Monday 9 January 2023

Inquisitor Erasmus

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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.


Saturday 7 January 2023

Ogryn

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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 simply don't have the ability (yet) to dash out a project like this in a couple of weeks and receive anything in competition.

Thursday 5 January 2023

Eryos Slagmyst

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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.

Tuesday 3 January 2023

Happy new year

 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 ones and pretending they're not there, I'll be painting everyone and getting the desk clear.
  • Paint the HeroQuest models. Not the (admittedly nice) new HeroQuest models, but my original 80s ones. A few of the Orks and Fimir have been done to-date as speed paints, and I'll finish off the majority in the same style. We played a little over Christmas and it was still great fun.

Alongside my painting projects, I do have a few retro computing projects to tide me over, and there may be posts on those here too. Time to dust off the Amiga loving.

Happy new year to you.