A year in review

Well, its been nearly a year since i last made a post to the blog!
The last year has been so hectic for me that writing the blog was often the last thing on my mind - major projects finishing at work, moving house (and the roof promptly falling in!), illness in the family and all the other little things in life have combined to mean that I often don't have time for much at all.

Anyway, I thought that i would put up a "year in review" post, so that you guys can see what i've been working on since my last update. Bear with me, because there are quite a few models to show - In fact, because of the number of models, I've only included one or two shots of each. If you want to see them in more detail, head over to Heretics Playground where there are more detailed photos of each of them...

Before we dive in to the pictures, I wanted to say a big thanks to all the people who emailed me with encouragement to getting back to the blog, but specifically Mike and John @ Santa Cruz and Mike from TerranScapes - Your words of encouragement were touching and meant a lot; so thanks to all of you :D

Now, models! First up, we have my pride and joy - The Forge World Macharius Vulcan. This model was heavily modified within the spirit of the original. The body is unchanged, but all of the gun barrels were replaced with etched brass barrels, the tow hooks were replaced with cast examples, the tow chain was replaced with jewellers chain and the handles (were appropriate) were replaced with more "in-scale" fine wire. I'm very proud of this model:

Unfortunately the casting was not of the quality that i usually expect from Forge World - the hull was severely twisted, necessitating significant re-shaping using hot water as well as a significant rebuild of the rear end. However, it all worked out in the end!

Next up we have the Tamiya Jagtiger Mid Production with Commander Otto Carius. Over the last year i've been becoming very interested in modelling WW2 tanks and this was the first proper example that i've put together. Whilst the colour scheme is not exactly right for the period I think that it basically captures the correct feel of this large and imposing tank. The tracks are Fruilmodellismo cast examples - they were so good i wont use anything else now. Because they are cast as individual links (which are then joined with wire) they are fully articulated like the real thing - they also have significant weight meaning that they sag like the real tracks as well!

Next up we have several models from Studio McVey - what can i say about these models that i haven't already said - they are the finest resin models anywhere in the world. The casting is amazing, the designs are sublime and Mike and Ali are wonderful people to deal with. If you havent
checked out their models yet, head over to the shop now and buy some! You wont regret it...

Finally we have a small mini from Hasslefree - Once again Kev White's sculpts are very fun to paint and provide a great "wind down" exercise after a longer job. For this model, I painted it after doing the Macharius and boy was it needed! Going from a project that took several months (oil paints take a long time to dry!) I needed something that would be quick and fun to paint - this is the reason i have a big stash of Hasslefree mini's in my cupboard!

I hope you have enjoyed this brief foray in to my work - I cant promise how often I will be back with updates, but Ill try to keep it updated as often as real life lets me. Until then, keep your brushes wet!

The Wolf Lord

The moment that i saw this giant lump of resin on the Forgeworld website, I new that I had to paint it! An amazing sculpt (does anyone know who the original artist was? I'd love to get more of their work...) cast as a single piece in the usual grey Forgeworld resin, the piece cleaned up well with few mould lines and then the epic paint job started. In terms of both time scales (it probably took me more than 30 hours to paint!) and difficulty this has been one of the hardest miniatures I've ever painted. At times it felt like I was being punished for some previous wrong (!) but I am very happy with the final results.

I wanted to represent a Space Wolf Lord who had been away in combat for many months, surviving in a hostile environment without access to maintenance for his Terminator armour. He should look battle scarred, weary and yet still ferocious.

The wolf lord was painted with a combinations of acrylics, applied by both airbrush and by brush, and several oil colours. This is the first non armour model that i have used oils on for anything other than weathering. Usually, i use oils for any grime streaks, oil leaks etc, but on this model I used lots of oils for the shadowing work, detailing on the face and the metals - every time I use oils, i realise how much i love to work with them, mainly due to the working time being so long. This lets you correct mistakes in a way that you just cant if you are using acrylics. Anyway, on to the pictures, as always, let me know what you think!

Problem Child Alice

Sorry for the long time since my last blog post. Unfortunately I've been having problems with my blogging client / picasa, meaning that i couldn't upload any images (Sidenote, apparently Picasa cant handle colour profiles being embedded in PNG files, thanks to Ben for letting me know!)...Anyway, on to the mini!

Another classic Kev White sculpt. This one is from Hasslefree Miniatures, who always provide great quality and enjoyable models to paint. If you don't know their work, I highly advise that you check out their website.

Alice was painted using Vallejo acrylics plus some Tamiya colours for the blood effects. I was aiming for a saccharine sweet, almost "candy" look to her, which I think i've achieved (to a greater or lesser extent!)

On an aside, I would be interested to hear comments about the quality of the photography. I've been doing a lot of reading and learning about taking photos, and I think these are some of the best photos of my models that I've taken so far. At some point i plan to go back and reshoot all of my other models, to improve the quality, anyway I hope you enjoy the pictures...

The Raven Priest....

Hi guys,

New model to show you - The raven priest. This is the first of the new Studio Mcvey range of miniatures, and what a model it is! I haven't enjoyed painting a model this much in quite a while.

My model was number 40 of the limited run of 750, cast in a smooth grey resin. The casting was excellent with no defects and only minimal flash (Forge World could learn a few things here...). The only problem that i found was that the sword was so thin that every-time i used my hairdryer to speed up drying time it would bow slightly and would need reheating and pushing back to being straight! In short, this is the best resin casting I have come across, beating my previous favourite resin caster (SmartMax) by a good margin.

I decided to paint the model in very natural colours, and placed the model in a "woodland" scene. The tree was scratch built to go along with it, with the aim of making the tree look wizened (if its possible for a tree to have human qualities!) . I was aiming to give the character the impression of being some sort of native american shaman (well, a fantasy version of...). And yes, painting all the feather tips was an absolute nightmare!

In summary I would highly advise anyone who loves high quality models to pay a visit to Mike and Ali over at Studio McVey - hopefully there will be many more models of this quality. From what i can see on the site, they still have the Raven priest available, so grab it now before they are all gone.

PS - I have to apologise for the quality of the photo's for this model - I finally got a new camera (Nikon D60) and I'm having real problems getting images with natural colours on them - everything ends up bleached or over "coloured". I'm still learning about the photography side of the hobby, so please bear with me! Hopefully you can still see the model through the awful photos ;)

Check point

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to let you all know that I've just posted the first photos of armour on Heretics Playground. This one is off a Imperial Guard sentinel patrolling a checkpoint. I wanted to give the impression that this particular sentinel has been in service a long time. First model that i've really been happy with the scratch built components (in this case, the sand bags made with Pro Create and the barbed wire, made using the tutorial on Cool mini or not. The barricade is from a set I picked up at Salute a few years ago. I'm afraid i don't remember who made them tho.The sign is custom built from evergreen rods and a sign printed on my computer. The whole lot was then weathered with oil paints, pastels and acrylics until i was happy.
The sentinel itself was painted using an airbrush and Tamiya colours, then weathered with oils, pastels, powders and acrylics.
Enjoy the pictures - there are more over at Heretics Playground!

Artemis

New model to show y'all - Artemis by Hasslfree miniatures, who rank as one of my favourite miniature vendors! Not much to say about this one, other than she was lovely to paint, Enjoy!