SM Khan Bikers! Hobby update

Lots of hobby progress this weekend!
I've been working on finishing all my recent impulse purchases.. chasing the dream.. the dream where I actually finish all my unpainted models and have lots of complete armies to join my BA, Wolves, Nids, Necrons and Tau.
So what armies are on the table?
- SM Bikers
- Demons
- Eldar/DE

Now, all of these have been painted to a variety of standards over the years and are more or less ready for final touches. For example, the Demons and SM Bikes are both airbrush base coated and highlighted with the marine bikers also having the armour trim painted in brass.
The Eldar/DE are coming on nicely and will be completed over the Christmas hols - they are now "3 colour minimum" and just need touching up.. in a non-Saville fashion.

The Bikes I played with last week vs Oliver's O'Vesa Tau on his request - he wanted to see just how bad Grav Guns could hurt him.. trouble is, I just didn't play it right and by half way through the game we agreed that if we were playing a tournament game, the obvious choices for me (and him) would result in a draw...so in order to forge a diamond-hard narrative we played on in epic marine fashion and my poor little fuckers got their heads kicked in. I've got some sweet as fook ideas on how to deal with this in the future, including not forgetting to Jaws and Orbital Bombard....special right!


Point being, they have caught my attention and since they are 3 colour minimum already, I wanted to push on and try and complete the army. I have a slight problem with this...as regular readers will know I have a lot of my stuff in storage for this year and guess what....this includes my Thunderfire cannon! D'oh! So the army won't be finished until I convert another one....despite only having access to a tiny proportion of my "bitz box" I will be endeavouring to recreate my awesome Thunderfire and try to improve it...or I may just order some sort of Tarantula Marine thing from FW :)



Everyone remembers their first "crack"

These guys already had their basing done - I corked them right up over the summer... or whenever the DV box set was released and I impulse purchased 30 Ravenwing bikes... But they needed something more.. I wanted to try out the new technical paints and so I got my greedy hands on all the "Agrellan Earth" my local GW had to offer... 1 pot. Fuckers.
I watched the YouTube tutorial and set about "put a blob on the surface and spread it around"-ing. Pretty easy and I am quite pleased with it..

Dry, arid landscape.. like your momma's... No! stop right there...

I got quite excited to see my first few cracks in my arid desert landscape, but overall... I think I needed more paint for slightly larger cracks..
I have since washed a few of the bases with hmm.. the dark wash one "Agrax" or some shit.
Another coat in the near future for these boys.

Plasmaguns next to brighten up the units - these are very special plasmaguns and are more akin to the mighty space monkey (Jokaero) weapons - it's commonly known as "whatever the fuck I say - I'm bigger than you"-gun... last week a Grav Gun, next week... who knows!
I just washed Leviathan Purple around the plasma coil/cell and then used "Emperor's Penis Pink" followed by "Dry Humped by a Horror Pink" and some other shit in between.
It's nowhere near as good as the airbrushed effect I have on my Necrons Tesla and Gauss Weaponry or even on par with the simple airbrushed OSL for my Tau... but I like it.

I also have made extensive use of the oxidising metal wash...umm...."Necron wash" or something. Nihilakh Rust? Whatever. It's frikkin' cool.
Although to be fair, I'm pretty sure you could get the same effect from mixing up the colour, using a medium and watering that fucker down, then washing copious amounts all over your models.
However, for me... who really can't be arsed with the above, popping open a bottle and slopping this Necron goodness all over the metals is perfect.
This dries quickly and nicely, although for me it is too bright to be left on its own.

I washed mine back with the magic "Wizard's Sleeze Wash" and it dulled it down a treat.

Once this was done, I got greedy and then decided to do some chipping.. I thought about using a sponge, but decided I'd just dab it on with a brush. "White Fang's Toenail" later and boom... looks pretty cool.

So...next up is more chipping.. chipping everywhere! Unfortunately, as the next level of detail to take these guys up to a higher tabletop standard than my usual... this takes time.. I need to keep going before I get bored!
Modelling-wise, it's time to convert a second T-Fire Cannon.. and another techmarine... wait.. saves.. comes back:

Techmarine! Yes!!! I've finally found a use for this miserable prick model!  



Disclaimer: These paints I have described may actually be called something else. It's Saturday evening, I've smashed a bottle of wine and my wife is cooking dinner. This is a smash and grab post to demonstrate that I am actively hobbying and genuinely enjoying painting.
No, that's not the wine speaking.
I know I'm not a top-notch painter.. I'd not claim to be.. but I found today's work therapeutic.
So there.
Time to open another Pinot.
Piss off and go get laid, it's Saturday night FFS!