More Fun Than a Barrel of Harpies

They're done! I completed the five Harpies of the Apocalypse and learned how to mount miniature on clear, acrylic posts and use blood effects.

While the lighting isn't great in these pictures, you can see the different colors I used for this color palette. I used Reaper Master Series Paints for all five:

  • Leather White - hair, talons, eyes, metal highlights, skulls
  • Brown Liner - base, talons
  • Adamantium Black - metal chains
  • NightShade Purple - hair; mixed 50/50 with Brick Red for skin base
  • Dark Elf Highlight - skin & hair highlights
  • Briar Rose - glazing on the wings
  • Earth Brown - talons, netting, loincloths, base
  • Bone Shadow - severed hand & head, skull shadows
  • Ginger Cookie - severed hand, head, rope, and netting highlights

The white in the hair was a final touch to add some wacky, Cruella De Vil-style interest to their undoubtedly greasy mops. I also used Tamiya Color Clear Red for the blood effects– my first time using it! I've never painted anything that needed gore before, and I was very careful not to make a mess of it. It's flammable, toxic, and it'll burn your nostrils if you get a whiff of it. It's strong! I used one of those manicure sticks to dip into the little pot, spread some on my wet pallete, and slowly applied it to the miniatures in a dabbing motion. Two of the harpies have, um, souvenirs– one has a severed hand attached to the inside of her wing. The other harpy clutches a man's severed head in her left foot talons. (Gross!) I figured this called for some blood since harpies are nasty creatures who would most certainly hoard severed body parts as a type of status symbol in their... flock? What do you call a group of harpies? If a group of crows is called a murder and a gang of witches is called a coven, then a group of harpies should most certainly have a name equally as ominous.

On a related note, shipping these off to their new owner is going to be fun! They're precariously perched atop these clear rods and I want to make sure they arrive still attached to them. Affixing them to the thin plastic poles was difficult, since the glue took awhile to set and I wanted each harpy at an interesting angle of flight. Each one is glued around their kneecap and I don't trust a shipping box not to get jostled. I'll definitely envelop them in some padding before sending them off to face the dangers of their United States Postal Service adventure (though I trust they'll be in good hands).

I shipped off Obi-wan Shinobi the week before last and it ended up being $24 for Ground Shipping halfway across the U.S. after going to one of those The UPS Store locations. I've never sent a commission in the mail that far before (about 2,000 miles away) and I'd prefer to send it Priority Mail in the future (less days being jostled around). I'm looking into new options through USPS and finding out how to print my own shipping labels. I'm sure people who are eBay sellers deal with this all the time, though I want to make sure I'm considering all options so I don't have to charge someone a high rate of shipping for something that weighs about as much as a pencil. I know after a little bit of homework, I'll find something that's reasonably priced and safe for delicate miniatures. Once I get that sorted out, I'll feel much better about shipping off commissions. It's all a learning process, you know!

I'm just waiting on my Testors Dull Cote to arrive in the mail. I ordered it on Amazon Prime for about $6.71 and it should be here Wednesday. I need to remember to seal my minis before sending them off (and cover the clear plastic with masking tape first). I wouldn't normally seal miniatures for display, but I don't want to risk them getting chipped or have some of the paint rub off from sheer friction and I hear Testors Dull Cote really is the best stuff for a nice matte finish. We'll see! I may even get bored and apply some rust weathering to the chains on two of these harpy hoodlums before sealing them.

I'm not entirely sure what to work on next, but after painting these harpies, I think I'd like to paint something else sinister and slightly grotesque. Perhaps Domina of Torment? I'm feeling in the mood to start a new project! Oh wait, I just remembered I need to cook dinner. Well, shoot. Looks like I'll be painting on something I already have after I make some Green Curry with Shrimp and Brown Rice Noodles (yum!)

[update] I grabbed a Super Dungeon Explore chibi since I only have a little while to paint before I need to retire for the evening. She's part of the Stilt Town Zombies Warband Box expansion and I received her when I took the How to Paint Chibis class at LVO last month taught by Elizabeth (a.k.a. "Miniature Mistress"). I worked in smooth blended highlights in her face and chest as well as gave her a little grimace. She's about to fight for her life and I'm going for an anxious "Why'd it have to be zombies?!" expression. I'm blocking out color in her dual-wielded culinary weaponry (love it) and trying to figure out which colors I'd like to paint her dress. I'll leave that for next time. See you next week!

Ladies of the Flight

I made some good progress on the harpy horde this weekend. (Warning: This week's blog images contain partial nudity. You've been warned!) These harpies are my first attempt at painting flying baddies. Using some Secret Weapon bases and some clear acrylic rods, I've attached them with Loctite Gel Super Glue. Assembling them was a challenge and, at first, I struggled with how to attach them. I ended up gluing them at their knees so they're angled as if they're in mid-flight.

I wanted them to be darker and have a non-human skintone. I figured a moldy green or purple would be appropriate for these nasty, disease-carrying ladies. I'm using Reaper's paints for the skin tone:

  • Nightshade Purple
  • Brick Red
  • Dark Elf Highlight
  • Briar Rose (for a glazing) 

The skin was the most fun part to paint, though I tried not to spend too much time perfecting every muscle group. I used the shaded basecoat technique in order to avoid over-thinking the blending process. They're supposed to be gruesome and I didn't want to try to make their skin flawless and smooth. In fact, their skin is sculpted a bit rougher so it's hard to get a perfectly smooth blend anyway, so it worked out just fine :)

I'm currently working on their hair after giving them all red "crazy eyes". At first, I wanted to paint their hair a shock white color, however, it stood out too much and I decided to go with an almost-black with Nightshade Purple, which fits them much better. I also painted their talons a dark color at the base and blended up to a bone white color. Other parts of their talons are covered with a metal sheaths (to better gut their enemies with I suppose).

I'm still resisting going back in to "pretty them up". I just need to remind myself that they're supposed to be gruesome and focus on giving them interest in their accessories– piercings, chains, netting, skewered skulls, and severed hands and heads (gross!) I can't wait to show you the back of their wings where there's more sculpted interest. For now, I'll leave it here and I hope to finish these and ship them off by the end of the week, though we have company Thursday–Sunday. We've been having lots of people stay with us lately and we're about to start the moving process in March. There's lots coming up and I want to make sure I finish these before things get too crazy. I'll be sure to take pictures of these nasty ladies when I'm done. Shouldn't be too long now!

PAX South 2016 Recap

Whew, it's time to talk PAX– finally! The weekend before I attended the Las Vegas Open convention, I traveled to San Antonio, Texas to support Reaper at their Paint & Take booth. After work on Friday I drove straight there and arrived late that evening. Since the core team had been there since Thursday to set up, I was up bright & early the next day to jump right in!

 

The Penny Arcade Expo network is one of the biggest gaming expos in the world (there's also a PAX Australia). As a Penny Arcade fan, and a follower of "Acquisitions Incorporated", the Dungeons & Dragons game they play & record live at different PAX conventions around the nation, I was excited to attend my very first PAX! I got into their Acquisitions Incorporated D&D campaign when they first started recording it as a podcast and absolutely loved it. At the time, I was just starting to dip my toes into tabletop gaming and those recordings opened my mind to the creativity and fun found in playing tabletop RPGs.

Representing the Reaper Booth meant long days working with great people, introducing hundreds of PAX attendees to the joy of miniature painting. Sure, every vendor is at PAX to get their product out there and sell some stuff and Reaper had a nice retail shop set up adjacent to the event. While they're a retail company and a producer of miniatures and paints alike, Reaper actively welcomes people into the hobby (their minis got me into the hobby after all!). If you go to Reaper Headquarters in Denton, the staff is friendly and personable– usually there's something to give you a tour around the production facility and if you're lucky enough to live nearby, you can attend their Paint Club every Saturday from 12-4pm. They do a really great job of connecting with their customers and the Paint & Take event is no exception.

I was one of the first ones people would meet at the Paint & Take check-in table. I welcomed folks and invite them to paint a miniature with us and then gave them a quick explanation of the process. Basically, anyone can show up, choose a Bones miniature from a selection of 10 various models, hang out and paint for an hour or so– for free! We set them up with a small piece of parchment paper to use as a palette, a brush, and a paper towel. We strategically sat everyone to best accomodate couples, families and groups who all wanted to sit together. Once seated, each person found a simple step-by-step painting guide placemat at their seat, an assortment of paint to use and share, as well as clean water and plenty of eager folks to share their creative experience with. Once the doors opened at 10am, our three long tables were filled by about 10:20 and stayed that way until we had to stop seating around 5pm so everyone could finish before we closed shop at 6pm.

Several times, we greeted people up with, "Hi, welcome to the Reaper Paint & Take! Are you interested in painting with us today? We have about a 20-30 minute wait until we can seat you. Do you mind waiting?" and, surprisingly, most people would stand and wait. I'm used to people being irritated if they have to wait more than five minutes for their overly-complicated coffee order. I was impressed when 95% of people said, "Oh, that's fine. We do the Paint & Take event every time we go to PAX conventions– we couldn't miss it! To me, that speaks volumes about how much these people enjoyed the event and the company. Many people who were painting got up from their seats after an hour only to get right back in line and free up a chair for a new person (which we definitely encouraged in order to keep the line moving!)

I was fairly new to the Paint & Take circuit, but I learned quickly and I'm grateful for the patience and generosity of Cheryl a.k.a. "Ladystorm", Bryan S., Katie S. and Brien P. who showed me the ropes. It was non-stop, fast-paced hard work and a ton of fun. I have so much respect for Reaper– both for the company and the hard-working folks that make events like the Paint & Take happen. I look forward to continuing to support them in the future :)

While the Expo Hall may have had the same working hours as the Paint & Take booth, I was able to powerwalk through and snap some photos before they let in the masses of people in at 10am. Here are some photos from the exhibit hall– they had so much cool loot!

While repping a booth is not the same as being an attendee (more work than leisure), I was still able to do a shop before the convention closed. I bought a commemorative PAX South mug (which I'm drinking Tempranillo out of right now– keepin' it classy!), some Funko Pop models, and a Pikachu beanie. I also acquired a copy of "Red Flags", a card game that's a mix between a weird blind-date-that-your-friend-set-you-up-with and Cards Against Humanity. The folks that created this card game are some awesome people too and the next convention I see them at, I'm going to choose my favorite raunchy card and have the guy who wrote the game sign it. I have one in mind right now, but I honestly don't feel comfortable putting it in writing LOL

Oh– I almost forgot! The absolute best part of the con right before the Expo closed the very last day: I met Scott Kurtz! You may know Scott from his comics PvP or Table Titans, or even as a D&D character and personality Binwin Bronzebottom from Acquisitions Incorporated. Scott is an amazing artist (he went to my alma mater too– woot!) He's hilarious, creative, and one of my artsy-fartsy idols. It was a wham-bam "Hi I'm Mocha I love your stuff I have to get back to my booth but OMG it's so great to meet you and hey I take a picture with you?" moment and he was totally cool about it. I smile every time I see this picture– I might look shocked , thrilled, exhausted and half-crazed in this photo, but that's because I was! I wish I had more time to talk with him and buy more of his merchandise but alas, I had to get back to the Reaper booth :)

PAX South was a unique and fun experience– my first experience as one of the Exhibitors! I really appreciated the great energy and the way that Penny Arcade runs this convention is impressive, given PAX South is only in its second year. Hats off to the Reaper folks for making my stay fun and enjoyable. I can't wait for next year, whether I'm helping run a booth or there as an attendee. Until next year!