Gone Marauding!

Hello again! Thanks for coming to look at my 8th blog post :) The last couple of weeks I have been painting a unit of 16 Marauders of Chaos. As with the Marauder Horsemen, I have really enjoyed painting these models. It's really all down to the faces from the Horsemen kit, they add so much character and life to the models that I can't help but enjoy working on them. This made them a very easy unit to paint, and surprisingly quick too!

I think I have definitely cracked painting faces with this unit, and I am now pretty confident in my ability to do this. They are never going to win me any awards, but they are definitely good for the tabletop! :)

In other news, I started to paint my Eldar, but I really didn't like how they were turning out; I will be stripping them and starting again. I even ordered some test models! Hopefully I'll have something to show for them by the end of June :) I have also had time to build a heck of a lot of models for my Eldar, Warriors of Chaos and Saga (a dark age skirmish game), but I'm not sure anyone wants to see photos of unpainted miniatures! ;)

Anyway, I've talked too much. Pictures!

The full unit :)

I wanted to make the centre of the drum skin look more worn than the rest of the surface.

I tried something a bit different with the banner. I wanted to make it look like it was covered in writing of blood. Really not sure it worked!

This Orc head wasn't looking quite right until I gave it a really thinned wash of Nuln Oil, that really worked to make it look rotted.

I think the guy in the centre of this photo has the best done face. The first time I've ever painted eyebrows too!

I eventually plan to run a unit of 40 of these... only 24 more to go! ;)

I'm currently working on a unit of 3 Skullcrushers, and hopefully they will be finished by the next post :) Once they are done, I'll have finished 1,600pts of Warriors of Chaos, putting me well on schedule to have a finished 2,500pts army by November for Raze and Ruin (a local - fully painted - fantasy tournament). I might even take a break to work on Saga and Eldar :)

Thanks for reading :)

All (Chaotic) Knight Long...

Hello again! :) This is the first of my blog posts that is being promoted on the Talk Wargaming blog network, so hello to anyone who has found me through it! :) The last couple of weeks have been really great for my hobby progress. I haven't really kept track, but I've managed to get at least thirty minutes of painting in every day for the last month or so, and I definitely think that this blog has motivated me to keep up this rate of painting.

The biggest thing I have done in the last two weeks is my unit of five Chaos Knights. I think these are really great models, if slightly difficult to actually rank up. Once I stuck the shields on I was sure they would never rank up again, but I was thankfully proved wrong. Any doubts I may have had about my armour painting method have been pushed aside by how these models have turned out; with such a large area of these models being armour, the way I painted it was going to make or break them.

I also managed to finish off adding snow to the two finished, but not fully based units - my Chaos Lord and my Warhounds. I've taken some more pictures of the Lord, but I'm not sure that the warhounds are sufficiently interesting to warrant more space than they've taken already! :)

Anyway, onto the pictures!

One of the most enjoyable part of painting these models was the variety found in the shields.

As I said above, I think that my method of painting armour translates well to such an armoured model.

I am finding that I am really enjoying painting flesh; on all models, it's one of my favourite steps.

I wanted to make the Chaos Star look like sore, red flesh. There are little drops of blood coming from the tips of the arrows.

This knight has my favourite pose of the whole unit.

The newly snow covered base of my Lord. I wanted to ensure that the skulls remained visible.

And here he is, in all his finished glory. I think he's a fantastic miniature, and I'd like to think I did at least some justice to him.

That's all I have to report for now. By next week I hope to have my unit of sixteen Marauders finished, and I am already most of the way through the first 6. I am becoming increasingly tempted to make a start on my Eldar (of which I have 3.5k of unpainted shame), so perhaps they will be coming to a blog post near you soon!

Thanks for reading :)

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful!

Hello all! As I write this, it is the 25th April and I am preparing for a trip to Scotland, so this post comes to you from the past! :)

I have begun adding the snow to the bases of my miniatures, and as of today, I have three units done! I am really, really pleased with how the snow is turning out. The snow flock that GW produces, when used out of the box just looks like white grass, which is an easy way to ruin the hard work that has gone into creating your miniatures. Realistic snow is one of the harder effects to create on a base, and I tried several different methods and mixtures before settling on the one I use. If there is sufficient interest, I might create a tutorial.

I wanted to create snow that is just starting to melt to add a little narrative to my army. The idea is that as soon as the snow starts to melt into spring, the warriors of the north descend onto the soft lands of the south. They are definitely the most involved bases I have ever done. Onto the pictures! :)

As the first unit to be fully painted, these guys had the honour of being the first to have snow.

I had initially planned to add blood to the snow, but I think it might be a bit too much. I think the way the snow has gathered together in some places, and is a bit shallower in others adds enough variety to the base.

I'm really chuffed with how these guys have turned out!

A nice close up of the snow :)

And hello from Scotland! :)

So, that's all for now! :) I will be back in plenty of time for my next post, and should hopefully have a finished unit of five Chaos Knights to show off :)

Thanks for reading :)

Cry Havoc...

...and let slip the dogs of war! Hello again, and welcome to my fifth blog post :) In these last two weeks I have finished 10 Warhounds and started adding the snow to the bases. I'm pleased with how the Warhounds have turned out, especially given that they really aren't the greatest of miniatures (certainly when compared to the beautiful Fenrysian Wolves). They do have a lot of detail on them, and some reasonable sculpts, but overall they just weren't as fun to paint as the horsemen (despite being much quicker!)

I have painted the Warhounds with the same palette of colours as the Marauder Horsemen. This is to help tie them in with the rest of the army as they do not have any armour plates to add the deep bronze colour to. I also think it's good to add variety to a unit like this to prevent both the outcome and the painting process from becoming boring.

The sculpts look much better from the side than from the front.

I usually field them in two units of five, but they look much better when they're all together! :)

These guys could definitely use a consultation with an orthodontist!

The eyes on these guys were tiny. In the end, I just painted them with a concentrated wash right in the eyeball.

I have to say, the speed at which I painted these models was a welcome relief from the horsemen!

I currently have a unit of Chaos Knights and a whole lot of snow on my workbench, and I have nearly finished the bases of everything I've already painted. I'm actually going to be on holiday for my next post, so I have saved the pictures of the snow bases until then. I'm really pleased with how they've turned out, and I am looking forward to showing them soon! :)

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in Scotland! :)

When Five Become Ten

Hello! I am really starting to get into the swing of this blogging lark, and I think these are the best photographs of miniatures I have taken so far! I am, of course, also enjoying the flattery :P

I have finally finished the unit of ten marauder horsemen. These guys have taken me far, far longer than I initially thought they would, and it definitely felt like they were dragging towards the end. They are beautiful models, and I am definitely happy with the job I've done with them, but I think I definitely need some quick wins to keep up my painting mojo.

I want this army of Chaos Warriors to be the best looking army I have ever painted, and part of that will mean spending a long time on models whose tabletop effectiveness doesn't tally up with the length of time they take to paint. My Chaos Warriors take next to no time compared to these guys, despite being a much tougher prospect for my opponent. There's always the temptation to do a quick and dirty job on cheap units, but I'm starting to see the reward for keeping to the same standard across a whole army.

I am simultaneously looking forward to and dreading painting the marauders. I am looking forward to painting them because I mostly enjoyed painting the horsemen, but I am also dreading the amount of time it will take to paint the fifty I plan to take.

Next up, I am going to work on some warhounds, who will hopefully be nice and quick! :) Onto the pictures!

The finished unit of ten horsemen

I think the ginger hair works well to brighten the unit.

I think that this guy's face is the best I have ever painted, especially around the scar.

With the partially enclosed helms, I have tried to strike a balance between picking out features, and leaving the recesses dark.

I enjoyed the variety of colours I could use when painting the horses.

As I said above, I am now going to be moving onto some warhounds, and hopefully finally cracking on with finishing the bases!

Thanks for reading :)