Code Red - Dev Diary 13: Continuous Improvement Process

Alright, I haven´t updated this in quite a while, so it is high time to continue.

Going into playtesting means the development of major features is slowing down, so I didn´t have that many ground breaking design decisions to outline here. However, many small changes were made to fix the deficiencies we discovered during playtesting.

Mixed Update

Quick weekend update, throwing in all the things I did in the last few days.

After receiving a new package from my caster including new weapons I required to continue my sculpting, I built two Americans for the next sets.Not entirely finished yet, but close.

On the painting front, I finalized the base on one of my Demon Horrors to get him off my workbench and out of my sight. Unfortunately I was/am not entirely happy with the outcome, the color modulation on the mini drove me nuts and ended in frustration as I could not get my Airbrush to paint the very fine lights I needed for this figure.
In the end, I realized that I´d require a detail airbrush at some point, painting very fine details with a 0.35 needle is quite hard. The idea stuck... you probably know these situations where you just can´t get this idea out of your head, no matter how hard you try? That was one of those...
After several days of wrestling with the thought, researching and choosing a suitable model I finally said to myself "Screw it, I´m doing it" and ordered a Badger Renegade Krome.


We´ll get back to that later. But first, the Swamp Horror...

Now, trying the new Badger Krome and playing around with some color combinations, I came up with this  (WIP obviously):

The light is not ideal, but the shadows are indeed painted that way. Looks better in real life though :(

And the purchase of my second airbrush? I haven´t looked back yet! The amount of control I got with the smaller needle and the different trigger mechanics is fabulous. I really like the feel of the brush, definitely a good choice so far and it´s very likely that it´s only going to become better with more practice.

Problem is... now I need even more colors and miniatures to practice proper painting ;D

Enfilade Figures: Anniversary Special

Hey guys,

Enfilade Figures is now one year old! It´s hard to believe, but time has passed fast...

A year ago, I started with less than 15 sets scattered across 5 ranges.
Since then, the range has grown considerably. As of today, I got 44 sets available (+290%) across 10 different ranges (+100%) - with many of the new sets being considerably bigger than the ones I started with and the June releases not factored into the calculation. At the same time, with experience and training, the quality of my miniatures and my speed on creating new masters has without doubt improved quite a bit.

On the downside, I´m still dependend on external production facilities and working with very limited resources to expand my ranges. I´m in fact dependent on orders flowing in before any new sets can be produced. Having no inhouse production also means that I either need to keep stock levels low in order to have some free cash to pay for new sets or keep higher stocks and reduce new investments.
Right now, I´m going with option 1, so if you experience any issues with sets out of stock, please keep calm and carry on - my turnover is not sufficient to make buying my own machinery worthwile.

To celebrate this special occasion, I will have a very special giveaway to my supporters/customers:

Any customer who places an order within the next month (deadline July 17th, 24:00 EST) will take part in a lottery for a free custom made 20mm Modern Miniature sculpted according to the winners specification.


The conditions are:
-In order to be an eligible participant you have to have placed [u]and paid[/u] an order on Enfilade Figures via webshop or email within the specified timeframe (16.06.2015-17.07.2015)
-Multiple orders will only generate ONE lottery ticket
-Cancelling/Returning the full order will void your lottery ticket (returning parts of it won´t)
-The winner will be contacted via email
-The figure made has to be a 20mm Modern miniature (1945+) and will be made according to your specification/reference pics or description. I reserve the right to reject any proposal that I do not have a weapon-master for (making new weapons is a pain in the ass, sure won´t do it just for a single figure). I retain all rights on the miniature.
-The winning lottery ticket may only be redeemed as outlined above, no transformation into cash payments or any other compensation.
-The winner will receive a free cast of the figure, postage is on me but the package will not be tracked.


If your desired set is out of stock, you can always order via email, as long as you pay within the timeframe you´ll take part in the lottery, though your shipment will obviously be delayed until the product is back in stock.

Check out the webshop at:  www.enfilade-figures.com
or email me through  info[at]enfilade-figures.com

Terrors of the Night: Fiery Daemonette + Zombie

Took some time today to work on more dark things and came close to finishing another Daemonette.
This time, my intention was to go with a much brighter color scheme for a change, so I selected a red-brown combination as my basic color set with a much more natural skintone.

The picture is slightly too bright and the shadows thus too deep as I failed with my light settings and didn´t succeed in tuning it to the real brightness in my photo editing program, but it´s not too far off.
The smaller pic on the right should give you a good idea on how the obscured parts (claws and feet) look.

Then  switched to another model as I felt it was time to do something different before returning to more daemonettes in the future, so I picked a Zombie hoping to complete it in my remaining time with natural light on the balcony. It was bound to be a Speedy Paintjob.

Almost did it, some minor highlights missing on the backside an some cleanup on the legs that I did not finish in time. But the most important parts are done, belly and guts look good to me and will be the main eye catcher on the figure anyway. I didn´t use any dirty tricks like gloss varnish, it´s just plain painting.

I also received more Demons today, so my supply of new figures it secured to continue with this series!

Terrors of the Night: Corrupted Sorceress

Hello again!

As indicated before I´ve slipped into a fantasy mood and gone back to painting some more 28mm for a change. Main reason is that I need a break from my 20mm modern stuff and would like to try some new painting techniques - as well as improve my airbrush skills.
As this is much easier in 28mm, the scene is set.

Today I present you a Demonette painted to represent the corruption spreading through her body, causing the mutations you can see on the model. As written in the headline, it might be a former sorceress who dug too deep into the black arts and got corrupted and transformed by chaos, now a loyal servant to a new master...
To represent this I chose a black-blue color for the corruption flowing through her arteries towards the transformed body parts -  shining through a very pale greyish skin.

Overall, I´m pretty happy with the outcome for a first attempt - though it´s a little too bright overall for my taste - still thinking about a solution for this.  Probably need to work out the shades a little.
If you have any ideas feel free to share them!

The next one will probably be more fiery, red-brown with the claws looking more like insectoid armor. But first I need to work out the basing, got some cool idea here as well...

Terrors of the Night: Wraith

Hi folks,

I´ve taken the liberty to do another diversion from my regular modern warfare stuff, doing some fantasy stuff again to train my airbrush skills and have some fun.

So in addition to my normal stuff you´ll see a bit of fantasy here and there, just like last year.
Today, I´ll be starting with a Wraith. The figure is a Death Shroud by Reaper minis and a very nice model. See for yourself:

I was surprised how good it looks with some very easy techniques - basecoating the entire model in a green tone, airbrushing the flames in 3 shades of green after masking the skeletons, drybrushing the seletons white and the flames in a light mix of green + white. Oil wash for the skeletons and here we are.

Still need to style the base, not sure what I´ll do about that. Maybe try some swampy/marshy ground where unfortunate travellers found an untimely death and haunt the night?


Next up I have prepared another fantasy miniature, built out of the remains of an old GW Tomb King set, posing as a sorcerer. Stay tuned ;)