SG 2

Hello there!

As you might know, if you have been reading this, las month I've been working on my First Sanguinary Guard Unit, and I've taken it slowly, caring for every lil bit with care and love, its been slow but quite joyfully.

Last time I uploaded just a quick Pic. from em, and the idea was to take a nice picture afterwards, sadly we afronted some technical difficulties, but finally we managed a new pic, with added detain and a nice format, also to be uploaded to DA. Without further addo:


It seems to me that I've managed to get the hang of the golden armor, and I'm almost finishing the rest of the models, so more pics coming soon.

Mica shift experiments

My first polymer clay blog! yay! I've meant to start writing them for a while, but I suppose I was lazy. I will start writing about a new favorite, the mica shift technique! This techniques yields some of the most amazing results I've seen, it's like an optic effect that leaves everyone I've shown it to mesmerized.

Mica shift is this thing when you align the mica particles in polymer clay, then you somehow disturb them again to produce interesting effects. Most people use stamps, because when you press the stamp in the clay and cut the raised parts, the pattern appears to be 3D while also being completely flat! It's a lovely optical effect.

I'm sorry I didn't take photos of the process, I will next time. I used Premo metallic because I read somewhere that Premo has more mica, so the effect is more stunning.  The most difficult part was aligning the mica particles, because I had to use a rolling pin... it wasn't really hard, but time consuming. Sanding down the pendant was very time consuming too because I did it manually using wet/dry sandpaper.

I don't know why, but at the time I got obsessed with making a dark red pendant. I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to make that pendant and trying the new technique, so this was my first experiment:

I think that it was fairly decent for my first time, even with the uneven spot on the left side. It's more amazing in person, but it does look 3D! I somehow had the feeling that the 3D effect could be more noticeable, and I remembered reading that the mica shift effect was usually less bold when using red clay. So I made another try with golden premo:

It's sooooooo much prettier! The "carved" parts look deeper with gold clay than with red, so the 3D effect is so much more stunning. I also did a better job sanding/buffing this piece, so it's completely smooth. This is incredible, I love it so much :D

When I was sanding the clay, I noticed that the effect was bolder when the piece was wet. It somehow got into my mind, and I started to ask myself if it would look "more 3D" with a nice layer of gloss...

It totally does!!!

A side photo, so you can see that the surface is totally flat.

This was a very fun experiment. I already got a couple of requests for more pendants, they're surely fun to make and I love the way they look! I hope you can appreciate it from the photos, I did my best to make the pendants look as they do in real life... but the mica shift effect may be something you must admire in person.

I will post a new tutorial soon :)

Sanguinary Guard #1

So, as you may have seen, I got lots of Blood Angles love last month, and it has been "Osom"! to work with, I'm taking it slowly and carefully, enjoying every aspect of the hobby, from reading and getting inspired, knowing as much as possible from the unit and the warriors I'm bringing to life.

Only after being aware of what and who i am modeling, I do my best to try to make justice to the lovely models, every single lil bit has its background, every insignia or honor is considered and acknowledged when painted. Whit every stroke of the brush, with every layer on the artificer armor, I visualize the thousands of years it represent.

And just like this, after 3 weeks of work, the first two Sanguinary Guardians are completed, ready to bring a rain of blood and doom to the enemies of mankind, and hopefully with the help of these gorgeous models, I was able to project the magnificence of the Golden Saints.

Oka is a happy boy

I don't know why Oka wanted me to write this blog post instead of him. He says that he likes the way I write, I think he is just lazy. 

What I want to share today is the fulfillment of Oka's wildest dreams. Since he read the first things about a certain "Warhammer" game, and started researching it every night instead of doing his homework, this image has been forming in his brain. I KNOW IT, I was there the whole time during his daily "I want this model, and this model, and this model, and this model...".

Used a blanket as background. We are a professional photographer, precious!!

He finally has about everything he needs, or at least for now. Christmas and his birthday were a HUGE help! Let's review each thing:

The LOTR has the best terrains!

Ruins of Osgiliath terrain. The moment I saw this, I fell in love! It's my favorite terrain ever, it will be a great addition to our game. I've been showing it off to everyone I can, Oka made a great pick.

Tilted the second box so it looks more interesting, precious!!

Two Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard boxes. Actually, he got the first one around October, and the second one for his birthday in February. When he got the first box, we spent the whole night just admiring the models, all the detail, all the symbols, all their beauty... then we started to make silly jokes about them, I can't even remember most of them now, and they're too long to explain. Maybe I'll share them some other time, but we had a lot of fun.

I like the front image so much, I think I'll have to frame it!

A Blood Angels Battleforce!!! Oka talked about this battleforce so much, I think even I had dreams about it. Well it was worth it, it's beautiful, it has way more pieces than I expected! Oh I'm sure we'll have so much fun with this fat baby, I can't believe it even includes spare purity seals... amazing!

 I got nothing funny to write here :(

February 2011 White Dwarf. I feel like I should be jealous of this magazine, because lately Oka spends more time looking at it than looking at me*! Then again, I can't blame him, it has some really pretty photos and great articles... oh, and it's about the Blood Angels. I hope that by now, you all noticed that Oka is absolutely obsessed with them.

Why must all fun things be so expensive? Metal models are the best example for this rule.

Lemartes and Dante.  I have to admit, I was really excited about getting these models, even if they weren't for me... Lemartes history is just amazing, and both models are extremely detailed and just perfect. Hmmm... it will be fun to smash them with my orcs.

After all the previous photos, this looks a bit lame.

And finally, gold paint for his Sanguinary Guard and a Mega-Dice. One of the first things I learned about Oka, back in his days of playing RPG, was that he's a dice geek. Notice how he stores the dices, and you'll understand.

Well that's it for now. Oka is now very lovingly painting each model, I'll poke him until he submits some photos of the two he's finished so far, they're by far the most beautiful things he's ever done!

Love,

Talty

*I'm actually joking, but I wanted to tease Oka a bit. He makes the cutest faces when I tease him.

Oka loves hamburgers

When Oka discovered that they were selling the McRib in Mexico, he just HAD to go eat one. He loves hamburgers and he loves ribs, and he had read a lot about the history of the McRib... he also loves things that are special events, or limited, so it was perfect for him.

So, after much begging on his side (he's on a diet) and anticipation (he had to wait a week for our "date"), we went:

He liked it a lot! See that tiny bag of fries? That's what I ate, the rest is his. I recently learned that there's a possibility that the fries are not vegetarian, so I'm not eating them again. It's a shame because I liked them, but it's not really a difficult or painful decision to make.

I think the McRib was a nasty, greasy, ugly thing, but Oka liked it a lot. He had a great time, so I am happy for him :) He even told me the history of the McRib, apparently there's a whole cult behind it... who knew?

I think he'll ask me to take him again next week, before they take it out the menu. I'll have to figure out what to eat.

Squad VI Blood Knights

It was time for an update! Some time ago I posted about some combat Squad I was working on, well it worked out pretty well! It seem Im improving my painting skills, i ventured even deeper on freehand detailing and after understanding a lil better how to apply layers of details it seem to have proven right.

I followed my BK scheme, with some additions on the shoulder pads. stating the Squad and the Company. Some individual and team Heraldic Featuring the Sgt's (Black pad)

So lets give it a look:

Some Fluff behind them;

Chapter: Blood Knights

Company: 2nd

Squad: VI

Every mission has an objective, sometimes as basic as survive and most of the times the burden the battle brothers must endure includes gathering valuable intell or protecting sacred ground, retrieving ancient and rare technology or even in some other times the deed includes keeping alive the light of humanity and hope.

Every brother knows this, even on an elite and rentless attack force as the Blood Knights when most sheer blood and ripe thought the enemy to emerge victorious, Its up to the VI Squad, to stay back and ensure someone is there to claim the objectives, to take the resources or to protect the human hearts.

As this, on the tabletop, this VI Squad stays back and when the time comes grab the objectives letting the full force of the army rain fire and blood on the enemy

Update on Lili

Lili has now been in Oka's department, with Zuko, for a week. I'm excited to announce that they're doing great! They started playing from the first minute they met, and they're now happily together. Zuko loves to groomer her and Lili loves the attention, so they make a perfect match. With all the playing they do, we're hoping Zuko will loose some weight (the vet scolded us last time about how fat Zuko is).

The other day we found them like this:

Yes, it's shedding season! Things can't stay clean for 5 minutes...

I don't know how they managed to fit together, but they were pretty happy. I couldn't take a photo of them sleeping, because when I approached with the camera they woke up and started wondering what was I doing. Shame, maybe next time.

Now that Lili is healthier and more comfortable at Oka's, she revealed her mischievous personality. Granted, all cats are mischievous and will play with anything you leave at hand unless you teach them, but Lili is specially creative. Her current hobby is taking off the foam core of cushioned chairs.

I'm just helping you redecorate.

Please notice that her eyes are getting bluer. When she arrived her eyes were a light cold blue, almost white from some views. The vet said that it's a good sign, but he failed to tell me why. I assume that it means that she's healthier?

Zuko is Oka's little boy, much like Kira is my little girl. Zuko absolutely ADORES Oka, they're very cute together! But sometimes I have to scold them when they play rough (no Oka, you shouldn't let Zuko bite you!).

Zuko is loosing weight soon! He's now on a diet.

One of the things that we love about Zuko are his ears. He has some tiny hairs at the tips that make his ears look extra pointy and cute! Because of it, Oka named him "Gato Picoreja" (loosely, "Pointear Cat").

Yep those hairs!

Well that's it for now, I'm sorry if I talk about my cats too much... I'm a proud mommy.

Thank you Kuja, for sending us Lili.

Talty