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!