nerodine

I kitbashed this last year and in various stages its sat on my painting desk as a work in progress. This year I aim to be better at finishing projects, and not starting new ventures while leaving a trail of unfinished things behind me. This was a fast paint that only took months because of my procrastination. They're a sniper, but not a fancy super-clean assassin like often seen in Warhammer. This is someone who gets dirty in warfare It's an Imperial Guard commander body, Adeptus Mechanicus arms and gun, and a Necromunda Palanite Enforcer.

            The star of the warband. I went all out on the face and it was a bit of a blow to my enthusiasm when fitting it inside the hood and realising you only see half of what was painted clearly. But it was proof that if I put the effort in, I can achieve good results. There's a few little nods to the Blanche-era with the red and gold Inquisitor symbol and check-pattern scarf. Delighted with how this turned out. Again, so many things I could change and improve with time, but it captured what I wanted. The chromed effect could be much better, and so should the red leather robe etc. etc. but that's fine. Writing this a few months later, already the improvements and mistakes are evident to me and the challenge will be learning from those on the next piece.

          The muscle of the retinue. Such a great kit and sculpt to build and paint. Wanted to do more with this guy, but happy with the result. I think some of painting on this is the best across the project, alongisde the Inquisitor's face, and you can tell it was my favourite of the three. Liquids arent't really supposed to be in the gloves, but rule of cool was used to create something more interesting to look at. It also offered up much needed contrast and brightness to offset the heavily chipped armour. It did mean I'd painted myself into a corner for the chest piece, as keeping the same colour liquids in there would have been too much - so purple and pink was used to give a little contrast. The metals came out well, but then I let myself down by rushing the cabling and OSL on the back as time was against me. I think this counted against me when being looked at in a cabinet by judges, frankly. Overall better planning and timing is needed to make this work - I simpl

  One of the Inquisitor's retinue. Was really happy with how shiny the metallics were, and the liquids. Less happy with reds, but hey - learning and time I can fix that next year ... Painting the canister so brightly was fun, but in hindsight it dominates the other colours and shouldn't be a focal point - the liquid should be where the eye is drawn to on the rear, not the overall object. The gloves are my quiet success on this project. I worked hard to create a smooth effect with a lot of glazing, based on the style of Albert Moreto Font (https://www.instagram.com/albert.moreto.font/)  and would like to try more of this, as it wasn't as terrifying or long to do as I thought it would be.

 It's 2023 somehow. Christmas with the family, then moving house ourselves for the last week took a lot out of us, but we're here and refreshed. After 18 months without one, I finally have a dedicated desk for painting again, not simply a small space to the side of my computer, which should make a difference to my output this year as it was comparatively slow in 2022. I don't have resolutions or specific goals for this year, but I do have ambitions. Get back to my Eldar. A little of the wind was taken out my sails last January by the release of the fantastic new plastic range. I know that sounds daft, but after spending a couple of years building up a metal oldhammer army, watching all the new models arrive took a little of the shine off. But I'm a grown-up (apparently) and have stopped sulking, and going to throw myself back in. Clear the WIP pile. There's quite a few models sitting in a partially painted state, and rather than ignore them and keep opening new one

  This was my Inquisitor warband for Golden Demon 2022. I'll post up a few individual shots in the coming days with a little more description around each in turn. It's also my Plan B! was a late-in-day change of plan from my original idea - an Eldar Seer Council of classic metal sculpts, but I hit so many issues trying to paint them that it was abandoned after a few days trying to wrestle with the combination of metal and pock-marked sculpts. "Just fill it and sand it back" I hear you say, but a number of the glaring issues with the model were visible but not easy to correct to a competition standard. It was a little demoralising, but after a bit of time away from the desk, this was my refocus. I love the Necromunda setting and opted to build out an oldschool style warband with the Inquisitor as the focus. The first draft plan was to have the Inquisitor, an apprentice then four or five henchmen but it was quickly apparently I was screwed on time and had a rethink on t

In among painting up tanks as gifts, I painted these for myself. It's a little scruffy but it was just fun to scratch the itch for a more complex colour scheme. Never know exactly what to do with models at this scale once finished, as they won't see action on a tabletop, so they may end up as a little diorama in 2023.  

I needed a scheme for painting gems on my Eldar. The easiest way to try it is on larger shapes that have a similar surface shape, and I had a couple of wraithguard heads sitting around. I was amused that the result ended up looking like anime eyes at this scale. Heh. For the green version it was a basecoat of black, Pthalo Green base, bottom highlight was Pthalo Green/Slimer Green, Slimer Green, Slimer Green/Warm Yellow, white edge then Warm Yellow glaze, top highlight was Pale Blue, For the blue it was Red/Pthalo Blue to make a purple, the Pthalo Blue and white for the brighter colours, and a little of the Pale Blue in the final highlights. This approach gave me a useful idea quickly of how I wanted the colours to work against red and white. Footnote for the Eldar purists. No, I know these aren't gemstones they're instrument clusters because they don't have a gemstone setting ring around them.

           A fun little side project painted for a friend's son just so he has a couple of Legion of the Damned tanks to smash into each other. Don't think I could face doing this colour scheme at normal 28mm scale as it would quickly highlight how poorly I've painted the flames!

  I was gifted this model by a friend last year and went back and forth over how to paint it. In the end I picked the same colours on the palette that I was using for my Eldar but tried to make it a little moodier. The face is a joy to paint, and a real challenge to give expression to.

  Oldest child acquired these lovely Bad Squiddo sculpts at Salute in 2021 and we painted them up together as a weekend project. I tried to make mine look like it's radioactive acorns that are the reason for the mutation.

    I've taken to doing quick one-shot figures inbetween larger projects. Sometimes called a palette cleanser, it's just nice to blast through an individual model without regard for where it fits in the broader scheme of something.

 I have a little catching up to do with posts. This was a fun, quick exercise over a few evenings in trying to use colours on the palette from the previous project to convey a classic colour scheme. Used a lot of white to sell the shiny effects on gloves, shoulders and the badges. Good fun.    

 That's the first squad completed. Glad I found the black backdrop as it really helps the colour show accurately, compared to my terrible efforts at white balance on a white backdrop. There's a pleasing coherency to the group, and that's what I need to keep running through the next forty of them.  

Another Rogue Trader classic, the trader. I wanted to paint it to tie with the normal Guardians, but give him a more cultured feel. What says "fancy" more than striped trousers? Added a little detail to the cuff and then we've opted for white and blue hair to match up with the helmets.  

I do love a musician in a command group. This one was a lot of fun. Think at this point I've nailed the feel for the rank and file troops and they're starting to get a little faster.  

   

The idea that Orks would construct an Eldar Guardian lookalike is just another reason to love that late 80s/early 90s fun element to the Warhammer universe. Such a daft idea, and a required part of any oldhammer army.  They only made three models in this range - Eldar, Squat and Space Marine (https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Tinboyz).

Taken a while to nail down a scheme I was happy with, but finally starting to finish some of the core models for the new Eldar army. So now we should be moving forward a little quicker.