dry brushing, because he was coming across kind of powdery-looking.

The armor was the same color as my 'jacks, since I use him in my Searforge list. The bright orange plate is a precursor to me using more orange in my other Searforge models, as there is a small piece in the recently released Mercs book stating something to the effect of the dwarves wearing bright colors when on the job to warn people who would try and stop them.

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

Since I had a big blue bear, my mind wandered to Baloo, and then I couldn't get that cussin' "Bear Necessities" song out of my head the whole time I was painting. It was awful. Though I did decide that if Lug was Baloo, Brun should be a pissed off Mowgli. That brought about me experimenting with the darker, Indian (Like from India) skin tone. I also incorporated the the Hammerfall Khaki and orange color to tie him in with the rest of my Mercs.

You may also notice that the rune stones around his neck look a little flat. I did, when I was looking at the pictures last night and realized I hadn't finished every part of the model. After I had put all my painting stuff away. Quite a few almost cuss words later (Trying to clean up the vocab on account of my little one) and some painting later, and we resolved that. The model is truly finished now, despite the photography.

Lastly, a got a new portable photo studio for like 20 bucks that Deke showed me. These pics were my first attempt with it. I have a lot to learn still, but they look a lot better than my previous pics.

One more quick pic:

From Stuff I Have Painted

Thanks for reading,
T

Skarlock

I hadn't finished a model in quite some time. In an attempt to just be ready for Astro I have been blocking color in on Tau and moving on. I really felt a strong painting urge this weekend and I was riding high from a pretty good showing with a borrowed Cryx list at a local tournament.

With all that in mind, I borrowed the Forces of Cryx book from a friend and decided to paint a Skarlock using the painting guide in the back. Here is how he turned out.:

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

This model was deceptive to me. It is far more involved than I thought and I found myself being delighted that they are only FA 1. I was a little rusty as far as detail work, OK a lot rusty, and I needed to remember my own cardinal rule of thin paints (doh!).

I am not happy with the necrotic glue, a bummer because of how prominently it plays into this mini. I haven't used inks on anything other than metallics in so long that I forgot how to work with them. We will "get it" going forward through some trial and error I am sure. In retrospect I probably should have brought the skin up a little more, as the black runes, make it look pretty dark still. Live and learn.

Thanks for reading,
T