Nine for Mortal Men Doomed to Die

It took a long time, I finally got around to painting this guy. He's one of the GW Ringwraiths, from back when they were metal and GW sold them separately. The model came with the mounted version, which I have sitting around somewhere, but I don't really like that model so it'll probably never get painted.

He's basically a bit of a rush job. I considered replacing the bent sword with a better looking one, but decided to just use it as part of an "old and decayed" theme suggested by his rather ragged robes. I gave all the steel a mild rust effect by drybrushing boltgun over a brown basecoat, and tried to apply verdigris to the brass by painting/washing it with turquoise.

I experimented a lot to try to find a way of shading the robes, putting together various mixes of black washes or paints with varnishes and medium, to apply over a grey base with a white highlight. That failed, and it just ended up almost completely black, so I threw on a drybrush and gave up.

I had been looking for something to do with the bird figure, which had come as part of a pack, I settled on using it with this mini because of it's nomad-like robes and the suitability of the pose. I tried to paint it up as a falcon by applying a pattern of white dots over the brown base, though the bleached bone drybrush I used to highlight the feathers makes the dots less obvious. The eyes are painted red, but they are so small and surrounded by brown that they don't really stand out. I used quickshade to shade the feathers as my initial attempt to use devlan mud failed spectacularly - it darkened the spots so much that they were completely invisible, I ended up stripping the paint from the falcon and starting again.


While the falcon looks alright to me, I am very unhappy with the rest of the figure. He looks boring and messy, and the black robes really don't work well with my standard black bases. The only reason I don't strip the paint and start again is because I have so little time and so many figures that I want to paint, that I'd rather have a mediocre painted model than spend more time with no guarantee that it will turn out much better.

The Lady In Green

I've basically given up on the idea of ever having the time to invest in playing 40K properly. I haven't played since well before sixth edition came out, and it only seems to get harder to find time to devote to the hobby. The thing is, I've already sick of painting Space Marines. I'm not a fast painter, so painting large numbers of identical figures feels boring and pointless, even if I do occasionally like the look of small unit of matched models. I much prefer each model I paint to be unique and different. So now that I've given up on playing the game, I no longer feel the need to paint a matched army, meaning that I can finally start painting all the other minis I've picked up over time.

GW seems to have very few decent-looking female minis, in fact as far as I can tell not all that many miniature companies normally do, so when I saw this one it caught my eye. I really liked the relaxed pose and the fact that she's wearing actual practical clothes, plus it has a nice balance of detail and decoration - enough to make it interesting, not so much that it looks crowded or overdone.

Sharyn, Female Wizard by Julie Guthrie, from reapermini.com

So here it is, my first painted female miniature (the Seraphim doesn't count, I only helped with that one):

She didn't quite turn out the way I had planned. I wanted her to have a "forest" colour scheme, so I tried to stick with greens, yellows and browns, but they all came out a lot brighter than I had originally intended, I guess it came out less "forest" and more "rainforest". Incidentally, this is the first time I've looked up the miniature on the reaper website, and I've just realised that my colour scheme is surprisingly similar to one of the painted versions on the website. Pure coincidence I assure you; perhaps the nature of the mini just suggests certain colours?

From reapermini.com; painted by Leopardpixie

I decided to paint the feathers in a bright blue so they would stand out; I was hoping it would help the mini to "pop", although I was afraid they would look out of place and ruin the colour scheme. However, the other colours came out so bright that the feathers blend in a lot more than I expected them to; I have mixed feelings about that, but it's certainly better than if they stood out too much.

Her face isn't great, but I was lucky it came out as well as it did; I don't have particularly steady or precise hands, those eyes are more a result of divine intervention than skill, and I didn't have the courage to experiment much with the lips so once they looked passable I moved on.

I'm not a huge fan of opaque "crystals" at the best of times, and while I could have tried to replace the stone in her staff with something clear, I decided I wanted the piece to look more organic, so I cut it off and tried to re-sculpt the top of the staff with greenstuff. The results were not amazing, but I think it came out OK.

I tried to use a milliput wash to smooth the mini a little (mainly the coat), it worked out OK but I've since discovered that liquid greenstuff is much easier to use. There's just one thing to remember: while liquid greenstuff dries very quickly, just because it's dry doesn't mean it's set. If you try to sandpaper liquid greenstuff before it's properly set you'll end up pulling bits off the surface instead of sanding it down. Leave it a few hours at least and it should be fine. Also, it shrinks a bit when it dries, so I often apply a second coat before I start sanding.

There were a couple of other fixes involved: while moving her to the GW base I accidentally broke her foot off. Luckily it was an easy fix. Looking at it now, I've realised that she's not centred properly on the base, I think this was because I was pinning her to a base that already had a magnet installed in the center, so I couldn't put her feet as centrally as I would have liked. I also used a few drops of superglue to fill a gap in a strand of hair; for something small like that superglue is actually probably the easiest option.

You can see the re-sculpted staff and the break in her hair (lower right of the face).

I was experimenting with skill-free ways of shading cloth and skin. I've noticed in the past that Army Painter quickshade can work very well to shade organic surfaces like flesh and bone, the main problem being the colour. I tried using 'Ardcoat (gloss varnish) mixed with GW washes to replicate the effect, and found it actually works quite well (for a skill-free method that is).

I believe the coat was basecoated in Warpstone Glow, then drybrushed in camo green (I think) then white. After that I shaded her coat with about a 1:1 ratio of 'Ardcoat to Thraka Green wash. The results were decent, but not really dark enough; mixing in the varnish obviously lightens the mixture somewhat. I might need to experiment with a regular wash on top to further shade the recesses, or possibly allowing washes to dry a bit to intensify the colour before mixing in the varnish. In this case as I had initially drybrushed up to pure white and the shade didn't colour it enough, so I added a green glaze on top just to help bring that back down.

For the skin I worked up a solid coat of elf flesh then shaded it with a 1:1 mix of Gryphone Sepia to 'Ardcoat. The effects are quite subtle since her skin is quite flat and smooth; I find the mixure works better for defining musculature on male models I tested it with. Still, it seemed to work as she did seem to look flatter before I applied it. I might need to experiment with letting washes dry out a little before I add the varnish, in order to strengthen the colour.

Before the face was shaded.

Her tabbard took more work than I expected; I started off painting it camo green but a single green wash darkened it so much it blended in too much with the coat. So I worked it up to yellow - which took a lot more work than I expected, Sunburst Yellow does not have good coverage - then washed it again, the result isn't as smooth as I would have liked but I basically got sick of it and decided to leave well enough alone.

I started by painting the lips in Blood Red, but she looked like a clown, so I painted over them with Scab Red. Next time I'll try to mix red and flesh tones to get something that looks more natural. I had a lot of trouble finding a nice shade for her hair; I wanted a sort of reddish chestnut colour but couldn't seem to find it, so I settled for what I think is a carroty orange. I washed it with Baal Red, but in retrospect that wasn't dark enough and the results are too flat; I should have used something darker like Ogryn Flesh or maybe even Devlan Mud.

I have decided to call her Gwennyth. It's just the first thing that came to my head when I was searching for a name, and as it sounded somewhat "Arthurian" I decide to go for it. I can't say that I'm completely happy with the final piece, but I guess she looks OK and I am glad just to have actually finished a model for the first time in a while. Plus; we learn from our mistakes, and I made so many mistakes with her that I must have learned something, right?

Wide Solomon Bar belt

Another one for the sale. This one is a wide solomon bar, again from fusion knots. I don't really like how this one turned out; there's a few inconsistencies in the weave which are surprisingly obvious, the pattern "slipped" so that the two sides are slightly offset, and the end turned out quite messy. I'm also not sure about the colours. I was in a hurry when I made it, if I'd thought it throught better to begin with I would have used a single black strand rather than two (meaning two less end to deal with), and if I had spent longer on it I might have found a nicer way to tie it off.

I was saving this buckle for a belt that used black paracord.

You can see here how it narrows and "slips".

The end was very messy.

The inside actually looks nicer than the outside.

When I was planning this belt I discovered some of the modified versions I could do. I just wish I could stop the weave from slipping on one side, I think there might be a way to do it based on the steps in the weave and the tension on the cord, but I can't really be bothered to look into it right now.

Double T-Virus Belt

I mentioned in my post about the T-Virus belt that I thought it would be possible to weave a second row of knots along the outside. Well, that's exactly what I did:

I added an extra prong to the buckle.

The triange tie-off came out quite well.

The inside has a more "ordered" look.

Basically I wove the regular T-Virus sinnet from fusion knots, and then ran a second row of knots along each side. Rather than pull the entire cord through each of the outer knots, I tried to save time by pulling out the white cord out from the center, leaving me with two knotted "arms" of the light blue cord. This allowed me to pull the "arms" through the loops in the knots in the dark blue cord (OK, if you have no idea what I'm talking about then it might help to watch the instructional video so you understand how the knots are made). I then pushed the white cord back through the knots in the light blue cord using Perma Lok lacing needle.

This may have saved time, but it was fiddly and I had to be careful not to let the knots in the light blue cord unravel while I was working. I think just doing it the long way might be easier in the future.

I was able to modify the "triangle tie-off" to work with six strands, and the luckily the end turned out quite neat. I took the prong from one belt buckle and added it to another to create a mid-sized two-pronged buckle, which seemed more suitable to me, though in truth a regular buckle should work just find as the central strands take most of the strain anyway.

I really like how it came out; the colours work well (I used a brighter blue than the last time) and it's a great pattern, I just wish I'd had a nicer buckle to use. It does take significantly more than twice as long to make as the regular T-Virus though, so I don't know if I'll be making any more any time soon.

KBK Bar Belt

I've been weaving some belts for a handicrafts sale that's coming up - I'm really just using it as an excuse to try some patterns on Fusion Knots that I've had my eye on. This one is the KBK Bar.

I had a little trouble finishing it neatly; I think this type of paracord doesn't melt as nicely either, which didn't help:

I always keep weaves tight, as it's the easiest way I've found to keep them consistant - and for a belt it keeps the belt from being too stretchy. I think that in this case it doesn't look as good though, and to be honest I'm not really happy with the colours either. However, this is the thinnest paracord belt I've woven yet, it's quicker to make than the Derweesh pattern and in solid black I think it would made a decent belt for a man, if perhaps a little narrow.

Slatt's belt

I finally finished my Slatt's belt (thanks again to JD of Fusion Knots for the easy to follow instructions). There's about 120 feet of paracord in here. I used a trick I've been working on to line up the belt with the buckle properly, I've since improved the method and will post the details later. I also replaced the metal tube of the buckle with a firestarter that I cut to size.

It might not be obvious, but I couldn't quite close the metal buckle over the firestarter properly, and now the whole buckle is slightly trapezoidal rather than square. The belt is quite thick and heavy, and pushing the belt prong through the weave is a little awkward.

But other than all that it's pretty decent. Still, I plan to replace it with a Derweesh pattern belt, which should be thinner and easier to use, but I'm having trouble adapting the MarkII pattern to work with 6 spine strands, and just can't seem to find the time to work on it properly.

A Trio of Cheesecakes

We had a charity bake sale at work the other day. I threw together some cheesecakes for the event. I decided to go for a little variety and tried a simple banana cheesecake to go with my usual chocolate and mixed berry. It wasn't much extra work since most of the process is the same; I just mixed a big batch of cheesecake base and filling, then added berries to one and pureed banana to the other two. I put down a layer of chocolate sauce for the berry cheesecake and one of the banana cheesecakes, and drizzled it on top for decoration.

The chocolate sauce was running out by the time I came to decorate them, so I couldn't get it to pour smoothly. Still, they looked OK in the end, and everyone seemed to like them, so that was good.


And hey, I won a cactus, that was cool.