This time I've painted the ships of board game Black Fleet from Space Cowboys.

Ships ahoy!

This was also the first time I used my new photo box and 5000K Daylight bulbs:

There there be diffuse daylight.

I also used the GIMP the Free Image manipulation software to correct the color levels and the results are thus:

Now, I am looking to find or print a good background picture for my future minis.

Now back to the 60 Battlelore infantry that await my love..

Next up was the Chaos Lord, the legendary unit of the Uthuk Yllan (chaos side). This monstrosity stands out with its brute strength, high hit point and its slowness compared to the agile yet weaker Roc Warrior.

The Chaos Lord

It actually turned out a little darker than what I had intended due to the washes and inks I used for shadows.

Blood and gore

I shared this mini on the Reaper Forums and got very positive feedback comments from very nice and helpful people. I shall frequent those halls more often and get advice on how to improve.

One area of improvement we have identified is actually on shooting miniatures. I shall build a light box and use day light lamps (they have a temperature range of around 5000 Kelvin) to achieve the best pictures.

I tried something new with this mini and it is blood/gore effect using glue and Tamiya clear red (X-27). 

A little black was added to give the real gory look since blood clots real fast and the hemoglobin turns the blood red to a dark brownish/blackish color in a short time. I did mess it up at first with adding too much black but after a few trials and errors I think I found the right color.

Detail on the gore effect

With the Chaos Lord complete all cavalry, elite and legendary units are completed. Now 60 archer and infantry units await me…

Today I shall talk about my first real commission piece, the Shadow Dragon from Reaper Miniatures. It is a weird coincidence that my first two dragons from Descent 2.0 were also named Shadow Dragons…

Shadow Dragon from Reaper Miniatures

Being a fantasy fiction fan herself, my dear wife kindly asked for a dragon. So we browsed the Reaper website and she decided that she wanted this model. Also, she liked one of the paint schemes so much that she literally asked me to paint exactly like that example (here).

My best piece as of yet

This was equally good and bad in a sense. It was good that I did not have to choose a complementary and satisfactory color scheme, it was already chosen for me. In my time as a fledgling painter one of the lessons I have learnt is that the quality of a “good” paint job is deeply related with the colors that are chosen. Complementary and aesthetically compatible colors leave the observer much more satisfied and pleased. Contrasting colors, dark and light colors, hue, saturation, and how the light itself is perceived in the brain.. all of these factors play a role in our appreciation of visual arts such as miniature painting. So I spent some time reading about the Color Theory and I strongly suggest you do the same if any of you out there is interested in painting regardless of the method and the medium. This website urged me to look deeper into the subject, so I suggest you take a look as well.

However it was “bad” in the sense that the expectation was quite high since this was a professional paint job that I had to match. Yet it gave me a chance to deploy my best and supersede my skill.

Before being affixed to a base...

I shall not go into much detail about the painting process itself but in this piece I believe I finally understood how layering actually works. Furthermore I started to appreciate why there is a type of paint called “inks” J When I bought my first paint bottles, due to the purely unfortunate fact that my local hobby store was out of normal black paint I had bought Vallejo Black Ink from Game Color range. When I had tried using it as a normal paint I was very much disappointed and frustrated by this ridiculously “dilute” paint J

With the stone base

However after watching hours upon hours of master painters like Doctor Faust or AGP Productions work I came to understand what inks actually do that washes cannot. Basically the difference is that washes settle in the crevices and provide a shade effect, whereas the inks cover everywhere they touch and therefore provide a more transparent layer of color on top of your base color. So, after this piece I went ahead and bought all the Game Color inks that my local hobby store had in store J

The base was my wife’s choice.. it actually came from my father-in-law’s garden.. and honestly it fit rather well.. I had something different in mind but I really liked the outcome. Furthermore my customer’s (wife’s) preference was more important and therefore I successfully concluded my first commission piece J. 

So I began with The Roc Warrior. A "Roc (from Persian رخ Rokh or Rukh) is an enormous legendary bird of prey." The huge eagle like birds that come to the rescue of Gandalf in numerous occasions.. However it is also interesting to note that (from Wikipedia):

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this word perhaps influenced the word Rook chess piece, though that term mainly stems from the Persian رخ rukh or Sanskrit रत rath, both meaning chariot (thus corresponding to the Asian chess variants).

In Turkish, "Rok" is the name of the special move known as "castling", where the King and the Rook change places by literally "jumping over one another".. So maybe the name "Rok" was inspired by this legendary bird's ability to carry huge things like elephants :)

The Roc Warrior

So, this is a huge and lovely bird with a rider on top of it. It was a magnificently detailed mini therefore it was lovely to paint.

Never a good sight if you are an Uthuk (forces of Chaos) player..

For the wings and feathers, once again I used the familiar technique of dry-brushing white over the brown base coat. Then I painted the tips black. The rest were lightly dry-brushed to bring the feathered texture of the bird come out.

Majestic wings..

Finally I decided to do a matte varnish rather than my designated satin (neither matte nor glossy) varnish and it looked much better then the semi shiny look.. 

Did I say majestic??

Since our heroes received one devastating loss after another, they collectively admitted defeat and our first campaign of Descent 2.0 was therefore finished. So did my interest in Descent miniatures.

Thus I moved onto Battlelore 2. Battlelore, again a game from Fantasy Flight Games, is a tactical war game on squad level. It is actually a “medieval fantasy” variant of Battle Cry, an American Civil War game based on “Commands & Colors” System. You can find more information about it here. And here is the Fantasy Flight Games link to Battlelore 2.

There are a total of 92 figures in this hefty box. So I had to “speed-paint”, which means that I had to skip some details, use washes and dry-brushing instead of layering and/or feathering etc..

The scout.

So, in order to start the process I painted a single “River Watch Rider” and it took me 4-5 days on its own.. However I sped up as time passed and I finished the other riders in a few weeks..

River Watch Riders

"Chaaarge!!!"

Then I painted, the “Flesh Ripper Brutes” even faster since they lacked minute details and they were suitable for washing and dry-brushing.

Flesh Ripper Brutes

The hunt is on...

The “Obscenes” were a joy to paint! Again I painted them speedily but carefully and it took me a week or so to finish the whole set. I especially had fun painting their tattoos on their enormous bellies.

The Obsecenes

The “Rune Golems” were like a “Dry-Brushing case study” J The runes on their heads were a little challenging since I don’t have much experience painting gems, however it was a chance to use my new Magic Blue paint.

The Rune Golems

Once they were painted I was ready for the crown jewels of this box, the “Roc Warrior” and the “Chaos Lord”.