UK Games Expo 2014

We attended the UK Games Expo this year which was held at the Hilton Hotel at the NEC Birmingham. I was only there for the Saturday and I was helping aka observing as the lads were having a demo game of Saga; a viking invasion.

The event had a brilliant turn out, although I found it much too hot and busy to actually browse anything but at least the board had a good amount of interest.

Also next to our demo game, was the Very British Civil War Game with some fantastic looking scenery.

Artwork - Mermaid WIP

I recently purchased a Bamboo graphics tablet as well as the program Manga Studio in the hopes to improve my art and get me more active when it comes to painting in general. So far I've been playing around with the tablet and I've got to say I love it!

I've decided that along with my miniature painting, I will start including some of my artwork as well. 

Here is one of the first sketches I completed using my tablet.

I am currently working on  larger piece and have already completed the sketch and inking of the piece. I've found a lot of great tutorials for lighting and colouring, as currently they are my weakest points when I come to drawing. 

Here are the WIPs for my current art project. 

The initial sketch

The sketch after it has been cleaned and inked.

Painting update

Although I haven't posted any thing on my blog is a while, i have helped with a few projects over the past few months. Since it's already half way through the year (how time flies!), I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to update what I've worked on. 

In April, my war gaming group; Leicester Phat Cats, managed to place at Salute with a demo board based on 2008 Russian invasion of South Occetia. Due to our lateness, we only had 8 weeks to completely build from scratch a 6" x 10" board and all the models. I was tasked with painting some of the buildings for the residential area. 

    Before

    After (buildings on the left) 

    Full board photo, courtesy of Ant 

Also this month I have helped paint a viking long ship for our demo at the UK Games Expo at Birmingham this Weekend (30th May - 1st June)

I am also starting commission work for a friend. I will be painting his warzone brotherhood army from Prodos Games. A bit of a challenge for me as it will be the most models I have ever painted at one go or even completed (I have only ever fully painted 7 individual models, not including scenery). I'm really looking forward to painting these as they are such gorgeous models! Here is some photos of the assembled models and I'll hopefully update the blog with more images once they have been completed. 

Thanks for reading!

Victoria Darling - Kraken Hunter WIP

Hello! I've finally gotten back into the habit of painting after my very long hiatus due to life being busy and me being partly lazy.

 I picked up this model from the derby wargames show last year in October. She is a lovely model which caught my eye immediately; the same as any scantily dressed lady model does if I'm honest, but it was only recently that I decided to start working on her. I've spent 3 hours in her so far, trying to get her skin as nice as I possibly can.

I'll upload more photos later. Thanks for reading :)

A look at my work so far

I started painting models last May after being influenced by my boyfriend and in just over a year, i have only fully completed five models; although I have started many others but haven't finished them yet. This post is really for me to prove to myself that I am improving in my painting and the more models I paint the more I should improve (hopefully). 

So starting from my first completed model from May until now, here are my completed models.

Thanks for reading! 

Wamp Hasslefree Competition - completed

I finally finished my entry for the Hasslefree competition and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I've been working on the model and base for a good few weeks now trying to make and paint it to the best of my abilities. For a first attempt at making a display base, I'm really pleased with the results. The base is made from cork while the tree is a combination of wire, plaster and green stuff with lichen as the leaves. I really want to practice using resin water some more, so that will be one of my goals over the summer while I'm home from university.

There are loads of amazing entries already in the Wamp Gallery and hopefully I'll receive some feedback on my model so I know what I can do to improve in the future. 

Wamp Hassle Free Competition - WIP

After a few months of being busy and not taking time out to practice my painting, I have finally decided to do something. My boyfriend brought me the Hassle free miniature; Gen, as a gift and announced Wamp was holding a competition. 

I thought it was the perfect opportunity to get some practice in and actually finish a project I started as well. I've decided to go all out (for me anyway) and make this a proper display piece with detailed base. I'm not going to spoil the surprise yet but here are some photographs of Gen. Instead of the stereotypical evil demon; with colour schemes of reds, blacks and just generally dark colours, I decided to make her more of a mythical creature from Greek mythology. Her hair style seemed to have a Greek feel to it so I went from there.