Lord Wehrmacht

Hehe I got a bit of a kooky idea when I read the first line... "Astronomers have spotted evidence of a second Earth being built around a distant star 424 light-years away." The first thought that rocketed through my head was.... man I wonder if they are using Union labor..... I think I need more sleep. LW Also.. this would be a perfect Hitchhikers Guide moment.

... and if it doesn't work you can always clobber the poor bastard with it till he stop snoring! LW

Heya Chastity! Im not soo good with NMM atm, but I can tell your on the right track. The blending looks smooth and the sword looks good! The key here is practice and practice some more! LW

One of the things that makes this hobby so difficult sometimes is that it is Art. Being art we all put abit of ourselves into what we do. Its not difficult to see why people can react in a very visceral way to what is said about our art. That makes the idea of a .. for lack of a better term... "Teaching Forum" very difficult. There are soo many different abilities and abilities, both in our execution of techniques but also in our ability to take and receive criticism. Alot of what is said can be described as subjective, and that being said it can be taken many ways. I think that most of us understand that and that is why we post here. When we post critiques of peoples work or techniques we need to be aware how much each of us puts into what we do and choose our words wisely. This is a great place, with good people, we all enjoy what we do and we try to do our best. We need to remember that this hobby is a marathon, it is NOT a trackmeet, and despite the fact that there are competitions out there, we are all in it together as a community. One thing that we all must seriously consider is that this community is a very small one, there are not too many people that do what we do (most of the rest think we are crazy ). We gotta stick together both for the betterment of the hobby and our continued growth. Remember that most of the techniques that we talk about here were not developed by one person but by many of them. Treat each other with respect and we will continue to grow, fail at that task and it hurts everyone. Some of us, for whatever reason, do a bit different hobby and art form than others. That is OK. No one forces anyone to do what they don't enjoy. If you want to paint an army and do it at a tabletop quality, then do it! If you want that same army to be at display quality, that is ok too. Some people prefer dioramas, some like to enter competitions and still others of us just are lurkers that enjoy others work more than their own. One thing that working for GW taught me was that it was ok to have YOUR hobby. As long as you remember that others have their own feel for it then we can get along. ---- and I know Im rambling now---- sorry. Last thing, seriously. We all work at our own pace. Some of us have 20 hours a week to paint, other 5, and some do it for a living. The ones that paint alot naturally get better at it, that is life. Its not a judgment call its just priorities and availability working its magic. I think its a mistake to judge yourself or others on their skill level due to how much they paint. Ive seen a bit of that here and it can only lead to strife. I suggest instead to focus on making the MOST of what time you can in fact paint in, after all, its the best way to improve in either case. Im done... sorry if its too much. Lord Wehrmacht

If we are going to do the pinning thing the we should also describe some important materials used in the assembly phase. This is stuff Ive used... can't address stuff Ive not used. "Green Stuff" Also known as Kneaditite is a two part epoxy sold be pretty much everyone. It comes in a two toned strip with a blue side and a yellow side. If you combine them you begin the hardening process which takes approximately 1-2 hours. Once hardened it can be sculpted but not sanded... its malleable when dried and can bend. Its used in sculpting and some folks use it as a sticky join between parts in assembly *not too recommended*. "Brown Stuff" Another two part epoxy, which sets in 1-2 hours. Brown stuff will set a bit harder and can be sanded (need confirmation on that one). Its used in sculpting as well.. though its less common. It should be noted that the parts of Green and Brown epoxies can be mixed producing, depending on the mix, a harder... or softer material, faster drying times etc. YMMV "Apoxie Sculpt" This is my favorite for basing and such. Its a two part synthetic clay with some interesting properties. Working time is about 2 hours or so, in this time you can make it into any shape ya want. After this the material begins to set in earnest and you can cut it, drill it, and such. It adheres to damn near everything EXCEPT WAX PAPER, which is useful when modeling it initially. After it is set it is almost as strong as dental cement. I have heard of people using it in replacement of Super Glue. (in other words you can assemble minis with this stuff and not use glue at all. The advantage of this is that is solves super glues greatest problem which is its sheering strength. It doest NOT hold enough detail for fine sculpture work. "Super Glue" This is Cyanoacrylate. The standard glue that most folks use in assembly. Its damn close to instantly adherence is its strength as is the fact that its very good at preventing material from being PULLED apart. The big downside? It sucks at preventing joined material from breaking from a force applied perpendicular to the joined plane. Which is why you need to PIN alot of items in miniature assembly. My biggest tip... and it works so so, is thus. If you get superglue on your fingers... have a teabag nearby, as far as I know its the one thing that can take superglue away from the skin quickly. .. that is all for now.. LW

Awww man! Thanks guys... your the bestest! And Marilyn, very nice touch! LW

I feel ya Iron... but let me try to have ya see it the other way. When we were kids and buying the Commodore 64 games ... or Atari's and asking the parents for the new Cobra HISS tank, it was pricey to us. OMG 30 BUCKS for that game?? Ill never mow enough yards, or do enough chores etc. 30 dollars was out of the range, as it were. Now we are older and we can drop, usually, 30 on something fairly easily. But we are guys that like toys... so we need the BIG TOYS!! So if you scale it up.. we are 30ish it been a few years and now that 30 dollar must have is a 500-1000$ must have. Of course they are just as useless, but why do they make us feel soo damn good! If it feels good... do it! You can't take them with you... and that includes the debt! Right? LW

.. there is just something about a woman in a corset... er... demon.. whatever.. Anywho, a strong selection of colors which is good! I do like the skin as well. You might want to try to deepen the shadows a bit more on the clothes, I think that would go a long long way with the colors you have, to bring them together more. The only major critique I have is the eyes. Its a very difficult thing to do but after reading http://www.destroyerminis.com/eyes.php from Mrika on her eyes mine started to pop like no tomorrow. Give it a shot and see what you think. LW

Im liking this guy alot actually. The face is really good and the eyes show intensity! Can't see the shield very well but the hammer looks good, might want to smooth out the transitions on the hammer a bit, though it might be the lighting that is throwing me off. The base is cool as hell where did you get the leaves again? LW

Heya folks! Thanks for all the replies! Always nice to get some checks! Yep.. everyone that said that the smoke skull thing was not blended and or lighted enough or wrong are correct! It really needed a wash but unfortunetly do to some nasty time restraints.. ie it was due the next day and it was 1:30am the night before, wasn't able to do it. The sculpt is really really bad. The sleeves are part of the cloak... and the scarf like thing blends in with the robe itself and makes no effort to go over the head like it should. His eyes.... what eyes.... they are, I kid you not, actually slits in between what I can only imagine are his eyelids. Any real attempt at putting some eyeballs in I think would look iffy. I went with the .. im blind as hell... look. If I had to do it again, I would probably change his cloak to bring it inline with the scythe which I think is the real strength of the piece. LW

I listen to the greatest radio station on Earth in my opinion through a feed over the internet. My home city of Cincinnati has the flagship station of Clearchannel... WEBN which is a classic and modern rock station. Its the bombdiggity! It tends to focus me... LW

... very fast response on this one because Im gonna be late for werk lol. Its another way for people with too much money on their hands to help still other people with too much money on their hands do things that the majority of the world cannot. Their money would be better spent actually serving humanity instead of serving themselves as usual. ymmv L-dub

Oh god... we could go on and on with this one really. Just for kicks next time you see a younger person, no matter what the age, ask them what a 8-track was. Or my personal favorite because video games are so popular, ask them if they know that back "in those old days" there were magazines out there where you had to program the games yourself in basic, they gave you the code... and you typed for your fun! But thats just stupid stuff really. The biggest problem I have, and its probably not unique to OUR particular younger generation, is the absolute ignorance of our history and culture. If they weren't alive to see it, and sometimes even if they were, they haven't a clue in hell what your talking about. I got kids that work in my store that honestly couldnt tell you who fought in WWII, or even sometimes what the USSR was. Its scary... and then they get to vote. LW

Ick... Ive only dropped one miniature and it taught me a lesson that will keep me from repeating it ever again. I had just finished my Forge World Winged Hive Tyrant for my 40k army when I played... ya know where this is heading dont ya.... resin just shatters. Anyway now its every mini gets a handle (in this case perscription pill bottles, they are great to unscrew and such, you can also drill a pin hole into the mini through the cap of the bottle without taking it off the top.) and I don't touch a mini unless I take a breath first. LW

mic check... this thing on? Mortiana: The skull was done in 4 layers... in order with no mixing.. (Sandy Tan Base... Stained Ivory... Yellowed Bone... and pure white on the upper arch of the eyes and nose...! Anyways bumpity bump! LW

Heya folks! Finally finished with my latest. The last part went fairly quickly actually and Im proud of all but the robes... just didn't come out as well as I want. Moving on... Thank you Megan... pushing me to finish was must appreciated! Without further ado... I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to comment! L-dub

Simply the best Ive seen from you Meg... bravo! LW ps... wizard almost done.. need to channel you on this one I think.

As Cool-Aid man would say.... Ooooohh yeaaaahh! The color combo is top notch, very good contrasting colors and it definitely brings out the skintones better. Usually I wouldnt go with a warm color with a cooler color next too it but I think the tone of the purple/red allows for it... might need to bring the blue to a bit of a darker shadow but your not there yet. I agree that the skin, if you futz with it more will probably find a way to hurt ya. Leave it be till you finish with the rest and then reevaluate the quality. My guess is that it will come together for ya quite nicely. L-dub

I tell ya FA.. her hair looks really really good atm. Most impressive... 'best darth vader impression'. I think this is gonna be a great one for ya! LW

I would think that this technique would be prone to the problem of painting the interior of a model last, after you paint highlights getting to those spots would be tricky. Wouldnt you need pinpoint brush control to do this on every mini? LW

Good lord I think im slow. I measure time by days though, in that I really don't keep too much track of number of hours painted, but rather how many calendar days its been since i started. Unfortunetly I think I am averaging 1 every 3 weeks, which sucks alot in my mind. LW

.... and beer right.. please god please tell me beer is involved somehow. L-dub

Check out the SyncMaster 204bw from Samsung. Its a wonderful Widescreen monitor that doesn't crush your budget. I run it on my dualy and couldn't be happier. LW

I was never really impressed with Halo... mostly because I am a strict computer player, I haven't had a console since the Sega Genesis. I have been a huge fan of the WWII FPS games, Battlefield 1942 was the best. Call of Duty and BF2 are my current favs... And Duke Nukem was the absolute best game to play, never had so much fun at a LAN party. Seriously, how can you not like a game where you can drop a pipe bomb in a toilet and wait for someone to come use it for health... BLAM!!! LW

As long as he didn't scream "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!" at the top of his lungs I think we are safe... LW