12 December 2021

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.

13 November 2021

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!

31 October 2021

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!