Gorman Di Wulfe

Had a solid painting session with my younger brother yesterday. I managed to paint one complete mini during a late afternoon/late evening sit-down. Gorman should make a very helpful addition to my slowly (but steadily) growing Cryx force. He should add some firepower with his grenades and the his Smoke Bombs should provide some cover for my caster.
It's so much more enjoyable to work on one mini at a time instead of painting a larger batch of models simultaneously. It allows you to plan better and focus more closely on highlighting everything in a more coherent way.
I started by preparing a base. I used wine cork for the stone. Putting Gorman on it gave the model a little more dynamic pose. I also usually start painting the base first as I do it mostly using the good 'ol drybrush technique, which makes getting unwanted traces of paint on the model all to easy. Still, at this stage it's not a problem.
I wanted to paint him using mainly dark shades of brown and gray with some blues and greens to add a little variety. Only the lenses on his mask were painted with red highlighted to yellow as I thought a little bit of a warmer color should fit in nicely (the frontal silver piece looks much brighter in the pic than irl). I also wanted a color scheme that would match my other painted Cryx units.
Overall I'm pleased with the effects though I didn't manage to take a picture that would show everything well. Probably too much light today and that's why the model seems to be a bit too shiny (even though I used an anti-shine matt varnish).
As you can see I also painted the marks for front and back arc on the rim of the base. I've seen different approaches to it, some that I didn't like too much (like painting half of the rim in a different color). I went for a quick and easy solution ans simply added two thin vertical lines on the sides of the base. I highlighted them so that they are clearly visible but at the same time don't affect the overall look of the model.
And as a bonus, a mini that my brother started painting. It's still a work in progress but I really like what he's done so far. His Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain is coming along nicely so far.





Now back to the brush, since I am currently on a sick leave, I plan to deal with my backlog (only one WM model remaining !!).

Angelic Host Day 6: Blood Brothers

Last days I was less active hobbywise, due to some uni problems, plus some negative energy from my failure to get job at academic radio....well that's behind me now. On weekend I started work on BA Assault Marines Squad, just to rest from Sanguinary Guard. I decided to use most of my airbrush and try to paint with it as much as I can.

That was day one of that project. Next step wasn't taken until today. I sat in the afternoon and I painted before long session with brand new Dragon Age 2 :):)

And as for the music bit, I've choosen probably the most suitable piece for Blood Angels. Blood Brothers by Papa Roach.

Disappointed

I got a few GW paints in these new pots and I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed.
First of all, the lids lack the element that Foundation paints and washes have, i.e. this piece of plastic that keeps them open (have a look at the picture above). I know that most of painters (myself included)do not take paint straight from the pots but this is pretty annoying even if you open them only for a moment to take some paint on the palette. I don't understand why GW would give up a fairly good design in favor of more cumbersome design. It's just a little thing but still, devil is in the details.
Another thing that surprised me was the actual amount of paint in a pot.
I don't know whether I was just unlucky or it's a common trend but instead of 12 ml, there were about 8 ml inside. Tough luck probably but all of the three paints I got were not full.
Other than that the containers look OK. I like the fact that they are transparent so that you can see the color of paint when you look at it from the top.
I've used GW paints since I got into the hobby and even now when there are so many other similar products, I stick to some of my favorite colors (Scorched Brown and Bleached Bone are a must for me). I will probably continue to do so but I can only hope that GW improves in this field.
OK, enough rambling about paints. I've been pretty lazy with painting recently and managed to finish only 8 minis.



Half trolls painted for a buddy of mine who is very much into the War of the Ring. The quality is not top-notch as I simply speed painted these, trying to maintain a table-top level.

Pick of the Week

For this Pick of the Week, Viruk and I, both agreed that we should introduce you all to Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time. Epic bunch of guys turning regular cooking into something that can only be found in WH40k or WFB ;)

Here's a sample, but be sure to check their whole channel on Youtube :)

Angelic Host Day 5: Golden Brown

Yesterday I did some work on remaining Sanguinary Guard. I decided that I'll paint them as one batch, hopefully It won't affect the quality much ;)

So far I only did half of their armour in NMM, hence the title. That's a lot of work with brown and yellow ;)

Angelic Host Day 4 : Say Hello to the Angels

Standard Bearer almost done, just the matter of picking the flock on base, but I'll wait with that for the rest of the squad.

Some alternative piece to match that disturbing guy with wings ;)

Jack in the Box part III

I've recently completed my biggest WARMACHINE hobby project - fully magnetized Cryx helljack. I posted a few WIP pics a while ago. Painting it was very enjoyable, though a bit tiresome at times. Working on several similar models (or rather parts in this case) can be a bit tiresome.
I can't really say which one I like the most as they all turned out OK (at least in my humble opinion). I guess Slayer has to be my favorite here. I am quite happy with the dynamic pose I managed to put this one into. You can see him in the pictures compared to the metal version I painted a few months ago.
Painting these guys assembled would be a pain in the neck. Their weapons have so many details placed at weird angles that reaching them with brush would be virtually impossible. The sculpts are pretty much out of control and Corruptor is a good example with his Necrojector and Sludge Cannon.
I have to admit that I didn't really do my best with the painting on these guys. Not my best effort as I was rushing things a bit. Still, I just wanted to get a solid 'tabletop' look without cutting corners too much while painting.
The Reaper looks a bit like some kind of beetle. At least this was my first thought when I put him together. I left Malices' addition to the harpoon glued permanently as making this part detachable would be pretty tricky.
Malice was the hardest one to work with as it took me a while to come up with an idea to incorporate all the elements. Magnetizing the soul tokens and placing the magnets randomly on the main body did the trick. I wanted the soul tokens to be very bright and stand out against the dark color of armor. I did it this way to make sure they are distinct enough and easy to notice while gaming (it's so easy to forget little details like extra tokens in the middle of a challenging game).
I used Vallejo pigments for the rust effect. They are very easy to use and they give a pretty realistic rust effect. Combined with a pigment fixer (definitely a must while working with natural pigments), they don't chip off easily.
So, here it is, once again in its full unholy glory:



Thanks for reading and watching. Any kind of feedback is appreciated :)