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. 

Pinning. What is it and why you should do it.


Let's take a moment or three to talk about pinning. If you are putting together metal or resin models you should really be pinning. Here are a few reasons why it makes sense to do so.

1. It keeps that pesky hand/arm/head/backpack etc from falling off on the game table.
2. Number 1 is especially frustrating when it chips the paint.
3. Geez now that I have glued the arm back onto my already painted model I have glue everywhere ruining the paint job I just spent 10 hours on....
4. It's a great way to have something to hold onto if you are painting your models before assembly.

So how do you pin you ask? Pretty easily really. There are a few things you will need to get started.

A good jeweler's pin set. I personally use the P3 version as it's under $10 and the drill bits have been stayed the sharpest and broken the least of the ones I have used. GF9, Army Painter and GW all sell them as well. PRO TIP- STAY AWAY FROM THE GW BRANDED ONE. It cost 3 times as much for the same darn thing. Don't through your money away buy some shiny models with it.

Most of the pin vices come with a few different sized drill bits and a bit of brass rod. I find for most 28mm models that the 0.85mm drill and rods are the right size for the job. If you are going to pin something big and heavy, I use the 1.5mm stuff.

You will also need a good pair of snips. For the longest time I just used an old nail cutter and that worked well for 0.85mm and below. If you are going to pin with anything bigger I would recommend getting a good set of metal snips. Again you can buy these from all the miniature companies, but why pay $20 for something you can pick up at Home Depot, Lowes, Menard's ect for under $10?

I'd like to also talk about using pinning to your advantage during modeling/painting.

I am working an a PP model for a client called the Blighted Bather. This thing is tiny. The body is white metal and the cauldron is resin. I don't know about you but to me that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen if I had just glued it all together.

I started like every other model, cleaning off mold lines and snipping off the odd spru/extra bit of metal. Then it was time to figure out where and with what to pin.

If you look at the model you can see that the metal legs go into the resin and the torso of the model goes into it as well. The "rubber ducky" sits on the base. As I am using a scenic base the ducky will be put into one of the recesses and will have clear resin applied around it to simulate water keeping it secured. I pinned it anyway so that I have something to hold it onto the cork. I then figured out the angle to pin by placing the pieces together and using the drill as a guide. Then its just a matter of drilling into the different pieces. Once the legs and torso have their pins. I take a dab of bright paint and put it on the end of the brass rod, and use the pin as a guide placing it down on the bit that it will be pinned to. This gives me a target to drill into. Drilling then becomes easy. Just make sure to make your hole deep enough 1/8th" should do. For priming and painting I like to put filler rod into the drilled holes. This will keep them free of paint and let me find them easily. Pro Tip - don't glue in your filler rods, just place them in the holes as you will need to remove them later.

Ok here are some pics of what I am talking about.

Here is the pin vice and a leg that is about to be pinned. 

Here you can see the legs pinned and the place holder pins in the cauldron. 

This has the torso and the ducky on pins in the cork ready for priming and painting. 

Well there ya go, Pinning is not hard and it will save you so very much hassle down the road. Please add some comments and questions. 

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.

Thagrosh the Painter 3.0

Well here is a quick update on this model.

I was able to get blending done on the cape. The more I play with two brush blending the more I love it. I'll write up a blog post on how to do it sometime soon in the future. I just need to figure out how to effectively write it up, and lets be honest there are tons of YouTube videos out there on it. So look it up if you really want to see it done.

After the cape, I cleaned up the over spray on the torso and worked the darker browns onto he spiky-bone things and the horns on his head. I also added the first blue to the eyes.

Then all that went into the spray booth for a gloss coat.

I added the second layer of still water to the base as well. 

Next up it was time to work on the super tiny Mini-Juggernaut that will sit in his hand. This thing just screams Micro-Machine from back in the day. I got the base colors on it and will work on shading soon. 

I also started work on the paintbrush. I'm thinking of making some water slide decals to give the brush a realistic look. 

Well that's it for now. This project is a lot of work but I think it will be fantastic when finished. 

A quick side stroll over to Terrain.

I have always loved looking at game tables full of fantastic terrain. Whether home made or store bought. It really does pull a table together and helps immerse us in our games. I get tired of seeing green felt cutouts count as "forest" etc.

I had the chance to grab a peasant house that was made of resin from Novus Design Studios.

It came from Miniature Market and had a bit of credit in my PayPal so this wound up costing me about $3 out of pocket. My first mistake was not looking at the scale. I could have sworn it was for 28mm but its 15mm. Not a big deal as it will still be fun to paint and will look good in the display case.

Here is where things are starting to go off the rails.

Bubbles! I understand that resin can have bubbles. I get its a pain if you don't get it just right. But seriously? Bubbles on the sides. On the tops. In the middle of the gate?!? Please if you work for or know anyone at Novus, please ask them to review quality control. I don't mind bubbles on the underside of things, but come on man.

The other issue that I have is it appears that the resin was not fully cured. The resin is "slick", even after letting the piece take a nice long soak in warm soapy water and scrubbing with a brush.

We shall see how it reacts after drying when I try to prime it.

So overall its a really nice design and I can't wait to paint it up. I just hope that the little farm house is salvageable.

Oh and here are the rest of the pics.

Someone got a new camera!

Let's talk cameras. For a while now I have been using my iPhone to take the pictures you have been looking at on this blog. I have tried everything I knew how to do to make them the best pictures I could produce given what I had. I used a light box with good lighting. I would crop and adjust white levels as best I could and the results were just ok. Better then some but not anywhere near amazing.

My wife's uncle came to visit and he is a photographer, and in a stroke of generosity I was given one of his older cameras. I now find in my possession a Cannon Rebel T2i (if anyone cares can be found here Canon Rebel T2i).

Here is what the setup looks like now for shooting pictures.

Yes I just took a picture of my camera, How existential is that? 

I now have the equipment to take amazing photos. I just have to figure out how! I am also playing with Adobe Light Box and I might even dabble into Photo Shop.

So stay tuned as I work out the bugs and hopefully deliver much better content (picture-wise anyway). If anyone reading this has any advice/resources to offer I am all ears and would eternally grateful.

Until next time.