Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Its as simple as Black and White


Howdy.

So I have finally decided to begin working on my Ostland Empire Army again for Warhammer FB. I was doing fairly well on them about 2 years ago, and then life got complicated and these guys have not seen the light of day since then.

So I have a few WIPS I was last working on since the last time I saw them and a image or two of my spearmen unit so far. I really like the black and white look with the red accent. I intend to add the "red Bull" head to the shields as soon as I can narrow down the exact pattern I want.

if all goes well this weekend I will be working on some more of my Dark Eldar, my Empire and the Valkya conversion.

I'm also going to post my articles on painting Black, White and Red. They are good simple tutorials and this Empire Army is the basis for those articles.

Comments and critique are always welcome.








Monday, August 22, 2011

Back to School


Howdy. Its back to school day and parents everywhere are rejoicing. Well except for homeschoolers, like us, who view it as Monday. But I digress.

Crazy busy weekend, but I did make a little progress on my venom, sadly no pictures, but those will get up later this week.

For now, unit 2 of my Dark Eldar wyches. They are painted up using the same armor recipe for the warriors.
Base: Tau Sept Ochre
Wash with thinned GW Ogryn Flesh to change the depth of the base color, more like a glaze.
Shade with I Kore Earth, which is a great Dark Red-Brown color
Highlight with a mix of Tau Sept Ocher and and P3 Moldy Ocher.
Final HIghlight using I Kore Desert Sand or Vallajo Sand.

The Body Suit is done with base coat of GW Scorched Brown and Dark Flesh
then its washed with Devlan Mud and then Badab Black
First Highlight is done with GW Dark Flesh, and I gradually add P3 Skorne Red.
Finally a very thin highlight of pure Vallejo Sand is applied to pick out the highlights.





The hair actually took quite a while. The base color is P3 Frostbite, then it is washed with GW Hawk Turquoise. After that I built up the hair color with P3 Frostbite , and then added P3 Morrow White to the mix and finally touched the the most prominent areas and tips with GW skull white.

I'm still trying to get the skin colors right, but for now they are pretty good.

These guys are still a Work on Progress, as are the the first group. I plan to expand them to 10 models each, and then add a 3rd and maybe a fourth unit for a Webway portal army.

One thing I am thinking about doing is doing some you tube videos for a few tutorials. Seems everyone is out there making videos, and a lot of what I do can be much better explained with video than in words.

I'm also going to start selling some painted items from time to time on this site. Not sure who to do that yet, but Ebay is getting a little silly with policies and fees. More on that later.

Anyhoo, your thoughts and opinions are important, so I love to hear what you guys and gals think.

Monday, August 15, 2011

A Long Weekend and some Updates!


Howdy all. What a long weekend I had with very little progress on the wargaming and hobby front.
We were supposed to have a nice trip to visit family in San Antonio, but my father was sick so we scrapped that. Part of the reason for the trip was I had to go to a coaching clinic in Corpus Christie. So instead of a leisurely 2 hour drive I had a 4 hours drive each way. Sigh...The clinic was not all that great. There was a guy from Nebraska talking about his success in youth football there. I think he should spend a little more time in Texas. Its a whole 'nother critter here. At least I had a couple good podcasts to listen to on the drive. But I digress.

I did get a nice picture of the Aircraft Carrier Lexington. Its huge!


I also took some decent pictures of my Wych unit. I use different hair color to distinguish the different units and I am pretty pleased with the results.

The red does seem a little out of character for the army scheme, but I have to admit I am liking it when they are paired up with the skimmers. its doesn't show up with the warriors so much since they are primarily sand and black, where the wyches are red and sand. Still, I like the overall look and how they all are coming together.

I hope y'all like them.









I need to finish up the bases. I'm not sure if I want to go with a black color sand or sand color sand. I keep waffling back and forth. I am hopeful this week I will get it narrowed down and get these girls finished.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

The Dog Days of Summer....


Howdy, I don't know about you guys, but it is really hot. I mean just sit in the shade and melt hot. Fortunately, the heat has kept me inside and I have been making a little more progress on my Dune inspired Dark Eldar.

One of the things I have developed a real attachment to are venoms. I tell ya, these have got to be the best little transport in the game of 40k ever. They look great, assembled very easily and the rules for them are very well done.

I have been working on one little by little getting some of the colors worked out and adding the black halo to them. The one I have been finalizing is not completely done yet, but it is coming along rather nicely.




There is still quite a bit to do to get this done.Crewmen need to be worked on as do the weapons. The shading needs to be added to a number of areas and the transport section in the back is in dire need of shading and detailwork. But all in all I am rather pleased.

I am confident a few are wondering where I got the name of the Black Halo from, since this is a Dune inspired theme. One of the bands I like a lot is Kamelot. Its a gothic heavy metal band and they did a 2 part concept album/cd or whatever the kids call it nowadays. Download?? Anyhoo, their second album is named The Black Halo and the first song is The March of Mephisto, which if you go to see the video is just dark and sinister in the feel.

Trying to include the march of Mephisto in the theme was going to be a stretch, but the black halo, on my desert background, totally works! For me at least. That and I am a stickler for doing alternative paint schemes on everything. I think if I did Ultramarines I would paint them white or something different.

The other things I am working on are a Valkya conversion which is halfway done. I have the body set up, but I need to add the wings, spear , shield and make the slight body and armor conversions.

Also I am working on a Kugath conversion that is so long overdue its not even funny. Not in the least bit.


It took me the better part of 3 weeks to get this far on the conversions. I have a few more to add and tidy things up and then it is ready for paint. So my end of summer and fall are going to be busy getting all of these things done.

That and I am going to start painting and selling some of my less used or not used armies and figures again. Lots of things I just don't use or have not used in many years are going up for sale. I'm not sure if I will ebay them or try to sell them here. Ebay is getting kind of silly with their fees, but it is a worldwide audience so.... Anyway, stay tuned, there is a lot of things going to be happening here. WOOT!