In my parents’ generation it was apparently very common, at rock concerts and festivals and the like, for people to build human pyramids. A number of drunken individuals would attempt to clamber on top of each other and see how high it goes before everyone collapses in a pile of broken limbs. Fortunately my generation had far more access to drugs and so could entertain and injure themselves at festivals without resort to athletics. Perhaps this trifecta of dwarven heroes has taken influence from kids at a Warrant show?
Actually its probably more like Vitalstatistix from the Asterix comics…
Anyway, its the White Dwarf riding on a shield being carried by Gotrek and Bugman. In game terms, they were basically invincible!
So after the last project went well I thought I’d have a go at another piece of modelled scenery. A spawning pond seemed just what I needed. You might question the wisdom of this, seeing as I don’t have any Lizardman-Seraphon miniatures, or any jungly themed miniatures at all, but look at it like this – a Spawning Pond doesn’t need to be a pond for spawning lizardpeoples, it could be a swimming pool for chaos cultists, or an immersitarian for space marines, or even (despite the apparently clear water) a drops for orkses. Yes, a Spawning Pond is truly the ultimate in flexible terrain pieces and anyone who says that I was idly reading an old WD and fancied building something without having any actual need for it is a poopoohead.
I enjoyed this build and only variated from the script in one way, which was to use water effects rather than a layer of pva covered in gloss varnish for the water. This was because I had impulse bought some water effects a year or two back and wanted an excuse for using it. Because I was using water effects I put some old fashioned model railway foliage in the pond before pouring to look like water-weed. During this build I learnt a few things. Firstly I learned that water effects contract when they dry. This was a problem because I had painted the inside of the pond and the contracting resin caused cracks in the paint that i couldn’t reach to repair. Further layers of water effects repaired the cracks in the resin but you can still see the white of the foamcard base, we can dismiss it as sunlight reflections! Secondly I learned that sand-pva glue mix is a bugger to work with! You can’t just paint it on as Nick Davies implies. Fortunately the effect (tree trunk bark) came out ok. I am going to make more trees following the methods described in this article because I liked the effects but recognise that it is a skill! Thirdly I learned that beer bottle caps do not really look like big waterlily leaves. A paper leaf would have looked better I think.
The pictures are crap, sorry. I am mid-sort out and didn’t have a good place to take pics. I might retake these and change them at a later date. If that has happened you won;t be reading this!
About eighteen months ago I read WD 143 and thought to myself how fun it would be to make the Coaching Inn, and so i did. And it took me the whole of the eighteen months! Admittedly I did a little bit here and a little bit there: some cutting one day, some glueing another. Little by little my Coaching Inn came together. I don’t know that Rob Hooper did any more of these Modelling Workshop articles, and I don’t know that the person who edited this article had any experience of writing or following modelling articles, because there were bits that were hard to follow. A lack of photos didn’t help. I mucked up a couple of bits by not having the right gear, and a couple of bits by being too slapdash in my measuring, and another bit by missing the instruction altogether. I learned a lot along the way, and have already started my next vintage WD modelling project. I really enjoyed this one and am proud of the outcome despite its imperfections. Next stop: Lustria!
In search of a new project having gotten tired of painting grey Space Marines, I opened a copy of White Dwarf for inspiration. White Dwarf number 98, I think. Featuring the first iteration of the Legion Of The Damned. In modern WH40K LOTD are flame-wreathed ghosts, using melta and flamer weapons. In their first version they were much simpler – normal marines, albeit pale sickly ones, who had painted their armour black with scary flame and bone logos. They had an awesome death frenzy special rule that meant that as long as there was another enemy within 4″ they would keep on killing. So I decided to paint up a squad according to the list given. This meant ten marines, armed only with bolters except for one special weapons marine. All black armour decorated with flames and bones. Any skin should be sickly and warp-tainted.
How did I do? Painting black and getting subtle highlights was tricky – I drybrushed it in really dark greys. Painting flames was tricky too – they look alright from a distance but are pretty laughable up close. But painting bones and skulls were really hard. Still, i figured that the bones and skills weren’t meant to be photo-realistic! I enjoyed this challenge and will be doing similar again in the future.
Currently on my painting table are a rebuild project – i was sent a tatty damaged Chaos Thug by a kind poster on the oldhammer forum and am rebuilding it and painting it. I have also decided to stay in the past, and am painting up Pedro Cantor and his squad as laid out in Rogue Trader: The Battle At The Farm.
I’ve tried to use a good mix of miniatures from different eras.
Just finished basing this guy. Oldhammerers will recognise the model as a Space Wolves Captain from about 1990. It’s a beautiful model, and one that I felt deserved a special paint job (by my wonky standards, obv). So I decided that I’d use the non-metallic gold painting instructions by Neil Hodgson in White Dwarf 197. Whilst I don’t think its turned out too badly at all, it’s not gold, is it? Still, it’s a paint technique I’ve never tried before, the next one will be better.
WD197 has loads of painting techniques in it, and a Modelling Workshop article on making different types of hedges. So at some point in the near future I’ll show pictures of three or four different types of home-made hedge. If that doesn’t give you a warm glow of trepidation then you’re dead inside 😀
So anyway, without any further ado, may I present Captain Niqal Vosuqabad, the Steel Wolf!
Doris Plunger's Lead Mess 