August 29th, 2008 by Missy

Meh, I seem to have gotten out of the habit of blogging every day while we lacked internet.  It used to be that I’d have to stop myself from blogging too often and clogging up my pages, but now I’m having to force myself to sit down and write something.  Hopefully in a few days (or weeks, who knows) I will be back in the swing of things.

Anyways — I haven’t really done any painting since I finished up the wolves.  I’ve greenstuffed all of the ghouls up and primed them, but I haven’t started painting (although I have been dreaming of paint schemes).  I spent some time yesterday magnetizing my dire wolves (although I made Dan cut the steel sheets for me) and am quite pleased with them.  They’re strong enough that I can flip them upside down and give them a shake without dislodging them, but I can still easily remove them from the movement tray.  I also put magnets onto the bases for the ghouls that I am painting up, although I obviously haven’t made a movement tray for them yet.  Honestly I’m feeling a bit meh about it since I’m not sure how big to make it.

I usually start my ghoul units somewhere between 15-20 models, but I often end up with much more than that since my Lord takes “Summon Ghouls” as a power and I do so love to pump out ghouls like crazy.  I don’t really want to make a movement tray for like 30 models, though, because it’ll look retarded sitting on my display shelf with all of that empty space going on.  I don’t currently own enough ghouls to fill in for all of the ones that I raise (go go empty bases ftw), so it’s not even like it can sit on the display shelf full and move around the board not full.  Perhaps I should make a movement tray for 20 to keep on the shelf and a spare movement tray for games?  I suppose I have plenty of steel for it..

On a non-Warhammer related note, I’ve been working on an embroidered present for Jamie’s baby and I’ve been slacking on it recently.  I really need to sit down and get it finished, I’ll feel like a tard if it isn’t done by the baby shower.  What I’m making is a little pair of baby booties and on the bottom is an embroidered letter being hugged by a bear. The little left bootie will have an L (for Liliana) and the little right bootie will have a P for her last name.  Then, on the top of the booties is a cute little pink embroidered ribbon.  I’ve finished the letter and bear on one bootie and most of the ribbon.  I’ve actually done a test of both letters and a complete ribbon on scrap material and I’m pretty happy with how they’ve turned out, I just need to do them on the real cloth now.  Gosh, I’ve been such a slacker lately…

August 27th, 2008 by Missy

I have finally managed to paint an entire unit!  A unit of five models, albeit, but it is still a unit!  I’m quite pleased with how they turned out (and with how quickly I painted them).  These models are actually the main reason why I decided that I wanted to play Vampire Counts.  I absolutely fell in love with them when flipping through the Vampire Counts codex.  After that, of course, I fell in love with the lore for Vlad and Isabella, but the Dire Wolves are definitely what first attracted me to VC in the first place.

Now.. what to paint tomorrow?  I think I’ll try my hand at a ghoul.  I’ve got ten assembled (although their legs still need a bit of greenstuff, methinks) so it shouldn’t be too much work before I’m ready to get started on those.  I think I’m going to go for a skin tone that could belong on a human, since they’re really just humans who have turned into cannibals and shun the light.  Anyway, we’ll see!

August 26th, 2008 by Missy

Yes, indeed, the wolves are going well. I’ve finished two and I’ll be starting in on the third as soon as I finish this blog.  Wolf #2 still needs some touchup, but I didn’t really want to mix up batches of paint just to touch him up, so he’ll be getting fixed as I am painting wolf #3.  Save my beautiful, expensive VMCs!  Now if only I could find the headache medicine…

August 25th, 2008 by Missy

Well, he’s moving along. I decided against the brownish red on the ears as I just couldn’t find a nice way to blend them into the skull (I suppose I could have greenstuffed on tattered skin but I feel like painting today, not greenstuffing), so I ended up going with a pinkish/white as per the more solid muscle wall (that being the muscle still clinging to plates of bone). As of right now, the fur needs to be touched up (it’s chipping like crazy, which is very strange on a plastic model) and perhaps some fun work done on the teeth. A bit of blood, perhaps? Also, taking suggestions on the bones. They’re looking rather yellowed in the picture, even if they don’t look quite that yellow in person. Do you think that I should highlight them up to be more white, or leave them as they are?

August 25th, 2008 by Missy

I’ve decided to give the Varghulf a small rest, even though he’s so close to completion. He’s just not “clicking” with me at the moment, and I think that if I take a few days to paint something else I’ll be able to see him with a fresh perspective when I pick him back up. I’ve decided to continue progress on the Dire Wolves in the hopes that they will give me some ideas (as they are using similar colors to his wings and the cuts on his back). With the Varghulf, it is mainly the fur that is eluding me, so I’m praying that completing a Dire Wolf will spark some form of idea.

Anyway, here you can see the further progress I’ve made with this Dire Wolf. His fur is completed for the moment, as are his muscles. I’ll be painting the bones next, and then we’ll go from there. I’m pondering painting the ears and any hanging skin that I can find in the same reddish brown tones as the Varghulf to see if I like the reddish brown together with the black fur (and, if so, I’ll try out black fur on the Varghulf). If not, then I’ll do the ears a whitish color to blend in with the exposed bones, but in a slightly warmer tone. Only time will tell! Dun, dun, dun…

July 28th, 2008 by Missy

Well, after some more fiddling and cursing, I think I’ve gotten the eyes to a point where I am happy with them. With the pictures blown up like this I can see a spot or two on the lower rims where some clean up is needed, but they’re mostly done. The skin is pretty much done (although I may consider highlighting a bit more reddish once I’ve got the fur painted).

The fur, of course, still needs to be done. I thought that I was fairly pleased with the color of it, but once I painted the skin in the red tones, I decided that the fur really doesn’t match. Dan thinks that I should take the fur more toward white (to tie in with the pale wings), so I’ll give that a shot tomorrow and see what I think about it.

Other than the fur and a whole lot of touching up (this thing chips if you sneeze on it, I swear), there isn’t too much left to do. The talons and teeth need to be painted (they’ll be a dirty kind of ivory, with a darker color at the base), and the bony protrusions of the back need color as well. I haven’t decided if I’d like to go ivory like the talons, or the reddish-brown of the wing bones. That will also need to be decided after the fur is finished, I think. If the fur gets really light, the back bones will pretty much have to be red not to look washed out, but I almost think that they’d be better off white since there is already so much red on the model. Ah, decisions, decisions.

July 28th, 2008 by Missy

Ugh, I hate this party already, and it hasn’t even happened yet. I’ve gotten next to no time to paint while preparing for everyone coming in from out of town, cleaning, etc. Thankfully today I’ve been able to sit down and get a bit of work done.

Most of the fur on my Varghulf is now done — it just needs a final highlight, but I think I’ll hold off on that until I finish the skin. The skin needs a few more highlights (especially around the face) and the talons and other bony protrusions (teeth, back spines, etc) need to be painted. I just finished painting the eye and now I’m pondering whether or not to give a glow to the skin around it (like the masterclass Varghulf). I’m also not entirely certain that I like the coloring of the eye. I had originally wanted a red, but it just blends in too much with the rest of the model so — green. I tried to go for a catlike appearance, but I don’t really think “cat” when I’m looking at what I’ve done. Maybe it needs to be greener?

Also, I’m pondering the bony protrusions of the back. I’m not sure if I should paint them the same reddish brown as the wing / chest bones, or if I should go the same color as the talons (that’ll end up being a dirty, brownish ivory). Any opinions? ^___^

Edit: I started adding in some green highlights, and I don’t think I like it very much. To me, it looks like I was just messy with the brush when doing the eyes x.x

July 24th, 2008 by Missy

School starts so early here.. Anya’s first day of Kindergarten is August 7th! Gosh, in Connecticut we didn’t start school until the very end of August — sometimes not until September, even. I know that they start early here to get the kids out of school before the really hot summer rolls in, but honestly, this seems kind of stupid to me. It is MUCH hotter now in the beginning of August than it is in the beginning of June. I can only think that it would be better to start school in late August and end in June, rather than ending in May. Ah well, no point complaining about it.

Anya is ridiculously excited, and can’t wait to ride the school bus. I always drove her for preschool, of course, and now she’s going bonkers over the idea of riding the bus. Now if only I could get her excited over the idea of waking up before 10am :p School starts at 9:10 (ends at 3:40) and the bus arrives at the bus stop at 8:48. I have a feeling the first few weeks of school are going to be one big fight over bed time and waking up.

There is another thing that confuses me.. school ends at 3:40 and the bus won’t be dropping her off until 4:06.. but we literally live like.. a mile from the school. How can it possibly take 30 minutes to drop her off here? Dan thinks that they drive all the way out and drop off the furthest kids, and then work their way back in, but again — that seems ridiculously stupid to me. Why not drop off the closest kids and then move out? Once the novelty of riding the bus wears off, I imagine I’ll end up picking her up from the school rather than waiting for her at the bus stop.

Anyway, off to actually work on that Varghulf x.x I don’t know why I’ve been slacking so badly lately with my painting. I think it’s because I’m not happy with how the model is turning out, so I keep putting it off…

July 21st, 2008 by Missy

Alas, the poor Dire Wolves have received no love today. I really was intending to get around to them, but as I was cleaning up my painting area, I caught sight of Dan’s quarrelers and decided to surprise him by greenstuffing them for him, since he had been dreading doing it. Anyway, that actually managed to take most of the day until he got home and then after dinner I went and took a nap (stupid effing migraines).

Now my poor little wolves will be relegated to the “complete at some nebulous future date” category since the Varghulf will be all dry and ready for more paintings tomorrow ^_^ Ah well, I’m sure they’ll get some more love when it comes time to attach the left arm.

July 21st, 2008 by Missy

While it’s not exactly gourmet, sometimes after a long day of painting all you want is a bowl of ramen! The cat loves it too, though. She’s so weird — her favourite food in the world has got to be spaghettios, but she has also been known to stick her head in a jar of black olives, lick lemon juice off of the cutting board, and enjoy a nice helping of salsa con queso. Anyway, I thought she looked so cute drooling after Dan’s ramen that I had to take a picture.

Please pardon my messy table, by the way — it’s covered in painting crap and dinner crap and looks like crap QQ Anyway, last night I finished the wing bones on the Varghulf and added more pinky tones around the rips in the wings. The cuts along his back and legs have been painted and I’ve updated the color of the flesh (just a basecoat). The right arm has been glued on and packed with greenstuff. Once that finishes curing, I’ll greenstuff up some texture for where his arm / fur are supposed to be. Then he’ll be ready to have his fur painted. Once all of his fur is painted, I can glue / greenstuff the left arm. Then I’ll just need to paint the flesh, the talons, and all of the facial detailing. A few more days, in any case. Think I might actually go for a scenic base with this model since he’s so big and pretty and all of that.

Anyway, while his arm was drying last night, I also got a bit of preliminary work done on my dire wolves. I think I’ll get a little more work done on them today as well, since I’ll need to let the Varghulf dry again after I add the texture to his right arm. Perhaps I’ll get the muscles painted up, and get in a start on the clean bones. Anyway, if I do, I’m sure I’ll post it here.