Celtos Sidhe

 Quick Post Before Christmas

Just finished these Sidhe (elves) from Brigade Miniatures (Fomally Celtos). I think they have come out well. I am much happier with the skin tone which is a Citadel mid-grey (can't remember which one) with a Nuln oil wash. Earlier Fae elves were done with the same technique but the effect wasn't as smooth. The only difference was these elves were done with a new bottle of Nuln oil. So I am thinking that the older bottle either had started to separate or just wasn't as good?

This completes the Winter Guard for the dread Fae Queen Morgana. I am trying to finish off the few remaining core units of my Fae army.

Rob 

Halfling Hounds

 The Swedish Vallhund

Ranger & faithful companion

One of my design aims behind my halfling army is to use figures and units that would generally fit in with the Halfling's of Tolkien's Shire. So no halfling war machines or halfling heroes riding dragons, which I have seen in other ranges. 

The Rangers catch some rustlers in the act!

However, I think a unit of halflings with hunting or guard dogs seems entirely in keeping with a Shire themed army. I did look at suitable figures from a number of different ranges with guard dogs from Citadel's Farmer Maggot being an obvious choice. I do already have the Farmer Maggot and his hounds, but want make a couple of units, so needed more than three hounds. They are currently selling for £8.20 for Farmer Maggot  and his three hounds on the Citadel website. Which would make each hound about £2.75 (with a spare Farmer Maggot or two).  Warbases also do a nice set of dogs but they are a bit on the small side. 

The whole pack

Whilst nosing around Salute, I came across these hounds by Bad Squiddo Vallhunder (8) (badsquiddogames.com) at eight for £8.  

Vallhunder are Swedish cattle dogs. The Swedish Vallhund was originally bred as a drover and herder of cows over 1,000 years ago. In real life they are bit on the small side (See above). But just right size for halflings.  And at £1 each, a much more reasonable price. Giving me a couple of useful animal handler units. 

So as expected, it was fairly quick to paint up all eight hounds. I am in progress converting up a couple of extra rangers to act as permanent animal handlers. 

Grand Designs

Finished building the crooked house, now ready for painting.  

Rob 

Six of the Best - The Final Post

 Session 9 - Finishing Off - Very Newhammer and Bit of Oldhammer

Ok so I am calling this challenge done. An interesting little challenge and shows how much I rely on a number of standard technical paints (such as Citadel Shades) and colours (such as different metallics). I probably would have gone for Warplock Bronze base with Hashut Copper highlights and weathering with Nihilakh Oxide if I was painting this model with a free paint selection. Perhaps a more traditional looking Necron. 

I think I was right to paint the miniature on the sprue but perhaps should have done more of the detailing such as stripes before putting the miniature together. But I quite like working out the design as I go along and sometimes this works and sometimes not. But I still think he will come in handy for Stargrave etc. 

So overall he took a bit over 4 hours to paint. I am genuinely surprised how long this one miniature took to paint. I don't normally think about the time I am spending on each figure and I suspect that I would get quicker if I was painting more than one of them. I certainly had to spend a bit of time working how to put him together without a picture of the finished model. In contrast, I  was getting through the halflings very quickly by the end. 

For the base I finished it of with the red mixed with increasing amounts of the grey. I added a few small gold nuggets and it was then finished off with some yellow/orange grated sponge witch is the most alien looking of my available flock stock. 

The Necron or is it a ABC warrior vs. some Desert Waste landers

Picked this up from the Cinema when we went to see the excellent new Dune movie. Always on the look out wargames stuff!

Definitely a fan of the new Dune movie and hoping they get to make the second half. 

A very small space marine against my Necron. My whole painted Wh40K collection!

NB- The Space marine wasn't painted by me but bought off eBay on a whim and in the end I so liked the paint job. I didn't send him to the paint stripper!

Rob 

Six of the Best - Sessions 6 to 8

 Session 6 - Detailing

The figure was given highlights to all the main colours and little bit of touch ups. To try and make the red really bright on the weapon, I undercoated the spots with the deck tan followed by a wash with the Reikland Flesh shade. 

Once the base is done this is sort of at my army painting standard. But I plan to go a bit further and see what else I can add.

Session 7 - Basing

Just a short session to add some skulls and coarse sand to the base.

Session 8  - Detailing

I would have liked to add more stripes but some those sections on the left are just too difficult to reach now the model is assembled. Still this is what can happen if you are working it out as you go along. For the base, I mixed the bright red, a light bit of the grey and some black and ended up with a weird plum colour. This was then washed with Reikland Flesh shade. I am waiting for this to dry before any dry brushing. 

Rob 

Finishing & Starting Stuff

 Finished the Last Giak

So I have finished all of my current collection Lone Wolf figures, there are still a few more to get but their  'normal' prices means I will watch and wait. There are plenty of other interesting projects out there which my money will probably be spent on first.

So next up is the group shot of all the miniatures in my collection. 

The whole gang. 

This group has  taken over twenty years on and off,  so cover multiple types of my styles over the years. So despite the differences I quite like the fact they don't all look the same. One of other  perennial questions is around basing and certainly those recently painted figures were based to fit into current armies and groups. 

So on to the next projects.

Started Something New

Just completed the first of the Pixie Riders from Miniatures (oakbound.co.uk), a great little figure who fits in nicely to Fae army. I have another two to complete and hopefully will be start of light cavalry unit.

The Pixie leads the sprites into battle
(Playing around with the light)

Stuff in Progress

I haven't forgotten my Thistlewood project but fancied a bit of a change of pace. So looking through my buildings collections. I have done a bit of tidying up of my 30 year old buildings and started to build a few more to complete the ones necessary for the scenario. I can't do any further work on this house until I get some more coffee stirrer sticks!

Its the first time I have used egg box cardboard for the tiles and I am really impressed by the result. It didn't start out to be a crooked house but once I noticed it, I decided to work with it. A lot of old houses are not perfectly square and few odd angles are perfectly normal.

Progress on Buildings so far.

Rob 

Six of the Best - Sessions 4 & 5

 Session 4 - Assembly

Wasn't impressed by the Reikland Fleshshade over the enchanted blue on the test model. It just looked dirty but could be used in small sections will give a nice rusted look in parts. 

So before doing any washes, It was time to put the figure together so that the washes flow in the right way when the model is put together. As I didn't have a picture of the finished figure to hand it did take a few minutes to work how to fit the model together as the head didn't seem to fit when the chest guard was fitted. But after a few choice words it all went together. 

It is also about this stage that I tend to lose a bit of interest (See the last post on Dori the Dwarf)and figures can sit on the paint bench for a bit because they can look a bit flat. But press on as hopefully it will start to come alive in the couple of sessions!

Session 5 - Washes

A quick session having decided to mix some of my own washes. I added a drop of washing up liquid to each of the diluted washes to help them flow. I deliberately let some bleeding occur between the washes to give a 'used' rather than a neat factory finish. Particularly around the weapon as O don't want it to look quite clean. 

Rob 

Dori the Dwarf

 Finished One at Last...

Dori has been sitting on the paint bench for the last couple of months. I haven't quite managed to motivate myself to finish him as I wasn't particularly happy with the finish on Oin.  They don't seem to have enough detailing for my taste, on these Hobbit figures. I am definitely not happy with the definition seen after applying washes. So have ended up adding a second wash and highlight to Dori to give him  a bit more definition.  And he seems much better for it.

I always intended this to be a side project but 3 months without any progress is a bit slow even for me. Anyway I have started prepping both Nori & Ori to be painted next.

Another grey colour scheme  for Nori but he will need to look different to Oin.

My least favourite character from the film  and the 'token' comedy dwarf which Peter Jackson seems a bit too keen on. I just don't get why one of the other dwarves wouldn't give him a sword or something! Especially when you think he is one of the dwarves that accompanies Balin to Moria. 

Rob 

Lone Wolf Gourgaz

 Close Up Shots

Rob 

Six of the Best - Session 3

 First Stab at the Base Coats Plus a Dwarf

Finished the first round of base colours on the Necron and managed to use all five of the base colours. I am debating whether to use the Reikland Fleshshade over the whole model or make up some washes for the grey/blue colours. Before I decide, I am going to do a test wash on spare model to decide if the shading looks good enough. I have found that the Citadel shades give a very precise shading over the painted area. Whereas the classic homemade washes made by watering down normal paints don’t always give a very even or satisfactory finish. Adding a little bit of washing up liquid can help but the truth is that the modern shades are just much better. 

His colour scheme does look a bit like an Ultramarine but I plan to add a lot more red so this should change a bit later. 

Finally Started Dori

After a couple of months quietly sitting on the paint bench. I finally started Dori. I took a quick picture to look at the detailing and realised I it was accidently a nicely staged picture.

Look behind you!

Rob 

Six of the Best - Sessions 1 & 2

 Undercoating & Base Colours

I have decided to treat this project Random Christmas Project a.k.a. Six of the Best a bit differently in that, I will post as I go along instead of a summary at the end and also I will keep track of how long it actually takes. I usually get to the end of painting a figure  but without any real idea how long I have spent. I was particularly interested to know how much longer I had spent of the halfling ranger captain (my entry to the Golden Gobbo) compared to the other halfling rangers. So this time I will keep a record. 

Session 1 - Prep & Undercoating

Ready for Undercoating

First decision before getting onto the painting was to build the figure and then paint it or paint it (mostly) on the sprue before building it. While  the skeletal design meant there could be parts difficult to paint once assembled, I am not really familiar with the figure so it will be more difficult to visualise the finished model whilst still on the sprue. Obviously, there will also be some attachment points to tidy up after removing from the sprue if left on during painting.  However, a childhood of making model aeroplanes etc. decided it. The Necron would stay on the sprue until I am at least done painting the main parts of the model.

I did, however, remove some of the attachment points to minimise this bit of work later. So next step on to the grey primer.

Session 2 - Starting the Base Colours

First go at the base colours

First point, I  have decided that I will use all the six colours (without any black or white) at least once on the model.  Second point, I now realise as I start painting, all of my colours are either bright (blue and red) or light (grey, cream [deck tan] and shining gold) which hardly fit the grim dark universe of WH40K.  I have decided not to go down the metallic colouring scheme, as a bright gold Necron doesn't really appeal. 

As I didn't (don't) really have a finished design in mind, I settled on one feature - the skeletal frame of the Necron. I wanted the skeletal bits to be a darker colour, so used the light grey mixed with black to get a mid-grey. Now the problem with mixing colours is that if you have to use them more than once, then you have to try and recreate the same colour. I used to have lots of problems with this in the past with units of all slightly different shades of the 'same' colour.  Which has led me to buy colours when I need to be consistent. Still rules are rules, so I don't really have any other choice but mixing on this occasion.

I haven't used Tamiya paints before and didn't really pay much attention when I bought this one. But as soon as I opened I realised it wasn't your normal acrylic paint. It has a strong solvent whiff. So I stopped and read the label, it is both flammable and an irritant. So I will treating this one with a bit more care than normal. 

After the mid-grey, the cream on the weapon and the blue armour plates seemed pretty obvious. I know I will have to make washes for these colours and also do touch ups. But overall I quite pleased with the start. He looks a bit more 'bright' future cyberpunk but could come in handy for a few games of Stargrave or Five Parsecs from Home. 

Rob 

Wargames Bingo Part 4

 Halfling Knights, Finishing Off Figures & Chrimbo Duels

I continue to work my way through the Wargaming bingo card and now I am having think about what projects are need to complete the remaining squares. Which is an interesting way to drive some unusual projects. I got a scenery kit at Salute which I plan to do to finish another square. 

No.13 - Break out a game or army you have not played in over a year, Play it and paint at least one new model for your force.

Now this is a technical choice, as I haven't played any games for over a year prior to the Fantasy Warrior's game last month. So technically any figure would count against this square. However, I haven't played Fantasy Warriors for at least a couple of years prior to Lockdown. So I think this follows both the letter and the spirit of the request.

My unit of revenants have been missing a standard bearer for dome time and this is a Bob Naismith sculpt done for Grenadier (via Fornlorn Hope). This figure seems to respond very well to a bit dry brushing after the washes. Making a quick and fun job of completing this figure.    

14. Paint a new version of one of your old character models. (Maybe the same sculpt, an updated sculpt or a newly converted version)

Before Repainting!

During Repainting

I have posted this figure before Halfling Knight and as seems to be the case at the moment, this figure is the one that inspired me to (re)create my current halfling army. The halfling army like the undead and Chaos armies which were all started as a mini-project to paint one or two figures. 

I had a unit of five halfling knights, so have painted this model at least six times now and may paint another of the remaining halfling knights with a bit of light modification. Sadly I don't have all five knights now and don't have any pictures of the original paint jobs. 

and After

No.15 Make a diorama (Simply placing a unit or army on a display board does not count)

Barbarians vs Fighting Men

Undead vs. Halflings

Now I have just completed  three small dioramas (third one with pictures to follow) as Christmas presents. So this completes this bingo square. The theme of the dioramas is Fantasy Warrior duels. So not surprisingly the figures are all old Grenadier figures by Mark Copplestone and Bob Naismith. 

The undead giant is still available for just over £4 which seems an absolute bargain from Fornlorn Hope. 

Rob