Revisiting an old model: Space Marine Mark II

A long while back I painted a space marine captain from the Assault on Black Reach set. It was one of my early attempts to adapt an 'Eavy Metal painting guide and (at the time) I was pretty happy with the results (despite painting the ultramarine symbol upside down!). Then, not too long ago, I was rummaging around looking for a model to paint - I was in the mood to try putting a little effort into a paintjob, but not too much, and I found a second Assault on Black Reach Captain! It was one I'd traded for a while back - originally caked in thick paint I'd stripped it back as best I could and then forgot about it. So I decided to give him some love and see if my rescue attempt was worth it.

Here's the result:

I'm really pleased with the improvement over the old model - here's a side-by-side comparison:

I had a lot of fun painting him - it was especially nice to be able to aim for improvements without worrying about getting him perfect. I'm particularly pleased with how the paintjob (and the new base size) make him look larger and give him more presence than the older version.

Anyway, this was just a bit of fun to ease me into some more serious painting. I'm hoping to get a few more characters up here soon.

Until then, happy painting!

Vampires Chapter 7: More Skeletons!

It may be slow, but I'm still progessing on my Vampire Counts army. I'd already painted my main skeleton unit using the slowest method to paint bone ever but, having originally intended to run two large blocks I still had a bunch left over waiting for some attention. Since I was running low on undercoated models waiting to be painted and was having a lot of fun with Contrast paints, I decided to try to paint the remaining bony boys a bit more quickly.

Here they are:

In total there are 29, but as they're all the same basic skeleton I decided to take close-ups and alternate angles of just a few (and the command, of course). Unlike last time, I just painted the bone with Skeleton Horde over a white undercoat (actually it might have been a Bleached Bone undercoat) and then gave it a light drybrush of Vallejo Dark Sand mixed with a little Ivory. Deeper shadows were enhanced with a little Agrax Earthshade. I decided to keep the speed up for the rest of the painting by stippling and dryburshing pretty much all of the rest of the models, except the wood which was painted using brown Contrast paints (mostly Cygor Brown and Skeleton Horde over a woodgrain painted on in white).

I think I could have pushed the bone highlights a little more, but otherwise they're a very good result for much less time invested, even if the freehanded banner got away from me a bit - pro tip: always sketch your freehands at least once before trying it on a model.

So ends the last of my rank and file skeletons... except for one which has been taken for a special, secret project that may or may not appear here*.

Until next time, happy painting!

*Eventually. Maybe.

More Ghoulishness

After putting quite a bit of effort into my last few models and using mostly dark and cold colours, I decided I needed a change of pace. Inspired by John Blanche's use of Contrast paints (it's somewhere on the Warhammer Community website if you feel like searching for it) I decided to try doing something with a yellowish palette. 

I had a hunt through my boxes of sprues I found some more ghouls I thought I'd lost or traded. They seemed like a good choice for playing with Contrast paints and dirty, yellow tones, and as I'd already sold the other ghouls I'd painted there was no obligation to keep to that colour scheme. A couple of days of building and painting later, they were done!

While these were nice to paint, I'm not quite happy with how they came out. The yellow seems to have green undertones to it that I wasn't really aiming for. One problem this project highlighted for me was that I still don't understand the Contrast method of painting as much as I'd like - I forced myself not to use any highlights after the Contrast paints but wasn't quite able to get the level of nuance of light that I would have liked. I guess it all comes down to practice. Maybe I should try painting with traditional watercolours.

Anyway, it was still nice to have a change, and while they're not the best they do look pretty good in the cabinet (which now needs extra shelves, but more on that later). As I don't have a place for ghouls in any of my armies, I intend to sell or trade them off at some point for something else that looks fun to paint.

Until next time, happy painting!

Queen of the Baddies

Been another bit of a break and I've got a backlog of models to photograph, but before I can get round to showing you them I've got to share the last of the campaign models I painted. You've seen the King of the Uglies, but while a gigantic beast is a fearsome opponent for your DnD characters it takes an enemy that can outthink you to be truly terrifying.

Meet the Queen of the Baddies:

Striking a confident pose, adorned with jewelry and holding a sceptre that sugests some magical power, this is the enemy that you really have to worry about. She might even be the one controlling Zombiesaurus Rex!

This model was an absolute joy to paint. It was an interesting challenge to paint her skin - I wanted similar tones to the rest of the campaign models but I also wanted to make her somehow softer overall, and I tried to focus a lot on the zenithal highlighting which I think I captured pretty well. My only criticism with the model is the breasts - even giving a little fantasy exaggeration I would have preferred them slightly smaller. Trying to imagine her running to attack some spellbound protagonists just seems comical to me - I'm prepared to bet it would be very uncomfortable without some serious support, too.

What made this model really fun to paint though is that she's actually two models! Not only is the Queen of the Baddies scary because she can work to outmaneuver her enemies, she's a monster in her own right - a medusa!

Everything that was fun about painting the first model was fun here, too, with the added bonus that I got to add some cool snakes and a subtle red iris to show off her petrifying stare. Looking at the photos, I tend to forget they are actually two separate models - I keep expecting the first one to take off her wig and reveal her true form! I guess that means they're a convincing pair, at least to me.

Now I'll leave my DnD painting adventure behind and move onto the rest of the models I've been working on in the last couple of months. There's quite a lot to get to!

Until then, happy painting!

King of the Zombies....Zombisaurus rex!

Finally! We've seen the goodies, the baddies, and the uglies, but now it's time for the pièce de résistance - the King (of the uglies).

This guy was a blast to paint, if not to put together. He's a resin model so he needed a fair amount of green stuff to plug gaps. I took advantage of the fact that he was a zombie to not worry about whether or not the gaps were filled completely smoothly - decaying flesh isn't expected to be ready for a Dove ad, after all. A couple of claws and teeth had to be sculpted, too - less room for error there, though.

For painting I had originally intended to make him more brown, a kind of brown with hints of olive. I got a bit carried away airbrushing greens, however, and he wound up being more of a fantasy creature with less of the natural browns I had wanted. Using washes I tried to put some brown into the model, but it just made him look dirty (which is fine for a zombie) rather than making him look brown. Lesson learnt: make sure you start with the colour you want, and don't get carried away working through your collection of greens. Still, he looks really nice and he was well recived, and presents a fearsome, boss-level opponent for the characters in the DnD campaign of which he will be part. I hope he eats someone!

Until next time, happy painting!

Campaign Characters

Every DnD campaign needs some protagonists, and the most dedicated protagonists need fantastic models to represent them. Here are two!

This character comes from the tribes but he's taken up adventuring for reasons best known to himself. Maybe it's the impressive amount of gold you can acquire by slaying monsters and raiding tombs in the jungle. He was painted mostly with Contrast paints and because of the funny angle of his pose is really hard to take a suitable photograph of!

This dwarf has a wandering spirit that has taken him far from his mountain home. This was one of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure of painting - an absolutely stunning model packed with character and beautifully proportioned. I definitely want to get one for myself at some point. While a lot of people like dynamic poses of the jungle barbarian above I'm a big fan of more static, classic poses like this dwarf. Like the above, he was painted mostly with Contrast paints, which are great for browns. I think I mentioned this before but if you want to paint wood, leather, or anything that calls for a lot of different brown tones, then Contrast is a great tool to have.

I decided to work on my non-metallic metal for both of these guys. I used contrast paints for the gold but the steel was ordinary brushwork, and is my favourite NMM silvery metal I've ever done. I'm especially proud of the barbarian's sword and can't wait to do some more!

Anyway, I hope you like them. And I hope the players whose characters these will represent like them too.

Until next time, happy painting!

Zombies!!!

A while back I posted some tribal warriors I painted for a jungle-themed DnD campaign. Well it's not just hostile natives that the adventurers have to deal with - there's a plague of undeath running rampant through the jungle, too!

These guys were a blast to paint. They've got colours to match the warriors they probably were in life, and were mostly done with Contrast paints. I can't stress enough how great the browns in the contrast paint range are - really enjoying them! It's also good practise for my own zombies, of which I have about a 100. Sadly, as my zombies are for my vampire army, they won't be as colourful as these guys.

Anyway, I hope you like them. Until next time, happy painting!