Turelio's Hobby Hoard

My most recent project wasn’t well thought out. At first it was meant to be a quick experiment with some skin tones and an attempt at a semi-noir look, and turned into a set of five models which I was really proud of. I also learned a lot about the process on the way.     The less colours you use, the easier this gets The first model I did, Stone, used a total of nine colours. This was initially not an attempt at strict black and white, but I intended to try to use a pale skin tone I had heard about on Reaper Live during their Kickstarter launch, and do the rest in grey tones. As the progress went on, I started reusing colours until I only had nine at the end. It narrowed the colour range, but after a comment from a friend at PAX helping with the four-colour challenge, I decided to aim for 4 colours on the next few models, namely Dragon Black, Dragon White, Tempest Grey, and a flesh tone. Stone, the most colourful of the group. It may not be noticea...

Everyone in the painting community has heard about Contrast Paints by now, so I'm not going to talk about what they are or how they work too much. Basically, they were released this weekend, and one of my friends ( Numbat ) picked up a few, and brought some along to our Sunday night painting for me to try. A few hours before he arrived, I realised that I would need a few models to try these out on, and went to my usual go to emergency miniatures: Reaper Bones. Look at them gathered there, slightly out of focus, judging me...   I'd heard that people were using standard sprays on the models as well as the new Wraithbone and Grey Seer undercoats, and that the pre-existing undercoats work fine. So I glued a few Lizardmen to bases, and did three versions of undercoat:  From left to right, Corax White, Mechanicus Standard Grey with Corax White sprayed from the stop, and then plain Mechanicus Standard Grey.    One thing to note here is that Mechanicus ...

A quick picture of a tree spirit I did a speed paint on. Fun to get another mini done.

Another round of quick updates. Here are some wip shots of the Wereape from Bones 3. I wanted a quick base, and one that was green and saturated to contrast the ape itself. A few tufts help break it up from just being static grass. It's not perfect, but it's done and table ready, so I'm happy. It was really fun to paint as well, so I'd definitely consider painting more in the future. This is a Grenadier Cliff Dragon I got for $2 at a bring and buy years ago. For the last few months it has been sitting half done on my desk. I figured that it's better finished to a tabletop quality than sitting there hoping I get a chance to paint it. My main inspiration was the old yellow and green orc wyvern from 90s Warhammer. I ended up going with a pale green for the chest though to make it a bit different. I also made some tall tufts of grass for the base before the final stage. The bingo challenge I mentioned a while ago mentions a base more elaborate than you'd usually us...

So, after prepping for cons, going to cons, prepping and going to the states, then catching up on things when I got back home, I finally got to finish something last night: This is a Winter Wolf from Bones 3. You can probably see that it was a quick job, roughly drybrushed and based, and I didn't even clean the mold lines off it. But it was fun, and also made me want to paint my yetis. I painted the exposed to of the base RMS Surf Aqua, then after adding some grass tufts, coated the base and some of the rock in a mix of Secret Weapon Realistic Water and old GW Snow powder. The aim was to get a melting snow look. Not perfect, but serviceable on the table top. I want to experiment more with snow effects, but at the moment I feel the GW snow powder is not the way to go. I am look into other alternatives. Next up, finishing this guy! I started both the wolf and ape while I was away for Gammacon before I went away, so I'm looking forward to finishing this one up as well, even if it...

Just some quick photos I took of a Reaper Bones Sea Lion I painted for the OzPainters Underwater challenge.

I have a two in one update! I've been really busy the last few weeks which has worn me out and stopped me painting much. On top of that, a lot of hobby time was spent prepping for the next chapter in the DnD game I run for my friends, The Band of Bakers: Currently the Band of Bakers are on the second of a series of trials set to them by several gods, each of which has an association with a member of the party. This weekend they faced the second trial, which usually involves a party member being separated to prove their skills while the others fight, effectively splitting the party for a few rounds. This weekend the party's ranger Varis faced the Trial of Melora, and the Bakers were victorious. Everyone seemed to have a good time, including myself, aside from the party wizard Miri, who wasn't able to make it, and was therefore planeshifted away for the game (With soon-to-be-mysterious results!). My friend Garry managed to nab some photos during the game, and kind...

Just a couple of quick photos of Deathsleet from the Reaper Bones range. It was fun to paint, however I'm not too fussed about taking proper photos at the moment. I spent a bit longer on the base than I originally planned. I put a few fake jewels on the base, keeping with the colour scheme, and then covered most of the base in snow. This was done in two stages, first with white texture paste mixed with Reaper Pearl White, and then with gloss medium mixed with GW snow powder for the melting snow. I was considering doing some powdered glass for snow effects as well, however after handing it to people, including small kids, at Gammacon in Canberra all weekend, I'm glad I didn't. Anyway, it's been a fun project, and gave me the chance to try out some snow effects I hadn't tried before. Honestly, I'm more likely to use the gloss and snow powder than the texture paste in the future, as I like the effect more.

A few Wip pictures of a Reaper Bones dragon I'm working on. It's a bit more experimenting with the airbrush and masking methods. It hasn't turned out exactly as I wanted, but at the end I'm aiming for a finished tabletop piece with a few interesting details. Right now, I just have to finish the base.

So a few quick updates and work in progress shots... The McMourning crew makes small shuffling steps of progress. At a recent painting day I brought models to work on, and promptly forgot the colour steps I was working with :/ Small areas of green are appearing on a few models though, so that's at least some progress. Pictured above is one of the Crooligans. OzPainters had a basing challenge, and after hastily constructing this base, I managed to get it painted in about 20 minutes and submitted with a few minutes left. The model's paint job is a rough one, and the base matches it, but it's good enough for a bit of drama on the table top. For a future project...? I got all my old Falcon Grav Tanks for Epic in one place. They need a new paint job (Biel Tan), and will form a group in Epic, which will probably just be a fun tabletop project. However I might do some hovering bases for them. Hmmm... A Reaper Bones Mimic. A quick job on a mini I put a base coat on l...