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 It's been a little while since an update - I've been very busy with the Skaven Warlord figure currently in the Gallery. Not only have I re-started working on the figure, adding more richness of color and definition, I've also done some additional decoration of the base from the previously posted "finished" figure:

 In other news, the Privateer Press Alexia Ciannor figure I painted on commission and mailed off the beginning of last month was very well received by the intended recipient, the commissioner's wife! Myself and several other painters on the Relicnews Painting & Modeling Forum were asked to paint figures with matching color- and theme requirements. Having seen a picture of the 4 figures grouped together, I can safely say that Alexia looks right at home with her new friends and will likely look even better when the custom display base for the pieces is finished. This is one I'm genuinely proud of, not just in the final painting but also in the intent - a very cool birthday gift for someone's wife.

 I finished sealing and packaging up the commissioned Privateer Press Alexia Ciannor figure this morning for mailing. Hopefully she'll be happy in her new home! For the rest of us, however, we have to get by with a new page specifically dedicated to her.

 I'm making excellent progress on the PP Alexia figure I'm painting up as a commission piece, despite odd work hours and general busyness at home. That's not the real news, however: the real news is that I've done some updates to the Techniques section including a few new color recipes.

 It's been so long since I've painted pale-colored skin, it's tricky trying to remember specifics. Well, not really as tricky as all that, but I have to make it sounds like it's at least some effort or there wouldn't be much point in having a news update! (It's been, say, 15 or 16 years since I've painted a pale-skinned figure, but I do think I've found a recipe where I'm happy with the results.) I'm basically aiming to have fairly clean looking light skin tones and everything else maybe slightly weathered but neat. I'm pleased with how the bodice/dress is coming along so far - at the suggestion of my wife I veered away from an extremely pale cream or white color, and settled on more of a light beige highlighted almost all the way up to pure white. One thing I think turned out nicely, or at least that I'm also fairly happy with, is the greenish-tinted shading on the darker depressions which I think ought to complement the intended reddish-purple longcoat nicely (when I get there.) Here's a work-in-progress picture of the figure:

 I've put pretty much everything else on hold temporarily, as I've started on a new Privateer Press commission piece. I'm very enthusiastic about painting the sculpture and there's a decent amount of room on the back of the longcoat for some cool but potentially tricky freehand. Short of a Warjack or so, this is the first PP human figure I've painted, and I must say I'm impressed by the near-complete lack of mold lines and venting tails on it - quite a pleasant change!

 I started work on painting another special edition Direct Order-only figure for the local Games Workshop Hobby Center, only this time definitely something out of my usual comfort zone: an Ogre Ninja! That's not to say it's a bad figure by any stretch of the imagination (although the prep work was certainly a pain) - no, I've just never really been as big a fan of GW Ogres, Warhammer Fantasy, or ninjas as I am of futuristic/cyberpunk-type stuff. Here's a work in progress shot of the figure thus far (I'm kinda stuck as to hair color and the weathering of the metallics, everything else however is intended to be dirty, sunbleached, or weatherworn):

 Just to recap other stuff ongoing: I'm still working on the large-scale GW Brass Scorpion composed of 3 Defiler kits, occasionally working on things for my Chaos Warband, and just made a fairly large purchase (mostly for my wife) of Games Workshop's new Fantasy release, the Vampire Counts Spearhead set, with loads of cool skeletons, undead, and other unwholesomeness.

 Well, I finished work on the Skaven Warlord figure and turned it in to the local GW Hobby Center - back to the rightful owners, as it were. I think overall it turned out nicely, but there's definitely room for improvement and hopefully the stuff I learned in application of color and theme from this guy I can carry over into future works. Anyhow, there's now a page for him added to the site, and I should be posting the various work-in-progress shots there as well. If anyone has any questions about my process or thinking in painting him, by all means feel free to drop me a line.

 I've had a chance to work on the Skaven I'm painting up for a local GW Hobby Center. I'm pretty sure it's not a Grey Seer, likely more of a Warlord or something. All the same, it's definitely a great sculpt with tons of little details (like the individual paws on the string of dead rats he's holding and the patchiness of his fur) and a great atmosphere. I keep humming King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King" as I work on it - song's got itself stuck in my head now, what with thinking about brass bells and sacrificial funeral pyres while working on this guy. Anyhow, here's a picture of the recent work - comments and suggestions appreciated, of course!

 Just making an update of sorts but without any definite pictures (I'm still working on a web page for 'em). For lack of anything practical or home improvement-related, I asked my wife and family for miniatures for Christmas: I've got a GW Chaos Space Marine starting force to put together, a Chaos Tide of Spawn boxed set, and maybe coolest of all, 2 Chaos Defiler boxes and an extra leg/chassis sprue - I'm working on a Brass Scorpion of Khorne! For those not familiar, a Brass Scorpion is a giant, scorpion-like daemonically possessed warmachine in the 40K tabletop game with multiple limbs, an extra-shooty tail weapon, and massive close combat flamethrowers and claws. I'm doing mine a little differently - the original Brass Scorpion from way back when had spinning blades on its front arms and there's a conversion tutorial posted on the US Games Workshop site along the same lines. I'd like spinning blades on mine, but not so prominent and exposed - more inset into a spiked flailing cestus of a claw.

As an aside, some of the staff from the GW Hobby Center near my new job asked me to paint up one of their Special Edition figures - a Skaven Clan Pestilens Gray Seer. I'm familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, but only from my old White Dwarf magazines from about 16-17 years ago. What's nice, though, is that they asked for the scheme to fit a "Nurgle" theme - right up my alley: corruption, muted browns and greens, rust and dirt... I'm really looking forwards to it, and it's for a good cause (of sorts)!

 Merry Christmas, everyone! (And a non-denominational, generic "Happy Holidays" to everyone else to whom it applies!) I've been very busy with a new contingent job with varying hours and training that I was hired on for at the beginning of the month, and I'm just now starting to settle into things a bit. While I've been involved in a number of less time-intensive conversion and assembling projects, I haven't had much opportunity to paint outright or post work-in-progress links.

I have, however, gotten some new miniatures and miniature-related supplies as gifts, and written up several army lists for my Games Workshop Chaos Warband planning-wise, so expect to see some new stuff posted up (hopefully) fairly soon here.

 I've added a page for an ongoing tutorial - a Games Workshop Empire Amethyst Wizard. Ideally, this will be the first non-commissioned figure that I plan on selling straight off as soon as he's finished. I don't know a lot about the different Colleges of Magic in GW's Warhammer game, but I've done enough research and gotten enough feedback at this point that I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to approach things. The tutorial-in-progress can be found here.

 I added a page for my Games Workshop Chaos Warband, The Disciples of the Four, which is also linked through the Gallery. I'll be updating the page periodically with finished pieces and WIP shots of the troops as I move along, hopefully with something looking vaguely coherent and unified. Well, as unified as you might get with a Warband of renegades slavishly devoted to worship and zealous adoration of the Four Gods of Chaos...

 I've finished revising the main pages for compliance with HTML 4.01 standards and tidied up things a bit behind the scenes. I also added a few more color recipes to the Techniques section - check 'em out!

 I revised a scheme I had tested out over on the Bolter & Chainsword Chaos Space Marine Painter - definitely some good coding there on an excellent site (and one worth donating to, as they're trying to expand their server capability to offer more features for stuff like this), making it a bit closer in color to my existing inducted Word Bearers trooper for my custom Chaos Warband. Here's a picture of the scheme:

 I believe I've finally settled on a name for my Warband - the Disciples of the Four. Essentially based on existing Games Workshop back story for their Word Bearers Chaos Legion, I'm representing them as a splinter group from the Word Bearers who have taken religious Chaos zealotry to the extreme and not only do they spiritually worship the 4 Chaos Gods and forcibly convert whole populations to the same, but they also try and physically embody the power and strength of those same Gods - basically this allows me to induct paint schemes from any other official legions I like, use my own scheme for consistency, and convert all kinds of Chaos mutations and wierdness to my heart's content. (And this on top of working on a force of The Shriven, corrupted Imperial Guard...) Opinions and suggestions appreciated!

 I finished work on my Night Goblin test figure for the Games Workshop Chaos renegade warband scheme of The Cleaved. It can be found in the Gallery.

 I've been busy editing the majority of the pages on the site for consistency of code globally, for the sake of being anal retentive or something. In other news, I've also decided to once again accept commissioned painting on a limited basis, so we'll see how that goes.

 I'm painting up this GW Night Goblin as a test scheme for the GW Chaos renegade scheme of "The Cleaved" as inducted into a custom Chaos Warband I'm designing as accompaniment to Imperial Guard I'm converting to represent "The Shriven" from Dan Abnett's novel "First And Only". Sounds convoluted, I know... but sufficent to say the book was very inspirational conversion idea-wise and the Warband is an outgrowth of Games Workshop's newly-released Chaos Space Marine Codex and figures. Much as I would like to field a Lost and the Damned army, it seems that they are no longer a valid option in the Warhammer 40K tabletop game, so I'm doing what I can with two separate army ideas with the overall plan that they will eventually be able to hit the gaming tables at some point in the future as a legal combined force. (Lord knows it'll probably take me that long to get them into such a state... Heh.)

 Anyhow, so far as The Cleaved's paint scheme, one I worked out with some feedback from folks who had details from GW's 'Eavy Metal painting staff, it's quite interesting yet fairly straightforward, to say the least, in that the base color for the scheme is essentially a mixture of GW Catachan Green and GW Tentacle Pink and not a straight beige that you would expect at all judging from the final shade. The clothing here has been highlighted by working in GW Dheneb Stone and Skull White. I'm also trying a test of Ork/Goblin skin color from a recipe I found somewhere online involving GW Camo Green, Catachan Green, and Scorpion Green - it's got a nice olive tint to it so far. The purple is part of my custom Warband scheme, as is the color on the boots. The spear staff (and the wrappings on it, more or less) are based on the bone color as used in the GW Cleaved color scheme.

 Not had a lot of time for painting lately, but I've been working off and on on a concept Warband group to go along with Games Workshop's new release of the Chaos Codex. I see this as giving me the opportunity to paint all kinds of stock army schemes and unit types (if I so choose) and still have them fit together as a cohesive whole. I think I'm going to run with a custom color scheme for the main part of my troops, and I'm still working out the details (like settling on a name), but here's the first genuine stock Chaos Marine I've ever painted up with some hints of the new warband colors - he's essentially been inducted as I see the Warband being an offshoot of the Word Bearers legion, only more "Chaosy," if you will. Still a work-in-progress, but nearly done. Having trouble settling on an eye color and what to do about basing them.

 I've added a "For Sale" page to the site now via the menubar, and I would encourage visitors to check it out. I've been digging into my supply of old figures that I'll never get around to painting and am looking to make room for new ones (that I hopefully will get around to painting).

 A brief pause in the painting of the Sharkey figure, since I'm trying to finish up at least one squad of Necron troops to play a game of Warhammer 40K over the weekend if at all possible. I've got the better part of painting done on 5 Warriors and the Necron Lord (halfway there!) and 3 more assembled and glued. I doubt I'll have 'em all painted by tomorrow evening, but I think I can reasonably have 'em assembled - and out of the ones currently, there aren't any that are less than 3/4 of the way to completion. A work-in-progress picture of the Necron Lord and two of his friends seems topical:

If anyone was so inclined, feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 I'm in the process of painting up another Lord of the Rings figure for a painting competition at my local GW Hobby Center, and am using this guy as an excuse to practice some of the techniques I gathered from Jérémie Bonamant Teboul's seminar at the Chicago Games Day. I'm surprised at what a difference a change in the approach to painting can make and am finding it very easy to make good progress with this guy. Without further ado, a work in progress shot of Sharkey, AKA Saruman, following his defeat at Isengard in Tolkien's books and his corruption of The Shire:

 Pictures are now posted of all the winning entries in the 2007 Chicago Golden Demon painting competition over at the Games Workshop US site. Besides my Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm entry that took Silver in the Lord of the Rings Single Miniature category, I also have two of my other entries posted in the Honorable Mention sections - my Sorceror of Tzeentch and a squad of Vior'la Sept Tau Fire Warriors (for which there's a larger collection of pictures in the Gallery here).

 This is the first time I've attended a Golden Demon event or a Games Day, and I have to say I was in awe of all the activity and events going on. The miniature painting seminar taught by Jérémie Bonamant Teboul, a world-renowned painter and multiple Golden Demon winner, was very enlightening as to his technique of using thinned paints for the majority of his work, even base coating - I'm extremely glad I attended it, and I got to chat with Jérémie and see some of other figures for a little while after the seminar. I also met Dan Abnett, author of the Gaunt's Ghosts series of books (among others), and we chatted for a little while and he signed a copy of one of his collected novels that I bought from the Black Library booth. There was also an amazingly huge Forge World miniature store, apparently one of the high points of most of the Games Day events - while I can't say I bought huge stocks of amazingly sculpted tanks, weaponry, and ultra-detailed resin figures, I did pick up the Games Day Limited Edition Ork “Deff Squadron” pilot figures - an excellent sculpt and quite humorous. The high point of the whole convention for me was the Golden Demon competition, which I'm to understand presented some of the better collections of entries to date in the U.S. - I'm just happy to have attended and got to enter some of my figures, actually winning a trophy and making Honorable Mention with my other entries was really stunning and unexpected in itself.

 I'm still in the process of going through and editing the pictures I took of entries at the competition, and I've got them currently hosted over on a Photobucket account - I'll hopefully be finishing up posting them soon, and there's my own pictures of most of the Demon award-winning entries posted there also.

 Several updates here - one of the things I've been busying myself with lately is editing and posting the pictures I took at the Games Workshop Chicago Golden Demon event at the end of last month. The majority of them are now posted to a Photobucket directory and can be found here, in the Chicago Golden Demon 2007 folder. I'm still missing a few pictures of the award winners - when I found out that my Gandalf figure had placed for the Silver in the Lord of the Rings, I kinda forgot to take pictures for the most part, much less pick my jaw up off the floor of the convention hall.

 I've also been busy trying to finish up a squad of Necrons in my spare time (which isn't too abundant lately) and have been putting in some extra work on the Necron Lord.

 I'm trying some techniques in the painting of his cloak that I learned in Jérémie Bonamant's painting seminar at the convention - essentially using multiple washes to paint a miniature.

 To my amazement, I did very well at my first Golden Demon competition! Not only did all four of my entries make First Cut, but the Gandalf at the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm figure and display base I entered won the Silver Demon award in the Lord of the Rings Single Miniature category. Compared to the work I saw entered, I'm just stunned that my stuff was good enough to place and I was literally beside myself when I heard from one of the other folks I came on the bus with from the GW Hobby Center that my Gandalf figure had apparently won Silver! I definitely appreciate all the support I've received from folks in the community and this is definitely motivation to keep practicing my skills and improving in my technique! Many thanks to everyone!

 I'm still busy plugging away at entries for Games Workshop's Golden Demon competition in Chicago on 7/28, and due to time constraints one of my entries isn't going to pan out, but I'll be ideally posting a bunch of stuff in the days after I get back from the event. (I guess one of my planned entries not panning out is okay by me, albeit disappointing, since it gives me plenty of time to do wholescale conversion like I had originally wanted instead of just going ahead with the generic figure due to time constraints.

 In the meanwhile, here's a few existing “teaser” pictures:

 I added a new page for my start of a Necron army. Being a little more straightforward and simplistic to paint than my current Tau, I might actually be able to have a small game or so sometime in the near future with a finished squad. Seeing as how these are test pieces for a new color scheme, I decided to try some object source lighting to illustrate a glow from the interior of the Necron Warrior and the Scarabs. I also have a Necron Lord in the process of being painted, but I'll post pictures when there's something substantial other than base coating. In order to speed up production time, I've taken the step of base coating with spray paint - the reason things have been on hold in working on the Necron Lord is really the next news item here...

Part of the reason for the long lapse in updates is that I've been working on some figures for the upcoming Chicago Golden Demon competition to be held at Games Workshop's Games Day. I've essentially been painting - quite a lot of things, actually, but due to time constraints haven't updated the news on the web site to reflect possible additions.

 I added a new page for the recently-finished commissioned piece I did, Storm Dragons Chapter Librarian Istaarn.

Feeling enthusiastic today or something, I updated a few behind-the-scenes things here on the site. I also added some new stuff to the Techniques page, including some well-tested color recipes that can be seen on some of the figures on the site.

 Well, a brand new year and an update! Things have been very hectic on my end and I haven't had a lot of time to devote to painting. Due to time constraints, complications, and a whole host of other issues - I don't plan to accept any more commissions at this time and likely not again unless my free time drastically changes. That being said, I do feel obligated to finishing the work entrusted to me and at as high a standard as I can manage - my deepest apologies for the amazing untimeliness and I can imagine apparent incredible unprofessionalism on my part. Sufficent to say, though, my life has not been conducive to miniature painting for the past while.

 On a happier note, I believe I'm inches away from finishing with a commissioned GW custom Chapter Terminator Librarian and halfway finished with the GW Dragon Prince with only the rider remaining, as the horse is already finished.

Here's the most recent work-in-progress picture of the GW Custom Chapter Librarian:

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