Christmas came just right - Happy Holidays to you all!

Merry Christmas, you guys!

I hope you're having a great time with your families :-)

As for me, the Christkind was very kind this year and brought me something for my hobby:

The Vallejo Model Air Set, which comes in a really snazzy case.

I can't wait to try these paints out and will share my experiences with them. Especially the range of greens and browns is really impressive - and will come in really handy, when I'm painting my Malifaux Alps.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

Kingdom Death: Monster - An awesome Kickstarter project!

Hey guys,

it's been a long time, but it was just crazy with work and preparations before the holidays. But hopefully I will find the time to update my blog more regularly in the future.

One thing I wanted to talk about today is an awesome Kickstarter a project I found and have been following for the last few weeks. I'm talking about the Kingdom Death: Monster board game.

The minis you get in this  kickstarter are really something else and quite stunning. They remind me a bit of the Malifaux range in terms of creepiness. Especially the monsters are really quite something else. I've been pondering for a bit if I wanted to get in on this kickstarter. There are risks involved. You have to pay up front and will get the product late (November) 2013. Also the shipping costs of $45 for international orders are quite high.

That on the other hand you get so much for your money. The sweet spot so far seems to be the Herald of Death pledge which costs 300 bucks. But if you add the cost of the survivor deluxe pledge which is $155 with the international shipping which is $45 your almost 2/3 there already.

For a better sense of what this package contains, take a look at this overview.

All in all it is a really nice package with stunning miniatures for quite a reasonable sum. I haven't pledged so far because I still want to see what other goodies this kickstarter has to offer in the future. But I think it's a given that you get a lot of bang for your buck in this.

Especially from a painting perspective these miniatures to look really, really nice and I'm really looking forward to getting them on my painting table.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

From Zero to Hero: Coppelius - Malifaux Neverborn Minion

Hey guys,

today I wanted to show you, how I painted my Coppelius figure. In a previous post I stated, how much I hated putting this mini together. Because of that, I only did a very basic paint shop this miniature.

After assembly, I primed the miniature with Vallejos polyurethane gray primer.

I basecoated the coat with VGC Imperial Blue, the hair with VGC Sombre Gray and the skin with me VGC Stonewall Gray.

The coat was highlighted by mixing more and more VGC Magic Blue into the base color concentrating on the folds of the coat.

The trousers were basecoated with VGC Hexed Lichen. For the highlights I mixed VCG Squid Pink into the base color.

The skin was highlighted by glazing VMC White over the gray areas, which were raised to the light.

The eye was based with VGC White and a small amount of VGC Magic Blue was used for the iris. The pupil dot was made with VMA Black. I find it easier working with the Model Air colors because they are thinner and you have more control when painting very fine details.

After giving the model of a heavy coat of gloss varnish I used an oil wash to bring out the fine details.

As Coppelius has a very large fluff focus on eyes I  decided to do a slight OSL effect to bring out the eyes of this model. For this I mixed a very thin yellow (VMA Model Air thinned 2:1 with Vallejo Thinner) and applied this mix with my airbrush around the eyes. To highlight the eyes an to give the OSL a focal point, I added a small dot of a 1:1 mix of VMA Yellow and VMC White into the center of each eye. This is important as an OSL effect always goes from light to dark. If you want a glow, you'll need a brighter source for the glow, as otherwise the effect might look off.

All in all one of my less favorite models in the Malifaux range, but I think I captured some of the menace and grittiness of the figure.

Cheers,

IK-Painter

Problems with Maelstrom Games

Hey guys,

Normally I would just write a review of an online store I have purchased something from. But these are special circumstances, because I have had so much problems with this particular service. I'm talking about Maelstrom Games.

Seriously, stay far away from these guys...

I have ordered a bunch of Malifaux and other hobbies supplies over 2 1/2 months ago. All these items were in stock (according to their website anyways) but the first shipment took quite a while to get to me. It seems that they didn't have all these items in the warehouse so they ordered them as soon as I ordered from them. Because of this, my order got split numerous times. Which might be a good thing in hindsight, because if the rumours around the Internet are true, Maelstrom Games is insolvent.

I have read quite an informative thread over on Dakka Dakka yesterday which highlighted the problems this particular online shop has had in the past.

So do yourselves a favor and stay away from this store, because I'm still waiting for part of my order. Granted, it's just a Malifaux 1.5 Rulebook out of a 200 GBP order, but it still sucks. I read read about some other guys ordered quite a bit of stuff in the last months and haven't received anything so far.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

From Zero to Hero: Stitched Together - Malifaux Neverborn Minions

Hey guys,

today I wanted to show you, how I painted the Malifaux Stitched Together minions. I started out by pinning and mounting the miniatures to the corks, removing the mould lines and priming them with black surface primer.

I then applied a basecoat with VMC Leather Brown to both the figures.

Highlights were achieved by adding the VGC Bonewhite to the brown basecolor. In several small increments, and the amount of Bonewhite  was heightened, until the last highlights was pure VGC Bonewhite.

You can see, that this made for a very fine and very smooth gradient in the highlight.

All the areas, where the stuffing of the Stitched Togethers shows through, was basecoated with VMC Vermillion.

I then added random spots of the VGC Hexed Lichen and VGC Squid Pink to the red areas, to make for a color variation in the internal organs and the gore which is shown.

The spine and various bone parts are painted with VGC Bonewhite.

The stitches, which hold these evil burlap sacks together, are painted with the VMC Ivory, to make a nice contrast to the main colour of the model.

The lantern on one of the minis is painted with a 1:1 mix of VGC Brassy Brass and VGC Black to make a nice dark metal basecoat.

The eyes of the figures are painted with VGC Livery Green.

I overpainted some of the areas when adding the VGC Livery Green, but I fixed this mistake again with the highlight color, which made a very nice effect. When adding high contrast colors too deep recesses in the model, it is always important to make a nice clean cut between the different colors,  so they will really pop.

When all the main colors where blocked in, I gave both figures a heavy coat of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.

The coat of varnish protects the model for the next step, a brown oil wash.

This wash was applied very liberal over the whole model, making sure to get enough shading in the deep recesses.

After the wash was dry to the touch, I cleaned it up with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and a make-up applicator.

For a bit of a OSL effect, I glazed VGC Livery Green over the eye area of the model. This was done in a lot of passes making sure that the later passes where concentrated on the areas closer to the eye, so it would look like that the brightest point is near the eye socket.

When I was satisfied with the shading, I gave the models a heavy coat of Matte Varnish.

I really love painting these figures. They were creepy and loaded up with the detail. And I really do think, that these two are some of my best work so far. I leave you with some shots of the finishing models.

Cheers,

IK-Painter

Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CRplus 2 in 1 Review

Hey guys,

I uploaded my next video today. In this one I review the Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CRplus airbrush. This is the 2 in 1 version with both the .15 and .4 needle and nozzle.

I will be using this brush in the next few days to get a feel for it and experiment, what I can do with it.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

From Zero to Hero: Lord Chompy Bits - Neverborn Master

Hey you guys,

my painting time in the last weeks was few and far between, but I still managed to get a few figs done. I know, that Lord Chompy Bits (LCB) and the Dreamer are supposed to be one Master, but for convenience I split the tutorials for the two figures.

Am masked the glue spots with Vallejo plastic putty.

The model was primed with black Surface primer.

And then laid down a basecoat of a 50-50 mix of the VGC Black and VGC Cold Grey.

I then used my airbrush to apply a zebithal highlight, using VGC Cold Grey and VGC Stonewall Grey. When I was done,  I coated to the whole mini in Gloss Varnish.

I wanted the loincloth to appear to be made out of flayed skin. I applied a basecoat of VGC Dead Flesh.

I then applied random patches of VMC Basic Skintone, to simulate different stages of decay.

The skull plate was painted with VGC  Bonewhite.

Highlights where made with a 1:1 mix of VGC Bonewhite and VGC White.

To really bring the rotting of the flayed skin home, I applied red and blue ink to the folds to mix different shades of purple in the recesses. When this was done to my satisfaction. I coated the whole model with gloss varnish.

All in all a fun model to paint. I just don't really like the pose of the model, as any details on the head are lost because of the wide open maw. Finally, I leave you with some shots of the finished figure.

Cheers

IK-Painter