Saturday, September 7, 2013

Painting progress of a Dark Age Warchief

So as part of my resolution to take time painting my miniatures I started with a Warchief for the game Dark Age. Though I am in no way a professional painter I like to think that I can at least paint to a decent table top level relatively well. 
I totally forgot to take a picture of the model before I primed it but I think it doesn't make that much of a difference. Because I was in a rush to buy a can of primer this is GW's black primer, I am more of a fan of the Privateer Press' primer but I had to make do with what I had.


 I learned this technique from one of my buddies I'm sure that there is a more elegant way to both use this as well as a proper application of this technique. But basically you prime black and you dry brush white it helps make the details stick out a bit more as well as adding some instant depth to your miniature before painting it.

Quick example after a coat of Traitor Green from P3 line I believe. The color comes out pretty rich and you can see some natural depth that wouldn't be immediately apparent.

The miniature is coming along nicely with just some base colors, a good amount of the time I spent on the miniature was based on "color placement". When painting up a new model/army that is usually one of the harder parts to figure out personally speaking. I try and come up with little stories for a miniature that I am painting in order to personalize it more and rationalize the colors I used. For example for this miniature I imagined he found some old SWAT armor so I went with the dark blueish color for the armored padding he is wearing.

Here is the miniature just about complete all that is left to do was finish the base and varnish the model once I manage to go down to the hobby shop for supplies. I had a lot of fun with this miniature because I was able to take just a little more time than I allot to myself usually. Though it isn't to a crazy standard it is more than ready to be put onto the table top and be gamed with.

As I said before I am trying to devote more time to this blog to motivate myself to stay active in the community as well as track my progress as far as painting and other hobby related ventures. If you have any suggestions or would like to see more of something feel free to leave a comment! Till then folks!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Let's dust off some of those cobwebs shall we?

Hello everyone I am back! Just took a few months in order for me to get motivated into writing in the blog again. There are several reasons for this for starters League of Legends is a very addictive game... it just took a few months to balance the game with the rest of my life. Hobby wise I was still painting an odd miniature or two but in no way was it for a specific purpose it was merely to test out new paints or techniques I have acquired.

As always Gen Con was the motivator for me to paint a bunch of my friends miniatures as well as my own in preparation for the tournament... Of course it happens to be the last three days before the tournament that i tend to paint like a mad man to get everything done. Gen Con as always was a great experience and I think this year was one of the best I had attended. Nothing great really happened per se but for some reason I just really enjoyed the experience and walked away with a few nuggets of knowledge.

First my love of card games has reemerged! Don't worry i'm not much of a CCG fan but of Fantasy Flight's LCG business model. I played quite a few games of both Star Wars and Netrunner, both games rate extremely high in my book between art direction and game play. I didn't encounter anyone at the tournament that I thought was "that guy" everyone was friendly and all of my matches were a pleasure. Not only that but the variance in deck construction was quite good. Though some people used similar set ups they put their own personal touches on their decks that made me look at my deck through a different lens.

Second was my love of miniature games never diminishes though this year there was a notable sharp decline in the Malifaux games I played. Games like Dark Age and Hell Dorado I played at Gen Con were great fun and challenged me tactically. But I realized that I should not be rushing all the miniatures I want to paint for a tournament the week of Gen Con. Rather I am going to start painting miniatures months in advance even if I am not sure if I am going to use them.

Miniatures especially in skirmish games are very unique so I should take time to paint them up to the level they deserve rather than rush them out the door at the last minute. With that said I have taken an oath to take my time on my miniatures so after loading up on a few miniatures from Gen Con... namely Dark Age and Bushido miniatures the first thing I did when I went home is primed and painted a Warchief model (pics coming soon).

Well with that I am out of here for now I will update very soon.. in fact I am actually working on that article as we speak just going over it some for the final release. As always I welcome any suggestions so if you want to see reviews of certain games or just more articles of certain games I play feel free to leave a comment. Stay tuned everyone and hope that everyone is on the path of Geeky Enlightenment!