Posts Tagged ‘Commission’
Painting Gaspez Arts Nurgle Blood Bowl Miniatures
With 2 weeks off over the Christmas / New Year period I’ve really been able to stuck into my painting again. This Nurgle Team is another commission job for a good mate of mine.
Having spent time with the precision required of the High Elves, it was nice to be able to mess it up with the Nurgle. To get a suitably messy / diseased look I used a lot of overbrushing and washes. The Beastmen above where basecoated with Calthan Brown before applying a heavy overbrush of Camo Green. I then painted a lighter overbrush of Rotting Flesh before a heavy wash of Ogryn Flesh. Once dry I used thinned down highlight of Rotting Flesh. To tie the Purple and Orange in with the rotting greens I added Rotting Flesh to the purple and orange for the highlights.
For the Chaos Warriors in the team I’ve gone for a cleaner paint style to represent the fact that they are the “choosen” of Grandfather Nurgle. I painted the armour in my usual fashion but added a watered down Green Wash over the top to make the armour more Nurgle looking. The skin on the Chaos warrior was painted in the same style as the Beastmen to tie the team together.
For the Rotter I started with a Khemri Brown basecoat before using overbrushing Fortress Grey and Rotting Flesh. A heavy was of Ogryn Flesh was applied before a final highlight of thinned down Rotting Flesh. The Orange and Purple were painted the same way, using Rotting Flesh mixed in to create the highlights.
The thing I love most about painting “evil” miniatures is that the quick methods often provide the best effects. It also means that you can see the results of your work that much quicker due to the speed that these techniques offer.
Games Workshop Old Skool Blood Bowl High Elves
I’ve been approached to paint up some 2nd Edition Games Workshop High Elf Blood Bowl figures for a client. He provided some pics for me to reference and has opted for my favourite colour scheme…red and blue.
Whilst these Old Skool miniatures provide a certain degree of nostalgia, I find the sculpts to be a bit hit and miss in terms of quality. These two test models that I have painted are great and certainly hold their own with today’s miniatures, but, the catcher….shudder. The legs are just way too long and the body way too short. Despite the problems with sculpt quality I really do love painting these older models. They have a certain charm about them and a surprising degree of detail.
To get a really bright finish to these miniatures I used a white undercoat. This is one of the few times I’ve used a white undercoat whilst painting, and boy, does it show up the areas you’ve missed! I especially hate when you see a tiny spot of white undercoat in a deep recess when you’ve just about finished painting the miniature. Very frustrating, but well worth the effort.
Gaspez Arts Chaos Pact Blood Bowl Miniatures
One of my mates wanted to turn his Human team into a Chaos Pact Blood Bowl team. The linemen were going to be the Marauders and the Big Guys, other than the Ogre, were being used from other teams so all that was required of me was to paint the miniatures for the renegade positional players, the Dark Elf, Skaven and Goblin.
By maintaining the same basing and colour scheme this is an awesome way to expand your Blood Bowl team collection with very little effort.
Rackham Ogres to Blood Bowl Ogres
To compliment the Halloweenie Snotlings I have been asked to paint up some Rackham Ogres for the Ogre team. At first I was a little hesitant at chopping up these awesome models and was struggling how to Blood Bowl these figures up. I couldn’t really think of any ideas that didn’t involve massive amounts of sculpting rework, so in the end I just went for simple weapon snips.
To paint the skin I used the Games Workshop guide. I started with a base coat of Shadow Grey and then gradually added in Kommando Khaki until the final highlight was pure Kommando Khaki.
The most difficult part of the conversion work was what to do with the Ogre that was holding his weapon in a two handed grip. There wasn’t any easy way to separate the miniatures hands and still have a realistic pose to the Ogre. I was watching a game of Rugby on TV one evening and I noticed how the players passed the ball. This got the cogs turning and using a spare snotling miniature managed to convert the Ogre into throwing a passable snotling rugby pass.
These miniatures were a joy to paint and despite not being very Blood Bowlish look great on the pitch.
Painting Miniature Miniatures, The Halloweenies from Greebo.
One of the latest commission job I’ve been working is an Ogre team. My client wanted to use the Halloweenies from Greebo as the teams Snotlings. These models have been around for awhile are quite comical and full of character. They were a joy to paint. Combine my enthusiasm for the project and the size of the models these miniature painted up really quick. The only downside to the project being that some of the models are multi-part and were very tricky to put together.
I’ve included a size comparison pic of a Halloweenie Werewolf compared to a Games Workshop Skaven miniature.
When painting miniatures of this size, or any small areas of detail on a miniature, the highlights need to be a lot sharper than normal to make sure the detail stands out.
Finished Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarves from Gaspez Arts
You’ve probably seen my previous posts on painting Chaos Dwarves, well thankfully I have nearly finished! Here are some more pics of all the Hobgoblins and some more of the teams Chaos Dwarves.
Before painting these miniatures, I was never a fan of the Gaspez Arts Hobgoblins. Well, my opinion has changed. I reckon they are great figures, easy to paint and really fit in the part of the “sneaky” guys on the Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl team. As with most miniatures, they tend to look better painted, but I am finding that Gaspez Arts has the most consistent quality across their range. WarPuppy has just received a massive shipment of Gaspez Arts products which are all up on their store.
I am really happy with the overall look of this team…especially the skin. In my last post on the Chaos Dwarves I described the method I used to paint the skin on the Dwarves. Now. I’ll give you a brief guide on the Hobgoblin skin.
When you are painting to a deadline, whether its for commission or an event, being able to use colour combination straight from the paint pot really helps. In a lot of cases I’ll mix up batches of colours I’ve created. This is fine, but, when you are only painting 16 figures, you end up with a lots of left over colour mixes. With these Chaos Dwarves I’ve tried to use colours that are readily available and I don’t have to mix myself. When painting the Hobgoblins skin I started with a basecoat of Knarloc Green. I then applied a heavy wash of Devlan Mud. Once the wash was dry, I re-applied Knarloc Green as the mid tone. I used Camo Green as the highlight. One thing I’ve noticed with Citadel Paints is that when they are first painted on the colours are really bright, but, as they dry the colours tone down. I noticed this when applying the Camo Green…it looked a little “fluro” when first applied. 
WarPuppy will be at the Auscon gaming event in Brisbane this coming weekend. I’ll have a lot of my commission work and nearly all of my own miniatures along and on display. Pop into the store, say hello and have a chat!
Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarf Overload!
From my previous posts you’ll know I’ve been working on a Gaspez Arts Chaos Dwarf team. I’m nearing completion of that team now and have included another pic of some finished miniatures.
As it turns out I have picked up another Chaos Dwarf team commission painting job using Gaspez Arts miniatures. Normally this is not a problem as I could paint the two teams the same and no one would ever know…however, in this case, both teams will be playing in the same league! I therefore challenged myself to paint the miniatures in the second team as differently as possible from the first.
The skin areas are one of the most prominent areas on the Dwarves. This was going to be one area that could paint differently and easily make the teams look different. I normally paint Dwarves in their “traditional” ruddy skin colour, but I’d already done that. For this team I used a base coat of Calthan Brown followed by Tallarn Flesh. I then gave the skin areas a heavy wash of Ogryn Flesh. Once dry, Tallarn Flesh was reapplied, followed by a 1:1 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Bleached Bone for the final highlight.
The only direction I had been given for this team was to use the colours purple and orange on the miniatures. I’d already painted halved coloured pants on the previous Chaos Dwarf team and I was struggling with ideas on how to apply these two colours on the new team. I then had the brain wave that I could use the orange for the hair….so the Dwarves are all rangas! The end result is two very different looking Chaos Dwarf teams.
Painting Gaspez Arts miniatures for a Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl Team
I’ve made some more progress on painting the Gaspez Arts miniatures for a commission Blood bowl team. I have included a few shots of some of the finished miniatures below.
I have used Game Workshop Night Goblins for the Hobgoblins. There is a mix of new and old miniatures in this lot.
I am currently working on the Bull Centaur and Minotaur miniatures. For a step-by-step guide on how I painted the team colours and did the bases have a look at this post.
More Painting W.I.P. Pics – Hobgoblins
Talking with the owner of the team we are going to use Games Workshop Night Goblins as the Hobgoblin players int he Chaos Dwarf team…mainly because neither of us can find miniatures we like as hobgoblins. the hobgoblins will be modeled with nets and clubs to represent the hobgoblins being the actively “recruiting” new players during the match. The idea of using other races such as Humans and Skaven to represent some of these newly “recruited” players is also being tossed around…..still undecided on this one yet.
The miniatures are being painted using the team colours as described in my earlier post. With the robes being painted totally using the team colours will add some much needed colour to the team on the pitch. The skin was painted using a base coat of Knarloc Green. A Goblin Green mid tone was then applied, leaving the Knarloc Green in the deepest recesses. For the first highlight stage a small amount of Elf Flesh was added to the Goblin Green and applied to the highest points on the skin. A final of Elf Flesh was added to the extreme points like knuckles and the tip of the miniatures rather prominent nose.
If you recall from my previous post, I was unsure of what to do for the base. I’ve decided to go with a stone styles base….a hard base for a hard race. I created the stone base the following way. The miniature was positioned so that it’s feet were level with the top of the bases lip. If you are using a metal miniature this is pretty easy to do as you can use the “slotta base” tab to raise the miniature up. If, in the case of the Nigh Goblins, there is no tab, you’ll need to pin it at the required height. I cut my paperclip pins a little longer than I normally would to achieve this. The base was then filled with “plasterboard filler”, making sure to create an uneven texture. make sure any “peaks” are flattened out as they really don’t look natural.
The stone effect was painted the following way. A base coat of Scorched Brown was used, followed by a heavy over brush of Codex Grey and light coat of Fortress Grey. Once this was completely dry a wash of Devlan Mud was applied. To finish the base a light coat of Fortress Grey was over brushed onto the base then a final layer of Fortress Grey : Skull White was used. I have found this base really lightens the whole miniature.
Overall, the team look is progressing really well and I am happy with the end result.
Cheers,
Adam
Painting Blood Bowl Miniatures: Re-thinking my approach.
I’m painting up another Blood Bowl team as a random prize for a local Blood Bowl tournament, BrisBowl. Because of the time frame I have I was using my standard “recipes” for colours and what I paint various items. However, when I came to paint the linemen of the team I found that the areas I was painting the team colour didn’t exist. This lead me to rethink the approach I took to painting Blood Bowl teams.
In the past I’ve painted some nice looking miniatures, but they haven’t really looked like fantasy football players. More like standard fantasy miniatures that just happen to be playing football. Once I came to this realisation, I had a quick look on the internet for American Football teams. Since Blood Bowl is loosely based on this game I thought it a logical place to start. I noticed that the team’s uniforms were completely made up from the team colours. Looking at the miniatures I normally paint, it was immediately apparent that I use a lot of neutral colours with a smattering of the team colours. To make my miniatures look they were part of a sporting team I needed to change this approach.
Another thing I noticed was how bright all the team colours were. My painting style has been described as “realistic” in my choice and application of colours. Having spent many, many years painting model aircraft the realism I was trying to achieve there has flowed over into my miniature painting. I figure another way to make my team appear more “sporty” is too use brighter team colours. Keeping the colours for the remainder of the miniature painted in my usual style, should emphasise the sporting element…I hope.
Instead of repainting the miniatures I had already started, considering how far through painting this current team I was, I adopted a more median approach. I changed the blue to a brighter blue and added this same blue to the shoulder pads. I didn’t have time to change all the metal areas to another colour, so they stayed as is.
I am happy with the end result and the miniatures definitely look more like a sports team than fantasy miniatures. This project has been eye opening for me, in that it’s refreshing to have the way you do certain things challenged once in a while. In future I will definitely be keeping the end result in mind whilst painting, rather than just relying on standard ways of painting.