NEW Acrylicos Vallejo Metal Colors and Angel Giraldez paint sets

My pinturas has arrived! Just got my NEW Acrylicos Vallejo Metal Colors and Angel Giraldez paint sets to test this coming weekend! My day job has been killing me for the past month, I have been sleeping over the office for almost 3 weeks now and I only go home every Sundays. Weekend-less and workload these days means very little time to paint and do my commissioned works. Very little time to test and play with my new pinturas!



However, I should be able to take a leave of absence this Friday and have a 3 day weekend. That means 2 days of painting and a whole day for the family ( Sunday )! I have been sleeping over here at the office since Monday but I just got my new pinturas yesterday. My pinturas almost made me go home yesterday, but figured to finish everything before finally coming home this Friday.



Anyways, I just got the new Acrylicos Vallejo METAL Colors! These new metal color set is not yet  at the Acrylicos Vallejo website, but should be available to retail stores around late August or September. I also got a few other auxiliary products which should make using the paints even more fun and easy. I got the Vallejo Airbrush Thinner, Cleaner and Flow Improver. The Flow Improver is practically a retarder of sorts that improves airbrush use of heavy pigmented colors.



The oddest product I got is the Metal Varnish. I think it is a gloss varnish with micro glitters to enhance the shimmering effect of metallic paints. The Metal Varnish should add more bling bling to your metal finish which makes the Metal Colors and Metal Varnish perfect for bling bling Gunpla projects. I hope to test these new sets on spoons and quick Gunpla projects soon!



I also got 3 new paint sets that was developed in partnership with Angel Giraldez. The Game Air Face Painting set, The Special Effects set and the Non Death Chaos paint set. These beautiful specially formulated and mixed colors also come with step by step instruction guides on how to use. I will post a different photo review on each set as soon as I get home.



Please stay tuned as I test all these stuffs on my projects in the coming weeks. Should come up with new finished projects soon as I should no longer be busy at work. Thanks as always for dropping by as always! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby!

Sacral Vault Minions Battle Engine - UNBOXING

I have here my fav resin model from Privateer Press so far! This is the Minions battle engine The Sacral Vault, arguably the best battle engine of the game ( according to local veteran players of Warmachine ) as of the moment. I love the model so much I had to squeeze time to prime and partially paint the model in between my loads of commissioned works.



The resin model comes with 3 large resin pieces that goes on top of each other, 4 resin wheels, 3 Gatormen, 1 sacrificed and beheaded human figure and tons of candles, skulls and metal tidbits. There is very minimal flash and mold lines to clean. It took me around an hour to clean and prepare for painting.



My 7 year old son loves fielding this with his Legion of Everblight against my Cryx army and I hate dedicating a Deathjack or Kraken to remove it on the table. As usual I am not finished painting this model, much like my Mammoth... this model has to wait until I finish all my commissioned works.



As usual, this Sacral vault was primed and painted with all Vallejo Acrylics.



Hope you like my quick review, until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

Photo Booth for Models, Miniatures and Toys

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Other than painting clean models, my other weakness is photography! I used to take photos outdoors under the shade of the afternoon sun. Pretty good results as it is mostly sunny here ( Philippines ). I never had any fancy camera though ( as obvious with my gallery photos ) and I have always used my phone cameras for photography ( iphone4s, iphone5 and now iphone6 plus ).



I still use my iphone6 plus for all my photography needs, I did get a couple of photo booth domes to try to level up the quality of my photos a couple of weeks ago. Waiting to shoot under the sun is not the most convenient method of taking photos of models and miniatures, my photo booths are my only solution.



I have the bigger dome roughly the size of a kid's play tent ( 3.5 feet wide ). I use the big dome for Gunpla photography like the 1/48 " Dead Turtle " diorama below. I feel I lack enough lights to effectively use my big dome though... so I also got the small 1 foot dome which I love the most! I rarely do Gunpla these days so I get to use my small dome a lot. I have enough lights to light up the small dome and I am experimenting on different light set-ups as of the moment.



As I've said before, I never liked photography in general when I was growing up... Unlike drawing or painting, I felt you need more equipment to get better OR at least get to be known as a good photographer if you have more equipment ( or lenses )... It was and it is a rich man's craft. Never realized I would enjoy photography with a couple of domes and my phone camera.



Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

Custom Ravagore 3 inch Blighted Blast Templates

As usual, I have shared photos of these 3 inch Blighted Blast templates at Facebook and Instagram ( don_suratos ) already. I like archiving my stuff here at my blog better though as finsing old posts are much easier than at Facebook. Plus I talk a bit more here. lol



This post is basically my usual " Weekend Dump " posts except I think that the templates makes for a more interesting post.



I did some quick cookie / burger looking templates the night before painting as it was made of wood glue and sand over a thin .5mm plastic sheet. I let the wood glue and sand cure overnight and painted over a nice coat of Vallejo Brown Earth texture paint. I then let the texture paint dry to touch under the heat of the sun for 2 hours before painting.



I was too lazy to bring out and set up my airbrush for this project and my son was bugging me to paint it quick so that he could play with these templates. These templates are basically my son's, as he has a Lylyth2 50pt army that he fields against my Cryx. My 8 year old son also loves fielding our Khador army ( but until he gets a Conquest or Victor ), he likes playing his Lylyth2 against my Cryx more often ( I hate eyeless sight ).



Obviously playing with an 8 year old that is very imaginative during battles makes me want to do more of these kinds of stuff. I want my son to continue to enjoy the game as I get an excuse ( from wife ) to get more army faster than usual. Our weekend visits to the miniature store ends up with either a faction book, a couple of solos, or even a unit sometimes ( with the approval of the mom ). So making templates that would make my son enjoy the game more ( win or lose ) is definitely a win win situation for the dad. hehe



We had a chance to use these templates with a couple of Cryx vs LOE last weekend. Not only did my son enjoy using them, he almost wiped out my Bane Tralls and Bile Tralls on my left flank. Dang! Did I say I hate Eyeless Sight already?



Anyways, I plan to create more fun looking templates in between commissioned works. I should be able to create some water and forest templates for tier bonuses and stuff as soon as I can.



I also finished painting a lot of commissioned works last weekend. I told the client I just need to let the paint ( Vallejo ) cure for a day before varnishes. Then I will take proper photos before sending to client. I want to give my client properly cured models with nice strong Vallejo varnishes ( gloss then matt / satin coat ).



Anyways, that is about it. More posts every after weekend as I cannot post as much as I want. Do check me out at Instagram and Facebook as I am mostly active there these days. Thanks as always for dropping by! Just enjoy the hobby! :)