2014 in Review

Hello all! I think it's fair to say I painted one or two models in 2014; in fact, I painted just shy of 150 models overall. Given that I must have painted less than 50 in 2013, I'd call that a pretty marked improvement! I think it's a mixture of developing my ability to paint quickly, and also getting better results from the time I am putting in - nothing is less motivating than putting a lot of effort into models for a pretty low reward.

By far the project that was the most rewarding and took up most of my hobby time was my Warriors of Chaos. I think it's time to start drawing this project to a close - there's one unit of 18 Chosen and an Iron Daemon (which I will use as a Skullcannon) to do, and then I will rest them for at least six months. I am incredibly proud of how cohesive the whole army looks together - even more so after it came second in the Best Painted nomination at Raze and Ruin. I'm aiming for first place next year, even if it means sabotaging every other army there!

A shot of every model done for the army in 2014 - 104 total.

A small unit of 3 Skullcrushers. I mostly use them as charge redirectors and as a cheap chaff unit.

A unit of 10 Chaos Knights plus a Lord on Daemonic Mount. I try and sneak these into the backfield to kill War Machines and lone Wizards.

A unit of 5 Warhounds. I like to send these straight at my opponents toughest unit. They wreck house on the charge - I've yet to find a unit they can't handle in combat.

30 Marauders. Whilst not as effective as the Hounds above, they can hold their own in combat with the best of the Warhammer World.

The only other project I worked on last year was an Anglo-Danish army for Saga. Again, I am really happy with how they turned out - especially as they were a complete reboot of a previous army. New figures, new paint job, everything. They were easy, and fun, to paint - especially the chainmail. The fact that a mere 41 models makes a full army was quite nice too!

All 41 models. I think we can all agree their bases blend in much better with the terrain!

This pose is a very simple conversion to do with the Gripping Beast dark age plastics.

The shields were definitely my favourite part of the model to paint.

I would recommend the Gripping Beast models to anyone looking to start Saga.

So, that rounds off my recap of 2014! Looking forward, I have several projects I would like to work on this year:

• Eldar
• LOTR Dwarfs
• LOTR Easterlings
• LOTR Mordor Orcs
• Pre-Heresy Iron Warriors
• Scots for Saga
• Vikings for Saga
• Jomsvikings for Saga
• Sorylian Fleet for Firestorm Armada
• I'd also like to do more tutorials for the armies I paint - I have had a surprising number of requests for these!

Embarrassingly, these are all projects I currently have fairly sizeable unpainted (or even unbuilt!) armies for already, which brings me to my pledge for 2015: for every one model I buy, I will have to paint two I already own, and I won't buy a single model until at least the start of April. Hopefully 2015 will be another big year for my hobby! Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading (the longest ever blog post I've done, apparently. At least I broke it up with pictures!)

And the Saga Concludes

Hello all! With the last six levies done, I have finally finished off my Saga warband! It's taken me about a month longer than I expected it to, and means that I'll need to crack right on with getting my Warriors of Chaos done for Raze and Ruin in October. I should definitely be able to get it all done, it's just going to be a much tighter painting schedule than I had originally hoped for!

That said, I have thoroughly enjoyed painting my Saga stuff. As I said at the start - my previous warband was done using poor quality plastics made worse by a poor quality paintjob. When I started them, I wasn't really sure if Saga would be a system that would stick around, so I didn't put very much effort into the models. I now feel that my warband reflects the level of painting I am capable of, and I have been pleasantly surprised by how well they have come out.

Painting the levies was very easy, which is a good thing given how easily they die on the battlefield! I've also taken some pictures of my fully painted Saga force, so enjoy! :)

The six remaining levies done.

This is definitely my favourite face of the whole Gripping Beast plastic range.

The full unit of 12 levies, ready to do very little and mill around the battlefield aimlessly!

My full Anglo-Danish warband. Not bad for just under two months of work!

My warlord.

A better photograph of the Hearthguard from a few weeks ago.

They've only just been finished, and the levies are already hiding behind the shield wall...

That's all for now! Next week I'll hopefully have done some more work on my Warriors of Chaos. I've written my 2,500pts list, and all I have left to finish is:

• 6 Warriors of Chaos with Hand Weapon and Shield
• 6 Warriors of Chaos with Two Hand Weapons
• 1 Exalted Hero on Daemonic Mount
• 5 Chaos Knights

I should be able to get that done for the 18-19th October, but definitely still wish me luck!

Thanks for reading! :)

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

Hello again! I've had a busy couple of weeks and almost totally forgot I was due a post today, so I very nearly completely missed this one! Thank goodness for repeat alerts in calendars!

I had wanted to get a lot more done for today, but I'm still pleased with my efforts so far. I have had my Chaos Sorcerer sat on my painting desk since I started my Anglo-Danish war band, and he was just crying out to be finished. I had got to a point with him where I wasn't totally happy with how he was turning out, and I couldn't see how to get him to a level I was happy with. In the end, it just took a little bit of time away from painting him for me to work out how I wanted to finish him.

I am particularly pleased with the bright blue eyes. I knew I wanted to add something a little different to the miniature to set him apart from the rest of my Warriors of Chaos, but I didn't want to use too much blue and have him clash with the rest of my army. I've tried really hard with my Warriors of Chaos to keep to a consistent palette to tie everything together, and wanted to keep that on the wizard. The blue eyes also draw the eyes to the miniatures face which is something, something, miniature painting theory!

Also, I painted 6 levies for the Anglo-Danish. They are levies with slings, I'm not sure they deserve very many words.

The finished wizard... it only took me 6 weeks to paint him!

I tried to get the snow to run into the cracks on the base, leaving the chaos star in the rocks showing through.

I painted the eyes with a base of Caledor Sky, followed by a dot of Skull White and a glaze of Guilliman Blue.

The first six levies done. Six more, and my Anglo-Danish war band is completed! :)

This guy definitely has my favourite face of the whole lot.

These faces were just as easy to paint as the ones from the Thegns box. I would recommend Gripping Beast plastics to anyone looking to collect Saga.

That's all for now folks! I aim to get the last 6 levies done for next weeks post, and that will then be my Anglo-Danish war band for Saga completely finished! :) Once they are done, I can start on the final push to get my Warriors of Chaos done for Raze and Ruin :) I'm really looking forward to getting back onto painting them, especially with some of the miniatures I've got for them now.

Thanks for reading! :)

How Much Wood Can an Anglo-Dane Chop?

Hello again! I've had a very productive couple of weeks, and I've managed to finish off nearly everything for my Anglo-Danish war band. I've completed 8 Hearthguard with Dane Axes, 4 Hearthguard without and my Warlord. All I have left to finish is 12 Levies, and my Warband is finished!

I have really enjoyed painting these miniatures, and they have been a good break from the Warriors of Chaos. Once I have the levies done, I am looking forward to returning to the Chaos though. I now have a fixed date by which point I need to have my 2,500pts list fully painted and based - 18th October. I am definitely confident that I will be finished in time, and have some really wonderful models sitting in my painting queue, including a Lord of Daemonic Mount, a Warshrine and a Chariot. I've also got a Saga Warband of Scots to do too, but they can wait until later this year! :)

I've also managed to get some fairly simple conversions done on the Hearthguard with Dane Axes. I took the hands that grip onto the dane axe in the 'over the shoulder' pose and attached them to the arms that hold weapons so the axe can be held horizontally. I think it makes for a really great pose for the Hearthguard, and is really a very easy conversion to pull off!

I'm afraid this weeks pictures were taken with my my iPhone as the proper camera is on a walkabout in Scotland!

I'm actually pretty impressed with the quality of my iPhone's camera!

As usual, I really enjoyed painting the shields on these miniatures :)

This is one of the Hearthguard that has been converted as described above. For such an easy conversion, the results are impressive :)

The faces on these Gripping Beast plastics really make the models such a joy to paint. They have the same level of character as a modern GW kit.

I'm really pleased with the layering on the Warlord's cloak.

I'll try and get some better photographs in the next blogpost, when I have the other camera back.

That's all for now! I will try and get the next 12 levies done for the next post, but I would be happy to just have 6 done :)

Thanks for reading!

The Shieldwall Grows

Hello again! I've again been busier than I expected to be in these last two weeks and only have eight more models to show for it. I think I'm going to have to push back my expected finish date for the Anglo-Danes to around the middle of August, which should still give me plenty of time to paint the remaining 800pts of Warriors of Chaos I need to get done for November. And then, maybe, I can get started on my Eldar! Did I mention that I had started an Ork army as well? Plus the small matter of a Lord of Skulls to assemble and paint...

First world hobby problems aside, I have really been enjoying painting these models. The details are really crisp and clear, and I would recommend the Gripping Beast plastics to anyone looking to pick up Saga. By far my favourite part of the model is the shield; I love the level of variety they bring to the painting and the way they look when arrayed in a shieldwall. When I start my Scots, I have some exciting plans for freehand on the shields, so keep an eye out for them later this year! :)

I hope to get more than eight models done for next week, and hopefully I'll be a little less busy and get a chance to do it! Anyway, on to the pictures! :)

With these eight warriors finished, I've done all sixteen I need for my Anglo-Danish force.

Again, the details on the faces were easy to pick out.

Thanks to painting these shields, I am much less afraid of painting white than I used to be.

The shieldwall so far :)

I'm looking forward to giving these guys their first blooding this week!

I'm really loving the way these guys are turning out and looking forward to getting them finished.

That's all for now! I'll be back again in two weeks time with some Dane Axe wielding Hearthguard. And maybe I'll have something to show for my little side project that's been on the back burner for a little bit, but enough of that for now!

Thanks for reading :)

The Start of a New Saga

Hello all! As my poorly punned title suggests, I have been working on a new project these last couple of weeks. I really haven't had as much time to paint as I would like, and have only finished eight models of the sixteen I hoped to have done by today. If I want to get these guys finished by July, I'll have to pick up the pace a little!

This is actually the second time I have started an Anglo-Danish force for Saga (which is a skirmish game set in Dark Age Europe). My first army, which was finished about 1.5 years ago and built using the Wargames Factory plastics suffered from both poor models and a poor paint job. I'm really not a fan of the Wargames Factory stuff; the models are pretty low quality and the detailing isn't great. It didn't help them that I had painted the models in a hurry to below the standard I was doing even then.

The fact is that I the figures didn't at all match my current standard of painting, and I wanted to be able to play with something that reflected the quality of miniature I was able to produce. I have used the Gripping Beast plastics this time around, and the quality jump is huge. Lovely, lovely kits, and incredibly well priced too. I have found the faces incredibly easy to paint - the features are very exaggerated, and this makes it very easy to pick out pleasing highlights. I also tried something a little extra with the chainmail, using multiple drybrushes to highlight it and make it look a little more dynamic and 'real'. Hopefully it's noticeable!

I think that the shields and faces are the key elements of these models, and I think I've done a pretty good job on both! :)

To paint the chainmail, I firstly drybrushed the whole area with Boltgun Metal, followed by a drybrush of Chainmail, leaving the previous layer in the recesses. I then gave it a final drybrush of Mithril Silver across the top where the light would catch.

I think this is my favourite face of the lot.

My favourite part of my previous Anglo-Danish force was painting the shields by hand. I'm sure that transfers would look better, but I love the scope for creativity it brings!

That's all for now! Hopefully I'll be able to spend a bit more time painting over the next two weeks and complete 16 models :)

Thanks for reading! :)