The Road to ReaperCon and perhaps a detour or two

[kathrynloch]

I haven't given up on Ashantyr but the closer ReaperCon gets, she has to drop a little on the priority list. And while most (including me) are jazzed about Games Day, I'm looking at ReaperCon as a fantastic opportunity for a warm-up. I definitely want to enter the contest and see if I have a shot at a Sophie so I'm painting up Reaper minis but you can also enter any miniature from any company - they just can't go for the Sophie awards. So I may see about taking a GW mini or two - it would be great to get some feedback from the pros on my GD entry. We shall see. Plus, my client added a few projects for me and on these he selected Reaper minis. I asked for and received his permission that if I finished them in time and they looked good, if I could take them to the Con and enter them. He loves the idea.

I'm still waffling on the Dark Sword contest. I really want to enter it but I don't know with the minis being so tiny. I'll kick the idea around this weekend. If I do jump in, I'll put those in here.

In the meanwhile, here we go with Reaper stuff.

The Reaper vampire I did with the sheer cloth technique was a practice piece for this little lady.

I want the fabric to be a little more sheer over her boobs so I need to fix that. She looks a bit orange but its actually the camera fighting me on color balance.

In a couple of photos, on my monitor she looks a little orange but that's the camera giving me fits over the color balance. I had to change it when I went outside to photograph the griffon. Whenever I change the color balance then come back to my work table, the camera gives me fits finding the right one. I have to reset the custom option repeatedly it but it eventually figures it out.

But I think she's coming along nicely. She's a mage for my client and he has a white/hawk turquiose color theme with his other wizards and wants to keep it going.

I've got more to post in here but I need to get photos. And I really need to slap some paint on something instead of messing with photos right now. Sorry but this one will have to do for a bit.

As always, suggestions are most appreciated!!!!

 

[marjedi]

So far so good hun! You managed to go get the white looking just right.

 

[kathrynloch]

Thank you Mar! I'm going to see what sort of trouble I can get into today but hopefully more pics soon.

 

[marjedi]

When is reapercon anyways? And is this the only project?

Not adding pressure or anything, just askin..

 

[kathrynloch]

May 24th thru 27th.

I have an idea for a diorama but I don't know if I can get all the stuff. So I'm working on the Reaper minis as if I'll be able to get everything just in case. If I can't, I'll enter the best ones as singles and see about entering the ones I'm working on for my client. Again it just depends how they turn out. The contest rules say you can enter as many as you like in each division, but only one will actually be judged. I guess the judges decide which one is the best?

They run things a little differently, there's an Open Division where conversions and scratch built is taken into consideration, Painting Division, where only your painting is judged and if the model is customized, that won't be judged except for under presentation. Diorama where two or more minis have to tell a dynamic story. And Ordinance - machines and mechanicals.

Anyway, the Reaper minis can also compete for the Sophie. Plus I've been told to bring some minis to show class instructors (especially for my one on one) for a critique, especially if I have a technique I want to learn or am struggling with. Gee, wonder what that could be. lol!

 

[marjedi]

Nomememnonoemenon perhaps? I have this nafging feeling that Jen will spend all day on that subject.....that and how to do skin and faces.

 

[kathrynloch]

Hey, she can spend all day talking about whatever the hell she wants as long as it has something to do with painting. I'll be a little sponge soaking it all up.

Well, y'all ready for this cavalcade?

Y'all remember this guy - I'm hoping to make him part of the diorama. I just did a little basecoat work on the extras - bow, quiver, belt, etc.

And diorama for these two as well. I haven't even started the other one. *sigh*

I originally planned for this one to be in diorama as well but as I was taking pics, I had another inspiration hit. I still have to flesh it out, so it's kinda up in the air but if it works it will be cool. So hopefully this will go in the painting category.

This one is also hopefully a painting category entrant. I had to strip her because of the "texture" that I had a problem with awhile back. But I want to use pigments...actually pan pastels on the horse body.

Diorama for these two as well. But the last guy is giving me nine kinds of hell. He may go as something to show the instructors as a cry for help. lol!

These three are sabertooths which are for my client. Dontcha just love the big one without his teefs? lol! He looks so funny! Anyway, remember the white tiger hide on the Ironblaster? Client wants white tigers for these guys. Yay! I'm happy to oblige. If they turn out well, they'll come for the painting category.

And we have Sarah, which was the first set of pics above but this also has the second mage my client wants. So we shall see how these turn out and if they go too.

These are the Game of Thrones minis I have, still debating on 'em but I do have the set up in mind. Just in case they are Cersei, Lady in Waiting #1, and Bronn is the headless one down there.

Here's an update on the Firebelly commission. I'm tossing him in here because I didn't feel like digging up the old thread just to update one photo. lol!

Almost forgot! Sneak peak! Just a glimpse of something which is also planned for the diorama. What is it? You'll have to wait and see. Plus, I have one more mini I haven't photographed yet.

So you can see why I want to get that diorama done. It all depends on if I can get everything for it.

That's the update so far.

 

[marjedi]

Lololol that is quite a stash of minis there...makes my painting table look empty in comparison.

Here's a crazy thought.....finish one entry at the time perhaps??

 

[Elric2k]

Everything is coming up aces thus far. my only complaint, you have way too many threads here! Im begging you to stick to one

 

[Meph]

Phew, that's quite the pipeline to process. :tremble!:

 

[Savanttheory]

Glad to see I'm not the only person that likes to work on 15 models at a time

 

[kathrynloch]

Lololol that is quite a stash of minis there...makes my painting table look empty in comparison.

Here's a crazy thought.....finish one entry at the time perhaps??

That's basically the idea.

Everything is coming up aces thus far. my only complaint, you have way too many threads here! Im begging you to stick to one

Sorry hun, I can't do one because I go nuts trying to find things and flipping page after page. If I have different threads for the specific minis, I know which one to go to.

Hey, think of it this way. I could have started a thread for each mini. :devil:

Phew, that's quite the pipeline to process. :tremble!:

Heh, well, no worse and actually a heck of a lot better than an army. Plus, I find I get a bit of an assembly line going. When I get certain colors mixed, I work on a specific mini or two, when those are done with that particular color. I look around and see if I need to use it on anyone else. So...we go down the line with various flesh tones, or brown belts, boots, etc. And I knock 'em out in one swell foop. :laugh:

Glad to see I'm not the only person that likes to work on 15 models at a time

Minis are kinda like potato chips, you can't have just one, I also can't have just one going at a time.

 

[kathrynloch]

Now wait just one minute here!

You know when get working on something and you're kinda just cruising along. You basically know what effect you're going to get so let's git 'er done boys.

Then all of a sudden you realize, wait a sec, this totally is NOT the effect I was expecting...but instead of having to redo everything...this is way cooler!!!!

I was going to leave this guy as sneak peaks here and there. But heck, y'all already know he's got pigments on him. So y'all probably already know what he is.

But I took photos of him and surprised myself with the results. It's fun when you have one of those, "well, ya learn something new every day," days.

Beware what appears in the blacklight.

Isn't that freaky? It's really freaky because I haven't even used the UV Reactive paint yet!!! This is with only using the Jacquard Pearl Ex pigments. I have never heard anything about them being UV Reactive - ever.

But I don't think this is a fluke or coincidence.

I followed KitKats trailblazing with the UV reactive paints but I wanted to see how they would look with my metallic pigments. So jumped on Ebay picked up two colors of paint and a small handheld Blacklight "flashlight'. I'm still kinda iffy on how the paint will react to sealer so I decided to do all of my pigment work first, seal, then do the UV paint. So we have a basecoat of regular black paint, nothing special there.

Then application of Jacquard True Blue, and blended with Sky Blue in certain areas. After that I applied Mink a brown "duo type" color that shows green in certain light. After that, the final blend was a Due Green-Yellow.

I hit the whole thing with a very light coat of sealer. While I was waiting for the sealer to dry, just for fun, I turned off the lights, grabbed my little blacklight and started snapping pics. I didn't even change settings. I've got it on manual shutter and aperture anyway...still I figured I would just see this blob.

Uh...that's a glowing dragon....look at the background behind him. No blacklight reflection - only the dragon is blue.

Now, because the pigments have metal bits in them, I expected some blacklight reflection...if you can see the bit of pink/purple sparkle, that's what I expected except for all by itself.

I honestly have no idea but this is kinda cool. Now, if it is truly UV Reactive, I would think I'd get a variation in color - I used different shades of blue, greens, browns and a bit of yellow...we just have a solid blue with some neon sparkle but I'm honestly just guessing here.

Well, I guess we shall see what tomorrow shall bring.

 

[Meph]

Well, what else is there to say...

 

[Stewsayer]

It looks really good Kath.

 

[kathrynloch]

hehe...thanks Stew and Meph.

Unfortunately, the dragons had to take a bath in Dawn Power Dissolver. They were definitely being obstinate beasts! So I'm going to start over with them tomorrow.

The good news is, I managed to get a lot of work done last night and today. The bad news....it seems like I have accomplished nothing!!! ARGH! I'm going nowhere mighty fast.

Oh well, I'm throwing almost everything in here so strap in and hang on!

This guy also had to get stripped and repainted. Here's where he's at now. He looks a little green but it was the ink I used on him, not the paint. lol! So I should be able to get that fixed no problem.

Gwenneth Roanmane is finally a roan! Yay! But still have a long way to go getting the horse colors right.

This is a new one. I only worked on it because for a bit yesterday, all of a sudden I couldn't paint a face to save my life. Hacked me off big time! So I grabbed this dude and at least I got a decent face going.

This is a 54mm and having the larger scales around helps when I run into a problem. At least I can work through painting faces or painting armor or whatever and not have the hand tremors cause a huge problem at the same time. A lot of times, especially when I'm trying to work on NMM, the smaller scales become an excerise in futility not just because the NMM is giving me fits but the hand tremors are screwing everything up. You want to talk about getting pissed? I work and work trying to get NMM and I start to get something half way decent - then there goes the hand and wipes out everything I just did. Okay, start over and fix it - there it goes again! It becomes a vicious cycle. So jumping over to larger scales helps some. At least I have more of a fighting chance. lol!

Anyway, he's going okay. At ReaperCon, any miniature of any scale and/or manufacturer is welcome in the contest. Only Reaper Minis can compete for the Sophie Award. So if he keeps going the way he's going, I may end up taking him with me.

I'm going to change the hair color though. I was thinking of going reddish blonde but now I'm thinking platinum blonde instead.

This is one of the Reaper mages that I'm painting for my client. She was looking pretty cool with her white robes but my client asked me to add more blue.

So, one blue ink wash completed. Now I'm going to start highlighting upward with white.

And Firebelly for the same client, this guy is on my shit list right now (the firebelly, not the client! lol!). I think he may have gone too dark for the flesh tone. I've emailed my client and we'll see what he says. If he is too dark, I hope I can lighten him up, I sure don't want to strip him when he's almost done.

I changed the bug thing to blue in order to give the metallic belly shield some contrast. I think that worked pretty well but the blue still needs more highlights. This is one critter I keep highlighting over and over again...and it doesn't look like I did anything. lol!

I changed the loincloth to purple again for contrast. With the blue bug, the reddish skin and the fire...red and green just didn't cut it. So I tried a faded purple. I think it works.

But I think you can see why these flesh tones are bothering me.

Not a great pic but at least I've got the flesh done on this one. I have no idea what to do with the garments so I keep changing colors. BAH!

I grabbed Ashantyr because she's been ignored this entire time. I worked on the NMM armor a little bit. I may take her with me too, probably won't enter her but she'll be good to show the instructors and the nightmare NMM is giving me.

And Ironblaster! I'm pretty sure, all I have to do is finish the base, and pending client approval....

This sucker's done!

I've got two more dark elves I didn't photograph and the elf ranger. I did more work on him but forgot to take pics. And of course two dragons that are taking a bath right now.

Like I said, lots of work, not much done. *sigh*

 

[marjedi]

Here is an idea....maybe you should just focus on a few minis for reapercon and whatever ones you want to bring to annoy Jen Haley with!

 

[kathrynloch]

Aside from the commissions, these are the minis I was planning on taking. lol! Well, okay, I got two extra in there.

 

[kathrynloch]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled thread to bring you a special news bulletin.




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We return now to your regularly scheduled thread currently in progress.







:tremble!:

 

[marjedi]

Lol, hun....funny!