16 Monday Nov 2020
Posted in Oldhammer Challenges
Painted this one up for the annual challenge! I’ve been very tempted recently to start a Genestealer Cult properly, using some of the nice modern figures, but one look at the leadpile (and the plastic pile) reminds me that I’ve got a lot of projects on already. It was fun to paint though, I will do some more one day…
23 Friday Oct 2020
Posted in Chaos, Finished Work
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I love John Blanche’s work in all mediums, and have done since I discovered it – I did my GCSE art written project on John Blanche’s drawings, all the way back in 1994, and I bet I’m not alone in that. I have a particular love for the whole Blanchistu thing and whilst I’m no great painter I’ve wanted to have a go for some time. My first attempt was the Dark Mechanicum squad I posted last year, but somewhere along the way I lost confidence and fell back into old ways. This time I have looked at more models, done some research, and thrown myself into it. I am pleased with the results. Not White Dwarf standard by a long shot, but a good start. Next time will be a bit better. If you’ve got a squad of cultists that have been on the path too long and whose humanity is starting to degrade, then they need a leader who aspires to greatness, whose mutations are more pronounced and less debilitating, and who, maybe, glows with an eerie light! Eagle-eyed viewers may note that he is snapped at the knees and has been glued to that gravestone in order to give the illusion of completeness… this is because my mini was bent and my attempts to fix it were spectacularly unsuccessful. There was some swearing that day, I can tell you.
08 Thursday Oct 2020
Posted in transformers
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So yeah, this is a thing…. My other manchild nostalgia obsession, aside from Warhammer, is Transformers. I’ve been buying and selling vintage toys on and off for many years now, but didn’t pay any attention to modern Transformers lore or toys until recently… I discovered a site where you can read comic books for free, and from that I naturally discovered the IDW series, especially the series written by James Roberts. Well, that was amazing. James Roberts seems to have many of the same influences and ideas that I have, but is actually capable of spinning them into a proper narrative that is a joy to read. Most of the rest I can take or leave, especially the tie-in nonsense, but JR’s work is amazing. Feels!!!
Anyway, so the other year I learned that some company in America had the licence to make Transformers miniatures, and so I had to get some to paint. The cartoons weren’t my thing really, aside from Transformers The Movie, so I think I’ll be aiming for a more Marvel UK kind of look when I paint the next one, but this was a lot of fun.
06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
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Just a quick one this time – a drop pod for my Steel Guard. I was going to experiment with my new airbrush but I got distracted and forgot and just painted it! If I ever do another one of these I will do the red and grey the other way round so that the aquilas show up better.
06 Tuesday Oct 2020
Posted in Finished Work, Inquisitors
I’ve had this box set sitting around for a while and could feel the weight of shame upon me… build ’em and paint ’em boy! These are tricky miniatures both to build and paint. Cawl I am pleased with – I built him in sections and stuck him together after painting him and mostly I got it right. Celestine and the gemini are much harder than they look and close-ups really show where my painting skills need more work, but apart from Celestine’s wings they look ok on the tabletop. The Inquisitor was a pleasure and I’ve aimed for simplicity with her, and it helps! Lovely models all round, but the detail makes them very tricky for fat-handed monkeys like me to get right.
The Triumvirate of the Imperium in full effect!
03 Saturday Oct 2020
Posted in Finished Work, Orks
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Well, I may have been silent for a few months, but I have been painting occasionally. I just haven’t been taking photos of my completed miniatures. This has now been rectified and so over the next few days I’ll be updating a selection of badly but enthusiastically painted miniatures with my comments on same.
Things are still mostly shit here. Seven months on I am having to admit that we are now a household with two sufferers of chronic conditions, and that there is not much we can do about that. I am trying to face this stoically but its still worrying, and I’m worried and sad and angry most of the time.
So here we are then, in Orktober, the orkiest time of year. This Orktober I am renovating an old battlewagon, but I have an even bigger Orky achievement to celebrate too. I have finished the Warboss’s Retinue for Waaagh! Uzbog, which means that I have a complete and list-legal Rogue Trader Ork Army! Uzbog, his Retinue Nobz, and the Bigmob were all featured in earlier posts, so this time I will put up just pictures of the retinue.
Oddboyz Retinue: Mekboy Snagagrot (flak, bolt pistol, hand weapon; kustom weapon – kustom special – heavy bolter +1 to hit +8″ range D10 damage; power fist), Krusader robot; Painboy Dok Wortbad (flak, boltpistol, hand weapon; bionik bitz x 2 – legs: tracks, doks surprise – steel hornz),2 x dreadnoughts; Weirdboy Badskab plus minderz (flak, bolters, handweapon, force field – konverter, bionik bit – boltpistol hand); Weirdboy Gorslag plus minders (flak, bolters, handweapons, force field – deflektor, bionik bit: axe hand); Runtherd Gutgrim (flak, boltpistol, hand weapon; bionik bit – melta hand); 5x grots – handweapon); squig catapult; hop splat gun. 600 points.
12 Sunday Jul 2020
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
The final thing I’ve finished recently is another squad of obsolete marines for the Steel Guard. Apparently Assault Squads are completely pointless in 8th edition because there are flying primaris marines who are much better. I expect the same to be the case in 9th, but if oldhammer is about anything its about playing for the love of the game and not picking your team based upon a complex series of equations most guaruanteed to deliver victory. I hope to play more games of 9th edition than I did of 8th (i.e. five or more games), but I reserve the right to throw an assault squad onto the table if I feel like it.
The highlight in this squad is that Ive slipped in a christmas marine, as I felt that his wobbly stance would work as a landing pose. You will probably agree that is doesn’t particularly, but that’s life. Sergeant Plaid is a Space Crusade sergeant whose fat power glove should have been painted as a foam fist really. Next time!
10 Friday Jul 2020
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This is the second of the three pieces I’ve finished since March, an experiment that failed. Having painted a Night Lord next up on my journey through the Chaos Legions was World Eaters. Now the World Eaters started out as the Warhounds, and were blue-grey and white. When Angron took over he called them the World Eaters and reversed their colours. When Khorne took him over their colours gradully migrated to the red and brass we know today. So I thought that I’d paint a squad of each!
Hunea’s squad were based a long way from the rest of the Warhounds on garrison duty in a distant stronghold, with irregular updates by astropath. They followed at a distance the change from Warhounds to World Eaters, the butcher’s nails, the rebellion. They were able to hear the Legion break down into madness and bloodlust but not be part of it. Finally there were no more astropathic transmissions, the galaxy was at war, and the squad had to decide which side they were on. They decided that no-one cared for them so they cared for no-one, and started to carve out a petty empire for themselves on the edges of known space. After the heresy came the Scouring, and Hunea and his gang fled in the face of overwhelming Imperial retribution. They tried to use a warp storm to hide in and wound up in the Maelstrom where they made a base which they used to raid the Imperium and in which they gradually succumbed to the lure of chaos. They act as sell-swords and security detail for lesser chaos warlords in the Maelstrom, and are mostly trying to avoid notice by bigger fish like Huron Blackheart!
I didn’t enjoy painting Hunea’s squad that much, it felt like I was fighting the minis’ natural ‘feel’; a colour scheme that works for the clean lines of loyalists doesn’t work very well for the complex lines of chaos marines. It felt like I was forcing the paintjob. One of the plastic marines was one from a parts lot that had been stripped but was very badly built. I should have just chucked it in the bitz box and used a different marine instead of trying to repair and reuse it, it looks crap! But you live and learn, innit.
09 Thursday Jul 2020
Posted in Blackstone Fortress, Chaos
Well, hasn’t it been a while! What a few months its been. Some people have had a chance during lockdown to paint and paint and paint but sadly I am not one of them. My partner came down with a light case of covid in March which wasn’t too bad, but it turns out that covid can have knock on effects in many different ways. She’s been suffering a variety of symptoms including fatigue ever since, and so I’ve had to do everything in our household. Its not been easy, caring for her, looking after two dogs, and trying to keep the household functioning at a basic level – I’m the disabled one and she’s the powerhouse in our relationship. We’ve had no real income, I can only work part-time and don’t earn enough each year to even pay any tax. We dont know anyone else in this country and haven’t seen any of our family or friends since Christmas. So its been a challenge and there hasnt been a lot of time for painting toy mans. But I’ve found time here and there, because you need to take care of yourself, and it doesn’t matter what your limits are, how resilient you are, whether you’re weak or strong or whatever you want to call it, you need to spend some time looking after yourself or you will be no use to the people you need to care for.
Obsidius here is from Blackstrone Fortress and whilst he’s a Black Legion chappy in the game I painted him as a Night Lord because I’ve been working my way through the Chaos Legions over the last few years and Night Lords are where I’m up to.
Lovely miniature, fairly pleased with the paintjob, but there’s not a lot to say about him. I resolved not to buy any more minis until I’ve painted Blackstone Fortress and a Chaos Knight, but that might be tested by Indomitus….
30 Monday Mar 2020
Posted in Finished Work, Midgard Miniatures
Last one from me for a while… plenty more on the painting desk waiting to be finished. Some time ago I backed Midgard’s Village of the Witches Kickstarter, though I can’t remember what it was that I particularly wanted. I think that I felt a box of assorted witches would come in useful in some project or other, which is as good as reason to buy minis as I’ve ever found. These were part of it, there is a witch model to match each of these ladies. It felt like a nice change of direction so I got to work. Again, most of this is contrast paint over gloss white primer. When all this is over (will it ever be over, or have we just fallen into the quasi-fascist dystopia we’ve been expecting all our lives) I must get some Grey Seer and see how that goes. Some of these ladies I really enjoyed, but the posh one I struggled with. Finally the Witchfinder also suffered the ravages of the chaos puppy so he’ll go for stripping and maybe become part of another project. Oh yeah, finally part deux, I’m going to play my first game of D&D tonight… I’m anxious in case I’m crap at it! Seriously need this brain to give it a rest ffs… Thanks for reading, stay safe and take care of each other!
