A random selection of models, painted here-and-there between other projects. As much as I try, sometimes models lure me all too easily to paint them. On the positive side, they can act as palate cleanser when other painting gets a little mentally tedious. The first is a real grim piece from Bad Squiddo Games ; the Ghoul Matriarch. Squiddo has quite the range of ghould models - all just as beautifully horrific - and the Matriarch is the de-facto leader or figure-head of the ghoul horde. This resin model has some really nice detailing, with exposed bones, boils and a cowering male ghoul beneath her rancid foot. Nice. I went with a soft purple/violet for the skin, more to make her into a mix of ghoul and fantasy being rather than the pale sallow skin, that might suit more traditional ghouls(?) ... I know, ghouls are dead common, eh. I also made a basic ye-olde wooden sign with the Bad Squiddo logo to it, but this is for another model I was currrently painting (that'll sho...

  A few weeks back I was asked if I was able to paint up a small set of figures from Bad Squiddo Games, and I was happy to accept. Initially I had another commission lined-up, but while that was being confirmed, I had some time spare to squeeze them in. Of course, it's always a pleasure to paint anything from Badsquiddo; as well as having a nice range of genres their models have plenty of character to them, making it a breeze to let your painting creativity loose - I've long been a fan of Badsquiddo's Action Heroines duo; simple figures but brilliantly blank canvases!   Anyway. I recieved a pack of Zombie Shieldmaidens and Amazon Elite guard. Nice extremes. Grand and Grim.   Nothing too over-the-top for the Amazons; sticking to a bronze with a muted patina for the armor and plain colours for the tunics. I did, however, want to break-up that bronze a little, so made some of the details on the shin-guards and belt into turquoise gems.   The zombies were more of a chall...

  A new year and - in a couple of ways - a new way of assessing and doing things for me. In a personal sense its been the end of my first completely full year of being sober. It's not been pleseant or easy, but the want for alcohol in general as well as while painting is slowly waining. Part of its effect was how far behind it put me with painting both stuff to go on my shop and completing commissions. I found it way too easy to accept them, but became overwhelmed by them as I fell further and further behind. But, with a slightly clearer mind, I've been working on speeding up my painting and processing, without (hopefully) dropping the general quality of the work. This brings me nicely onto what I've been doing of late. As usual, I haven't been updating the blog as regularly as I should have - although I have been posting stuff on both my Instagram and Facebook pages, so I've not been fully off-radar.  Regarding stuff done , I painted and scratch-built a selection...

Firstly, a start has been made on a commission of vehicles and figures all with a cyberpunk/neo-noir theme to them. The blog will be seeing more of those in future posts, as well as some beautiful old figures from Ral-Partha. Starting out with the smaller cars first, with one down and two to go. I aiming to make each a little different, not just going for plain colours. I broke the red bodywork up with some off-white panels and went for a two-tone blend on the purple, the green may get some racing stripes(?). One slight snag I hit was the chrome detailing. I had a couple of options in mind: standard acrylic silver metalics, which wouldn't have looked too bad, but, ideally, a closer-to-chrome look was the aim. So I ordered a bottle of AK Extreme Metalics Chrome, and while it looked better I thought I'd try a chrome marker by Molow. It's seen it used by Adam Savage on one of his projects and it looked impressive. Anyway, long story short, it (for me) was the best of the lot. ...