From the pits...

Wow, has it really been over a year since I updated?

Yes. Yes it has. Crazy.

In that time I have continued hobbying, but not at the same pace. However, I've failed to post what little progress I've made, so time to sort that.

I don't remember when I finished these exactly, but it was some point last year. Rat Ogres + Packmaster!

Now all I have left to paint in this army is one engineer and 40 slaves. I had planned on adding an Abomination, however the rumours about 9th really do nothing for me, so I can see myself wrapping up the army at that point. It's a shame, but after painting this many rats it's also a bit of a relief to have a clear finish-line.

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Iron Warriors + Long Overdue Update

Greetings, hope a merry Christmas was had by all. It has been a shamefully long time since I updated here, but that's not to say I haven't been doing any hobbying! Been working on some Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines, I've actually finished the army and hope to have pics of everything up soon but in the meantime here's some tasters.

 Helbrute!

Spawns!

Dark Apotheosis!

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The hero Skavenblight deserves...

Been far too long since I posted, mainly due to me working on hobby projects that I don't feel are worthy of posting yet (been working on some speed painting with Chaos Space Marines), but I took a break to do this little fella and I'm pleased with the result. A very old (and cute!) assassin model. Enemy wizards/war machines beware!

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Progress Report #1

In the next few days I'll be going far, far away from my hobby table for a while, so I really wanted to get my remaining 60 clanrats finished before then. Alas, I was only able to get them up to a minimum tabletop standard (base coloured, washed, some details and based). However this is still a good point to take stock of how I'm progressing so far and what I still have to do. So on to the pictures!

"Capture the Football/Soccer field we must, quick-quick!"

The first three pics show everything which is completely done, and in last pic you can see the two minimum standard units on either side. I hope you'll all agree that from this distance they are fine, I'll of course show them in more detail when there is more detail to show!

Still to do:

Finish 60 Clanrats, 1 WFT.

3 Warlock Engineers (1 with Brass Orb, 1 Doom Rocket).

23 Stormvermin.

40 Slaves.

2 Giant Rat Darts.

4 Rat Ogres.

So lots to go, but I feel like I'm about halfway through now. Anyway, that's gonna be it from me for a while, later!

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To the Skies!!

My local GW is doing an Apocalypse game this Saturday for fliers, skimmers and jump infantry only, so I thought I use that as an excuse to slow down with the Skaven and get some Assault Marines painted up.

A quick note about me and Space Marines, I have a large and neglected pile of them from my much younger days in the hobby and a while back decided I wanted to redo them as a Dorn successor chapter. After looking around the 40k wiki I settled on the Iron Fists, because the colours looked fun and I liked the back story. However painting marines is something I've always found tedious so I wanted to find a way of quickly doing them, basically by making the majority of the model a wash over Astronomicon Grey. This was my first attempt:

I was pretty pleased with it, but I pretty much left it there thinking I'd get around to the rest of them at some point in the future.

However, when I came to do my Assault Marines I realised there was a problem, namely that the most important paint in my scheme, Asurman Blue wash, is nothing like the new Drakenhof Nightshade shade, but as I don't have enough of the old colour I had to switch to the new one and hope for the best. Anyway, here are the results:

Its hard to decide which wash I like better (though the point is moot since Drakenhof is the only real option without hunting down an Asurman lookalike) but while I really like the colour of the Asurman Blue, Drakenhof does make them look dirtier, which is cool.

Anyhoo, this was a fun distraction but back to clanrats I go.

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Finished BSB

Just got this done and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

I did the banners first so that I could hold the model further up without rubbing off the paint, and after I did them I wasn't really taken with them. I imagine many people have similar feelings when it comes to freehanding though, since it takes practice to really get the image in your head onto the model. But anyway, now that the whole thing's done I'm happier with them.

I'm sure some of you have noticed the out of place shiny bits on the top banner in the second picture. It seems that Agrax Earthshade sometimes goes on matt, and other times glossy. Yeah. :/

Anyway, back to painting clanrats I go!

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More Clanrats, BSB w.i.p.

Just got done with another 20 clanrats with spears, which completes a unit of 40. I'm planning on mostly just using this unit as a bunker for my Grey Seer.

Also apologies for any blur in these pics, I'm still getting used to the camera I'm using.

As a break before I get started on another 20 (I dunno about anyone else, but painting these guys gets old fast) I've started working on my BSB, built from the stormvermin kit and doomwheel banner, with the mutilbanner inspired by Kimzi's fantastic BSB. In fact now that I look at it again I think the general feel of my BSB is going to be pretty similar, I think it inspired me more than I realised!

This model may prove a challenge as my freehand skills leave much to be desired, but as the internetz would say, challenge accepted!

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Doomwheel!

Well, it took longer than I thought it would (while at the same time I did less with it than I could have) but its done and I'm pleased with how it has turned out.

The model mainly consisted of painting two types of materials, ie metal and wood, neither of which I'm particularly comfortable with. However the new Balthasar Gold was a big help, it went on like a dream. I shudder to think about what a nightmare it would have been to get a consistent base coat down with the old range!

Another big help was the guide over at chatteringhorde.blogspot.co.uk . With bigger models like this I never have any idea where to start and the clearly laid out guide was a godsend. He has loads of other Skaven guides, check them out!

Also this is my first Skaven model where I used Agrax Earthshade instead of Devlan Mud, and I have to say that despite some of the things I have read about the new liquid talent I think it looks pretty good, yes it is different from Devlan Mud but its not bad different imo. The hint of green in it actually gave a subtle verdigris effect on the gold areas (hard to see in the pics) but just came up brown on the silver areas.

Anyway, time to get to work on those 80 clanrats and 40 slaves giving me evil glares from the worktop. I expect my next post won't be for a while... :)

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Hello world!

Greetings!

I'm a long time Warhammer/Warhammer 40k player recently returned to the fold after a, oh, 6 year break or thereabouts. I'm starting this blog for the same reason that many seem to, to provide motivation for my hobby during those times when my enthusiasm falters. I collected many an army in my younger days, yet they are almost entirely in a terrible state, so while I will eventually be spending time and blog space on getting them fixed and painted (yup, I used to be a grey plastic fielder), I thought I'd make a fresh start when I came back to the hobby with the Island of Blood box. Which army did I choose? Well, both! But I've started with the Skaven (High Elves have yet to even be assembled). So since these are the little critters which occupy my mind most right now, I expect most of what I put here will be related to them, for the time being at least.

And that's it, blog post number 1!

*Squeek*

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