VASA: Major Kali

May was an okay month for painting,  ut a crap month for getting the posts out with what I've been doing. I think I may be stretched a little with the number of blogs I'm trying to cover on top of all the usual life stuff that insists on getting in the way of painting and blogging. May was also the second instalment of the WM/H league at my FLGS. I managed to play two games in total and painted up two minis for that. That aside, I have been distracted some very old minis I dug out for Void.

In part because of the Viridian Wars blog, and in part just because they are beautiful, and yet simple figures, these are what have been taking up my painting time.My post on Kali on that blog can be read here. It goes into different details that just the painting, so go check it out.

I am very happy with the way she has turned out, especially the two brush blending on the purple, and the way her hair is in the same colours, but clearly separate. I was uninspired by the base she is on, so I have prepped another, and will try to re-base her shortly.

Void 1.0: Viridian Nightshade.

My postings over at the Viridian Wars blog has got me back into painting some of my minis for the game. This is a limited edition miniature, released for Void 1.0. More info can be found on the mini and her background, both in and out of game in the post I made about her here. She's been hanging around in my lead pile since I brought her back from my parents attic a year ago.

Here, I'll just show pictures of the mini, so as not to duplicate the information posted elsewhere.

She came with a normal round 25mm base, which I decorated and painted to match the rest of my Viridians (as is the colour scheme for her uniform) and the second batch of I finished recently, even though her base is of a different diameter. I'm quite happy with how this base blends into the rest

Ray's Giveaway

Ray's doing a giveaway on his blog. You know Ray? Everyone knows Ray! But he insists on getting folks to pimp out his blog every now and again when doing something like this just to round up the few stragglers out there who don't already follow him. I mean, maybe he's trying for 1000 followers, maybe that's his plan!

So for you, the one guy at the back who's just started out on blogging and hasn't already started following the Don't Throw A One blog, or has had Ray follow him, and leave comments, then you really should wander over and check out the prizes. There are rather a lot of them.

Congrats Ray on reaching 500 posts. Here's to the next 500!

Finishing some Viridians

In the first painting session for about 2 weeks, pulled out some old Viridians, with the plan to finish off some paint jobs that had been sitting around for far too long This was inspired in part by the Viridian Wars blog, and partly by Colore ton Monde ending, which has made me go back an complete old stuff for some reason, rather than starting any new projects.

This may also be inspired by the spring clean going on in our house this weekend too.

So, a triple whammy of reasons to go back and fill in some blanks that have been staring at me. I hope there'll be some more of this to follow in the rest of the month. In fact, this month's mini for the Khador Caster Challenge fits this bill too, as I have an eButcher sitting around base coated that I plan to do next.

So let's call May the spring cleaning month, and use it to our advantage shall we!

These guys were painted for a Colore ton Monde back in April 2014, but have been sitting on whote bases ever since. No more! Now they are based to fit the scheme of the rest of my Viridians. Although, there are another 4 or 5 of these bases to go, but they will be completed soon. These bases are from a discontinued line by Secret Weapon. The other 5 are from a similar line, but are different enough, with none of the large modelling of these bases. Hopefully keeping the palate the same should make them all blend in seamlessly.

 

Looking at them I the harsh light of a close up photograph, there's a lot of things about the way I painted these that I would do differently now. Only a year's difference, and still so much to learn and master.

Colore ton Monde: Avril

The final results are in for the April challenge, and as usual, can be seen here. As to the next challenge, well, there isn't one.

Club Chaos, the guys behind the challenge are calling this the last one. In their statement they posted today they say:

Avec le défi d'avril publié, cela clôt une 3e année de défi. Cependant, l'équipe de Club Chaos a décidé de passer à autre chose et ce mois d'avril était donc le dernier mois du défi Colore ton Monde.

Nous tenons à remercier tous les participants qui nous ont envoyé des photos mois après mois. Il était toujours agréable de publier cette galerie en début de mois, et de jongler avec les thèmes différents.

Nous tenons également à remercier l'équipe du Gamers' Vault, qui nous ont ...permis de vous offrir des prix trimestriels pendant ces trois années.

Bonne peinture à tous !

Which translates as the following:

With the April challenge issued, that closes a third year of the challenge. However, the Chaos Club team decided to move on and this April was the last month of the Colore ton Monde challenge.
We thank all the participants who sent us photos month after month. It was always nice to publish the gallery at the start of the month, and juggle the different themes.
We also thank the Gamers' Vault team, who have enabled us ... to offer quarterly prices during the three years.
Happy Painting all!

So that's it for now. The last painting challenge from the Club Chaos guys under the Colore ton Monde banner. It's been a blast, and I have enjoyed this as a means of helping break through the painters block that we all suffer when we stare at the lead mountain piled in front of us.  Foir that I want to say a big thank you to the Club Chaos team!

So, we'll see what they have planned for the future, if anything, but for now, I'll leave you with a gallery of my favourite challenge minis from the last three years.

 

If you want to see the full selection of minis painted for this challenge, then all the posts are under the Colore Ton Monde tag below. Alternatively, click here.

Viridian Wars

As if my attention wasn't being fractured enough these days, I have found yet another way to procrastinate and eat into my painting time. I requested to contribute to another blog, the Viridian Wars, and the author there, Richard, has graciously accepted. So, I am now an author on that blog, and have already planned out a few posts on a variety of topics in that universe. The first real one will be posted tomorrow morning.

What does this mean for posts here? well nothing much. Normal service will continue. This does not even mean I will not be posting Void material here, not that I have done much of that in the past. I will still have the odd post with painted minis, and even, if the stars are right, battle reports and the like.

What I will try to post over there are more in depth articles on the game and the miniatures, that I would struggle to justify posting here, due to limited interest in the game. I have already got a few articles lined up, and they should come out in the coming months. These posts will likely inspire me to paint up more Void and Urban War minis, so expect a few of them to make an appearance here too. A little cross-pollination if you will.

After that, who knows, I may move on to cover the daughter game Urban War, another one that I have a passion for that struggles to find its voice on the internet.

So if you have not already, and you are interested in the game, the minis or the setting, go along and check it out, follow and most importantly comment on the blog, as it is through the interaction with other bloggers we thrive and build our community.

Khador Caster Challenge, April: Kommandant Irusk

This month has been a bust in painting terms, between family holidays and other commitments, I have had a grand total of 4 hours painting so far this month. Not that I am complaining, as the other stuff has been fun, but it does leave the post count here at a low ebb.

To combat this lack of time, I am painting one mini that will fit in both with this month's colore ton monde challenge, and my self imposed Khador Caster challenge. Since this month's colore ton monde was open to pretty much anything, this was not hard.

I had previously put some base colours down on pIrusk, and he is a relatively simple model compared to the epic versions of the casters that are left to do on my list, so that made him a shoe-in for this month's mini.

I experimented a bit on the Khador anvils on his shoulder pads and neck. as well as with the crest band on his hat. Rather than going for a metallic gold, I went yellow with a bit of highlighting. This is not an NMM effect as such, but has the same feel. A little more cartoony than many of my historical minis, but that fits with Mr Big-Hat here.

This leaves the Khador Caster Challenge in the following state:

Casters Painted: 6
The Old Witch and Scrapjack
Zerkova
pVlad (variant)
pButcher
pIrusk

Casters to Paint: 6
eButcher
eIrusk
pSorscha
eSorscha
Strakov
eVlad

Half way there in 4 months, but with some of the bigger models like eButcher and eIrusk still to go I'm glad to have time to work on them as they may take more than one month each at my current rate of painting.