Upgrading my armour

So the time has come for another competition entry. This time the theme was vehicles/armour, so I did a heavily weathered Hellhound to sit with my (very slowly) growing IG force.

This time I went to town with some mud type effects (Stirland Mud texture paint, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then drybrushed with Karak Stone). Here are some pictures...I think I may have overcooked it in a few places, but overall I'm pretty happy with the results.

Whilst I was in the mood for tanks, I got some of my old armour out and improved them a bit. There's something satisfying about upgrading a model...it shows you how far your skills have come along. Here I added some weathering, redid the carbon staining from the exhausts, added some tonal variation on the reds and did the edge highlights on the black areas. Still to do is the transfer in the front of the hull, and at some point, some freehand designs on the top of the hull.

And here are my two 'Speed painted' rhinos...with a small amount more weathering as well.

Command Squad finished

Finished Command Squad (finally)! I am not sure what it is I'm not happy with on these guys, but there is something I can't put my finger on...

The helmets were supposed to look like battered brass, but are probably a bit rougher than I would have liked...I have run out of time to touch them up again, but I am going to do some my sanguinary guard squad soon so plenty of time to practice.

I really enjoyed doing the banner, but didn't really leave myself enough time to do the freehand on the combat shield, so the design is very simple. I may come back to these at a later time to pick up on some of the details, but for now they have to go into the store for the competition! Wish me luck!

Command Squad WIP 2

So I learnt a lesson this morning. The Blood Angels chapter banner is not easy to do, and shouldn't be left until the last minute! I have been impressed with how good the details are on it, but boy does it take a long time to get right.

A started off with a white bordered banner, but after a while realised that it was a bit too bright for the rest of the squad.

I have moved to a purple border now, and I'm much happier with it.

So here are a few photos of the miniatures on their bases, although there is still quite a bit of work left to go. Hopefully I will find time to finish them before they are due to be judged in 2 weeks time!

Command Squad WIP

So I've been making some progress with my Blood Angels Command Squad. I know they're not super competitive, but they are great looking units with tons of scope for cool paint jobs. The ones I have are a kitbashed from assault squad, sanguinary guard and tactical squad bits and pieces.

So far the whole gang have base colours on and washes done...so I'm just starting to highlight them up. This morning I did all the reds on the company champion, and first stage red on the sanguinary novitiate:

I'm going to get them all to the stage of the champion before I do the final highlight...just so I can get the colouration and the depth consistent.  I am really pleased with how smooth the transitions are on the champion; I don't have an airbrush and find it hard to get that smooth tone change right with the brush.

I'm looking forward to painting the company standard; it's the one from the sanguinary guard set, and looks really great fun to do. I'm also going to try and do some kind of freehand design on the champions shield if I have the time...suggestions for designs welcome as always!

That's it for now.

Completed Knight Questor

So here it is in its final form; my first AoS mini and latest competition entry. All in all took about 8 hours to get up to scratch. I have gone for a non standard base size as I have no intention of ever gaming with him, and it brought back memories of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Being a slave to GW I also have bought a squad of liberators to paint at some stage, mainly because I had a really good time painting this miniature.

In other news, the lowly assault marine I painted up for last months Battle of the Brush won first place! I'm really happy with that result, especially considering the very high standard of competition on display.  Next up is my Blood Angels command squad, who are taking shape nicely at the moment...pictures to follow in due course!

AoS progress day 2

So I put some more work into my Knight Questor today. I'm having a blast painting this miniature, it's one of the best I have ever seen. That Stormcast army is starting to look very tempting indeed!

Still to do is the remainder of the Cape  (white is going to be tricky, then some freehand on that), the helmet plume, finishing the accessories and the shield, and doing the sword. I'm also going to do some touch up depth work with the gold in places (burnt umber in the recesses and light silver on the tips).

I've got a base picked out, it's a 50mm bike base and looks like some old temple ruins so fits with the dungeon crawl narrative.

My squad for next months Battle of the Brush is coming along (albeit much more slowly with the sigmarine on the scene), and I'm starting to put some thoughts together for the vehicle entry...

Enough for now, hoping to get a finished mini sometime this weekend!

'Speed' painting Sigmar

So my Knight Questor arrived! I couldn't resist cracking on with him as I've been waiting ages to paint something from Age of Sigmar (although this model is from the Silver Tower game). Here are some WIP shots of my evening:

Primed in black, then base coated in Hashut Copper:

Next a liberal drybrush of Gehannas Gold:

Followed by a slightly more conservative Runefang Steel drybrush, with a bit of extra Runefang highlighting on the very exposed tips:

And now a Seraphim Sepia wash, the astute will notice I have started blocking in some of the Kantor Blue here as well :

Followed by an Agrax Earthshade wash (sorry the picture is a bit blurry...its getting dark!):

So I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. The sculpt on this figure is astonishing, and next to no mould lines or flashing. I love the pose too, and the level of detail is brilliant. I hope this doesn't mean a new addiction to Stormcast Eternals!

I'll get some better pictures next time I paint so that you can see the progress a bit more clearly!

Assault marine finally complete!

So here it is, my entry is pretty much done. I am experimenting with photography a bit here too...I'm not sure the white background is the way to go, but it's all I had to hand!  I'm waiting on some grey cards and a tripod for my SLR so I can stop having to take pictures on my phone (although the quality isn't too bad...it often hides a multitude of painting sins!).

I hope you like it. Unfortunately GW has got me good and proper by putting on a two week Silver Tower painting challenge. I'm just now awaiting delivery of my Knight Questor to make my entry.

I am trying to decide whether to go for the traditional gold look, and if so whether to try NMM, or whether to go completely nuts on it. I have seen a really good Stormcast Eternal painted to look like the armour is made of porcelain...sounds weird, but looks great...and I am tempted to impersonate the look. I'd love to know people's thoughts on alternative sigmarine colour schemes, if you have seen anything interesting please let me know!

That's all for now...Silver Tower Knight to follow...

Competition WIP

So I tried to have a productive early morning with some Nine Inch Nails and higlighting.  I'm still not done with the loin cloth, and there are a couple of touch ups to do still. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with how it's progressing: 

If anyone has any inspiration for the freehand design on the shoulder, please comment! Also I'm not sure about doing a chevron on the right knee pad...again comments welcome!

Competition entry updates!

I am carrying on entering my local GW painting competitions...I am convinced that it is a great way to improve my painting, and I feel like I am getting better and better results each time. I recently entered my heavily weathered chimera into the vehicles class, where I posted a respectable 2nd place! 

The winning unit was a Space Wolves Contemptor that was frankly stunning, so I don't feel too bad about missing out on top spot!

The next competition is a single unit hero class, so I am going to enter one of my assault marines, the guy at the front here:

I have tried to do some freehand on the right shoulder, and will post my experiences when it's a bit more complete.

After that is going to be the next squad competition, and I  going to enter these guys:

They are my new Blood Angels command squad, with jump packs. I love these guys as they are pretty much kitbashed from sanguinary guard, death company, tactical squads and assault marine jump packs. I am really looking forward to doing the banner, and might try out some more free handing, depending on how my current guy goes! Better pictures will follow, of course.

The month after that is a vehicle competition, so I am just now awaiting delivery of my first land raider crusader to paint up. I've got big plans to take the top spot with that one...if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for how to make it great, please let me know!

I did some more this evening on the single miniature entry I have going, and made a start on the dreaded yellow helmet. Everyone says yellow is tough to get right, and I agree! I have gone for a grimdark feel again, not the hyper highlighted look from the codex. I've also tried to wetblend up from the shaded areas up to the highlights. I don't think it's too bad for a first go, I may come back to it again later on..

Averland Sunset washed with Seraphim Sepia and Agrax right in the crevasses. Then highlighted up through Averland and to almost pure Flash Gitz yellow.

Sorry for the short post...work is killer, so I'm not getting as much hobby time as I would like...any comments about the stuff I'm working on, let me know...I would love to hear them!

Chimera Conversion part 4 - Finished!

So I think I am finally happy with the Chimera.  The only steps that were left were to finalise the track work and add some minor 'dirt wear' to the bottom portion and the track sides.  So here it is, any feedback is most welcome, bear in mind it was my first go at doing major weathering!