[PLOG] Apocalypse Drow!

[direweasel]

Love your writing! I really like some of the old models a lot, exp. the old chariot, although the Cold Ones are really loking more sad than menacing.

Yeah, no arguments here. Those cold ones are not very scary at all. But they were able to fit under the yoke, while the current ones at the time (the ones that seem to have been very influenced by the fact that Jurassic Park came out at about the same time!) were too tall to fit. We used the old Marauder ones for that reason primarily.

This winter I intend to paint strip this piece and redo it. I even got a new batch of wheels from the current Cauldron of Blood set, they are way more dark elfy than the ones on it now, which are about as plain as it gets. At that time, I will look at other cold ones and see if any of them fit. The "battle cow" version might have its head low enough to get under there about right, and I do have some of them around.

Anyway, thanks for the comments, more pictures will come when they can. This time of year is very busy for me at work, so pretty much all gaming is on hold. I am plugging away on my secret santa manticore (santicore?), but that's about it right now.

[direweasel]

Having now completed my Santicore, I will work on trying to get a real update to this Plog. Work is still busy, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, and at the latest, I am taking a week of stay-cation in January, so I'll get some updates here then.

I have painted a few things in that time, so I will get pics done and posted soon.

[direweasel]

Here is my "Santicore", from Druchii.net's "Secret Santa" project, 2014. I hope Heartsbane is happy with him.

I was happy with my work, although the tail didn't come across exactly as I had planned. It still looked OK and the deadline prevented me from tinkering with it more. Any constructive criticism is, as always, welcome and appreciated.

I did not do a base for this model, since I was giving it to someone else, I figured they would base it in such a way that it would blend with their army better than I could do. So I sent a plain white-primed base of the proper size along for him to do as he chose.

[direweasel]

Having now completed my Santicore, I will work on trying to get a real update to this Plog. Work is still busy, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, and at the latest, I am taking a week of stay-cation in January, so I'll get some updates here then.

I have painted a few things in that time, so I will get pics done and posted soon.

My stay-cation didn't happen, I postponed it because one of my co-workers had to have a knee replacement. So work has been even worse. =P

However, I have taken some pics of old stuff today, and I have some new stuff that's REALLY close to being ready for pics. I've now re-scheduled my vacation for the same time that the kids are on spring break (End of March/First of April) but I really hope to have more updates before that.

[direweasel]

OK, so here are some old minis that I use frequently, and are high on my priority list for strip/repaint. They're not terrible, but every time I field them, I look at them and I know I can do better now.

So, without further ado, I present my Dark Riders. They're a few editions old, but the minis themselves are still good. Metal riders, plastic horses. I am a fan of the sculpts.







The black is flat, the metal is flat, the skin is sloppy, the eyes are goofy. The bases are ordinary, the horses need to have the gaps/joins filled.

Other than that, I'm happy with them.

[direweasel]

Next up, some of my Cold One Knights. As you will see, they are a mix of editions, both in lizards and in riders. I like the older, "raptor"-esque cold ones the most, and my favorite riders are the ones from the edition after that, the ones that originally rode the "battle cattle" cold ones.

The riders aren't glued on, which makes them a pain in the neck to keep them on, but in other ways it's great because I can use them on other stuff. The champion (the one with the dragon on his arm) is often seen spotted riding a Dark Pegasus. It also makes it a little easier to pack them up between battles, they fit better into the cases when you separate them out.





These are the riders that are meant to ride these cold ones. They're OK, although I do like the ones above better. The nice thing though, is that I will be able to use these when I field cold ones, while I'm re-painting the ones I like.



In total, I have 13 painted cold one knights, and another 12 that I haven't assembled or painted yet, and I never field anywhere near that many any more. A few editions ago, before we all had ASF, it was a lot more important to charge. We were T3 and died like flies, and our high WS and initiative never mattered if we died in the first round. So our cavalry was a lot more important, so I fielded more. Plus I just liked them - it was one of the things that attracted me to Dark Elves in the first place.

Anyway, the point is, these guys are relatively high on the list of things that are getting a makeover. I hope they look better, and of course when they are done, I will post them here.

My self-critique on these is that they lack depth, and the mounts lack consistency. Also, when I redo them, the metals will look a lot better, I will use highlights and shading on them to give them a lot more realism and depth.

As always, any comments are welcome.

[direweasel]

One more from me this evening. Of all the old stuff I painted years ago before I had taken those seminars, these are the ones I'm most happy with. They're my corsair unit, and I'm relatively happy with my efforts at shading the bone armor.



In retrospect, I wish I had taken this picture at an angle where you could see the front of the banner. Not a huge deal though, it's just a water transfer. Again though, if/when I redo these guys, I will put more effort into highlighting and shading the reds and purples, along with the flesh tones and the cloaks.

It will be a while before I do anything with these guys though, for several reasons. For one, I don't field them that much any more. My core is mostly taken up with witch hordes, dark shards, and dark riders most battles. I don't dislike corsairs, but I just like those options more. Also, as mentioned, of all my old stuff, I'm happiest with these guys. Finally, I have 30 more of these guys that have been primed white but unpainted for 10 years. Why strip and repaint these guys, which are decent, when I can just start from scratch and have a lot more total army done?

Comments, as always, welcome and encouraged.

[direweasel]

OK (finally) time for more updates. I've been doing quite a bit of painting since the last update, the reason I haven't posted more pictures was that I got a new PC, and it didn't have photo editing software that I felt comfortable using.

Well that has changed. So my next update will be another old piece. This is a chariot I did several years ago, and it needs redone, but it won't happen until after I get my "Batmobile" redone (see above).

I took several pictures of this, but this one is the only one that came out very clearly, and frankly, this piece isn't good enough for me to bother taking more pics of. It's the standard GW Chariot from that era, you all know what it looks like.



When I look at this now, I see the flat colors, the lack of highlight and shadowing, especially on the metallics, and the fact that I didn't even bother to paint the metal bolts on the sides of the wheels.

On the bright side, I guess that means when I DO redo this piece, it won't be hard to do it a lot better.

[direweasel]

Here are some Warlocks I did much more recently than most of the stuff you've seen on here so far. And I'll be honest, I felt pretty good about them when I finished them. I got them done in time to field them for an event last year, and they performed very well on the battlefield, and a few people even complimented the paint job.

Then I took them home and took pics of them, and the camera doesn't lie. There are some major flaws with these guys. It's frustrating to see, but at the same time, it's useful for me because it's a learning experience. I think I'm going to start taking pics of everything I paint - when it's blown up on a screen, it's a lot easier to see what needs fixed and where your problem areas are.

Still, having said all of that, I really like some aspects about them too. Tell me what you think!

[Amboadine]

Not too bad at all overall.
As you have asked for some improvement areas my only comments are that the skin tone and the horse look fairly similarly coloured, I might have tried to break up the colours a little more myself and possibly not gone red next to purple.
Plus if you are looking for some extra nit picking criticism, perhaps neaten up the edging as it looks as if there is some spill especially on the legs

[cultofkhaine]

The camera can be very cruel indeed.

I think you have given these a good go! I agree with Ambo, your first mistake is the colour of the rider and horse, they look to similar. I think if you made the horse a darker colour this would really help the model.

Are you using washes? Some of the metal parts could do with dulling down a bit - all in all a good effort.

[direweasel]

Not too bad at all overall.
As you have asked for some improvement areas my only comments are that the skin tone and the horse look fairly similarly coloured, I might have tried to break up the colours a little more myself and possibly not gone red next to purple.

I agree - I think I need the horse to be darker. I was trying for a sort of "drow" skin on these guys so they would stand out, and I wanted the hair to be a huge contrast to the rest of the mini. But I think I can darken the horse and still achieve that same feel. Would you think that is right?

Plus if you are looking for some extra nit picking criticism, perhaps neaten up the edging as it looks as if there is some spill especially on the legs

Yes, I definitely am looking for any constructive criticism, which this definitely is. I noticed these same issues in the pictures, they don't show up as much at normal size, so yes, some cleanup and touchup will definitely be in order.

Thank you for your reply!

[Amboadine]

Give the darkening a go on one of the horses to see if it makes the different. I think it might work nicely.

[direweasel]

The camera can be very cruel indeed.

I think you have given these a good go! I agree with Ambo, your first mistake is the colour of the rider and horse, they look to similar. I think if you made the horse a darker colour this would really help the model.

Yes, I was actually just saying the exact same thing in the previous post. So yes, I definitely do need to do that.

Are you using washes? Some of the metal parts could do with dulling down a bit - all in all a good effort.

That was my original intent, to darken the metal. But I think after the first coat of the base metal, I liked the contrast with the horse so I stopped with just one thin layer of shade, which I think still shows up in the flat of the blade. I wanted bright and shiny like the hair. But you don't think it's the way to go? I definitely do tend to make most of my metal darker than this, I tried something different with these guys.

[direweasel]

My completed assassin for January's installment of the "New Year Painting Challenge", 2016. I will say I'm particularly happy with the cloak, it might be the best cloak I've done. Not terribly thrilled with the face, but he's good enough. Didn't do anything fancy with the base, partly for time reasons, but mostly because I plan on using him on my Blood Bowl team, and those guys are all basic grass bases.





Input appreciated as always!

[cultofkhaine]

direweasel great effort - this model is one of my old time favourites, he's showing his age a bit now.

How are you finishing your models, do you use a spray? This one looks a bit glossy IMO.
I use Testors Dull Coat which gives the mini a nice matt finish as the end result, cant recommend it enough.

[direweasel]

Yes, I use a Matte Sealer by a company called "The Armory" - the can is probably 20 years old, they probably aren't even in business anymore.

Is there a way to dull it down more than that, while still keeping it safe from chipping and such?

[cultofkhaine]

Im not familiar with that brand.

If you are worried about paint cracking I have heard that it is good to hand paint them in gloss varnish first, then seal them with a matt spray.

Another one I have used is Army Painter Anti Shine - it works quite well.

[direweasel]

Im not familiar with that brand.

If you are worried about paint cracking I have heard that it is good to hand paint them in gloss varnish first, then seal them with a matt spray.

Another one I have used is Army Painter Anti Shine - it works quite well.

The Armory is still in business - they still make the product:

http://www.thewarstore.com/armorysprayprimermattesealer.html

Mine was before the John Kovalic days apparently, I don't have cartoons on my can. But that is the product I am using to seal my minis. So apparently it's too shiny, or at least it is if the can is 20+ years old.

To be honest, I don't notice any undue shine, but then I've been using the same stuff forever so maybe I'm just used to it! I bought 2 cans of it back in the day, because a game store was closing and it was super cheap, and I'm still on that second can.

At any rate, I'll get some Testors DullCote next time I'm out and about, we'll see if that makes any difference going forward.