Aaaaaand we're back. Again.

No, this blog just won't stay dead. I never really stop painting, I just slow down as life gets in the way. And, actually, life is very busy right now, so I'm not confident that we're back back. There'll probably be another hiatus after this, but I couldn't resist sharing my Ork Warboss!

This model was another experiment in airbrushing, oils, and applying paint with texture. While it was very quick to do (compared to my usual speed, anyway), I found an extra hour or two to add fine details like the squig's eyes, the beaten, checkered pattern, and the hazard lines. I don't know if orks generally have hazard lines, but I like to imagine that some mek somewhere noticed a lot of Imperial explosives had yellow and black stripes on them and concluded that these were the source of the weapon's power. I'd really love to see the faces on the tech-priests when they calculated how much extra explosive energy ork missiles with hazard lines painted on them put out compared to regular, unpainted missiles. (As well as their realization that the regular missiles are essentially a handful of tin cans welded together, with the one at the end beaten into a pointy shape.)

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

Ghosties Part 3: Chainrasps

Of course I picked up the first issue of the Mortal Realms magazine. Don't particularly like Stormcast and don't collect age of sigmar in general, but absolutely picked up some ghosts and sigmarines for three quid because who wouldn't?

Anyway, continuing my project refining my ethereal colour scheme, here's my oil paint and metal scheme as seen on a Chainrasp Horde.

To give you an idea of how the scheme works on an army level, here's a shot of all the units painted in this scheme as they sit in my cabinet.

I'm now very confident in how I'll apply this scheme to my wraiths. One small change I will make is to keep more of the green hue in the shadows, but obviously for these guys I couldn't make that change without making them substantially different from the glaivewraiths and spirit host already painted.

With the testing finished, next step is to break out the wraiths themselves!

Until then, happy painting!

Ghosties Part 2: Glaivewraiths

Time for some more ghosts! A little while ago, I painted up an old spirit host model as a test for an ethereal colour scheme. Since I have a serious plastic-crack addiction I had even more ghosts knocking around that don't have a place in my Vampire Counts army, and I decided to do some more tests of the colours and get rid of some unsightly greys at the same time. Here's the first unit of my "spare" ghosts: Glaivewraith Stalkers.

Just one on his own. Not photographing all five individually because once you've seen one you've kind of seen them all.

The paints are the same as my spirit host but with a metallic element. Orange rust adds a nice warm contrast to the cool turquoise and makes a more visually interesting scheme for an army.

Hope you like 'em. Until next time, happy painting!

Underworlds Part 2: Steelheart's Champions

Underworlds warbands are great. In one box you get not only a unit, but an entire force ready to go. Unlike armies, which can, if you let them get out of hand, expand indefinitely, warbands are a one-off purchase for a small but complete collection. This makes them very easy to collect, so I have about 10 of them.

My first (and still favourite) is the Sepulchral Guard, which appeared on the blog a little while ago. These guys are the second - meet my Steelheart's Champions! 

And a group shot!

Painting these was yet another attempt to paint quickly without investing too much time. It was also another experiment with oil paints, not only using them for shading/washing but also for the blue cloth and armour panels. I'm delighted with how they came out. The gold armour was also a test for some Sanguinary Guard that are on my to do list...

More stuff to come soon. In the meantime, happy painting!