Le Dragon du Nord

So long and thanks for all the fish (Im moving)

2010-02-02T21:21:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to inform that you now will find me here instead:

http://lemondedangereux.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there!

Cheers!

//Dangereux

The Struggle Continues

2009-11-03T07:47:00.004+01:00

Hi guys, its been way too long now, I am sorry for that. Part of that is my splitting with being a Sentinel for Rackham, setting up a new forum and some other stuff. On the positive side, I now dont dedicate this blogg to pure Rackham stuff. I do honour their stuff though, especially that of old.

So why did I leave Rackham you may say, as described in our new FORUM;

"Hi, today I quit being a Sentinel for Rackham and I feel I want to explain how I came to this decision. Things have been going downhill for months, I have tried to still be positive about it but I just cant do it no more. What originally brought me into being a Sentinel was both the awsome design of the miniatures and printed material and also Jeans vision, not only about the fictional worlds but a vision on how to act with the community, fans, sentinels etc.

Lots of things seems to have changed since several months, there are no more new things to be shown, no more official communications, eratic releases, which isn't a normal way to taking care of the community and being successfull. It is almost as if Jean left Rackham or at least have a very insignificant role at the company. So this is why I cant be a Sentinel anymore, I have to look to my own reputation in the online community and RE. don't take care of their supporters, their community or their games.

They even seem to have dropped the Legends range.

For me the new logo was the nail in the coffin. It is just a piece of graphic you may say, but no, it isnt. I work with this stuff and for me it is clear that they are changing their target group for a much younger audience.

I can not be asociated with this any longer. Sorry.

I hope we will be informed on whats really going on at Rackhams eventually as this is pure speculation from my behalf."

So have I been painting anything? Yes I have! :) Most of you have seen them on other forums but here we go...

First off a comission piece of Kelzaral for Confrontation and then the start of my own Khaliman army for Alkemy... and apart from this Im working on a Daikinee army for Confrontation 3 and some other various projects in different stages :)

//Dangereux

Guest appearance

2009-08-10T09:40:00.003+02:00

Hi, Finally I can proudly present fellow hobbyist and painter Hellberg, known from the CAoR comunity on Le Dragon du Nord, here is is first apperance but I certainly hope (and think) that you will see more of him here. Now on to his own words:

Hello, Because of the disaster with UROD, I have been asked to fill the space. Something to keep your interest, and to show you that things are moving forward. I'm Mr.D's main opposition in CAoR, and have lately been playing and painting Kelt sessairs, or army of the minotaur. I really like the pagan style, and the look and feel of the sessairs miniatures. The guardians of the moor are rank 1 infantery, and is a natural start. They will fill the first required slot in the army, and have decent close combat skills aswell as a ranged attack. I think they will be a perfect start.

I have decided that I will try to keep the colors of the miniatures fairly muted. The kelts being a savage people mostly dressed in skins and hides, I mostly use different shades of brown. I break up the muted browns with a bright blue on small details, and gold details in bright yellow. I will try to keep this theme troughout the whole army.

The bases are fairly simple. Just sand, small stones and static grass. I think it looks (at least moderately) like a field or a grassy plain. This is three guardians, the unit size is eight. So I haven't even painted half of the unit yet. As there is only three kinds of minis I'll try to use different colors and other means to create diversity in the rest of the unit.

//Hellberg

DISASTER!

2009-08-05T11:20:00.005+02:00

Total and utter disaster here! I was trying a new technique while painting UROD including salt for some cool effects. Before starting the last few steps, doing some weathering I was going to apply a coat of varnish to protect the surface to not ruin anything while doing the weathering part.... well... that is exactly what I did. The varnish reacted in some chemical way to the surface wich must still have some salt in it and totally destroyed everything for me. Note, there was no white at all on this miniature, AT ALL, but a helthy vivid green with several shades from a purplish tone to a more yellow one for highlights. I was really happy with how this piece were coming along... some of the best stuff I done I believe. Probably around 30hrs spent on it allready.

When varish turn frosty wich happen some times (usualy when it is a bit cold) you usualy can just spray another coat and it will come out ok, this isnt the case here. I have tried spraying some and it helps a bit but not near as much as needed and alot of the highlights doesnt look as they did. I'm going to try and save it, and if it turns out good enough in time, I'll post... otherwize you'll have to wait until I have something new to show. Both mad and sad but I'll turn to normal soon! :) Take Care! //Dangereux

Back on track & commission work

2009-08-03T10:43:00.004+02:00

Hi guys, I don't know about you but here in Sweden summer has been raining away. They are promissing a sunny August though... ofcourse... as I'm just back at the office. No fancy stuff to show I'm affraid but I'm at the end quarter of work with my UROD wich I have cleaned, filled and started to repaint, hope to show you something here quite soon (within a week or two at the most). After UROD I have some catching up with my Amok Slayer before anything else, Fortuna, Iraem and lots of stuff in que. Although quite bussy with my own stuff and life in general I have decided to take on a limited amount of commission work as long as the subject is one of interest to me and is a Rackham product.

Feel free to e-mail me if your interested at: ledragondunord(@)gmail.com Price range will vary and I rather like to discuss the matter with the client but as a basic measure the price will range from around 70-200€ depending on size of subject, level of quality etc.

Summer time and living is easy

2009-07-02T10:36:00.006+02:00

Bonjour!
Finally finnished my Cadwe Agitator, as the miniature are not superdetailed I thought I would finnish him (them) in just a couple of weeks but boy, were I wrong? Glad that he is done now though and I hope you like what you see. Im quite pleased with the result even if things always can be done better.

Feel free to vote when he is up and running: http://www.coolminiornot.com/226144

With this I wish you all a pleasant summer! I will take July off painting, I might work on a little secret project but I wont post anything before August. Take care of each other!

//Dangereux

Iraem, a legend

2009-06-16T08:01:00.012+02:00

Hi, I got my Iraem from Rackham Store yesterday. I must say that they have improved alot! I really mean alot! Package delivered within one week, notification by e-mail when they posted the package and with a tracking ID so I could track the package the whole way. So I can assure you that Rackham Store is really reborn, risen from the ashes and reliable.

Now onto the good stuff. Iraem, nicely packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with a nice sleeve showing the miniatures from different angles.

Inside the parts are safely packaged with a layer of foam both in the bottom and on top. The parts comes in two sealed plastic bags and the bases are separate. This is all wrapped in bubble wrap. I was allready excited! When I got all the parts out I was stunned my the amazing quality almost no mold lines apparent. Just a very thin line that will be very easily removed with a sharp modelling knife. The miniatures are cast in a nice grey odourless resin.

You will also have to get rid of the mold stems from the bottom of both Iraem and the Weapon bearer, this is easily done with a couple of pliers and then sand or file down whats left, then use a small drill to make place for one or two pins to then attach to the base (wich will also need to be drilled).

There are a couple of tap stem marks on the helmet though and this is the only spot that might cause any trouble. As they are as thick as the horns themselves they might easily break.

For you who's not familiar with resin it is a polyurethane based two component synthetic resin that hardens in room temperature. It is great for making thin and sharp details and such as it is more liquid than both metal and regular plastic. On the downside it is a bit weaker and breaks easier so you have to be a bit carefull as it isnt as hard as metal nor as flexible as plastic. For the hobbyist it is an excellent material though as it keeps details best in the molding process. Back to the helmet, I will probably use some fine hobby file to file down the stems.

The miniatures are really amazing, even cooler in real life than on the pictures and I want to start with them as soon as possible, have to finnish whats on the table first though. Iraem is quite small compared to some of the earlier metals but is in the same size as other Cadwallon humans like the Scarecrow or Harlequin for example.

The details and execution is superbe and I really hope that Rackham will be able to maintain this line and that is up to us customers! I can recomend anyone who is either a hobbyist who wants high end miniatures or the regular Cadwallon fan to pick up this kit.

Final score: 4 1/2 Dragons out of 5. (because of the small difficulties with the helmet)
Difficulty: Medium
Where: You can find him HERE and in various places. Any LGS that holds Rackhams Range can have them ordered for you.

//Dangereux

Catching up!

2009-06-08T08:24:00.010+02:00

Hi,
Another update here, alot of metals right now, sorry for that... :) Working on the Amok Slayer and also started on a Cadwallon goblin (Cadwe Agitator). Dont really know what to say about them right now I might return and talk some more later on, but right now I'll just post some pictures that I hope you enjoy and I'll get my self a cup of coffee and see if I wake up. :)

Goblin will be NMM (non metallic metals) and as you can see the orc is done with metallics but shaded in a similar way as NMM by applying layer after layer of thin coloured glaces.

Take Care my friends!

//Dangereux

Running Amok

2009-06-01T10:04:00.006+02:00

Some early WIP shots of an Amok Slayer here. Just started an orc army and I want to try and deviate from the standard green colour, I really love the Rackham version with grey Amoks (and S.Morkai) but as I paint a lot of Dirz and they too have grey skin it would be quite boring for me to go down that road.

Im a big fan of Bonners early Confrontation art and there is a picture of orc trackers in a forrest with very red brown skin so I decided to do something similar as a tribute :) The Bonner orcs are a bit paler with (as far as I can see) slightly pale purple highlights as a result of them being in the shade. I instead added a bit yellow for a sunny day sort of...
I have repainted the eyebrows brown since the pictures. The blue should be adjusted too but I might change it for the next orc instead. A good thing with orcs is that it wont look strange with different skin colours.

I guess some will hate this as its not what people are used to but here we go:

//Dangereux

Changes

2009-05-27T13:32:00.006+02:00

Well, Ive updated the site slightly. I guess no one have missed that Im running this by my self these days so I changed some texts and decided to rework the logo. Inspired by older Rackham stuff (Cry Havoc). Do you like it?

I have also changed the rights so now anyone can comment, and please do so! I really would like this to be a living place in where we can discuss things together.

If anyone knows how I should write the code to extend the right hand grey column to the bottom of the page please let me know.

I guess most people have read our reports about Lincon 2009 and the Swedish Championship by now. So Im just posting some pictures. Here are the organizers from left to right: Dangereux (Me), Deathbullar and Disco.

A couple of shots from the extremely fun Class of Snow scenario, Red Blok vs. Karmans:

And the tournament winners (1st place: Therians, 2nd place: Karmans, 3rd place: Therians):

yours /Dangereux

Guru Rousseau , Anakonga

2009-05-26T09:47:00.012+02:00

Hi,
Its been a month, but its been a month of painting and planning for the Swedish Championship in AT-43. Just came back from the convention and it was a great Success. A lot of people were interested at our demos (mainly beeing done by fellow sentinels Disco and Deathbullar), many tried and many others took a lot of time reading trough our books and looking at the great miniatures.

As for the tournament itself it went very smooth and even though we were short of tiles we worked it out. 1st place was a therian, 2nd, karman and 3rd therian. Therians are hard to beat but to see Karmans taking silver was amazing!

As for myself, my Anakonga wich I named Guru Rousseau got the 1st place for the singel miniature cathegory at the conventions painting contest. Without further adoo, heres the pictures:

//Dangereux

Anakonga WIP

2009-04-24T10:58:00.002+02:00

Some progess on my Anakonga. Tried out the colour scheme on the jetpack and did some weathering. Will it work? The blue is a bit more vibrant in the reality and have some subtle green tones that my camera doesnt catch. //Dangereux

Nemesis Evolution, finnished project.

2009-04-24T10:19:00.010+02:00

Hi guys, I'm happily finnished with my Nemesis Evolution. It was ment to be a step by step project but I got so eager that I forgott to take photos of some stages so I skipped the idea completely. I was abit hasty on some areas of the skin and thus lack super smoothness. Still, I'm happy with the result and I'll let the pictures talk for themselves. Will be displayed at the LinCon 2009 Painting Competition. What do you think?

//Dangereux

Wendigo Beginner Painting Guide

2009-04-09T09:59:00.010+02:00

In this article I will talk about how to improve a Wendigo for AT-43. The miniature is taken directly from the box with no cleaning up. For explanations of the techniques used see the Clone Beginner Painting Guide article in this blog (if youre an absolute beginner I really suggest that you do). To start I apply a dark brown wash, brown complements the blue and makes it more balanced than for example black.

When this have dried it is time to apply the basic colour once again and also start highlighting. As the blue areas are dominant and also have the deepest laying details on the miniature I start there. It is important to start painting underlaying details and surfaces first on a miniature so that you paint it layer by layer. Doing that you can avoid painting over areas that you allready have painted. I apply a cool beige tone to the blue for the highlights until I get to a pure cool beige at the hard edges of the armour.

When done I start with the white. To give it more depth and at the same time ad a soft contrast to the blue I add a warm khaki colour to the white, this takes some time as you want smooth transactions from the washed surfaces and bright colours can be a little tricky but with some patience you will get excellent results. I go from a bright khaki tone up to pure white in about six layers.

Now, all that is left is the head. The wendigos prepainted head is all in the same colour but my Kaptars and Anakongas have grey faces and as I want to make the units look a bit united even though the armour colour is different I paint the face gray on the wendigo too.

Once again highlight with cool beige. Always think about the light direction, I think this is most important with the face as it usualy is the main focus of a miniature.

As a final touch drybrush the fur with pure cool beige and then add some white for two steps of drybrushed highlights. This technique is done by first applying paint to your brush and then wiping it away until almost none is left but still have some pigment to it. It is common to do this with a dry brush but I actually recomend to do this with a slightly damp brush to get a smoother look. When dry brushing like this you need to be a little bit carefull, letting the brush only to touch the raised areas and working towards the fur tips. I also add a dark grey to the black edges of the gun and armour details.

The Karmans need a bit more attention than most other troops as they have some complex shaped armour but by organising painting and having some dicpline you can have excellent results pretty fast and this is what I love with prepainted plastic. Half the work is allready done! I usually work by painting four at a time, making a unit box and then the attachment.

The Wendigo still needs some chipping and other battle damage. We will look into this in a future article so stay tuned.

Colours used:

Wash: Accursed Black/Dirty Leather/PVA Glue

Armour
Blue Basecoat: Precious Blue/Accursed Black Blue
Highlights: Precious Blue/Accursed Black/Wildcat Grey
White basecoat: Elven Flesh/Eternal White
White highlights: Elven Flesh/Eternal White to pure Eternal White

Face
Grey Basecoat: Grey of Darkness
Grey Highlights: Grey of Darkness/Wildcat Grey Fur Basic drybrush: Wildcat Grey

Fur Highlights: Wildcat Grey/Eternal White

And with some final words I just want to show a little teaser for an upcoming project of mine. A quite converted Karman Anakonga. It will not be a step by step article but I will write some about the progress. Available in May. Here's a couple of shots of its early stages:

Take Care and blessings to all of you!

//Dangereux

Clone Advanced; Light and environment

2009-04-09T08:03:00.025+02:00

Winter Clone

This article is a follow up on a previous painting article on how to paint clones. When we paint our miniatures people seldomly actually think about light and environment. We highlight with either white or a bright warm colour and paint/shadows or use washes that are dark or black but without really thinking about why. With a little thought and effort we can create a much more interesting miniature to look at. When I paint for more than the regular table top level I always want to tell a story, I play this story in my mind and then try to translate it into a little scene with the base as the limit. So what is the character doing, why is he there, were is he/she? This then translates in how to paint and pose the miniature. In this article I will have the clone placed in the same area but during the four seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.

Spring Clone

A really good thing to know about colour and light is that shadows always are the complimentary (oposite) colour of the light source. The light seems to change over the seasons but this isnt just the angle of the sun etc. but also how the environment picks up the light and redistribute it. Not just from above but from the ground as well. But to not make it too complicated I have decided to keep to light from above here.
I picture the clone to be in a rocky snowy field at winter with thin clouds in the sky. In the spring the sun shines but with a rather pale light from a clear sky. At summer time I picture him in a meadow and as the sun hits the trees with warm sun rays the light turns green and the whole meadow bades in a warm green light.

Summer Clone

When autumn arrives the leaves start to turn orange and on a clear day a forrest will be very warm and almost glowing. This time I start with cleaning up the miniatures by trimming any mold lines with a sharp modelling knife and then I reapply the base colours. From this stage I work exactly as in the previous article although I mix the colours a bit differently to picture the scenes I mentioned above. I also don't do just one wash for the shadows but I apply it in two to three stages adding more and more of the complimentary colour and black and narrowing the area (like when you do highlights).

Autumn Clone

For the metals I choose to let them reflect the main colour of the scene. So for the winter scene I gave the metal areas a blue wash followed by very thinned down black, orange and black for the autumn scene and so on. It isn't really hard, the important part is to think trough all the painting stages before you start, and I can't stress this enough, thin down your paints and apply very little to your brush at a time. When the miniature is done it is time to do the base, but that is a different story. Happy painting!

Here below is a colour chart (click it to get a better view) to help explaining my thoughts on this matter. It shows the colouration of the loincloth and this gradient should be applied to all colours and areas of the miniature.

//Dangereux

Clone Beginners Painting Guide

2009-04-08T15:33:00.007+02:00

In this short article I will go through the basics of how to improve PrePainted miniatures. In the future we will go through more advanced techniques for the more experienced hobbyist. For the sake of simpleness I will work with a miniature straight out of the box, in this case a Clone from the Scorpion army in Confrontation®, the Age of the Rag’narok.

WASH
First we want to define the details and add a bit more depth to the Clone. This will be done by applying a wash. A wash is basicly a thin paint commonly in a darker hue that will flow down into folds, creases and gathers around small details like pins and rivets. There are several brands of commercial washes on the market, some better than others, but a lot of people don't realise how easy it is to do your own and by that getting the exact colour you need.

To do a wash of your own you simply thin down your paint with water until it gets a milky consistency and then add just a tiny bit of PVA glue. If you add too little, the surface tension will not hold and when the wash dries it will burst and create a blotched look. If you on the other hand add too much the wash will get thickish and dries semi gloss. About 1/20 should do but you need to find what works good for you, try it out on a spare miniature or piece of painted plastic.

I rarely use black for a wash as it can be a bit to harsh but for the cool colour scheme of the Clone it actually fits really well. I apply the wash richly only avoiding it flowing along the spine (that allready have a nice gooey green wash straight from the box). Then let dry throughly.

BACK TO BASECOAT
Even if the wash gathers in folds etc. it also slightly tints all the surfaces so before proceding I want to get back to the basecoat. With the clone I will start with the loincloth and shield (same colour). It is important to thin down your paint properly with water. It shouldn't be as thin as the wash previously used but atleast half way there. Another thing to mention briefly are brushes. It is a common belief that small miniatures should be painted with smal brushes. Small brushes has its place and use, but more often you will need a good quality larger brush. It is all about the brush tip and the brushs ability to hold it. With a larger brush the paint doesn't dry as quick and holds more paint so you you can paint longer without cleaning it or getting new paint on it.

Dont take too much paint on the brush but just so much that when you paint it distributes the pigments evenly without leaving any excess and giving a slightly transparent layer letting the colour behind show through, by doing this you can apply several layers of the same colour slightly narrowing the area you paint to get smooth transactions. For this first part two thin layers will do fine.

HIGHLIGHTS
We have brought out the details and created shadows by applying a wash, to give the miniature more depth we also want to create some highlights. To do this you work with a lighter version of your basecolour. This could be done by applying white but in most cases it won't look right. For this miniature most highlights will be done adding a cool beige tone. Try doing this in at least two steps applying more and more beige. As with the basecoat, try paint on the highlights in several thin layers.

The highlights should be applied where the light hits the miniature, I usualy work with zenithal lighting, it is easiest to calculate and will bring light to the miniature from all sides.

Now the loincloth and shield is basicly done.

CONTINUING
Start over with the same process for the skin areas, starting with a cool grey and highlighting with cool beige, going through all the steps.

FINAL TOUCHES
For the grey armour areas I just paint the upper edges with thin grey lines to define them a bit. The red areas are fine as they are and for the sake of doing things quickly this time I'm happy with just the wash. Now only the metals are left wich we highlight with a couple of layers of bright silver (to the rivets and edge of sword) and as a very last touch, paint the hose going from the clones back solid black.

This is a first painting guide aimed at quickly raising the tabletop standard of your miniatures. When you master the techniques you will be able to complete a unit of clones within 1,5 hours (except for the washs drying time).

Colours used:

Wash: Accursed Black/PVA Glue

Loincloth/Shield
Green Basecoat: Antique Green/Avagddu Green
Green Highlights: Antique Green/Avagddu Green/Wildcat Grey

Skin
Skin basecoat: Sharp Grey
Skin highlights: Sharp Grey/Wildcat Grey

Armour
Armour Highlight: Grey of Darkness/Sharp Grey

Metals
Metals highlights: Polished Silver

Hose
Hose basecoat: Accursed Black

Nemesis Evolution

2009-04-07T08:59:00.003+02:00

Hi again folks, update time! As I and fellow sentinels Disco and Deathbullar will arrange the official Swedish Championship in At-43 in may I thought that I should try to have some miniatures painted for the conventions painting competition. I didn't need too much thought to pick up a couple of miniatures. Coming from my favourite armies in the Rackham universes I decided on a Nemesis Evolution and a Kaptar of the PPP range. For a competition I usually want to do atleast some minor conversions. Working with plastic this is really easy so it was an easy pick! I decided to start with the Nemesis and wanted a bit more dynamic pose than the regular PPP version, inspired by Mentor Freezer I wanted him to stand on one hand like he is taking a leap forward. This will be more evident when he is on his base as the miniature will be slightly tilted forward from the position on the painting plint.

The conversion was quick although I adjusted both legs, stretched out his right one, reposed both arms and filled some gaps. I had to resculpt some muscles with brown stuff, most work going to his outstretched leg. Not more than 2 hrs of work.

Here are some early pictures with some paint added, started to shade the whole miniature and have put three highlights on the skin areas. Most armour have got a bluegreen hue but it isnt very visible in the pictures. Will try and adjust the white balance for the next series of photos. Hope you enjoy the start!

/Dangereux

Swedish Championship 2009

2009-03-18T13:30:00.003+01:00

Just a little marketing:

/Dangereux

Constructs and more goodness

2009-02-26T09:11:00.003+01:00

Hi again, doing another update while I'm at it! :)
Well here are some Novas and Nelpaël (they won't be in the same unit in my army list). These are not painted with as much effort as the asadars and Soïm, but I think they are decent and hope they will pass your judgement.

Unfortunatly both the Asadars but mostly Soïm lost a lot of the finer details and richness of colour when I decided to varnish them, they will endure more gaming now wich is a good thing though. But to really see the quality of Soïm watch a few posts below. The shine disturbs the paint. Sad, but as the main purpose is gaming I'm still happy.

//Dangereux

Screw you guys, we're going home!

2009-02-26T08:54:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates guys and gals. Real life has taken over, dealing with the current state of the world economy and some personal matters have been quite time and spirit consuming so there haven't been so much painting for my behalf, dont know about Rofen. Some stuff is done though and here are some first pictures. I was looking at my Scorpion army and felt that it lacked contrast, so I made a little test and felt happy with the result, this led to my decision to rebase the whole army. So, Dirz is finaly going home. The south shall rise again....eh...

Anyway, I just glued some sand onto the surfaces that were previously snow and when dry I started with dark tan and added some cool beige in three steps. Hope you like the new bases.

//Dangereux

Elves, elves and more elves

2009-01-27T09:20:00.003+01:00

Hi again! Another little update, sorry for the AT-43 fans out there, theres alot of Confrontation and Rackham Legends stuff going on right now as we are trying to paint for a tournament that we shall arrange here quite soon. We are also working on some secret non blog painting projects that are taking up our time, so that is why there isnt a lot of updates right now. It is fun to paint this Legends stuff but it is very time consuming and right now I just feel to have some prepaints to touch up instead. The Daikinee release this autumn will be great! Love to have some prepainted elves around! Well, heres an equanimous warrior that I just finnished and a little teaser of things to come. Take care!

//Dangereux

With Strength I Burn!

2009-01-09T14:14:00.007+01:00

It was not only Dangereux' Dirz that got slaughtered last time we played Confrontation. My Wolfen managed to survive until turn five, but then the pesky dwarves of Tir-Na-Bor proved to be to much for my feral pack to handle.
Home at the workbench I decided to start painting up, probably the most evil and cruel army of Aarklash, the Drune Kelts!

A basic unit of Warriors sounds like a great start, but there are so many of them to paint and they're quite small so I kept the paintjob pretty simple.
The only hard/boring part with these little fellows was to pin them. I used a 0,5mm drill and thin guitar strings to assemble them, and it took some time due to the fact that every arm and head had to be pinned. I even drilled a hole under their feet and pinned the legs to strengthen them.
The unit is soon complete, spare the command group, but I have only based one of them so I only got pictures of that one.

Regarding the base. I'm not happy at all with the result. Tried to do an "old school rackham base" but failed indeed. I'll rebase him in time.

Also on the workbench: Archers, Red Karnaghs and Hounds of Scathach.

//Rofen

Soim

2009-01-07T10:13:00.002+01:00

Hi guys, after a bitter and utterly defeat of my Dirz army yesterday I've decided to try giving my elves some more love. Wanted to show you some work in progress pictures of Soim. He is basicly done the same way as my asadar but I made the cloth slightly paler and with a bit more contrast. As he is an Incarnate I wanted him to stand out a bit. I also made his scarf red, wich is a good way to draw attention to his face, wich generally is a thing to aim for.

Sadly the sword was broken in the blister, I didnt feel to try to get a replacement so instead I pinned it and glued it on, but as the metal was almost crusty where it was broke I had to take away almost 2mm and that is why it looks a bit odd, its sad as Im very pleased with the result so far with Soim. But hey, thats life. I really love the cynwall and it is great to paint some Rackham Legend miniatures too from time to time even though the PrePaints gets most of my love.

//Dangereux

It's -15°C and critters all around

2009-01-02T10:55:00.002+01:00

Well, time for another post, here some of my phemeras, really love those cuties and extremely simple to repaint with a good result. Made a darkbrown wash and more or less flooded the miniatures. When dry I just mixed some white with a tiny bit of bone colour and picked out the teeth, applied some green to the tounges and black to the claws. After this, a quick edge highlight of a brighter metall colour on the blades and voila, done! Just a quick basing (paint white, apply thinned down PVA and sprinkle hobby snow) and they are all ready to blow up some wolfen! ;) As you can see I made a couple of custom bases too just for fun but that wouldnt be necessary.

//Dangereux

My fighting Asadar

2008-12-29T12:04:00.004+01:00

Hi,
New year is soon upon us, just wanted to show you some work in progress, you will see more from us as soon as the hollidays are over and we have gathered enough elixir. This is the rumoured start of my Dragon army, bases needs to be done, Im also working on Soïm whos sword sadly was broken in the blister but stuff like that happen, I glued it on, looks a bit odd but will do. Take Care and share your love!

//Dangereux

Merry X-mas

2008-12-23T20:22:00.001+01:00

We would like to wish you all a merry Christmas!!!
Enjoy the time with your friends and families.
We'll be back soon.

//Rofen and Dangereux

King of the Rumble

2008-12-19T09:30:00.003+01:00

Cornelius oh dear Cornelius, here he is in all his glory. As previously stated I'm quite unhappy with the painting, I like the colour scheme with grey as it gives nice contrast to the cammo troops of my Karman army (all ** inf. will be gray and white), but the paintjob is very harsh but will look OK on tha tabletop whith a little bit of viewing distance. I like the miniature but the head doesnt really look as much like a gorilla as the others, I will sure enjoy Mentor Freezer more, wich is probably the nicest Karman sculpt to this date.

Anyway, Cornelius is awsome ruleswize and I wouldn field a wendigo unit without him. Hope you still enjoy what you see.

//Dangereux

Just a likkle supm supm

2008-12-17T08:57:00.003+01:00

"Now this is just a likkle supm supm. To let you know I got supm comin. And let you know I'm still up and runnin'. And let you know that the fire still burning...."

Hi, another oldie here, new picture though with a better background. Just to keep things alive, I have been doing some slow process on Cornelius this week, not too happy with the result, too harsh transitions, my own fault as I havn't been focused enough. I will give him some weathering tonight and take pictures tomorrow so soon you'll get something new from me.

Whats more in the pipeline? Im currently working on eight Phemera Omegas for my Dirz army, and slowly working on some Cynwälls and Im also finnishing my Kaptar squad by adding the attachment. So quite a lot on the workbench to finnish! :)

//Dangereux

Better photos... I think.

2008-12-16T16:45:00.005+01:00

Rune Guardian

RPG Soldaty

//Rofen

A Christmas gift Part One

2008-12-14T21:55:00.008+01:00

Yes. With all those money spent on Christmas gifts I decided to give myself a small gift to.
I've recently been falling in love with the Red Bloks! So I decided to start building an army.
I ordered a Red Blok RPG Soldaty unit and attachment box. Unfortunatley the store sent me a Krasny Att. box instead of the RPG Att. box, but now I have something to look forward to.

I kept the painting simple, first adding a brown/black wash (mixed with PVA) over the whole model. I then started to shade and highlight the "padded" clothing/armor. I didn't bother to paint the camouflagepants and jacket, because I really like the orginal colorscheme. Then it was time for the armorplates. I kept the maincolor, shading it with a darker "seagrey" and highlighting it with tan and then a cold light bluegrey on the very edges. The stars on their caps were gone over with a thin orange-red layer and it was almost done. To make the models stand out a bit I added some battledamage with the "trompe l'oeil" technic.
I spent about two hours painting all eight of them (the unit box).

The bases were pretty simple yet the only thing taking time to make/paint.
With some sand, cork and plaster I made an attempt to create a ruined urban ground in winter setting.
I painted the base in different shades of greys and browns, added some snow and it was done.

More and better pics will be posted when the squad is complete.
Peace...

//Rofen

New Gorilla on the Block

2008-12-10T09:32:00.004+01:00

Hi, update time!
Here's one of my K-fighters (the other one will soon be done). He isn't painted exactly the way my Kaptars are as you can see. This is fully intentionall as I wanted to separate the different classes (*/**/***). *=will be camouflage as they are engaging the enemy very close. **=will be gray, just wanted to make the elite stand out a bit. I'm going for Arceo and I thought it was a cool thing to show that they are from different families on Elyseé that are stuck together for some gorilla warfare. So the different colours really helps me to get that feeling. ***=will be plain green as they are support units and dont need the camouflage in the same way.

Hope you enjoy what you see. Feel free to make comments, that is what drives us forward so dont be shy! Below are some pictures of miniatures I posted earlier but now whith new better photos.

//Dangereux

Sethin, a love affair

2008-12-08T10:38:00.004+01:00

Wow, what is not to love about this miniature. Just plain awsome. Smooth metal, great details and I just think the pose is great. She was a joy to paint. I tried to have some colour/light theory in mind. In very short, shadows of coloured light is the complement color (inverted). It isn't fully as obvious in reality as in the miniature, but I wanted to make it abit twisted, think it fits the Confrontation universe.

Now Im painting an Asadar and that is utterly impossible for me, doesnt fit my style of painting at all, so I had to strip a miniature and have done another try, still not really happy but sort of enjoy the basic feel. It is very bright with not very much constrast, I wanted the asadar to be like fighting angels or something, almost other worldly so I didnt think about shadows and theories around colours as I used too. I'll probably post something about the Cynwäll in the end of the week. Take Care!

//Dangereux

All your base are belong to us...

2008-12-05T09:48:00.004+01:00

Hi, Just another quickie... made a new base to make the leader stand out in the sentinel unit, making it easier for both my self and my opponent when playing. Made with oven curing clay. Take care and watch out for the polar bears.

I don't want to wait in vain for your love...

2008-12-05T09:41:00.005+01:00

Hi there! Guess if I was happy when Rackham Entertainment Anounced that Daïkinee will be released after Ram. My favourite army, I have quite some stuff in metal that I dont want to paint until I see what direction they will take with the elves and fairies. I have a couple painted though so I decided to rebase Meari and take a good picture of him! Just to get me in the mood and hopefully you too. :)

//Dangereux

X-bows for X-mas

2008-12-04T10:01:00.004+01:00

Looks like Sykho is going to pull on a loose beard and play santa this year as well and I'm quite sure that Claudia will be a happy puppy recieving the latest clones, wintery and all!

Pretty straight forward and quickly done, exactly the same way as the earlier clones, added some more stuff to the bases though. Hope you enjoy them.

And for you AT fans out there, keep visiting! More stuff will turn up in the future. Probably next week.

//Dangereux

A break...

2008-12-03T22:36:00.005+01:00

I realized that I was in need of a break from all the foamcore, plaster, resin and silicone for one evening. Terrainmaking is fun but pretty hard, hehe.
I spent the evening looking at my PPP Wolfen, and decided to repaint a Rune Guardian.
Again I went for a pretty simple paintscheme, keeping the skintone with a few washes and a quick pretty dull highlight. Spent more time (but still keeping it simple and quick) changing the colors on the clothes, leather, bowl etc. Yet again lots of washes and a few diluted highlights, a base and it was done.
It will work for me on the battlefield.

Before and after:

//Rofen

A Tale of Two Brothers

2008-12-02T09:41:00.004+01:00

Two Aberrations is a must for any Scorpion army with self respect. Well, thats what I think, with two Aberrations, a Nefarioius and a whole lot of clones you will go far! So here are the pride of my Shamir army:

This is the unpainted plastic version wich I got two of, you have some building options and together with different type of bases I tried to make them as different as possible but still keeping the same colour scheme.

As for the colours, I have limited my self to using the same as for the prepaints; 2 shades of gray, red, blueish green, black and metall. I did them very straight forward, wanting a high table top standard but not as good as for competitons.

I painted the arms and legs separately to be able to get the details done better. First I painted the basic colours for all areas at once. Then I gave everything a black wash. Now I had a pretty dull miniature so I started going over the areas with the basic colour again, working with extremely thin layers and adding white or beige for every highligt (and skin colour for the red).

Then it was back to shading time, now just working where the shadows would be, I added a bit of a purple wash at the skin, not everywhere, just where it was needed to make the areas less flatt. I also whent over a lot of areas where skin and metal merges with a deep red wash, in 3-4 layers to make it look infected. Lastly I picked out the metal parts and then gave some of the metal areas a wash of a gooey green hue, much like seen in the prepaints.

Bases are sculpted with a clay that cures in the kitchen oven. Daikinees are my favourite army of all time of any gaming system, so I sacrificed some details like the Sylph and a Shield and part of a spear from a Daikinee Warrior, just so that I get angry my self at these wicked creatures. :)

Hope you like them, they serve me well in battle!

//Dangereux

WANTED: A feral look!

2008-12-01T15:25:00.010+01:00

When I got my CAoR starter-box, I knew I had to add a few touches here and there on the Griffins and they were fine, but with the Wolfen I wanted a more feral look. They were to bright, I thought to myself.
I decided to repaint them. I didn't want a paintscheme that took forever to complete, so I aimed for a quick one with lots of washes. Working with a few at a time will really help finishing a unit in no time.

I started with a quick tan tone on the skin. When this was dry a couple of layers of purple and brown washes, trying to get the purple more visible on the shadow parts.
One or two diluted highlights with tan, depending on the bodypart, and I was home.

Now the miniature looked really awful with the purple-brown-tan skintone and a bright orange-brown hair, so I began to paint the hair.

A flat bluegrey base and about three or four layers of diluted black wash. This was then highlighted with the bluegrey up to bluegrey+tan(10/90). And the hair was done!

Darker colors on the armor and the pelt/clothes, a quick NMM on the weapon, and a pretty simple base.
Voila!

//Rofen

My Love for PrePainted Plastic Pt. II

2008-12-01T12:46:00.004+01:00

So, after some left over turky I'm back in the game! This time I just want to share some Dirz prepaints that I have improved. Same idea as in my previous article. First a dark wash, this time I used just black (thinned down and with PVA added). Then I go for a first quite wide highlight trying to match the prepaint colour, then I add two highlights more, first adding a bright beige colour and then adding white for the green areas. Similar approach to the skin and metal. The grey areas are only highlighted with no wash and just one highlight for the edges.

Made simple bases by just painting them white and then adding snow powder with PVA glue, and adding a random painted rock. All in all, I didnt spend more than Two hours on the Clone Unit including Kheris. 1,5 hours on the sentinels approx. It takes a bit of a practise to paint quick but with the prepaints as a base it is as easy said as done.

Good enough for the tabletop, isnt it?

//Dangereux

IntROFENduction

2008-12-01T11:20:00.008+01:00

The name given to me 33 years ago was Mathias, but when it comes to the miniature community I'm known as Rofen.
I've been in the hobby for nearly 15 years now, with a few years off in my mid twenties. I was a pure gamer in the beginning, but then I start paying more and more attention to painting.
One thing that I've alwys been interested in is terrainmaking. Bad terrain, is for me, as bad as non painted armies. But it's hard to make impressive terrain. You have to make so many tests before actually start working on the real pieces, well thats how I work.

Other interests are my better half, our house, traveling, fly-fishing, music and of course wine and food. I'm educated at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, London and here in Sweden. Wines from all over the world interests me, but closest to the heart are red wines from Cote de Nuits, France and dry Rieslings from Pfalz, Germany and of course Champagne.

As mentioned earlier I'm an addicted terrainmaker, but I'm also an addicted painter. The turning point came when I bought my first Confrontation miniatures, and saw the way the top-painters had painted them. Now I'm trying to become a better painter and I do practice as often as I can. It's good to have a really good painter, read Dangereux, as a close friend and copartner. You become better and better for every miniature painted.
Regarding Pre-Painted miniatures, I am totally supporting Rackham in their decision.
You have a complete army ready to play with! Excellent! Countless times I have played games versus people that have painted just a few miniatures, and I hate that.

Confrontation has been my main game for a couple of years now, and I think CAoR is a wonderful game! Easy, straight forward, but lots of depth and full of tactical opportunities. You really can pull off some nasty tricks on your enemies that can turn the tide of battle.

I'm currently working on a couple of demo-tables for CAoR.

Here's the plan for one of them and a WIP on the monolith:

My Love for PrePainted Plastic

2008-12-01T08:25:00.007+01:00

First post in a brand new blog, exciting times! First of all, I just want to do a short introduction and I'm sure that my copartner Mathias (aka Rofen) will follow with his later on.

My real name is Johan, even though in the internet comunity I'am probably most known as Dangereux and some other odd names aswell. I have been playing miniature games on and off for about, 17 years now. Other interests are art and design, music and theology. I also love good food and wine, predominantly French even though you can get good wine form all over the world these days.

But now, lets get to the point. You're not here to read about me now do you?

Beeing the father of three and working more than full time as an interior designer and art director the step that Rackham took with PrePainted Plastic was a real blessing for me. It just couldnt have been any better.

I don't have time to paint a complete army from scratch, I could paint for skirmish level, yes, but I more often enjoy larger battles. I instantly fell in love with AT-43 when it was released, with a Operation Damocles box I was ready to play instantly... without poor and ugly unpainted miniatures, and from there the armies have been growing. I was a Confrontation 3 player and when we got Confrontation 4 I jumped on it directly.

Beeing a creative person I still love to paint, now I can focus most of my painting time at the Rackham Legends range and also improving the prepaints as time goes. I can work with a unit at a time and still the whole army will look good on the tabletop, because they are PRE PAINTED! :) Instant love!

So, I want to share a couple of examples below. I will start with the AT range and continue with Confrontation later today.

Here you can se at first the PrePainted version and then my improved version. With the infantry I have not spent more than 20 min and maybe 1 hour with the Fire Toad. This is how I do it:

First, I give the miniature a wash of very diluted black/brown mixed with just a tiny drop of PVA glue. When dry, I paint back the original colour as a first high light and then follow with one or two further highlights and with the Fire Toad I also added some weathering. This is the result:

I have also done a couple of Repaints, still following the way stated above, just replacing one field of colour with the miniatures (replacing only one colour saves me a lot of time but gives the miniature an unique appearance). Here you have a couple of examples of this:

Hope you enjoyed it, the pictures are a little bit old and some have been posted earlier. There will be better quality from now on!

/Dangereux