Dankelblarg

Absylonia, the Terror of Everblight

Dankelzahn — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:00:21 +0000

Absylonia sports quite a bit of detail that takes painting well. She's very similar to the Forsaken in that respect - made up of different design elements of different models. It makes her relatively easy to paint as there's not really anything "new" to the Legion about her but the discord of her design stands out on the tabletop.

That said I think the model just misses what its concept art is going for. I can get behind the uberblighted look and feel of this model but there's something just... off that makes it not quite match up to the target artwork. I think it's the hands and skirt here. The proportions on the wing/fingers in the concept art just look more organic than those in the model. And the amount of skirt spread out behind the model makes it look shorter and more squat than the concept art.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Legion of Everblight
Mini Name: Absylonia, the Terror or Everblight
Painted: 2010

Visgoth Rhoven & Honor Guard

Dankelzahn — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:51:21 +0000

I painted Rhoven and his Exemplar honor guard up at the tail end of my Protectorate collection. I've only fielded them once or twice since they were first released, and as such they kept getting pushed back to the end of my painting queue. But as PP's release schedule slowed the past couple years I was finally able to get to them.

The Exemplar are pretty standard at this point so I didn't spend as much time on them as I did on Rhoven himself. I think I'm the most happy with how the robes over Rhoven's legs turned out.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Visgoth Rhoven & Honor Guard
Painted: 2010

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Dankelzahn — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:26:55 +0000

If you're a gamer, you've heard of Deus Ex. Released over a decade ago, it has earned countless awards and accolades. It also combined a number of gameplay elements that resonated with me personally: open-ended obstacles, stealth-based gameplay (remember Thief?), experience-based progression, and a dystopian cyberpunk setting.

Although Invisible War was a decent game, it failed to live up to its name as a Deus Ex sequel. The game wasn't bad but in an attempt to simplify many of the mechanics of the original Deus Ex it removed much of what made it unique. So the question commonly asked on the internet was... would Eidos Montreal create a worthy prequel to the original Deus Ex?

Yes. Yes they did.

Gameplay in Human Revolution feels just like it should - like an updated version of the original DX. The free-form augmentation system is fantastic, letting you buy whatever you want whenever you want as long as you have the Praxis for it. This does have a downside in that some players are reporting being overwhelmed by all the options at the beginning of the game but once past that the system provides a great deal of flexibility in customizing your gameplay experience.

Open sesame.

And let's be clear on one point - this is not some half-complete console port. I play games on the PC and nothing is more frustrating than dealing with limited ports from console-driven control design. I'm looking at you, Borderlands! Human Revolution is not a halfway complete console port. Kudos to Eidos Montreal did a fantastic job making me feel like they created an actual PC gaming experience.

On the story side of things I was very satisfied with how things progressed. There were a few twists that were telegraphed a little too much but for the most part the overarching narrative and the conspiracy it centers on kept me entertained throughout my playthrough, aided by two features. One was the side missions which I could pick up as break from the plot which expanded on the setting, and two was the discovery-based nature of how the setting itself is presented to you.

There are a number of locked doors and computers in HR which serve no other purpose than to allow you to access setting background information through pocket secretaries, ebooks, and emails. Some gamers might think this is a waste of time but not only did finding them enrich the HR experience, it drew a number of connections between HR and the original DX. Emails from Manderly and news reports implying the future founding of UNATCO for instance have no effect on the plot but help cement HR firmly within the DX universe.

There has been one criticism leveled against HR that I think is fair. Unlike in the original DX, there is no way to resolve HR's "boss fights" with nonviolent or even nonlethal means. It would have been interesting to have these other options, but considering some of the later plot points of HR it makes sense that Adam Jenson didn't have access to the methods JC Denton used to defeat some of his more memorable adversaries.

But with that said, my reaction at the end of the game is a statement on how much I enjoyed it. When faced with all four possible endings before me, I sat there and thought about it. I knew I could just reload the game and pick the different endings to see them all (and ultimately I knew I would) but I still wanted to decide which I would choose first; which would by "my canonical ending."

Problem was there was no good ending - I felt like I was trying to choose the least of four evils. And that only mattered to me, I realized, because I had become invested enough in the story to care how it ended.

As a side note, it's been revealed that Eidios Montreal is currently working on Thief 4. If they can for for Thief what they did for Deus Ex then I'm going to be throwing more money their way soon.

Kaelyssa, Night’s Whisper

Dankelzahn — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:00:11 +0000

Of the two Retribution warcasters I've painted at this point, I think Kaelyssa came out better. I really like Garryth's sculpt but hers just turned out far easier to paint.

One of the new colors I tried out on Garryth and Kaelyss was Reaper Master Series Gunmetal Blue. It's a very deep, intense color out of the bottle so I muted it by mixing in some GW Boltgun Metal. After a few washes I highlighted by mixing GW Mithril into the initial color. Thanks to Neomorte for turning me on to this color - he uses it extensively on his Legion models.

The base is from Micro Art Studio's line of Temple bases. I tried to do a warmer, earthier tone for the stone than my usual gray coloration and I think it works pretty well. It really pops next to the muted tones I used on the rest of the figure.

Unfortunately the mechanical do-dad (I'm told that's the techincal term) on the back of the base didn't photograph well. I wound up painting the rock first, and loved the weathered look it gave me. In retrospect I should have base coated the do-dad in Boltgun and then shaded it before doing the drybrush to make it look weathered. But since I had already done the drybrushing I decided to use a very diluted Boltgun as a glaze. The end results are similar but I couldn't glaze to heavily or it would wreck the look - the weathering had to appear to be 'on top' of the metal.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Retribution of Scyrah
Mini Name: Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
Painted: 2011

Garryth, Blade of Retribution

Dankelzahn — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:00:17 +0000

I purchased Kaelyssa and Garryth back when the Retribution of Scyrah was first released just to have them to paint. After a knocking the loosest of the rust off with a few test figures I sat down to see what I could do with my Retribution figures.

The gray-plated armor was particularly challenging. I had to try to make it look like gray colored plate as opposed to a nmm paint job. I think I accomplished that by not going quite as deep with the shadows and bright with the highlights. I did want to deepen the shadows just a little more but I wasn't able to get it to look right.

Overall I'm pretty happy with Garryth. I wouldn't say he's my best figure ever but I was happy get him to the level I was. The blue came out particularly good in my mind, but the grey leather could use some improvement. I also used the PP recipe for elf flesh but my makeshift photography rig washed that out far more than I would have liked.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Retribution of Scyrah
Mini Name: Garryth, Blade of Retribution
Painted: 2011

Diminutive Denizens Migration Complete

Dankelzahn — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:29:31 +0000

After a couple weeks I finally finished migrating Diminutive Denizens, my old miniature gallery, here to my blog. I decided part way through the import not to push every single image through the IABN. I tagged some of my favorite Warmachine/Hordes images to pass through but there are a lot more in my galleries, accessible using the Miniature Gallery link up in the header menu or by clicking here.

On top of that I picked up a paint brush for the first time in almost a year the other day. I'm still feeling a little rusty but I'm getting back into the swing of things. I have a few new miniatures to post soon and while I had a photo rig set up I got a few shots of some older miniatures that never made it onto my gallery. I'll be uploading those in the future as I get the images re-sized and color balanced.

And if you're here surfing non-miniature topics of geekery, you can skip the miniature content by jumping 12 pages of posts into the archive. The mass of miniature posts all blocked together was an unfortunate side effect of the migration.

Gorman di Wulf, Rogue Alchemist

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:00:09 +0000

Although my first try at painting a light source, I was rather pleased with how Gorman turned out. All of his garments were painted in various browns to create a dull, utilitarian look. This was meant to contrast the glowing vials hanging from his waist. I think the end result really highlights the vials.

The glow itself was done by blending the bright green into a mix of that green and the color of whatever it was on top of. So for the front of the tabard I mixed that brown with the green and blended that up to pure green at the edge. It was a somewhat simple process from a technical standpoint but took forever as I tried to make the glow look right.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Mercenary
Mini Name: Gorman di Wulf, Rogue Alchemist
Painted: 2006

Nephilim Soldier

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:00:37 +0000

I tried something a little bit different with the Nephilim here compared with the rest of my early beasts. Instead of using a Sky Blue to highlight my Midnight Blue I use for a base coat I went with Rain Grey, hoping the result would be slightly more muted when compared with the Carnivean and the others. I think the experiment was a success, and the more detailed musculature on the Nephilim here really brought out the difference.

The other change I made was to the wing tips. On my Seraph and Harriers I painted the last joint of each wing to be exposed carapace. For the Nephilim I decided to carry the skin tone all the way up the model for a change and I think it's a smoother look. I later used this look on my second Seraph and my Angelii.

Other than those changes everything else was done in the usual recipes I've developed up to this point. I really like this sculpt a lot and am pleased with the way it turned out.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Legion of Everblight
Mini Name: Nephilim Soldier, Light Warbeast
Painted: 2007

Carnivean

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 17:00:02 +0000

Ah, the Carnivean. If not for the lack of opposable thumbs, he would overran the lowlands and rid Immoren of Everblight's enemies long ago.

This miniature is massive, and my decision to base him on a half-inch high plateau of rock didn't hurt either. My lack of forethought means I need a 4" foam tray to store this figure in now. To mount the Carnvean on his base I had to cut off some metal pads from under his three feet. I used a saw blade for my exacto knife to do so and didn't have any problems, but I made the mistake of asking my wife to help file down the feet as I was cutting them.

Make no mistake; she did a great job with the file. So good in fact that she decided to take it upon herself to give the Carnivean a manicure and sharpened his claws for him. It's an interesting touch - one I wouldn't have thought of and was glad she did, except she didn't mention it to me at the time. At one point during assembly of the lower body I snatched the piece off of the table quickly to move it, and stuck myself (somewhat painfully) on its outstretched claw.

That's when I realized that a hunk of pewter can qualify as 'bloodthirsty.' Fortunately primer and a few layers of paint have dulled the talons to a point where I shouldn't have to worry about that again.

With its increased size came larger expanses of flesh that needed blending together. As a result the Carnivean wasn't as simple to do as the Shredders - blending was a far slower and meticulous process. Upon completion I was initially concerned that there weren't any stark highlights along his back half, but then I decided that was a good thing. It gave him a much smoother, sleeker look than if I had gone too far and had very prominent clear razor highlights on his musculature.

The Carnivean: massive, agile, and hungry. Gotta love him.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Legion of Everblight
Mini Name: Carnivean, Heavy Warbeast
Painted: 2006

Carnivean

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:00:03 +0000

For my second Carnivean I decided to change up its pose in two ways - I placed the head on facing forward instead of to the side (filing and greenstuffing the neck to accomodate this change) and I put a wrecked bonejack on the base under his front foot. Minor changes overall but just enough to make my two Carniveans easily differentiated on the table.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Legion of Everblight
Mini Name: Carnivean, Heavy Warbeast
Painted: 2008

Seraph

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:00:06 +0000

Although I like the new bend in the wings I gave my second seraph, quality wise I don't think the paint job lives up to his older brother. I was trying to add some more definition to the musculature and the end result looks more unpolished than anything else.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Legion of Everblight
Mini Name: Seraph, Heavy Warbeast
Painted: 2008

Seraph

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:00:04 +0000

This seraph was the first non-battlebox beast that I painted. I wanted to get it on the table and use it but I didn't want to affix it to the base before I painted it queued up next out of necessity. The Seraph is painted just like the rest of my beasts with the exception of the wings, which didn't have any precedent yet. I wound up going with a darker blue, similar to the color I used for the nyss' leather.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Legion of Everblight
Mini Name: Seraph, Heavy Warbeast
Painted: 2007

Krueger the Stormwrath

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:00:01 +0000

Krueger was one of three models I painted up to give out as Christmas presents in 2006 to a couple fellow gamers. The recipient already had Baldur and Kaya, so there really wasn't an option as to which warlock he would want. His army is painted in an autumnal color scheme with lots of oranges and golden browns, so painting Krueger was a challenge. I didn't think an orange or red cloak would look right for a druid, so I was left with golden brown. Unfortunately Kreuger has a lot of open area that wound up being a single color so he looks a little bland.

Although Krueger wasn't the most striking of miniatures upon completion, I think he wound up as a relatively clean job. Now I have to face his three-round Feat when he hits the table... makes me reconsider giving him as a gift.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Circle Orboros
Mini Name: Krueger the Stormwrath
Painted: 2006

Captain Bartolo Montador

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:00:07 +0000

As Privateer Press Weekend at DieCon 8 was being planned, the organizers approached some of the local painters with an idea to give away models as door prizes and as an overall prize over the weekend. I had enough on my plate that I had to finish before DieCon that I couldn't do too many figures, but I did agree to paint Broadsides Bart here.

In order to have the army that was being given away look coherent, another local was building and painting all of the bases. He did the deck work and painting on the base seen here.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Mercenaries
Mini Name: Captain Bartolo Montador
Painted: 2008

Morvahna the Autumnblade

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:00:52 +0000

I painted Morvahna up to give away to a local circle player a few years ago. I spent most of the time working on the wet blends on her cloak - everything else seemed to come together quickly. Morvahna's flesh was done in all P3 paints in an effort to experiment & practice using them and I'm happy with how they came out. They're smoother than some of the other female skin tones I've done before.

The only other painting of note is the filigree on her armor. Most of the PP studio Circle models have a gold/brass armor with green fill between the filigree. I didn't own any green ink, so I experimented with blue ink and thinned yellow paint and got some great results. I washed that over a base coat of P3 Brass Balls and then after some post-ink re-highlights the armor was done.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Circle Orboros
Mini Name: Morvahna the Autumnblade
Painted: 2007

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Dankelzahn — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:00:39 +0000

Eiryss, dubbed the Soulless Elven Hooker by those in the know, was originally purchased to use as a character when I started re-running Privateer Press's Witchfire Trilogy again. Eventually as we started playing Warmachine she transitioned to a wargaming piece.

I had always wanted to have this miniture leaping off of something when I based it, but when I originally began looking at basing here I realized there was a problem. Normally Eiryss's feet are meant to attach directly to the base. Because of this the cape was sculpted with a flat bottom at foot level where it to would rest on the base. So before I could attach this to the base, I had to file down the large flat attachment area on the cloak and resculpt the bottom portion of it. A relatively simple step, but it without it the cape would have look far more awkward.

I decided to do this miniature in a scheme that's far different than the dark green studio paint job. As a mercenary she's not actually a part of my army, but I wanted her to look similar enough to my other figures that she looks like she belongs. So I decided her cloak - her most predominant feature - would be off-white to match up with my army color selection. I used a mix of Delta Ceramcoat's Parchment and Quaker Gray to create the base color, then highlighted and shaded from there. The end result is close enough to look nice next to my army, but have just enough different about it to set her apart.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Mercenary
Mini Name: Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Painted: 2006

Reclaimer

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:00:17 +0000

The Reclaimer was actually a pretty quick figure to paint considering a vast majority of it was either black or metallic and there was very little exposed flesh. Still black can be a tricky color to paint. I went ahead and went the wet blending route since every time I try to layer black it seems to turn out poorly. The result is subtle but present, which was what I was going for so I'm happy with it. On the down side the highlighting on the teal trim of the stole doesn't show up well, which is dissapointing.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Reclaimer
Painted: 2006

Temple Flameguard

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:00:22 +0000

I painted the Temple Flameguard up during a business trip in 2006, back when taking fluids on an airplane wasn't restricted. They were done with what is at this point my standard Menite process. They flew home with me just a little short of complete but I finished the shields and spears and attached them all soon afterwards.

In 2007 I added the Temple Flameguard Preceptor and Standard Bearer to the unit. These two models were painted useing the same techniques as the original members of the unit, but my skill had improved a lot. Even though I painted them quicker than their earlier bretheren they turned out better on the whole. Signs of improvement like this can really help motivate you to keep painting.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Warmachine
Mini Name: Temple Flameguard, Protectorate Unit
Painted: 2006, 2007 (UA)

Daughters of the Flame

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:00:21 +0000

The Daughters of the Flame, aka Menoth's Angels, were a relatively dainty unit to paint compared to the bulky knights and spearmen that are more common in the Protectorate army. But they fit together well and once I got them on my painting desk it I was able to work through them relatively easily.

I decided to use my Reaper colors on the purple cloth areas on all of these miniatures to see how they looked next to units like my Temple Flameguard who were done in the Delta Ceramcoat line. They matched up well enough Idecided to switch to the Reaper paints as my primary ones for this color. If only I could find a version of Goosefeather in one of the good paint ranges...

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Daughters of the Flame
Painted: 2007

Wracks

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:00:19 +0000

Despite the amount of skin that I had to paint I was able to work through these guys pretty quickly. They also gave me a good opportunity to work on using the P3 flesh line (Idrian, Khador, Midland, Rin).

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Wracks
Painted: 2008

Choir of Menoth

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:00:23 +0000

With the exception of the Mangled Metal format (which doesn't allow infantry, just jacks), I don't think I've ever fielded an army without the choir. They're just too good and too utilitarian for their points not to. So since they hit the table so often, they definitely needed to get painted. I started of with what has become my standard paint scheme for the Protectorate, throwing in the accent color on their sashes since according to their fluff they're warcasters in training.

The Choirs' scrolls were my first attempt at painting parchment on a miniature. . I started by base coating them in Delta Ceramcoat Papyrus, which I let try thoroughly. After I was sure it wouldn't smudge I took out my Micron pen and added the text. I decided each acolyte had a different litney on his scroll, so each scroll starts out with a different letter from the Menite alphabet. After the ink had dried overnight, I washed the scrolls with a mix of an Applebarrel brown and GW Chestnut Ink to age it, making sure to force the mixture into the tattered edges of each scroll as well as the creases where scroll meets scroll case.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Choir of Menoth
Painted: 2006

Knights Exmplar Vengers

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:00:20 +0000

The Exempler Vengers took forever and a day to paint. They started out relatively quickly - the horse flesh and hair came together well but once I hit the armor (on both the knights and the horses) progress stalled. That said I'm still rather pleased with how the figures turned out. My only real complaint is that the horses themselves came out far redder than intended.

asdf

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Exemplar Vengers
Painted: 2007

Knight Exemplar Seneschal

Dankelzahn — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:00:17 +0000

I wasn't a big fan of the stock pose of the Knight Exemplar Seneschal figure. Extraneous back banners aside, there was just something about how it held its swords that didn't work for me. So that meant breaking out the jeweler's saw and some putty and making some changes.

The first and most obvious change I made was to leave the back banners off of the figures. That left a couple of slots on their backs though where the flag posts were attached. To cover the holes I took some casts of the menofix-shaped decorations from their chests and used some greenstuff copies to cover the banners' attachment slots.

Afterwards both figures had their arms reposed. The first figure Had some putty applied to the joins so I could re-position the arms. The second's conversion was a bit more involved. For that one I tried to duplicate the concept art on the model's stat card, particlularly in the way the arms were posed. The right arm had to be cut around the elbow and rotated before being pinned back together but the left arm was far more troublesome. In the end I had to use the Seneschal's shoulder and hand, a Exemplar Errant elbow, and some greenstuff to resculpt the model's bracer to get the arm in the position I wanted.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Exemplar Seneschals
Painted: 2006, 2008

Devout

Dankelzahn — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:00:44 +0000

Compared to the rest of the Warmachine warjack, the stock Devout pose is actually pretty dynamic. Unfortunately the Running Man thing doesn't do anything for me so I decided early on to convert this miniature into a more static pose. Since I had a pretty large backlog on my painting desk I decided for the quick fix - file and bend some joints and attach the leg so that it's resting on a raised surface. But what to prop up the leg with? A stone was the easy solution, but seemed to plain. Enter the bonejack.

Seeing as my most commonly faced opponent fields Cryx, I decided that placing one of his warjacks dead at the Devout's feet would be the most appropriate. Once I had the model it was just a matter of pinning and attaching all the limbs so that the Devout stood triumphant over the wrecked bonejack. A quick dingy paint job - including the oozing necroslime - and I had a trophy for my Devout.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Devout, Light Warjack
Painted: 2006

Redeemer

Dankelzahn — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:00:30 +0000

I didn't paint my Redeemer long after my first Revenger, but I still think it's a big improvement. The purple players especially are much better here. I was still having problems with the metallic golds spikes though; that's been a weakness of mine for a while.

Manufacturer & Line: Privateer Press - Protectorate of Menoth
Mini Name: Redeemer, Light Warjack
Painted: 2006