yani

Christmas is a big deal for me. In Australia, we don't have Thanksgiving, so Christmas has always been (for me) about gathering my large family together, setting up a big feast, passing the presents, and then relaxing the rest of the day with afore-mentioned family. It's never been about getting large, expensive gifts, it's been about spending time with loved ones. Then I come here, and I hear the complaints from my friends about how one's nieces and nephews want lots of money spent on them in gifts, or that one's wife is expecting more than four gifts, or that one can't afford to spend all this money on her hairdresser's, chiropractor's, manicurist's gifts this year and she's afraid that they will get offended by the smaller amount. I stare at them, amazed.

I like the colour scheme, with the cold blues and whites. good job on the base too

I think it's brilliant, and well worth the cost. Hours and hours of entertainment value for you.

Best wishes for your wife! I hope everything turns out OK. My game is installing as I type :)

So, anyone planning on partaking in Movember? http://us.movember.com/about/ Moustaches need love too.

Heh, I like how they threw some of the "Tolkien" archetypes typical in fantasies nowadays into a blender with history. Dwarves that are political? Interesting. Elves that were slaves? I kinda like it. Humans cause a lot of the hurt and suffering? Eh.. that's the stereotype rearing its' head.

Ow, a flying tendon would hurt.

Happy birthday!

OK, did some work over the last week, just blocking in the shadows and highlights: Tsuko: Shadows - Golden Shadow: Highlights - Golden Highlight: Kara: Shadows - Dark Shadow: Highlights - Dark Highlight: Orc: Shadows - Olive Green: Highlights - Pale Olive/Golden Highlight 1:2: Kara, I can tell, is going to be a PITA for me. For some reason, the darks are turning chalky whenever I thin to my normal levels, so I'm trying to do a terrible balancing act between too thick paint for good layers and too thin for nice coverage with no chalk. In addition, the sculpt is a little shoddy, as you can tell where the shadows fall on her cheek, so I'm also having to compensate for that. Sigh. But the intent here is to block out the main highlights/shadows so I can start working on each individual area.

It's what the doc told me. They're not bothering with testing for it anymore, since it's very widespread here, so I'm happy to write myself up as a celebrity statistic for an overblown disease. I dunno, I always saw it as another strain of the flu that just happened to be a bit more effective on the more healthy age group. But, the media always needs something to bark up. Ha, you know what really really gets me? To apply for permanent residency here, I had to prove that I was getting the Gardasil shots (the cervical cancer vaccine) because it was mandatory. And yet, for a vaccine that has HUGE implications for much of the female (and potentially male; they haven't finished clinical studies yet) population, the government isn't making it on the list of mandatory vaccinations for schoolgirls. Why? Because it might encourage the girls to be promiscuous. Seriously?!? Since when does the threat of cervical cancer (or herpes) stop a girl from doing the deed? Edit: for those concerned, fever just broke, so I'm much better :D Thank you to the well wishers

I think the deaths occur in children that have other physical problems. I know in San Antonio, a 17 yr old died due to having H1N1, but he also had breathing problems unrelated to the flu. Another kid died earlier, and he had a severe form of diabetes.

I feel miserable, but thankfully I left work before the symptoms started getting really bad. Anyone else have the pleasure of experiencing this particularly celebrity disease?

So now that my camera is working, I figured I'd do a WIP. I'm trying to improve my skintones, so I selected three different types: oriental, african, and non-natural. So here are my minis, in their reference pictures. I print these so I can see where the shadows and highlights lay: I base-coated Kara with Dark Skintone, Tsuko with Golden Skin, and the Orc with Pale Olive. I know they're a bit dark, but the Orc I auto-leveled in Photoshop so the true colour will display. My intentions: Kara, I see her as being outside in the harsh sun. So I want to make her highlights warm, and her shadows in a contrasting cool blue. The Dark Skin Triad is rather red, in my view. I know green is the "traditional" colour wheel selection, but I like the idea of blue. Probably because whenever I look at yellow (for the hot sun), blue is the imprint on my eyeballs. Tsuko, the sun won't be so harsh, so I'm thinking of making the shadows softer, like in a green-grey, with slightly cooler highlights. I want to play up the yellow in his skintone. Orc, I'm going to try the opposite. The Pale Olive is a little more blue than traditional Olives, and the Shadow colour (forgotten the name) has more yellow elements. I want to drop the shadows to a brown, and bring up the highlights by experimenting and mixing flesh tones in with the Pale Olive, just to see the effect. Since he's my non-natural skintone, I feel obligated to play around :)

Definately! I second the sticky

Nice work on the conversion stuff, I was afraid to do anything to the mini but paint on my first attempt :)

They look very cute :)

Great colour choices, I do like the fact you used a darker skintone. Much kudos :) I agree about the hair, however. It does seem like too much highlight was put on the braids

Those wings really do make the mini. And I like the detail on the legs too. Great job!

Damn! You're right to be impressed, it does look AMAZING. The shield and his face would be my favourite parts

Double post!

I got cc3 for my birthday with cityscape and dungeon designer. I had CC2 and got a little familiar with that first. It does take a bit to learn, but I think it's well worth it. The level of detail one can get is incredible. Highly recommended.

That's pretty much what I do too, and it works perfectly for me. Only, I tend to thin mine a little less - depends on how strong I want the colour of the glaze.

Has anyone used the stuff on miniatures? I spotted some green/blue powder made by these folks and thought it'd be an interesting addition to paints for various items. They also have a range of other colours in their line.

Gorgeous! I love the colours, and the whole piece looks painted very well. And good job on the base!

This guy is awesome. I love the colours you used for his hair, and the whole piece is done brilliantly