Liebster Blog Award…

This little number has been doing the rounds in the blogosphere - it's a rather nice way of getting other people's blogs noticed, which I'm all in favour of.  There's so much good stuff out there, and there may be one or two that you never knew existed.

When you get nominated, you then (if you're not busy and feeling generous), nominate 5 blogs (with less than 200 followers) that you think are deserving of other peoples notice, and then post a comment on the last post of each blog to let them know you've done it.  If you're really lucky, they don't report you for cyber-stalking.

The Dark Templar (the rascal) rather kindly named me in his 5 blogs (thank you sir!), so having reported him for cyber-stalking, it's my turn to name a few (links in red):

2000 AD & SF Modelling

Quite frankly, Mangamax is a freaking genius.  Not only does he do the stuff we do (miniature painting), but he also makes Sci-Fi stuff out of ordinary (and not so ordinary) everyday stuff.  His scratch-building projects are fantastic, and it's how I envisage people used to do props and scenery for Sci-Fi movies before all those CGI shenanigans.

Ewal Dvergar

Clam sculpts (yes sculpts) and paints Dwarves in a similar style to the old Marauder Chaos Dwarves.  They are fantastic, and as long as the stock lasts, you can BUY them for yourself...

Pirate Viking Painting

The Pirate Viking (his real name is Jeff apparently, although I think that's just a stage name) was a staff member at the GW store when I got back in to the hobby, so I've known him a while, count him as a friend, and he was a great source of motivation when I used to spend hours in the store painting.  His output (always high quality) makes me look like a lazy so-in-so.

Realm of Chaos: An 80s Warhammer Enthusiast Blog

I started Warhammer 23(ish) years ago with 3rd Edition - Orlygg does 3rd Edition and then some.  He collates out of print rules, finds OOP miniatures, and links to other peoples 3rd Ed stuff.  His blog makes me all nostalgic, it's wonderful.

Ghost Nebula

Pete has similar views on the hobby to me, and he was one of my first followers and commentators, back when I was an insignificant speck in the blogosphere, which I still am.  Pete seems incredibly young, although that might be because I feel incredibly old.  He seems to travel around the world a lot, which might just mean he's a spy.

Or a pirate...

Apologies to all of the blogs I didn't name, but to be fair all the blogs I follow are in the left hand pane (no, your other left) so check them out.  Also some of the blogs I would have named have already been selected by others, and we need to share the spotlight.

Alas, poor Yarrick! I knew him Horatio...

The next of my backlog of unfinished miniatures is done.  Like the dragon in the last post, I had to get myself over the ridiculous mental block I had over finishing him and yet again I'm glad I did, as he's come out really well.

Still not totally happy with the red on the claw, but I figured that as an old Ork weapon, it's likely to look a little patchy.  The yellow is my normal method, which I really need to get away from as my pot of Tausept Ochre is on its way out, and my stocks of Gryphonne Sepia are running low.

I went for a paler skin tone, using a base coat of P3 Beast Hide, shaded with GW Ogryn Flesh, and then highlighted with the base coat and increasing amounts of P3 Ryn Flesh, until it was pure Ryn Flesh as an edge/point highlight.  The gold is a base of GW Dryad Bark, which is then highlighted with increasing amounts of GW Burnished Gold mixed into the base, then some GW Mithril Silver added in for a final highlight.  I'll admit now, I'm damned if I can remember how I painted the green leaves...

The black areas are a base of plain black, with the highlights built up using Vallejo German Grey, the old GW Adeptus Battlegrey, and old GW Codex Grey.  If you recognise the miniature, you'll have noticed I clipped off the back banner from the skull ammo hopper.  I'm not a big fan of back banners on Sci Fi miniatures anyway, but on this chap it really didn't work for me. 

I love this old miniature, it brings back memories of my childhood, when I first really got in to the hobby, it's a typical, static posed, one piece(ish) miniature, that really typifies that period at GW

So with two miniatures finished in the last week or so, I've got a few new projects to start (along with future articles, Cultists, Nurgle Marines, etc, etc).  The Commissar theme continues with Kapitan Ivanka Kurganova from Raging Heroes.

I've gone for the big crazy gun-sword thing rather than the delicate alternative, partly because it looks cool, and partly because the scabbard doesn't fit the smaller sword at all and would have looked weird.  I also left off the gas mask option, because I wanted to paint the face.  As her feet are spread wider apart than a 25mm base can comfortably fit, I used a piece of etched brass from the old GW WH40K basing kit to give her something to stand on, then added a couple of pieces of chopped up sprue with metal in the ends to look like steel reinforced concrete pillars that had been broken off.

Next up is one of the Space Marine Chapter Masters (minus his shiled which I'm painting seperately).  I'm not entirely sure about the chapter yet, but I'm veering towards Hawk Lords.

I bought the boxed set with all four in a long while back.  I got motivated to paint him when I picked up an alternative head from Anvil Industry's head range - I've got to say these are pretty damn good, they're sharp, with minimal flash or mould lines, and I think it really works well with this miniature.  Their hooded and grill ranges of heads would be good for converted guard/cultists too.

Last, but most definitely not least is a Griffin Inquisitor from Confrontation:

Si and Jez (who very generously gave me this miniature) from the Ancible team wax lyrical about Rackham miniatures, and it's not hard to see why.  This chap is fantastic, a beautiful sculpt, hardly any flash or mould lines, and in bone coloured armour, with dark clothing and a dark metal sword, I think he's going to look pretty damn good.  I have some other Rackham stuff to paint too, Si (also very generously) has given me possibly one of the best miniatures I have ever seen, but that's for another time...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

A Dragon Finished

I bit the bullet and finally got Mizuchi completed!  This chap has proven to be a bit of a hit among my non-wargaming friends, everyone loves dragons!

He came out really well, and I wish I'd just got on and finished him sooner.  In case you haven't seen the previous posts, this is Mizuchi, from the Prefecture of Ryu range from GCT Studio's Bushido.  A lovely model, just not that much fun to paint initially.  I found the scales a bit painful to get looking good, but the yellow was a blast at the end.

The red was a little more complicated than usual as I struggled to get the effect I wanted:

• Base:  Scab Red
• Shade:  Devlan Mud
• H1:  Scab Red
• H2:  Blood Red
• H3:  Squig Orange
• H4:  1:1 mix of Squig Orange and Iyanden Darksun
• Glaze:  Baal Red

The highlights were dry-brushed on to the scales (for the sake of my rather shaky sanity), but the head and limbs were layered/blended.

The Yellow is my old favourite way of doing things, the only difference being that I added white to the final highlight rather than Dheneb Stone.  The belly was the trusted Khemri Brown, Devlan Mud and Dheneb Stone combo, but I did the horns slightly differently, replacing Khemri Brown with Baneblade Brown, Devlan Mud with Agrax Earthshade and Dheneb Stone with Karak Stone.  This gave pretty much the same result, with the belly being slightly more grey, because of the effect of the Devlan Mud.

The eyes were a very quick job, with the intention to have an OSL effect. Regal Blue was washed into the eye socket and on to the face, then Ultramarine Blue into the eye socket only.  The eyes were then painted Ice Blue.  

As you can see from the last picture, as dragons go, he's not huge, but that was a blessing really, and he fits in nicely with the rest of the Prefecture force.  Next up for the Prefecture is Matsu Takashi, the magician, but she's a little way down the list of projects to work on.

Speaking of which, the next post will be a few photos of new projects, and hopefully another finished cultist or two...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Ancible Issue 18

The next issue is out and ready for download:

Download it here.

• Warlord
• Songs of Blades and Heroes
• Watching Paint Dry

Some actual painted stuff will appear here soon - I finally finished the Bushido dragon, and I have a load of new projects started too.  :-)