New Stuff Day (?)

Apparently it's 'old stuff day' today for bloggers.  I.e. blog necromancy/nostalgia trip.  Bringing some posts that didn't receive as much attention as the should have (with lower follower numbers in the past and all).

Unfortunately, my blog is not exactly 'old', not being even a year old yet, and the number of posts I have put out is also rather small.  So... I'm just gonna show you what I've been working on lately.

First off, my current project - Shinobu Kitsune WIP.

A special character ninja.  Now, my struggle to find a suitable palette choice for the colours of this model led to the first time I actually went on the forums, begging bowl in hand, to ask for advice.  I was told by someone regarding one of my other ninja that black highlighted with grey was too dull and I should use a subtle highlight of the complementing colour. 

Long story short, I tried to make blue with black subtly highlighted red and came out with blue and black unsubtly highlighted orange.  I'm generally quite happy with this, as it does accentuate the cyberpunk anime feel of Infinity, though it does mean that she won't quite fit in with the rest of the ninja, as they are simply *bright colour* and grey-shaded black.

Oh well, she's a named character, she gets perks.

And then some Dark Elf updates:

First, me trying to remember how to paint Black Guard.  The one on the left is a heavily damaged and chipped model I painted about two years ago - the one on the right is one I began painting about a week ago.  I'm keeping the old one close for reference as I try to remember the combination of washes and highlights I used to paint them.

Then some Witch Elves:

Mostly stretching my legs as regards to the skin tone and the hair, which are the two new factors that these models posses in comparison to my existing army.  That and working out where each colour will go and so forth.  These three will accompany the Cauldron, so it's a good place to work out the colour scheme in preparation for when/if I get some proper Witch Elves.

That's pretty much it for today then, au revoir.

Dark Elf Spearmen

It may come as a surprise, but yes, I still do collect my Dark Elves.  They are still the only actual army I own, now excepting the Infinity Yu-Jing bunch, but I count them as more of a strike team than an army...

This is a unit that I actually built almost a year ago now, but only to 66% completion.  I finished the highlights for the blue armour and the skin, the highlights and insignia on the shields as well as the gold-ish pieces of bling and the bases in the last couple of days.  My next port of call with the Druchii would be to either finish off some characters that need finishing, or to begin the labourious task of repairing my badly chipped Black Guard regiment.  I'm either going to need a battlefoam-esque contraption to carry them or I need to varnish them thoroughly, the first's expensive and the second's undesirable.  Unless I bother tracking down the good matt varnish I saw promoted on some forums...

There's an Infinity hacker ninja in the works too, but there are still a lot of hard-to-reach pockets of metal visible on the model, so it's gonna need a bit of touching up before it gets uploaded.

That's it for naow.  Happy dice-rolling!

Ithilien Rangers

Watching the Hobbit trailer a few weeks ago re-awoke my passion for the original fantasy world of the Lord of the Rings.  Well technically, the first would probably be R.E. Howard's Hyboria, but we all know it was Tolkien who kick-started the fantasy genre as we know it.

I digress.

  So I had a rummage for good LotR models and found some Southern Dúnedain to paint, because they're probably the closest thing LotR has to ninjas.

Many of you might not have played/bought the LotR wargame, so you might not know that the plastic models almost always come in packs of 12, usually in three 'wargear option' groups of four.  Ithilien Rangers come in groups of four archers, four with spears and four with swords.  That's mostly for aesthetic diversity, as the basic wargear for all of them include a sword and a bow, only the spear dudes are different in-game.  I did the four spear-dudes first.

 These were painted to be tabletop level rather than a serious go at painting, plus my camera sucks.

Also, I know some people out there don't like the LotR models (I'm looking at you, Smurf) but I still don't like Sisters of Battle, so nyah.

Anyway, that's it for naw.

White Swords Tactical Squad

So, a little while ago I read a Horus Heresy novel (First Heretic) and then I realized why I shouldn't read Horus Heresy novels.  They invoke a strong need in me to paint Spess Mehreens.  I succumbed.  Damn.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any 'new' Space Marines in boxes or waiting to painted, and I'm too skint to buy any, so I turned to my first Space Marines, with their over-thick coats of paint and badly-stuck-on-transfers and undercoated them black.  Their poses aren't anything artistic because I had to paint them as they came, but time to redeem their paintjobs somewhat...

Tactical Squad Cassius

Sgt. Cassius

Evidently assembled during my "no such thing as too much purity scrolls" phase.

Häyhä

Lundgren

Blaze

Arviolz

Obel

Xavier

Lucius

Combat Squad Cassius (the back two are Andrew and Teslos)

Combat Squad Lucius

And yes, I name all of my Space Marines.  If I had a Tyranid army, I'm pretty sure I'd try name all of the Gaunts and Genestealers too.

These lot aren't based because the Hornby SkaleScenic gravel I usually use for this Chapter is playing a very fine game of hide-and-seek at the moment, so the bases will have to be completed at a later date.

I wasn't gonna go as crazy with the freehand for this lot as I could have because they be a humble tactical squad, who have not yet earned their battle honours.  That goes to the 1st Company squads.

Righty-ho, I'm off then.  Happy dice-rolling!

Scorpions and Destroyers.

Just a pic-update post.


Scorpion:

 I would have added (and still may add) more diverse foliage but I didn't have the materials.

Destroyer WIP

It's a Soviet steam-powered magically-controlled mech that can shoot and ax.  Basically.

Can I just say that Privateer Press plastics (or maybe just this batch) was super low quality.  I tried plastic glue, super glue, even Bostick All-Purpose and it wouldn't stay together.  This specimen is held together by cocktail-stick pinning and green stuff.  See how the right arm sticks out more?  That's what that is.  I've given the second Warjack a fairy liquid water bath to see if that's what was required, but I've never come across miniature plastic that a tube of Polycement couldn't bond before.  That Warjack is a fair bit further along by this point, now that I think of it...

Right, got to try for job tomorrow (today, oops).  Happy snake-eyes!

Whirlwind Finito!

Well, my approximation of finished at any rate.  It's only recently that I've stopped the habit of going back to old models to try and improve the paintjob my then-worse-skills could accomplish, and because I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  I'm also a bit impatient, and I'm not sure how they co-exist within me, but there we are.

   Here we go:

Now, there are a few specific things I will return one day to fix (metallics, some bits and bobs of the flame/sword designs) but I am overall satisfied with this for now, though there are no headlamps on it (we can see fine by the flames in the craters we create, duh!) as I couldn't find them - I partly assembled the model before I left university, many moons ago, and some components have found themselves into bitz boxes or somewhere less unmentionable I'm sure. There's an optional placard-type aquila about too, but I didn't see the need for it.

Umm..., yep that's all for now.  Happy dice rolling!

Whirlwind WIP

After seeing a Samurai Khorne Berzerkers thread on DakkaDakka, I felt the urge to paint something MEQ'-y.

Sorry, but when I see a large flat space, I instinctively kill a kitten.  Therefore, I must save the kittens.

Utterly my first time painting a vehicle of any kind, except for Dreadnoughts, and I dunno if I need to make it grubbier or something.  Should the white be given a light wash to dull it down?  I dunno chaps, any opinions and advice welcome.

Frontline Gamer: the Imperium of Man as a metaphor for Games Workshop.

Blogging will be sparse these days as I am constantly distracted by Space Marine's fantastic multiplayer and unimportant things like job-hunting, but also because my paint station isn't the most convenient here at home:

It's a tad cramped, is what I'm saying, and no room to set up my laptop to watch the Thundercats reboot while I apply bloodstains to my Druchii.

So, I'm compromising a bit, by resorting to plagiarism.  Well, not really, but kinda.  I recently came along a fantastic article about the current state of Games Workshop, which can be read here.  It compares GW to the Imperium of man; massive, dogmatic and fanatical, beset on all sides by heretics and aliens (both old and new) and decaying away.  I thought it was a well thought out and provoking extended metaphor/theory/argument, and I'd urge you all to take a peek at the very least.  Just pop over to see what the fuss is, in a way.

That's all for now folks.

Upcoming Hiatus and Greg.

This will be the last post from me for a few weeks you'll be glad/sorry (delete as appropriate) to hear, as I shall be going to France on holidays.  This is mostly for my parents, who have been stressed out with work and Grandma having psychiatric-related problems, and me and my brother are going with them because they're paying.  So, I won't be back until the second week of August, when I will begin searching for employment in earnest.


For now though, I'll give you a few pictures of how my Black Dragon, Greg (yes, I'm sticking with that name) is getting along.

 
 Slow going, I admit, but only because I haven't painted flesh in yonks.  I'm too used to painting sharp, angular models, like armour-clad elves and marines, give me something with organic limbs and I get lost.

  I also had a change of heart with the colour scheme.  The scheme for my Druchii is to have dark blue as the main colour, with red and gold to balance it.  Essentially, the Night Lords colour scheme.  First, I thought of making it a darker-hued version of my Hydra:

 But me being weak to the lures of adhering to army backgrounds, couldn't quite face the idea of painting a Black Dragon any colour other than black (I know, I'm pathetic) so in the end, I've decided to paint it properly black, with the spines and the wing membranes red, and then the blue will be provided by the Dreadlord and some warpaint/tattoos/markings on the dragon itself.  The gold bits are essentially the same on both Hydra and Dragon of course.

  I was also going to mount him on a grey sand/snow base like the rest of my merry killers, but my brother mentioned that it would be cool if it was 'a rock in the sea' kind of thing, and I was so mindblown by the image that popped into my head that I immediately sculpted the sand I had already laid down with a lot of PVA glue into something resembling cresting waves.

Ta-dah...

I then laid down several coats of PVA to smooth it out, bombarded the base (strategically) with paints and washes, beginning with Dark Angels Green, moving to blues and Space Wolf Grey, and occasionally drenching it in Thraka Green and Asurmen Blue washes, and then I put the white on.  Then, 'Ardcoat Gloss Varnish.  I put it on the rock as well, to show that the rock would also be drenched in water.  Logically, part of the tail and the dead tree should be drenched as well, but I'm not sure how far up I should go.
      I'm also a little concerned about the base out-doing the model with its shininess.  Almost considering glossing the dragon completely, to achieve a shiny black scale look, but I'd logically have to gloss the Dreadlord as well then, and I think that might be a little bit too much. 

      But those problems are problems for tomorrow.  Hope you all have a fantastic summer wherever you are, happy gaming, painting and modelling.