Posse

Hello to my new followers!

Had a bit of fun finishing off the basing of the last few cowboy miniatures so I now have a complete posse:

Of course, I say complete... I might have wandered on to Artizan Designs to treat myself. After all, there is surely no such thing as too many cowboys...

As it happens, I found one that I had forgotten about, so painted him up as Sy Tolliver from Deadwood.

This is a slightly different style to my usual paintjob, mainly caused by my trying to get a handle on the new brush. I've also noticed that the most recent sculpts I've bought have tended toward much sharper edges, lending themselves more toward the harder edge highlighting you see here. Has anyone else noticed a slight change in sculpting style over the last few years?

I also, heartened by my success with the standing stones, decided to make some scatter terrain. In this case, cacti:

Simple sculptures from super-sculpey (in one case Fimo) and a quick paint job. Quick, simple and fairly effective.

I done nearly lost my nerve, Bill...

Painting mojo is a mysterious thing. One thing I've learned from reading other people's blogs and hanging around on the LA forum is that your drive to actually get stuff painted needs to be nurtured and protected.

So imagine my disquiet when a batch of figures more or less wiped out my mojo at a stroke.

The guilty parties are these Mantic Orcs.

They were cheap enough but when I came to paint them there were some horrific blanks where detail should've been behind the legs and under the arms. Obviously this is the price you pay for cheap, one piece body plastics but dear god it was a struggle to get anything out of them.

So what now? I was disheartened and depressed and really didn't want to pick up the brush again.

A change is as good as a rest. So I did the one thing guaranteed to bring a sense of wellbeing; stuck on a western and painted some cowboys.

In this case it was starting over with the Deadwood series and finishing off the last few Black Scorpion resin miniatures I had left. 

A world of difference; full of character and detail and fun to paint. 

I'll take some proper pictures next week if I can get some decent light. 

This also means that I have more or less enough figures for a decent western skirmish. Although... is more or less actually enough? After all, I get paid tomorrow...

Back in the Saddle

A proper update with decent photos will come soon but I'm back. 

First day of the summer holidays and first order of business was to finish off some cowboys that had been languishing on the desk:

And then to basecoat and shade the last few hombres:

All Black Scorpion and the chap at the front there bears to much a resemblance to Uncle Jessie from the Dukes of Hazzard for it to be a coincidence, frankly. 

Weekend Painting

Just a quick update to show off the work on Doc:



And a shot from the back to show off the shading and highlighting on the black:



Wild Bill:


and The Preacher:

Hopefully will have some more done this week and then a basing session.

I'm your Huckleberry...

Tombstone had a massive impact on me in the halcyon days of university. It's still one of my favourite westerns. I am happy, therefore, to show my latest nearly complete miniature;

Like the other Artizan minis, it's a fantastic likeness and I hope I've done it justice. I'll admit frankly that I stole the sallow skin look from Mr Awdrey's Penguin.

Next up is another Artizan sculpt, this time of Wild Bill Hickock from Deadwood, seen here on the left:

This time I took inspriation from the colour palette but went with a similar feel on on the waistcoat to Doc. Although I fancied it up a bit; the man's a legend, after all:

Finally, the first of the Black Scorpion shots, The Preacher:

A lovely sculpt but I really dislike the resin they use. It has a slightly gritty texture which doesn't do the flowing lines of the figure any favours.

I'm aiming to get these based and finished for the weekend, along with a few more, so expect proper pictures then. As always, thanks for stopping by. 

True Grit

I've been watching a lot of Westerns while I've been painting this week because, Hell, who doesn't like a good western?

As part of my digging around in the garage I located the last set of miniatures I was painting before the birth of my firstborn, 3 years ago. They are a sorry-lookin' collection of half-painted cowpokes and desperadoes from Black Scorpion and Artizan.

Here's the photo taken way back when:





I've started catching up with them - I've already posted big Al:



And yesterday I sat down to watch True Grit (the original version, although Lord knows I do love them both) and painted the Duke in his Oscar-winning turn as Deputy US Marshall Rooster Cogburn:





As an interesting aside, I really need to stop using the big macro lens to shoot my minis as it makes the brushwork look horrible:




So the next step is to paint a few more; I have the Artizan Doc Holliday and Wild Bill to do as well as the Black Scorpion generic chaps.

Can anyone recommend any good Western rules...?