Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Some nice T34s there. I assume you're just going to drown your opponents with sheer weight in numbers lol.

Well, I have 120 plastic Soviet troops to start painting at some stage...

Get to it man! *cracks whip*

The tank looks absolutely brilliant by the way, great work!

And now for something completely different...

Back in March, I found two out of the three figures from the Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawlers kit that I picked up bout 15-20 years ago. (Damn that makes me feel old!) Because of the way that things seem to work in my life and on the painting desk, the frog-thing and millipede-thing have been MIA for a couple of months now (they might be in the shed, perhaps?) and I ended up finding the leech-thing, conveniently already glued to a 60mm base with some putty ’round the edges. Not wanting to tool around too much rebasing and agonising over the scheme – since that’s a great way to never get anything finished – I decided to get that sucker painted.

So here it is:


I figure this thing can work just as well as a 40k-sci-fi alien leech as a D&D-style fantasy giant leech. So, you know, whatever. I went with green and mustard yellow since the underside was sculpted with a bit of contrasting texture, so I thought I may as well transfer that to the palette. Same deal with the pinky-purple tongue and the bone teeth, again so they stand out.



A nice thick layer of polyurethane varnish on the model keeps it looking suitable shiny and yucky. I also added some Vallejo realistic water mixed with some transparent yellow to create the slime effect on the side of the model where the slime-holes(!) are located, and some realistic water without colouring onto some of the mouth-parts and tongue. I found that the figure looked too small for its base, and to help fill in the empty space without going overboard – or adding in fantasy or sci-fi-specific extras, I just went for some of the larger tufts that I had sitting around in the packets. Often those are the hardest ones to find a use for and they end up on scenery, since they’re too large for use on almost all miniatures.



Finally, a big-hat Warhammer High Elf for scale. I should really finish this guy’s unit off. I bet it would take less than half a day if I ever manage to pull my fist out… Actually, I’ve got some scenery that just needs finishing off that could be measured in probably less than half an hour…

Full disclosure – I actually painted this thing a couple of weeks ago but didn’t get around to posting it. After a pretty productive two weeks or so of painting I’m in a bit of a ..not burnt out, but kinda taking a rest. Also, since my wife bought me that PS4 as a belated birthday gift, and so I’ve been running around Mordor after work and on the weekends instead of sitting and painting like I’m “supposed” to…

Looks cool, definitely slimy and gross so pretty much just right.

I often find myself having a painting/hobby lull/break/hiatus/whateveryouwannacallit after I get a batch done. Or a single large model, or couple of pieces of terrain. Sometimes I jump right into the next thing but usually I just take a bit of a break without really intending to do so.

I really like that leech thing. Reminds me of the days of crawling through the Eye of the Beholder sewer levels with heaps of these bad boys trying to eat my party.

Arise!


Despite my last post here being in Mid-October, the last time I painted anything until about 2 weeks ago was on about October the second. Mostly spurred on by playing a lot of Zombicide with the group, and Tarmor coming over to do some painting.

Today’s topic, though, is the Bronze Bull. I ordered this from Wargames Foundry, along with a pile of other Mythological Greeks for Marouda’s Mythic Greek KoW army a couple of weeks ago, and it turned up a few days ago. Since it’s going to be one of the centrepieces of the force, and it’s not an especially complex model, I thought it was a good idea for her to do most of the painting (with me just doing the base and some details that she was less confident with. I mounted it on a GW 40mm base and added putty, slate and an appropriate spare shield, then sprayed it on Friday. All painting done last Saturday. Always nice to get something started and finished in a day!





Colours were straightforward. Various copper, brass and silver tones from Vallejo’s ranges, and P3’s Brass Balls. Some Citadel Technical Nihilakh Oxide over white for the eyes to give a nice subtle glowing effect, and job’s a good’un!

I intend to make another large order to Foundry in another month or so – this time for Jason and many Argonauts and also some more historical Greeks to shore up the army. Later on down the line it’ll be time for my Romans.

That is pretty cool! Welcome back to Blogland!

Yep, good solid return. Dun dun DUN.

I need ten of those bulls. And I need them now. They would look so cool in a Greek themed army, great paint job!

Good to have you and your quality work back among the Blogs. It is an incredibly clean and vibrant paint job and the base does a great job of highlighting the Bull.

Looks ded stompy

Thanks guys! I'll be trying to post more stuff this year. My target is once again 365 figures (as it has been for the past 2 years) with a "soft" target of beating the number I got past year (319 click for the list). If I hadn't stopped in October last year I'd have easily hit it, but hey!

The main difference is that this year I'll try and show off more of them, even if they're not great. Last year I finished a ton of Gondor men, but since they're individually not very exciting at all, I held off on showing them off. The 2 years before I finished a whole lot of D&D Ravenloft and Ashardalon figures, but since I wanted to show them all off together - again because many of them are individually unexciting, or very average models...

So on that note, I'll have a small update later today when I get back from work.

So is *this* where I got my stupid goal from? I have been blaming Para but.... huh.

Don't worry about showing off the less exciting models, just DO IT I do it all the time! We can bask in each others mediocrity (and dear god that sounds like a mutant pickup line now that I see it typed!).

If it's not too much of a bother! Good luck with your goal, perhaps you will have a pace that I can keep up with a little better than Para

Hah, with 319 Az beat me last year, and that was with 3 months out of action, so I could be in trouble now he's in!

And yeah, show off everything. I've posted my fair share of less interesting/worse painted minis and no one seems to mind!

...and on that note:

Since Marouda is building an Undead army for KoW, and was interested in practicing/learning how to paint more gooder, I dug out the undead Bones figures from their first Kickstarter. I'd already knocked up the 6 archers for a missile unit, and so suggested these Swordsmen and Spearmen as easy/simple/fast figures to teach my method of doing bone. It's much easier to paint "naked" skeletons than clothed or armoured ones, that's for sure! They got up to about half done - the point of starting to highlight the bones after base coat and wash, when Marouda chickened out(!) because she was intimidated by picking out the bones, so they sat on my paint desk taking up space for 6 months or so.
Now that I'm starting to paint again, and starting on her Mythic Greek army, I had an idea while cleaning up the Wargames Foundry Greek Undead (think Jason and the Argonauts) and noticed that the Bones Spearmen have Dipylon-style shields. I decided then to pair these bones figures up with the Foundry Undead Swords to make a full unit of 12 (20) for her Kings of War forces. They can obviously do double duty between Mythic Greeks and Generic Undead. Unless of course the Mythic Greeks are fighting the Generic Undead. Then they'll have to choose a side!



So anyway, there's absolutely nothing special about the paintjobs on these. I finished them off over 2 days that were mostly spent playing Far Cry 4, and the final touch was adding some of Warlord Games' Greek shield transfers and rimming the shields to give them more of a Hoplon look. Since these figures are pretty ...shall we say basic. We chose unexciting transfers for them. They'll be the rear and centre-mid ranks of the unit, and so will mostly be hidden by their nicer Foundry brethren once the unit is set up. They're being shown mostly due to wanting to document what I get done this year a bit better than I did last year, and also to share my opinion on these models. Only changes to the models has been mounting them on Proxie Models 25mm round bases so they fit in with the rest of my armies and doing the usual sand & putty combo - and slicing off the shield bosses to make them look a little more like Hoplon-style shields. Obviously helped a great deal by the transfers, and surprisingly, even more so by the simple act of rimming the shields in a simple Hoplite-style.



As models go, like many Bones, these do what they say on the tin, in a very basic manner. I'd really only recommend them for roleplayers. If you're playing D&D and want some cheap and cheerful skellys for your adventures, then these are a perfectly serviceable way to go. They even work okay if you're the kind of roleplayer who never paints their models, or just gives them a wash to bring out the detail. For wargamers, and obviously those of us more focused on painting, there are many better options out there. Still, I already owned these, they pass the three-foot test, and they've now gone from Unpainted to Painted, and we know that every time a miniature gets painted, a Kitten gets their Wings, so it's all good.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and right now, I'm on 20 figures for the year. The Wordpress is slightly ahead of Dakka for the moment, but the thread here will be caught up soon (and won't have videogame reviews, brush reviews and other more esoteric stuff.)

Grrr. Already caught up to 10 or so behind me. I'll be eating dirt twice soon enough, I fear!

Skelemans are looking good. The shields really do set them off, though I agree the pose is a tad boring after awhile.

The second pic is how they'll be arranged once I finish the Wargames Foundry ones. Mid-second rank, and as the rear rank. Foundry ones taking the front rank and the edges of the second. This is actually a good example of why so much of my stuff never gets shown. Last year I'd have waited until the Foundry figures get finished - which could be in a few days, a few weeks, or next year since I can have the attention span of a gnat.

I finished a couple of plastic LotR Fellowship figures a eyar or two ago. They haven't been photgraphed yet because I was waiting until I had a full Fellowship to show together.

Those skeleton warriors kinda remind me of the ones from Jason & The Argonauts (1963)

Liking the various shield artwork on those guys

Shields look good - draw the eye and mean you don't notice the Bones-ness too much

Yeah, those are great! Really nice shield designs!

Skeletons are supposed to be basic, it's why they are usually such a chore to paint. You have done a good job on the bones and a really good job on the shields which as has already been said hide a lot of the simplicity of the skeletons.

I adore that bronze bull sculpt, such a natural pose for something that isn't. The muted metallics are great as well. Agree on the transfers and Hoplite edging on the skeletons shields, it really makes them stand out.

I love a blog like this, it brings so many models that I have no knowledge of to my attention. Best of luck with maintaining the attention span Azazelx.

Thanks again guys - That’s all they need to do – add mass to a group of skeletons while taking up the back part of that mass. Luckily the large shields also manage to draw the eye from the rest of the models.

Agreed on that Bull, Thraxas - It's a surprisingly nice model and was no challenge to paint. Marouda was surprised how easy it was for most of it to get it looking good.

Here's the next two:

First up is the Reaper Stone Golem, who I decided to paint in a Sandstone kind of scheme, ostensibly for the Egyptian-themed contingent of Marouda’s Undead army. Originally, the plan was to have the bronze/gold armour pieces as part of the magical mechanism keeping the golem animated/enslaved (pick one!) and to additionally feature chipped and worn paint on his skirt in the traditional blue/yellow scheme everyone uses for Egyptians based on Tutankhamen’s Death Mask. The thing was that I was never entirely happy with the idea, so the figure just sat in almost-finished limbo for over a year. So recently, I decided to just bloody finish it. I used the same Citadel Technical Nihilakh Oxide over white for the eyes as I did on the Bronze Bull, though this one was finished a week or two earlier. (And this was used as one of the examples for Marouda to choose the Bull’s eye style from.) I see I’ve missed some overflow below the belt line on it’s skirt. Probably from when I’d planned to paint the skirt. I’ll have to go back and touch that up. Maybe.



The second figure in this update is the old Harlequin Miniatures Zombie. Somewhat of a classic figure in many ways, mostly due to his distinctive “exploded” torso. I picked up this figure in a single blister many, many years ago. Long enough to qualify him as an “Oldhammer” figure? Maybe just on the fringes, since it would likely have been into the mid-90s, when GW stalwarts like Kev Adams and others had started to move on from the company. This guy seems to have a name “Buster Rotvessel” (see what they did there?) and apparently had a whole unit to back him up back in the day. Sadly he no longer appears to be available from Black Tree Design, who currently own the old Harlequin sculpts. Still, I’m sure he’s relatively easily available on eBay and from other sources. Still, the silly name they gave him makes me keep thinking of Busta Rhymes. And giggling.



Not a perfect figure by any means, his ham-hands and the tree-trunk handles on his weapons are both somewhat ridiculous, and indicative of the WHFB4-era’s aesthetics that he’s very much a part of (despite not being an actual Citadel figure) but his obese, corpulent, exploded physique add a lot of extra character to the model overall. He’d been sitting around in various stages of partially painted for several years (5?) before I finally pulled my finger out and finished highlighting the skin and picked out the exposed bone. A week later when I was blooding up some Zombivors, he got finished up with the same batch. I'll show those off shortly.

Nice minis, I really like the sandstone golem, well done

The sandstone golem is fantastic. Really refreshing to see a non-granite scheme on a stone golem and you have done a marvellous job.

The zombie guy had a lot of character and really interesting to see some of the older models that I grew up around.

Nice Golem Azazel

Since my group has been playing a fair bit of Zombicide over the past couple of months, and starting to paint the figures was one of the things that got me restarted with painting models, I'm showing off the first three here. I'm painting S2 Survivors & Zombvivors rather than the S1 figures because I'm painting them in their pairs and we haven't cracked open the S2 box(es) yet and so don't have their Zombvivors out.

"Fred" is a homage to Simon Pegg as Shaun from "Shaun of the Dead" (2004)


I took Shaun's black pants as a little challenge, as they're quite nicely sculpted. To make them look black, (they are SO black in the film and stills) while still picking out the sculpt detail - but without resorting to typical light greys and almost-white highlights. I think I pulled it off. In contrast with the pants (and several other Zombicide figures), the sculpt on his head and face was a bit of a shambles (the artwork isn't so hot, either!), and his cricket bat was clearly sculpted by someone who has never held or possibly even seen a real cricket bat, as the thing looks more like an American college fraternity paddle from a comedy film. I did pick out his two-tone-red tie, but I fear it is too subtle, and is lost in the general bloodstains on his clothing (taken from the point in the film where he's using his tie as a headband).


"Don" is a homage to everyone's favourite hotelier - John Cleese as Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers (1975-1979)


As always, I googled the character before beginning to paint, and found that in most images Basil's suit was actually grey and not the brown pictured in the Zombicide artwork. In the end I made the choice to stick with brown as a brown suit just feels so much more 1970s and "Basil Fawlty", somehow. I did carefully copy the colours of his tricolour tie from the reference photographs, though. This figure is quite nicely sculpted as well, though I found that has face again didn't photograph all that well. (and the figures appear shinier here than IRL). A small detail that can't be seen here is the shine and polish on living Basil's shoes that is absent on undead Basil's scuffed shoes.


"Rob" is a homage to Sean Connery as John Mason from "The Rock" (1996)


This was the easiest of the three to paint due to the almost entirely black outfit. I'm not really a fan of over-highlighting things, and as John Mason is supposed to be a black-ops type guy, I kept his gear nice and dark. I did pick out his medical lanyard in red, and painted his twin Uzi SMGs in Vallejo Metal Black with a highlight of gunmetal, so they're actually far brighter than is realistic. The sculptor of this figure did a good job of picking out Connery's trademark "smirk/people's eyebrow" look in the sculpt, and I did an okay job of keeping it followed by an average job of photographing it. The Zombvivor also looks better in person, as shiny transparent red over dark grey/black also doesn't photograph all that well.

As always, a few more pics of the stuff in this update are on the wordpress blog.

Loving that Shaun model. Great stuff

As well as Mason "Winners get to go home and feth the prom queen" lol.

Those are excellent