Friday 1 July 2016

Otherworld Adventurers & Stuff

Not far off a month of no posting here but as anyone following me on Facebook will know I have been busy daubing stuff. First off, as the title says I've been painting more Otherworld Miniatures so I guess I'll throw some pics up and then go into the waffle. We've got berserkers, adventurers, familiars and a sorcerer.







I had planned on these being done much sooner to be honest but a combination of some taking longer than expected to finish plus a hefty dose of burn out creeping up on me throughout the year really made them drag on. My favourites were the berserkers although the familiars were rather fun. OSL and the shield design on the female paladin wore me down a bit. All 'new' models to me except the sorcerer which is my second version painted (not sure I ever posted the first one). If I'm honest I don't particularly care for that model, it's a bit confusing and 'busy'.

I mentioned being a bit burnt out this year. I guess it's something that hits most of us eventually. For me it's the kind of models I'm painting more and more. Things that are very detailed or maybe simple but very delicately detailed and requiring a lot of patience and concentration can get a bit draining over time. In the past I've had a mix of models that have helped lend a lot of variety to my workload but certainly this year and going back into last year it's been one tougher job after another. There have been a couple of what I thought would be easier jobs but when I'm distracted and lacking focus on those I know I'm clearly ready for a rest.

One thing I have really enjoyed this year has been resurrecting my Urban War Viridians. That bit of time I grabbed to retouch my old models and paint a couple of new ones was really satisfying. I think I've posting pretty much everything here but a few days ago I did finally manage to take some pics of my retouched and rebased saurian rider. It was only the base that needed finishing and then it sat gathering dust for a few weeks but here it is all tootled up.







The nice big GW oval base is far more stable than the old 50mm lipped base was. There is some pinning in the legs here though to ensure it doesn't droop under the weight of the model. I know the initial castings, of which this is one were prone to warp. Back when I assembled this I put a pin up through the foot, ankle and into the calf and another into the back of the knee and down the second section of the leg to strengthen those points. I still wasn't sure if it would hold so initially wedged a 'rock' under the raised foot. With rebasing I decided to just pin the raised foot. You can't see the pin unless you look closely for it. If I get time I'll definitely do more Viridians.

One thing I've been threatening to do for while is video tutorial type stuff. The camera I've been using for what must be a couple of years now was bought partly on the strength of its video recording capabilities. Not having a suitable lens or really knowing what kind of set up I needed stalled those plans but I finally decided to take one in the ass from my credit card and get a couple of bits of kit.


Here we've got a zoom lens and an extension tube. The lens as you may guess makes distant things look closer and the extension tube adds macro capability to a lens. Together it means I can have my camera placed out of my way, essential for painting, whilst being able to bring the image closer to fill the frame and show what I'm doing more clearly. I just need a couple of extra bits to make life easier, a holder for my tablet and an adapter to connect my camera to it (plus a software app) so I can see my cameras live view on the tablet in my eye line rather than having to keep looking away from what I'm working on to see my camera. At least I hope that'll be everything.

I think that's my lot for this post. Time to decide whether to have another large vodka and make tomorrow a problem or just play Sniper Elite V2.

16 comments:

  1. Beautiful, just beautiful!

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  2. I really like subtle tones that you've achieved. What are the Otherworld minis like to paint? Scale-wise - which do they fit best with: Frostgrave, GW LotR or something more heroic? I want to add some to my rpg collection, starting with the brilliant new rock golem, but I don't want the human figures to be out of whack with my others.

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    1. They're generally nice to paint. Size wise I guess they fit most modern fantasy figure lines. Nothing massive just a bit of chunk here and there. Probably too big for GW LotR. All my current day GW stuff is still on the sprue so can't really tell there. That's probably not much help is it? ;)

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    2. Thanks anyway, though. I'm going to pick up some gnolls and will add some berserkers to the order.
      Would really like to see you tackle some more GW miniatures one day!

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    3. Old or new GW? Whilst my tastes are generally for the older models I have got quite a bit of more recent stuff thanks to all the board game releases they're doing these days. If I had the time I'd really like to paint some of my Silver Tower models.

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  3. Lovely job on the Otherworld Miniatures, I've got some of those myself & I found them a joy to paint. I sympathise with your painters block, you just have to ride the sucker out.
    Regards HGA.

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    1. Not so much painters block, just a bit tired of painting for other people. I'm hoping the video nonsense might take over a bit further down the line.

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  4. Beautiful painting - I think I like the fox best of all! I know what you mean about too much detail on models being draining, perhaps why I like the simpler old school sculpts!

    Would love to see some videos of your technique too ;)

    W

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    1. Yeah, some nice old models would go down a treat right now.

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  5. Great stuff here on your blog. I am glad I finally found your site.

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  6. Firstly, the painted miniatures ... wow! Looks great. As for the lenses, I used a dedicated Tamron Macro lens myself and it has been a great investment in terms of capturing the detail paint work put into my minis.

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    1. Cheers :)

      As for the lenses, my 18-55mm lens that came with the camera is great for still shots of minis as I can crop the images down in GIMP. Video though it's useless. Still yet to properly try out my new set up.

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