Terrain is everything - Thermic Plasma Conduits - White pics

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Thermic Plasma Conduits. I'm not going to say much on these as I've already missed the boat on when they should have been published.

I need to do a 'Where's my head @' post but as committed to the blog as I would love to be I'm just struggling to fit it in.

So, just enjoy the pics without my prattling.

Terrain is everything - Thermic Plasma Conduits - TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Thermic Plasma Conduits. I've had somewhat of a mix-up with me blogposts, I was supposed to have published this before the Treemen posts but nevermind.

As you can see the conduits are complete.

On the one hand these got done relatively quickly, but also there were times where it felt like I was just investing too much effort into them.

But they look great and I'm really pleased with the results.

I've recently seen people celebrating how little effort effort they put into their terrain to get it to a table ready standard.

That's great and everything, like the difference between tournament and narrative players. No harm in getting stuff done quickly but I think it's better celebrate when you have something worthy of showcase.

Nothing wrong with seeing decent results from minimum effort but better results from a bit more effort is probably higher value content.

Then again, I'm not sure I'll ever use these so who is the fool?

I've still to do the removable power coils for this.

And alongside the Haemotrope Reactor, which was the catalyst for painting them in the first place.

There's some subtle differences, I had all the ends of the conduits with a bit more yellow on, where some rust on top of the pipe join would have matched the reactor better.

But no one will notice except me.

This may well end up on my Armies on Parade board in 2024 - along way off but it gives a reason to have painted these afterall.

Really proud of this, and another GREAT Big RUSTY Stamp of Approval .

#BloodBowl - Halfling Team - Kurnoth Hunter Treemen - underpainting and fluoro pink

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer my Kurnoth Hunters to be used as Treemen in my Halfling Blood Bowl Team. It seems a bit odd to be covering up all that red with more white but that's how the underpainting works.

I created a wood grain effect, so it looks like when it's pink it's been painted over the grain that's already there.

I suppose it would have been cool to have some areas where you could see the existing grain, similar to the areas that are already silver birch and the pink areas look painted on.

But I wasn't sure I could achieve the effect I was looking for so I just decided all areas would pink and I wouldn't be adding the pinstripes as it was going to be a bit busy already with the wood grain.

You should also have spotted I highlighted the rest of the silver birch areas too and also applied some sepia and green washes in areas to add a little more variety in the colour.

This is pure VMC Magenta Fluorescent and you can see it's worked similar to Contrast. 

It's stained the white areas and the red areas have been tinted a little so you have this subtle differentiation between the wood grains 

This leaves me to add some red shading in all the recess and shadow areas and then add some highlights on all the raised areas and pick out some additional wood grain detail.

I mean it's garish, but it always is at this stage. 

So, just those highlights next to do...

#BloodBowl - Halfling Team - Kurnoth Hunter Treemen - Bases TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer my Kurnoth Hunters to be used as Treemen in my Halfling Blood Bowl Team, here's where we were last time:

And since then I've done the bases, added washes to the Silver Birch areas and yellow to the pork crackling shoulder pads.

 

I also picked out the 'heartwood' areas of the head and the chest cavity.

Some parts will be dark brown and all the red parts will be pink, ironically requiring a set of white highlights next - so it'll all be white.

But coming along nicely.

Great Big Big Build BASE RUSTY Stamp of Approval. 

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - Shades and metals

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing Knights and Terminators. Another peak behind the curtain - this was February!

Whether it was just finding time to blog or too busy doing other things but I threw on all the usual shades and metals here while I was working on my Haemotrope Reactor and Halfling Blood Bowl star players.

This usually becomes a 'save point' anyway - get the metallics done and then it's the bone highlights. 

I don't mind doing the blending for the highlights but it is laborious and takes a lot of time so I didn't want to start down that road when i had other projects I wanted to tick off.

I still think I have enough time to do them but I wanted the quicker wins before I tackle them in earnest. 

I think there was just the final brassy bronze highlight to do at this stage, which was just put off for ages but I did it eventually.

Last time I did Knights Army Painter Soft Tone was too dark and it put me off progressing with them for so long.

This time Army Painter Angel Green had a similar effect. I mean just look at that coverage! Maybe I didn't shake it enough, I need one of those vortex mixers. But this looks almost like Contrast and therein lies my issue with contrast.

When you've been told for years that multiple thin coats for good coverage is the way to go a paint that actively shows the undercoat, but tinted to create a highlight still feels like poor coverage to me.

The irony being - I never do multiple thin coats for good coverage. I either do one coat so I get an uneven coverage and see my undercoat [yes, the exact negative issue I have with Contrast, but somehow it's a positive when I do it] as texture, or I do a thick coat and damn the consequences.

Anyway, a second coat made it a bit better but it was the Dark Tone wash that actually made it look like it was Dark Angels green in the end. So, when I get some other little projects out of the way I am good to go for these. Definitely the Knights will be finished before the end of the season and hopefully the rest of them too. I've just checked back to my previous Knights and it takes 40-60 minutes to do that first bone highlight so I have some clue how long it'll take to do now... maybe not so definite now!

8th Anniversary of the birth of the Man Cave

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've had my man cave for 8 years now, it was originally installed on 27th July 2015. 

Still the best hobby purchase I've ever made but now it's also my home office. I use it every day and I had hoped to have some updated internal pictures but it's a complete nest now, but I can't find time to tidy it up 🤣 But I can confirm that I believe the floor upgrade last year was worth doing. I definitely had a warmer winter, but that might be down to rearranging how I use the electric oil radiator, so it's more efficient in keeping the heat lower. Without the new floor it wouldn't be so easy for it to be moved around and equally it wouldn't be as easy for my Herman Miller office chair to get around.

Conversely, it still gets quite warm in hot weather but my fan is helping to reduce temperatures by 2 or 3 degrees by moving air around at the top of the ceiling. I have picked up an additional air cooler which I might deploy on the worst days but haven't needed it yet. I've also considered a sun shield/net. For less than £20 I can cover the entire shed to block the sun and hopefully keep the temperature down but I'll need to find ways to anchor that so it doesn't get blown away. I might look into it next year.

One last thing, one of the fluorescent bulbs finally gave out, 8 years, we thank you for your service! Unfortunately I do need both bulbs and the only one I could get at short notice was a warm white, but it was only £1.20 so gave it a shot - no, very wrong! It was cheap because they're trying to move these over to LEDs, but the battens need to have their 'ballast removed' for this to work and although it would mean more efficient bulbs I wasn't able to swap them out and instead ordered another 2 daylight tubes. So I should be good for another 8 years before I need to address the lighting issue. It is surprising to see an 18W bulb described as energy efficiency of G! Remember when we all had 60W incandescent bulbs? Of course the landscape has changed and I figure they've revalorised the energy ratings but even so, odd.

Anyway, another year older for the shed - you're doing a grand job for my hobby, my mental health, wellbeing and the wellbeing of my marriage!