Quick pic post!

Image quality isn't too crash hot, however here is a progress shot (prior to their undercoating) of my Word Bearer and Iron Hands marines as they slowly progress down the building ladder. The GS work was done last night, however the pics haven't come out too clearly, so the GS work on the IH is actually quite blurry, as the painting progresses i'll make sure i take another picture of just the body so i can at least draw attention to the leg bionics.

Otherwise, we'll see how the next few days go!









-eTAS

Minor Update

Just a small update today (since it's been a few days since i last did an update).

Haven't done too much painting as of late, instead i've been sitting at the OTHER desk doing some more mold line removal and wacky adventures like that. Thus, because of a charming individual on the B&C i have a test Iron Hands mini (yeah i know, yet another army to add to my MILLIONS of existing armies). So far the test mini doesn't look too bad, all that is left is some GS work here and there to bulk up some of the bionic areas, plus at the same time i'll do some parchment work on the other Word Bearer so they can both hit the painitng line. Although i might try and see if i can paint some more odds and ends on my table if only to get some space back! Heck if i have to go through those 5 terminators from the last competition on the B&C one by one, i'll probably give it a whack like that!

Also managed to creep back onto WoW, although with the WotLK release, getting onto the main servers i have characters on is well, a pain, however this has allowed me a good opportunity to re-create some of my past characters on other servers (this will work well when i want to create some more Death Knights too!)

I'll try and get some pics up by the end of this weekend! Well, of the minis anyway!!



-eTAS

When will the madness end!!??!?!?!

And I bet that is what most of you are thinking eh? You are probably sitting thinking, wow, he's actually doing some work, but at the same time, when will it all stop and he goes quiet for 6 months? Heh... I personally don't know, and i suspect my drop in WoW time is probably allowing me to paint more, but yeah we'll see how things go (but i do feel good about painting again).

Picture update!

Thought I'd take some happy snaps of the current Word Bearer guys as they are coming along, since I haven't really shown those off, especially the wrist mounted bolter guy.

Other pics are of my Everblight stuff, since i only just realised i haven't taken a pic of the Angelius since it had paint slopped onto it, and i thought I'd take another progress pic of the Shredder as i'm just touching up some of the fleshy pinky bits before i start working on the natural armor.

However, so far, so good!




















-eTAS

Shoulder Pad - Mk 2

As the title suggests, here is a picture of the Mk 2 version of the WB test pad. Definitely a lot better than the Mk 1 version, but i'll still need more practice to make a more decent looking motiff.

However, here, is the pic!





Updates soon-ish!!





-eTAS

Picture Update!

Just a few snaps of what's going on in addition to my general commentary about them.



Shredder:
- The blue shading does not look THAT strong. I suspect the flash has intensified the darker color over the lighter one, but with the normal eye, it is more subdued.
- That's about my only quirk with the picture...








Word Bearer:
- The legion symbol and the flame motiff in this case was an epic fail and my work from '06 looked alot better. Given how poor it looks i probably will repaint the shoulder and then PRACTICE doing both motiffs before applying it again to a model.
- The loin cloth work is so-so. Looks ok, but i'm still not convinced with it, although since it's only black right now, that may not be helping either. Still not sure how folks manage to work with GS for tabbards and the like, but boy, would i love to know how.
- You'll have to wait for the next picture update to see the wrist mounted Bolter....











-eTAS

Bearing more Plastic than Paint....

My hopes to recreate the flame motiff that i did on my test mini back in '06 hasn't exactly come through very well... To make matters worse, the WB icon also looks pretty bad too. What was the lesson learned? Practice BEFORE you do it on a mini. Test mini or not, it would be nice that it doesn't look THAT out of place... However, lesson learned i guess.

On the upside, the modelling aspect seems to be doing alot better. Got the weapons done for WB #2 with a nice wrist mounted bolter (gasp you say!!) while he holds a bolt pistol and chainsword (hey, at least i can safely say i am WYSIWYG'ing). So trying to settle on the armor shade at this point in time, not totally satisfied just yet... However, i'm going to try and get a body to go with those arms and maybe have a ponder of what to do for the next marine! Grief... I hate the new rules sometimes..



-eTAS

Minor Update

Further work on the Everblight paint technique continues and i THINK i am getting somewhere. Although I have only tested it in the realm of the Citadel Washes and not the inks, i am getting some of the shadding effect i have wanted in addition to the slight tinting on the flesh itself. Process is far from perfect, but it is showing results. The next Shredder i do, i may want to try and do it with the inks instead... I'd ponder it on the Angelius, but given the model and what not, i figured best to test small scale before trying to do it large scale.

My Word Bearer test mini is going ok as well. Main body trunk is undercoated and i have been nit picking at the left arm section with various reds and what have ye nots. I'm thinking i may avoid the final light red because it's a bit brighter than i want it to be (I would rather prefer a rich dark red) for my Bearers. However, i do want to give Skorne Red a try from the P3 range and see what type of red that generates. But so far, so good. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow, but we'll see how things go.




-eTAS

Bearers of the Word...

Well after some subtle mental manipulation and suggestions I've officially made a proper Word Bearers test mini. All the plastic has been cleaned up, I've done some GS work to give it a bit more character (so that's currently drying). Tomorrow i hope to try and get some of the base work done on the left arm becaue i want to try and see if i can reproduce the WB motiff that i tried back in 2006 when i did my first WB test mini (which was more of a test than what i've made now). Thus far have one core marine done and all the parts out for my Dark Apostle. Mind you I still need to clean up all the bits for that, which should take a while...

However, fear not, the Angelius and Shredder have not been forgotten, but since I wasn't going to make the competition deadline, I did sideline them, however I will try to get some more paint work done on the Shredder since I want to have a better idea on the paint scheme and technique before I even try slapping more paint onto the Angelius.



-eTAS

Random Musings...

Since I am having to watch Teletubbies with my Niece, I thought it would be a good chance to grab the laptop and do some musings... Of course, I'm not actually watching it, but i am sitting with her while she watches it and i occasionally poke my head up to see what is going on...

Anyway, I was randomly thinking what my general goals will be for next year, and what better time to start planning than now, since it will take me like 6 months before i make a start on it and yeah... With the work starting on my Everblight crew, i thought i'd try to make an effort of doing more work on them since hopefully i will have an Angelius and a Shredder done sometime soon-ish. So hopefully i will PICK a Warlock to start on and take things from there. At this point in time I'm thinking it will probably be Lylyth. As for what gets painted, that's anyones guess. I also keep having random Protectorate musings with Feora, in addition to the further work on my Cryx, and hopefully either Deneghra or Asphyxious will be completed sometime next year (early is preferable, but we'll see).

Teletubbies is also scary....

Anyway... 40K wise, who knows... I keep getting cravings to do Word Bearers and Iron Hands (I blame the PC&A section on the B&C for this) whilst still trying to do more work on my Angels of the Lion (I really ought to finish those 5 terminators sitting on my desk, despite the fact the rules changed during the progress on them).

I'm probably not going to make any set lists on what i want done since i'm very random on the painting front, but i do hope to try and get a few odds and ends done since i do want to tidy up my paint desk and make it just a tad bit neater and tidier.

Assuming I dont need to pass out later (which i probably will need to) i'll see if i can slap on some more paint onto the shredder or angelius.



-eTAS

Re-deco

Minor Update -

Did a Blog re-deco so things actually look a lot more stream lined now with all the changes that have occured to Blogger over the years, especially if you look at when this Blog was first made!!

I like the changes, and as I said, makes things look more streamlined.

Hopefully from now on I'll start to use some of the extra gadgets around, like the labels to start marking my posts for easier access (at least the archives are a lot more tidier).

May also do a 2009 'proposal' post, because, well, I know I don't stick to it, but hey, it's fun to do!!


-eTAS

Things are not going well No. 1

Well I wouldn't say they are going horrible, however I am not fully liking how things are going. Painting the Angelius is actually NOT an easy feat... Although for future Everblight models I will endeavour to use a white base coat versus black, since well, practicality wise, it would have made life significantly easier. Don't get me wrong, the Angelius, doesn't look BAD or anything, but it won't be fantastic either. I've already noticed that some of the GS work is rather sub-par, and since I never had a chance to perfect my Everblight scheme and technique prior to the Angelius, I feel that I may have rushed into this too quickly.

Sure I still want to get the Angelius finished, it's not like I won't ponder getting another one, so things may still be a-ok-ish. Failing that I will be completely random and try to finish a 'Land Shark'. Good thing about the Shredder is that it's at a similar stage to the Angelius, but being smaller makes life easier *nods*. Of course, finding time to do all the painting is doing my head in, but we'll see. I've already seen some of the competition entries, and there is already a nice Dreadnought and Captain model from the Assault on Black Reach box. MInd you, they are fairly stock AND PLASTIC... But we'll see. If i can't make it or I feel that it would only be a rush to do it, I may just finish it at a more casual pace and take in the model/pictures into the store one day as an aside.

But hey, upside is, I'm painting!!



-eTAS

Angelius Update

I am happy to announce that the GS phase has gone well. Wasn't too bad either (thanks to new sculpting tools from Privateer Press) so getting some of that nitty gritty work wasn't too bad. I'm hoping to TRY and get it under coated and everything in the next few days, alas i do know i have some commitments coming up so finding the time to do so will be a tad bit difficult.

However, things are going good *nods*. I'll try to get a pic update soon.


-eTAS

Wings are glued!

Now I have a happy Angelius *nods* It's wings have been put on with a bit of effort. Hopefully tomorrow i can carefully and gently do the GS work to patch up the gaps and add a bit more stability to the wing joints. Not a bad looking model when put together, assuming one doesn't go insane when putting it together!!

So here are some more progress pics!










-eTAS

I rise again!!!

I know, I'm horrible with keeping this thing updated!!

However, I thought I would show that I am indeed still alive by posting a minor update to something I am doing for a local comp here. The model is far from finished (and I suddenly see why folks say it's a pain to put together). However, I thought it would be a rather symbolic way of my slow return!

So I now present to you, the sign of my return...



The Angelius....











-eTAS

Short Pic Update...

Just a quick update of what is going on from the last post (although both bases now have been coated in the black lava stuff).

The Shredder is pretty much now ready to go in terms of full undercoating and paint work. Denny's base on the other hand, is ready for the undercoat stage and then the fickle base detail work before i can slip her in. Since i have sunk the base, Denny will be the first model i have ever tried giving a scenic base to, so we'll see how that works out. Hopefully by the end of the week i'll have the base details completed and Denny happily inserted into her base. Fortunately for me, i only have 2 days of work this week (the rest of the week is day off aka "annual leave"; rostered day off, public holiday, saturday, sunday).

Anyway, here are the pics, and stop y0 bitching Eryx :P












-eTAS

Fear not!! Progress still continues!

And I bet you guys were thinking, and Chris has stopped posting for a few days again, guess we won't see an update for 6 months eh? Have been a bit "busy" (busy meaning i've been playing WoW a-lot). What can i say? I am hell bent on getting at least one char to Lv70 prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich King (and I am trying to catch up to the Guild Mastah of my Alliance Guild!)

Nonetheless, progress was made on the base for Denny, and i can safely say, sinking it wasn't too bad. All that i need to do for that base is to just do the black lava step, paint the base details and Denny can be placed into her new 'throne' (this is the main step hindering further work on Gaspy and Denny since i want to get Denny to catch up to Gaspy). I also cleaned up and based a Shredder (aka 'land shark') for my Everblight army (as my first mini to do my actual color test on). Putting the model together wasn't too bad, and the GS work was rather minimal (although the next ones i'm going to put an even SMALLER blob of GS into the hip joint so i dont need to play around too much with cleaning it up after putting the legs on). Painting it shouldnt be too difficult as alot of the detail hasn't been obscured by putting it on the base (in fact it seems to have elevated it slightly, so it feels easier).

Not sure if ill get any painting done this weekend, but we will see. I do hope to get the black lava step done for both minis though (i should probably also start drilling into the shredder's foot so i can stick it to the base too). Otherwise, i will TRY to take a break from WoW early next week and get some new pics done.



-eTAS

D&A Progress Update.

More Text!! But that's ok, I'll get a pic up in the next day or two to make up for it.

So, status update:

- Denny's arm (the one that isn't attached to her body) has been now inked in purple. So far, so good. Hopefully her arm will be done in the next DAY or so, since i haven't done much work to those areas, and well, its hard to highlight a colored metallic color. However we will see, although given some of the detail on her arm, i'm hesitant at doing anything else on it, in the event i should screw something up. Hopefully i'll get the bottom half of her spear done as well, so when the main body is done, i can glue the arm on and then finish off the top section of the spear, since it shouldn't get in the way of anything (given the rough "stuck" together concept i did way back last year).

- On the topic of Denny still, she has now received her blue ink phase. So far, so good and boy does she look like one menacing model. This is a good sign of course, since i wasn't sure how a colored metal concept was going to work, let alone if it would still maintain some of the characteristics of the army and feel with it. Suffice to say, it has been a success, thus far.

- On the topic of 'theme' (everything seems to be rolling into each other today). I went back and did some of the metal work for Gaspy. What color did i go with you ask? TIN! Reason being, i didn't want an overly bright color as his metal components (i was thinking bronze initially, but it actually looks a tad bit bright...) Thus far, its looking really good, so Gaspy has that dark feel about him, without being too dark. I'll probably give those sections a rough highlight in like copper perhaps, just to make them stand out a bit more, but otherwise, it looks like the tin will stay. This will probably also be the case for Denny as well.

Things to do for tomorrow:

- Blue ink to Denny's arm.
- With Denny's body now complete, it's time to do some black touch up and start doing her random DETAILED fiddly bits. I also really need to sit down and sort out her base, since i want that done before i move to doing her robe highlights.
- Finish doing the Tin sections on Gaspy.
- Take pictures


Not a bad list, fairly simple, but to the point. Of course this is assuming i don't nap most of my tomorrow away. I'm thinking after i come home from work, I'll play WoW for a bit to keep me awake, have dinner, PAINT, and then organise stuff for the following work day and that should be everything accomplished for one day, at least, i hope so.



-eTAS

Written stuff about the 'D&A"

So i gave things a bit more thought and went back and decided that to hell with the non-metal sections of Gaspy, lets make EVERYTHING metal!! I had my wonderful 'PP sponsor' aka the foul citizen that got me hooked into PP :P have a look at the pics and he thought that going the bronze look for other areas was a good idea, so i thought, yeah, to heck with the non-metal looks, lets go back and do this properly. Plus i rationalised this in my brain thinking, this is the Iron Kingdoms... Steam Powered Combat.... ASPHYXIOUS IS A FREAKING IRON LICH!!!! So yeah, went back over the non metal bits that i had done the other day with black, so later on i'll probably hit them up with the bronze, as well as get started on the rest of Gaspy's bronze areas.

I also started slapping on the black onto Denny's arm, since that will actually be quite easy to do, especially her actual arm which is a case of slap on black, slap on metal, slap on inks, voila!! I still need to figure out what to do with Denny's base as i want to get the model plopped onto the base asap, since it will make painting easier than what it is currently (since i have learned from Gaspy, that yes, i can paint whilst the model is on its base).

So hopefully by the end of tonight i will have the bronze coat done on Gaspy for where it is needed, get the metal work done on Denny's arm, blue ink her main body and assuming i do all this in a decent order, hopefully get the purple ink done onto her arm (which i guess means, first thing i paint will be her arm to allow for drying times etc etc). Other than that, things are going well thus far. The fact I have painted this much, in what seems to be a week or two is unbelievable.

I also have some FW models that i can do some color tests on as well, although some of the models were really hard to strip the paint off, not sure why either. I know usually a few hours of being dunked in brake fluid, the paint just peels off with ease, but some of the models, well suffice to say, i have NO IDEA what the dude painted them in. Fortunately these are only paint tests, so its fine.

I've also been looking at my Thousand Sons Aspiring Sorcerer and i still feel quite annoyed at the robes. I may possibly go back and redo those to a more acceptable level, as i am NOT thrilled with them. Plus i did an "ok" job and doing mixing for Gaspy, so, I guess i could go back and try to mix up some paint for the Sorcerer's robes and try and make them more blended i guess.

Anyway, thats me done for this lil textual spot. Not sure if i will have pics of Denny and Gaspy tonight, but i suspect in the next day or two there will be images!



-eTAS

The 'D&A' Continued....

I seriously don't think I have painted THIS much in YEARS!! Let alone TWO models at once!! Nonetheless, further progress has been made on Deneghra and Asphyxious. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, although I will highlight some of the areas I'm not happy with.

- Highlights on Asphyxious' robe. COULD have been better, but probably could have been worse. I actually DID do some mixing to get some mid grey-black tones before using the pure grey. Whether they show up or not, we'll see. I mean they don't look TOO bad, but i might have to alter my technique when i do Denny's robe.

- Denny's Metal bits. I don't know why i'm not happy with it, I'm just feeling a bit 'iffy' about it. Although her flesh looks ok, which is GOOD and i did manage to make a bit of a mouth for her with all the paint coating her face.

- Non-Metal areas on Gaspy. I was thinking that to try and break up the metal areas i'd do some flat paint here and there. It's ok, but i can say it isn't very forgiving (which is why i took my time inking Denny since i didn't want ink splatter on her skin areas). Sure they aren't finished yet, i still got a bit of a highlight or two to go, but eh, maybe i should have gone the bronze that i'm going to use for his remaining metal sections (since I'm avoiding gold since i want a more beaten and worn look).

Anyway, that's pretty much my general nit pics, otherwise, they don't too bad for my skill levels (and i swear they do feel more detailed than GW minis, so it is a bit of a leap for me). Will admit, when i looked at them in photoshop, they do both have a bit of a menacing look about them which is a GOOD sign!

So here are the pics!














-eTAS

A 'D' and 'A'

No a D&A isn't a Dark Angels viewing i'm afraid :P Although some of that MAY occur in the near future *nods*.

More pics of Deneghra and Asphyxious actually! Yeah I know, i'm going crazy on the painting, it's really weird. And oddly enough, it's helped to work out some of that kink in my neck/shoulder that has been bothering me all day.

Anyway, less babble today and more pics! Although why Gaspy's skull looks yellow-ish, I don't know but it was painting in 'Plague Brown' (one of my favourite colors since my AotL Terminator Robe incident).

Also nice to see how the purple/blue tint is now coming through in his armor. Not sure when Denny will get the same treatment as i might want to work on her skin before then (well whats left of it). I'm also thinking i should really try to work on her base so i can actually GLUE her to something versus having her floating around on the lil model holder, since i can manage to paint fairly ok given Gaspy has been glued to his base (which is coming out quite nicely). I also really want to re-develop my painting station since i've got like paints from 4 different ranges and it's hard to figure out what i have when they are in containers.

Anyway, as i said, less banter, more pic display today.















-eTAS

Asphyxious Progress (Now with Pics)...

As "promised" here are the current paint in progress pics of Asphyxious. The pics are so-so (probably not helped since most of the model is still fairly dark looking, although once i get the head done, and do some BRIGHTER metals, i suspect that will make things easier to look at). I have also done the 'blue ink' step (so now he looks like a 2nd ed Genestealer, just in the metallic variety). I've also started dry brushing his base to start getting a tad bit of color into that too, but i suspect overall he will be a rather 'dark' looking mini. Naturally he looks great up close and personal, but alas, pictures will have to do. No idea what i'll be doing tomorrow, might try and lay down some of the silver metal since his armor is supposed to the the hybrid purple-blue look, whilst some of his mechanika is still largely a silver finish.

I also did some more metal work on Denny (no pics included) and my goodness, what may LOOK easy, isn't necessarily EASY to do. So i suspect Denny will not live up to expectation (especinally given the conversion work into her) whilst Asphyxious will probably be a lot better than expected.

Anyway, less banter, here are the pics.












-eTAS

Asphyxious Progress...

Believe it or not, this is probably one of the "fastest" models i have painted in a long time. Been doing a fair few ink steps the last few days (still have the blue ink step to go before i can go back to random painting again). Nonetheless, i can confirm that he is far from the GS and Pewter look from before. Hopefully tomorrow i'll try and get a happy snap of him before doing the blue ink step (assuming i have time). Heck, i was looking at my Denny model and thought, hmm, maybe i should touch up the skin areas, do the silver sections and yeah, get her to catch up *ponders*. I may do this tomorrow, not sure just yet, plus i need to remember what the heck i was doing with her base. I think i was going to go a more swampy type of feel to it, compared to Gasphy's rock base.

Hopefully come the end of the week, the ink stages will be done on Gasphy, so i can try and finish up his main body segment before going to work on his arms, which shouldn't take too long, since majority of them will be done in the ink stages.

Until next time!



-eTAS

Picture Update

And here be the first PICTURE update for 2008!

'Random' pic of Denny, just showing that she does have a wee bit more paint on her since the last time she appeared here. I'm sure i could apply more metal to her if i really wanted to since she is going to have her metal areas in that nice purple/blue metal ink look.




Rest of the pics are of Asphyxious (minus arms). For those too familiar with the stock model, you will notice that his head has had a repose (with the help of some GS). I also added some GS smoke since i didn't want him to look exactly like the stock model. His arms will be done in a different repose as well, but obviously haven't been included. HOPEFULLY come the end of the weekend, or at least come early next week, he shall have some black paint on him (also need to texture his base too while i am at it).













-eTAS

A 2008 Post? NO WAY!!!

So i was browsing through the blog and going, wow, i HAVEN'T done an actual entry for 2008? So HERE IT IS! I would say, whoa, this place isn't as dead as it looks, but knowing me? The next update won't be until like August 2008! However, I've done a lil work here and there (in fact I have some time off very soon, so I might be able to play catch up and load up some stuff). I'm not even going to bother with a new years resolution concept, since last year's flopped so badly it isn't even funny. If ANYTHING, I'm just going to say, of the few MILLION things I want to do, i just want ONE, yes ONE mini from each army/faction/whatever done come the end of the year. Now some folks would say, JUST ONE?!!?? YOU GOTTA BE JOKING ME!! But I say, given my track-record, one model per army isn't exactly as easy as sliced bread.

With that being said, I have been working on a repose for Iron Lich Asphyxious (WM - Cryx) and oddly enough all that is left to do is some minor GS work and get his base organised. I'd do some now, however my time tonight got thrown out the window due to napping and a 40 minute phone call with my folks. However, hopefully tomorrow, I can at least get the base and GS stuff done (I hope), although i might try and smear on the black textured paint tonight, if only for the fact I want it to be dry tomorrow so i can do more of the basing. Then again, i might wait, since i'm sure the cork tiles i'm using for the base (which is great to use, wish i bought even more of the stuff to be honest) has been really used to use for that rock type of look. Hopefully come thursday, I can get him to a stage where i will be ready to slap some paint on, and unlike Deneghra should be easier to paint. Well at least I am hoping he'll be easier to paint...

However we shall see how things go, but yes, plans are being made to try and minimize some of the plastic/pewter collection i have by like 1%






-eTAS