Tuesday, September 20, 2016

From three you can blend them all?


 During NOVA I took Roman's blending class and in that blending class we worked from only the Primary colors.. well White and Black as well 8) He said he mainly paints with only the Primary on all his work and that the colors you buy are just blended which you can do yourself. All true .. so I wanted to give it a more extended try. He also said he used thicker acrylic paints so I went out and picked up tubes of Golden Heavy Body Acrylics to use. I also typically don't use a wet palette to which John laughed at me in class .. "what do you use?"  haha.. I never had much luck with them and I usually use a ceramic palette and thin with a mixture with extender added. John helped me make a crude wet palette in the class (as I was the only one without one haha) so I figured I'd better go pick one up to work with. Still not the best with it.. though I did realize what I was doing wrong with them. When I mix colors I spread them out too thin and they still dry up haha.. so don't do that! Leave the color thicker so you can keep using the color. 8) It took me awhile to figure that out as I worked on this guy sadly ..  but now I know..

So.. it leads me to the Slaughter Priest. I picked up the new White Dwarf and let me say I'm really impressed with the new format, they took it back it into a book worth looking at instead of  a collection of ads. I figured since the Slaughter Priest was larger and was a one off for me it would be a cool practice piece. I started working on him during last Thursdays Hobby Hangout and this what he looked like when the paint session ended. Roman also discussed his resolution style of painting where he paints the complete model at a distance and then moves it closer blending and smoothing. Then he moves it closer still to finish the final detail level. So right now the SP is at the farthest distance.. And I'm also using his texture blending style.. ok..  so as I painted him sometimes I felt wow this is looking pretty cool. Then I'd go to the wow this looks like $hit haha.. it's hard for me to not start going full detail. Normally I do paint everything a solid color to get my color scheme squared away and then blend each section until it's finished. I don't start rough blending and for me to make myself stop was very tough. I actually makes me feel like i'm going a little crazy, my brain hates it and lets me know as I'm painting 8)
 The back is rougher then the front and I didn't even clear it with matte yet. The skull on his back and the chains aren't really worked other then primer. Blending all the colors took time and the fact I kept spreading the paint thin and drying out meant I had to keep blending the same color I was using haha.. But like I said I sadly didn't figure out what I was doing wrong till the end, I did a lot of blending. Which wasn't really a bad thing as blending practice is always good. I think he looks ok for going for the lo rez blending and not being finished all of the sections. I'll try to get the lo rez blends done sometime this week depending on how this week goes. Tonight my daughter has dance class so I'll probably be sitting out in the parking lot as she prances haha.. Then I can start to work on mid blending and see what it starts looking like. Hopefully it won't be crap...

I also worked on the texture blend for this marines shoulder. It has a cool look, I like the way it looks like the surface isn't exactly smooth. The gold needs a lot more work but a start. I'm pretty happy with the work and trying something new is always cool. This year I want to continue on with trying different techniques. We'll see how it goes 8)..  hopefully it will help me level up my painting ..

Thursday, September 8, 2016

NOVA 2016 Experience


Another NOVA has come and gone, another great year of catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones. It was another busy one but it was super fun. The six entries I entered into the Capitol Palette and two of them made it to the finalist round. The Ork Flyer and surprisingly my Infinity chick on the bike. She had a rough lead up falling three times requiring repair each time. I called it and packed her up not finishing some of the leather the way I wanted. But I'm very happy, there were so many awesome models in there this year. The competition really stepped up this year. I wasn't expecting to win anything and after seeing the models in the case I knew that was true haha. But I was there to see awesome models and there were tons! I've already got some new ideas for next year... 8)

I took one of Roman's blending class on Thursday and it was a great class. He mainly blends with just the primary colors and went over some texture blending. I already picked up some heavy acrylics to give it a serious shot. It really is tough but when you are completely mixing your colors you can have small added colors that makes it look more realistic (IMO). I probably won't paint an army this way but for a display piece it will be a try.

Thursday night the 40K Narrative started and it was a great event with some old friends I knew and some new friends made. I brought the Revenant to the event as a couple of years ago when they were allow there were a few in attendance and I really was looking forward to having a Titan vs Titan battle. Sadly no one else brought one 8( .. I had some really good opponents and my favorite game was the team game. I like the team games during a narrative event as it really pushes the comradery. I got best painted army for the Narrative which was awesome and came in second for the Virtue. Was surprised... 
I'm also now a complete lightweight. Those night games are a killer haha.. Friday afternoon Sean and I went to get some food and man we chose poorly. That night Sean and I both had massive stomach issues, I won't go into details as that is TMI for sure. But thankfully the next afternoon after lots of water and light eating my stomach was better and got to play the night team game. 

The table I painted up for the Malifaux events went over awesome and I got a lot of compliments of the table. I'm glad everyone had fun playing on it!
In addition I watched some of the 30K events and it's really grabbing me. The tables were awesome and really set the mood. The painting level in the 30K is also up to an amazing level and the tables looked great. I was thinking about making some stuff up before but now I'm really looking at doing it. I already picked up the rules and have been reading them trying to figure out what legion I want to play 8) 

Was nice to meet and hang out with everyone at the event. Another awesome year. I posted up a bunch of pictures yesterday if you want to see all the images I took.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

NOVA Picture Time!


Hey All..  back from NOVA and it was a blast..  had a great time again this year other then having a one night stomach issue haha.. I don't have a ton of time today so just want to post up some of the pictures of the event. I'm pretty terrible at getting good pictures..  I'm either playing and forget or I'm talking way to much and forget haha..

NOVA 2016 Images

I'll post up some more details tomorrow 8) .. Was an awesome time meeting everyone and getting to chat it up!




Wednesday, August 31, 2016

And were off..

 All the flocking and leaves were applied and the display is completely done.. The underglow on the stepped section is a little hard to see when it's bright. I should have run them a bit farther into the step area..





But anyway .. I'm getting everything ready to go .. as soon as the wife gets home I'll be loading up the Tribeca and heading to NOVA.. if you are going to be down there and run across me stop and say Hi!
I may or may not be making this face .. you never know. But I'll be running around the 40K areas for the Narative and then just walking around in general looking at all the cool stuffs...  I'll be wearing my BMD (Black Maria Designs) work shirts so I'll have my name all big on the front ..

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

No time... Nova time..

 Well.. NOVA is almost here, I'll be heading down tomorrow so I'm pretty much done everything. I keep looking at them thinking about should I do this or that but I think it's time to just call it done haha..
The Librarian came out looking the way I wanted so I'm pretty happy. For him I wanted to play around with NMM..  Pretty much each model I worked on was using a different technique .. something I've been wanting to do. Mix up my style a bit 8) .. normally I paint the same way and this year I wanted to add something new.

 Hey Greg I added some of that purple glow pm the stone 8)


 The Wraithblade is ready to double chop anyone that challenges him .. for him I was working on some OSL work.




 I worked on some Xtreme highlights on her .. something I usually don't do. I usually blend to the main color and add light highlights. I think she came out ok.. She sadly had three spills and then I had to fix her three times haha..  I was going to do a little more but I pretty much just called it.. I didn't want her to take another tumble.







 The Dusk Wolf skimmer is a muddy weathering .. the first attempt to do heavy weathering but but a lot of rusting and chipping.







 Dreadtobber! .. I had to enter him just for the sake of the contest and I think he's pretty cool..  I think he really has the comical look Orks would have 8)





 And finally the Ork Flyer.. here I went heavy chipping and rust. I wanted to make a display like model. I don't play Orks so this guy will never see the table, he'll just be hanging out on the shelf.







Overall I'm pretty happy with my models.. I think they came out looking good. I'm looking forward to entering them and seeing all the other models entered. This year has already been much nicer.. I'm liking the more chill Nova prep..  I don't feel like I'm losing my mind before I even get there haha.. Hell.. I'm done a day before I have to leave!