Fred's 2012 Painting Diary

[Leon]

Excellent, the 15's are coming up nice.  I think I might get some more poses/conversions done once I bring the range over to Minibits.

[fred 12df]

More poses for the 15mm lizardmen would be good, these 3 are very nice, and fit well as bigger cousins of the tribal lizardmen.

[fred 12df]

Photo Backgrounds

Inspired by some of the photos by fellow forumers with realistic backgrounds I've had a bit of a play this afternoon.


Lizardmen in the jungle


French Dragoons on a hill


French Dragoons in the woods

[fred 12df]

Photo Backgrounds

I had been thinking of making a little photo booth, and printing backgrounds. But I then realised that a different answer was staring me in the face - use an image on the computer screen. There are endless images available on google image search, the option to search by size allows you to easily find nice large images rather than just thumbnails. And lots of people have posted lots of landscape photos as desktop images.

With a little balancing of the figures to get the right height, then these are quick and easy to setup. I had an initial issue with focus, and realised that I was leaning on the corner of the desk, causing the figures to move slightly 

I need to make up a little terrain board to put the figures on, as I'm currently just using a bit of MDF.

[Kiwidave]

That's a dead clever idea Fred! It also avoids trying to merge in a background later with software. 

[Steve J]

A very nice idea and so easy to do (famous last words ).

[nikharwood]

Like it 

[fred 12df]

Dogs of War Birdmen


Finished off this unit today, added some blue to the clothing, dry brushed a golden brown on the wings, and flocked the bases. These are GW Empire figures with PD wings.
Photographed against some sky and trees.

WSS French Infantry


Based this unit, photographed against a different part of the same image as used for the Birdmen
This photo setup is really only good for a WM unit or so. Not sure how to set it up for the several units of French infantry that are just waiting for flags.

[fred 12df]

Ages since my last update.

Done more work on WSS French - they are nearly there now, the infantry have flags, the cavalry are based. Just need to do some finishing off.
Inspired by Matt's recent photos on the forum I've even had a go at cuff lace!!!!


Lizardmen
I got a fish tank plant off ebay, which turns out to be just right for jungle style leaves



Added various bits to the lizardmen bases - do they look jungle like or too cluttered?

[Hertsblue]

There are many things in the aquatic stores that can be used for wargames scenery. They tend to be expensive though. 

[fred 12df]

For this stuff I paid the princely sum of £2.36 inc postage. And for that there is a good 4' of plant (I know this as my smallest daughter joined all the pieces together and found they were longer than she is tall!)

[peterdong]

The fish plants look kind of shiny, so maybe you should turf the tops.
Otherwise it looks fine, not crowded at all. 

[fred 12df]

They need a spray of dull cote - which should tone things down. But a bit of flock stuck on the top of some of the branches could look good.