2017 Year in Review!

The Brush Wizard's 2017 Year in Review

It's been a pretty solid year for me this year, though I didn't post as much as previous years. It was a busy one, filled with firsts and awesomeness! Let's take a look!

Super Secret Christmas Present 2017 - Santa Dwarf Ornament

This year for for my family's Christmas party the elders decided that exchanging names and giving gifts was no longer the way we were doing things. Instead, we would be giving a $10 ornament and playing an exchange game.

While I'm not a fan of this kind of thing, because it takes away the idea of picking something specifically for someone. At the same time if means that I don't have to struggle to figure out something and then worry if the person I was matched up with would like it or not.

That said, as soon as I heard it was a ornament exchange, I knew what I had to do.

Project Status - Adeptus Mechanicus Army

Work on continues on the Admech army. I am really happy with the progress so far and its all starting to come together nicely.

In the time since I started this project, the rules for the Friendly at Adepticon have been announced and one of the detachments allowed is Spearhead. In this detachment you field, at a minimum, an HQ unit and 3 units of Heavy Support.

This changed my plan from fielding as many Vanguard as possible, to doing my dream army of a smaller force supporting a bunch of Kastelan Robots.

Vlad the Impaler

One historical figure that I've always been interested in is Vlad the Impaler. I find the mixture of myth and truth to be really interesting and find myself reading about him from time to time.

So when I saw Lyn of Metalhead Minis painting up a bunch of mini busts, which included one of Vlad, I instantly asked where to find him and bought one for myself.

GUTS - Chibi Sherman Tank

While working the Ninja Division booth at GenCon, I painted some German soldiers for their new line of WWII era minis, GUTS. I instantly fell in love with them and left with a Sherman tank and a squad of US HQ.

I had big plans for them, but eventually they all went to the back burner. That is until I needed to find something to paint on stream, after I finished Vlad the Impaler. On a whim, I primed the Sherman and went to work on it.

Lou - Chibi C'thulhu

A few weeks before Halloween, I picked up some of Reaper's chibi Bonesylvanians. Lou, a chibi C'thulhu, Mel, a chibi mindflayer and Drak, a chibi man-bat.

I decided to start with Lou and after looking him over for a bit I knew that I needed to model him after the larger C'thulhu that I painted a few years ago.

New Project: The Guardian of the Sea

I'd picked up Marike, Guardian of the Sea from Dark Sword Miniatures about a month ago and had been planning to use her for something. I knew I wanted to put her on a display base, because she's such and excellent sculpt, but I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do.

Then I remembered, I also have the Kraken kit from Reaper Miniatures, which I had bought as part of one of their Bones Kickstarters. It comes with part of a sunken ship that is used as the base for the kraken itself and it is a really cool piece.

That's when it hit me that she should be standing in front of, or on top of it, and it fits the theme extremely well.

Well, the drain of building an army has taken its toll and I needed a break from it. I'd been working on finishing my squad of Skitarii Rangers for what seemed like ages and it was wearing thin.

A change of pace was needed, and with that in mind I gathered up the parts for a new display piece.

The Drunken Testors' Brush Challenge

In a bid to get more folks watching us stream miniature painting on Twitch, Sophie and I came up with the idea of having an event where we face off against each other painting miniatures with the Testors' white handled brushes.

I believe I originally joked about it once before while we were reminiscing about ye olden days of  when we started miniature painting and then in usual Sophie fashion she made it better by suggesting we get drunk while doing it.

The idea kept getting kicked around for awhile and we would keep saying "we really should do that", but either of us brought the brushes or made any attempt to bring the idea to reality.

So I took the initiative.

Replacing the Fury of Dracula Figures

In recent years I've found myself leaving the video game scene and getting more and more into board gaming. I've also always been a big fan of Dracula, and things Dracula related. So when I discovered Fury of Dracula from Fantasy Flight Games, it was a no brainer that I was going to enjoy this game.

At the time I never bothered to get my own copy, but when Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight ended their licensing agreement, Fury of Dracula quickly became a must buy before it vanished into mist, forever.

5 Years Old, Already?

Well that went by quickly.

As of Oct 1st, this little ol' website is five years old! It's a kindergartner!

In the early days, all this was was mainly a glorified journal for work in progress projects and the occasional finished piece. In those days I had been only posting on Twitter and wanted somewhere where I could talk at length about the process.

I didn't really expect anyone to read it and at times had felt that maybe it was pointless, because who really cares what I think or how I do something. Obviously, someone else has done it before and better, yeah? What's the point of rehashing things that folks can find anywhere else?

Tech-Priest Dominus Conversion

Shortly after I came back from GenCon, I was able to finish the custom Tech-Priest Dominus I had mentioned previously and been plastering all over social media.

I had actually taken him to GenCon with me, in case I had a chance for some free time to sit and just paint. The only time I was able to was on the first night, when I wasn't sure what to do with myself and didn't think I had anyone to hang out with.

When I returned from GenCon, I left him sit for a bit longer and about a week or two later I finally put him back on the table and got to work finishing him up.

Grimwood, Elven Archer

It's no secret RuneQuest is my favorite RPG system, but it is brutal as Hell.

Thanks to an unlucky roll while defending an elven forest from chaos, my Storm Bull initiate Talia, lost a leg and was no longer able to travel with the party. 

After cleansing their forest and making up for mistakes we made against them. The elves joined our cause and agreed cast healing magic on Talia to allow the limb to regrow. The downside, it would take 9 months of in-game time before she could rejoin the party. 

With that in mind, and since the elves have agreed to join our alliance, we were able to roll up elves as replacement characters for the two characters who were incapacitated. 

A new character means a new miniature and after a long search trying to find a suitable elf mini, I finally ended up with a human ranger from Dark Sword Miniatures.

Tutorial: How to Paint Copper

How to Paint Copper

High Contrast Metallics

Hey all, earlier I showed you how to paint metal, using silver metallic paint and what I call "High Contrast Metallics". Now, I'm going to show you how to take what we talked about there and use it for copper/brass instead. If you haven't read that tutorial, you may want to check it out before continuing.

Announcing Hobbyistgirl and the Brush Wizard on Twitch!

Big news everyone!

After a couple months of talking about it and figuring out all the details, Sophie and I are starting a Twitch stream!

Moar Desk Upgrades!

The hobby desk is reaching levels of awesomeness, once only imagined...

In the time since I last posted about the desk update, I've now added a few more things to it. Namely a new paint rack and fresh lighting.

Wander: The Journey So Far...

Lately, I've been addicted to working on the Wander figures from Red Panda Miniatures and Panda Cult Games. In the weeks following GenCon I've knocked out three of the seven miniatures in the current line up. You've seen Tank and Jon already, but now I've finished Roland and have taken better pictures of all of them.

Let's take a look!

White Dwarf Sept 2017

This month I have checked off a long time goal.

I have a model published in White Dwarf magazine, Games Workshop's official monthly magazine for Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000!

The model in question is none other than the Deathwing Terminator Captain that I painted up earlier this year for Adepticon and the Crystal Brush in March.

But, apparently this isn't any ol' issue of White Dwarf, its a special 30th anniversary edition, celebrating 30 years of Warhammer 40,000! That's awesome!

Wander: Tank all Finished!

While at GenCon I worked the Ninja Division booth with Elizabeth Beckley-Bradford, who's husband Jonathan is one half of Panda Cult Games. Panda Cult Games are an ultra small indie game studio and they are currently in development of their first game, Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay.

WIP - Wander: Jon the Bard

Since Monday evening I've been working on Jon, a chameleon bard, from Panda Cult Games line of Wander miniatures.

The official artwork has him with green skin, and originally I was going to follow suit. But then I realized that chameleons can be vibrantly colored and decided to do some image searches for references.

That's when I stumbled on this image.

GenCon 50!

I have returned from the land of GenCon. It was a great time! The inaugural Golden Kobold chibi painting competition was a huge success and I got to meet a lot of folks. Such a great time was had.

The Brush Wizard at GenCon 50!

In case you didn't know, I will be attending GenCon this year! It's super exciting and I am both honored and proud to be joining Ninja Division at their booth for the inaugural Golden Kobold chibi painting competition as a judge.

You can find me in the exhibit hall at booth #2827, accepting entries for the contest as well as painting adorable chibi figures.

This is definitely a dream come true. Not only because I get to go to GenCon for the first time and it's the 50th anniversary, but also because I'll be working directly with the folks responsible for creating and feeding my chibi addiction.

I'll be taking as many pictures as possible and when I get home I'll be updating again with pictures and a write up on my experience.

This is likely one of the greatest opportunities I've ever had given to me and I'm excited to take part in it and do my part.

New Project! Chibi Skitarii Ranger!

Taking a bit of a break on my Skitarii army and working on a new chibi. But this time, I'm going full on custom and attempting to make a Skitarii Ranger out of a Ninja All-Stars mini!

WIP - Starting on the Rangers

Th Skitarii train keeps on chugging and I am now working on the five man squad of Rangers.

Originally, I had planned on customizing the entire squad with T'au Pathfinder legs. But after totally ruining a few of my original Ranger models, I decided against it. Leaving me with a single crouched sniper in the group.

WIP - Custom Tech Priest Dominus

A few months ago, I decided it would be fun to make a custom Tech Priest Dominus to lead my

Skitarii. I originally had an idea of making him on a hover saucer, but that idea quickly collapsed when I realized the bits I had on hand were too small to believably carry all the gear the Dominus has.

Slightly put off by that revelation, I set it aside and went about other projects.

WIP - More Progress on the Skitarii

More progress has been made on the Skitarii army for Warhammer 40k. As of last night, I now have the Sydorian Dragoon finished, the first batch of Vanguard weathered, a Tech Priest Enginseer nearly finished, a second Enginseer being custom built and I salvaged my 5 man squad of Rangers.

Whew! That's a lot!

Rhinox Hide - The Bestest Citadel Paint Color

What do bone, gold, brass, copper, leather, rusty metal, mud, and red cloth all have in common?

This guy right here.

Rhinox Hide, it is quite possibly the most versitile color I've ever used in the current Citadel line of paint. Since it's release, I've found multiple uses for it and emptied half a dozen pots.

Painting up Admech (Finally)

Well folks, Warhammer 40,000 is now in its 8th edition and thanks to all the hype surrounding it, I am finally painting up my Skitarii models! I've actually gotten some decent progress on them so far and have a full 10 man unit of Skitarri Vanguard finished and I have moved on to a Sydorian Dragoon.

Lets check it out!

Jack Scarecrow's Pumpkin Patch

When Ninja Division released the Jack Scarecrow mini-boss, I fell in love with the mini instantly. It helps that, in general, I am a fan of Halloween and this was released right around that time (and along side Beatrix the Witch Queen).

I decided to make a display piece using him, which now means I need a new one for my actual SDE collection too. But that means I just get to paint him again, which is alright since he was a fun mini to paint up.

Hobby Desk Upgrade - Version 3.0

I've recently been working on updating my hobby space. It all started in mid-June when I decided to order up a new desk and move my hobby area from the middle of my living room, to a corner of the living room.

Tutorial: How to Paint Metal

How to Paint Metal

High Contrast Metallics 

"Metal is easy. All you need to do is base coat it, wash and drybrush the highlights and you're done!"

Metallic paint sometimes gets some flak for being the easy way out for doing metals. It's also been known to be hard to photograph properly, due to the light reflecting off of the metallic flake in the paint and messing with highlights.

As such, Non-Metallic Metals, using regular paint to simulate metal surfaces, has gained popularity recently. Many of the models you see in catalogs, competition and display pieces seem to lean towards NMM as the way to go.

But what if we take the principles of NMM and apply them to metallic paints?

This is what High Contrast Metallics is. Using lessons learned from the non-metallic way of doing things and applying them to metals to get a really nice and interesting metal surface using metallic paint.

It's something I've been working on for the better part of the year, and now I am ready to share it.

Lara Kraft, Mousling Adventuress

A few months ago, I was asked by a friend of mine to do a commission of a "cute mini" for her new desk at work. After looking all over and trying to find something suitable, I showed her the mousling Lara Kraft. A take on Lara Croft of Tomb Raider fame.

Surprise Chibi! Kunoichi for Sophie

While talking to my friend Sophie (@hobbyistgirl), she mentioned how she needed chibi in her life. She'd mentioned wanting to get into Super Dungeon Explore, Arcadia Quest or Ninja All-Stars. She also had mentioned buying the box set for Ninja All-Stars a few times. 

So I decided to surprise her with a model from Ninja All-Stars. Of course, I partially ruined the surprise, because I told her I was painting up a chibi for her. But I didn't show her it while I was working on it (I'm bad at surprises, apparently).

Games Day 2007 Orc Warboss

Funny story about this model. It is actually owned by my buddy Mike (@dagreenskins on Twitter) and I've given him shit about not opening it or painting it for a solid year. Well, he jokingly suggested that he'd send it to me for painting and I said I would. That said, painting this guy was kind of a return the favor, since he was kind enough to give me one of his spare Frostgrave scenarios from his Adepticon VIG swag bag.

Super Dungeon Explore: Iron Golem

I've finally finished painting the Iron Golem mini-boss for Super Dungeon Explore. I really like the mini, but damn it took a lot out of me painting him. Of course, that's more on me, than on the model itself. Because for him, I decided to try something new with the metallics and it was a slog and a half.

The Golden Kobold - The World's First Chibi Miniature Painting Competition!

GenCon 2017 is special this year, not only is it the 50th anniversary of GenCon, but it is also the first year for Ninja Division and Soda Pop Miniatures Golden Kobold chibi painting competition! Not only that, but I've been asked to help out with it! Total excitement on multiple levels!

I've done a minor update to the Open category. Check it out below.

WIP - Rainbow Warriors Project - Ironclad Dreadnaught

It's been a while since I've posted anything. But I am still doing projects! Currently I'm working on a Warhammer 40,000 Ironclad Dreadnaught for a group army project. This is a Space Marine army based on the Rainbow Warriors chapter of space marines.

There's a pretty sizable group of us, some donating models and some donating chair time at the painting desk. I am in the latter group.

Crystal Brush '17 Entry - Deathwing Terminator Captain

Adepticon 2017 was an excellent experience and I learned a lot about painting competitions and my own painting. In the months before the event, I spent countless hours working on a single entry for the Sci-Fi Single Figure category. That figure was a Deathwing Terminator Captain from Warhammer 40,000.

Crystal Brush '17 Entry - Tabbybrook Mage

Its been a long time coming, but I'm finally here with write ups on my entries for the Crystal Brush at Adepticon 2017. Following the convention, I hit a hobby rut and everything kind of just stopped. But I'm back and ready to get back on the hobby horse.

This is the first of two posts about the models and in it I'll be talking about the Tabbybrook Mage from Super Dungeon Explore.

Chibi Swap 2: Ser Snapjaw and Brave-Mode Candy

It's time for another Chibi Swap! This time Chris chose Brave-Mode Candy and I chose Ser Snapjaw, both from Super Dungeon Explore. With minis in hand, we both got to work and I have to say both of these figures turned out excellent!

Once again, I had Chris do a write up on Ser Snapjaw, so he can share his experience of painting him in his own words. So lets check them out!

WIP - Deathwing Terminator Captain: Happy Little Lion

Its time to move on to the base, finally. The first step was painting a freehand portrait of Lion el'Jonson the Primarch of the Dark Angels chapter of space marines. Generally, I don't do a lot of freehand work and I do even less actual paintings. But I have done something similar before in a previous project and had good results, so I thought it'd be worth a shot.

WIP - Deathwing Terminator Captain: He's Pretty Much Finished

The Terminator Captain is now all finished, except for some touch up work and the text on the shoulder scroll. It's been a whirlwind of progress since the last post. I'm not going to try and cover it all. But I'll touch on the big things.

WIP - Deathwing Terminator Captain: Chest Details, Cape and Left Arm Finished

More progress!

As of Thursday night I've gotten the interior of the cape, the rest of the chest details and the custom left arm all painted. It's actually going pretty well and while I know I've got more than 20 hours into the model so far, it doesn't really feel like it.

WIP - Continued Work on the Terminator Captain

Work took a minor hiatus this weekend, as it seemed like all I did was go out of the house. But as of Monday, I was back to work on the Terminator Captain. I managed to get a lot done since then too, his legs are finished for now. I've since moved on to the torso, which is coming along nicely.

New Project: Deathwing Terminator Captain

Well, in my last post I whined that I couldn't share my progress on any projects that I am taking to Adepticon. Thanks to Greg and his clarification of the rules, I can feel safe in posting my work on this project.

WIP: Doing Some Deathwing Practice

Adepticon is in 42 days and I'm in a flurry of hobby trying to get my entries done for the Crystal Brush competition. It seems like a lot of time, but really it isn't a full 42 days. If I were to work every night right up until go time, its only 210 hours.

I'm only planning on entering 2 pieces, one for the Sci-Fi Single Model and Fantasy Single Model. I'm currently working on the Sci-Fi model, which is going to be a Deathwing Terminator, but that's all I can say or show due to the rules of the comp (super lame, right?).

I like painting Deathwing but the previous method of painting them, while nice for table top, won't cut it for display level competition. I need more contrast and better highlighting.

So with that in mind, I got to work last night on some practice bits.

The Golden D6 - Issue 10

The Golden D6 issue 10 is out now, and it is a massive 84 page collection of wonderfully painted miniatures! There's dioramas, busts, large scale models, small scale models, it's really a great showing of diverse projects and painting styles.

Blood Bowl: More Work on the Orcs

The Orcs seem to be going a lot slower than the human team, and I'm not 100% sure why. Part of me wants to blame gluing them all together at the beginning, then again, it might just be because they a larger models and have a few more details than the Humans did.

Tutorial: How to Paint Yellow

How to Paint Yellow

Yellow can be one of those tough colors to get the hang of, mostly due to how transparent/translucent the color is when thinned. If painted over a dark color, it likes to stay dark, or takes multiple coats to get even coverage. But, when done right it really pops.

Today, I'm going to share how I painted the yellow on my Blood Bowl Orcs. This tutorial is thanks to kjsubtle on Twitter, who asked how I painted the armor on my Orcs.

Blood Bowl: Continuing Work on the Orcs

Work continues on the Orc Blood Bowl team, and I have all the skin tones done and the base coats down on the models.

I've really kicking myself for fully assembling the Orc team before painting them. I had assumed that it wouldn't have been a huge deal with most of them, but as the painting went on I realized it ws a huge mistake.

So, remember kids, don't glue the Orcs together before painting them!

Blood Bowl: Tri-City Sentinels all Finished!

The Tri-City Sentinels, the Human Blood Bowl team, are now all finished and nearly ready for their first game! The only thing left to do is base them, but that will have to wait until the Orcs are finished.

Blood Bowl: Starting on the Orc Team

 
The Human team is all finished (post on that soon), and now it is time to get started on the Orcs!

For the most part, I glued all of the models together, except for one of the Linemen sculpts, which seemed like it would have been a pain in the ass to paint fully assembled. I decided to use one of those guys as my test model, because it is also my favorite of the Linemen models.

Blood Bowl: Skin Tones and Armor Finished

Painting continues on the Human team. I have finished all of the skin tones and the armor plating, including the red striping for the rest of the models.

I decided to mix up the skin colors a bit, having some white players and some black players. I wanted to make it a bit random, so I decided to roll some dice to determine how many black players were in the team.

Blood Bowl: Thrower Finished and Starting on the Rest

I've now finished the first Thrower miniature and he looks great! With the 2nd mini done, I am now really liking this color scheme and can't wait to see them all on the field.

Blood Bowl: Human Test Model Finished

I'm having a blast painting up the human team for Blood Bowl so far and now the test model is all finished! He ended up with a few more stripes, and I decided to freehand the numbers onto his armor.

For the most part, he's all straight colors with little mixing. The only mixed colors are the black for the cloth parts of the uniform and the leather bits. This will make it fairly simple to recreate across the entire team without having to worry about exact color matching of mixed paints.

Blood Bowl: Starting on the Human Team

One of my Grail games is another Games Workshop title, Blood Bowl. I've wanted a copy of this game for decades, but never pulled the trigger on one of the old editions. When GW announced that they were bringing it back, with full support to keep it alive, I was super excited.

Well, I've finally gotten my hands on it and have started working on the Human team.