Hey all,
With last month's declaration of painting at least one thing a week for the month of December (and possibly beyond), I set to it a day early and on Friday, November 30th, I sat down and finished up painting some figures I started on about a year ago or more.
The figures are Vleta Reavers from Blue Moon Manufacturing. They are 15mm scale, though being large aliens they come in at a whopping 18mm tall. Taking the advice of a few sagely painters on the Internet, I stuck to painting just a single squad of them from start to finish instead of tackling the whole lot of ten.
The paint scheme is inspired by the plant men from the John Carter stories and I figured that by painting them in these colors I could maybe even put them into double duty as VSF figures with a sort of morphed concept of the plant men. Their organic weapons definitely help with this. This meant a lot of blues so I set down a base of a medium blue and then highlighted with a lighter blue made from blending the base with a more pastel blue. The eyes were painting a flat white and the teeth, horns and joint spurs were painted with the same color as the weapons - a sort of bone whitish colored marked "straw". Over the base colors and highlights I applied a liberal amount of Devlin Mud.
Basing was quick and dirty and involved super glue on the bases which was then run through a bag of fine scenic grit. A little poking and prodding with a pin and this makes a nice uneven and natural looking surface that dries to a concrete hardness. More Devlin mud on the bases and then a dry-brushing of grey.
The final effect isn't amazing, but i do not seek amazing, only serviceable. Quick and dirty like all my other gaming stuff.
It felt good to get back in and paint something. I am still not fond of painting, but I think I have identified the source of my loathing as the basic steps. The priming and base painting are what I think turns me off to the painting experience. Getting in and doing the detailing is much more enjoyable and seeing these figs finished down to the bases really does inspire me to do more.
Thanks for reading,
-Eli
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Excellent work, Eli. I really like how these have come out. The only other Vleta Reavers I've seen painted were done in shades of terracotta and brown, but I do like your blue palette.
ReplyDeleteI'm midway through a pile of Aslan and Vargr (from RAFM - can't remember the code names) and doing them in groups of five or six really works for me, too.
Love those old figures even if they are your basic anthro animal style aliens.
DeleteGreat job Eli.. Way better than simply servicable! Assembly, base texturing, priming are also my most hated steps. Once they are out of the way it all becomes much more fun.
ReplyDeleteGood work! You spend so much time blogging and generally enthusing about the hobby that it's little wonder you have no time for painting! Those look good and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks updates on the painting front.
ReplyDeleteI haven't even been doing all that much blogging of late.
DeleteNot sure what will be next, but perhaps I'll focus on finishing languishing projects for now.
Nice one Eli! I don't see many Blue Moon minis on the blogs I follow, so this is a bit of a treat!
ReplyDeleteThese were a gift from another gamer. I have to admit that most of the Blue Moon 15mm scifi stuff is a bit off my radar, but these are really quite cool.
ReplyDeleteit doesn't show up in the pictures, but they have crests down their backs that, rather than paint them bone like the tusks and joint spurs, I painted a brighter blue. The thought there was a sort of bioluminescence.
Well, they look pretty good to me, plenty of detail showing up on the pictures- let's see some more when you've time!
DeleteCool looking figs and paintjobs nice work sir!
ReplyDeleteNice work, now get them stuck in!
ReplyDelete;)
Stuck in?
Delete-Eli
Great painting on some fun models! Glad to see you're working through your reservations about painting. The payoff always seems worth it
ReplyDelete