Photo Setup Improvements

Finally got about to trialling a new setup for miniatures photography.  Took two desk lamps and replaced the bulbs with 'daylight' grade LED bulbs.  Massive increase in brightness and a bright white hue as well.

The result: a dramatic increase in brightness and proper colour.  Witness below, some Eldar models (three warlocks and a Bonesinger).  Much better colour than some previous photos.

This last one I cropped it a bit and touched the brightness up a hair, so there's room to improve.

Granted, still needs some work on tweaking the grey behind (it's actually a white page).  I have some references for setting the white balance on the camera, so that will be the next step.  This was a simple setup on the gaming table with the models on a bright white piece of paper, and two desk lights aimed at them camera A/B style.  Keeps the shadows to a minimum.

Some Reaper Miniatures minis had the same effect, though backing away a little and zooming in seemed to work a bit better.
A lovely rogue mini that just yelled 'red' at me when I was choosing the colour.

The photos are much better, you can see the green mildew at the base of the stone wall.

This Succubus was a tough one to paint.  Flesh tones, especially on a model that is little else, are harder than they look.  Turned out fairly well, though in my experimentation I found a slightly darker skin tone I can use in the future.  More of an olive-skinned look.

I'm going to have to revisit this guy's varnish a bit.  He's a bit shiny, and I'm not sure what happened there. The photo came out well though.

That went well, for some quick experimentation and a very quick setup.  More fiddling around is needed but I'm on a much better path than before.  This post is Ironclad-approved!

Ironclad approved

Over the last few months (and by last few I mean September and onwards), I managed to get a fair bit of painting done.  That, of course, when I wasn't working, doing family things or otherwise engaged.

From the cabinet comes my warjacks from the journeyman league last summer, who contributed to my 'best painted' award at the end.

For starters, the Ironclad.  A heavy warjack with a quake hammer and open fist.  The colours are very traditional Cygnar, which is one of the things I was initially attracted to.

The blue is the Cygnar Blue base shaded first with Exile Blue then Exile and Umbral Umber.  Careful on the blue/brown mix as you want to avoid muddiness.  Then use Cygnar Blue Highlight in several layers (increasing the mix of highlight until you're pure Cygnar Blue Highlight) with a finish layer of Highlight mixed with a touch of Morrow White.

The gold is Rhulic Gold shaded by brown ink/Sanguine Base mix, then some Umbral Umber into that mix for a final wash.  Clean up with Rhulic Gold again and highlight with Shining Gold.

The steel portions are pig iron followed by a mix of Exile Blue and Armour Wash.  Add in some Umbral Umber for a final shade (not too much or it gets 'muddy' looking).  Highlight with Cold Steel and Quicksilver and done!

Normally I paint from the inside out, meaning the areas recessed farthest in get done first.  In this case it was eyes and boiler grille first, using Heartfire and Ember Orange to give it a warm, firey glow.  The arcane bits in blue on the hammer are Arcane Blue with blue ink and Meredius Blue, using Morrow White for the mix.  Dials and gauges on the back are Hammerfall Khaki  with Morrow White.

The Cygnus on the hull was tough as yellow is a pain in the butt sometimes.  However, keeping the paint fluid and gradually building up from Rucksack Ran to Cygnar Yellow and beyond with Menoth White Highlight made it stand out nicely.

The bases on all of them are a wet layer of Umbral Umber (somewhere between a wash and paint) to get into all the recesses.  This is followed by a heavy drybrush of Bootstrap Leather and a final touch of Rucksack Tan.  Two thin lines for front/back facing and a cleanup of the black rim and the base is done.

Here's his buddy the Charger, a lovely 'jack with a dual cannon and a hammer for squashing those who get too close.  Same techniques on this one, and I think he looks rather spiffy.  Ready to lay some smack on the enemies of Cygnar.

Finally, a group shot with Major Beth Maddox.

And two more photos of the warlock mini from the previous post.  A bit better photo quality.

Warcasters and other miniature goodness

Another hiatus, and another long dearth of posting.

For those who might care, it happened that my later summer/fall got slammed with waaaaay too much work.  After my boss retired I took his duties for a month or so, then went full bore into teaching for 6+ hours a day, every day for most of October and half of November.  I'm still digging out from the pile, but am managing to leave (mostly) on time.  It's been a treat.

That said, prior to the madness, there was a Warmachine/Hordes Journeyman League held at Everything Games this past summer to coincide with the release of the Warmachine and Hordes mark III rules.  As such, my youngest and I participated in the league and had an absolute blast.  For those not in the know, a Journeyman league involves building your force from a starter box (essentially one warlock/warcaster and from two to four warbeasts/warjacks) to a mighty army of 75 points.  It also served to bring us up to speed on the new rules which, while not super different from mark II, had a few key changes.  Mostly, it sped up gameplay and made for more aggressive maneuvering and action, so overall, mark III gets a resounding thumbs up.

The league gives points for defeating opponents as well as painting miniatures over the course of the league.  You get a point per week for each win, as well as a point for having more painted (that means completed) models than the previous week.  The scenarios change as well, forcing you to give up your one-trick tactic and do something different.

Overall, a lot of fun, and I met a lot of cool players at EG who I would happily cross swords with again.  Sadly, the final tournament didn't happen as only three people showed up.  However, my youngest daughter took the Destroyer award (for most games won) while I took the Creator award (for best painted).  Out of a field of 20 or so, I'll take that!

Speaking of painted, I made good progress on my models for my Cygnar force.  First off is my warcaster, Major Beth Maddox.  She is new to the mark III release, and while it took me a game or three to start getting the hang of her gameplay, she turned out to be one of my favourite warcasters.

As a Stormblade turned warcaster, she is full of electro-goodness.  This gives her good synergy with other units, such as Stormblades or warjacks like the Firefly.  Frankly, she does a great job supporting an elite troop and several warjacks, by the end of the league I was really enjoying her and her battlegroup.

I do need to work on a better photo setup though.  Ah well, one thing at a time.

More model photos to follow, and a dissection of the list I finally developed during the league.

Unboxing the War Chest

Posts have been scarce lately.  We've had our kitchen redone, an exchange student come to visit and all the ensuing cleanup, reorganization and other stuff.  Frankly, it's been crazy around here, but the good kind.

However, since I just got my Kickstarter backer reward from the Warmachine Tactics computer game, I thought I'd post up the unboxing.  Especially since the war chest is only now reaching backers.

It's a pretty beautiful piece of work, but let's get on with the photos, shall we?

First, the box.  Well, the mailing box.  And another box inside the box. (Rather well packaged, actually)

My Ironclad warjack wanted to check it out too.  Either that or he just wanted some attention and paint.

Next we open the box, and find, another box!  Only this one is wooden, with sexy sigils on the front.

Very nice.  The gold is thick too, not just a brief dusting across the top.  Ironclad approves!  Inside, there's a large foam sheet.  We pull it up and...

(he's very curious, that Ironclad)

Inside, that thick foam holds in place all the goodies.  There's a coin for each faction's journeyman warcaster, as well as one for Tactics and an additional one for the alternate Sturgis sculpt.  Each of the journeymen models (and the extra bits for evil Sturgis - those and the extra coin I added as additional rewards) are tucked into the cubbies in the lower foam.

Everything arrived super safe, and all the parts are there, which I checked shortly after the photo above. Ironclad can vouch for me, he was watching the whole time.  You can see the special edition dice (which has Cygnar on the six, of course, as that's the way it should be)

Also included were the patches for journeyman and mage, as well as a rather nice thank-you postcard.  All the cards necessary for the models are in there too, including duplicate Sturgis ones (Cygnar and Cryx).

The design of the whole box is pretty sweet.  The lower foam is the harder kind, and you could put your limited sculpt models in there with the coins.  I might want to add some softer foam if they were fully painted, but I doubt this set will see a lot of bumping and jostling, so not a big deal.  The circles for the coins look large enough to hold the coins even if you had them in those plastic coin protectors, so that's pretty cool.  

Here's a shot of the coins themselves.  They are probably the most beautiful part of the whole package.  I admit I just took the photos on my desk, so the quality may be lacking.  I also left the coins in the plastic for now, as I plan to get some protectors in the near future.

And finally, the models in all their glory (unassembled for now, will get on them when I get my gaming table back from the heaps of stuff on it at the moment).

Ironclad agrees; the War Chest is pretty awesome.  (Now paint me!)

I'm looking forward to getting the models together and giving them some paint.  Unfortunately, I'm posted to HMCS Regina in a few weeks, so will have to wait until I get back before I can really give them a go.

Until then, there's a brief preview of the Warmachine Tactics Kickstarter War Chest.  

What has it got in it’s Pocketses?

Here’s a super-cool pocketwatch I bought from the  Steampunk Emporium.

Here's the face open (it has a glass cover):

And the back side, where you can see the various gears and bits:

It’s a wind-up one too.  No batteries.  Keeps excellent time too.  I bought it to go with my Navy Mess Kit (think formal) and it paid off in spades. 

To make the shipping worthwhile, I also bought some steampunk-ish goggles, and replacement lenses in blue (photos later).  This is for the Cygnaran look, and maybe to develop a new costume to go to cons in.  We’ll see.  For now, when I play Warmachine, I have the legit Cygnar look.  Now I just need a set of warcaster armour.