More stuff

My youngest son has started to get into painting now, and he has some skill:


Of course, he seems to like the 'piles of skulls' motif from GW!

Feawin and I are back-pedalling a bit -- we visited one of my favorite game stores - Merlyns - during a brief visit to family last week-end, and we ended up buying some more Reaper Warlord minis, Reptus for me and Elves for her. She prefers the sculpting of the Reaper minis to the Thunderbolt Mountain minis. Now, we might not actually use the Warlord rules...


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Tekumel skin colors

One of the big differences in painting Tekumel minis from your average fantasy minis is the skin color. The residents of Tekumel are not Caucasian, so your typical 'flesh' paints will not be suitable. After a little bit of searching, I found some paints that are more appropriate for the task:


From the left ---

P3 Idrian Flesh
Reaper Master Series Tanned Shadow
Reaper Master Series Tanned Flesh
Reaper Master Series Tanned Highlight
Reaper Pro Series Ruddy Flesh
Vallejo Model Color Flat Flesh
Reaper Pro Series Caucasian

The Idrian Flesh might be just a bit dark, and the Tanned Highlight is too light in my view. Normally I do not like to mix colors, but in this case it should work, especially since there will be only small amounts that would need to be mixed, and everybody has slightly different skin. Tanned Shadow should make a good base color.

(Note: The Vallejo color came out of the bottle very chunky - obviously I did not shake it enough!)


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Links and other stuff

I have added some new links along the sidebar of this blog... take a look! I can recommend The WarStore and Noble Knight Games for e-shopping. The WarStore has good prices and selection, and Noble Knight deals with old, out of print games.

I also added Madslios Madness to the blog-list.


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Projects update

Although it seems glacial, I am actually making progress. Here is the line-up:

1. Tau for 40K: Purchases complete, slowly painting the pile I have. The bodyguard for my commander should be done soonish.

2. Empire for WFB: Just beginning, a small handful of figures assembled/primed, with many more still on the sprue.

3. Tekumel: More pieces are coming together. I recently purchased some proper skin-tone paints, and another package, with a copy of the 6 out-of-print army guide books, is waiting for me at the local post office. The books have painting guides, stats, and 'historical' info on units, which will make this project gain more impetus.

4. The historical project: This is the one that is floundering somewhat. The more I work on other projects, the less I want to keep pursuing the 28mm Renaissance project. Part of this reluctance is also due to the resurgence of the desire to once again pursue naval gaming. The flavor of naval gaming is yet to be determined, but I am finding that anything after WW1 is less and less appealing.

5. MMORPG: Originally, when this blog was first conceived, it was to be a collaboration between my wife and I - Pewter (my side) and Pixel - (her side). That did not come out very well, especially since she is pursuing other on-line options, including maybe even her own blog. So, I might start including some screen shots and commentary from our adventures in EQ2 in the near future.


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Dwarf army!

Here is a work-in-progress shot of my son's Dwarf army for Warhammer Fantasy:


Many of these minis are the new Skull Pass dwarves, that he has modified into other troop types. In the back row you can see some with extra-long beards added with green stuff. Also, some of the handgunners have been converted into quarrellers (crossbows). A good-looking army so far!


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Priming progress

Even with the EPG troops primed, there was still more work to be done. I left their shields off in order to make painting the figure easier, but it does not make painting the shield any easier, since they tend to be small and move around some when you try to hold them while painting. So, I used the same solution with the shields as I used with the troops:



The box is an old drill bit container. Long ago I broke the plastic cover, but kept the rest, as any good scavenging minis gamer would. A little dab of white glue to the nail holds the shield in place. The back of the shield will be a single color, and easy to do once the front is done and the shield released from the nail.

I also primed the few Empire miniatures that I have built so far:


The gesso primer does not seem to adhere to the GW plastic as well as it does to the pewter. You can see where the gesso coat gets splotchy, especially on the mortar. I do not believe that it will affect the paint though.

When the flesh paints get here, I should make some real progress on my EPG troops, and just in time: Eureka is set to release the first batch of Tsolyani enemies: the Yan Kor, in September!


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Paints

The snail's pace continues, but I do have some news. I think that I have found the perfect paint for the typical Tekumel inhabitant's skin color.

So far as the 'canonical' data on Tekumel are concerned, there are no humans of the Caucasian persuasion on the planet. All of the human occupants are descended from Latin America/India/Middle East stock. So, all of the 'flesh' tones in my paint kit are useless...

But I think that I found the right color: Idrian Flesh from P3.

Of course, there will be variations to this tone, but it should be the right tint to use as a base for all of the humans on Tekumel.


I am going to splurge on hobby paint for the skin. Other colors that I will use will be the economy-priced craft paints, but I really think that the smoothness of hobby paint will be better for skin. Metallics fall into this category as well.


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