skya

The one on the left of these might work as a base to start from...

Sorry bout your ears Sue, I try very hard not to swear that much any more. :P As for the competition, I think it went about one round to long. It would have been perfect at 5 rounds *if* it hadnt also been over the xmas/new years holiday time. And I guarantee you'll see it again. Iron Painter has been going for 4 seasons now and I cant see any reason for it not to keep going.

Thanks guys. Derek, glad you like her. I really like the faces on the sea elves and they are so easily poseable to whatever fits the scene, they're great to work with. I fully intend to do the male with a dolphin as well, probably sometime in the next couple of months. I'm taking a bit of a break right now though so that Iron Painter doesnt totally burn me out.

I love it Sue. She turned out great.

They arent the foundry bottles, but I know GW sells empties of their flip tops. I use em for holding my basing materials.

If you still want the pink I'd try taking some of that rosy color you're using in the skintone to create blush effect and using that to tone the pink down. Should bring down the OMG it's pink factor. If you want to go for something a bit more natural looking but still lipsticky, consider using the shadow color from her hair and then working up to that rosy skin color. Remember that glossy lipstick shines and you'll want nice bright sharp highlighs if that's teh look you're going for.

Thanks guys. Wren, I'll be bringing some of them with me to ReaperCon so you can see them then. Unfortunately the Seasonal piece doesn't travel well, as the branches are annoyingly fragile. If I can find a safe way to pack it, it might come with, but it seems unlikely.

Looking pretty sweet. The skin tones, cloth and gems are quite nice. The hair is the only thing at the moment that stands out as not being up to par with the rest of it. I personally think the pink lipstick is scary, but that's a personal style choice.

Having just finished this season's Iron Painter, I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the reaper pieces I entered this time around. For those who dont know, Iron Painter is an online competition where the contestants are paired off, given a theme and two weeks in which to finish each piece. the judges then spend a week scoring the pieces and the if your score beats the score of the opponent you were paired off with you advance until only one person is left. Round One the theme was the Dead of Winter. Not having done a snowbase of any kind before this was a lot of fun experimenting with different snow mixes, all of which are granulated to different sizes. Then there was getting the ice layers to look well, layered, and that there had been blood spilt and then ice and snow built up on top of that. The actual figures I chose were all Reaper pieces. The two birds are both Reaper familiars and one of the undead pirate guys got turned into an actual dead guy with an arrow through him. Round Two was the only technical based theme of the season, OSL. I went for an ambitious piece I've been wanting to do for a long time. I've been debating ways to do the stained glass window for months now and tiriel was a recent acquisition who just seemed to fit. The cathedral wall is one of those armorcast cathedral pieces, and the vine is just some stuff from my back yard. Painting the lighting on was mostly a matter of shining an actual light through the windows and blocking in where the shadows fell. Round Three was a rather odd theme I had a hard time wrapping my brain around, Seeing Red. Took me a while but I finally settled on doing Cyclops vs. the Scarlet Witch. Found a costume for Cyclops that I really liked, and set myself to converting Heroclix minis into something paintable. The Scarlet Witch didnt take a lot of tweaking, dumped her in some boiling water, changed the folds on her cloak and the position of her head and right arm. Cyclops on the other hand was a pain. Had to pull off that scary outfit he was wearing and sculpt on the new one. Then I made the eyebeams out of blister pack plastic and had at with a paint brush. repainting prepaints isnt quite as bad as you might think, the plastic is a bit bendy, but other then that it's not too bad. Painting in a comic book style after having spent many years painting in a much more naturalistic style, that was a bit of a challenge. Round Four we had The Sidekick. had a lot ideas for this one, but just couldnt find the minis for them. So I settled on a traditional fantasy scene, the casting of the spell. Only this time the familiar is doing most of the work, teaching the young sorceress how to cast. Primarily made of reaper pieces and bits, with Jolie as the sorceress, the familiar is a Wyrd piece normally found as Rasputina's familiar. Round Five went Seasonal. Now I cant stand the whole commercialized holiday crap we normally consider seasonal and decided to go for a more traditional changing of the seasons, fall to winter. I was kind of aiming for a more Victorian feel, with the snow trim dress. The lighting was fun. I've never done electronics before. I installed an LED by wrapping the wires for it around the staff and then into the base where theres a battery hooked to an on/off switch. Honestly, it was a lot simpler then I expected it to be. Round Six, the finals we were given the theme of My Trusty Steed. Unable to find a well sculpted dragonfly for my fairy knight I decided to go for an underwater scene with dolphins and elves. Well time cut that down to one dolphin and one elf. Tracked down a toy dolphin the right scale as the only dolphin minis I have were Thunderbolt Mountain pieces that would look absolutely tiny next to the Reaper sea elves. Picked out some of the aquatic familiars to see what would go well with it and then sculpted up a reef for them to be playing on. I spent a lot of time swearing while trying to get all the pieces to stay where I wanted them, but I think the end result was worth the aggravation. All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and while it ate a whole lot of my time it also really inspired me to push some of those boundaries I wouldnt have otherwise.

Wow, yeah. Something like this would be pretty amazing, but cost would be a big factor.

I'll be showing up, I just need to decide which piece I'm painting for it.

Just had to pipe in that your style has really pulled itself into something rather impressive. Simple, yet bold. It has an economy to it I can really appreciate. Smooth where it needs to be and sharp and efficient otherwise. In particular I'm liking the nmm you've been doing.

Ugh, I ended up miserably sick Thursday night after having had a burger, and avoided anything with meat in it from Sonic for the rest of the Con. I'd have loved some good vegitarian options other then grilled cheese.

Cool, now all I need to do is figure out what to do for Wednesday.

I'll be there.

My flight gets in at 3:38 Wednesday afternoon and my flight is heading home at about 2pm on Monday. I need to make arangements for rides to and from the airport, anyone interested in carpooling? I'm also staying the Best Western, Haldir you want to share a cab? Anyone else?

Wow, I think that's the first dragon you've done in years that I havent seen at least once in person while it was a work in progress. We miss you Sue!

That is way too darned cute! Really nice shading on the fur too. The spines of the wings look kinda flat in contrast though. Yeah I read that book as a kid. Nothing quite as amusing as a bunny who sucks it's vegetables white. :)

Yeah, but for that stuff you had to stand outside in the bitter cold at some stupid hour of the morning, (been there done that) and the stuff goes back up to normal prices afterwards.

The MMSI exhibition works fairly differently then your standard miniatures competition in the gaming world. For one thing it's not a competition per say, it's more of a juried art show. Basically what happens is that each artist is judged against a standard. Those standards are called gold, silver bronze and certificate and every every artist who enters recieves one of those based on what the judges beleive the best piece in their display was. So there is no 1st, or 2nd, and "won" isnt exactly a relevant term. You're competing against yourself and not the other people there. As many gold medals will be handed out as there are artists that deserve them. That being said Jen definately recieved a gold for this piece, and in that sense "won".

The newest season of Iron Painter is gearing up on the Wyrd Games forums. If you're interested in signing up head on over to THIS thread and add your name to the list. Straight from SuperVike, the Iron Painter Chairman himself! :

Yeah there's a reason I pretty exclusively use the US Post office's Priority Mailers when sending anything of value. I've had mangled letters and missing packages in the past, but I've never lost anything shipped Priority Mail. Back on topic! That really sucks Anne, I hope it's found she's a gorgeous mini (creepy, but gorgeous) and should end up in the hands of someone who will appreciate her.

I'm thinking we'll congregate around the pool to avoid a lot of noise problems. .....gamers and swim suits... the combo scares me. Trust me I have enough scars that really dont need to be seen by the whole world.

While out of the norm for the gaming hobby I will point out that in the historicals venues it is perfectly acceptable to have a team entry, be it one sculptor, one painter or even multiple painters. I would agree with the assesment that Jen but forth that if you are requiring a contestent to be there to enter then for a team entry both would need to be there, and I definately agree that you'd want to place it in the catagory of Masters if one is a master painter and one is not. I dont honestly see how it could be seen as unfair, the end result is the end result. Then again I've always felt that conversion work ranks way too high in how pieces are judged in what is billing itself as a painting contest. I mean honestly, at what point is it no longer a "Reaper piece"? If I clip and reposition everything, or take a bunch of random different parts and put them into one entirely new thing is that still a Reaper piece? They may produce the bits, but they didnt come up with the concept. What if I add a billion acutraments, covering it in green stuff and really only the underneath is a reaper piece? I mean at that point you've pretty much made it you own model, but under the rules of most manufacturer painting contests (not sure on this one I cant figure out where the rules are posted) that's perfectly acceptable and practically encouraged. Anyways, just things to think about.

Thanks guys. I'm not around here much anymore but I do make an effort to stop in and see how people are doing every now and then. Be Well All,