Perdita Ortega

Perdita on a display base for a client

P3 Bronze winner - Croak Hunter

Went to GenCon and entered my croak hunter. I think I did an amazing job and the judges agreed. I agree with the assessment that the browns were a little close and I should have taken the yellows and blues markings up over the neck.

Thanks to Privateer Press and everyone for the award!

Orange Crush is complete

As you know, we have submitted 2 Models (actually 1 Model and 3 Solos) to Project Orange Crush and FoodMachine. The Galvanizer and the Attunement Servitors have shipped. We at 13th Hour Miniature are honored to be able to support the Project even in this small way.

Please please please, find a local gaming group doing Foodmachine and support this worthy cause.

Rate Change Jan 1st, 2014

The complication of doing miniatures based on sizes has become too much of a burden for us. So, instead of trying to figure out that a land raider is a large model plus assembly plus a squad... We are switching to an hourly rate. Want a squad of space marines fast just too get them on the table? 1 hour. Want a display piece to sit in your cabinet? Ask for 5 hours. 

Just like auto repair, estimates on time will be made and held to. If you want 5 hours and it takes 3 to get it to te level you want then you only are charged 3 hours. If after 5 hours you want a little more then every hour over is extra cost. 

Now, saying this, I can paint fast. I will never ever lie to anyone saying it took 4 hours when it took 3. As always I will be as up front and honest as I can. 

News

I might be working on a model for the OrangeCrush Food Machine army! I submitted my info. Lets see what they say. 

This week is picture week! Pics of the Rhulic army is coming up as well as the Bronze P3 Grandmaster entry. Work begins on my entries into the Crystal Brush next week. I will be taking pictures along the way so everyone can see the progress. I will win a gold this year. 

In the name of the (Persian) king!

I was given a little less than a week to paint up this Persian King for a client to give to a family member as a birthday gift. Lots of freehand and lots of blending. Also, was asked to do something special with the base without taking away from the model. I think he turned out very well.

French & Indian War Commission

I was given the opportunity to paint up something that I normally don't do: Historicals. French and Indian war French troops. I was given a rough color pallet on a figure and told go. It is so odd not being able to just go with what feels right and stay historically accurate.

Another table top commission

 The new Malifaux Gremlins are a blast to paint. You just get to experiment with colors and combinations and it can't turn out wrong.




















Was also able to paint some more puppets.

Gun Vic and some Puppets before heading to Adepticon

Client asked for tabletop quality for Gun Victoria. Painting Crystal Brush entries for over 8 hours made me go a little over tabletop.

Charity Army work

We have been working a little on the charity army between commissions and preparing our own miniatures for the upcoming Crystal Brush. Here is just a peek at two of them: Brun Cragback and Lug.

Quick Easy Zombie Flesh

I need to knock out 10 quick Axis Zombies for a 300 point tournament later this week. So, here is a quick and easy way to quickly do good looking zombie flesh.

Dust Warfare miniatures come pre-primed in a dark grey color.










First, thinly cover the flesh with P3 Midlund Flesh. Since we want old and newer zombies this should be done slapdash. Everything should be covered but the grey should be peaking through in some places.

Don't worry. These are not going to be healthy looking for long.



Wash the skin with GW Baal Red wash. Once again in a slap dash way. Newer zombies should have more red than older zombies.








Here is poor Sabine. Not only was he unfortunate to be named Sabine, he was recently assigned to kitchen duty for the great Axis army. During a freak kitchen accident involving a chicken, an Allied bomb, and a spatula, Sabine was killed. But! Death doesn't stop service in the great Axis army!

 Using P3 Thrall Flesh thinned start highlighting the raised edges of the flesh. The older the zombie the more necrotic the flesh will look. Add a little GW Ushabti Bone to the mix for where the skin is really taunt across the bone.










Oh poor Sabine. He hasn't been dead for too long so most of his flesh is still (almost) healthy looking...

GW Agrax Earthshade is used to shade the eye sockets and where the nose should be. Pretty much any hole.

See, Sabine. Being a zombie isn't all bad....

Finally, GW Ushabti Bone is added to the teeth. Use an up and down motion instead of across the teeth. You will get nicer looking teeth. Straight P3 Morrow White was used on the eye.... those cold dead eyes....

There you go! A squad of 10 undead monsters out for the flesh of the Allied living. Total time for the flesh, 30 minutes.

Behold the zombie horde!

Intercessor Kreoss Walkthrough

Walkthrough of how I painted Intercessor Kreoss

First I cleaned and primed the model white with Dupli-Color car primer. I find it to be thinner and more accepting to paint especially on these above table top quality models.








I then painted the horse P3 Hammerfall Khaki as a base. Slowly adding P3 Rucksack Tan, I highlighted in a stripe pattern to give the illusion of hair. Adding some GW Bleached Bone I finished the final highlights in the same stripe pattern. I got the idea from watching The Painting Clinic's YouTube video.




I started the white portions of the armor by doing a preshade of P3 Thornwood Green mixed with P3 Menoth White Base. This gives solid shadows around the edges of the armor. Then, with straight thinned P3 Menoth White Base the color was slowly lightened moving from the edges in. I continued doing this adding P3 Menoth White Highlight decreasing the size of the highlight. Finally, a small amount of thinned P3 Marrow White was added to the upper most armor plates.


You can see on the armor the gradual shading into the recesses of the armor plates. As the armor plates where being done the cloth was being done in the same manner except in the same stripping highlight to give the feel of texture that was not needed on the armor plates. Here I also applied P3 Sanguine Base to the saddle to give some color for the pictures.

The purple base started as P3 Sanguine Base and the gold was P3 Brass Balls. I like using Brass Balls as a base for gold in the case here because the color includes some Sanguine Base in it. This ties the colors into the purple.





The first highlight was to add some P3 Beaten purple into the Sanguine Base. This shifts the purple into the red and adds a little color to it. The gold was washed with GW Earthshade to darken the recesses. Earthshade was also used to shadow the areas around the eyes.

The purple mix had very little P3 Trollblood Base added to shift it to a lighter blue/purple. This was used to highlight the purple areas. GW Shining Gold was (roughly) dry brushed in the gold areas hitting only the raised areas. The eyes were painted Menoth Highlight.

 GW Burnished Gold was used to highlight the gold edges. The eyes are painted green to compliment the red/purple. Freehand was done in Burnished Gold.

The hooves were painted P3 Greatcoat Grey and then GW Black. The raised hoof has a GW Boltgun Metal horse shoe painted on. The hair was painted Rucksack Tan and washed with GW Sepia Wash.