Wednesday, June 28, 2017

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.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

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.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

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.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

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.