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?