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More of my backlog from summer. Vermina has a ton of detail, but it's hard to do grimy steampunk and make it all show up. I wanted to show her feminine and playful side so I started by making her clothing pink. She has rats around her feet and on her shoulder. I used this figure in a Shadowrun game as a street shaman. Always a few spots you missed that show up on camera afterward.

Apparently I never started a WIP thread for this miniature. This is Reaper's 50304: Rowena Von Graaf, sculpted by Julie Guthrie, which I started painting a long time ago. She's a fun steampunk figure. All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios. Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated. This is the way I usually start miniature figures: Lightly primed with Titanium White, then when that is dry, washing it over with Burnt Umber. Burnt Umber is a dark, transparent pigment that settles into crannies when thinned down and shows the details very well. It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers. I decided to paint her with a pretty black face. Here's a close-up of her face. There are tiny white points which are microscopic unpainted pits in the figure. They are much smaller irl than they show up in the photographs. I am slowly (maddeningly) working to fill them in as I go. I decided to paint her underskirt pink. This is Quinacridone Magenta lightened with Titanium White. And the base coat on her dress and spats is straight Red Oxide. And this is where I left her (cough) about a year and a half ago. More to come!

This is Reaper's 59009: Mad Scientist, sculpted by Bob Ridolfi. I thank Reaper for proffering Victorian Science Ladies in Big Dresses, and I am looking forward to painting her up. I am, as usual, working with Golden matte fluid acrylic paints. This is my standard priming, a thin wash of thinned-down Titanium White allowed to dry for a day then washed further with thinned-down Burnt Umber. I don't know if I've mentioned, but this is a classic Italian Renaissance priming technique. I can't remember the term, but it translates as "veil" of color and is supposed to give richness to subsequent layers of color. In this case it also makes details pop. I clearly missed a few spots with the Burnt Umber. I will be repairing those as I go along. I started with her skin. I like the Foglios' "Girl Genius" comic, so she is a little inspired by them. They have plenty of diversity in their cast, and I thought this figure might look well with darker skin. I have found that Burnt Umber, a slightly cool, rich dark brown, makes a good basis for dark human skin. This is the first layer, a light scumble (like a glaze but using a lighter color over a darker instead of vice versa) of Burnt Umber lightened just a touch with Titanium White. Dark skin, I find, looks well with warm highlights based on Yellow Ochre. I painted her skin quite dark, so I made the highlights a little cooler, less Yellow Ochre and more Titanium White, admixed with Burnt Umber. Here she is with her skin finished and her eyes painted in. I washed some clear Quinacridone Magenta over her lips. Her eyes were pretty enormous to begin with and I made them even larger. I am thinking mauve for her dress. Purple ftw!

It's a quiet morning. Mrs McCarthy sweeps the church vestibule. (77088: Townsfolk: Grandmother) Lady Frances and Lady Rebecca admire the new flower beds in the church garden. (59009: Mad Scientist and 50327: Victorian Ladies) It's a beautiful day, what could possibly go wrong? The blue dress was inspired by this painting:

My first mini of 2019, she is part of a group I am painting for a steampunk/time travel game my group is playing. For inspiration I used this fashion plate, the figure on the right:

Howdy, Pip, pip! Cheerio, and all that... Kev! P.S. Say no more!

Howdy, I say! Kev! P.S. Tally ho!

Howdy, Dress for success? Thanks for your support, Kev!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coolminiornot/the-world-of-smog-rise-of-moloch/description A Victorian, adventure board game taking place in an alternative England where magic and technology have taken an extraordinary turn!

Well, here I go again. With my tight schedule, there was no way I was going to get the Hakuna Matata diorama sculpted and painted. So I am going to paint my Coraline Thaddington sculpt. I have been wanting to paint her ever since I sculpted her. This will still be a challenge, since though the volume of modeling and painting is lower, the paint job I have in mind for her is considerably more complex than anything I have attempted before. I originally sculpted her because I was very inspired by the works of artist Sarah Ellerton, specifically, the character Anya from The Phoenix Requiem. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it as it is very good. I was also heavily inspired by Jane Austin, my wife, and a burgeoning love of steampunk. The sculpt was actually derived from over 40 different sources, so I have a lot of inspiration to choose from for a paint job. That said, I want to pay homage to Anya from TPR first as that is where I first fell in love with the period. I plan on painting her with a derivation of this artwork by Sarah Ellerton from TPR: I de-flashed and polished her last night. I just primed her and took my initial shots. When I am painting for a show like this, I always take photos of the mini with forward zenithal lighting after priming. These I make black and white and use then throughout the painting process to check my highlight and shadow placement. I will also print a couple out and use them to test color combinations. They also let me check to see if any areas need additional polishing, smoothing, and filling. By the pictures, I need to work on her right cheek and right side a bit more. Hopefully, paint will happen tomorrow night. Andy

Finally remembered to post these up. I got minibart's name for the Spring Exchange. I'd been hoping to get him since he sent me an awesome fig last year. He was looking for something Victorian and/or Steampunk. I went through a number of idea about what I wanted to do, wasted far too much time on elaborate plans, and finally settled on a slightly simpler plan, and still managed to be late sending it..... With the Lord and Dame I wanted to tie them together with some cross over of colour. Hopefully that was somewhat successful. The Lord came out fiarly well, I though. I'm not sure if what I was trying with the hat came across as well as it could of. I was really happy with the vest, though it may not show up well in the picture. I used Ruby Red to highlight Gothic Crimson, which gave it a nice satiny shine. Apparently all my shots of his back are blurry, and he's on a different continent now. But dark grey coat of light grey pants, not too exciting anyway. The Dame is a lovely figure and a joy to paint. I had a great time painting her, other that realizing that I'm missing at least one paint in each green triad I wanted to use.... And whenever I paint anything that could be considered Steampunk-y I love to throw in a West Wind Infernium Hound.

Whew, wasn't sure I was going to get this done in time for my August RPChallenge. After doing a bunch of Sci-Fi BSRs I had a craving for something a little more old timey. I've had a box of vehicles for Empire of the Dead sitting there since the kickstarter, so though now was the time to try one. Having never painted a carriage before, or painted a horse before (unless you count mutated goblin steads, I did do a unit of Ugu's Cavalry for Clan War once) I went with the "easiest" one, with only 2 wheels and one horse. Now when I started I knew there was a driver, but I didn't realize there were passengers in the carriage when I was estimating how long it would take.... Anyway, it turned out better than I expected, and final assembly wasn't quite the nightmare I was worrying it would be. So I'm happy. WIP here.

I've been doing a lot of Sci-Fi lately, so felt like doing something a bit more...old fashioned. I have a ton (not literally, I think it was under 100 lbs....) of Empire of the Dead miniatures, a Steampunk/Victorian/Horror minis game based in 1888 London from West Wind Productions. So I took a look through the boxes and thought I'd try my hand at one of the Hansom Cabs I have. It should be fun. This will be the first resin and metal model I've done in....ummm, let's go with "some time"... This will be the first carriage I've done. And this will be the first horse I've ever done (that wasn't a mutated Goblin anyway....). And it will hopefully get me back to working on miniatures at home a few evenings a week. So, what's in the bag? Hmmm, lots of bits. Springs, an axle, some lamps, a bunch of heads. I decided to focus on the carriage for now, and cleaned everything up. There was a slight mold misalignment on the back of the main body which required some work (and still needs a bit more). There were also a couple of bubbles that needed to be taken care of. I've also gone through and drilled pilot holes for each of the mounting spots where they weren't well defined. I'll drill them out further as needed when I get to test fitting all the pieces. At this point I had to let the green stuff cure so that was it for the evening.

Completed another couple of Malifaux models: I've never been great at freehand, but I wanted to try anyway some kind of tattoo/warpaint... Result is kinda mediocre, but overall I'm not too displeased As usual, C&C will be appreciated More pics on my blog: gabbigames.wordpress.com

To save producing three new topics I decided to group them together in one thread. All these are by Westwind Minatures and are still part of the EoTD Kickstarter (yes I still have 20 to go and will do for quite some time!!) First up is another victorian gentleman, I attempted something new here and tried to paint tweed, this isn't too bad for table top standard but I would need to practice if I do this again. Next up is either a man servant or page boy, this model is shorter then most of the 28mm models. I have painted him in a simple scheme. And finally a criminal from the Holmes Nemesis set, I think this guy is supposed to portray the fugitive from the Hound of the Baskervilles. (Can't think of his name at the moment) As always comments welcome. I have 4 more of the current EoTD models to finish and then it's back onto some Bones.

Here is another completed Westwind Miniatures EoTD miniature. Here is from the Victorian Nemesis Set, and so that is why I decided to give him a nice evil look. I'm quite happy with the red cloak and the clothes. As always comments welcome.

Here is a second completed Victorian Gentleman from the Empire of the Dead range. Once again this will be another citizen NPC in the game. Or he could play as an evil arch villain hiding in plain sight. As always comments welcome.

Here is another completed model from the Empire of the Dead range by Westwind Miniatures. I attempted to add some detail to the waistcoat, it doesn't look too bad. The photo shows up some superglue vapour which I hadn't spotted earlier. This is going to be another NPC in the game. As always comments welcome.

Here is a further model model from the EoTD Kickstarter by Westwind Miniatures. This is another generic victorian servant/gentleman to add to the NPC's for the game. As always comments welcome.

Here is another of the ongoing set of Victorian characters for Empire of the Dead by Westwind Minatures. This has been painted to a good tabletop standard. I have forced myself to speed up a bit as I need to get more finshed for a game. As always comments welcome.

In my continuing attempt to paint enough models for a wargame, here is a few shots of a further model from the Empire of the Dead kickstarter from Westwind Miniatures. As always comments welcome.

Here is another model from the Westwind Miniatures EoTD kickstarter. I really like this chef/ cook model and think I have done a alright job on the paint job, I decided not to make his clothes spotless as I doubt hygiene was as well understood in these days gone by. I also really like the sculpt, especially the face, it looks like he is someone who really enjoys his work. As always comments or suggestions welcome.

Here is a recently completed model of a victorian butler from Westwind Miniatures Empire of the Dead Kickstarter set. I am still going though these models slowly and I am still happy with the level of detail I can put on the models. The base is one of the original master I made for others out of resin. As always comments or suggestions welcome.

Here is the third and final model I am posting today from the Empire of the Dead Kickstater. I am still going through these models, and I am enjoying getting them finished. This is a generic Victorian Gentleman, and can be used as part of an angry mob or bystander. As always comments welcome.

In a continued attempt to clear all (some) of my models before I start on my Bones 2 delivery I have pressed on with some more prepared models. Introducing another two of the westwind models from their Empire of the Dead range. I still have quite a lot of these to paint. The eyes on these were a pain to paint, but I need to keep practising. As always comments welcome.