ReaperCon Competition Minis - In Progress

Its been at least a week since I have posted anything but I have been busy! A while ago a I posted what I needed to get done in two months for ReaperCon. After an intensive weekend of painting I have moved closer to some of my goals and farther away from others.

The "Steady Lads" diorama (which has a fair number of posts dedicated to it) is moving towards completion, pretty much on schedule. The base is nearing completion. It needs some glazes of dark blue and yellow to complete the lighting affect and the posters need to fastened to the walls. The minis are essentially complete, the only one that might need some more work is a secondary piece that doesn't need much work.

The Colonel

The Sergeant

The Private (still not sure if I'll be using him or not)

Alien Tracker

Alien Gunner

The "Shopping II" diorama is also moving right along. The minis will be finished either today or tomorrow, depends on the amount of work I get done this evening. The base itself hasn't been started but I was planning on dedicating this week to basing anyway and I have the critical component and have been working on the modifications to it. Since the viewing angle is going to be more controlled in this one there are things I can shortcut without a problem so it should be ready.

Black Marketeer 1

Black Marketeer 2

The shoppers. The mini on the far left will become my single entry. She was originally painted for LAF, but I've decided to upgrade her for ReaperCon 

My alien single mini entry just hit the stripper bath today. She might make it still and I will keep working on the base for her just in case. I do have a back up single mini entry and I have been working on her today. She definitely will be ready, however, its a Hasslefree mini which means I won't be meeting one of my goals of having a Reaper piece up for serious Sophie Trophy consideration.

My vehicle entry, the Rolls Royce Armored Car (the Bulletproof Ghost) is finished and I just need to finish the base which consists of adding static grass and maybe a couple of grass tufts. The base needs a coat of Danish oil but that can wait till everything else has been applied.

The Bulletproof Ghost

So progress has been made!

Kickstarter Loot - Hanger 18 Modern PInup Miniatures Bawidamann Style!

I haven't participated in a lot of new Kickstarters and currently everything on my list is in progress on way or another. I have passed up a couple that I was very interested in then decided not to participate. I'm a bit tired of waiting for merchandise, so I'm getting a bit more picky about what I back.

The Hanger 18 Kickstarter was originally set to deliver in July 2014 so needless to say they are a little late. However, since I was more up close and personal with this one I know about all the difficulties that they were running in to getting their minis produced. Mine were hand delivered to me yesterday at our regular 2nd Saturday CMPA painting workshop. I'm completely blown away by the quality of the sculpts. These were well worth the wait.

I was in for a mousepad, a photo backdrop and a three pack of 54mm minis. I added on the Tiger Madchen bust (1/20th scale and probably more properly the Tiger Fraulein, since she is definitely not a little girl!). I also received the Flying Tiger Mascot as a freebie, I'm not quite sure what to do with it! You can expect to see the photo backdrop used in a lot of my future photos. At least that's the plan right now.

I took some photos today (sort of using the new backdrop) for everyone to check out. I also grabbed some photos of either the completed models or the 3D renders so you can see how its supposed to go together. I'm really looking forward to painting these.

Misty Grey Photo Backdrop. This is an A2 size (about 16 1/2" by 23 3/8")

While I didn't actually order the Cosmonaut Mini, I did decide to have her on my new moustpad.

Bubble wrap packages, allegedly containing miniatures

The Flying Tiger Mascot.

The Tiger Madchen Bust

and with a quarter to get a better sense of scale. I'm seriously considering getting this one finished in time for ReaperCon. We will see.

A finished version of Death From Above

My version of Death from Above

Will need a little prep work, but mold lines are light but there are definitely some chunky bits where the casting channels  are.

Now that's a set of legs. There is a bit of marbling where the resin mixed in unequal quantities. It didn't affect the quality of the casting though.

Hot Rounds, 3D Render

Hot Rounds on the sprue. Note that there is an alternate version of the head without the shooting glasses

Specialty Girl, 3D Render

Terrain pieces for Specialty Girl. I'll have to go back to the original artwork and see how this is suppose to go together. I don't ever remember seeing a picture of her with the terrain. Hopefully there is something on the artist's site.

The pieces for specialty girl. One of the straps has broken. Not to surprising with something that thin in resin. Should be an easy fix.

Three head options for this one!

Most of the body is one piece on this one. One joint at the hip and then at both elbows.

Painting the Trenchworx WWI Rolls-Royce Armored Car - Finishing Up

After spending a lot of time up close and personal with the Rolls today I'm going to call it done. I worked in more dust and mud effects and painted a couple of the elements that I have been ignoring to this point. Mainly the headlights, which I think are glowing quite nicely, and the machine gun in the turret. I had to re-establish a couple of my panel lines as well. Overall I'm quite please with the vehicle so it was time to work on the display base. I'm keeping the base quite simple as I don't want it to pull attention away from the model. I finished off the basic ground work and it just needs some grass to finish it off. Based on how the base looks like when its finished I may tweak the Rolls a bit.

So heading to the finished line on this one.

Working in a few more layers of mud and streaking both it and the dust down the sides. Concentrating mostly in the wheel wells at this point.

The Rolls gets some wheels! I'm calling this Bulletproof Ghost finished.

Working on the display base. The perspective is making the Rolls look really small on the base.

Painting the Trenchworx WWI Rolls-Royce Armored Car - Weathering

Yesterday evening I applied the first wash, working into panel lines and around protrusions. I let that dry overnight and sat to do more work tonight. I worked in some rust and then using the airbrush to apply an initial layer of dust across the upper surfaces. I have applied the first layer of pigment dust as well. I need to let things set a bit and work it into the surface a bit more. Then we will see how it looks and where I need to take it from there. So there are a fair number of pictures tonight from the different steps I have taken over the last few work sessions.

Dark brown wash using an enamel product from AK

Working in the rust. I used a water soluble oil paint, Burnt Umber in this case.

And the using Tamiya Buff I applied a light dust across the upper surfaces.

The first application of pigments. They need to dry before I can really see if I need to do more or strip them out.

Painting the Trenchworx WWI Rolls-Royce Armored Car - Filter and Sealer

Since I forgot to bring it with me over the weekend the Rolls is a bit behind where I hoped it would be at this point. I applied a filter to help pull all the colors together a bit more and this time I went in and applied a base of hull red to the leaf springs as a base for some rust work. I also did some chipping again, remember not all foam packing material is created equal! One bit of foam from a pack of miniatures was just to coarse but the foam from a pack of Freebooter miniatures was just right. After the chipping was done I applied the semi-gloss or satin finish. This will help protect the acrylic paint from the enamel paint that I'm going to apply in the next step. This finish enhances the capillary action of the washes. On a matte finish washes tend to spread wide instead of following along the seams. This finish needs a good 12 hours to dry, even in my climate so that was all I could do for the evening.

I think that I'm glad that I had to strip this one. I'm much happier with the overall look. Still going to skip the splattered mud effect though!

The tires with an initial coat of dust also received a spray of semi-gloss.