Zulrot - Rival to Malkk, Painting Progress, and New Shinies

Suh doods.

Hope everyone is doing well out there in internet land!  Lots of KUH-RAZY things going on out there with points and narrative and open (oh my!) coming to our favorite fantasy setting, AGE OF SIGMAR!  Also, Season II for Guildball dropping it hot like a fresh new groove yo.  Plus we have the craziness that is Halo Ground Command from Spartan Games coming out, new Malifaux silliness on the way, Bloodbowl teases us DAILY it seems, and to top it all off?  Some got-damn sexy looking mo-fo Orruk Ironjawz.

So, lots and lots to coming up in the very near future, es fookin' noots m8s.

Let's start off small, shall we?

Zulrot, a PoS Plague Priest who is doing everything in his power to stand up against the one true Plaguemaster, Malkk, in the Narrative Internet Campaign that I am participating in.  Sounds peachy right?  Well, I got a good amount of stuff painted up to represent this homeboy on the tabletop.  Check it out:

Es nice, no?  Muy bien.  

So yeah, that all happened about a month ago, no big deal, because since then? 

Plus no time with the end of a bunch of classes coming up here in the next week or so.  I got good amount of stuff squared away with base coating, but nothing that is even remotely tabletop worthy.

I had started to work on a good amount of "Skyre Stuff" ™ What does that mean?

- Stormfiends

- Skyre Acolytes

- Weapons Teams

- Arch Warlocks (plus a sexy converted "Baron von Rattus")

New kitbashed warlock engineer for #festerscar in the Rise of Empires Campaign. He'll need a suitably Doc Oc inspired name with his backpack looking like that. #AoS #warhammer #warmonger

A photo posted by Patrick O'Leary 🇺🇸 (@patrick_r_oleary) on Mar 23, 2016 at 8:53am PDT

- Warlock Engineers

- Warplightning Cannon

- Doom Wheel

 PLUS

- 17 Plague Censer Bearers (ooooooohhhhhhhh yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhh)

Heres the family WIP shot

#ageofsigmar painting and base paring on a lazy Sunday! #wip #warhammer #skaven #ageofbeasts #riseofempires

A photo posted by Patrick O'Leary 🇺🇸 (@patrick_r_oleary) on Apr 3, 2016 at 1:53pm PDT

Loving it.

So what else is new then, eh?

These are:

So it this:

And so is this, among other things....

A photo posted by Patrick O'Leary 🇺🇸 (@patrick_r_oleary) on Apr 16, 2016 at 8:19am PDT

Truly, we are in the absolute GOLDEN AGE OF GAMING.  I am so happy to have Age of Sigmar here, along with all of the other goodies that we have here in 2016 for our gaming needs.  I love it all, with the exception of how many releases Space Marines get every other week it seems, minus the 30th Anniversary Space Marine, hes pretty baller.

So with that, go out and look at pretty shit and buy it.  Age of Sigmar points and "competitive play" is coming, the General's Handbook with 22 scenarios, points for ALL (yes that means Tomb Kings and Brets) warscrolls, 5 (FIVE) Styles of campaigns, and even more coming down the pike.

You have no idea how pumped I am.

Lets rock.  Peace out sweet readers.  I have to go paint something.

Oil, Synthetic Exercises, and Click Bait

Picture taken from Roman's post on Massive Voodoo regarding the use of oil paints for miniatures.
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2011/07/tutorial-miniature-painting-with-oil.html

This is only kind of a click bait. If you want to guarantee that I try oil paints, then this is how they should be presented: in a nice, lovely row with lots of pretty colors. ;)

This post is really a ramble about my plan to use oil in the future, both on canvas and on miniatures. Following the talk on oil paints is a nice little WIP segment about a little exercise I am giving myself.

So, let's talk oil paints. I realize how cliché it must sound to speak about how much Bob Ross influenced my creativity as a child. Growing up in the 90s, I had access to three channels. PBS, soap operas, and fuzzy soft-core pornography. Contrary to what some may think, I spent all of my time watching.............fuzzy....PBS. It wasn't really fuzzy. Totally clear. Anywho. I recently started watching his videos again on YouTube (there are several for free on the Bob Ross channel) and I was reminded of just how much he influenced me into the artist I am today. I really appreciate his approach to painting and how he handles "mistakes." If you gals and guys get some time, definitely check him out.

Art from gckatz on DeviantArt.
http://gckatz.deviantart.com/art/Model-Painting-with-Bob-Ross-402862480
 

Now, on to my WIP. I recently picked up some Raphael Kaerell synthetic brushes (sizes 2 and 3) to play around with in hopes of finding a basecoat and metallic brush. I really, really don't like using my Games and Gears brushes for a lot of the heavy stuff.

Long story short, they are working out very well. If they manage to keep their tip for a decent length of time, I think I may end up using them regularly. I decided to give myself an exercise that proved interesting, to say the least. It was definitely a struggle.

 I am currently working on the Avatar of Sokar (sculpted by Tim Prow, if I recall correctly. I'll have to go look at the blister pack later.) using only a Raphael Kaerell size 3 synthetic brush and a really, really junked up size 4 (used to apply Vallejo Liquid Gold paints). I'm really impressed with how the brush is holding up. It's been interesting trying to figure out how to manipulate the paint with a synthetic brush in hopes of achieving what I can do with a sable-hair brush. I totally failed. The synthetic is doing awesome work, but I just cannot get the same transitions and blends that I can with my sable. It's coming along though.

The following pictures are a WIP, taken over the course of a few hours of work. These aren't in any special order. Just chronological. Just click to enlarge.

Happy Painting!

-Matte