Order of Vampire Hunter Thralls and a fast yellow/orange process

 Here are the Thralls from the core set of The Order of Vampire Hunters board-game.

These are a speed paint and some technique experiments so they were not cleaned up prior to painting.  I'll do some clean up on the Bosses and Character models. 

This game portrays vampires in more of the "Blade" vein than the Anne Rice so I decided to go with a really inhuman look for the thralls.

 I used the new Nighthaunt Gloom technical paint from Citadel.  Its very similar to the Algae Wash from Secret Weapon.  The models were sprayed Khaki and dry-brushed Sandstone and then a second dry-brush of Sandstone/Pure White.  Nighthaunt Gloom was painted over this base.

 Because there are only two models in the pile, and I didn't want to go down the conversion rabbit hole,  I decided to go for a rabble look by painting many different colors of clothes.

During this time I was talking to a friend who was interested in getting some better yellows on his minis so here is what I'm doing for the yellows and oranges here.

There are two paths discussed here... one for a fresh yellow from the primer up and one for adjusting an existing yellow.

For the "Yellow from scratch" path see the shirt on the left.  Its been sprayed Khaki and dry-brushed with Sandstone and then with Graveyard Bone (Reaper).









Next  is a thin, watery layer of Marigold Yellow (Reaper) but any orange yellow will do.  A more brown yellow also works here as this is just to establish tone and shadow.  Marigold Yellow is part of the Reaper yellow triad as the shade tone.

 Here you can see how watery and thin the coat is.  Basically the consistency of milk being careful to chase out the bubbles.  I often add a drop of Glaze Medium (Vallejo) which extends the working time of the paint and prevents tidal lines on the model.  I did that here.  I tend to use 1/4 to 1/3 when doing this.













The base yellow looks like this when dry.

 Next I'll dry-brush Pale Saffron (Reaper) this will establish the baseline color.  Pale Sapphron is a yellow yellow...like Sunz Yellow.



















I painted Pale Saffron first for the female model so we can see how to adjust an existing basic yellow.

















I'll wash the existing yellow on the female model with Yellow Snow (Secret Weapon)and a drop of Glaze Medium, You can see how its now looking a bit like the male model with a sort of orangery tint in the shadows.  You can also achieve this with a very thin wash of made of any orange/yellow paint I often use premixed washes for consistency and ease.

A note, and shameless plug, about Secret Weapon washes.  They are very densely pigmented for a premix wash while remaining highly translucent. I often (as I did here) add a drop of Glaze Medium to them.  I tend to use them as targeted washes without dilution and area washes when diluted.

Secret Weapon can be ordered directly from their website where they offer a military discount on all of their products and deliver to APO/FPO addresses if your Local Brick and Mortar doesn't carry them.  A bottle of this stuff goes a very long way.








Once dry I layered Lemon Yellow (Reaper) to get a nice bright yellow.  I think the "Salvage Yellow" reads really well while the "Yellow from scratch" is more subtle.  That said they both do the job!

As a bonus you can jump directly to a very nice orange here by doing an area wash of Orange (Secret Weapon) or by diluting an orange paint to make a very thin wash. 

 Our "Yellow from scratch" workup on the pants of the figure on the right after one coat of Orange wash.

The last bit is lining. Often I use the old Black Lining technique to get separation of color and imply depth between say... skin and clothes... Black is an easy go to choice and works with almost everything but sometimes I prefer other dark colors.

Below I've used a Sepia Liner (Reaper) to add some definition and depth to the model.  Its especially helpful to outline light colors like white, yellow, pink... etc.. as they tend to just fade into the next color if left to their own devices.

This guy just needs his Prisoner ID number and a little more base work!


On the bench are Kingdom Death inspired terrains an amazing Raging Heroes champion and a gaggle of medieval children from Brugleburg.


Thats it for today!

Undertown Dumpsters and Mortarion

Arriving hot on the heels of the Fast Panda Sci-Fi Food Truck is "Undertown".  I couldn't wait to hop into Undertown!  Where "Forward Base" was was about getting established on raw frontier worlds Undertown is a seedy city zone filled with lots of Sci-Fi icons.  You can still see the legacy prefab architecture that clearly identify it as an evolution of Forward Base. The working outpost becomes the center of a town... that prospers and then gets sidelined as the new elites prefer to build their residences and service areas in more desirable, and exclusive, areas.

The easiest place to start was in the scatter.  The first bits to attract my attention in the scatter pack were these basic dumpsters.  Completely at home in any modern or futuristic environment they are a great addition to any urban tabletop.

Atenociti's Workshop did their usual amazing job with the details, quality casting, and a great resin mix that takes paint readily.

They learned a lot about Kickstarters from their Forward Base project and this one was less ambitious in scope and options, which resulted in  an easier delivery all round,  and greatly improved packaging helps keep the project comprehensible which I find to be a HUGE win!

 Back to the dumpsters!  There are 4 in the 4x4 scatter set and I elected to do to each as "Regular Trash" and "Recycling" the yellow lids are the recycling bins and I'll be adding recycling logos and a white stencil style company tag... probably something like CWM for Central Waste Management. I'll have to add them to the list of corporate sponsors for my Serene Dawn proving teams.

 The graffiti was fun to putter about with and I learned a few things about doing graffiti to boot! Hopefully this will improve the quality of the graffiti going forward!  I'll use a mix of decals from various sources and and freehand tags.

You can see here a nod to my friend Che Webster whose complex race of rat men are known as the Bruxx.  I've added them to the theme of Undertown with the creation of the FBN "Free Bruxx Network" which will double as an underground railroad type organization dedicated to the rescue and resettling of Bruxx, who are technically corporate property, and the underground Comm Station whose mission is to raise awareness of the plight of the Bruxx and work towards legal and political freedoms for this created race.

 The next bits from the 4x4 scatter pack are some pallets of various goods.  Its a nice touch that there are two version of two pallets... covered and uncovered. They are shown here with the dumpsters and the stubbornly unfinished Canonness Veridyan for scale.










Finally a guest painter! Wolfheart from the new Wolfheart Painting cranked out this awesome Mortarion! He's just getting set up but I expect to see more cool stuff from him soon!

I especially like the base and shudder tho think how much Nurgle's Rot was poured on it to get that "Infected Snot" effect!  The many skulls used to contain the vile goo should attract any minions of Khorne that are hardy enough to brave the contagion!

The brassy metals are also delightfully tarnished and the wing texture reminds me of a wet lung!  ewwwww! ... and I mean that in the most complementary way!

Harry the Baby Hippo on steroids and A Tale of Two Ravens WiP

 Raging Heroes makes beautiful stuff!

Of course it is tiny... as a friend of mine recently said... "These things are smaller than your thumb!"

But that isn't always the case.

During the Toughest Girls in the Galaxy I (TGG1) Kickstarter several models, primarily the mascots and the freedom fighter, had larger versions available.

 Here is Harry the Baby Hippo!  Jailbirds mascot.

Shown here compared to Punky and to the Kurganova (KST) mascot Charlie.  Charlie is not intimidated... really!

 The model was pretty easy on cleaning, although that is not always the case with the larger models... I just think Harry is a forgiving sculpt in that regard.

The base was worked up with white pumice.  I think I prefer it to gray pumice because it seems to be more adhesive.  The gray stuff is difficult to place whereas the white was actually a bit sticky.

 In this scale the model really sings.  It already was cute and filled with a mischievous personality but now more details could be worked in... like the cans of ZoT!  in two sizes.. ZoT xxx and ZoT xXx Magnum!

In the small versions of Harry I saw these as beer cans being delivered but at this scale Harry seems to be collecting the cans for recycling... as they are all popped open...

In the field I think these are more likely to be energy drinks than beer so they are filled with a radioactive green color liquid!

 Harry is a favorite of the Lulus and can often be seen toting stuffed toys and colorful buttons or badges for their amusement.

In this scale the buttons have plenty of space for designs or even lettering.

 The base also sports an old pipe with some flowers growing out of it... the pipe being a bit of brass tube and the flowers from Army Painter Meadow Flowers.

 A fun bunch of buttons and toys and the ubiquitous ZoT xxx!

 Also in the larger scale, not the same larger scale, is Raven the Chainbreaker the Jailbirds Freedom Fighter.

I'm going to do these two at the same time in hope that the larger scale model will inspire me to do additional stuff with the regular size version.

More of that later!

Its going to be a busy couple of weeks so I'll see you sometime around the middle of the month!

Spirit Host and a Secret Weapon WIP

Continuing the excursion into hard plastics with a Spirit Host from Games Workshop.

These, like many of the newer plastics, are fanciful and very ambitious models that take full advantage of the great properties of hard plastic.  They are also a really fast paint project when decompressing from a set of more demanding models!

I love the way the spirits rise from the skeletons!

I've used Secret Weapon Green wash over a white primer and highlighted with Reaper Maggot White... which has kind of a glow in the dark feel to it.  A dark red ring or dot for eyes.  Its not intended to be a glowing eye... just a hollow pit.

Army painter provided the wildflowers/weeds, GW technical paint Agrellan Earth provided the cracked earth basis for the drybrush, and GW technical paint Nurgle's Rot for the pool of goo.

Here is a peek at peek at the future light armored vehicle for the Jailbirds project as it moves through the production line.

Jailbirds have selected the Rapid Assault Vehicle from Secret Weapon as their main armored support vehicle.

Here is a shot of the magnets.. and my very high tech Chopstick Magnet Applicator!

These vehicles come with 7 main weapon options and 2 hull mounted secondary weapon options... pre-sized for magnetization!  They weapons have large tabs that fit into very deep sockets in the turret and on the hull so no drilling was required... two 1/8" depth magnets fit precisely between the back of the tab and the base of the main weapon.  The hull mounts do not required magnets but could take them easily. 

Build it!
Paint it!
Play it!

Raging Heroes Jailbirds: Punky

 Today three iterations of Punky rally the Jailbirds!


The refugee army theme continues with Punky sporting the Bloody Red banners of revolution!

Each unit has a different emblem on a blood red field.

 As usual these are not really uniformed but are a collection of uniforms using similar element colors in different combinations.

 The theme of the day is Fight Like a Girl! and pink favors tie them together.   I think I'll carry on the pink ribbons in the troops as well.

The green goo is Nurgle's Rot Technical paint. most of the washes are Secret Weapon. 

 The back of the flags are clear but ready for Battle Honors.

 This Punky sports some warpaint and a lower back tattoo.

The pants are worked up from Vallejo Scrofulous Brown as an alternative color to Prison Orange.  A large number of Jailbirds, being liberated political prisoners, wear parts of the prison uniforms as a badge of honor.

 The bases are Iron Halo and I've experimented with powders to get some mud.  The powders texture like mud but I've got a way to go to make the effect convincing at this scale.

The three Punkys together.  Looks like I' short on Blue Hair! 

Each banner pole has had some minor adjustment with the center banner, the one retaining the imperial style wings, being intended as the Formation Command banner and the others as unit/squad banners.

Tabletop World Windmill

 This week's random Tabletop World building is the Windmill.  I was hesitant to get this model but my wife loved it... so here it is! The reason I was hesitant is that it would almost certainly be fiddly and require a LOT of adjustment... like with a hammer... but WOW was I mistaken!

The vanes pictured above are straight out of the package... obviously pre-cleaned up and test fitted... oh.. and arrow straight with no warp whatsoever in spite of the ambitious twist and in spite of sitting in the pile for half a year.  As with all the Tabletop World kits to date I did zero clean up on these... just a wash before priming.

 The kit had no method to attach the upper turret to the main body and, after dorking around with magnets...mostly out of habit... I settled on inserting an old toothpick container to act as a swivel.  Works great!

In terms of painting I seem to have omitted one of the usual layers and replaced it with some washes and glazes... the overall result is that the windmill looks a little older that the rest of the village.

These got the same window treatment as the rest of the village.  I like the warm glow and it implies that its dark out! Vampires and Werewolves..Oh My!

 The real stand out differences are the sails and the copper roof details. 

The Sails were a lot of scrubby layers... Vallejo German Light Brown, Vallejo Sand Light, Vallejo Medium Flesh, Reaper Splintered Bone.

The copper was a lot less messy.  GW Bolt Gun Metal over black and three layers of GW Nihilikh Oxide.  The oxide is a technical paint and is intended to spot corrode instead of as a coverage paint but I think it works out ok here.

 Speaking of 'the village'  I think this collection of buildings needs a name!  While Mordheim is the most likely use for them.. they aren't all ruined and decrepit so I'm thinking another name for the group is in order! Something evocative... hmmm....  suggestions welcome!

And.. just for Greggles... Lulus for scale!  Turns out the windmill was built for Hobbits?  Or, more likely, more realistic medieval height people... plays well with my idea that its an old building... in a town where people tend to have to duck a little going through a door anyway!


The Lulus are from batch 2 and are more heavily pigmented than the first batch... which look a bit washed out against the buildings.  Lesson learned a few more layers of wash and glaze... or maybe 'White primer is not your friend."  I'm beginning to understand grey primers now... that took long enough!

Jailbirds WiP and Reaper BONES Kickstarter Undead Giant Colossal Skeleton WiP

Its a WiP kinda day.  Its been a hectic week mostly doing clean up and priming the Lulus from the TGG Kickstarter Wave 1.  All of the casts cleaned up quickly except the Butterfly Lulu.  It requires a lot of careful excavation of a large area that connects the bottom of her teddy bear toy to her cape fight in front.  There is also a tricky hand that is buried in a casting vent and has to be very carefully revealed. Its a great model anyway and is worth the effort!  I've gone with a White undercoat for this faction unlike for the Iron Empire.  I'm finding the black undercoat  made it difficult to see the detail.  The Jailbirds will be inevitably brighter than the Iron Empire and I'm still undecided about the way forward with the Kurganovas.

 Just in case you thought the Lulus were alone  There is a tree of metal One Shot Blondie and Mad Nurse Bernadette to keep them company.

The Jailbirds also get a different base treatment from the Iron Empire.  I think these came from Base X War but the site is closed making it hard to confirm.  These are some nice battle damaged streets and I'll have to get more as the project develops.

Finally comes the Undead Giant Colossal Skeleton from the Reaper Bones I Kickstarter.  This was pretty quickly done using Secret Weapon Sewer Water Wash over White Primer followed by two layers of drybrushing from the Reaper Bone Triad.  Vallejo Light Sand for ropes and bandages washed with Gryphonne Sepia from GW and then glazed with Ruby Red wash from Secret Weapon.  The stone Hammer is a concrete wash from Secret Weapon dry brushed with Reaper Grey Triad.  I experimented a bit more with GW technical paints for a glowing eye-socket effect but it initially looked a lot more like some weird jade colored sun shades!  I may still have to rework that a bit.

The biggest challenge with this model has been the very flexible nature of the Bones material.  the thing wobbles and shakes whenever its touched or picked up.  Gluing the hammer to the base helped a lot but the awkwardly extended left arm is highly mobile.  Might be a blessing in disguise since its bound to take impacts on the arm which just flexes out of the way.  Time will tell if droop is going to be an issue. It also did not take the primer gracefully and remained tacky for several days.  I'm currently working out a base for it and plan to try out that GW technical paint that cracks as it dries.