8th Edition Event at Local GW - pt.2

Sorry about this late post, but was to a pubcrawl most of saturday afternoon and evening.. My hangover combined with the very un-northly heatspell Copenhagen is under at the moment, really hasn't had me in the mood for writing, but here comes my short resume of the 8th Edition release-party event at the Games Workshop store here in Copenhagen.

The crowd was huge, and when I left for my pubcrawl a few minutes past 1, they had just three copies of the new rulebook left, all the others sold! Not many had taken the time to dress up, but the few who did looked splendid in their outfits. I believe there was a Witchhunter, a Tilean merchant or member of some free company, and there was a Priest of Ulric and an Abbess of Sigmar (bitter rivalry between the two members of the clergy was evident, as they tried to convert followers to their respective Gods...)
Very sporty and cool of them to do so, great for the mood at the event.

Then there was the cake-baking competition, sad to say mine didn't make the cut, although several staff members commented on it being one of the tastiest of the lot, but it was the store manager who had the say in which cake was the best tasting, and to his tongue, it wasn't mine... The cake best decorated was also rewarded, and one had created 3 Orcs out of marzipan and deservedly won that prize.

At 1 pm, the painted miniatures were to be judged, and I must say the dozen or so entries were of a very high standard; several of them converted as well. Unfortunately I never got to take pictures of any of them, but a wonderful Spellsinger won the competition. Faultless blending and really smooth colourtransitions combined with a very detailed and expressionfull face, gave the model the little extra, which the other miniatures lacked.

But there will be other chances, both for me and all the other miniature painters in the area! Another competition will be held in September, for that month's release - or that's roughly what the store manager said, and I'll just cross my fingers and hope he sticks to his word. My guess is that the theme will be the forthcoming Island of Blood-set, or alternatively be Chaos Daemon-related, with the second wave of Daemon-models coming in August.
Either way, I hope the competition won't be restricted to the armies in the Island of Blood or to Daemons, but I guess that could be a way of upping the sales for said armies... I guess only time will tell.

8th Edition Event at Local GW - pt.1

Number 14!

07:35 I turned up at the local GW, eagerly anticipating the opening of the store at 10 o'clock, with the 8th Edition Event starting, with the release of the new rulebook and numerous competitions - one of which was a gift-handout for the first 10 people to enter the store. Maybe it was the fact that I ate breakfast; maybe I shouldn't have shaved myself this morning; maybe I shouldn't have spent so much time decorating the cake I baked last night; maybe... Meh, I'll never know what made me come just a bit too late, and thus lose the chance for some free stuff, but awh well! Instead of waiting by the store door for a couple of hours, with practically nothing to do, I decided to head back home. I did leave my freshly baked cake at the store though, for one of those earlier in the line than me, to carry inside when they opened - all I can do now is cross my fingers that the cake along with Vlad von Carstein will fetch me a prize or two... Time will tell, now I think I'll relax a couple of hours before heading back to GW...

Oh, I did take a picture of my Warhammer cake: one of my largest sculpts to date, using my ma's great recipe!
Next edition release, I'll finish the glazing the day before, maybe I'll get to the store in time to secure a better place in the line that way... I think some of them actually slept in front of the store, maybe that's the way to go? Either way, I'll return with the results of the various competitions at a later point, and maybe some thoughts on the new rules, as I'll pick them up at the store today as well, so stay tuned for part two!

Vlad von Carstein - Finished

Fuelled by the warpstone of Mordheim, Vlad's magic seeped over Sylvania, coiling through the unguarded Gardens of Morr, pooling in the open peasant graves. Across Vlad's lands the dead awoke. Skeletons clawed their way through the dusty soil; Zombies stirred in their muddy holes; Ghouls loped from their crypt lairs to worship their new master. With this act, von Carstein threw down the gauntlet to the Empire. The Wars of the Vampire Counts had begun.

Here he is, finished at last!

I can't claim to be the author of the little piece of fluff typed down in itallics above, that honour goes to Gav Thorpe, the man behind the Vampire Counts' army book for 7th Edition. After buying Vlad, I read all I could find in the book about Vlad, in search of inspiration, and I thought that particullar passage really fit with the pose of the vile count - hence all the green, warpstone and all...
The book also describes Sylvania as a rather barren and wartorn county, and I hope I've managed to capture that essence in the base, with the gnarled, leafless tree, dead grass and leaves. Speaking of the grass, as I don't have any static grass in my flat here in Denmark, I used my own hair istead - a cheap alternative worth trying for other poor modellers! I must admit it was quite difficult to handle, but I hope the end result turned out to be convincing. The leaves I made from a natural dead leaf, grinded to small bits before glueing onto the base an effect I'm very happy with!

I'm not as happy with the OSL on this figure though, compared to what I've achieved on my last two Blood Angel Terminators.. Might be that my technique simply works better with Midnight Blue, rather than Dark Angels Green, or that the placement of the glowing blade makes it hard for the glow to reach the rest of the model, and thus the illusion of green light suffers, with fewer surfaces to be reflected off. Or maybe it's a combination... I think it looks decent enough, though, and I'm still very happy with how the blade itself turned out.

Now that the cloak is in colour, it might be easier to notice the ever so slight conversion I've made to the model. Originally, an extra ghostly head is soaring out from the cloak, but for one thing, I think it makes the left side of the model a bit too busy; secondly the model's front-heavy enough as it is (prone to tipping, even with the extra weight added to the base with putty and sand..); finally - and most important - I screwed up when cutting the loose head out, which ruined the part which should fit like a jigsaw-piece with a hole in the cloak. I gave up on using greenstuff to fix it, and the head's whispy "neck" was too thin to drill a pin-hole through, so I gave up on it all, and simply greenstuffed the hole in the cloak, and have later come to appreciate the choice, based on the two first reasons.
For a while, I thought of using it on the base - might be quite cool to have it come out of the skull's eyesocket, or something - but in the end, I decided against it. The pinning problem would have made it difficult, but also I think it might've made the base too busy, and drawn attention away from the model itself. I've still kept the head though, so it might find its way into another project, sometime in the future.

Hope you all like him; I know I do, and he's been a true joy to paint and work with, so it's not impossible I'll buy me another one, just to test out some other paint schemes. Then again, the other Vampire models do look rather splendid, so maybe a new one instead... I'll save that discussion for later, as at the moment my vallet is thin, and the Space Hulk miniatures are waiting eagerly to be painted!

Vlad von Carstein - WIP2

Progress has been slow last couple of days, as I've been at a music festival instead of home and painting. It's truly been a blast, with great musicans, wonderful concerts and perfect weather!

But, this blog's about miniatures, not music, and in fact I have made some progress on Vlad this afternoon, which I thought I'd share. I've finished his armour, and painted his hair black, as well as working a bit more on the fur of his cloak and finished all the metallic parts.



In the end, I went for a red armour, which most of the previous comments have been in favour of. By Rogue Pom's suggestion, I've tried to make it dark, using a glaze of Scab Red + Chaos Black to give it a hint of purple. When painting the red, the new undercoat of black followed by white, really shows its value, as I could just give it one or two thin coats of Blood Red directly, and then work "backwards", making shadows and darker areas using Red Gore, Scab Red and Chaos Black. Quite the opposite from adding more and more red into a black base coat, which is how I've previously painted all my reds. Brother Zael, the next Space Hulk miniature to get some paint, has already recieved the new undercoat, and I'm really looking forward to working on him - the red parts should take a lot less time now!

But back to Vlad: I've seen many pictures of him, with white or light grey hair - 'Eavy Metal's take on the model amongst them - and while it gives a certain air of authority certainly fitting for the first of the von Carstein vampires, the Vampire Counts armybook describes him as:

"...darkly handsome, of noble bearing and aspect..."

Now, I'm not saying that grey hair can't be handsome, but to me, Vlad would've been a black haired nobleman, in his mid-twenties or early thirties when he recieved the blood kiss, and I think of him as quite vain and that he'd try to keep his dark hair in undeath. Also, from a painter's perspective, I hope this will make his face become a focal point - after all, with the fangs and glowing eyes, his face is what gives him away as a vampire!

Now, all that's lacking is a couple of gems, the cloak with its screaming heads, the hilt of the sword and of course the base. Oh, and the sword will get its glow-effect, but I'm going to wait with that until last, as I find it easier to decide how large a glow will be fitting for a miniature - what is too much, and what is too little - when everything else is painted.

Hopefully he'll be all finished sometime tomorrow, but feel free to come with any critisism or other comments!

Vlad von Carstein - WIP

So, here's a pair of pictures, showing yesterday's progress.
The pictures ain't of the best quality, with the model being just a work in progress, I didn't bother with setting up my photobox, and Vlad's face in particular suffers for that.



I've still not decided how to do his armour, I've seen some great pictures of this model, with the armour done a very dark metallic colour. Others seem to do it golden, but I kind of feel the model looses some of it's aura of evil and darkness, if painted brightly golden. A friend of mine suggested red, like the wings I did on his shoulderpad, while another friend wanted me to do it a eerie and ghostly light blue - I think the latter would clash with the greatsword's green, though... Any thoughts?

Speaking of the sword, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. At first I wanted to paint it in True Metallic Metal style, but my blending ain't good enough to give the smooth end result I crave, so I ended up repainting it green. The plan is to make it glow with some OSL-effects (as will the ring and eyes), I just need to finish the armour-bits first, so I can do it in one go.

I promised to write a couple of words on the undercoating-technique I've used for this model, and I think it's working quite as I read it should. The red was very easy to paint, just a few layers and there it was, just like I wanted. Same goes for face and other light parts (although I think the blitz from my camera has ruined the details and shading on the pictures above..), all's been very easy to paint up.
Another great thing, is that with the raised areas getting some white dust, the details on the sculpts gets so much easier to see. It's easier to plan which parts will get which colours, where I need contrast and such.

Comments and critisism is as always welcomed, but I hope you like him so far!

Summer!

Summer has truly come to Copenhagen, the weather's been warm and lovely for quite some time. In other words, it's been hard to pick up the brush, with nature showing off its best colours, but with the upcoming 8th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, my fingers have started to itch for something to paint again - the urge getting stronger with every day passing, making the 10th of july get closer and closer...

Yesterday, I happened to be passing by the local GW, and went in for a chat and a quick look in the new rulebook (which I think looks fabolous, by the way). Anyways, it turns out that the store's having a small release party on the day, with all sorts of competitions for the customers: cake baking, army building, costume making and miniature painting.

I love competitions!

I promise you I'll give you pictures of the cake I plan to bake, but naturally I have to wait 'til we get closer to the date with baking it. In the meantime, you'll have to contend with the progress of my chosen (and newly bought) miniature for the painting competition:


Ever since I saw this editions sculpt of Vlad von Carstein, I've wanted to paint him up - it's so richly detailed and I think the sculptor (whom I sadly can't find the name of) truly has captured the character perfectly! Now I just hope I can do the piece justice.

I've tried a new undercoating technique for the first time, following a tutorial at Massive Voodoo, which basically is to first undercoat black, then gently "dust" it with white spray, which should make the raised areas naturally light, while cracks and areas you'd normally want darker, will be more black than white. Supposedly it'll make for an easier and better paintjob, as you get the best of both black and white undercoating: no need of darklining, as the black coat's there, while raised areas will pop more, and light colours like red, yellow and skin, will be easier to apply, due to the white.

I fear I might have been a bit too careful with the white, at least on his legs, ut I guess it's a learning process to get the technique right... I'll try to write down some thoughts on the matter in my next post, when I've tried my brushes on this new coating. And hopefully I'll find the time to do some regular posting of my progress on Vlad. I must admit I havn't decided on how to paint all parts of him, mainly the armour is undecided, so feel free to give me some suggestions, or if you have painted up one mini like him yourself, I'd love to see some pictures!

Sergeant Lorenzo

At long last, Sergeant Lorenzo is finished!
One of my favourite sculpts among the Space Hulk miniatures, with his characterful pose and facial expression, and the lovely detailed and unique armour. In the end, I'm very happy with how he's turned out, and I hope you like him too:

(Click to enlarge picture)

Painting this guy has been quite the battle, and several times I caught myself wondering wether this miniature wanted to be painted or not. Certain areas I've had to repaint over and over, 'cos I simply couldn't get it right, and certain parts I've had to remove the paint with sandpaper, before starting all over again with the brush. For example, the swordblade alone took me at least 6 tries, and more than 3 hours to get how it is now. For some reason I couldn't get the red right at his armour when I first started painting him, and I've completely lost the count of how many layers of diluted paint I've glazed most of it...

But finally, he's finished, and I can focus my entire attention on my upcoming exams in the last weeks of June. Until they're over and done with, I won't have time for painting nor modelling, and my blog will be more or less in hibernation. Come July I should be back though, laying my brush onto more Blood Angels or maybe some Genestealers... Only time will tell which shall be my target!

Brother Deino (bigger pictures)

Turns out the first images I posted of brother Deino were too small, so here is some larger ones.

(click image for even better view)

At the moment, the general opinion seems to be that I should only add battledamage to those models it's sculpted onto. Guess I'll follow that recipe, and then when they're all done, some with battledamage, some without, I'll make up my mind as to whether it looks good or incoherent with such differences in between the models.

The next model is advancing slowly but steadily, I havn't been able to do much painting yesterday nor today, but maybe later tonight.. I'll do my best not to keep you waiting!

Brother Deino

Well, as yesterday's sneakpeek might have given out, I'm currently working on some Space Marines, namely the Blood Angels off last years reissue of the Space Hulk game. And first of the gang to be completed this side of New Year, is Brother Deino - hope you like him!

(click on image for better view)

I don't think I've had these on the painting table since october or something, and now that I've picked them up again, I've made some changes in the way I paint them - hopefully for the better. Mainly, the mix of red I use now, is not as dark as earlier, and I've tried to define the edges more with some extra highlighting - much lighter than before. Also I've worked on my technique when it comes to my NMMs and the OSL from the Powerfist. On top of that I've made minor changes to the painting scheme: parts of the Stormbolters will be red, many teardrops/blooddrops will be done gold (those that look like gems will still be green emeralds, but many of the blooddrops don't have a gemcasing sculpted, and as such looks wierd painted green, in my eyes) and finally the thin wires will be done green. And for the cloth, I've settled for white - strictly speaking, this is not a change, as Brother Deino was the first of the Marines I've painted with any cloth on him, but I think I initially had planned to do it some other colour...

I'm still undecided as to how much battledamage I'll paint onto each model - the sculpts themselves varies a lot on that subject: some, like Brother Claudio and Sergeant Lorenzo, got large gaps and holes in their armour, while others, Brother Deino amongst them, look like they're coming directly from maintenance... Any thoughts on the matter? Should I dirty them up a bit, some scratches here and there; make it look like they've fought their way through a horde of Genestealers? Or should only the models with battledamage sculpted onto them, recieve such a treatment?

Either way, Brother Deino is not varnished yet, so if you have any suggestions or any critisism, don't be afraid to empty your mind!
And in case someone wonders, the thought I had when painting his Powerfist the way I did, was that he's just "turning it on", so to speak, and the powerfield giving the glow hasn't charged up yet, so the backside of the fist ain't enveloped in energy, just yet.
An alternative theory was given to me by a friend upon seeing the painted model, saying that "bitch-slapping" is the way to go, when fighting Genestealers...

Still around...

It's been a while, well over a month, but now I'm back! And even though this term's exams are approaching, I'll do my best to get the odd update rolling on this blog every now and then. I might even expand the theme for this blog somewhat, to include another hobby of mine, yet that's something I'm still contemplating... Time will tell!

Either way, I've spent the time since my last blog-entry doing quite the bit of experimenting, painting-technique-wise, and as such I don't have much to show yet, as a lot of time has gone to trial, error and starting over. I have finished one mini, and will post pictures of it tomorrow or the day thereafter, while a second is well under way. here's a sneak peak:

The red (although not very well represented in this picture, and turned way too orange due to light-settings) and the NMM gold, has been the main targets for my mentioned experimentation, and while this picture may not be much to go by, I hope you like it. Stay tuned for better pictures, come sunlight!

Coconut!

Been a while since last time I made a post in my blog, and frankly there ain't much to show in this post either... I did recieve the strangest of strange items one can get through regular mail yesterday, however, and I thought I'd share it with you.

In a couple of my previous posts, I've been promoting a painting competition under the name "Show Some Balls", run by Massive Voodoo, and the 18 entries can be seen here - for anyone interested. As earlier announced, I made an entry, sort of a rushed thingy one of the last days before the competition closed. At first I really didn't know what to make, but as Massive Voodoo got this jungle-theme, and all the artists got an ape-alias, I figured I'd paint some apes.
Not very original, but served as some nice freehand-practice. Either way, some of the contestants put a lot more into it than I did, and as such I'm happy that my entry didn't place among the winners. But by chance, my entry-number was randomly chosen for a small "surprise gift", which was to contain "... a Coconut, fresh from the Jungle and some PK-Pro Bases."

Now, as the site got this jungle-theme, and everything there is counted in bananas and the like, I didn't believe they were actually going to send me a coconut, but they did!
It really made my day to open the package and find a real coconut in there - along with some nice bases from PK-Pro and some German candy - it's like the slogan says: "Haribo macht Kinder froh - und Erwachsene ebenso!"
Now, all I have to do, is to decide on how to consume the 'nut; just take it as it is, or maybe something more fancy... Any suggestions?

Well, enough of balls, competitions and coconuts - what's the status of my current projects? And what happened to that green stuff tutorial I promised to write? Has there been any progress on those cloaks I was going to make out of plastic card?

Sadly, in short I have done very little: I made some attempts at the cloaks, but quickly gave up, and demotivated I have put the Chaos Warriors on ice for the time being. I've lacked the time or energy to do much hobby-related, barely touched a paintbrush since I finished my entry for the Show Some Balls-competition. Now that the Easter-holiday's arrived, I might get something done, but it really depends on my mood and if I got the inspiration to do anything. And a green stuff-article will simply have to wait 'til next time I start working on a project involving sculpting.

Speaking of sculpting, though... For anyone interested in sculpting and working with green stuff, I'd like to direct you over to a blog serving as a resource-archive, or theme-hub if you like, on the matter, simply called Green Stuff Sculpting. It looks like it's filling up nicely with links to various articles on how to sculpt or examples of great conversions or full sculpts made with green stuff, as well as tutorials - so check it out if you're interested in that kind of stuff!

Progress?

Not much to tell, not started painting nothing yet, still busy working on my Warriors - four of them are currently in progress, including the one I showed a picture of in my last post. At the moment I'm having some issues with how I'm to sculpt the cloaks - as I've changed their feet and general posture, the original cloaks had to go - not a big loss, considering their worn and torn appearance... Any true follower of Slaanesh, would think twice before donning anything but the finest clothing!

Anyways, I'm finding that greenstuff easily gets too bulky and thick for the cloaks, as I want them flowing out behind the Warriors as they charge forward, so I went through many of Copenhagen's hobby stores, in search of an alternative. In the end, I was lucky enough to find me some sheathes of plastic card - on sale no less - a mere two danish Kroner pr A4-sized sheath (that's roughly €0,25 or $0,35)!

Now, why would I want plastic card? Well, I did recall seeing a tutorial some time ago of how one could heat plasticcard to make rather convincing banners, and so I thought to myself, that cloaks and banners should be about the same thing. The author of the tutorial is doing something which I'm not a fan of, namely warming plastic over an open flame - that's got to produce some nasty fumes! So instead, I've opted to use boiling water, which seems to do the trick - although I havn't had the time to find any good technique yet, but if (hopefully when) I get the hang of it, I'll make sure it gets posted here in detail! I'll do some testing the coming days, and we'll simply have to see.

In addition to the plastic card, I got myself some yellow-grey milliput - and frankly I understand why it's so much cheaper than GWs greenstuff. It might just be me who's using it wrong, but to me it is a lot more sticky, acts differently in contact with water, and doesn't seem suitable for detailwork. It's too grainy and seems to rupture if treated too hard. That being said, I think it can serve its purpose at larger and more rougher things, eventually at bases. I do not recommend it for small detail-work, however - at least, greenstuff is much more to my liking. I've placed an order for some brownstuff and some procreate, and when they arrive we'll see how they fare in my eyes!

Owh, but look here! I have found some use for the milliput:
A slightly irregularily shaped ball!
This (when painted) will be my entry in Massive Voodoo's competition: "Show Some Balls!", with a final deadline on the 10th of march - so hurry and sculpt your own ball or eventually make a pair, there's still time to join! I have yet to decide on what I'll paint onto it, but I do have some ideas...

Inspired...

As the work on my Sorcerer neared the end, I began thinking of what to do next. I came to a point with my Sorcerer, where I had to wait some hours for certain parts of putty to cure a bit, before I could move on. I suddenly had a timepocket to fill, and while I could have started painting my Dragon Ogres, I thought that the space of time would be better suited continueing sculpting - after all, both putty and tools were already in my hands, so no need to dig out paint and brushes.

But what to do? I do have quite a few regiments waiting in their sprues, and while looking through the boxes, I came over my Chaos Warriors, and it hit me how static they look, all lined up, weapons and shields at same angle and looking quite boring (at least the third time one assembles a regiment of them...), despite the rather great sculpts. Lots of good detail, no doubt about that, just lack "motion".
Then my mind wandered to an image from the armybook, of a charging warrior, and I thought to myself, that's what I want to make! So I cut off a leg, half the cloak and one shoulder, then found an arm and some greenstuff, and started putting it together. A few hours later, and this is what I got:
It's by no means finished, I'm currently working on making the cloak sort of flutter behind him, and I need to find him a helmet. And even if the shield's finished, the arm might need some extra sculpting as I've cut away a large portion of the cloak which'd normally hide the upper arm... His left foot is there somewhere, but it's bet so high you can't see it from this angle.
Owh and here's the picture from the armybook, just for reference:Mine will get a classic Chaos Warrior shield, though, as I think they simply look gorgeous - and besides: carrying half-torn bodies stuck to the shield ain't only unpractical, but slightly un-Slaaneshi, don't you think?
I don't know how you think, but personally I felt so happy with the result, that I decided to make the rest of the regiment in a similar matter, i.e. less static, and all with unique poses, but so far I've only gotten the second one to about the same stage as the one on the picture above, although with quite a different pose. Unfortunately I didn't take no pictures of him yet, and I'll try not to make you wait long.

Anyways, hope you like the idea and how the first one's turned out so far.
Last in this post, I thought I'd include a picture I took this morning, which managed to capture some of the details better.

Sorcerer of Chaos - Finished!

That's more like it!
Name and a short story will come later, I promise to have it ready by the time he's painted, if not earlier.

Here's some pictures of him - terribly sorry about the mediocre quality of them, but I hope you all like how he's turned out.
I do know that the left arm is slightly too long, but the hand has turned out so much better than my first try, so I don't think I'll attempt to cut the 1mm or so off his wrist, out of fear that the hand might get damaged...

Oh, and I did try to take some pictures as I worked, although I doubt they're good enough for a step-by-step guide.. I'll look the pictures through some other day, and make that list of tools and write down tips and stuff I learned while working on him, as I promised.

Sorcerer of Chaos - WIP4

A small update on the Sorcerer.
First of all, thank you all for the encouraging comments so far. Means a lot.

I have gone through with my plan, giving myself a new chance to sculpt the hand and arm better. I have unfortunatly had very little time to do any sculpting, however, so I havn't gotten very far yet, but I think my skeleton for the hand is of a better size this time - like last time, I've used thin staples to create the core of the hand, and then I add greenstuff-"flesh" on top of the "bones". I'll get some pictures at another time.
It turned out surprisingly easy to remove the old head and lower arm without damaging them, so as you can see on the picture above, they're still with me, serving as a reference for "too big", hehe.

I hope to have some more updates in the not so distant future, but february has turned out to be quite the busy month for me, so I can't promise nothing. And I'll try to get a post up about tools, tips and the like, for any who'd like to give sculpting a try themself - it is very fun and rewarding, once you get the hang of it.

Sorcerer of Chaos - WIP3

I'm kind of at a stand-still here, and a bit at a loss as to what I'm to do next. I have finished sculpting my first head (milestone!) and also given him a left hand.
Now, it's not very hard to spot that his hand is way out of proportions, and his head is also slightly too large. On top of that I think the face is expressionless and boring, the cheekbones are too prominent, his nose is too beaky and he's even looking in the wrong direction - at least I think he'd look much better if his head had followed his arm. That was after all the plan when I started sculpting the head, but as I was trying to figure out how to make ears and shape the face, I sort of lost sight of the bigger picture, and I was unable to spot my mistake, until too late.

So, uhm, what now?
In a way, I have done what I set out to do, namely sculpt a head and a whole arm for the first time. And I have learned a lot, no doubt about that, and that's always nice.
I am however not happy with the result, so my Sorcerer won't see any paint in the near future, that's for sure. In fact, I'm quite tempted to scrap both head and arm, and redo them from scratch.
Right now I think I'll take a short break from him, however - I seldom get anything constructive done, if I'm frustrated over my own mistakes. It's the wrong kind of motivation for me, but that being said, I won't abandon my Sorcerer either, his time will come!

I have recieved a request for some hints and tips regarding how to sculpt, and although I'm far from an expert, I promise I'll start working on a list of tools, including a short description of how I use each, and if I've started redoing the face and arm, I'll try to include some step-by-step pictures as well. Hopefully something to look forward to!

Sorcerer of Chaos - WIP2

Thank you for the feedback so far on my Sorcerer.
I've gotten a bit more sculpted today, his left arm and his back are now roughly fleshed out, although I see I'll need to cut and file away a couple of thing, when it has finished curing. I settled for the "open hand, palm face forward"-pose, although I fear the fingers will be a challenge... I'll suffer and weep tomorrow, I guess, heh.
The observant might have spotted that I've started on the head as well, uhm, not gotten any further than marking out the major muscles at the throat and neck. Will just have to see how doing the rest goes tomorrow as well.
Thanks for watching, and any comments or criticism is welcome.

Sorcerer of Chaos - WIP

Just a few pictures of my WIP Sorcerer.
His torso's from an Ungor, while the right arm's a Marauder Horseman banner-arm, with a Daemonette-claw to crown the staff. I'm torn between having his left hand point, or to be open with palm pointing forward, as if he's channeling some spell out of his hand. And as I don't have any suitable heads in my bits-box, and I don't think I want to put a helmet on his head, I think I'll end up sculpting his head in the end.. As I envision him in my mind, he'll get shoulder-long hair, maybe a braid or some charms in it, but the left half of his scalp will be shaved to the skin - might give him a tattoo there when I get to painting.

He's not glued to the base yet, and I'm not sure if it's good enough, or if I should build it up a bit more, him being a character and all..?

Tell me what you think, and help me decide what to do with his left arm!

*cracks the whip*

Alright!
Holiday's over, exams are done for now, and it's time to return to the hobby!

It's been well over a month since last update, and I'm afraid I have nothing new to show youtoday, as I havn't done anything hobby-related since I finished the three Pegasus Knights for my brother.

I've still not decided on what colours to use on my Dragon Ogres, now that my mind's free to think of other things than my exam, I'll see if I don't get a spark of inspiration the following days. Suggestions are of course welcome!
In the meantime, I'll see if I can finish adding putty to a Sorcerer I started on sometime during november, in between painting Bretonnians, but never completed.

While you wait for the next hobby-update, here's some pictures I took at my parents' home in Norway - the weather was absolutely lovely!
My parents had forgotten to take in the garden furniture... serves quite well as an indicator of snow-depth...
And here's a morning picture of the town, seen from the house. Fog hides the river, and I just love the light of the sky. Our house is still in the shade, hidden from the sun by the hilltop behind the house.
And here's a view from atop of that hill in the evening.
Mordor's just beyond the next ridge...

Aah, I miss Norway. Good thing I'm heading home again this weekend - hope to have a hobby-related post within a week though!