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!

The Cult Expands...

Not making the best of progress at the moment, I guess it's the time of the year or something...

First up is the next five cultists from the Dark Vengeance box 

They're all painted in the same way as the chap in the background, I went for speed over technique as I just want to get them done and out of the way, so I can do some of the more interesting stuff.

Speaking of which, there's also a little more progress on the Hawk Lords character:

The gold is the usual Dryad Bark base, but with the new Auric Armour Gold mixed in for the highlights.  The colour is a little more brown in colour, which I like a lot.  That's it I'm afraid, not a lot to show for the week or so since my last post, but it's at least some progress.  :-)

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.