The Trials Of The Yellow Frogs.

After spending several hours trying to copy actual poisonous frog's patterns I have decided that these do not work so well on Bloodbowl Slann players.

I've tried adding more black and using some highlights in the end they have gone into the nail varnish remover and are currntly back to bare metal.

Deep breaths...

The Frog Team 11

The Blitzers are now ready for their basing:

Yellow Poisonous Frogs

My efforts at trying to recreate the colour scheme of a Yellow-Banded Poison Dart Frogs (Dendrobates leucomelas), have been disastrous.

I think the Phyllobates terribilis, Golden Dart Frog will be a much better option!

The Frog Team 10

Eventually the red ink dries...
I've now given the very flat looking bone, loincloth and various leather things a wash of Devlan Mud. If this dries too dirty looking as it can sometimes, I'll go back over the original colours as a highlight.

I think they're starting to take shape.

Scenery with my boys.

It's Easter and I've got some time off with the family.  What better way to spend the time than by making some scenery. 

This is to be used in Warmaster a 10mm game but I've not added anything that will give it scale. This means I can also use it for other games.

We used scrunched up newspaper stuck to some cardboard with masking tape then got real messy with ModRoc.
The rock's strata was carved in when the plaster was almost dry. 
Once completely dry the whole model was painted in...yup...you guessed it: Black.  It was then simple to drybrush several greys and white followed by a meagre splodging of flock.


Anyway the boys enjoyed this and it got them away from the X-Box/DS for several hours. Well worth doing!

The Frog Team 9

The Catchers are going to be based on yellow poisonous tropical frogs.  They're small yet mean.
After a base coat of Moon Yellow I did another base of Moon Yellow.  Yellow is a really thin pigment so more layers the better.  Once these had dried then I used Yellow Ink to smooth the previous colours out.

YELLOW IS TRICKY!

The Frog Team 8

On the linefrogs they'll be a slighty shaded cream/beige belly area like this:

The Frog Team 7

Whilst the Blitzers dry, I work on the linefrogs.  These are to be green, tree frog style.
A base of a darker green is used.  I've used a P3 colour Iosan Green as a base.

It's a bit dark but I'm not too woried...

The Frog Team 6

Well, been away with boring work for a bit and have had to catch some Zzzs in between. Now fully vitalised and up for it.

The Blitzers:
They've been tickled with Bloody Red and Hot Orange on a wet pallete to blend these two colours onto the frog's skin.  They were then too orange and looked like they had been "Tango'd" so once dry a lovely generous covering of Red Ink.  This really brightened them up without losing the previous hilights.

I then painted the basic colours of the cloth and bone areas as well as the silver on the shoulders.  Just waiting to apply a nice wash.

The Frog Team 5

The Blitzers will be much brighter red but to help with this I'm low-lighting already so when I come to add details I don't have to worry.  I wanted to make the textured back stand out more as well.

I tried a flesh wash but it didn't quite work so back to good old Devlan Mud.  This is a really odd wash.  It works well on the reddy skin tone but quite often it's too dark and then just looks dirty, (well mudlike I guess).

At the moment this looks proper dark...

This now has to dry overnight - just to make sure.

The Frog Team 4

The team will have different coloured skin for each position.  To start with the Blitzers will have red skin.

I still want to have some contrasting red tones so I'll start with the darkest shade and work up.

I've made up a mixed pot of Mechrite Red and Bloody Red which is perfect for Roman Legionaries as well as a base for the Blitzer's skin.

Again, at this stage I just daub it on, making sure I cover up all the lighter colours from before.

(This picture taken just as the sun was going down on a superb sunny day.  The smell of burnt burgers filled the air and the cries of children avoiding bedtimes - happy days).

The Frog Team 3

I really want these to end up nice and bright.  So, I now have to go over the black undercoat with a lighter colour.  (Bright colours won't show at all well over black).

TGM TOP TIP:
Why start off with black then?
I could use a white spray but then I need to add some sort of dark wash for the shadows.  Otherwise the gonk looks too "flat".  As the whole model may be 28mm in height it is essential to exaggerate the contrasts or they'll be missed from a distance.
I use black to save time later on.  By "wet drybrushing" a lighter colour before the base colour I am already creating a shadowed area where the black shows through.

(I read this stuff after I type it out and I honestly don't know if it makes any sense!  I mean what the hell is "wet drybrushing"?  I might trademark the term in case it catches on).

Anyway, this is what they look like after a quick splodge of grey paint:

The Dog Soldiers

Just before they get handed over I thought I'd try for some better photos.  The sun is out!

Plus BONUS Scenery!

The Frog Team 2

Next Stage.  After the PVA has dried overnight the frog gonks are ready for an undercoat. 

Although these models will, hopefully, end up quite bright; I've used a black spray undercoat.  I tend to spray and turn three times to really get a nice complete coverage so I don't have to go over any missed bits in black later.

The Frog Team

Have turned a new page in the little black book and next up is a Slann Team for Bloodbowl.

These gonks are made of fairly soft metal and I've pinned several of the more delicate ones through the base and up through one leg.  This has taken a bit of time but is well worth it in the long run.

There was a bit of "flashing" to remove and more pinning of arms.  (This is always the most tedious part of the process - never was any good at metalwork).

Then once they've all been super glued to the base I've splodged on some PVA - but not all over - onto the base then dunked them into some quite coarse sand stuff. (There's going to be a swampy/pond finish to these).

Mystic Warrior Luke

Another gang member.  He's pretty small so thought it best to add some height with a bigger base.

Converted Kat and Confession

I thought that I'd better 'fess up now the painting is all done.

Well, whilst the gang members were all unpainted and in the queue to be done; my dog, a German Short Haired Pointer, thought it would be hilarious fun to grab the box with the gonks in and start to chew the lovely tasting metal. 
I had to buy most of the gang again before I could paint them!

For this reason, I made the dog buy, (from her bone fund), an additional figure as well.  I bought "Kat" from the great people at HassleFree Miniatures.  The figure normally comes with a sword but on their gallery is a conversion with Kat holding a staff/light sabre? I nicked the idea and gave her a Bo Staff.

The model is in a really dark grey and black, I've used a satin varnish on the PVC catsuit with gloss on the sticky out bits.

 

 

The Gang Show.

It's certainly been awhile.  Sorry.

All done now though, with an extra gonk as a bonus.

Here's the team shot:

I'll try and get some nice close ups for the rest of the gang.