12/31/13: SLW: A Most Odoriferous Look at 2013

Howdy folks!

Hope you all had an excellent holiday! I walked away with a new lightbox, some Broncos gear, and the new Stronghold Assault book, as well as the time spent with my loved ones! I'm still out of the studio til the 2nd, but expect some hardcore painting to start out the new year!

So 2013 has come and gone and, I don't know about you all, but its been quite a year! Tons to paint, lots going on with both the business and my personal life, and some big plans for 2014! Lets just jump right in, shall we?

January

School was kicking my butt early this year as I was starting my final semester of school! I was still wrapping up pieces for my local Ogre Kingdoms player.

February

February was one of my biggest months I'd had in quite some time! I got and finished my first Blood Bowl commission; a Necromantic team called the All-Madden 2045, and every player was a pun from an actual NFL player. 

I also traveled to Denver for Genghis Con 2013, where my Giant Chaos Spawn won my first award for SLW; plan is to go again this year and bring home a first place award this time!

March

Finished two good-sized armies this month; an IG Allied Detachment, and an all-female Henchmen force.

March was also Lost Souls 2013, run by my buddy RTGamer. We're hoping to turn this bad boy into a full-on convention in Pagosa Springs this year, so stay tuned for more information on that!

April

Crunch time! With my final semester wrapping up, focus jumped back to school for the month. I had some pieces entered into my Senior Art Show!

I also finished my first Heldrake commission, a stock Nurgle monstrosity! I still need to paint mine...

May

May went by in a blur! I wrapped up two commissions; a Valkyrie for a client on the East Coast, and a Realms of Battle Board. Those Battleboards paint up super fast, and would be the first of two I'd paint this year!

I also took a little trip to the land of the Nile. Its a beautiful country, even if its in perpetual revolt right now. We got lucky and were there between uprisings. You can see my goofy mug rocking the Arafat Headwrap in the back there!

June

The summer was incredibly busy, as I was traveling to see my girlfriend, working at the shop, and trying to keep up on painting. Unfortunately, painting took a little bit of a blow here, and would cost me later on (That's a story for another time though!)

Started doing some High Elves for the guy I was doing Ogres for earlier this year also!

July

Completed the biggest commission I've ever painted! Nearly 200 Armageddon Steel Legionnaires, all pewter! While my brain was really fried at the end of this one, I paint to see awe-inspiring groups like this!

More High Elves too! 

August

Two commissions I should have finished earlier, but that's neither here nor there. Thunderwolf-Heavy SW, and the Dreamer Malifaux Crew!

September

September was nuts! Not only did I do a ton for my client's High Elves, but also completed an entire set of terrain for the hobby shop in Farmington (I painted their battleboard in May).

October

Lots of charitywork this month! Extra Life 2013 consisted of so much Super Smash Bros I needed an icepack at the end of the night! The Cygnar Group raised about $400 for Magilla's charity in SoCal, so I'm extremely happy about that! I found some time to finished Arkos' bodyguard squad of Warp Talons for my own Alpha Legion, which I'm extremely happy with! I also started painting Skaven for the same client I've done Ogres and High Elves for all year, starting with the Screaming Bell!

November

November was crazy busy! Lots of commission work and a little personal work. I repainted and finished my Baneblade, just in time for Escalation! Gotta say, love that expansion, I've actually gotten to play with my Baneblade with it! This guy was originally for sale, but I might hold onto it now...

As for commissions, I had some Defense Lines (so many stretchy guardsmen!), an all pewter Khador Cavalry group, and a Forge World Vulture! Lots of fun projects in November!

December

December has been almost as busy as November! I've done a little work for my Alpha Legion by getting my Helbrute finished up (Thank god for the Iron Man movies for saving my sanity painting that skintone!). I also completed another full set of terrain for Good Games down in Farmington; that's a table and a half worth of terrain in under two weeks! I also started on a Necron commission that I'll wrap up this weekend!

2013 brought a lot of changes, both good and bad, for Smells Like Wargaming and myself. Every year is a new learning experience, and I'd like to think I've learned a lot about myself and the business this year. 2014 already has some grand designs and expansions planned, so stay tuned this next year my dear readers, and enjoy the roller-coaster ride with me!

Have an excellent New Years folks, and I'll see you all in 2014!

Granesh

10/26/13: Finished: Charity Cygnar Battlegroup

Hey guys!

So about a month ago, my good friend Magilla Gurilla came to me, looking for prizes for his charity 40k and Warmachine event. He was looking for something like a Dreadnought or some vouchers, but anything would do. Jump back to March, as the shop I manage was getting rid of our Warmachine stock, as it just didn't take off around here. Everything was 50% off, so I had to pick up some paints and a Battlegroup. I saw Cygnar, loved the look, picked them up, built them, then packed them away. I decided I'd rather see the group do something charitable than collect dust, so I set to work!

I opted for a simple-yet-effective scheme to allow someone to add to the group easily, yet still making these pieces stand out.

Really happy with the vent glow; its P3's Arcane Blue layered up to white.

Really happy with Stryker, but getting photos of his face is driving me nuts! I layered him up to Pallid Wych Flesh, so getting that color to photograph right has been a nightmare.

The Power Sword effect turned out perfectly!

The Lancer; I'm really happy with the checkers on the shield, and the glow effect turned out nicely on his shoulders.

The Charger; probably my least favorite Warjack, just not a lot of area for customization on him.

Big Bada Boom!

And the Ironclad! This guy was fun, pretty intimidating-looking model, but lots of space for weathering and freehand.

The Cygnar emblem on his top part is all freehanded; really adds some personality and effect to the model.

Stryker and his bodyguard of Jacks holding the Smells Like Watchtower from those crazy Menoth jerks!

So glad to be done with these, and I'll be even happier to see what they raise for charity. Speaking of charity, Extra Life 2013 is only a week out, so if you haven't supported the cause, swing on over to the page HERE and show your support! Anything is appreciated!

Alrighty, I'll be out of the studio this coming up week, visiting my girlfriend for Halloween, but expect tons of pictures of Extra Life the following Saturday/Sunday, and I'll be working hard on terrain and some IG stuff the week after! Stay tuned guys!

Granesh

8/25/13: Finished: The Dreamer Malifaux Crew

Hey guys!

So this has been a project long in the waiting, but its finally done! This is Magilla's 4th Malifaux crew painted by your's truly, and I've gotta say, this is definitely my best one to date! A ton of fun, it just took me a little time to get into it! Lets jump straight in, shall we?

Lord Chompy Bits! I opted for a human-esque skintone to make him a little more menacing and creepy looking.

The crew leader, The Dreamer. Shame the shot turned out a little blurry. All Magilla requested was for him to be wearing a 'Tapout' shirt, for some added character. The black t-shirt changed the entire feel of the piece, which I'm extremely happy about!

Doppelganger. A really interesting model, her backside is missing all its skin, leaving just muscle and bone. Tried to do a quick see-through cloth effect on her, think it turned out pretty well for a gaming piece!

And the back! Didn't get a regular shot, just one from her WIP on my workbench.

Lelu and Lilitu! I've done these models before, opted, again, for a human skintone, rather than the daemonic I opted for last time. Really happy with Lelu.

Widow Weaver: Because spider's aren't creepy enough, they need to be wearing Victorian garb! The model was a pain to glue together, but turned out extremely well in the end!

Waldgeists. Not the most exciting models, but they turned out pretty well for mossy werewolves! Pretty happy with the bone-effect on his face!

Daydreams. Hilarious little models, they're really quick to paint up, but have a ton of character on their own or in a group!

Mysterious Effigy. A really strange model, I opted for NMM on the clock hands and his kneepads to keep him just as mysterious.

Every Malifaux crew I've painted has had one model that just doesn't seem as exciting as the others. This time, it was poor Coppelius. Interesting little model, but he's wearing men's Victorian clothing, which works best in all black. Fun for the most part, the eyeball is a creepy little touch for the piece.

My favorite piece, on the other hand, was Brutal Effigy. I wanted to play with some Object-Source Lighting, and his prominent lantern made him the perfect candidate! Again, played with the NMM to allow me to really play with the OSL effect as well.

A brighter shot of the OSL as he was being worked on in the studio.

I'm glad to be done with these badboys! I've heard...interesting things...about Malifaux 2nd Edition, so hopefully these guys will be seeing a lot of play time as 3rd Edition gets closer to dropping!

Next up on the painting block is some terrain, more High Elves (White Lion Chariots, anyone?), and continued work on the Astral Claws. I'm also working on a couple pieces with my girlfriend while she's in town for the weekend, so I'll try and throw a post up about that next week! Stay tuned!

Granesh