Posts Tagged ‘From the painting desk’

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From the painting desk #80 – I came, I saw, I was inspired

July 28, 2025

For the first time in my life, I took part in a painting competition! I’ve been going to Ropecon, Finland’s main gaming convention (well, I say gaming, but it’s just a big overall geek fest) yearly since the mid-90s, and finally decided to put in an entry in the painting competition, Cold North Open. We threw the idea around with some friends – mostly non-painters – last year, thinking that it might be fun to participate just because. We did!

I was going to go all-in, but then my initial plans didn’t work and time ran out, and I was going to call it quits as a result. In the end, I decided to go for it anyway; life is short and there was nothing to lose. Enter three days/evenings/nights of merciless painting and a very sore neck, and I had this:

Click for a larger version

The model, which I entered in the Trench Crusade theme category, is a lovely, lovely model from Lost Heresy Miniatures. I’d seen the model a while ago, but since I’m not particularly into Trench Crusade, I’d kind of passed on it. Now that I was painting for a competition, I figured it would be a good opportunity to paint something for the fun of it.

In the end, I didn’t have success in the competition (should’ve probably gone a bit more grimdark for the setting), but apart from a moment of disappointment, it didn’t really bother me all that much. I’m happy with how the model turned out, and received some great feedback from the judges to improve further – essentially, all the skills are there but I need to think things a little differently for competition painting. I listened to a couple of great lectures – given by excellent Finnish miniatures painters – on competition painting and colour theory, and rather than intimidated, I felt really inspired!

While I’m not thinking of going all-in on competition painting or becoming a stellar painter, it also did feel really nice to push my skills a bit. Actively learning new things and pushing your skills can be really fun if done without pressure, and to be honest, I’ve been painting for such a long time that a sort of stagnation and routine has set in. It’s not a bad thing as such, and I’m really happy with how I paint, but I also really enjoyed focusing intensely on making a single model really nice. Also, as I don’t play a lot of miniature games, painting and storytelling are my main ways of engaging with the hobby, so improving my painting can and hopefully will increase my enjoyment as a whole, I think!

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , , | 9 Comments »

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From the painting desk #79 – Fembruary 2022

February 27, 2022

Wow, late February and it’s the first post this year. Better late than never!

The Fembruary challenge, a brainchild of Alex from over on Leadballoony, is one of my favourite things in the online miniatures scene – heaven knows our little corner of the hobby world benefits from more representation.

I’ve been painting a lot this year (apparently instead of blogging), and these three models are my entry to this year’s Fembruary:

First up is a rogue trader type character, the leader of my Five Parsecs from Home gang. Dubbed Nura Aleh by the wonderful Realm of Plastic 40k name generator, the mini is a 3d printable one from Studio Sol Union, kitbashed with a printed head from Knight Soul Studio. I think the combination makes for a pretty cool whole. My vague background story, based on the Five Parsecs random background generator for the character is that she’s a former or renegade inquisitor. For the clothes I went for a gold/purple combination – a tried and true combination and nicely a bit flamboyant.

Photo of miniature with long coat and pistol, views from the front and the back

Click for a larger version

The second model is another member of the Five Parsecs gang, the wasteland nomad mercenary Esma. The model is an old, OOP Infinity Ariadna scout sniper by Corvus Belli that I picked up years back at the local RPG convention if I recall correctly. I’d always considered the character to represent a woman, yet when I started to paint it, I realized that there were no gender identifiers there – which is actually kinda cool. A female model does not have to be super strongly (and stereotypically) coded as a woman with breasts, high heels or the like. For the paintjob I drew inspiration from the background, a wasteland nomad didn’t really speak to me of ostentatious clothing, so I went with very muted tones.

Photo of miniature with assault rifle, dressed in a cloak. Front and back views.

Click for a larger version

The third and final mini is my rendition of a Vindicare Assassin for my 40k army. Originally a Tempest guardsman sniper by Velrock Art, I removed the cloak before printing. The sculptor has intentionally made modifications to the minis wonderfully easy, as the cloak was simply a single element that could be removed using Meshmixer. This was a bit of a tricky model to paint, as it’s very, very black. I went for a few different tones, painted some sharp highlights on the bodysuit and made the armour and knee and elbow pads a bit more dull. I gave the hair an auburn look for a spot of colour, and painted the eye lenses red for a bit of extra contrast and menace. Overall, I’m pretty happy with it!

Photo of assassin miniature with rifle, dressed in all black. Front and back views.

Click for a larger version

To wrap up this post, a shot of the trio in more fitting surroundings.

Photo of three miniatures, an assassin, a rogue trader, and a mercenary standing on a metal walkway with scifi scenery in the background.

Click for a larger version

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments »

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From the painting desk #78 – A ship of sorts

August 15, 2021

During the summer holidays, I mostly worked on a new(ish) side project – undead pirates. Having painted a bunch of crewmen, that I’m sure to post at some point during the next few years, I realized that obviously my crew needs a ship. None of the offerings on the market really struck a chord though, as they were a little too over the top for me. Cool as ships built of huge bones are, I was more in search of a traditional Flying Dutchman look, or something resembling the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean. In other words, a pretty regular ship, but tattered, like a zombie of a ship. In fact, the search for such a ship still continues!

During my search, I came across something that I had eyed in the past, a wonderfully crazy model of a small ship carried on back of a huge monstrous crab, produced by Print Your Monsters. The model is pretty much a definition of “over the top”, but who cares, I wanted it! I bought the STL files for it, printed it out and got to work.

Now, in all honesty, resin 3d prints are shit challenging in terms of multi-part kits. Resin printing can be surprisingly inaccurate, which leads to all sorts of alignment issues and so on. Very much so with this pretty complex kit as well. Out came some Green Putty though, and I had a decent looking completed model. There’s still a small visible gap that I missed, but on a model like this, I don’t mind all that much. I decided to save resin and printed the base on my FDM printer, using thinned down putty to mostly eliminate visible layer lines on the rocks.

Painting a large model like this is pretty daunting. It’s a centrepiece, so has to look pretty nice, but on the other hand there’s a ton of stuff to paint. The undead theme helped here! I’ve painted my zombies and the like pretty weathered, dark, and muted, so went for it here as well. I settled on a dark green and fleshy purple combination, and I think it works pretty well! The underside of the crab, not really all that visible, has a nasty, pale, pink-white look. The model was very much a drybrush/Contrast paint/wash affair, cutting down on time and resulting in exactly the look I wanted. It also helped hide some rough putty work!

Click for a larger version

The model was bedecked with skulls, which posed a narrative challenge: were these actual skulls or decorations? I settled for painting the skulls on the ship a weathered bronze colour, while the skulls on the shell I painted as bone. They pop nicely, making the model more interesting. The crab’s limbs have a lot of flat coral, which I painted in muted yellows and reds, giving them very pale edges as I think that’s a very recognizable look!

Click for a larger version

For the base, I went with my usual look for my nautical undead, black decorative sand with tea leaves and pizza seasoning. As it’s a large base, in addition to the sculpted-on detail I added some shipwreck-y planks and barrel halves from Renedra, and a brass model ship cannon barrel that I had kicking about. I had stuck a metal pin on the highest rock to support the model – otherwise only connected to the base by the small tips of the legs – and mostly hid that with some suitably underwater looking vegetation. As with my other undead, the idea here is of a kind of otherworldly sea bottom that they carry with them. Of course the black bases also provide a striking contrast with the bright sandy bases of my pirates and civilians, and are generic enough.

The banner was the thing I finished last. I sort of wanted some sort of cool pirate flag design on it, but after a single try, I realized that my freehand skills were not up to it. On a straight hanging flag maybe, but with the folds and the flag billowing to one side…nope. I decided to go for a simple black flag, which I think looks menacing enough.

Click for a larger version

The monstrous ship actually only has space for four miniatures, but I don’t really mind. Rather than a proper ship, this is more a command vessel, likely for an undead pirate lord going “MWHAHAHAHAHAA!” While I’d love to show it off in full, the model is a nightmare to photograph, but hopefully the pictures at least give an idea of it – I hope to post some more in the future! I posed a Black Scorpion skeleton pirate and some Pariah Miniatures zombies on the model for a bit of added fun.

With this thing finally finished, I want something a lot less work-intensive. While it’s fun to do a big piece every now and then, I’m in no rush to start the next one!

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, Giant monsters, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments »

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From the painting desk #77 – Lizard beast

April 25, 2021

The blog has been pretty quiet lately, as work has been really hectic. We put together an academic seminar, which was this year’s biggest work-related thing (I assume/hope), so stress is now starting to ease up. Painting mojo has been somewhat down because of the lack of time, so I’ve spent most of my free time playing Age of Empires III and alternatively watching either Kengan Ashura or pro wrestling. With the seminar now behind me, I’m getting back to painting, with new mini projects looming again!

Before this cooldown period, I did manage to print and paint up a giant, six-legged lizard from Papsikels! It proved to be a bit of a bastard in a few ways. First of all, I struggled to print the base, which simply wouldn’t sit level when I printed it in resin. After a lot of sanding and cursing, I decided to print it on the FDM, and it came out perfect. The next hurdle was putting it together. It just would sit nicely on its rocky base, so I had to do a fair bit of putty work so it didn’t hang in thin air. After that, I got on with the painting…

My idea was to paint it in some kind of an exotic colour scheme, rather than dulled down brownish greens. I asked some nice people in our Ghost Archipelago group for ideas, and they suggested all sorts of colourful real-life lizards, so I ended up drawing inspiration from these. Now, the start of the painting was really easy. Spray undercoat, drybrush, Contrast, Contrast, Contrast. Then came the patterning part. The worst part of doing patterns on a very textured model, on which the painting relies mostly on washes and drybrushing, is that if you screw something up, you have to go back quite a few steps to fix your “canvas” for another try. Red patterns turned out to look too much like bloody wounds, black stripes made it look too much like a tiger. Repainting galore!

In the end I settled for a pale tail, an orange back pattern, and some irregular blue splashes of colour to suggest both toxicity and a fantastic element. Maybe when they’re small, they’re a great delicacy for some beast, resulting in warning colours. Or who knows about mythical islands, there’s probably something out there that snacks on these creatures when they’re fully grown.

Photo of painted lizard miniature

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Photo of painted lizard miniature

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Photo of painted lizard miniature

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Scene of lizard threatening pirate miniature

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After wrestling with the model quite a bit, I’m really happy it turned out as nice as it did. I went to town on the base, partly also to hide some spots where the model doesn’t quite sit right. Anyway, lots of new things on the painting desk, so hopefully I’ll get some of that out on the blog as well!

Posted in 3d printing, Miniatures | Tagged , , | 25 Comments »

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From the painting desk #76 – Brig ahoy!

February 13, 2021

Much as I enjoy a quiet life indoors, I have to say that especially now that spring is slowly creeping in, COVID stuff is getting to me. Usually around this time of the year, I would be making travel plans for London and Salute – much like I did last year (“I’m pretty sure this corona thing will be over by April”, good call, Nostradamus). It’s not a huge thing in the grand scheme of things, I haven’t had loved ones fall ill or anything like that, but I do miss normal life: travel, walking into shops and cafés without wearing a mask and worrying about safe distances, not flinching every time someone coughs nearby, hugging loved ones and so on and so on. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. At least it’s bright and sunny here in Finland, and we’ve had a lovely, snowy winter out here!

Anyway, onto nicer things. I’ve finally finished a ship! It’s been a good long while since I bought and printed the brig produced by Printable Scenery, and I finally managed to complete work on it. It was actually progressing at a decent rate, until I hit the dreariest part: putting together the masts and rigging. The ship sat for months and months in a mostly finished state, but I just couldn’t be bothered.

Click for a larger version

Mast and rigging work isn’t even all that awful, it’s just something I’ve developed an almost irrational dislike for. It took a few empty weekends to finally get myself around to doing the work, and even then it was bit by bit. As often happens, however, the better it started to look, the more it motivated me to keep going in a cycle of positive feedback! Now that it’s done, I must say I’m really, really happy with how it looks. Much as I would’ve liked to photograph it with some sort of lovely background, I had to settle for a beautiful sheet of blue foam. Emmi has been doing a lot of watercolour painting lately, and has promised to paint me a backdrop, I’m really looking forward to it!

Click for a larger version

Now, some people go for really accurate and realistic rigging. I didn’t. The approach I adopted was built on looks (“does it look like a ship’s rigging?”) and functionality (“can I place and move minis easily?”), and the end result reflects both. Minis can be moved, the setup is pretty sturdy, and to my eye it looks like, well, a ship.

Click for a larger version

The model is great, I think, but I could have maybe scaled it up a little. It’s that size where it would be pretty accurate with 28mm minis if they did not have bases and if 28mm didn’t mean 32mm. Still, these are the compromises we always make with buildings and terrain too, and there are only so many ships you can store in an apartment. If it doesn’t fit on a shelf, it’s going on the floor, and if it’s on the floor, it’s free game for dust, cats, and the occasional kick, so not really what you want for something you’ve spent hours and hours on.

Click for a larger version

With my previously finished Sea Dog by Games of War, I now have a very small pirate fleet! The brig packs plenty of firepower with 8 cannon and 8 swivel guns, while the Sea Dog sports four cannon. They also allow for a bit of ship to ship action. I have plenty more ships to make, including a second Sea Dog, and a xebec and some larger ships from the Pirates vs. Cthulhu kickstarter. Now what did I just say about space…

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , , | 21 Comments »

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From the painting desk #75 – Pirate ladies

January 31, 2021

Another showcase of things I’ve painted fairly recently. I’m building an all-woman pirate crew for our upcoming Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago thing, so here’s a selection! Click on any photo for a larger version.

L to R: Bridge Games, Lovecraft Design x 2

The model on the left is actually a scifi mini from the Cobalt-1 range currently owned by Bridge Miniatures, and I think I got her from Alex over at Leadballoony. I assume she’s some sort of alien: the model did not have heels at all and I sculpted them on with putty. For some reason, her face reminded me of a young Pam Grier, so I decided to paint the model with dark skin. The two other models are printed pieces from Iain Lovecraft’s Pirates vs. Cthulhu kickstarter. I should’ve printed the middle mini a little smaller, but couldn’t be bothered as the size won’t be noticed anyway. On the right we have an excellent miniature rendition of Anne Bonny as she’s depicted in Black Sails.

L to R: Black Scorpion x 2, Reaper

Here, the first two miniatures are from Black Scorpion, and I really like them! They’re very characterful, but in different ways, the first one with a murderous intent and the second being wonderfully flamboyant. Extra bonus points for a body shape sadly very, very, very uncommon in woman miniatures which very much tend to be of the “sixpack and breast implants” variety. It’s one of the nicest pieces I’ve seen in a while! The thid mini is from Reaper Miniatures, and a good example of how fantasy miniature ranges can provide some excellent minis for pirate gaming.

L to R: Dead Earth Games x 2, Vae Victis

The third batch of three consists of two minis from Dead Earth Games’ Pirates of the Dread Sea range, and a very pirate-like vampire hunter from Vae Victis. For the pirate carrying the multi-barreled nock gun I went for some tattoos which I’m fairly happy with! They make her look pretty bad ass. The mini with the hook hand had an Indian look about her, so I used a fairly bright orange for the dress. It made me realise it’s a colour that I almost never use, but I quite liked the end result.

All together now!

There are miniatures here from no fewer than six different manufacturers, and I think the group shot is a nice example of how a uniform painting and basing style can really bring different lines together. At this stage and especially combined with my existing pirate women, I have all the minis I need for my crew. However, I’m quite motivated to paint at least a few more! It’s bringing some much needed variety to my pirates: before these minis the gender balance was something like 38 men to 8 women. It’s not a big thing in the overall scheme of things, but nevertheless makes me happy. It might be worth noting that this crew is distinctly lacking in pirates of the pin-up variety. As some of those can be nice sculpts, there are some cases where I’ve painted bare legs as tight pants, which is a nice enough compromise to me.

Work on the Ghost Archipelago project carries on, comments welcome as always!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments »

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From the painting desk #74 – Efreet sultan

December 13, 2020

Lately, my blogging has been stalling for a very pedestrian reason: miniatures that I would like to show have not yet had their anti-shine varnish over the gloss, so they can’t be photographed. As I like to use spray varnish for that, it would mean setting up the spray booth, which would mean moving my printers and eugh…you get the point. My amazing solution? Show off minis that I haven’t gloss varnished. Genius!

I recently bought a second resin printer, this one a Phrozen Sonic Mini 4k. To test it out, I printed a variety of stuff, including this awesome free Efreet Sultan from Roman “gloomyKid” Bevza. I took it as Citadel Contrast practice, and the model is maybe 80-90% done with those alone. I’m now getting the hang of them, and they’re excellent – to the point that I may have provided Santa with some suggestions…

Photo of painted miniature genie

Click for a larger version

Much like the Ghost Archipelago critters shown earlier, this was a chance to paint something different. Having mainly done Hollywood-historical pirates for five years (!!!) now, I’ve really enjoyed doing something new, and I think I’ll keep on doing this. Previously, the lack of time has been a major hurdle: why spend very limited painting time on anything but your main project? Now with the whole global pandemic shutting down everything, there’s more leeway and maybe a need for some mental refreshment too.

As for the mini, I was considering a traditional/Disney’s Aladdin blue colour, but then settled on a fiery red look. Doing a bit of light Wikipedia research, I found the following:

In Islamic folklore the afarit became a class of chthonic spirits, inhabiting the layers of the seven earths, generally ruthless and wicked, formed out of smoke and fire. But despite their negative depictions and affiliation to the nether regions, afarit are not fundamentally evil on a moral plane; they might even carry out God’s purpose. Such obligations can nevertheless be ruthless, such as obligation to blood vengeance and avenging murder. An ifrit can further be bound to a sorcerer, if summoned.

I had this in mind, as I tried to make him look menacing yet not completely evil. The black eyes work well for this in my opinion. I attempted to make the coils of smoke look magical and otherwordly rather than normal smoke, which also enabled me to experiment with wet blending. The result? Not great, not terrible – but promising! I tried to get across the idea that the smoke is coalescing into the efreet, hence turning red near the top. It would benefit from a smoother basecoat, as I currently just paint contrasts over a black basecoat roughly drybrushed with white, and the roughness does show through. For the gemstone I did the whole old school Citadel gem thing, which I think I’ve managed to pull off decently for the first time ever.

For the base I went with my light sand look that I use with my pirate stuff, but threw some rocks in there as well. The idea was to suggest an arid environment, yet also have the model compatible with my pirates in terms of basing. I think I could have blended the smoke effect with the rest of the base a bit better, but didn’t want to spend too much time on it to be honest. At some point I want to put together some Barbary pirates, so this piece will provide that setting a bit more fantasy.

Posted in 3d printing, Fantasy, Miniatures | Tagged , | 23 Comments »

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From the painting desk #73 – Odds and sods

September 19, 2020

 

I’ve been painting a fair bit of smallish stuff in the past months, scatter scenics mostly. Barrels, crates and the like are something that I can paint without devoting too much attention to them, they’re good for getting the “models painted” counter up and allow me to retain some painting mojo even on those days when it’s just not quite there. As my blogging has stalled a bit, I figured it would be fun to show of some of this stuff.

These small pieces have been a great way to test out Citadel Contrast paints too, which I’m liking more and more. With a barrel or crate, who cares if it gets a bit messy – speed is key here.

These trade goods were both designed and printed by yours truly. I’m pretty proud that I can actually create something that in my not so humble opinion looks very professional.

Click for a larger version

This is a gibbet (labeled a “hanging cage”) from WizKids, a part of their Deep Cuts range. Although you can’t really see it in the photo, there’s a little guy in there. I originally added a raven sitting on top of the gibbet, but managed to snap its tiny resin legs, so no luck there.

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This rowboat is from the Depths of Savage Atoll Kickstarter, and printed on my FDM machine. It’s simple and easy to use in multiple settings, and the photo angle conveniently hides minor printing issues.

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I can’t recall where I bought these resin pieces. They’re nice enough designs, but casting quality was awful – I had to spend quite a bit of time greenstuffing things up, and I pretty much painted these to be rid of them.

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Here are two tree stumps that I got off Thingiverse. In the middle is a giant snake wrapped around another tree stump. The snake is another Depths of Savage Atoll piece, and printed by me in resin.

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As these sort of photos can get a little boring, and I wanted a bit of photo play, I decided to stage some photos of them “in action”. This also gave me a chance to test my new photo backdrop, that I created from a cheap home decoration sticker – I think it works pretty well!

“Well gentlemen, these will fetch a tidy sum back in England.”

“You ever think about going pirate, George?”
“Nah, just look at this wretch here.”

“They say she can talk to snakes. Then again, they say a lot of things.”

Here’s hoping my next post is a bit sooner than a month from now. It’s been grant application writing season here, so not much time for anything fun. It’s letting up now, though, so time to get those brushes moving!

Posted in 18th century, 3d printing, 3d sculpting, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged , , | 13 Comments »

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From the painting desk #72 – A little bit of everything

April 16, 2020

While I had originally planned to make posts of these minis piecemeal, I figured that it would simply lead to most of them never getting displayed. As a result, this post features a pretty mixed selection of miniatures, but I’m sure that just makes it more entertaining!

Click for a larger version

Up first is a pair of pirates, consisting of a barber surgeon from Black Cat Bases and Esmerelda, a pirate lady from Black Scorpion. While stylistically very different, both were enjoyable to paint and make for nice additions to my pirate crews. I’m especially happy with the surgeon, who I think looks a bit like an annoyed Billy Connolly. As with some other Black Scorpion female minis, I painted the legs to suggest very tight pants instead of the cool pirate lady wearing a loincloth and boots. For some reason I never have to do this with male miniatures, who knew!

Click for a larger version

Onto the monkeys! A fair few miniature manufacturers make monkey miniatures as part of their pirate lines, and I’m happy to collect them. The monkey wearing a bicorne is another Black Scorpion sculpt that I picked up at Salute last year. The monkey sitting on a barrel is another 3d print from Depths of Savage Atoll. As one of my early test prints, the quality isn’t perfect and I already considered throwing the mini way. I didn’t have the heart to do it though, and after a bit of paint I think it turned out fine. Both of these were simple sculpts and easy to paint, and I’m really pleased with the end results. As for how I’ll use them, no idea whatsoever.

Click for a larger version

Rounding out this post are two very characterful pirates. The first one is a custom Hero Forge piece I printed, who I’m calling Smith of Bristol. Now, to anyone not familiar with the Dubliners song of the same name, it tells the story of a daring pirate who goes around a-plunderin’ and a-robbin’, before finally being killed by a Spanish bullet. The twist of the song follows this, with the lines “he was only ninety-seven/but his soul had gone to heaven”, which I’ve always found hilarious. So, long story short, here’s a sprightly old pirate! If you want to listen to the song, I’ve embedded it below.

The second miniature is another one with some story behind him. He’s Tijl Uilenspiegel, an exclusive miniature from the Crisis wargaming show in Antwerp. Originally Tijl, known in English as Till Owlglass, is a 16th (or possibly 15th or even earlier) century trickster figure. As Wikipedia informs us:

Many of Till’s pranks are scatological in nature, and involve tricking people into touching, smelling, or even eating Till’s excrement. Scatological stories abound, beginning with Till’s early childhood (in which he rides behind his father and exposes his rear-end to the townspeople) and persisting until his death bed (where he tricks a priest into soiling his hands with feces).

An excellent character, in other words! While I don’t think my pirate version of him is quite this feces-focused, the sculpt is great. Paul Hicks has sculpted a wonderful expression on the mini, and I tried to reflect this when painting the eyes. I think he does look a bit…trickstery.

While all of these would technically qualify for Ann’s “Paint the crap you already own!” challenge, Tijl Uilenspiegel is the one mini I had in mind when I decided to participate in the challenge. He’s a sad case of “Oooh I really want that, what a cool mini, better let him sit in a box for a year or two” so I’m happy that he’s finished!

With all this painted stuff, I’m at 12/100 for my painting goal of 100 pieces this year. With a third of the year gone – not great, not terrible. Still, with a bunch of easy to paint terrain pieces and the like in the near future, I’m still optimistic!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates | Tagged , , , , | 20 Comments »

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From the painting desk #71 – A whale of a time

April 8, 2020

Ok, this is in fact more a case of a whale out of time. I finally finished painting up a wonderfully disgusting whale carcass from the Depths of Savage Atoll Kickstarter. Regular readers might remember that I showed this three-part print back in September. It sat for a long time undercoated on my desk, and as often happens in these cases, once I actually got to painting it, it was a decently quick affair. I tried to play it a bit loose and not get too fiddly – basically just washes, drybrushes and some very rough layering. The carcass looks horrible, but in a good way, I think.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

It’s really relaxing to paint large, chunky pieces like this from time to time, it’s so different from the more intricate work required by 28mm or smaller minis. What’s more, painting something that’s supposed to look tatty, dirty and rotten, makes it even easier. It’s a rotting whale carcass, how neat does it need to be?

This will sit on a beach somewhere on Tyburn island, lending the place a quaint, nautical atmosphere. An old whale beached and eaten by scavengers, or a mighty ocean predator crushed by the Kraken? You never know…

I’ve been slowly building up (if not painting) a whole bunch of stuff to wash up on a shore – shipwrecks, half buried and broken barrels, driftwood, that sort of thing. I hope to make a kind of a ship graveyard at some point. This poor whale will fit right in.

In other news, there are no other news. Nothing is happening, I’m spending a lot of time working from home and quite enjoying it to be honest. Wrestlemania 36 was fun, the second season of Kingdom was really fun, season three of Castlevania was fun, the fifth season of Outlander is fun and a rewatch of Godzilla: King of Monsters reminded me that it was still fun, too. Life is not bad, all things considered. Hope you are keeping safe!

Posted in 18th century, Miniatures, Pirates, Scenics | Tagged , | 10 Comments »

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