Missing Marauders

I seemingly forgot to post these the week before last. I went from the first two directy to the last two. Anyway here are the missing Marauders from the Horsemen regiment. I don't have anymore of them to paint thankfully but their foot cousins seem to be a never ending tide encroaching on my painting table. I do want to get the Cultists finished to about twenty models soon. The only problem is the just started Macinations Warmachine League. It is offering points for painting miniatures and my focus therefore has to switch over to getting some models done for that. It also helps that there are a few new releases for Circle coming up this and next week!

Traffic Light Ladies

Despite the fact that I have four Khador Warjacks,Chaos Marauders and Chaos Warriors on my painting desk assembled and base coated I decided to start something else. I have played some Malifaux over the last few weeks and yesterday I picked up the Rotten Belles. Rather than continue with some cavalry I though I would get these done first as a break. I painted them without realising it in a wonderful traffic light scheme. I undercoated them in these colours as it saves time trying to cover over black. Foundations paint helps but it can still take a good few coats for red and yellow to come out nice and even. I am going to try to get some of these finished while I also progress with the Marauders. Thankfully I managed to get some Tallarn Flesh at the start of the week. Old Fogey at Hobbyhorse sent me some. So now I can make some real progress with my Chaos army without fearing that I will have to change the colour scheme halfway through!

Chaos Spawn Regiment

Here are all my finished Spawn ranked up. As I discussed before I don't know how to use these. I think they are fairly suitable for any of the roles. I avoided the tentacle beast look deliberately so that they were much closer to true humanoid. The addition of some armour and weapons also helps separate them from that look. I guess when it comes down to really making out the army I will see what to do with them.

Chaotic Cannon Fodder

I have been making a lot of progress it would seem. I had six normal marauders left to paint and over the last few days I got them done. I also managed to do some finishing touched to their twelve brothers. The last time I painted these was in November 2010. They have been sitting neglected for over two years. I think at this pace I will have the army ready for ninth edition. I don't know if I have rally become better at painting but these six seemed to go really quickly. I have managed to paint a lot over the last twelve months so I guess the improvement came in speed rather than technique. I won't complain about that, regular readers will know I have motivation problems if things are progressing slowly. Now I have to dig through the various boxes to see if I have enough Marauders to complete the two regiments that I have at the moment. I also need to start sourcing heads from the mounted marauder models as I defintely don't have enough of those bulk out my small regiments.

I still have a little work to do on the banner.I want to find a slaaneshi symbol/sigil to add to the top. I guess there may be some in the new hellsteeds(?) box. Hopefully I can spot some online to buy. I also want to paint up the fur on the banner a little better. The darker fur on the outside it too plain lookin and I will need to give it some more work to get some strong contrast in there. I just don't want it to become too light something that is easily done.

Going back to Chaos?

So despite my current attraction to Dystopian Wars I am slowly starting to think about my chaos army again. Again it is the fault of a Podcast, this time Heelanhammer. I think in the year since the relase of eighth edition I have played only ten games. Thats a shame as I really like Warhammer. My current club isn't really that enamoured with it but Hamburg as a few clubs and I am thinking of getting a very quickly prepared army together just to have some fun. However I need practice with weathering pigments and I am going to combine the two. Chaos Warriors are some of my favorite models by Citadel. I can imagine painting them in a very mettalic scheme and then weathering them heavily. It wuld be a very simple way to get an army to the table and I can really improve my weathering skills. As for the composition I am guessing anything with armour. I can't weather flesh so no marauders or hounds, so only Knights, Characters and Warriors. Hmmm lets see if my enthusiasim keeps on the boil. I might pick out a test model tonight to see if the scheme is workable.

I would want them to fit somewhat into the general tone of my current Chaos Army. However I am guessing that they will suit best as Khorne marked Warriors especially considering tht the weathering should give them a strong red tone. I want to get an army on the board as quickly as possible and that is somewhat effective, I am guessing that Chaos fits this bill well. Also it adds to what I have already done so thats a bonus.

Trolls or Spawn or Ogres?

I mixed too much greenstuff yesterday and I had to do something with it. As eager as I am to play with my Warhammer Fantasy army I am not so eager to apint it. I did use the greenstuff to do some fur on one of my Chaos Spawn/Ogres/Trolls. I still haven't decided exactly what these will end up as. I guess as Trolls. I want them to look like Marauders that have mutated into Trolls rather than as beasts in and of themselves.

The fur is simple enough to do even though I haven't done it in about a year I guess. Its like riding a bicycle... It is a little time consuming though and it can take about forty minutes to do fur like I have it here. One thing I forgot is that using a lot of greenstuff makes it easier to have strong texture. I have quite a few more Marauders to put cloaks on so maybe I should take them out and start. Hmmm I don't know. If I sculpt them I have to paint them there is no escaping that. If I leave them on the sprues I can ignore the fact I have loads of them waiting for at least a little longer.

Wood... uuuugh

Slowly my marauders are coming together! This is once again a very work in progress shot. I have a good bit more to do with the shields, basically all the detail work there. On the marauders themselves I only have a small few details to do. The weapons especially need some attention. Thankfully this is half the regiment nearly done. While they are boring and time consuming to do, doubly so when you consider that they are only worth about five point each! Still these have been a massive annoyance to me for a long time. The two big blocks have been sitting on my desk sapping my will to continue. Now that I see some good progress being made my motivation is slowly returning.

Its strange how just looking at a block of miniatures awaiting some paint can really take away your motivation to continue. With the amount I have done now over half the marauders are finished. I still have sixteen to construct ans sculpt cloaks for but I am finally enthusiastic about doing it. I am under no illusions though that the army is nearing completion. I am assuming I have about another forty warrior models to paint... at least these are not constructed and therefore sitting on my desk begging for paint.

I hope the beastman shields work work out on the marauders. I really didn't want to suddenly put brightly painted shields on these. However the beastman shields could be a little dark? I can't judge the effect over the entire regiment just yet but hopefully the pale skin can still make them stand out. Painting the wood is not fun. I start with a basecoat of scorched brown and work it up with a mix of snakebite leather. It keeps the colour muted and stops it from blending into the other browns I have used on the model. Building up those layers can take a while though. I have kindly been donated enough shields to finish the regiment, thanks Lenny!

Foot Sloggers!

I painted these guys to get back into marauder painting. I am not sure why I should have practised on the command group but they were to hand and I did. Thankfully they match almost perfectly with the ones I painted a year ago. I don't have the standard painted yet. I am not sure what to do. I will I think use a khornate symbol as I want these to be part of the great weapon regiment. I would like to have as many attacks as possible and doubling those from the front rank would be good. The more I look at the rules the better frenzy seems to be. As re-roll from the battle standard bearer makes it a safe enough ability I can't see a massive downside. Generally if I am charging with them it will be because I want to. Now that I have these done I am eager to get into the big blocks. I have fourteen Marauders done at least.

I have been considering the same thing about my Chaos Knights. Khorne is the only option for them! That would make for a huge number of attacks coming out of just six models. The Blood Knights seem to be a very common component of the vampire army and Khorne Knights should be as effective. Its a big investment of points that could be used easily elsewhere but I have them painted so they will end up in the list. Anyway I won't be getting much done on the Chaos over the coming month as I need to prepare the Dwarves! It would seem that October is going to be a month of Dwarves.

I have been reading the Rogue Trader roleplaying rulebook from Fantasy Flight. So far I am dissapointed! I really don't get the feeling that it was well concieved. I am not yet sure why but it doesn't inspire me. The rules are based on a similar model to Warhammer Fantasy roleplay which I really like. The ship rules seem half done and very unexciting. I also can't see how a party would be formed. It reminds me of an episode of Star Trek where the most important members of the crew are always the ones leading away missions. That makes no sense in reality and just as little in this fantasy! The Dark Heresy parties seem to make it work better. All in all I am not interested in running it but I might play just to test it.

Ich möchte Chaosbrut

Yeah German is great... It is always entertaing to walk into the local GW here in Hamburg in search of something and then try to figure out what it is called. It is interesting that direct translations generally don't work. For instance the Hellcannon translates as the Deathbringer, Zerfleischer is Bloodletter but actually translates as Flesh Tearer. My attempt at the Hellcannon was Höllekannonen. At least some of the guys in the shop can figure out my terrible approximations of the names and I generally get what I am after, Its better than I managed in work when I needed to get a door for a cupboard and they ordered a goalpost. I really don't get how that happened still but at least everyone had a good laugh.

Anyway as you can see I managed to finish my spawn(Chaosbrut)! He is a nice model better than I imagined could be constructed from the kit. I thought the kit would force me to go the terrible tentacle route but their are some more decent options there. I have another kit on its way and I will see if I can keep with the theme to use these guys as Trolls. Once they are done I will be painting my Corpse Cart... ah I mean Warshrine. I still don't understand why GW haven't released the Warshrine. Well at least the Corpse Cart makes for an interesting alternative. I am having mine pulled by a team of hounds. I am not sure if it will look that good yet but thats the plan! As for anything else I have no idea just yet. Its tough to make one and not have it look like a chariot.

Kniggets

So I got the shields done. Funny how it goes... I had a whole weekend and yet I still couldn't get the Knights done! Okay the shields are done. The armour is done. The cloak needs to be finished and the details on the horses done too. So what are the chances that I get them done this weekend? Seriously it will have been more than a month... I would really like to see some more progress with theis army. I have been painting them for a year now and I don't even seem to have one regiment complete. Eighth edition came along and destroyed the plan I had for them. Basically every regiment I had planned needed to be doubled in size. Its annoying. Anyway the shields came out well. The picture is poor but I couldn't get a sharp focus with my camera. I am resisting buying a new one but maybe its time to start looking. The only problem I have with the shields is the complete split between the flesh covered ones and the standard ones. The shields seem to each have a power in mind when being sculpted. Well I can recognise Tzeentch and Nurgle but I guess Slannesh and Khorne are in there too. It is a pity as it breaks up the style of the regiment in my eyes. Now it does mean that I don't have a complete armoured wall done in one style which is nice but the flesh maybe contrasts a little too much? Anyway I will try to get some shots up soon and you can see for yourself.

I have ordered some new Dwarves however. I have to order them now to make sure that I can have them prepared for the two tournaments in August. I have memories, vague ones, thatDwarves are somewhat faster to paint than Chaos. Now I am not sure why I am thinking that but hopefully they prove to be! I don't want to have too many late nights just before the tournaments. I want to increase the number of Rangers and Miners I have. If my analysis of this edition is correct then I can see these types of troops playing a major role in Dwarven armies. I have twenty miners done already ad I would like to increase them to thirty. I would also like to have a similar number of great weapon armed Clansmen. So you should be seeing some of the short bearded guys appearing here soon. Don't worry I will be continuing with the Chaos still...

I love Spawn

I love Spawn. I don't know why but I have always had a soft spot for them. I even liked the previous metal ones which looking back at now were really terrible. As you can see I have constructed another. I wanted this guy to look more like a mutated warrior whereas the previous guy is a mutated marauder. This is simply achieved with the addition of the helmet, shoulder pad and axe. He should look like Sláine than a great tentacled beast. I also tried to model him so that he is slightly higher than normal and leaning forward. It looks a little more menacing than the standard pose. It involved chopping a leg off and green stuffing it back on but with these guys conversions are pretty simple. They are hopefully really easy to paint too.. the last fellow was dispite the problems with the washes.

I don't know if Spawn are that effective anymore though? I really see them struggling to hold up infantry as the sheer volume of attacks coming at them should on average kill the spawn in a single round. That means they are pretty unreliable for holding things up. A good charge will always smash them. Against less proficent foes I could imagine them doing well, for instance Skaven. A number of Spawn could pin a large regiment in place by charging one at a time effectively removing its threat from the game.I will have to play a few games with them as a test to seewhat they really are capable of. Hopefully they won't be relegated to rather random warmachine hunters!

Actually I have been thinking of using some of the less mutated Spawn I intend creating as Trolls. I can't see why not as they are similar enough in size and appearance. Especially if I don't overly mutate them. It's cheaper than the metal alternatives and they look far better. It also gives me quite a lot of spare pieces that can be used for a number of things. I haven't decided if this is the route I will take yet. Tournaments already seem to be out with the blanket bans for comp and that means no double rare so I am stuck with only two spawn as a maximum. Thats a pity as I really would like to field lots of them!

The last horses for a while!

Horses... that has been the last few weeks of my hobby time. At least finally today I managed to get started with the riders. I have, as you have seen, been busy on my Chaos Steeds. I have finally finished the armour on them and as a break I started the riders today thankfully getting them basecoated. The Chaos Steeds are actually quite nice to paint and being pretty much covered from head to hoof in armour fairly simple. It still takes time though. There is very little flesh to paint. The small amount there is is heavily muscled and doesn't need much work to look nice. These models are really lovely and I would be tempted to paint a lot more of them if they still proved to be effective in this edition. I think I have a total of five boxes of them... bought before I had effectively planned out even my seventh edition army nevermind eighth!

A good eveing or two this week should see the knights finished! It will be nice to get something finished for a change. I find that is one of my main motivations in painting... getting things actually finished. It always then gives me a big boost to do more. I haven't finished my marauder horsemen at all and as such the last few weeks have seemed to be a chore. Seeing these knighzt relatively quickly coming together has been great. As the knights are base coated and pretty much armoured all over I have two surfaces to work on. The first being the cloak. These are pretty big but fairly easy to paint. I don't think they will take me too long. I made some mistakes while base coating them. Well actually the wash made some mistakes. When I applied the wash it once again went white in places. I am still not sure why as this is a brand new pot of Badab Black. I have an idea that because I was using some foundation paints before hand I contaminated the wash when I watered it down. I will experiment with this a little on a spare model. The effect was really interesting this time and it could really help me out on a future project I have been mulling over if I am able to replicate it fairly exactly.

The armour is pretty straight forward at this stage for me thankfully. It will take some time but once it is done then there is not much further detail to do for these guys. The large flat plates on the shoulders and the helmets are the only areas I have to be really careful on as these are going to be the main sufaces that you will be able to see. I do wonder what the effect of having the exact same armour on the rider as on the steed is going to be like. It might be a bit much? I suppose the shields are the only thing to work on then. I wish there was a little bit more of a selection on shields. I would have prefered some more plain ones, a little like the foot warriors. The ones they have are pretty busy affairs and seem to be themed towards certain gods. I have eough knights whereby I could give them all the same shield I think but that wouldn't be nice either! Anyway I am sure I will figure something out.

As to what to paint after these I don't really know. I would like to start on one of the marauder regiments but I know that is going to be a slog. I have some time off in October where I intend to sit and finish one of those regiments, hopefully in time for the tournaments that month!

Back to burning

As I have been busily sculpting fur for my knights I decided to do a test model today. I wanted to see if I was still able to do the burning armour I have done elsewhere in the army. I was concerned that it would not be that nice on the horses of the knights and if not I really wasn't sure what else I would do. So I tested it and it came out okay. I have more details to do and I have the horses flesh to attend to also. The model has come out quite dark which is a little annoying. I really don't want to have such a dark army but hopefully the rest of the army can provide some more light. The marauders especially as they are mainly flesh and I have been painting it fairly light.

I finished the cloaks yesterday despite my hangover. Friday was a nice night out with the guys. I wasn't really in a painting mood the following morning and sculpting was enough to occupy me. I listened to some of the Podcasts especially Podhammer. Somehow they managed to get two episodes out without me noticing. Sadly the review of eight edition and Chaos in particular got me pretty annoyed! I have twenty cavalry models in my army and on my painting desk. Well according to them and a few other Wwarhammer broadcasters cavalry might as well be thrown out the window! So do I continue or not? Well of course as they are generally easier models to paint than infantry at the moment. I will at least have the army finished that littel bit more quickly even if it loses some effectivness.

I have also been reading the Skaven book again recently. Having seen the wonderful contents of Island of Blood I am tempted to try out dipping. The skaven should be handy enough to do in this method and maybe I would get a quick and nice army done. I will wait until after the Chaos are playable at least and then consider my options. However blocks of sixty Clan Rats should really great and with some nice options to back them up I think they could be pretty formidable. Aanyway thats something fo the future.

January is a slow month

As usual January is a slow month. For me I have barely been able to get near the painting table. The lack of light in the evenings is proving to be a complete killer as I still can't find any lamp that takes a 100w bulb. I have searched everywhere possible and have turned up nothing at all. The little painting I am getting done is solely during the brief window of actual daylight I manage to be awake for at the weekend! At least now I can see that the evenings are beginning to stretch a little so soon I will be able to get painting properly again. I have restricted myself to getting some smaller things done that I had started rather than beginning new stuff. This month was also slow on the painting due to the release of the company I work fors latest game! So far so good and hopefully it will grow. Seventeen thousand customers in two days is not so bad I think.

My slightly converted Crom the Conqueror is just about finished. I have a few last touches to do, especially on the horns. He has turned out pretty good in the end. It is a pity I didn't have him ready for the Wwarhammer Ireland painting competition for December. Hopefully I will finish him within the month as my painting time is getting short short by a holiday to Finland and finally moving apartment! Wher I might add I have managed to get a dedicated 'hobby' room. I wonder how long that will last! I have no clue as to what I will be using Crom for. I had been thinking about slowly collecting a regiment of Chosen from all the metal champions I could get my hands on and that have this style of armour. It would be pretty expensive in €€€ terms but would look fairly good especially in comparison to the current Chosen models. I really don't like them at the moment. I would like to see them in the flesh so that I could jusge better.

The spawn has also been worked on a little. I have the sculpting done and the base coats applied. I think that the concept came out well. I wanted him to be a little like Slaine when he warp spasms. I think it is okay. I don't know if I should have a discarded axe somewhere on the base. The horns are annoying to do and I have tried a different technique than usual. They are okay so far but I could end up changing them still. The flesh will be done the same as on the marauders. Hopefully the weird flesh on this model will take my style of painting as easily as the more natural marauders. I wonder what they were thinking when they sculpted these models. The Spawn are so terrible. There is really nothing to be said for them.

One massive problem I have encountered is the poor quality of GW Washes. I noticed the green left a white residue on the model once the pot started to become empty. Well with this guy the GW Ogryn Flesh has left the residue too and it was a new pot. Click on the picture to pop it up in a big version and you will quickly see what I mean! I gave a very thin coat (but not a thinned coat) over the entire model. Once it had dried it left in all the areas that should be darkest a horrible white chalky effetc. I am not sure what can be done to remove this except for base coating the model again which I am loathe to do. Aanyone else had this problem? Aanyway the pot is in the bin and will possibly be followed soon by the rest of the GW Washes!

I saw the new Beastmen models this week. I actually like them quite a lot, though I am undecided about the Minotaurs still. They are huge though and would I imagine be quite easy to paint. The expanses of flesh would be pretty simple to do and I guess if they are painted better than the current GW standard of painting they would look awesome. Some of the heads are poor but I guess there are a few alternatives in the box? I can't wait to see this book. I have wanted to collect the Beastmen for a while and a good book would be the impetus I need to start. Though I have been promising not to get more stuff until I have these Warriors finished... I also saw the new Wwarmachine stuff. Thjats pretty amazing but a little more expensive than I thought it would be. I am tempted by a Cygnar army now....

It might be a while before I get to post again. Early February I expect as I am going to be very busy with the house move...Sorry!

Progress so far

The Forsakonettes are finished! Thankfully I managed to get something done for the army. Only getting to paint for a few hours each weekend really means I am getting no progress done. Joined with that is the fact I am not currently inspired to keep painting. I need to get some gaming in soon! I am sadly going to miss the 3rd and 4th ranking tournaments back in Ireland as this month is too packed with things to do other than gaming. It an attempt to get myself motivated again I am going to paint something that should be a little quicker to get done.

Following Old Fogey's philosophy of painting in threes I will be doing a spawn as the final third of my second set. Confused? Check out his Hobby Horse blogwhere he explains the theory. I have put together this spawn a little differently than the ones on the box. I don't want mine to look too corrupted as that wouldn't fit with what will hopefully be the eventual feel of the army. I have some green stuff work still to do. I want him to have quite a lot of fur. I would like him to look like a bloated marauder whose fur cloak has actually started to grow from his skin. I am also really restricted in modelling terms by the fact that the storage area within my Battlefoam tray is very small. While it is tall the space measures 42mm x 42mm. That gives very little room for the model to overhang the base.


Suprisingly it is hard to photograph even a small army! This is the best I could manage! Poor I know but at least it gives a flavour of what the army looks like at this stage. I never really wanted to have Forsaken in the army but I wanted to paint the Daemonettes rather than leaving them to join the mounting pile of plastic. They are done now and as they take up almost two hundred points I will be fielding them to make the numbers up. I am not sure exactly where to progress from here. I have most of the regiments constructed and even two of them half painted. The lack of motivation makes it difficult to decide what to do next. The light sourced marauders wouldn't take much effort to get done without the light source. The other regiment of hounds that I have probably wouldn't take too long either. However both of these don't add many points to the project. I would like to have something playable sooner rather than later!

Burning Armour - A tutorial

A few people on the Warhammer Forum have asked about a tutorial for the armour I painted on my Chaos Warriors. I have finally managed to get something together. It is not perfect but it should give a good idea of how to do it. I have popped this tutorial there and on the Northerns Wwasters site too. I have been slowly getting my Forsakonettes done for this months challenge on the Northern Wasters site. They are approaching the finished state. I might have them finished by next weekends deadline if I am lucky. Thankfully New Years comes with a few holiday days around it, however it also comes with parties! Maybe I will have some time. While doing their armour this weekend I have photographed the process.

Step 1
The armour is basecoated from a mix of paints. I used to use Dwarven Bronze but as GW don't make that anymore I have mixed my own. I start with Brazen brass and add a lot of black ink. It thins the paint a lot and darkens it nicely. It needs a lot of mixing and it will separate for a few weeks but after a while it settles well. The dark bronze colour this achieves is still very metallic. I then give this a wash with GW Badab black. It is important not to water this wash down as it loses the quality needed to give the burnished effect. Once this is done and dry, which thankfully does not take too long, I begin with the first Orange. The Chaos Warriors' armour was much easier to do as the flat plates lend themselvels to edging. The Deamonttes are a different mater entirely! I am not sure if what I have done is actually that good but considering their ribbed armour it came out alright. Anyway Vallejo (VJ) Hot Orange is the first colour. It is laid down lightly along the natural edges of the armour. I lay it down thinly and over a thicker area than I intend to have in the end. I want it to form a failry translucent band along the edges. I then lightly trace in the lines between the edges ot in this case along the indents in the armour. As I said with flat plates this is a lot easier! Again I try to creat a translucent band. This stage is shown above.

Step 2
The second stage is designed to have the previous orange blend a little into the armour and form a base for the stronger brighter effect of the later stages. It also serves to dull the armour down and give only the highest points a metallic effect. The blackness of the armour accentuates the lava\burning effect but the higher metallic areas make it still look like armour. Anyway this stage is simply a second wash of undiluted Gw Badab Black. Just don't allow it to pool too much in the recesses.

Step 3

This step is important, possibly the most important to get right. It is once again easier on the Warriors but is still okay to do on the Daemonettes. The orange is very dull after the wash and looks terrible. It blends well into the armour though. I use VJ Hot Orange again but in thin strong lines to give the heat. The previous orange then looks like the heat dissipating into the metal. On this model my orange lines are a little too thick due to the form of the Daemonette armour. The delicate models don't give you much room to play with! I was also a little out of practise and heavy handed when it came to the strokes I think.

Step 4
(Sorry for the poor photograph, I didn't realise it was so out of focus. It is too late to go back now though)
This stage really gives the model some heat! Again I missed a few tricks but the principle is easy to explain. I use VJ Orange Fire for this layer. Here what I am trying to achieve is the warming of the lines. I highlight the areas where the lines meet. So basically where one line intercepts another you paint in the brighter orange leaving a little of the darker one showing. I also sometimes paint the brighter orange on the raised areas. This gives a nice effect.

Step 5
Thankfully the more you do of this effect the quicker the steps become. The second last colour to go on is GW Sunburst Yellow. This is used sparingly right at the intersection points of the lines and on some of the most raised areas. The paint is really thin which works to my advantage. I can take a little and work it into the lines in two coats. As it is transparent it highlights perfectly. Its that simple! Just ensure not to get any of the yellow outside the orange lines as it really defeats the effect.

Step 6
The final painting layer is optional. I actually left it off most of the Daemonettes. The exact meeting point of the lines of orange should be given a very thin coat of white. I use GW Skull White but having just bought VJ Dead White I have come to prefer it already. I also pick out certain areas that have received a yellow highlight with the white. The Deamonettes white skin however might not suit this so I really kept it to a minimum on this model just to show what it should be like.

Thats pretty much it for the burning armour. I do have to say again that my inspiration came from the Warriors of Chaos book. There is a much nicer effect achieved there that a bit of study should be able to recreate well. If anyone else has tried this please let me know so that I can learn what might work better in future! I will be doing this on my Chaos Knights once I get to them. Hopefully it will look nice there too!

Working like a dog

My hounds seem to have a starting role in this blog! They have by far the most pictures. Sorry for the poor quality of these ones. I can't seem to manage to edit them in any form before putting them up. I shall have to experiment a little more I think! Here you can see what I am going for on the bases. While they are not completely finished they are close. Only one or two more additions of materials and that will be that. The forest theme hopefully comes out well enough? The grass is a little too pale. There are actually three variations in the colours put here as I was experimenting a little. I doubt if anyone will notice. The first colour used is GW dead grass (Totes Gras when I asked for it!). It is really uniform and looks like a Teddy Bear's shavings. I wasn't convinced with it so when I was home last I picked up what I normally use. This consists of years of mixing various grass products and when applied here came out too green! I finally arrived at a mix I liked when I combined the dead grass with Noch Conquest Grass. I applied this around the other pieces on the bases to make a subtle shift from the completely dry to a more living green colour. With that done I just needed to add some small green clumps for undergrowth, some moss to the logs and then some leaves to give a more forest feel. That is basically how the armies bases will look. Once I get the final pieces on the base I will go back and add more leaves to get better coverage.

The marauders have continued despite the gloom. I managed a really early start on them today and got a lot done. I have only a little to do with them now which is nice. I guess by tomorrow they will be completely finished apart from the bases. I suppose I should go and order what I need to finish the bases. I guess it won't just arrive by itself! Anyway the marauders have taken me a little longer than expected. Thats due to my own laziness. Expect an update soon, maybe wednesday, on these guys.

Suprisingly I have found a job! A real one at that too. I am pretty suprised as I have only been in Germany for two months now and my language skills are still rather poor. The best thing about the job is that it is for a games company! Thats a huge departure from the previous career but a welcome one. So this means I will have a lot less time for painting and that I will have a far different schedule for when I can paint. At the moment I am only painting during the day when I can get some good sunlight. As I will be working during the day now I will only have the evenings to paint. I went out and got myself some daylight bulbs. This is the second time I have bought some. The last time I never even managed to use them once! I have been looking around for some lamps I can put on the desk but haven't found anything useable. All the lamps I find are for 60W bulbs while the ones I have are 100W. I will have to cast my net further afield and see what I can come up with. I really don't want to have to invest a lot of money into two lamps for the desk.

Another things I am going to be constructing is a wet palette. I always wondered exactly what they were and when I saw Noeste's wet palette guide I finally realised I can make one! I thought they were some really specialised and hence expensive piece of equipment. Thankfully they are not. As I will soon be painting the larger Marauder regiment of eighteen this will be useful. I have been painting the smaller regiment in groups of three and this can lead to variations in the colours achieved. The skin on some of them has come out lighter or paler than others While this is actually not such a bad thing especially as the colours are only subtly different I would still like to keep a uniform appearance as much as possible.
Hopefully this experiment works well...

Fleshy experiments

I have finally managed to get some painting done. The constant gloom here makes any form of highlighting difficult! I am experimenting with the Children of the Bear hoping to find the correct skin tone. I wante something a little pink, hinting towards Slaanesh. I think I have achieved that. The colour starts very pink and then mellows into a nice light flesh colour. It is easy enough to mix too and as I have most of the flesh covered for these guys quick to apply. Thankfully today seems to be good too so I hope I can get some more painting done. I hope to have these guys finshed this week. That would see me with three core regiments finished with two weeks to go to the next tournament. I will be able to get a little more done by then so the army will be in some form of decent shape!

The cloaks will follow the brown I used for the fur on the Chaos Warriors collars. I am going to 'stripe' the fur.By that I mean it will start very dark in the centre of the cloak and then lighten out towards the edges. It gives it a more natural look and makes it less boring. Seeing a sea of the same coloured cloaks is not very inspiring! The rest of the colours will be neutral too. A mix of warm browns and greys like the Nurgle Sorcerer. There are a few pieces on the models that need something more in colour terms. Many of them have loin cloths. I was thinking of doing these in a dark red. I have no clue as to what colour to go for. Green is out as I don't intend to use any green if I can. Any ideas?

This is the slight conversion I made for Crom. I hated the sunken or maybe shrunken head he and Archaon share. I used one of the knights helms and made a gorget for it to sit inside raising his head up. The model looks a lot better this way I think. I kept with the original sword for the left arm. I had been thinking about making him a Battle Standard Bearer. His arm is extended out a little too far though and I don't think it would have looked nice. For his right arm I am satying with the original style but using pieces from the knights set. I wanted him to have a larger more dramatic shield. By using the plastics I could also alter the angle that he is holding the shield at and keep it away from his body. That means that the delicate painting won't be hidden by the shield!

Bye bye my marauders

So the first shipment of miniatures have departed. I have sent my marauders to Germany! I am slowly moving my Warriors of Chaos over in my luggage when I fly. I am worried about how I will fit the army box into the bag. I suppose I will have to open it and split it up a little. The new style and shape of box seem to be huge in comparison to the older Games Workshop ones. I still have about eight boxes to manage along with paints and modelling supplies. Who needs clothes?

I am hoping to have what I need for a two thousand points plus army there when I arrive so that I don't have to worry about getting anything further for a while. I have a massive number of unopened boxes won at various tournaments so I will be trading these in to pick up the final pieces I need such as some Daemonettes and Spawn. The Daemonettes I intend to use for simple conversions such as head swaps for the champions. I will probably use their bodies as the basis for Chosen or Forsaken. It's annoying that Daemons can't be used in the lists anymore, even in a lesser form like the 40k codex. To cut them so completely seems a little dramatic especially as with their inclusion in the book they might sell more?

I am going to theme the army towards Slaanesh just because I want something a little different. I tend to go for Nurgle as my favourite power. I have found that Nurgle can be forgiving when it comes to green stuff skills. I don't think that Slaanesh will be quite so easy to convert. Rather than spending a lot of time applying green stuff mutations, like I did with my Nurgle Ogre army, I will be relying more on painting to show the allegiance of this force. A simple palette of colours with the inclusion on purple here and there should be enough.

I have managed to find a Hamburg Warhammer Club at least so gaming won't be a problem. Once I get a small force together, which should be easy with Chaos, I will get a few games in. I suppose getting something assembled to use would be best. So I probably have an army of little grey men and dogs for a while! I hope they don't mind. I just need to find a DnD club next!