Thursday, May 5, 2011

Captain Homer WIP

Hobby time has been sparse the last couple of weeks and I feel as though I've been in sort of a painting funk as well. There have been some exciting developments for my family concerning our desire to move to North Carolina which I will explain once things have been finalized, but in the meantime that is what has been taking up most of my spare focus and energy. I have therefore just been working on a few small projects whenever I've found both the opportunity and motivation to do so. There are quite a few half painted minis on my desk I can choose for such tinkering, none of which have been sitting there for as long as Captain Homer. I therefore decided a few nights ago it was time I went back to work on him.

Well what can I say? I hate painting white. It drives me crazy and is the reason I waited so long before returning to this miniature. Yet there's no way for me to realize my vision of Captain Homer without him wearing the blue and white power armour. As expected it's been problematic and I am not entirely satisfied with the results so far. I am happy nonetheless to finally be making some progress on this guy even if it has been at times frustrating. This should be however only the first of my Captain Homers as I plan on making several other alternate models of him for use with my Stonecutters army. Also, having been inspired by the story from Treehoue of Horrors XIII, "Send in the Clones," I would eventually like to make a squad of Homer clones with the same color scheme for use as the army's Death Company. I therefore should have numerous additional chances to practice working with white paint and hopefully I'll soon find a technique that feels more comfortable to me.

That happy little fellow pictured to the left of Captain Homer is his buddy, Mojo the Helper Monkey. Simpsons fans will remember Mojo from episode #5F15 of Season 9, titled "Girly Edition," in which Homer acquires a service monkey to do the various chores and duties that he is too lazy to do himself. Once I saw this miniature from the CoolMiniOrNot Limited Edition Series of a monkey armed with a flamer thrower, I knew he would make a perfect Mojo and had to find his way into the Stonecutters project. The approach for 40k that I've chosen for this is to treat Mojo simply as a marker denoting Captain Homer's weaponry, thus abiding by the standards of WYSIWYG but otherwise having no in-game effects. This particular Captain Homer will count as being armed with a power weapon and a hand flamer, making him a fairly cheap HQ option relative to most of the others that I expect to have with this army.

I am excited about the prospect of having this miniature painted and complete. It marks the long awaited beginning of the actual assembly and painting stages for my Stonecutters army, having been previously stalled in the conceptual and planning phases for far too long. If my schedule cooperates I think I should be able to finish Captain Homer and Mojo in the next few days, although I still have not made up my mind what I'll be doing for their bases which might have to wait a while longer. I'll try to get another WIP update posted soon once I've made some more progress. So until next time... happy gaming and painting, everyone!

17 comments:

  1. I had real trouble painting the white on my recent sisters of battle. It took ages to work it all up with wet blending until I was finally happy.

    I'm excited about seeing this army develop too! An army of armoured simpsons, it's just mad!

    I'm glad to hear the family is doing ok. I hate the process of moving! Far too stressful.

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  2. He is coming out really great. You are messing with 2 of the most difficult colors to mess anyways so kudos to you and all the effort!

    White can be a pain. Try starting off with a more subtle basecoat like space wolves grey or any blueish light gray for that matter. It will help you build the transitions easier.

    As for Mojo the Helper Monkey, he's really great but I can't help myself thinking of how good Jocaero he would become :P

    This project comes out really great!

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  3. Looking good so far, moving can be a bitch but also a good experience if done for the right reasons. Good Luck.

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  4. Looks like he's coming along well! Go Stonecutters!

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  5. Looking good so far. Helper monkeys are awesome.

    No beer and no TV makes Captain Homer something something...

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  6. Good effort Papps. How come you do the head separate? Mojo is cool - everyone needs a mojo.

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  7. Now I want a Mojo...

    Love the work so far on the captain, looking forward to more and good luck on the Project North Carolina.

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  8. @ Musings of a Smurf - The Sisters of Battle you've been working on look fantastic! I think you did a fine job with the white cloth, especially with such a smooth transition of colors for the shading. It's good to know that your patience was worth the effort. Thank you very much for the support, Musings of Smurf!

    @ Mihalis - Haha! I hadn't thought of using the monkey as a Jokaero, that's a great idea! Thank you for the advice about painting white, I think that will be very helpful. I did indeed start with a much darker base than I had initially intended and do not like the stark contrast that it created. I will try out a light blue/grey as you suggest on the next Homer... thanks! I appreciate your encouragement, Mihalis, best wishes to you!

    @ The Angry Lurker - Yeah, I'm eager to move but this has been more stressful than previous moves. The times I've moved in the past have been mostly easy but this is also the first time I'm moving and have a family of my own with a wife and child to think of too. Still I'm really looking forward to when we've settled into our new space, I appreciate you sticking with me through this sort of chaotic time. Thank you very much, Angry Lurker!

    @ sonsoftaurus - Awesome, thanks! Go Stonecutters!! :)

    @ Chaosheade - Haha... nice! Glad you like how it's coming along, thank you!

    @ Tristan - Woo-Hoo!! Thanks, Tristan!

    @ Rogue Pom - Haha, that's a great quote... "Everyone needs a Mojo." Well said, Pom! When I assembled this model almost exactly one year ago, I left the head separate partly as an experiment just to see if it would be easier that way, and partly due to an abundance of caution.

    I was worried that unwanted layers of paint would build up as I worked on the yellow helmet and the upper areas of the white torso if I were to make any mistakes. I did not think these colors would be too forgiving and that it would be easy for me to mess up a smooth finish with just a couple of errant touches from the brush. Around that same time I painted a test mini for this color scheme and had some trouble so thought leaving the head off would be worth a try. So far it seems like an okay method but probably would be less so for people with a steadier hand than me. :)

    Thanks for the enquiry and interest, I hope you are doing well... take care, Rogue Pom!

    @ Mik - Well I believe it... like Rogue Pom said, everyone needs a Mojo! Thank you very much, Mik, and best wishes to you!

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  9. Hey, its looking great! Yes white is a PIA to paint, but once you get there it does look mighty awesome. If you add some weathering to the white, it allows you to get away with being a bit lazy. It makes life easier!

    Have you considered working with oil paints? I know it sounds crazy, but they might be the best way to work with these troublesome colors. They make water solvent oil based paints if you don't want to bother with the messy clean up. Just a thought...

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  10. Ha! Thanks for the tip about weathering, any technique that plays toward my inherent laziness is gold! As for the oil colors... yeah, that does sound sort of crazy but after seeing the work you showed me with oils, I suppose it doesn't seem too far off the wall. I don't know if I'm ready to jump into the deep end of painting yet but will definitely keep that in mind. Have you been looking into doing more with oils yourself? It wouldn't surprise me at all if a few months from now you're painting miniatures entirely with oil based paints. LOL, you make me sick! ;) Thanks, DrGabe... I hope you're well!

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  11. I was wondering when your Simpons would show back up! Woohoo, Captain Homer. Looking good.

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  12. Yeah... I know, right? I think for whatever reason I've been dragging my feet on these guys. Oh well, I expect things will pick up once I've finished the move to NC and we'll hopefully see more of these Stonecutters soon. Thanks, Loquacious!

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  13. You've got style!

    http://musingsofasmurf.blogspot.com/2011/05/oh-get-you-arnt-you-stylish-smurf.html

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  14. Hey, hey! Right on, Smurf... thank you very much!!

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    Joel Houston
    JHouston791@gmail.com

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