July Painting with Games Workshop Contrast Paints and Reaper Miniatures.

I finally accomplished one of those hobby goals that every painter swears they are going to start doing.  I finally finished a batch of miniatures I ordered before making my next order.  I got this order of Reaper Miniatures at the end of June and I just finished painting them before the end of July which was my goal.  It's only 17 miniatures but that's pretty good with my schedule. 

I used the new Games Workshop contrast paints over a dry brushed under painting like I did on my Death Guard Plague Marines. I like the contrast paints but they are really expensive.  They work well for this technique but they take some getting used to.  I don't think they make good paints for beginners because of the amount of brush control they require and that fact that you need to think about layers in reverse like you do when painting with watercolors.  You can't just fix a problem by painting over it unless you paint your primer layer back first.  In that respect they are very unforgiving for a new painter but they are very similar to the glazing technique I have been using a lot lately so for me they work.  It's convenient not to have to mix up the glazes before painting and the have a better pigment ratio than my own glazing technique.  They do require some getting used to but I think I'm getting better with them. 

I did paint a batch of minis with Contrast paint in June.  About 8 mostly Wizkids unpainted minis for D&D and Pathfinder.  I never got around to posting them but some of them turned out really nice. 

 I really like these two new Bones Black minis from Reaper.  They are the Crimson Herald and the Dreadmere Wight. I think I would like to get some Zombies and paint them up with the Nurgle flesh green color I used here to make some minions for this pair. 

I knew when I saw the Herald figure how I wanted to paint him and I'm really happy with the way he turned out.  I was able to use the GW contrast paints to pretty good effect by glazing the pink color over the green color where the tentacles transitioned from green to pink.  I also added some pink stippling which I think really gave the model some atmosphere. 

These are some old Reaper lizard men but I really like these sculpts.  For some reason they just give off a classic lizard man vibe. 

I like the way the contrast paints worked on these as well.  They seem to really shine on creatures and other organic models.  I tried to stick with the classic lizard man green look here.  

This was the free promo figure for the month of June Garghuk the Ogre.  This mini was an awesome sculpt and a lot of fun to paint.  He's simple but still looks really nice and his details are well defined.  The pose was not complicated so it was easy to get a brush around the model.  If I was doing a "learn to paint" class I would strongly consider using this model. 

I had a little trouble using the contrast paint on the skin tones because of the large surface but it wasn't too hard to get the problems worked out.  I really like the way the Snake Bite Leather and Gor Guntha Fur turned out in particular. 

 These are a combination of the Bones Black Dreadmere Mercenaries, the Dreadmere Ranger, and Fruella Dreadmere mercenary packs.  The later two are metal minis.  Of course these all have a similar style so I thought I would paint them up as an irregular unit.  I think they would make a good Sheriff and Posse or a Ranger and Woodsmen.  Some group of NPCs that might be encountered in a dark forest. 
 

 I did have a little trouble with the contrast paints rubbing off the coats on these minis while I was painting them.  I've had this problem with other glazing techniques as well. 
   

These are a couple of metal Reaper figures from the Dark Heaven line.  Brother Roberto, cleric and Erick Paladin Initiate.  I liked the medieval fantasy feel of both of these minis.  They looked like they would make good companion pieces.  The cleric is really quite well dressed.  I painted him up to look a bit like a traveling Jesuate but he could be done us as more of a cardinal.    

The priest was the hardest to paint with the contrast paints.  The bottom parts of his over robe got really dark because I tend to do my dry brushing lighter at the top and darker at the bottom.  I had to go back in a paint in highlights then glaze them again with the grey contrast paint to get the details.  I really enjoyed painting the armor on the paladin but it didn't photograph very well.  In fact both of these models look a lot better in person but that happens some time.  I think they are quite worthy of my tabletop however so over all they were a success.  

I still have pretty mixed feelings about the GW contrast paints.  I feel like they play to my style pretty well and I have enough experience to handle them but I think a lot of new painters will be frustrated by them.  A lot of the darker tones really need to be thinned down and it's really hard to tell the difference between the browns in particular until you use them a while.  Some of the colors shift quite a bit when you thin them as well.  You really have to be able to block in large areas on a mini in one go to make these work which takes good control and if you are not careful they rub off pretty easily.  The skin tones are also kind of hard to work with.  I was fine to use my dry brush technique on the male models that I wanted to look ruff but I had to paint light grey back onto the face of the one female model I did this month to avoid giving her a five o'clock shadow.  Since I've been using similar techniques for a while I was able to predict this.  All in all I'm happy with them but buyer beware for those unfamiliar with using glazing techniques.   

My new favorite bases!

Recently I've started basing most of my miniatures on wooden bases instead of metal or plastic ones.  Wooden bases take glue and paint very well so my bases don't get chipped.  I've had a lot of problems in the past with the edges of my bases chipping even when I sand the sides to get the metal and plastic bases more grit.  I've also had sand and even flocking and static grass chip off the tops of minis from time to time when the glue chips off the plastic bases. 

For standard 28mm minis I've been buying these 1 inch wooden bases from Woodpile at Hobby Lobby.  They come 12 to a package for $2.00 a package.  I really like the finished rounded edges.  They are about as thick as a Games Workshop round base although not quite so these Reaper Miniatures figures don't gain too much height on them compared to the other miniatures in my collection.  The wood grain edges even look kind of nice.  I like having some texture to the sides of my bases but I usually don't like to have a lot of texture overlapping onto the sides so these give me a nice amount of texture which as I said earlier also helps hold the paint.  I've found them to be far superior in every way to plastic bases.  

Miniature Update 11-30-17

 Just posting some miniatures I've painted lately.  I'm trying to get some monsters painted up for my D&D games.  First up is this Reaper Bones large fire elemental.

A Reaper; Rust Monster, Clay Golem, and Efreet as well as a Dungeon Delvers Basalisk.  I'm hoping to get more done soon. 

Random Miniature Update 11-9-17

I painted this Reaper Bones Griffin based on a Bateleur eagle.  

These Reaper Crusaders will be "The Drowned Templars" in an upcoming game.

Three Reaper Orcs I painted up to represent Half Ogres.

I painted this Reaper dark elf sorceress as a Drow.  She will be "The Twilight Queen" in my campaign.

On the Paint Table: Space Pirates and Wasteland Vehicles

 I've been working on some projects this week.  My Ghost Legion Dogs (veterans) are about 75% finished.  They will all have white hair which is why they all have grey hair now.

 I'm also working on some Raiders (regular troopers) for the Ghost Legion based on Reaper N.O.V.A. troopers from their Chronoscope line.  The Ghost Legion are former mercenaries from the Star Guard mercenary company.  They operate more like a military unit that most other space pirates.

Finally here is a WIP shot of the painting I'm doing for the wasteland vehicles I have been working on my my Dystopia post apocalyptic ptoject.  Hopefully I'll have these guy finished and on the table soon.

More Space Pirates: Ghost Legion Dogs and Bulldog AFV

 I'm working on some more pirates for the Solar Empires setting.  These are Ghost Legion "Dogs" (veteran pirates troopers).  The Ghost Legion are a newer pirate band who were part of the Star Guards mercenary company but turned to piracy after the "4 Vesta Incident" of 3028.  As such they still use a lot of former Star Guard equipment and weapons.  I've converted these guys from Reaper IMEF troopers with some Games Workshop heads from various Warhammer Fantasy sets.

This is a Bulldog Rover Armored Fighting Vehicle.  These antique transports were designed hundreds of years ago by the Terran Federation when they controlled the moons and planets in most of the outer solar system.  The Bulldogs were designed for long term missions over any terrain in hostile environments.  They are completely environmentally sealed and use a fusion engine that can operate for years without refueling.
Ironically designed to defend early settlements against space pirates they are now commonly used by pirate bands.

This vehicle is a Matchbox "On A Mission" toy called the "Battle Blaster".  Even though it is very large I thought it worked fairly well as a heavy rover.    

The Star Guards: Army WIP

I've been working on the Star Guards mercenary company for the last couple of weeks and they are coming along nicely.  I only have one more of the heavy infantry squads to finish and another tank plus some apcs and support vehicles.

The paint jobs are pretty basic but I was going for a very simple look with these guys.

More Hyborian Adventurers and Slavers

 Just thought I would add a shot of my next group of Hyborian Adventurers.  These are all Reaper minis.  The three in the back are from the Bones line.  The photo isn't as nice as I like because I just hand held the shots and used direct flash.  No time to set up my lighting this afternoon.

Here are some slavers.  These are Servants of Set from Westwind games I think.  From the Chaos in Cairo line.

Hyborian Adventurers

I've been going through my miniature collection looking for miniatures to use for the Conan game we are putting together.  I've been so focused on Sci-Fi and Pulp over the last few years that my fantasy collection has really suffered and only some of what I have painted is really good for a Hyborian setting.  I did manage to pull quite a few unpainted minis out of my collection that I though would work well.  This is the first batch I have painted up so far.  All four of these are from Reaper's Dark Heaven line.  

Reaper Dwarf Fighter

This is the first fantasy miniature I've painted in quite some time.  The figure is a dwarf fighter from Reaper Miniatures.  I took a little more time on him since he is going to be a well known npc in the region we are starting out fantasy campaign project in.