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!

The Voice...paints! Birth of Wandering Studios.

Hi there guys.

So in an effort for me to be a work at home dad I thought id get this idea up and running that I've had for some time. My own painting company!

Please check out my face book page at:

https://www.facebook.com/WanderingStudios

These initial models will be going up on ebay monday night as they now have served their purpose to show dem skillz :P

I'd really appreciate if you could like/share and spread the word. Or hell, even get a quote for yourself.

If you say you got the idea from here at Sons ill even throw in a free character model in any Army Commission for the first 5 customers.

Anyway, thanks for looking


Gary

Tyranid Colour Schemes - Airbrushing time this weekend!!

My current Nid colour scheme is dour, dull, boring etc.
I toyed with the idea of continuing The Voice's pink nid colour scheme from the Hive Tyrant he has sold me..
But I have always wanted something that looks close to nature.
Hence my current green/bone scheme.

But nature does not have to be boring nor dull.

Nature can be bright.

I "researched" - read: Googled 'colourful lizards/snakes/toads/frogs' to see what I could come up with.

I am airbrushing the base coats onto the Nids this weekend and though to myself.. "What if I were to use the airbrush to put on a detailed/graded colour scheme as the base?"

I can always add detail at a later stage, but this would get the army looking striking, quickly.

These are very striking and cool looking lizards.

Very simple to airbrush, blend etc.

Chitin is the big issue..

But there is no reason why the chitin cannot develop the same colour as the rest of the animal..

Or is there? Back to Google..

Hmm... more searching..


Well, no.. it seems there is no issue in nature that defines the density of a shell or any of that nonsense with the colour or patterning that it can develop..

This funky ass crab for example rocks a nice purple/orange combo on its shell and claws..

Think my Nids can manage the same..

In fact, now that I have seen this crabby chappy..

Doesn't the FW paint job for the Crusher Claw Carnifex thingy have something kinda similar..

OK, so can't find that.. Anyone know what I mean? Think I have seen it in a FW book? Any clues peeps? 
Is this a good idea? Natural but Funky? Nature Funk Nids. NFN's. lol. 

Malifaux WIP:Wicked Doll detailing

I've not had a chance to blog much for the last fortnight - getting back to work after the long summer break is a tough ol' slog. Back into routine now and ready to roll.
I've been aiming to paint 2-3 Malifaux miniatures a week in order to get them up to scratch.

Here I am showing you the Wicked Dolls, a Stitched Together and some WIP shots of Collodi the evil Pinocchio and some of his marionettes.. The Wickeds and Stitched are very close to finished.
Since the pics were taken they've had another wash of Devlan Mud to bring the colour down and blend the highlights a bit more. I'm looking at them now and they look damn good...if I say so myself.

I've tried to create this "burlap sack" type of effect on the skin of the dolls. I've just painted a lot of small, neat (where poss! lol) cross hatching in the larger open areas of the model. Hope you can see it above and to the right..

I did think about covering the entire model in them, but felt that that would lead to errors on my part and not look as good. This looks a little stylised or cartoony for sure, but I'm happy with it.

You also get a sneak preview of Lelu, a vampiric, melee monster.. currently he is short one arm as I am painting it seperately having pinned the model, just nice and easy to paint that way..the limb doesn't really get in the way at all.

Hmm..crap photo can't really see the cross hatching here..

With my Malifaux crews I am trying to keep to a relatively limited colour palette for each Faction, so the individual Crews within each still share some common ground. So the Collodi crew will visualy fit with the Lilith crew and Dreamer crew (both of which Lelu will belong to for example)





Hope you like, any thoughts or tips, let me know! 

Glowing Airbrushed Necrons - WIP Army Showcase

Got the quintessentially Necron green glow nailed on the army. As I write this I can glance up and see the army on the table, the effect works so well - the glowing green a contrast to the purple.
The only units that have not received the 'glow' are the Warriors and Wraiths.
Warriors I am not sure whether to replace the glowing green plastic rods that they had originally were built with.. I was partially waiting to see how the rest of the army turned out, with the positive effect I think I have achieved with the rest of the force, I am strongly tempted to change them.
The Wraiths, well..I've just not gotten around to it yet!
Above you can see the whole force (most of it is more accurate!)

Let's take a closer look at the Scythes.. they look so good on the tabletop, I've even done one of them out as the Doom Scythe (which I am playtesting tonight)..

I am pretty pleased with these guys.. as to what's left - the 5th wing panel needs drybrushing back to gun metal colour, then the metal needs rusting and some highlighting. 

I like the look of the weaponry, I decided that these would be painted in "firing mode" - We'll compare to the Annihilation Barges in a second, but I wanted the highlights to have accelerated to the tips of the weapons and the Control Orb in the cockpit to be literally blazing at the activity in the ships systems, you know flying and firing.. 

Beatin' A Dead Horse - GK's

So we all know about this supposedly good book called the Grey Knight Codex. As such,  there is not too much to be said on the armies or units at this stage of the game, so my column on the GK's will be more reserved to results, observations and the hobby side of things. Today I will actually cover a little bit from all three!

Today I will be starting off with my current GK list, as much to give an idea of what I'll be work with and on in the coming weeks. Then I will move on to initial thoughts about the mirror match, and ending with the first pictures of the WIP of the GK's.
 

The New Citadel Paint Range

I am sure you've all seen the recent news about GamesWorkShop releasing their new range / line of paints. Now I think many were like me and they were just expecting a re-pot and the addition of a few paints (or re-adding the classics like Tentacle Pink). However, GW dropped the bomb, its a complete re-branding and new formula's (I.E new pigments).

Scarabs done, Caledonian here I come!

Last night I painted up the last few bases of Scarabs that I needed in order to get them all done.

I used Tamiya weathering master kit to 'paint' these guys - the sponge applicator is a bit crap, it wore out by the end of 8 Scarab bases, but hey ho...sponges work just as well!

great little kit for Necrons and I am glad I dusted it off and gave it a go...although it does mean that these guys have a very different look to them than the other 20 Scarabs I have done... ah well..

And that is the whole Necron army at 1850 complete..

I even began highlighting the Purple elements of the Crypteks..although the highlighting will be for next tournament as will more weathering powders..but for now, they are all painted nicely, cohesively and look cool..

Time to hit up the 1st 40k tournament of the year..which, soon as I didn't get a ticket for the UK40KGT, will also be the biggest I attend this year with 116 participants... massive!

Top Ten is the goal! Look forward to quite a few BatReps and tournament reports next week as Venerable Brother (me), Killswitch, Bradimus Prime and friend to the Sons' - Bringer of Death all report back from one of the UK's biggest tournaments...will a Son place?

WIP Black Templar Bikers!

As some of you may have read in this post, I painted up some Orks this weekend for fun.. well..the skin was fun... I have also been aching for a new project since I completed my Necrons..in all fairness, that was a small project as I already had the force, I just updated with Barges and more Scarabs.. it was always going to be a quick update..
I am still enjoying playing them, this weekend is in fact their first tournament - Caledonian Uprising. Can't wait..

But I need a hobby project to go on with at the same time.. This hobby is very dynamic/fluid for me... I can't sit still or rest on my laurels..I enjoy the game so much I just like to have something stirring in the pot for the future..

This brings me to my Black Templar Bikers.... these guys actually got an appearance in the one of the first posts of the blog over a year ago...(proof of no band wagoning from me here!) where they stared as the Biker Captain and Command Squad Vs Tau (you can find that shocking bit of video HERE...ah my old kitchen table..poor substitute for the gaming club I now run!...how times change BOLLOCKS! It turns out that I never loaded that video up...umm...sorry).

The idea was that they would be built up as Black Templars 'Knights' - charging into the enemy at speed with great fury and righteous indignation.. but running them as a vanilla marine biker army led by the Great Khan himself... but I was buying a house at the time and the hobby expenditure sort of died a bit during that period..

I blew the dust off the models as I took them from the shelf and damn..they look good..I've styled those fuckers right.

Other Peoples Stuff: Pre-Heresy Emperor's Children

My first "lets look at other peoples stuff", saw us take a peak at one of my favourite count as armies I've seen, not because of its unbelievable level of skill, it was actually quite pedestrian in level of painting for example, simply table top, but more because of the thought and execution, making for an army that is great than the sum of its parts. Individually a model was flawed, though cool, as a whole, the scheme and concept was executed so well that I just instantly fell in love with it.

Now, this is on the other end of that spectrum. This army, or models, just inspired me straight away. The painter, elfatto at Bolter and Chainfist, has produced a stunning level of skill army wide, and I am sure everyone will enjoy this one.

I am actually almost tempted not to show you this, as a sort of ode to bisto, save the best 'til last. But really, I just want to share it!

Today, unlike last time, I won't be sharing too much "how to" as his painting level is a couple of notches above me, plus the gentleman has been kind enough to actually give some of his recipes, which does make life a bit easier!

Lets Look at Other Peoples Stuff: Orkquistion

Right, so this is the first of a semi-regular piece from me - call it what you want, Army Showcase, Armies on Parade or whatever, its a blatant rip off of many sites and what they do, but with a twist. Unlike most others, I don't plan on just putting up the pictures and going "look at this cool stuff", I want to present the army to you, give any insight I can offer, be it from directly asking the hobbyist from the forum he's from, or just try and give some information myself.

There is quite literally a fuck ton of stuff I could post for the first one, there are many better done, painted and converted out there than this one, but for many reasons, of which some I will explain, this one just kept me going back and looking at it over and over.

I do want to state that some of my painting tips might not be exactly how the orginal painter achieved the effect himself, but how, if asked, I would tell someone to emulate it (in this case). In some other's it would be my best guess as how to achieve the effect and how I would look to create that result.

So without further-ado, The Ork-quisition!

That's right, a count as army!

Restoring Old Models

I've recently been doing what must be my 3rd batch of restoring my old models. Prior to this I stripped some of the 3rd Ed Grey Knight models and some marines for my Blood Angels. But in the past month I've looked to strip my RT Grey Knights, my RT/2nd Ed Terminators, and some MK1 Rhinos.

I think knowing how to do this, and giving it a go is a really handy tool to have in the hobby chest. It really is just a case of a google search, but I figured why search when I can just give everyone the heads up!

Son's Commission's: Bully underway!

As venerable alluded to in his last post, I am starting to do some commission's. Really it came out of no-where and still feeling it out as a process. Most people do commissions I guess as a form of a side job, but really for me, its just a way for me to improve my painting skills by forcibly diversifying my pallet, and secondly stop my army attention disorder by people letting me paint some fantastic models across many ranges.

The one thing, unfortunately, is that I won't be doing army commissions, and will only accept the odd unit commission. Now while this probably will just bring the bushiness down to "zero", there is no harm in asking. I don't see any point in doing Ultramarines Squad 1 for example, but if someone wanted a unit of Harlequins, Mandrakes or Incubi with Venom for example, I'd certainly be up for that, as it fits both gorgeous model category and also bits I don't paint typically.

So really what am I looking for? Primarily "independent character" fodder. Individual center piece models. So could range from your Trygon to your Space Marine captain from *insert chapter*, Even something like a tank or a landraider would be great as they are brilliant canvasses to work off!

But worst comes to worst, fire an email my way and I can answer questions.

Stargazer's Painting/Malifaux Corner - Painting in the heat

Guess who's back, back again.... you know the rest ;) yes I am back guys finally!!! Exams are over and the summer has begun hence me posting this quick post before then continuing my series of Malifaux tacticas.

This is something that has been on my mind over the past couple of days. Here in the UK we have just had 2 days of scorching weather (well for us anyway) and so I thought I'd give a few tips on what you can do to carry on painting even when it's 30 degrees

outside.

So what do I use at the moment and will it "do"? To the right is what I currently use to paint. I use a citadel pallette (this is good because it's plastic so easy to keep clean after each session although a bathroom tile will achieve the same kinda thing) Any old jam jar or similar for water and a funny looking dropper bottle.

This is probably one of the most important things. It's "Matte Medium" or "Mixing Medium" depending on which company make it.. The one I use is the P3 mixing medium as it's the most cost effective one at my LGS, I think this 30ml bottle cost me about £3 so not bank breaking and that will probably last me a good 2-3 months at least.

So what does it do? Well it's used to mix into your paints to help thin them as well as aiding the flow without the use of water. So basically water your paints down slightly less than you normally would and add this stuff. It will keep the colours more vibrant rather than making them look washed out and pastelly (sp?) So in this kind of weather when normally when your paint is drying on the palette instead of adding more water and completely ruining the colour of the paint you can add this stuff and carry on painting happily without constantly remixing colours.

So that's what I use normally and it can be used in hot weather if you can paint quickly and don't need large amounts of colour for large areas of the model. However that's not the only way to do it.

So next up is the wet palette. Some of you probably already know what this is but for those that don't it's basically very thin paper over the top of a wet absorbent layer, the water then seeps through the paper to your paints which are on top of the paper keeping them wet. Sounds perfect right? However the problem with these are the price tag, many people aren't too happy to shell out £12 for the palette then another £8 for the refill sheets (privateer press versions of both btw). But don't worry about that I'll show you how to make one with stuff you probably have lying around the house ;)

So this is what you need to start -

On the table there I have an old ice cream tub lid (although any small saucer or dish type thing will work, basically it just needs to be able to hold a shallow amount of water..), A sponge like the ones you get in most blister packs, I think that's a large one from a malifaux starter pack, and some baking parchment/greaseproof paper/whatever you want to call it.

Next up you can't see very well in the photo but soak your sponge in water make sure it's completely saturated to keep your palette wet for longer. Then put maybe half a cm of water in the bottom, this is basically just to keep feeding the sponge water as it dries out.

On the right is what you are looking for after you've put the paper onto the sponge.

The darker area that you can see is where the water is beginning to come through, this is what you want as the paper is semi water permeable. Don't worry if the patch is confined to one part of the paper, once you have used the paint slide the paper over the sponge and the dark patch should then move on the paper (this is quite hard to describe but just experiment and you should get what I mean) Also don't worry if the paint looks like it isn't sitting in one "puddle" the paint should still stay wet so no worries.

That's basically it. I know some people use kitchen towel instead of sponge but I personally can't vouch for this. Anyway enjoy people and don't be afraid to experiment!

Stargazer out.

And we're off to Blog Wars

So Atreides and I are off to Blog Wars tomorrow morning (yup a day early ... thats how dedicated we are). Actually we're making the trip to WHW for a few games (will be nice to not get shuffled off our table at the normal GW store) then rock on to Maelstrom on the Sunday morning ... looking forward to it.

So I've been some what lethargically painting out the rest of the Deathwing - given my lack of enthusiasm this time round (I really do have one eye on the Grey Knights) I am actually some what pleased with the results. Though due to my lackidastical attitude - I've not got every thing I wanted done and had to short cut some stuff as well. For example I planned on cutting off all the normal storm shields and replacing them to my winged one.

Any way I thought I'd post up the individual models and some of the bits I've done this week, and as a bonus some of the test models from my armoury to show you some of the schemes I've been playing around with for my mech as I move into Grey Knights territory.

Hobby Saturday: Deathwing Command Squad

So since my previous post I've decided (some what predictably) that I would use the "Double Wing" list - meaning it had the least amount of hobbying to do to add the additional models required for 1750 - simply a new squad. Now this gave me a chance - two weeks to paint a single unit - I looked at this way - Belial (to the left! - he's now getting some more suitable company!) was around 4 or 5 hours of work taking away the base coats - I have a couple of days this weekend and then a entire bank holiday weekend - not to mention evenings (especially being on earlies next week I have quite a bit of time free). So? This is a chance to paint up a nice looking command squad and "extend" my focal point of the army beyond a single model. If I get time I am going to make a little display tray as well (nothing crazy, literally just a dinner tray cut down a bit to fit into the bottom of my bag, plenty of varnish and PVA glue to make sure the flock and sand doesn't go any where).

Now I've been working slowly on these guys for a little while - but by that I mean I simply remodelled two of the legs and made about 3 of the bases - so there was a lot of the models that had to be done this week. I really wish I did spend the past few weeks on them as I had plenty of leg spares and what not to faff around with reposing, but it was not to be. I did have a "vision" to to speak with the squad and I wanted to achieve it as much as possible. I wasn't far off - but I think my vision might have been a bit ambitious for my conversion skills - so in short time it wasn't bad.

I figure what I can do is a "stage by stage" WIP of these gents, so todays stage one is simply "pre-painting" - each individual and how I wanted to portray the model.

Hybrid Deathwing List Thoughts plus some hobby shots!

So I was going to take inspiration from Venerable about posting my entire Blog Wars thoughts, but in honesty - the other lists I am looking at taking require me to finish off painting a few tanks plus 30+ marines (couple of IC's in there at the very least will require some loving), and while the temptation is there to speed out another army - I really want to finish off the details on my Deathwing and get a few tanks done to a standard bit better than my rush level.

Incidentally - the image there on the left is one of the testers for my mechanised part of my force - to be used with both my Deathwing Hybrid lists and my Blood Angels / Grey Knights. I've since "honed" the technique, and also discovered another way of doing marble on models (trial and error, gotta love it!) - In fact, it will do me a favour to get peoples opinion on this - here's the Vindicator I've done as a test in "the other" style of marbling.

Deathwing WIP + Finished Product - Part 2 of 2

So here we go, the follow up post to Wednesday, today I'll be covering my favourite bit of my army, Belial, and honestly, the surprise of the project - my objective markers.

Belial! 

Really this is the only model in the army that actually shows some of my standard of painting, so I do sort of fling it in peoples faces when they look at my army closely lol. I do wish I spent a bit more time on him, I had a few more bits I wanted to execute on him, but I'll get another chance, as I plan to make a TH/SS version of him in the near future. 

Anyway - this bit is picture heavy, which I'll let do the talking, along with a few captions! We'll get stuck in with plenty on Belial - my previous posts covered the conversion - it was quite a simple job, mid way through painting him though, that right hand LC did break, some sharp observers might notice it is actually slightly different by the end (as I didn't cut it and position it exactly the same!).
 

Something I just love about this pose - looks like his is readying for the coup d'gras.

Deathwing WIP + Finished Product - Part 1 of 2

So, here is part one of two of the end of the WIP of my Deathwing / Ravenwing tournament army that I cracked out in 5 weeks and took to Brighton Warlords a couple of weeks back.

I do apologise for not actually putting up more posts along the way, but some of the WIP bits were very "samey", especially since it was essentially two different units only used. Additionally, I really did the finishing touches in the final week and a half and just didnt get a chance to write up a post!

I have recently started work on the Blood Angel / Grey Knight "division" of my army, much in the same vein as Venerable (it is essentially just heavy armour / tanks) and these will be some of my next posts, with some list thoughts around them. I also want to go through some list building thoughts again with the Deathwing up to 1750 and some new things I may try with these - as well as look at the performance of the units / army as a whole moving forward.

So anyway, here's the WIP, I'll be throwing up a second post over the weekend to finish it off, so here's part one, which is covering my terminators, bikes and also a tutorial on how I did the basing. The following post will have a hefty section on Belial, and also on my objective markers and some of the painting techniques I used in this as well as a bit of "conversion / kit bashing" work.

Stargazer's Painting/Malifaux Corner - Knights Sanguine Showcase

Well.. How can I follow that?? That really is an awesome robot!!

Anyway time to continue with my army showcase, I thought I'd showcase some footsloggers today but instead of your standard marines I'm bringing you something a bit different that unfortunately you don't get to see on the tabletop anymore or at least not in competitive play :(

Here are my Terminators. These were one of the first units I painted for this army, probably about 2 years ago. My plan which I followed through for this army was to try not to spend more than 2 hours on any model. Allowing me to churn out a decent sized army while still making them look like a decent tabletop standard. In reality most models actually only took me around 1 hour as I got the colour scheme down.

For these boys I wanted them to look like they had seen some action as well as having more purity seals which I green-stuffed on. They have like the rest of my army been weathered with forgeworld weathering powders. I also painted lots of scripture on their armour as they are relics of the chapter.

As always if you want to contact me about anything painting related please comment or email me at joshualeak@hotmail.com

Oh and here's sneak peak of my showcase next week ;)

Stargazer out.