Odds and Ends.

I just noticed that it had been a over a week since my last blog post. As many of you know it's the time of year that those of us with kids love so much. It's been two weeks of getting children ready for the school year, getting my wife ready to go back to school to change careers and as many of you know I'm starting my Junior year of Nursing School (cuz you know life isn't hectic enough).

I guess what I am saying is that my posting schedule will be slowing down over the next few months. That's not to say that I am going away as I am not. I just wont be producing as much content as I have been. Basically I still love you and need you, I sadly don't have as much time to dedicate to you. So I figure when I am able to post I will really want to make it count......

Ok enough of that noise. So this week I am working on several things at once. I have a commission that is in progress on the Minions Blind Walker from Privateer Press. This thing is a huge gator with a crap-ton of bones and candles on it, and for fun they threw on what looks like the Olympic torch. I mean really how can you say no to painting something like that? I am also working on a throw back project of an old metal Khador Destroyer. This is just a nostalgia piece for me, and it will even be based like we did back in the early 2000's (no I'm not going back to the 90s with the horrible green bases!).

So here are some WIP pics. more to follow.

First some very early WIP of the Blind Walker

And here is some later stage WIP on the Destroyer. 

Learning to speed paint.

Recently I was challenged to spend no more than three hours on a unit or model. The painter who challenged me is an award winning painter and fantastic teacher so I listened intently as he dropped the knowledge. I also realized that I was spending way too much time on models that were destined for the table top as game pieces rather than the display case or entries into competitions. With this in mind I set out to "get er done". I chose the Privateer Press Khador Battle Mechanics as my first trial models. They are one piece models with a decent amount of detail, and something I felt I could do well in the limited time.

A few lessons learned.
1. I kept wanting to get detail into ever nook and cranny. I kept having to remind myself that table top was the goal.
2. Blending. I wanted to so very badly to add depth to the colors. Where as for table top a wash and highlight would do just fine.
3 Keeping to a more simple color pallet. There was no reason to use 30+ colors on the models.

So with all that I think the came out really well. I did them up in about 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The new Privateer Press Battle Box - Khador Edition.

For those of you who don't know or don't play Warmachine a new edition of the rules where released in July. With the new rules came new models and new starter sets. I picked up the Khador box as it is the faction I play and frankly I am a gluten for painting red....

The first thing I noticed about the models were the quality and crispness of the detail. or rather the lack there of. The warcaster (the small based model) was very soft on detail. From the art work you can tell that he has a beard and yet it was barely visible on the model. The injection sights on the war jack molds were placed in silly spots, like on the curve above the head......

So with that in mind and knowing that these would only be used for demo games I painted them up quickly to an acceptable table top standard.

I was on a podcast!

I want to give a huge shout out to the good folks over at Skirmish Supremacy. They had me on as a guest and we discussed aspects of commission painting, painting in general, how to stay motivated and how to improve your painting.

Give it a listen and let us know how it went.


http://www.podcasts.com/skirmish-supremacy-390d39dc6/episode/Skirmish-Supremacy-Episode-28-Flight-Medic-Painting-with-Robert-Darefsky-3b75

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.....

August Commissions.

Well folks. I have gone and busted up my knee.....again. So it looks like I will be out of a day job for at least the next month (or maybe more).

With that said I have plenty of time on my hands to paint up commissions, So send me an email at

FlightMedicPaints@gmail.com

And not only will I paint up your plastic crack, I'll do it at a pretty substantial discount to my normal pricing.

So act fast, as this I'm sure this will fill up quick.

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.