The Lost Children

Last week was a week full with frantic painting as the competition is nearing its conclusion.
I spend so many hours behind my painting desk (our dinner table actually) that my shoulders started aching near the end of the week.
Seeing that I wasn't going to be able to finish it all, but had enough for the competition, I decided to call it quits and took a break yesterday.
The rest will be finished in the next couple of weeks.

Koi'Koi's children is a bit of a special project for me.
Not only because I was partially responsible for the creation of Koi'Koi and Jakiin, but also because the ferals remind me a lot of the lost boys from the Peter Pan story (though they are not really orphans).
A story I have liked since I was a little kid, despite discovering it's darker sides when I grew up.
Koi'Koi itself is a bit of an old fagin, using his protegees to further his own ends and needs.
His name is actually the name of the turtle I had at home, who was named after the first word my eldest son uttered when he was younger. We're still not sure what he meant though :D.
As Jakiin is named after my youngest: Jaquin, I felt it my responsibility to make an avatar for my two other sons as well, especially as they have showed interest in the game.

Paintingwise, I went for a more sober look compard to the official scheme Joe did. Not only because this suits my painting style better, but also because it speeds up the painting process as there are less colours to work with.
I did some research regarding the bodypaint used by african tribes and noticed that many were done in white, so that's the colour I went with.
I wasn't able to finish Benarii (modeled after my second eldest Benjamin), Lek'Saa with her four grishak jenta and my dompaku, but these will be done in the following weeks.
As I've been neglecting my duties in the Household chores to get everything done in time, I will have less hobbytime and they will probably take a week or so for each figure to finish.

 

Jakiin was already nearly finished when I started the project, which means he already had his base adorned with different kinds of grass tufts. However, I didn't take these with me to Australia which is why his base is out of sync with the bases of all the others.

The brave on the left is Jon'aa (Jonathan), the one on the right the regular one.

For my mutts I went for an unusual dark colourscheme, where I too my inspiration from the Uruk Hai from LoTR. They are all decorated by a three-fingered white hand :).

That's it for now, thanks a lot for reading!
Until next time!

Wouter
 

Keeping up the pace

I've been painting at every available moment since my last post.
However, things doesn't go as fast as I would like.
I always was a  a bit of a slow painter and now, with all the extra time I took for converting, I'm running out of time.
So I can only hope I will be able to get my second force finished as well before the competition ends.

But at the very least I finished my first force and another little pampered critter.
This is my Trebarnii ambush force with a Kelahn as support.
Luckily the new Trebarnii howlers came just in time and there are three different poses to start with.
The boss model didn't really look like a boss to me, just another Trebarnii brandishing a small tree, so I gave him some bark armour and leaves.
I apologize for the pictures being so dark, it's a rainy day here in Adelaide.

 

 

This is my pampered Daxu, not much changed since last time, I just added some flowers.

 

That's it for this time, back to my painting table :).

Thanks a lot for reading!
Until next time.

 



 

Moving forward

Almost a year since my last post, time flies fast.
Much has happened since, I had to pack all my stuff into boxes and send them over to Australia, as this is where I live right now with my family.
Some sacrifices had to be made, such as leaving stuff behind and selling a whole lot else.
Unfortunately the hobbyscene here in Adelaide isn't exactly as I hoped it would be.
Most hobby-stores seem to have a focus on either boardgames or Games Workshop. Both aren't really something I was doing anything with, though I did buy AoS Skirmish and the new Malign Portents book, with the intention to start a Moonclan warband once I got the funds.
Work is something else I made some sacrifices in, as my youngest can't go to school yet over here and daycare is crazy expensive. So I'm currently on parental leave, not sure if we will go back to Belgium before the year ends and start working at the company I left again or if I will search for a new job over here.
The result however is that there is no drive, nothing to look forward to, when it comes to painting, so I played a lot of Skyrim when I had nothing on my hands.

Lately I did have a small skirmish game with my eldest which he liked (I did let him win on purpose :D) and I hope to do some more in the future.
Another thing which suddenly gave me something to work forward to is the fact that Mike of the World of Twilight is organising another painting competition after the succesful conclusion of his Kickstarter somewhere in 2017.
This has given me a focus I haven't had in quite some time and with a deadline also something to work towards.

Here's the first results of my work, I also did a lot of conversions but haven't painted these yet.
The 14th of May is when the competition ends, while I don't expect to win anything I hope to have at least two forces and some pampered critters painted by then.
Something I probably wouldn't have time for is a scene from the Lion King, with a 15mm Onsegar (sculpted by myself) on Pride Rock (made with cork).

 

 

And here's what I achieved so far. I must admit the quality of my painting isn't what it should be.

I'm a bit rusty and I'm painting in a bit of a rush as I had to wait for some supplies before I could get started, not to mention a long holiday to Tasmania.

 

One of the topics is a pampered Preepree (or other creature), which is in fact an excuse to get some of the may creatures Mike has sculpted painted. I decided to give my Preepree a cushion to sit on and converted a painted model so he looks like a servant who has to feed the spoiled creature.
A very easy conversion as I simply had to change his brush in a spoon and put some food in his bowl.
The cushion and base have been magnetized so I can take the Preepree of and put it on a cart for whenever it's owner wants to show it around (and get ambushed).

I'm also working on my Trebarnii and a Draxu, which I call a pampered pest, but both are still work in progress. With the ribbon I did a quick conversion on the Draxu, while the Trebarnii got some added pouches and such, just to make them look more individual. One of the brutes got his pose changed to make him look diferent, this wasn't so easily to do on the other Trebarnii though as they are all holding their spear with both hands. I have some things planned for the boss, but he's still in the greenstuff phase.

 Anyway, it's good to be back and have some fun with my hobby.

 

Thanks a lot for reading and until next time (which hopefully won't be to far in the future this time).