Drachenklinge's Kinderstube

[Drachenklinge]

Hi Folkes!

I thought of introducing myself via my miniatures I have painted so far. Mostly dwarves, that is. But in recent years other miniatures made it into my collection, too. Some amazing miniatures came from Confrontation (and ... Confro 4.0 minis are NOT Confro any more to me)!

It is difficult to explain, what my aiming is, while painting. Sometimes I just paint to be quick for playing, or testing something. But sometimes I just want to find out, how a certain technique is working - however, I rarely put much effort into it.

But to get an impression of my minis it is best to show them! So - have fun (I hope). Again I hope You won't mind, but not all of my dwarves like to be photographed


These are some of my earliest dwarves from GW. They are also my first "conversions" if one like to call it that.



The musicians were the start of my idea, to have a complete 20men strong dwarven regiment of musicians. The other one was some try to copy a famous dwarf (I think it is Gurnison), but it was stolen (really!) ... I took it as a compliment. If You have seen it somewhere ... it is still mine! The shooters are one of my favorites, though I painted them years and years ago.

Over the years more and more dwarves rally under my banner!


Hammerers, ...


... Miners, ...


... even some Slayers ...


... and some Ironbreakers!

(the shields are ... please, guess! ... knobs or buttons from a material store ... hnhnhn)

Through the years I tried some other themes for my normal clan-warriors



And since I NEVER get accustomed to the idea of flying steam-helicopters (dwarven technology or not) I invented this little fellow, with a little help from a PrivateerPress' Warmachine Merc-Driller:

Stomping THROUGH the enemy seems a lot more dwarven-style to me, than flying over it.

Some of my heroes


(I think, according to Freud the last one does really have some problems with a little something ^^)


And for my Bugman-Regiment (which still is not finish) I got this one ... because after all, with dwarves it is always about one thing:



So, these are some of my WHFB-dwarves. Though they were painted over a relatively long period (I learned a lot, while painting them) there are more or less all of the same painting-level.
I think ... I really did a good thing (from my point of view) to paint my first dwarves all one by one. I read many hints and tips about it, but never painted them in groups of five. So, from mini to mini I got more routine, not from regiment to regiment (that does not mean, that today I do not paint groups, too, but as said it does me a lot of good in these first early steps, I think).

The last entry in this first posting is my brewery, unfortunately it is still WIP, though it is about 4 to 6 years old °_O

... and NO, I do NOT want to talk about it being still WIP! 

However, my dwarfs can rest after a hard days work - a little marker for ... whatever

And believe it or not ... the fire place is an old decoration of a ring, INCLUDING the "schnitzles"! I admit it looks quite different BEFORE painting ^^


So ... these are minis from my age of WHFB. During this time I learned a lot about the basics of painting, though I seldom joined others for painting, the main reason being that I simply did not know, what kind of big network there was (and is) behind GW at that time.

I hope You enjoy the minis ... there is more to come from and with my Confrontation minis. As a conclusion, I think I am able to paint, but there is still much way to go! But - as I suppose it is with all of us - there are always some more unpainted miniatures in the locker, waiting for the brush!

best wishes
Drachenklinge

[Braxandur]

hiya and welcome

There are quite some nice pieces of work in there. You managed to make me really curious about you confrontation stuff. Will it also be mostly dwarfes, or some othe nice things?

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

sehr schön!  :)Any Chronopia Dwarfs in yr Collection?

[Bloodysword]

nice job! Ilike the vibrant colors of your dwarves. The banners are nicely done as well.

[Argonor]

(I think, according to Freud the last one does really have some problems with a little something ^^)

They all have - otherwise it would be painful with those big boots. 

[Drachenklinge]

@ all
thanks a lot!

@ Bloodysword
a friend of mine always described them as "just robbed a bennetton store, eh?"

@ other minis

well, I have some griffons and cadwe minis from Rackham. With Chronopia I have some dwarves, too, but also a few FirstBorn and Elves.
Funny thing, that the dwarves in Chronopia are really something You have to get accustomed to, in general the minis -especially the dwarves - are just ... plain ugly ... However, I got accustom to it. ^^ Now I like them somehow.

(The monster is meant as a BloodTotem (just in case I will play chronopia-dwarves some day ^^), but the mini is from Hordes, with its face conversed to a pig, no greenstuff, just another pig-mini's head stuffed into the space of the old but erased face).

So, with Chronopia I often test colours and different highlights. I dipped the elves, and "hardcore-washed" some Firstborn archers.

But comparing time and outcome it is really sort of impressive. Anyway - no serious damage, if something happens. There are also a few dwarves from the Warmachine-Mercs and some other producers. There are so many dwarves ... what can I do? Simple - need them all!

A few weeks ago I bought the sepia vallejo dip! It seems to be great stuff! It dries in about 3h and it is absolutely dim (dead, beamless, dull?) but I want to test it some more.

Recently I bought some minis from our Prof and LeadAdventure (which introduces me to brilliant steampunk-minis)! These I will show in my other thread ... when I managed to paint them, that is °_O

And finally I have a lot of female minis, which are REALLY great to force oneself for finer layers (cause of their skin). They will come

This hobby sometimes is very consuming ^^


best wishes
Drachenklinge

[DeafNala]

WELCOME ABOARD! That REALLY is a FINE way of introducing yourself...all VERY WELL DONE! Dwarves are such wonderful foes for my Goblins, that they have become favorite minis to paint...the Babes fit in the mix as the third type.

[Drachenklinge]

Thanks for Your welcome!

Yes, no matter what minis I buy "in between" - sooner or later some new dwarves are in my bags again.

Here I found some minis for my dwarven-steamer:

Originally it was a bloodbowl sequence from - heck, I forgot ... have to check it (via EDIT: Gazpez-Art) - with a maritime theme. So I convert it a little bit more and I am quite pleased with it. About a weekends work and they look quite right.
The mop is from a sci-fi eldar mini of 40k ... elven hair makes the best mops ever, I can assure ya!


Also these ones are from another producer (have to check that one, too °_O) and they REALLY look like dwarven scouts

With these minis I tried the washes extensively a second time (first were the Chronpia archers, pix will follow), then highlighting over the washes. Quit remarkable results, given the invested time. I git this idea from someone in another forum. He dipped some dwarves and worked on them afterwards. Most people stop after washing or dipping their minis, I think.
The picture is not that sharp, but up close they look somewhat like these fellows:


As You might see (they are about a few months old) I tried this foundry-style of painting, but couldn't quite make it, or not at all. Anyway, I am pleased with them.
'Problem is, that I try to paint cool minis in a quick and easy way. This basically for some fellows from the club who have little time for painting, but want "cool, but quick painted" minis. I do not paint FOR them, but try to find out a way which I can explain AND show, that THEY can do it.

But these techniques - I think - make me "forget" how to paint really good, so from time to time, I press some others in between, like these ones:


Though I tried it three times to have her skin (the last one) well and ladylike enough I was not that happy with it, therefore I used it for some blood-splatter-experiments.
This one is another splatter-blade I tried later:

If You look very close You can recognize some brain left on the blade

I have read so many times about this technique, but never tried it myself out of "fear" ruining my minis. But then I happen to be able to watch someone actually doing it. It took about 30seconds (promisse!). Could You believe it?
So, when I was home, I tried myself: a drop of Brown-Ink (P3), BloodRed (Vallejo Game Color) and relatively much water. Put in the brush, let it soak it up. Then hold it infront of the mine (shielding parts of the mini with some cover, where there should be no "blood"), then a short strong blow in direction of the mini and ... SPLATTER ... amazing!
To get the mixed colour of the blood, just mix two different levels of red/brown and blow it onto the blade/mini.

I think, the lady is my third try and the single blade my fifth one.

Actually one of the best tips I can give is MAKE MONSTER ZOOM pictures from Your minis. You can see all the dirty things You have done and were able to check on yourself. NO ONE is as merciless as close-ups from an incorruptable digital camera. If You can fool your DC You can fool anyone!

See here - seems to be a lovely Lady (the one from above):

... but up close she looks like this!

... obviously the colour was tooo thick, or to many times over the same spot ... *sigh*

best wishes
Drachenklinge

[Drachenklinge]

about Dipping!

I had read many things about it, but did not try it, until 1 or maybe 2 years ago. I choose to use some dwarves from this GW-partner-box (don't know the original name in English, in German it was the "Schadelpass-Box" ... skull-pass???) as a bloodbowl team:

(I think the dwarven BloodBowl Runners might have misunderstood something or mixed up gunners and runners ... but hey, it's bloodbowl anyway)

I was amazed! I even did NOT fix any mistakes while painting, just to test, how it will come out - incredible!

Then I tried my original BloodBowl Team. Here I put a little more effort in it. I SWEAR, it was/is just ONE layer of colour!


Though I choose some stripes for their dresses, somehow reminding me for (on, at? damn ...) some US-football team I had in mind at the time. But nothing (NOTHING) with these little buggers is highlighted or anything. Later I painted some numbers on the shoulder-pads, but that is not seen here anyway. From this moment on, I decided finally to test some more about dipping and highlighting afterwards (actually using washes from GW before highlighting is into the same direction).
By the way: this is Old Ironfist with his clostes friend, his snail Lil'Kim  



Here is one exception: Cheerleader Kitty, called "the Nippels", I did a little bit of highlighting. But here You can see the gleaming effect from the dip.




Next I tried for some Chronopia Elves, which I wasn't THAT satisfied with.

Why? The chainmail is painted with MithrilSilver, the ornamental belt is white ... and there is nearly no difference at all. So too bright is like white in a way, while obviously too dark (GW DarkAngelsGreen) makes no difference to the dip, too. The yellow came out quite good, but it's actually BronzedFlesh ... one of my favorite colours (makes a really good light-red with dark-red or blood-red! not as shiny/bright like yellow, but an earthy kind of red ... more of an highlight "used clothes"-red, if need be).

However, I painted all the elves that way for later testing


I went on with dip-testing on my chronopia dwarves

The cupper/redgold-metall came out very good, easy & quick with good results. I learned a bit about choosing colours when dipping!

It's clear to take some lighter colours in general, but in addition, it seems important to have some high-contrast colours, too! Either Green/Red, etc. or very bright, very dark! Especially when You plan to highlight afterwards!

But it is not nessecary, if time is an important factor, and the colours were choosen carefully

Beside nails and teeth, nothing is painted after dipping! Right now I am not sure about the tongue to be honest.


However - here is an example with to less contrast (but highlighting afterwards)

After all ... to many brown-tones, to less contrast, neither with colours or brightness. Nice - but without the final edge on it, which would have been easily done, if I would have choosen the colours more carefuly.


So, with all this in mind, I tried these nice miniatures


Especially the last one is one of my favorites! I was very sceptical about the white and the dark-brown (GW scorched brown) with dipping, but after highlighting it anyway, it came out really cool. There are only few minis, I am content with - this is one (I am NOT content with the muscles from the first one of these three ... some mutant beneath the skin, it seems °_O, though I like his face)
Time spent and outcome  ... really cool! About two days evenings for a group of 5 Minis.

Well ... these are my experieces with dipping so far. Quite a good technique, if payed attention to some little thinking beforehand.

best wishes
Drachenklinge

[Argonor]

Should some pics appear in the last 2 posts, or ...  

[Drachenklinge]

actually yes ... but obviously they don't °_O

I'll check this out
...
damn ... this will take a day or two ... had to upload these pictures somewhere else than before °_O

[thebinmann]

 
Breathtaking

[Faust23]

Very nice work!

Welcome to what, IMO, are the nicest forums on the net.

[phreedh]

Drachenklinge, your pics are still not loading (for me). Please fix, I want to see all the goodies! =D

[Drachenklinge]

thanx for Your interest! But you can see the pix from the first post, right? I am working on the others ... maybe today or during the weekend ... I found a solution, but it will took a while.

Thanks *snif*
Drachenklinge