Halo Spartan Cake topper

Here are some recent cake toppers that are quite a bit different from the usual bunch that I make. These two actually started life as official Halo Reach action figures, and I altered the faces and weaponry to look more like my clients (and got rid of the signs of action figures on them (like screws and gaps where the joints are). 

Oh, and I repainted them too. Here they are:
 
 

Bookending with the Color Wheel

Ok, so it has been a little while that I've been looking into all of the wonderful things to do with color theory, and I've come out with a few things to share. 

The first one is a technique that I've come to call Bookending. First off, let's have a look at the color wheel.

 

 This is one of the simpler versions, but that's what we're looking for here. Colors that are on opposite ends are complimentary. Essentially, that means that they have nothing in common (if you mix them together, you'll get brown and grey).

 In elementary school, my teachers always told me that complimentary colors just look good together. I never totally believed them, and they never had any other uses for the color wheel, so I ignored them.

 Until recently, when I decided to see what happens when you use them both on the same color of a mini. The jacket on this mini is painted green and shaded in red.

 

Since the two colors mix together on this mini, the tone of the color becomes more neutral. Even still, shading in complimentary colors creates a more dynamic look for the shading or highlighting.

 But what else can you do? Well, I decided to try shading in one color and highlighting in the shade color's compliment- both of which have nothing to do with the base color of the area. This way, both colors are present on the miniature, but they are never directly mixing together (ie- they don't turn brown). The results are the opposite of what I got before:

 

 This guys was the first bookended mini I did. I actually painted him using the same base colors as this mini:

 

But the difference is stark. The bookended mini is a great deal brighter than the one that is not. That is the same blue I used on both of them, but the purple shading and yellow highlighting really makes it brighter. Even the brown has become a fairly saturated color. From there I decided that bookending would define the aesthetic of my own Super Dungeon Explore force.

 

And later, I started thinking about using these methods to really define the way that light alters the colors on minis.

This last one is an example of taking the entire mini and shading it with the same purple and highlighting to the same yellow. I tried to make him considerably more neutral (most of the paints I was using were very de-saturated). Here's the result of that.

 

Atlantic Coast Charity Cup minis

The Atlantic Coast Charity Cup is an NAF sanctioned Blood Bowl tournament to be held on the 13th of July at Virginia Beach (Virginia). 

I suppose it doesn't always show up on here, but I'm a huge Blood Bowl fan. While the tourny is a little too far for me to travel, I did get the opportunity to paint up a few minis for them.

 One of them is the tournament mini they had commissioned (this is the 'studio' paint scheme for him). I really loved painting him, he's got such character.

 

 And the second is an Ogre star player from Willy Miniatures.

Malifaux 2e Public Beta is up

So, like many wargamers, I spent some time this weekend looking over the new Malifaux rules. Yes, this second edition has come sooner than we would have liked, but honestly it looks like they've kicked it out of the park with this one.

 I haven't playtested the minis yet to see how the balance has changed- and let's face it, some Malifaux characters were over powered before. But it looks like there have been some pretty significant improvements overall.

 And maybe more importantly, they've kept the core of what Malifaux is about- character driven skirmishes over resources and objectives. Only, it looks like they've made it more-so than ever (and their artwork is as creepy as ever).

 There are simply too many changes to name here, so you should probably go and have a look for yourself. And as this is a public beta, go ahead and send them feedback. They're asking for it, after all.

Mimic Miniatures Up on Kickstarter

Mimic miniatures is a small company that's getting started up on Kickstarter right now. Their goal is to be able to create custom miniatures that look just like the players that commissioned them- made from 3D scans and sculpted bodies. Honestly, I think it is a pretty neat concept here to have miniatures that looks like the player who is sitting at the table.

My friend Eric James Stone isn't actually a role player, or miniatures gamer. But he got married recently, and I painted up minis of him and Darci for their wedding (it was the best wedding I've ever been to- they had robots and helicopters bring out the rings).

Anyway, here are a few pictures of what I painted. These minis are about 70mm scale (ish) and as I understand it, they were the first minis that Mimic Miniatures every produced.

Chainsaws and Shotguns- Zombie Wedding Cake toppers

Here we see some of the most classic weapons in the Zombie survivor's arsenal: the Chainsaw and the Shotgun. While guaranteed to attract the attention of the horde, one cannot argue with the effectiveness of the weapons themselves, generally leaving the zombies in several pieces.

 Hopefully, those pieces stop moving before the honeymoon.

 
 Shotgun and Machete- one can help out with those silent kills you may need from time to time.
 

Chainsaw and Hatchet. Both could also be used to cut wood, but we know their true purpose.
 

And the shotgun and chainsaw. It seems he's dressed a little more casually for the event.
 



And just in case it wasn't clear why our brides and grooms feel the need to be so heavily armed:
 
 

Soldiers in Dress Uniforms, Armed for a Fight

I often receive requests to make cake toppers with soldiers in dress blues or other uniforms. And most of them pick assault rifles to battle the zombie horde.

 Here are a few recent uniforms, and one BDU kilt.

 

Judicator: Colossal of Menoth

Well, I got to paint one of these recently, so I thought I would share.

 

Romantic Ninja Cake Topper- Threshold Pose

Well, the previous romantic ninja cake topper that I made was pretty popular. But here is a variation on that that one of my clients came up with- an across the threshold pose for them:

 

Video Game Cake Toppers

So, I have another set of cake toppers to show off. This time the theme is going to be video game inspirations- and none of them are zombie related this time.

 First off, a couple who bond over competitive gaming:

 

And we have some sweet couples who just can't put down those controllers:

 



 And a similar couple, this time he is in the military:

 



And to top it all off, we have a couple cosplaying as one of the best classic video game couples of all time:

 

Marble Eldar of the Aliatoc Craftworld

The Aliatoc color scheme was my first exposure to the 40k universe. I really just wanted to learn to paint minis, so I went down to the comic shop and picked up a few Eldar. It took me a little while to realize that half of what I picked up was epic scale, and that the Avatar was a huge monstrocity and not a cute Eldar midget.

 Anyway, the color scheme has evolved over time. Two different clients actually send me the same concept for a color scheme here, so I thought I'd show them off together.

 















And a Titan that wasn't part of the same group:

 

Side Arms for Zombie Survivor Cake toppers

Well, I have a few more cake toppers to show off, and this time the theme is their weaponry. Here are a number of topper couples who decided that pistols were the way to go.

 
This couple is paired with some zombies on lower tiers- climbing the cake after them.

 

Climbing zombies just look odd out of context, though.

 
Here, we have a bride who chose a silent bow to keep the horde away. Her groom decided that meant he could make enough noise for both of them.


 
While she went with the smaller armament, her groom decided he couldn't live without his AK.