Weekly War Report #5

Its been a good week. I might not have got as far with the Store Founding Terminator Captain as I'd have liked but plenty more got done, including a frantic attack on the basing shelf to get some more projects across the finish line.

Completed Models

This started out as a test model for my Genestealer Cults army and in the painting it sort of became something a little more. On the one hand I absolutely do want an Imperial Guard/PDF contingent for the Cults but I have also been trying to get around to doing a proper Guard army for years. So, with a little extra clipping and filing on the Genestealer Cults upgrade components this will be not only a part of my Cults army but also a Savlar Chem-Dogs army in its own right.

Also, I tried a Mournfang Brown rim on the base this time which works a lot better than the Rhinox Hide I used on the Familiars.

The model affectionately known in the gaming group as “Herbie the Loathe Bug” is finally finished. I really like how the green came off on the larger panels and I'm thinking of doing more vehicles / daemon engines in the army once I have a few more infantry models polished off.

A nice big group of Termagants, the largest unit I've finished for Hive Fleet Jormungandr so far. I'm happy to say the colour scheme continues to work well even if it isn't as time saving as I'd initially hoped.

The big fellow was a lot of fun to paint and I feel indebted to the eBay seller not only for posing it perfectly but giving it the right head to use as a Screamer-Killer, which is my favourite kind of Carnifex. It came primed so, sadly, a few bits of flash escaped notice until I was painting it but its not too noticeable IRL.

And, finally, a trio of Venomthropes who were an absolute joy to paint once I stopped overthinking them. I kept trying to find something extra and special to paint differently to pick them out but the beauty of Tyranids is in having a huge horde of different creatures in uniform colours so in the end I just blanketly applied the same methods as on the rest of the army and I think they came out beautifully.

Work in Progress

Not much more progress on the Marshal since Sunday, really just getting the inks applied to the metallics. I'm still rather mulling over what to do with the leather loincloth.

There are still a lot of fiddly details yet to finished on the Goliath test model and I only started the base because I was painting some other things Leadbelcher at the same time.

I want to say “these are close to done and I'll probably start the basing in a session or two” but these models are an absolute nightmare for noticing yet more hidden details just when you think you've actually finished one. Still, they're coming along.

The Genestealer Cults Magos is progressing, even if I will have to go back over some of thatr highlighting to tidy it up, the middle section of the model's body not being the most accessible of areas.

Whilst his friend the Patriarch finally has some large block colour painted. Next step will be the carapace, which will take a few layers since I went with grey undercoat for this one. I also find myself giving more thought than I perhaps need to about which Space Marine chapter the various helmets scattered around the model will be painted as.

And, finally, a small group of eight Termagants I got off eBay in a job lot with a bunch of other little gribblers. I started with these because it means I'll have a nice large block of twenty Termagants to set down on the table (or for the Tervigon to shart out over a couple of turns).

50/500 Challenge Hobby Tracker

Astra Militarum Savlar Chem-Dogs: 1 model / 0 power

Death Guard and Nurgle Daemons: 2 model / 9 power

Deathwatch: 1 model / 0 power

Genestealer Cults: 2 models / 0 power

Lizardmen: 6 models / 30 points

Tyranids: 29 models / 45 power levels

Total Models Painted

41

Five more power and the Tyranids have passed the benchmark. I also really need to get back to painting that Deathwatch Kill-Team.

Weekly War Report #3 (Fractional Progress February week 3)

It's (Not) The End, But...

So, my housemate and I have spent a bunch of time tidying up and spring cleaning the last week so hobby time has been limited. As a consequence I haven't got anything from that big basing shelf picture last week 100% finished. A few are close, most need a lot of basing work, but I wanted to spend what spare time I had plugging away at new things so I could keep feeling that momentum rather than the basing stuff because that always feels like such a slog.

Is that just me? It just feels like every layer takes so damn long to dry. Anyway, so here's what we got for this week:

Gaming

I had my second Necromunda game, this time against Dave J's Eschers in a Sabotage scenario that I won and (mostly) escaped intact from. Hilariously, my Goliath's retreat from the burning chem-still was covered by the underhive's most resilient juve. Armed only with a stubgun and spud-jacker and no statistical or armour upgrades whatsoever it took two Escher gangers and two champions to take him down. It was the sort of epic moment the small scale skirmish format is absolutely amazing for.

Close to Death

The nearest I've come to finishing anything this week are some Death Guard bits a few minor details away from done.

The Blight-Hauler just needs one more pass before I apply the sand. It was a pleasure to paint and I definitely want to get a complete unit of three together in the near future. It also gave me a chance to experiment with dark metallic methods to a varying degree of success. The brass trim is just Balthasar Gold inked with Reikland Fleshshade a couple of times which worked brilliantly whilst the head of the multi-melta and vent grilles were... less successfully drybrushed Runelord Brass. I'll try layering it on the next model.

Actually, I think I'll try layering the Runelord Brass on the face grill of that Plague Marine on the left. Its mainly been a matter of filling in small details and getting the inking done on the golds this week. To be honest, the reason for rushing these through has been to remind myself how I was painting the things so I can go back and finish all my half-done Dark Imperium models.

The Gang Show

I've done all the large, basic colours on the gang as a batch and now its time to take a single miniature and work on the detail methods. I've not got far, just basing and inking the areas that are going to be brass and filing in the mohawk. I don't think I'll go for the Thunderhawk Blue hair on the whole gang. In fact, I might give everyone different hair colours, it'll be a good way to keep the different ganger straight in my head when writing down XP and so on.

Fantasy Woman

Though 40k has been grabbing most of my attention I've been getting in the mood for some square-based stuff and so I dug out Queen Khalida here (who will be a Heirophant using the Lore Of Light in my army). I wanted to try out the yellow method I used on the Deathwatch Marines Malevolent Kill-Marine on cloth so she'd have a rather dirty and degraded once-glorious cape of sunlight gold. It came out rather well.

I am less pleased about the snake at the head of the staff. The orange looked better before I painted in the gold staff, now it just looks too similar. I'll probably repaint if red once I have the golds inked and layered up.

A Bug, Not a Feature

Newly arrived from eBay, the one indispensable element of a Tyranid army (I think): a traditional Screamer-Killer style Carnifex. I've always loved the design and this one was cheap so here it is. Sadly, I'm going to have to redo the back carapace as the ink dried a little funny. This was another big bug I undercoated in Zandri Dust which means the grey skin is taking me forever to basecoat, the alternative of course...

… to undercoat them grey and then spend ages layering the Zandri Dust onto the carapace. At this stage I am genuinely resigned to the fact that neither undercoat cuts down the painting time and the choice is purely down to which colour is the majority or the most accessible on model on a case by case basis.

Team Players

And, finally, a little more work has been done on Kill-Team Pellos. Not much, just some more work on the metallics and drybrushing on the leathers. Still, progress is progress as I've been saying all month. 

Weekly War Report #2 (Fraction Progress February week 2)

Excuse the drop in picture quality from this morning, its taking me time to work out how to get best results from my best friend's photography set-up (shout out for Matt for the lend of his spot lamp and scenery). So, this past week's hobby: another week of a surprising lot of hobby for a man intentionally taking it easy:

Gaming

Over the weekend I had a couple of games. First, my entrance into Dave J's Necromunda campaign sending my Goliaths to loot the territory of Matt's Inquisitorial Warband. I lost and ended up with about half my gang out of action. Hopefully, this week's game will end with somewhat better results.

I also got to debut my Tyranids on the tabletop, first against Matt's Death Guard in a take and hold scenario where I just about managed to squeak a draw and then against Tom T's Valhallan Imperial Guard where I lost quite conclusively, conceding with a whole four models remaining on the table.

An entire mantlepiece of my finest troops

A big burst of energy over the weekend saw me finish off a lot of the projects I had in progress last time. At time of writing the sand is still drying on the bases so, hopefully, I'll have some, all or less of them finished in the next couple of days. The only things on the shelf not previously showcased last week are these funny little fellas...

… a pair of Familiars from the Genestealer Cults Broodcoven set. They were rather fun and quick to paint and I look forward to running them out on the tabletop (I wasn't sure what they were for and left them out of the list last weekend).

Underhive Hustle

For a start there's my Goliath gang. The progress so far is basic and messy and inspired more by a need to get just some sort of paintjob started for my first game than anything else.

The main armour colour for the gang is Stegadon Scale Green because I liked how it looked on the 'Eavy Metal Orlocks in this month's White Dwarf. The rest of the models are giving me some trouble. Surprisingly for big, beefy bastards on 32mm bases these are amongst the most finely detailed and complex models I've ever had to paint. There are so many belts, buckles, metal implants and rivets on them. I mean, I can't argue against the value for money as these ten miniatures account for more than a thousand points and that's whilst pretending the two lads with stubguns and spud-jackers are juves instead of full gangers.

Its A Bug Hunt!

Reinforcements for my Tyranids continue apace with a bunch of units getting their grey layers finished, which isn't terribly visually interesting but here we go...

Its mainly Cults stuff because they were, to me, the surprise breakout characters of the first two games. They were only in there to fill up the 100 power limit but I found them surprisingly fun to use. I've painted their industrial armour using the same method as the flesh on the 'Nids which will probably be the only shared design element between the two armies (except for the models that have carapace).

Now My Watch Begins

Having sent the test model, the Marine Malevolent with the heavy thunder hammer to the basing shelf its time to get to work on the rest of his squad. 

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that one of them has a Chaos Space Marine Raptor head with horns. This is because he's a Black Dragon, a chapter with a geneseed mutation that makes them grow bone protrusions out of their bodies as they age. This team is built around Marines from the shiftier, less trustworthy chapters, the ones other chapters are suspicious of.

They're also joined on the painting table by the Blood Ravens Librarian from the Kill-Team Cassius box set who is probably my favourite sculpt from the unit.

The Big Lad

The Great Unclean One is getting closer and closer to done. There are some small details I'm trying to work out how to do like scabs. I mean, the flesh itself is the darkest grey available from the Citadel paint range so I'm not sure what I could do for scabs since I can't go darker. Skavenblight Dinge, perhaps? Aside from that, progress here has been fractional as I tidy up some of the drybrushing and made a start on the metallics.

Green Energy

Finally, some Death Guard. First off, I'm continuing to progress with the Blight-Hauler which now has a start made on its metallics. The silver that's on there is basically finished sans a little highlighting and the rather flat Balthasar Gold will be worked up to bronze. Looking at the photo I realise I have actually missed an entire bit of trim on the top of the left wheel arch which I'll have to go back to and I do need to fill in some more areas, like the spiked on the weapons, silver.

And, having proved to myself that these methods work on a large scale it was time to apply them to some man-sized models with the Easy Build Plague Marines. These are really cool models but they are so encrusted with details that I keep finding things that I missed like the fly symbol on the champion's right kneepad.

Hell, if nothing else, posting all these pictures really makes me notice the mistakes I've made in time to fix them, eh?

Weekly War Report #1 (Fractional Progress February week 1)

It makes an awful lot of sense, knowing me, that the moment I decide to take things easy hobby-wise I end up doing more painting in a single week than I managed in the whole first month of the year. If nothing else it proves that shorter, more frequent hobby sessions are doing me more favours than trying to block out an entire evening for this stuff.

Nothing's finished (and I still haven't done the basing on the Hive Tyrant and Tyranid Warriors) but I have got a surprising amount of stuff done:

Hormagaunts and Genestealers

A friend once told me that the two most important attitudes an artist can cultivate are “good enough” and “screw it” and I'm starting to get it with the Hormagaunts. They were an experiment in undercoating with Zandri Dust spray and the finish came out all wrong. The grey flesh took layer after layer, the ink and drybrush didn't take quite as well on the carapace as I'd like... and I'm done trying to fix them. They're Hormagaunts, they're small, there'll be two dozen others and no one is going to look at them as individuals so I'm just going to do a final pass on detail work and call them done. You can see in the singular example how the inking has splodged here and there, especially on the gun. I'll fix what I can but I'm calling time on them and letting them be what they'll be.

The Genestealers, who were undercoated grey, came out a lot better even if it did take a layer or two to get the Zandri Dust to take on the carapace. Between them and the still-incomplete Hive Tyrant and Warriors I feel I've definitely nailed down the colour scheme for Hive Fleet Jormungandr even if my interpretation of the artwork violently disagrees with 'Eavy Metal.

Tervigon

Yes, I know there are some parts missing from the middle legs. I bought this one off eBay and I think that's why I got it for such a discount. As you can see from the base, this one was also undercoated Zandri Dust like the Hormagaunts and somehow the carapace has come out a lot better. I'm genuinely unsure why, especially as I didn't have the trouble with the grey flesh I had on the Hormagaunts, either.

A little more experimentation is due so for the moment I'll try undercoating the small stuff grey and the large stuff Zandri Dust and see how it goes.

Plus, literally all this model needs is some tidying of the grey around the gill things on the legs and I can start basing it.

Deathwatch Kill-Marine

A single test model, this one, as I tried out the methods I'll be applying to the rest of the army and road tested the first of the 3D printed shoulder pads from POP Goes The MONKEY (that is actually how he spells it). This one used a Marines Malevolent shoulder pad which fit perfectly over the shoulder connector, took the undercoat relatively well (it needed a little touching up) and the detail is crisp and easy to follow with a brush. It looks practically indistinguishable, as you can see, from something GW would produce.

I also think I've finally cracked yellow, a colour second only in infamy to me to white itself.

Myphitic Blight-Hauler

This is a pretty typical example of what I'm getting done in spare moments on busy days: getting the larger areas of models blocked out. So the Blight-Hauler now has all its green and flesh areas finished and when I have more time I'll go back and do the more detailed work like the silver metallics and brass trim and so on.

Also, its nice to be working on this model because it is so damn adorable.

Great Unclean One

Significantly less adorable but no less fun to paint is the Great Unclean One, again mainly just having finished the larger areas that I could achieve mainly through drybrushing. Actually, what I really like about the Nurgle Daemons and the Tyranids is how well they take to my drybrush-heavy techniques.

I'm not convinced the Screamer Pink guts work as well against the grey flesh tone as they do on the green-tinged flesh Warhammer TV used in their painting tutorial but I'll wait until I have them inked at least before I decide whether to repaint them or not.

Beast of Nurgle

Finally, and back to the cute side of Nurgle, this has been my favourite model to paint from the whole batch. It was a bit of a nightmare to put together because the connectors are so non-standardised and the manual is no bloody help but the finished product is so very worth it. It was also a good test model for some new methods I wanted to try out to diversify the look of the Nurgle Daemons like the Rakarth Flesh / Reikland Fleshshade / Pallid Wych Flesh method on the underbelly.

Other, less visually interesting, progress

I've built a Goliath gang for a friend's Necromunda campaign and I'll be having my first game this weekend; my Imperial Knight arrived from eBay as well as an alternate head piece for it from Shapeways so I'm going to start working on that conversion in the coming week; and, I undercoated my Adeptus Custodes Captain-General Trajann Valoris and a Furioso Dreadnought.

So, all in all, a successful first week.