Finished Paras, another Vostroyan, a light box and a surprise

Well today is a bumper update because I have finished the para heavy weapons crews, another Vostroyan, my light box, and a surprise. Here are the paras:

They still require the actual weapons, but that is mainly because I have lost some of the parts for the Vickers HMG, and I haven't been bothered to fabricate new ones yet.

 A (poor quality) close up of the mortar crew.

Another poor quality close up, this time of the Vickers HMG crew.

Here are a couple of other views of the vostroyan at the top of the post:

A close up of the torso, also showing the (wooden) flamer. Not a great idea I know, but it looks cool. You can't see it in this picture, but I tried doing some Object Source Lighting (OSL) on the end of the flamer. It didn't turn out too shabby.

A rear view. this shows the layering on the skirts. Midnight Blue base, built up to Ultramarines Blue, then two heavy washes of Midnight Blue to tone it back down and blend it together. I am extremely pleased with how this miniature turned out, in fact I would consider it my best painted miniature to date. Those Vostroyans are just beautiful figures.

I was on the blog Miniatures & Terrain, when I saw the owner comment that he was trying to find a good way of photgraphing miniatures, so I left a comment directing him here to this post. Here is my setup for photos:

It is, quite simply two sheets of A4 paper blu-tacked to my window. The window provides ambient light, which stops my photos being too dark, and I even get a nice colour gradient in my background, due to shadows. It is also easy to put up and take down, and costs virtually nothing. I would urge anyone who still takes photos on their painting desk to consider this. If you want, you could  even set it up on a desk, with a lamp.

And finally, here is the surprise:

A spider tank for my vostroyans. Although it will probably never be used  in a game, it looks cool, and it was a good way to recycle an old toy.  That's all for now folks, I'll see you soon...