Off the Top of my Head: Painting a Mars Attacks Martian

On November 5, 2014November 5, 2014 By James CastroIn ArtLeave a comment

Working on Citadel miniatures is generally a pleasure. I’ve always loved model kits. Like Hans Gruber from Die Hard I appreciate their attention to minute detail in small scale. That being said the tiny size of some Warhammer models is slightly limiting. You can’t paint extreme detail, well I’ll rephrase, I can’t paint extreme detail, as well as I’d like.

Needless to say the chance to assemble and paint a larger-scale model has been attractive. No I can’t play a fun war game with them, but the hobbyist in me can appreciate it.

So when I found this great Mars Attacks Martian trooper model at a local store I grabbed it quickly.

He’s far larger than Warhammer models but I still used all those Citadel painting tricks I learned, base coat, wash/shade, layer, drybrush, effects method.

He was plain white plastic, with an aluminum lamppost. I primed him white before applying the base coat. I had to rubberband his face to keep it together. He looks like a Hellraiser Cenobyte…

I left his nifty space suit un-shaded. It looks bright and cartoony that way.

I loved his victim and it gave me a chance to use lots of effects paints in gruesome detail.

His face and head were a bit hit-or-miss. I thought I’d ruined it. I actually used very watered down Emperor’s Children followed by watered down Fenrisian Grey. Then I dry brushed Fulgrim Pink, Dechala Lilac, and Baharroth Blue in various layers to get the face correct.

This guy was a lot of fun and gave me a good feel for what painting larger models will be like, especially since big centerpiece models seem to be the wave of the future in 40k!

Next back to my Sector Imperialis, and an even bigger painting piece!

Scariest Horror Movie: The Ring

On November 2, 2014 By R. PettyIn Projects1 Comment

The scariest horror movie depends on who you ask. What scares us most hits at our core and disturbs us. That’s the beauty of the horror genre: it can appeal to the most simple or complex fears, and cause us nightmares and uneasiness.

For my scariest movie, I chose The Ring. I watched this movie in 2002 and was fine, or so I thought. I watched it pretty early at night, but when it came time to fall asleep, it was impossible. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Samara. Her image was burned into my brain, and when I did doze off, I’d wake up immediately thinking she was in the room. I stayed awake all night and refused to watch it again.

The Ring well — Photo by: deviantart.com

Determined to face my fear, I rewatched it this weekend. I’m glad I did because I was fine, or so I thought again. I couldn’t figure out what freaked me out so much the first time. However, I realized as I heard the closing credits, I didn’t watch the last 20 minutes. Right before Samara appeared, I found myself keeping busy and only listening to the movie. She still scares me.

And I’m still not sure what about her bothers me so much. My heart races and my palms sweat thinking she may crawl out of my TV. She’s just scary.

It occurred to me that it’s not the movie that scares us, it’s the things in the movie. When scared, we tend to focus on the one or two things that make the entire movie scary. So, here’s a quick list of my scariest things in horror movies, which make these my scariest movies:

Clowns – As cliché as it sounds, I’m terrified of them. Thanks to watching IT, my lifelong fear stems from watching this movie as a child. It’s also interesting that I can look at Pennywise for short amounts of time but not Samara.
Clap game – The Conjuring‘s clap game freaks me out. I will never play that game and have become superstitious about it. My mind thinks if I play it, it will serve as a Quija board and conjure some demon or evil spirit.
Ghosts – Thanks to Paranormal Activity 3, ghosts make me a little uneasy. I’ve been around them throughout my life, but when the kitchen furniture falls to the floor, that was it. My comfort level diminished.
Rats/mice – This fear stems from childhood trauma, but movies such as Graveyard Shift and Ratatouille (yes, the kids movie!) make my skin crawl. I refuse to watch them and yell at anyone who doesn’t warn me of a rat scene first.

As we close out the Halloween season, we at RevPub hope everyone had a safe holiday and weekend. Here’s to costumes, candy, good friends and scares, and we hope you enjoyed our favorite time of the year!

Most Underrated Horror Movie: Event Horizon

On October 3, 2014October 2, 2014 By James CastroIn Movies, Projects, ReviewsLeave a comment

It’s Halloween and we at RevPub are doing our own horror movie retrospective. Not a list of favorites or least favorites, but specific categories each week! This week I’m taking a look at what I think is the most underrated horror movie in recent memory…

Event Horizon: Do You See?!

What makes a great horror film? Mood, build of tension, and good characters are definitely on the list. Many will point to successful other horror movies, Carpenter’s Halloween, Hitchcock’s Psycho, as achieving these things, but the overlooked gem Event Horizon does them as well as any horror film I’ve seen.

I won’t go into the plot beyond the set up: Sam Neil stars as Dr. Weir, a scientist accompanying a mission to investigate the ship “Event Horizon,” which vanished years ago and he had a hand in designing. Lawrence Fishburn is Miller, the captain of the salvage team which is also full of great character actors and diverse personalities within the film from a no-nonsense pilot, flippant rescue tech, and a motherly XO.

While this all sounds traditionally sci-fi, the film actually belongs more in the haunted house genre, and is one of the most effective in that category. Mixing equal parts Aliens, Hellraiser, The Shining, and Amityville Horror Event Horizon succeeds where so many genre mash ups have failed. Yes, it’s set in space, but the scares are psychological. It has as much in common with Poltergeist as it does Alien 3 and the nature of the scares is actually more personal than many modern horror movies. Since it was in all the adverts for it I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to mention that the ship left space and ended up in a horrifying dimension, an excellent concept and one used to perfect effect. No creepy monsters or aliens here…all the scares and all the evil is cerebral and comes from people… It is terrifically subtle. Yes there are jump scares, but they mostly occur early and due to sound so it gets you tense early and then never uses the “cheap” jump scare tactic again. It also has gore but it is either seen in quick flashes or is obscured by the scene so it never loses its impact.

Add to this the excellent set and sound design and superb cast and you have a perfect storm of horror film-ology. So why isn’t it considered a modern classic instead of a lost treasure? One reason is probably the casting. The actors in the film are terrific character actors known for intense and effective performances and likely cast because they fit the roles perfectly; this rather than shoe horning in some marquee draw who has no place in the film and is only there to sell tickets. There are also no eye-candy characters (see THIS post…), everyone looks like they belong to a crew of a salvage team. And finally, the premise: a space ship that creates a black hole and ends up in another dimension doesn’t sound like horror potential. So many of the slasher (and later torture) fans gave it a miss. And what a tragedy as it does horror far better than many of the movies in those genres have.

The very well-designed and creepy gravity drive.

If you look at it’s the success of its descendants it makes me wonder if the film may be on the verge of a renaissance. Games like Dead Space lifted its premise, tone, and environments whole-cloth. Even my beloved Warhammer 40k, though it predates the film, borrowed some of the concepts in its later editions. I’m hoping, as the audience has matured and become more sophisticated (strangely because of movies like Event Horizon) the progenitor of so much of modern sci-fi horror will finally get its due.

I’m holding out hope the next time I exclaim “Do you See?!” to a room full of horror fans the response from the vast majority will be “Yes……I see….”

Artist Spotlight: Kevin Litwin

On October 1, 2014October 1, 2014 By R. PettyIn ArtLeave a comment

Happy October! To kick the month off, we’re spotlighting Kevin Litwin, author of Crazy Lucky Dead and a number of great short stories. Be sure to check him out and like him on Facebook at Crazy Luck Dead!

RevPub: How long have you been writing, and why do you enjoy writing horror?

I’ve written professionally for 20 years but have only penned my dark “psychological torment” short stories for the past four. I don’t really classify my stories as horror, which to me evokes images of slashing, blood, and guts all over the place. Cutting a character on the face so they’ll see that scar in the mirror for the rest of their life…that’s what gets my interest.

RevPub: Who is your favorite author and why?

I rarely read – wish I did – but my favorite author is Edgar Allan Poe, and a major reason is because I received a book of Poe short stories for Christmas a few years back and loved it. Until then, I hadn’t read a book since The Great Gatsby in 1994. Oh, I recently read Stephen King’s On Writing, which has good tips for any writer. It made me quit adverbs.

RevPub: What is your favorite piece you’ve written and why?

I like several – Murder Day, Thankless, To Son, To Daughter come to mind – but perhaps my favorite is The Adam’s Apple, one of my first efforts. It’s written from the perspective of a cat, even though cats creep me out.

RevPub:If you could be any fictional character, who would it be?

I recently read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Being that big monster would be kinda cool, and I’m 6 foot 5 anyway. Plus, I look good in a suit coat.

RevPub: What scares you?

I watch those Swamp People alligator hunter shows on TV, so I hope to never come across any gator. Snakes I can also do without – maybe all reptiles bother me. Not much else does.

RevPub: What does a writer need in order to write horror? Any advice for those wanting to write in the genre?

I keep saying that I don’t read much, but I do occasionally search the Internet to find bizarre, murder/suspense-related scenarios that occur in this big world. In addition, I used to be a newspaper reporter and covered a criminal/police beat, and I recall several life-in-the-shadows stories from those days.

I just keep my eyes and ears open. For example, I thought of a story called Blind Date while eating lunch outdoors at a Florida restaurant that fronted a canal, and that became the setting for the story. I also give credit to my parents, who always corrected us kids whenever we used incorrect English growing up. That might have led to my English degree, then my interest in writing. Thanks, Sylvester and Patricia.

And for any writer, having a good editor is vital. My editor is actually this interviewer, Raven Petty, who always edits my short stories before they post, helping to turn my proverbial swine into pearls.

Halloween and RevPub: New Merch Available

On September 28, 2014September 27, 2014 By R. PettyIn Projects, Random FunLeave a comment

Hi everyone! As you may know, the RevPub team loves Halloween. The horror movies, costumes, trick-or-treating, ghouls and gothiness — it’s our favorite time of year. To celebrate this year, James created some great new merchandise! There are T-shirts, pillows, stickers, posters, phone cases and more, so be sure to them check out by clicking on the images below or visiting our Red Bubble site.

Red Bubble is offering 15% off on hoodies with the discount code HOODIE15, until Monday, Sept. 30 at midnight. Here’s one you may want to checkout:

Also, coming in October, we’re reviewing the best and worst horror movies (our picks), so don’t miss out. Great things are coming, and here’s to a happy October!

Realm of Battle Sector Imperialis Work In Progress

On September 17, 2014September 17, 2014 By James CastroIn Art, Games, ProjectsLeave a comment

Realm of Battle Sector Imperialis Work In Progress

This year I got myself the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten myself.

The day I moved in to my new place I decided to spring for the new Stormclaw Warhammer 40k set. I found a trusted seller on eBay was selling it as a rate and ordered it from them. The week it came out I received a message saying they didn’t get as much stock as expected and wouldn’t be able to send it. I could get a refund or use that money to buy something else. While cruising their page I found they were selling the new city scape, Sector Imperialis, at a reduced rate as well. So I applied my Stormclaw money to it and got a 330 table top scenery set for $158 dollars. It was great.

It has been a nice project and one I’ve been looking forward to. A large-scale painting project that can be easily customized and personalized.

I wasn’t quite sure where to start so I watched these videos and soldiered on:

I followed most of these recommendations the letter. I changed the ground color to Mournfang Brown and ran out of Skavenblight Dinge (go for four pots, I have used three there’s enough in the bottom of them for touchups and nothing else) so I used Stormvermin Fur around the Aquila sections.

20140916_225101 — Straight road sections. Clearly needs touch ups, but for 3-4 hours work it’s going faster than expected.

20140916_225119 — This metal section has been touched up a bit. Still need to go back over the Skavenblight, but it’s going quickly. A thin card will work well to keep the right colors where they’re supposed to be.

20140916_225128 — Running out of Skavenblight made me use Stormvermin around these sections. It’ll mix it up nicely I think and will blend well.

I’m going to mix Nuln Oil and Drakenhof Nightshade instead of Athonian Camoshade to give it a dirty blue color instead of earthy green.

20140916_225213 — My painting rig. A big piece of cardboard would work as a pallet but since I’m painting all six sections at once I’m standing up most of the time. The traditional version comes in handy and is only $5. The brushes were $1 each and my water container once contained lunch meat!

I’ve still got the bronze colors and touch ups to do on the basing of this painting but believe it or not this much work only took about 4 hours. It goes fast. I’m looking forward to finishing basing and I’m very eager to start detailing and working on the colors to see what happens. I’m going to take Duncan’s recommendation and try Nurgle’s Rot some of the sewers, and maybe some water effect in some of the other sewers.

20140916_225237 — This project, at 6 feet buy 4 feet, eats up paint. These are the pots I’ve used thus far…

I’ll post more of them as I go. It’ll start to match my NEW Imperial Guard army, which I’m starting in the next week!

In other news…check out the site in the next few weeks as there will be some new merchandise (Finally) I’ll post once the designs are done!

Revenant Publications

Category: Projects