Combatpainter Studios

I had no really challenges this week. All went rather smoothly. I picked up 4 brushes at Hobby Lobby in San Antonio for $6 and they are looking good. I am taking care of the points “more than ever before. Had to order the pumice gel I use on bases from a place called “Cheap Joes”.  It is an art supply house. They got me my stash within a couple of days!  I can’t get it anywhere other than in Austin and that is 4 hours from where I am. I had to order it, just no choice. I haven’t had much time this week.

I have been painting like a fiend. Pretty happy with how my projects turned out. Got them finished within the week. Had an assistant come in and help with some basic stuff for me to get me going a bit faster. She did some base coats and bases for me. Finished up on a bunch of projects-Flames of War Tanks and an artillery placement, 28mm Perry Miniature Koreans, and Scale Creep 15mm ACW both the USA and CSA.  Found that these small projects are a breeze and that I really have my system down pat.

I finally got over most of the lighting and camera issues after months of constant setbacks.  This happens when you move a lot and this is my third move within a year and a half. It sucks I know. But I roll with the piunches. When I get lemon, I make lemonade. Lol… 

I am realizing that no matter which matte sealer I use they leave a sheen. I must get the Testors brand and cover my first coats with a bit of the Testor’s matte which is really matte.

The Koreans I found to be a bit of a challenge no drama though. They have so much clothing on and the Perry’s really do this stuff in a historically accurate way-no garments are left out at all. SO I really had to follow it around the figures and also figure out which bow went with which garment. Does this happen to other painters or am I the only idiot. I should have taken the less is more approach but I found myself wanting to paint up a storm for these.  I really had no references other than what I know and have seen of the Samurai. This gave me ideas but I am not really sure how historically accurate these are.

Also, I need to finish up 6 Samurai so I will post these up in a couple of days. I am looking forward to Cold Wars which is around the corner. I need to secure my plane tickets before they are too high. Sooner is better. I am not really looking forward to getting on the plane but I may be employed as of the 15th first time since 2004 and may not have a choice. I may have to be back bright and early monday morning for work. I Can’t believe I just said that. Lol…Take a look at this weeks pictures.:

Sat there, scratched my head.  Not really all that many resources for painting these, I thought. Not really that many pictures. How are they different from the Huron, Iroquois or the Apaches? Who the hell are the Seminoles, really? They are from Florida. Cool, I know Florida. Hell, I lived in Florida.  . I have painted these in the past and played it rather safe. I have always had success selling  Indians so I had my last batch and I decided to take a go at them rather than just leave them in a box and unpainted forever.

These are 28mm Old Glory sculpts. The belts seem to always get mixed up on the ride from the back of the soldier to the front of the soldier and they have, at other times the ability to disappear altogether. This is the start of a somewhat challenging experience for a painter. Where are those damn belts? Where did they go? They have to be here somewhere? The weapons are sometimes malformed from one model to another so what looks like one brand of musket on one figure ends up looking like something somewhat different on another. But honestly I promised myself I wouldn’t rag on the gamer friendly and very affordable miniatures. These, BTW, come in bags of $30 and are close to a $1 a piece so can you really complain? Maybe…Lol…

Going back to the project- I then began  researching the history of the Seminole tribe.  There was a 1st and 2nd Seminole war but not really to much attention paid to it unfortunately. Painting, that show on the net, seem rather limited especially since I am looking to find out how the Seminoles dressed. I found a cultural site that describes some of the patterns but didn’t really show me pictures and then the sites that had pictures always had just one picture and that was of a leader. Now my common sense tells me that not all warriors dressed as extravagantly as their leader so that left me in the dark. I continued to Google and after a lot of sifting I found a couple of pictures of which I would base my painting on. I used a variety of colors-violets, oranges, and powder blues. The headdress is red and the feathers black and white while the equipment could be of almost any color.

I based all of them on one inch bases and did some brown gel paste, later i dry-brushed it with three successive colors from darker to lighter and finally I added static grass, and some different grass tufts. Finally I dry- brushed all the vegetation with orange and then yellow.  I have added some pictures so you can see for yourself how they turned out.

British in Africa

Just recently, if you look on the Flames of War site, you will see that they have published a DAK and 8thArmy painting guide which is quite good I must say. No complaints here. Shows you step by step how to proceed. With this, I was inspire to dust off an 8thArmy platoon withlorries and put it into a picture. I have noticed that picture are one of my best critics. Although, I have accepted that I am not perfect and I will always find fault with my painting because that is the way I am, I have also gotten close to what I deem acceptable in terms of picture and painting quality. Mind you, only acceptable because I have  a long way to go. I would say I will be at my peak in about 10 years. I hope, Lol…Anyway, here is a picture of my 8thArmy and I have noticed that the more I paint the set, I think this is my third time now, I get more familiar withthe figures, uniforms, equipment and sculpt in general which makes my painting faster and more detailed. I have been painting desert war for about 4 to 5 years now I would say. That doesn’t mean these are quick and easy. With every new model that I place on my painting table, I discover that I need to learn it to really make it the way I would like to see it. Also, most of my painting has been focused on 28mm, these are 15mm and that is a whole different mind set. When I tackle a 15 as opposed to a 28mm, I immediately go to lighten the colors a bit. Not really afraid with the choice. I feel that you want the 15mm to really jump out at you. So if it is a light uniform I make it two or three shades lighter. Here is a picture of the 8th Army, heroes of the desert war in North Afrika. Camera is your best friend. I had some early lighting issues but after manipulating two lamps to keep shades to a minimum I was able to produce something which I liked enough to publish. When I first captured the  8th Army, I noticed some aspects of the models I wanted to tweak. On of which was that I needed to add a lighter highlight to the ground and touch up the grass tufts by adding some orange and yellow. I also, look at the figures and touched up anything that I had lit go like a small spot on a shoe and so on. This sometimes happenswhen you have attached the models to the base at the end when they are painted already. I have done this but  I  have found that if I try to paint them this way I have trouble getting the brush to certain places. Then I went to basing individually which is really the best but this is very time consuming. It is fine for a figure or two but painting 30-40 figures it will really slow you down. I have recently been gluing to sticks. It works. I out between 3 and 4 on a stick depending on how much detail is on the uniform. Well, here is the picture. Enjoy!

Battlefront's 8th Army

Nazi Zombies Rebel Minis 15mm

If you follow my site, you will see that this is my second shot at these. As they are in 15mm, and the first time I have painted these, I had to take my first attemptas a bit of a proto.  Granted I paint primarily in 28mm. I started out doing lots of 1-72 miniatures and that was long ago. I do have some of the chops required. Granted I am not a master at these but I try. That being said, I would like to tell you how I came about this look for the second attempt. Firstly,I noticed that under standard room light, like what you get at cons, the figures seemed dark and dull.  I decided to try a second batch and make them lighter so I added off-white to all the colors-uniform, helmet, dead flesh and so on. I then watered the wash so as to not kill the brighter colors as had happened in my first attempt.  Anyway, my son Benny, 8  saw them in the last stage as they were being based.  He mentioned how they would look better with blood on them like in the movie “Dead Snow.”  I tried it and went with the look. Also, camera/lighting issues plagued my initial batch of pictures.  I needed to address those. I had a card error issue but quickly replaced it and resolved that problem as well.

Go here for a bigger shot- http://www.displacedminiatures.com/Combatpainter/image/1339/30225/

No matter where I lived, I always enjoyed the Mexican restaurants. In Queens, NY it was a little place on 37 st. right off Broadway that I loved. Food there  was not fancy but damn genuine. Real home cooked stuff enjoyed bu all the waiters, waitresses and bartenders. In Ft. Lauderdale, it was  ” La  Bamba”  in Coral Springs where my friend Andrew and I got together there for beer and shots. Food was really cheap and very very authentic. In Spain, I did the same. I Found myself a Mexican place and spent as much time there as possible eating jalapeño peppers on dares and getting happy on margaritas!  

It got to a point in my life that I said to myself, you got to go to Mexico, not Cancun but Mexico. So I managed to settle in a place that was a s close as you could get while still living and doing business in the U.S.  Anyway, how I got to where I am is truly a mystery even to me. I ended up in San Antonio, Texas. It was some sort of gravitational pull that got me there but when I decided to make a quick day trip to see john Wayne’s Alamo, the countryside put me under some sort of spell. I have been here going on two years now. I live on the border. Not far from the international bridge in a small town called Del Rio, Texas.  Right across from me I have the town in Mexico called Acuña and this is where the Roberto Rodriguez-Quentin Tarrantino ”Mariachi” series  of movies were filmed and also a Mexican flick called  “Like Water for Chocolate. was filmed near Amistad Lake on the Mexican side.  The house is still there.   In 10 minutes, I am on the other side. I get all my medications at one fifth the price. I get my beer and tequila shots for $1. How can I complain? It is not fancy living that is for sure. I do admit that I sometimes get frustrated when it comes to re-stocking my painting supplies. I have to travel 3 hours to the nearest city to do that. Granted, I have access to everything on the net but not from one supplier so prices double when you calculate shipping.

Anyway, I was made privy to a tamale lady. She is the best! Her tamales are moist, buttery and pure corn dough bliss. Stuffed with some pork and tomato filling, they are truly the best I have ever had. Nothing fancy, just homemade traditional tamales. I get a dozen for $6. How can you beat that?  The tamale lady’s name is Juanita.  I was lucky enough to snap a shot of her and the tamales.  You can get a tamale anywhere but Juanita’s tamales you can only get in Del Rio, Texas 3 miles from Acuña, Mexico on Fridays  and sometimes on Sunday. She started selling from her car door to door. She sells out within hours. One guy order 20 dozen from her when he tasted them.  This woman is my tamale angel. Will have my beer ready for delivery this Friday.

It was about 1977 and on Saturday night I would see a trailer for a movie called “Shock Waves.”  Never really got a chance to watch the whole thing but later as an adult I did. The movie is essentially this- Tourists get shipwrecked on an island where years before  a ship carrying undead Nazi zombies washed  up and the mad scientists continued his experiments there.  There began my fascination with Nazi Zombies.  Lol… Just recently “Dead Snow” was released and I really enjoyed it. On o ski trip,  a bunch of college kids uncover a WW2 gold and silver stash in doing so wake a sleeping horde of very angry Nazi zombies! Love it! Love it! Love it!

Fast Forward to 2009 and Rebel Minis designs some Nazi Zombies in 15mm. Lots of them in 28mm-Brigade games , West wind to name a couple. These are very clean sculpts and I show you a couple of pictures of the first ones I did. There are 6 poses I believe in the pack and they have three repeats each. Lots of fun to paint. Take a look at these pics!

Basing can be tedious but the final results can be satisfying  for sure. I based a platoon of 15mm Battlefront Paras. I use my standard basing style. I use the pumice gel which I find so neat and effective. Granted it is time consuming and can be fiddly since the mush is somewhat sticky. You need to work with care. I mix some paint in it which saves me a step and once dry dry-brush it worth a lighter color. In this case I was using grass so I dry-brushed with only one color. I use grass tufts for the long grass and static grass from Gale Force 9. I first placed rocks and the half the figures before anything else. I also cut down the bases on the figures to avoid the round base look. I found it is easier to camouflage the base when the figure isn’t sitting on a perfect circular base. Take a look at some pics!

Crap! My back! I am almost finished. Need to base the  Foundry Greeks. These are just amazing models and a pleasure to paint. I went over them again and again to make sure I didn’t miss anything.   I have another 10-12 VSF to go. Then on to other things. The  VSF figures aren’t really bad at all. Just that they have so many straps and belts everywhere. Why am I complaining. Cause I had to get off my ass twice today and go to the park cause my back isn’t getting any better. I painted about3-4 hours today.  Received an Email that my basing tufts are on the way. The stuff is so good and so easy to use. I ordered desert stuff this time around. My last order was for spring/summer tufts and I made the order on my birthday two years ago. Can’t wait to have it. I also ordered a 0.25 art pen to help me with my blacklining in case I get inspired to do it. Trying to lay down black lines with a brush is just a bitch to me at this point. I would prefer it in brown. I will need to see if they have those. Took my time on the figures today and felt much better about my results. I felt much,  much better. I was very frustrated yesterday. I would look at the figures and they just looked like crap. Today they looked much better. I discovered these yesterday. They look awesome and although not my period I would love to paint those up for sure. I also saw a huge lot of Foundry for sale and hopefully I will win them. I need to have figures that I like to paint. This is imperative.

Spent the day playing around with the site. I am looking to make it neat, easy to read and practical. Hopefully, I am half way there. I can deny that I just don’t feel I do any sci-fi mini justice. I really feel totally at a loss for color ideas. I really do. If you give me almost anything historical, I can decide , after some research, which way to go colorwise. When it comes to painting sci-fi, I am just baffled. Why is that? This is a mystery. I, for some reason, just don’t get the sci-fi color scheme at all. Anyway, I am getting to the end of my Victorian sci-fi commission.  I was able to use a few sites to guide me in terms of paint schemes. I won’t take on anymore of these.  Also, I am realising that there are some figures I dodn’t feel confident painting and I won’t find this feeling but rather embrace it.  I just can’t rush through figures. Nope. I just can’t do it.  I need to take my time. BTW, while I am rambling-I painted some Foundry Ancient Greeks and I am so impressed by their models. These models in particular are outstanding. The ancient Greeks are truly works of art and it makes you want to paint, paint, and paint them. I registered over at the FOW website forum today. They really have a very active site and so many wonderful pictures. The site is truly a blessing to our hobby.

Just got back from my day trip to Mexico. Got across easily. Used the Lake Amistad international bridge crossing as oppose to the Del Rio crossing which is a pain on both sides. To go you must sometimes deal with the dreaded “Mexican Arm.” It is an electronic arm that lowers and raises allowing one car to go through every 15 seconds or so. This usually backs up traffic and is truly a waste as all it does is slow you down. It truly has no other purpose. I never saw anyone speeding through that tiny little one lane and maze of obstacles one must drive around to get to Mexican main st. As I was saying, I got across to Mexico and went to “La Presa” or in English it’s called”The Dam.” Here I visited a small little restaurant and had some fish. It can’t get fresher since the restaurant sits on the lake and the cook is usually out back with his fishing rod catching your lunch. Stuff is fresh and cheap. I had a fish fillet, salad, french fries and beer for $5.  I really can’t complain. On the way there, I met a park’s collection agent going on her lunch, a cute little Mexican hottie and talked her up a bit and got her to join me for lunch.