Sunday, December 24, 2023

Fortune Hunters Big Game Hunter / Steampunk Hunter Diver

Continuing the Deepwars Fortune Hunters theme, we have an elite soldier: the big game hunter. Given the number of big nasty creatures in the game, this guy seems like must have, and fills the classic archetype of the obsessed hunter. All very good. From a painting perspective the trophies adorning the dive suit add a lot of visual interest, making the hunter one of the more engaging designs in the line. Nothing fancy though - I stuck to the established palate for my Fortune Hunters and I feel it translated to this piece well.

Happy Holidays!

Edit: I really disliked the series of photos I took around this date, so I retook them and replaced the original pics.

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Fortune Hunters Heavy Support Trooper / Steampunk Heavy Diver

Making it a theme following last month, here is another Fortune Hunter from the game DeepWars. Normally I'm not a huge fan of the steampunk genre with my painting, but DeepWars definitely scratches that itch when I have it. 

This is one of the first models I completed for the Fortune Hunters and occupies a rare position: the basic trooper. I tend to be lured by the flashy models for special characters so my collection over-represents characters vs. support models. Because of that, this lucky guy is on the battlefield in nearly every game I play. Sometimes its good to be the grunt, I guess. 

My goal with the paint-jobs for the entire faction was gritty and easy to paint metallics with a few spots of OSL or gem techniques for visual interest. This keeps them easy paint quickly, and that choice has allowed me to grow my collection faster than other genres. More divers to post next time.
 

Monday, December 11, 2023

Fortune Hunters Recon Trooper / Steampunk Scout Diver

 



I have a large collection of painted DeepWars miniatures that have never surfaced. This steampunk diver is a scout for the fortune hunters, a faction that is well represented in my collection. This model supports the mech and scientist I posted last year, and shares their same industrial paint pallet. I occasionally go overboard with undersea themed minis and I am feeling that current now. While workbench is flooded with undersea critters I may as well post some too! Over the next few weeks I'll look to catch up on my undersea life. 

For this faction I always enjoy juxtaposing the gritty industrial feel of the dive-suits with vibrant sea life on the base. 

Not much commentary in the tank today, so I'll finish with another, nearly identical photo - Bonus!




Saturday, December 2, 2023

Jabberwock, Ral Partha

 

OK, Ill be the first to admit that this is a less than satisfying re-post. I was feeling the itch to put something up, but it is very rainy and I am limited to outdoor photography for the time being. So, time to recycle; it is a piece I love! This was originally posted in 2010 on CMON - those were heady days. This Jabberwock was an effort at painting for contests. It did decently, managing a silver medal at one of the Denver gaming conventions. I remember the critique from the judges acutely -  The paint was great but the subject is too two-dimensional; it lacked visual interest from all directions. 

This advice has become the cornerstone of my more ambitious projects, especially my own sculpting - it has to be interesting from every direction. That said, models like this photograph beautifully, whereas sculpts best viewed in person are often difficult to get a good angle on them for photography.

 I especially enjoy the eyes on this piece, and it was the start of a limited case study in painting crazy-looking large creature eyes - I still emphasize that to this day. The photographic style on the other hand has changed quite a lot. It is indicative of my presentation at that time: complex collages of images, sometimes inset, and a bold signature ("Funnymouth" being and old handle). This was maybe the best of them, but it still makes me smirk.

I should also note that, like the recently shared Ral Partha wyvern, this model is a repaint from my original childhood collection.

 Reading back, it seems to be a fairly seminal piece in many ways - worthy of a re-post after all? I'll let you decide.