YouTubing & Paint Racking

This past week has been full of watching Dark Souls III on Twitch (especially Black Light Attack and his Big D*** Susan character), playing video games, painting, and putting together my new paint rack. I got braces on Wednesday... again. I had braces as a kid for four years and in the last decade, my teeth have shifted on their own enough to offset my bite. I'm not thrilled, but I'm told, luckily, it will only take about six months to correct. I'm okay with that. I've been told by seveal people my age, "What's it like having braces as an adult? I've been considering it for myself and it's inspiring to see someone else doing it!" Other than learning how to talk and smile with a lot of metal in your mouth, it's not so bad.

In fact, when Jonathan Phillips-Bradford from Eldritch Studios & Elizabeth Beckley (from Miniature Mistress fame) invited me to be on their new Tabletop Hangout show, I was really excited! Even though it was only one day after my braces and I was in a consderable amount of aching pain, I had a great time with the crew– Jonathan, Elizabeth, Kevin Clark and Heath Foley. It was a lot of goofy fun sitting around, painting and talking about what's been happening lately. We also got to play a quick round of Super Fight at the end, which was pretty fun. You'll have to watch it to see who wins in the end! A big thanks to the crew for having me on :) If you have some time, check out the Youtube Video here:

While we recorded, I worked on this little chibi Twilight Knight from Soda Pop miniatures. Her cape is coming along nicely! I'm hoping to make it a rich, silky purple and it's coming along nicely! I tell you what, it's really hard to paint while you laugh. Also, I know I hold my brush in a unique way and it's very obvious in the video. Oh well.

Earlier this week, I received my new paint rack from Impudent Mortal which was the first U.S. retailer I've found to carry a this! So far, I've only discovered paint racks from companies based in the United Kingdom and shipping would be too costly– sometimes just as much as the fixture itself! Impudent Mortal is based out of the state of Ohio and I found this for a very reasonable price. I'll admit, it took me awhile to assemble it. I was happy to find this "reverse paint rack" since I like to see the bottoms of the bottles rather than the tops, so I can easily see the colors I can choose from. All my paints, with the exception of a few metallics, are Reaper paints. The dropper bottles fit nicely in the rack's design and I knew it would be perfect mounted above my painting desk.

While the directions aren't included in the kit, they have easily accessible links for the assembly steps online. I found it odd that they didn't include them with the package, though I can appreciate them wanting to save on shipping clutter and paper by having an online resource. With a bit of super glue, the pieces fit together sturdily and I was able to mount it and start the hardest part– choosing which colors to fill it with.

Over an hour later (as I watched Netflix), I had arranged my newly mounted paint rack. I finally decided on this system for storing my paint– from top to bottom, left to right:

  1. Pure White > Greys > Pure Black
  2. Light Neutral > Dark Neutral
  3. Light Pink > Dark Red/Violet
  4. Light Purple > Purple/Blue > Blue
  5. Light Blue > Dark Blue > Green-Blues (my favorite colors)
  6. Light Green> Dark Green
  7. Yellow > Orange > Red
  8. Fair Skin Tone > Dark Skin Tones (arranged by triads)
  9. Light Earth Tones > Dark Browns

Sounds a little obsessive, huh? Well that's the way I like it :) It makes sense in my head this way!

Once I finished organizing my paints, I went to bed and after running errands the next day, sat down to put my paints to work! Since I'd worked on my chibi Twilight Knight earlier that week, I wanted to do more with my Kingdom Death Twilight Knight. I started out with neutral browns for her coat, but I guess I had too much fun painting the cloak of that chibi, since I changed to a rich purple. It matches her gems, and while I like my miniatures to have repeating colors, I'll need to find out what color to paint her hair that works with the overall color scheme. Any ideas? I considered painting her hair a strawberry-blonde or make her a redhead, but I think that would stand out far too much agains the purple cloak. Maybe a rich Earth Brown color? I'll have to sleep on it. I still have some sword and belt touch-ups to make as well as painting the base! Plenty more to go and I'd like to see her done before the month's end. It's taken long enough! In the meantime, I'll need to revisit my weathering project– more on that next time!

Experiments in Weathering

I don't like weathering. I'm fighting it kicking and screaming. As unrealistic as it may be, especially for barbarians and monsters, I like to paint things as pristine and flawless as possible. The idea of taking an old brush and spattering rust pigments on metal I've painstakingly blended sounds terrible. However, I really want to be able to appreciate weathering and be able to incorporate it into my wheelhouse of stuff-I-can-paint so I'm jumping in to give it a chance. Today, I'm going to risk ruining a painted miniature and give it a try.

My victim chosen for this torture, ironically enough, is a torturer. The Domina of Torment from Avatars of War is a pretty nasty lady and the grotesque piercings were fun to paint. I can't believe her clothing is held up by hoops pierced in her skin. And the nipple piercings? Yikes! Here's her lovely official description:

“Dominas of Torment are beings of a grotesque and sinister beauty specializing in subjecting enemies to horrific and endless physical and mental torture with inhuman cruelty to quench their thirst for pain.

Her only presence will terrorize the enemy for it is told that the torture of a prisoner can last for days. Once satisfied the Domina of Torment will end the suffering of her victim by executing him in the most humiliating and frightening way.”
— www.avatars-of-war.com

She sounds like a real nice lady, huh? She's gone from primed to painted in about 5 hours, although in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have taken the time to blend all that NMM before cramming pigment into it, but oh well. We're learning!

I'm using Tamiya Clear Red for blood on the edge of her metal blade and talons as well as my new Secret Weapon Rust Brown and Violet weathering pigments. I'm going with the uncomplicated tactics. While I could get fancy with sponges and sealants, I'm going with this method: dip a damp brush, smoosh it in the crevasses, grimace and hope it turns out alright in the end. I admit, it really does look more "authentic", especially for this evil creature who probably prefers torturing people with rusted blades. While weathering is growing on me, I need to take a break, step back, and re-evaluate. Is the pigment dark enough in the creases? Is it applied too smooth? Should there be texture? I left her leg untouched by the weathering to see the difference and woah, the clean metal looks really out of place. I'll finish the chains on her back as well as her leg guard once I have the technique down. I'll need to do some research and find examples of something similar done well since it's not quite there yet. Still, I'm excited I've finally started down this road of weathering. It's about time!

FRONT: Before & After

[censored] ...because reasons.

BACK: Before & AFter

Chibi Twilight Knight WIP

I have the crud. AGAIN. This time from a friend's wedding this past weekend. This wretched allergy season has negatively impacted my immune system to the point where I can't go to a social function without catching a bug. Ugh. On a positive note, I was able to work in some miniature prep this past weekend. I put together Domina of Torment (Avatars of War), Fiama (Enigma), Wu Ling Shu (Bombshell) and a chibi Medusa that I'm not exactly sure where she's from. I also cleaned up Cheetah Girl (Reaper) that required no assembly. I ran out of super glue soon after that, though I was able to get them attached to the start of their bases.

After that, it was off to the wedding. I received this key upon checking in. It's like they knew I was coming! I'll have to hang this by my painting table. Love it.

Other than that, I redid my Twitter banner, which features the miniatures I've painted in the last year. The old banner was of miniatures I'd painted years ago and I figured it was time for a refresh. All but one of these (second from the right), I've painted in the last year and I'm super proud of them. Not all went according to plan, but I learned a lot and I tried to get my hands on different types of miniatures– chibi, sci-fi, animals, dwarves, dudes, etc.

While I'm working on the Kingdom Death Twilight Knight, I thought I'd pick up the Soda Pop Twilight Knight for fun. I joined a Google Hangout and painted some progress into this little one:

Here's a closer look. While she won't match the creepy skintone of her larger counterpart, this little gyaru chibi will be in themes of purple too!