A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Kingdom Death – The next model in the core set is the King's Man. This particular creature is incredibly annoying to fight based on my groups experience. Of course the same could be said for any of the monsters in this game. After fighting this beast we decided it might make sense to start over and focus on building weapons instead of building every settlement extra right off the bat.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I just wrapped up two tanks for different clients that both just so happen to be green. Salamanders and Dark Angels so they are different shades of green.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Do you remember those cult movies form the '80s? Fanatics enact some crazy plot to summon a big nasty from another plane and inevitably it would eat them or do some other nasty nonsense. Well that's pretty much the theme for this game.
Read MoreBoardgames – It's always a bit odd for me when I get a painting job and I know very little about the game system the models are used for. Lately that's been happening quite a bit with board game miniatures. My primary focus has always been on table wargames so many of the cool board games fall off my radar.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The next phase of this Black Legion CSM project is three more squads of raptors, a rhino and ten standard chaos space marines. As I work my way through these I'm beginning to think I should charge a premium for the amount of trim on these models. It looks amazing once it's done but getting there is a journey. It's most noticeable on the raptors as the trim forms lightning bolts all along the greaves and other surfaces that are typically flat which means a bit more brush time. I don't mind though. Most chaos armies that cross my table consist of so many cultists that i forget how nice the rest of the line looks.
Read MoreBoardgames – Yes indeed Browncoats, the Firefly board game is now on my painting table. I've never had the pleasure of playing the game but I was a big fan of the show and movie, so I'm really happy to be painting up these ships.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The Black Legion force I've been working on is now ready for the 13th Black Crusade. Well I guess that's not technically true as my client has several more units he wants to add to this force which will be crossing my table soon.
Read MoreWelcome to the all-new twilightemporium.net.
I'm still in the process of updating some of the older content so bear with me. Most of the older content has been updated and relinked. Unfortunately anything pre-2015 is a bit spotty. The important content is still there so you can reference my old terrain articles and other articles.
Modern Tabletop – I love amazon wishlist. As a gamer it's very difficult for my friends and family to understand the things I like. To avoid getting another shirt I may or may not fit into or wear I started using amazon wish list a few years ago. Now I keep one for myself and the kids, if someone is looking for a gift idea I send them a link of they can search amazon to find it themself. For the kids it's help to keep their gifts age appropriate, within their interests and most importantly not duplicated so I don't have to return stuff.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – What do you do when you have two models of the same character from different eras? Well I suppose you commission someone to paint it up as a unique model to represent a different loadout. One of my regular clients came across a full complement of Space Wolf character models in a bargin bin and sent them over to get painted like the rest of his force.
Read MoreDungeons and Dragons – So a cleric and a paladin walk into a bar... This week on my painting table are two character models from Reaper Miniatures. These are the traditional metal figures rather than the new bones material. Both materials have their own benefits but for one off models I think I still prefer the metal.
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Boardgames – My painting table was recently grace by these two nifty little models. These are from the Mice & Mystics: Heart of Gloorm Expansion. I've never played the game but my client seems to really enjoy it so I might need to check it out.
The two models are both sorcerer/wizard types one being a lighting bug and the other a shaman type character. For these I've been asked to paint them to tabletop standard with a little extra glow on the lighting bug.
Browns, grays and tans are the order of the day for these matching or coming close to the box/card art pretty much dictates my color choice, so the only thing I needed to think about is the final execution.
Warhammer 40K – If you're anything like me you have boxes of unassembled miniatures all over your game area/hobby room. My drug of choice for models on sprue is Space Marines mostly. It's one of those ubiquitous things that I always have on my wish list for Christmas just because there's always another variation to build, another squad load out to try, or just a cool idea to kit base and covert a unique pose.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – It's a good sign that the new CSM books are good when I start getting new clients requesting new Chaos Marine forces. It's one thing when I'm updating existing clients existing armies (ie putting paint on stuff they've had for ages) but totally new forces are something special, considering how long they've been lamented as a "bad book"I'm excited to start seeing more varied CSM forces on the table.
Read MoreBlood Bowl – I've never actually played Blood Bowl, the game never really appealed to me so I can't really speak to how the new box compares to the old ruleset other than the miniatures are really nice, easy to put together and on round bases all wins in my opinion.
Read MoreGuild Ball – I wrapped up the Hunters and Union commission I had been working on earlier this month. While I still haven't had time to try out the game I did enjoy painting the models. Each one has quite a bit of character and reminds me why skirmish games are so much fun. It sounds like my client also has an Alchemist team that he's going to need painting so I'm also looking forward to working on those models.
You can see the rest of the team in the gallery.
Warhammer 40,000 – Finally I have all my genestealer cult assembled. With what I have I've built a solid 1000 point and two decent 1500 point lists. The next step is to get these bad boys painted up.
Read MoreDungeons & Dragons – I've been working on this Rogue for a little while, with the coughing fits I was having it was nearly impossible to do detail work. I just need to get the face and edge highlights done and this will be on it's way back to the client.
Read MoreKingdom Death – Starting 2017 off right I took a little time to work on one of my own projects, as a commission painter i don't always have a ton of time for my own projects so every now and then i need to take a break and do something for myself.
Read MoreKingdom Death – The next batch of models my client has ready to get painted consists of the four unarmoured survivors, two intamacy survivors, Screaming Antelope and King's Man.
Painting on these is very similar to the prologue survivors I did before. Basic flesh tones with white robes. I'm using the same fluorescent yellow technique on the lanterns which I feel give a really nice OSL effect.
The Antelope is a gory nasty beast that looks like mostly exposed muscle and the massive gut mouth. After painting I applied a hefty amount of Blood for the Blood God Technical paint to complete the terrifying effect.
I had to pause on these while I got over a nasty bug (coughing and detail work don't mix well), but I'm eager to get back at them to finish out the details. Now that I'm feeling better it was right back to work on these.
For the lantern effect I'm working with fluorescent paints which really help to bring out that glow effect I'm trying to achieve. The most difficult part is figuring out where the light would naturally fall given the arm positions of the models I was provided with. By shining a light aligned with the lantern was able to determine the natural highlights to apply the yellow glow.
