Andrea Miniatures Knights, Testors 1/35 Priest, and Dwarf Helicopter

Well its been awhile since the last post. I have been painting but haven't had a chance to update the blog. I found an old box set of the Games Workshop Battle of Five Armies that was in the closet and decided that if I do not paint these 10mm figures now while I can still see them then I never will. So I spent way too much time painting those little !#$%@ up. I think it would have been faster to paint my house with a #1 Windsor and Newton Series 7 brush. The whole set is painting now, and it does look impressive when it is all laid out but man those figures are small! If anyone is interested I might do a post later to show you how they turned out.

In the meantime I painted up these two Andrea Miniatures 54mm Knights and placed them in a small vignette. I am still working on becoming better at groundwork and I think this turned in a step forward.

 

Next up is a armor piece that I decided to add figures to. The model is the old Testors 1/35 Priest and the figures are from Bronco models British Artillery Crew for the 25 pounder. The figures turned out to fit in the kit perfectly and even the guy seated working the gun matched up. I will probably go back and replace one of the cargo nets with a few logs as I think that would balance the display out more. I do not claim to be an armor builder so I know there are errors on the kit. Really for me the kit is just a prop to support the figures so I am good with building out of the box.

Lastly I finished up a Games Workshop Dwarf helicopter. It had been sitting on my to do pile for quite awhile and so I put a quick table top level paint job on there. Fun kit and who doesn't like a dwarf flying a helicopter.

 

As always comments or suggestions are welcome.



ReaperCon 2013

Got in from ReaperCon 2013 last night and I had a great time there. I got to see some old friends from the Lone Star Figure Show and met some really great painters and artists there. If you have never been to a ReaperCon and can make then you definitely should. It is easily worth the effort. The best thing is you get a chance to meet with the Reaper factory painters, hang out, and ask them questions in a relaxed atmosphere. I tried to visit with everyone I could and pick up some tips and tricks to try out in my own painting. A really friendly bunch of people and I plan to be back next year.

As far as my entries in the painting competition went I did really well this year. I took home a gold for my Teddy Roosevelt in 54mm. Nothing else placed and that is fine. I still got a chance to compete with some really talented artists and the skill level there was very high. I would say the talent there was equal to the talent of the Lone Star Figure show but of a different style and certainly subject matter. Though both events have a mix of fantasy and historical, the Lone Star Show has more historical entries, while the ReaperCon has more fantasy.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me but I snagged some shots off of the Reaper page to show you the pictures of my stuff that they took there. Most of these figures are shown in previous posts so you can get different views and light settings of the figures. I have some links to the main site at Reaper at the bottom of the post so you can see some of the other artists who did some amazing work.

First up is the Andrea Miniatures 54m Teddy Roosevelt which took a gold in the painters division.

Next is the Soldiers 1/16th Sister of Battle.

This is the Reaper Miniatures The Grudge, (not sure on the scale).

This is the 54mm Nemrod Miniatures Joan of Arc.

A 54mm Reaper Miniatures Belladonna, Salvager.

This is a 54 mm Reaper Miniatures Dana Murphy.

Lastly Draconia Miniatures Droohan-Taff.

The main Reaper site for the contest can be found here:

http://www.reapermini.com/ReaperCon2013PaintingContest

Reaper Miniatures The Grudge

Just finished up this bust for the upcoming 2013 ReaperCon show. A really nice sculpt and very painter friendly. Not a great deal of mold lines to remove though there are a few on the shoulder plates you will need to sand down. It is a one piece kit so there really is not much else to do in terms of build. I would definitely recommend the kit if your looking for a Dwarf bust to paint up.

Lone Star Figure Show 2013

Got back from the Lone Star Figure Show last night and it was a great time. Bob Bethea, Anders Heintz, Doug Cohen and many others involved really did a great job putting it on again. If you ever never have attended this show or a strictly figure show in general then I highly encourage you to do so.

I did better than last year, taking two Bronze awards, as opposed to one Bronze and one certificate of merit last year. So that's progress. I have included a few shots of the awards themselves as they are really cool and unique. Being in Texas the awards for Bronze, Silver, and Gold are cowboys sculpted by Anders Heintz instead of a plaque or a medal. A really cool idea.

The best thing about these shows is the chance to meet some of the best painters in the world and visit with them. People are always friendly and more than willing to help you with new techniques or ideas to improve your own painting. It's always good to get a chance to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones.
While at the show I got a chance to attended a amazing air brush demo by Chris Mrosko and got some new ideas for painting figures with an airbrush.


 I took some pictures of the models and with my camera they turned out pretty horrible. Unfortunately you wont get to see a lot of the amazing work that was there because the pictures were blurry or whitened out. Still I have put up some of the better shots so people can get an idea of what was there. These photos are just the tip of the iceberg of what actually there so be sure and check the Lone Star Figure Show's main website for the professionally taken photographs. Their main site is here: http://www.lonestarfigureshow.com/

So here are the photos:

If you ordered any of the Reaper Miniatures from their Bones Kickstarter here are some shots of whats coming your way.  These things are massive and you will not be disappointed in their quality.

 Here is a shot of me with Julio Cabos. I attended his workshop last year and this is the figure we used (the Teddy Roosevelt from a previous post here). We didn't get a chance to complete it so I took it home after the show, finished it up, and entered it this year. Luckily it won one of my two bronzes. The other bronze award was for the Night Goblin also in a previous post. If you ever get a chance to attended a workshop by Julio then do so. You will learn a great deal and he is a amazing teacher and really great guy.