Ma.K mechanic...

While the Flesh mix was handy I painted the highlights on the second mechanics face.

Hasslefree Oakley

Actually managed to find time to pick up a paintbrush again! New camera too so...

Hasslefree's Oakley has had his flesh painted with Games Workshop's (GW) Dwarf Flesh progressively lightened by adding GW Elf Flesh over seven or eight layers. The paint is diluted to the consistency of a glaze and the final highlight is a very dilute Elf flesh on the highest points. It might be worth mentioning that I paint all my miniatures as if lit from directly above and do actually light them with a lamp placed directly overhead to accentuate highlights and shadows for painting.

no photos , no updates but a little progress!

My apologies once more for the lack of new/updates. My camera is being replaced as a Christmas gift but we're a little old fashioned in our family so I'll have to wait until Christmas morning before I can 'play' (and I won't be allowed in the attic until after boxing day).
I have been painting though and there'll hopefully be a glut of photos after Christmas.
Just finished a Black Scorpion, Lt Bromhead, Zulu war miniature (a limited edition) for a friend to give as a birthday present and I'm still working on Rodrigo's Sabre and Kaskrin troopers. I have several new figures and kits on the way including the Kev White sculpted Lt. Kara Black (a little beauty this) and this fabulous 1/35 Hover Tank from Mig productions .

Pig Iron Ironstorm

This Pig Iron Ironstorm (and the others in the series) is my favourite Sci-Fi AFV. I converted (hollowed out the driver's hatch and added armour to the lower front and rear) and painted it and several Heavy Troopers some time ago but now i'm going to paint some of PI's new System Troopers to go with it. The driver here is a conversion; the torso is a Heavy Trooper and the head is a helmet from the crew you get in the accessory pack hollowed out and replaced with a Hasslefree spare head from this set. More pics of the Ironstorm here, and here.

Meantime...

...new Pig Iron : System Troopers . I've ordered a couple of sets to go with their AFV's I've had all three variants for some time one of which is already painted (I'll dig out a pic).

Lack of updates...

...due to a short holiday in New York (fantastic) and the loss of my little digi camera there (not so fantastic) : normal service resumed soon!

Neo-Soviet Sabre Tank

From Old Crow. Painted for Rodrigo's Neo-Soviet force. Bigger pic, from the other side, the rear and a close-up of the commander

Neo-Soviets (again!)

this time a slideshow of the recent special forces and an 'objective'

I've put all the Neo-Soviets in a slide show (some of the pics aren't so great and a little repetetive but I'll edit it down next week)

More Sci-Fi Neo-Soviets

The six new 'recruits' are here and the full 'team' here.

The miniature has been painted with two, very thin coats of Games Workshop's Dwarf Flesh. The thin paint has acted as a wash and flowed into the depressions of the sculpt and left the Lt. Grey primer showing through and delineating the highlight areas.




All the edges of the shirt have been lined with GW's Ogryn Flesh wash and then Devlan Mud wash has been used in the darker shadow areas.
Painting these areas has really showcased the quality of the sculpt. If I remember correctly Kev sculpted the torso and cross-belts then added the shirt from very thin sheets of Greenstuff. Bloody amazing!

On the desk...3

More 1/20 Machinen Krieger - another of the support troops. I'll be recording the stages of painting this figure too. I've also started re-modelling a 1/20 Brickworks, female mechanic by hollowing out an old, resin helmet and fitting it to her head. The original figure has an adjustable spanner (befitting her role as a Ma.K Mechanic) in her right hand - I'll be replacing this with a slung kit bag.

On the desk...2

Oakley - A very new, excellent miniature (the sculpting of the torn shirt is remarkable) from Hasslefree who've asked me to produce a painting guide! The figure has had the very minimal moulding lines removed and primed with Tamiya Fine Surface primer.
I'm also painting (very slowly) more of the Hasslefree marines for a friend from the AT-43 forum but also adding not Riply and not Newt.

On the desk...1

Back to painting after a near three week, enforced break chasing fraudulent transactions with Paypal (£1048 fully refunded - thankyou paypal).
The partly-painted, lovely little Pig Iron robot (with added helmet) above is a 'mule' for Rodrigo's Neo-Soviet special Force troopers, another five of which are nearly completed. I've also started the interior of the opposing force's Valkyrie by priming grey, airbrushing a misted coat of white and washing with a dirty grey to make the interior look somewhat used. I've added some extra detailing to the roof (lighting and aircon unit) and drop-down rails for the troops. A thumbnail makes a handy little palette! Detail painting of individual units next (lots and lots of buttons!).

28mm Neo-Soviets

Better pics - front and back.
It seems the link to the WIP of painting the camo has been deleted from Steve Dean's forum. It can be found here
http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?topic=11469.0 and here
http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?topic=11491.0

Link the Mechanic...

I've finished this figure for the time being. He'll reappear on a diorama with the Falke sometime in the future. He'll be 'weathered' then to suit the final environment. Here he is from the back

HUWS - almost there!

Left side and from the right. Cabling to be finished and then the suit 'dirtied'. I've no idea as yet what he'll be carrying!

28mm Sci -fi Neo-Soviets

Rodrigo's Neo-Soviet special forces! these are pig Iron Heavy Infantry with heads from their Kolony range (if you don't know this miniature producer pay their site a visit - well worth the time. Great range of minis, spare heads and a cracking AFV!). I've finished five so far and I've nearly finished an 'objective', here with more pics of the troopers and with a WIP Sabre tank from Old Crow.

Well I did some work on my friend Rodrigo's commission but the photos were poor and need redoing so I thought I'd share this with you.
It's one of the figures from this set (the sculptor based the figure on my forum buddy and superb Ma.K painter, Linc [Lin.K]) which is essentially OTB except I thought he needed a little extra cover around the neck so added a polo-neck. At this stage the head and jacket are complete and I'm just about to tackle the glove. I might try out my '28mm' camo on the trousers. Here's a closer look at the jacket (I've tried to be quite subtle with highlights and shadows) and a close-up of the face.
I've had some very nice and supportive comments about the painting of the face from my friends on the Forum and they reacted very positively to my offer of a face painting tutorial - coming here soon!
Unfortunately the latter half of the week has been spent trying to recover over £1000 taken from my bank account by fraudulent Ebay sales - change those passwords guys! - so not much time for painting.

AFS1

A little more Ma.k before returning to commission work...
This one a Wave AFS1 with Brickworks head swap. Slight conversion to the right hand to create pointing gesture and the joints have been replaced with putty. I wanted to show the figure without the helmet so I've added some padding and controls in the otherwise bare 'cockpit'. She isn't leaning to the left by the way - that's just the way she's mounted on the handling block. Larger image and a close-up of the face and internal detail.
I had a look at how two of my favourite Ma.K painters, BK and Linc, had finished the suit for inspiration and realised that besides needing to add (which I knew about) the power cables from leg to hip I had missed some cabling on the arms and lower legs/feet so I've since added them.

Heavy Use Worker Suit

I don't paint anything bigger than 30mm - usually...but the armoured-suit models of the Machinen Krieger universe (formally SF3D) have always had an appeal for me. Designed originally in 1/20 scale by Japanese master modeller, Kow Yokoyama, and released by Nitto as multi-media kits they became very difficult to find post 1980's. Recently there has been a revivel of the franchise, overseen by Kow himself and driven by a very large fan base - non more so than the excellent group of modellers and painters who frequent the forum at machinenkrueger.com.

I have most of the new kits produced by Wave in the last couple of years, and by Hasegawa this year but the first one I've started to paint is a 'one-off' from the cottage industry surrounding MA.K, a Heavy Use Worker Suit. Wonderfully designed and cast (? )by Jason Eaton this might best be described as a MA.K version of the Power Loader in Aliens. I've changed the original head (nothing wrong with it but it was wearing sunglasses and I envision placing the HUWS in a winter scene with the Falke and the new, Cold District Maintenance Soldiers figure set), added depth to the 'boots' and attemted to add cast texture to some of the suit.

A larger, close-up is here.

The Fifth Member...

...of the team is a Rackham AT-43 UNA TacArm, LT. Epstone who arrives pre-painted with the UNA camo scheme ready for game playing. The figure in the suit (Lt. Epstone) is smaller in scale than the regular troopers in the UNA range, nearer 25mm than 28/30mm, but is just right for Hasslefree's 25mm 'marines'. I repainted, directly over the pre-paint finish, with the same colours used for the 'marines' camo (see the WIP in the KJ post) but the camo patches were painted slightly bigger and after highlighting the centre of the patches (leaving a darker edge) the edges of the armour were highlighted in several lighter layers, chips and scratches were added and a brown filter was brushed on to 'dirty' the camo and make it look well used.
Here are some other views of the finished figure; front; left side; back and with Debra ; McKenzie ; Kendra and KJ.
I'm not sure about Lt. Epstone - boobs are a little too cartoony so may replace her in team with this when finished. I've hollowed anothe Epstone suit, added the padding (painted as well worn leather) added a couple of accessories to the suit (pulse rifle, ammo pouches, bedroll etc) and will arm the suit with Hasslefree SMG from their accessory range.

Painting KJ

A WIP can be found here on Steve Dean's Painting Forum.

Kendra

You may have realised very quickly that my photography skills are, to say the least, underdeveloped (pun fully intended!). This mini is quite well painted but I'm struggling to reflect that in the images I take with my digital camera regarding light and dark contrast particularly in the flesh tones. I'm sure it has alot to do with my lighting set-up. This photograph was taken in daylight.
Again, the camo is the same, but for the first time I've tried to depict the way the clothing (trousers) is made up from seperate pieces of the same cloth by suggesting seams.
More pics here and from the here.
Although there were problems with the photography, Kendra was quite well received when first posted and comments about the camo led me to record the stages of painting KJ

McKenzie

Although sculpted with different body armour, helmet and clothing McKenzie sits well with Debra - I have tried to emphasise this by painting the same camo scheme as Debra's BDU's on the body armour and helmet cover. I have also tried to paint the armour to suggest cloth covering by painting in creases and folds, best exemplified by the groin armour in this pic.
More pics of debra and McKenzie here, here and with Kendra.

Hasslefree Debra

Hasslefree Miniatures' Kev White has sculpted some really nice sci-fi humans for the Adventurers Range. Debra was released some time ago but I've only recently got around to painting her. She's the first first of several 'marines' I painted in this scheme. Mckenzie followed shortly afterwards. Incidentally Hasslefree is a wonderfully friendly and efficient family run business and you get sweets too!

Raison d'être...

I've been posting photos of my painted 25/28mm miniatures on several different, dedicated forums for a little while now and have been delighted with the reception they have received - thankyou. I thought it might be an idea to 'bring them together' for those interested enough to view occasionally.
Posts will be mostly images of miniatures that have caught my attention and I have, consequently, purchased and painted and of the very few commissions I have agreed to undertake. I don't actively seek commissions but will, on occasion, paint for 'friends' I've made from regularly visiting the aforementioned forums.
I'd also like to include images of work by painters that have inspired me personally (if they'll permit me, of course) and links to their blogs and websites.
First up Hasslefree's (and friend) sci-fi (not)'colonial marines'and 'friend'

My first miniature painting blog (actually my first blog whatsoever!)