Doors colour test

now ive got a ruck load of doors to start making my dungeon look the part.
however i have 2 dilemmas on this front.

now anyone that paints have certain things they paint that they know they are good at. and to follow that up. there are certain things that some are not so comfortable with. and for me...doors have 2 things ive never been very confident in painting. and this might sound stupid but ive never really been able to paint wood or rock to a standard i like.
ive never been able to lock down a solid colour formula that when i sit back and look at i am happy with. so it made perfect sense that i attempted some colour tests before really laying into the doorways.

so here we have them

 first up the portcullis' (portculli? portcullises?) i dunno.
anyways as i only had 2 of these i just painted both of them in these scheme. for me the real tests were to attack the rock work and wood. this is no wood on this so i simply went for a brown dark rusted type of old metal.

 the rock work...ive gotta say im about 75% happy with my attempts and will carry forwards the method i used on these for all of the other doors. was rather simple really.
-Mid tone grey basecoat(in this case i used some cheap acrylic i picked up from a hobby store)
- Thin washes with 4 colours to break up the solid grey colour and hopefully gain some sort of realistic weathered look the 4 colours being. Agrax Earthshade, Athonian Camoshade, Seraphim Sepia and Reikland Fleshshade
-Dry brush with base colour.
- Light dry brush to pick out edges using Screaming skull

so with the rockwork nailed down it was the wood to concentrate on.
here....i wasnt to happy so will be trying a new formula on the wood as i want to get a much older dark and dampened look for the wood. but all in all it was a worth while attempt.
im happy with the rock. now i just need to go scouting around for the wood colour i would prefer to have and take it from there :)

so yup the dungeon is slowly getting there. a quick little mock up is showing how things are starting to look pretty nifty indeed.

i have much more plans for these doors as well. trying to add some character to them rather than them just being standard.
maybe some themed ones for the open doors(skaven themed - undead themed and so on)
and some ivy or cobwebs and such for the closed ones. skulls (gotta have skulls) rats, cobwebs and that sort of thing.
i just want them to end up looking great and not so standard.
i know most dont care about these little details. but we would all chose to have them if they were easy to have right?

anyways until next time :)

Doors galore

so things for my dungeon are starting to close in. having recently completed my new 30mm AHQ board sections (will post about these soon i promise)
1 thing that was severely lacking and also a reason i wasnt posting anything on my new dungeon tiles was the fact i had no doors to throw down and show everything in its full glory.

well thanks to Zealot miniatures, i do now!!

totally at 8 closed, 12 open and 2 portcullis' hopefuly now ill have enough to run a full dungeon

i have some great ideas for these. doors dont have to be just doors. these great sculpts will lend themselves perfectly to the ideas i have. so hopefully in the upcoming weeks i can start to show some of the completed ones.

i cant wait to get started on these. so just thought i'd put a few pics up of the before pics. that will hopefully compliment the after shows that will follow :)

Minotaur lord

so whilst ive been soldiering through the rather bland 'units' side of my dungeon i also decided to dig out my massive mountain of lead from days of old. its actually ridiculous how much stuff i have, how much stuff ive lost. and how much stuff i didnt even know i had.
WH40k...never played it...but somehow got loads of it...soon to be making ebay appearances i think.
same goes for bloodbowl. i have the 3rd edition and loads of bloodbowl minis...guess what..never played it..never going to. so these will also be making ebay appearances soon. seriously id crazy how much junk i have that i need to get rid of and even more crazy how much has gone walkies over the 20 odd years. space hulk..perfect condition. played lots...Vanished!! im still baffled.

anyways that aside i am an oldhammer at heart. there is something i really love about the old mini's its like each miniature was made from the heart, with no intention of it ever ending up on a sprue. and even less consideration that it would ever be duplicated and sold to the masses. this for me is why older minis just seem to ooze so much more character. now im not in anyway going to slate the newer plastic sprue stuff GW churns out.because for the best part. they are pretty f*&^~n amazing. but it must just be a whole different mindset of creating back then. maybe made for love more than money. but some of my fave minis of all time circulate from around 1987 to about 1992/3 ish.

and this one to say the least was a huge fave of mine. the minotaurs GW offers these days look more like kangaroos on steroids. where as back then they looked feral and menacing and could quite literally eat the new ones for breakfast. especially this dude

DoomBellow Minotaur Lord

and i've got to say. it was a blast from the past painting him up. having not painted a lead mini of this size for a long time. ive got so say how much harder i found it to keep him balanced whilst painting and the sheer weight causing the paint to rub off during painting. that said though. absolute joy to paint! something i really enjoyed doing that helped distract me from the laborious task of unit painting on the skaven.

again on the weight of this thing. really does make me think how lucky we are with the whole plastic/resin mini's we have today. i used to much prefer to feel the weight of a mini whilst painting. like you were painting something worthwhile. plastic lacks that. but i have to admit. the lack of weight certainly has much more benefits. if i dropped this guy. then there is a good chance that he is going to be taking a pretty hefty chip out of the paintwork. plastic minis just bounce..so no chance of any chips occuring.

as if getting through a maze wasnt bad enough, that at the end of it you come face to face with this guy!!

all in all i really loved painting this beastie up. and will hopefully be delving deeper into my lead mountain to cook up a few more beasties for my dungeons.

as well as sifting through and getting rid of all the 40k, bloodbowl, 40k epic stuff i seem to of gathered up over the years.

2 posts in 1 day..go me!!

Clanrats

so i havent blogged too much recently. havent really had the time. so my infrequency to post things is purely based on me having free hobby time. ive made a ruck load of graphics, tiles, speelbooks for AHQ this year so will be posting these up shortly.

but my job at hand is fleshing out my bestiary. whilst most recent posts have followed along the lines of skaven, this post is no different, with 1 exception.
I GOT LAZY!!!
yup. too many things to paint with very little time to do so.
i also have to state. whilst skaven are great creatures. they arent particularly inspiring to paint. so having a mountian of figures to paint can be daunting. so i went for the very basic method of base colours and washes for a average table top standard

so here they are

whilst they would probably only get a 4 or a 5 on CMON. it doesnt really matter. what does matter is that i now have 15 clanrats ready to drop into my dungeon

so far ive got the skaven slaves.
rat ogres
and these boys.

so my decision to go basic painting on the basic models should hopefully pay off. and later on when i start doing characters and the more 'special' ones. i can apply a better paint job to those to help them stand out on the table.

so there we have it. one of my very rare blog posts..
sometimes i wonder if i just post to myself on here. i never get much feedback on things and whenever i try to kickstart a discussion i get no responses. maybe this leads to the infrequency of my posts i dont know. but be sure of one thing..ill still be posting what i create. even if it does pan out more as a personal library
:)

see you in 6 months lol

IN THE SPOTLIGHT - HERO FORGE CUSTOM MINIATURES

ok i caught light of this only the other day over at ye olde inn as part of a discussion on kickstarters for gaming aids and the likes.

now with the current advancements in 3d printing it is now becoming more and more available through the use of your pc to create/sculpt your own minis.
this in particular caught my eye as it allows literally anybody to click through a selection of models/adjust parameters etc to create your own figures.
go give it a try
HERO FORGE

this give you an intuitive computer game style character creation tool that allows various items to equip your figures. how to pose them and so on. there is a great deal of choice in there and i think for people that like to play D&D or heroquest or anything similar where they play as a singular character, this is a great tool. its not as cheap as it would cost to say purchase a singular figure from somewhere like GW, but based on what you are getting. it is a damn sight cheaper than commissioning someone to sculpt you a figure

a 30mm mini will cost you $25+$PP

this for me in the UK takes the price upto 26 quid. which doesnt make it an option really for me. i cant justify spending that money on 1 figure. especially when i can sculpt myself.

but the tool itself what it offers and the cost versus paying for commision work heavily outweighs in its favour and makes this a very good option for people wanting to create their own heroes for the gaming table.

i decided to put it to the test and attempt to make a few builds

so i decided to take a shot at the base HQ heroes..barbarian didnt turn out too bad. one thing the poses do lack are 2 handed weapon poses. but considering the amount of options available. they have to give options that work with all the choices you make. still it wouldnt hurt to have a extra menu of poses

 dwarfs arent great and follow the D&D physique for dwarfs. whereas i prefer the bulkier barrel shaped dwarfs with huge noses.

 elves look pretty good and with different ear options as well you can decide how pointy their ears are

 there are a lot of options for wizards too with fireball effects and such shooting from their hands.
would be nice to have more weapons to choose from. but im sure they add new things all of the time

halflings look great. but again some halfling feet would be a nice option

all in all. its a great tool for those that arent skilled in the arts of sculpting. and can really help you define your hero. whilst its not perfect and the price for 1 figure may be viewed as steep. i imagine a year down the line this will be even better. if they do add further options.

and possibly newer models (dwarf being first i noticed needing its only model type)

this could really be a new wave for miniature companies. yes its a specialised service. but yes its also crazy cool way to bring your heroes to life.

so go check it out. id love to see peoples creations somewhere down the line and wish these guys the best of luck