Chaos Mini of the Month

I don't really like my local Warhammer Store. Since moving to other brands for a lot of my hobby stuff (paints, tools, etc.) and, of course, discovering third-party retailers and what they think the UK/EU exchange rate is*, I don't have much cause to spend a lot of money there. I mostly visit to admire the painted models and occasionally to pick up something I've ordered that can only be bought from the Warhammer website. The staff in my local Warhammer store know this and, while not explicitly saying they would rather I be anywhere else if I'm not going to buy something, there is a definite air of tension as they weigh the costs of dealing with the PR fallout against the benefits of telling me to fuck off. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

Then again, they really don't like parting with a mini of the month for me. I'm not the demographic they want to be giving free models. This is normally not a problem - I'm not usually that fussed about adding one more model to my collection. It certainly isn't worth a trip into town and the stress of working out how much time I would have to spend in store before the cost of physically throwing me out was less than the benefit of me not being there. Sometimes, however, the model in question is so nice that the trials must be endured for a chance to paint it. The Chaos Warrior from a month or two ago was one such instance.

 

This is one of my favourite sculpts to come out of Age of Sigmar. It has so much of what made Fantasy great - the right amount of detail, classic pose - combined with modern methods that make joins and mold lines basically invisible. I wanted to try something a little different, so painted almost everything with washes, contrast, and inks over a black and white base coat. The only ordinary painting after that was the highlights for sharp edges, or reestablishing the value of the base coat where I was a little messy with my washes. For sheer speed, the experiment was a success, but I'm also really happy with the finished result. Well worth the effort to get him!

Until next time, happy painting!

*I'm also lucky enough to be travelling to the UK fairly often, so any big purchases can be made to coincide with that.

Blood Raven Dreadnought

I love dreadnoughts, especially the original boxy ones. Recently, I was lucky enough to be asked to paint a venerable dreadnought for a friend. He plays Blood Ravens and it was a restoration job. Fortunately, it was a metal dread, and metal is great for stripping and restripping. Unfortunately, it was a metal dread, and those things are heavy, fit poorly, and rife with casting problems!

What I thought would be a quick and easy job (full disclosure, I did not realize it was metal at the start) quickly became much more complicated. I took apart more metal pieces than I thought the model could possibly include, then filed and sanded all of it, followed by milliputting, then sanding the milliput, then pinning just to get it ready for painting! After that, I felt I'd put so much effort to making it I'd have to give painting it extra attention. It's still what I'd call a tabletop piece, but I'm very happy with the result. (So was my friend!)

 

Yes, the banner/scrolls/scratches are freehanded. I left a couple of scrolls blank as I felt it was becoming cluttered with script. I also had no idea what to write. Perhaps once it has earnt some victories on the table I'll be asked to add some accolades...

I hope I'll be able to paint another dread soon. They really are a joy. I also hope it'll be plastic.

Until then, happy painting!

 

Blood Bowl: Imperial Nobility Team

I said this month was going to be a good one! We're just in time for one more post and it's a big one. Please give a very warm welcome to the Imperial Nobility Blood Bowl Team!

 

These are not really part of my backlog of painted miniatures I have yet to show off. These are fresh off the painting table and, like most of my projects, started out as "something quick" and became a labour of love. All the numbers are freehand, as are the names!

I'd like to point out that the two blitzers were an absolute pain to paint the names on, because not only was there a deep bend in the parchment but it points down! You can't even see the writing unless you tilt the model!

I'm really proud of these as tabletop-ready minis so I've decided to make them the inaugural models of my Instagram page. That's right, I've finally decided to learn how to use social media to show off models and get feedback. Let's not make a big deal about it, do feel free to search samspaintingsaga on Instagram!