What's on My Desk: A New Airbrush Studio

I've finally had time to put aside the sculpting tools and get out my new airbrush!  At this year's GenCon I purchased a Sotar, Partriot, Badger tank/compressor, and full line of paints for under $450.  It was a great deal, and one that I couldn't afford to pass up.  To get my airbrush station set up, first we moved Harley across the room to where she has a larger desk and more space (that corner had previously been housing an old organ that no longer could play music).  I inherited her old desk and immediately put it to good use by building a brushing cubby out of a cardboard box.  I also taped a plastic to-go cup to one leg of the desk.  By putting another cup into that one I had a removable, and thus cleanable, place to dump cleaning solution.

With that it was simply a matter of hooking up the compressor and getting started!

I'm taking up all the window space now that Harley has moved into her new spot.  It's really nice transitioning to the painting/assembly desk over to the airbrush station.  To get more light I take my LED lamp and move it from one desk's corner over to the other's.  It's a great fit.

Harley got a nice new desk from Office Depot and has her KU diploma proudly hanging above it!

Back to the airbrush..  For my first project I wanted to ease into airbrushing by using my Patriot.  It's a general use double-action internal mix brush great for priming, and base coating.  Badger's president, Ken, was nice enough to throw in a couple of quick releases so that I could transition between Patriot and Sotar on the fly.  You can see it hanging down under the brush in this picture.  After cutting a small chunk out of the carrying case foam, the brush and QR fit snugly inside.

Here are the Freeblades Plankha (demon hounds) and young Grush that I airbrushed.  I did each model, from base up, with the Patriot.  It made the job super fast and allowed me to do a simple color gradient from brown to red in no time at all.

This order was for table top quality, so after their airbrushing, each plankha got three highlights and a few detail touch-ups.  Table Top is the most basic painting package I offer and the Patriot helps a ton with basing and quick shading while sticking to a budget.

Here's the whole group, ready to wreak havoc in Jason C's next Freeblades game!

This young Grush was also painted with my new Patriot.  I used it to do the basing, base coat, and under shadows on the model.  A quick dry brushing anda few detail points later and he was done.

Using an airbrush to quickly base coat and shade monster models was fantastic, and I'm glad I finally made the plunge this year at GenCon to get one.  I'm looking forward to using the 'brush more and seeing what the Sotar can do!  

Thanks for stopping by to see what's going on at the Monster Lab!

Until next time, good gaming and happy hobbying.

Showcase: Falkaaran Adventurers

It's new release Tuesday!  The Falkaaran adventurers have surpassed their Kickstarter goal, hit a stretch goal, and are on their way out to backers and retail stores!  

I just finished painting the company's studio models this week, so let's take a look at what the finished freeband looks like...

Where to start?  There's a ton of character in each model and they're all so different, the opportunities afforded while painting a Falkaaran freeband are huge.  I was directed to paint each model to its "codex" standard, but as we'll see in the weeks to come when I paint more, there's a ton of ways to make your adventurers stand out from the rest on the table top.

The Bladeseekers hail from their home in the Falkaaran city Jendal, where the country's most renowned blade-schools can be found.  Some of the best swordsmen in the world, Bladeseekers often lead freebands after committing to a blade-quest, seeking to attain the rank of master.

The colors of Jendal are green and white; to accent those colors on the model, dark brown was chosen for leather armor, cream for clothing, light brown for trimming, and brass for buckles and studs, just enough contrast between pieces so that all his great details stand out.

Jendal

The pikeman doesn't hail from one particular city, but is found across the country in the most populous areas, defending its citizens and protecting its baronies.  This model has fantastic scale armor that looks awesome painted with a dark silver and highlighted with mithril.

The shield has a lot of canvas for something cool to be painted on, or battle scarring from its time in the field, maybe something like this...

That's the Falkaar royal heraldry, but you could use any of the cities heraldry to make your shields stand out.

Falkaar Royalty

This tough looking guy is the Knight Defender, a royal guard and leader in the field.  Super tough this knight can stand up to a mountain of punishment and still lay down his own with his massive warhammer.

Hogwarts is located in Scotland, but the wizarding elite of Falkaar study the arcane arts in Tlhar (a tough name for a mere mortal to pronounce).  Their colors are a gold pterodactyl resplendent on a field of black.  The Traazorite Legions to the south are rumored to ride dinosaurs, and this seems proof positive of that.

Tlhar

I wanted to give this Fire Wizard the look of a true pyromancer, so a bit of glow on his staff, hand and eyes lets you know he can cast fireballs with the best of them.

The Falkaaran rune for fire is "Thra," which is featured prominently on the back of his cloak, surrounded by the signs of the celestial and mundane.  North (covered by his hanging hood), south, east, and west are at the four points on the circle, accompanied by sun (above east), moon (above west), earth (on the lower left), and more.  It's a kind of zodiac, if you will.

The Bladesisters of Karadel are resolute and pragmatic fighters, seeking the killing blow as swiftly as possible.  Red is a fitting color for such a maiden of death, and it just so happens that is the color of their home as well.

Karadel

The Bladesister is wonderfully posed and a true joy to paint, I had a lot of fun putting lipstick and eye-shadow on this one!

Those of Falkaar's cities open to the ocean host a swarm of sailors, so when the freeband heads out, there's sure to one or two tagging along for a chance to claim their share of the booty!

This cool Sailor sculpt can easily be converted to be holding a brace of daggers or a sword for a bit of variation in your freeband.  The anchor does look cool though!

That's it for this week and a look at the new Falkaaran Adventurers for DGS's fantasy skirmish game Freeblades!  Come back next time as we start getting ready for GenCon.

Good gaming and happy hobbying!

Bandit Job Posting: Those Who Wish to Keep Their Left Eye Need Not Apply

Raiding and pillaging is hard work, and those who are on the front lines take the brunt of the abuse.  Throughout the ages an army's expendables have gone by a plethora of names: cannon-fodder, grunt, chaff, kamikaze, the list goes on.  For the Black Rose Bandits in Faelon they simply call theirs "thugs."  This week we're going to look at four unlucky fellows who pulled the short straw and got the thankless duty of being bandit cannon fodder.  It's hard work, and as you can tell by every single one of them having an eye patch over their left eye, not a great career move if you want to keep your left side as your best side.

This project is thanks to Jon C. who commissioned up four different poses for his thugs.  He wanted something different, a little more dynamism, different flavor, but he didn't say anything about the eye patches...

Here's the stock thug pose, you may remember this guy from a previous post where I converted yet another thug for Jon.

To get the all-pewter models into different poses took a little green stuff, some brass pins, and a fair amount of elbow grease.

This guy is probably my favorite, somewhere along in his adventures he found a conquistador helmet!  Sometimes I have a very rough idea of what I want to do with the green stuff and I let it tell me what it wants to do when I put it on the model.  After smoothing and shaping the helmet a bit, it said, "Matt we're going back to the 16th century with this guy."  I can't argue with what the 'stuff says.

In hindsight I probably should have given him a silly little moustache.

Here he is painted up.  I really am pleased with his color palette, the contrasts are subtle and classic with a nice disbursement of light, medium, and dark browns.

It's hard not to like this pose, it says exactly what it means, "I'm going to brain you with this chunk of wood!"

This model needed a major leg reposition.  I cold get away with simply bending the leg on some with jeweler's pliers, but on this guy I had to get out the bone saw and take some off the top of his left leg to get the pewter to move as far as I wanted it to.  Repositioning the legs really is the difference in building the overall feel of this model's action, without it his lower half would look terribly rigid compared to the action above. 

This guy has a lot of potential for interpretation, what is he doing with his right arm?

Is he punching?  Taunting?  About to lay across with a backhand?

Ultimately it's up for you to decide, though I think he could be just about to do this.

This guy is really swinging for the fences!

So much so that he's completely weight bearing on his rear foot.

A blood trail streaming off his mace would push this guy over the top...

Well, that's it for this week and these thug models!  Thanks for stopping by and checking out my work.  If you'd like a model professionally converted contact me at midwestmonsterlab@gmail.com and I'll get started on your project!