Skaven, and then the Eldar is coming!

Hello!

If there's anyone out there still reading, here's my latest work. A Skaven Greyseer on top of a Screaming bell. One fantastic miniature by Games Workshop. Some of their older miniatures aren't too inspiring, but a lot of their newer ones just blows my mind. All Skaven war machines are just stunning (while their old Skaven models are absolutely terribad to the point of me not wanting to field them at all).

This will be the last Skaven painted for a little while since I'm undertaking something quite mad, I am painting up a *new* 40k army! Space wolves you say? Nope! Another Phil Kelly codex, Eldar. I need 1850p fully painted, based, and sitting on a display board by November. Truly insane thing for me to try.

Next up on the cutting block is a Wave Serpent. We're going to see if I can pull of my crazy airbrushed blue idea (Alaitoc, but much smoother, hence the airbrush). The other main colors with be Ushabti Bone and Yriel Yellow. Thinking that the blue will be Alaitoc blue with a darker and a lighter shade on top. I want to stay away from camo patterns of an kind, more of an artistic flair if anything. Tune it to see how it turns out!

After that I have two flyers. One Crimson Hunter (Exarch) and a Hemlock Wraithfighter. The Hemlock is a modified DE Razorwing using the proper weapons left over from the Crimson hunter. I am seriously thinking of building a second CH (since I already own the kit) and maybe I'll convert one more hemlock. Or I'll build a "real" hemlock as well. We'll see how well they'll do on the board first™.

Also have a Fire Prism (kinda sure it's not going to be a night spinner, even if the spinner is awesome. Got enough AI as it is) and a wraith knight coming up, as well as 20 Dire Avengers. So many miniatures, so little time!

Clownfish

The gray will turn into green and yellow (Iyanden Darksun), but I kinda like the gray. Makes it look like a clownfish though :)

Space wolves

The drop pod is almost done. Missing some weathering and clear coat. I really can't decide if I am only drybrushing on soot or if I go with some brown too. I still have never seen anything that has come from space and gone through the atmosphere.

My guess is that it won't color anything really. If anything it would just burn the paint up :) Metal baby!

Loot

Three new brushes, weathering powders for my drop pods, and Roman numerals for my Imperial Fists.

Going to return with a review of the #2 brush. You can order them yourselves for secret weapon miniatures!

Space Wolves

I'm alive! I wonder how many blog posts in the history of writing on the Internet has begun that way, and ended for that matter!

But after getting rid of one gallbladder and four wisdom teeth (wisdom, get rid of them early, hurts more when you are older!) I am now back to painting again. Feast your eyes on what I am up to right now. A Space Wolves drop pod (the first of many, many drop pods!).

I find it hard to decide what colors I should use on a model. I had specific issues with the colors on the fins. Ended up being gold:)

Hellpit Abomination

First up, one of my friends, a real life Skaven Warlord. One of my 13 (!) pet rats. Reginald.

The Hellpit Abomination model is absolutely fantastic. I am far from the first one to get his grubby little paws on one, but for those of you who haven't, the thing is a thing of beauty. Goes together way better than one would ever think. Makes me want to just get all the "hero" models Games Workshop is so fond of and paint them up.

Gave my new airbrush another spin. A Badger Krome. It's quite nice and really helps with making nice transitions. Let's face it, I am no good at blending, so this is a good way to compensate for now.

I went for a green mossy look on the stone.

Metal and blue veins.

Tried out two of the new washes, or shades as GW likes to call them. I must say that I am a fan. Flows better than the old ones and looks good. I went straight over the green in the "scars" with the Reikland Flesh so I will go over them again with some green glaze. The new paint line really is better than the old. I like the new metals as well. All of them are really good.

Different angle. Enjoy:) Need to touch up the green with some more yellow highlights, make the warpstone glow!

Thing is, I've got one more of these to put together and paint. Think I need to come up with some way to make it look different. Too bad I can't paint it up like the white one on the cover of the box. That one is absolutely fantastic!

New paints

White base (on a white primer), Casandora Yellow all over the model, Ceramite White highlight, and to finish it up Lamenters Yellow all over again. That's my new yellow "recipe". Doesn't get any easier to paint yellow as far as I am concerned!

Tried out a few of the other new paints and I am pretty happy with them in general. Used some old ones too. So a mix so to speak:)

It's the metal stern guard with a metal Imperial Fists backpack. In the future I will avoid metal models like the plague. They are terribly to work with for me.

I have no idea of how to add anything to the pauldrons. It's hard to enough to freehand normally, and with all that gunk on them…

Opinions more than welcome!

Vindicators almost done

Taking shape. One of them is missing a gunner and the loading crane thing and still needs a decal and finishing the tracks.

Then both need a Devlan Mud airbrush to give it a muddier feel and a little black dry brush for soot around the exhausts. Keeping those two last steps light as to not overdo it.

Now I just hope they can destroy my enemies!

Weathering

This is Vindicator #2. It needs details, washes, tracks, and some airbrushed mud. I used Chardon Granite for the weathering, just putting it on a piece of pluck foam and "dabbing" it on where it would be worn. The color worked really well in this case. At least I think so:) Click (or tap) the image for a larger version to see for yourself.

So, looking good or looking bad? Thinking of adding a few larger scrapes to the Siege Shield too.

Imperial Fists Gunner

Tried something new. I pre shaded a marine with Tausept Ochre and here's the result! It's still missing the lenses on the bottom part and Imp Fist logo on the shoulder, other than that it's ready for the table top. I think I'll paint up the Devastators using this method as it is cleaner than the post shading. I just need to remember to paint in the black before I do yellow:)

Looking good/bad?

Current state of the Vindicator, Vindi #2 has hit the assembly lines and Vindi #3 is still sitting on a shelf waiting for me to buy it:) Planning on making the third one the lead one so it will get a few extra bits and bobs. Going to paint on some large scratches (black, bolt gun, mithril) and use a piece of foam to give it smaller scratches. Then end it with a spray of devlan mud on the lower parts all around.

Also found myself some matte varnish today so I can airbrush it on. Going to give it a go and if works well I am going to use it before any tape touches a model again.

Painting

I have gotten questions about what I use to thin my paints with. Here it is! 1/4th of the Liquitex on the left, 1/4th on the W&N on the right and to top it off 2/4th of water. I use tap water but I've thought of trying to pick up some distilled water instead.

Is this the best thing ever? No, not really. But I like it:) I picked it up on the internet and it's suppose to be Jennifer Haley's old recipe. I might try out some other one in the future when I run out of these. In fact, I really recommend learning about the various tools that are out there.

Another version I've heard of is just using airbrush medium. Should work.

What I do then is to drop a few drops of the mix on a palette, get some of the paint, and mix it directly on the palette. I don't mix up a big blob but rather mix in a little of the mix into the color until it gets the right consistency. Figuring out what works for you and how to get a good mix that goes on smooth is an absolute must. Bad coverage and streaks is not a stylistic choice, it just looks bad :)

So how do you guys do this?

Painting yellow!

I've fallen behind on my blogging, but funny enough not my painting. I plan on getting photos of everything painted and put in on the static army pages (I.e. Imperial Fists and Skaven, and probably a misc as well) and start chronicle things from here on.

I've been trying out Vallejo's white airbrush able primer. It works really well, with one exception, tape can rip it off (with disastrous effects on the valkyrie I'm painting!) back to the plastic. I would love to get hold of an airbrush able primer that really bit into the plastic (and resin) since I never ever anticipate trying to strip any paint off anyways (I just paint something else from my big pile of plastic crack:)).

So I started out with the white primer, then I pre shaded with Tausept Ochre. I didn't really clean up the Tausept well which I will do next time around. Apart from that minor snafu adding on the Golden Yellow  afterwards went really well. The Tausept turned out to be a bit orange in shade which actually looked quite nice. See for yourself:)

45 degree hazard stripes. 15mm "wide" (I measured 15mm between the dots on the top and bottom and then drew lines between them, they aren't actually 15mm wide per se). I really need to find a better tape, this type pulls off the paint (even when careful!). I didn't have it on nearly as long as on the Valkyrie, which probably saved me some headache, plus the pieces that happen to peal off (small) ended up on spots I intended to paint other colors anyways.

After airbrushing black. Looks pretty cool already :)

With bolt gun painted on. Going to paint the wings/skull red and give the metal a thing wash of badab black, followed by a devlan mud on the bottom quarter. Then some nicks in mithril silver and it should be off to battle we go. I do have a little experiment I'm thinking of though for the back of it. Going to paint in some "light" from the headlights on the tank on the back of the shield (the little flaps are there to represent that you can open them to let the light through). Going for light blue xenon light:)

So, how's that for painting yellow?

[23/48] 500p Skaven painted

20 out of the 25 (I decided to expand the number of clanrats, I've got a second IoB set to tap into. Seriously thinking of getting a third!) clanrats are now painted. The shield+spear ones that is. Not sure if spears actually help me though. Think they don't :( Handweapon + shield gives such a nice bonus with the 6+ ward save in combat after all.

I'm also thinking of changing what weapon teams I use to two poison wind mortars. 5p less and better range. The warpfire thrower is pretty mean, but it feels like I need a lot more familiarity with WFB before I can make good use of it.

In news unrelated to wargaming. My 2 year phone contract was up so I've ordered a new phone! Should arrive on Friday with a healthy dose of updated camera hardware compared to my current one (see picture to the left).

I've also found out that painting five rank and file rats at the same time is the correct amount for me. I can get them done in one sitting (3-5 hours or something in total, not including cleanup, assembly, basing, and priming). Painting more than that at the same time would prove demoralizing to be honest, and I think that I will start painting one marine at a time from now on, as actually finishing one gives me a boost to continue with the next. I'm horrible at repetitive tasks:)

I'm also thinking of making a little tutorial on painting basic Skaven fast (I've given up on a highlighting stage, it's base color + wash now for rank and file). Anyone interested in that?

[8 / 43] 500p Skaven army

A little update on my Skaven army. 8 out of 43 models painted. I am amazed that people play 2000-3000 points worth of Skaven, as there are so many cheap units, and they all take a lot of time to paint:) Then again, it will be an interesting experience playing a horde army:)

Below we have two weapon teams, one warlock engineer (going to play him with the musket, but not the warp energy condenser), one standard bearer, one musician, one clawleader and two clanrats with spears and shields.

What's missing is some static grass here and there (I want to spray purity seal on them first) and some wash on their teeth. On, and 35 more clanrats:) I do have the movement trays painted though, but also missing static grass. Looks like this can be fun!

Librarian WIP

I felt that I wanted to give a librarian a go. For just 40 points I can suit him up in Terminator armor and a storm shield. Which should at least give him a fighting chance when the bullets starts to fly :) So I bought a libby in terminator armor and gave him a shield.

My initial opinion on finecast stands. Awesome material, really nice to work with, and Games Workshop has a quality assurance issue that is very severe. The damn thing looked like a swiss cheese before I whipped out the green stuff and knife. I think that I, as a GW customer, deserve better than that. I pay for what is usually a great product, but with finecast that isn't the case. I don't want to call and complain after I've bought their product, not ever time. I really hope it changes in the future.

That sad part done with I put the brush to the miniature. Enchanted Blue for the blue, and well, I'll let the WIPs speak for themselves :)

The force weapon is electrical! :)

The shield turned out pretty nice, so did the crux terminatus.

Full frontal :) He's not glued onto the base yet so I can still easily paint the base. Going to put on some of my special mix on it as well (Brita filter contents).

More is on it's way :)

Skaven Poisoned Wind Mortar

Another Skaven unit painted. I just need to seal them and then paint the globes with 'ard coat.

Tried some bronze effects, I hope you can pick it out :)

I think these guys can end up looking really stellar on the game table. Now they just need their fellow team and, ehm, wops, 80 clanrats to join them. 80! That's almost twice as many as all the painted marines I have:)

Opinions? Anyone like?

Warlock Engineer

 Warlock Engineers (and Grey Seers) are my favorite Skaven characters. I guess I have a sweat spot for the guys:) The crazy contraptions, the weird tech, the magic, the green warpstone. They are awesome. Unfortunately I don't think I can pay the points for all his gear (15p for the musket is a bit much in a 500p army, and since he will already be 120p :)). Looks quite menacing in this pose doesn't he?

 You might wonder what the odd white thing is. It's a High Elf shield. Not that I do it justice at all, I just painted the whole thing white :)

I used a three color scheme for each color. Base, highlight, and finish it with a wash. Except for the metal, which is boltgun metal or dwarven bronze with a Thraka Green wash on top.

Tallarn Flesh for the skin, with Elf as a highlight and Vermin Brown as a "highlight" for the fur with Ogryn Flesh for a wash. Bestial Brown, Bleached Bone, and Devlan Mud for the wood. Snakebite  Leather, Bubonic Brown, and Ogryn for the leather. Black and Boltgun for highlight (no wash).

The red is just Mechrite Red with Blood Red and a Delan Mud wash. Plus some greens and voila this is what you get.

Not sure what to do with the base. I ended up repainting it after this but I thought it turned out too bright. I want kind of a muddy feeling, and the Chinchilla Sand seems to work out OK. Might need a little more sand though, roughen it up a bit. Going to finish it off with some static grass.

Next step, 40 Clanrats and two weapon teams :) And two 5x5 movement trays.

Skaven!

My sneaky ratty plan is to paint up what you see below and to use everything but the chieftain/warlord for my 500p army. Possibly add a few extra clanrats (yes, I need an extra IoB Skaven set:) Two ain't enough!). We'll see how I'll expand after that. Slaves, ratogres, something :) Jezzails looks awesome but *wow* pricy!

40 Clanrats and two weapon teams! Too me around 3 1/2 minute per rat to clean up. Not a fan of this stage. I also found it hard to build the movement trays. Hard to make them neat. Time to break out the green stuff before I put sand on the sides and prime.

My new cheap grey (light) primer turned out to be pretty neat. I'm also trying out Chinchilla sand as a basing material. I wanted the base to look like it wasn't filled with big rocks :)

And here with some color on. Not all basecoats are on yet. Then some highlights (you might notice that I highlight the black with boltgun metal, looks pretty sweet!) and I will finish up with washes. I hope to get it really fast in the end so that I can speed paint all the guys. Plus it will make them look darker and grittier. Plus the clanrats will get rust on their metal. A Warlock Engineer is liable to have means to avoid rust :)

So what do you guys think of the rats? Think it can work out?

Valkyrie/Vendetta WIP, again!

A little more work has been done on the flying contraption of orange. I elected to give the engines a wash of badab black and that was as far as washes went. Didn't feel that it would be worth it going over it with oil paints. Might just make it worse :)

Then I grabbed the last of my boltgun metal and using a sponge (from an old blister) I wiped most of the point off and simply dabbed, dragged, and messed around in different ways to get a worn look. Still looks fairly clean, i.e. not grime and dirt, but well used. The next step is adding a bunch of details such as crew, radar monitor, canopy, the light on the side, etc. It should break up the massive orange blocks even more :)

A side view for your viewing pleasure!

Coming at you. Probably will look a lot scarier on a flight stand with a full set of "blowing you out of the sky" weapons :)

Weathering on the tail. You really need to look at the zoomed in image to see it properly.

And some wear and tear on the engines!

I now have the carrot at home. A very awesome forge world exalted vermin lord. Looking like this! Now I just have to finish the IG rides and my 1000p Skaven army, and updates to my IF army, THEN I can paint this fantastic and totally awesome dude :) I'm probably going to use it primarily as a display model (when can I play with a 775p monster?) and it is going to be dedicated to my late pet rat who are now with the great horned rat.

Valkyrie WIP

Cue Richard Wagner, Ride of the Valkyries. Go on, go find it on youtube or Spotify before you continue. Found it yet? Listen to it while you direct your peepers on the following:

White primer, white airbrushed, then hit it with red (you'll see why later). One of the markings is a bit off though, might fix that later:)

My home made stencil. Painters take isn't, well, it isn't made for this really…

Here's my paper stencil that I use to cut out the wings in the tape.

Some tape so it will be easier to glue the (brown) engines on later. Ended up being a pretty good contrast between orange and brown. Going to be interesting to see how the yellow fares.

It was pretty hard putting the tape on btw, but it looks like it could work though, right?

Blue wings on white with red tips looks kinda cool, doesn't it?

It's quite orange isn't it? I think it will look great when I get some spot colors etc on there. Can't wait to see it on a gaming table fully painted. Hope I won't be the only one liking it though, there's some insanely well painted Valkyries out there on the inter-tubes.

And here we can see wings. Kind of a dark photo though.

And this has too much light instead:) But by combining both you should get a fair idea of how it looks in real life.

So let me have it, does it look good? Bad? Cool? Sucky? What would you do? It's not done, I'm going to add some weathering and such as well. The wings really need it as there was some orange sipping through and I need to make that look more like the white is chipping than a screwy stencil.

I also finished one of the Dark Angels:)