Lono's painting blog

[lono]

I'm just entering the final part of a fairly major life type transitional thingy. Friday 25th was my last day working as a web monkey so I'm now completely done working for 'The Man', and with P45 in hand, I'm skipping into the abyss of self-employment.

To celebrate I've spent the weekend chilling with Skyrim, which my lovely workmates got me as a leaving present. Bless them and their attempts to sabotage any kind of work ethic I've developed through the power of insanely involved RPG goodness! I plan on Skyrimming (fnar!) today as well - I have to celebrate my first Monday of freedom in style right? - then from Tuesday I'll be busy in my new job... painting toy soldiers.

It still makes me feel slight breathing difficulty when I actually say or type that, it just sounds so ridiculous and implausible, but there's a good dose of excitement mixed in. I'm ready to make a go of it and with any luck I'll be churning out quite a lot of models very shortly.

I'll sort out a blog around the end of the year, once I've found my stride, but in the meantime, I figure it's worth making a thread to track my adventures and get a bit of feedback.

I've got nothing to show just yet, but the painting plan for the coming few weeks is a bulk of new Forgeworld stuff, then the latest GW releases:

- Drazhoath the Ashen
- Irillyth the Shade of Twilight
- Curs’d Ettin
- Elspeth von Draken on Carmine Dragon

- Ghorgon
- Cygor
- Jabberslythe
- Mangler Squigs
- Skullvane Manse, Lair of the Astromancer

I'll hopefully have the Forgeworld stuff tomorrow, so I can get started and stick some pictures up. A day of scrubbing resin with a toothbrush and fuming at the bad fit of parts awaits me. Joy!

In the meantime, does anyone have any information on the Curs'd Ettin, in particular, what they should look like? I'm not really familiar with their background at all, and I don't know if normal human flesh colours should apply, or something a bit more unusual.

 

[marjedi]

No info has been released yet and the book he is in isn't out yet. But since it is based on a true world monster, try adn googling it.

Oh and good luck in the new job, hope you find a painting niche to fill and a style to set u appart from the loads of other peeps that are doing this atm. Also makes me wonder why everyone chooses to paint gw releases when u almost never see anyone selling PP, malifaux or Infinity painted??

And i don't think you will find much of a market for the 3 beastmen monster, too expensive, too overcosted in game for them to be used...and too fuugly.

 

[kathrynloch]

I hope it takes off for you! I've been having fun! And Skyrim - my son has been playing it to death, so even though he's in the other room, I've got the soundtrack and dialog memorized. lol!

And Mar - GW new releases sell fast and well. The others aren't solid enough to be a mainstay, extras yes.

Good luck, Lono! (And here I thought it was Iono - shows what I know. ) Can't wait to see some pics!

 

[Hoodoo_Hermit]

Best of luck to you I'm sure we'll all be looking forward to seeing your pictures as your company grows.

 

[Wyrmypops]

That Ettin can be done just as you'd take on a Giant. Though it has some groovy bits of flesh for some fancier treatment - the wrinkled up and rough looking patches of skin look ripe for something raw or manky.

 

[Spoontoes]

Good luck mate! Awesome to see someone striking out in their own direction. Looking forward to seeing pictures.

 

[lono]

I managed to get to Warhammer World this afternoon and pick up the Forgeworld models. My thought for the evening - Prepping resin is an absolute bitch! I am looking forward to painting them though. Expect pictures of progress on the Ettin and Eldar tomorrow.

Marjedi - GW releases go for good cash when painted to a decent standard and put on eBay quickly. This is a proven and 'safe' way to make a good bit of cash every few weeks. I'm yet to see any regular examples of Malifaux and PP stuff going for good money on eBay, so it's a risk not worth taking just now as the main bulk of my painting. I'll drop them in here and there to mix things up, but I am pretty certain I'll get a better hourly rate sticking to GW releases. I'm not keen on the Beastmen monsters either, but I suspect they'll sell for a fairly decent price regardless of that or their in game prowess if I get them up quick sharp.

Kath - Yeah, one of the reasons I put 'Lono's' in the thread title rather than 'James's' was because so many folks think it's Iono. And I understand that completely, I should have put a capital letter when I signed up!

Wyrmy - I think I'll go more towards the slightly manky look. I believe they evolve from trolls initially, so I'm probably going to base the colours on the creatures in the film Troll Hunter (which I found incredibly tedious, but it had some good gnarled troll reference) with stony, slightly sickly greys with hints of green and blue worked in.

 

[marjedi]

Cool, well then good luck with everything then. I actually find resin to not be that bad to work with. It is easy to trim and clean, sands smooth and it easy to handle as it is light. Granted large pieces that are warped can be annoying to straigthen. Ant cons they have are more then made up for by the huge pro of being amazingly detailed.

 

[kathrynloch]

I managed to get to Warhammer World this afternoon and pick up the Forgeworld models. My thought for the evening - Prepping resin is an absolute bitch! I am looking forward to painting them though. Expect pictures of progress on the Ettin and Eldar tomorrow.

Kath - Yeah, one of the reasons I put 'Lono's' in the thread title rather than 'James's' was because so many folks think it's Iono. And I understand that completely, I should have put a capital letter when I signed up!

lol! No worries, I'll get it. If I may ask what is your Ebay ID? Even though I paint to sell, there are certain artists I admire and would like to own some pieces if at all possible. Can't buy anything right now but it can go on the Christmas list.

Prepping resin - take my word for it and get a Carbide Scraper as fast as humanly possible!!! I can't tell you enough how much this helps. You primarily just need the #2 tip but if you can get the entire set, you can do everything with it. Plastic, metal, and all types of resin, soft or brittle. You will absolutely love it! Because it's not an X-acto, you don't have to worry about slipping and gouging anything, especially with the soft Finecast. This little tool has been my single best investment, right up there with high quality paint brushes. I've had mine for 4 years now and it's still going strong. Plus, if it does get dull, I can send it back to Gary and he'll sharpen it.

Anyway, that little tool is worth it's weight in gold.

 

[lono]

Turns out I was wrong about being pretty sorted with my prep yesterday. I found tons of extra mould lines, flash, etc so this morning was spent dealing with them. I'll take a closer look at that scraper and probably purchase one if it's as useful as you say. Does sound very handy indeed! Oh, and my eBay ID is figoth. It's a somewhat random name, what with me not being called Fi and not being a goth, but I started using my girlfriend's account (she is both) to sell a few things and I've boosted it up so much now, I don't want to loose all of the positive rep I have through it.

Finally, this afternoon, I got to doing what I love, slapping some paint around. I've actually taken about a month break from any painting in the run up to my self-employment, as I knew I'd be doing a lot, and it does feel a bit strange getting back into the swing of it.

I'm going for quite a gritty, natural look on the big fella and I've been working a load of colours and washes into him. I've mostly got the base colours and tones worked through him. There's still fine tuning and fine detail to work on, and the face needs a good bit more attention. I like how he's quite homogeneous and fairly real looking... As real as a two headed monstrous beastie gets at least! Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[ischa]

they should give us a "like" button on cmon. is the mini really that textured?:O

 

[lono]

Yeah, it's awesome how textured it is. It feels like working on the next step up in quality after doing a lot of the recent GW plastic monster kits. The only downside of all that surface texture is where I've had to sand off mould lines or fill the odd area, it's left it a bit sparse in comparison.

 

[marjedi]

Looks awesome, although i miss some more fleshy tones as it is looking abit washed out. But thats just my feeling

 

[lono]

I was more going for moody and a little bit moonlit, rather than washed out but I can see what you mean. Hopefully extra details will make it a bit more interesting. I kinda like how it's coming together. I woke up with a headache and it's still persisting, so close work isn't great for me at the moment, but I've pushed on with him. The foliage on the base will be stained to be darker and then given a bit of a drybrush. I just didn't have anything around of a suitable tone. I need to do his loincloth still, and then the chunk of warpstone that he holds in his hand at the back and it'll be onwards to do the Eldar.

 

[marjedi]

The base and open sore add abit of much neede spot colours. Just a smidgin more on the highlight side on the skin and it looks awesome.

Get crakin on the eldar. The Shadow Spectres are my fav eldar aspect warriors and the phoenix lord is a spectacular model. Still wainting for the corsair army list in IA11 before i attack eldar as an army, but the spectres are on the top on the purchase list alongside the Lynx tank and the hornets.....and the wasps

 

[lono]

I think the big fella is done. CMON doesn't seem to want to add a thumbnail image of him properly when I try and submit him, so I'll try again later. Here he is though. I added a bit of OSL coming from the large piece of warpstone he carries as a weapon. Feedback is appreciated.

Also, I've got started on the underpainting for Irillyth and Drazhoath's slaves.

 

[marjedi]

Underpainting lol. And green spectres eh? Hadn't seen that coming.

 

[Elric2k]

The ettin turned out ace! I love the color choices. I also cant wait to see more of this eldar, I asked for the shadow spectres and this new phoenix lord for xmas, so I'm stoked to see some paint slapped on this dude.

 

[Black Jasper]

yeah, like the ettin, not my kind of figure but its painted with style, a unique style too which is a rare thing. nice one. think ive got some aspect warriors ill never do, want em?

 

[Bloodshovel]

very subtle veins on his stomach. I like it.