Avatar of Imagination

Here is a Dreamer Avatar that I got to paint a little while ago. All together, I think he came out rather well- the detail on the mini is really neat, and the concept is simply outstanding.

 Honestly, this mini was terrific to paint, and my only complaint about it is that Wyrd discontinued it (along with the other Avatar minis). I'd really love for them to have their 'classic' minis available for some of us. While I can see him being used as the Neverborn Emissary, I honestly think he'd work quite well simply proxying the part of Lord Chompy bits on the table.

 
 

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Sanguinius, Primarch of the Blood Angels

Perhaps more than any other primarch, Sanguinius lightened up the imaginations of many hobbyists. I've seen a tremendous number of conversion of the Blood Angel's primarch, and a good number of original sculpts as well.

 This is a mini that I got to paint just a little while ago that I was to make look like Sanguinius. The sculpt fits the bill nicely and worked well with the golden and red armor Sanguinius is known for.


 Anyway, here he is:

 

Zenithal Lighting

When I first started painting miniatures, lighting wasn't a thing that people did with miniatures. OSL hadn't bee invented yet, fire was painted with the deepest red at the center, and people didn't consider a light source when they highlighted their minis. Miniatures were only painted to emphasize their shape- recesses are shaded, and highlighting goes on the outermost areas, rather than the top most. It was actually a pretty effective method for emphasizing details. However, if you look through pictures of current top painters, you'll find that they pretty much always paint everything with at least one source of light in mind (some painters will have several different colored lights shining on the mini from somewhere off stage). And it makes a big difference. Doing this for the first time is about training your brain to know where shadows go. One method Rhonda Bender told me is to imagine your mini in the rain. The areas that get most wet are the lightest, the areas that would end up staying kind of dry are your shadows. Here is an example: As you can see, the light is coming from above her, and just a little to the front (I picked a direction that would help me emphasize her face. I think it is most obvious on her legs that about half of her is in the shadows. Another thing to note is that the turtle is keeping light off of a lot of the plants underneath her. I base coated and shaded those areas, but I didn't add in any of my highlighting to them, and this creates an interesting difference where the light is able to catch on some of the edges of the plants. I find that it is simplest if you base coat your mini in mid-tones, then shade first and highlight up second. This method creates a clear line between what goes in the shadows and what goes in the highlights. The first few times you do this, you will feel like you're leaving the mini half finished. Again, the biggest trick here is re-training your brain to just leave something alone when it is shaded and done. And ultimately, it really adds a sense that your mini is in a place, and tells a great deal more story than before.

Dragon Slaying Cake Topper In Action

One of my clients shared this picture of how their wedding cake turned out with the two characters and dragon that I made for them.

 I think these two had a totally awesome cake, so I really wanted to show it to everyone.

 

Wedding Cake Toppers with Firearms

The most popular theme for the wedding cake toppers that I make are still zombie survivors. Often, my clients come up with some really strange assortments of weaponry, but you really can't go wrong with the classics.

 Here are a few that have chosen to go with guns. We'll start out with the one dressed for the battlefield:

 



 

Zombie Survivor Wedding Cake Toppers: Specialized Weaponry

The back to back couples remain the most popular of the cake toppers that I make, and the couples I work with come up with some very creative things for their weaponry.

 Here are a few couples with some rather powerful weapon loadouts.

 



 

How to say "I do" Like a Ninja

One thing I've learned throughout the years is that there are very few things in life that cannot be improved by adding ninjas.

 Here are three couples who have, evidently, learned this same lesson.

 

Kaelly the Nether Strider

Here is my rendition of the evil elf (also dark hero) for Super Dungeon Explore. Chibis like this are loads of fun to paint.

 My concept for her color scheme was to make her a Nyss.

 I used Cylena Raefyll's colors as a starting point, and went from there. Overall, I think she looks good in Nyss colors.

 

Bows and Crossbows for Zombie fighting Wedding Cake Toppers

I've been making zombie survivor cake toppers for brides and grooms for a while now, and somehow I feel that there's a lot to be said about the weapons they choose.

 Firstly, I'd like to thank The Walking Dead for pointing out to us just how useful a crossbow is when fighting zombies. Sure, the shotgun or chainsaw will kill loads of them, but it's a double edged sword (erm, a double edged chainsaw?) because you're likely to draw the attention of far more than you kill.
But a crossbow- that's silent. And there's even a decent chance of recovering precious ammo.

 
(of course, that's all for nought if you hang around with a guy who's all the time firing his assault rifle).

 Also, I feel that The Hunger Games has taught us that a traditional bow is actually a pretty badass weapon, and has a place in the modern arsenal. And with many of the advantages of the crossbow.

 


 


Of course, many of the couples I make toppers for are far more interested in battling orcs than zombies, and a good number of the bows and crossbows I make aren't considering those advantages vs. firearms. Some of them might even be enchanted.

 

Menite Adventuring Party

This is an adventuring party I created for the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Our group has been playing for years, but this is the first time we've really gotten into playing Menites (there's an issue of them not playing well with non-humans).

 Our group started their own order of knights who like to emphasize that "there's a place for all at the feet of Menoth." In role playing terms, it has been a lot of fun- they're quite condescending to the non-humans, but at the same time, they try to convert the dirty children of the Wurm rather than simply killing them all off.

 These minis all started life as Reaper Bones minis, and have had varying amounts of conversion done to them.

The Warcaster/Priest had the most done to him. He started life as a Pathfinder Iconic Wizard.  He likes to argue about the meaning of the Cannon of True Law, and is the group's main preacher.

 

Out Paladin/Man at Arms needed no alteration before he could be fielded. I simply removed the base from the mini and mounted him onto some more Iron Kingdoms appropriate cobble stone.



 Our Cutthroat/Acolyte of the Order of the Fist also did not need very much conversion. I cut her hand off and reposed it so that she's provoking an enemy rather than throwing something or casting a spell.



The last mini here is a Spy who generally impersonates a local Thane (ordic aristocracy). I altered the mini to remove the cutlass in his hand, but again, there wasn't a whole lot of work that needed to be done.

Videogame Inspired Cake Toppers

While Zombie survivors have still made up the majority of the cake toppers that I do, there have definitely been a nice rise in the number of cake toppers that express the bride and groom's love of videogames. Here are a few examples.

 We'll start out with the Steampunk Halo Spartans, and move from there:

 

Super Spy Cake Topper

I've been doing custom cake toppers for a long time for lots of couples that want something less traditional, but I have always been surprised that I haven't had very many same gender couples. It just seemed that is a fairly large group that has been ignored by more traditional cake toppers for a long time.

 Here is one such non-traditional couple- their wedding had a super spy theme to it, and I really liked making their tuxedos.


 

Darklands Meloda

Here is Meloda, from the Darklands range of minis. I generally think of Mierce as a manufacturer of big crazy monsters (and that is definitely a thing that they are- stay tuned, I've got another to show off soon).

 But here is one of their human characters. From their line, she is probably the least exaggerated of the lot- her weaponry and anatomy are scaled about right (ie- not at all Boris Vallejo like). In fact, I think she'd fit in pretty well with some Dark Sword minis.

 (Man, with Dark Lands, Dark Sword, Dark Age- too many Dark Something miniatures lines).

 

Wedding Cake Topper Survivors and Zombies in combat

The zombie survivor brides and grooms are definitely the most popular of the cake toppers that I make, and I really love it when I get a chance to do a whole set together for combat. They really feel complete to me when the whole zombie battling scene plays out on the top tier of a wedding cake.

 

Reaper Miniatures enters the Chibi market

Chibi miniatures have been making a big splash in the gaming world ever since Soda Pop first showed off their Super Dungeon minis at Gencon. Since then, they've grown into a whole style of miniatures that strongly contradicts the Grim and/or Dark traditions that so many miniature lines follow.

 I mean, they're just so dang cute!

 Clearly, chibis have been spreading a lot. We've seen Impact! miniatures enter the fray with their inexpensive lineup (that features some outstanding Ponies) and Coolmini bring some caricature style to the medium, we're starting to see Chibis turn from a style used by one game into a style used across the board with a strong variety of different sculpts available.

 Reaper's been selling their Bonesylvanian throughout October. The current set available are three adorable vampires (the ones shown here were painted by Rhonda Bender).
 

And- from the sound of it, these are going to be minis that we'll see again in about a year- just not in metal. I'm so excited to see Reaper make some Bones Chibis. The medium seems perfect for them, and I've really loved painting up the bones minis I have from them already.

 I know this is the end of the limited run for these ones, but I'm super excited to see more chibis from them. - Here's hoping we get to see some official Pathfinder chibis. And more Chibi Sophies, like this one (also painted by Rhonda)

 

Nocturne

Here is my take on Super Dungeon's Vampiric boss fight.

I painted him as a practice for doing really harsh top down lighting- but I realized a little too late that I had basically decided to blend all of his areas from black to white.

I worked on him for quite some time, before giving up and calling him finished with the blending as is. He got a base and got put on the shelf with the blending on his back at a definitely not working stage.

I then went on to paint my entries for Gencon and a few other things before coming back to him and deciding that I really wanted to fix the flaws in my Nocturne. So I pulled him out and started touching up the blending (and it went much better this time).

So, here he is in his actually finished state.

Kissing Gamers

The kissing gamers seems to have become one of the most popular poses I've done for our brides and grooms. It figures, I guess. They're so cute, and they fit in well with even the most traditional of wedding cakes while still adding that extra personality.

 Here are a few I've done recently. Of late, the console of choice might be changing for a lot of brides and grooms:

 



 

Austrican the Ogre

Here is my Austrican from Relic Knights. The largest of the Shattered Sword Paladins, this mini was definitely one of my favorites from the Kickstarter.

 I had a lot of fun with his face- the harsh lines gave me plenty of room to make high contrast areas that really pop. He really has the same cartoonish characterfulness that we're used to seeing from Soda Pop Miniatures. And with the Anime themed minis from Relic Knights, I felt I could go with a really out there hair color.

 

MMO Cake Topper

Here is a cake topper that I made to match some MMO characters.  These make some of the more complex characters I've created, as video games tend to have lots of detail on their clothing and weaponry.  And I love making the elf ears.

Here is a picture.

 

Nethyrmaul the Undying

This might be my favorite mini to come out of the first of Reaper's Kickstarters (he does have to compete with the likes of Wyrmgear and a few other beauties).

 I decided to color him in green to help emphasize the red portions on him. I don't think it shows in the pictures, but the red areas have gloss added to make the wounds seem fresh (I do this with most of the zombies that I paint).

 He was mounted on a CD (which is exactly the same size as those 120mm Warmachine bases we've been seeing lately) and some of the rocks on his base were sculpted to match the ones from the mini.