A quick update, another Berzerker, plus an Empire Soldier

Not much of an update, work, plus World Cup (and the pain of being English), plus a trip to London has eaten into my hobby time these last couple of weeks - off to Hard Rock Calling festival this weekend, but after that I should be back into the swing of things. 

First up is a Khornate Berzerker icon bearer I'd been working on - same colour scheme as the test model from a while back.  

Another reclaimed and stripped job (I think he cost me £2) - I can't stand the icon that came with that miniature, so I replaced it with the Khorne icon from the Chaos Space Marine box.  I think it works pretty well.

Next up is a test Empire militiaman/mercenary, part of my Witch Hunter themed Empire force.  A real quick and dirty paint job, I wanted to hark back to 3rd edition Empire, with a stripey pattern on the trousers.

He won't win any competitions, but if I can get a few more of these guys painted up, he'll look pretty good on the table top.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

The next Witch Hunter finished.

Well due to it being Easter in Britain, it's naturally been raining for the last week, so I hadn't had the chance to undercoat the rest of the Terminators (that was done yesterday).  So I knocked up another Witch Hunter (apologies for the dark pictures, not sure what's going on there).

This chap was missing his right arm, so I pinned on an arm from the Empire Militia sprue - fortunately the axe arm had a bracer on it to match the one on his left arm, so that worked quite well.  The only slight problem is that his right arm is now slightly longer than the left, but hopefully it's not too noticeable?

 

The paint scheme is the same as for the rest of them, nice and simple, and also quick.  I'm pleased with the face, which has come out quite well, although the eyes were a pain (again).

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Johann Kane

Yep, a naff name, but that will get changed at some point.

For some reason the pictures aren't the best, I'll have to look into that.  

Another quick paint job, using Charadon Granite as a base coat again - getting them to a gaming standard, rather than something to display.  The added bonus is that I have something to show for my efforts (and something worth posting here).

I'm pretty pleased with him, I've based his colour scheme on the Solomon Kane character - he's a little drab, but I think he's come out OK.

As always comments and criticism welcome!

Yuri the Kislevite

Something a bit different...

I'd mentioned previously that a good mate of mine donated to me a few witch hunter miniatures - over the last day or so I painted up the first (before launching back into Mortis again).  I only spent a few hours on him (it probably shows), but he's turned out pretty well.

I wanted a darkish colour scheme, a little "Solomon Kane" in style.  The whole miniature was basecoated with Charadon Granite, then washed with Badab Black.  Everything aside from the skin and the gold on the sword was highlighted up from that base colour, including the silver metal work. 

He was a blast to paint, very simple and straightforward - the Charadon Granite basecoated helped with that I'm sure.  The rest of the Witch Hunter types who will be dotted around the army will be painted in the same style.

It's amazing how photographs of the miniature can show up the bad bits that you can't necessarily pick up with the naked eye - I'm short sighted rather than long sighted, so close up stuff is usually OK, but I'm wondering if I need to start using a hands free/head mounted magnifier.

The lower part of the sword hasn't come out as well as I'd hoped, so I may touch that up, and the boots may need a wash or two of Devlan Mud to take the edge off of the top highlights I probably didn't need to put on, but otherwise I think he looks good.  I've gone for a dark green base edge for my Empire army, and I'm not sure it works - suggestions?

I've named him "Yuri the Kislevite", right hand man of "Johann/Solomon/Reinholdt/Magnus" (still unsure of a name), the lead witch hunter.  He'll be the champion of my greatsword unit, for obvious reasons...

As always, comments and criticism welcome - although please bear in mind this chap was a "speed paint" (well, as speedy as I get anyway).

In other news - despite what the Nibblonians say, the Dave Matthews Band DO rock.  It was an unbelievable concert.  :)

A change of tack, back on the Crimson Fists...

Hmmmm...I'm chopping and changing with what I'm painting again.  No structure or organisation - exactly what I've been trying to avoid.  How do people stay so focused?  I have a million and one ideas spinning around my head and discipline goes out the window - any suggestions on how to get myself back on track and stay there would be much appreciated!

Good news on the Empire front, a generous friend of mine (and a bloody good painter as well) has some Witch Hunter miniatures that he thought I'd like.  Some old metal archers are being stripped of their paint jobs, ready to be painted up, probably in the colours of Stirland, and I just have the standard bearer to paint to complete the first 10 Greatswords.

The Khorne Berzerker is finished aside from final touches to the base - pictures in the next day or so.

...and onto Lysander.  I started this guy a while back, to go with the Terminator squad I still haven't started for my Crimson Fist army. 

Not too much done yet, the head/face is finished and I've done the right shoulder pad. 

I'm not happy with the eyes, but they're done - I really need to work on painting faces, it's the one part of painting that still lets me down - certainly on this chap, the contrast between shadow and highlight is too wide, I need to be much more subtle about it.

As always, comments and criticism welcome!

Long time no update...

Sorry everyone, poor health, plus a trip up to London meant it's been a long old time since I actually updated this blog (and commented on all your stuff, which is even worse).  However the trip to London was fantastic with the high point being Saturday.  I've been getting a bit excited about the movie "Solomon Kane" (IMDB link) - OK maybe more than a bit, but anyway...  

Opening weekend this weekend, and the main actor, James Purefoy (he of "Rome" fame) and the director, Mike Bassett, were signing all sorts of expensive stuff at one of my favourite stores in the whole world. Forbidden Planet.  So I got a cool canvas and a "making of" book signed by the pair of them, shook the hand of the director and chatted to Mr Purefoy briefly.  Then off to Leicester Square to see the movie at the Empire.  While not the best movie in the world, it was pretty damn good for the budget (low), and it was an absolute blast to hear an action hero talk with the same accent as me - hurrah for the West Country!  Yes, I loved it.

(...and yep, I'm from the Cotswolds and we all sound like farmers...)

...and easily inspired as I am, I now want to theme my slowly growing Empire army around Witch Hunters (Dark cloaks, pistols, flagellants and Sigmarite Priests)...

...not to mention using Malachi's face make-up on something chaotic.

Anyway, got a couple of pictures of my finished Noise Marines.  I'm stopping at 2 for now, these blighters are hard work and I want to do something else for a while.  I'll be taking some more pictures when I have the time - these two are actually an improvement on previous efforts as I've learnt a little about light-metering now - I just need to practice!

Noise Marines 1 & 2

 

They've both come out really well and they look good next to one another.  As I've said before the third one needs some repair work, before I can even think about painting him.  So this week it's going to be Legion of the Damned and some Empire...

...and good lord, I need to get back on with this updating malarkey...