Belated 5th Anniversary of the birth of the Man Cave

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've had my man cave for 5 years now, it was originally installed on 27th July 2015 and as I've been a little busy this year with painting my kitchen, bathroom and fence panels I hadn't had time to celebrate.

Additionally, I'd been planning to repaint the shed so I thought I'd just wait a bit so I could share it's fresh new coats.

I had to sand this baby first, which was an absolute nightmare. So many people say preparation is important but I hate sanding. But I did it, washed it down and got two coats on the front and sides.

Once again I scrimped on the back, I only did one coat, it's a nightmare to get behind between the shed and the hedge and I'm constantly at risk of cramp or pulling my back again.

I'd previously filled in all the nail holes so it was much easier to paint this time round. I've a third of a tin of paint left, I may do that again next year and fill in some more gaps in all the corner strips and the bevelled timber. I'd thought about doing it this time but just wanted to get on with it. Hopefully I'll have more energy next time.

Also I painted all the metal work black. I used some matt black spray in some places - the door latches which immediately came off on the Cornish Cream paint. I also used matt black Humbrol enamel on the hinges, just to give it a nice touch.

As I continue to work from home and my wife needs her workspace on the landing back I may well have to tidy inside so I can set up my laptop and work from here. Surrounded by hobby I'll have to resist the temptation though and keep focussed! 😉

Blood Bowl - Nurgle Team griming

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Nurgle Blood Bowl team members. So these guys are almost complete now. The only thing not done is varnish and base.

I wanted to capture the pre-tar highlights on the shoes and feet though. They'll never be seen again sadly. I'm not 100% convinced about the green guys watery cataract eye, but it's a miner thing and I think I finally got a depth of colour in the green skin that I was happy with.

The dirty pants as well came out consistent with the test model. In fact I added Burnt Umber to all the team so they have a similar starting point. There are considerably more layers of wash to really get that dirty unwashed effect but it's another step done that'll help move them each along.

And of course the dead bleached flora poking out of the [eventual] tar. These all got various coats of green, sepia, strong tone and dark tone washes. The sand and stones just a Skavenblight Dinge and Stonewall grey drybrush, with dark tone wash to help blend them into the eventual black base.

The Pestigor is at a similar stage but I'm contemplating whether to do more with the skin. I also need to have a play with the balls 😂 get them to a point I'm happy with. These just need the varnish and the gloss black 3D texture paint and I'll be a quarter of the way through the team [add the Pestigor and it's one third!]

Imperial Knights - House Corvus extra weapons

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Imperial Knight weapons. I've had these unfinished since I completed Lady Pettorini and Ser Ellenbogen [although the black auto-cannon is from Euronymous]. With no urgency to them and somewhat trivial a project I've just not bothered to get them done.

I put a bit of effort into them though and got the missile launcher almost complete. Some of the battle damage is a bit too stark and I need to tone it down. The targeting lenses need finishing up and maybe see about tweaking the verdigris a bit. The missiles themselves are OK, I just think the big ones need something else - ring around the warhead, about half-way down or an actual coloured tip, black or Khorne red in both instances...?

So little left but somehow feels like so much yet to do. Meanwhile I've been doing a lot of DIY at home at the moments so these little projects are ideal to fill in while I'm preoccupied with real world painting projects.

Blood Bowl - Nurgle Team highlights

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been continuing #paintingwarhammer Nurgle Blood Bowl team members. I had a play around with the green on this guy, gave him a lime green glaze, which has mad his skintone more interesting but I still need some highlights and mottling on it to be where I want it to be.

I also highlighted all the orange elements and his red fleshy bits. They came out really well in fact, the highlights have a translucent sheen about them that I'm pleased about.

I added a bit more shading and contrast on this guy's fleshy bits. The orange is working really well too. I'm still [stupidly] highlighting the feet, knowing full well they'll be covered in black tar when I do the bases.

I have noticed that I did more orange on these compared to my test model. The armour edges on the test was more rust brown in places. I might have to address that in later players.

And lets not forget the Pestigor. Again the red bits are fine, but the highlights on the purple skin is nowhere near as light as the test model. I can't quite deiced whether that's OK or not.

I don't think purple is traditionally considered a Nurgle colour, it fits Slaanesh or Tzeentch more, but I've no problem with using it. I just don't think it's what I had hoped to replicate from the test model. Again, it doesn't have to, I don't mind a wide variety of skintones that started from similar base colours. But experimentation is more useful if it leads to a technique or skill that I can replicate.

It's all well and good to keep having 'happy accidents' - achieving things I'm pleased with, but if I can't do it again then I'll ended up in situations where I just get frustrated because I haven't locked that technique down and added to my skillset.

Blood Bowl - Nurgle Team skintones

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Nurgle Blood Bowl team members. With disadvantage of having so many projects on the go that I can fall back on when I get stuck is what happens when you get stuck on the majority of them? Well you grasp onto that one project that is keeping you afloat - and that's these shambling bags of pus. This guy was supposed to be an exploration in yellow skin, but I ended up with a raw and painful looking mass of flesh instead.

I'm OK with that though. It's not what I intended but the result is pretty cool.

This Nurgle green guy is less successful. Granted the red fleshy bits and rawness is there again but the green is just boring.

Luckily this isn't putting me off, I'm seeing it more as a challenge, an opportunity to play around and get a green skintone I'm happy with.

With all the other projects so unappealing it's great to have something to look forward to.

Adeptus Titanicus - Titans in Manufactorum - Greys

Afternoon #warmongers and I am #paintingwarhammer #AdeptusTitanicus. The advantage of having numerous projects on the go is you can always jump onto something else when your motivation wanes. So as I avoid the Land Raider Redeemer I tried adding some of the Legio Gryphonicus spot pattern on my titan carapaces and although the Warhound came out really well the Reaver is much darker and less convincing.

I was really quite pleased with the result, I don;t know how much of the zenithal priming is still apparent on it now but the patterns on both the grey and yellow seem consistent, the scrollwork also looks cool.

I even managed to keep both sides patterning consistent.

But then the Reaver somehow is just too dark. Part of me is trying to convince myself that that's acceptable and that all my Titans can have different greys and yellows. But another part of me is not having it. The blue shield came out OK though. Hopefully I'll one day get the decals to put on them.

The spots are much more defined, showing the priming more. The problem is I can't quite recall what I did on the Warhound to achieve it's effect, there was a good few days between painting them and my lack of hobby just meant I forgot the process.

I did however put some effort into the weapons. They have their yellow done and all the bronze panel edges have been shaded and highlighted. I've more highlights to go but these are super tedious.

The net result - having lost motivation on the Land Raider and jumped to these I've not stalled ont he Titans and gone back to the Nurgle Blood Bowl team.

'nids part 282 - Tyrannnofex base colours

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer on my Tyranid Tyrannofex. I took a week's leave around this time and had promised to paint the kitchen. It's been needing it since I painted the back room, which was another project that was delayed year's after I vacated it, hobby-wise, into the man-cave. Lets just say it was overdue and over 4 days days I got everything painted - 4 thick coats on the walls, all the wood work fixed some cracks and other general wear and tear. Hobby wasn't particularly high on the agenda, certainly not when my back had gone on day one. Luckily the effort helped it strengthen over the days rather than make it worse. But I found time to put some base coats on the Tfex

It's not actually stuck to the base so I was able to get underneath for all the bone and chitin. I then added the first sepia shadow wash, with a strong tone wash to follow.

The head was also brought up to speed and with a little more effort it'll slot in alongside the numerous spare Carnifex heads I've also had on the go.

It's pretty much just an oversized Carnifex head afterall.

So the Tfex is now in the same state as the rest of the Tyranids I got primed - the Hive Guard conversions, the Warrior and the DevGaunts [although they've had some highlights]. More floating projects I'll dip into, or use to avoid, when I'm stuck on something else [Lnnd Raider Redeemer].