Wars of the Roses

Sharing another WIP project here.  When my local historical club embarked on a group Wars of the Roses project last summer, I threw in. I'd already had figures for it and I'd never done a big group project before.

 Just time for an off-the-cuff post here.

Here's a force I played recently.

And here they are in the field. This may not have been the same night.

This week I'm finally finishing off the foliage on all the figures, so they'll be ready for their glamor shots. In the meantime, here are some WIP shots from a bit earlier than the above.

 Front Rank archers in blue and murray and Old Glory gallowglass.

Did a bunch of head swaps on the gallowglass (there are five sculpts). Does it show?

Dungeon Degenerates WIP

Here's what I'm up to at the moment. Dungeon Degenerates!

I am working to have them literally glow under black light.

Here are some of the paints I'm using. The fluorescent Vallejo colors can be airbrushed successfully (except the blue kind of sucked), and I paint them with a brush, but there they are much more of a glaze, and need to be on a solid, bright foundation.



Got out the airbrush for the first time in a long time:

Before that happened, and actually before the Vallejo colors had arrived, I had started the two that had appropriate paints for already:

I spared no expense to get the white base very white, and the colors to glow. No tricks on any of these photos. Here you can see what a difference in style from my usual:

Here's where I am as of yesterday. L-R in order of most complete:

Two shown are done, and after I took the pics I finished the corpse burner and the next two just need a few tweaks to the base. Another push or two!

And I'll leave you with:

Till next time!

The making of the pig-face orcs that never were

Orcs WIP

I made several attempts to summarize some thoughts on orcs miniatures to go along with some pics of the WIP orcs, but each attempt digressed into such a rambling mess of ideas I have on the business of making of miniatures as a whole that I again opted to let the pics do the talking for me.

Here are the bare conversions:

I used brown stuff/green stuff mix to help them keep their shape a a bit. I learned to use a wire armature under any extension of green stuff, no matter how small. Drill a hole in the face and stick in some wire. Just sticking on a blob on the face and forcing it into submission works, but with a wire it's easier.

I had open pics of the old illustrations for reference while I was sculpting. I always use reference. You'll notice that pig-face is a bit of a misnomer, actually the snout is fairly different than a pig. The first figures I did were more piglike despite the reference I was using but eventually, on the leader type and brown-skinned solid gold line orc I started doing them a little more like the illustrations.

Priming my conversions is usually one of the most satisfying moments of a project. Before priming the different-colored parts make the whole appear jumbled unless you concentrate, whereas after I usually get what looks like a unified whole. It's a bit of a moment of truth too, so whatever the result, good or bad, you get the satisfaction of dispelling the mystery and or anticipation.