Blog Alraune's Blog of Figuring Stuff Out

[JTSleep]

And here I was worried I might have hit some of them too hard! I tried priming them all at once and they turned out a little uneven in brightness. I'll go back and prime the ones I haven't painted yet with some more Wraithbone and re-drybrush them. Thanks for the tip!

Glad to help! Looking forward to see more from you.

Here is one more photo, where you can see how far I went from black primer (together with the two colours I used):

Spoiler: .

and result:

Spoiler: .

Nowadays I am going even lighter.

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Only tangentially related to painting, because it involves a mini I painted, but we drafted the new Magic the Gathering set "Unfinity" tonight at my FLGS and my Carnosaur got to play.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Only tangentially related to painting, because it involves a mini I painted, but we drafted the new Magic the Gathering set "Unfinity" tonight at my FLGS and my Carnosaur got to play. View attachment 122587

That’s brilliant!

 

[Warden]

Those new skinks are looking good!

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Geez, it's been a minute since I posted any updates in here! I have a few, but I don't want to make one really image-heavy post, so I'll break it up into a few smaller ones.

So I did finish the skinks! I finished the first ten on the last possible day I could have gotten them finished in October, and just a few days ago finished the last 13. 23 is a weird number, and I found a 24th while I was digging in my friend's big case for his Kroxigors, but that one can wait until later.

The first set of ten! Closeup of one of the shields:


Here's a big family photo of all 23 skinks, charging into battle with the Astrolith Bearer and Carnosaur! In a real combat situation the three ugliest ones would get, I dunno, left on the bench or something.
I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out! Initially I was stressed about the shields, but by the end of it I got the hang of them. At some point I need to add the cohort sigil to the Scar Veteran's shield, but that'll be... Er, later.

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

My other October project was my friend's birthday gift, his player character from our LGS's annual D&D challenge! He recognized who/what it was supposed to be immediately, even before he flipped it over and saw the character's name under the base, which I was really happy about. I think he really liked it.

If you look closely you can see a teensy little suicide awareness ribbon I painted onto one of the pages. (Context for those just arriving: our LGS's annual D&D challenge, like many events it hosts, benefits suicide awareness and prevention charities)

A couple pictures from just after I finished it that represent the colors a little more accurately-- in life, it's sort of like an average between the two? I really like how the blend on the cape turned out. His favorite color is orange, but that's kind of a loud color to use as the main color, so I used a lot of green and tried to give it a sort of autumnal feeling overall by using splashes of orange.

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Now for December's projects...

I intended to do the Kroxigor next, but they're the pewter ones and there's only two bodies and that really bothers me because they come in threes, so I'm going to need some kind of tool or something to dismember them and reassemble them in different poses. So in the meantime I started painting this little fellow:

if I'm correct, this is a little Skink Chief that goes on the back of a Stegadon that he must have had an extra of and he just put it on a base, and it's intended to be used as a Skink Priest. This one was primed in Army Painter Alien Purple before a spritz of Wraithbone, hopefully to make a convincing albino appearance. I'm sort of testing a process I want to try on my Sunblood kitbash once I get around to painting him.

I'm also painting another mini as a gift, this time for our LGS owner for xmas. It's the Sorcerer from Nocturna Models, aka Raistlin from Dragonlance but with the serial numbers filed off. Raistlin is his favorite character (and I like him pretty well too, so far, I'm still slowly crawling through Dragons of Autumn Twilight during my lunch breaks at work...)

Some assembly required... but I'm excited to give this guy a go! I'll probably base him in purple to and try to achieve something like the sample paintjob on the packaging.

 

[Imrahil]

Geez, it's been a minute since I posted any updates in here! I have a few, but I don't want to make one really image-heavy post, so I'll break it up into a few smaller ones.

So I did finish the skinks! I finished the first ten on the last possible day I could have gotten them finished in October, and just a few days ago finished the last 13. 23 is a weird number, and I found a 24th while I was digging in my friend's big case for his Kroxigors, but that one can wait until later.
View attachment 124278
The first set of ten! Closeup of one of the shields:
View attachment 124279

Here's a big family photo of all 23 skinks, charging into battle with the Astrolith Bearer and Carnosaur! In a real combat situation the three ugliest ones would get, I dunno, left on the bench or something.View attachment 124280 View attachment 124281
I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out! Initially I was stressed about the shields, but by the end of it I got the hang of them. At some point I need to add the cohort sigil to the Scar Veteran's shield, but that'll be... Er, later.

These look amazing!
I love the colorscheme, great detail on the Skinks. The basing helps a lot to elevate the whole to a good looking army.

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[JTSleep]

Skinks and wizard look great! Looking forward to see how the priest end up.

 

[Warden]

Great looking lizards... and wizards!

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Updates on the two models I'm working on!
First, the little skink chief-priest fellow (he's indecisive)! The store owner had the day off from his other job today so I spent most of the day painting the skink instead and got quite a bit done, in addition to some painting on Wednesday.

The dagger was painted on Wednesday and the rest was done this evening. I decided to try and make it look like jade, but I wasn't super sure what I was doing...
Then I finished the eyes, started on the staff and took a few more pictures.

I decided to make the skull on the staff out of jade, too, because I think the shape lended itself better than the knife. I think I did a bit better of a job on it this time. I'm feeling really good with how he's coming along. After pushing myself to not push myself with the basic skinks, I'm having fun doing more detail work and trying new things for this one-off guy.

Thursday I got a lot of work done on Raistlin while his future recipient was out! I primed him basically the same way I did the skink, and I'm loving how it's turning out so far. After going over the robes with Blood Angels Red contrast, I went in with some Evil Sunz Scarlet to make the lighter areas more... Red? It's more apparent in person than my phone's camera can make out. However, the purple underneath isn't as dramatic as I hoped, so I might have to go in and do some purple shadows "manually" as well. I'm still not certain about the skin though. I feel like I should do... something more interesting with it than gold + Reikland Fleshshade... But I'm not sure what. (for those not familiar with the character, his skin is actually, like, gold-gold. And his pupils are hourglass shaped. He's so strange and edgy but I love him for it.)

 

[Imrahil]

The detail on that is Amazing!!!
Great job man.

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Oops, it's been a while since I've updated! Hello! I hope everyone has had as nice of a new year as I have! I have some neat stuff to share!

So how did Raistlin turn out? Once he was finished I was so excited to wrap him up for Christmas that I didn't take any pictures! I got some after New Year's though.


After doing a coat of Blood Angels Red over my purple and white zenithal prime, I went over the highlights and shadows with more reds and purples for emphasis. And I'm glad to report his recipient loves him too!

I also finished the Skink that I was working on! He turned out a little fantastic, I think.




(That bit of white at the end of the dagger's hilt looks a little alarming, but it's just reflecting the light from the window)

So my current project is a trio of my friend's Kroxigors. He has at least half a dozen, but I chose three and gussied them up a little. One has a tail from a Tichi-Huichi's Raider's cold one so that each one has a unique tail, and I took a lot of inspiration from how @pikapoka posed and decorated his. Just a little bit of greenstuff and glue and now they each look a bit more distinct from each other!


This one is the most complete. I'm pleased with him so far!

 

[Explodingzeb]

Oops, it's been a while since I've updated! Hello! I hope everyone has had as nice of a new year as I have! I have some neat stuff to share!

So how did Raistlin turn out? Once he was finished I was so excited to wrap him up for Christmas that I didn't take any pictures! I got some after New Year's though.
View attachment 127140
View attachment 127141
After doing a coat of Blood Angels Red over my purple and white zenithal prime, I went over the highlights and shadows with more reds and purples for emphasis. And I'm glad to report his recipient loves him too!

I also finished the Skink that I was working on! He turned out a little fantastic, I think.
View attachment 127142
View attachment 127143
View attachment 127144
View attachment 127145
(That bit of white at the end of the dagger's hilt looks a little alarming, but it's just reflecting the light from the window)

So my current project is a trio of my friend's Kroxigors. He has at least half a dozen, but I chose three and gussied them up a little. One has a tail from a Tichi-Huichi's Raider's cold one so that each one has a unique tail, and I took a lot of inspiration from how @pikapoka posed and decorated his. Just a little bit of greenstuff and glue and now they each look a bit more distinct from each other!
View attachment 127146
View attachment 127147
This one is the most complete. I'm pleased with him so far!
View attachment 127148

Those all look excellent! Great idea with the extra bits on the old Kroxigor models

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Those all look excellent! Great idea with the extra bits on the old Kroxigor models

Thank you so much! It definitely gives them more personality. I'm particularly excited to have found a third tail. Unfortunately he didn't have enough left of the Raiders to really build them, just bits and pieces, but that makes me feel less bad about repurposing the tail that way.



The first Kroxigor is finished! On to the next one!

 

[Imrahil]

Amazing work, the amount of detail on the faces is staggering.
I love the updates on the Kroxigors

Keep up the great work!

Grrr, !mrahil

 

[Tyranitar]

All of your painting looks awesome, I really like the color scheme and the story behind it as well. Keep going and keep the pics coming!

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

Amazing work, the amount of detail on the faces is staggering.
I love the updates on the Kroxigors

Keep up the great work!

Grrr, !mrahil

Thank you so much! I know this is going to sound corny, but painting the eyes is one of my favorite parts, and I always save it for last, because I feel like that's when they get imbued with their little souls... I get attached to these guys!

And another Kroxigor update! I tried approaching the jade a different way from the Skink Priest and it's kind of frustrating me. Maybe sleeping on it and coming back to it later will help. It needs a lot more done with it. I think the scales need some more purple-ing too, but it's not quite as dire in person as the phone camera makes it look.

All of your painting looks awesome, I really like the color scheme and the story behind it as well. Keep going and keep the pics coming!

Thank you so much! That really means a lot, coming from you!!


One thing I forgot to post before now is another work in progress I started while I was hemming and hawwing over the Kroxigors' poses. It's an oldschool Salamander and some kitbashed skink handlers! I found the old pewter handlers that originally came with it, but, well ... they're kinda ugly and I wanted to make better ones lol

I think these were leftover Stegadon-howdah-skinks-- they were all that was left on the sprue I found them on so I'm making an educated guess-- and they're little smaller than the standard skinks. I had to reverse the spears to make it look more like they're trying to prod the beast along (and they turned out a little crooked, but oh well, I did my best!). But then I ran out of spear arms from that sprue and had to use some leftover arms from a normal Skinks sprue. I wasn't daring enough to try and make that arm gripping the spear with both hands, so I kinda threw together some kind of cool pole thingy for the other arm. Of course, now he's got much beefier arms than the other two, so I imagine maybe he would sort of boss the other two around. They're all Salamander handlers together, but for whatever reason, he's more important than the other two for reasons that are only recognized by the three of them.

 

[ArtsyAlraune]

̶h̶e̶l̶l̶o̶I̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶p̶ ̶y̶e̶s̶t̶e̶r̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶b̶o̶x̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶I̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶a̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶g̶l̶a̶m̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶t̶s̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶l̶i̶z̶a̶r̶d̶s̶.̶ ̶W̶a̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶d̶i̶c̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶c̶a̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶o̶s̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶l̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶O̶P̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶e̶a̶d̶.̶ ̶F̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶m̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶,̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶g̶h̶t̶s̶'̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶y̶ ̶u̶p̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶.̶.̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶i̶t̶!̶
I didn't want to make an entirely new post, but I've made some better photos of this guy so I'm just going to edit them into this post so that the link in the OP redirects to the new photos.

So first, the Astrolith Bearer!
Turntable video:
https://i.imgur.com/LSmJUEy.mp4

 

[Warden]

Great standard bearer!