An SoB Update

I have to admit, that stupid laptop issue really muddled me up when it came to the pics. I had 5 pics, two of which I didnt use in the end as they looked over exposed so I kept these 3. As you can tell there is a progression of the paint work on the mini up to its current state. And NO it isnt finished as I will be doing the red robes, although black doesnt look too bad. Will hopefully pick up the paint this week, since the shop was closed today. Doesnt look too bad for my first SoB model. I should also REALLY try to finish another Grey Hunter, especially after I had to redo his shoulder pad cos I forgot the color scheme.

Dawn of War wise, it aint a bad game, up to Mission 4 or 5 now, and damn, I swear those orks know no limit! Playing as marines aint bad. Plus dreadnoughts REALLY kick alot of ass! Damn those assault cannons can really lay out some damage! Although for some weird ass reason I wouldnt mind a skirmish play to see what the Chaos and Eldar sides are like.

Anyway, Im gonna do some other stuff then head to bed, as I feel tired!



Progression of an SoB Model


-TAS

TO WARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I havent set up the digicam for the latop again OR done any painting, I did install DoW and well, it works pretty ok. Havent played it fully yet, but I might give it a go later tonight.

Otherwise, things are slowly getting back on track...

This will probably be the shortest entry Ive done in My entire life...



-TAS

It's Back!!

Got the laptop back today, and the bill wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be (which is good). Running through the folders and slowly re-installing programs and moving My old files over and yeah, it gets a bit ugly at times, particularly with the folders as I lost 50% of My hard drive (which is app 27 Gigs worth of material).

So far things are going ok, with the occasional "oh gawd" and few other moans and bitches.

Unfortunately I did lose a substantial part of My 40K folders, so My step by step Sister is going to be a lil weird, but Ill try and get those pics done up asap. But yeah, so far things are going ok, Im not too insane just yet (thank goodness).

Otherwise, keep watching, and Ill try and get some pretty pictures, well, when I get photoshop or paintshoppro re-installed....

*Shakes head bitterly*




-TAS

A new project.

I'm still at a loss as to why I started it, but Ive started work on a 6 man Wolf Scout pack, using the 'Build a Better Scout' guide from prophet miniatures site. Suffice to say, it isnt an easy job to do, and ive got lil trays FULL of random bits here and there. Havent done any of the cutting parts, but yeah, this should be an interesting lil project for sure. Wont be any WIP pics for a while, unless you want to see the trays full of random bits in them. Although I do need to go back to the codex again and see if I can give the scouts a flamer as well, at which case Ill give them meltabombs, so we'll see how things go.

With that in mind, havent done much painting since the last time, but since Im heading to bed now, I might try and do a few more coats of paint onto that random shoulder pad (fix up the black lining yet again).

Otherwise thats about it. For some reason im not multi-tasking sitting at this computer and doing some modelling, which of course will suck when my laptop comes home. So ill have to try and make a wee bit of space on my desk to do some of this side project stuff. Also tempted to maybe get 5 AotL marines done up, if not at least a paint test to see how I fair with the colors. I may model up one marine and take it from there, but the modelling wont be anything too major, since the basing will be a more jungle based base.

Thats about it, check back in a few days and see if any new stuff come up. If Im lucky the laptop will be back tomorrow so I can actually post some PICTURES again!



-TAS

She's done.. well.. almost...

It's actually quite annoying when I cant post WIP pics cos Ive got a whole heap sitting on my cam atm, and Im actually losing track of what pic is what! Nonetheless, Aside from the robe areas, the mini is done. I'll probably wait til after the robes are done before I do a high light of her armor, and I still have the back pack to do as well. I also did a bit more work on a few bits and pieces of grey hunters here and there. Was doing some shoulder pad work, and good grief Im getting sloppy. Suffice to say, I think for future reference Im going to have to mix and match fine detail work with full on large blocks of undercoating so my eyes get a quick break. In terms of my laptop, the hard drive in actually died, so HOPEFULLY Ill get it back on saturday after they install a new 80Gig hard drive in (gawd Im not looking forward to seeing the price for this repair job).

At this rate I may have another Grey Hunter completed by the weekend, who knows at this point in time. Ive got to just do a quick wash and highlight on the bolter, finish up the shoulder pad, do some of the helmet areas and do the lil accessories and that will be that guy done. Assuming Im clever enough to get bits done like pelts and colors used etc at the right times, it could actually be done by then. Ill probably paint up some purity seals for the SoB mini I did to give her a tad bit more character since the models arent exactly easy to convert.

Otherwise thats about it. Guess its back to browse over the B&C and stuff before bed time (whenever that will be).




-TAS

Almost done the lil things...

Other than the fact I need to buy a few new paints before I can finish the robes on the SoB mini, the lil things are almost completed. Just need to give a highlight to the pouches on her waist, pick out the rivets on her armor and a quick highlight of the bolter casing and that'll be it. After that Ill TRY and pick up those paints this week so I can get the robes done on the weekend. Once the lil bits are done, Ill take another pic and that can do with the other horde of pics yet to be put up.

As for the status of my laptop, a lil setback occured, so Im expecting a call tomorrow about it (well today since its after 3am). So here is hoping for tomorrow (and hopefully I wont get charged for 4 hrs worth of labor).

Did a few more sketches of the V2 EC marines, and it aint too bad... But otherwise, been a lil slow on the 40K stuff this week. I should try and finish up one of my grey hunters, but Ive been saying that for a LONG ass time.

In other news, Im going to try and step up my work on My AotL (in light of some interesting, well, "discussions" persay at the B&C). Naturally, Ill start with a color test and work My way from that, but Ill still try and do some minor conversions to it to make it look less RAF. Very tempted to get a box of Dryads, that way I can use bits and pieces of them for basing My AotL and perhaps use them to make some new Daemonette models as well. Well there is a $50 investment again >.< Well, $45 since I have My 10% discount back again. And I wont layby them either since it would be a waste.

Anyway, off to do a quick Bubonic Brown highlight and then get some ZzZ's






-TAS

Bit more progress...

Did a tad bit more work on the SoB mini, mainly the metal areas here and there with a wash afterwards. Just need to touch up those areas a bit more and I can finish off the waist accessories (grenades, pouches). After that will just be the main robes to sort out and the lil icons that are hanging off from those.

Also did some metal work on the bolters for a few grey hunters. I really need to get off my lazy backside and finish another hunter (since there isnt a whole lot left to do). Just need to confirm with my photobucket account which bits go with which guy and that will be about it.

Been doing a few sketches of concept art for my V2 EC marines. Isnt going too bad, looking alot better than the current V1 incarnations in some areas. Of course Im hitting the point of having all my ideas caught between all the pieces of paper, so on one particular page I have quick sketches of the Chaos Warrior Helmets, and Im sure on another page Ill have various CC weapons etc. Need to try and do some more mutation work, since its still quite 'plain' looking in some aspects.

Otherwise, thats about it. Taking the laptop for its repair job today, so should get that back by the end of the week I hope. Depending how these sketches go, I may/may not get one or two pages scanned and uploaded to My blog. Some of them arent too fantastic (still never liked drawing figures) but they are suitable enough to get a pictorial version of my ideas.

Hopefully get some pics up by the end of this week.



-TAS

Getting There...

Did a bit more work on the test mini and it aint looking too bad, although MY GOODNESS, painting the face (mainly the eyes and lips) was NOT an easy task at all. However, from a distance it doesnt look TOO bad. So the head has now been done (needs a bit more work, but thats coming from the person that hates painting flesh). The Fleur dy lys as well as the Inquisition symbol have been painted in a very "boring" white. For future reference I may use different colors (eg golds) to bring them out, but I dont want to bring out too many colors into the palette, plus the white still sufficient stands out and it doesnt feel like a giant leap. The more I look at the mini, the more I think black would not have been a good idea for robe colors at all as the black seems to almost be a black hole. All thats left now are the bolter, robe areas, metal bits and the waist accessories which isnt too bad. In addition the backpack needs to be done, so I might start work on that soon as well. The mini doesnt look too bad, the black lining helps give it a bit of life, where as the flat and full painting style I had 6 years ago, probably wouldnt have looked nice on the mini at all. Ill probably do a bit more work before taking the next pic, although I probably wont start the robes just yet as I want to stock up on a few vallejo paints which I would have done today, but my palm pilot lost the doc file I had listing My vallejo paints.

In other news, I put the huge ass Liber Chaotica Compilation on lay by (mmm 3 month layby) which is great. Will make a nice lil Christmas present if I havent collected it before then. Not too bad for $100, considering I bought the three seperate Libers at about $50 each. At least this time around Ill have the Khorne section, plus the special Undivided section as well. Thinking I might resort to laybying future stuff as well, that way I can buy in bulk and spread the payment over the 3 months.

Otherwise thats about it at this point in time, once the bulk of this Sister is out of the way, I may turn My attention back to My Wolves (still got the grey hunter pack to finish) and try and do some modelling on the side for either my Thousand Sons or Angels of the Lion armies.




-TAS

Not so good....

Looks like I wont be able to do the pics *sighs* stupid Windows 98 and its bad combination with drivers!!! So it looks like it might have to wait til the weekend as Ill probably need to get the stuff out of the Digicam box and get the drivers installed on this pc before I can get the pics across. Man, I miss plug n play stuff...

I had a look at the mini again last night, and the grey is starting to grow on Me. Just looking at it now, I dont think the black robes will be really that good, as it seems to give the mini a sense of incompleteness about it. However, Ill do up the face and a few metal areas and then get a few more pics and y'all can see how it looks with light grey armor and black robes.

Definitely looks like we could be going the dark red robes route for sure, and loosely from memory, I think it will still go well with the Order Im planning, since I believe I am using a heart shape symbol, so I think the dark red will be a natural choice for robes.

Thats about it for today, if I do any more painting, Ill report it, but in terms of pics, cant do much about that just yet.




-TAS

Good News and Bad News....

Whats the good news you say? Well I slapped on both another coat of Cold Grey and the Stone Wall Grey coat onto the mini and well, it turned out ok. I do have pics of it, but Ill explain that situation in a moment. Although the grey didnt overly "hit" me, I suspect its due to the fact the model is no where NEAR finished. I'm thinking Im going to need to do things like the head, metal areas and bolter to give it a bit more of a "completed" feel before hiting the robes and hopefully it will feel alot better then.

As for the pics and the BAD news. My laptop actually died on me, apparently my OS managed to get corrupted and well.. yeah... However, there is still a way to save it, but obviously it means accessing the previous SoB in progress pics isnt as easy as it looks (suddenly wish I uploaded each pic individually). However, I do still have paintshop pro on this computer, so hopefully all I need to do is hook up my digital camera to the computer (pray it doesnt spend half a year finding drivers) and get the pics across. Might d/l the last progress pic and just whack the other two into that one, since thats the best I can do for a comparison.

Been keeping an eye on a nifty lil SoB conversion thread on the B&C started by Legacy40K. Suffice to say, Im very impressed and wouldnt mind trying something like that for my own. Sure it means needing to get guardians galore, but ehhh, the idea behind it has been very promising and if I had more time, Id pull out the GS and give it a try too.

Anyway, keep an eye out on this space, hopefully Ill have a pic post up in a few mins time, if not, at least sometime on the weekend.



-TAS

Lil Mini Post...

So Im kinda bored at "work" atm, so I thought I would do a mini post to help pass some of the time away. Havent done the dry brush later of Cold Grey to the test SoB model yet, but hopefully I'll get that done tonight without any problems. Shouldnt take too long either being a dry brush, plus Im just adding a bit of color again to that black wash, so it shouldnt take too long at all. If the paint dries and I have enough time, Might even do a dry brush of the stone wall grey too, and then I can see how "off" my photoshop grey and actual grey were. I suspect it will be a bit, as the photoshop grey has a slight purple tint to it, so it looks like Lavender.

Picked up the latest WD and well, Im actually tempted to get some of the BT plastics once they are released. A fair few pieces would be very handy for My Angels of the Lion army, and being plastic, it will be very easy to remove any existing BT symbols and do whatever from there. Otherwise, there wasnt alot of interesting stuff, the main decent 40K segment in it aside from the BT preview stuff was probably the Nemesis Kill Teams which looked pretty interesting.

Anyway, thats about it. Hopefully tonight Ill have another post and happy snap of the next stage on the SoB painting. Im HOPING Tobias will find that post again and do a vote on the robe color before I get up to that part :P




-TAS

Next stage...

And here is the next stage in the SoB test mini. I ran over the armor with a black wash and although it looks like a "mess" I think it helped clean up alot of the initial black lining. I still have the black areas I left out, in addition to some muted cold grey tones which really helps alot. I think My next stages will involve a quick dry brush of the Cold Grey again, and after that a heavy dry brush of the Stonewall Grey and I believe that will be the armor done. Once the armor is done, Ill create a new step by step picture so its all in the one and from that will be off to debating robe colors and finishing anything else. So far its turning out ok, so here is hoping to further positive results.



Read the entry for more details =)




-TAS

Added the Cold Grey Basecoat...

Had someone told me EARLIER that the SoB minis were a pain to paint, I probably would NOT have considered them as an army. Anyway, the cold grey base coat has been applied and ugh, Im thinking I may need to tweak My painting strategy with these models, cos conventional painting (for me) isnt as effective due to the greater detail etc. But in the end it was done, and yes I will do a happy snap. Im considering I might move to a more heavy dry brush method than actual painting persay, but we'll see how things go. Since it IS my first Sob model, things may get easier with practice etc. I may do a quick black wash over it to get back some of the shading areas, before proceeding with the stone wall grey coat, plus I know not to use alot of pain in comparison to painting marine armor, since there is less to paint. The robe contest is going ok, I guess once the last grey coat is done, Ill have an idea of what grey and black robes look like for a start. Heh, NOW i see why alot of SoB players stick to black armor, its SOOO much easier!! Snap will come up in a lil bit and Ill do it from the black undercoat pic to the current look of it now. And to think I was complaining when I was black lining with marines. Painting wont look as good as my newer wolves, but Im hoping some washes will help bring out some of the shadows etc out since black lining is not easy with these models without having to shift down to a smaller brush (which may be a good idea, but may take double the time to paint). Looking forward to painting the robes since they should be ALOT easier for sure.

Thats about it, Ill get the pic up asap.

*EDIT*

Here is the pic:



After seeing the pic, Im definitely thinking of doing that black wash over it (it doesnt look THAT bad normally). Lil blurry with the pic this time around, but oh well. Next pic will probably be after a black wash and then it will be onto the next phase with the stone wall grey, which shouldnt be too bad since I'll want to keep some of the black lining and muted cold grey tones in the armor (well thats the plan anyway). We'll see how things go, since doing the black wash wont take very long at all. Might be another pic update within the next day or so. And if anyone was wondering, YES the bolter has been drilled out.


-TAS

Beginnings of the SoB

That would be beginnings paint wise...

So here is a pic of the mini Im working on, thought I would do it in a semi stage by stage bit for some weird reason. I decided to use the flash on the camera this time, and surprisingly enough, I got some good results from it, except in the pic with the black undercoat, as it looks a bit too flashy. Cleaning it up was a pain, and I still saw some mold lines on the mini after I put the undercoat on, but oh well.... Next stage is to do the base coat of Cold Grey (Codex Grey for you Citadel users). Im debating if I want to start black lining already, or if I should paint it completely and 'black line' with the Cold Grey. I had a look at the test marine I did, and it still looked ok, so I may do the black lining method as I usually do, plus the Cold Grey is an intermediate step in any case, as I dont want to apply Stone Wall Grey (Fortress Grey I believe) straight over a black undercoat as it may dark it by a few shades.

In other blog news, as you can tell, I've gone on a mad fury and added a whole heap of links ranging from Blogs, to Websites, to Forum boards and what not. I'll probably add more in time. It's quite handy having this lil blog. Anyway, continue to vote as well if you havent (remember 3 model PREFERENTIAL system). In the next few days, Ill tally up the current votes and put them up to see how things go. Once the below mini gets her armor done, I'll probably take it to the B&C for additional decisions pertaining to the robe color. Might try and do some of the details as well, but we'll see how things go. Here is hoping this aint a waste of a model.


Read the Above text as always, well the relevant part to the pic anyway.




-TAS

SoB Color Tests!!!

Well here they are... SEVERAL color tests for robe colors using photoshop.. After this, man, if I ever play Fantasy, I swear, the colors from tonight will make Me want to do a Bretonnian army *shrugs*.

So this is what YOU need to do.... Cast a vote (just by adding a comment, cos I aint making no fancy poll for it) and say which number you like (1, 1.1, 3, 3.2, 4, 4.2, 5 and 6). You will notice there is no '2' as that was the blue armor SoB from the LAST vote. Im going to assume things are relatively easy to understand, but for those that are weird in the head:

1 and 1.1: One is a darker red, the other is a lighter red.

3 and 3.2: Light Green vs Dark Green

4 and 4.2: Light Blue vs Dark Blue

5: Orange (Main, it makes Me think Halloween and pumpkins already).

6: Yellow (whoever suggested yellow should be shot).

Another thing that irritates me, I swear I paint better in photoshop than I do normally, as the robes didnt turn out all too bad. Personally, I dont know which one to go for, I can only think of Bretonnians at the moment...

So yeah, you know your duty now, SO GO DO IT!!! *snickers*



Read the entry for more weird ass Bretonnian inducing fears and terrors...... *shakes head in disgust*

*EDIT*

Lets see if I can add in the last color test:



There it is folks. Ill be deleting the seperate post for this one, so here is a color test with BLACK. Otherwise, y'all know what to do.


-TAS