After a good string of busts over the last few weeks, I got the urge to paint a full figure mini again. I dug this kobold from Blacksmith Miniatures out of the box and felt he’d do nicely. This is one of the models from the J.B. Monge line they did, which I kickstarted a few years back.
He’s 54mm, but short because, you know, he’s a kobold. Still, he’s got an enormous dome, so that is nice to work on.
Continue reading “A Full Figure at Last”I just finished up a wonderful bust from Artik Toys, sculpted by Patrick Masson. It’s a vampire based upon a painting by the great Paul Bonner. You can read some of Bonner’s thoughts on the composition of the painting (and, you know, see it) in an article he wrote for Muddy Colors.
I finished this incredibly expressive sculpt in two days, but produced one of my favorite, best, and best received pieces to date. I’ll tell you why he’s important to me.
I started an account on Putty & Paint back in January, filled with excitement, ambition, and a healthy dose of fear. The standards on the site are incredibly high, and I had no established identity in the mini painting hobby to fill my sails right off the bat.
Continue reading “Angry Orc”Another quick and enjoyable bust, this one also by Romain Van den Bogaerts.
I’ve been very productive painting lately, finishing three miniatures since I posted WIP shots of the Norman warrior figure nine days ago. I’m eager to share them all with you, but I am really trying to level up my photography and I’d like to give you higher quality images to enjoy.
Anyway, you can see one of the figures here, hopefully looking a little better than usual.
Continue reading “The Shaman Ate Something Weird”I finished a mini in a week. Gotta be some kind of record for me!
What a wonderful sculpt. I enjoyed every part of the process. Best of all, I jumped into the OSL effect with both feet and didn’t crash and, ahem, burn.
Continue reading “Fear by Firelight”I got some nice feedback (thanks!) on the base of my recently completed Maulg figure and a request to explain how I put it together. I happened to take some pictures along the way (for some reason I was giving a friend an unsolicited play-by-play), so I’m able to offer a pretty detailed tutorial on various aspects of the construction & finishing. I’m also happy to share some of my principles, planning, and intention when doing bases and vignettes.
Ok, here we go!
Continue reading “Creating a Little Patch of Land for Your Minis”Our man BaM is back with another great tutorial. He paints minis all day every day, and he has refined his techniques over many years. One thing he’s mastered for sure is gritty true metallic metals. This time he’s walking us through the creation of a TMM suit of darkened steel armor on a chaos warrior.
What are you waiting for? Grab those brushes!
Continue reading “BaM’s TMM Darkened Steel Tutorial”After many weeks of painting and modelling, my Maulg is finally finished.
Though my posting has been sparse, I’ve been getting a lot of time on the hobby bench lately. Progress on Maulg is steady, but there’s often not a lot to show for it, as I’m going very slowly and trying to paint as well as I possibly can. It’s intimidating to approach a figure this way, but liberating at the same time. To just recognize that you’ll aim for your absolute best, but that it’s still a learning exercise, that you’ll fail some things you try, and that it won’t be as good as you can perhaps imagine helps to explode hang-ups and open the doors to improvement.
Here’s my boy. He’s starting to look a little closer to finished, though there are still entire bits left to paint and some major adjustments still to come.
Using a very similar palette on all elements of his ‘clothing’ and ornaments posed a challenge, but I wanted to avoid drawing attention away from the face and other more important sections.
I’m taking feedback from a few sources, which has improved the quality of the painting already. Feel free to add your thoughts, too!
