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Now Serving a large bucket of Kentucky Fried Cockatrice .

That is an awesome idea .

Thanks Gits and Theophony! Perhaps I should give them vulnerability to Fire .

So below is a pair of advanced Primordial Catoblepas that serve as a narrative tool, rather than a combat encounter.

WIP 1: Applied Nuln Oil Shade to White undercoat. Then applied small blotches of Space Wolves Grey Contrast to areas of flesh for a dappling affect.



WIP 2: Applied 2 coats of Contrast Gryph-Charger Grey to their flesh.



WIP 3: Applied Contrast Gutrippa Flesh to the Hair and Contrast Skeleton Horde to the Mushrooms and Horns.



WIP 4: Applied wash of Athonian Camoshade to entire model



WIP 5-Final: Applied a black wash to the flesh. Dry brushed Vallejo Dead Flesh and then P3 Menoth White Base onto the hair. Drybrushed Menoth White Base onto the horns, top mushrooms, and face. Painted the mushrooms on the legs and talons with a coat of P3 Menoth White Highlight. Applied Gore-Grunta Fur Contrast onto the talons. Applied 2 coats of Darkoath Flesh Contrast on the leg mushrooms. Washed the mushrooms, talons, horns in Agrax Earthshade. Drybrushed Vallejo Khaki onto the leg mushrooms. Washed the horns with Seraphim Sepia.






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So I really like how the moldy hair turned out which was painted with Contrast Gutrippa Flesh, washed with Athonian Camoshade, and Then Drybrushed Vallejo Dead Flesh and then P3 Menoth White Base. This is a formula I plan on repeating.

Moreover, I think I will utilize this overall color pallet when I paint my Ancient Swamp Dragon.

That's a great looking mini! That scheme would look great on a swamp dragon.

Looks good. Glad to see you are at it again (or still at it?)! I've been pondering the quick paint bundle but havent pulled the trigger.

Thanks Gwynn! I got a very nice model I picked up on etsy which is assembled and just needs some gap filling.

Welcome Whalemusic! I did indeed take a 6 or so year hiatus from painting, but suddenly find myself with significant free time so I picked up the brush to accommodate my re-entry to D&D Storytelling.

What is this Quick Paint bundle you speak of?


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So up next is a group of scarab beetles painted in a more iridescent flesh tone to represent rot grub swarms. They were simply washed with Ogre Flesh Shade followed by Leviathan Purple Shade and finally half or so were glazed over with Guilliman Blue. Devlan Mud and Babad Black was washed into the recesses to represent the mud they are skittering over.

Love the mushroom critter. Very nice job planning ahead with your early coats.

Thanks Gits. So when I originally looked up Catoblepas I saw these on Etsy



However they were like $60 each for Huge Size monsters. The ones I got were mere dollars in comparison and also had the cool mushroomy look.

I think you got a much better deal.

Agreed Gits

So up next is a squad of carrion crawlers. I love these models!

Here I did not apply a Nuln Oil wash as a first step. Pretty simple paint scheme and completed these in one evening.

Skin: Contrast Skeleton Horde followed by a wash of Athonian Camoshade

Feet: Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur

Tenticles: 2 washes of Athonian Camoshade

Antennas and Mandibles: 2 washes of Targor Rageshade

Head: Contrast Snakebite Leather followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade

Mouth: Wash of Targor Rageshade and a wash of Carroburg Crimson shade

Eyes: Contrast Black Templar, Underline of P3 Ironhull Gray and 3 dots of Marrow White

And the artwork that inspired the color scheme:



and the official D&D prepainted minis that sell for $12 on amazon...and kind of look like a mutated turd

They look like real grubs! Excellent work!

I may have thrown up a little in my mouth. Fantastically done!

Yours are by far the superior paint- and so fast you produced them!

They do look very real!

Thanks Gits, Gwyn & Meer_Cat, they are grubby looking buggers !

Up next is a pack of 5 Donkeys loaded for bear or a concert! Wanted representation for the players pack train as well as victims for natural predators in the area. These guys took two evenings due to all the detail.

WIP 1: Washed model in Nuln Oil. 3 Donkeys were fur was painted with Contrast Aggaros Dunes. Manes were painted with Contrast Skeleton Horde. For the 2 Grey Donkeys, the straps and bridles were painted with Contrast Aggaros Dunes. Ropes and strings were painted with Contrast Skeleton Horde. Bedrolls were washed twice with Athonian Camoshade. Sacks were painted with Contrast Snakebite Leather.



WIP 2: Wood items were either painted with P3 Battlefield Brown or Gore-Grunta Fur Contrast. Metals were painted in P3 Pig Iron. Harp, Locks, and Sword Hilt were painted with 2 Coats of Contrast Iyaden Yellow. The straps and bridles on the golden donkeys were painted with Gore-Grunta Fur Contrast. Drum washed with 2 coats of Drakenhof Nightshade. Bottles and waterskins were painted in either 2 coats of Contrast Darkoath Flesh or Contrast Fyreslayer Flesh. Hoofs and Bearskin was painted with Contrast Black Templar and the Bear Claws highlighted in P3 Frostbite. Blankets painted in Contrast Flesh Tearer Red.



WIP 3: Applied final washes. Grey donkeys fur was washed with second coat of Nuln Oil. Golden donkeys fur was washed with Seraphim Sepia. Areas painted with Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur, Contrast Darkoath Flesh, Athonian Camoshade and Contrast Fyreslayer Flesh were washed with Targor Rageshade. Areas painted with Pig Iron, Contrast Snakebite Leather, Contrast Fyreslayer Flesh and Contrast Skeleton Horde were washed with Agrax Earthshade . Iron areas was washed twice. Areas painted with Battlefield Brown were washed with Seraphim Sepia followed by Agrax Earthshade.



Finals:

*insert mandatory "great ass" joke here*

But actually, I especially like the grey donkeys!

Merry Christmas bud

Outstanding work on the donkeys WyFox. You're really hitting it out of the park lately!

(and Merry Christmas!)

Merry Christmas Gits, Cam and Gwyn! The donkey were a lot of fun and hey...Mary road a donkey into Bethlehem, so it's period appropriate .

Yo Ho! Yo Ho! A Pirates Life for Me!

So the characters will encounter a flooded battle field haunted by the spirits fallen in war waged long ago. One of the monsters will be the Drowned from Tome of Beasts 2. So I acquired some pirate zombies even though technically the soldiers would be in medieval period armor and weaponry.

While painting them, I was listening to some appropriate music:




WIP 1: Washed models in nuln oil. Applied Skeleton Horde Contrast over the flesh, bones, organs, socks, and some of the shirts. Applied Snakebite Leather Contrast to belts and boots. Painted the sashes and ascots with Flesh Tearers Red Contrast.



WIP 2: Picked out the shirts and some of the pants with either Contrast Space Wolves Grey or Gryph-Charger Grey Contrast, The remaining pants were painted with Asurmen Blue Contrast. Applied Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur to the hats. Painted the buckles, swords and anchor with P3 Pig Iron. Hair and Beards were washed with Drakenhof Nightshade. Kelp was painted with Contrast Gutrippa Flesh. The shoe and eye patch were painted with Black Templar Contrast.



WIP 3: So for clothes painted with Contrast Space Wolves Grey, Gryph-Charger Grey Contrast, and Asurmen Blue Contrast, I washed those areas with Nuln Oil. The boots, bones and belts were washed with Agrax Earthshade. The hats were washed with Targor Rageshade. The metal areas were washed with 2 coats of Agrax Earthshade. The organs and sashes were washed with Carroburg Crimson. The flesh and kelp were washed with Athonian Camoshade. The shirts and socks that were painted with Skeleton Horde were washed with Seraphim Sepia. Dry brushed Vallejo Dead Flesh and then P3 Menoth White Base onto the kelp. Dry brushed P3 Menoth White Base onto the kelp, bones and stitches.



Final: Applied Ryza Rust Dry Technical Paint to the blades and anchors and then drybrushed edges with P3 Quick Silver. First time using the GW rust effect, but I was very pleased with the results .

Very cool music to go with some fantastic models... great job WyFox. I'm wondering if that piece was written for the movie or if it existed beforehand?

Thanks Gits! It was done this year, over a decade following At World's End. Therefore, I think this was more a result of a Tic-Tok or some other video challenge as there was a large number of short Deep Bass music videos that showed up around the same time.




This is one of my favorite music producers on You-tube. He has a bunch of epic covers on all kinds of soundtracks.

So last night I whipped up some more vegepygmies for the colony the party will soon come across. Not satisfied with the rather lame vegepygmy chief from D&D that I purchased on Ebay, I got a miniaturized Swamp Thing and painted it up in a compatible color scheme as well as painted a unit of Thornies, which are beasts that have succumbed to Russet Mold.

Again, a simple color scheme: The flesh was painted with Contrast Gutrippa Flesh. Then a wash of Athonian Camoshade was applied. Lastly, I dry brushed Vallejo Dead Flesh and then P3 Menoth White Base onto the model.

Unfortunately, the Vallejo Paint Bottle tip got jammed and I applied too much pressure to squeeze it through...causing the bottle to explode all over my shirt, desk, and monitor screen . At least it missed my models .

Thornies WIP:



Thornies Final:



Vegepygmy Chief:

Everyone rates dropper bottles as the best thing ever, my personal experience has been rather more mixed. Exploding is one of the many downsides I find.

Love the swampthing! Great work.

Man I feel you on so many levels(have the Flu here).

The pirates are great, nice execution.

Exploding dropper bottles...been there. Like Cam I am not a fan of dropper bottles. I still paint straight from the GW pots. I’ve knocked one or two over in my time and left the lid open on another, but I know how much paint I have over dropped in anticipation of getting things done and then it drying out or sitting so long on the wet pallet that the sheet goes bad.

Happy healthy new year.

I saw your grubs in the gallery, very well done. If I saw them on the floor I'd squish them!

Great blog, and thanks for the detailed painting guides.

I'll be honest... I've never been a fan of dropper bottles for that reason. Have a lot of them... don't trust them.

@Cam, Theo, and Gits: I went almost exclusively to Vallejo some 20 years ago (and a lot of my remaining 100 some bottles are that old) or so after a number of GW pots dried up or got too thick because I simply painted with the top off and would leave them over night at times, also had a few unfortunate spills where I knocked the pot off. However, the Vallejo dropped bottles came with there own issues: difficulty stirring the bottles when the paint separates and a propensity of having the nozzle plug up leading to the chance to explode if you squeeze too hard. My bottles have been sitting for over 6 years so are in pretty rough shape and I should have taken the cap off and cleaned out the nozzle but I was being lazy and kind of forgot about the fact you can remove the nozzle.

I bought a bunch of P3 paints back in 2015 after being introduced to them by Caleb Wissenback (who painted most of my Tau army) and I mostly use those when I am not using shades and contrasts alone. I just dab them out onto my porcelain pallet and add a drop of diluted flow agent. I really like the how much pigment is in the P3 paints. Of course these days, I mostly just use GW shades and Contrast paints.


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I ended up buying a vortex mixer to try and revitalize my Vallejo paints with mixed results, though I did not add the metal balls...I kind of wonder how that is suppose to work with a dropper bottle as I would think the steal bead would plug up the nozzle?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NSF12LN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1


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@Kid, welcome to the blog and thanks! The grubs are some of my favorite models I have painted so far.

@Theo, sorry to hear about the flu. I ended up getting sick with the flu a few days before Christmas but managed to shake it off in time to head up North to spend Christmas with my Brothers family and parents. I was taking zinc, Emergen C, Sudafed, and Mucinex while downing lots of fluids. I feel I got lucky as some of my friends were sick for over 2 weeks.


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So below is a pack of Hell Hounds I quickly painted up. A fun start to the new year

Real simple work up:

Washed Casandora Yellow shade over the muzzle, throat, and belly

Washed Baal Red shade over the muzzle, throat, and belly

Washed the entire model twice in Nuln Oil

Applied Menoth White Highlight to the exposed spinal collumn running down the back

Drybrushed the mane with Vallejo Stonewall Grey

Lovely job on the hell hounds.

Having done a lot of lab work, I'm quite familiar with vortex mixers. They can work really well, even without a bead, but the fluid needs to be thin enough to get the vortex going, and of course with paint you can't see the vortex like you can in a test tube. I don't imagine the bead would do any harm. I just have a bunch lying around and throw them in my pots/bottles and shake them up manually.

@Gits, thanks! BTW do the beads clog up the Vallejo Dropper Bottles or can you just leave the beads in the bottle?

So up next is a character in Dave's Pathfinder Campaign whose name is Truen, a multiclassed barbarian, fighter, and ranger that I painted in an evening. He wears Titanic Fullplate and a Frog Helm. He wields a Frostbrand. The work up is below:

Frog Helm: Painted with P3 Pig Iron, washed with Seraphia Sepia Shade and then Agrax Earthshade. Horns were painted with Skeleton Horde Contrast followed by Agrax Earthshade Wash.

Cloak: Fur was washed twice with Drakenhoff Nightshade. The red lining was painted with Contrast Blood Angels Red and then washed with Berserker Bloodshade.

Frost Brand: Handle Grip was painted with Gor-Grunta Fur Contrast. Rest of the handle and cross-guard was painted with Contrast Iyanden Yellow. I then washed these with Targor Rageshade. The Blade was painted in P3 Quicksilver. The Ice shards were washed with nuln oil shade. The blade and ice shards were then washed several times with Pylar Glacier Contrast.

Waterskin: Strings were painted in Skeleton Horde Contrast and the jug was painted in two coats of Darkoath Flesh Contrast. It was all then washed twice with Targor Rageshade.

Belts: Painted with Contrast Snakebite Leather followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade

Armor: Painted with P3 Pig Iron. Washed with Agrax Earthshade. Applied a final wash of Nuln Oil to just the large plates to create some diversity.

Leather Kilt: Painted with Gor-Grunta Fur and washed with Targor Rageshade.

Fire: Wood painted in P3 Battlefield Brown. Fire washed in Casandora Yellow Shade followed by a wash of Baal Red Shade and finally 2 glazes of Lamenters Yellow, allowing the shades and glazes to get onto the wood.

Mini Barrel: Painted in P3 Battlefield Brown followed by washes of Seraphia Sepia Shade and Agrax Earth Shade.

Ground: Washed with Seraphia Sepia Shade and Agrax Earth Shade

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Lovely job on the hell hounds.

Having done a lot of lab work, I'm quite familiar with vortex mixers. They can work really well, even without a bead, but the fluid needs to be thin enough to get the vortex going, and of course with paint you can't see the vortex like you can in a test tube. I don't imagine the bead would do any harm. I just have a bunch lying around and throw them in my pots/bottles and shake them up manually.

Oh, I was going to ask, do you have any thoughts as to what to add to Vallejo paints to thin them up once they have become thick due to age?

 wyomingfox wrote:

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Lovely job on the hell hounds.

Having done a lot of lab work, I'm quite familiar with vortex mixers. They can work really well, even without a bead, but the fluid needs to be thin enough to get the vortex going, and of course with paint you can't see the vortex like you can in a test tube. I don't imagine the bead would do any harm. I just have a bunch lying around and throw them in my pots/bottles and shake them up manually.

Oh, I was going to ask, do you have any thoughts as to what to add to Vallejo paints to thin them up once they have become thick due to age?

I have used Aztek airbrush medium in the past.


The two tall bottles. I got them at Hobby Lobby back when they had the coupons, but still they were only $6-7 each before the coupon if I remember.

Frog Knight looks great