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That's a nifty squad of marines. All the after-market bitz make everyone stand out. I particularly like the white outlines rather than solid white tactical squad markings on the shoulders. Were those freehand?

Awesome squad there, the Sergeant is superb!

Yeah those are great! Good luck with your continued recovery.

I really love your Minotaurs, such a clean and neat look that works perfectly for the color scheme. Good luck with the arm - I wear braces like that at night to mitigate my finger/hand RSI.

Looking Great, which minotaurs are they the original ones or the lords of Terra's lackeys?

You really are not having much luck of late Az, hope that things pick up for you.

Minotaur wise they look great, the mixture of Third party bits really makes them stand out, the burnished armour looks great.

I will add to the chorus. The miniatures are looking excellent. Just the right amount of additional bits to make them stand out and look unique without messing with the overall.

Really nice work on those minotaurs. The hues in the armour are very nicely done.

Thanks guys,
The arm is mostly good now. I'll still wear the brace to work this week to prevent me from forgetting and reinjuring it, and I'm still wearing it to sleep for the same reason. I don't need it during the day at least.

The Tactical arrows aren't freehand, they're off the Minotaurs FW transfer sheet, which I recently found out has been discontinued. Sonofa... Just means I have to be even more precious with the transfers on the sheet I have...
These are the "modern" Minotaurs. The cold, sinister enforcers of Imperial Justice. What I find with "alternative" marine bits - loyalist or chaos - is that when mixed in with official GW parts they really enhance the models, but when models are made entirely (or mostly) of aftermarket bits they just look like cheap imitations. Even when they're actually more expensive.

And now something new. Well, recent.

Another pair of Bones painted up a few weeks ago, this time it's Sandra Garrity's Pillar of Good and Pillar of Evil from Reaper's Bones line, from their second Bones Kickstarter.


Reaper Bones 77246: Pillar of Good with Citadel Reiksgard for scale as the model has a feel of nobility and goodness. I don't have any painted SigMarines at this point, so it fell to the knight in shining armour to provide the reference model. No Sir ForScale here!


Reaper Bones 77247: Pillar of Evil with Citadel Dark Elf for scale. Seems this marble pillar is a bit crooked.


The pair of these were my first, very rough attempt at painting marble. I'd already started in on both of them before I decided to go with a marble effect rather than simply stone, so perhaps the colours aren't what they could be. I also based both of them on 32mm citadel bases with a metal washer superglued underneath to give them more stability. As you can see here the Evil pillar isn't entirely straight because Reaper Bones! They're not bad pieces, especially for the KS price. Both styles would work better in pairs, but I only have the one of each and I think sourcing a second one of each and then trying to match-paint them is too much mucking about. They're also probably both more suited to "inside dungeon" type settings than outdoor battlefields.

I used the new "Gloss" versions of Nuln Oil and Axgrax Earthshade on both to see how they perform - the Gloss part not being especially relevant as I varnish my models, but the way that the pigment behaves. I think they did both work well. There was a wash of off-white paint used on the "Good" pillar in an attempt to embed the veins "under" the surface a little. I considered dulling down the bases with some pigments, but I figured that keeping them shiny keeps them a little more flexible in setting.

Anyway, these were pretty quick and easy to do, and it's another two models done.

And there you go again Az, I love those Minotaur's you do so started working on Asterion Moloc again for Whaley Lol! you just make them look so cool!

The marble looks fantastic in my opinion. Great work! These would make great objective markers for matched play AoS. I might need to look into these :-)

I love that evil pillar you've done there. Looks pretty creepy!

I'm more in love with general Pineapple you got there, great to see him!

Lurker popping out into your thread here.

I really like your take on the Minotaur, I've never seen them painted like that before. It's probably my favorite, truth be told. Especially the heavy bolter and not mk8 marine.

I agree that mixing bits is the way to go, as an entirely anvil industry or Kromlech bit Marine looks out of place IMO.

That knight looks really good too, and I hate it that your arm got hurt. I hope it recovers swiftly.

Az, they Look fantastic. Superb stuff. Love the helmet swaps. Really great looking squad

Those pillars look amazing in the marble style. Very effective. Gorgeous work.

Those bone towers are really cool. The marble effect you've achieved on both is very good.

Also, awesome work on the Minotaur squad, love the head on the sgt.

EDC

Thanks all, I'm happy enough with the marble pillars for a first try, though I do see a lot of flaws when I look at them. I've got another green marble thing on the go for a friend, though the marble part was done at pretty much the same time as these but on a slightly different base, and then eventually when I do something else I'll try to improve on it. It might help if I know that I'm going to try marble when I start it, and not partway through... Opposing objective markers are a good call, Bottle. I might well use them as that. Thanks for the idea!

My arm is finally free. Last night was the first night I've slept without the brace in 3 weeks, and I even turned the light power back on downstairs last night, so following a week of work and a bit of rest this weekend, I'll hopefully get back to the painting! I've even got the plasticard I need to progress on the Minotaurs Dread, and the Devastator squad arrived, so now I've got the right hand I was waiting on for the Minos hero.. So it's all looking good.

Glad to hear that you're on the mend. I like those pillars-- nifty scatter terrain like that really livens up a game.

Glad that you are near as damn it up to full speed again, I am very eager to see what you do with the Minotaur Dread as well. The pillars look great, I always find that terrain is a nice little break from painting 28mm infantry models and it is good that you used those as a test for the project for your friend.

Thanks guys. I've got some more scatter terrain on the go, and I've now got the plasticard that I need to raise the dread off his base by about .75mm so I can continue it. I've still been relatively quiet on the blogging (and interacting with other bloggers) front as of late. Aside from my wrist injury which has now almost fully recovered, work is heading into the end of year madness that won't stop until a couple of days before Christmas, which has resulted in my heading up to bed around 7pm to watch TV/YouTube videos until I fall asleep not long after on quite a few occasions. Likewise, the three weeks we had without lights downstairs put a bit of a damper on things, and as a result, lots of my spare time has been spent in Destiny's latest Rise of Iron expansion instead of painting. The local spate of horrendous weather - though not a bar on what some of my friends around the world have had to cope with - has also made things like spraying and even painting impossible for days on end at times.



But, I have gotten some things finished. Here is Aenur, Sword of Twilight. AKA "That Mordheim Elf". I've had him since release, and it naturally took quite a few years before I started on him, and then stopped for quite a few. I started him at least 4-6 years ago and probably longer than that - during the brief period where I decided to add the static basing flock to unfinished, unvarnished models for some unfathomable reason. I do remember having a mental block on him around the embroidered pattern on the inside of his robe - and that was it! Shoved aside for a good half-decade. He's been back on my paint desk for over a year now, originally part of the "finishing things off" kick I got onto in the latter half of 2015.



To tell the truth, I'm still not totally satisfied with the patterns on the inner robe, but the addition of some patterns inspired by the triskele combined with vinework create a kind of flowing look that I deemed to be good enough to complete the model with.



In the end I decided to paint all three of his gems in red, rather than the green or blue tones I had been considering. There's something to be said for models that don't have a spot of red on them, but in this case I think it works - on the outside he wears a cloak of natural tones, with only the brooch and his earring a hint of the elven finery that hides underneath.



Aside from Mordheim, he will of course be able to find use in various fantasy roleplaying and gaming instances - from Pathfinder to any dungeon crawl boardgames - and I'm sure I'll find somewhere for him to stand in the Elven KoW army.

I really like the choice to go basic concealed on the outside, but under the cloak is all the elven bling. Really effective choice.

Great stuff there, Azazel. Love the cloak

Very nice. He looks just right.

Aenur is such a classic sculpt, possibly the definitive Warhammer/Old World Elf for me. Great to see him brought back to life with a fine piece of painting. I kind of see where you are coming from with the inner robe, but most of us would just leave it plain, so it is no issue for me. Exceptional work on the face, great blending work there.

Thanks guys

Some time ago now, I backed the Stonehaven Miniatures Dwarf Kickstarter. The Kickstarter managed to pretty much deliver on time and provided a rather nice assortment of Dwarven RPG tropes for a very reasonable price. They have run several other campaigns, both before and after but none resonated with me in the way that the Dwarves did, so it's been the only one I've backed, since a bunch of random gnomes, halflings, half-orcs or even elves don't resonate with me in the way that Dwarves do. They've got a nice little line of trolls as well, but at US$20 a pop plus international postage, they're out of my impulse shopping range. Still, they have a nice range if you're looking for an RPG-themed model from any of the ranges they offer.

Anyway, this post isn't here to be an advert. It's to show some models~!



The three that I've painted so far. I found another trio part-painted in a figure case the other day, so I might get some more done before the end of the year! The Stonehaven models have something about them that's a throwback to the late '80's-early '90's. In some ways it adds to their charm and in others it makes aspects of the models quite meh. Many of them are quite "flat" in the same way that many one-piece models of that era were, and while the details are great in some spots, they're a bit flat and plain in others - particularly on faces, and especially on the females (and that skull above!) They're nice models, but their sculptors are no Perrys, Prows or Adams.



This guy was started quite some time ago - probably not long after I received my KS models. For some reason he lagged out, and was finally picked up and completed a few days ago alongside Aenur from the previous update. I went for a Dwarf Slayer look, as I figure that a bit of spiky armour doesn't preclude the seeking of an honourable death in combat. I tried to add some tonal qualities to his weapons and armour to make them look well used without going down the road of rust and decrepitude. He'll be incorporated in with the other slayer models I've shown and worked on, and will likely have an additional role in my eventual larger dwarf projects.



Speaking of decrepitude, here's the Undead Dwarf. The main feature of this model is his arms and armour, to which I've tried to make look both uncared-for but still in use. Hence not going to town with the rust effects. The skull sculpt is lacking a little in terms of definition, and I didn't want to (couldn't be bothered to) paint in depth in the maxilla, so I painted it "as is". I do like having some non-human undead, so he'll probably find a home in the Undead army in some form eventually, as he was started long before I began to raise the undead hordes.



Dead? Knocked out? Drunk? Or just sleeping? That series of questions explains why this unconscious dwarf is painted and simply laid on a round, plain brown base devoid of all "context markers" like blood, grass, weapons, shield or a helm, or even a beer stein. I wanted to keep this fellow as non-specific as possible so that the model can be as flexible as possible. he could lay slain on a battlefield or lying unconscious on the dirt(y) floor of a cell or a dungeon. He could be passed out in the horse stables after way too much boozing. Whether he's being used to mark the long sleep or just a nap between goblin-slaying, this guy is done!

Awesome work!

The not-Slayer really benefits from not being as over-the-top as pretty much all the GW ones, something about that sculpt gives a sense of war-weariness and resignation rather than the maniac look you more commonly see on Slayers, as if he's pissed that 'he's just too damn 'ard and still hasn't found anything capable of giving him the death he's seeking.

Thanks Para. I've got quite a decent amount of Slayers to work my way through here, and I think once I finish with the mid-late 90's ones it'll become a lot more interesting.

Wow - Haven't caught up with your blog for a while, but those dwarves are amazing!

Dwarves look really good. I like the undead one, need more variety in undead models. Just because humans tend to be the creepy Necromancer types doesn't mean they would try to raise anything.