Painting Part 4 - Custom FUNKO POPS!

Are you familiar with Funko Pops? They're little vinyl figures with giant heads (sometimes bobbleheads) made in the likeness of various pop culture characters and personalities. Virtually every fandom has Funko Pops: movies, tv shows, video games, musicians, anime, athletes, the list goes on and on. They're fun little collectibles for your favourite pop culture content, and a rather large collectible industry has grown up around them. Some rare figures can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

So, combining my love of making custom presents (see Christmas books) and painting small things, this year I've started making custom Funko Pops as birthday presents for my family. My digital sculpting skills aren't that great yet so I don't design them from scratch, but there are many websites where you can buy custom Funko Pop components. I mash them together, print them on my 3D printer, and paint away!

This is the first one I did, for my father-in-law. He's a handy guy and he's worked as a carpenter for years, so he got a little hammer. He told me I gave him too much hair.

This is my wife. I liked this one for the detail on her tattoo, which of course you can't see in this picture. She loves to bake cakes (you can see her cakes in the background of several of these picture). This is one of the first models I had to physically re-sculpt, because her classes didn't come out properly. I had to use clay to repair the glasses frames and her hair, and I was pretty happy with the results:

This one's my daughter. It's not in the official Funko Pop style, but this one fit her perfectly. She loves the devil horns and demon wings. And at least she got to have details on her eyes.

This is my sister in law. She loves band t-shirts, and David Bowie is her favourite artist, so she got a little "Bowie" logo on her shirt.

Everyone loves the dog the most, of course. I had to repaint it, because I originally used a photo of her as a puppy, then saw her in person and realized her colours had darkened and changed. 

This is my older niece. This one is actually a repainted version of a character from the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I painted her as her D&D character (she loves cloaks), but her hair really is electric blue. She also got the nicest base so far.

This is my brother-in-law, and it's my favourite one so far. The logo on the hat was some of the first free hand painting I did at this scale, and I think it turned out pretty good. I was really proud of the stitches on the baseball and glove, but of course you can't see them in this picture. There's also a really nice salt-and-pepper effect on his hair and beard. 

So that leaves my mother-in-law, son and my youngest niece (and me of course, if I feel like making one of myself). I've started work on my niece, her birthday is the end of this month. I may do my son and mother-in-law for Christmas, though realistically I'll probably do them for their birthdays early in the new year.

Anyway, back to work/painting/writing/preparing for the Annual Halloween Haunted House.

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

Miniature Painting Part 3

Wow, it's been a year and a half since my last post about mini-painting. If any of you were following me for that, you must be gravely disappointed.

For those who don't remember, about two years ago I started a new hobby - painting gaming miniatures. I don't play Warhammer, but I do a lot of roleplaying game minis (Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, etc) and I'm branching out to some other things. I did a whole series of posts about painting and modelling for the 2023 A-to-Z Blog Challenge. I meant to continue using this blog as a place to share some of my creations, but I've been really irregular about it. 

So anyway, let's get back to it. For reference, I think this batch are all models I painted about a year ago.

It's nice to see how far you've progressed. Below are two models. The one on the left is one of the very first I painted, well over twenty years ago. The one on the right is a new one. I think I've doing pretty good.

These are from the first painting contest I ever entered last summer. The character, the "Red Scribe," is from an actual play podcast set in the Lord of the Rings universe, featuring a bunch of notable gaming folks, such as Reggie Watts, Deborah Ann Woll and Luke Gygax (Gary Gygax's son). It also featured Sala Baker, an actor and stuntman who played Sauron in the Lord of the Rings movies (he was the guy inside the sharp pointy armour), as well as numerous orcs and other monsters, and an appearance by Elijah Wood. It was in support of Children's Miracle Network, and anyway there was an associated painting competition. The scene I depicted was when the heroes encountered the new villain at the Grey Havens (years after most of the elves had gone West over the sea). 

I did not win anything, but I thought my entry was pretty good and I was happy with how it turned out. It was fun to have a set goal and a deadline, as usually my painting is pretty laissez-faire. 

Here are some random baddies I made for nothing in particular, just because they would be useful for any D&D game. I used mostly Army Painter Speedpaints (I talked about these last time), which makes it very quick and easy to get a decent outcome, but I continue to notice how bad I am at taking photos. 

Here are some minis that were inspired by a specific game. I was playing D&D with my kids and nieces, and somehow the bad guys ended up as this organization that destroyed forests just for the fun of it - they called them the "Anti-Environmental League." So I made some models to match, with even a some custom-painted coat-of-arms. These bad guys were also featured in the yearly Christmas book last year, which I'll probably talk about at some point.

Finally, I'm quite proud of these models of Rincewind and Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. They're a little larger than the miniatures I usually paint (about 10cm tall), so on the one hand it was easier to paint some of the detail. On the other hand, there was also MORE detail than usual, so it took a lot longer as well. 

Anyway, that's an update about where I'm at with my painting (or where I was about a year ago). Maybe next time I'll show some of the larger pieces I've done, or maybe something about the terrain you see in the backgrounds (all those pretty trees and stone walls). 

Hopefully I'll see you sooner than 18 months this time!

Hugs & Kisses,
-CDGK

Z is for Zenithal Priming

Zenithal Priming is an advanced priming technique that attempts to simulate shadows and highlights created by the sun at its zenith.

Basically, you prime the entire model in black, then spray on a white primer from above only. This leaves any lower edges and recesses black, creating baseline shadows even before you start blocking in your colours.

I've also seen this done with black, then a grey layer and then just a touch of white for the top most highlight.

All photos from The Army Painter

You don't even necessarily have to use white and black. You can also use complementary or contrast colours to get different, interesting effects:

And that's it! Twenty-six days about miniature painting! I did it, Ma! Thank you to those who stuck around for the full month, and I hope you learned a thing or two, or at least weren't too bored. Maybe you laughed at some of my terrible jokes or painting. Either way, you came back, so I appreciate it!

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

Y Can't I Find a "Y" Word?

Y can't I find painting terms that start with Y? I've been trying to come up with something for almost two months and I can't think of anything good.

Oh well. Instead I'll talk about a few terms that I missed earlier in the month.

Flash is the excess plastic on the seam lines of models, where the piece was previously attached to the sprue. These are usually easily removed with a sharp blade (like an X-acto knife), though they may also need sanding at times.

This model piece has a very pronounced flash line running all along its side. Hopefully it can be removed without slicing off the model's finger.

Source: Scar Hand Painting

Kitbashing is taking pieces from different model kits, and putting them together to create a new model. Many miniatures that require assembly (ie, Warhammer) come with extra pieces for customization (like alternate heads, weapons, etc). After you've been building for a while, you inevitably collect a variety of leftover pieces. These can be put together, or the "kits bashed" together to make completely new models.

This was very obviously put together from random parts. I have no idea what it's supposed to be, but it's kinda cool.

Source: Reddit

Varnish is a final layer of clear coating applied to a finished model to protect the paint job from the regular handling, bumps and scratches of gameplay. Though pretty much all painters agree that varnish is required, there is a variety of types to chose from. A matte, anti-shine varnish is most popular, as it prevents light glare and reflection, which can make your model look weird at such a small scale (remember how we talked about how light behaves differently on tiny models all the way back on Contrast day). There is sometimes use for gloss or satin (semi-gloss) finish, however, such as to simulate different textures or materials on your model. On my recent Darth Vader mini, I used matte varnish on his cape to make it look more like cloth, but satin on his armor to give it a more hard plastic and/or leather look. And gloss varnish is great for making things look wet, like eyeballs or fresh blood.

Varnish is commonly applied with a spray can, as aerosol varnish, like paint, tends to go on more evenly. That said, sometimes you may not want or be able to use spray varnish (varnish is even more sensitive to temperature and humidity than paint, and it also smells bad), so brush-on varnishes are also an acceptable option.

The difference in this one is a lot more noticeable, as I used a full gloss for the helmet and matte for the rest of it. In retrospect I probably could have used a satin for the helmet instead, but the gloss certainly gives a strong contrast.

Fun-fact: spray varnish and spray paint actually dissolves untreated XPS Foam, unless you seal it first. Like many other modelers, I learned this the hard way. Now that I seal the foam with a mixture of paint and glue before painting, however, I am able to use a spray varnish to finish my terrain.

One more day to go!

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

W is for... a Wide assortment of stuff

Washes we've discussed before - it's a high-viscosity medium that allows its pigment to flow into the recesses and low points of your model, adding shadow to the nooks and crannies.

Weathering is adding visual texture to a model to make it look old and well, weathered. This is a common technique used on vehicles and terrain to make them look rundown and battle worn. It's often achieved through a combination of washes and dry brushing to give it a dirty, rusty, battered look.

Wet blending is another technique, similar to layering and glazing, used to create a transition between two colours on your model. In wet blending, the two colours are added quickly side by side on the model, and then mixed and blended together while they're still wet. It's a bit trickier than some of the other blending techniques, as it requires speed as well as precision to pull off. 

A wet palette is a very useful tool for painting miniatures. Most of you are familiar with a standard painter's palette used to hold and mix paint - usually they're made of plastic, glass, ceramic, even wood or cardboard, really anything will do. The problem with mini painting is that you're using such small amounts of paint, they very rapidly dry out, often in the middle of painting. To mitigate this, a wet palette can be used. 

Basically a wet palette is a damp sponge with a  water-permeable sheet on top (parchment paper for baking works great for this). You mix your paints on top if the sheet, and the water from the sponge soaks through just enough to keep your paints wet and usable longer. It also has the added bonus of automatically thinning your paints. You can buy wet palettes or make them yourself quite easily, and they usually come with a lid so you can close up your paint and keep the wet and usable for up to several days.

Warhammer is a tabletop wargame made by Games Workshop. It's probably the most famous and popular miniature game in the world, but I have never played it so I know little about it. In it, two or more players pit their armies of tiny warriors against each other on a battlefield. Each players makes a team of equal points, where each little soldier on the field is worth varying numbers of points depending on how powerful they are. (A basic Space Marine is worth 13 points, while a tank is worth over 200). Armies are comprised of numerous factions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and backstory flavour.

There are a ton of rules as to the various stats and abilities of each unit, and Games Workshop is very particular about using only official Warhammer rules and minis. Because of this and because you have to assemble and paint all your figures, Warhammer is an expensive hobby to get into. The current estimate for your first army plus the supplies to make them is going to run at least $400, and I've seen plenty of people say that its realistically twice that amount. Just for one player to start playing (your opponent will have to invest a comparable amount). Its kind of nuts really,  but Warhammer certainly has its fanatics, and it's because of that strong fanbase that it remains the most successful wargame in the world.

V is for Vallejo

Amadeo Vallejo started Vallejo Paints out of his garage in New Jersey in 1965. A Spanish immigrant, he could barely speak English, so his Dutch wife, Eugene Safranek, handled most of the business and PR, while Vallejo himself perfected his new style of acrylic paints.

Vallejo in his workshop in 1971. Source

Vallejo's early customers were primarily animation studios, particularly Hanna Barbera (of The Flintstones and Yogi Bear fame). Animators appreciated the smooth consistent colours and strong opacity of Vallejo's paints. And when they needed tens of thousands of painted cells for a half hour TV program, that amounted to alot of paint, and Vallejo's business did quite well.

Soon, however, Vallejo grew homesick for Spain (who likes living in New Jersey, anyway?), and in the early 1970s, against the recommendation of his business associates and friends, Vallejo and his wife packed up their business and moved to Barcelona. They were lucky to get in on the ground floor just as colour television and cartoons started to become popular in Europe. Being one of the only acrylic paint suppliers on the continent, Vallejo was soon exporting his products across Europe. This was quickly followed by advertising and marketing companies- this is back on the day before computers, when advertising artwork and graphic design was all done by hand. 

Vallejo became the first producer of commercial, artist-grade, affordable tubes of acrylic paint in Europe. This revolutionised the fine arts industry, and by the early 80s Vallejo was working with art schools to produce a variety of lines of fine art paints, including for the new art style of airbrushing. Needless to say, business was booming.

Also in the 80s, Vallejo began making model and wargaming paints for third parties. Soon, however, people realized where the paint was coming from and started going to the source. By the early 90s, Vallejo had started their own line of model paints called Model Color, which was immensely successful and is still recognized as one of the top brands today. They also developed the dropper bottle, which is way better than the stupid pots that Games Workshop uses. With the advent of computer-animation in the 1990s, the animation business line of Vallejo dried up, but was quickly replaced by their growing scale modeling and wargaming line. In the 2000s they added Game Color, marketed specifically toward tabletop gamers, which was also successful.

Eugenie (in the back) and Alex Vallejo (right) at a convention in Valencia in 1978. Source

Amadeo Vallejo died in 2019, but the business continues to be run by his oldest son Alex and his brothers. Today they employ nearly 100 people and produce close to 2.5 million pounds of acrylic paint a year, making them one of the largest and most successful producers of fine art and model paint in the world. They have refused all offers for buy-outs and mergers, preferring to keep their business in the family and running the same way they have for nearly 60 years. They continue to innovate, just this year refreshing their line of Game Color paints, making their formula even better if possible, and adding a sweet line of contrast paints as well.

Bonus V: Vader

Talking about object-source lighting the other day got me wanting to try it again. I went back to the same model that first introduced me to OSL and tried to recreate it:

It's definitely not perfect, but it's miles ahead of my previous attempts. The biggest thing I would change is to cut down on the amount of red on the base - I think it would stand out more if it wasn't SO much red. I would also add more highlights overall, so the brightest spots would be even brighter. Still, I'm improving, so that's a plus.

Also, I've discovered that I love glazing, and I need to focus on improving that, as well.

(And and for reference, this was painted mostly with Army Painter paints, however there are definitely a few Vallejo shades and varnishes on there)

Anyway, that's all for now. Only a few days left!

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

U is for Undercoat, UV Resin

Undercoating is really just another way of saying "priming," which we discussed in depth last week. It's probably better to use the term priming anyway, as "undercoating" can be confused with "basecoating."

We also discussed UV resin last week, in terms of 3D printing. But UV resin also has other uses.

In printing, UV resin is deposited in thin layers and then cured with ultraviolet light to harden it into models. You can actually achieve similar effects by pouring the resin into a mold and then hitting with a UV light.

In modeling, UV resin is often used to make glass or water effects (materials that have a translucent appearance). 

Some custom bases that use resin to create awesome water effects.

You can also use silicone to create a mold, often by pressing it against a piece or texture you want to copy, and then fill the mold with resin to make a copy of the original piece. I've seen it used by people customized their miniatures, to create new shields, armour, or elementals to add to the base (like skulls, rocks, etc.)

It says "water effect" but what they're actually doing here is using a mold to create a small beetle-like creature, which could be easily added to a miniature or base.

Just a short post today, tomorrow should be more interesrting and involved. The end is in sight!

Hugs & Kisses,

-CDGK

T is for Terrain

Terrain is the area where you play your tabletop game, representing the environment where the characters are located. In a wargame like Warhammer, this could be a large battlefield, in Dungeons & Dragons this could be an elaborate dungeon or castle. Really anything is a possibility.

Some people use simple grid maps with 1-inch squares, providing a quick simple reference for scale. Obstacles and points of interest can just be written in with a pencil or erasable marker. This is certainly the cheapest and easier method.

This is a pretty nice battle map, honestly. I've seen stuff with just graph paper and crayons.

Source: Bell of Lost Souls

When simple maps are cutting it for you, you can start adding rocks, trees, doors, whatever works. Some people go for realistic, detailed pieces that would fit in a high-quality dollhouse. Currently, I’ve been making terrain out of 2-foot diameter discs, and then using interchangeable scatter terrain to customize the scene as needed. My zombie parking lot was made using this technique:

And here’s a forest I’m working on:

Next will be some dungeons/caves, for classic underground exploring. The nice thing about this option is that it’s customizable, and I can focus on the elements that are most important to the scene. I don’t need to put in every wall or crack, but there’s enough pieces to add interest and interactivity. Plus I can just move them around for the next battle/scene/game. And as an added bonus, I put the disc on a lazy-susan-style turntable so I can rotate it and every person at the table can see every angle.

Of course, some people go ALL IN, and build stuff like this.

Source: Imgur

Source: Warhammer Miniatures Fantasy Miniatures

Source: thenickeninja

I have neither the time to build this nor the space to house it, but I absolutely salute and envy the folks who have the skill and patience for this kind of craft.

Hugs & kisses,

-CDGK

S is for... Several Things

There are quite a few terms relating to models and minis that start with "S," so let's just quick go through a list:

Stippling is a technique where you apply tiny dots of colour using a very fine brush. Varying the density and colour of the dots can produce a shading/highlighting effect, much like screen tones are used for shading in comic books.

Source: Wargaming Tradecraft

Shading - we've covered this a few times, but shading basically means adding dark shadows/lowlights to create contrast. There are a few ways to do this: you can paint on shades darker than your basecoat; you can use a dark wash to fill in the recesses; or you can use a dark base coat and then drybrush or highlight with a brighter colour. I'm sure there are others as well, but these are the most common.

Scatter terrain is obstacles and decorative pieces that are "scattered" across the terrain or battle map for your tabletop game (you didn't think we just used tiny people by themselves, did you?). Common scatter terrain includes trees, rocks, and barricades for outdoors settings, or tables, chairs and barrels for indoors. They help set the scene as well as create interesting changes to the environment for the players to interact with or overcome.

Source: Me

Sprue is the plastic frame on which model pieces come attached. Often the first step to modeling, before the paint and gluing, is cutting these bits off the sprue. Many enterprising modelers will actually save their sprue scraps to make other models (especially handy for railings, pipes, antenna, etc).

Source: Bell of Lost Souls

Whew, made it through another week! Can I get through one more?

Hugs & Kisses,
-CDGK