Chee-Chee Part 1

What is there not to like about a giant, mutated/bionic gorilla? 

Chee-Chee comes from Infamy Miniatures and is one of the minis I picked up at Salute. I'm cracking on with my latest Scourge mini but I decided to start the prep on Chee-Chee at the same time. This is my first resin mini and I've had to adapt a little to the material. The resin itself is slightly translucent and this makes seeing any mould lines or bubbles tricky. Fortunately there are few of either and now I've got the mini assembled and undercoated I can easily see any areas I missed.

I'm really looking forward to painting this mini as I've fancied having a go at something with a steam punk feel for quite a while. I like how this mini challenges my usual inclination to go light & bright as I'm getting a dark & grungy vibe with this one.

I've also got a pretty clear idea of how I want to base this mini up and I've a few resin bits & bobs on order that will go towards helping me achieve my vision. This is one beastie that the gates of London Zoo wont be keeping in! 

The third Scourge remains my main project but it's nice to look forwards to painting something so different from everything else I've been working on recently.

Getting things off to a rough and rocky start!

In an effort to get my Dark Eldar Hellion ready for Salute last week I went into a frenzy of last minute preparations. After several very late nights common sense prevailed and I abandoned the attempt. I was running a serious risk of ruining a good mini.
Having come back to the project in a calmer frame of mind I can see that not all of my efforts were a waste. I’d made a scenic base and although what I came up with was wrong for the Hellion I think it shows a lot of potential.
Like the base for my Tomb King this one is made from a half rotten piece of wood picked up on the roadside. The addition of soil, superglue, cork and a suitable paint job has helped turn my bit of wood into a rocky outcrop. 

I’ve a few early thought on what will work with this base but need to give the project some proper consideration. I’ve gone and put the cart before the horse with this one but I think this base has the potential to be the beginning of something good.

Salute 2013 Painting Competition

I travelled up to London yesterday for Salute and entered my first painting comp in 23 years!
I came first in the Miscellaneous category with my Dr Who Diorama and first in the Fantasy Single Figure category with my Tomb King. The Tomb King was also awarded second best in the show!

It was especially good to get to meet lots of mini painting folks 'in the flesh' and to see their work for real. I've been out of contact for far too long and seeing all those beautiful painted minis has given me a real boost and some much needed inspiration. I was just starting to come down with another dose of Scourge fatigue.

Salute also gave me the chance to buy myself some rather lovely minis that I've been drooling over so I'm going to be kept busy painting for a very (very) long time.

Painting the Third Scourge Part 5

The Easter break was a busy one for me with a lot of travelling up and down the country to visit friends. In spite of this I've managed to have some quality painting time and as a result it really feels like I've made some progress on my Scourge mini. 
The back pack, utility belt and one of the arms are now all but complete and with so much of the base colour covered up the mini looks a lot closer to being finished. I't been the usual mix of easy and hard with the belt being a joy to paint and the arm a total pain! I'll be very glad when I've painted the last bit of dark brown on the remaining arm as the colour has been a pig to get right.
A major improvement to the ease of the task came with the delivery of some new paint brushes. I'm still sold on sable but they don't seem to last me any longer than my old brushes. This may say more about me than it does about the brushes though! This time around I've gone for a slightly larger brush size using a 1 instead of my usual 00. I've been able to do this because the sable brushes hold such a good point  and a larger brush brings the benefit of having a larger reservoir of paint behind the tip. I found that a 00 sable had an incredible fine tip for precise work but really held very little paint.