Happy Orktober!

 It's that time of year again--falling leaves, pumpkin spice beer, cloudy afternoons and, of course, MORE ORKS than you can swing a Thunderhammer at.  I finally finished up a Big Mek with his Kustom Force Field.  It had been sitting on the painting bench since early summer.  When I bought him, I realized much too late that it was a dreaded Finecast sculpt.   Upon opening the package, this model had more holes than Swiss cheese.  I spent a few days messing around with 'green stuff' (never ever again!), got frustrated, and set it back on the table to collect cobwebs for a few months.  I'm not sure what exactly came over me, but I decided to ork-up and just finish it.  I'm surprisingly quite pleased with how it turned out; however, it was the least fun and most tedious model I've tried painting to date--all the little wires, cables, chains, buttons, etc.  Not to mention that painting over primed Finecast--at least in my experience--gives a lot of friction against the brush.  I'm glad it's done, that's for dang sure.

I've also got some Lootas I finished up a while ago (I think I posted the first one back in May), but never got around to finishing.  Additionally, I was able to get my hands on some Meganobz--Ork Nobz covered in thick, cumbersome Mega armor--cheap on Ebay.  They were already painted, but I just cleaned them up a bit and added my own little orky flair to individualize each of the six models.   Lastly, I used some styrene sheet to cut up my own orky Aegis defense line that my squishy Lootas can fire at from behind, hopefully allowing their green butts to stay on the battlefield a turn or two longer before being blown into obscurity by lascannons, or Mork knows what else exists out there in the 40k universe.  That's about it for this post.

May your WAAAAGHs be a plenty this festive and bestive Orktober!

The Big Mek...He needs a name still.  Any suggestions?

And his Kustom Force Field

Lootas

The one with the cigar cracks me up every time I look at it

Meganobz

Orky Aegis Defense Line

Stay behind cover, boys

Tankbustas and Death Guard OSL

  I'm a pretty happy camper right now.  I entered my first 40k tournament over the weekend...and ended up getting 2nd place!  Not to shabby for playing Orks (an army whose codex is two editions behind...)  The dice were on my side and my list ended up working out pretty well.  At the last minute I painted up some Tankbustas, who basically shoot rokkits and throw bombs at vehicles.  Lot's of explosions--sometimes accidentally on the receiving end; such is Orks!  I finished painting them up today, and got back to my Plague Marines as well.  Trying to do OSL proved very challenging, and hopefully my skill will have improved the next time I attempt it

The Nob, Gas Guzzla, who leads the Tankbustas into the heat of the battlefield

Ready to blow something up

3/10 done

Death Guard Progress Report

Howdy, folks!  I'ts been a few weeks, but I've still been painting away.  My latest project is a unit of Death Guard Plague Marines.  I just gotta say these guys are so f@*%ing cool.  They're basically Chaos Space Marines who worship Nurgle, the god plague and disease.  In return Grandfather Nurgle has gifted his favored sons with putrid flesh and pestilence to spread across the galaxy...

Death Guard: Aaaaaand you're dead...

I'm almost done with the unit of six Plague Marines and one Plague Champion.  I won't go into too much detail about my painting method--I just kinda went with my instinct, and I don't remember exactly all the colors I used etc.  I attempted some new techniques on these guys, most notably, my first-ever attempt at OSL, which I'm fairly happy with, but I definitely need to study how light reflects off of objects more;  it's a work in progress... I've got two guys just about finished, so I'll leave them for you to check out.  I should have the rest done by next week.

Two Plague Marines.  Not the best lighting, and my feeble attempt at OSL on the right guy.  I'm still debating if I should have light reflecting off of his rusty plague knife.  

This over-exposed shot brings out the OSL much better I think...

All kinds of fleshy mutations...

...and, of course, rust pigments!

That's all, folks.

Hey, I'm still here!

       Well, my (crappy) camera has been out of commission the past few months--hence no recent posts.  However, I've still been slapping paint on unfortunate little figures.  I recently got a great deal on Foundry Miniatures Painting and Modelling Guide by Kevin Dallimore.  As of this writing the going rate for either a new or used copy is over $100!  I was lucky to find a used copy for $25.  Sir Dallimore presents some great guides and tips on his unique way of painting, most notably his one-, two-, and three-color methods--I would describe his style as very bright and cartoon-y.  I've tried to emulate as best as I could, and I'm pretty happy with the results.  My painting will never be exactly like his, Marike Reimer's, nor any other respected painter, and that's fine with me.  I have no desire to win a Golden Daemon, or even enter any contests for that matter;  I just enjoy this niche hobby for what it is, and learning something from each miniature I sit down to paint.  I can see that I'm now just starting to develop my own style, but I will still eagerly gobble up anything that will help me improve.  A friend was nice enough to let me use their camera on a whim to take a few photos of things I've recently been working on.  The shots are a bit crude--a culmination of less than spectacular lighting, and a low-quality camera--but it's been so long since I've posted here, that I just wanted to put something up.  Hopefully, I'll have some better shots next time around.

Here's an American War of Independence Continental Infantry model.  I've got several more on the table waiting to be finished up.  Once they're done, I have some Redcoats to paint and set them up against.

I actually based the figure onto a nickel.  It gives the figure a nice weight.  I know I could've used a washer or something, but using the nickel just screams 'Murica!'

Here's Mordoon the Red.  The camera doesn't capture all the different shades of his cloak, unfortunately. 

Blurry, but I hope you get the idea...

I just finished up this orc archer tonight.  I had a lot of fun painting him, and tried a bunch of techniques from Kevin Dallimore's book.  One of the more interesting ones has to do with the chainmail armor under the fur pelt: paint a black undercoat followed by bronze, then drybrush silver over that (with highlights on the raised areas), giving it a heavy, weighted look.  

I doubt his aim is any good, but with all those arrows he's bound to fell a few low-level would-be heroes!

Ork Loota

 That greenskin itch has returned!  I decided to add a unit of Lootas to my (slowly) increasing 40k Ork army.  Lootas seem pretty fun to play on the table;  just keep them back so they can fire D6 Strength 7 shots at a whopping 48"!  I started batch painting five of them this weekend.  I decided to complete one as a test model today, though.  I keep wanting to post pictures of my progress as I work on a model, but as I paint, I can't pull myself away from the table long enough to take pictures.  It'll happen one day--probably not. Not much to say, really.  I had fun messing around with colors and highlights.  I was searching around on Google for some inspiration.  I really like the idea of the guns painted red with orange-ish highlights.  The extra fine detail brushes work really well for this.  Oh, btw, painting red on black is a huuuuge pain.  I finally realized--about halfway through painting the gun-- that I should have painted a layer of grey first where I would later paint red.  I need to remember to do that while I finish up the other four models...  Here's the first finished one (but not based yet):

This checker pattern probably took half a dozen times to do.  Still not totally content, but it does look orky.

Dakka dakka dakka dakka....

Hundogaar, the Mighty Barbarian of the White Lynx Tribe of the Northern Wastes

 He's finally done!  I tested out some of these Reaper Master Series Paints--from now on referred to as MSP-- that I picked up a few weeks back.  Unfortunately, I missed some of the mold lines before priming him;  I wasn't really up to filing the newly-found ones and re-priming him, so I promised myself to look more carefully next time.  I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with the skin highlights.  Sometimes when I look at this figure I really like it, and other times I'm overcome with an urge to just throw it in the trash...  I guess  there's always new figures to paint and improve with, though; I'll just chalk this one up to gaining XP in the miniature painting skill.  I have no idea how I came up with his  name, but as I was painting him I couldn't help but think of Conan (obviously), Wulfgar, and Fafhrd--now I want to re-read Swords and Deviltry.  If this painting was a complete disaster, at least I have a new area of my ever-expanding D&D world to draw upon.

I imagine him rising at dawn to practice his sword skills atop a snowy mountain top, his blade cutting through the icy wind, a silhouette amidst the crimson morningtide...

Da Boyz

  Just a little update.  I decided to see how quickly I could paint sixteen Ork Shoota Boyz.  All in all, it took about two and a half hours to finish them off.  I've got a few other things I'm working on--and taking my time with--, so I'll post those when they're done.

                               "Okay, Boyz.  On the count of three:  One, two, Space Mariiiiiiiiine!"

Testing Out New Paints and Brushes

 The only people I love more than D&Ders, wargamers, and mini painters are people who have just quit the hobby...and put all their stuff for sale on Craigslist for a really, really cheap price.  A few days ago I found a post where this guy was selling all of his unused Reaper paints--about 60 paints in all--for only $30!  Needless to say I called him up, drove over to meet him, and made the exchange.  Previously I had bought some brushes by Army Painter.  Yesterday I was able to sit down with my new brushes and try out these Reaper paints.  I've solely been using Citadel stuff since I started painting.  I've gotta say, I think I'm a convert.  The Army Painter brushes keep their point and hold the paint much better than the overpriced Citadel brushes, and the Reaper paints go on so smoothly.  I don't think I'll stop using my Citadel stuff  (because I've built up quite a collection of paints), but I'm having a blast with these new paints.  Oh, the bottles are much better too.  Those pesky Citadel pots are a pain; after about a session or two, I can't get them to close properly thanks to a ring of dried up paint that accumulates whenever you open the pot...  Anyway, here's a little pewter 40k gretchen grot-rigger dude I tested out.

"How do you expect me to fix these vehicles if all we have are rusty parts?!"

Finally thinning down my coats more (I have a bad habit of painting directly out of the Citadel paint pots) and mixing colors for several shades of highlights.

Until next time.

 

Death Company

Kinda random, but I went to a new Games Workshop store the other day that opened up relatively nearby, and decided to pop in.  As soon as I walked in the door, I was immediately bombarded with hellos and the inevitable,  "What can I help you find today?"  After politely claiming that I was just looking, an hour or so later I ended up leaving the store with the latest issue of White Dwarf, some brushes, paints, and a box of...wait for it....Space Marines!...  I'm still trying to remember how it all happened.  Apparently, GW employees are well-versed in Jedi mind tricks, and somehow put the thought into my head that I should buy something.  Even thought I'm predominantly an Ork player in 40k, I've always been interested in painting up models from different armies.  Here's my first go at painting a model from the Blood Anglels' Death Company.  I'm a bit familiar with their lore, and I'm a big fan of their primarch, Sanguinius, after reading the first two novels of the Horus Heresy.  This model  had a totally different feel than others I've done, most notably being that it focuses mainly on small details.  After priming it black, I gave it a wash of Nuln Oil (to get rid of the shininess) and used some reds, golds, and silvers.  For the edge highlights, I simply used grey.  I basically drybrushed with the side of a fine detail brush to give a really thin line (some areas are cleaner than others).  Oh yeah, the Tamiya red glossy paint worked out nicely for the various blood vials.  I still have four guys left, but not sure when I'll get around to finishing them as to wanting to paint up some Ork lootas next...

High Elf Chariot

 Hey folks! (Oh, who am I kidding?  Nobody reads this.).  I know every post starts with, "It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been really busy, yada, yada, yada."  I just want to clarify that I do have plenty of free time, perhaps a bit too much. Laziness, however, seduces me into not posting on here as often as I'd like.  Here's a Warhammer Fantasy model I spent a good deal of time working on.  I bought it for myself as a birthday present back in March.  I painted the two elves and one lion, and then ran out of steam, setting it on the painting table until this past weekend.  I'm still not sure which was more difficult:  Gluing all the pieces together so they fit, or painting the darn thing.  I still consider myself a n00b at painting (hence the title of this blog), but  I think this model is one of my better attempts.  I won't talk too much about the techniques I used, paint schemes, etc.  But I did come up with this weird drybrush/stippling thingy for the final layer to get the lions to look furry.  The technique works just as it sounds:  Take a drybrush with just a hint of paint, and just stipple layer after layer of your color of choice .  For this model I did a watered down base coat of  Citadel's Steel Legion Drab, followed by a wash of Seraphim Sepia, followed by another light coat of Steel Legion Drab (avoiding the recesses), and a final few drybrush/stipplings of Karak Stone.  For the chariot and bow, I used Ushabti Bone.  I have to say this is one of my favorite colors.  It's just so...rich and creamy.  I considered putting it in my coffee, but that thought could have just come from all the paint fumes.  The armor was done wit a base coat of Leadbelcher, followed by a blue wash (can't remember the name), and then a drybrush highlight of  Runefang Steel.

  I've painted up other things since the last time I posted.  I'll (hopefully) get those up pretty soon.  I have a unit of Chaos Daemon Plaguebearers that I had a lot of fun working on.    Ok, on with the show.  Please excuse the absurd amount of pictures here:

Reaper Madness

 Wow, it's been ages since I've posted on here.  BUT I haven't stopped painting.  I've actually got several projects I'm currently working on.  This post will show some Reaper minis I've been messing around with:

Reaper Bones 'Troll' model.  Trusty old Tamiya X-27 Red for bloody gore

Another Reaper Bones mini.  Messing around with flesh highlights.

He was really fun to paint, but my first attempt at wet blending tells me I have more practice to do!

Another Reaper pewter model.  

Wet blending the cape was a little more successful this time around.

Dwarfs, Skeletons, and Romans--Oh My!

 Just a few shots of things I'm working on...

                           
                             Do the eyes first just to get them out of the way.
                                 

Yes, I know they look crazy, but the eyes will get smaller once

the highlighting and detailing time comes.

                                                       Like this...
                                     

...and this.

Experimenting with different colors for skeletons

Different rusting effects.

15mm Early Imperial Roman Auxilia.