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Undercoating Weather

A single benefit that could be drawn from global warming is the increasing opportunity in the UK to get outside and undercoat a few models.  Usually it is too cold.  Often too windy, and all too often, too damp.

This time of year we get short windows of opportunity that cannot be missed, otherwise we would all have nothing in the painting queue when winter comes around…  (Who am I kidding, there is always something in the painting queue).

First up, and likely to get a bit of attention when I finish that run on GREEN Space Marines, are some Hasslefree miniatures that were purchased with Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse in mind.  I suspect Kev sculpted them all as African Americans and I might actually try to do them in an Afro-Caribbean skin tone. Most of my miniatures end up with pink skin purely because that is my usual flesh paint colour. The last time I attempted a darker skin tone was on a set of Buffalo soldiers for some cowboy game. 

The other batch to get a little attention from some spray paint was my Nurgle Kill Team.  These are the mutated crew from the Rogue Trader expansion.

I used a can of the new GW Wraith Bone contrast undercoat on these guys and it went on very well.  I plan to try a few of the new GW contrast paints on these guys.  I suspect that I won’t find it any quicker to paint them up.  I never spend a lot of time on highlights and shading so won’t be saving time that way.  They might offer up a few more colours and some interesting effects to these, well sculpted and nicely detailed, figures though…

Warhammer 40,000 – Table Prep, An Old Friend Returns Home And Some Newly Finished Scenery

Last time on the blog I had mentioned I was out in the shed, setting up a playing surface for an up-coming game.  I also said it took me an hour or two to do all this.  In reality the table setup was just a half hour of rummaging in boxes and laying out a mat.

The remainder of the time was spent finishing off some neglected items that could then be used without too much personal embarrassment that they were still only half finished.

One feature of this table setup will be a landing pad (using my new plaza street blocks and stairs) with a flyer upon it.  Said flyer is a Forgeworld Vulture that I originally owned about 8 years ago…  Said flyer has just returned home as the lovely Veganman has been having a clearcut, and offered to sell it back to me. I suspect I may have mentioned to him, more than once, that I should never have sold in the first instance.  It’s nice to have it back in the collection.

The majority of the setup time was spent on the addition of a little flock and paint to these Martian Base Entrances. They have been sat in their silver base colour for longer than I would like to admit, so it is nice that I can actually use them now.

A couple of control panels cover a hole that was for a post box that I chose to use elsewhere.

These are from Antenocitis Workshop and come with little printed screens that can be added to the resin casting.  Nice easy touches that can be added to any wall, or entranceway, in this case…

Warhammer 40,000 – Finishing Touches

It seems an age since I set up a playing surface in the shed and, while I was out there doing just that for an hour or two last week, I decided that I should really try to finish a small job that had been bugging me for a a little while now.

My last GREEN miniature has a glass sided tank on his back.  I have seen some very nicely painted tanks, throughout the Internet, and all glazed with gloss varnish to give that glass like finish.

Mine is not the most realistic of fluid filled efforts but a gloss coat over the top can’t make it worse…  Can it…

Not to bad…

Catches the light nicely and distracts the eye away from some of the terrible painting on the remainder of the model.  So, please remember…  Just keep looking at the shiny bit…

MDF Plinths, Stairways And Plazas

As my current aversion to painting green Space Marines continues to settle, I have moved over (with the help of the good weather) to a side project that won’t side track me for too long. Playing about with a little bit of MDF should allow me to go back to painting GREEN again pretty soon.

Warmer weather, shorter drying times and ultimately just a little too hot to paint anyway (the inside of the shed was up to 49 degrees C when I ventured in last weekend…) As no brush work would be worthwhile, I guess a little trimming and gluing would have to suffice.

A bit of base colour spraying is always possible on warmer days too.  A little bit of weathering may need to follow when I am all done with these builds…

These are TT Combat Venetian street blocks and canal stairs.  The reason I bought a few sets of these recently was to see if I could get a bit of height difference on to the table. Each kit in the range makes up a 25-30mm high plaza square or street section.

As always, MDF is an easy medium to work with, and although not as fancy as some of the textured and 3d resin out there, it remains a staple in the shed as it is robust and fairly easy to store away between games.  I have a larger pack with about 8 more base plazas and streets in it but these had a slight fault on them so I am awaiting replacements for those kits.  When they arrive and get built up I should have enough from this range to allow me to stack smaller sections onto the larger bases, layering up the plazas to create higher and lower areas on the table, eventually…

Warhammer 40,000 – The Death Guard Characters

While I am making a habit of taking useless photographs I thought I should supply you with a useless group shot of the completed characters that will be making their stand in the ‘big game’ we have planned.

These add up to three HQ choices and two Elite choices if you understand the Warhammer 40K system.

My three HQs, the Daemon prince with wings (big bony chap) and the two Plague Casters, provide some much needed punch and can, between them, cast a respectable number of psychic attacks in a turn.

The Foul Blightspawn and the Noxious Blightbringer both have a fairly respectable combat ability but also add a couple of decent buffs to the regular Plague Marines in the force.

Next up Terminators… (when I can build up the desire to paint green Space Marines again)

Warhammer 40,000 – Foul Blightspawn

Some models don’t want to get painted.  I suspect this one was happy in green plastic.  Maybe it thought to itself…  ‘I know, when I grow up, I want to be one of those army men’.

I painted this over two nights with very little enthusiasm and I think it shows in this photo taken mid paint job.

Colours randomly splattered over the original green base coat, with no effort made to ‘colour inside the lines’.  Some details left unpainted because… well hell, the ink wash will bring them out…

I dropped this figure about 20 times during its time on the paint table.

It should be a great figure to paint.  The option for a glass fronted, fluid filled tank. Lots of well defined details and the chance to add a range of colours from outside of the regular Death Guard colour scheme.

I can’t say why it caused me so much trouble.  Maybe it’s time for a night or two off painting green Space Marines. I don’t want to get side tracked by something else so, if it’s a night off, it’s a proper night off.  No shed tonight, let’s just update the blog (and moan about green Space Marines.)

Don’t get me started on the fact that it was slightly late when I finished and even outside, in the fading evening light, I couldn’t get a good clear photo…

Annoyingly, tonight seems just as bad, as the sun is behind me and either casts my shadow on the BBQ or leaves a looooong shadow on the miniature.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…

Then give up and pour yourself a stiff Vodka and Tonic.  Strong enough for the words to be lubricated enough to flow from your fingers (just like the shadows flow in my photos…)

Warhammer 40,000 – Plague Caster Pete II (Maybe I Need To Think Of Another Name)

Today it’s a story of success, failure and success.

My first success was actually finishing off the next of the miniatures that I wanted to complete. It’s another step closer to completing the force destined to be used in out next ‘big’ game.  It is a second plague caster that, in this case, I decided not to convert. I cannot say that I am a big fan of the modelled smoke effects that GW have started doing in the last few releases.  Last time I chopped it off without a second thought. This time though, instead of hacking it off and replacing it, I decided to see if I could paint it to look almost alright.

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I had just noticed that, on the original Plague Caster Pete, I had added a Bolt Pistol to his hand when he already had one, sat in its holster, on his hip. (Maybe I should start calling him Two-Guns Pete).

The failure came when I tried to photograph the new model next to the old.  It was just before 10pm and usually the twin bulbs that make up the lighting in the shed can give a good photographic environment for me to use.  The shadow cast by a late setting sun, combined with slightly aged light bulbs, that definitely need changing as they are getting noticeably dusty, left me with less than perfect photos.

Using a flash was no better for getting a good photo. In fact I think they were even worse, so I decided to wait for the next day, and more light, to get better ones…

My final success was these slightly clearer photographs.  Plague Caster Pete and his brother sorcerer Plague Caster… Paul. (Wasn’t there a nursery rhyme with a Peter and a Paul?  I remember something about birds…?)

The smoke effect here has plague flies scattered throughout it and I picked them out in white as the smoke was so dark.  Not a bad effect in the end.  Not completely sold on it but its good enough for a Nurgle Psyker.

That leaves me just five Blight Lord Terminators and one final character model, a Foul Blightspawn, to complete.

Warhammer 40,000 – So Far So Good, Vehicles All Done

As I had all the vehicles for my upcoming game of Warhammer 40K out of the display case I thought you might want to see them.  Don’t expect too much of this photo as I haven’t had a table set up for a few weeks now.  The background is therefore plain old MDF (try to imagine them as majestically arrayed over a grand, golden, sand dune; or not…)

The real reason for posting this photo is in hopes of worrying Coronasan into taking lots of Antitank units. Hopefully at the cost of some of his assault troopers.  That way my poor bloody infantry might get a chance to survive past the first two turns.

The other thing that might help those infantry to survive is by having a few bigger brothers on their side.  The remaining figures, that still haven’t seen any love or paint yet, are five terminators, a specialist with a nasty watering can stuck on his back and my second Plague Caster.  I’m hoping to get cracking on these in the next day or so…

Warhammer 40,000 – Helbrute

After my Soulgrinder (or, in my case, my Plague Hulk proxy) was finished, I decided to keep up the emphasis on larger models and pushed on with the painting to get the Helbrute done next.

This model was first seen on the blog back in November of 2017.  Such is the time warp within the shed.  So many good intentioned builds, even ones I spend a huge amount of time mounting magnets on.  So often lost in the mists of time – only to resurface when their star starts to rise again, a few years later.

So, you are going to get all the photos, of every variant I have for this model, so if that’s not your thing, scroll on a few times until you see some paint pots (go on, I won’t notice…)

First up, full firepower.  Autocannon and Missile Launcher – for when you want to wait for the enemy to come to you…

Full combat mode. One extra attack from the twin weapon combo and flamers mounted in each fist as you don’t always get to charge first.  It’s good to have a set of weapons that hit automatically when shooting at a charging foe.

The middle ground.  An Autocannon for longer range fire and a Power Scourge to get in a few extra attacks if you do have to close with the enemy.

As you saw just now, the model is almost complete, but I have to weather (liberally coat with a shade or ink) the thing before I get its base done.  I keep a fully stocked ink range, so I can supposedly fine tune my shade to match a range of base colours when needed.

In this case I need him to match the existing infantry, so a darker brown or black ink will be required, rather than the dark green or more subtle browns that might have been a better match to his base colours.

Just an aside, does anyone else find themselves thinking they need to find themselves a more reliable, regular drying rack.  One day I will make a magnetic, or tacky, shelf edge so I can stop having to do this…

If it looks odd, thats ok, as long as it works.  It does in this case…

Thats all the vehicles done towards my planned force for our next big game of Warhammer 40K.  Next up the remaining seven infantry figures (Grandfather Nurgle’s lucky number).  At this rate I might just get them done on time.

Warhammer 40,000 – Death Guard Get New Units

Well, we have another, slightly larger, game planned.  This time its a game of Warhammer 40K so Coronasan can try out some larger pieces of his industrial scenery.  It’s not happening for a few weeks yet, but I had best start planning for it.  I will need to dig out come of those neglected models I have, so that I can again get something new onto the table.

A bit of brute force (I don’t often play with pure close combat dreadnoughts) might be useful in such a close quarters battle.  A second chaos sorcerer will be useful too as I suspect I will be up against an army that is at least part Grey Knights.

I have been meaning to get some terminators on the table for some time now so I guess this my chance to get them painted.

First up though a Soul Grinder…

WIP in this shot but already the base colours are getting close to my Death Guard scheme.

In fact his base colours are so close to the Death Guard theme that his scraps of old armour are almost invisible against his skin…

A few armour plates and a bit of rust and I should be able to call him finished.

In fact, here he is in his finished form.  Varnish and all.

I will more than likely be playing him as a Plague Hulk (from the Forgeworld Index Book) rather than as a Soul Grinder.  That way he will fit in with the other Death Guard forces better.