Company of Iron - The Start of Something Fun and Interesting.

For those that don't know CoI is a new skirmish level game from Privateer Press. It looks like a ton of fun and only uses about 10-15 models per side.

I've been pining for a game like this and the best part is that most of the existing models in the PP line up are legal to use in game. I'm hoping that with as low as the model count is I will see many more fully painted armies (well squads really) across the table.

With that in mind I picked up the box set and the special model that came in the new No Quarter magazine. The model is Eilish (something or other) and it's a pretty cool model. It's got a very D&D type feel to it and I wanted to play with colors like Purple.

For a free with magazine model the thing was fairly good quality casting. Think better than Bones and not quite GW hard plastic. It primed well and I was off to the races.

I also decided to use a resin base on this one as I wanted to play a bit with clear resin. I chose a swamp base for this and I think it came out well. I'm really happy with the color scheme I used. The main colors were P3 Pig Iron, Reaper - Russian WWII Olive, and Vallejo Game Color Warlock Purple.

Kommander Harkevich - The Iron Wolf.

Well some of us are not at Gen Con, and still have painting to get done. I have always liked this model and like so many others before it had never really had a reason to get it painted. Now I am kicking myself a bit because of how much fun and how seemingly easy it was to get him looking good. As a side note this one came together pretty quickly. I think I did this in less than 4 hours. So score.

Ok enough talk look at the shiny pictures.....

Don't leave your War Jack out in the snow.

I'm not the biggest fan of seeing a whole army full of weathered, chipped, and beaten up equipment. Real armies in the real world meticulously maintain their weapons (else they stop working). That being said, we paint and play with toys and whimsy so it's all good to have something all beaten down by time.

Taking that into account I wanted to do something completely different from what I have been working on (manly crisp, clean models that look almost showroom new).

I started out by priming the model in grey, then used a dark brown to base my rust, then added more brown reds and finally orange in certain spots to add variety of color like you would see in the real world.

Once done with that step a HEAVY gloss coat was added. This is needed to protect the rust layer so that it does not get stripped off in later steps.

After the gloss coat was fully cured (about 24 hours). I then coated the model with hair spray. Now a word of caution, do not use your wife's fancy expensive hair spray. First the stuff won't react with the water later, and it's almost guaranteed to start an argument.....Go out and grab a bottle of Aqua Net from the dollar store of your choice.

The hairspray only takes about an hour to set. We then proceed to paint the base color onto the model with an airbrush. this requires very light coats of paint at a lower psi as you want to avoid the water in the paint from activating the hair spray.

After all that works it's then time to ruin a perfectly good paint job. I start by taking a paint brush and loading it with water, then basically "paint the mini" with water in a small section, wait a few seconds for the water to activate the hairspray and then use a tooth brush to chip off the paint. When the desired effect is reached take a dry paper towel and dab the part of the model clean. Then move on to the next piece etc till done.

Once the chipping is finished it's time to protect what is already done. I find another heavy coat of gloss varnish to work really well here and it sets up the next step in the process. The wash.... Personally I like to use an oil was for this effect. not only does it flow into the recess better but you can achieve really nice rust streaks with it as well.

After a few hours of the oil drying I then use weathering powder to further diminish the fresh look of the paint. The not quite dry oil wash helps the pigments adhere to the model.

After that a good matte varnish and then you just finish off the details...

See clear as mud right?

So here is the result of all that text.

A Kodiak!

Moving forward in my quest to "paint them all", it was time to break out the Khador Kodiak. If you have been reading my blog for a while you will have noticed that I paint a metric crap-ton of red (it's a measurement.... look it up.). I decided to mix it up a bit and go with a more traditional color scheme for the Kodiak.

I used the same technique that I do for reds. in that I used a green ink over highlights. One thing I did learn from this is that the green is less translucent then the red ink so I had to go much more extreme with the under highlights. Overall I am really happy with how it turned out.

Kharchev 1.0

I was debating holding my next post for a finished model, but I have been having so much fun working on this one that I just wanted to share.

If you are not familiar with the Privater Press War Machine Line. This is Kharchev. He is both a big stompy robot (aka War Jack) and a War Caster. Basically he is all the cool things that draws one to the game.

First things first. The model is all metal and big with a capital B for something in all metal. Think about the same size as the old GW Daemon Prince big metal model for reference.

With that in mind, I started of course by removing all the flash and mold lines from each piece of the model. Then it was on to pinning, a lot of pinning.....

With that done I moved on to pinning the model to the base and primed with Vallejo Surface Primer - Grey. Once the primer was cured I coated the model with Vallejo Model Color Grey/Black, Then did the first under highlights using stone grey. I then shot the first red inks using FW - Red. Once that was dry I did the second under highlight using a mix of Vallejo Model Color - Flat Flesh and Vallejo Game Color - Red at a ratio of 10:1. Then I shot the second ink using P3 - Red ink.

It was then time to gloss coat to seal in the freshness. Once the gloss coat was cured I started working on the blacks that would both be on the finished model and for an undercoat to the silvers. Again I used Vallejo Model Color - Black/Grey. Once the tedious process of blacking was completed it was on to the brown undercoat for the golds. I used Vallejo Game Color - Beasty Brown. For the next step I needed to decided what gold I wanted on the model. I decided to go with something a bit darker, so I grabbed Vallejo Model Color - Bronze as a base. Then it was onto the silvers. Again I wanted something darker to start with so I chose P3 - Pig Iron.

Once all that was done I worked on his tiny little half face. Which is a great focal point on the model as its a huge contrast to the big shiny robot body. I started with Reaper - Olive Green as the undertone. then glazed Vallejo Model Color - Bright Flesh. Then I did a very light glaze of purple to give the skin tone a bit more depth, and highlighted back up to Bright Flesh. With all that work done, It was time to gloss coat it again.

Then I added the oil washes. For this model I did two. I used a black and Burnt Umber, The black was used on the reds and silvers, and the Burnt Umber on the golds.

So that's were we leave off. The only things left are to add the highlights and shades to the silvers and golds, work on the base, and add the snow effect.

Helldrake you say?

So the Helldrake is coming along quite nicely, now that the base is finally looking like I want it to. The first layers of weathering have been added and are drying. Soon it will be time to add a bit of pigments and call this one done.

I'm also really happy that I finally found a use for the monoliths I got from Secret Weapons Miniatures about 5 years ago......

So here are a bunch of pictures to make up for not posting about this model in a while.

A wild update appears!!!


First I wanted to apologies for the almost 2 week gap between posts. I wanted to get this model (and a few others) finished so that I could show you a few completed models of the next few weeks.

I give you the Khador Gun Carriage by Privateer Press. I have wanted to paint this model for years and finally got the chance. I absolutely love this model. It's big, bulky has great lines that lend to shading and highlights. It just has the feel of being solid and tough. My only nitpick is that both horses have the exact same pose. Sadly they are two piece metal models (split down the middle) so no change of pose is really possible. Other than that it's just fantastic.

So here are the finished pictures.

Our very first video tutorial!

Today is a good day! We shot our first YouTube tutorial. We wanted to start out with something easy and fun, so naturally we went with crushed glass for snow effects. You have seen me use this stuff on several models, and I have been asked repeatedly how to use it.

So please take a moment to watch the video and please leave some feedback so that we can get better!

Enjoy.

New Year, New Model to work on!

First off welcome to 2016. So far it's been a really good year here at FMP.

I figure it's a new year, we should probably start putting up some new work.

I have been painting up the Privateer Press, Khador Warcaster "Valdimer The Dark Champion." This model is pretty darn dynamic and I love that it is one that PP has put on an actual sculpted base. That and super sized shoulder pads are always in style.........right?

Not much new technique wise on this one. The large curved shoulder pads lend themselves to the red ink way of painting, I am happy with the highlights and shading so far. I really love how the golds are turning out.

At the point of the pictures I had just gotten a black oil wash laid on and now its drying. I also added a bit of Secret Weapons Miniatures - Crushed Glass to base to really make the snow pop.

Once the oil is dry it will be time to gloss varnish, finish up the highlights on things like hair, golds, and then on to the fringes of the cape. With that much of a flowing cape I'll have to try my hand at a bit of freehand painting. I purposfuly left the cape a dark gray. It should give me some great contrast if I use a bright red or even a grey/white for the freehand work.

So have some pictures and we will be back soon.

Kodiak Display getting ready for Warmachine Weekend.

Hey everybody. I finally had a bit more free time to work on the Kodiak. I really am digging how the display is coming along.

I started with the clay and the trees. Then moved onto getting a "rock" set in for the Kodiak to stand on. Followed by some happy moss and some little bushes to break up the color. I also have a rusted out Menoth Jack thing to give a good contrast to the greens.

Then it was onto the snow. I searched and read and spoke to a few fantastic people in the hobby and found that Secret Weapons Miniatures - Crushed Glass is the best snow effect around. A few words of caution when using this stuff. It is CRUSHED GLASS!!! Wear a friggen N95 mask. You do NOT want this stuff in your lungs (lungs + glass = no bueno). Also wear a pair of rubber gloves and use this stuff on a surface you can dump out. Be safe ok?

So yea basically you use a clear resin like Still Water then dump the glass onto it. It drys and BLAM snow....

Ok I'll stop yapping. Have some pics.

Blighted Bather - Finished.

First let me say I love this model. It was so much fun to paint up. I really like all the little details like the bubbles in the cauldron, and the rock like things on her right shoulder, and seriously,.... How cool is the rubber ducky shredder?

I am really glad the client wanted this in a "normal" skin tone. I think it lent great contrast to the other colors.

All that being said. I am still learning to use the new camera and more importantly (and aggravatingly) how to edit said photos. If anyone has a good tutorial out there for Light Box or Photo Shop or any other great piece of software please let me know in the comments.

Here are a few pics.

Also not sure what that smudge on the light box is but that needs to go away. 

Thagrosh Painter of Everblight DONE!!!

Wow, what an amazing model. This one was really fun to paint. I got to try a few new things like using two oil washes of different colors over each other (blue followed by purple) (also a third if we count the burnt umber on the cape) and I think I have the two brush blending down pretty well (see the cape).

I also took the pictures using the new camera. The pictures look fantastic on my computer so hopefully that translates to the blog.

All in all an fantastic model that I will actually be kinda sad to give to it's owner and not put in my display case.

Please, please, please leave some feed back, on the pictures and the model.

Thagrosh the Painter 4.0

The end is in site!  I was able to spend about 8 hours working on this guy today. So here is a shout out to my amazing wife who made that possible.

I blocked in all the armor with Vallejo Model Color - Grey Black, then added a heavy dry-brush of P3 Pig Iron to give it a nice dark metal look. It really brings out the legs and arm. After that I added some P3 Armor Wash which gives it a slightly blueish tinge which really looks fantastic.

I used P3 Blood Tracker Brown on the leather. If you don't own this color go buy some, Its such an amazing base for leathers.

Then it was time to assemble the model. All of the place holder pins where removed and I carefully glued the pins into the holes I had drilled.

After all of that it was time to gloss coat, once dry I used Windsor & Newton Colbalt Blue Hue for the first wash on the skin bringing it from a stone grey to a really nice blue/grey. Once dried I used Windsor & Newton Purple to add a bit of contrast and depth to the blue.

Now the model is sitting in the airbrush booth with the final gloss coat curing. Once dry and done. i'll clean up a few spots. Add the golds and seal it with a matte coat and this bad boy will be done.

Have some pictures..... they're free.