Lightbox

For almost four years now I have been using a custom-built light box and a reflex with a tripod to take my pictures.

The problem with that is that the setup is very cumbersome and I tend to accumulate too many figures to photograph and I am basically lazy to set it up. I have been checking around to see if I could get one of the nice foldable lightboxes, but they were a bit expensive, so I never bought one.

Until the other day I was told that Flying Tiger has one for 5€. Obviously, I went there and grabbed one and I started to use it.

I have been using it for the past few posts and either nobody noticed the difference or nobody cared, but this setup takes 30 seconds to configure. Just unfold the box, and shoot the photos with the phone, so I am really happy.

Here you can see a pic of the box and some comparisons of the same figure with different backgrounds.

Shaggoth

Although this figure is not really oldhammer, I always loved it, therefore, I chose it long ago to be THE monster of my Chaos Warband. I bought it second hand, so it is the metal one, not the resin copy, it weights quite a lot, although the assembly was great.

I have chosen a simple classic palette to paint it, brownish flesh and green for the dragon body, then some red and gold for the armour and such.

I am quite satisfied with the overall look, it is quite menacing.

The blood on the blade took me a while to prepare, as I wanted a kind of splash effect and somehow the feel of different layers and different shades of blood, you can tell me if I managed to do it or not.

All in all it was a real pleasure to paint this, I tried a few new things on the flesh and the results were quite good, so I will keep on using them.

But I am also happy that I got to finish it as it has been standing in my pile of to-do for over a year.

Painted in 2018

Ettin

For today I have another of the great oldhammer style monsters sculpted by Diego Serrate, the Ettin. In this case, due to the sheer size of it, I asked him to deliver it in resin as opposed to metal that I chose for the rest of the figures. I think it was a great choice as the details were captured perfectly and there was not a single error in the figure. I do not know who is the manufacturer for Diego, but they rock!

This figure stands quite tall, you will see on the family photo that I will post in a few weeks, it is taller than the Tainted Troll and it's almost as the Shaggoth.

It was a bit challenging to paint it, because it is mainly flesh, wood and leather; all brownish colours, which can make the figure just a blur of different shades of brown. I tried my best to differentiate each part and to tone up and down the colours to make sure they were not all mixed, there are also plenty of glazes to give a bit of colour to some areas of the flesh to show the decay of Chaos or some latent mutations. I hope that all of this effort has payed off, as I look at the figure, I do not see just a blur of the same colour so I think I manage to achieve what I wanted, but you tell me.

To break a little bit the more or less empty base, I put in a familiar that was given as a free perk on the Kickstarter, as it is pointing somewhere, I think it adds a little nice effect as the Ettin does not look like the sharpest mind around.

I think the nicest part of the figure are the faces, in particular, the Cyclops one, with the massive eye. I tried my best to make a fully detailed eye, there is a close-up in which you can see that I painted the little veins around it and some light reflection, it's the first time that I do it and I can say that I will try it again as I liked the effect.

As a last note I will mention that these photos have been made with a lightbox from Flying Tiger that cost me 5€, so that I could retire the home-made one that I have been using since 2015. The pictures have been taken with a phone, but I think they have more or less the same quality as before, and the process is simply ten times faster.

'Nuff said, I will let the pics speak for themselves!

Painted in 2018

The Guardian

I am not a big fan of this sculpt, but as it was a free perk for the Kickstarters of the campaign, I can't really complaint.

I painted it with a golden armour and grey trousers. Nothing too fancy as I just wanted to paint him fast and have him ready.

Painted in 2018

Vargal Mansplitter

This figure is simply great. It is a pity that Games Workshop stopped creating miniatures like this one and simply decided to focus Chaos on Beastman and Humans.

This figure shows some kind of lizard dressed up in full plate holding a halberd, and it is a great sculpt that I had lots of fun painting!

I decided to paint the plate in brown/gold to have a striking contrast with the green skin. I am quite satisfied with the end result.

Painted in 2018