News, Updates & ramblings

This Blog is acting as the news and updates page for my new website, HobbyBrush.com.

The website itself is the archive of my painting through the last decade or more, with easy navigation around what now amounts to over 3000 images of wargames figures & display miniatures.

It is also the repository for my musings, workbench notes and reports on all things gaming and miniature painting that I get up to.

I've been collecting miniatures for 24 years and have covered most scales, periods and styles in that time. Don't expect consistency on one project here - there will be variety in project, but hopefully consistently high standards!

Thanks for reading!

Saturday 31 January 2015

Project Anyaral - Painting Challenge January Galleries

They're running a painting Challenge over on the Anyaral: World of Twilight Forums . Whilst January hasn't allowed much chance to paint new figures from the range for myself, it has prompted me to take some proper photos of the ones I've done over the last year, and finally update the HobbyBrush Galleries with them!

First Up, the Delgon Gallery is online. Some of my new pics didnt come out too good, but there's lots more for them on the workbench in February, so expect an update next month! (7 pictures) 

Secondly, probably my favourite of the forces of Anyaral I've had the pleasure to paint. Clan Orel make their presence known and get their own gallery! (10 Pictures)

More to come soon from Anyaral, with gallery updates for the Empire, Devanu and another 2 new galleries as well, as soon as I get a chance to upload it all - here's a couple of the pics I took for the Forum Challenge to keep you interested ;)





New Galleries : 2
New Images: 17

Sunday 25 January 2015

Random paint - got colour in (on...) my bones....


More random paint slinging, and more poor ipad photos to prove it this week! I've been doing more work on the DA bust shown previously, but hit a block on colours for fur and mettallics, so turned my attention back to smaller pieces and quick paint jobs to tick them off. 

All three are From the Reaper Bones kickstarter, and have no use destined for them - purely quick paints to feel like I'm making progress without getting bogged down in another proper project until I've finished the bust! 


This big guy was painted as I wanted to try out the life colour flesh tones set I picked up a while back but haven't used. They're not bad paints, but they do separate easily. This works fine if your doing a quick job, painting out the pot and a bit rough like on this guy, but they're not so great when thinning and / or mixing with other ranges, so not my new solution for display work. 

This was actually a mis cast. He was meant to come with a full length shotgun, but the barrel had bubbled. Thankfully, sawn off is a good loom too, so one snip and it was paint ready! Te base is an old resin one I've had in the stores for ages, and was actually the reason I chose him to paint - base came first! 

 

This guy got onto the workbench right off the back of the mordheim witch hunters I did a few weeks ago - I guess the style kind of fitted with the,. The model suffered from the bones material being slightly flexible in the guns and they took quite some persuading to get them to stay (nearly) straight. They're also not that shiny in reality - hopefully they'll come out more representative when I get these pieces in front of my proper camera! 

So he here you have it, three random, unrelated quick pieces, but all good fun to paint. 

Our fortnightly Anyaral:World of Twilight gaming night is starting back this week after an extended festive break, so hopefully I'll get re-inspired to paint up some more of those great figures for the painting challenge! I've also got a lot of them previously finished which need photographing for the hobbybrush proper..... So much hobby to do!

Until then..... 



Tuesday 20 January 2015

Random paint - (it's not a...) Dark Angel bust

Random paint slinging update. This is a Scibor piece which I've actually had on the go for a while now although I don't think I've ever blogged any pics of him yet. 

Still very much WIP, amd lord knows when I might finish him ( my record with finishing busts isn't great....) but I'm pleased with where he's at and still enjoying playing around with various different areas on the model. 

Let me know your thoughts and suggestions on improvements - I might ignore them, but I'm always happy to hear them :) 


Thanks for looking! 

Sunday 18 January 2015

And again, things from ages past....

More from the backlog of miniatures painted in years gone by this week, but these are the last which I am currently aware of, so I will get photographing and painting new stuff again!

First up I have a mixed gallery of figures from the French company, Fenryl. I first ran into them in 2004 when they produced a set of miniatures for the Boxing Day Tsunami appeal, and have picked up various pieces from them in the intervening years. Granted, many of them remain bare of paint, but those which have passed the workbench can be found here! Fenryl Fantasy Gallery (15 pictures)


Next up, it's back to the old favourites in the form of 6mm sci fi, and more importantly, the Dark Realm Miniatures / Seeds of War line. The Desert Pax Arcadian gallery (10 pictures) shows a small force, painted for sale in 2013. 

And finally, we stay with the 6mm sci if but go right back into the depths of the photo vaults, to bring you a mixed gallery of two Imperial Guard commissions (22 pictures), both completed back in the early stages of my Mercenary Brush ways, around 2003. Not the highest quality photos, but they're part of my history so I'm posting them anyway! 

Of more current gaming and painting....
Thought I'd better give a hint that it's not all old stuff going on around here! 
Having painted over 100 of the wonderful vehicles from warlord games in recent months, I'm having a break from 28mm WW2 and have been painting more random figures from The Reaper Bones range, and am looking back to the Anyaral: World of Twilight range for my next small collections to complete. They've got a promotional painting challenge running at the moment on their forums, and there's nothing like the temptation of some more wonderful models as a reward for painting wonderful models I already have! 

Pictures and updates soon. 

Happy hobbying! 


New galleries: 3
New galleries: 47






Thursday 8 January 2015

What once was hidden.....

Now is found....
I really can't believe I out together all these galleries and never posted them. I guess the site just got too big for me to notice they were missing! What's more, it's been a very busy week, so even just getting this little blog post written up has taken me the week, without having to take the photos. Thank heavens they were there for me to use!


6mm has always been a popular scale for me, and I think, thus by default, for my viewers so this should provide some interest, and with the embarrassing age of some of the pictures, some entertainment for you all - the Epic war machines gallery (44 pictures) is now live. Nothing new there, but a fair variety!

Returning to the historical side of things, but still from among the hidden vaults, there's a gallery for a flames of War German commission I completed a decade or so ago. To say my styles have changed is an understatement, but hey, I was proud at the time and the customer was happy! (20 pictures)

New galleries: 2
New pictures: 64

Saturday 3 January 2015

From the vaults....

Whilst doing my first proper gallery update in a year yesterday, I made a discovery.

There are a few galleries which I created years ago, which for some reason have never been linked in to the hobbybrush site, so have never been "live" and just hidden in the background!

It'll take a while to sort them out and make sure they're populated correctly, but a couple are pretty much ready to go - presenting the Exodus Wars 6mm sci-fi gallery (15 pictures), and the corresponding 6mm sci fi section. Nothing  recently painted in here, but it does mean it benefits from at least one piece when I was still being silly in the small scales...... Yes, those are eyes on a 6mm trooper.... :)



Other end of my personal painting scale is busts. So here's a more recent piece, but I still don't remember when I set up the gallery - guess it was just one of those years.... Anyway - here's bob, the evil one! Painted in 1hour 45 just to ensure I actually finished a bust for once! 


New galleries: 2
New pictures: 20

Hopefully More soon, but no promises! 


Friday 2 January 2015

New Pics, For sale, and new random paint.

well, what do you know - I actually got a few models in front of decent lighting and a proper camera, we have an actual HobbyBrush update!

Not many, granted, but its a token start ;op

First up, a few more pics added to the 28mm Soviet WWII gallery. This whole section is going to need a complete reorganise soon when I add all the new bits to it, but these first ones are all for sale so got priority for good pics. IS2, SU76, T70, and a T34/85 in summer green. (9 pictures)


 The Classic Metal Cadian Squad I painted a few weeks back are going up on ebay, so they qualified for a photoshoot too - new pics in the 40K misc section (2 pictures)


A few upgraded pics added to the Warmaster Misc section - High Elf and Wood Elf Lords and Brettonian king - all painted years ago! (7 Pictures) 

The Witch Hunters Mordheim Mob uploaded to the blog earlier this week get their own gallery (11 Pictures)


New Figure alert! Completely random quick paint job on a classic old citadel foot knight. Added to the Warhammer Misc Gallery and on bay soon (2 pictures) 

And finally, there's this guy. Another random and very quick paintjob on one of the hundreds of figures I received in the Reaper Bones Kickstarter deal. Really cant decide how he should be based, and dot think I'll get back to him anytime soon, so here he is now on the Blog - welcome the ever honorable (?) Bar Tender!

New Galleries: 1
New Pictures: 31

Its a long time since I've typed that..... Happy New Year and Happy Viewing!