Crux Terminatus

My blogging has been sporadic over certain years, and a few of my favourite, older projects have been missed out entirely. As I try to keep this site as my reference point for completed work, I felt I should remedy that and this beauty is one of those.

I bought this back in 2020 and painted it during 2023. It's a lovely, resin Crux Terminatus based on the insignia put on a Space Marine's shoulder to indicate they've earned the right to wear Terminator armour. The image on the front of White Dwarf 112 by Wayne England is a favourite cover of mine and was a great reference piece. The insignias aren't a perfect match, but they're enough to give me plenty of references for my own, and I feel the finished version has a high contrast value as indicated in the greyscale photo.

It's a large piece, without a lot of texture, so I was generous on my stippling and drybrushing to create the effect of a stone surface. Undiluted paint, a big feathery brush and a lot of stabbing to make it pretty.

Gretchin

Two one-hour speedpaints from the weekend when a friend visited and wanted to dust off the brushes after eight months of inactivity. We had fun with these and it's another two models completed to move my Ork army forward. Thinking about how to achieve table-ready models without overthinking is another tool in my kit that needs practice.

Ork Battlewagon

In the nostalgia era of Warhammer, there was the Ork Battlewagon. It was a ferocious vehicle, filled with spikes, muscle and awesome. It was the sort of vehicle that young Dave dreamed of owning, but the cost was prohibitive and I never did.

On a whim, I recently looked at the second-hand price for the old kit and was mortified that people wanted hundreds of pounds for one. Thankfully, the excellent 3D modeller Dr Spork (https://cults3d.com/en/design-collections/Doctor-Spork/sci-fi-vehicles) created a comparable version and I bought the STL and had a friend print it for me.

This is not the finest painting I'll do, but that was never the point. This is scratching a nostalgic itch with an over-the-top paint scheme and just having an afternoon of fun. I think Dr Spork has done a lovely job on modelling the parts, and it was straightforward to build. With hindsight I'd paint a lot of the parts prior to assembly just to make access easier, but even so it's done exactly what I wanted. 

I have opinions on 3D models of current Warhammer kits (and other manufacturers). I think it's piracy. My view is considerably more lenient when it comes to long out of production models that are incredibly unlikely to ever be back in production, moreso when really I simply want to paint one as a whimsical project rather than people who I see passing it off as the original kit and trying to make money on eBay. This may suggest flexible morality hypocrisy on my part, but if you can walk into a shop and buy the kit right now, and opt to print your own version, then you're stealing.

Warhound

  

Through June there's a lovely challenge on Bluesky to paint something in the style of John Blanche as a way of celebrating his impact as the godfather of Warhammer art style. I already know a lot of people will reach for the "grimdark look", by which I mean painting a model in muted colours, adding a check pattern somewhere, then slathering weathering washes until it's a brown misery, but there's so much more to his work. Picking an appropriate piece as inspiration was difficult but I settled on this gem from my childhood.

Blanche's artwork was instrumental in my love of Warhammer, as it probably was for so many of us *coughs* around their late-forties and upwards. It was his bright, saturated pieces that first caught my eye and the glorious cover of White Dwarf 108 where Titans were presented is a fine example of that, and I feel oft overlooked.

I don't own an old Titan, but I am fortunate to have a Warhound, and painted it as a homage to that magazine cover, complete with Ultramarines captain in front. Blanche's use of reds and oranges was always pleasing to me, so I opted to make this a quartered scheme in the style of Howling Griffons so it can also double as a mascot for my son's upcoming 40k army. There's red, ochre, yellow, magenta and even blue in the scheme, with my old friend Ice Yellow as the final highlight for consistency across the colours.

I'm not very good at freehand (see exhibit A), but hopefully you can overlook the wonky cityscape and understand what I was trying to achieve here. It's a thin piece of plasticard, held upright with a lollipop stick glued to the rear. I tried a few effects to create the gradient but in the end it was as simple as spraying red, then spraying yellow in a gentle gradient over the top to create a fade. The towers are just a series of straight lines in one direction, then crossed at the top to create the shape, then filled in with a mid-grey. At the bottom, ochre creates the gentle fade to make it feel like dust kicking up in the background.

And finally a shot of the Warhound without a backdrop. I've hidden so many crimes over the years with weathering effects, and this is no exception. The sculpt on the feet is horrid! Either a miscast, or from damage, so I've disappeared it into the dust. Happy days.

Genestealer Magus with Las Pistol

The UK has been curiously warm for a week, so I put the painting aside and opted to complain about the heat instead. As the temperature dropped back to a reasonable level, I wanted to finish an entry for the splendid Olden Demon competition (https://oldendemon.com/), as it's run annually and every time I've had the best of intentions and the worst of time management.

This Magus is a model I fondly remember from, what I consider, the golden period of Warhammer. However, the question as to why he has a microphone is not something I ever want an answer to.

The paints used are Kimera Violet, Kimera Magenta, Kimera Ochre, Vallejo Ice Yellow, Vallejo Pale Blue, AK Tenebrous Grey and Vallejo Leather Brown.  

I have no expectations of winning anything, because I've rushed several elements and frankly even if I hadn't, a good number of the other entries are all significantly better than mine, but it's nice to finally enter the event and celebrate the older models I love so much.

Vashkor Drool

 Vashkor Drool. Yes, it's another ork but this sculpt had a name!

 Is it a good name? Certainly not, but it's fitting for that era of Ork where they just opted for daft names rather than overthinking the big angry name. Also, the sculptors were knocking these gems out every ten seconds, so you run out of the good names pretty quickly.

I'm trying to paint what matters on these sculpts, and so much is swallowed by shadow or recess that I've ignored those elements and tried to draw the eye to the elements that matter. Conversely, I made my life difficult by painting dark edges on the shoulder panels to add much needed depth ... why do I do this to myself?

The yellow's a little softer than the last Ork I painted, as I want some variety between them. It shouldn't feel uniform, more ragtag, and from my 2020 army project, they were definitely too consistent in colour. 

  

Overall I like this model, rough edges and all.

Ork Boss

I love orks. Imagine my surprise that I've not painted many in the last few years, or at least posted pictures of them! One in four years? I should hand in my Ork Appreciation Society membership card. Then again, after my Armies on Parade madness in 2020, it's probably not a surprise I subconsciously needed time away from them.

Anyway. It is now October, or Orktober to give it its rightful name, and that seems the right time to address that. This handsome fellow is firmly finished not perfect. The horns need something doing but I really like the aggressive contrast of pure black against the yellow so I will mull further before doing anything. We can agree the yellow is the star of the show and everything else is incidental.

  

Yes, I'm aware I've already started a number of posts on army projects this year and this was NOT in that list. It's okay! This is merely a temporary distraction while I procrastinate finishing pieces for Scale Model Challenge (https://www.scalemodelchallenge.com/) this coming weekend. Oh god, what have I done ...

Ultramarine Captain

With Fen Model Show (https://fenmodelshow.co.uk/) last weekend, I thought it would be fun to paint a light-hearted entry to go alongside my main entry.

A friend had a few spare original Epic models and was kind enough to give me one of the Space Marine captains as a painting project. They're very small and trying to work out what the shapes are was sufficient challenge alone.

I drew stripes over the banner to give a feel of fabric. It's hard to gauge success of painting techniques on something this size, as I can't decide whether I should be assessing the impact close-up, as per the photographs, or from tabletop, when you need a microscope to see the damned thing.

While it didn't win anything, and I had no expectation it would, it was a fun one to have on the display.

 

Happy new year

 Here we are in 2024. We made it, well done.

2023 was probably the worst year of my life from both a personal and professional perspective. I won't dwell on the negatives, other than to say we're through it and I hope never to repeat the experiences, but it was a year where I was reminded how fortunate I am to be surrounded by so many wonderful people.

With that done, let's move onto the goals for this year ...

40k: Saim Hann Eldar

Yes, it's finally time to get these moving! After spending time in 2020 and 2021 collecting all the old metal Eldar, I started them in early 2022 then put it on hold in a fit of pique when GW released new plastics and suddenly everyone was excited by Eldar, and I sulked. Apparently I'm a grown man.

Kings of War: The Midden, Dwarfs

I spent a lot of time building these but painting halted and I'm excited to get round to finishing them. They are repetitive sculpts, but with a few donations from good friends I've mixed up a few elements to break up the monotony of the seven sculpts in the box. The fact you can field a legal unit of 20 with only 16 models, and don't remove a model from the unit, gives great scope for vignettes.

Age of Sigmar: Hammerhal Aqsha, Cities of Sigmar

I was enamoured with the release, and ... well, you know the story. Man buys box, man builds box, man stops and moves to another project.

I have other plans as well, but with far less structure currently. So let's start here and see where it takes us.

Ork Nob

This was painted across two evenings after coming back from SMC. It's not a coincidence that my enthusiasm for painting waxed after three invigorating days with thousands of fellow hobby enthusiasts. 

The interesting part of this is probably the shoulder pad. After a friend showed me an old ork artwork, I added some hieroglpyhs. The surface isn't big, and my painting isn't that precise, but it was fun to add and has given me ideas for other models in the future.

Biel-Tan Farseer & Weapons Platform

This was a Secret Santa on our hobby Discord. Trying to match the recipient's scheme was incredibly difficult. I only had two blurry pictures of models in a transport case to work from. Are they Biel Tan? Mymeara? Damnit. 

Educated guess took me toward Bien Tan, but I noticed my recipient had used more teal colour on cloaks, so I leaned into that, added some gold and yellow details and there we go.

Ogryn Slave Gang

 

 

 

 

 Well, they won't win beauty competitions any time soon but I really like these models. Another project that's been sat on the desk for months in a state of half-completion, and it was nice to see them finished. It's a slimmed down version of how I approached the Ogryn from my Golden Demon entry last year, and a much more tabletop level as a result - but it was fun.

 

 

 

 

Gildenstone

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.

Inquisitor Erasmus

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.