Crushed under with the Weak and Infirm

I had a completely free night yesterday to paint, but it was all for naught. I was exhausted, my Son still isn't sleeping well at night. I was in bed before nine haha.. I started painting some but didn't have the will to do much so didn't work on anything important that required detailing. Did a little more blending on this guy and got a Dark Reaper based out. After that I just crawled upstairs 8)

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion

Worked on getting the head mounted last night, the staff is only being held on by BluTak at the moment. I just wanted to get a feel for what the final look will be. So far, I'd say I'm pleased. He's still a good ways off as I really haven't done all the details I want to get done on him. I'm also in debate on the cloak, I was thinking of a large symbol on the back but with the number of folds on it .... sheesh. Getting it to look like it's folding correctly could be more of a pain then I'd like to think about.Or I can line the hem of the cloak with symbols. Right now I'm still thinking about that haha

I'll probably be adding some weight to the base, with the addition of the head (which is metal) and when the staff is attached permanently (spear head is also metal) it will be very top heavy. I also mounted him on the correct base but wish I would have went with a larger base. Maybe I'll use him when I play but most likely he'll just be sitting on the shelf looking cool haha

I had a little extra time left after mounting the head and clearing it (got all the air brushes fully cleaned and put back together) so I worked on the warp flames a bit. Man those things are annoying me to no end. I want them to look very smooth and flowing, alive like fire but with the shapes and the fact that it needs to look good 360 degrees makes it very tough. I've tried three different looks so far and this is finally starting to look like something I might like when finished. Might not look like it but there is a lot of blending going on in there haha

Not quite right..

Yesterday I was looking at the Seer's helm and I wasn't liking the design I was making on the side. So last night I painted over it and started again. The other design was looking more tribal and that didn't feel Eldar to me so I went back and made it look more curvy. As I'm looking at it I'm much happier with this design and I think this will be the one I work to finish out. I'm going to clear it before I go any farther so the work up to this point doesn't get wrecked. I was going to last night but I started cleaning all of my Airbrushes the night before and didn't feel like rebuilding them. So that will be tonight  haha hopefully

And since I had the reds out I put some more reds on this guy. Still needs blending but honestly I think the golds will be next for him haha.. tired of the yellow 8)

The Bone Collector

Bone Color that is, this weekend I pretty much only worked on bone colored blending. It was a very hectic weekend so I didn't get too much done. I blended the rest of the Deathwing Termies and started working on the Seer's Ghosthelm.

I wanted to get the colors down, and I also wanted to add some design to the side of the helm. It will have a good bit more added to it but I at least got it started.

Hodge Podge..

Did a little here and a little there, started working on the warp flames on the Seer but was feeling pretty busted so I didn't want to concentrate on anything. I just grabbed numerous models to do some base work on them to get something done and occupy myself. I did pin the Seer's head so I'm going to start painting that up to be attached, hopefully this weekend.

A Reaper

A Pathfinder

And the Sternguard guy

Nothing too awesome.. After that the Nyquil was kicking in so I went and laid down. I'm hoping to recover this weekend but I don't see much rest coming haha

How to Paint Gems

I promised a How to paint gems and here it is.. a little later then I'd like but the whole Family is pretty sick right now so I haven't had the time or energy to even write it up till now. 8) Plus I had to redo it once as the first set of pics were at a odd angle which I didn't notice till after I was completely done blah ....

Here is a list of the colors I use for Red Gems.. and that will be the base of this Tut but really it doesn't matter what color you use just pick three shades going from dark, mid to light and a highlight.

Base Color - Mech Red ( I think it's Mephiston Red now)
Mid Color - Scab Red or Gory Red (VGC)
Light Color - Blood Red (now Evil Sunz Scarlet) or Bloody Red (VGC)
Highlight - Golden Yellow or Golden Yellow (VAC) haha
White - Which ever you choose
I use inks a lot when working on gems as it gives an iridescent look with some transparency. I use a mix of old Citidel Inks that I still have left and Daler Rowney when I had to replace them.
Purple
Plasma Red (not pictured above)
Magenta (not pictured above)
Black

It might look like a lot of colors but it really makes a difference and it doesn't take too long to give you a nice looking finished product.

**Click on the images below to enlarge if you are having trouble seeing the gem**

1. Start with Mech Red and paint the whole gem

**With gems, usually the darker section will be at the top of the gem. Light passes through the gem and seems to collect in the bottom of it. Decide where the light source will be coming from and stick with it, otherwise it will look strange if there are multiple gems on one mini. For the purposes of this Tut the light source will be directly above him.**
2. Apply your light color to the bottom 2/3 of the gem. You also want to work at an angle, go diagonally from top left to bottom right.

Here is a diagram I whipped up to help show the directions I'm talking about .. 

3. Now you are going to blend the colors together using your mid color. Thin it 50/50 and paint the mid 1/3 of the gem. Besides working diagonally remember the gem is suppose to be round, no hard edges and you should be working in a curve. You may have to go back with some light color after this depending on how you blend.

4. Now that the base colors are on I'll move over to the inks. Starting with purple applying it to the top left third, painting a slight oval with it. Remember keep it curved.

5. Next it's time for the red ink. Apply this to the whole gem. It will brighten the entire surface. You may have to thin the ink a little if you are using the Daler Rowney, test the opacity of the ink before you apply it to the gem you don't want it to cover all the blending you just did. The old GW inks are pretty transparent from the get go so no need to mess with with it.

6. Magenta time, I apply this to the middle section of the gem, concentrating most of my attention just below the purple area.

7. Once I'm happy with the blending I'll move on to the highlights. The bottom right gets blended with Golden Yellow, make sure to thin this a good bit. You'll want it to be more of a wash then paint. Build up the bottom of the section, but don't blend to the edge. Leave a sliver of red left.

8. When the yellow highlight looks right move on to the finishing highlight. Apply white in a drop to the top purple third, this is the light reflection. You can actually see the light reflecting off the gem in the pictures before I have even applied the white. That is where you want it to be, be very careful and make one small dot. I will also make a very fine white line at the bottom yellow curve. VERY FINE. You don't have to add this if you don't like, it's hardly noticeable but I think a light reflection adds to the look.

9. Now you are almost done, for the final step I take black ink but you can use black wash if you like and I circle the entire base of the gem. This will outline the gem making it stand out from it's setting, that will usually be the darkest section of a gem.

10. Touch up any section that doesn't look right to you. I had to blend some more yellow when I was finished with taking the pictures. Taking the pictures in between painting distracted me a bit haha.. But that's it you should be done.

I typically paint all the gems at the same time, going through each step on all of them at the same time. That way it doesn't feel like I'm doing so much for just one little gem haha..  I hope this helps some people out!! Now it's off to take some meds..

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe

As it typically happens I was in the mood to paint something else when I sat down this weekend. So I worked on my Farseer conversion who's been sitting around patiently waiting for some love. He's still a ways off but I dd get his Staff pretty far along.

The blade is the only thing that really needs a lot of work, I'm still figuring out how I want it to look so not sure what I'm going to do. I want to get that figured out and then finish the details. I haven't started on this guys head yet haha.. so that will also get some attention soon.

I took pictures to show how I paint gems but sadly the pictures didn't turn out as good as I would have liked. If you can't see what's happening in the picture the Tut won't be to helpful aye? haha I also caught a cold this weekend so now I'm struggling through that and it's currently taking everything I've got to even make sense while writing this. So flerb bo hur got mof!

I was getting DA'd out so primed up a few Eldar to paint which made me feel better. So hard for me to focus on one thing I swear. If I have the strength tonight I'll take some more pictures for the Gem Tut. The Farseer has one on his back that needs to be done.

Assemble your team

I updated the Kill Team rules I've been working on, we've played a couple of games with them and they are an on-going work in progress. But so far every time we've played people seem to have a good time. If you are interested in looking at them or using them be my guest.

Kill Team Rules - Updated March 2013

There are a good bit of changes this time around. I added a lot of information reguarding Coherency and what it will give you. There are a lot of rules that get broken being a unit of one so I added some more details and rules in for that.

I also more fully described rules for things that have remained the same but seem to cause some confusion. Rules for shooting and assaulting movement. Gave Orkz access to some Nobz and put a cap on how many bikers can be used per army.

The biggest change I made is going back to the random bonus objectives will only be bonus points or bombs. People were ignoring them because they were scared a Baddie or bomb would be their choice. So the baddies were held in check, not this time. Every time a model runs within range of a building they will have to roll and see if something awaits them. This will put more stuff on the board so this will be tested the next game we get in.

I also added in the rules for NPC Snipers and how they will fire at targets. I changed this during the last game and they did very little. This time they won't shoot at what they can't see or hit.

Done but not so done..

Last night I finished up the Spray Booth Area adding the foam board sides, back and the lights. I made it as tall as the width of a standard foam board so I can just cut it to length and slide it in, friction does the rest. I'm going to screw down some wood strips as guilds for extra.. ah .. retention I suppose. But the one thing I'm not happy with is the light, it's acceptable but not really as bright as I had planned. I was going to mount three lists with two being on the sides but I was worried that would cast shadows I didn't want so I mounted two at the top front and back. It's decent but I need more direct light. I might have to pick up some halogen lights to give it more umpfh! Otherwise I'm happy, the foam board works well and will be easy to replace when it needs to be, just a few quick cuts and it slides in place.

With the new booth area done I wanted to spray something but it was too late and I was too tired so I just painted at the table a bit until my son figured it was time to get up again. I knocked out another DA Tact and added some colors to the BA.. it's not a ton but I was pretty tired haha.. My Son has been battling us at night this whole week and it's taking it's toll on us!