Red Rum! Red Rum!

Aaaaaaargh!  It was there!  It was - well, almost there, and then I got a bit too clever for my own good and messed it up!

Not fatally, but enough to add another day to the reds!

That's right, the reds still aren't finished.  This is slowly becoming a record.

I decided to redden the reds even more by applying a thin glaze of Blood Red to the finished armour.

Ooh, I though, that looks lovely.  Let's do a bit more, not stopping to consider that I was essentially washing a lighter colour into the recesses.

The first coat looked nice.  The second looked hideous.  Basically, the shaded parts of the armour were the lightest bits!

Next time, I need to just leave things alone.

Never mind though, all is not lost!

It turns out that the armour looks very nice (and finished!) if I finally do the Vomit Brown highlight and then wash pure Baal Red over the armour...

A bit of a Before-and-After example there.  If you're wondering, the 'good' one is the one on the right!

Anyway, too late to do any more now, so off to bed and fingers crossed that after tomorrow I may be able to paint something other than bleeding red!

Redlock.

It's been a few days since I last added any updates, but unfortunately I've been wading through a soggy mire of reds and oranges.

The Orc Blood Bowl team that I'm painting at the moment is going to have a deep red armour, with black cloth and some tainted metal decoration.  Apart from the flesh, which I always prefer to do last, red is the most prominant colour on the Orcs, so I decided to start with that...

I started three days ago.

Don't get me wrong, it's all going very well, but large areas of red are fairly new to me - small details, Space Marine auspexes, Orc/k eyes, yeah - I can do them very comfortably.  But to get a strong red takes me a lot of work...

And the work is still on-going:

With a bit of luck, all that remains in a final hard-edge highlight of Vomit Brown, but here's how I got to where I'm at now:

• Two thin coats of Mechrite Red were followed by...
• A wash of Asurmen Blue into the recesses of the armour...
• Then a highlight using a 1:1 mix of Mechrite Red and Blazing Orange...
• And a highlight of pure Blazing Orange after that.
• Then came a highlight of 1:1 Blazing Orange and Vomit Brown...
• And finally, two coats of Baal Red Wash.

I'm still applying the wash to some of the miniatures (I'm waiting for the first coat to dry on a few of them at the moment...), so I'm off to finish that now and then hopefully I should get the final highlight done by the end of tomorrow.

Goodnight for now!

Who Loves Babylon 5?

Alright then, who likes Babylon 5?

[sigh]  Fine then!  Who's seen Babylon 5?

Well, I love it, so I don't care what you think!

Anyway, what on earth has that got to do with Blood Bowl, I hear you ask?

A very good question, I reply.  I shall tell you...

I've finished painting the Human Blood Bowl team, and if I do say so myself, I think they look awesome.

I was wondering what kind of markings to put on the team and was having a look through some of my old transfers, thinking about their black armour and found -

Well, remember the Psi-Corps?  And Mister Bester?  And his personal Star Fury squadron?

Well, I give you...

THE BLACK OMEGAS!

Oh alright, they're upside-down Ultramarines logos, but they work pretty damned well, I reckon!

Now just for those pesky Orcs...

Never Feed Them After Midnight.

I recently commented on a friend's blog that I always make it a point never to do the final touch-up phase of my miniatures last thing at night -  I'm tired, I'm rushing, I'm desperate to get them finished.

If I don't leave them and come back fresh the next morning, I can guarantee that I'll miss something important, only to notice it once the varnish has settled.

At the moment, I'm rueing this rather honourable commitment as I'm so close to finishing the Human Blood Bowl team:

Even now, I've already edged the bases with Goblin Green (the first of two thin coats, at least), so I just need to check them over thoroughly and add the transfers - numbers on the bases, and the team logo on their chests.

Team logo, I hear you ask, what team logo?

Well, I'm going to - ah, but that would be telling!  I'll leave you all guessing for another night - but let's just say, there is going to be a definite nod and a wink to Babylon 5...

Hopefully, by the time you read my next post, they'll be finished!

What A Difference A Day (Or Two...) Makes

Well, I promised pictures of the reds when they were finished, and although I managed to finished them yesterday, I never managed to get time to post them - sorry!

Still, they're done now, and so is the skin on the Human team.  In the end, I didn't do any of the Orc reds and for that, I'm very glad.

It all started very well, with a nice basecoat of Mechrite Red, followed by a 1:1 mix of that and Blazing Orange.  Nice.  Then a pure Blazing Orange highlight.  Lovely.  After that, a good ol' 1:1 mix of Blazing Orange and Vomit Brown.  Beautiful.  Then, I discovered the wonders of highlighting red with pure Vomit Brown.  Perfect.

After that came the wash of Asurman Blue.  Disaster!!!

It was all my fault - the guide said to paint it into all of the creases, but I thought 'I wonder what it would look like all over?'  Big mistake.  I thought it might turn it a rich purple colour, but it did not - it turned it to mud!

Never mind, you live and learn.

So, I then spent another almost-day doing the reds again pretty much from scratch, but this time giving them a couple of thin washes of Baal Red at the end to enrich the colour.  And I think it all went pretty well.

Nothing too exciting to report on the skin, it all went according to the plan:

1. Tallarn Flesh basecoat.
2. Two Ogryn Flesh washes.
3. Re-apply the Tallarn Flesh, avoiding the recesses.
4. After that, I applied a Dwarf Flesh mid-tone, followed by...
5. A highlight using a 1:1 mix of Dwarf Flesh and Bleached Bone.
6. After that, just a simple Extreme highlight of Bleached Bone.

And here are the results so far:

As you can see, I've also just glued on the gravel to their bases, so tonight, if it's dry, it'll be a case of painting the bases and then revisiting the black armour to smooth things out, touch up any slips and give it a nice sharp highlight.

As for the team markings... Well, I have a very interesting plan for those...

Colour Scheme: Pass.

Although I haven't quite finished the golds yet - in fact this morning I have only just added a mid-tone of Shining Gold - the Human team is definitely taking shape... And I think the colour scheme looks awesome!

All I need to do on the gold decoration now is add a highlight of Burnished Gold, followed by an extreme highlight of Mithril Silver (this method for painting gold, by the way, was stolen from an 'Eavy Metal Masterclass on Space Hulk's Sergeant Lorenzo, painted by one of my favourite artists, Anja Wettergren).

After I've finished the golds, I'll be painting the sashes and belts in the same red as the Boss Plate from Wazzdakka (which you may have seen if you've read any of my previous posts) to add a spot colour to the team.  It may or may not work, bearing in mind how well the colours hold each other together at the moment.  Still, it's worth the risk and as with anything, I can always paint over it if it doesn't look good...

At the same time, to appease my disgruntled Orc team, who are feeling a bit neglected, I'll be painting their armour in the same red.  Obviously (yawn) I'll keep you up to date on how it all pans out.

Anyway, for now, the work so far:

Oh, and yes, he is still hanging in there - in fact, from the looks of it, he thinks he'd be quite a good Catcher:

If only someone would tell him he's in the wrong universe...

Black, White and Gold

Plodding along nicely, tonight!

I haven't really had too much time to paint today (Happy Birthday, Mum!!), but I've managed to get half way through the golds on the Human team by basecoating them with a 1:1 mix of Scorched Brown and Shining Gold, and then applying a 1:1 wash of Badab Black and Scorched Brown:

But wait a second!  What's all this then...?

There seems to be a Space Wolf in the team!

Well, I thought that as the gold was the next thing to paint on my 'test' Marine, I might as well do it at the same time.

Hopefully, I should have finished all of these chaps in the next three or four days, but I'm sure that will all change!