HTML Brick Pattern Tool

Today I threw together a super-quick little HTML tool for arranging bricks in patterns. Then I iterated on it, twice, and ended up with the current "v3" version. To use it, go here and click on "Brick Pattern Creator".

The first version was a fixed-size grid, and was very slow to use (you had to click each grid square multiple times to cycle through the colours, and then right-click each square multiple times to cycle the "border orientation", and then repeat for the second half of the brick; so to make a single red 20cm x 10cm brick you had to click like 10 times), but the current one is MUCH smoother and faster. You click on the colour name to switch to that colour, and click on a square then drag onto the neigbor and release to join them into a brick. So a single brick is now one click and drag. The grid size is also variable, and it counts the total number of each colour.

Honestly, I'm quite proud of how it came out for something that I spent less than a day on. If I was going to spend any more time on it I would like to have it keep applying colours and joining squares if you keep the mouse down and keep dragging. Of course there's other refinements I can think of, like allowing more than just the four hard-coded brick colours. But I'm unlikely to spend any more time on it, as I've already finished what I needed it for.

Painting Scaly Skin Is Relaxing

I really just don't paint at home any more; there's just so many other things I feel like I should be doing when I have energy. Plus painting requires setting aside some time when I won't have to stand up and move around; that's something I can't count on as much these days. Leaving my painting half-done on my desk while I step away for a moment is an invitation to have my cats knock over my painting handles (with models attached of course), drink my dirty paint water, and sit on palette (getting paint on their fur then spreading it around my desk and floor when they move). So I mostly just get to paint at the local gaming club. Which I can do as nobody wants to play Warmachine or Monsterpocalypse, just MTG and 40K - which I'm really not interested in.

Unfortunately for me my eyes have deteriorated a lot in the last few years; I need reading glasses just to be able to do basic block painting, and any kind of precision work is almost impossible without a magnifier. So while at the club I prefer to paint easy stuff. And it doesn't get much easier than fur and scales. So I've decided to focus on painting Monpoc models with simple, easy paintjobs: basecoat, wash, drybrush, pick out a couple of details, call it good. First up: Armodax.

Armodax:
I started with an airbrushed coat of Green Stuff World 1740 Matt Surface Primer Black. I basecoated the entire model with Citadel Colour Base Averland Sunset. This took around three coats; a little more than I expected given Averland Sunset is a Citadel Base paint with good coverage, but not bad at all for yellow. Next I washed the whole model with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia, and when that was dry I gave the back plates a wash of Citadel Shade Coelia Greenshade; I was afraid this would be too much of a pure green, but I like how it came out over the yellow basecoat.

I wanted the belly plates to be consistent but slightly distinct from the back plates, so I washed them with Citadel Shade Athonian Camoshade. This didn't do much shading and only imparted a rather subtle greenish tint to the yellow, so I followed it with a glaze of Citadel Glaze Waywatcher Green. It wasn't exactly the effect I wanted, but I decided it was good enough.

I drybrushed the plates with old Privateer Press Forumla P3 Thrall Flesh, and then skin with Vallejo 72.007 Gold Yellow. The yellow drybrush mostly established a midtone, it wasn't really bright enough to serve as a highlight, so I followed it with a second drybrush of Two Thin Coats 10036 Trooper White.

I painted the tongue in my usual mix of Citadel Colour Base Mephiston Red and Privateer Press Formula P3 Ryn Flesh. I picked out the claws with Two Thin Coats 10034 Griffon Claw, then added a rough feathering effect towards the tips with Two Thin Coats 10035 Ivory Tusk. I went over this with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia. I felt the tongue was too bright so I hit it with a second wash of Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade. The claws meanwhile felt too yellow; they didn't stand out from the scaly skin enough, so I glazed the claws with heavily watered down Ivory Tusk, then feathered the tips with Ivory Tusk again.

I carefuly picked out the eyes with Ivory Tusk. I wasn't too precious about it; luckily the strong three-dimensionality of the sculpt made it easy to lick the raised centers of the eyeballs and leave the existing shading in the corners. I picked out the pupils with a black Copic Multiliner SP 0.03, also using it to clumsily enhance the shading around the eyes.

I painted the pavement in Vallejo 70.990 Model Color Light Grey, and the road in Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey, and both were washed with The Army Painter WP1136 Quickshade Washes Dark Tone. I went over the broken rubble around the car with Agrax Earthshade to try to give it a more brownish tint, but the final result was very subtle at best.

The fire hydrant and wrecked car were painted with Mephiston Red and highlighted with Citadel Layer Wild Rider Red. I picked out the car lights with Averland Sunset, and the windows, mirrors, and front grille with Vallejo 72.054 Game Color Gunmetal. I went over the windows with Citadel Glaze Guilliman Blue.

I took the model home to paint the rim Green Stuff World 1779 Acrylic Color Black Stallion, and apply a varnish of Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss then Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat with an airbrush (the Badger 250 again).



As this wasn't intended to by "my" Armodax, but rather a sort of club model, I felt more relaxed about painting him, and was able to overlook the imperfections and just enjoy the process. I painted him over three sessions of around two to three hours each, so somewhere between six and nine hours of work. Certainly not blazingly fast, but relatively quick by my standards considering the decent results and casual way I went about painting him.

I did feel that the initial yellow basecoat took too much work. Since then I've started hitting most of my "hobby hangout" models with a white coat or white zenithal before painting, which should make things easier in the future. I'm not sure what I'm going to paint next, but I think it would be best to keep focusing on models that aren't for me or my armies, so that I can avoid getting too precious about it and just enjoy slapping on the paint. Besides, there's not much point in painting models for my armies anymore.