Rune Priest

Just completed this Rune Priest, the first of three Space Wolves I have on my desk... It's the first miniature I have painted to a high standard for a couple of months, so it took quite a while to get back into the swing of things - it's amazing how quickly my painting turns rusty! I like the way he came out though - it was an enjoyable miniature to paint.

I was pretty pleased with the base - I wish I had taken a shot of it before I attached the miniature... It took me a quite to get the icicles right, I was thinking about all sorts of different ways of making them - but in the end I cut tiny shards of cured clear resin and glued them in place. The snow was a mix of bicarb and PVA glue

mike

Freebooter miniature for sale

Just a quick link to the eBay auction for the Limited Edition Freebooter Christmas miniature Ali painted a while ago. She made a great job of it - the face in particular is just beautiful.

Check it out here

Epic Nemo

Just a really quick post. Ali just finished this commission piece a few days ago, so I thought I would share it here.

Not gone...

Well so much for my regular posts at the start of the year...!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say we have not abandoned this blog completely, and will be making some (hopefully) meaningful posts soon. I am working on a new painting commission that I should be able to post soon, and Ali has a couple of pieces that just need to have the images sized to add to the Blog.

In the mean time... One of my favourite sculptors - Gregory Clavilier, has a blog of his own and it's well worth checking out. I have been working with Greg on and off for many years now, and his work never fails to amaze me. His latest creations are for the amazing looking Smog range.

More soon!

Crusaders

Here's some pictures of my latest miniature - Black Templars High Marshal Helbrecht. I have always really liked this sculpt, it's got great movement and the character of the whole piece is really strong. I wanted to make him look like he's been out in the field on campaign for a while, so I made all of the colours a little faded and opted for quite strong lighting from above. I think I am most pleased with how the cloak came out - the lighting works well, and it's nice to add a rich, strong colour to the inside.

Black can be tricky to have as a main colour - it needs surrounding with lighter and brighter colours to give it some shape, so the white fabric really helps to bring the anatomy of the figure out. I definitely didn't want to make the white too stark and clean, so opted for an off-white instead. It's a mix of light bone and black, shaded down with black and blue.

I'm pleased with the base. The figure has such a sense of direction and movement that I wanted to have him on a path or road. I decided that he was on a Pilgrim's path, littered with bones and discarded weapons - the wall has the prayers and messages of the pilgrims nailed to it. The warm ocher colours are a good contrast with the miniature and suggest a dusty, desert setting

Corbulo

Just finished Brother Corbulo for a commission. He's the first Blood Angle I have painted in a long time (12+ years...?) and after a little struggle with the shade of red I wanted to achieve, he went quite smoothly. I didn't want to paint him all deep red - that would mean that the little details, like gems and vials of blood, would be lost - so I opted for a slightly orange-red colour. I kept the rest if the colour scheme pretty warm to be sympathetic to that - shading with quite a lot of red and brown tones (apart from the red armour, which I shaded down with deep blue).

With so many strong colours I thought it was important to keep the face fairly bright - and it stands out well, so I am happy with how that worked.

I've already started on another Space Marine - after not painting any for years, I can't seem to stop now...

A kingly gift

You may have noticed that Ali's work has been conspicuous by it's absence from this blog in the last few months. That's mainly because she has been very busy illustrating her first Children's book (very good it is too!) so hasn't had the time to paint many miniatures. There have been a few though - and this one was a present for my last birthday, way back in June. I have always loved the (sadly now defunct) Ilyad range, and this one (Empereur Haghendorf I believe) is just one of my all time favourite sculpts. It's by the incomparable Jaques-Alexandre Gillios - and I think it's a work of art. It's a great example of how a static pose can be full of dynamic energy and movement. Ali's painting is beautiful too - perfect colour choice (as always - she has sickeningly good colour sense...), and she has really captured the character of the sculpt.

We have a Small but very precious supply of Ilyad miniatures and I am really keen to paint one myself - I have always been a little nervous to tackle one though - the sculpting is so amazing that I really wanted to be able to do it justice with the painting... I do feel that I am painting at a level where I could be happy with the results now though (for the first time in about 12 years!) - maybe I'll give it a go. I'll add it to the list....

One other quick thing for this post. I said that I had found other items in my 'buried treasure' that I might share here. This letter made Ali and I laugh - it's from March 1987. Shortly after that I got taken into the Design Studio for a trial period - and they offered me full time work in April 1987...