Going to start painting again.

Okay, it's been a long break from painting and admittedly I hadn't got much done before.

So, here's my current project:

Titan Marines from Rebel Minis

I am going to try a suggestion I received before and go with 4 mini's together on a craft stick (I glued 4 together to give it thickness; something to hold on to!) I chose 4 mini's with identical poses, I figure if I am 'assembly line' painting, it'd be easier to go this route.

The mini's are freshly primed and waiting to dry. I noticed some mold lines that I thought I had gotten on there heads that I will need to go back and clean up.

I am considering a dark reddish brown (like GW Dark Flesh) for the cloth and a metal (GW Boltgun Metal) for the armor and a dark gray for the face masks (50/50 mix of Codex Gray and Chaos Black). I'd highlight the Dark Flesh with Terracotta , highlight the boltgun metal with chainmail and the masks with codex gray. Likely wash all the non-cloth with black wash and the cloth with brown wash, possibly chestnut ink or brown ink. This could all change as soon as paint hits the mini, but we will see.

Other news I have played a couple of games of warhammer 40k recently. I brought my Tau out of retirement. It's been long enough that all my armies are in retirement. I went with Tau because they seemed the least changed with 5th ed, which I have not played much.

The 40k games were a bit frustrating, I am so used to 3rd ed rules, I was making tactical errors that were 'rules based errors', like hiding a unit of troops behind a stand of trees. They'd have been concealed before, now they just got a cover save. Not what I was anticipating when I made the move.

So, one game vs. Gray Knights was a spectacular failure for the Tau. No 'Greater Good' came from it. I got to go first and didn't manage a single kill! Second game was vs. Dark Eldar. I one that game, but we made some mistakes that could have tipped the balance.

I couldn't help myself...

I placed another order with Rebel Mini's. I assume that my pile of lead isn't large enough to motivate me to paint more. (And the pile of 28mm lead and 6mm lead and 10mm lead is too overwhelming).

Maybe I am a 'collector' now. I love mini's. I used to paint all the time. Now I seem to struggle with motivation. Self motivation. Apathy. Depression? Probably. It's been a real struggle to get back on the 'hobby horse'.

My Rebel Minis Order:
Earth Force Marines Infantry
15mm Warlord Class Grav Tank
15mm Thumper Class Grav Tank
MATV Apache
MATV Comanche
Titan Marine Mk.II Recon HAMR Suit

I also placed an order with Splintered Light:
Armed Space Crew
Unarmed Space Crew

It looks like I should receive the Rebel Mini's order today. The Splintered Light order was out of stock, I got an email right away from them saying it would be about a week.

My prior order from Rebel Mini's was shipped right away and arrived quickly. It appears the same for my second order. I am pleased with Rebel Mike's service.

I have never seen an 15mm vehicle in person, so I am looking forward to getting off work tonight and checking the mail. I am really curious what they look like (size). I have heard many die-cast cars (matchbox, hotwheels) can be of similar size (but being more sized for the box, rather than a specific scale.) Seeing a model made specifically for 15mm would give me an idea of what to look for when I am at the toy store! I bought a matchbox Hummer and Toyota 4-runner that looked like they may pass for 15/18mm but when I got them home, they looked a little big. But, those are big trucks anyways... My 8 year old saw the trucks and wanted them for himself. I don't blame him.

I find myself continuing to ponder what colors to paint my FoW Germans. (Again, based individually, plans to play with Tomorrow's War). The only thing I know for sure is I don't want to go with the classic German color schemes. I am thinking of an urban camo scheme at the moment. I really need to just paint them and move on. I get stuck 'analyzing' and never get anything done. (I guess that's why I work as an analyst).

Ok, back to work I guess. (reading TMP and whatever else I can get away with at work).

Frustrated and starting over

okay, so i got to work on my 15mm mini's. It has been a good learning experience, but I had one fatal mistake from the beginning. I am not happy with the way the sand built up on the bases. It's probably due to the use of superglue. I never used super glue before to adhere sand, but I was a bit nervous about it not sticking to the metal washer (i am used to plastic bases). I am also not used to the bump up the mini's base has on top of the washer. I tried to be careful. I think the super glue must have been absorbed into the sand causing the layer above to stick. This made the sand layer up pretty thick and go well over the feet of the mini's. I just wasn't happy.
for
I intend to get a good process start-to-finish, before I buy the mini's I really wanted. (I got these Flames of War Germans cheap at a local store when I used to live in Washington State). So, i dunked them in acetone for a little while and scrubbed them clean. I normally wouldn't have used acetone, but I wanted to break down the superglue holding all the sand on. So far so good. I've got them down to bare metal and a little bit of sand remaining. They are in their 'final soak' right now. Later today I plan to get them finished up. Washed (soap and water), dried thoroughly (probably enjoy some sunshine). and then back to the paint table.

For attempt number 2 I plan to NOT put sand on until the model is completed. I will NOT use super glue for the sand. I am hoping that a roughed up washer with a little primer on it will give enough hold with PVA glue for the sand. I probably worried for nothing, I should put my paranoia energy towards something better, like the aliens that steal my underwear at night. Damn them...

I also plan to use my airbrush to lay down my initial base color.

It really shouldn't take a long time to paint these little guys up. I think I am spending too much time thinking of the details (which leads to procrastination). I also know that I will not be taking these to any award shows. (I have pride in my work and like a well painted model, but they don't all have to be 'winners'). I have to balance patience, lack of attention span, quality and quantity. I believe that if I can produce good looking models at a decent pace, I am more likely to return to the paint table sooner.

I had thought about mounting the models in a row on a craft stick but I really had no problem holding onto the mini by its washer base. I suppose if I hadn't mounted them on the washers, I'd try the craft sticks.

Well, more later. (no pics this time since the stripping of mini's is not that exciting to look at.)

Thanks for reading.

Some progress 21 Aug 2011

Okay, so I managed to get some painting in yesterday and today. I experimented with my wet palette.

Wet Palette...  where have you been all my life!!!

I loved how the paint stayed wet on the paper the whole time I painted. It was as if the paper new just exactly how much to thin my paint and to keep it that consistency the whole time! I absolutely loved not having to re-wet my paint or to have to go back to the paint pot for more. I am certain I would have used 2-3 times more paint, for the short amount of time that I was painting. In addition, it is still wet inside my sealed container! I look forward to seeing the results of that tomorrow. This will change a lot in the ways I paint. If I can just sit down, open my palette and get 15-20 minutes done and then seal it up... it will be easier (for me) to accomplish more during the week, when I don't have the time to devote to multiple hours of painting.

I find that every time I sit down to paint, I feel better overall about painting and more excited to get more done. It has been a hard slump to get over. I had gotten so burnt out on "The Hobby" that is has been a difficult road of recovery. Fortunately, the medicine is to paint more!!! :)

So, yes I am still on the same 8 mini's pictured earlier in my blog. Difference is, they are almost done being blocked in (faces, guns and accessories remain). Shade and highlight will go quick and the sand on the base is already painted. Need highlight for the sand and then a little flock to mix it up. I can see the end of this project drawing near. My reward? Go buy some excellent mini's from Rebel Minis, Khurasan and Critical Mass. I've also got my eye on some over seas companies like Ground Zero Games (where I plan to also get some Full Thrust ships!)

Oh, I also made a mental break through today. Nothing I didn't know before, but some knowledge has to be reacquired as you get older... (and suffer from some burn out). So, at the start of this blog (1 month ago), I had begun my first 15mm scale models. I have done 6mm, 10mm, 25mm, 28mm, 54mm, etc.... So, when I first started, I looked at the little guy and thought, oh... it's just a small 28mm. Sort of like painting a goblin or some other shorter mini. No... What I should have thought was, oh these are like Warmaster (10mm) only a little bigger! This would have saved me some hassle. Once I changed my mindset, the mini's started painting up a lot quicker.

Okay, off to eat some spaghetti and hopefully paint some more tonight! I realize I need to get some pictures up.

Thanks

Messing with settings

Frustrated by last nights camera failure, I decided it was time to mess with the settings and see if I could figure out something. This camera had to be able to do a better job. I read some threads on TMP and followed some suggestions there.

I brought a florescent desk lamp out to provide better lighting. I also removed the white background. Normally, I paint with black primer. I figure the white primed models on a white background was a recipe for disaster. I set the camera to its lowest ISO setting. I played with the white balance until it looked right. Then there was an exposure option with 3 settings. I didn’t know what they meant, but that’s not the kind of thing that would stop me. :)  The first two, of course, didn’t help much. On the third, a neat little thing happened, no idea what it’s purpose was, but a little cursor went tracing around the models when I held the button down to focus. I let it run around for a little bit and then took the picture. I am guessing it was doing some kind of range finding to determine distance to the models. That’s my guess anyways. Here are the results:

Thanks,
Shawn

I thought I had a good camera

…it’s sad that my camera phone out performed. I don’t know what went wrong… I noticed this camera didn’t have a macro size function, like my old camera had. Sad that a newer camera is worse than the one it replaced…. but more so that the camera phone did better.

Any advice on mini photography is appreciated. I know I could do better with lighting, I didn’t go to a lot of effort when I set up this shot.

I didn’t get as much work done in the past few days as I would have liked, but I did spend a lot of quality time with my boys which is always far more important.

Anyways, I managed to prime my mini’s and I put a light brown wash on them to make the details pop out. I probably won’t bother with that step in the future, but for the first time painting 15mm, I wanted a good eye on where the details were, that and my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be.

Here’s the crappy pic my camera took:

Feeling sad about my camera now… I had put some effort into picking this one out, but I wasn’t considering mini’s at the time. Maybe it’s just a low battery. Before I give up on the camera, I am going to try a little harder tomorrow with better lighting and backdrop. I researched a little on TMP and have some ideas.
Thanks,
Shawn

25 July 2011

I made some progress today, but not as much as I hoped. Although, trying to maintain at least an hour a day has yielded a lot more than I was getting before.

Today I cleaned up 8 models and mounted them on washers. This is my first time working with 15mm, so I am learning as I go. I like to experiment so we will see what kind of techniques I develop. I did do a lot of reading on The Miniatures Page and several of the members blogs and had some ideas going in.

I played around with my Dremel to see if I could shave down the thickness of the bases, as I didn’t want too much of a lump between the base and the models feet. I had put a sticker on the bottom of the washer and filled the hole in with Spackle. Probably not necessary but for some reason I just don’t like the idea of the whole. In the future, I think I will get bases from Lithko. Then again, washers are easy to get at the store and do add a little weight to the model.

When I applied my super glue it ran a little wider than I had expected on the washer. I figured this would be okay, as it might set up a little, providing a slope between the washer and the models feet. Of course, My ADHD wouldn’t allow me to just wait and see if that worked. I dipped the model in sand. I liked the way it worked, so I added a llittle more glue to bring the sand to the edges of the washer and dipped again. I also ran a nice thin line of glue on the flat part of the models base. I am happy with the results.

Tomorrow, I am going to scrape of any bits of sand I don’t like and then prime the models. Hopefully I will have at least 4 painted up if not all 8.

Below is pictures of my progress. Pics aren’t very good, they came from the camera phone. My real camera is out in the car and I didn’t want to bother with going out to get it.









Thanks for looking,
Shawn