now with Ad Sense~~!

**YEAH!!**

After applying for Ad Sense approval 5 times I finally got it running!

First off I was refused due to content, my first suspicion is because when I add links to other hobbies sites I copied some of the content of the site's introduction, so perhaps the bot thought that I was copying from other sites.

Then I got the message saying that the content is not easily recognized by the ad sense bot, so I write a lot longer blog entries with a lot of repeats on key words.  A good side effect of this is that I did manage to get on the first page of google image search result, and the top blog entry hit for some key words.  So I guess that brought along higher hit rates too.

I was again refused due to navigation issues, so I removed all the useless links. As I was doing that a thought hit me: I could try adding the widget for Ad Sense in place first, to see if that helps.

So after all these tweaking I got the email this morning saying that my application had been approved~~!

I guess it's the key words that really matters.  So from now on I'd add another spin to this blog: macro photography.  It has a lot to do with how the miniature is presented here, and it also took a lot of effort to get a picture right.  So watch this space guys.

Other highlights:

The proxy painting project

Zombicide gaming report

Current line-up of tools

Reaper's Terezinya

Reaper's Astrid

Freebooter's Gypsy

Hello Cathy

http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2011/05/hello-kathy.html

Adriana's Proxy - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

I had had very high expectation for this miniature until I again realize that I can't do African skin tone...

I don't think I have any ways to save her but to repaint... I think the pants is a complete failure.  The face, something that I am usually good at, was a failure too... I like how the top and her boobs appear though.

Troy's Proxy (part 2) - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

Well, not that there's anything wrong with it, I am not gay. Having said that, I am very happy when painting this guy. Male muscle is so much easier than female bodies, especially for this tough guy with strong muscles. So with the dark and light spray painting method the contrast is really happening here.  When I hold him in my hand, for the very first time my eyes told me that I am holding something much bigger than the miniature: the higher contrast created the illusion of size.

By the way, it is very hard to look for quality and detailed miniature fitting for modern days (or post apocalyptic) 30 mm miniatures.  I think from all I had seen so far, tales of war has the best and most detailed men and women miniatures.  Frankly some of the face is a bit off , I'd put that down as artistic styles, but in general they are of outstanding quality and details.

http://www.taleofwar.com/shop/

"More zombies?"

One small regret is that I really should have gone all the way with the air brushing.  By that I mean using air brushing the skin and pants before starting brush work. My problem now is I had invested so much on Reaper's paint and I really don't want to invest yet again in another line of paint, being paints for spray paints.  Yes they say the paint is also good for air brush, but alcohol based paints are a lot easier to handle than water based ones.

He is very heavy because of his size

 Again I haven't done the final highlights to him, I figure that I will go through all of the zombies and survivors and go back to them.  I am using them all as game pieces anyway and interested to see how general gaming wear and tear does to these miniatures.  Also I need to learn how to spray paint protective varnish on them later on...  Metal miniature gives the good feeling of sturdy and weight when moving it around, but they also chips other metal miniature easily.  Without varnish I am guessing it will get damaged easily.

Got to be proud of the middle bit of that vest

Troy's Proxy (part 1) - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

The fast and easy way to paint is to use air brushing a lot.  First is to lay down a layer of shadows at spots that doesn't catch much light, like the inner fold of vest, area under the arms, in between the legs, neck, etc 

by the way, these are pictures taken with my mobile so they looks a bit off and the color isn't too rich.  Will have better pictures in the next post.

Nato Black

Then depending on whether I want to play with lighting, in this case no, air brush thin layers of white or light color.  Here I just used flat white.  I was again in a rush coz I am not feeling confident with my last paint job, so I stopped there.  What I could have done, is to air brush the base coat for them.  I think it will do that for the guy in suit as that's what the mini is all about, his suit.

Tough guys

 One thing that made me proud of myself is how I had done his skin.  From my collection of Vallejo Pigments I mixed black pigment with white pigments together to from a grey pigment.  Then I lay it down with a very thin skin paint.  While the paint is still wet, I applied another layer of pigments on it.  In hindsight I could have mix muddy brown with black to create the sense of dense hair at lower part of the head.

 What I had also down is I had and thin painted the skin areas too.  The light/shadow air brushing function as a guide and also the dark paint at the shaded area makes painting on deeper skin tone color easier.

Then I painted the vest, again that's something made me very proud of it. Thanks to the air brushing the highlights are already there.  So most of the painting was really to paint the shading area.  After that's done I mixed the paint with white and done the highlights.  I again used the pigment to give the vest more textures to make it looks like suede leather. I had painted the shot gun while I was paint the two girls. There's a gap between the wrist band and the arm, that's where they connect.  I'd fix that up after I connect the other arm.

**UPDATE! he is done! check it out! http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Troy-proxy2.html***

Vallejo Pigments
http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/pigments/family/19

200 post!!

I just pass the 200 posts mark on this blog~~!

At this rate, I guess for the next 100 posts 20 of them are related to playing Zombicide, 50 of them are related to painting Zombicide related stuff, then another 30 of them related to painting.  I guess I might as well rename the site to 'I paint to kill (zombies)".

Next big project coming up is my first commission paint job - the limited edition of Sophie, especially after last night round of air-brushing dark/light base paint on, and the success with pigments I am feeling super confident~~!

And this is me, feeling confident.

**Edits**
Strangely enough this post attracted more than 100 hits in a day, and it's not even related to painting and miniatures, so I thought I might as well make use of it to advertise my other blog entries that are more thematic.

Other highlights:

The proxy painting project

Zombicide gaming report

Current line-up of tools

Reaper's Terezinya

Reaper's Astrid

Freebooter's Gypsy

Hello Cathy

http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2011/05/hello-kathy.html

Claudia's Proxy - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

You know, this miniature could have been very sexy and I could have used a much more ... attractive miniature than Berkeley.  But I kind of running low on cash and the order of these proxy stacks up pretty fast,so I had resort to use a more ... standard miniature from Reaper.  Besides, I favor ranged weapons over melee, so I don't have much love for Claudia.

(http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/chainsaw/latest/50153)

and what could have been....

and what I ended up with.  It was another late night and I started after 1am.  I see this as a speed painting challenge and see what I can come up with within a short time... After painting her up, I found that Berkeley is actually a fine, balanced miniature, the level of detail is pretty balanced, there are spots that are not as good and pretty hard to get into, but overall it's a very good modern days post apocalyptic survivor miniature.

She was done in two nights.  I picked her out of the group because there isn't too many flat or large surfaces. Covering off larger area really call for air brushing.  I like how the yellow turns out, I got a bit carried away with the black + yellow mix so the shadow area looks more dirty than shadow.  

The pigment didn't do the trick this time as it behave more like thick paint than dust. But there's still the texture happening.  The footprint is a bit bigger than I had expected, perhaps my next batch of base need to be a bit bigger... or just get two sizes of blue bases...

---

Check out the rest of the Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive Proxy project!

http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Zombicide-Proxy.html

Ivy's Proxy - Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive survivor proxy miniature

I have another trip lined up at the end of month so I was in a rush again.  I can always go back to them of course but I guess it won't be soon.

The miniature I painted this time is Ainara, from the Street collection of Tales of War.

http://www.taleofwar.com/shop/product.php?id_product=124

So she comes with a tiny base with a few bricks on the ground, it's pretty good actually.  I was a bit surprised that she comes with a Katana.  Actually if I haven't picked her as the Sniper girl the katana would make her look awesome too.

There's a number on her card, I guess this might have been a limited edition.

 The first step is to get her a hand.  Modifying the two hands the comes with her would be impossible.  So, ironically I took a hand from my plastic zombies box and fit in it.  The scale looks pretty close.

this was the original idea I had for her, having the gun over her shoulder.  But later on I haven't went with this idea because changing the hand into gripping the rifle is just too hard for me.

I was a bit stuck on her to do army green, but then after a while I figured out how: just do the shadow for a 'washed' effect.  I think it works.

 So looking at this picture I guess I already lost interest half way through, her upper body scale is a bit off, her lips is a bit too big, the hair is a bit messy, the half coat is too big... etc etc. I did manage to rest the sniper rifle comfortable on her hand though.
I guess all of the survivors could use a bit of dark lining....

 and from now on, I should really use more air brushing.... air brush for the base coat then highlights then hand brush on the details... the time for masking would really pay off.

---

Check out the rest of the Zombicide Kickstarter Exclusive Proxy project!

http://51-cent.blogspot.hk/2013/08/Zombicide-Proxy.html

Zombicide - basing the runners

One problem moving the zombies is that runners got an extra move/ attack.  when the board started to get crowded it becomes harder to spot them, aside from their pose of course.  But in Season 2 there will be more special zombies such as toxic zombies and so it would become more important to tell them apart quickly.

Runners

"Runner. Amped up for some reason, these guys move twice as fast as Walkers. Each Runner has two Actions per activation, while all other Zombies only have one."

So I had the idea of ordering a bunch of transparent blue base from Litko (http://www.litko.net/BMaker/).  So then the survivors and the runners got this special, thicker bases.  But as I start to love the game more and more I started to paint up some more proxy for the promotional survivors. so instead of 6 survivors I got about 20 of them.

As an alternative, I reclaimed the bases from the set of runners and started air brushing the transparent 20mm bases into clear blue.

(link to the 20mm bases: http://www.litko.net/products/Clear-Miniature-Bases%2C-Circular-20mm.html#.Ug3EoZI3CJ0)

based up

thinned down a little...

Each of these takes only a minute or so, it's kinda fun

I missed one when I was air-brushing, so I just use the brush to work it...

didn't turn out well but this give me an idea on what to do with the toxic zombies.

here's a comparison between the air-brushed ones and the custom made ones.

The custom made ones are of course a lot better looking.

I guess it turns out okay when it hit the board.  

It is more consistent for the zombies to use the same kind of disc as base.

Litko Game Accessories
https://www.facebook.com/Litko
http://www.litko.net