Ogryn

 

 

 

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.

Eryos Slagmyst

 

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.

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.

Erasmus & Retinue

 

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.

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.

 

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.

Legion of the Damned Epic-scale tanks

 

 

 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!

Holga Clovenhorn

 

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.

Giant Mutant Squirrels

 

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.

Deathball Ogre Pitfighter

 

 

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.

Dredd

 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.

 

 

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.

 

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.