Competition Entries - The Next two Months

Since I seem to have reached a stalling point on the Steady Lads diorama I thought I would get started on some my other intended entries. There are four categories at ReaperCon; Painter (single miniatures), Open (conversions, scratch sculpts), Diorama/Vignette and Vehicles/Ordnance. My original thoughts were to have an entry in each category. I'm going to skip the Open category this year. I have made a couple of attempts at some major conversion work and I'm just not happy with them so I'm going to concentrate on the other categories. As it stands right now I'm planning two dioramas, two painters and one vehicle.

If you have been following my blog on a somewhat regular basis you have seen the work on the Steady Lads diorama. Its getting close so I'll probably stop posting anything related to that work as it reaches completion. The other diorama is intended to be a shadow box style piece titled Shopping II. It will feature the same three miniatures (well new ones) used for Shopping plus two additional pieces. This was a concept that I intended to enter a couple of years ago and didn't finish. I have scrapped the original concept and I'm working with new idea that I think will be easier to pull off.

The original shoppers from Hasslefree

The sellers also from Hasslefree

The two painter entries are: Big Game Hunter, and Terror From Outer Space. If things go as planned then these will actually appear to be vignettes as they will be presented on my display base concept I developed last year.

Big Game Hunter features a female alien from Reaper's Chronoscope Line

Terror From Outer Space features a pulp style female also from Reaper's Chronoscope line

I focused on working skin tones (its never ending) tonight. Principally on the Big Game Hunter. She is getting blue skin and I think purple or maybe pink hair. I have the skintones blocked in pretty good at this point so they just need some refining. I did finish her eyes and I'm very happy with those. Managed to get a nice orange dot in for the eye and a nice dark blue dot right in the center for the iris. I guess I still have some brush control. Not quite sure how I will proceed with the rest of her at this point. She has a very space barbarian look to her.

I'm trying out a new set of Scalecolor paints from Scale75 tonight. This is the Elven Fantasy Set which is primarily blue. These are much thinner than the historical color sets and I like them a lot. I feel like they go on quite a bit smoother and don't need nearly as much thinning. Like all the colors from Scale75 you to have to pierce the top in order to get paint out. I have another fantasy set and based on how well behaved the Elven set is I'm looking forward to using it.

The box art, front.

The box art, back

Like all their sets this once includes a guide on how to use the paints. The instructions are better than the ones in the historical sets but could still use some improvement.

And the paint line up. Note that the Fantasy colors are not only clearly labeled (with their own numbering sequence) but come with grey tops instead of black, making them pretty easy to pick out if you are just through them into a box