Return of the WSS French Marshalls

Yes an actual rooly trooly painting post!

Getting back to where I left off some months ago with my French Marshalls and the NMM and TMM attempts (geez those initials look totally wank).  Basically nmm is using normal non metallic paint to simulate metal like the amazing Hussar Bob (check him out, google it!) and tmm uses metallic paints to simulate metal, "derrrr" I hear you scream, that's fair. OK for me it means using different shades/colours of metallic paint (and in my case inks) to give shade, highlight and mid tones to the metal parts of the figurine.  I'll say more about the processes of both these techniques and how I coped or not in a later post, suffice to say I'm really glad I had a crack at them.

A bit off work has been done on the figures at last and the metallic painted lace is finished the figure has been sealed with lacquer and the final 'fiddly bits' are moving into place, most noticeably with this figure is the amount of mane and rein that needed to be trimmed off of the mount to fit the rider. All that aside progress has been made, so here a few photos of work to date, the quality is not to my best standard, it appears the lacquer I used was pretty well full gloss instead of my normal satin and all that extra shiny played havoc with the camera's perjerba sensors and grommit flange stabilizers!

Thanks for looking
Dave

Ahoy there my meaty merlot swilling matey's Painting DVDs

To be honest this is a naval and wine free post so the title is slightly irrelevant. Having completed settling in the family elder into her new abode, modding it to suit her requirements, holding garage sales and generally wasting my time around the Bunderburg area with fishing rod in hand ;-) I return to the land of the painted lead. Not that I have been totally absent, completing two commissions in the interval on my days when I have been back in Brisbane looking after matters at home. I have also had the chance to watch a couple of painting DVDs all the way through, something I struggle to do with just about any DVD, whilst up north away from the brushes. Now I'm not saying I sat down and watched a 3 DVD set in one sitting but I did watch them more or less without distraction over consecutive days.

So, having now watched theses miniature painting DVDs more or less in their entirety without massive periods of time elapsing between sittings I find myself better placed to appreciate the approach of the painters and their techniques and evaluate the benefits. I suppose I should mention the title of the DVDs in question instead of rambling on, in no particular order they are ....... "Hot Lead" a 3 DVD set which covers all the basics through to some advanced techniques in detailed fashion and at a relatively even pace. The second is "Painting with JBT" a two DVD set which covers the basics in a fairly sparse way but covers more advanced techniques and ideas in much more detail and matter of fact delivery.

Now I'm not going to go into a detailed critique of these titles here and now but I will pad out a little about each DVD set in an upcoming post. I will say that I feel I got my moneys worth with both sets even though they covered information and techniques I already utilize in my painting. Till next time.

thanks guys
Dave

Looking out for No. 1

Yes once again The Paint Pig blog has gone into stop start mode, and once again my apologies. This time there will be none of that "poor bugger me", I have been looking out for a much more important person than moi, my Nana!

Nana had decided her house and garden was to much for her (I agree) and has spent most of this year badgering local authorities about moving into the towns seniors village, unbeknown to me, I don't know how she overcame the bureaucracy and paper work of the local council however she succeeded and got a position, pretty sharp going. The last three weeks have been spent driving up to her house (350 Km away) and moving her into her new seniors village flat, coming home for a couple of days to check on things and driving back up and continuing the move. I'm amazed at how much stuff (useful or not) she has accumulated and a house full of stuff does not fit in a one bedroom unit even if it is large and roomy, to cut a long story down to size some things had to go, we managed to get her shifted without too many heated debates although I'm doubly amazed at how Mrs Paint Pig and my ol' Gran managed to cram so many car loads of stuff into the unit, I swear the doors and windows should have been bulging under the strain but it is all hidden away somewhere?  I'm going to try and get hold of a stray cat next time I'm visiting Nan and give it a swing......... The units are pretty smart  with a double bedroom, large lounge dining area, kitchen, laundry, garden etc. I'm putting my name down for one!

On a slightly different subject, I took my old laptop with me for some entertainment at night and have once again become a slave to civ 4, so much so I'm now compelled to go and purchase civ 5.  This franchise has been a real time stealer for me right from the get go, I don't doubt that I will be playing civ 20 when I move into a retirement village!


regards
dave

War of Spanish Succession- Marshalls of France II update

With the coat and saddlery completed I worked on cleaning the slops by going back over with white primer, not something I usually do but I'm finding myself becoming a little fussier and it does make life easier down the track.

 

 

I decided to to undercoat the gold portions of the figure with a buff tone, to see how that works, making sure it went into the depressions and no white was left behind.

First touches with the gold paint and a small amount of washing, immediately it was clear the base coat should have been a little darker although the idea of using a base coat for the gold was the right thing to do.

Glints have been picked out in a mix of pearl white and polished gold and picked out to add very small points of light (loop of cuff lace, button. button lace on coat).  They certainly make taking photo's a glarey business!

Couple more to wrap up, hair has moved along and some more mid tone has been added to the gold

Thanks for looking

Dave