Saturday 23 January 2016

Skullduggery Press preview!

Arthur Braune at Skullduggery Press has been teasing me with glimpses of the future, and they're good!

His forthcoming ranges of vehicles for the skull-headed Death Guard look fantastic, but you don't have to take my word for it any more...

He's given me permission to show you some concept art for the Death Guard vehicles in the form of a grav tank and a couple of versions of the troop carrier, so without further ado:


You can find Skullduggery Press online here http://skullduggerypress.com 

Updates are also often posted on the Facebook group 15mm SciFi.

Thanks Art!

Friday 15 January 2016

Talos Exo-suit Squad

Ever since I saw the White Dragon Miniatures Kickstarter campaign (and I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of that!), I have been desperate to get my hands on the Talos exo-suit miniatures.

They certainly didn't disappoint, I've thoroughly enjoyed painting them. I have another squad, but I'll come back to those after I've painted a few other things.






Sunday 10 January 2016

Building up to white.

I often see people writing about the difficulty they have painting white. Whilst I don't hold myself out as an expert, I am happy with the results I get when painting white.

I recently changed paints, having discovered that ScaleColor paints from Scale75 really suit my style. I previously used the 3 colour system from Wargames Foundry, and still do occasionally when there is a specific colour I need. The method below works well with both ranges, so I'll describe the colours used in generic terms rather than the brand names. I think this will work with any paints.

I always undercoat with black even when I know I'll be painting white. It gives the most shadowed recesses and cracks a proper sense of depth.

The first stage is to get a nice mid to dark grey to act as the transition between the darkest areas and to undercoat the lighter shades. Water it down and use sparingly, avoiding only the most shadowed areas. 

Be prepared to use a second coat when using thinned paint. The beauty of it is, as you add the next coat, it will lighten the previous coat acting as a highlight. You can therefore leave some parts of the previous layer showing in the shadows. This is not too important at this stage as most of this colour will be painted over.


Next, choose a mid grey, a pale slate colour, and make this a quite thin. The infamous milky consistency is a good one. Don't swamp the brush with paint, it will run everywhere; make sure there is only a little in the brush. With some paints this stage almost feels like a dry brush technique as the paint can last quite a while in the brush. 

Definitely two coats here, reducing the size of the area covered each time. The darker layer below will shine through this translucent layer giving a sense of depth.

The figure on the right has had one coat of this mid tone.


Both have now had two coats below.


Next comes the 'white'. It's actually pale grey. Give this a couple of coats, simply to make it show up. This is really like highlighting the figure and should be used quite sparingly in terms of coverage. You'll end up with something like the chap on the right in the next picture. The guy on the left needs a bit more of this coat.


I will finally add thin pure white to the edges and points that catch the light, but only after painting the rest of the figure. The pure white can be used on the coloured areas too.

I hope that has been useful. "Other methods exist", this is just how I do it and it's probably a bit of a time waste for many people. The above figures were already undercoated and took about 3 hours to get them both to that stage.

Saturday 9 January 2016

I've...seen things you people won't believe.

Happy birthday Roy Batty. Sorry I missed it by a day!


But it's true, I have seen the most wonderful things.

No attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, but something very nearly as impressive.

I had a great chat with Arthur Braune yesterday. If you don't know who Arthur is, he's the guy behind Skullduggery Press, who have the most awesome line of miniatures coming out later this year. I know because I've seen the concept art that he sent to sculptor extraordinaire Jason Monkman.

I can't share the art with you unfortunately, but needless to say that it's a range you really won't want to miss.

Skullduggery Press can be found in a couple of places. They have a website at http://skullduggerypress.com, which has some background fluff and some concept art. They are also active on Facebook and will often tease their art as well as work in progress sculpts from Jason.














Death Guard concept art from the Skullduggery Press website.

 The Death Guard remind me of an old White Dwarf  cover that I loved as a child, The opportunity to play a force resembling that had never occurred to me, but has me quite excited!


A moment from White Dwarf's history, now lost in time...
Like tears... in rain.

I'll leave you with a link to Roy Batty's wonderful monologue...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARPCjp0ppEE&feature=youtu.be

Tuesday 5 January 2016

Chinese Lunar Troops (People's Liberation Army Space Force)

The other pack of 15mm Moongrunt figures from GZG, the People's Liberation Army Space Force.

I like this Moongrunt range. It could be used for so many things; near future sci fi or spy fi, fighting aliens on the moon or Mars, or just plain old space nazis. Or the Chinese/US mining wars, as seems to be the intent here.

I've no idea what special rules you'll need for fighting in spacesuits, but it could be enough to make your blood boil.

Saturday 2 January 2016

US Marine Corps Extra-Planetary Expedition Force Luna

The first unit painted in 2016 is from GZG's Moongrunt range.

Things of beauty, I'll let the sculpts speak for themselves. 





Next up: the Chinese unit from the same range.