High Elf Dragon

Here is a High Elf Dragon, one of this month's many projects...

The mage is magnetized in the saddle. I'll be painting the magnetized dragon prince rider next.

The red skin/scales on the dragon were painted as follows:

Grey primer. Basecoat Mephiston Red. Wash with a mixture of Baal Red and Earthshade. Highlight Mephiston Red, followed by Khador Red Base (P3). Add white and yellow to the KRB for highlights (I have a bottle of Bad Moon Yellow mixed with White. It's handy for highlights).

Once the skin is done, basecoat the scales with Scab Red. Wash with Earthshade and Baal Red. Highlight Scab Red, followed by Mephiston Red, then Khador Red Base, then Fiery Orange.

Stone base:

Basecoat VGC Cold Grey. Wash with Earthshade. Drybrush Cold Grey, drybrush VGC Stonewall Grey. Mix in (P3) Menoth White Highlight for successive drybrushes. Apply washes/glazes selectively of each of the following: Nuln Oil, Scorched Brown, Catachan Green.

Finished Imperial Knight with Magnets

The client requested a special theme for this Imperial Knight. Bonus points if you can guess it! ;)

I was really impressed with the quality of the new transfer set. I don't know what they did differently, but they apply much better than the standard Space Marine and SM Vehicle transfers. The clear parts really are invisible once varnished. 

Making Your Own Custom Washes

I've been searching for cheaper alternatives to the GW washes. They perform great, which I like, but at $4 for a 12ml bottle, the cost can add up quickly

I think I finally found an equal. Polymer Acrylic Varnish from Golden. It smells just like the GW washes, and like I always say, follow your nose. The best thing about it is you can mix whatever color of wash you want. My version also costs less than $1 per bottle.

First I started off by trying to mix my own versions of Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. Here are some of the materials:

A bottle of Polymer Varnish with UVLS (Satin) from Golden Artist Colors, and acrylic inks from Liquitex and FW (Daler Rowney). The inks I used are Transparent Burnt Umber and Black. 

You can find acrylic inks at many art supply stores (Hobby Lobby in the US carries them). Golden  products can be found at higher-end art supply stores, such as Utrecht or Blick. 

I cleaned out an old wash container, and filled it up about 3/4 of the way with varnish. The amount of ink you need depends on how much varnish there is and how strong of a wash you want. Add a few drops at a time, mix, and test it out on your palette before adding more. A little can go a long way! 

The pot above is my mixture of Nuln Oil. If I recall correctly, it's about 5-6 drops of black ink (which is pretty strong) and 1-2 drops of Burnt Umber. 

Finally, add some clean water, maybe 20 drops from an eyedropper (I have a couple of old P3 ink containers, which I cleaned out and fill with water. They make great eyedroppers)

Above is my version of Agrax Earthshade next to the real thing. Can you tell which is which?

I believe I did about 10 drops of Burnt Umber, 3-4 drops of black ink, and 1-2 drops of red ink (old GW ink).

You can make different color washes too! The beard above was painted with a dark grey wash.

Basecoat VGC Stonewall Grey. Shade with a mixture of Stonewall Grey and the black wash mixture. (I like to add a little bit more varnish and water. This makes a nice grey wash, great for shading over light basecoats). Once the wash dries, highlight with Stonewall Grey, followed by layers all the way up to white. 

The gold on this slayer was given a burnt orange wash of Yellow Ink, Dark Flesh, and Polymer Varnish. The gold was then highlighted up to Mithril Silver, and was finally given a very light glaze of the original wash. This makes the highlights look less pale and more yellow. 

I hope this information helps you discover some new washes, saves you a bit of money, and more importantly boosts your painting up to the next level.

Happy painting!

"Tabletop World" Resin Medieval Buildings

Unfortunately all three of these buildings are no longer available from Tabletop World. Their newer (available for purchase) buildings are just as cool, if not cooler!

First up is the "Merchant's House", which you can find here: 

http://www.tabletop-world.com/merchantsHouse.php

Next up is the "Timbered House", which you can find here:

http://www.tabletop-world.com/timberedHouse.php

Last is a small Mausoleum, which you can find here:

http://www.tabletop-world.com/mausoleum.php

Building, Magnetizing, and Painting an Imperial Knight (Part 1)

One of my latest projects is an Imperial Knight. I was requested to try and magnetize the right arm weapons, so that either weapon option could be used. This was a little tricky since both weapon options use a few of the same parts (the main body of the gun). But with a little fiddling I came up with a solution. 

Here are a few pictures of the parts both attached and unattached. 

And last up we have a preview of the painting! The main red color was painted as follows:

Basecoat Mephiston Red, Shade with Agrax Earthshade, Highlight with thinned Blood Red. A wider, thinned layer at first, and then a narrower second layer near the edge can be an effective, quicker way to blend the highlights, rather than having to mix a mid-tone.