Urien Rakarth

This guy was more fun to paint than I thought he was going to be.  This was another early morning paint job, done somewhere around the time of 4am.  Late at night i tend to be most experimental with my colour combinations and this time i think it paid off.

I used a combination of P3, Citadel and Vellajo paints on this model using a combination of familiar and unfamiliar techniques.  One of the challenges with this model was the cloak. After several attempts i finally settled on a green colour, shaded with purple and highlighted with a light blue that I've used elsewhere on the model.

The skin tone was an adjustment to a scheme that i had once came up with for some wyches.  The skin tone on the wyches i founds was a little too contrast strong so i decided to go with a much more gradual effect.  The skin was base coated in Trollblood highlight (light grey-brown) and then shaded by adding Regal Blue to the skin tone and washing it into the recesses.  Different areas received different tones using the same technique, mostly purples and pink hues.

The face was especially detailed and interesting to paint, the exposed areas of scalp let me create a striking contrast even with the light colours already used in the models skin.  I rarely use pure white, but i decided to give it a shot here.  I later toned it down a bit with a wash which was dual purpose, also shading the recesses
around the areas of exposed bone.

Dark Eldar! The Wyches Have Arrived!

So there is quite a bit to cover in this little post, so i'll get with it. Recently i have not had much time to paint or really explore my hobbies in great depth due to "life events", but now that much of that is resolved i have some new pictures of some painted models to show off, some new and classic Wych models.

The pictures taken here were taken on the front hood of my car with a piece of sketch paper as a back drop, the only source lighting being that of the setting sun, so i apologize in advance for the shadows and any discrepancies there may be, i think only a bit of the vibrancy of purple armour was lost on the classic models due to improper lighting, but other than that, everything looks pretty bang on.

The first image here is a group shot of a finished unit of plastic wyches that i picked up back near the November release of the new line, you may recognize the model to the right of the center model as being one that i posted back when i was doing the initial paint scheme test for these models, well, for the most part they are finished (unless some time in the future a glaring detail pops up, and believe me they always do!).  The scheme is pretty consistent with that of the classic models only including the bluish black body suites of the new models.

the armour is lych purple, with warlock purple highlights brought up and down to varying degrees of shading and highlighting, the body suit is necron abyss, highlighted with fenris grey, washed with bedab black and brought up a bit with some more fenris grey.  The skin tones, is a amalgamation of tallaran flesh, ogryn flesh wash, and deneb stone (this skin tone may be changed for the one featured on the classic models a little further down on future plastic wych models) and of course the metallics are still just simply mithryl silver and Aysuran Blue wash.  I decided to continue with the frozen tundra basing motif, i find it is effective on these models.

This is a Classic wych model, one i painted last wednesday while on an excursion to Black Knight Games in Hamilton ( I love that store, great people, great gaming, great stock, just great in general).  This model features the skin tone i mentioned above a much more pale tone and less tanned (and less work intensive) than the above models and previous wyches i have painted.  The tone is achieved by painting all areas of skin with deneb stone, wash with asuran blue, and highlight with deneb stone, DONE, simple.

I also included a picture of a painted classic mandrake, which i'm using as a wych model in the current edition.  It still has some finishing touches left to be done, but i'm enjoying how well these models sort of bridge the gap between the classic and the new wych models, the guns are still horendously large, the models still incredibly 2-D, but they work.

Well thats all for now, i'll be sure to update more when i get more painted!

Tyranid 2nd Edition OOP, Classic Gargoyals

There resides a special place in my heart for these minis, they were some of the first minis i purchased for wargaming back over twelve years ago.  It's an ongoing mission of mine to repaint my old classic tyranid minis in the original colour scheme as found in the second edition Codex.  I started this project just over a year ago when the new Tyranid codex came out, but the project was put on hold as other projects took center stage.  I haven't forgotten about these models, i'm just taking a relaxed approach to them as i doubt they will see the gaming table any time soon.

I painted up two of these models to completion and have ten more in the midst of being painted.  I opted for varying colour schemes between the models as was common during second edition, however the colours are similar enough to bind the unit as visually cohesive.

For the first of the two models i decided to go with a primarily red and blue colour scheme.  The skin is shaded slightly with brown pigments to bring out the richness of the red highlights, The blue contrasts strongly and was achived using a combination of ultramarine blue, space wolf grey and blue washes.  The bone is pretty standard, using off whites with sepia washes as a foundation.

The second of the two models i decided to carry on portions of the blue and bone colour themes found in the first model, although i wanted to saturate this model further with deep purples, fuchsia and light green. The fuchsia is shaded similarly to the red which further brings out the highlights found on the models as well as associating the models to some degree, the purple wings were painted in a single tone of purple and then offered a heavy shading of blue pigment.  the green started as an off white and was further shaded to the colour you see here by adding various amounts of green to the mix.  

As for the rest of them, i'm looking forward to seeing them on display as a cohesive unit.

Dark Eldar Warp Beasts (Khymera/Dire Wolves)

Here is a few pictures of my most recently painted miniatures for the Dark Eldar force, A pack of five Khymera Warp Beasts ripped straight from the nightmares of a beastmaster.  I decided to go with a contrasting and vibrant paint scheme on these models trying to make the different elements of the sculpt stand out.  The Dire Wolf models are not my favorite, however i believe they support the materialization of a beast from the warp perfectly and view these beasts as "creating themselves" rather than the decaying imagery of the dire wolves.  I decided to go away from natural tones (as the warp is all but natural) Going for a predominately Blue/black, Purple and Green colour scheme.  The bone was painted a light grey washed with green the same time as the muscle and then further highlighted with more of the same grey colour.

Greater Daemon of Slaneesh - Keeper of Secrets, Forgeworld

After a  long hiatus from blogging, i'm back with a few pictures.  I haven't stopped painting or taking pictures of my pieces, i just haven't been posting on this blog, so there is a little bit of a back catalogue to work through, Including a Campaign report from the past month of gaming at Black Knight Games.

Here i have some pictures of the work in progress greater daemon of Slaneesh that i purchased from Gamesday Canada 2008... it's been long overdue.  

As a side note, this model was the victim of a flood recovery at which point it was near destroyed... it has taken a great deal of TLC to restore it, including having to handcraft new fingernails for her left hand.  This was done using a cast off section of old sprue and a dremel grinder to get the slender length i needed from the plastic. These were then filed and shaped with a hobby knife and files

You can see from this angle the two tone nature of the paint scheme i have chosen... i wanted to make the model look as if it were changing the pigment of its skin to appeal more to the enemies it was fighting.  It has been plenty of fun to paint and over all i'm happy with the results. I'll take more pictures in the future!

Pre-Heresy Deathguard Plague Marine

To break up the repetition of painting so many rats over the past while (yes there are more on the way, pictures coming soon), I decided to work a little more on the deathguard army after a inspiration hit to paint Plague Marines that still retained a semblance of their former legion colours.  Of course the armour would be caked in dust and filth, but under all that i wanted there to be a connection to the days when they were once among the emperor's finest.  Here is the result!

This model is from the Havok Plague Marine boxed set, which i believe is currently unavailable, although i'm not 100% sure on that one.  The base colours used on the model were Astronomicon Grey and Knarloc Green, and an assortment of various browns, oranges, greens and yellows.  If there is any interest I'll post a tutorial on how to achieve this look relatively simply, believe me it's a great deal easier than you think!

Oh the Horror - Pink and Blue Horrors of Tzeench

While still in the midst of perfecting these molds these are the first test casts to be made from them.  Over all they turned out fairly well despite their imperfections.  With a coat of paint these make fine gaming miniaturess.

with each casting each mold gets a little better and a little more detail comes out.

Thats all for now, I'll post more pictures probably later today

Cities of Death Terrain

So, first of all to explain exactly what is going on here.  Yes the plague tower is still being worked on, yes, the green stuff came in, and yes, lots of exciting gaming is on the horizon.

During the brief period that the plague tower was put on hold i got the insane urge to batch up some city terrain, for games of cities of death.  I've been using a great deal of the panels from the basillica and shrine of the Aquila kits as i find they go great together.  Now given the opportunity I am going to try and make the scope of this project as large as possible, yes, i'd like to see a gaming table where there are buildings cramming ever city block, much like the old games I'd played in Milton... seeing as getting out there isn't usually an option recently, i'm resorting to what i know best, creating.  Yes, my personal gaming table needs some buildings, it's looking a little bare in games of 40k.

Here is the progress so far on the terrain set.

here is one of the sides of the first ruined building built up... it stands four stories and is mounted on hardboard for stability.

This is the interior with a better view of how the kit comes together.  The base still needs a little work but the building itself is painted.  A variety of dark brownish greens, browns, and metallics were used to paint the model.

Heres a closeup on the rubble strewn along the bottom edges of rear of the building, notice the column piece in the center of the building on the first floor.

Here's a picture of the second building in the works, still white from the resin casts.  I'm undecided whether to extend the building, or broaden it, really.  The idea of completing the building in its entirety did cross my mind, however i want to keep it from being unwieldy to game with.

This is the side of the second building in the works.  I really like how well the two sets compliment eachother.

Hopefully i'll have some more pictures up soon of some more painted terrain pieces, and another update for the plague tower soon!

City Casting

Chaos Space Marines: Deathguard Plague Marine Rhino

Hello once again!  today i have a little treat of an update.  All those deathguard minis I've been painting up no longer have to foot slog it from one side of the table to the other.  Here i have a rhino converted for the deathguard faction of my chaos space marine army painted similarly to the model i used in the death guard plague marine painting tutorial i posted awhile back.  Painting a large boxy model like this can sometimes be a challenge with all the flat surface area on the model.  I find the best method of painting tanks like the rhino is develop a theme over the model and use a large brush, work on the big areas to begin with and then pick out the detail later.

Here are some pics

I've decided to use a light natural mint green paint (knarloc green highlighted to dehneb stone) for the armour plates and shading with purple wash, then painting the depressions with chardonite granite and a sort of faded pestilent pattern.  The detail on the side door was hand sculpted to symbolise that this in fact is a deathguard rhino.  a few details have yet to be picked out.  Weathering was achieved by stippling scorched earth paint with a spare piece of foam that you find packaged with the blister packs of your minis.  Other areas were drybrushed to achieve the appearance of soot. Each of the bolts were picked out by a dot of devlan mud which was trailed downwards.  all the metal areas received a coat of scorched brown before being painted with dwarf bronze and mythril silver.

Here's the other side of the tank panted the same way, along with another deathguard mini i also painted last night.  This gives a rough idea of scale as well.

Here is a detailed shot of the Crewman on the top of the Rhino manning the Pintle mounted combi-flamer.  I used some left over shoulder pads and a head from a old kit i had.  The shoulder pads are forgeworld resin, and the head is a metal piece from the old plague marine havocs boxed set (plague marines with assault weapons.)

Here is one of my favorite parts of this model, the exposed brain of the gunner! So cool!

I'm looking forward to getting this out on the table some time soon.

Plague Tower: Progress Log 5 (Casting of the Front)

So here are the first pictures of the plague tower shot with actual scenery, I thought with the addition of the front panel it was time to add some colour around the model, to get a look at what exactly it might look like on the playing field.

The front panel was originally sculpted in plasticine on a cardboard backing to get the general shape of what you see here.  the original was then cast in plaster to make a mold from which the plasticine was removed.  The front panel was then cast in resin from the plaster mold.  After the resin had cured over night the plaster mold was broken off the resin positive, leaving a archaeological dig worth of cleaning to do to remove the left over plaster stuck to the resin. The cleaning still continues!

Here is a side view with models placed on the walkways for scale.  Note that the sides of the front panel still need to be treated with green stuff to get that stretched skin look.  Also of note here are the wheels on this side which received a wooden texture look.

For a greater idea of scale of this thing, i've set it next to the imperial bastion.

There is still a great deal of work left to go into this model however it's shaping up nicely,  I'm waiting for some green stuff i ordered to come in the mail (with the help of the ever reliable Amy) before i get to work on the hardcore details and resurfacing of the front.

Plague Tower: Progress Log 4

Plague Tower: Progress Log 3

So, a lot has progressed since last i posted pictures, primarily the siding has been completed on both sides of the tank, a whole ton of rivets have been glued into place and some conveniently sized pieces of tubing have also been adhered to the front.  Things are really starting to take shape.

Another major detail that was completed was the embelishment of the side "pus tank" made from the living nature water bottle, bands have been glued around it to make it look more industrial and less little critter, and an access hatch has been glued onto the top.

Now moving to the back, you can see the detail of the rear upper hatch, which now has been added, detailing on that piece is a work in progress.

Here's an overall view of the rough plague mortar assembly...

and it's loading hatch...

overall the front looks really bland and there is still a ton of work left to do on this model, but each day is one step closer.