Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

These are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle miniatures by Dark Horse Comics, they were made in the mid 1980's.  They are 15mm miniatures, very small compared to the usual 28mm miniatures I usually paint.

These awesome miniatures were created by Dark Horse to represent the characters in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic by Dark Horse.  If you are familiar with the comic series from the 80's and 90's, many of these characters may seem familiar.  The Triceratons, Fugitoid, Terror Bears, and many others are represented as miniatures.

To keep with the familiar look of the Turtles, I painted them in the colors of the cartoon, since the comic books originally had them all with red bandanas.  The only way to tell them apart was by looking at their weapons.  The owner of these miniatures wanted them to be easily distinguishable from a distance, so I painted them in the familiar red, blue, purple, and orange.  Also the color of their skin is different in the cartoons, so I matched it.

Painting these miniatures was extremely enjoyable.  I had many of the old Dark Horse TMNT comics on hand, so I was able to find good reference material for them.  These miniatures are very characterful and have lots of nostalgia for those of us that grew up watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Saturday mornings.  For the full collection, visit the Gallery.

Star Wars Jabba the Hutt's Throne Room Diorama

This is my first Star Wars Diorama, Jabba the Hutt's Palace.  This is a vintage model kit from the early 1980's, and as you can tell the miniatures are a bit cartoonish and comical.  The poses are a bit dated...about 90% of them have their hands on their hips!  But I think this adds to the appeal of these old kits.

The kit was easy enough to build.  The characters were snap together, and most of them were a single piece.  No small bits to fiddle with.  Every one of them stands on their own little base.  Assembly of the Throne Room was very simple and straightforward.  It didn't take long to build.  The base is a light and somewhat flimsy vacuum formed piece of plastic, but adding the walls makes it much more sturdy.

I found reference pictures from the internet to find accurate colors for the figures' paint schemes.  Every one of these guys has a name and was part of the movie, no generic aliens here.  So I did my best to be accurate when it came to getting them painted.

I loved this project and I really do like the diorama, although it could use an extra dozen figures to bulk it out a bit, and maybe a few more guards.  But all in all, this was an enjoyable and easy project to do.

Dark Angels

This is one of my personal favorite armies.  I love the Dark Angels and the dark, mysterious theme.  The monk-like robes and their secretive past makes them a fun army to play and collect.

These are a few of the characters from my Dark Angels army.

How to Paint Flames and Fire

This tutorial explains how to paint flames and fire.  The fire in the tutorial is on a sconce found on the top of a Space Marine backpack.  This tutorial can be used on flames of any type.

After priming the miniatures, paint the flames white.  This gives the yellow a nice and bright base to go over.  If you use a dark base, the yellow will have a hard time covering it up.

Use a light yellow for the next coat, such as Sun Yellow or Bad Moon Yellow.  This represents the hottest parts of the fire and will be seen in the deepest recesses.

A medium to dark yellow is next, such as Golden Yellow.  Leave the lighter yellow in the recesses.

Orange is next, and should be applied to the flame tendrils.  The pointy parts of the flames are the coolest, so they are painted darker than the deepest parts, which are hottest.

I found that the contrast between the yellow and orange was too strong, so I blended yellow with orange and painted the borders between the yellow and orange to ease the transition.

After the orange is blended, I painted Blood Red on the tendrils of the flames.  Leave an outline of orange in the recesses, and try to follow the shape of the flames with the red.  

A darker red, such as Scab Red or Khorne Red is used on the further tips of the flames.  Again, leave the lighter red visible and make sure to leave the lighter colors in the recesses.

The darkest red is mixed with black and painted on the tips of the flames.  

Pure black is painted on the very tips of the flames to suggest soot and smoke beginning to emerge from the flames.  I also took yellow and made tiny flecks in some of the recesses to suggest embers.

Finally, the sconce is painted black to finish off the torch. 

Masters of the Universe!

Take a look at this fun commission:  Masters of the Universe!  These He-Man miniatures are very rare, and really interesting.  My customer asked that I paint these to look like the cartoon characters, very bright colors, and looking as true to the original Masters of the Universe cartoon as possible.  Minimal shading, no realistic weathering, and did I mention bright and cartoony?

These miniatures were made in the 70's and 80's, and are very hard to come by.  A large collection like this is rare to find, and not many people have even seen these miniatures.  I was very excited to paint these and I had a blast looking through all the He-Man cartoons and He-Man toys to get reference pictures and inspiration.

Although this is not my usual commission style, I couldn't pass up the chance to paint such rare and obscure miniatures.  It's not everyday that you get a chance to paint something this fun and unique, especially a collection like this!

He-Man

Stratos

Zodak

Merman

Skeletor with spear

Skeletor in Wind Raider

He-Man on Battle Cat

Man at Arms

Skeletor with staff

Merman alternate pose

Ram Man

Beast Man

Teela

Man-E-Faces