Happy Birthday Pirate Viking Painting!

Well would you Adam & Eve it? Pirate Viking Painting is 1 year old today! All together now: "Happy Birthday to yoooou...."

A year ago I started this blog as a means of communicating with what I thought would be occasional clients and with friends spread across Britain. I certainly wasn't expecting the response and readership that has developed. 6123 visitors (actually lets say that a bit slower, six THOUSAND, one hundred and twenty three visitors) from 71 countries around the globe generating 14,812 hits. That is a touch more of you than I was expecting to be honest! All the interest and the kind responses of the community at large - and particularly the 66 (so far) of you that deemed me worthy to follow - spurred me into seeing this as a business rather than just a lifestyle. I've got big plans for the future so stay tuned! Oh, and I think we need some kind of follower raffle prize once we hit 100 followers.

So what has this year brought me? Well, I have learned a tremendous amount. Take a look back at the first posts on this site and compare the quality of work to some of my more recent efforts. That is what near as damnit 300 days solid practice will bring. Over the year I have learned miniature photography - although still a way to go - figured out that I really enjoy commission painting (not always a given, just ask some ex-commission painters) and that making creative stuff for a living is the best thing in the world. I've painted 291 figures this year (hadn't realised that many!) and intend to do more than that this year now I've got my discipline down.

In addition to painting minis I am also writing rulebooks and making gribbly theatrical props these days. More on the rules front closer to 2012 but you can see some of my gribblyness over at Pirate Viking Props. All that remains is to thank all of you warmly for reading my humble missives and to make deeply appreciative noises for all the help, advice and promotion that the community has afforded me. You are all wonderous people and deserve the best luck in the world. I hope to keep you all interested as PVP goes from strength to strength and expands it's repertoire. Till then, charge your glasses, toast the birthday blog and...

TTFN

Officers and Gentlemen of the DKK

Just a quickee this time and the penultimate Death Korps update before the project is finished! This time it is the turn of the officers and commissars of the DKK to take the limelight:

The officers were a fairly straightforward affair. It is often a weird point of the Guard that their officers are not much more than a pimped out Sergeant. I wanted to indicate that fact while tying them thematically to the senior officer's look. I worked this through by painting them in very basic DKK style but with the brassy plates on the front of the helmets to tie them in to that "Brass Hat" feel of their boss. This gives them that half way house between the Colonel and his men. Another consideration was the power fist on the rightmost Lieutenant. My client had added an old Space Marine power fist complete with shoulder pad to the officer. The challenge here was to minimise the impact of the part as the slightly oversized arm would look tagged on otherwise. As a result there is no extra decoration on them and the green pad blurs with the breastplate while the brown fist merges with the greatcoat.

I then went in and really knackered the edges. This guy has the only weapon capable of taking on armoured vehicles in combat and I imagine him leaping to the fore and bludgeoning the hell out of tanks, bunkers and other armoured thingies. With these fellows down it was on to their watchdogs, the officers of the Commissariat.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Imperial Guard background, Commissars are effectively Soviet Zampolit (political officers) tasked with maintaining discipline and fighting mettle. They are empowered to summarily execute anyone "found wanting in the field" which usually means running away. They are the lash and the leash of the Imperial Guard and universally feared. To underscore this they dress in black with long leather stormcoats. Much like the Hot Fuzz boys, these were an exercise in adjacent blacks. I got around this by highlighting the storm coat with Scorched Brown and the cloth with Codex Grey. This gave the impression of different fabrics and gave the model definition. The green decoration tied them to the rest of the army thematically whilst allowing them to stand out a little.

Anyway, thats all folks for this time, next DKK update will be all four standard bearers and the last one before I attempt to shoot the entire army! Until next time.

TTFN

A plea for positivity

I really do not do this very often but I am going to post about something that has nothing to do with painting miniatures. It does, however, have an enormous amount to do with this great hobby of ours.

The Internet is a funny old place, people hide behind their anonymity in order to make snide comments. Complex issues are summed up in 140 character bursts which are frequently massively over simplified. People actively “troll” to trigger long strings of furious comments that somehow enhance their self worth. More than anything else, people bitch and moan.

It is getting to the point where I find myself actively avoiding seeing any comments sections of websites at all because they just depress me. This is a real shame as the Internet can be an enormously potent tool for discussion and debate. Now I am not naive, I know that the idiots who “troll” comments forms will never go away as long as there are sad people whose self worth is boosted by the rage and upset of others. What I would like to see is a greater responsibility on the part of we, the bloggers, to make sure that we present news and opinions in a positive and non inflammatory light. There are sites – you know who you are – who seem to post deliberately inflammatory editorials to spark what they call discussion. I suspect that the problem is that advertising revenue on the Internet is tied to page views and rows bring page views. Oops, there I went, see how much deliberate thought this takes? That last comment violated rule 7 below.

So here is my thing. I hereby pledge to do the following on my blog:

1)            I will keep all criticism constructive.

This is an important one, if you don’t like something about a model then specify what it is and more importantly what you are doing to correct it.

2)            I will make no sweeping generalisations.

This leads on from above, do not say “that model is rubbish”, say “not convinced by the sword” and then – following rule 1 – “so I’ll replace it with...”

3)            I will not signal my dislike for a range/model that I have no intention of buying.

This really annoys me. People who do not like a model, who have no intention of buying it, throwing around cynical snipes which ruin the enjoyment of all those who do like the range. If you don’t like it you won’t buy it. That is fine, there is no need to express your less than humble opinion to the world. (example: I genuinely felt like the only human on Earth who thought the Stormraven was kinda cool)

4)            I will not base my opinions on photography alone.

Miniatures often do not photograph well. I will have a model in my hot little hands before I make any judgements upon it.

5)            I will treat others with respect.

Other people’s opinions are valid, they are entitled to them, yes, even if you think they are stupid.

6)            I will not summarise highly complex issues of business.

I know nothing about running a multi-national company, I know nothing about running a miniatures company, neither do you if you are honest. Maybe a handful of people in every ten thousand know anything about these things. I will not make sweeping comments about things I know precious little about.

7)            Suspicion is not proof.

I will not make accusations without proof of indiscretion. Snide cynicism is an unhealthy humour.

8)            People are people, even on the Internet.

What a lot of people seem to forget is that every miniature ever made was created by the blood, sweat and tears of at least 1 person. Maybe lots of people. All of those people worked hard, are proud of their endeavour and will see any flaws in their creation far more keenly than you. All that ignoring the above 7 rules will achieve is to hurt someone’s feelings.

There, now I would love to turn those 8 rules into some sort of active pledge that we would all endeavour to uphold. Unfortunately I am just a very little fish in this great big pond and don’t have the sort of clout that would be needed to get this universally adopted.  Any volunteers?

Oh and to settle my mind I would like to throw my hat into the hurricane of fury associated with pricing. NO-ONE is forcing you to buy models. No-one is forcing you to choose one miniatures company over another (anyone who raises the tournament compatibility thing only has a right to if they ACTUALLY ATTEND THEM and the vast majority of us do not). If the models are expensive, save up for them. If the models are more than you think they are worth, do not buy them. Everyone can afford this hobby at some level. So you can’t afford a 4000 point vostroyan guard army? Of course you can’t. You probably don’t own a Ferrari either. I want a huge number of things that I cannot afford. I don’t buy them. I don’t feel that I should vent my spleen to millions of people about it. Try not to grumble automatically just because someone is successful. This was brought home to me when I realised I used to make anti-Microsoft jokes while using a Windows PC. Ridiculous.

That is all, I just wanted to get that off my chest as it has been driving me nuts lately. If you have read this far I salute you. Stay positive people.

TTFN

The Quartermaster cometh...

Greetings all, I am back from my break and here to show you all some more creepy stuff! Hurrah!

As I mentioned last time, the whole tableaux for the Death Korps Quartermaster is a tad unsettling. Here is a wounded guardsman, reaching out for aid and instead is going to be mercy killed, his organs harvested, any useful garments reclaimed and his name added to a KIA list. The skull faced Quartermaster reaching calmly for his pistol stalks the battlefield making administrative decisions on who will live or die and the best use of resources. Damn, even for the Imperium that is cold. These have been some of my favourite DKK models for ages and were part of my reward to myself for finishing all the grunts. Lets take a closer look:

Firstly, the Quartermaster himself. I wanted to keep his colour pallete the same as the rest of the army and have any little changes be muted. This is so that he fits with the overall look and feel of the army but has his own personality. To this end I decided that the cloak, that covers half the model, would be lined with the accent green colour used across the rest of the force and be black on the outside. This gave him a sombre tone without making him leap out from the rest of the army. The bones were painted in the same way as the Grenadier masks, again making that link.

Next up, we see his intended victim. When you have a mask on, you have to use body language to convey any emotion. Here the sculptor has done a bang up job. The pose is perfect to convey that pleading for help, and the torn hose and shattered respirator give us that impression of a man not long for this Earth. Painting-wise he is identical to the rest of the army with the exception of a rather grevious wound. This was painted in my usual 3:1 mix of Red Ink to Chestnut Ink with gloss varnish added. It is very easy to make wounds look either excessively gory or cartoony and it is important to avoid either one. Gory is avoided by remembering "less is more", I could have soaked his greatcoat, made the ground awash with blood and so on. This would have looked gratuitous and taken away from the subtlety of the sculpting. Likewise had I just used blood red paint - staple of young gamers everywhere! - it would have looked cartoony. Blood isn't just red. It runs from a brownish red in old stains through bright arterial red in just-that-second-spilled blood to almost purple deoxiginated blood that you will never see outside the body except in blood tests. I always add a little chestnut to the red to give it that more-than-a-few-seconds-old look. I test the colour by painting a thin line on myself, if it looks like I have cut myself then I've got the shade right!

Deeply disapointed that he has bled all over his uniform is this servitor. Tasked with gathering the effects of the dead. I wrestled with the descision of whether to make the uniforms look battered, bloody and dirty and then decided that there was no urgency to reclaim that sort of kit. Only uniforms in good nick would need to be grabbed before they were ruined. Decision made!

And then there is this chap. Something of a challenge to paint as he is festooned with scrolls. Trying to find a purpose for each was taxing as I didn't just want to do wobbly lines on all of them. To that end, if you look closely you will see MIA and KIA lists, writs of authority from the Ecclesiarchy, Warrents of Office and lots of other administrative paperwork. I remembered just in time to paint KIA upside down as it spooled from the printer.

To round out this happy bunch we have this cheery fellow. I rabbited on about him at length last time so I would say go read about him there!

Anyhow, that is all for now folks, only thing to mention is that I have finally settled on my next big project after the Blood Angels are done and dusted. With the Dwarfs rumoured to have an impending army book I am reactivating project Corsair for my Dark Elves. Going to try and paint them as Drow to give them their own identity. As part of this I am going to need a couple of Bolt Throwers which are among the models being remade in that new Citadel Finecast stuff so I will post a complete review here when I get 'em. Until next time:

TTFN

WIP Death Korp Quartermaster

Well, it has been one of those weeks! Everything on my painting table is half done and thus not suited for photography. That pesky RealWorld stuff keeps being in the way and I go on holiday next week! So, in order not to go completely dark for a fortnight I am posting a Work In Progress shot of one of the creepiest figures in Warhammer 40,000. The DKK Quartermasters "medical" servitor:

Now, isn't he lovely. So comforting as a doctor... Thinking about the Death Korps proclivities I figure he is more of a recycling technician rather than a medic. Retrieving viable organs from the mostly dead to keep the more valuable soldiers alive. Shudder. Wait till you see the whole tableaux next time. Really, really creepy.

To emphasise the creepy vibe I painted the front of his smock/robe as though it was transparent green plastic, as though disposable scrubs. This is a technique I had seen done with silks and satins (mostly on buxom wench models for some reason...) and wanted to have a go. Turns out it is fairly easy, you just basecoat in the garment colour and then highlight by adding the colour of the layer below. In this case Orkhide Shade base with increasing amounts of Khemri Brown added. A quick hit of gloss varnish later and it was distressingly plausible. I also deliberately painted the face (see insert) to look shifty, staring off to the left rather than focussed forward. The skin is also highlighted with nothing but fortress grey to give a bloodless feel.

From behind you can see the workings of the arms and also the green oxygen tank and reserve blood vial. The oil on the cogs is simply Brown Ink mixed with gloss varnish and thinned a little.

Anyway, that's it for now, I am off on me hols. See you some time after the 16th. For now, why not check out my sister site Pirate Viking Props for some 1:1 scale gribbly stuff. Hope you all have a lovely week. I shall!

TTFN

Happy Easter everyone!

A very happy Easter to all our readers!

The slightly disturbing fellow above is a Scibor Miniatures model from their frankly weird collection of Dwarf and Goblin dioramas. I recieved it as a leaving present from a very pleasant chap called Sam and hadn't gotten around to painting it. Then, with Easter approaching I felt it was only appropriate to celebrate with a really odd model!

The yellow was the test bed for the new method that I have been talking about lately (Iyanden Darksun and Golden Yellow as a basecoat, Gryphonne Sepia as a shade, Iyanden/Golden plus increasing levels of white as a highlight, glaze with Yellow Ink).

Rather than paint the goblin as if he was hiding in a chocolate egg I thought I would have him somehow in a real egg. Hard to tell but there are stringy ropes of yellowish PVA with a gloss varnish coat to represent the gooey contents of his hiding place. Anyhow, hope everyone is relaxing where ever you may reside.

TTFN

The Talons of Baal (BFG)

From the stars they come... The Angels of Death, the Space Marines, but how do they get there? Answer:

Having painted a lot of Blood Angels lately, I felt they deserved a way of making planetfall. The ship above is a Space Marine Strike Cruiser from the Battlefleet Gothic range. I am a huge fan of Battlefleet Gothic (or BFG for short) as it combines naval combat tactics with kilometers long spaceships. What's not to like? My Imperial fleet is looking a bit tired these days and so the siren call of the Astartes beckoned once more! The paint scheme for this vessel (the Talons of Baal for anyone interested) is essentially the same red as my Blood Angels but with a Devlan Mud wash in place of the usual red and black shading layer. This gave it a grimier look than the infantry armour.

I picked out the inner spine of the ship in black to give it some variety then picked out all the metal areas in a mix of Boltgun Metal and Chaos Black. Large observation portholes and some little details were picked out in Dwarf Bronze - again to provide variety to the scheme. I then painted any obviously dome-like or big window-like areas Fenris Grey and gloss varnished them. Finally with a mix of Iyanden Darksun and Skull White I picked out some points of light as if there were lit windows within the ship to give it a sense of scale.

To give the engines some life I ran thinned Skull White into the dimples on the back of the engine tubes. Once dry I washed several layers of Hawk Turquoise over the white and surrounding engines and hull. To finish off the model I added a nebula to the base - easy to do, stipple Blood Red directly over the black, then stipple another layer leaving a dark patch on the edges (think fried egg). Then do the same with a 50:50 mix of Blood Red and Blazing Orange and finally Blazing Orange. Once that was thoroughly dry I loaded up a stippling brush with thinned skull white and ran my thumbnail over the tip to spray a fine mist of stars over the base. Make sure to mask the ship (I used a bit of sponge) from the mist and don't overdo it. I made sure that there were plenty of stars around the nebula as they are stellar nurseries, where stars are born. Over a particularly big blob (bottom left in the above picture) I painted a thin cross to indicate lens flare. Makes it look better than just having one whacking star.

And so, with a little photoshop jiggery pokery and a picture courtesy of NASA the Talons of Baal sets forth into the void! Haven't decided how many Space Marine vessels I am going to do yet. Given that my army is entirely 3rd company and this vessel can carry them all I may just do some escort craft and add them to my Imperial fleet. Anyhow, back to the workbench for me as the last 15 Death Korps are calling.

TTFN