[Zombicide] Hasslefree Oakley - Ash vs Zombies

Ash: Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun

I needed a little break from the painting contest so I've decided to continue with my zombicide survivors. This time I've worked on Oakley from Hasselfree miniature.
A figure clearly inspired by Ash Campbell from Evil Dead movies.
Great sculpture and very good casting as usual with Hasselfree. He was so easy and pleasant to paint that I've finished him in less of 4 hours.
As I want to use him for the character of Troy, I've choosen the axe for the right hand. I coudln't resist to put anyway the chainsaw on the base just to reinforce the badass attitude of the mini.
Usually I don't like to put gore effect on my miniatures but in this case, it was a question of coherence. It was also a way to link the color of the chainsaw with the rest of the mini.
Enjoy.

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- Painting Valeros (flesh)

I've started with the face because it will be the focus of the scene, I wanted to be sure to do the best as possible since the beginning of the process before painting anything else.
Some consideration:
_ The face is very expressive, it means that the sculpture is full of details and wrinkled. It means also that I had to think about how the colors change with the expression. Usually, when you're angry or  under pression, your face is more reddish due the blood flow.  So I've played a lot with glazes to create saturation and contrast not only between lights and shades but also between reddish area versus the rest of the face.
My palette was full of colors, red, yellow, blue, violet trying to create different hue following the area. Warmer around the eyes, nose and cheek, cooler on the down part.

_ As described in my previous article about the base building, I didn't choose the usual zenithal lightning for Valeros. The reason is that the background of the scene is a dungeon. There is no reason the lighting come from above in an closed environment, instead I've choosen a frontal lighting because we presume that the light source comes from the foes facing Valeros.
Yes I know it seems complicated but actually with you watch the draft of the base and how are placed the shadows, the direction of the lights is clearer.

Coming back to the miniature painting, I had to follow the same process and adapt the lightning of the face to the general light source direction. That's why the face seems maybe a little bit brighter than it should because it's fully exposed to the frontal light source.

I have the feeling that this lightning choice will make me crazy with the armour paintjob....

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- base painting

I've learned a lot about painting thanks to the articles and videos our comunity shares on Internet.
There is a lot of talented artists but I like especially the guys from Massive Voodoo for the way they live, see and explain the colors.
I've learned that sometimes It's good to do a mess with paints, don't be afraid to play with the colors, experiment and focus more on the atmosphere than on the details.
In the article below, Roman explains how he's painted his dungeon display using the base like a palette, playing directly with brush and colors on the wall and ground. I recommand to watch the video.
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.it/2011/06/creating-dungeon-display-base-part-2.html
I've used the same technique for my base and I have to say I had a lot of fun. Basically I've focused only the choice of colors and where to place them. The darker on the front and the lighter on top of the wall.
On the picture below, we can see the result of the first draft. I've rougly placed the colors and after 10 minutes of wet blending with my big brush, the global overview is quite finished. My palette was composed mainly with ocre, orange brown, warm grey, beige and black.
As you notice, I've also painted the first shadows. In front the foe's shades and on the wall Valeros' shade.  
 



After this first draft, I work with a smaller brush and increase the contrast of the different elements. More black on the shades, more saturated colors on the wall and the wood, higlights on the edges. I have also added some washes (secret weapon) of black green, stones, sepia and dark amor.

I put the mini again on the base to check the general atmosphere and the placement of the shades.
I've noticed that the scene was a little bit empty. The shadows of the foes were not very defined and didn't give the idea of the their presence. So I've added some weapons, arrows and dards. Probably I will come back on this details later to make them more realistics.

Enough of base painting for now. I will finish the details at the end of the project. I' going to start the miniature paintjob to be sure that Valeros matches well with the display.  

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- WIP on base 2

Yesterday, I've proceed with the base for Valeros.
First, I've added some elements to fill the space and make the environment more interesting.
The small flocking between the slabs has been fixed with a mix of PVA glue and water. Actually, I haven't pigment to create the dust so I use this kind of flocking instead.
In this phase I've also placed the mini to have a clear overview.
As Valeros is tintled toward the right of viewer, I've placed a piece of wood on the opposite direction to create a triangle. It's a tip I've learned from the diorama makers, the triangle lead the viewer toward the focus point of the scene which is Valeros'face.


Now, my idea for the scene was to use the front of the base to place the shadows of the foes. Because I want to create the idea of the ambush but I cannot place other minis due to the rules of the contest.

So I've made an experiment: as I always use pre-shading techniques for the priming of my bases, I though It could be a good idea to integrate directly this shadows during this step.
I've created a mask representing the foes and place it in front of Valeros.



Then I proceed with the priming of the base following the pre shading techniques:

_ first step, I spray the base in black without the miniature and without the mask to be sure that all the areas are fully primed.
_ second step, I place the miniature and the mask and now use the white colorspray to place the lights. I spray the white only in one direction directly in front of the base. My intent is to place naturally the shadows thanks to the mask and the mini which should let the area behind in black. 
Here the result.

It doesn't work. Actually I have a zone of shades in the front of the base and also on the wall behind Valeros but I didn't succeed to create a clear definition of the shadows.  I think it's due to the distance I spray the white, too far away from the mask to create the effect. I suppose It's the kind of job I should do at short distance with an airbrush.

Ok, it was an experiment, not a big deal because anyway I'm happy with the general lightning of the scene.  I will define the shadows with my brush during the painting process.
Ok, I think I've done with the building of the base. Now it's time to play with the colors.

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- concept and WIP on base

I've decided to let my survivors appart and focus on the painting of my warrior for the GGS contest also because the deadline is in september and there is a lot of work to do.
The mini is full of details and will be quite complicated to paint and I have also an idea for the base which will require also some working hours to be finished.


Let's talk about the project.
The miniature of B.Jackson is more than dynamic, actually it's dramatic. This is the feature I prefer and the reason of my choice for this contest. The subject is "present a hero in a  mediavel fantasy environment".  Valeros really seems to fight for his life (or maybe for someone else), not only the position but also the expression intend the idea of a desperate battle.
Originally I bough the mini with the idea to do a diorama with some foes but I cannot take this idea for this contest because I must present a stand alone figure on a smal base (max 10 cm2).



  So I've decided to take the idea of a last ressort battle but without other minis creating the idea of the foes ambushing Valeros throw the atmosphere of the base.
I've choosen a dungeon for the environment (yep, ultra classic choice...but, hey, it's still Pathfinder), slab ground, a wall of brick behind Valleros to increase the sense of the ambush and some features like old abandoned weapons.... and an other detail but I don't want to spoil anything. Let's say it's going to be experimental (at least for me).

I will build and paint the base before the miniature because I want to be sure that everything match with the idea. The other painters of the contest are far away better than me technically speaking so I have to bet on the base to do the difference.

The fundation is mainly made with cork. It's a material easy to use and perfect to simulate the stones.
I use putty filler to create the texture. The slabs on the ground are made with eggs shell covered with the putty. The wood parts are balsa.

[Zombicide] Hasslefree Franck Cisco - Dirty Brad

Uh uh. I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?

I have a confession to make: I love Clint Eastwood. I've growth with his film, specially the westerns. But my favorite character remains Dirty Harry. The old good 70's badass cop who distribute justice with his gun. Useless to specify that I am enthusiastic to play with his zombicide version, Brad... and of course paint the Kev's version Franck Cisco.

About the hasselfree mini: very nice sculpting and casting as usual. Maybe Franck is a little more massive than the Young Clint but the lineaments of the face are very accurate.

In fact, my aim is to focus on the paintjob of the face because it's the feature of the miniature which allows to identify the character (excluding the 44 magnum of course).
I've used this image of Clint as reference:

Analysing the Clint's face, the main lineage are:
Long and narrow front
Deep orbit with strong eyebrow and smal eyes.
Narrow nose with strong lines near the cheekbones
Straigh lips
deep cheek.

So basically, in term of paintjob I've simply tried to increase the shades where the lineages are deeper (the sides of the front, the eyes,  around the nose and under the cheekbones, the lips). I didn't paint the eyes because it was useless for this scale and the shades already gives a good idea of the lineage.


Here the step by step of the face painting all the references are Warcolours:

Step 1: base layer with Flesh 3 applied very diluated in 3 different layers. (on the image below the color is darker than irl,  you have a better idea of the color on the step 2)

 Step 2: first shading with Flesh 4 to create a sketch of the face. Mainly on the side of the front, under the cheeks and and around the nose.

Step 3: first highlights with Flesh 2.

Step 4: Emphasize the lines of the face with Brown 4. I'm focus on the eyes, the mouth and around the nose.I've also started to painted the hair and the eyebrow to have a better idea of the overall aspect.



Step 4: Last touches with glazes of blue 4 + black on the low part of the face and glazes of red 1+ flesh 2 on the check, the nose and the lips.

Here the result at tabletop distance:



 Nothing special with the rest of the paintjob, the clothes have been painted with the usual base/shades/higlights techniques. I've mixed a little bit of Brown 4 with Warm grey 4 for the color of the suit.