Caietanus & Desperantix

This is my biggest creation so far: an old lizard's model from Games Workshop I fell in love with so many years ago.

There is something about the pose, the threatening roar or the beast, the rider surging forward to attack an enemy, that make me love this miniature every time I look at it.

Its story though, is very sad. I started painting the beast a long time ago, and back then I was even slower than today, painting only once a week when lucky. That means I struggled for months with the red scales and the brown flesh, unable to obtain the smooth blending required for such big surfaces. My technique was unpolished and I became increasingly demoralised. Then one day it crashed to the floor and was torn to pieces. Too much for my self esteem.

Around five years later I finally felt I had the skills required to try again, so I picked up the glue and started over. Round two!

My biggest problem has always been regularity. I have been unable to set a painting routine and that means only small projects can be finished before I get bored and I start something else.

This was no exception and I could only finish partially the main body of the beast. This time at least I was able to store it and not lost the work.

Years later, while I was studying philosophy, I came up with this idea of representing a small rider thinking in control of something far more greater than him, something so deep inside him that by no means he can hope to handle, just to pray for it to go in the right direction. It was the struggle of I girl I really loved with herself. I fight I saw each day during that time.

Thus came the final push for this project. I was better in technique, regularity and speed, and there is nothing better for finishing a project that wanting to show it to someone, so this time I was able to end it.

From a technical point of view the miniature is standing over a wooden base. The grey rock is made of painted cork (from bottles) and modelling stuff.

the water is made from a water product from Andrea I think. I had to create a containment barrier using modelling stuff to avoid the water pouring out. That is why the borders are not a clean cut: it is my fingerprint over the stuff.

Rocks are from Games Workshop and the water plants are railroad decoration stuff I picked from a railroad modelling shop in Madrid. The same for the orange and green plants

The miniature is pinned to the base with an iron nail. I performed holes in them with a drilling machine and then set the nail, with tons of glue.

I also put a couple of minions on each side with different colours, to give it a little more variety.

Finally I set the name: the girl and its terrors. The surface was round so I could not put a brass printed plate. in the end I opted for a printed piece of paper, poor finishing touch for so much work but well, I'll do things better next time.

So much time spent here but totally worth it: each day I came into my room, when I stare at it, I know it to be part of me.

Ignatius Luton - Ignatius

 This is my hero: Ignatius Luton. Named after the infamous Ignatius Reilly, from A Confederacy of Dunces, a book that really impressed me back in the day.

The horse comes from a vintage model, the red knight I think it was called, and the body comes from a normal vampire

It doesn't have nothing special but it was the biggest painted miniature when it was finished.

An ancient model painted in ancient times...but it looks nice so far.

Ignatius Luton - Knights

These are the elite troops of my undead army. Behold The Harbingers

One of my best pieces so far, it mixes different styles and the mixture actually looks quite good. Here we can see NMM iron mixed with metallic copper.

Here again metallic copper with, dustry and dark, as the clothes, with a shiny red

Every knight has a little red to show regimental coherency

All of them over a really nive tomb based scenario

 An finally: the naming, with a beautiful gothic scripting

And here the miniatures one by one, not much to say so please enjoy!

Ignatius Luton - Zombies

What is an undead army without a zombi swarm? Exactly: NOTHING. So let's do things right.

My zombies are 20 miniatures, 10 of them are glued into the base (forefront) and the rest have individual bases. This helps to create the feeling of mob.

They were created in a single summer, 2010, and the idea was to represent them as an old regiment came to live, that is, with the same uniform for all.

Basing was also upgraded from previous works, having them in a more stony terrain, with wilder vegetation. This helps create the harsh atmosphere.

Here you can see the different basing for each line.

As you can see in these two photos, the mob illusion somehow fails due to having the leader, with spread hands, without direct backup.

This was due to the scythe, that forced me to place the guy way behing the leader. That space kills the mob feeling. Huge mistake.

The rest of the mob is nice. I really like the balance between having a cohesive unit and the small details

The rest of the unit looks really nice, with the same skin tone for all and a feeling of crowed and messy organization.

Of course the lateral ranks are all facing outwards to increase the feeling of disorganization.

In conclussion it is a good unit, done in a couple months which is a huge record for me, and with a nice average feeling. It is something I feel will never look bad in my army, no matter how my painting skills improve.