Grey Knights done and a Dark Elf Dragon

Hi all. Been a while since the last update. Things just seem to get busier and busier. My gallery and oil paintings have really been taking up just about all of my time. So, no time to make any tutorials... yet.

But I do have a lot of pictures of new figs. I'll post color recipes below each image

Gold: Calthan Brown, Devlan Mud (x2), Snakebite Leather, Bubonic Brown, Skull White
Steel: Adeptus Battlegrey, Badab Black, Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, Skull White,
Horns/Claws: Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, Bubonic Brown, Menoth White Base, Skull White
Black Scales: Chaos Black, 50/50 P3 Coal Black and Chaos Black, Coal Black, Coal Black + Fortress Grey
Purple: P3 Beaten Purple, Badab Black, Beaten Purple, BP+Skull White
Dark Grey Skin (dragon), Basecoat of 50/50 Chaos Black and Adeptus Battlegrey, highlight by adding in some Khemri Brown for a couple layers. Highlight that mix by adding in Fortress Grey.

I think I've already shared all the recipes for the Grey Knights. Though if you see something that I haven't shared before, feel free to ask. I'll be happy to answer.

Dread Knight (alternate color scheme)

Hi all. Been very busy lately (though that seems to be usual for me).

I've got a Dread Knight painted for commission. The commission has one more of these, a rhino, and a character. When I start painting the next DK this week, I'm thinking about making a step-by-step tutorial for some of the NMM techniques.

I'm thinking two good subjects would be:
-Scratched armor
-Weathered/dirty steel (such as the exhaust pipes)

Anyway, on with the pics.

Here's some of the recipes if anyone is curious:

Gold: basecoat 50/50 Calthan Brown/Snakebite Leather, wash Devlan Mud, highlight Snakebite Leather, highlight up to Skull White.

Red Armor: basecoat Scab Red. Badab Black wash in the crevices. Highlight Scab Red+Blood Red. Final highlights of thinned Blood Red on the edges. Scratches/chips were basecoated with black, highlighted with Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, and then Skull White.

Steel (exhaust pipes) Basecoat Codex Grey, highlight Fortress Grey, highlight Skull White (sparingly). Dirt/smoke was added with a watered-down mix of Scorched Brown and Chaos Black. Begin at one of the holes in the pipe and move the brush upwards. Keep most of the dirt wash near the top. Final highlights/scratches were made with Fortress Grey and Skull White.

Base: Black undercoat. Heavy drybrush/basecoat of Scorched Brown. Rocks were heavily drybrushed with Adeptus Battlegrey, Codex Grey, and Fortress Grey. Dirt was drybrushed with Calthan Brown and Bubonic Brown. The green/grass areas were heavily drybrushed with Catachan Green, followed by Goblin Green, Camo Green, followed by a very light drybrush of Bubonic Brown. The rusted pieces of metal debris were painted with Scorched Brown, followed by washes/stippling of Vermin Brown and Blazing Orange. Scratches were added just like on the red armor.

If you'd like any other color recipes, please feel free to ask.


I've also started posting some more of my pottery up for sale on my Etsy shop. If you are in the market for some handmade ceramic stuff, please take a look:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/mattsterbenz

Thanks for reading. Until next time,

Elves and Dwarfs

Got a huge update. Things have been really busy lately. I've found a little bit of time to work on that Empire Captain, so there should be an update on him later on in the week. Unfortunately I have not had the time to make any tutorials but that should be changing pretty soon.

First up we have a Mage from the Island of Blood set. Remember that Phoenix Guard test figure? Same color scheme. Though I did fiddle around with the scheme a bit and added some white to it. The customer and I agree the color scheme looks a lot better now.

I ended up painting the mage in three parts. There's just too much intricate detail to paint in one piece.

Next up is the Phoenix Guard, with the improved color scheme. The images are really big this time. (Right click and open the link in a new tab/window to see it at full size).

And next up we have the group of 20 Dwarf Rangers. They all have the hammer/wing plastic shields from the warrior box sets.

More updates to come soon. For now I need to get some sleep! I don't think there's any new color recipes in this update, but if you are curious about what colors I used for anything, feel free to ask.

First mini of the new year.

A start, at least. After a year of painting only commissions and not finishing any figures for myself (I did start a couple projects but they got abandoned) I really intend on finishing this one. The past few years I have seen a decline in my desire to paint non-commission figures. Maybe this is the start of something bigger. Who knows, I may hit up the Golden Demons again. ;)

The first thing that you may notice on this guy is the undercoat. Normally I go with chaos black spray, but I figured I'd try something different. This is white primer along with a wash of Badab Black. Its sort of like the best of both worlds.

I am trying some more of those fabric textures again. I have promised a tutorial of this stuff in the past, and I do need to get around to finishing that too. Too many projects, too little time.

I gave the white fabric some purple shading. I figured that grey or brown shading would clash too much with the cloak or armor.

NMM steel recipe: Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, Menoth White Highlight, Morrow White, shading with a mix of Adeptus Battlegrey+Regal Blue, and shading with Chaos Black.

2011 musings, and some painted miniatures

First up we have the finished Slayer Lord from last week's post:

I painted a test figure this evening for a High Elf commission. The color scheme is a sea-foam green and deep blue (GW Scaly Green and Regal Blue, each highlighted with white).

Well, 2011 is nearly over. Time has really flown by. It seems like just yesterday I started painting miniatures. In fact, it was about this time, 10 years ago, that I took up this hobby. I remember stumbling upon it at a local game store where I bought my Magic: the Gathering cards. I never thought something like this would ever end up making such a difference in my life. Reflecting back on everything that I have gained from these little metal toy soldiers really shocks me. It has made me a better painter. I learned a wealth of information about commissions and promoting myself as an artist. I have sustained a living doing something that I love. I have met countless incredible people in the gaming community. I could go on and on... but the bottom line is that all of this was possible with this hobby that I discovered by chance.

Anyway, I digress. I've been reflecting on everything that I have done in the past 350-odd days, and I decided to make a list of some of the accomplishments. In 2011 I:

-Graduated from college, with a 3.97 gpa (if I recall correctly I got one A- and one B+).
-I worked my ass off while going to college (15-18 credit hours per semester), painting miniatures to pay the bills, and I have remained debt-free.
-In April I drove to Sedona and painted landscapes for 3 days. I got some good paintings out of the trip and a load of great photos (my computer crashed and I lost them, however). I absolutely love landscape painting, and this trip among some other things really helped guide my oil paintings in the right direction.
-In June, I drove to Wisconsin for a wood kiln firing/interview for a pottery apprenticeship, and it was one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. Between this trip and great ceramics professors at ASU I developed a really strong passion for pottery. I honestly can't make up my mind on what I want to go to grad school for... painting or ceramics.
-I decided that I am going to go to grad school. I don't have very much money but I won't let the cost of tuition hinder me. I'll just have to work a little harder and get some loans. The deadlines are in January, I believe, so I need to get on top of the application process right away.
-I made a website for my oil painting. (www.msterbenz.com) and I have taken that a lot more seriously.
-I became part of a brand new studio/gallery in Tempe, and I have started selling my oil paintings.
-Most of all, I have come to realize what my dreams are. Fine art (both oil painting and ceramics) is were I am headed. I want to teach college, and I need to go to grad school for that.

And as for miniatures, there was a thread on the CMON forums for keeping track of the year's painted figures. I think it's a great idea and I'm glad I posted in the thread. Here's the long list, copied from the forum:


6 Warmachine Cygnar Rangers
1 Cygnar tiny jack.
7 Warmachine Cygnar something or others. Gun mages? Not sure.
1 Space Wolves dreadnought.
1 Space Wolf Scout (test model for army)
1 FW Bloodthirster (Jan 23)

(UPDATE 7/17/11)
1 warmachine cygnar large jack
5 misc warmachine figs (don't know the names)
165 Skaven clanrats
15 gutter runners
2 warp lightning cannons
5 warlock engineers
1 grey seer
4 Skaven weapon teams
1 BA death company dread
1 BA librarian dread
5 BA terminators
1 sanguinary priest
5 ultramarines
10 night goblins
5 grey knight terminators
10 grey knight purifiers

(UPDATE 7/20/11)
1 forge world lord of change

(UPDATE 7/22/11)
1 Crowe
1 Draigo
1 GK Razorback
1 GK Dreadnought

(UPDATE 7/27/2011)
1 GK Dreadknight

(UPDATE 8/12/2011)

90 Skaven Clanrats
10 Giant Rats
2 Packmasters
2 Warpfire Throwers

(UPDATE 8/15/2011)
10 Blood Angels Death Company (with both sets of backpacks, magnetized)

(UPDATE 8/16/2011)
1 Grey Knight with Psycannon (Test figure for my personal army)

(UPDATE 10/12/2011)
5 LOTR army of the dead
1 Infinity Wolf guy
6 Misc Infinity figures
15 Dwarf Slayers
23 Dwarf Ironbreakers
1 Dwarf Ranger
1 Dwarf Hammerer

(UPDATE 10/28/2011)
6 Chaos Dwarfs (Greebo)
6 Hobgoblins
2 Bull Centaurs
3 Blood Bowl Tokens
1 Warmachine/Hordes Skorne Titan Bronzeback

(UPDATE 12/15/2011)
6 Warmachine/Hordes Skorne Cataphract Cetrati
1 more Warmachine/Hordes Skorne Titan
7 Misc. Skorne troops
20 Dwarf Longbeards
1 Blood Angels Sanguinor

(UPDATE 12/22/2011)
1 Dwarf Slayer Lord
1 High Elf Phoenix Guard test figure

According to my calculator that's 481 figures. All of those, besides the Skaven, were level 3 and competition quality paintjobs. I've still got another week left too. Maybe I'll get that unit of Dwarf Rangers done.


Hope everyone had a great 2011. See you next year,

-Matt

Dwarf Longbeards and a WIP Slayer Lord

I finished the regiment of Long Beards today. I really like these old models. They're so much better than the new Dwarf range.

I started working on a Slayer character. It's nice to spend a little extra time on something. Here it is so far:

Next up on the chopping block: Dwarf Rangers, a Dark Elf Dragon, more Grey Knights (a red/black color scheme), and I've been working on a step-by-step tutorial of a gaming-quality Empire soldier. I'm not sure when I'll finish that though.

Sanguinor

Finished the Sanguinor this evening. It was a cool model to paint. Here's a couple of the color recipes:

Gold: VMC Brass, Devlan Mud, Brass, Shining Gold, Shining+Mithril, Mithril Silver, glaze of Yellow Ink + Gryphonne Sepia + Water

White: 50/50 Astronomican Grey/P3 Morrow White, Shadow Grey shading, 50/50 AG/MW, 25/75 AG/MW, MW

Sword: 50/50 Hawk Turquoise/Space Wolf Grey, highlight SWG, highlight Morrow White, shade Hawk Turquoise, shade Scaly Green.

The red recipe is the same as the Bronzeback Titan from a few weeks ago.

I'm about half way through the unit of Dwarf Longbeards. I hope to get some pictures of those up soon.

Some Finished Dwarfs

It's been a busy month. The Blood Bowl team arrived safely and I got a really nice letter from the customer. I'll be making a testimonials section on this blog as soon as I can figure out how.

I've also been busy with oil painting. I have a new website and blog for my art. If you are interested, please check them out!

http://www.msterbenz.com

http://msterbenz.blogspot.com

The Skorne commission is done, though I forgot to take photos of it. I did, however, take some photos of the finished Slayer and Ironbreaker units. The Ironbreakers really came together after their shields were glued on. They arrived safe and sound last week at their new home in Idaho.

Up next: Longbeards, Rangers, a couple dwarf heroes, The Sanguinor, and others!

Until next time...

Chaos Dwarfs finished, and a Skorne figure

Got some final photos of the Blood Bowl team by Greebo miniatures. Not the best photos as I still don't have a good lighting setup.

The Blood Bowl team is now on its way to France. God speed!

I was pretty impressed with the sculpting quality of the Skorne Titan Bronzeback. The casting quality was pretty good too. Some gap-filling was needed but nothing too complex. This is one figure I wouldn't mind painting again, but to a very high showcase quality. Maybe one day when I have the time...

If anyone is curious about the colors used on the skin (a new recipe I came up with), here's the recipe I used:

(P3 and GW)
-Thornwood Green
-Devlan Mud (x2)
-Thornwood Green
-Bastion Grey
-Cryx Bane Highlight
-Cryx Bane Highlight + Trollblood Highlight
-Very thin glaze of Gryphonne Sepia Wash all over
-Ogryn Flesh Wash in select areas

Up next are the Dwarf Slayers and Ironbreakers. I am putting blue Celtic designs on the Slayers.