Giant Announcement!

I painted a giant!

One of my all time favourite models, the original plastic giant is the epitome of Warhammer Fantasy. Admittedly, this one is modelled as a Chaos giant, so not exactly the classic, but still pretty damn amazing. It was also a test in painting a large model almost entirely in oils. Oil paint, I imagined, would help achieve the smooth transitions I wanted for the skin. I'd say the result is a resounding success!

 

Somehow I managed to take most of my photos with a cooler white balance instead of the warmer tones that better reflect what the model looks like in person. The weird part is I didn't even change my lighting set up in between. Anyway, these two show better how warm the colours actually are, which I think is more attractive. Speaking of lighting set ups, these were all taken with my new photography lamps, which make such a difference to the photos!

Until next time, happy painting! 

Abaddon the Despoiler

I painted an Abaddon! One of the great remakes of a classic miniature, he's up there with Ghazghkull in terms of sculpting quality. Hopefully this gritty rendition does him justice.

A lot of fun trying out some effects on details. I'm already looking forward to painting another one.

Until next time, happy painting! 

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.

Poxbringer AKA Herald of Nurgle

This is going to be a good month for catching up on sharing models!

 

Here is my Herald of Nurgle. Not much to say about this one. I love Nurgle models because you don't have to worry too much about being tidy, so they're very relaxing to paint. Hope you like it!

Until next time, happy painting!  

Bloat Drone

What a disgustingly busy summer it's been. If I could get more time to work on this blog I would. No matter. We're here now and we've got a new model to show off. This is my Bloat Drone - it was a prototype for a GD entry and I'm pretty delighted with how it came out. See for yourself!
 

Still need to find time to take better videos, but I hope you'll agree it's an impressive piece for the tabletop. I'm accumulating quite a collection of painted Death Guard. Pity about their current state in the rules.

Until next time, happy painting!

Grimdark Poxwalkers

What could be scarier than 10 plague-ridden poxwalkers shambling towards you?

How about 30?!

I'd almost forgotten about these guys, but having remembered I have to go back on what I said in the last post - I did get something else painted over lockdown. Though I wasn't painting much, I was watching a lot of new painting content online and got inspired by the Grimdark style and Not Just Mecha's approach to painting and use of oil paints. I decided to give oil paints a try and fell in love immediately. 

An army I've been meaning to collect since I picked up an old metal Typhus model is the Death Guard, and between Conquest Magazines and a No Know Fear box I've got a small force put together. I wanted a project where I didn't have to worry about being precise because dirt and grime was the goal, and these guys fit the bill. After doing most of the work with airbrush and Contrast paints, I slapped a thick coat of black oil paint on, rubbed off the excess, and was left with some pretty awesome, disgusting Nurgle models. I spent a little more time adding highlights and details but all told they only took a few days for each batch (one of 20, one of 10) and I'm very pleased with the results.

A small selection of closeups:

Naturally, oil paints have become a staple on my painting table and you can expect to see me abusing them a lot more in the very near future.

OK, now I'm pretty sure I'm all caught up on what happened over lockdown. Everything else should be new stuff. Probably.

Until then, happy painting!

The Long-promised Traitors

OK, be honest. How many of you thought this post would be another year coming? Really? Just me? Alright then. Well, you were right.

If you recall (or look back a couple of posts), before I took a break from blogging (and, indeed, painting) I said I had some cultist models on my painting table I was going to paint red. This was not a lie. I rarely lie, I just smile when I say improbable things and people assume.

Anyway, I did have some cultists on my table. I did plan to paint them red. I did eventually put that plan into action and here are the results.

 The eyes, I'll admit, are not great up close. Let me emphasise that these were painted with speed in mind, and they look alright at normal gaming distance.

They were painted as part of my "god I have to get something done" phase and I wanted them to be quick and easy, which they were. A base coat of red (for the cloaks) was airbrushed over the lot and the rest was brushwork. I'm particularly happy with the silver metal, which was just boltgun metal highlighted with mithril silver, then washed with brown, black, and sepia washes (not one after another, just as my own whims demanded - I also diluted them a little as I thought necessary).

The photos themselves were much longer in the making. Until quite recently I didn't own a tripod and took most of my photos with a phone. These pictures, I think you'll agree, are a big improvement. 

I have decided that the traitor forces are not really for me, though, so won't be painting any more cultists for a while at least (although there is a certain purple-armoured Astartes that might be appearing here in the near future).

Until next time, happy painting!

Helldrake

Let's keep things going with another update. Two a week is a hard pace to set and it definitely won't last, but let's enjoy it while we can.

One model I've had the pleasure of painting in the last few months was a friend's Helldrake. Those things are huge! I didn't realize it while I was painting as I did it in parts and assembled at the end, but it's actually one of the largest models I've painted and certainly the biggest on this blog. Anyway it was a lot of fun to do, particularly as I was trying to be more adventurous with my airbrush which I used to paint the metal. I also had a go at giving him an OSL effect for the working fuel lines, and while it's not perfect it looks pretty good on the table.

It's hard to photograph big models -

I didn't notice part of the background wasn't covered by my cloth! 

Close up of the head.

Power lines and core seen from below - pretty happy!

Close up of the base and the crude chaos icon daubed in blood over the Imperial Aquila.

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