Categories
Painting

#BeerMaW Entry One – Mounted Necromancer

If you haven’t heard about this yet, the Beer Phase podcast launched a “Model a Week” painting challenge. The challenge is obviously designed to help gamers stay on track with their painting, but it also places a special emphasis on models that have been neglected for years and years. The challenge kicked off this month, and people are tagging their entries with #BeerMaW on social media. Check out the introduction video here.

This is certainly an old model, but not one that has been collecting dust. I added a Mounted Necromancer to my list for Lady of the Lake, and did not own a model. Although GW makes a great plastic Necromancer on foot that was released several years back, they haven’t updated the mounted version in over a decade. And it shows.

I picked this guy up on Chaos Orc Superstore and was fascinated/horrified with him. It took pliers and pins to put this model together (the Necro is two metal pieces while the horse is four plastic pieces). I certainly did not paint him to the best of my ability, as I wanted to keep him consistent with my Undead army (the earliest models for which I painted in 2006 or 2007).

Behold, the dread Necromancer Eorlich von Thunderthighs:

A keen observer will notice some white spots on the model (click to enlarge the third picture and you’ll see what I mean). These were the unfortunate result of varnishing on humid day. 🙁

Best,
Greg

Categories
Painting

Slayers

Hey all,

During the first few days of my summer vacation I was able to dedicate a considerable amount of time to painting. And damn, does it feel good! I’ve painted more in the past few days than I have in the past few months.

I was able to complete my unit of Slayers. I know that Jeff is shaking his head while reading this, but, yes, five models technically forms a unit in Age of Sigmar. Not a good unit, mind you, but a legal unit all the same. I have another fifteen Slayer models that have been stripped and are ready to paint, so I may go back and bulk out the unit in the future. In the mean time, take a look at a ridiculous amount of orange.

Slayers - Group Shot

Slayer2 - 2

Slayer3 - 1

Slayer4 - 1

Slayer5 - 2

By the way, these photos were taken using my new light box. What are your thoughts as to the quality? I will try to post a review of the light box sometime soon.

Best,
Greg

Categories
Painting Terrain Warhammer

KOW Movement Trays – My Conversion to diorama bases – prt 2

Before getting too much farther ahead, I wanted to get some soil down on a tray to get a feel of how easy the process is.  Getting paint, glue and soil between all the mini’s might be tough (it’s a little tricky in areas) and could affect my density of minis going forward.

First a base coat.  The sculptamold soaks thin paints like a stain on wood, but that leaves the high points a little lighter colored.  I’ve tried to find a color that would match the soil, but even a mottled look should be ok.

IMG_9113

 

Having done a lot of reading on high end terrain/diorama artists I’ve consistently seem them use fine soil (actual soil) for their basing.  The scale is much more appropriate and depending on the look desired, it comes pre-colored.  (You can add pigments to it if you want to alter the color.)

Since this will be my technique for all my future terrain work, this is a great time to start practicing.  I dried a cupful of soil from my garden and then sifted it, and sifted it again, and then made my own ultrafine mesh to get the particle size small enough.  I punched hundreds of very small holes (~.5mm or so) in a sheet of copper screen for crafts.  Sifting was too slow so I punched another hundred or so.

Between making the screen and all the sifting, it took a little while.  IMG_9042

It took two applications to get good coverage.  Using thin glue, it didn’t cover the high points very well (similar to the paint).  Extra challenge – get it all covered before areas start drying.  I want to get this down to a single application if I can.

First layer was soaked with dilute pva and before it was dry I sprinkled on the second layer.  Second layer was much faster as a result and I might adopt the technique for the first layer using a syringe.

This photo shows the color pretty well but it’s not exactly right.  I’ll need to white balance my camera for the next shots.

IMG_9043

I really, really like the effect.  So much more natural and realistic.  If you soak the second layer to lock it down the color darkens a lot.  Looks like damp soil.  I though it was too dark for my tastes so I left the soil as is on the trays.  It seems to be bonded pretty well once the loose bits are brushed off.  IMG_9041

Styrene strips have arrived so tray assembly ‘should’ go quicker now.

Categories
Painting WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday – Holy Wars 2016

The Holy Wars GT is quickly approaching! After many dedicated hours of work, my army is finally at a basic tournament level. Without delving too deeply into the world of Age of Sigmar tournament packs, I should mention that I have only put together twenty pool choices. Technically, I am allowed to bring thirty pool choices. The army I’m bringing will be lucky to win any games, but at least it’s all painted!

Tournament Ready - 1

Tournament Ready - 2

Tournament Ready - 3

Tournament Ready - 4

Over the next few weeks, my goal is to go back and bring the Longbeards to completion. I currently have four out of ten completed, so I may even have time to move on to another unit or two.

For anyone interested, here is my army list:

The Last Alliance of Men, Dwarves, and Elves

Best,
Greg

Categories
Painting

Miniature Monday – Longbeard Old Guard

This weekend I finished painting a full twenty pool choices to a basic tournament standard. I also pumped out a bare bones display board. After several weeks of frenetic painting, I can breathe a sigh of relief as I definitely have a legal army for Holy Wars. For more on this topic, check back in two days for my WIP Wednesday post.

That being said, my plan is to go back and paint all of the models to a higher standard. I doubt that I will actually finish this before Holy Wars, but I’d like to have at least a unit or two that I can showcase in Illinois.

The first unit I am returning to is the Longbeards. Before realizing that I needed to speed things up, I took my time and actually finished the Musician and Standard Bearer for this unit. That made it the obvious choice to pick first.

I am proud to show off the Longbeard Old Guard (unit champion). Not all of the line highlights were applied as cleanly as I would have liked, but I am still pleased with the end result.

Longbeard Old Guard - 1

Longbeard Old Guard - 2

Longbeard Old Guard - 3

I did not precisely time the entire process, but I can confidently say that I spent approximately eight hours on this model from start to finish. Here is the process that I followed:

Skin:
Bugman’s Glow base coat
Reikland Fleshshade wash
1:1 Bugman’s Glow + Kislev Flesh layer
Kislev Flesh layer
1:1 Guilliman Blue + Bloodletter glaze
1:3 Bugman’s Glow + Kislev Flesh layer

Beard:
Mechanicus Standard Grey base coat
Nuln Oil wash
Codex Grey layer
Administratum Grey layer
Morrow White (P3) layer

Blue:
Stegadon Scale Green base coat
Nuln Oil wash
Thunderhawk Blue layer
1:1 Thunderhawk Blue + Hoeth Blue layer
1:1:1 Thunderhawk Blue + Hoeth Blue + Morrow White (P3) layer

Red:
Doombull Brown base coat
Agrax Earthshade wash
3:1 Doombull Brown + Bugman’s Glow layer
1:1 Doombull Brown + Bugman’s Glow layer
1:1:1 Doombull Brown + Bugman’s Glow + Kislev Flesh layer
Bloodletter glaze

Silver:
Leadbelcher base coat
Nuln Oil wash
Ironbreaker layer
Runefang Steel layer

Gold:
Balthasar Gold base coat
Auric Armour Gold layer
Reikland Fleshshade wash
Runefang Steel layer

Boots/Belt/Straps:
Rhinox Hide base coat
Nuln Oil wash
Steel Legion Drab layer
Agrax Earthshade wash

Bone:
Dheneb Stone base coat
Agrax Earthshade wash
Bleached Bone layer
1:1 Bleached Bone + Morrow White (P3) layer

All paint is Citadel unless otherwise noted. Most of the Citadel paints are from the current range, but some of them are not. I hope that isn’t terribly confusing!

As always, thanks for taking a look!
Greg

Categories
Painting Warhammer WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday – See For Yourself

They aren’t finished yet, and the pictures aren’t great, but words cannot describe the models I’ve been working on. As it states in the heading, see for yourself.

Steam Tanks - WIP 5

Steam Tanks - WIP 1

Steam Tanks - WIP 2

Steam Tanks - WIP 3

Steam Tanks - WIP 4

Categories
Painting

Necromancer

 

Left Side Right Side Book FrontFirst painted model after almost two year break.

 

Categories
Painting Warhammer WIP Wednesday

WIP Wednesday – The road to Spring Break

Once again a GT is coming up in a few weeks, and once again I have a ton of miniatures to finish up for it.  This time is even worse – I’m trying to get two armies ready instead of one!!

In the gallery you can see some of the Pink Horrors I’ve been working on, along with a new Skaven piece.

 

I had about 6 new Horror command models to paint, but I decided while I was at it to go ahead and repaint all of the other horrors as well to match.  I added some more shading and highlighting, and picked out a few details that were not done before.  Silly?  Probably, but I’m a glutton for punishment.

On the Skaven side that “doomwheel” was a prize from Da Boyz GT.  I’m working on resculpting the missing finecast pieces.  Mainly the blades on the sides, but some other areas as well.  I’m also working on a chariot base for this model, with some details I hope to show off next week.

After that I still need to paint 10 Flesh Hounds, 2 Plague Drones, 2 Heralds of Tzeentch on Discs, 7 Stormvermin, the Doomwheel and movement trays.  In two weeks.  gonna be tight.

Until next week.
Cheers,
Jon