Going a bit "old-school"

Sometimes the old ones are the best.  That's a statement not usually applicable to jokes, but I really do think it applies to GW Chaos Miniatures (see the Realm of Chaos section here).  I do like some of the newer Chaos stuff, but it all seems too regular - a unit of the new Chaos Warriors is a regiment of almost identical looking, similarly armed soldiers that appear to be marching in unison - where's the "Chaos" in that?  Surely that look of the unit would be more suited to "Lawful Evil"?  Why are Daemons and Beastmen separate armies now?

Just needed to get that off my chest...

There are a few "Oldhammer" blogs (and a forum) out there at the moment, and I love both the idea and the nostalgia.  While I'll never have enough old miniatures to create a valid army, this time last year I thought it would be cool to create some warbands for games like Skulldred and Get The Girl, Kill The Baddies, using some lovely old miniatures, and maybe mixing in a few newer figures that "fit".  My first warband was a group of Barbarians, but I got bogged down with other projects, and never did much more.  The bug bit again, Easter came around, and I spotted this miniature sat around in a box:

He had a ropey old paint job that was probably 20 years old, so I stripped him and started again.  It's a quick paint job, so it has a few rough edges, but I'm pleased with the result.  The "old-school" (I don't like the term old-school very much, but I couldn't think of anything else, and it's at least better than "retro") in the title should give you an idea of the look I was going for, and although the green is possibly a little too jade green for Nurgle, I think it works.  It's a base coat of Caliban Green, washed with Agrax Earthshade, then highlighted with the green and then mixing in a bit of Steel Legion Drab, and then some Rakarth Flesh to finish up.

The leather bits are a base coat of Rhinox Hide, again washed with Agrax Earthshade, and then highlighted with Rhinox Hide and then mixing in more and more Snakebite Leather.  The axe handle is the same, but with Dryad Bark and Steel Legion Drab instead.  The metallic parts are simply Army Painter Gun Metal base, washed with Nuln Oil, Chestnut Ink and a little watered down Dryad Bark.  This was then highlighted with the Gun Metal and Chainmail, with a combination of blending and dry-brushing.

The shield is my favourite bit of the model.  I've never really done a lot of freehand work, so this was a little trial and error.  I tried to combine a lot of Orlygg's tutorial here with a bit of Realm of Chaos/John Blanche style.  It's possibly a little too "regular" (it should have been a little more "swirly"), and the eyes aren't great, but I'm really pleased with it.

So with Krull N'Garth completed, I've been digging out other old miniatures to fit in to the "Soul Hunters" warband.  I have a Sorcerer (a hooded chap with a scythe), a couple of old Marauder beastmen and a couple of old armoured zombies that will make "nice" plague victims.  One thing missing so far is toadstools,  a must-have in all old Warhamme,r so I will get the greenstuff out and get creating them.

How this will all work out as a warband I have no idea, or even if I'll ever get to play with them, but  painting them will be a whole lot of fun.  :-) 

In other news, the Ancible team had a grand old time at Firestorm Games in Cardiff, playing Star Wars X-Wing, shopping and hurling abuse at one another.  My win record in X-Wing has dropped to 25%, which is probably a lot better than most other games I've played, but even in my losses we've had some fantastic games.

It was also really great to meet up with Jeff from Pirate Viking Painting, who I haven't seen for a few years, and just ramble on about life, painting and gaming for a while.  :-)

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Calling in support...

Another of the "to be finished" list has been completed and this time it's one of the Regimental Advisors blister:

A bit of a quick and dirty paint job, he's designed to fit in as part of the small Rogue Trader set of miniatures I've been painting over the last year or so.  Therefore he's got the white and red uniform of the good ship "Siegfried and Roy".  The white was simply a base of Karak Stone, highlighted with Rakarth Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh and Ceramite White.  These were simple layers, so no blending - I didn't want to mess about with this mini, just get him done and off the workbench

The metalwork was simple - AP Gun Metal, Nuln Oil Wash and Gun Metal plus Chainmail highlight, for the steel, and then my usual Dryad Bark and Auric Armour Gold for the gold.

For some reason the red came out a little shiny, and I'm still toying with the idea of re-varnishing the model, to knock the shine off.  Dryad Bark is the base again, washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with the old Scab Red and Blood Red.  The Leather is Dryad Bark highlighted with Steel Legion Drab.

Quick, and fairly easy, he didn't take too long to finish off (he'd been sat there with only the gold and steel done for months), and he fits in quite nicely with the other members of the crew so far:

His jacket's a little lighter than the rest, but it doesn't look too bad.

Not sure what's coming next, I'm quite unamused by this, so I may be taking a break from Games Workshop stuff for a bit, so the next few posts will be a bit random in content.

Situation normal then?

As always comments and criticism welcome!

Your humble Space Marine, Andy.

Captain of the Hawk Lords

I was going to title this post with a silly quote from Prince Vultan from Flash Gordon, but I just didn't have the heart to do it...

I don't have a name for this chap yet, but he is painted and I'm really, really pleased with the way he's come out.  The purple, yellow and gold are detailed in the two posts here: http://lairofthebreviks.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Hawk%20Lords, so I won't repeat all that.

GrimKlaw convinced me that I needed to put a little battle damage on him (the miniature, not GrimKlaw), so to start with I added a "Leonidas of 300" style slice down the helmet.  To be honest, the helmet was crying out for it really, I imagine he'll be shouting "This is Preyspire!" at some point...

OK, maybe not.  I can definitely recommend that particular head from Anvil Industry though, and they're developing a really good range of products.

The grey stone of the Crux Terminatus was a base coat of Adeptus Battlegrey, shaded with Nuln Oil.  Then it's a highlight sequence of the base coat, Codex Grey and then a 1:2 mix of Codex Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh.  The Pallid Wych Flesh adds a slightly beige tone in, helping it look a bit more like stone. 

The battle damage was then added afterwards, using really thinned Abaddon Black to begin with, trying to get as thin a line as possible.  Then the mix of Codex Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh was applied "below" the damage, and overlapping it slightly to make the black line even thinner.  After that it was just working back through the highlights, blending them in as I went.  This went much better than I thought it would, it's thinning the paints as much as possible that makes it work.  The shield is far and away my favourite part of the model, I keep looking at it and thinking "Damn, I did that..."

The Axe head was a base of Army Painter Gun Metal (see the latest Ancible article for my grumblings about Leadbelcher, although Jeff at Pirate Viking Painting informs me that they have fixed the lumpiness), washed with Nuln Oil.  I then used a little of the NMM technique and added some Abaddon Black shading, to give the body of the axe a little more depth.  The highlights are blended in Gun Metal, Chainmail and Mithril Silver,  The jewels are the standard GW method, learned back when WFB 4 came out with all those High Elves.  The greens are Castellan Green, Death World Forest and Ogryn Camo.  I used these greens to highlight the back of the cloak:

Before anyone asks, I'm damned if I know whether the axe haft is straight or not.  I've altered it so many damn times and it never looks right, so that's how it's staying. Back to the cloak, I'm still trying to decide if I should have added some freehand or not.  I have a horrible feeling the answer is "Yes, you muppet", but I don't want to mess around with it now, as I'm really happy with the way he looks.  The snow is from Gale Force 9, quite frankly a far superior product to the GW offering, although I think maybe I could have made the snow a bit deeper on the base.

Live and learn, and all that...

So he's done, and I'm happy with him, and it's on to the next project.  I'm on Twitter as @Brevikesq in case anyone has a burning need to read my terribly infrequent tweets - I'm going to try and post some pictures up there too occasionally to keep my motivation up.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Hawk Lord and Broom Lady

Not much to report this week, a little purple on the head and right shoulder, but the main thing is the crest, which I think has come out pretty well:

As I'm slowly migrating to the new GW paint range, so Breviccus Flavus is evolving.  The yellows are the same (Tausept Ochre and Iyanden Darksun), but now the shade is Seraphim Sepia, and the top highlights include Rakarth Flesh, and then some white to finish off.  While I've found Nuln Oil, and to a lesser extent Agrax Earthshade, to be a regression from Badab Black and Devlan Mud, Seraphim Sepia is a definite improvement.  It covers better, and it's a stronger colour in my opinion.

The purple is coming on nicely, it's a base coat of the new Xereus Purple, shaded with Druchii Violet, then highlighted up through Xereus Purple and Genestealer Purple, with the final highlight a 1:1 mix of Genestealer Purple and the old Astronomican Grey.  It's not the Hawk Lords purple of the Codex, but it's a colour I'm happy with.  Since these pictures, I've started to work on the gold on the "started" shoulder pad.

Another miniature in my "to be finished" group has been completed:

This lady was a present for one of my best friends, someone who through her hard work, experience and knowledge literally keeps the department she works for going.  There's a bit of an "in joke" between us about brooms, so this miniature seemed very appropriate.  :)

She'd actually had a bit of a mishap (mantelpieces are dangerous places), so I was repairing her, and decided that re-basing would be a good idea too.  She's a very old miniature, made by Marauder (remember them?) way back in the late 80s - I finally found her on Stuff of Legends.  To give her a bit more stability, she's pinned and glued to one of Dark Templar's Malcontent bases.  Painting wise, the yellow and red are my usual way of doing things, but I can't remember how I did the green, so it was just as well I didn't have to repair the skirt at all...

She's now back with her owner, who is very happy to have her back and has a safer place to display her!

In other news, several of the Ancible team got together at Firestorm Games in Cardiff - we had a very pleasant day, and Firestorm is a great place.  Unfortunately, my Crimson Fists got their arses handed to them on a plate...twice.  After a lengthy period of reflection (I was a little grumpy with myself I'll confess) I have a reasonable idea why, so steps are in place to get them a bit more competitive.

I hope.

As always comments and criticism welcome - I've been out of the loop a bit recently, but hopefully will be back in the loop over the next few weeks.

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!

Dark Vengeance Chosen and Other Animals

The bulkhead door crumples with the first impact, the second blow sends the door flying across the room and it clatters against the back wall.  The monstrosity that fills the doorway terrifies the guardsmen manning the hastily constructed barricade.  It is huge, bigger than any normal man, armour plates of putrid green and bleached bone, foul symbols hanging on chains from its armour.  The corrupted warrior screeches, a high pitched wail of static, and the face in its left shoulder pad starts to gibber uncontrollably.

"You will all die tonight little fleshlings, more souls for the great father, more souls!"

The unnatural voice stuns the guardsmen into action and they open fire.  Las rounds burn the air  between them and their enemy, but nothing breaks through the corrupted armour.  It raises a bolt pistol and fires, and a guardsman's chest explodes, spattering gore over his comrades.  The invader strides forward. and a second shot removes another man's head.  It is at the barricade now, and a blow from its glowing left fist punches a hole through the flimsy piles of furniture.  As it forces its way through, one of the defenders is backhanded across the room, his skull and ribcage smashed.

There are only two defenders left.

"Run!" Shouts one.  "Get everyone out, we cannot hold!"

His shouts attract the attention of their enemy, and the guardsman is face to face with this vision of hell.  Too close to fire, he swings his las-rifle like a club, but it is futile, and the powerful left hand envelopes his helmeted head and crushes his skull.

The last remaining guardsman runs...

The first of my Dark Vengeance Chosen is finished, and finally spray varnished to a finish I'm actually happy with!

The first colour I put on the miniature was the bone - I figured it was easier to do this than do the green first, as there was so much fiddly detail, that base-coating the bone, would end up with some slippage into the green areas.  It started with a base of Zandri Dust, washed with Agrax Earthshade.  The highlights were then more of the base coat, Karak Stone and finally some Dheneb Stone (I really need to find a replacement for this).  I could have added some white to this, but I didn't want to go too light - it's probably a little too bright  for Nurgle as it is, but it looks good so I'm sticking with it.

The green was based with P3 Cryx Base, which was dark enough not to need a wash.  Originally I highlighted this with Catachan Green, Deathworld Forest and Ogryn Camo - but the green was too dull in comparison to the Bikers, so I went back and added in Camo Green to brighten things up a bit.  The brown is done the same way as on the Cultists.  The pipes, eyes and details are based with the new Balor Brown (which is a poor replacement for Tausept Ochre in my opinion), washed with Sepia and highlighted with the base and Iyanden Darksun.

The powerfist is one of my favourite parts of the miniature - I used the same colours as for the rest of the green, but added a lot more Ogryn Camo to the top "edges" of the crazy paving effect.  I'm thinking about having a little bit of this pattern on all of the Chosen, just to tie them all together.

I'm a big fan of the faces sculpted into the armour too - I like the thought of this one gibbering away, hurling insults and expletives at the enemy.  The tongue is highlighted with the old Scab Red and the new Screamer Pink, which works quite nicely over a dark brown base.

With Chosen number one finished, it's back to the Cultists.  I'm working on a group of 5 of the close combat squad, but before I start batch painting them (if I can bear it), I thought I'd do a test model first to make sure I like the colour scheme.  I wanted to do something to distinguish them from the rifle armed squad, but still keep them tied together.

Although red isn't strictly a Nurgle colour, it does feature quite heavily on one of the covers of the Realm of Chaos books (obviously the one with Nurgle in it), so I thought I'd give it a try. It's just dark brown, with a layer or two of Scab Red, then Scab Red and Snakebite Leather.  One plus point is that he didn't take too long to paint - just as well, as there's one chap who's 50% skin, who probably will take a while to paint...

He works alongside our new Chosen Marine too:

More of these ugly scum soon hopefully.

In other news, I still have a few of the "half-finished" on the go - I've actually made some good progress on Commissar Yarrick, with only a couple of colours left to do:

He's coming along nicely, although I still have some work to do on the red of the power claw.  I'm particularly pleased with the Ork skeleton on the gun and the sash.  I'm also working on another of the Imperial advisors:

The metal work is pretty much done, I just need to decide on a uniform colour.  Last but not least I'm still struggling with the Bushido Dragon:

No idea what the problem with this miniature is, as it's a lovely looking creature, I just can't stand painting it.  There is a lot of yellow to do, but that's not usually been a problem.  Hopefully posting it up here will give me the incentive to crack on with it...

...and that's all folks!  I've started my next article for the Ancible, so that will be taking up some time too.  I also solemnly promise to comment on other people's blogs more - I really appreciate all the comments you guys make, and I have been very rude in not extending to you all the same courtesy - I am going to make this right.

As always comments and criticism welcome!

Warning shot in the head sir?

It's been a while since my last post, so to get back in the swing of things I'll introduce to you a certain Balthazar Weiss, the Arch-Militant of the good (bad) ship "Siegfried and Roy", last seen stood atop a transport vehicle, blasting away at another Rogue Trader's foot soldiers with his hellgun, while the rest of his merry band were busy falling over each other trying to pick up a "relic".

Balthazar likes to fade into the background, follows orders, prefers others to do the talking, and quietly and efficiently cleans up when others make a mess.  Due to a rather good characteristic roll at character generation time, plus weapon specialisation and some helpful equipment, Mr Weiss has an insanely high Ballistic Skill, which makes him very effective in a firefight.  Our glorious leader is a decadent, spontaneous nut job, who jumps in first and thinks afterwards, so this skill is going to come in very handy...

Miniature wise, he's not the best paint job in the world, but I wanted him done quickly and went for neat and tidy.  Unfortunately the model is quite a bad cast with plenty of rough areas that needed cleaning up, and in some cases, make the best of a bad job.  There's very little in the way of conversion, save for removing the Imperial eagles from his armour and equipment.  While he's a loyal citizen of the Imperium, he'll frequently have to go where Imperial Law is not welcome, so the eagles had to go.  The base is from Model Display Products, and he's positioned on it to look like he's going up a step

 

The dark grey of the armour was Vallejo German Grey, Highlighted with Adeptus Battlegrey and Codex Grey, washed with very watered down black paint, and then re-highlighted in places with the Battlegrey.  I think this works OK, although it does look a little flat, but it fits in with the stay-in-the-shadows, no-nonsense character that he is.  The green cables are a base of P3 Cryx Base, washed with Agrax Earthshade, then highlighted with Catachan Green and Deathworld Forest.

The leather is a base of Dryad Bark, washed again with the Earthshade and highlighted with the the base colour and increasing amounts of Graveyard Earth.  The metal is equally simple, Leabelcher, shaded with Nuln Oil, and then highlighted with Chainmail.

In this picture you can see one of the casting issues that I couldn't fix, on the top of the hellgun - I didn't want to damage the rest of the model trying to fix that, so it had to stay as it is.  To be fair it's more noticeable in this picture than it is when seeing the model with the naked eye.

The off-white of the trousers and shirt is painted using the House-guards method.  I started with a base of Khemri Brown, highlighted with increasing amounts of Karak Stone and then white - it's a bit patchy in places on the trousers, and suffers from me breaking my own rule about laying down a solid base coat, but the sleeves turned out nicely.  The base is done in the same way as I did for the Seneschal, with the addition of a glaze of Gryphonne Sepia to tone everything down, as I thought the Seneschal's base was a bit too in-your-face and drew attention away from the miniature.

So the Siegfried and Roy has its second character painted, and another of my half finished collection on my painting desk is completed.  Like I said at the start, it's not the best paint job in the world, but it's effective and it was quick to do, and he does look the part.  Just in case you were wondering about the post title, it's kind of become Balthazar's catchphrase...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Dark Vengeance: Cultists Set 1

So having finished off a couple of miniatures that I've had on the go for a while, I rewarded myself with some miniatures from the Dark Vengeance box set.  The temptation was to start with one of the character models, but that would have been spoiling myself, so I went for five of the cultist/traitor guard models.  This might amaze you to read, but I actually batch painted them!  Well not quite, I base coated and shaded them all at the same time, but when it came to highlighting and detailing, I did them one at a time - so not quite batch painting, but nearly...

I wanted to do these quickly (for me), so the paint jobs are a little more rough and ready than my usual work, but I'm still really pleased with the way they came out.  They are a bit drab looking, but as they're meant to be Nurgle cultists, it didn't didn't feel right painting them bright colours.

I'm a big fan of these models, loads of character and all quite nasty looking - when reading the Gaunts Ghosts novels, this is what I imagined the "Enemy" looked like.  The quality of the models is really impressive for snap-fit pieces, and there's not too much "stretching" of elements to make it work as a two piece miniature.  I've gone for a Nurgle style scheme, to fit in with my Lords of the Flies Chaos Marines that I painted years ago, so plenty of greens and browns.

My favourite model so far is this chap:

He looks like some some heavy built Forge worker or mechanic, I love the apron, the tools hanging off the back pack and the enormous Heavy Stubber.  The leather is my new favourite method - Dryad Bark, shaded with Agrax EarthShade and highlighted with Dryad Bark and Snakebite leather.  Highlighting was only a 2-3 stage process, keeping it quick and simple.  The skin was a base of P3 Beast Hide, washed with Earthshade, and highlighted with Beast Hide and then Rakarth Flesh.

The rest of the guys aren't quite as great as "Heavy Stubber Mechanic Man" but they're still nice sculpts and were a breeze to paint:

The green was a basecoat of P3 Cryx Base, shaded with the Earthshade, and dry-brushed with Catachan Green and Death World Forest, with a little Ogryn Camo in places.  The guns were Stormvermin Fur, washed with Nuln Oil, dry-brushed with Leadbelcher and Chainmail.  The wrappings were even quicker, Zandri Dust washed with EarthShade and highlighted with Zandri Dust again.

The bottom two cultists had Chaos stars branded on their shoulders, I washed these with Catachan Green, and then painted them in with Death World Forest and highlighted with Ogryn Camo.  I used the same effect to do a little OSL around eyepieces - not strictly "realistic", but it looks cool - especially on the odd bird like mask:

The great thing about this colour scheme, was that I could base coat everything and then wash it all at the same time - certainly cut down on the painting time!  I don't usually enjoy batch painting at all, but these were really fun to paint, and as long as I vary it up a bit, I reckon I can get all the cultists done in a couple of weeks - which is pretty damn quick for me...

So with these 5 done, it's on to some more half-finished stuff before I do 5 of the close-combat weapon armed cultists.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Rogue Trader Character 1

Back to a little 40K this post, but a slightly different slant.  The gaming group I belong to (consisting entirely of Ancible team members) have been rolling up characters for the Rogue Trader RPG from Fantasy Flight games.  Now I know RPGs don't tend to need miniatures, but I thought it would be fun to paint up some miniatures to represent each of us.  First up (as it was the one miniature I had which could be painted up straight away), is the Seneschal, the Rogue Trader's Diplomat/Merchant/Agent type character.

According to the rulebook, he's supposed to swan about in robes, but the person playing this role is a bit more, shall we say, "militaristic" in nature, so I went for a model in a uniform - you may recognise him as the fleet officer from the Imperial Guard Regimental Advisors blister.  I went for a grey undercoat again - I have a feeling this will be taking over from black for the majority of my miniatures from now on.  You will probably have guessed that it's my usual way of doing yellow, so I won't go into that here, but if I'd done it again, I may have highlighted up further, and used the new GW Lamenter's Yellow glaze to finish it off.

The boots and other black bits were done slightly differently than normal - and it's a method I've seen across many blogs recently, so apologies if I don't give credit where it's due, as I can't remember where I learned it from.  A base coat of Vallejo German Grey is highlighted with Adeptus Battlegrey, Codex Grey and then Astronomicon Grey.  The whole lot is then washed with Badab Black, which tones everything down.  At the other extreme, the white elements are a base of Khemri Brown, shaded with Gryphonne Sepia, highlighted with Dheneb Stone and then pure white.

The red (which I'm particularly pleased with) is a base coat of Mechrite Red, shaded with Devlan Mud.  In some places this still came out a little too maroon for my tastes, so a glaze/wash of Gryphonne Sepia, brough it back to the warmer red I was looking for.  This was then highlighted by mixing Blood Red into the base coat through to pure Blood Red, and then some Solar Macharius Orange mixed in for the final highlights.    The red really stands out on the miniature, and I think it works really well with the more muted yellow.  

The hair was done in a similar way to the black leather, just with the highlights of Adeptus Battlegrey and Codex Grey added back in after the black wash, to give him that "slightly older" look (I'm going to get such a kicking on Saturday for that...).  The gold is a base coat of Scorched Brown, highlighted with Burnished  Gold and a 1:1 mix of the gold and Mithril Silver.  The skin was Tallarn Flesh washed with Ogryn Flesh then highlighted with Tallarn Flesh and P3 Ryn Flesh, trying to keep a ruddy complexion.  

The base is another of my favourite parts of the model - I wanted it to look like the paved garden of a rich trading house.  It's nothing complicated, just squares of plastic sheet cut into 5mm squares glued to the base.  The squares were painted Dheneb Stone and Scaly Green (a paint defunct even before the current new paint range) and washed with Devlan Mud.  The light stones were highlighted with Dheneb Stone and then a Stone and white mix, and the green stones were highlighted with Scaly Green and then a Green and Rotting Flesh mix.  The model was then sprayed with Humbrol matt varnish and some seriously old school GW flock (I'm talking 20 year old stuff) was glued on to look like weeds growing between the paving slabs.  This was finished off with another spray of varnish and he was finished!

I love this miniature, he was an absolute blast to paint, and it was nice to do something brightly coloured.    The base probably clashes with the miniature a little, but I can live with that.  The rest of the characters in our motley band are the Rogue Trader himself (opium smoking hedonist apparently), a Missionary (ecclesiastical nut job), an Explorator (a tech priest) and my character, the Arch Militant (a hellgun armed combat specialist).  I'm also going to do the Astropath model to represent the GM (or he'll feel left out).  Most of these will be small conversions of existing GW models, so hopefully they should get done over the next couple of months.

At the moment, our ship will be named the "Siegfried and Roy" - I'm hoping this will change...

Of course this Saturday is Salute 2012, where I'm going to do some shopping, some gawking and hopefully meet a few people (including some fellow bloggers).  If you see a fairly tall, dark haired, bespectacled, bedraggled, young(ish) man with a grey "Bag of Holding" over his shoulder, talking like a west country farmer, please feel free to say hello and offer him food if he looks hungry (he's usually hungry...).

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Nostalgia

A long time ago I got into the hobby via the wonders of Advanced Heroquest, and its little add-on, the Advanced Heroquest paint set.  Included in this box was a sprue from the Warhammer Fantasy Regiments box set (a wonderful box including 60 plastic miniatures released for WFB 3rd edition).  For those who never got to see this motherlode of plastic, this sprue had a dwarf, a wood elf, a dark elf, a skaven, an Orc and a goblin, with shields and alternative heads and weapons.  The dwarf was the first miniature I ever painted, and soon after bought myself the Regiments box.  In honour of my introduction to the hobby all those years ago, I decided to paint up a sprue of these guys.

The forces of Evil

I tried to paint these guys in an "old school" style of painting - kind of like they used to do in 'Eavy Metal back in the day.  So as well as blending and layering there's some use of drybrushing too, particularly on the metalwork:

The skin on the Orc I'm particularly pleased with - a little darker than I would usually do for an Orc.  The worst thing is that I don't remember properly how I did it.  I know it's Orkhide Shade as a base, but then I can only guess that it's a wash of Devlan Mud followed by Orkhide Shade up through Gretchin Green?  The metal has some Bestial Brown daubed in before the highlights were drybrushed on, to make it look a little rusty.  

The forces of Good (and a Dark Elf...)

These three are some of my all time favourite miniatures, particularly the Dwarf (I should have filled the divots in his hammer before painting, but never mind).  The Wood Elf's face is still a pain to paint even now, but at least he gave me some good practice painting "difficult" eyes...

Put up against the latest Dark Elf Executioner, the Crossbowmen is about 2/3 the size, it surprised me how much they had grown over the years.  This Dark Elf was painted before the assassin, hence the use of the "turquoise abomination" - I don't want to repaint that now...

The Shields

My favourite parts of these models, they really are fun little things to paint.  The Dark Elf shield is a bit dull (do Dark Elf Crossbowmen have shields these days?), but the rest have some nice character to them, particularly the Orc and Goblin shields:

The Orc one is my favourite, I'm not sure if the moon is meant to be orange, but it felt like a "Late 1980s/WFB 3rd" colour so that's what I went with.

As always comments and criticism welcome!

In other news, it looks like Blogger had a bit of a problem this week - apologies to SAJ as I can't remember what he asked on my Pedro post, before some of the comments got deleted.