Colore ton Monde: Avril

The final results are in for the April challenge, and as usual, can be seen here. As to the next challenge, well, there isn't one.

Club Chaos, the guys behind the challenge are calling this the last one. In their statement they posted today they say:

Avec le défi d'avril publié, cela clôt une 3e année de défi. Cependant, l'équipe de Club Chaos a décidé de passer à autre chose et ce mois d'avril était donc le dernier mois du défi Colore ton Monde.

Nous tenons à remercier tous les participants qui nous ont envoyé des photos mois après mois. Il était toujours agréable de publier cette galerie en début de mois, et de jongler avec les thèmes différents.

Nous tenons également à remercier l'équipe du Gamers' Vault, qui nous ont ...permis de vous offrir des prix trimestriels pendant ces trois années.

Bonne peinture à tous !

Which translates as the following:

With the April challenge issued, that closes a third year of the challenge. However, the Chaos Club team decided to move on and this April was the last month of the Colore ton Monde challenge.
We thank all the participants who sent us photos month after month. It was always nice to publish the gallery at the start of the month, and juggle the different themes.
We also thank the Gamers' Vault team, who have enabled us ... to offer quarterly prices during the three years.
Happy Painting all!

So that's it for now. The last painting challenge from the Club Chaos guys under the Colore ton Monde banner. It's been a blast, and I have enjoyed this as a means of helping break through the painters block that we all suffer when we stare at the lead mountain piled in front of us.  Foir that I want to say a big thank you to the Club Chaos team!

So, we'll see what they have planned for the future, if anything, but for now, I'll leave you with a gallery of my favourite challenge minis from the last three years.

 

If you want to see the full selection of minis painted for this challenge, then all the posts are under the Colore Ton Monde tag below. Alternatively, click here.

Khador Caster Challenge, April: Kommandant Irusk

This month has been a bust in painting terms, between family holidays and other commitments, I have had a grand total of 4 hours painting so far this month. Not that I am complaining, as the other stuff has been fun, but it does leave the post count here at a low ebb.

To combat this lack of time, I am painting one mini that will fit in both with this month's colore ton monde challenge, and my self imposed Khador Caster challenge. Since this month's colore ton monde was open to pretty much anything, this was not hard.

I had previously put some base colours down on pIrusk, and he is a relatively simple model compared to the epic versions of the casters that are left to do on my list, so that made him a shoe-in for this month's mini.

I experimented a bit on the Khador anvils on his shoulder pads and neck. as well as with the crest band on his hat. Rather than going for a metallic gold, I went yellow with a bit of highlighting. This is not an NMM effect as such, but has the same feel. A little more cartoony than many of my historical minis, but that fits with Mr Big-Hat here.

This leaves the Khador Caster Challenge in the following state:

Casters Painted: 6
The Old Witch and Scrapjack
Zerkova
pVlad (variant)
pButcher
pIrusk

Casters to Paint: 6
eButcher
eIrusk
pSorscha
eSorscha
Strakov
eVlad

Half way there in 4 months, but with some of the bigger models like eButcher and eIrusk still to go I'm glad to have time to work on them as they may take more than one month each at my current rate of painting.

Colore Ton Monde, April

This month is running late, both at my side in the painting and blogging, and at the Club Chaos side, as the challenge as posted is as follows:

Et bien, j'ai oublié de publier le thème d'avril... Pour compenser pour ce délai, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle que vous aviez déjà débuté par le passé. Comme ce n'est pas tout le monde qui a des modèles en attente, vous pouvez peindre pas mal n'importe quoi.

So, to translate, the theme wasn't posted in time, so to compensate, we are invited to paint a model that has already been started. This suits me doubly fine, as I have only just returned from a week's vacation in New York, so have not even thought about getting my paints out yet, and can't see much time in the rest of the month to do much either. Here's to getting something done eventually!

Colore ton Monde: March, the Green Lady

I'm on a roll thi month, three minis done and posted, and more to follow. Here's my mini for this month's Colore ton monde painting challenge, which was to paint something green, for spring.

This is a Reaper mini, and was bought to act as a sorceress for my fledgling Bretonnian army. It is a beautiful Werner Klocke mini, and deserves a better paint job than this one, but it will do for now. I'd like to go over the eyes again, as the close up of the photography as always makes them look scrappy.

 

Traditional Oldhammer Goblin Green for the base, but with some very modern flowers, in-keeping with the spring theme.

Colore ton monde

March's Colore ton monde painting challenge has been announced. Last month's entries are found on Facebook here, and more pictures of my entry are in this post. Looking at the other pictures on facebook, mine seems rather dark. I need to work on my photography setup!

This month's challenge is as follows:


* Un peu d'espoir, ou de bière ! *
Le printemps débute officiellement pendant le mois à venir. Avec lui devrait en théorie venir les premières pousses vertes. On sait bien que ça peut prendre un peu plus longtemps avec notre climat, mais la Saint-Patrick nous offrira notre touche de vert pour le mois, si jamais la neige ne part pas. Pour le mois de mars, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle contenant du vert, signifiant le renouveau,... ou alors un modèle festif, un peu porté sur la boisson.
 
* A little hope, or beer! *

Spring officially begins in the month to come. With it should come first green shoots in theory. We know well that it may take a little longer with our climate, but St. Patrick's day give us our touch of green for the month, if the snow doesn't leave. In March, we invite you to paint a model containing green, signifying renewal, ... or a festive model, a little worn on the drink.

So, what to go with? I can't think of any minis I have that have a beer or drinking theme, so I'll go with green. I'm unlikely to get one of my casters to fit this scheme. There is a bit of green on the Butcher model I'm finishing off, but he was mostly painted a long time ago, so I'm not going to enter him here. I pulled out a couple of other minis that I had started in green, so maybe one of those will be finished off...

Khador Caster Challenge: February, Vladimir, the Dark Prince of Umbrey

After having finished Zerkova, I had started to paint up Irusk as the next caster, but after playing a game of Warmachinea couple of weeks ago, where I fielded my Khador for the first time in a very long time (so long in fact, that many of the players at the store were unaware I had a Khador army, to them I was a Legion/Menoth player), and played and enjoyed my game with eVlad, I decided that Vlad was the way to go. Since my eVlad is not completely assembled, I dusted off pVlad. That is not a metaphorical dusting off either, this guy had been primed way back when he was originally released in 2005, and I literally had to clean the thick layer of dust off of his cloak before painting him!

This is the Variant version of Vladimir, the Dark Prince of Umbrey, after there was much outcry to resculpt the original version, which was a very early sculpt from Privateer Press, and is quite frankly lacking in charm. This version was originally released, with some of the proceeds from the sale going to Hurricane Katrina Relief.

His face is rather hidden, and hard to get to between those massive shoulder pads, but since the shoulders are clearly the focal point of this mini, I decided to spend the time getting them right, rather than the facial features,

Now that I have the paint scheme down for his armour, I can go and assemble the epic version, and get on with painting him, as he is a lot more fun to play with on the table. Afterall, the challenge to paint these guys up is with the intention of playing my Khador more too. I may even try to sign up for the next league at my FLGS with them, as I hear it's going to be a lot of fun!

To have this mini pull a double shift, I went with a winter base, that way he count's for this month's colore ton monde entry too. I went with the traditional PVA glue and baking soda mix, which worked perfectly when dry-brushed on the cloak, but didn't work so well on the base, as I had not base coated white, or blue, so the black of the base showed through. After that, I put a thin layer of white and blue paint, to cover the darkness of the PVA-Baking soda mix, then added some Army Painter snow flock. The result looks messy, and I don't like it, but for this month, it'll do, and I can always re-base him later.

Colore ton Monde, February, Baby it's Cold Outside!

It's the beginning of the month again, and the results from January's challenge have been posted on Facebook here, and my entry can be seen in greater detail here. February is a short month, so let'S get cracking on with the challenge!

The challenge for February is as follows.

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* Y fait frette ! *
L'hiver est bien entamé. Le froid et la neige sont notre lot pour le prochain mois au minimum. Pour février, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle hivernal, que ce soit son thème ou son schéma de couleur qui rappellent nos blanches campagnes.
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* It's Baltic out there!! *

Winter is well underway. The cold and snow are our lot for the next month at least. For February, we invite you to paint a winter model, whether its theme or color scheme reminiscent of our white campaigns.
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It would be very easy to just do one of my Khador Casters, and call it a day, however, the one I am nearly finished is not particularly wintery, save for a little snow on his base, which is a bit of a cop out I feel. I should however, stick with Khador, and do something else, as I intend for this to be the year of Khador in more ways than just with my caster challenge.

Colore ton Monde: MacBeth

This month's Colore ton Monde challenge done and dusted. What better representation of a chief or leader than the Rex Pictorium King of Alba and Mormaer of Moray, MacBeth. This version of him is for the Scots faction for Saga, as produced by North Star.

This guy is certainly imposing enough, he's huge. He is much more in line with my Dystopian Legion 32mm minis than any heroic 28mm figs I have. As can be seen by the fact he doesn't look out of place on a 40mm base. I don't know if this is the way the rest of this range are, or just the leaders.

 

 

I'm very happy with the face. I think the Masterclass has meant that I have levelled up in that regard. The shield was copied from one here. I'm not 100% pleased with the freehand, but it'll look okay at arms length. Lets face it, free hand is not my forte, never mind trying to replicate Celtic knot-work.

There's a great post on MacBeth to be found on the Saga Tapestry Blog. I'm not sure that I'll be buying into Saga in the immediate future, as I'm getting very much into Lion Rampant, but more on that in an upcoming post.

Onwards to my own challenge with the time remaining in January.

Colore ton Monde: January 2015

The results of the December Colore ton Monde challenge have now been posted on the Facebook group for all to marvel at, so with last month's offering now packed away ready to play, it's on with a new challenge for a new year! This month's Colore ton Monde challenge is as follows:





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* Macdonald, et pas le resto ! *
Le 11 janvier est l'anniversaire du père fondateur du Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. Pour l'occasion, nous vous invitons à peindre un "fondateur", un chef, un leader. Quelqu'un qui dirige, pas un sous-fifre !
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* MacDonald, and not the restaurant! *
The 11th of January is birthday of the founding father of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. To mark the occasion, we invite you to paint a 'founder', a chief, a leader. Someone who leads, not an underling!
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Well, as themes go, I really couldn't ask for more to help me off with my Khador 'Caster Challenge. I was also inspired to pull out MacBeth, as, as leaders go, you can't go much higher than a king! When I went to get him out of my bits box and build him up, who else should I find in there in need of some TLC, but eSorscha. The evening was spent carrying out the pinning required to fix both models, I'm now all ready and primed for this month.

Here's hoping I get as much time to devote to the hobby as I have had over the last two long weeks of Christmas break. Okay maybe not, but I should realistically manage two minis, one of whom is 75% chain-mail!

Alexia Ciannor

This month's Colore ton Monde just had to be something from the Painting class that I finished off. To that end, I was the closest to finishing off Alexia Ciannor This is the sculpt of her released for use in the Iron Kingdoms RPG, not the one that is sold in the boxed set, which I have always found to be out of scale with the rest of the game.

I love this mini and sculpt. I have had her for a very long time, but had held off on painting her till my skills could give the sculpt the justice I felt it deserved, so there was really no better place to start her off than at the Painting Masterclass. Coincidentally, that's exactly what Meg Maples said about the other miniature I took to the class, the Elven King.

As I previously mentioned, after the class on how to paint eyes in seven easy steps, I tried to paint her eyes three times before giving up. The class was only 2 days long after all. I may go back and try again, but I doubt it, as there's far to much other lead for me to get through.

I may be unhappy with the eyes, but I am more at ease with the metallics on this mini. The two brush blending on the coat at the back isn't so bad either. I may be starting to get the hang of this painting thing. Faces aside.