Bringing Orcs into the Light

"It Burnses!", so says the Orcs and Goblins as I take picture after picture. Originally I took pics of my completed Warmaster Orc units with my mobile phone camera however, now that I have completed my Light Box I thought it was time to get some better pictures. I played with the camera settings for a while finally settling on Super macro Mode, 1/60, ISO 100 with the flash enabled. The pictures are not as crisp as I would have liked but I think part of that is still my camera inexperience and the other part was that I feel I am using the wrong light. Ultimately I would like to use natural sunlight bulbs but that will have to wait. When looking at the pictures if you think you know what might be wrong, and/or you think they are awesome let me know. Here are the updated pictures. Enjoy!

A stand of Night Goblins. Still hard to see the detail on the goblins but that might just be due to the dark green on dark purple color combo that I used.

Wold Rider command stand.

Wolf Riders Charge!!!

A better closeup of the Night Goblins... at least you can see more details.

Night Goblins looking for those pesky humans to shoot.

Same unit from a slightly different angle. The original pictures I took were a bit washed out with light and it was hard to see the ground cover on the bases but you can see it here.

The grass is a bit subtle on these stands and originally you couldn't even see it on the bases, that is until I found the correct setting on my camera.

The Wolf Riders - Blue Company - 1st WAAAGH!

Another shot of the same unit turning on the charge.

These are not your Momma's Trolls... these boys bring the thump!

Incidentally this is my favorite (and the best) basing I personally have done!

Night Goblin command stand. Notice the difference accent colors from the first unit.

Macro Light Box on the Cheap-ish!

A while back I mentioned the desire to build my own Macro Light Box and even referenced a link to another blog where there was a simple how to. I have actually had this finished for over a month but was having problems getting quality pictures with my camera. I was pretty sure it was just me being a novice with my camera and once I figured out how to set my camera into Super Macro Mode it was all gravy. So today I set up the Light Box on the table , got the lights all plugged in, lovingly displayed my painted Warmaster figures and fired up the camera. For starters here is a picture of the Light Box itself.

Ah yes, cardboard and duct tape. A quality product if I may say so.

Okay, so the example I posted a link to earlier from the Strobist Blog did not use any wood in its construction but I really wanted to make something a bit more sturdy. A few pieces a scrap wood and spare work lamps later and I had this monstrosity! The lights really should be natural daylight bulbs but we make do with what we have here (Ha! That is usually so not true). So, now I have no excuses for not taking higher quality pictures, although truth be told it is a bit of a pain to setup and break down so I will probably only set it up when I have a number of things to photograph. But, here you have it. One more thing off the to do list!

Painting Challenge Part II

So, additional progress on the painting challenge miniature. About mid-last week I had gotten all the base colors done and over the weekend I experimented with several different wash combinations. I decided the teeth, claw, metal and scales I would wash with a black to create some definition and these areas which would be finished off with some light dry brushing and proceeded to do just that. This turned out well so I turned to my second wash which would cover the flesh areas. I went with a desert yellow but when I made the first wash it was to watered down and didn't cover the base color as much as I wanted. So I made a second batch and ended up doing two coats. The end result is much closer (still not perfect though) to what I had imagined. The only down side was I continued to paint even though I was tired and ended up getting some of the desert yellow between the scales so I spent the next night cleaning that up. The final result is that I want to do one more coating of black wash on the scales and a few areas I missed on the first time around and then I can move onto the next phase the dry brushing.

Here it is in all its glory, but this made me realize one thing I really got to get my light box setup!

Slightly different angle. Been trying to think if there is something I could add to the base to make it a bit more visually interesting but so far I got nothing. Suggestions appreciated.

Oh, and some more good news. I still can't find my camera manual so I went out and downloaded a PDF version of the Canon website so I could figure out how to get into super macro mode. Both of these pics were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX10IS. So once I finish up the DIY Macro Light Box I am building I will be able to post some real pics of the Warmaster units I have been slaving over.

Update to the To Do List

So in a previous post I mentioned that I had a few things on my To Do List that week I wanted to get accomplished. For ease I have added that  list here...

1. Build Light Box (inspired by The Strobist's Blog)
2. Base and paint the Warmaster units bases (9 bases altogether)
3. Pick out next Warmaster Unit and prime
4. Clean other minis that were in storage

I have finished the first three items. Hurrah! So, I think it is time to update the list. Also, for the record I will be relating the Macro Light Box adventure in a forthcoming post. So now the question is what to add. I known item four will need to be kept as I feel it is important even if it is not of the highest priority. I want to make sure I get at least one painting activity on there so naturally adding the three units of Warmaster Orc Warriors seems wise. Ah, I need to resolve my storage issue and I have some ideas already so I'll add that to the list as well. Finally I have some units of Warmaster Orcs that I am stripping paint from so I'll use them to flush out my list. Here it is...

1. Paint Warmaster Orc Warriors (3 Units)
2. Warmaster storage solution
3. Strip WM Orc paint
4. Clean other minis that were in storage

Release the Trolls!!!

So, I stayed the course last night and put the finishing touches on the trolls. This unit is worth 110 pts and puts my Warmaster running total up to 290 pts. Ugh, progress is slow but at least I got these guys done in half the time which I attribute to the wash I used for the blue fleshy bits. Really makes quick work of big areas and added shading very quickly. I have concluded this will be a valuable weapon in my war against slow painting! So a few shots of my Warmaster Trolls to appease the masses.

Hmm weak pictures this droid takes lousy pics

I guess that Macro Photography Light Box needs to move up the list

The details are all washed out in the morning light

So I guess the remainder of the week looks like this:

1. Build Light Box (inspired by The Strobist's Blog)
2. Base and paint the Warmaster units bases (9 bases altogether)
3. Pick out next Warmaster Unit and prime
4. Clean other minis that were in storage

Speaking of, I took a few pics to share of the mess I have to clean up. I'm hoping that a toothbrush without to much pressure should remove the cereal bits without damaging the paint or bases. Once I get these cleaned up I will have everything unpacked except some of my books and the Battletech minis which are still in their original package, or bagged. Anyway, here are the pics...

This is my ASQL Stargate System Lord Army in 15mm. It is a duplicate of one I saw on the Alien Squad Leader Yahoo Group. The Jaffa are from GZG, the Slaves are Magister Militia Old Kingdom Egyptians and the transports are Jawa Transports from Hasbros Titanium line.

You can see the cereal residue here. :(

This box contains my ASQL Terminator Army, Several Full Thrust Fleets and several Warmaster armies.

Well at least I can be thankful that only a couple models were broken (not pictured).