What I painted in July 2013

[zizi666]

A Plasticville Post Office on a lasercut base that I designed myself + some Marx Cars of the Future and a couple of GW skeletons.



A Plasticville barn, some LIMA O-scale tracks (plenty more to do albeit mostly bends) and some vegetation

[infelix]

Forge World Plague Hulk, a guinea pig for my first real attempt with oil washes/paints.

[zizi666]

That is one ugly bastard (but in a good way) 

[mikeygees]

112 Old Glory Ancient Germans. Based up for Hail Caesar.....

[weismonsters]

They are wonderful. I have been looking at various ancient German miniatures recently and these are a bit special. Tremendous paiuntjob and the posing is fine too, they all look like they are charging like mad at the enemy. Where did you get the miniatures if i may ask?

* edit just googled "Old Glory" and foumnd them

[Mr. Peabody]

After years of painting 20mm historicals, I finally sat down and started to paint some 28's again. A big change inspired by In Her Majesty's Name and also by a return to Strange Aeons.



Honestly, I've been afraid to paint my 28's and some of these minis have sat unpainted in my lead-pile for over THIRTY years...   So I'm quite happy to get this lot painted, even if it is just early days all over again.
I'll post a couple of close-ups over at the Strange Aeons board.

The big T-Rex is a pre-paint toy, and was only based and not painted so he only there for show and don't count....

[Dolmot]

I painted buildings and other stuff for the CoC game. (Note: this time I used several direct lights so the lighting may not be completely even or faithful to the colours.)

1. Small shack by Stronghold



This is a nifty, very well cast plaster+resin kit. I guess the parts are designed to match perfectly but some of them didn't have guiding lines or pegs. Therefore some filing and bending of the last bits was involved anyway. This is also a piece whose store display paintjob is hard to beat, even though I often set that as my goal...

2. Church by Renedra



Another affordable, durable and fairly well designed plastic kit from Renedra. You'll probably see this one a lot, just like their earlier kits. My only gripe is that it took more work than usual to make the roof well separable. Eventually the best solution I found was to saw the front wall in two. Originally the bell tower's front part with a cross belongs to the main wall. Here it's chopped off and firmly glued to the rest of the tower and roof. It all comes off. Painting is kept simple because I was in a hurry and this basic scheme seems to work already.

3. Ramshackle barn by Renedra



Also a brand new, handy plastic kit. Much simpler to build than the church. I kept the lean-to and both roofs separate so this is as modular/accessible as it can get. I added slight sag to the main roof by applying heat and weight. If you try this, watch out so that the edges still fit. Painting is again very simple. This could use some overgrowth, wear, decorative bits etc.

4. Mansion by Rusus



This is a plaster kit, quite nice but comes with the usual evils of the material. It would be possible just to glue the parts together, possibly over cardboard or even insulation foam for a single-piece solution. However, I wanted this to survive a couple of games and also be accessible so I built interlocking foamcore boxes for each floor and glued the walls over them. Unfortunately, I didn't take fully into account the minor variation in casting thickness so it ended up a tad wonky between floors. Furthermore, I tried a new "magic" stain for bringing out the wood texture, but it was way too dark for my purposes even after enormous dilution and wiping. That's why the roof-piece walls are darker, highlighting the wonkiness. Oh well.

By the way, every stone in the foundation is coloured separately, even under the floor where you're never supposed to see. Then I washed it all brownish again. I'm the master of wise allocation of painting time. Not sure yet whether to add any vegetation to the base.


5. Assorted junk


From Pardulon and Fenris, quick "filthy wash over grime base" jobs done between house painting stages. More colour and detail would be nice but let's be honest - nobody is going to notice. As an interesting fact, the same castings were used in a modern day zombie game in the same convention. There's something universal about crates and barrels.

6. Hay cart


From Stronghold, with extra bits from Renedra kits. Not much to say, other than it was another nicely fitting kit as soon as one warped piece was straightened. Painting is just more wash-over-grime.


Err...that's all? Maybe, maybe not. If I missed something, it was probably just more tiny bits.

I also prepared and undercoated over 30 pulpish minis, hoping to paint at least some of them for the game. Well, that didn't work out. Looks like I have plenty to do in the next months. See you in PPC or somewhere.

[Mr. Peabody]

Dolmot,
Brilliant!  Very nicely done pieces and convincing too. Sometimes simple is best.

That shack by Stronghold is very charming... What is it called, do you know? I've been reading the Stronghold catalogue and can't be sure what I'm looking for.

[Centaur_Seducer]

Mate, as usual you come through! I wish I had your project photo, and I'm actually jealous of your grand collection of CoC-related stuff!

[Dolmot]

Thank you very much, gentlemen. The small building is actually called "old shed" and can be found in the village houses category. I've sometimes missed stuff myself too due to their splitting into town/village/houses/accessories listings which are occasionally hard to remember.

Now I remember that the "small bits" I forgot included 125 cm of coastline and a lighthouse island. However, those still need tidying up so I'll post them some day later. Watch space...

[driller]

Dolmot, beautiful work. Is there somewhere a blog article or something about your painting method?

[Dolmot]

Dolmot, beautiful work. Is there somewhere a blog article or something about your painting method?

Thank you, but unfortunately the answer is most likely "no". Whenever I have time for hobbies, I try to finish as much as possible without taking breaks for WIPs or documentation. However, I can happily share anything you might want to know in particular.

On a general level, one of my favourite pieces of advice comes from Sherlock Holmes himself:

"Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."
"Frequently."
"How often?"
"Well, some hundreds of times."
"Then how many are there?"
"How many! I don't know."
"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed."

There's plenty of reference material everywhere if you just keep your eyes open. For example, today I was cycling around a new suburb here. To my great amusement, the road there is called "park lane" or "garden lane" yet currently it looks more like Mordor or a rock garden. But when life gives you rocks, loot rocks for terrain building and take photos for reference. Here are a couple of different piles on a construction site:



So what colour are they? Grey? Well, some are, mostly...



...while these definitely aren't. The overall colour appears brownish but there's a great deal of variation among them.



This is what would be called "grey stone" in a Finnish proverb. Is it grey?



Yes and no. You can easily find even more diverse samples around the world. That's why I try to bring variation to all stone structures instead of painting them flat grey, just to give an example.

In the very first stage of everything, try to forget about models, modelling materials and paints. Form a mental image of what you want to accomplish. Look at actual wooden structures, rusty equipment or whatever you're doing. What's the main colour? What's in the recesses? What's on the very edges? Then pick techniques and colours which reflect that. I use W&N inks for the deepest recesses, washes with glaze medium for soft toning, dry-sponging with blister foam for gentle highlighting, pigments for rust and caked mud, and other tricks as needed. Another very good idea for a natural look is to use mixed paints and washes, gently changing the mixing ratio over the whole piece. If it ends up too uneven, apply a uniform layer of wash which ties the tone together. All the buildings above have several fairly ample rounds of washing and drybrushing with gradually reduced weight. It eventually converges to something about right.

OK, I won't spam this thread with off-topic any more but please do start another one if you want to discuss the deeper philosophy of painting. I'm sure other people on this forum can give you great advice as well.

Now post painted stuff, you all.

[Centaur_Seducer]

Amazing that we, with languages so far away from each other that's possible, still call grey stones just "grey stone"
Might be some cross-influences, but still

[FramFramson]

I think my favourite of your stone work is actually the foundations on that mansion.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

112 Old Glory Ancient Germans. Based up for Hail Caesar.....

Gorgeous! These OG Germans are full of Chracter aren't they?  You should make more shots nad post them to the Ancients board here.

After years of painting 20mm historicals, I finally sat down and started to paint some 28's again. A big change inspired by In Her Majesty's Name and also by a return to Strange Aeons.



Honestly, I've been afraid to paint my 28's and some of these minis have sat unpainted in my lead-pile for over THIRTY years...   So I'm quite happy to get this lot painted, even if it is just early days all over again.
I'll post a couple of close-ups over at the Strange Aeons board.

The big T-Rex is a pre-paint toy, and was only based and not painted so he only there for show and don't count....

What a lovely bunch, well done!

I painted buildings and other stuff for the CoC game. (Note: this time I used several direct lights so the lighting may not be completely even or faithful to the colours.)

Dolmot, some lovely paintwork and a great choice of buildings, really love your CoC stuff. Some nice philosophical reading about grey stones as well