Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 16

Sorry for the delay on today's post.  Though you didn't miss much - I was struck down by some eye strain.

Though I did paint a bit just to say I made progress.

A red lens and the chipping. Weee.  Though stay tuned for later today - things got interesting!

Tyberos the Red Wake - Supplemental #2

So, no progress last night on Tyberos.  Though the mighty Japanese nation was fully absorbed by the far superior Aztecs and their Giant Death Robots!  At least there's that.

And this:
 
On Sunday, Nikephoros hit me up with a question:

Oh man that looks incredible. If you don't mind sharing, what gold do you use? I don't get why GW silvers are so good but the golds are so bad. I'd love to know your recipe.

Because its a good question and because he's having such a completely shitty week, this one goes out to Nikephoros.

Allright, the first thing that you (plural here) is that most acrylic gold paint is shit.  It's not an issue for a specific brand - its an issue for the color in general.

Most of the gold paint you're gonna come across is formulated for a specific consistency that's usually ready to use out of the pot/dropper.  The problem comes from the fact that the pigments typically used in gold paint have the same issues as yellow paint - the pigmentation isn't all that opaque.  The coverage is shit.  Some brands will play with consistence to get a paint that'll coat well... but it's usually goop.  It's bad either way.

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 15

Nothing to magical about yesterday's progress - just the highlighting on the remaining arm, some minor corrections on the body and some normalization on the highlighting.

I've had kind of a rough day today - not a bad day, just tiring.  I'm also into the midpoint of my week where my schedule gets shitty.  I think it's entirely likely that I'll take a day off from Tyberos.  I've got a supplemental planned so it wont be a day without Lauby.

Which is just as well, those Japanese pikemen that have been amassing near my boarder aren't going to strategically bomb themselves. God, Civ V is fun.

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 14

Here we are at the two week mark.  It's been a fun experiment for me so far.  The day by day tracking has really kept me focused.  Plus, it turns out the format is great for educational purposes (thanks, SinSynn!).

I think there's a good chance I'll do more of this kind of stuff with that in mind.  I've always wanted to use this blog for teaching as much as the other stuff.  I think I may have finally stumbled onto a way to make that happen.

Yesterday was another productive day all things considered - Special Lady Friend got a ride to the airport,  Ma and Pa Lauby sent some enablers gift cards in the mail and then there was the shopping and the beer.

Despite the odds, the main body segment is done.  Here are the WIPs.

all the gold trim is done

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 13

A day off from work is a day where I can make some progress.  I'm aiming to have the main body finished soon.

Since it was kind of a busy day, here are the WIPs:

Shading (Note: I shaded the other arm too)

Highlighting and touch ups

Chipping, a little blood spatter and some of the non-gold metallics done.

Looks like I was also able to match the gray's pretty well too.  The next step is to get the golds, the skulls and that little chest symbol done.  Then I think it might be video game time!

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 12

Right, so I ended up taking the risk and went ahead and finished the arm I was working on.

What risk?  The risk that I'll have a hard time making the rest of the model match the completed arm.  Why'd I do it?  Lets just say that I don't have as much confidence in my own ability to 'just go with it' as I'd like.

Though I did get my camera sorted out a bit better this time:

Well, there we are.  I'm off to work on the rest of the model after a quick snack.  Since I plan on making a ton of progress, I'll be sure to get some WIP's as I go along.

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 11

We're coming up on the two week mark - eeeee!

Though with any luck this bad mamma-jamma will be done by Sunday.  Double eeee!

I got the last little bit of experimentation and color finalizing done last night. 

same bit of paper from yesterday - no with extra color experiments

Because I'm working on one part of the model in isolation (which, granted, is a bit odd and seemingly counterproductive), I'm keeping the old sheets of tracing paper on the off chance I may need them for color reference.  I'm also taking copious notes on recipes as well.  One of the dangers of working on one bit separately is that you always run the risk of it not 'matching'.  I aim to minimize that as completely as possible.  It helps that my color choices aren't all that complex.  So does the fact that some of my recipes are old standbys.

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 10

The pics from this post will look suspiciously like yesterday's.  Such is life.  Monday - Wednesday, I can only put about an hour/hour and a half in due to time constraints.  I'm trying to be productive as possible and do all the little things that'll slow me down come this weekend.

Like color tests.

Last night I got the silver metallics figured out (nothing too fancy) and dicked around with a color test for the rippy claws (the beastman axe).

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 9

I got a lot done yesterday in the sense that I made a bunch of important decisions and got a successful proof of concept done on my recipe for gray.  Hell, I even nailed down the chipping effect on the armor.

But not enough work has been done on the one part that I worked on to make me get out my light box

As I've said, free time in the middle of the week is at a premium.  Though I will probably be finding some time to shoe horn in some prep work an an Eldrad Ulthran model while I kill the two dead hours (3 days a week) that arise from only having one car for two people.

No close ups, but here's a shot of my work area and the wet palette I was doing color tests on:

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 8

I had planned to get more done than I did, but all too frequently, I just don't have the time/energy to completely devote myself to painting after I get home from work.  Though I always try to get at least a little bit done so that I'm at least making some progress, not mater how minor. 

So as a heads up - the next few days are gonna be a bit lame.

A failed experiment with oil paint and my acquisition of the OnG army book didn't help either.

On the plus side, the base is done:

pictures still 'off' somehow - I have it narrowed down to a camera setting issue

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 7

Due to scheduling weirdness at work thanks to Spring Break, I only ended up with one day off this week.  But I sure as hell made the most of it.

I got some pseudo color modulation done on the figure itself - important but uninteresting.  So no pics.

However, I completely killed the base.  Once the water effect dries, all I have to do is glue the two halves together and its ready for a Terminator to stand on it.

I started out with the top plate due to time constraints and the noise rules of my apartment complex.

The Massive Voodoo tutorials I linked to yesterday were put to good use:

this picture is a bit washed out.

I'm actually really proud of this.  Though there's a stray metallic paint brush stroke that I just discovered is bothering me.  Easily fixable.

Tyberos te Red Wake - Supplemental #1

In the continuing saga of my mad quest to improve the worsening situation in Libya by painting a Tyberos miniature, I embarked on a side quest.

One of the great joys of painting little plastic/metal/resin mans is that once you're done, you have something to show for all your work.  Which is all good and well for face to face interaction.  But if you're gonna blog about it then you need to show your work there too.  Otherwise people might think you're a liar or quickly lose interest in baseless claims of skill.

I've been... well... kinda almost completely falling down on that.

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 6

Back on track - no problems last night.  Just some nice, although incremental, progress.

Tyberos FINALLY got his base coat on.  P3 Bastion Gray - my favorite gray EVAR!  Possible my favorite miniature paint color as well.  Which I know makes me a bit lame... especially once you know that a couple of browns are duking out for second place...  maybe I'm not as interesting as previously thought.

This Tyberos project and even just the Space Sharks (Carcharadons) in general gave me a little bit of a squee when it dawned on me that I had an excuse to paint a whole army with Bastion Gray.  Though sanity and WHFB have been nagging at me for some time so it may be that Tyberos sits in the case alone.  Like a BOSS, however.  Non of this 'forever alone' crap.

This is where I wanted to be a day ago.

Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 5

So far, I've been writing these posts about the previous day's work.  So by the time tomorrow's post goes up, the progress in this post is over a day old.  Just thought I'd mention that.

Right... so last night was a bit of a motherfucker as I lost about a day's worth of progress on the model itself.  Or at least a few hours of work and a day's worth of waiting (thanks to my work schedule).  It turned out that my primer coat had fuzzed on me and i was back to the Simple Green bath.  This made it very hard to maintain the 'keep on happy painting' vibe the Massive Voodoo guys are into.

aaaaand it turns out that most of the pictures I took last night were garbage.  Except this one:

Luckily for me, things resolved nicely so no ashes to sift through.  Plus I got a nice, fat educational moment to play with.

For me, there were a number of lessons I learned or at least had reinforced by the experience.  Some things I think have a great deal of value as far as improving the knowledge of other people who maybe aren't quite as into the whole painting thing as I am.

Tyberos The Red Wake - Day 4

All right, now I'm starting to get into the part of the project where it actually looks like I'm making progress.

The putty filling on the actual model turned out really well - there's only one section I wasn't completely happy about - but there's not too much I can do about.  Thankfully, the flaw is in an out of the way place that won't be seen too much.  But would definitely harm my chances at a serious painting contest.  Good thing I paint mostly for myself.

After some sanding and general clean up, the model gets some black primer and gets to warm the bench for the next 24 hours.

most exciting picture ever.

A note on my system:  You'll notice that all the parts have a nice little section of wire sticking out of them.   This is a nice little two for one deal - when I trim them down it'll be a pin and before that happens, its a great handle so I can stick the piece in a hemostat for painting.  With models like this I usually paint the individual parts before assembly.  There's a lot of detail here and I plan on using an airbrush to get the base coat down.  basically, I get better access to all those hard to reach areas.  Once the bits are ready for assembly, I'll scrap the paint off the joints and assemble just before I seal.

Tyberos The Red Wake - Day 3

Incremental progress, FTW!

I have to apologize to anyone reading this at this stage of the project.  The early, early prep stages are the most boring.  It's basically just a bunch of waiting around for putty to dry.  Lame.

In particular, I'm waiting for Apoxie Sculpt to dry.   A nice and cheaply available 2 part epoxy clay.

Last time, I spent an almost undue amount of time bitching about mold lines and casting flaws.  Time to fix them.  Lots of people will say that green stuff is the way to go.  For organic shapes, I tend to agree.  However, green stuff sucks rocks for anything that's supposed to be flat/manmade.  Green stuff doesn't hold an edge like you'd hope it would and isn't sand-able.  So with gaps and flaws in large, falt areas and along hard lines, green stuff is pretty awful.  Mostly because it's really hard to get it so that the fix is flush with the surface.

Tyberos The Red Wake - Days 1 and 2

It's been a while since I've done anything that remotely showcases the kind of painting and modeling stuff I'm into.  It's been post after post of empty words.  Bah!  This isn't LiveJournal, you chumpasaurus!

To get back in the spirit if Laubersheimer Industries past, I'm going to be trying a bit of an experiment:  the day by day progress on a model I plan on painting to a high standard of quality.

The Model in question is my man Tyberos, the Birfday Money Impulse Purchase Red Wake.

My Eldar are almost at their fighting wake and I'm staring down 32 Khorne Dogs so the time is right.

Excruciating detail, HO!

Digesting WHFB 8th Edition + Bonus Topics

Thanks to a generous donation last month from the Mom and Dad Fund For People Who Are Turning 30, I was able to get my hands on my very own copy of the 8th edition Warhammer rules.

I thought it might be a fun diversion to flip through since all my 40k books have been thumbed through at least a million times - even to the point where they aren't even a good thing to read while taking a crap.

Don't kid yourself, blogoshpere - every red blooded gamer has read an army book on the crapper.

On top of that, my Eldar are coming close to being completely done.  Then it'll be time for actual games (good bye vassal!).  But the Daemons will still be lurking on the workbench.  And burnout is my greatest enemy.

Old Stuff Day - The Siege of Laporte

According to Warhammer 39,999, today is Old Stuff Day.I decided I wanted to get in on this before the greeting card companies commercialized it and ruined it's true meaning.  What follows (grammatical errors and all) is a semi-battle report from an Apoc. game I played with HoP co-founder Dethtron and his rowdy local gaming buddies back in 2009.  We may have only played two turns, but it was a blast and I have a lot of fond memories about the game and the people involved..  Maybe there is something to this whole 'casual' 40k thing...

The Siege of Laporte - an Apocalypse Report

While I was on vacation I had the opportunity to play an Apocalypse game with some really cool dudes - My buddy Colin and his extended gaming group.

First things first: Colin, Joe, Evan and Hoagy - thanks for the fun. You guys are a blast.

This was a real treat as I don't have a fully painted and assembled army of my own and have yet to find a play group where I live. I've played a whole two games of 5th edition and they were both Apoc games.

On the plus side, these big games are a good way to learn the rules due to the everything and the kitchen sink approach to army consturction. It's also a much more relaxed gaming experience for me as well.



Here is a direct link.

Here are some highlights not covered in the photos:

1) The night before the game, Colin and I spent a few hours turning an old siege tower I made 10 years ago into a plague tower. This thing was a bit terrifying on the table, but manageable. It would have been scarier if it hadn't absorbed almost every anti-tank shot we had for two turns. By the end, it was down to one weapon and was immobilized.

2) the Annihilatrix was also super cool looking but a series of the unluckiest roles in history ensured that we never actually got to see what it could do.

3) Joe and his accursed Fallen Angels killed one of my Vindicators, thus preventing me from getting to destroy terrain pieces. Curses!

4) Both sides had a land raider and wildly different experiences. Hoagy's LR absorbed scads (SCADS I tell you) of rocket and laser fire and kept going with not so much as a scratch on the paint. Joe's LR got one shotted by my Vindicator.

5) The Imperial super heavy's didn't have too much of an affect on the battle at the end to two turns. Lots of missing and piss-poor roles for any kind of damage.

6) We misplayed flank march a bit as we applied it to ALL reinforcements. But, it was kinda hard to tell which units were controlled by which player and, in any case, Team Chaos won because they had bothered to grab the only objective any body bothered to take.

7) The Green Tide was scary right about until the time it broke cover and ate a bunch of 10 inch templates. However, between all the fire this and the Plague Tower was absorbing, there were still a few Maelstrom of Gores lurking. I was not looking forward to that.

8) Early in the game, I ended up moving a dreadnaught (with no cc weapon) into combat with a chaos lord. We never did get to see who won. On the plus side, I did get a good lesson on using dreads to tie down enemy units in CC.

9) Due to a late start and some wife issues, we only got to play two turns. But it was fun as hell and in hindsight, I don't know if I had the fortitude to complete the game anyway. Apocalypse can be very draining... especially if you stayed up the night before to make a plague tower.

There you have it, a nice little report on the kinds of things I got up to in Chicago. I can't stress enough how much fun it is to play with buds and their buds (who are cool dudes).

And there you have it.  I was initially thinking about re-posting one of my more informative bits, but hen I stumbled across this and decided that the memories of the fun and camaraderie were way cooler than a bunch of bullshit about primer.  I hope you all enjoyed!