2017 Looking back... and forward.

I caught a cold over Christmas (who didn’t this year?) and suffered a flare up of my asthma. So my painting motivation has been at an all time low for the last few weeks! Such is life and I’ve learned to go with the ebb and flow of enthusiasm for my hobby. Rather than beating myself up over my lack of progress, I can see that it all tends to even out over the long term.

As I’ve begun to feel better (but not up to painting) I’ve spent a little time on this blog replacing some of the missing pictures. It’s just as much of a slog as I’d feared, but I’ve worked my way back to the end of October 2014 and the start of Gutrot Spume!

It’s been quite nostalgic to go through my old picture and it’s heartening to see how my painting has continued to develop and, I hope, improve over the last few years. As I say in my bio on this blog, ‘there is always something new to learn’.

All this nostalgia reminds me that it’s time to look back and review the past year! Overall it feels as if I’ve been less productive in terms of finished miniatures especially as I’m now painting ‘full time’. However while this is true it’s not the whole picture.

The first half of the year was dominated by my workshops and the necessary preparation they involved. So when you factor in the Plaguebearers I painted ready for Copenhagen, my output is on a par with previous years.

This greyscale Plaguebearer was painted for my contrast workshop in Copenhagen.

My three workshops, in Copenhagen, Stockport and Hull, were a huge and thoroughly enjoyable part of my painting year and I’m looking forward to developing this side of things in the coming year.

Contrast in Copenhagen

Textured NMM in Stockport

Monster Flesh in Hull

2017 saw me finish three projects: The Orruk Megaboss, The Abyssal Warlord and the Death Guard Chaos Space Marine. In addition to these, and the aforementioned Plaguebearers, I’ve put a fair bit of work into the Akito bust and made a tentative start on my new Nurgle Predator.

I think the three finished minis represent a very distinct phase in my painting. This year I’ve explored and developed my approach to painting contrasting textures and that’s very evident in my work. I feel that, over the last year, I’ve greatly increased my range in this area. That’s something I’m especially pleased about because I think it’s bridged a gap in my skill set. Not so very long ago I was all about smoothness!

I’ve enjoyed continued success in painting competitions. They remain a great motivator to improve my painting and help to give my painting year some structure. Salute 2017 saw me take home a Bronze for my Abalam bust. The Golden Demon Classic in May saw me win a Gold in what was the most strongly contested Golden Demon I’ve attended! But it was the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day in November that gave me my greatest success with a Gold and my fifth Slayer Sword. I’m very proud but no one gets anywhere by resting on their laurels so I’m going to have to keep on my toes and keep pushing myself to grow as a painter!

On the personal side, I took myself in hand this last year and made a major effort to improve my health. Over the last few years I’d become quite seriously over weight for someone of my height, or lack of it, and my blood pressure had gone through the roof as a result. I got my diet under control and began to exercise regularly. By August I’d undergone quite a transformation having lost 44 pounds and ‘found’ a full head of hair! Most importantly my blood pressure is now good for someone of my age.

These photos are, give or take a week, taken one year apart,
it's quite a shock to see exactly how much I've changed!

So what of the future? As I said earlier I’m looking forward to further developing my painting workshops. I shall be returning to Element Games for my ‘Contrast in miniature painting’ workshop on the 2nd and 3rd of June and beyond that I’m looking into running a series of workshops by myself in Southampton.

On the painting front I have Akito to finish. This project continues to challenge and stimulate me, as it’s so different from anything else I’ve ever painted before. I’m looking forward to seeing Akito finished, hopefully in time for this year’s Salute.

Once Akito is done I will turn my attention to the 2018 Golden Demon season and consider my approach this year. I’d like to work on some long-term projects, as this is where I do my best work. But for 2018 I will probably try and get a couple of character minis painted and I already have my eye on some likely candidates.

In the much longer term there is the new Nurgle Predator and the recent release of a plastic Great Unclean One by Games Workshop has raised some very interesting possibilities and further fueled my enthusiasm for this particular project.

Although my plans for 2018 are a little vague, the year feels full of possibilities and I’m keen to see where it will take me!

Golden Demon: Classic 2017

For some weeks I’ve had a gut feeling that Golden Demon 2017 was going to be a tough competition. There have been hints, subtle and otherwise, that quite a few well-known and highly accomplished painters were planning to attend. Each year I seem to say that the standard was higher than before but that was never truer than this year. The standard went through the roof and much of the work on display was so good it was scary!

With all my hopes pinned on just one model the tension of waiting to find out who the winners were was pretty high! When my Megaboss was placed among the winners on the top shelf I was greatly relieved. Having taken note of the fact that my model was the last one to go onto the top shelf in it’s category, and what that might possibly imply, my hopes were riding high.

I wasn’t to be disappointed; my Megaboss took Gold in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Single Miniature category! A fantastic result, even more so considering the standard of the competion this year. I can ask no more from my hobby than to find myself and my work in such talented company.

I’ve always felt that, no matter how good they think their work is, no painter should assume they are going to win something, not least the Slayer Sword. However, Michał Pisarski (Lan Studio) must have been feeling a fair degree of justifiable confidence with regards to his Enthroned Nagash. It’s a stunning piece of work and it was no great shock when it won the, well deserved, Slayer Sword!

With the addition of the Gaming Tournaments Warhammer Fest was bigger and livelier than ever. The event feels like it’s going from strength to strength and The Golden Demons are a big part of that. It was a bigger, busier, tougher and more exciting competition than it has been for many a year and long may it continue!

Busy Times!

The last few weeks have provided an unusual experience with regards to my hobby as although I’m very busy I have little to show for it! As I predicted earlier this year I’m deeply involved in preparing for my Copenhagen workshop over the coming Easter weekend. Demo minis have been prepped and painted, notes have been written, a resourses folder compiled and minis selected for the trip. And jolly good fun it’s all been too but there’s nothing to show for it on this blog!

Apart from my workshop preparations, I’ve found a little more time to work on Akito and develop the flesh tones on her torso. I’ve found it especially challenging to achieve a realistic balance of smooth flesh tones and strong, but subtle, contrasts. Unlike painting monsterous flesh there is no way to hide any imperfections behind textures or special effects! But I feel that I’m getting there and just need to be patient and persistent.

The following weeks are also likely to be a bit of an odd time for me hobby wise. On the weekend after my Copenhagen workshop it’s Salute, at Excell in London, and I’ll finally get the chance to enter my Abalam bust into a painting comp. It will be interesting to see how he does as I feel I’m still something of a novice with regards to painting busts, and there is a lot for me to learn.

After that I’m going to be at Warhammer Southampton, on Saturday 29th April, where I’ll be showcasing my miniatures and running some demonstrations of the techniques I’ve used on my Golden Demon winners. I will also be judging a painting competition!

Looking further ahead still there is the Golden Demon Classic at Warhammer Fest on 28th May. My Megaboss is ready and waiting which is just as well because I don’t think I’m going to have spare time to get anything else painted ready for Golden Demon this year. That’s because I’ve two more painting workshops lined up for this Summer and I’ll be gearing up for the first of those pretty soon.

This will be at Element Games, in Stockport, on the 3rd and 4th June. The subject of the workshop will be aged and distressed non-metallic metal armour, like that painted on my Megaboss. There will be a focus on using Scale colour paints and the workshop model will be the Abyssal Warlord by Scale 75.

And there’s more because on the weekend of August 5th and 6th, I will be in Hull for the Weekend Workshop. I will be breaking out the Plaguebearers again for a weekend of painting monster flesh. Expect microbeads, baking soda and slime effects to feature!

Ironjaws Megaboss part 11- Blood and yet more blood!

In truth I’ve not added much extra blood to what was there before but I’ve reworked it to look a bit more bloody. I realised that I had botched my blood mix and used red ink instead of Tamiya clear red. I think the Tamiya makes a huge difference – it’s mixed with GW’s Bardab Black wash.

I also repainted the neck stump on the Dracoth to bring out the sculpted detail. I think it looks a lot more ‘meaty’ now and I’m very happy with the result.

Ironjaws Megaboss part 10

So I’ve got a Megaboss with what amounts to one base stuck onto another and a dirty great gap between them! Obviously I had to fill in the gap with a texture that would blend seamlessly into the existing base work. The problem is that the earth texture was made at the start of the project using garden soil and superglue. This gives an excellent result but there is no way I’d risk it on a painted mini. The fumes given off by superglue can cause white fogging on painted surfaces.

I decided to experiment with Games Workshop’s texture paints and I’m very glad I did! I invested in a few pots and tried out various combinations. In all cases I found that the results were excellent! Each type of paint behaved as promised and the final results were both stable and easy to paint onto. Best of all I could detect no signs of shrinkage, which meant I could use the texture paint to fill the gap.

I decided that Stirland Battlemire was the best option for my Megaboss and, sure enough, the final texture matches the pre-existing texture very well. Like other Games Workshop products, these are not the cheapest option available; but the ease of use and finished quality mean I’ll be making the texture paints a regular part of my basing kit. I’m impressed!

With the gap filled and the base now a seamless whole, I had just a few little touches to attend to. Although the scene calls for a certain amount of blood and gore, I’ve decided to keep it to the minimum. With all the severed heads it would not be inappropriate to produce a version of this model that was literally blood drenched, but that’s not what I want. For one thing, in my mind, the heads were not severed at this spot but brought here from elsewhere and have had most of the blood drained out of them on the battlefield. More importantly, I didn’t want an over-the-top gory feel to this piece as I think that would be distracting from the overall composition.

However, I did decide to add a little more blood hear and there. Not least to the Dracoth’s neck as the cut was just a little too clean.

With the Megaboss now done, except for a plinth, it’s time to put him away in the cabinet for a while. I always like to do this with a newly ‘finished’ mini as I’m far too close to the project to be able to view it objectively at this stage. In truth, I’m sick of the sight of the Megaboss at the moment but that’s a symptom of the ‘fatigue’ I’ve been feeling with this project and a little time away from it will do the world of good. But, I’m very glad I persevered and finished it!

So what is next?

The reveal of the finished Megaboss will have to wait for a while until he is mounted on a plinth. My immediate priority is the upcoming workshop in Copenhagen and I’m preparing a few bits and pieces in readyness for that.

However, my next painting project is also underway. I can guarantee that it is unlike anything I’ve ever painted before!

Ironjaws Megaboss part 9

It’s been a long time coming but the end of the project is finally in sight!

In order to finish the Megaboss I had to complete his base and that was quite a project in itself. As well as the severed dracoth head there were several skulls attached to the base, but they were not going to be the only such additions. I intended the base to be piled up with severed heads, using a mix of Orruk and human heads, as well as a couple of more skulls. This would give the base a look of a trophy mound with the combination of skulls, and more recently severed heads, telling a story of many victories over a period of time.

Painting the heads went very smoothly, although it was very fiddly work. The desaturated flesh tones I have used on the severed heads helps to convey the impression of death and prevent them from drawing too much focus from the Megaboss. For the same reason, I put a little more work into the dracoth head to darken and desaturate it.

Once the heads were painted, I glued them onto the base using PVA woodworking glue. This is an excellent adhesive for small lightweight parts that do not need to be held in place while the glue dries. It avoids the potential mess of epoxy glue, and the problems of fogging and positioning that can come with superglue. With PVA, parts can be nudged into place and any excess can be cleaned away with a clean damp paintbrush.

Then it was time to add a few sparse grass tufts and, after the addition of a little extra dirt effects, the Megaboss would be finished – or so I thought!

I’d been having those nagging doubts I sometimes get. This time I felt that something wasn’t quite right with the Megaboss but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what the problem was. It might just have been last minute jitters, as the project came together, but the feeling got stronger and stronger.

The answer came from sitting back and taking a good long look at the model. All the details were as good as I could make them but the overall impression lacked impact. Something was off with the positioning and composition of the Megaboss on his base!

He looked very awkward from certain angles and from others seemed to be about to topple backwards, right off the rear of the base. Cue panic, swiftly followed by black despair!

However, all was not lost! I could remember a similar situation with my Dark Eldar diorama. The solution, which came as they often do in the middle of the night, was the same as before. I would have to remodel the base.

This was not something I undertook lightly and it took several hours to psych myself up to it! If I got it wrong I’d be in a much worse position than before.

To begin with I used a pair of clippers to snip away the edges of the plastic base and some of the ‘soil’ from the lower edges. Next I took my Dremmel and sanded away the milliput from under the front edge of the base. This covered the entire model in a heavy layer of milliput dust that had to be meticulously cleaned off. It was, to say the least, a horrible job; but at least I could then move on and start reconstructing the base.

I took a new 60mm plastic base and filled the underside with milliput for weight and stability. Once this hardened I glued the old, trimmed down, base onto it. But I didn’t glue it down flat. Instead I inserted a wedge of cork between the old and new bases at the rear. This had the effect of raising up the back edge of the base and radically altering the relative angles of both the Megaboss and the ground. The gaps were then roughly filled in with green stuff.

The change has made a massive difference to the Megaboss and his base! The positioning and composition now feel right to me. But the biggest change is that the Megaboss now feels ‘alive’! His posture looks balanced and dynamic and this, together with the added height, has given the piece much greater impact.

Now I have to reapply and paint the soil effects but the end really is in sight … honest.

Ironjaws Megaboss part 8

I mentioned earlier on that I was going to add some freehand designs to the Megaboss’s armour. But did I really want to cover up my hard work on the painted textures? I decided to go for it but my plans for the freehands had to change.

I’d originally intended to paint designs inspired by Native American artworks. Once the Megaboss was near completion, I could see this was not going to work. The type of designs I intended to paint would be too lightweight to stand out on the chunky textured armour, as I’ve painted it. Also the Native American designs would not be anything like ‘Orky’ enough for this model. 

The solution was, as is often the case, staring me in the face. I would use the established GW iconography for the Orruks. The jagged lightning/flame designs painted on GW’s Orruks were perfect. These designs are often painted in yellow and black. As I was painting them in a less contrasting bone white on red, I had to make the designs a little bolder. This also helped them to stand out against the textures.

In addition to the jagged designs, I decided to add a skull design to the back of the mini. I felt something bold was needed to break up this large area of red armour. In addition, the colour on the freehands tones in with the large skull and balances out the overall colour palette. 

With the freehands done, it was time to paint the Megaboss’s base, and I was ready for the challenge. I expected it to take quite some time and effort, but I didn’t realise how much! The last couple of weeks have been a hard slog at the painting desk. I’ve had to curb my impatience in wanting to see the job finished as, in order to do it right, I have put the hours in. Added to that I’ve struggled to get the overall colour balance right. I’m suffering from Megaboss fatigue.

I really want to see the end of this project and to move on to something new. But I’m not going to do a rush job just for the sake of finishing it off. I’m very pleased with the work I’ve done on the Megaboss and I’m now going to give him the base he deserves!

Ironjaws Megaboss part 7

Once I’d finished his black armour the main part of the Megaboss was looking more complete. There are quite a few details to attend to but the outstanding major elements are the axe and the dracoth skull on his shoulder.

I decided to turn my attention to the skull. As the single most striking element of the mini, it’s the thing that first drew my attention to it. And, as much as I’ve enjoyed painting the armour, the skull has always looked like it was going to be the fun part of the job!

I haven’t been disappointed. Painting the skull was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I’m very pleased with the result. A major part of the painting process went into resolving the textures. I wanted the skull to have a slightly rough, gnarly looking texture. In addition to the bone texture, I wanted to add chips and scratches. A lot of fun was had resolving these textures and figuring out the balance between then.

My colour palette for the skull is one I often use for bone.

Base colour:

Games Workshop - Rakarth Flesh

Shade:

The Army Painter Quickshade - Strong Tone & Soft Tone
Games Workshop – Rhinox Hide

Mid-tones:

The Army Painter Quickshade - Soft Tone

Highlights:

Games Workshop - Rakarth Flesh
Scalecolour Fantasy & Games – Purity White

The shading is built up with a series of glazes using the The Army Painter Quickshades. Rhinox Hide adds a bit more depth and opacity to the colour of the horns. This combination gives me a good range of yellow/brown and red/brown shades to play with.

I built the highlights on top of the mid-tones by gradually adding white to the Rakarth Flesh. The final highlights are pure white. Once the highlights were dry, I glazed a little dilute soft tone quickshade here and there to soften the effect and tie everything together.

Ironjaws Megaboss part 6

The Boss is back and this time I’m not stopping until he’s finished!

Despite putting my Megaboss on the backburner several times, I love painting this mini! One reason for this is I’ve been able to take my NMM technique in a new direction by combining it with texture techniques. The work has sometimes been quite challenging, but it’s also made for some rewarding painting sessions.

I decided to paint the armour on the shoulders and arms as blackened metal. This wasn’t in my initial plan but I feel the addition of black provided a necessary contrast to the other colours, and it makes the overall colour palette feel more complete.

As I said while painting the Farseer, black is a colour I’ve not used for many years. The practise I gained on the Farseer has paid off and I was able to approach the blackened armour with considerably more confidence than I would otherwise have done!

The key colour is - no prizes for guessing - Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. It’s mixed 50/50 with black for the base colour and then with white for the mid-tones and highlights. Once the rust effects were painted on, I repeatedly glazed over the entire area with highly diluted Dark Sea Blue. When I’d built up a pleasing depth of colour, I picked out a few extreme highlights with white. The Dark Sea Blue ties it all together and gives some subtle depth of colour to the blackened areas.

Before & after glazing with Dark Sea Blue.

Seeing red

I've been painting the red armour on my Megaboss this week and this has given me cause to consider my approach to painting this particular colour.

Red is the colour of passion, danger and excitement! The eye will pick out a flash of red among other colours making it an excellent accent colour. And we all know that if you paint something red it will go faster!

In a nutshell, red is a very useful colour to have in your palette but, it has to be said, it’s also a potentially tricky one.

The big problem with red is that it can be a very difficult colour to successfully highlight. Once you start to lighten red it can become another colour. Sometimes orange but most commonly pink. This is one situation where simply adding white to a colour to lighten it really won’t work!

My own tendency to over highlight makes this a problem I’m all too familiar with. To overcome this I use a mixture of approaches when highlighting my reds.

It’s very easy to think only in terms of lighter colours when highlighting, however, a slight shift in attitude can provide a solution. Rather than lighter, think brighter! Using a brighter more saturated shade of red for highlights will help to avoid the curse of chalkiness, desaturation and pink highlights.

Instead of building your highlights up from a dark base, try using a bright saturated red as your base colour and shade down from this. A light to dark style of painting can be very effective when used on reds as it gives a rich saturated quality to your colours. I used this approach to paint the jacket on my Uncle John bust.

You will probably need to use a lighter colour in your final highlights, so pick your highlight colour with care. The type of surface you are trying to represent, and how reflective it is, will also affect your colour choices; but save white for the final extreme highlights. For my reds, I like to use gold/peach colours in my highlights. In the case of my Megaboss I'm using  Scalecolour Golden Skin.

Whatever colour you are using it’s important to keep the lightest highlights to the absolute minimum possible. If you go a bit too far with the highlighting (and I often do), not all is lost! Glazing over the red areas can work wonders. A carefully glazed layer of bright-saturated red/orange can restore the mid-tones and boost saturation. You can do this with dilute paint, but ink is really ideal as it is both translucent and saturated. I dilute the ink and work with several subtle layers to control the effect. I glazed over the highlighted reds on my Hellion with orange/red tones to create a saturated fiery red.

I’ve focused on highlighting red because that’s where things often go wrong, but it is also important to think about the shadows. You can mix red with black or dark brown to shade quite successfully, but the finished effect can be a bit flat and uninteresting. The use of a contrasting colour in the shadows can make a big difference. Dark blue or purple are good choices and I’ve even seen green used!

For my Dark Eldar Scourge I've created a 'cool' red by using strong blue tones in the shadows and slightly pink highlights.