To rot or not?

In my previous post I talked about "messing up" the green on my Nurgle chaos champion.

I've decided against it.

I know it's going to be too clean, but I like the green as it is, which seems a bit of a cop-out, but one piece of advice I've always remembered is "when you're happy with it, don't do any more".

The green is slightly different to the shade I've used on the last couple of minis:

• Charadon Granite base coat
• Devlan Mud wash
• Charadon Granite overbrushed highlight
• Charadon Granite + Catachan Green
• Catachan Green
• Catachan Green + Camo Green
• Camo Green
• Camo Green + Dheneb Stone as a thin edge/point highlight

As always comments and criticism welcome!

In other news I've splashed out on a posh paint brush - one of these Windsor and Newton Series 7 everyone bangs on about.  I've not bothered with an expensive brush before, thinking that it won't make that much difference, but with both the wet palette and the light box making a world of difference, I thought I'd take the plunge.  I'll post some feedback once I've used it for a while.

Something Putrid this way comes...

A little work in progress shot of my next little project:

Sorry it's only the one image, it's the only good one I managed to take this evening.  The miniature itself is a beauty and befitting a limited edition Games Day miniature.  Nicely posed and well detailed, there's plenty to keep the painter interested, while everything is well defined and clear  It's easy to work out what bits are, and they're easy to get to.  The only tricky bit being the area behind the lower of the two axes, but that's just about accessible, and there's not too much detail to get to.  There were a few mold lines, and only a little "hedgehogification".  The axes are the only parts that come separate from the body, and they are a little tricky to get to stick, but nothing that patience can't solve.  It might have been worth pinning both parts, but I didn't as the small hole and spigot arrangement seemed to do the job OK.

As you can see the green is nearly finished, just some blending that needs neatening up and some extra highlights on the top edges that need to be added.  Once the "clean" green is completed, I'll then use various browns to get some dirt in, particularly where there is chainmail and gaps in the armour.  I'm thinking about making the damaged eye slit weep with something unpleasant.

After that I'll be moving on to the metallics, again base coated with non-metallic colours - time for plenty of corrosion and dirt to be added, and I doubt I'll go any brighter than GW's chainmail, and even then that will only be used on the top edges.

So far so good!

I doubt I'll get this chap finished by the end of the week, but I do hope to get the first Warjack built and undercoated.  The Dire Avenger is going to sit to the side for a bit as I don't have the enthusiasm for Eldar at the moment.

On a side note "What's new today" on the GW website has a fantastic Slaanesh Chaos Marine army - well worth a look!

Kommander Sorscha

First up, I need to apologise for the pictures as they're not great - probably because it's late Sunday evening and I should be going to bed, oh well...

Anyway, my first Warmachine miniature is finished and I'm kind of happy with her, but only kind of...

To start off with, she was a pain to put together.  I don't know what the difference is between the plastic Privateer use and the plastic GW use, but Privateer's plastic seems much more resistant to polystyrene cement, so the parts are much harder to glue together.  Gluing the body to the base, via the tab, was OK, but gluing the arms in was not successful, and both arms came off while mid paint.  So in the end I used superglue to get them to stick, which does seem to have worked.  I'm now gluing a warjack together and making sure I'm much more patient and ensuring the parts have bonded.  

Also, with this plastic, flash seems much harder to get rid of (see the spiky bit at the non-business end of the hammer), filing tends to shred rather than remove and scraping with a knife seems to be the most effective method. 

As for painting her, it went reasonably well, the green looks alright and the red has come out nicely, but the hammer isn't quite as good as I'd hoped for and due to the position of her left arm, painting the face was a royal pain in the backside - particularly painting the lips and eyes, lots of counting to ten and deep breaths were required!

I've tried GW's snow on the base and I'm not sure about it - if someone can recommend a better way of doing snow it would be much appreciated, as GW's snow just looks like short white grass to me.  It doesn't look bad, and has kind of the required effect, it's just not quite what I was expecting.  Actual painting time for her wasn't too long - it's not my best work by any stretch of the imagination, but for a gaming rather than display piece, I think she does the job.

Also this weekend, I did a quick paint job on the first of my converted Chaos BloodBowl team (which have been kicking around for a bit unpainted).  His name is Albrecht Gore (pun intended) and while he is not based yet, the paint job is finished and he will be the captain of the [insert suitably Slaanesh-themed name here]*.

Once he's based up (I'm trying to think of a good way to do that too), I'll take some more pictures of him.  Here he is "in the plastic" with two of his friends, Blind Grekk and Axel "Pretty Boy" Throatripper:

Planned this week are a Dire Avenger and the 2009 Games Day Chaos Champion (painted in a Nurgle scheme), plus starting a Warjack if there's time.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

*The name will be "Purple Pain" (which is utterly dreadful) if I can't think of anything else soon...

Warmachine

Alternative title:  Sometimes Andy paints something non-Games Workshop...

2 months after getting back from the US, I finally get started on my Warmachine Khador boxed set.  First up is Sorscha - I don't like the colour scheme on the box, as it's too much red.  I know I've used the olive drab green a lot recently, but I think this complements the red well, without looking too "Christmas-sy", which is important, as I want to put snow on the bases - not something I've done before, but feels appropriate for the theme of the army.

One thing I have wondered about is the position of the hammer arm, which doesn't match the picture on the box, or any pictures I've seen online - it doesn't look unnatural, but I guess the piece must have got bent in the box?

The red is currently too pink/peach, I started off with Scorched Brown shaded with Devlan Mud, highlighted first with Dark Flesh, then Blood Red, and finally Blood Red with some Vomit Brown mixed in.  In hindsight I should probably have used Scab Red and Snakebite Leather, but it's a bit late now.  I'll tone it down with a watered down Devlan Mud and Thraka Green wash , which should take the pink/peach tint away, and then maybe re-highlight with Snakebite Leather.  The Dark Flesh is a good first highlight (cheers Tom), I need to remember that for the future.  I feel like I've made a good start on her, and looking forward to finishing her by the end of the week (he says hopefully).

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Lording it, in a Wood Elf fashion...

There have been a couple of WIP shots of this chap, but here he is finished.  I've always had a soft spot for Wood Elves ever since I first got into the hobby, and some of the latest character models are really nice.  This one was also a gift from a friend of mine - I guess I'm an easy person to buy gifts for these days?  :-)

The colour scheme for him was really simple, and he was quick and easy to paint - easier than the Dire Avenger, that's for sure.  The model leans forward a little too much, but other than that the pose is cool.  I like the little forest spirits they put on these models, they add a nice bit of character.  

As mentioned before I went for a more olive green for the cloak - Charadon Granite, shaded with Devlan Mud, then highlighted using Charadon Granite, Catachan Green and Dheneb Stone.  The forest spirit was a Scorched Brown undercoat, shaded with Devlan Mud, then highlighted with Scorched Brown and Macharius Solar Orange.  Everything else is pretty much painted the way I usually do, the recipes can be found in earlier posts.

I'm on to Warcaster Sorscha now, plus another Dire Avenger and maybe a WFB Chaos Champion...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Lucius the Eternal

I've mentioned this chap before and now he's finished and photographed.  Lucius is an absolute blast to paint, lots of detail and loads of different elements to keep you interested.  I've noticed on a few forums that he's not a popular model, which I've always found a bit strange.  He's always felt like an "old school" chaotic model to me - cloven hooves, faces coming out of his armour, a whip and a creepy face - what's not to like?

I haven't gone for a strict Emperors Children colour scheme, as I'm not a big fan of the black and pink, but I think he looks Slaanesh-y enough.  The green isn't really a Slaanesh colour but I think it works well with the purple and gold.  I'm really pleased with the faces in the armour, which used Dheneb Stone as a base colour and then washes of Ogryn Flesh all over and Devlan Mud in the more shadowed parts, then highlighted back up with Dheneb Stone. 

I spent a lot of time on this model, particularly:

• Blending of the purple and of the green
• The gold - starting with a Scorched Brown base coat
• Trying to paint as if there's a light source directly above the model
• A more "targeted" use of the GW washes

All the extra effort has been worth it, and I'm really pleased with the way he came out.

The pictures were taken in using my new photo box, built to Tentakel-Spec.  I've not had to do any processing of the images on the PC except for cropping, which is a big plus for me - I really wish I'd built one sooner.

Of course a big thank you to Big Al at Hogs of War for a superb Christmas present!

As always, comments and criticism more than welcome!

Weekend Progress

Evenin' all.

Had a quiet day painting and watching football today, the latter being a bit of a distraction to the former, but was relaxing all the same.

Progress was made on both the Dire Avenger and the Wood Elf Lord (the picture of the Wood Elf hasn't come out at all well):

I went for red on the spear blade in the end (sorry Big Al!), it just seemed to fit better with the rest of the miniature and matched the soulstones.  The Wood Elf just needs his eye painted in, and the tree and forest spirit need to be done, and he should be pretty much finished.  I'll take some pictures of him with a proper camera, rather than the one on the phone to show him in all his glory, as I'm really chuffed with the way he's come out and the picture doesn't do him justice at all.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Proper Wood Elves for a change...

Got started on the Wood Elf Lord this evening.  As character models go, he shouldn't be too tricky, as there aren't too many "components" to him - Cloak, armour, sword and leather are the main four, with a few smaller details.

The armour is a little lighter than I'd aimed for, so will probably apply a few glazes (I'm thinking brown and green) to tone it down a bit.  Then I'll be moving on to the cloak, which will be a more olive drab green, rather than the bright green GW use.

Still undecided on the spear blade on the Exarch, but veering towards a deep red at the moment...

As always, comments and criticism welcome...