Wave Hi!

I mentioned earlier that I've been working on my Craftworld Eldar army. Most of this has been preparing the bases (I'm making fancy craftworld bases, you're going to love them!) but I did also manage to paint a couple of transports to go with my bikes. Wave hi to my wave serpents! (I'll see myself out):

There are actually two wave serpents photographed above (the last image is the second model) but as my light box is fairly small it wasn't possible to get them both in the same shot (and I wasn't prepared to break out my old photography set up just to take pictures of two models that are, more or less, the same).

These models were a great mix of "fun to paint" and "oh god kill me now this is sooo boring". I had a lot of fun airbrushing and painting the gems (I like painting gems) but trying to wash and the edge highlight all the grooves was such a pain. Next time I have an Eldar tank to paint I'm going to push the highlights with the airbrush more and forego the edge highlight - that should help a lot. 

This is also the second (or maybe third?) time I've used GW's gemstone paints (on the canopy, not the gems - gotta do gems right). It's not as clean as it could have been but I'm pretty happy all the same, and it saves me having to paint the inside of the canopies which I never plan to do. I'll probably never use gemstone paints for actual gems, but for stuff like canopies or shiny metallics I think they have a place.

Anyway, hope you like them. There'll be more Eldar stuff in the future but next up it's some more dwarves.

Until then, happy painting!

Guard of the Slapdash King

Still working my way through the backlog of dwarves I need to photo. This time it's my King's Guard:

These are, of course, the longbeard/hammerer models from Games Workshop, but I intend to use them as King's Guard if/when I play with them as a T9A Dwarven Holds army. I decided the hammers and flat helmets looked too over the top (and a flat helmet just seems like a bad idea).

These guys got a bit more effort put into them, partly because they had more detail but also because my idea of "slapdash" has evolved as I become a (slightly) faster painter. That said, I was hoping to do the metal more quickly using the new gloss washes from GW (well, they were fairly new back when I started them!) but after a couple of tries I couldn't get it to settle right and went back to ye olde washes and more effort highlighting. The banner also got a lot of attention, freehanding the Hold's sigil as practice for my BSB and because a big banner like that deserves something extra. Totally worth it - I'm really proud of the result.

Overall these gorgeous models were great fun to make and paint. I don't really need a bigger unit, but I'd like to get my hands on just one more to make another champion to use as a character. (Actually I have another model in mind that might wind up replacing the leader of this unit, but that's for another time.) If the Ironbreaker models are as nice to play with as these I'm tempted to add them to the army...

Anyway, hope you like these guys. You can expect more dwarves in June. Until then, happy painting!

Iz'ldra - Primaris Dreadnought of the Salamanders

While I still have more dwarves to share I thought it would be nice to break up the posts with the other bits I've been working on.

A while back I won a painting competition in my local Games Workshop, and the prize was a primaris dreadnought sprayed gold(ish). While it was nice to have a trophy to commemorate it, I decided pretty quickly that since it was a model I was going to paint it. It took me a while to decide on a chapter but I eventually decided I'd like to paint some green so went with Salamanders. Here's the result:

Normally, I like to paint models this big in sub-assemblies. As I received this guy already built I found getting to some parts a challenge, especially when cleaning mould-lines and where he had been clipped from sprue. Because of this, and because I'm really coming to appreciate a grittier look to 40k models, I decided to make him pretty dirty. When the whole thing was painted I went over it with patches of Agrax Earthshade and built up mud and dust around the lower parts and, really, wherever I felt like it. This covered up a couple of building mistakes as well as some spatter from my airbrush, while also giving some variation to the model that would otherwise be lacking.

As a gaming piece I think you'll agree he came out very well. I've decided I really like painting dreadnoughts and can't wait to try another one, maybe this time in Blood Angels colours.

Next up will be more dwarves, but until then, happy painting! 

Return of the Slapdash Dwarves!

Some of you might have thought my slapdash army project forgotten, but we dwarves have long memories...

Welcome to another instalment of my speedily (and somewhat messily) painted dwarf army. Though it's been a while since I've posted any, they are very much an active project and are currently my most complete army! Over the next little while I will be dusting off those models I have neglected to take photos of and remedying that with my new photobooth.

To begin, here are my slapdash miners:

I loved painting these guys, especially the candles which make them really stand out from the rest of the army. The old Battle for Skull Pass set had so much character - despite the limitations I have a weakness for simple, mono-pose models like those dwarves and goblins. Somehow I have 18 of them with a command (and a second champion model pretending to be an ordinary miner near the back!) but I'm not quite sure how, as I thought I only ever had two sets of them (they came as a unit of 8 in the box - 5 regular and 3 command).

As I said, my dwarves are my most complete army right now. The only models I own that I have yet to paint are a unit of slayers, two war machines, and my characters. I hope to have the slayers and warmachines finished by the end of the summer, but the characters will take a little longer - they're a collection of metal models from various eras and I'd like to do them justice, even if it means they don't quite match the slapdash theme of the rest of the army.

Until next time, happy painting!

Photobooth Phun!

Hi all!

This blog is picking up steam again and you can expect a flood of pictures over the next couple of weeks (then a lull as I'll be away for a fortnight, then back to flooding) - for this you can thank my new photobooth:

Previously, taking photographs meant waiting for a bit of good light from the window, getting out my old painting lamp, setting it up with my current lamp to provide multiple lighting angles, fetching the lid of one of my storage boxes and taping a big piece of black paper to it as a background, then getting the models/camera and taking the pictures - needless to say it was a hassle and because of it I put off taking a lot of photos which have yet to appear on this blog. With the arrival of my new photobooth, all that's about to change.

It's just a cheap model I bought on Amazon. I had a giftcard to amazon.de and didn't really know what to do with it, when I remembered I've been meaning to give one of these a go for a while. I was a bit sceptical given its price, but I'm delighted with the result. Here you can see a photo taken with the booth:

And comparing to my old method:

Despite the first photo being a little out of focus (I could go and retake it but what really matters is the lighting so I won't right now) you can see the light is really pretty good. I was very afraid it would be too bright and would wash out my models, as when I first turned it on it was blinding, but a little DIY softened that up a good bit. If you look carefully in the first photo you can see where I've taped some folded baking paper over the led strip to reduce and diffuse the light hitting the models (I did something similar with my old method). It gives me the effect I want but I am going to toy around with the number of layers to get the brightness I want in future.

The booth is plastic and light, but doesn't feel easy to break (although if you put some effort into it you could bend it out of shape and would have to bend it back). It folds flat if you need to store it and when set up clips together with little metal stud clips at the top and bottom. There are two led strips on top - one at the front and one at the back - and they are bright! The power cable has two micro USBs which connect to the two strips (although if for some reason you only wanted to connect one you can do that, too) and a standard USB to connect to a laptop or adaptor for power (actually I haven't tried it with my laptop, so maybe that wouldn't work). There is also a hole in the top (with a flap) whose purpose I have yet to divine but it doesn't seem that important to me. It's basic, but it's functional.

There are, however, some minor drawbacks worth mentioning:

• I really don't like the cloth backdrop - the pattern is the worst part and it's going to have to be replaced, but as the cloths (they come with a few colours) are designed to be interchangeable that shouldn't be a problem, I just need to source a nice backdrop and tape it in
• The power cable is a USB and it's not very long - again, not a huge issue as I can use my phone charger to plug it into the wall, but as my extension cable was borrowed for another fixture in the house right now it means it limits where I can place it (luckily it just reaches the edge of my painting table)
• The led strips heat up a lot - I'm not sure if this is going to be a real problem, but it's something to keep an eye on, as I don't want the plastic frame melting or the paper I've stuck to it catching fire
• Its small size, while convenient for setting up next to where I'm painting, is a drawback when photographing large models and units - for these I'll probably have to revert to my old method

Overall though I'm extremely pleased for the small investment it was and I look forward to taking lots more photos with it, some of which you will see very soon.

Until then, happy painting!

Vampires Chapter 6: Spawn

It's been a while but there's lots to show so let's get to it!

Every vampire army needs, well, vampires. I haven't got round to working on my characters yet, but I have polished off my Vampire Spawn:

Models courtesy of Games Workshop. I really like these models I just wish they were a bit more poseable without more modelling skills than I really possess (or at least more dedication to modelling them).

I'm pleased with how they came out. I thought the pale skin would take longer to achieve, but it turned out to be pretty quick between airbrushing highlights and skipping layers I used to think were essential before brushing on the last highlight (Vallejo White Grey). Just be sparing with where you place it and you don't have to worry about making mixtures of 1:2 and 1:1 White Grey:Wolf Grey to make it look smooth.

Unfortunately, one of the buggers broke a nail during final assembly (I painted them with only one wing attached) and despite a lengthy search and rescue the missing piece was declared lost. This was particularly annoying as I had gone to the trouble of buying new vargheist heads because one of the ears had its tip bent off while it was on the sprue. Oh well, at least it's not very noticeable.

Until next time, happy painting!