Unique Wedding Cake Toppers

Well, a lot of people are aware that I make some pretty crazy wedding cake toppers.  It's something that I do quite often, really.  And the majority of toppers that I make include zombies.

I don't think that's a bad thing, by the way.  I love zombies.

But I thought that this cake topper- one with no blood effects or splatter in it at all- was a pretty cool idea too.  Here, we see the newly married groom getting totally pwn'd by his bride.



 

I also recently had a chance to do some more specific kind of zombie cake topper, recently.  In this one, the couple decided to use the zombies to represent aspects of themselves- so we have one zombie in a 50's style for the dance they met at, and the other one is wearing the groom's marine uniform.



 

There are more angles on both of these on the Wedding Cake Topper Gallery.

 

 

 

 

 

It turns out I painted a lot of those...

Many of my clients have me paint large forces, but the majority of them give me only a few minis at a time to paint.

That's totally understandable- painting up an Apocalypse force all at once would be pretty killer (both for my schedule, and my client's finances). But I'm pretty sure that some of my clients are playing apocalypse games with the forces they've had me paint over the course of time.

The force below is one that I've never been able to see all together- they're an enormous force of Praetorian imperial guardsmen.

Honestly, my hat is off to anyone willing to collect that many limited edition minis that haven't been available for more than a decade. That is a feat, by itself.

Then, fitting them all onto one table looks like it was another feat. The only mini that's missing from the photo is the Armorcast Titan (also no longer available, and epic enough to have his own gallery).

So, here are some pics of the whole force together:



Now, it that's too much to take in all at once, here are some broken up shots:

Khador Gun Carriage

Well, I've painted up my first of the new war engines from Privateer Press, and I have it here to show off.

Looking over the rules, I'm rather glad that a war engine isn't really much different from a heavy warjack- and not an especially huge one at that. It would be easy to make these game breaking pieces, but so far I haven't seen a force that can't live without them.

The base is the size of a CD- so that should give you a sense of scale. If you'd prefer to have them compared against another miniature- this gun carriage is altogether about the size of a Space Marine rhino- actually a little smaller in total volume.

It is cast in total resin, and has tons more detail on it than the rhino kit, but that's the scale of it. Really huge for a Warmachine mini, but it isn't like we haven't seen minis be this big before.

Anyway, here he is:

40k 6th ed rumors

Ok, I've been playing miniatures games for a long time, and I have to say, I didn't believe it when I first heard the rumors of the changes in Warhammer 40,000's third edition.

And they were pretty incredible too. Movement values were going to disappear entirely, and replaced by a normal 6" movement, and a faster 12" movement. They were getting rid of the psychic phase entirely. All saving throws were now unmodified, and the whole close combat section of the wargear book was going to be replaced by a couple generic categories.

I mean, that was a pretty far-fetched rumor. Of course, it was 100% true. That was the last time that I was all that skeptical of a rumor about Games Workshop's upcoming plans.

So, the rumor that Warhammer 40,000 will be entering its sixth edition next year doesn't strike me as surprising. It has been four years- which seems like a short lifespan for an edition to me, but it looks like that's the track they're on.

I honestly think that this is a bad time for a new edition-especially if the other rumors about GW's plans for reigning in independent retailers is true. With the introduction of Citadel Finecast and the corresponding price hike-coupled with a ban on European sellers shipping outside of the EU and the increasing awareness of the price differences between neighboring countries... well, 40k fans are feeling a little less loyal than usual.

Last time they introduced a new edition of 40k, they preceded it with the launch of Apocalypse- a throw everything you own on the table format designed to attract veteran players back into 40k. And from what I can tell, it worked- 5th edition went over fairly well.

But we're still waiting to see if they have a similar strategy this time.

As far as the changes go, none of them are as drastic as the changes from 2nd to 3rd edition that I mentioned above. In case you aren't interested in reading the whole article, here's an excerpt:

* the biggest rule changes:

- similar ballistic to hit chart as wound chart: compare BS to target’s speed and unit type. BS 3 hits moving infantry on 4+, but lightning fast jetbikes on 6+ and stationary tank on 2+… HUGE

- victory points are back, but with another twist: you get two victory points if an unit holds an objective for an entire game turn, if a scoring unit holds one, you get three and one if you destroy a squad leader or vehicle

- before the game there is a bidding contest for the opportunity of the first turn, if you bid more strategic points you can go first, but the enemy can spent these points on stratagems as in Cities of Death: 22 generic stratagems – for example for one point you can decide on night fighting or place an automatic gun, for four you can shift your reserves, most expensive stratagems are at 12 points and are really drastic, every unspent point can be used once a game for a reroll

- new turn sequence: prepare-movement-assault-shooting-consolidate

new phase “consolidate” phase for random movements, jetpack movements, pursuits, morale checks/effects and resolving shooting reactions

assault before shooting – big units are real roadblocks!

Complex Flesh Tones

Human skin tones are one of those things that painters often have trouble with. As with eyes or other aspects of humans, we spend so much time staring at them that we’ve become experts without knowing it. When we see it simplified, we know.

Human skin tones are very complex. Just go have a look at yourself in a mirror and see if you can unlock the subtle game of many different colors that play out on your skin. Regardless of what colors are playing out on your skin, I guarantee that it is complex.

One way that I’ve found to capture the complexity of skin is done in the shading. It is very easy to fall into the habit of only using one color to shade your mini, but instead of that, try taking several colors that can be mixed into your shade color and using them individually instead.

For example with Marneus Calgar here, I took a pink flesh tone (P3 Midlund Flesh) and wanted to shade them using a medium brown (something like P3 Idrian Flesh). Rather than doing that, I found two contrasting paints that can be mixed together to make a medium brown color (in this case: P3 Skorne Red and Battledress Green).

To create the subtle interaction we’re looking for, you’ll want to add three layers of shading to the mini, rather than one flesh wash. Start out by mixing your base color with the brighter of the two colors (in this case, the Skorne Red) and thinning it down with water until it becomes a wash. Apply that to the flesh first, allow it to dry, then do the same thing with the second color. You’ll find that the two colors mostly cancel one another out, and give you a pretty interesting shading coat for your mini.

The next step is to mix the two shading color together for your last layer of shading. Again, get these to wash consistency, but this time take a fine brush and deliberately pick out the areas for the deepest shadows. Wrinkles in the skin are great, the area around the eyes and things like that are wonderful to pick out this way.

After that, reclaim some of the raised surfaces with your base color, then start highlighting up (you can mix base colors with white or use lighter flesh tones).

From there, you’ll want to add details on the face. I’ve covered detailing male faces and female faces in other posts.

One interesting advantage that this method gives you is that you can use exactly the same paints on two different minis and still have slightly different flesh tones (people of the same race will have subtle differences in their flesh tones). For example, this giant was painted using exactly the same colors as Marneus Calgar, but on him the red is a little less prominent:

You can start to branch out a little after you have the basic skin down. This Fairy was shaded using a magenta color rather than a normal red- it gives her a very subtly cooler flesh tone.

Similarly, this Satyr used these techniques, but the shading was done with a much brighter green:

Of course, there’s no reason that this kind of shading would have to stop at human flesh tones:

Iron Daemon Prince

I recently painted up this Iron Warriors Daemon Prince as part of a commission. I decided that I really wanted to add a little flair to the mini as a whole- so to make it stand out on the battlefield he has a nice customized base.

The base is simply green stuff over a normal base. Carving a chaos star into it is simple enough. After that, I painted it exactly the same as I have with lava cracks (including the Object Source Lighting from the ground).

The conversion is partly my work, and partly the work of my client. The mask was taken from a Defiler, while the hammer hand comes from the Cygnar plastic warjack kit (Warmachine). Altogether, I think he achieves the half mechanical look needed for the Iron Warriors.

Anyway, enough talk:

Smartmax is taking pre-orders for The Thirteenth Hour

Ok, maybe I wasn't keeping up, but I didn't even know that Smartmax was interested in making games to go with their miniatures. They've been making such absolutely fantastic Victorian Horror minis that I just missed it entirely.

One of the strangest things is that their whole line of miniatures is at 1/35 scale- approximately 54mm. Really, I haven't seen anyone try to make a game using larger scale minis since Games Workshop gave up on Inquisitor.

Still, if you're interested in painting some outstanding minis at that scale, they have them.

If you're interested, they're taking orders on their game. They've called it the Thirteenth Hour, and at least the mood on their website is very strong. It will be a small scale skirmish game (which is good, because there was no way anyone was going to field a force of fifty 1/35 minis).

Of course, you might not need to have an interest in the game to want to paint some of those beauties.

Dreadnought in Silvers

Just a little while ago, I got a chance to paint up a dreadnought for the Grey Knights.

Doing a mini in that much metal can be tricky- especially something like a dreadnought that needs to have two different types of silver to distinguish the machine workings from the armor. Even when you can make the silvers distinct, there are other troubles.

Often, when you're using that much silver it tends to neutral out the mini a little too much. To combat this, I created a bright lava base so that I could have a light source interacting with the rest of the miniature.

Altogether, I think this approach worked out rather well.

Get your self some Crawling Chaos

Privateer Press posted up their preview of the Legion of Everblight's future battle engine. They're calling it the Throne of Everblight.

I think I might call it "the Crawling Chaos of Everblight." It might be that I'm in the middle of playing Cthulhu Saves the World, but there just seems to be something Lovecraftian about it, don't you think?

For comparison, take a look at this Nyarlathotep statue:

I could see more Lovecraftian styled Everblight.

As of right now, I understand that Privateer Press' policy is still to release one book every year, and this year it is a Warmachine book. It is possible that we'll get to see this in its full resin glory before 2012, but I'm not counting the days just yet.

More Hazard Stripes

Here’s a mini that I stopped working on for a while. I got him about halfway finished, then got distracted with other projects.

Oh, other projects. Always the bane of the miniatures painter. Can’t you hear them calling to you right now?

Anyway, I got back to this guy and finally finished him off. Overall, I think he worked out pretty well for being split up over so much time.

So, here he is. As you can see, he’s painted to match an existing mercenary force, with the blue, white and hazard stripes.

Basic Techniques for beginner painters

Over the years, I've taught a number of people to paint starting from scratch. It is always fun to watch someone learn a technique and be able to make their minis pop with it. And the truth is, the basic techniques are very simple, and almost everything else a painter does stems from one of those techniques.

Here is an overview of the basic techniques. This is a brief version of a lesson that I would give to any new painter as I walk them through their first mini.

- Priming - You need to cover the mini with a spray primer. The thing to remember here is that you want a very thin layer of primer on your mini- you don't want to cover up those fine details. One trick you can use is to spray the mini in short bursts, moving the spray can back and forth.

Black primed minis tend to be more forgiving, so I'd start there if I were you, but there are advantages to white primer.

- Base coating - after your prime your mini, you need to paint each area in a solid color. Painting within the lines is really the key here. I normally completely finish one area before basecoating another, but many people prefer to basecoat the entire mini before doing anything else with the colors.

- Shading with washes - If you take any acrylic paints or ink (P3 included) and add some water to it, you'll get a translucent paint we call a wash. Apply a wash made from a darker color than your base coat and you'll find it naturally flows into the cracks. For a more advanced version, try applying a wash directly to the shade areas.

- Highlighting by layering - The next thing to do is to layer up with your color. Take a lighter version of base color (often made by mixing the paint with a lighter color) and apply paint directly to the raised areas on the mini. This will give your mini an added sense of depth.


- Note on colors - You can most easily accomplish the steps above by getting three versions of the same color (like a dark red, lighter red, and lightest red). When you feel confident, you'll find it is fun to mix it up (I love taking a green, shading it with red and highlighting it with a pale blue, and red often can be nicely shaded in brown). You can mix your highlight colors using anything lighter than your base color, really. For many colors, I use bone white as my mix up color (it is very light, and gives every color a sort of warm feel).

- Note on metallic paints - Metallics work exactly the same as other colors, except for one thing. They don't mix well with other paints. You can shade a metallic metal with another paint, and it will work fine, but when you are highlighting, make sure that you only use metallic paints.

Reaper does Savage Worlds

Reaper miniatures has had a lot of news lately. Their latest grand announcement is that they'll be producing miniatures for the Deadlands RPG setting.

If you don't know Pinnacle Entertainment's award winning setting or the Savage Worlds game system, you might want to check it out. A mix of gothic fantasy and old west, Deadlands really has a lot to offer. And honestly, the world needs more undead gunslinger minis.

Of course, here we just might be more concerned about the minis, and Bob Ridolfi has produced some nice ones:

Here come the pigs!

Ok, so the Farrow minis from Privateer Press have been available for a while, but up until now, very few had been painted by me. Well, I recently finished a commission where I got to paint a whole horde of crazy pigs, and I'm ready to share them with you.

Of course, the greatest of all pig minis is definitely the new Frankenstein's creation: the Warhog.

Reaper Releases Lunch Boxes!

Ok, maybe they aren't just lunch boxes, but now if you buy any reaper box set, they'll come in their very own egg-crate filled carrying case .

Basically, they're gun cases with pretty pictures of minis on the front. But you've got to admit, they make pretty good lunch boxes. I mean, when I was in elementary school, these would have been pretty sweet:

Of course, most Reaper box sets are for large multi-piece minis rather than for sets of minis, and once you've assembled your dragon, there's no way you'll be transporting him in the lunch pale anymore.

But then again, who ever bought a Reaper multi-piece dragon and doesn't have enough minis to fill a little case like this?

More Cake Toppers and Zombies!

Those of you who have been following me for a while will know that I offer a service to create custom wedding cake toppers. And they’re always some of the best projects around.

Here are some photos of the latest zombie fighters. These two are on some desperate ground right now, and I’m afraid they’ll be overrun soon.

And for the couple that wanted the bride to be the zombie, here is a set of dancers. You know it’s love when you’re tied together by spider webs.

Anyone whose new to the site can see some of my other zombie creations over on the Geek Wedding Cake Toppers page.

Worn Leather

I often get compliments on the ways that I paint worn brown leather. It is actually a fairly easy process.

First, you need some way of getting a dark and fairly neutral brown base coat or shading coat. Normally, I either paint a neutral brown color on, then shade it with a brown ink, or just start out with a very dark brown. If you start out with a neutral brown with ink, then you should apply your highlight layers with a little water in them to help the lower colors show through more. If you started out with the dark brown, you should mix the dark brown into your highlight layers in order to create a smooth transition.

The next step is to highlight using a very red brown (like P3 Bloodstone or Citadel Vermin Brown). This is going to be a very prominent color, so go ahead and cover up most of the layers underneath (you just want those layers for shading).

You will now have a very red looking brown color. The next step is the trick to making your leathers look worn. Highlight using a very yellowy brown color (like Citadel’s Snakebite Leather or P3 Rucksack Tan). Keep your blending good as you highlight up and you’ll be able to maintain the illusion well.

In the end, you’ll have a brown color that is more red in the shadows and more yellow in the highlights. This gives the impression that the leather has been out in the sun and is worn.

As always, I have some finished examples:

You can also experiment with these kinds of colors on non-leather surfaces, like the brown scales on this dragon:

Instant Mold

I found this out from Coolminiornot. They've just started selling stuff they're calling Instant Mold.

Apparently, this stuff is sculpable like green stuff, but it become maleable when warmed, and hardens when cooled.

The potential for this stuff was immediately obvious. You can't sculpt with it, but you can make press molds with it, and create some pretty impressive stuff.

I'm looking forward to trying it out, probably using some of Scibor's techniques in creating a press mold.

Studio McVey has a gutsy range of miniatures

Honestly, looking through the Studio McVey line, you’ll find all sorts of minis that are meant for painting and nothing else. Mike and Ali McVey know what great miniatures are, and they get some of the best sculptors in the industry to make some of the most creative miniatures you’ll ever see.

The latest addition to their range is Ruby. I suppose that she could be used as a PC for anyone playingBroncosaurus Rex (or another setting inspired by Valley of the Gwangi). But there really just will never be a lot of call for a cowgirl riding a dinosaur.

Even if you’ll never use it, this mini is fantastic. The composition, attention to detail and even the setting details (like the armor plates) are just perfect.

Have a look for yourself. And stop wondering why Studio McVey took three first places for the Table Tog Gaming News Editor’s choice best mini of 2010.

Armorcast Warhound Titan

I recently got a pretty outstanding commission to paint up a Warhound Titan made by Armorcast. Armorcast did official Games Workshop miniatures before Forgeworld took over their position. This particular mini had a copyright 1989 stamped onto him.

The titan is a fine miniature, but it had some issues with detail- it was basically an enlarged epic scale mini- and it came from an era in which miniatures in general were a little less loaded with detail. So he needed something to bring him up to date.

But with all of those broad areas, I just had to add in some freehand, right?

Space Hulk Brood Lord

I’ve had my own Space Hulk set for over a year now. Like all painters, I have way too many projects in the works.

So here is the first of the Genestealers, the Brood Lord. The others are already started, and are going to match him. I was going for a more neutral color pallet than the one that the studio painters used (I played a little bit of Gears of War and based the colors off of one version of wretches).

Anyway, here he is: