Thursday, 15 December 2022

Erasmus & Retinue

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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 the characteristics that should be present.

It's an analogous paint scheme, with the ogryn in yellow, the henchman in orange and the Inquisitor in red. I've tried to incorporate lots of different textures in here, and pulled elements from each model into the next. So you have the liquids in the gloves of the ogryn mirrored in the canister on the back of the henchman. Leather on ogryn and Inquisitor, chromed metal on the Inquisitor and henchman ... you get the idea. It brings a little uniformity to a disparate group without making them overtly military and samey.

There's so much more I wanted to do with this, but for 60 hours over 25 days, I feel this is the best I've painted. The other figures are still sat on my WIP desk and will join the group over the coming months, albeit not to this standard.

This entry didn't receive anything. Not a commendation, not even a pin. I was genuinely disappointed by this, but the standard of the other entries in the same category was remarkably high and inspiring so it would be nice to go again in 2024 (I'm skipping the 2023 one) and push myself to do better. Already it's obvious to me how many elements need to be refined, improved or even just finished properly to lift the piece. That's a learning for the future on the next project, this one's done and will take pride of place on a display shelf to spur me on.

Tuesday, 13 December 2022

Howling Griffons Epic-scale tanks


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.

 

Sunday, 11 December 2022

Gemstones

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.

Saturday, 10 December 2022

Legion of the Damned Epic-scale tanks

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 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!

Thursday, 8 December 2022

Holga Clovenhorn

 

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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.

Saturday, 3 December 2022

Giant Mutant Squirrels

 

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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.

Thursday, 1 December 2022

Deathball Ogre Pitfighter

 

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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.

Tuesday, 29 November 2022

Dredd

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 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.

 

 

Thursday, 3 February 2022

Eldar Guardian squad

 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.


 

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

Eldar Trader

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.


 

Monday, 24 January 2022

Taal Spellsinger

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.

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Saturday, 22 January 2022

Tinboy

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).

Friday, 21 January 2022

Avele Swifteye

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.


 

Wednesday, 5 January 2022

Slaughterpriest

Another golden oldie from my box of "what the heck is this". When White Dwarf was revived as a monthly magazine, this was given away with the first issue - which was remarkably good value for a £6 magazine.

He's far from a perfect paintjob, and the shadows and reflections are not consistent at all, but I used him as a tester for some of the colours I want to apply to the Eldar force, and it's nice to have a few standalone projects to try these things.



No basing scheme yet, but I think he may get something similar to Chopper Bob from a few months ago, as it could be fun to have a Khorne warband with a bit of a theme.

Sunday, 2 January 2022

Pirate

 When I came back to painting in 2015, I picked up a few pirates from Black Scorpion. Thought the sculpts were nice, and wanted to paint something not related to Warhammer ... and who doesn't love pirates? Well, fast forward six(ish) years and I'm painting another set of pirates from Black Scorpion. Here's the first one finished up.


As a comparison, here's a now and 2016 shot. Now, 2016 me was fine, it's neat and tidy and colour in the correct place, and your view may vary but I like how my style has developed in the last five years.