Boy Howdy

Still trying to get into the habit of blogging, of sharing really. I’m in the middle of one project and starting another, I’m taking some photos, but I’m also still trying to get in a better habit of taking pictures and writing down my thoughts. One day at a time I suppose, but here’s a bit of what I’m working on at least.

Busted

I’ve wanted to do a larger model for quite a while to try some of the techniques I’ve been working on, in a bigger scale so I can see what I’m doing. I got this lovely bust during the Black Friday sale on MMF. I was looking for something that was fairly straight forward, with a fair bit of skin. I wanted to work on my skin tones, not a bunch of armor. I don’t mind pinup models, I’ll probably do some eventually, but for this I wanted something that is as straightforward as a bust can be.

I’ll admit I was disappointed I didn’t win that model contest, even though I didn’t really think I’d win. Still, it made me want to really step up a bit and push my self. I’ve got the basics down and I’m knocking on the door of really advanced painting but I’m not going to figure out how to get that really smooth, professional look on true 28mm scale models. Even the bigger hero scale models I paint for OPR aren’t really big enough to get a hang of the more technical layering you can use. This bust will hopefully push me to really learn some of the stuff I’ve been trying to wrap my head around.

I meant, at one point, to take pictures along the way, but I’ve really been putting in time on this bust every chance I get, so when I’ve got 20 minutes to kill I’m not using it to take pictures. I’m getting into about the middle of the process, it’s all layering once I get the hair colored in, but here’s a quick snapshot I took with my phone after base layering.

Spring Flings

My wife and I have spent our first few summers of sobriety enjoying taking walks to play Pokemon Go. The game has come a long way, it’s pretty crazy these days, and it’s just a nice way to get some air and relax as the sun sets and the air cools down on a Friday night. Sometimes an evening spent walking through the neighborhood, catching Pokemon, is downright pleasant.

So to welcome my wife to spring and invite her back to our Pokemon walks, I’m making a Gyrados model, on a diorama style base. Not just any Gyrados, but a shiny Gyrados, which is her favorite Pokemon she’s collected so far.

I’m a little disappointed with the scale, I’m still not great a nailing how big a model should be and I wanted a model a bit bigger, but it’s not worth waiting another day for a clean, primed print to work on. I’m really excited about this project, I think I’ve got everything I need to make a cartoon style base that looks like Gyrados is mid battle!

Another snapshot, apparently I had actually thought about the blog for a moment that day, but the model came out probably about 90%, there were some annoying flaws on the back of the model but it’ll do for a spontaneous gift.

Really excited to get working on this, I’ll make sure to get a series of pictures so I can show off this one!

Busy Busy

I like staying busy with my hobbies, I get really twitchy when I don’t have something I can dive into when I have free time. But I’m also trying to be better, to finish things and give my self a chance to learn and grow as an artist/hobbyist. Now that I am finding it easier and easier to exercise some self control, no new projects till the old project is done. Except…I print all my own minis, so making sure I’ve got more stuff ready down the pipeline is it’s own project all together.

So…here’s the rest of the war band I’m making for my wife and my self. It’s a gaggle of various fantasy figures that should fill out my collection so my wife and I can finally play a few games. Time to learn the rules and get ready for a fun campaign in the frozen city!

This is not exactly a maxed out full plate, but it’s as full as I prefer. This way I can rinse the plate off then put the entire plate into my wash station. I can warm up the models for easier support cleaner later, processing a full plate like this is a pain in the ass and I’ll take any help I can get making it easier. This is what the setup looks like after going back and forth between Titancraft, LycheeSlicer and UVtools. I’m not obsessed with perfect prints, but I hate having to clean my vat or re-print models so I took my time this week and made sure I supported this plate as completely and cleanly as possible.

It’s a five hour print, not bad by any means, hopefully my Saturday afternoon will be processing a nice batch of prints so I can start painting them next week!

Until next time…

I really do need to get better at sharing my work. I have a camera on my person 24/7 and usually have my DSLR right behind me while painting. I’m an old millennial, I think social media is a scam, which it is, but it’s also a useful way to share your hobbies with others. So, lets put a note in the ol’journal and make sure I’m not just hoarding crap I half make.