Monday Miniatures: The Undertaker
I’ll be honest with you – this week has not been particularly pleasant. Fortunately miniatures, both the kickstarting and the painting of continues to be a bright spot, and this week there is a lot to report, including 4 versions of the miniature painted above, and a recap on Reaper’s recent launch.
What are you waiting for? Let’s get right too it.
First up we have Reaper round 2. I went into this topic in a little bit of depth here, but needless to say, this is a BIG project. So far they have raised almost 1.5 million, and I’m sure that the project will continue to break records going forward. The thing you have to ask yourself is, ‘if you just received 200+ miniatures from him, do you really need to pledge for 200 more?’
Chibi Asian Adventures also posted, and is exactly what it sounds like.
All things Zombie is a mini game with some passable sculpts.
Mars Attacks is project number 47 (okay, 5) from Mantic, and officially licensed to boot. They seem to becoming quite the major player.
First up we have my undertaker. The OSL didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but it was certainly better than last week’s beholder.
Next comes Jeff, who tried a monochrome noir motif. The result I think is a spooky statue – the dry brushing really leaves the impression of weather-beaten stone.
Clint’s base is awesome, but the way he made that dull color scheme come to life with subtle color is amazing.
Lastly we have Jessica’s undertaker. Though I think Clint edges her out for the win this week, she definitely kicked my ass (again.) I love the eyes. She should write a tutorial on them. I have no idea how she does them so well, and all my mini’s come out cross eyed.
Next week we will be Painting the Mummy Warrior pictured above. I also had requests from last week’s burst of traffic to move the timeline a little further out so people would have a greater chance to participate, so the next 6 mini’s for the the next 6 weeks are, in order:
Caffeineforge 
Thanks for the blog post, David. Wish I could find time to paint at least a few of my pile of minis. I even bought a couple packs of Green Stuff, or whatever it’s called, like 5 years ago, to start sculpting some Cosmothean creatures, but never got around to it, and the stuff’s shelf life may already have expired and certainly will before I get around to doing it. I like the paints above, but you didn’t mention Jessica’s base and I think it rocks – really carries the theme well and looks very realistic!
As for my own talents at painting, I’m not even a little good, but I did enjoy painting back in the day, just never painted as much as I wanted to. And now my days seem so filled that I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it. I hope to though, or at least one day attempt to sculpt or live long enough to see someone else sculpt one of mine. 🙂
Gotta agree with Bob, Jessica nailed the base! I couldn’t figure out how to do freshly upturned earth, how did you you do it, J? Speaking of bases, I like the OSL effect on David’s base. Well done, sir! I also dig your lantern.
I almost did the same thing as Jeff, shooting for a greyscale thing. I’m definitely going to try that on a mini soon.
As for eyes, I think Jessica is doing the Black Eye/White Dots thing, right?
For the base I started with some cork, the pile of dirt is crumpled up cork. Coated all with super glue. Glued some coarse grain sand over all of it, and coated it all with super glue again. Then painted.
As for the eyes, I start with white, and close in around it with black and put a line through the center of it, then close in around that with the flesh tone. I don’t know if that makes any sense, I can take pictures next time I do one.
Clint, I personally really like your base. Makes me think he’s heading out into the woods or swamp to bury the body. Just last night I ordered a basing kit that I think has some of that long grass in it.
I’d like to see you step-bystep for the eyes, ’cause they always look great.
Superglue as a basing material? Huh, never considered that, pretty clever. Is it the gel or liquid form?
Oh, btw, David, I wasn’t trying to ignore how your week was going. I posted a comment elsewhere about that, I’m I’m really sorry how things turned out. We all know it wasn’t yours and Chris’ fault. It’s just the lousy way it turned out. Hopefully things will soar from here on, despite the turn of events. We’re cheering for you guys! Bear in mind, this is from a guy who got laid off, so I know how it feels when things don’t go your way. It does get better!
Thanks a lot for posting the painting schedule 6 weeks out. Now I just need to pick a few minis that I want to attempt to paint…
Oh, and some nice choices for upcoming minis!
This is such a great idea, and nice work all around! I’d love to work on getting some more of my Bones painted – I hope to join in on the next few weeks. Thanks for posting the upcoming list!
God, you guys are so damn talented its bonkers! Great idea putting out the next several models! I hope to see more kick ass pieces!
Clint, I used liquid superglue. I read somewhere on the web to coat the cork with it to seal it. Keeps the paint from soaking in. Just seemed right to coat it again after I’d applied the sand to make sure everything would stay put before painting.
Hey, that makes sense. I have a buttload of cork, cause everyone was using it. But everytime I tried it, it just soaked up paint and white glue. So gave up on it.
Thanks, I’ll try the superglue trick!
Can anyone submit pictures for this? And if so how would someone do that?
Send me an email at caffeineforge@gmail.com and I will be glad to post them! I’m hoping to have at least 6 people participate on the mummy warrior.
Not sure if I will get around to the mummy warrior in time but I just finished the griffon. I will take some better pictures and try to put them together so one picture can show more then one angle. Like you guys have done above. Then I will send it to you.
Cheers.