Translate

Sunday 23 November 2014

Life gets turned upside down...

This might be my last post for a while, we have to move out of our current accommodation quickly, which will mean everything getting packed and put away, an no internet for a while.
I have also been ill, which would normally mean more posts, but vertigo isn't like that... damn it.

So on to this update.
Continuing my experiments in painting, filters and washes here are two brute from the legion army of heretics.

Very simple techniques were employed here, one colour spray undercoat, one in red one in light brown, wash in dark brown acrylic on both, allow to dry. pick out the skin tones, one flat colour, allow to dry. Then add oil based filters, these were applied quite heavily, allowed to dry for a bit, with oils this is a substantial time, and something acrylics wouldn't allow. Then with a damp brush, with some turpentine, reverse dry brush, this removes some of the overly heavy wash/filter, as can been seen on the armour plates quite easily.
Next I picked out the blue sashes, this was done with the filter still 'damp' and allows for wet blending I think, but I'm not sure, the effect achieved was with one thin layer of acrylic, over the oil filter. No acrylic blending was used. I then fixed that layer with a matt varnish, and picked out the metal details and leathers.
Very pleased with the over all effect.

MORDHEIM!!!







Same techniques applied here, washes filters and anti-dry-brushing. Not bad for a mornings work :)
So glad to have a team ready for our groups revisiting of this great game.

(Not biased at all, wasn't a national finalist, nope :D)

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Sisters getting ready for Battle.

 This is less of a tutorial more a diary of what I did to get to where I finished up. If you learn anything from this I would be surprised, but anything is possible.

Under-coated with a dark brown ink wash to bring out the details, and help create the shadows.







Faces.

Simple next stage, get all the flesh blocked in.

Clothes.

Again just simple blocking out of colours.


Armour.

A little more thought went into the painting of the armour, this is to be an off white when finished, so a dirty cream for a base block colour.

Armour skirts.

Soft shadows on the scale maile skirts, a mid grey ink wash, helps with the definition of the scales.

Hair.

I used a reference picture from the interwebs, to get the ratio of hair colours, I always struggle to know what colours to use for a unit and it then devolves into just one colour, usually brown...

I used thin paints and used multiple layers in smaller areas until the colour I desired was reached.

Accessories

Browns... lots of different shades of brown, with the new wet palette I was using, this was easy, keep the paint wet, allowing subtle changes almost constantly while painting all the figure in one go.


So a little jump from the last set to, this group, I have highlighted the scales just once up-to, white, washed the tunics in a turquoise blue. I've painted and highlighted the metallics, putting my first attempts of heat damage on these too.


The bases and boots have had the oil filter treatments, and I think this helps them gel quite well.


 Again all WIP and C&C welcome.





Oil Filters?

So in my journey to better my painting skills I have tried filters, these are one with oils and a lot of thinners. The first guys, one of my favourite Ogres from the Old Hammer Club, was over highlighted, to an almost pastel finish, really should have done before an after shots for all these... live and learn.

I will probably strip and re paint, but I love the way the wood and leather have turned out, with just two filters applied.


I passed this figure over many years ago, I guess he wasn't heroic enough, but when I stumbled across him again recently, I just had to have him as a Nurgle infected priest. But he was mainly white, so I applied filters, yup the dirty robe is all one with filters, about 3/4 different brown tones.

The base is also just filters, it was white plaster and grey basing stones, now looking more like dirty mud, and effluence...

Definitely something I will continue to experiment with.


Sunday 26 October 2014

Back to Painting

I have been reading about wet palettes and I decided to give it a go this afternoon....

I love wet palettes!!!

They are such a simple idea, but they are brilliant, if you're not aware of what a wet palette is, go Google it, but put simply it is a container with damp filling, covered in grease proof paper, and that's it, some people use cotton balls for the damp layer, I use what I had to hand and used tissue paper, I also only had cake cases for the grease proof paper, but I will now put some on the shopping list.

I have been taking photos of my work this afternoon, and will compile a walk through of my processes, not really a tutorial but an observation of what I do, that will be up in the next couple of days, only half way through at the moment.

Saturday 25 October 2014

Tempus Fugit...oops

Well apparently it has been nearly two weeks since my last update...oops
In my defence it has been my long week at work an I have been ill, well actually I found out I'm lactose intolerant... weird at my age I know. Any how...

So not much painting has been done, but I have been working on reducing the plastic mountain... though most of it seems to have appeared on my work bench...

I was having a tidy up in preparation for some painting, when I stumbled across a box I was not familiar with... it was full of sprues, all different kinds, old Mordheim Skaven, Eldar Guardians, Imperial Guard and Spacemarine Scouts. Well I was too excited to go any further with the tidy, and proceeded with kit bashing my way through a few figures.

But Before I go on to show you those, I ha a dilemma, my original army was a proxy Inquisitor list, which allowed me a great wealth of improvisation and imagination to run with.

The arrival of the new codexes have left me adrift, not sure where to go with my army. To help explain the problem I need to outline what I wanted to do with it in the first place. I wanted to create an Alpha Legion detachment that, like the fluff, uses the indigenous populations and other guns for hire to fight for it.

So I wanted to include monsters and villains from around the outer sectors, some evidence of trade with other races also, like Tau an Dark Eldar. For this I went to the Imperial Armour books, I always wanted to include Lught Huron, I liked his blatant disregard for the lesser troops in his armies, and the rolling meat walls that could be fielded. The Renegade Marauder Squads epitomising all that I wanted from the army, but this older army list was really lacking any of the punch the new codexes could offer, and while I like the fluff, I want a competitive army too. As I have already posted here, I also like the Xaphan Disciples from the Renegades an Heretics Army lists. But these are two different factions, Chaos Space Marines and Loyal Space Marines, so how was I gonna get these list to gel...

Then I read the Tyrants Army list once more, and in the section 'Why collect this army...' it says you can swap the loyal marines for their chaos equivalent, depicting the army later in the campaign when they are more desperate and turning to chaos... Eureka!!! now I can use the lists I like. So now the army is a Tyrants (Chaos) Legion, with Chaos Space Marines and Renegades & Heretics allies, full of flavour and colour.

I think people will call it a blob army, but I dont care, 320 infantry ish with about 40 marines, plus heroes... up gotta lot of painting to do :)

So what have I been doing...

 Well its my first attempt at a truscale Rhino, think it is a bit too wide and not quite tall enough, nut not bad for a mangled old Rhino that someone had been at with a lighter... Multi Melta damage obviously :) Quite pleased with the


 
These were started a long time ago, the fist two about 5 years ago, the uneercoated one and the really long barreled rifle. The rest are resent, they are to represent the leaders and snipers in the Marauder Squads, with the lack of actual sniper scouts, these are the next best thing :)

 


Chaplain Executioner.





I cannot take all the credit for this kit bash, I first saw the idea over at Eternal Hunt, the idea is genius, an i just ha to make it bigger, as you can see, I have spread the torso an lengthened the legs, adding plates to the soles of the feet also.
Chest needs something I think, maybe an A...

 More Disciples of Xaphan, love the possibilities these guys open up, again a WW1 trencher feel to them, but standard issue IG helmets this time.
I must say I was surprised how well the IG parts and the Mutant Chronicle parts came together, love the Champion came together. The squat theme for the 2nd person in the 2 Man Heavy Weapon Team continues, an goes even further in the next unit.






 Yup, a whole squad of Squat disciples!!!
And of course a Ratling to make up the 2nd man in the Heavy Weapons team :)

Really do like the way the old plastic squats gel with the new IG arms, and the fact the squats have such large heads, the Grey Knight Terminator head seams just about right in proportion.

WIP Questions

Although most of this post has been WIP, this next piece is very much WIP and needs 'something' to make it pop, dunno what just something.

The size is right, as can be seen here, well ish. The womble marines head is not stuck on in the final position... honest.

I want to add a tabard between the legs, and the back needs filling,  and the psychic hood adding, but it is just so... 90's static.

Think the straighter arm in the last pic helps a bit with that.

Zombtober...

I kinda failed on the Zombtober challenge, but here is my one and only (so far) zombie Kroot, waiting on crypt creeper parts for the rest of the 40 i need to build... wait a min forgot to add those in the infantry total... oh crap 360...
Stealer Body
Zombie Arms
Kroot Head
Necron 'Bits'

I will probably ad some ark Eldar Racks to the back too, he is supposed to be a leader type... not that zombies have leaders. :)

Not sure on the 'Dancing' pose though.







Old Games, and old friends... lol

While sorting through I started to collect the old games together and was pleasantly surprised by the numbers of Barbarians and Blood Bowl Teams I have.

With the state of our gaming circle at the moment, you know grown up time tables and working shifts... we rarely get two consecutive weekends to play, so we thought, well I did, that running a couple of league games might be a good idea, as some of us a free at different times, and this lends it self better to regular games than traditional table top role play.

1 Elf Blood Bowl Team
1 Human Blood Bowl Team
(With a box of large creatures out of shot, with loas of trolls... don't ask)
Enough Barbarians for 2 Mordheim Teams
Dark Elves for another Mordheim Team
Loads of dogs and wolves, with more out of shot and of course 2 Ogres, the one laying down needs some reviving, he lost a foot and a hand in a move at some point, but we have the technology t rebuild him, along with the rest of his Witch Hunting crew.



   This guy is the start of my Shadow Warrior Mordheim Team, read about them when looking up the living rule book for Mordheim, and like the idea of them, so now I need to build the team... More painting yay :)

Well that was a bit of an epic post, but now I'm back up to date :)