Project Projections

October was an unusually busy month, huh? Thankfully, November balanced it out!

Winter is always a slow time of year for me (I'm solar powered) and this has been reflected in my hobby. But, while actual progress on my pile of shame has been grinding to a halt, the list of projects I have started, I want to start, or am pulling off the shelf has grown at an alarming rate.

First off, the big news - new Craftworld Eldar! My beloved Eldar have felt so lacklustre for so long, especially as my army has always been aspect heavy. Now, there is a confident prediction of not only a new codex early next year but a boatload of new models, including aspect warriors. I am earnestly hoping that this will herald a new era where aspect warriors are actually good on the battlefield and, in anticipation of such a monumental rebirth, my shelvdar have become an active project once again. Expect to see some space elf themed posts very soon*!

I've never had a proper space marine army, but there's one chapter that's always caught my eye. You might be able to guess which one. Prior to the Eldar news breaking I had just finished putting together a Blood Angel army (more or less) and, having worked hard on painting red lately, I'm reluctant to set it aside so soon. The sons of Sanguinius will just have to accept that they've become a slow-burning project for the time being, but they should still be making some appearances here in the near future.

One project that has yet to feature on this blog at all is my 3d printing. A while ago I got a 3d printer and I've been toying with printing parts and whole miniatures with modest success. Actually, there's been way more failure than success and I still don't understand why that should be, but that's the nature of this project I believe - constant troubleshooting. I am currently trying to get it to print successfully after making some changes to settings, but have, at least, got something to show for it in the form of some gorgeous Dark Eldar models courtesy of Edge Miniatures. They will also be appearing on the blog soon and are an army I was just starting to put together. Like my Blood Angels, my Dark Eldar will be taking a backseat to my Craftworlds, but will actually get higher priority because they, too, are Eldar.

Finally, my Vampires will continue to get some love. I have some more tinkering to do with my ethereal colour scheme before I'm happy to start working on my wraiths, a unit that's waiting to be added to the force.

So, that's the plan for December until I die. (I have a lot of Eldar models and plan to be buried with some of them still unpainted.) On top of that there will be stuff that isn't on the main project list and, of course, my Necrons which are currently on my painting table.

Until then, thanks for reading my ramblings about what I plan to do next. (This was more for my clarity of mind than yours!) And happy painting!

*Pretty soon. You know what I'm like.

Cryptothralls

A cryptek needs servants, right? Now my plasmancer has a pair of murder buckets to keep him company!

And, of course, a gloomy group shot!

 I think I'm even going to change up the paint scheme a little to make it more complex and interesting. Fun as it is to paint everything really quickly, I think I can add a little variety without costing too much effort and it'll make the army just a little more impressive.

Until next time, happy painting!

Happy Spooktober! Part 4: Space Vampire

Happy Samhain all!

The Spooktober season has a few hours left in it, just enough time to share another spooky miniature. For a change, this one's a Blood Angel, but if a monstrously-sized superhuman clad in armour better suited to a tank waving a glowing hammer and driven by the twin fuels of grief for a long-dead father and a need to drink the blood of his enemies isn't scary to you, then you and I are going to have difficulty relating to one another.

I've been working on a painting style that makes use of a lot of black to create shadowy, grimdark atmosphere. I've also been taking photos to accentuate that, but thought you might like to see how this model appears on the tabletop under more normal light conditions.

As you can see, light makes a huge difference. In the darker light he's pushing display standard. In brighter light he's still good, but he's clearly a tabletop standard character, which was the intent. He's an improvement on my previous Blood Angel captain and I'm about ready to apply this red to a full army. Keep an eye out for that!

Until next time, happy Samhain and happy painting!

Happy Spooktober! Part 3: Ghosts!

It's starting to get cold and dark as Samhain approaches, but there's still a little time left to post some more spooky seasonal models! Let's go old school with a classic spirit host model that's been kicking around my collection since it was in production.

This was a good opportunity to try out a new colour scheme. I think it's a big upgrade from my previous ethereal colour scheme. I applied Terradon Turquoise Contrast over a zenithal highlight, then slapped on a load of turqoise oil paint which I gradually made brighter by adding white. Once it was dry I touched up the brightest parts with white acrylic.

One thing I'll change for next time is the oil colour I applied - it was too dark. I had to add sooo much white to get it bright enough, which made the final result a bit messy and sketchy, and also made the drying time much longer than it could have been (several days!). Still, the effect kind of worked with the old sculpt, and I think the colour gives a great ethereal effect. I look forward to using it on some new ethereals I'll be adding to my army in the near future. These ghosts, however, are a stand-alone model to enjoy!

Until next time, happy painting! 

Happy Spooktober! Part 2: Sepulchral Guard

All the Underworlds Warbands have gorgeous models, but there's no way I could pass up getting my hands on the first undead warband GW released!

One thing that really excited me about Underworlds is the idea that I might get an actual entire force completed in good time (because it's only like, 3 to 9 models!). But, as usual, I've instead sat on these guys for about 2 years before finally getting them done. Still, we're working our way through the backlog and these guys are looking great!

Group shot!

Lots of photos but very appropriate for the continuation of Spooktober! I hope you like 'em.

Until next time, happy painting!

Happy Spooktober! Part 1: Terrorgheist Rescue

Way back when the terrorgheist model was released I picked up one for my vampire army. I loved the model but - like most of my collection - despite seeing many games it remained unpainted for a very, very long time. After a couple of house moves and a period spent in storage it was also starting to look a little worse for wear, with bits breaking and a thick layer of dust caking it in texture Nurgle would have been proud of.

When I got round to looking at my beloved bat again I wasn't sure I could save it. At the very least, I didn't think I would get it to a standard that I'd be happy having in my army. So I decided to rebase it, take the square base it was on for another project, and try out a grimdark, dirty, grimy style using mostly oil paints. I figured it was an appropriate style for painting the undead and it'd give me a chance to try out some new techniques.

I was very, very pleased with the results.

Photos taken with a dark atmosphere to show off the terrorgheist to best effect.

This one taken in full light so you can see it in less favourable conditions - still looks pretty good!

As you can see, it came out really well! I couldn't easily fix the broken wing-tip but the rest of the repairs aren't noticeable, and the dirty painting style really suits the piece, I think. Even in harsh light it looks pretty good - I'm actually regretting not keeping it on a square base so it could be part of my army after all (but rebasing it was such a hassle I am not doing that again).

I hope you like this first installment for Spooktober (is that a thing? If not, let's make it a thing.). There'll be more to come before the month is out!

Until then, happy painting!

Vampires Chapter 9: Black Knights

And the Vampire Army continues to grow with the addition of a block of cavalry!

Like my grave guard these guys were in a half-painted state for a long while. I decided to shake things up with the style a little to make them a bit more fun, and stippled all of the purple and bone with impressionist-like ease. It really sped up the whole process (not to mention how relaxed it made it!) and with a dark brown oil wash to tie everything together any ugly little errors were more or less erased. The most annoying part was repairing the banner pole and lances that broke during various moves (they were unpainted on one shelf or another for a lot longer than they were half painted!).

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

Plasmancer Cryptek

One thing I'm really bad at is painting whole armies. I just don't have the stamina or the concentration to paint the same stuff over and over again, which is why my dwarves and even my vampires are still not 100% finished, yet. It's something I'm trying to improve, though.

Rather than work with the models I have - like a rational person might do - I decided to start an army that's really geared towards quick and easy painting. I got hold of a couple of boxes of Indomitus while they were available (even though I'm not always painting, I am always compulsively collecting) and decided Necrons would be a good project for an army to quickly finish with a limited palette. Since I didn't see myself ever wanting to field two plasmancers, I figured one would make a good test model for my colour scheme. Here's the result:

Sadly, his pointy finger was damaged while he was on sprue, so I gave him a very pointy finger instead.

The process was very simple, at least to begin with. Starting from a black undercoat, I sprayed everything with Vallejo Duraluminium. Then I washed the gold parts with Contrast Iyanden Yellow, and picked out the staff handle in a dark grey. When dry I applied a thick coat of black oil paint over everything, then came back and removed the excess to create the highlights. Once the oil was dry I added a little AK Winter Streaking Grime (I think that's the name) to the gold just to give it more greenish/brown depth. Then it was just a matter of picking out the green (a mix of phthalo green and a warm yellow, with dark sand and white to highlight).This is where things got less simple.

I wanted to have a go at an OSL effect. I've tried before with modest success, but for my Necrons I wanted the green glow to be a major part of the whole army. I wound up spending twice as long painting all the light effects than I did the rest of the model, slightly undermining my attempt to paint this guy quickly. That said, for a first draft the results aren't too shabby. The only changes I want to make are to leave the oil paint on longer to make the whole model a little darker, focus on adding more depth to the gold, and paint the tubes at the top black rather than green, but keep the glowing effect in the middle.

Now that I've worked out my colour scheme, I have a sizeable force of Necrons added to my to-do list. I hope to use them as a sort of instant gratification in between longer projects when I'm feeling winded.

Hope you like it. Until next time, happy painting!