Warmachine: Retribution Arcanist and Narn

I'm taking a bit of a break from painting my 40k stuff and have decided to dig into the pile of unpainted warmachine miniatures I have sitting around.  This was the perfect opportunity to try out a new set of P3 paints that i had picked up earlier that day (the trollblood kit, which has a great selection of colours for retribution models coincidentally).  It was also an interesting experience having painted one of these two models i'm featuring here at a party a friend was holding.  There were plenty of questions abound, and inquisitive onlookers. Suprisingly most people were more interested and excited about the miniature painting than wierded out by it.

So here is the results of my first attempt using P3 paints, i'll let you be the judge of their usage... personally, i like them.

PS, i also used some citadel paints (washes and reds) and pink vellajo game colour on these models.  All the other colours are frome the Troll Bloods faction paintset.

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.

New Dark Eldar and Skaven Mordheim Warband

A quick comparison between the new and previous ranges of the Dark Eldar Wych Model.  The one to the left was just recently painted as a prototype to go with my existing Dark Eldar force, after looking at the two side by side it is easy to pick out the difference in scale and proportion of the models,  although the old ones have the gladatorial feel to the the new models are all together much more unified and look much more cohesive as a force.  The under suit adds a new element to the model, which i've decided to paint with a visually black latex feel.  This is achieved by painting a base coat of necron abyss and then highlighting with fenris grey, after this give it all a wash of bedab black, and some asurmen blue, and voila instant latex/pvc catsuit.

Below is a picture of my current skaven Mordheim warband, the centerpiece, snich, is taking the role of my skaven assassin adept and was painted last week when ambition struck.

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!

Night Goblins, The Never Ending Paint-a-thon

So, after awhile of not painting anything (consider it a break).  I've a few new painted models to show off... nothing spectacular, just a few night goblins to add to the endless swarms of models.  I'm not quite sure why i like hoard armies, i just do, the idea of marching millions of expendable units to battle really appeals to me.