And then there were 10

2nd Scorpion Squad finished, the boring stuff is done, onto personalities and Dragon Squads!

The future will hold a vyper squad upgrade, it's just too good to pass up. 

Sorry nothing too exciting, just the meat and potatoes that go into any army.

Until next time! 

Today's Progress: Serpent Squad Completed(?)

It's been awhile working on these guys, today though I had some inspiration from somewhere and managed to get 5 of the 17 figures I need finished for the rogue trader game I plan to run in February. 

I'm not thrilled with the look of them; they're a bit sloppy and rushed looking which does not compliment the sharp angles and precise details of the sculpts. Even the bases look a bit crap and looks like I'll be using tufts after all. 

I did try tiger striping on the leader's helmet but I didn't pull it off. 

I did force myself to put some effort into the lenses on the helms and even managed a halfway decent job of the spot effect in the corners. The illusion is almost there. 

The fact of the matter is that these guys are taking too long. There is no way I'll have all 3 factions finished for the rogue trader session so I've opted to stick with the 'stealer invasion force with a quick basecoat and wash paintjob: 

http://www.miniwargaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=46148

I plan on having them as part of my hive fleet 'Spectre' which in its fledgling stages will be a purely stealer/lictor vanguard force operating in tandem with chaos genestealer cultists somewhere down the line.

I hope you're all enjoying your new year. 

2015; A year in review

It's been a good year some big ups and downs, both at and away from the painting table. But this is an Oldhammer blog so let's get to it! 

The biggest achievement was the completion of my Skaven army (so far), it comes in at a maximum build size of just over 4K in points and I stopped counting at 250 figures. 

It's all for the sake of completion; having options is the spice of life and I can now place every unit available in the armies book with 14 characters in total to choose from with every weapon option available at least twice. Which brings us to;

2015 Painting

8 clan rats OG plastic 

19 giant rats

20 black skaven

2 halberd hero 

20 Stormvermin 

10 gutter runners 

1 spear hero 

Throt the unclean 

Beastmaster hero 

4 warp fire crew

4 jezzailachis crew 

1 wizards 

3 poison wind globadiers (Gnawdooms)

5 chaos hounds 

99 figures painted & based, over 50 painted shields (mostly converted) and 4 hand painted standards. 

It's a step down from 2014: 121 figures but still better than 2013's measly 61. 

I also got to meet Sully who runs oldenhammerintoronto which is a great blog. He's fun to run against, drinks beer and has some great terrain, the man can paint too;

Here's a shot from my latest head kicking, doesn't sully's table look great? 

Damned Orc enginuity go back to squatting in a ditch stick berries up your noses.

My Void Dragons have have been slow going; they are the first army where my initial colour choices changed. In the past I've never done a test model. 

I just put a lot of thought into the paint scheme and do a lot of testing on palette but these Eldar are a pain. Could've had my painted figures over 100! 

Some boring details below;

My long and overthought paint scheme really took a lot of joy out of my brush time. I went from Tamiya XF-74 olive drab then hit it with army painter dark wash and then laid the basecoat again in two light coats.

In future I will use Secret Weapon black wash, it's just as pigmented but has a better flow additive leaving less behind on armour plating. It also comes out of a bottle so no future floor polish mixes or any other inconsistent nonsense. 

I then highlighted with XF-13 JA Green which turned out to be a terrible idea as you can see above. It really darkened the figure and it wasn't enough of a colour difference to justify the time. I'm trying to keep coats thin and even to reflect the smooth armour plating; no blotches or paint chunks.

My second attempt

I then tried Tamiya XF 58 Olive Green which turned out looking ok, it's the same as the basecoat just without the drab part. I read a very good article of olive drab paint in the US military especially their armoured core.

Apparently it was nearly impossible for mechanics to replicate the original paint jobs resulting in some very questionable definitions of olive drab, and some very upset Majors. 

It added a bit of brightness but nothing overpowering. Remember the original was to do a 3 stage highlight but time is not on my side.

There's a little_24 on the way and I want as many armies finished as possible before he arrives.

My third and favourite choice though would prove to be Vallejo game colour 70.924: Russian Uniform WW1

I think the "fine lining" highlight is the most effective, my future line work will be made much more precise; the work on the feet is outright sloppy. In my own defence though I did paint the entire figure with a No.2 brush, in future I'll take something half the size and do some edging whenever possible.

Anyway this is the look I've chosen, the helmets are going to be the real star of the figure. 

Ideally The armour should've been highlighted in XF58 and then a fine line on the edges but time is not on my side.

I haven't decided to go extremely bright or to go for a creamy yellow on the helmets Feel free to comment I'm up for debate. 

Either way they will be getting some striping; hey what can I say I'm a sucker for the book of the Astronamican. 

I was originally going to base them in a Mars theme but red/orange with green armour; I'd be called the Christmas space elves forever.

I'm going to go with a beige/white stone for the bases; hopefully it will make the greens really pop and make the eye lenses stand out. 

In theory and the Vallejo black grey guns should stay nice and neutral.

The goal is for it to look like a darker salt flat (does that make sense) but with rocky outcroppings and a minimal amount of dead tufts. I prefer to lavish my bases but I put a lot of work into the "hard" elements to offset the lack of vegetation. Hopefully I can pull it off. 

I'd like to put some Saim Hann transfers on just to show some allegiance to their maiden craftworld. But like I said; 

TIME. 

I've got a game in mind for a RT three way between a genestealer invasion force, Eldar pirates and chaos terminators, with secret objectives (thanks for the idea from your 2nd ed battle reports legio custodes)

Oh and did I mention it will all be played on a custom space Hulk board? Lots to do but it will all be worth it in the end. 

Lastly; 

All the best to my readers in the new year, thank you all for your ongoing support, you have no idea what it means to have people following my projects albeit at my snail's pace. I hope to have a game with you all someday! 

Please everyone mind your P&Q tonight and don't drink and drive.  

A Little Late On the Update

Finally massed to get the basecoat

Finished on 12 figures; 6 more to go and I'll have my serpent squads complete.

I plan on upgrading a squad with the vyper upgrade which makes the unit champions and gives them powered armour on top of their already magnificent refractor field invul 5+ save

2/3 melts guns thus far. 

Next I'll be working on 

2 Eoan hire hearts, and an irric true shot; 

They appear to be wearing powered armour and so they get the nod from me for priority

To complete the viper squad I'll take Elres fireflash as their leader

After that a couple of commander inghin  keen tongue models and that's all my serpent squads complete.

It was important for me to include figures with at least passable powered armour for the vyper squad; what you see is what you get is an important rule which I endeavour to follow.

Well that's it for now, hopefully I'll get the chance to get the 6 models finished for New Years. Hopefully, not likely. 

Eldar WIP

I thought I'd have 10 done by today but I've only washed and basecoated 5 warriors. 

Although I am way behind schedule I am happy with the effect so far; especially for the limited time I've had to put aside for them. I've had the flu so painting is a pain.

Really starting to reconsider tiger striping. 

And then there were 10

I've decided that if I don't push myself to split the army into "chunks" then I'm going to end up line painting the entire force; I suppose it is a lesson learned from my fantasy army. 

With a great deal of the army (30 of 32 infantry thus far) already basecoated in Tamiya olive drab, metal areas in citadel (boo hiss) leadbelcher and weapons and ammo pouches in Vallejo model color black grey and then laden with an army painter dark tone wash I've decided to stop and concentrate on getting 10 figures, all but 1 carrying a shuriken catapult finished. 

The catapult variant are actually standard bearers but that's a moot point. I gave their helms an army painter strong tone wash and I must say I'm digging the effect. If it turns out as I hope I may just decal the helms and leave tiger striping back in the 80's.

I'm still under a month in on the project with a chance of having 10 finished (up to the basing stage) by December.

My original goal was 5 figures but line painting just makes things so much easier IMHO, but it is a double edged sword, too much you get bored in the repetitive, too little you feel less determined starting from scratch.

That is just my opinion, there are those of us (oldhammer painters) which are perfectly content to paint a single figure at a time; to them I say bravo, but it's not for me. I hope to find a bottled colour to highlight the olive drab otherwise custom paint will be a pain. 

Thanks for reading; comments always welcome.

Void Dragons Part 2

I am 18 days into the project, to show for it I've gotten 2 serpent squads basecoated with the dark areas wash coated, and another 5 basic troopers dark parts base coated. 

My goal was to get 5 painted fully based, decaled, based and varnished by the end of the month, but I think it may be better to get as many of them basecoated and washed ready for highlights. We'Il see; these are a lot harder to paint than Skaven, lots of detail and plenty of room for freehand, fingers crossed. Fallout 4 and battlefront are out this month, not a good sign! 

Plasma gunner! 

Leader 

Trooper