GW Manchester

I was in the Arndale in manchester the other week and I thought I may as weel pop into the GW for some Warplock Bronze, as a I'm running low - all these metallics! While I was in there I took this picture of some frankly awesome set of terrain tables. I love the height to these, allowing battle on different levels. What's even more impresive is by the looks of it once the sort the city tiles out in the right hand picture this could very well be a complete board, possibly 18' long!

Also of note is the scratchbuilt ship in the picture on the right and the Age of Sigmar floating rocks in the picture on the left. With hindsight I should have taken more pics of these but I was in a hurry, maybe next time.

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 9

Onwards and upwards. Although the he knight seems to have become my majority focus, I'm still flitting between projects. Here I started to add in the texture on the bronze. I never quite know how I feel about this, the layers are pretty simple to do but the amount of it does make it a bit laborious to do so I end up wanting to just get it done. I also was a bit forgetful over the exact process, so I have the cerastus on hand to try and match up [of course I could try reading my own blog right?]

Although I'm not sure the technique is too important as I'm pretty sure successive stippling and a variety of washes will result in an impressive finish regardless. And any verdigris will most doubt cover up anything I never intended anyway! So at this point I add a little extra stipple/drybrush of Warplock Bronze to the shadow washed metal, sometimes I wish I could just stop here...

Next up was Balthasar Gold, that's the one on the left, the right is still to be done.

I then continued on the legs. Where I wanted a Brass colour I was more liberal and applied it neatly, elsewhere it's just a weathered highlight of the bronze so it was just drybrushed so it enhance the look instead of overpowering it.

Legs and shin guards were done.

The real advantage fot doing this aspect of the paint is it feels like you've reached quite an important milestone. Once the metallics are done that feels like at least a third has been dealt with, despite having not yet completed this part. But it feels like an accomplishment anway because I know it's such a big part of the painting. Once that's done it'll be

• picking out the pipework, 
• armour plates
• heraldry markings
• bronze weathering
• battle damage
• plasma glows

Which covers most of everything, no doubt I'll have to fit some other bits in and certainly some mettalices are still to be done - like handles round the cockpit but they have to bedone late rin the process.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Tidy mind/tidy workspace

With the Man Cave's case of Nurgle's Blight [which I've been keeping on top of and preventing outbreaks with judicious anti-mould spray applications] I've been a little down on the whole hobby room enjoyment but I realised in part it was becaus of how untidy my workspace was. I'm untidy at the best of time but the apathy and constant shifting of the paint table meant I just didn't care. The fact is I sit facing the computer anyway so the paint space is irrelevant. It was annoying me though and depsite not wanting to sacrifice a good deal of hobby time rectifying the situation I arrived at a moment where that was possible, because there really wasn't very much else I could do in that time.

Now some would say this isn't much better, and I admit since this picture it's begun to deteriorate yet again. However, I cannot underestimate the feeling I got from this experience. I'm sure there's a single word, like schadenfreude, untranslatable from another language that would explain the feelings I had whilst doing it. It's a sensation I've had numerous times before of 'rediscovering something long lost, like a memory from childhood', it's a peculiar mental process that then evolves into an emotinal one, not unlike losing The Game [Tom Widdows]. It's quite a nebulous emotion that when I feel it I keep reaching inside to capture why it make me feel that way.

Of course that all sounds like a whole load of nonsense but this is the hobby slump time of the year and I'm trying to harvest positive feelings when everything else is seeking to drag me down and stop progress - and yes I've been struggling with that due to:

• Numerous tasks at hand
• Sheer amount of dull and tedious jobs that are the priority
• Lack of completed To Do items
• Man Cave mould
• Bad weather
• Fatigue

They've all combined to sap will and its worth me noting that a simple tidy up has done wonders to my psyche, so I best keep it up and not leave it so long next time.

'nids part 182 - 6 Stealers

There was me bemoaining the slow progress of my forces of the Imperium and then I take a little detour to do Genestealers! What the flip?! Rest assured I pretty much loathe doing them so I takee no pleasure in scampering off to the Hive for a bit. These 6 were done over three nights btu in concert with my Imperial bits too.

I managed to paint all the legs and chests in one night, they're the easiest bits really. Then the next night I did the arms, back and head on one and the head and backs on the remaining 5. Night three had me finish of the 20 arms, which of course are split in two parts and I have to rotate them to get top, right, bottom, left sides - this is why I hate Stealers! Of course I was riddled with doubt prior to this on whether to go full bonewhite or add in some Chitin colouring on the back. I haven't gone full bonewhite since my first Stealers so snap-decisioned to see how they would look. Of course a better decision would have been based on disposition of miniatures so I could find ways to group them safely into broods but we'll go with it.

That currently gets me 16 of my 31 Stealers basecoated in bonewhite. I'm really regretting not using a Bonewhite primer now. With hindsight the bases and all the red fleshy bits could have been added quicker than using that as the undercoat and cutting in all the bonewhite colours. That realisation, alongside the reminder I hate painting them was one of the reasons they've been stagnating for a month or two but now I'm over half way I feel a little more relieved.

Of course this is only the basecoat of one colour. I still have the blues to do and then the washes and then it's the highlights - which for each coat will take just as long , if not longer than the they did to basecoat. I've just done a quick estimate of time

• 9 days - Bonewhite base coats [15 models at 3 days per 5]
• 2 days - shadow wash
• 18 days - Bonewhite highlight 1 [31 models at 3 days per 5]
• 18 days - Bonewhite highlight 2 [31 models at 3 days per 5]
• 2 days - Chitin highlight 1
• 2 days - Chitin highlight 2
• 3 days - Claws
• 1 day - teeth and eyes
• 1 day - wraithbone chips on bases
• 3 days - varnishing

These are rough estimates and may be speeded up or delayed but that's  59 days of work right there! Ho hum! Will have to measure that to see how accurate an estimate it is [once again I don't like to keep track of time spent so why would I be doing this?]

Imperial Knight - in manufactorum pt 8

Aah, the opportunity to get back to some nid, welcoming me inot the Hive Mind's warm embrace!If I'm honest though, those chitin striations are pretty ropey though! Not to worry I'll probably be covering this with a lot of blood and gore so it doesn't really matter[unless it's brain matter!].

I did rather like the darker soft-tone washed bonewhite but it doesn't fit with my current lighter version of my colour scheme and the subsequent highlights do work much better. I've got to pick out a couple of those fleshy ridges on the legs and then a few fine highlights, pick out the hooves and any other odd thing but it'll probably all be covered in blood splatter anyway...

With the base almost finished things feel like they're progressing. However, with so much still to do and by simultaneously doing the same elements on various projects it's also a little overwhelming. It's a pretty bi-polar affair at the moment, pleased to have got everything shadow washed then depressed at the thought they then have to have all the metallics done - three or four lots of highlights with washes too, then weathered. Then I paint the coloured panels then add the battle damage and I have to do that for all the weapon options too!

And all the time I'm doing this on the Knight the bikes and the jetfighter I'm thinking about my Tyranid VSG and the Dark Angel Tac squad that should be my number 1 priority. I mean I've finished my Azrael conversion and Dark Angels Company Captain but not varnished them - two To Done's just waiting for ten minutes of attention! To help combat this I've resorted to session planning - actually writing down tasks I hope to achieve each session. Actually achieve isn't quite right, these are just things I want to focus my attention on during the next session, just get my efforts in order. Which can be a bit odd for someone who refused to 'keep score' of their progress. Still, ever onwards.

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |

Dark Angels - Jefighter!!

The vast majority of my projects at the moment are at mundane but necessary stages so sadly my posts will reflect this. The Jetfighter is now magnetised and ready for painting, I'm not 100% happy with the magnets on the antennas, they don't hold it as steady as I'd like but hwne I put a 2nd set on I should have used a 5x5mm Magnetix on the fuselage, instead I went with 3x2.

I need to prepare the cockpit but as the windows will be Tamiya Clear Red X-27 I'll probably not need to do too much in the way of highlights. I've even printed off a red box onto acetate so I can see something similar to my eventual vision of how it will be. As you can see it may not require much painting, the Tamiya Clear Red X-27 will opefully be a little more tranpsarent but a lot of the interior will be obscured.

  I'm doing the metals bronze - so no problems there, but the black is the issue. There's no texture on this, like the black on my Cerastus, so I'm apprehensive about. I'm apprehenisve about all the Ravenwing, which is why they're languishing, still I'll get round to it.

Games night at Ben's

Ben invited us roundfor a games night, sadly it was just PeteB and I that could make it but we had a pretty fun game of X-wing. He wanted to do something different to the usual 40k so Pete brought his new Force Awakens expansion and went Rebel/Resistance scum and Ben and I upheld the might of the Empire/First order I controlled the Tie Interceptors, Ben was the Tie Fighters. My Obsidian pilot was obscenely good, putting two damage on the A wing. He eventually blew it to pieces [do I get First Blood?]

 

As the game progressed we all had to navigate round this group of asteroids in the centre of the board. The B-wing took aim at the Tie Fighter and would subsequently destroy it.

Mid way through the game and my Red Interceptor has just pulled a U-turn, which in all my experiences so fa has always proven costly...

and so it was again as he was blown to pieces by Poe Dameron [well he has to have done something to jusify that 'best pilot in the galaxy' title!]/

Ultimately it came down to Poe and one of the First order Tie Fighters, which was blown up giving PeteB the win. We then followed up with a game of Ticket to Ride Europe, which Ben won, all good fun, hopefulyl we'll do it again.

I also got to check out Ben's Red Planet BASE! for his new Mechanicum army, mmm looks like fruit cake.

He'd been debating the design and eventually got there after looking at lava planets and the like. I suggested he just tone down the black, just use it as an accent colour to break up the surface - obsidian chips on the martian Earth. C'mon it worked for my wraithbone! I really love them and the resin bases look so cool.

Here's his test model Skitarii to go with it.