Vanity Post #1

I got off my ass and took some pictures. I used the tutorial I posted a bit ago on macro photography. It totally works, dudes. Great results with almost no real work. I also took Picasa out for a whirl. Also totally awesome. Much easier than fiddling around with photoshop.

Color Tests for some Daemons
A few days ago I posed some ideas I had for a Chaos Space Marine Army I was interested in. I specifically mentioned a painting technique using washes over white primer.

Here are my color tests on some old beastmen (click on the image for the full version):

Pretty neat, huh? You start with the lightest color first and then use a bunch of shading washes to create shape and shadow and let the white primer peeking through the washes act as highlights. It doesn't take much time to do either. The problem is, that I couldn't get a red to do what I wanted. the guy on the left is close, but just a little too pink still. I also did some tests on an old warjack, but it wasn't worth posting.

So, at least for the Khorne Daemons I abandoned the idea. I couldn't easily get a red I liked with the method I was experimenting with.

It also turns out the plans for NMM is a wash (a pun - HA!) as well. I only really know how to make a few quick versions of copper/bronze/brass with verdigris. All of which look weird with red. Any other style is just too time intensive. If nothing else, this is a good example of how a project evolves over time. No plan surviving contact witht the enemy and alla that.

I may revisit this once I get to painting some nurgle stuff.

Anywho, here's my initial bloodletter:


A little bit of a departure from my normal stuff as I don't usually work with red and I didn;t spend much time at all blending my various layers. Just a practice run at a faster painting technique for a more 'chunky' style of extreme highlighting. Some of the sheen will go away once I seal the mini.

Iron Warriors
And here we are, pcitures of my iron warriors. I'm pretty pleased with these guys.
As always, click on the pictures to get the full version.

And a Rhino to drive them around in (two shots):


Slightly different colors in the two pictures as well as some washing out on the banner. It's highlighted and shaded, I swear! I have a pretty good handle on photographing guys but still need some practice on larger pieces.

Enjoy!

Quck Hits - Volume 3

Another lengthy hiatus, another lengthy 'catching up' post.

New paint Job
As you may have noticed, the blog is getting a bit of a face lift. The new template should deal with some of the formatting issues I had as well as make things more readable. Still a few tweaks to be made, but it's nearly finished

New Focus
I think I may try to shake things up a bit on the ol' blog. A detailed chronicle of my gaming adventures can be kinda lame. So I might spice change things up a bit and try writing some 'articles' and such. Make this more of a soap box for my views on the hobby as well as a painting log. Maybe even gaming in general and talk about video games as well.

More Updates
I certainly hope so. But I am a liar when it comes to my blog post frequency.

The Iron Warriors Project
Is still going on after months of no progress thanks, in part, to Warhammer Online. That's over now, so I return you to my regularly slow pace of progress.

Convergence

Everything has arrived except one multi-melta I'm still trying to source.

Here's a group photo:


Most of this stuff will get used. Some of the paint wont as well as most of the Black Templar's chapter upgrade (not exactly what I'd hoped). The flat thing on the left is decal paper.

So, I begin building/converting the marines tonight!

Pre-Heresy iron Warriors Project: Beginnings

I've gotten most of the materials I need to get started on this new project. However, I still await the arrival of my Forgeworld Red Scorpion parts. These are kinda key as I need them to complete 20 of my 31 marines. So, while I'm waiting, I've decided to post my, probably non-optimal, army list.

Note: I'm still playing around with some of the specifics of the equipment, so this list has changed a bit. Changes are highlighted in red.

HQ:
Master of the Forge (120)
- storm bolter, power weapon

Elites:
10-man Sternguard Squad (355)
- power fist, 5x combi-melta
- Drop Pod w/dethwind launcher

Troops:
10-man Tactical Squad (220)
- Power Sword, flamer, multi-melta
- Rhino

10-man Tactical Squad (220)
- Power Sword, flamer, multi-melta
- Rhino

Heavy Support:
Whirlwind (85)

Total: 1000

I'm aiming at taking a fairly fluffly force with this list. I have the master of the forge and Whirlwind for obvious reasons. The tactical marines are in there as solid troops and an excuse to do some converting and the Sterngaurd are there because I love their models and rules.

the idea is to drop the Sternguard (with the Master of the Forge) into an enemy weakpoint while the rest of the marines move up under covering fire from the Whirlwind. I'll have to let you know how that goes for me once these guys actually see comabt.