Something wicked this way comes! Oh My...

Howdy all.

It almost Halloween and I have been busy with many projects that are keeping me away from my painting desk, but I do have one little item I did when it came out last year and this is one bad samma jamma.

A Skaven Hellpit Abomination. Now first off let me say I think the original pose is pretty good, but they missed the mark in a bad way when they did the heads. I think they may have been inspired by the 80s version of " The Thing", but epicly failed, in my own opinion.

That being said I went about my own idea of something better, and what I came up with was one large central head that looked vaguely rat like and then a couple little heads off to the side.

Hope you enjoy and please be careful driving out there on Halloween, I won't be the only one out there with my daughters trick or treating and I like for every little kid to have a happy and safe evening out there.

True Love? True Blood/? No, its Trueborn Pt 2

Howdy. Sorry I have been a little slow in the posting, but I have been crazy busy.


Anyhoo, up for review is the second of my 2 current DE Trueborn units. This unit is made up of females. Not the sultry sensuous vixens Hollywood my come up with. I think they have a touch of sadistic. I was somewhat inspired by the freak girlfriend character from the movie Doomsday. Maybe not the best movie, but it did have some interesting personalities.

The ladies have 2 of my blaster conversions using a splinter rifle and the blaster from the Reavers. its a little bit oversized, but, when compared to the undersized tip from the blast pistol, I prefer the reaver blaster.


As always, comments and thoughts are welcome!

True Love? True Blood/? No, its Trueborn

HOWDY.

Its been crazy busy, but still a I have updates. Everyone loves updates. Up for review is one of my 2 Dark Eldar Trueborn units.

One of the big issues I think all Dark Eldar players have had is what to use as trueborn. Some use the bubble heads, others have used the Incubi heads and others have used different combinations of cloaks, Dark Elf corsiar heads, banners etc...

I wanted to do something a little bit different, so I went with the obvious, I used the Dark Eldar heads from the warriors and wyches box sets. Not very creative or revolutionary I know, but the sculpts are simply amazing and are among the best heads I think GW has every made.

Also, I am really not too keen on payinp upwards of $10 for a blaster bit, so what I did was re-purpose some splinter rifles with the blaster bits from my Reaver jet bikes. I also used sections of the blast pistols in the boxes. I'm actually much happier with the reaver jetbike conversion that the blast pistol. its much easier to do and looks like it fits better, but since I need 12 models with blasters just for my trueborn, and then another 6 at least for my Warriors, I wasn't going to be too picky.

Anyhoo, I broke the first 2 units into male and female units. First unit is the males.

I still need to the bases, but those are on the agenda this weekend along with finishing out 2 of my venoms. I actually have high hopes to get a fair amount of final details done this weekend and start making much better progress on my projects.

Comments and critiques are always welcome.

A Scourge on you!

Howdy.

I've been busy. I know its hard to believe, but it does happen from time to time. Still, I have some progress to report. Ok not really progress, but pictures of my Dark Eldar Scourges that are almost done.

its kind of sad how much of my Dark Eldar are almost done. My goal is to have my Dark Eldar done by Christmas Holidays. Should be able to pull it off. Maybe not all of my DE, but at least 3K points.

My focus of late has been doing more competition models, so I have been doing a little shopping around  for some inspirational figures that I want to paint for the love of painting. I've picked up a couple of Reaper figures and a couple of those Kingdom Death figures that seem to fly off the shelves anytime they are for sale.

I'm also starting to make some progress on the valkya model for my buddy Raymond. I know its may overdue and Raymond's a great guy for being as patient as he has been. Also is the Kugath conversion. So expect to see some progress on those 2 here shortly.

But on to the pictures. Up for review are my Scourges for Dark Edlar. I wanted to keep my desert Dune theme going, so I painted them up with a darker brown armor. Its a mix of GW Scorched brown and Dark Flesh and a tiny bit of black. It initially comes out very dark. Its almost the same as the fabric for my DE warriors. Its washed with thinned GW Asurmen Blue, the BW Devlan Mud and then a thin wash of GW Badab Black. I then apply the base color again and add GW Bubonic Brown to the mix for the highlights.

The weapons are base in GW Chaos Black and then highlighted by adding Hawk turquoise and GW Scaly Green. The color is OOP, but Vallejo makes a good alternative that I use in their Game Color Range.

The skin I wanted darker than my warriors and wyches. base coat is Dwarf Flesh and Dark Flesh, shaded with Devaln mud and Ogryn Flesh and then highlighted with Dwarf flesh and adding GW Elf Flesh to the mix until its where I want it. The flesh was kind of a pain, especially the wings since I used a bit too much water and my wet blending became a wet mess. But it worked out just fine in the end.

The Helmets are the same as my Warrior helmets. Bone, washed with Ogryn Flesh, highlighted with vallejo Desert Sand and Bone White with final highlights of GW Skull White.

One thing I did here on the helmet was to detail the individual feathers. I am really pleased with how these turned out.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Happy Wednesday !

Howdy.

So I continue my progress on my DE. I am also adding more interesting blogs that I keep track of.

Also, the house is a wreck. The family is vacationing and I am still here trying to get the honey do's done. Hmmm, so far so good. Still I think I can have most of the mess cleaned up by Friday.

Back on topic. My DE are Dune inspired. I like the Dune books, I'm not a fanatic over them, but they are good and the movies made about them were also I thought, pretty darn good. That being said I went with a basic desert color scheme. Nothing to over the top.

Here is the basic scheme. The first picture is kind of bad. I am still experimenting with exposure and light types and I think I have it nearly figured out as most of my pictures are getting better results.

Anyhoo, overall I am liking what I have here and I am working to get all my DE done before the end of the year. its a tall order, but I think with steady progress I can have it all complete.

The basic colors are for the armor are GW Tausept Ochre. I then shade with GW Orgyn Flesh. I don't really use the wash much other than to help set the tone for the undercoat. Next is a wet blend mix of I kore's Earth color, which is a nice dark red brown color, similar to a mix of GW Scorched Brown and Dark flesh, and Tau sept Ochre. The final highlight is I Kore Meridian Sand. There is no real GW equivalent, but it would a mix of Bubonic Brown and Bleach bone and Skull white.

You could also use Vallejo Pale Sand, the problem here is that Pale sand has low saturation and does not pop very much when compared to the GW colors, or I should say as the final highlight it is less vibrant than the colors it is trying to highlight.

The Helmet is bleached bone, washed with GW Orgyn Flesh and then shaded with very thinned down I Kore Earth. Next the helmet bleached bone is mixed with P3 Moldy Ochre to get a yellowish tone, then is highlighted with skull white.

The weapons are done with Snakebite Leather shaded withe badaab Black and highlighted by adding Moldy Ochre to the Snakebite leather.

All in all it takes about 3 hours per figure. What's weird is I have not hit a burnout yet. I really enjoy painting this army, the more I do , the more I want to work on. I forgot who said it, but this really is a painters army. it is dynamic, has lots of interesting details and just plain looks cool as all get out when it is done.

Here is one of my venom WIPS

These little things are a absolute blast to play with. They zip around, shot lots of shots and just plain look really cool. I love these! As you can tell, they paint up very nicely and look good pretty much no matter what you do with them. GW has done its part to release some really ugly or lack luster models over the years, but these have got to be one of the best kits they have ever made. Good job design team!