Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Chosen Axes - TO DONE!

I finished the Chosen Axes just before the end of the last Hobby Season, but I didn't take my TO DONE! pics, well apart from one for the end of the season review.

With Garrek's Reavers done I thought I'd do all three warbands in one sitting and I ended up loving the Camera360 shots so much I didn't even bother with my digital camera - too much faffing.

It's really weird to look at these now, I haven't really paid them much attention since I finished and I'm pleasantly surprised what I actually did.

I'm not 100% convinced about the grey on the base, but the flock and skulls are OK.

Individual facing shots [where appropriate].

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

I can honestly say right now I don't quite know how I did the gold on that axe head. I need to go back and see if there are any tips. It might just be my standard brassy bronze with some extra highlights but that's what I'll go for on my Deathwing Knights when I get round to them.

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

Gratuitous 360° rotation.

And on a white background, with more natural colours.

I had considered coating their skin in gloss varnish, glad I didn't now; although I glossed the armour on Garrek's Reavers so I got to see what it would have looked like.

That 'gold' tho!

Of course these were completed in my 2017/18 Hobby Season and as I've only just got round to taking some pics here's the appropriate Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval!

The joys [and benefits] of being a hobby butterfly

Having set out my stall for my next projects and just finished my last Shadespire Warband I actually had a few nights off. With my son's initial treatment complete I'm back working normaly and my boss deservedly took a week off to recuperate from holding the fort. This left me to pick up the slack which was a little more tiring than I thought it'd be thanks to a staff away day to Birmingham and a frantic period producing materials for a road scheme public consultation.

Liam's Mortarion, just to illustrate 'butterfly'

So I spent some nights just going to bed, not necessarily 'early' but without going out to the man-cave. However, I found the motivation and time just to nip out with the intent to add a few small magnets to my Dark Shroud so I could swap out the Heavy Bolter and Assault Cannon. At least that was the plan. Go out, do some cutting and drilling add the 3 magnets job done! Except having cut a notch in the gun mount the gunners arms detached from the body. I glued them back in place but with the time for the poly-cement to set I was otherwise without a task.

Which left me looking around for something else and I went for my Sanctum Imperialis, it is afterall next on my list. It required some Warplock Bronze on its external 'skirting boards' and buttresses and I'd been actively avoiding it since the last time I applied some bronze over 2 years ago! And herein lies the joy of having a number of projects on the go/lined up. Flitting to this terrain and actually completing something long since consigned to the 'onerous task' lot, brings about a huge sense of completion. Sure, it's just a basecoat and I've another [bigger] piece that needs the same which will no doubt become wearisome, but there's some serious endorphin reward for getting past this hurdle.

Whats on my palette?

Bless me readers for I have sinned, it's been over 8 months since my last confession! I've been otherwise preoccupied so I'm sure I'll be forgiven though.

So where am I at? Well I've completed my two Knights and just finished Garrek's Reavers [pics to follow] so what do I have next? The Warband was a lovely little intermission and with them out of the way I'm actually gee'd up to tackle and finally finish off my Ravenwing Dark Talon, so that's next on the list. Right now, the only things I can envisage painting is the Dark Talon, a Callidus Assassin and the Sanctum Imperialis pieces I have knocking about. The first and last seem significant projects, with the Assassin as a little intermission piece again, but nothing else is speaking to me.

That might be in part because nothing else is primed and ready to go. To remedy that I'll be looking at my Big Build and actually trying to spend a lot of time building. I have these items I'm looking to do:

• 2 x Hive Guard conversions
• 3 x Ripper Bases
• 3 x Tyranid Warriors
• 9 x Abberrants

The latter one will require a purchase of some more bases to match my existing Genestealer Cult. I feel a concerted build phase might have happened at the wrong time, although priming weather should be nice. Ordinarily this is painting time, where motivation is high compared with the winter months but I'll just see how it goes. I just need stuff prepped and ready and this will be the start of it.

Wait a minute I have an urge to finish painting my Deathwing Knights too! Obviously after the other stuff, so my urge might have waned by the time I'm free but I think it'd be nice to finally see them complete. THEN I will be happy 😂

Warhammer Underworlds Garrek's Reavers pt2.

With the Knights complete it's back to Garrek's Reavers and when last we looked at them in December I was unsure about the bases. My conclusion was to just block out the colours and then I might have an idea how to deal with the 'sand'. And so now you can see what my concept is...

Yep, they're all red. Given it's Khorne I just wanted them to be red-skinned, which obviously makes their armour and clothes an issue as usually they're the red things. However, a quick view of RobPaintsModels video helped me to just use Incubi Darkness on the fabrics, while the armour was always going to be glossy black.

I added copper in places just for something different instead of my bronze and silver as all the pointy sharp bits.

All the skulls got picked out, although there were some jawbones I missed - watch out for those. The realisation was then NOT to do anything with the 'sand'. I'll be making the grand glossy, like it's Shadeglass and the sandy areas will remain that colour just matt. Adding in another patch of colour would have just been more distracting.

After a purple wash to shade all the red skintones [and to tie it into the other purples on the base] I then highlighted all the skin with Khorne Red and then Valejo Bloody Red. I also threw in some purple wash on his hair, again to connect everything together.

This guy has just had his face highlighted with Khorne Red + Bloody Red. The rest of his body is just at the Khorne Red stage, which looks pretty good anyway, I could have stopped here! Strong and Dark Tone washes were applied to all the metallics.

All the Khorne Red highlights are done.

And all the Bloody Red Highlights are done too.

I went back in with more purple wash in places to add greater depth and increase contrast. I picked out some fake musculature too. Eyes were picked out in yellow and some of the teeth were painted in brown - y'know dental hygiene isn't high on their list of priorities.

A also did Dark Reaper highlights on all the clothing and picked out the armour plates with Incubi Darkness, but only on the sharpest points. I also did a first black coat on all the base rims.

And that's the last of my WiP pics. further highlights and details were picked out, varnishes [matt and gloss] and lashings of Tamiya Clear Red X-27 and you'll see it all when I finally take some TO DONE! pics.

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in manufactorum pt14. Interim TO DONE!

With a bit of a push these are 'mostly' complete. OK so some weapon options haven't been finished, some haven't been varnished and the banners haven't been added. Not to mention these pics are just what I set up in the back room, when I probably need to do some 'proper' ones but that can be said about a number of completed projects recently.

But they are done and if you see all those folk claiming their models are 'done except for the base' - so they're not done! I think I'm owed some latitude but right now, regarding my To Do List, if it's all I complete this Season I'm happy with that. It's unlikely this would just be it, but all things considered they mean a lot.

Which is where the contradiction occurs, because as I've touched on before, they mean so much but their game play and the reputation of Knights in tournament setting are just at odds with how much I would love to play them.

Sadly you can't even dilute your force with other Imperium without being dubbed a 'soup' list player. It's a no-win scenario and it's just a bit galling really. You never know, now I have 4 Knights and 2 Warlgaives they could play differently but we'll see when I next have a 'friendly' game with my mates.

Lady Pettorini, she's going 'full tilt' on this. Really looking forward to showing them off at some point.

But I think I may have titled them wrongly, in that their namesakes - one is short and one is tall and I've switched them because this Gallant will be at the forefront and part of me thinks that representing that spirit was more fitting, than actual physical stature.

But I've already caught myself accidentally calling this one Lady Pettorini, when it's Ser Ellenbogen.

Considering I was originally not a fan of this face plate I absolutely love it now. As soon as I put it on I could see no alternative.

I've started a banner for this, but I can't imagine it will suit unfortunately. The space between the legs would be too cluttered I think.

The Gallant also has a banner that's less progressed but it might still fit and not spoil the silhouette of the model as it is 'in flow'.

Top view, sometimes I wonder how this stuff happens. I'm under no illusion this is Golden Demon level but I can;t quite comprehend what I've achieved. perhaps it's rooted in my history of not finishing things and now I do, to a standard I'm more than happy with.

I never expected this model to feel so 'alive', given the static pose, but somehow it does look like a captured a moment with it.

These are my desktop/wallpaper pics, suitable for phone or PC.

Although my Armies on Parade background is a little busy. Maybe when I do the Ferron Proxima mat background they'll be even better.

Something about the cheek guards and their old skool grime sings to me.

And a more sensible right hand image for PC desktops.

50:50 split

And what lies beneath the mask, so you can see what was lost in the eyes with the Tamiya Clear Orange X-26

My House Corvus is 'complete'. There's obviously a Castellan I should add, but I'm not overly fussed on the model. I'd love some of the other Cerastus but not really going to explore that. I might get some Helverins at some point but not sure I really need anything else.

If the Lancer is ever an issue - cost/performance benefits I'll swap it out for Euronymous to keep the other Knights in check and bring the points down. And I actually think the Freeblade rules give you extra benefits without spending CPs for extra Warlord Traits/relics

Anyway, a Big Teal Stamp of Approval for giggles.

Old Stuff Day 2019

It's old stuff day 2019. A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

Here's some great posts from other bloggers [apologies to the many great bloggers out there I haven't included, you do sterling work too, these are just the ones I was reminded to remember over the last 12 months]:

The ever awesome Alex fitted out his garage as a gaming and hobby space. If you want to see how to do that sort of conversion then go check it out. I think there's only three parts but the results are brilliant

http://fromthefang.blogspot.com/2016/12/gaming-garagetm-conversion-part-2.html

The Mandulian Chapel hasn't posted in 4 years so this is prime Old Stuff fodder as folk may not have come across the blog, it had some good stuff. This Swamp Board by Grubnards was particularly impressive, here's the first post
http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2014/04/swamp-board-genesis.html
The rest of the posts can be accessed here: http://synaps3.blogspot.com/search/label/Swamp%20Terrain 

Shameless of me but this is Iapedus post about building terrain in which he made some of my print & play templates. I'd never seen so much of it used in one space and the clever approach to print it on card and have bases they could slot into - allowing it all to be folded up to ensure maximising space was genius.
https://languormanagement.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/build-it-and-they-will-come/

This Spanish [with English version] hobby blog has some additional scenery resources here, well worth checking out. 
http://www.toposolitario.es/workshop/index_scenery.html

Not so 'old' but Tangible Day has a great post on 'Focus Stacking for better miniature photos'. It's a long read and requires some extra skill and effort but if you want to take you miniature photos to the next level then you'll need to put the hard miles in - go check it out.
https://tangibleday.com/2018/12/04/focus-stacking-for-better-miniature-photos-how-to/

I'm not sure if I've posted this before on Old Stuff Day, but it's worth it again anyway. Mr Pink and his insanely good Sector Imperialis basing, to be honest anything on his site is worth a look.
http://www.modernsynthesist.com/2016/11/sector-imperialis-easy-urban-basing.html

And what of the Old Stuff Day instigator himself - Warhammer 39,999? In 2016 I managed to [unknowingly] convince him to buy a Gormiti Fire Mountain Playset to turn into a Tyranid Bastion. As far as I can tell this was the last update, he'll tell me if I'm wrong, but if I'm not it needs finishing Dude! I will add in his first post on the subject he wrote these words'Typically I reserve my 40k stuff for my blog, preferring to wall off my facebook profile due to nerdshame, but Dwez brings out the best in me'... 
https://warhammer39999.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/tyranid-bastion-progress-green-stuff-and-gubbinz/

And lastly the Godfather of Hobby Blogging, to which I still owe so much, even though he doesn't post any more - Ron From the Warp - still a treasure trove of hobby goodness we should all routinely visit first to answer a question - 'how do you make a greenstuff cloak?' Like this!
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-sculpt-greenstuff-cloaks-and.html

And what of my own posts?

How about post numero uno? 25th October 2010, that's as old as I get and it kind of sets up my history and is a jumping off point to read my entire blog from start to finish... if you're a sadist, mind.
https://www.40kaddict.uk/2010/10/ive-really-fallen-of-wagon-now.html

And you could follow that up with a post I did a couple of months after that when I thought I'd exhausted my content but actually set out my basic blog manifesto
https://www.40kaddict.uk/2010/12/whats-in-blog.html

More recently I moved all [well, almost all ;) ] my hobby into '40kaddict towers' or the 'man-cave'. I still can't believe the effort I put into it and what I got out of it, especially having finally painted the back room last year so we now have a dining room. Not only do I have a room for my hobby the extra 'nice' room in my house has been great for family dinners and most likely added value to the house. That has definitely offset the £1200-£1400 it cost to do, and when a Warlord Titan costs nearly that it almost feels like a bargain! It certainly gets more use than a Titan would. An absolute no brainer and theres step-by-step pics of how I went about fitting it out in subsequent posts [in case Alex's garage was too fancy].
https://www.40kaddict.uk/2015/07/40kaddict-towers-man-cave-has-arrived.html

You may or may not have noticed but I have a milestone approaching, just over 2 years ago I made my first million...
https://www.40kaddict.uk/2016/11/1-million.html