Start your (steam) engines!

With only eight days left in the month, it's starting to look like my plan to finish my buddy's entire Ramos force in the month of February might have been a bit ambitious.  While I have three other figures in varying stages of painting at the moment, the Brass Arachnid here is only my first completed figure of the set.

In painting this guy I got to experiment with a number of colors and techniques I've never used before.  First, this is probably the first model on which the metallics used were not only silver or gold.  The brassy color was a neat experiment, the results of which I'm fairly happy with, and I can't say enough nice things about the Vallejo Game Color "Tinny Tin" that was used as a basecoat.

Attempting a verdigris, or patina, effect on the brass, I also for the first time experimented with using a shading color that contrasted with the main color.  Shading, particularly with washes, has always been in an attempt to build a natural darkening to the base tones, but never to create any other type of effect.  This is something that I'm going to have to play with quite a bit more (and fortunately there's enough brassy automatons in this Ramos force to allow for that), but I really like this first attempt.  For those interested, this was accomplished with the rather excellent Secret Weapon Minatures "Storm Cloud" wash.

In other news, and to further complicate my attempt to get Ramos and his machines finished in a timely manner, I've involved myself in the 8th season of the Wyrd Miniatures-hosted "Iron Painter" contest.  Given that I realized I simply couldn't commit to the level of effort necessary to compete in the Lead Painters League right now, the Iron Painter seemed like a reasonable alternative.  First, it's sponsored by a company of which I've become a great fan (though entries are by no means restricted to Wyrd figures).  Second, the contest requires that you have only one entry per round, with each round taking two weeks.  That's far more manageable in my current schedule than the five figures every week for the LPL.  Also, given that there is no attempt made to hide the identities of the entrants, I also won't be foreclosed from posting pictures of my entries here.

While I believe I have an idea for my first round entry, the theme of which is "Start Your Engines," I have a bit more to think on that.  But expect more regarding Iron Painter soon and my next Ramos warband entry, an Electrical Creation, within the next few days.