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!