Darkrelease

I have a question for people, I really like the highlighting on the legs, gives a very ethereal feel to them, but the white on the bottom portion seems a bit too stark, should I mute it a bit with some more blue tint?

I have not tried using the Bones line at all but have you tried using a fine grit sandpaper on the mold lines and then cleaning it up with a miliput wash before priming?

was bugging me so I went back to it tonight for a bit

I also had glazed the mini a bit before starting the highlighting. I wasn't happy with the sudden tone changes in the middle so I tried to bring it to a smoother transition for the color gradient.

Back's been hurting but I managed to start the highlighting. Not coming out as smooth as I would like so might require some touching up work.

Back of the figure as it sits right now

no, this is brush painted

Most of the shading almost complete

Time to bring some of the color back after the ink

Going in with a blue ink to bring the tone down a bit

Now time to lay some basecoats

It has been a very long time since I really did any painting. At this point I haven't really picked up a brush in well over 7 years. It's a hobby I've missed a lot but it was hard to get back into it. However, recently my wife was really on me about getting back into something I love and got me to start working on a model just for her. So I started pulling out my old paints and some new ones and picked up one of the many Reaper figures I've stored away over the years. So bear with my rustiness as I try and put together something half way decent for my wife. Enjoy.

So I'm just starting to get back to my painting after being away for quite a few years and I've come accross a bunch of dragons I bought a long time ago and are sitting without paint in my basement. So I got to thinking about them and I realized one thing. You don't see very many cool metallic dragons out there painted and presented properly. Every one wants to do the fun chromatic ones because the colors are much easier to work with but they leave the metallic ones alone. I got to thinking about cool ways to do a metallic dragon and I have a few ideas kicking around in my head but I always come back to the same main obsticle. How does one make a cool metallic dragon without it looking like a metallic construct of some kind. You could use NMM to create the impression of a metallic but I think I like the idea of actually using real metal paints for this experiment. Any one have an cool ideas on how to incorporate enough of an organic look with a metallic paint so that the figure itself doesn't look like it's a giant metal robot?

That's the one, thank you sir.

I've been going nuts trying to find an old Confrontation (Rackham) miniature from a box set. It was a Lich sitting on a throne (the throne was beautiful) but I can't find a picture of it anywhere. I'm wondering if this was a very limited box set. Anyone remember the figure I'm talking about?

what was the classic setting? I only ever played the virus setting once.

Traveller was the game where the virus took over all computer systems and the galaxy was devasted by roaming AI virus fleets right?

Well just a quick update on this. I pulled Gauth out of the box last night and started to look at the figure in prep for clean up. He is not in good shape. I guess because it is such a large piece and I got him later in the run I ended up with a few rather bad mold lines. One slashing his tail is particularly nasty. In addition when I tried just doing a quick dry fit of pieces without pins I noticed a couple of areas that don't line up very well and one are in particular, the two head pieces, that have a very large gap. Again I attribute most of this to the late pour of the production line so it looks like even the idea of painting before putting him together is right out. This piece is going to require quite a bit of gap filling and probably some patch work in the gap areas. So it looks like I will be putting him together first regardless. Thank you for the input of those that posted.

Congrats Rob, good to hear you battling through the big milestones in the quit smoking department. As for your not killing strangers, well I can just imagine what that's like, had to duck a flying coffee from my father when he went through the early stages of his withdrawel so I know it's rough. But keep rocking dude!

Ok so here's the skinny. I haven't painted a large scale figure in over a decade, not since I started way back on the Red Dragon of Krynn. Back in the day when I did that I knew very little of painting, or pinning or terrain building, so let's just say that it does not qualify as much experience. In the last 10 years I've had a build up of some rather nice dragon models stacking themselves in the corner and I guess the urge and desire to revist the painting of them has surfaced. So the first one that came to mind was Gauth, now I love this model and yes it is a bit intimidating but if you're going to swim no sense in sitting in a bathtub. Now I have a good understanding of pinning and gap filling so that is not the issue here. My real question is this, when most of you paint models such as these, large scale beautiful models, do you pin, gap fill and prime before you paint or do you paint first then put the model together. For those of you that paint first how do you address the gaps and issues that arrise after the painting is done? For those of you that put the model together first how do you get into the little crevices that are hard to reach with a paintbrush. Any and all info is greatly appreciated so that I may best decide the method of painting this bad boy. In the meantime I have some cleaning up to do on the figure first. Thank you in advance.

The wind blew in from the east. It was a biting wind that cut right through the cloak of the small figure huddled near the cliff. The trees discouraged its advance a bit but here near the cliff it ran along the contour of the large walls. A normal humanoid would argue that it would be better to get out of the wind and into the tree line, taking their chances in the forest, even though the shadows were starting to lengthen. However, the slight figure huddled near the stone didn’t have the burden of a normal humanoids sense of logic. The figure looked up along the sheer cliff face for what seemed like the hundredth time and then settled huddled into its cloak once again. To most humans the time spent on that rock would have seemed like agonizing eons. They would have shifted countless times, never finding any position of comfort from which to continue their steady gaze of the tree line. Yet this one figure stood still, from a distance it would seem like the figure was part of the rock, but for the shifting of the cloak in the wind. To most the time would have been agonizing, but to the slight figure the shadow of the tree line moved with speed towards it. Minutes passed like seconds and the figure did not stir. Darkness began to descend and the figure did not stir. Finally the wind died down, the howling of its scream descending to a slight whimper. The moon started to peak over the horizon just in time to highlight the first movement from the slight figure. Nimbly the shape slipped off the rock it had been crouching on and took a moment to adjust itself. Hands went to both sides and shifted the weight on the hips, then moved to the back and adjusted the burden there as well. Taking a long moment the figure seemed poise in a pensive moment. With the noise of the wind gone the evenings wild life could be heard stirring. Sounds of animals came floating from the forest to the sharp ears of the cloaked figure, seemingly unperturbed by the humanoid standing not 20 feet from the tree line. The figure took one last quick moment to adjust a runaway bag before finally making its way to the tree line and quietly like a field mouse slipping into the shadows afforded by the forest.

Wow good to see you guys are all still going with this. Like most great teams it seems the line up has changed a bit and I swear I will catch up on my reading for it (probably not but I will skim it, well maybe sum up...). Wanted to pop in and say hi to everyone, my work has calmed down a tad so the long hiatus I took from the boards is somewhat over, I've been looking in and checking out the hobby once again. I do apologize for leaving as sudenlly as I did, real life did take over and I'm sure Fin wandered off somewhere in search of a butterfly or two. Who knows maybe that lovable elf is just around the corner sharpening his scimitars for a bit of old fashioned fun (well probably not, more likely using them to try and crack open a coconut). Anyways wanted to pop in and say hi to everyone and congratulate you guys on going strong on this for the past year. I'll be popping in more often so if you guys don't mind I may post to this thread again soon. oh and Fin says "hey dudes, did anyone see which way that gnarly caterpillar went?"

Fin has been watching the whole proceedings with wide-eyed amazement and child like awe on his face. From the fainting paladin to the blue glowing axe to the sudden revival of the little Halfling his jaw has yet to be raised off the floor. Every time something new happens the elf is about to make an exclamation but it is always cut off by a new event. He is so bewildered at this point that his grin is from ear to ear and his eyeballs look like they are about to pop out. The next events also occur too quickly for the elf to intervene. The archers cart off the Halfling, Roman and George huddle in a corner and Joe practically faints from exhaustion. For a moment, the clutter of confusion causes the mind of the little elf to clear up and he sees clearly how to defend the tunnel. All it would take he thinks is for us to place a bunch of torches in one area of the passage way, making it so bright that the creatures that are used to dark places could not penetrate it, then we could stand back in the darkness behind the bright light and wait, they couldn’t see us because they would be effectively blinded and we could see them if they tried to remove the light, it would give us time to retreat if there were too many or time to press the attack if they were too few. Also we would not have to worry about fighting our way back here if we were to fall back and give the enemy time to put up traps to hinder our movement. His mind racing at a mile a minute, the lecture continues in an eerily familiar voice from his youth. Also because we are in a tunnel we could force them to come to us in our area of attack, forcing them to go to melee if we so choose or stay at ranged if that is a better option for us. Remember little elf, he that controls the battlefield controls the battle. The lecture seems like it’s about to go on when he feels something sharp and painful around his neck. Joe of course has grabbed the little day dreaming elf and is starting to pull him back in the direction of Roman and the rest of the group. “Come little elf, time to go back!” Is all his large friend says. Fin tries to stammer out a few words but he feels faint as he realizes that Joe is pulling him by his collar and cutting off his air supply.

She approached Fin and Joe. "Mind if I join you?" she asked, a little shyly. Fin looks up with a grim set jaw that makes him look silly. His jaw relaxes at the sight of Ardewyn and he reaches up to relax the muscles on his face. A quick glance to Joe shows that he is still sitting with the grim set jaw and Fin for a moment takes it back up before deciding that it hurts too much. A toothy grin breaks out instead on the Elf’s face and he stands up to stand before Ardewyn. “Hello pretty lady dude! Sure, pull up a rock, I have some more peaches here man, want one?” Fin begins rifling through his packs completely set on his goal of finding the peaches. Having made his plea to Joe, George walks over to the elf woman. "Hello, I'm George, a Knight of Aurelius." He holds out his hand, and smiles warmly. "I was wondering, do you have a blade?" As the two pull back to their discussion Fin continues rifling through his assorted packs, finally pulling out a peach in triumph. He looks up only to find the other two huddled in conversation.

Waking to the jostling of the Janara, Fin opens one eye and looks around before closing it. He then opens the other eye to make sure it works properly and looks around before closing it and finally opening both eyes at once. Not bothering to really get up, the little elf watches as the group begins to pack up and prepares to move. Having slept through Roman’s orders he is surprised to see the Paladin missing. Maybe the cows got him he thinks quietly to himself. A Darkspawn/Bovine ambush sends a shiver up the little elf’s spine and he wonders how they will ever take down this deadly alliance. Seeing Joe off by himself, Fin stands up and walks over to his half orc friend, sitting down beside him. Pulling out another peach he cuts it in half with a dagger and hands half of it to his brooding friend. No words are exchanged between the two figures huddled together in the tunnel away from the torchlight that the humans in the group need. Just two hunched figures quietly eating some peaches, one with dark thoughts of the tunnel ahead and one with the yearning question of what makes peaches taste so sweet. As the group packs and starts to move, Fin glances back once and waits for Joe to get up and join them. Seeing that the Half-Orc has his jaw set on the tunnel ahead, Fin takes up a similar determination on his face, but just ends up looking silly next to his friend. Two pairs of sharp eyes stare forward as the rest of the group moves back.