While I tried my best last week, I wasn’t able to accomplish much before the weekend rolled around. Personally, I’d rather have a little longer update with interesting content than a shorter update with less interesting things to show so that is why there has been a delay in the typical service I aim to provide.
The first thing I worked on was a test skeleton as I was planning on buying the Coven Throne soon. I ended up buying something else but I really want to make that miniature a gothic masterpiece so I thought I’d try to experiment with a miniature or two. If there is one area where Citadel might do better with their paint line, it is the skeleton tones. They have the bleached bone look down thanks to the Tomb Kings but using Rakarth Flesh to do a warmer skeleton is not a lot of fun. I’ve always tried to glaze or wash the shadows in and that’s easy to mess up. Its much better to layer the paint on since the skull is a round object and washes tend to pool heavily along the sides. An example of when I used Rakarth Flesh is on the bottom of Bastian Carthalos’s base. In all honesty, I think the skulls are a bit lacking in contrast and would benefit from darker shadows.
I happened to stumble across JoseDaVinci’s video on painting bone where he uses AK Interactive paints and I liked the results he got. Its also a bit of marketing genius by AK Interactive. For about $25 (and I’m guessing it is cheaper if you’re Europe based), you get four paints which are really all you need to paint a skeleton. I know Vallejo does this kind of thing too and I think it’d be wise for every paint manufacturer to package their product in this way.
Setting my marketing opinions aside, I messed around with this skeleton a bit and truthfully, while it looks good, it is only half done and I did make some mistakes with it that I’d normally fix. First off, once I realized that I didn’t clean up the sword properly before painting, I lost motivation to work on this. At that point, I’d spent about two hours trying to layer the highlights and shadows. The skeleton needs to be quite a bit brighter to really look good but I can see that I can get the look I want when it counts and so I’m happy with this purchase. I have 10 or 11 more skeletons in the box so there’s plenty more I can use as part of that project too. I rarely show off something that’s not really done but in this case, I wanted to, because I think you can see the potential.
Next up, I finished my last computer terminal in the blister pack I bought awhile back. It came out nicely and matches the others well. Here’s a look at it on its own and the triad of computers.
I fully intend to use these in some cinematic pictures in the nearish future. I think I’ve found the perfect terrain project for an Institute base where I can place these.
This building just seems to have the right feel for a field base for the Institute so I may pick it up in the coming months.
I wasn’t done with Fallout terrain yet though. I had a quick win with this desk and computer terminal as well. It was pretty easy to paint and while I didn’t completely nail the look of the game (this one is a bit too blue-green), I’m still happy with it. I like that this can be used for scenic purposes or it can easily be an objective in-game as you frequently use computer to find information, open locked doors and safes, etc.
Finally, I also started preparing a Golden Demon eligible project and that didn’t quite go the way I expected. I bought a box of five miniatures and I built the miniature I wanted to use for this project. Unfortunately, I messed up the assembly a bit which makes me not feel good about using it for this kind of project. Maybe it was for the best because I had to try and do some sculpting with Green Stuff to create a place for the miniature to rest comfortably which also didn’t work out how I expected, even after some advice from Dave Stone, sculptor extraordinaire. The second miniature (and the only one left in the box that I like well enough to use for this idea) fortunately is built and primed and I’ve made a start on it. I’m excited to tackle this project because it is my most ambitious idea yet and is extremely Warhammer at the same time. I may focus on that project until its done or I may continue to mix Fallout scenery in as I’m still pretty gung-ho on building up my Fallout terrain collection as best I can. I have plenty of other things I can tackle too so we’ll see how things shake out.
Kuribo's Painting 
First up love the fallout stuff! That terminal is so cool, and the paint job is bang on for me. Can’t wait to see what you do with that building.
I also really like that skeleton, very grim and realistic looking. I know exactly what you mean about the GW bone colours; far too pale. I love yellowed bone, so I always start my skeletons from an ochre base and work up to bone for the lights from that and down to brown for the shadows. You don’t really see any ochre when you’re done but it tints all the other colours and works really well for me.
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Thanks, Nic! When I post these kinds of things on Instagram, it doesn’t seem like there’s much of a reaction so its nice to hear from fellow Fallout fans who like these kinds of miniatures.
I’m glad to hear others out there know what I’m talking about. Your idea of using ochre is a really good one. I’ll have to give that a try sometime soon and see how I get on with it. One of these days I may yet get to paint another Tomb King mini and that will certainly be handy then!
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Loving your Fallout pieces, as always mate. Your attention to detail is brilliant. I think your building idea will work well.
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Thanks, mate! Neither of the pieces took especially long either. I’d say 2-4 days a piece and a decent amount of that time was basecoating them which took a couple of coats.
I’ve been trying to come up with something that would fit The Institute for a while and so if you think this building will work then that is very exciting. It should help me get The Institute in a game finally which is very overdue.
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Can see the direction your heading for the skeleton, and it’s looking good, just remember to do the teeth a different colour as they age age differently to the bone, also if you want to age a skeleton more do a brown glaze at the end, can make it look a lot older.
The computer bank and terminal look excellent, and that building could be an awesome centrepiece.
Sorry to hear you are having problems with your idea Jeff, but persevere with it, you’ll get there in the end, and sorry the advice wasn’t useful.
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I didn’t think about that with the skeleton, Dave. That’s a great tip. If I had put more time into it, I would have brightened the teeth even more so hopefully that would do the trick. I think the biggest mistake I made was leaving too much of the skeleton a brown color. The next one I do will have more gray and ivory showing which should help give it the right look.
I’m glad you like the Fallout pieces as well. They are always gratifying to work on.
As far as the Warhammer project goes, it is a shame and I’ll talk more about it when I show it off next update It isn’t going to be exactly what I hoped but I do think it can still look pretty darn good which is obviously the most important thing.
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Echoing GG, loving your Fallout pieces, great as background or as objectives.
First thing I thought of when seeing the skeleton, did you try the same method you used on tusks?
I like skeleton warriors, I really need to get going on my Broken Legions game.
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Thank you, Bret! I did not use a similar method to the tusks. I actually went back and added a picture that might help illustrate the old method of painting better.
I started with a dark brown paint for the basecoat and basically mixed in lighter warm gray colors (Kind of like Skavenblight Dinge and Stormvermin fur by Citadel) up to an ivory color though I didn’t use nearly as much ivory as I should have. Hopefully that explanation makes sense. This AK Interactive paint set would work well for Broken Legions though I think the way you’ve painted the previous ones is great as is.
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Nicely done on the skeleton and scenery pieces too. Looking forward to seeing what you have in mind for your Golden Demon project. 🙂
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Thanks, mate! I’m not sure if the next project will be to your taste but isn’t WWII-related so I at least have that in my favor 🙂
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I’m probably showing my inexperience here but I can’t see anything not to like about that skeleton (something I never paint of course)! 🙂 Fallout scenery looks really good as well!
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I don’t think you’re showing any inexperience, John. The skeleton has several parts like the feet that are not “properly” painted but its probably 66%-75% done and so it looks pretty good. I should be able to make future skeletons look quite a bit better which is encouraging. Thanks for the kind words on the Fallout scenery as well! 🙂
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The fallout gear is terrific mate and I think you’ve nailed the Skeleton.
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Thanks, mate! I reckon that skeleton appeals to your sensibilities and painting style pretty well 🙂
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I really like the weathering on that desk. Is the terminal the same color? I can’t quite tell from the lighting. I also really the skeleton. I find the brownish/yellow bone tones more interesting overall.
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Oh wait, totally forgot to ask…did you actually buy the set of AK paints??
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Yeah, the desk and terminal ended up being nearly the same color which is pretty much how it is in-game as far as I can tell. Truthfully, I think the desk and computers are more of a warm gray than how I painted them but I like how worn and rotted it all looks so I’m fine with the inaccuracy. I can always do future desks and terminals in warm gray too.
In regards to your question, yes, I bought the pack of AK Interactive paints so you don’t have to worry. Your check from AK is in the mail and I’m sure that will put a meal on your table anyway 😉 In all seriousness, I really enjoyed using AK’s paint. While I know Citadel paints very well, I like the consistency of AK Interactive’s paint much better. You don’t have to spend as much time thinning it. The dropper bottles are better than pots obviously. I think there are more color options overall in their range too which is also nice.
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I don’t know the cost of meals is rising. You’re going to need to buy more than a single box, haha! Seriously, I just found them to be really nice paints. They don’t have the color range that Reaper has, but I imagine anyone who has used Vallejo is going to be really comfortable with AK. Have you tried blending them yet? Also agree about the dropper bottles, best paint bottle on the market afaik.
I don’t remember what color the terminal was exactly in game, but they would probably be an ugly beige in real life or a yellowish-white. Computers were not that pretty till Apple came around. But I think it would be pretty hard to tell the in-game color anyways, because it was usually pretty dark and seemed to have a color filter most of the time.
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Yeah, that’s true. Especially in a liberal bastion like the Pacific Northwest 😉
Reaper must make a ton of paints then! I’m so used to Citadel that I find the amount that AK and Vallejo have to be a bit overwhelming. I found the blending to work very well. It is much easier to layer with AK paints than GW’s which require a fair bit of thinning. The skeleton was painted using layering and not glazing and its pretty smooth overall.
I use a Fallout wiki that takes a while to learn but has pictures of most in-game items. Its a huge help when it comes to tackling miniatures and terrain. Truth be told, I don’t think I nailed the last couple of Fallout things I’ve painted compared to the references I used but I haven’t heard anybody complaining yet so I’ll take it.
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Oh wow, now we’re going to get into politics?! 🤪
Yea, Reaper has a ton of paints. I think they have released around 500 paints. Somewhat boosted by their random paint releases that don’t stay in stock. So you get paints like “Holly Berry” that are one time releases,
or might come back later if they are really popular. I’ve noticed some of the paints are nearly indistinguishable though, a lot like Vallejos.
Yea, GW paints are really thick.
I pre-thinned mine by transferring them to dropper bottles and adding some Flowaid. Even then I was thinning them when painting. Reaper I can use straight from the bottle mostly. AK, I just a little water.
Good that you have a Fallout wiki for reference. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I liked that red dial you painted on one of the electronics. That was a cool touch!
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Only in a tongue in cheek way! 🙂 Maybe that begs the question of how many paints is too many? I can see there being a point of diminishing returns. GW’s paint line is pretty solid in terms of options, there are just some specific areas where they might improve or expand further. Putting GW paints in a dropper bottle and thinning them seems like a pretty smart move to me as well. Finally, thanks for the kind words on the red dial. I can’t say there was anything original there on my part but its pretty easy to make the terminals look 3D which is one aspect of them that is enjoyable.
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Ok, we can still be friends! 😉 I think there is definitely a matter of “too many paints” in a line. I found myself overwhelmed with all the colors Vallejo had, and that was one of the reasons I started doing swatches. Reaper has a lot too, but so many of them are discontinued and therefore I’ve never seen them….till I found a comics/gaming store in Washington. They are one of the few places that actually stock Reaper and just so happens they have a display with some of those old paints too. I find it kind of fun to pick a few of those up whenever I stop by. But yea, I have way more paints than I need! Ideally I’d be better at mixing and have a much smaller range of paints. But when you’re trying to paint the same color on multiple minis, sometimes over long periods of time…you kind of have to rely on pre-mixed paints.
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Haha, that’s good 😀 You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Reaper paints in a store before. I remember going to this nice wargaming and board game store in NYC a few years ago and I don’t think they had them there even with a huge Reaper miniature selection. I know the biggest store in the city of Chicago doesn’t carry them either. I can relate to owning too many paints. I have a bunch of Citadel washes that I got as a gift at work years ago and quite a few metallic paints, I’m thinking of donating some of them because I haven’t used them in a couple years and I could use a little more paint storage room. Such is the life of a paint collector!
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Yea, I was really surprised to see Reaper paints in that store. Doubly surprised they have discontinued paints too. I’ve seen AK paints in a couple stores, but that’s the only one I’ve seen with Reaper. You would think they would be all over the US?! I have just about all of GW, Vallejo Model Color, Reaper, and AK 3rd gen paints. Reaper I’m probably missing the most, as the discontinued paints are hard to find. GW I stopped buying , so think just before the last Contrast wave. Though I do have a handful of those.
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Wait, wait, wait. You have all GW, Vallejo, Reaper, and AK 3G!?! That is so many paints. Do we need to stage an intervention here? 😉 I don’t know know how you manage to keep track of them all. I have a good chunk of Citadel paints minus all Contrast and their Air paints since I don’t use them much. I have maybe 20 paints outside of those Citadel ones including 5-6 Vallejo metallic paints I haven’t touched in way too long. At least now I know where all your commission money is going. Right back into the paint “industry” 😀
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An intervention would be helpful, but I really don’t have a problem, LOL! I don’t have all of Vallejo Model color, but probably most of them and very few Game Color. One of the reasons I started swatching and writing those paint articles was to analyze what I have and make a decision about what to keep. You can take a guess which two brands I went with! ;P I was actually hoping to narrow down to just one brand, but those two seem to compliment the way I work. So that’s what I got. I’ll eventually sell off my GW and Vallejo paints. I’ll keep the GW washes, Contrast, and some of the technical paints. While I do prefer some of the GSW Dipping Inks to Contrast, the two lines both have their plusses and minuses. So I’m probably stuck with both for the time being. Some of the Vallejo Metal Air are really good, but I think the AK metals are just as good. After trying so many paints though, I really think these two lines are the end for me. They do what I need them to and I enjoy painting with them.
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Of course, Brian! I believe you 🙂 In all seriousness, that makes sense to me. I think you may need to show off how have that many paints and stay organized in a future article. There’s no way I could manage something like that in my current setup. I’d also be curious to hear how getting rid of paint goes. While I’m sure there is a market for it out there, I prefer new paint so I know the quality is as high as possible. If that isn’t being a paint snob, I don’t know what is! 🙂
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Cheers Jeff. Yea, I could try an article on organization. In truth, it’s been difficult. Two brands isn’t as hard. If I went back to taking detailed notes as I was painting, it would be easier. But that takes more time than I want to spend these days. If I can’t exactly match the color on a given mini with a swatch, I can still probably get close enough that it works. Failing that, I’ve painted back over a color before. If I sell the paints, I’m sure it would be at a loss. The better option would be to find a friend or a kid who is just getting into painting and donate them. But it’s really rare that I find anyone who shares the hobby.
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Only if it isn’t too much trouble to write it up, of course. My paints fit in a drawer in my hobby desk and are not really all that organized but it doesn’t slow me down very often thankfully. I’d agree with you on taking a loss selling paints. I give away hobby stuff that doesn’t work for me too. Generally I try to give it away to a regular visitor that I think might like it but they have to be US based so that limits potential victims a little bit. I am surprised that you don’t find many others into the hobby. I work in a fairly large company (1,000 US employees) and there was a Slack channel for Warhammer fans which surprised me. It was pretty dead and only 5 or 6 people joined but it taught me that we’re out there!
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5 or 6 out of a 1000? Yeesh! Actually I should see if we have a Slack channel at my work. There’s a few I know who do paint, about 4 others. But we all sort of paint different stuff. Yea, I usually sell eBay stuff at a loss but it’s a little money back and some more storage space. Article wise, yea. I think I’ve mentioned most of it,
but I could do an update with some more stuff.
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I think the number is higher, some people who play just weren’t in the Slack channel. I work in a software company and in the old office (before everybody went remote), there were boxes of Magic cards and all kinds of nerd stuff laying around where the programmers were so I’d be shocked if there aren’t more Warhammer fans in the company. That doesn’t mean it isn’t challenging to find people to game with because I’ve never found a great solution to that and just play solo instead!
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I can certainly see the potential in that skeleton, around the skull in particular is great, the light really works well, so I reckon those paints where a good buy for you.
The fall out terrain looks very nice and I do hope you get the building and do it out, that would look very cool. And you certain nailed the fall out look on the console, the wife walk past my PC screen as I was reading you post and had the desk you and she just said “oh Fall Out” so you must of really nailed it to be that obvious from a half look of someone walking past!
I’m very glad to hear that you are on to another display piece and look forward to seeing what you have picked!
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I’m glad you see the potential in the skeleton too. I will certainly try more AK Interactive paints in the future as well.
Well that is a really kind thing of her to say (even if it wasn’t intended to be a compliment!). You can tell her that I said thank you. Its great to hear that these terrain pieces “read” as realistic compared to the game!
The display piece is something that I think and hope you’ll like. We talked a little bit about what it might be not too long ago if I remember right…
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I really hope this is in regards to a certain group of followers of a certain deity that likes skulls and blood a bit too much!
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Hmm… It could be related to that lot! 🙂
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Great progress on fall out terrain. Wonder what scenario would call for a desk computer?
Have you checked out Skull and Crowne miniatures? They have great looking skeletons from the Triumph of death range.
How’s the health been lately?
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There are quite a few scenarios where you have to interact with a computer to do something in the scenario so anything like that would be perfect. There are monitors that attach to walls too but many of the computers you interact with are sitting on a desk in the video game, if you can believe it.
I haven’t heard of Skull and Crowne so I just took a look and I like their stylized skeletons quite a bit! I may pick a couple of those up in the future.
I forgot to mention in this post that I’m waiting for an endoscopy which is scheduled for Aug. 11. I’m mostly stable but still not able to eat normally, exercise, or do half the things in life that are fun so things are a bit monotonous for me right now.
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The desk and terminal look really good. The colour you’ve used on the desk has a real ugly industrial look to it, and the weathering is superb.
I can’t see any issue with the skeleton! The bone colours look good and you’re right about Citadel’s bone shades being a bit wanting. I usually go with Vallejo’s Bonewhite and add a touch of yellow if I want to go in that direction.
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Thanks, Matt! I was trying to go for a desk that has been neglected for a long time so I’m glad you like how it turned out.
The skeleton is unfinished and probably a bit too dark overall but I think many people would be quite happy with it as is. That’s a good tip on Vallejo’s Bonewhite. GW’s lighter colors are a bit chalky and I think their competition offers a better product.
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Loved the desk and terminal. I don’t think it’s too blue green. I drink too much coffee to be able to paint with that much detail. Same reason I couldn’t learn to pinstripe. I’ve painted a few of the fallout things I’ve printed out with my 3d printer. Most recently my full sized functional fallout radio. I’ve been trying to decorate my home office with fallout props.
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Thank you for the kind words! I don’t drink any coffee but I don’t have the steadiest of hands either necessarily. The key is trying to brace your hands and arms against something while painting. It helps you get much better brush control. I think that’s awesome you’re making Fallout props as well. The radio you printed out looks really nice. You have excellent mechanical abilities!
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