Charity Paint: "Adventure Ho!"

Word's gotten around the office that I have a creative side (I admit I don't go to great lengths to hide it) and when the recent GivingSOLO charity auction came up, a coworker asked if I would like to contribute a work of art.  With 24 hours to complete my piece I knew exactly what I wanted to make!

It's been awhile since I did purely illustrative piece, but I found myself struck by a bolt of creative inspiration, and without hesitation I raced to my nearest Hobby Lobby to purchase a new set of brushes, a couple of canvases (only $5.50 for two!) and acrylic paints.

Being under a strict deadline, I opted for a quick, but effective sky/sea blocking, not stressing over even paint distribution to the canvas's edge, but keeping with a messy look that would help further the whimsical image of a child's daydream.

Since this is a charity that benefits sick children and childhood cancer, I wanted to create a piece that showed off the wonder and innocence of being a kid, and how even in the most difficult of circumstances those qualities don't diminish one bit.  In fact, they probably grow!  

I imagine this to be the spitting image of a child's idle thoughts when they're stuck inside looking out on the adventure waiting just outside on a summer day.

I was pretty happy with it, but something was missing...

How about daydreams for the daydream!  A simple silver marker treatment added nine ephemeral illusions to the piece, which include: a rocket launch, dragon (never forget the dragon!), faerie, tiger, spelunker, slalom skier, treasure chest, north wind, and Loch Ness Monster!

My piece was sold at auction during the first GivingSOLO exhibition and I'm truly grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute.  If you're in the KC, MO area on Friday October 2nd at 5-9pm, the second installment of the art exhibit will be hosted at 19 Below, so stop by, pick up some fun local art, and have a great time for a wonderful cause!

Altruism aside, I want to switch gears to a subject that is so pitilessly unphilathropic, that it would make Donald Trump blush.  I'm talking about the conflict that brews on a seemingly peaceful hexagonal paradise, where resources are plentiful, and on a good day you can hear the echoing cries of, "I've got wood for sheep!"  Yes, I'm talking about Catan.

This was one of those hilarious game night moments with your friends when the cosmic-forces-that-be decide they're going to have a little bit of fun...

It all started when Donny and his girlfriend came over to play a few games with me and mine on one of our regular Friday nights.

After I won an exciting round of Boss Monster through a masterful display of dominant dungeon building and shrewd skill. Donovan decided he had to take a shot at the champ and casually suggested we play a game, one that he had undoubtedly studied as extensively as a doctoral student;,employing the help of: tutorials, youtube videos, and shadow playing for what could only be 50+ hours.

"Why don't we play Catan?"  He asked, feigning nonchalance.  

I wasn't buying any of it, so I flashed him a thin smile that didn't quite reach my eyes, though I opened the Settlers box with matched forced disinterest.

"Sure. Why not?"  I said.  And that was my fatal error.

All began well as we built our first settlements and collected resources on the peaceful island nation.  Though I suspected something was amiss, I admit I was taken unawares by the jackal lurking in our midst...

That's the brigand himself, with the self-contented Cheshire grin of a man who has rolled ten 7's.  Ten!!  Ten I say!

And played four knights (the fifth is still turned over in front of him waiting to spring its trap).  

For all of you not versed in the game play of Catan, when you roll a seven or play a knight card you get to move the grey thief pawn onto a hex and steal a random resource from a player who borders that tile.  Needless to say, Donovan aimed each and every looting at me, plundering my hand and using the ill-gotten gains to trounce us all handily.

Balderdash!  

So there you have it.  No good deed goes unpunished, and when you play Donovan in Catan and he breaks out his "special dice," you best beware!

See you next time for more tales of gaming and hobby goodness!  Have a great week!

DLBlog 4: Swordswoman Doppelgangers

Continuing from last week where I was in the process of staining the wood pieces of this display case, here's the finished result. Looks a lot better than the light, unstained color of the thing when I bought it. However, the wood was in pretty rough shape, so I may replace it in the future.

And here it is all filled up with minis. It just barely holds all of my painted Malifaux stuff.  With only about 1/3 of my horde painted, I'm going to need a few more of these if I plan on storing them all the same way. Thankfully, the display case looks like it was homemade to begin with; just acrylic and wood. Should be simple to replicate and even customize a bit to better contain minis.

Here is my finished batch of miniatures for my Viktoria crew. From left to right: Student of Conflict, Viktoria of Blood, Viktoria of Ashes, and Hans (proxy from Warmachine). I initially planned on spending a good amount of time detailing the metal pieces, but ended up with fairly simple paint jobs as during the process I started to lose interest and wanted to just get them finished up.

Nothing particularly interesting to say about the painting process. For the skin tones I'm sticking with the midtone base coat, highlight up then shade down that I first used last week. It's given me good results so far and is much quicker than starting with a shadow base color and needing lots of highlight layers.

The skirt of the Student of Conflict was a very quick paint. These model were zenithal primed, with a black base primer and white preshading from above. Just a thin coat of purple and thin highlight and that's all that needed to be done with very good results for the time invested. I'm going to try and use this technique much more in the future on those model that I don't to the base coat with the airbrush, as you can't have any stray color on the painting surface.

Vik of Blood was my favorite model to paint, as I love any model that I get to splatter blood all over. I use a mix of Tamiya Clear Red acrylic paint mixed with a bit of Agrax Earthshade to darken and thicken it up a tad. I either flick the mixture off the bristles of a stiff brush for a fine spray or splatter larger drops out of a pipette. The paint mix thickens up quickly and you can brush on the gummy leftovers for chunky bits of gore.

This Warmachine Kara Sloan mini is my proxy for the Malifaux's Hans. It was chosen to stick with the 'sister' theme of the Viks. The sniper rifle position was modified from being held straight up the the air to being held at the ready in both hands. Not sure that the pink hair jives with the rest of her paint job, but it definitely stands out and goes with the purple hair of the Viks.

I haven't finished up Vanessa yet, as I'm not sure of the color scheme and how much OSL I want to do with the magic staff. I'm leaning more toward a very strong light source where most of the front of her will be lit blue, but I want to do some testing first (and paint something other than brown/black clothes...).

Inspired by the blood, I've prepped and started painting my Leveticus crew. With plenty rusty, bloody models such as the Abominations and Desolation Engines I'll get to flick red paint to my heart's content once these are painted up.

A GenCon Tale Part 5: Return of the Geeks

For those of you who have been traveling along with us on our journey to GenCon 2015 over the past month a half, it's finally time to pack up the paints, put away the cards, and load up all the minis and loot spirited away through the press of bodies in the vendor hall.  There were late nights of gaming, brews enjoyed at local pubs, and much slinging of spells; but now, sadly, it's time to return to the mundane world of nine to five employment, taxes, and an ultimate death of old age.

But not yet!  There's still one more day to enjoy the con (and the ripe old age of 120 is many many years away), so let's take one final look at all the awesome you can possibly pack into five days, one convention center, and a bunch of downtown bars.

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge the fun I've been having with the names of each of the five parts of the GenCon post (There and Back Again - A GenCon Tale, Wrath of the Con, The Convention Strikes Back, A Game of Tones, and The Return of the Geeks). 

For added awesomeness, guess the name of the book/movie/etc. that inspired the name of each post, and look for the answers where they will be posted at the bottom of the page! (a special prize awaits)

As for convention pic farewell tour, let's pick back up with those that were only just good enough for the b-side of the greatest hits record, and we'll start with one of the first sights that greeted Donovan and I upon reaching the convention hall...

which would be the plight of bronze life-sized statues everywhere, and by which I mean a gaggle of drunk, middling aged men who have a penchant for molesting these vulnerable works of art.  This statue in the adjoining courtyard was no exception, simply minding its own business, the siren song of its captive nature and lack of foreseeable repercussions, led to its imagined crotch being massaged in a very unbrotherly like manner.  Bravo gentlemen, you just joined an elite club of scholarly intellectuals who pride themselves on their unique brand of insightful humor that inspires as much as it impresses.  *Cue slow clap*

  

Miscellaneous shot of vendor hall booth area (it is, in fact, the Plaid Hat booth, but yeah).  Bonus points if you can find and name the celebrity in the background!

GenCon is epitomized by waiting in line.  I am 99.99% more willing to wait in line for something as awesome as a game demo/purchase or a chance at miniature painting glory.  Donny, I believe, feels the same..

  

I competed in three Magic tournaments throughout the weekend.  This one lasted until well after 2am, where I placed third.  Legacy reanimator for life!!  If you're going to play powerful spells they might as well be roided out demons, massive angelic protectors, and minions whose affections are disproportionately two-sided.

Losing to Omni-tell... #thesaltisreal

Bee Coffee Roasters across Capitol Street from the Convention Center stayed open 24 hours to ensnare the business of gamers ending their late nights of dungeon crawling.  Beware the turkey wraps that have dissolved in their own juices and gone the way of homogeneous goo, and plastic forks that WILL attempt to slay you.

Wandering back to our car we came upon this sign.  "They sells beans, home office furniture, and sugar?"  I asked incredulously.  Of course they do, Matt, nothing quite goes with a comfy chair like copious amounts of carbohydrates and delicious simple sugars.

Wizards of the Coast is putting out a pre-painted strategy board game!  Woo-hoo!

Cell-shaded Borderlands cosplay.  Both subtle and impressive.

Delicious Korean tacos!  The BBQ steak was delicious and the spicy mayo was further enhanced by lots of Siracha sauce!

Another delicious meal at Far Out Freds, featuring fried risoto balls and and open faced "Human Torch" sandwich which included a delicious beef patty cooked medium-well, gooey mozzarella cheese, and yet even more Siracha mayo!  Siracha ftw.

Ahhh.. convention booty.  I purchased a ton of art prints, fun fantasy jewelry for the lady friend, limited edition Boss Monster (which includes promo foils!), original art Jason Engle Magic tokens, and some nice Games and Gears Ichiban Pro paint brushes.

When I started this tale I knew I wanted to finish with the image of a polite young lad who kindly ferried our MHE entries from the display case to the check-out table.  It was the end of our Indy odyssey and a fitting end to the blog series as well. 

I will admit that I couldn't help imagining him dressed like this the entire time he stood at attention...

Jolly good!

And as for the answers to the challenges posed above, they are:

+1 point - Part 1: There and Back Again - A GenCon Tale (There and Back Again a Hobbit's Tale) 

+1 point - Part 2: Wrath of the Con (Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan)

+1 point - Part 3: The Convention Strikes Back (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back)

+1 point - Part 4: A Game of Tones (A Game of Thrones, i.e. a Song of Fire and Ice for all the super fans out there)

+1 point - Part 5: Return of the Geeks (The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King)

+1 point - The celebrity in the background of the Plaid Hat Booth - Wil Wheaton!

If you guessed all five names correct, nice job!  Here's your prize!  If you got the bonus question correct, here's your very special prize!

See you next time!

DLBlog 3: Drug Addicts & Laser Burns

On The Bench

This past weekend I put in the time to complete a handful of Malifaux models to finish up the thematic group for the master Jakob Lynch, the drug-pushing gambler enslaved by the mind-controlling horror that lives in his casino's basement.

First up are the Depleted, the unfortunate patrons addicted to the drug Brilliance who have been nearly sucked dry of their life force to feed the beast's hunger.

In the past I have always used Reaper paints, but used Scale 75 paints for the first time when painting these guys. I'd heard good reviews about this relatively new line of paints and seen some impressive results, so I picked up a few of their paint sets. They have a super matte finish, which I find perfect for skin tones. The paint also has a very fine pigment which is great for thin glazes, although it takes quite a few coats to get an even base coat.

This is also the first time I've tried starting with a midtone basecoat and glazing in the shadows, rather than my typical method of dark base coat, wash, and several highlights. I think it turned out very well, especially with the dark red hue to make the skin look bruised and feverish. I especially like how the faces on the two shorter minis turned out.

Next up is an Illuminated. Those newly addicted to Brilliance undergo 'beneficial' mutations well-suited for combat. Their new-found power of short-lived, however. Over time their condition deteriorates until they are in the same state as the lowly Depleted, only to be wholly consumed by the Darkness.

This model is a kit bash: body from the Malifaux Female multi part kit and arms from an actual Illuminated. Jakob Lynch's box set comes with three Illuminated models. Two I have already painted, but the third wasn't to my liking, so I stole its arms and glued/green stuffed them to this chick.

I didn't use the Scale 75 paints for this model's flesh (as I was a bit frustrated at first trying to base coat the Depleted) and I reverted back to using Reaper medium and pale flesh tones. I'm not quite as happy with this model. After looking at the picture the highlighting, especially on the claws, could use some more work.

Finally there is the Hungering Darkness himself, an ancient Spirit of Malifaux that feeds off of the Brilliance-addicted patrons of Lynch's casino.

Figuring out a suitable color scheme for this guy had me stumped for quite a while. This sculpt isn't terribly liked in the Malifaux community. Affectionately nicknamed 'Huggy', it is a pretty goofy model to begin with and, depending on the paintjob, can get much more so. I wanted to stick with a simple paint scheme to avoid a mishmash of colors over the large surface area, so color of the main body parts is the turquoise scheme common throughout my Lynch crew. I wanted to keep the focus on the central portion of the model and away from the tiny slug tail and large protrusions on the side of the head, so for the rest of the body I applied a mix of black and iridescent medium. In the fluff Huggy is a spirit composed of the ethereal drug Brilliance, so I thought the glossy sparkle would be appropriate, and it came out better than I expected.

And here's the Jakob Lynch family photo.

And the paint streaked hand that signifies a good day of painting.

Next up in the paint queue are the Viktorias and their sisters in battle. You may remember seeing Matt's excellently painted versions in a previous post; these Viks are some older metal sculpts that I prefer the look of so they'll have a bit different aesthetic. I've had these ladies primed and based for a while and it's about time I give them the attention they deserve. I'll be trying out the Scale 75 metallic paints on their armor plates.

Hobby Storage

In the past couple of weeks I've picked up a few new ways to store all of my hobby toys. The first is a pair of paint racks from Burn In Designs. They are laser cut vertical paint storage racks specifically made for dropped bottles. With my collection of Reaper and Scale 75 bottles they were perfect for me. Each row holds up to 11 bottles; with 8 rows that's a bunch of paint stored in each rack. The top of even has a tray to hold misc items, like Citadel/P3 pots or other tools.

The pieces fit together very nicely. They recommend wood glue to hold it together securely, but only the the top lips and bottom legs require it, the rest firmly slots together.

I was previously using a very large nail polish rack which only held a little more than a single Burn In Design rack. Upgrading to the vertical racks is much more space efficient and aesthetically pleasing.

My second storage acquisition is a nice little display case. While in the Lake of the Ozarks last weekend I happened across this gem at a shop's going out of business sale. With 12 compartments perfect for storing Malifaux-sized Crews I snapped it up. It even has a mount on the bottom that allows you to spin it around to easily access all sides. 

The only downside was that the light wood color wasn't too my liking. After a quick tear down and sanding I applied a darker stain which is drying as I type this. In the next update I'll have pictures of it back together and filled with minis.

Thanks for reading. See you next week!