RATS!

Been working on this for the last few weeks - it started as a commission to paint Deathmaster Snitch, and it got a little out of hand.... I was looking forward to painting Snitch, it's a pretty old miniature (1987...?) but the sculpt still really holds up I think. Still the best miniature in the GW Skaven range in my opinion.

I was thinking about how I was going to paint the miniature, and what I wanted to do for the base - and I came up with this idea.

We generally put all our miniatures on display plinths of different shapes and sizes, and I thought it would be a fun idea to have the miniature inside the base... Originally I was going to drill out the centre of a wooden plinth, but soon abandoned that as unworkable, and scratch built the whole thing. I took some pictures of the base construction and will be posting a short article here soon.

It was one of those ideas that I could picture every detail of right away - so it didn't really take any planning, I just had to build and paint it. I painted the miniature in a slightly lighter scheme that I might have done with a different base - but I wanted to make sure that he popped out from the sewer tunnel. The paint scheme is really a bit of a homage to the time period when the Skaven first come out - when John Blanche made checks a classic miniatures decoration.

It was s lot of fun to be making a diorama again - even a small one like this. It just makes me want to build something a little more ambitious... Mind you - the time I put into even this little scene reminds me of how long those complex dioramas used to take me!

mike

More Rat Pictures

Extra pictures of the diorama - I can't seem to get multiple images to work in the original post...

Emperor's Champion

I actually painted this one last year, but I was disappointed with the way it photographed, so I never got round to posting it here. I always have trouble photographing metallics - and as this one is 80% metallic, it was a bit of a nightmare. The trouble is that my studio lights are so bright, they create tiny reflections in the surface that just can't be seen normally. You'll just have to take my word that the surface is smoother and flatter than it appears in the pictures - it almost looks like it's covered in glitter...

I also think that I shot them on too light a background - it just makes everything look a little washed out. I much prefer the deeper colour we are shooting everything on these days - it gives much more contrast and punch to the images.

Anyway, apparently we mentioned that I was painting it in an earlier post, and someone just emailed and asked if I ever finished it.

mike

Hello again...

Okay - so it seems that a couple of things were bugging Ali about the Kitty miniature - so she fixed them last night and we re-shot her.

I wasn't really that happy with the pictures anyway, they weren't as sharp as they should have been. I think it was partly due to the fact that she's quite tiny, but partly because I think I over-exposed the pictures and blew out some of the crispness.

Anyway - we both think she looks better now.

She's also going up on Ebay this afternoon...

mike

Hello Kitty

Here's Ali's latest piece - and personally I think it's the best thing she has painted in ages. She's really not painted a great deal in the past year - but she started this one quite some time ago, and only just got round to finishing it. It's another great sculpt from Hasslefree Miniatures - Kev White just does this sort of subject better than anyone else, I don't think there are many people that can sculpt female miniatures as well as he can.

It's also amazing how small this miniature is - I have been used to painting Space Marines recently - and she is just tiny in comparison. I don't understand how Ali manages to get the level of detail she does...

Ali has also posted it on Coolminiornot - please show your support!

mike