All quiet on the western front

It's been quiet, simply because Skyrim is out.

What can I say,  it's awesome ...and big. Very big. And therefore takes up lots of time.

Also worth mentioning is that it's funny too. One example is that I was trudging through the mountainous wilderness north of Markarth when a bloke runs up to me, possibly a Nord, Breton or Imperial.
Anyway, he stops me and says "Here take this, just for a bit. Dont take it yourself or I'll kill you"

I take it from him, wondering what the hell is going on, but a free item is a free item. He hands me an Orcish sword of cold...sweet.

Next, a hunter runs up and asks if I've seen a thief.

I see my opportunity here to play with people and answer "no".

Next, the hunter turns round and spots the thief who had taken to hiding at the side of the road in plain site of everyone. The hunter shouts and starts shooting, while the thief sits there and takes it.
Once the thief was dead, the hunter seems satisfied, turned around and walked away, apparently appeased.

All this time, I was stood in between the two brandishing my shiny new sword. Win :D

Anyway, a bit of p+m news. Airbrush gear has now arrived and I'm loving it. I got two crappy brushes with the compressor I'm planning on learning with and using for basic priming etc and a good brush for detail and better control spraying.

It was a good plan but didn't work. I used the good brush after priming with one of the poor ones, and clogged it with crappy thick GW paint. (well all the youtube vids and guides I've read mentioned the most important thing is to learn to thin paints, I now know why)
So for a couple of days it has sat in a bath of acetone, windowlene and airbrush cleaner while the liquid slowly turns more blue/purple.

Aside from this, I've learned a tonne in a very short space of time.
I have decided to repaint my entire collection of trollbloods in zenithal technique using primarily the airbrush. This obviously requires testers.

The scheme I've decided on is based on the storm troll artwork, I'm thinking purple shades in the skin tones built up to trollblood blue this contrasted with cold silvers, dark leathers, red/purple gems and maybe green tartan. The thing to really make it pop though will be that every model will have some degree of OSL on it, if only from their eyes which will be glowing arcane blue and possiby glowing tattoos (very similar colour to hawk turquoise)

I've grabbed a few unpainted testers, starting on a pyre troll, a bomber and a fennblade unit attachment. A couple of different types of models with a lot of skin on show so I can practice the skin tone which I'm rather excited about.

So, a black prime to start. With a spray of white from above to signify a light source allowing super thing paint to be shaded by the underneath as per the zenithal technique.

Heres a couple pics to show the two hours or so of testing.

On the left shows the underside in black, and on the right shows the white that falls in the places that the light would naturally hit (assuming a source of light from the top) All models start like that.

Fennblade UA. A couple of things to note of this mini. First, I am using crazy strong masking tape, I'll have to figure that one out XD
Also, this one shows the purple base and trollblood blue highlight. Overall, I am really pleased with the result, the blend is beautiful. I just hope I can do the rest of the mini justice.


That's it for now, feel free to comment etc.
There will be lots more to come soon.

Random update

It's not really an update per se, as there's nothing new here but, I have decided to start showing old stuff. This might end up being interesting to read because hopefully it'll show a growth and development in my skills as a painter. That and why the hell not?!

Also, I have recently been looking into airbrushing. I've done a lot of research, and watched many Youtube vids etc and reckon I'd be alright with that type of tool...so that's what I'm getting for Christmas courtesy of my lovely fiancee! XD

I have pretty much settled on the one I want and I've found a decent compressor that looks like it'll last a good long time and is reasonably quiet (something that can be a serious problem by the sounds of it).

Right now, I'm considering investing in one of the Badger line, as Les who does awesomepaintjob.com recommends them like crazy (and a lifetime guarantee is nothing to sniff at)  and after reading quite a bit on dakkadakka.com and other places it seems that the ps900 that is available on Ebay for $55 seems like one of the better ones despite the tiny price tag.
That along with the TC-20T compressor seems like a fantastic starter set up to really hone my skills and I mean really, I'll most likely do several hours a day and fly through models. (After all, I want to get good enough to get my Trollblood collection (276 points...almost everything in the Trollblood line with most units duplicated) repainted in a new skin tone which I'll explore later complete with NMM metals and really nice bases.

But that stuff is for another time :D

I decided that every time I post something I'll endeavour to post a pic, it makes the blog more shiny and significantly more interesting.
So, below we have an old Cygnar army I did. I did these a couple years ago and didn't really enjoy them too much, I think I abandoned them just after the field test had finished in favour the Retribution line that was coming out (I bought the entire line of Ret and decided I was bored of them two months later) :/

So, the army had very basic Shale bases with nothing more because I never got round to doing anything with them. The army itself was an experiment to push my skills, so the entire army was black, with a nice yellow trim. I chose black because it’s a challenging colour to paint and get right.

The army was fun to play with, but Cygnar's infantry feels like it lacks something, and eHaley, although an awesome caster, has a feat that makes your friends cry and stay home which got very tiresome in all honesty. Caine on the other hand...was the first model I did for Cygnar and I was dying to use him but could NEVER write a list that I liked, which is weird, because he doesn’t really need a decent list as he is a one man army on his own but I ended up never using him.

Anyway, enough talk...PICS!
epic Caine

epic Haley

Thunderhead

Thorn

Stormclad

A pair of hunters

Gun Mage unit

Black 13th

Solos
Left to right: Male Junior Warcaster, Squire and Arlan Strangeways

Aaaand the army shot :D

All in all I was quite proud of this army when I had done it. But it was done in one weekend and it is rather bland. I don't think I'd even heard of NMM back then.

Any comments appreciated :)

'Till next time folks!

Phil