Lollipop Guild, Represent!

I started a commission today that's proving to be no small task.

Up until now, the only thing I've painted is 28-32mm scale models. I knew there were "other sizes" out there, but I never gave much thought to painting them. However, my mind was soon changed when presented with the opportunity to paint some 15mm models for the game Flames of War.



It seems small, but just how small are we talking? Here's a comparison to a Warmachine model, which is 32mm "heroic" scale.

What's that? Irusk-Zilla is attacking the city?!

But the thing that excited me most about these is that because of their scale, there's minimal room for subtlety. One thing I always struggle with is making extreme highlights because I have difficulty stepping back and looking at the model from the appropriate distance; a highlight from 6" away looks considerably different than from a few feet away. Now I have no choice but to go for broke and use some more extreme highlights.

Tonight my goal was to get the basing done on all 12 bases. I'm following a guide from The Painting Clinic, which has always proven to be a valuable resource. In the guide, the first thing he suggested was hitting the bases with a coat of Spackle to simulate the relative unevenness of natural dirt.



Then I placed an assortment of basing and medium grit around the base, followed by covering the rest of the base in fine grit.



This is where things got fun. After using my airbrush (fun fact: I love my airbrush) to coat everything in Vallejo black polyurethane primer, I found a new appreciation for the beauty of basing.

Usually when I base, I'll do one of two things. I'll use some sand and a large stone or two, and use 2 or 3 coats of paint to simulate highlights and shadows... or just use some premade basing dirt. Following the guide though, I used 5 shades of brown just for the small and medium grit (basing grit will be painted grey after the models are done).

Going in to it, I thought the 2nd and 3rd colors would be lost so I wasn't holding my breath for amazing results. But after hitting it with the final drybrush, I couldn't help but be ashamed of all the base work I'd done previously. See for yourself:



The iPhone pic doesn't do it justice, but you can still see the depth and color variation throughout the base. The other day I spent a bit of time looking at photos of natural terrain trying to figure out how I'd lay out the grit and grass. Going back and looking at them now, I'm blown away by how natural it looks.

I have some Grey Knights that have been sitting on the shelf waiting for me to figure out what base they'll stand on. Right now, I think they'll be quite happy to stand on something similar to this. I just love how subtle the Spackle's effect is. The land doesn't have huge waves on it, but in the back of your mind you know that what you're looking at isn't 100% flat.

If things go according to plan, I should be ready to seal these by tomorrow evening. Stay tuned and wish me luck as I spend several hours parked in front of my magnifier lamp, painting detail on things smaller than my thumbnail.

See you tomorrow!