Double Army Painting Update

Hey there, Internet. I've been plugging away again at some painting projects. For one reason or another, I've gotten the Eldar bug again. I played Eldar a while back, lost four games in a row terribly then put them back up on the shelf. This was about a year and half ago. The issue I think was that I wasn't playing to the Eldar strengths by having the army support each other. The Tau list that I played required a certain amount of synergy to be successful. If I can take those skills and tactics, I think I can apply them to Eldar with some modifications.

Anywho, painting. The models that really set the Eldar apart for me were the Wraithguard and Wraithlords. My starting army had three lords and a small 4 man guard unit. I'm now up to the full 10 man Wraithguard unit with Warlock to make them a troop choice.
I'm working on the original 5 man unit to start.

They start out with a solid black base coat (courtesy of Black Gesso), then coat the whole model with Astronomicon Grey. I do a really rough stipple/dry brush on all the top facing surfaces with White then wash the entire thing in Vallejo Smoke. Vallejo Smoke comes out super super thick so I add a lot of water to it. Why Smoke instead of Devlin Mud or even an oil wash of Sienna? Smoke has this really nice dirty quality to it that does some solid weathering without a lot of effort.

From there its got to dry for a while. Take some Desert Yellow (one of my new favorite colors) and put down some base colors on the top facing surfaces again. The Smoke layer is now your shadow colors. Allowing a little bit of that edge to be seen gives it a great chipped up effect. Heavy dry brush some Bone color, and follow up with White for the best contrast. Done. The gun was done up with some watered down Chardon Granite then washed black. The head is just straight black for now but it'll be getting some attention soon.

My other army, the Raptor Legion, has just received a nice shot in the arm for base colors. The Vallejo Surface primer painted on looks just like the olive green I'm aiming for. Pictured here, you got 5 Terminators, 10 Tacticals, 10 Assualts without jump packs, 5 Assault Termies, and a Baal Predator. All done within about an hour or so.

The Surface Primer brings the primer and base coat to the table so you save a lot of time overall.
Here's a close up of one the Assault Terminators with a resin sheild from MaxMini or Scibor, I can't recall.

Close shot of the Predator.

BLOOOOOOOOOM Lighting

I apologize for the image quality. During the move, I found my camera but the battery died and the charger is still missing. As soon as I track it down, I'll try to do a tutorial or two so you can see my process.

Until next time, have a safe Thanksgiving!

NoVA List Finally! (I think...)

We are down to a little over a week to the NoVA Open and I think I've finally nailed my list down. I kept waviering towards a few Inquistion options but I have a feeling that Coteaz and his many clones will be all over the Open. Draigo was tempting but I don't feel comfortable running that few models. I'm pretty good 40K but not to the point where I can keep 20 models alive to see turn 6.

The hardest part about putting together this list was the last 140 points. Originally, I plugged in a small Interceptor Squad with a hammer to be a harassing unit. Everytime I run it, it ends up get blasted before its any use. I do have another list that uses a similar unit but with an Incinerator instead. I don't really think it compliments the list as a whole.

My heavy slots were taken up with Dreads, all of which have performed famously well (I'm a sucker for walkers, what can I say). Both HQ's were also gone, but I still had Fast Attack which was a no-go and Elites open. So my options are:

Slap in another Assassin - gives another dramatic threat if used properly but also has the fault of being able to get punked with one shot, giving up a killpoint quickly..

Get the Vindicarie Assassin a Techmarine sidekick to bolster his ruins and an Orbital Strike Relay - the Techmarine I still see as an un-sung hero in the Codex. It might do this just prove a point. With the relay, he comes in at exactly 140 points. As an Independent Character, join him to Vinnie, Vinnie gives him stealth (mentioned in the new FAQ a while back), Bolster gives the two of them a 2+ cover save. Plus if I need to, I can attach him to a different unit to give them that extra punch in shooting or with the Servo-harness, a powerfist attack or two.

Drop the Purgation Dread and throw in a Purgation Squad with all Incinerators riding a rhino - a really underused combo. Since the Purgation guys get the Incinerators for free, that's a flat 100 points, rhino for 40. The problem with this option is a really, REALLY like the way the Dread works with the Terminators. I could try to find a way to save another 40 points or so to make him Venerable so I can get the best of both worlds. That may involve taking a full Strike Squad > make a five-man with a Psyback to save points. It dramatically lowers the amount of scoring bodies I'll have, but the Grand Master ability can balance that back out.

Internet, sometimes choice is difficult.

I can make each option work in some way or another with the same core but I don't want to short change myself in the process. The third option I think gives me what I want out of the Dreads (plus making one more durable) and more boots on the ground that can burn things like a mean, mean man. Plus, if needed, I can make them a scoring unit.

So my new list looks like this:
HQ
Grand Master Mordrak, 4 x Ghost Knights with Halberds
Librarian, 2 powers (Might of Titan, Sanctuary)

Elites
Vindicare Assassin
Venerable Dread, TL Heavy Flamer //DCCW with Heavy Flamer, Psyflame Ammo

Troops
8 x Strike Squad, 1 Halberd, 1 Psycannon, Rhino
5 x Strike Squad, 1 Psycannon, Psyback
5 x Strike Squad, 1 Psycannon, Psyback

Fast Attack
Stormraven Gunship, Multimelta//Assault Cannons

Heavy
Psyfleman Dread
Psyfleman Dread
5 x Purgation Squad, 4 x Incinerators, Rhino

That's about 38 models total, 18 scoring bodies with potential to expand that by a squad or two.

I had a chance last night to paint up every single stormbolter in the regular guys. It went a lot faster than I expected. Up next is re-tooling the terminators weapons to the black power weapons, build a new Rhino, and finish up the bigger weapons on the squads.

The last big project is the Stormraven's base. That's a Sunday afternoon. Its coming down to the wire but I think I'll be able to get everything done in time! This weekend though, going to Baltimore Comic-Con with my roomie. There's going to be one more post before the Open with the class photo, so until then, keep painting!

Checklist for NOVA and more!

NoVA is three weeks away! I'm crazy excited if you can't tell. Now its crunch time to get everything painted. I have at least three-colors-up on everything except for one model. earlier this week, I put the finishing touches on my vehicles so at least they'll make beautiful wreckage. I consider that a fairly impressive feat. That's three dreadnoughts, three rhino chasises and a stormraven.

The big issue I have with painting a big scale army is the repeating the same model over-and-over again. When I was originally planning to do a Coteaz list, everything was different from the piece before it so variety was great. The gratification factor is a lot harder when you paint up 40 guys in just steel color with a few aspects to stand them out. But I am very pleased with the results, which makes a huge difference.

Here's my to do list in terms of painting for the 27th:

[] Grand Master Mordrak (built but needs painted)
[] touch ups on some of the dreadnought pieces (cloth and what-not)
[] books on the strike squads and termies (deneb stone > brown wash > highlight bone)
[] olive for the stormbolters (about 20 or so, again paint and wash)
[] power weapons for the Interceptors (4 of them)
[] base the stormraven
[] paint the strike squad bases

So not a crazy lot to do but its not a single weekend project. I suspect I'll be able to get the stormbolters done this weekend and Interceptors on Monday, Mordrak on Tuesday. The thing that will take the longest is going to be the bases for the troops. I might try to find a way to use the airbrush to get the base color down but they're all mounted already. I'll have to find a tricky way of painting them without a lot of overspray. Or I just use a giant brush and hope for the best.

The terrible thing is that I'm already excited to get going on my Blood Angels! I decided that I would go for a Raptors color scheme. I picked up the Badab War and immediately wanted to do one. It won't be exactly like the one in the book but its in the spirit. I'm basing the army around the time right after the Badab War, so scouts and vets (the new guys and the guys smart enough to duck). I know they're technically a Raven Guard chapter but I really like the flexiblity of the Blood Angels codex. The Dawn of War II army painter is helping a lot in determining how they're going to look. Right now, its an olive body with red-ish brown boots and a desert yellow trim. I'm already geeking out about doing a campaign with them.

To hold me over, I started up on some of the BA models to get my brain cooking. There was a recent painting competition at my local GW so I threw in Commander Dante since I was on a metal painting kick. Here's a good shot of him at the judging. Unfortunately its at a weird angle, but I'll get more shots of him once I have more of the army painted itself.

No joke, first power weapon I've done like that, and I love it.

Well, that's about it for now. My hobby time is planned out for the next couple of weeks leading into the NoVA. I'm thinking about signing up for the Painting Tree. If you haven't heard, its a service that connects painters to clients for commission work. I've done a few commissions in the past and really enjoyed the work. Plus I get to try out new techniques, color schemes and models. I'll definitely link it up here if I decide to sign up. Take it easy, folks.

Hobby Update and the NoVA

So I haven't done a hobby update in a while so I thought I'd share what I've been working on. As you can tell, I recently got back into 40K in a big with the Grey Knights. They were one of those iconic groups that can really stand out on a table if given the right treatment. My airbrush is getting a real workout. Enough to the point that I used the Vallejo Air Brush primer and it actually clogged my cup.

My new place doesn't have a good place to use the airbrush outside so I've made a little studio in my bathroom. Ghetto, I know, but nonetheless effective. Absolutely required: mask and fan running at all times. Not so much for the fumes (using acrylics) but I want to keep my lungs fresh.

I just signed up for the NoVA Open last night and I'm bringing the GK's this time. Last year I did Fantasy with Lizardmen but I want to really develop as a 40K player. One of the units I want to run is a solid 10 man unit of Terminators with the Brotherhood Banner. I've never really run a big unit with that high a save, so I'll need some practice for sure before August. Right now, its looking like 10 guys, 2 psycannons, the Bro-Banner, and all Halberds/Swords/Hammers, maybe Psybolt Ammo too if I find the points.

Since a unit like this comes in just shy of 500 points, I really want to have them stand out. Originally I was going to airbrush them up, but with all the details I was afraid of losing the nicer bits. I decided to hand paint the base colors and build the reflective layers manually.

Grey Knight Terminators - Class of 2011

Now if you know me, you may have noticed something I did very different here: I actually based my goddamn models for a change. I hate basing, especially static grass. I somehow always make a mess or inhale something. I need child proof containers or something.

More of ground level shot of the Boys

I'm actually really proud of the bases. I wanted to make the terrain a bit ruptured and rough. Terminators look kind of boring just walking through fields of grass to me. They're made with a combination of resin molds, regular hobby sand, and baked clay tiles that I broke up by hand. 

A little better detail on the basing

I'll toss up some better quality photos once I track down my DSLR camera (its gotta be in a box around here somewhere). Painting the bases was an adventure. Start with a dark grey base coat > dry brush Graveyard Earth > mix up some Vallejo slate gray weathering powder with water and spread liberally all over > once dry, hit it with Devlan Mud > let dry, do another dry brush of Graveyard Earth this time around the edges > finish off with a nice dry brushing of Pale Sand by Vallejo and you're done. 

I'm going to be running some Dreads in the list too. Here's some work in  progress shots:

My rifleman dread

This fun guy was a breeze to convert. If you're playing GK's and you haven't yet, shell out the bucks to do it.

A shot of the arms. The basing is the same for the Terminators

My second Dread - Twin-linked Heavy Bolter w/Psybolts

I got the Forgeworld Dread and magnetized the arms. I have the other one but I still need to get him fully assembled. He'll have a swapable Rifleman/Purgation pattern. 

Like I said, I'll get some more detail shots up once I dig out my better camera. I'll throw up a tutorial on my bases too. Until next time, let me know what you think!

--Mr. Blank

Khador Drakhun - WIP

The Drakhun fills an interesting role in the Khador army. Khador, typically known for being big and slow, is actually very fast. Using the right caster, you can slingshot this guy straight into its target. Strakhov with his feat and Vlad with his stat boosting are two quick ones. I've been working on my color scheme for the regulars in the army. This guy needs to stand out but still show he can throw down. So red on him with some damage. He's currently in progress so it'll change a bit from this state. The main colors I think are about done.

Flash with a little bit of light

Keep it red and dirty

High-ho giant horse! Away!

Profile with direct lighting

I'm looking forward to finishing this guy, possibly this weekend. I still need to track down a Shocktrooper for the dismount, but I can always use my Kovnik in the meantime.

Hobby update and the big man

I finally took the big leap into nerdhood. Past the miniatures and painting, past the bad sci-fi movies and Monty Python jokes, but not quite past the ren-fest and costumes.

I played Dungeons and Dragons.

This was a big step. I'm glad that I'm out of college and what-not so it wouldn't become an on going event, but Tuesdays are now the gaming nights in my group. It all started with one of our friends who had always wanted to play but never had a "safe" group of guys to sit down and give it a shot. My friends knew all about my Warhmmer and Warmachine experience and just figured I knew all about D&D 4th edition. My knowledge extended only to that there were miniatures and d20's. So in order to get the full experience, my friend dove us head-first into the game.

To be honest, its actually pretty fun. We all grab a few beers and our character sheets, I'm painting everyone's characters, and if we need goblins or other strange creatures, I probably have it in Warhammer models. I'll admit: I always judged D&D as the pinnacle of nerdhood. The ultimate form of the modern nerd. But I am happily alright with the game. I think it all has to do with who you play with. Your group can either make it a huge deal with earth shattering consequence, or just another fun board game with an infinite level of potential. I have yet to buy my own d20, but my roommate has promised to sneak one into my stuff and  release an Ogre-style "NERD" during a party.

So that has taken up a good chunk of my hobby time. Work, as always, gets the better of me when I have to drive home in the dark. My airbrushing has gotten a lot better and I picked up the Forgeworld Masterclass book. Fantastic book, highly recommend it to anyone who wants to step their game up. Ironically, I've been practicing it on my Warmachine stuff. I had a Berserker just laying around. I figured that if it can blow-up if you use it too much, they'd probably recycle the pieces or not use the best parts to make it. I went for a weathered and rusty  look. The plan is to source-light the furnace and other elements to make it look like its going to pop at any moment.

big axes, tiny feet

Heavy boiler on the big man

Don't look it in the eye! Its a challenging gesture!

With red being a strong Khador color, I'm debating on the plan to update the other jacks, but I will say my Kodiak is getting camo and some damage added. Until then, roll high and stay warm.

Primed to prime

Priming is one of those subtle arts that our hobby is connected to whether we like it or not. Personally, I always found priming annoying because Virginia is a swamp. A months ago, I found a great article on Massive Voodoo about a different priming method than most people use.

Snow priming involves black primer, white primer, and good weather. First step, prepare models:

Jr. and Nemo (click for larger)

Here we have Nemo and a Journeyman Warcaster from Warmachine. Get 'em ready, get 'em in a box. Start with a traditional prime of straight black.

Your models are black!

Sorry for the focus issue, but you get the idea: the models are now black.

Now here comes the tricky bit. Take your white primer, hold it far away from the model, just enough to dust it. If its humid out, hold it closer otherwise it'll dry before it hits the model. The ideal angle is 45 degrees above. You only want to spray it from the top angles. The result should look like this:

Snow prime for the guide coat

What this gives you is a model that has a built in shadow and highlight. By keeping the spray only on the topside of the model, the white areas are where light would hit in normal lighting conditions. I've been using this trick for a while now and its very effective in setting up your light/dark relationships. If you wanted to be really clever, when you paint the first coat, water it down a lot and you can keep the set highlight you have here. Not always the best but very quick. Here's a close up on Jr.:

No flash used for this one so you can see a little better with one light source

I haven't tried this trick with any other colors than black and white. There are a lot of different companies that make great colored primer. No reason why something like this wouldn't work with other colors. I am tempted to try it in reverse and have a model "lit" from below instead of above. If you got any neat priming tricks, let me know. Getting a good prime coat down really helps the model out as a whole.

P.S. Here's a link to the Massive Voodoo article where I learned initially about this.
 http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2009/11/tutorial-kongs-priming-thoughts.html

Wot was that? ::shank::

Hey, everybody. Sorry I've insanely busy with life and work. But I have had a chance lately to do some projects. I took a quick break to play in a doubles 40K tourney. My buddy and I ended up winning for the second year in a row. His sisters, my Tau. Crazy fun times.

Our last game was with a team of two ork players. One of the best games I've had of 40K in a while. It inspired me to get back into 40K a little, but don't worry. Fantasy is still getting the majority of my time. Recently, I've been working on my Wood Elves and my Beastmen at the same time. They're looking pretty mean at each other across my desk. It got me thinking of some good ambush units in the 40K world. I usually run my Kroot like that but Snikrot has it down pat. Hence my for fun project:

This bad boy is about two hours of good work from done. I love painting green skin. I'll update again when I got him finished. Snikrot was also the test model for my new airbrush. Just wait till I get it on Mork's Teeth.

For the Beastmen front, I've been looking at Chariots. They're an iconic piece of the army and make for an intimidating line if you drop 5 or 6 core choices like that, so I've been working them up. 

The chariot is finished but I need to work up the boars and the base, but a good start.

Expect another painting update and some cool Wood Elf tricks up next. They might not be popular but they will still hand you teeth at the end of the day. Stay tuned.

Painted Lizards

Finally! Found some time to get some pictures up on here. Ok, a quick brief on the style of lizards I've put together, because I know on a few, people might jump on me. It has to do with the background (fluff alert) for the army.

The way I see the Lizardmen as servants of the Old Ones is to get people in-line. Specifically, demons. So with some of the models, I've tried to set them up with a demonic influence from exposure. My lizards have a tradition of taking demonic mounts and finding ways to break them for their own use. I have an Old Blood riding a Juggernaut and my Terradon riders on Screamers (more on those guys later. painting in progress).

Without further to do, let's get to some Core units. First up, the Saurus Warriors.

I wanted to get away from the traditional blue/green guys, so I went red on 'em.
I haven't gotten the entire unit done yet, but here's a group shot of them in progress.

The light is washing them out a little bit and my camera is actually a camera phone. Sorry, my real digital camera is in pieces.

Next up, the Skink/Kroxigor unit!

A lot of people dump on the mixed unit. But they actually have a decent bit of heartiness and surprising fighting power. Since there's a Parry-Save now, the 6+ actually will catch people off guard. I do have real Kroxigors but those trolls are too good to pass up. I mean, look at how the one reaches over the front rank.

My most well known Skink so far has got to be Jeff-Rey upon his noble mount, Gary.

Jeff-Rey started out as a handler for Razordons until he managed to kill a Chaos Knight by himself. That's a hard worker if I ever saw one. Here's a better look at the howdah.

The Slann is always a central piece for any lizardmen army. Mine has a bit of a different way of moving around.

Once I have it based, it will gel a little better. Everything still needs some touch up but I'll update these guys as they get more finished. Right now, I'm focusing on getting done what I can before the NoVA Open this weekend. If you're going, let me know. Its local for me (which is awesome) and I'm hoping to give it a good shot on Saturday. Let me know what you think of these guys, but remember, my camera sucks. Catch ya laters. 

Oh yeah! Painting the models!

We've all done it. Played with the 'primer army'. You get a new unit assembled and want to play it to see if it was actually worth buying. As much as I try not to, I usually end up with a unit or two that's not painted on table. Even the tournament standard of three-colors is a thorn in side of some players. You spent hours painting your whole army up only to have your opponent show up with glue still drying on his units. I played my fully painted AND based Skaven army of 200+ models in a recent game. My opponent had one unit that was primed.

You don't have to be a great artist to get three basic colors on a model. There's a lot of quick, easy ways to paint up models to at least give them a little flavor on the board. You can go for a quick white primer coat, wash, then drybrush. Dipping is another quick and popular method. I don't understand why people dump on dipping so much. It's quick and easy, and if prepared right, can give you some cool results.

I like to play with painted models but not the bare minimum. Everyone's skill is at a different level but there's a lot of ways to pump your painting. Practice is always the best, but challenging yourself is even better. If you got a local GW, ask about painting competitions. They're a great way to learn new tricks and get pointers on your technique.

Blogs are another great way. There's a ton of really good resource material out there. My current favorite is a blog called The Painting Corps. The guys there are incredibly talented and track down good tutorials from all over.

Massive Voodoo is another site I go to often. I think they're German but also have some of the best sculpts and painting I've ever seen. They're tutorials are pretty easy to follow too. I've been using their priming technique for my Lizardmen with some decent results. Massive Voodoo also has articles on art theory in the event you're inclined towards the heavy artsy side.

Painting by Tinweasel: good work, decent tutorials. A little sparse on the progress photos but cool results.

The other resource I use is Cool Mini or Not. You want to see what a cool Vampire Counts or Empire army looks like, go check it out. Its a great place to get new ideas on old armies.

Those are my favorites. Let me know if you have anything that you use regularly to help amp your skills. Books, websites, other people. I love learning a new technique so if you got something cool, let me know. Once I get my new camera, I'll some progress shots of my own stuff up. Until then, be seeing ya.