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.

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 :)

Renegade HQ Complete

Well the militia side of things any ways. This week has been difficult to get motivation, the weather is drawing in and the man cave (garage) is not as warm as it has been, but I'm determined to get these guys finished.

This is my second Command Squad, i really like the old guy with the flamer and monkey with a burning tail.

My psykers, additional HQ addons to the core HQ choice, really pleased with the mud weathering, first time I have use powder weathering techniques.

These are my favourites of the army so far, love these enforcers, they really have the corrupted commissar feel I was going for.

And finally the preacher for this unit.

All in all I'm quite pleased with the turn out, they are a good table top standard, and if I'm blowing my own trumpet, some of them, the Enforcers, are a little better.

Right next to finish off the Marine HQ choices...

(PS need to get better pictures of these, job for tomorrow)

Big Heads...

Painting 1:18 scale or 100mm figures is a lot different to painting normal 30mm gaming figures, as you might have seen in the first post about this project, the techniques from smaller models don't translate well. So I did some research into different painting techniques, and here are my results, these figures are no where near finished and are definitely still WIPs.

This is my first attempt at a more realist method of painting skin tones, using colour i would not normally use on miniatures, but I think it has some pleasing effects, think it looks better than the previous attempt.

Second and third attempts, these are a little better in my opinion, but still need some practice on this method to get it looking right, but I do like the dirty street urchin feel these future wasteland warriors are developing.

Armour is also coming along well, i like the dirty grubby feel these figures have, yet at the same time i think the flesh tones are looking soft.

Group shot!!!

Not quite ready for the poster but not long now I hope :)