Dude! beautiful brush work on the bone claw! amazingly good looking stuff! it actually appears to have some 'weight' to it which works so well with the pose of the Grot, welding flesh to flesh without thought of bodily capabilities, only thinking to exist for the pleasure of rending flesh from bone to the symphonic cacophony of snapping bones, spilling blood and last breaths!
Played two great games this weekend, one against IG and one against CSM. I thought the IG game was going to be really rough because it was a plasma vet/chimera/vendetta build. But what I didn't expect was for my Dark Lances to suddenly start working the way they are described in the background . Turn 1 I exploded two chimera. Turn 2 I exploded two more. Which completely stalled the IG advance since the last Chimera had immobilized itself with a failed difficult terrain test. The Grotesques also got to rampage through the IG lines and made it all the way over to my opponent's side of the table to smash the Company Commander in close combat! I did eventually end up losing that game, not getting the 4+ I needed to kill his last 3 guardsmen on an objective. But if I'm going to lose a game, then having it so close that it all comes down to a final die roll is my favorite way to do so! As I footnote, Vendettas with Heavy Bolters are a holy terror against Dark Eldar. Venoms, Raiders and Razorwings seem to wreck themselves when a Vendetta drifts into their general vicinity .
Game two against CSM. No Grotesques this time since I realized it was some time since I had last brought my Hellions out. I manged to get some pics during the game. I particularly like the third and fourth picture showing the two armies mixing it up because of the contrast between the red and blue miniatures. This game was a reverse of the first with my Dark Lances doing next to nothing, I didn't manage to even immobilize a single one of my opponent's vehicles all game. But my splinter weapons balanced that out since I was wounding well above 50%. Most notably one Squad of 9 Warriors caused 14 wounds out of 16 shots, killing 6 Chaos Marines. The game ended in a hard fought tie with neither of us having any troops left to claim objectives. I got first blood, he got line-breaker and we both killed each others Warlords.
Deployment, I've got the Razorwing, a Ravager and a squad of Hellions in reserve, There's another squad of Dark Lance Trueborn off the picture in some woods to the right.
From my opponent's side of the table. This was a really a non-competitive narrative game hence the eclectic mix of units on both sides.
Mixing it up, that squad of marines in front of the Rhino is about to get destroyed by unusually lethal splinter fire.
A bit closer, giving more of a in-game feel! I tried some completely different terrain this time with the idea that it was an Exodite world. We agreed that the stands of trees were "solid" in that if you couldn't physically fit the models in you couldn't move them through. I used up most of the loose trees in the store!
I LOVE the battle shots. I know I've said this before but your models are amazing, but they look even cooler when on a good battlefield against another painted army.
Mechanicum Jon wrote: I LOVE the way this claw is turning out ! It took me a couple tries to get the right bone color, the first attempts were too light, but I think it the right shade now. Ditto for the flesh as I want the claw colors to stand out from my usual flesh tones.
Thats amazing, i thought it was drawn over the top of the image it looked so good keep up the good work
This paint job has certainly come a long way since the last progress shot! I kept thinking about putting up some more progress pictures each time I painted some part. I ended up deciding not to post so many progress pics because I wasn't sure people would find the incremental progress interesting. But I guess I've proved that when you put a lot of un-photo-worthy incremental progress together you can end up with a nicely painted miniature ! I'll be taking a break from painting Grotesques for a while to work on some other stuff (not exactly sure what yet but I'm leaning towards some more classic Warriors). Anyway, building six hulking bio-engineered monstrosities is an accomplishment any Haemonculus would be proud of!
That came out amazingly well. I wasn't sure about the nid bits when you did the build, but I must admit you were right on that and carried it off with great skill.
There are some amazing conversions in here, and everything is so nicely painted...Love the ROger-Tyranid-Grotesque! I may have to steal some of these ideas....I have about 2/3 the models as you do in my Dark Eldar army, and its all black primer right now....so intimidating! I don't even know where to start!
Here's what's next! I've found that I really like running squads of nine Warriors in a Raider with a Haemonculus. So I need more Warriors.
But why not just paint some of the new sculpts? Mainly because I find it quite satisfying to see what a "modern" paint job can do to spruce up models that are looking a bit dated. I did some minor conversions and kept the optional spikes off to give these models a "sleeker" appearance to fit in with the newer sculpts.
I'm quite happy with this helmet conversion. I did it by carving out a small groove in the back of the helmet and gluing a row of spikes in.
Thanks for complements on the Fiddler-Crab Grotesque!
@Stoffer: Dark_Gear's got it for me ! There are also some step by step photos of models being painted with this method scattered throughout this thread.
@kitch102: I didn't keep count of how long it took . Anyway I seldom paint at full speed since for me the whole painting experience definitely involves a good podcast or audiobook.
@Fango: I'd start with a basic Warrior to try out your scheme. Also, don't worry about the quality on the first guy. I've learned not to stress myself out trying to paint a new color scheme on the first model of a new army. Just get the colors on and if they look alright then spend more time on the second guy. If the colors don't work then just try again without worrying too much about the quality of the paint job until you get the scheme right.
I'm still taken aback by these particularly as they were near the top of my most hated list until the first one you posted, since then I've kind fallen in love with them. I could certainly imagine building a DE squad in the future now which I would never have considered before.
Hopefully I'll do them a similar justice one day. Pillars and needles right?!
Progress to date on these. They paint up surprisingly quickly. Somehow the fact that the detail on these isn't as crisp as on the new sculpts actually makes them easier to paint . Like I said in an earlier post, painting these models has really make me like them a lot more. Sounds like some you you feel the same ! I think one reason for me is that I started to see the seeds of what makes the new models so awesome in these older sculpts, such as the segmented armor plates.
Warriors all highlighted up! I thought it would be interesting to show these before the rusting powders go on to show what a difference the rust makes.
Here's a few progress shots of the bases for the five most recent Warriors and the claw Grotesque. As a recap for anyone who's just joined this thread, the bases are made by rolling out discs of Milliput putty, breaking them up with pliers once they're dry and then fixing the pieces onto bases using more putty. It's a technique I learned from Brushthralls and is pretty straightforward. The most time consuming part is actually mixing up the putty, so I usually do that while watching an episode of something (this time it happened to be the Double Fine Adventure Documentary).
I got about eight discs out of two boxes of Milliput. The different colors are just because these are the colors of Milliput I happened to have lying around.
Looking at stack of them makes me want to eat some green tea macaroons.
The five Warrior bases + the larger 40mm Grotesque base.
So, here's a quick tutorial on how I paint my bases.
1. Basecoat Vallejo Hull Red (or any reddish brown)
2. Heavy drybrush Adeptus Battlegrey (or any dark grey)
3. Light drybrush Astronomican Grey (or any light grey)
4. Several layers of Leviathan Purple + Thraka Green mixed wash
5. Very very light drybrush of Vallejo Green Sky followed by very very very light drybrush of Astronomican Grey. Flock with clumps of Woodland Scenics Medium Green Foliage (F52). Matte Varnish to finish.
I'm glad that I decided to did these models out of the closet and try painting them up in the Drowned Gardens colors. Sure the sculpts aren't as sharp as the new models but I've really grown to like these guys. I think it might be because the weathering helps add just that extra bit of visual "texture" that the models needed.
@IceAngel: Post some pics if you give it a go! I've found the documentary to be tremendously entertaining and educational. Send me a PM if you want to discuss further.
They look really good Jon! like 'really' good! especially for the age of them and lack of obvious details! I really like the helmets, the style of them looks menacing even when they're a nice blue lol! :-) seems you can do no wrong in the Kabal of the awesome Jon's!
Phew, I haven't posted anything in almost a month!
Which is a natural result of the fact that my Steam account shows I've played 121 hours of Civilization IV in the last month. About 4 hours a day . I blame it all on me lacking resistance to deep PC-based strategy games, probably a result of growing up in a predominantly console based environment . I almost broke away at about the 40 hour mark because while remaining very compelling, a lot of the game mechanics still felt a bit too un-intuitive and I wasn't really understanding how to manage cities effectively. But at some point soon afterwards I had one of those moments where everything just clicks together (with the help of a lot of guide reading) and I was sucked right back in.
No promises on when exactly I'll be back so here's a shot of the completed Claw Grot that I forgot to post. Comparing this photo to the last shot of the un-based model illustrates the dramatic difference that a finished base makes to the overall appearance of the model. I also needed a elevated base to keep the claw from dragging on the table because it really is a bit big !
Finally, a last minute realization: I've realized (again) while writing this post how much fun sharing stuff on Dakka is. So please send me some suggestions on what you'd like to see next, a really outlandishly creative suggestion may be my only hope of being shocked out of Civ .
That turned out amazingly well. The streaks on the claws and plates are really something. Makes it stand out while still being true to your original color scheme.
Some how he's captured some mandrakes and managed to combine their DNA with warpbeast creating a hybrid class that shifts through space and time as easily as you or I walk through an open door.
On the battle field this renders them almost impossible to hit at range as they shift through the visible light spectrum as well as local warp space, this also makes their close combat attacks extremely unpredictable rendering most armour almost completely useless.
Just an idea I came up with off the top of my head that I think you could pull off really well.
Think wracks with mandrake fire weapons, and hormogaunt /talos claws rising from their shoulders. Using the wyches as a base would let you get some really cool leaping and dynamic poses.
That last post, and my first visit to my FLGS in a month (hadn't gone because I had a lot of friends back for the holidays...okay and because of Civ) actually helped me get back into wanting to do hobby stuff. In the short term I'm going to actually do some more mundane stuff and paint some crew for my skimmers, mainly because I'd like to be able to think of them as complete! I don't think it's my OCD kicking in since I have no intention of painting and gluing on all the hull spikes!
@IceAngel: Mostly looking for DE ideas but I'm definitely open to any kind of inspiration. But really if I take a break from DE I'll probably go back to my general painting improvement thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/452097.page I backed the Reaper Bones Kickstarter so there will be no shortage of things to paint! The thing is I've really enjoyed getting so comfortable with a color scheme that I can consistently produce a result I'm happy with, in a reasonable amount of time, no matter what model I pick.
@Gitsplitta: It was a happy accident that the claws turned out to be such a good match for my turquoise armor while still being visually distinct as a different material. All ideas are welcome but like I said above I do have some short term plans now.
@Sheep & Urien_Rakarth: Definitely a creative idea that I'll keep in mind! The idea reminds me of the awesome mid-camouflage switching Stealthsuit models and the mid-teleport marine models I've seen.
@varl: For the infantry models, just superglue. Although every time a model breaks off I tell myself I'm going to pin them someday (right after I finish painting all the models I own) ! The Grotesque however is firmly attached to it's base. The Rat Ogre models already have plastic pegs in their feet which I drilled holes in the base for.
Exciting news! The manager at my FLGS said they are teaming up with another game store to put together a miniature wargaming display at a mall here in Hong Kong to promote the hobby and they wanted to borrow my army for the display. I initially had some concerns about security but the display cases they've got look reassuringly sturdy . I'll put up more details on where and when once the details get confirmed.
I was down at the FLGS for a game yesterday and got absolutely destroyed by Necrons . But on the plus side here's a picture of the Kabal in it's current form on display at the shop, the six Gotesques being the most notable update from the last army pic:
Well, we should rather be congratulating the FLGS, guys! Having that absolutely stunning army in your display cabinet has got to be an asset for every business
The army is simply fantastic, Jon! There's not a single thing that detracts from the stellar impression. In fact, my only gripe doesn't have anything to do with the army itself: That flimsy grassmat's really not worthy of your army on top of it
Come to think of it, how about building a kick-ass display board for the army?
Mechanicum Jon I just wanted to say I joined Dakkadakka to follow your thread, your a true inspiration. I can't explain how much I love your dark eldar army. I'd really love to see or hear what you have in mind for pain tokens and objective markers.
Quick bit of painting, now all my Venoms have gunners (hopefully they'll hit more often) !
@Casey's Law and Gitsplitta:
@KrautScientist: I've thought about a display board, but the thing is I can't ever see myself using one. Eventually when the army comes home from the FLGS I'm planning on putting the minis in one of those IKEA glass cabinets with glass on all sides which isn't big enough for a display board.
@Meeghan: Thanks for the kind works and welcome to Dakka!
Mechanicum Jon wrote:
Eventually when the army comes home from the FLGS I'm planning on putting the minis in one of those IKEA glass cabinets with glass on all sides which isn't big enough for a display board.
This, so much this! I remember seeing that horror thread about the user whose Ikea cabinet came crashing down, wrecking most of his miniature collection in the process. The pictures were physically painful to watch -- better safe than sorry!
@ Jon: Fair enough, fair enough. Come to think of it, what I'd like to see even more than a display board for your army would indeed be some custom pain tokens and objectives, now that Meeghan mentioned it.
@Meeghan & KrautScientist on objective markers: I'll have a think about markers. I've got a ton of DE bits now so it should be fun to try and dig through them to put something together.
@SlaveToDorkness: That thread is actually exactly what gave me the idea to use IKEA display cases! Thanks for the link though.
@KrautScientist: Giving how prone I am to knocking stuff over I'd better put the case in a corner and bolt it into the wall then ! The biggest scare I've had was the one time I put my minis on a modular terrain board up on my FLGS's terrain rack pre-deployment. I knelt down to get some terrain off the bottom shelf and as I stood up I knocked the board over sending the mini's clattering down through the rack (this included six jetbikes) . Amazingly the damage was limited to a bunch of miniatures coming off their bases!
I was just planning on taking some photos of the Grotesques but then decided to go for a more interesting arrangement with terrain and other models and ended up spending about an hour taking photos! Here's the one I'm most pleased with, almost looks like it could go on the back of White Dwarf doesn't it ? It was only just now when I was selecting and processing photos that I realized that I could make a legal 500pt Haemonculi Coven skirmish army from the models in the picture. That fact suddenly made the photo seem even cooler !
Been working on some Raider crew but it's slow going. I've realized that I'm much more motivated when I can look forward to a paint job making a visible difference on the tabletop and when I play games with my DE never notice whether a particular flying boat has crew or not! So why am I painting crew? Because the Raiders look much better on display that way and if there's one thing my Dark Eldar enjoy more than a successful raid it's looking pretty on a shelf .
@Ovion: Ask around you local FLGS, my feeling (based on a sample size of 3) is that most people build Talos models instead of Chronos models and should have spare masks lying around.
@Arakasi & Casey's Law: A WD appearance would be fun but unfortunately that post wasn't a hint of any sort!
@Gitsplitta & Squidbot: Thanks !
@Young_Logan: Care to share those other plans?
@IPS: The list is almost exactly WYSIWYG (depending on whether you consider the twin blade arm Grot to be an acceptable Scissorhand) roughly: Haemonculus w/ Venom Blade, Six Grotesques including an Abberation w/Scissorhand, two units of three Wracks, Talos w/ Chain flails, Additional CCW & Twin Linked Haywire Blaster.
@Squigsquasher: I'd recommend a weekly check for better health, wealth and happiness.
Well @Mechanicum Jon i'm going to make an exodite force with haemonculus style corsair allies detachment after i've finished my death guard and wolves using high elf parts (i know its normally DE or WE but i want to try something a little different). Dragons as planes, skiffs and riders as jet bikes etc
Progress update on the Raider crews. They win the most boring award because if you paint all the crew for the Raiders and Ravagers in your army, instead of having a couple of new squads fighting on the table you just have them standing on boats. Forever.
Pop quiz for observant readers of this blog:
One of the heads on the models below is recycled from another model I fully painted and then decided to use a different head for (this decision process is all on the blog). What was the original model?
First to respond correctly gets a (virtual) pain token. Note: May not actually give you a 5+ Feel No Pain save .
@Young_Logan: I've also seen Dark Elf Cold One Riders used to good effect as Exodite Beastmasters or Jetbikes.
@Urien_Rakarth: The last time that many Eldar were burned it gave rise to Slannesh. So maybe you'll get a new Chaos Daemons army out of this .
@Ovion: If Ravagers and planes weren't such a necessity I think GW would have sold a lot more Talos models. I hardly ever see any being used over here either.
I don't think I actually have any dedicated Ravagers... xD I've used them a couple of times, and just stuck warriors with lances on the sides to represent the extra guns
I think if Talos weren't £28 each, and the Covens weren't between roughly £60-100 a unit otherwise, they might be more popular!
But hey, I can always look on a bitz site (or buy my own actual Talos *gasp*) and cast that helmet.
I only just came across this thread a few days ago and have been trying to catch up on all the awesome. Your colour scheme is gorgeous and your painting is awesome.
I wanted to start a DE army before I found this thread, and you aren't helping my willpower to resist.
I really want to see a diorama with these four. The two on the left playing stacked sythesyzer keyboards and the two on the right playing XBox together.
aaaaand done! To me they look like two guys with PS3 controllers and two guys playing Kinect . For the answer to the pop quiz: the recycled head was the one on the far right, from my original Incubi concept.
I was rummaging through my bits box thinking about what to use for Dark Eldar objective markers. I found that the problem with a lot of Dark Eldar bits is that they're quite delicate so don't really show up well on a base unless you pile them up. But it didn't seem very in character for Kabalites to leave little piles of equipment lying around like dirty laundry . So I turned to Google image search for inspiration and found that I liked the idea of using the trophy poles that come with DE vehicles. They're tall enough to show up on the table and look great with the addition of a few chains and additional trophies. These could also double as pain tokens if objectives aren't needed.
@Terminado907: Sure, enjoy your (imaginary) 5+ FNP save (HAEMONCULUS GENERAL'S WARNING: Lascannons Cause Instant Death)!
Nice, simple, they fit with your army. One suggestion, on my onbjectives i've made them so that you can fit the mysterious objective marker dice into them, I don't know how well it would fit with them but it might be something to do in a future project.
So here's one done! Turned out quite well I think. I decided to rust up the chains to give a bit more color on the spears. Having both silver chains and silver spearheads looked a little samey.
Glad everyone seems to like the "simple but elegant" approach (if that can be said about skulls on a pole)!
@Young_Logan: Good idea, I'm thinking about how to incorporate a dice holder into the rocks of another objective.
Finished painting the second objective marker. The greenish tinge to the severed head was particularly effective, although it was difficult to make it noticeable without being comically green. If I ever paint up some zombies I'll definitely remember this color combination. My color mixture for this greenish skin was a tiny bit of Scorpion Green with Deneb Stone. Any bright green with a light beige would probably work as well (I know my colors are out of date but I stocked up on some essentials before the recent Citadel switch so I haven't really tried the new paints ).
I think I've commented here before but this is one of my favourite P&M blogs.
It inspired me to start my own Dark Eldar army, but then I realized i didn't have the money for yet another army. So I stole your colour scheme for your bases. They really help tie a force together.
I love how the alien head is just a very slightly different colour, the almost purple-cream rather than the brown-cream of human skulls. Lovely details, and a fantastic texture on the top of the skulls as well. How did you do that?
So, here's the Kabal of the Drowned Gardens on display at the Kowlooon City Plaza mall here in Hong Kong! There are some White Scars in the case too but we all know who the stars of this showcase are . I was too busy with work to help with the display setup but the FLGS staff did a great job in arranging all the mini's in a cinematic battle scene. The reflective glass made it difficult to take good photos, but I was told that some people showed up with fancy photo equipment and took some better shots (I'll try to put a link to those up once I find out where they've been uploaded). All in all it was fun to see my mini's on display in such a public space and watch all the people going up to have a closer look!
Congrats Jon! This is quite the achievement and also a very high level of praise from your FLGS. I can imagine how getting such an opportunity to showcase your work must serve as great motivation to keep painting. Now that your favourite army is encased in glass, what do you intend on working on next so you can actually still the game?
Seriously though, new Infinity painting competition starting very soon. I was wondering if you'd be applying this time, Jon? It's been a year since the last one.
Great work Jon, I have been through that Mall a few times, and all I can say is the sheer number of people that travel through there on a daily basis is just phenomenal, its great that you have this opportunity to promote the hobby to such a large amount of people.
I was wandering, also, what your next project might be? do the new Tau kits take your fancy? Because I would love to see you paint a Tau army, I think you would take the blue men to new levels of awesomeness!!!
Congrats on the awesome display. The white scars look nice too. Have you ever battled against that particular army? I'd love to see a battle rep with those two armies!
Tech Guard wrote: Great work Jon, I have been through that Mall a few times, and all I can say is the sheer number of people that travel through there on a daily basis is just phenomenal, its great that you have this opportunity to promote the hobby to such a large amount of people.
I was wandering, also, what your next project might be? do the new Tau kits take your fancy? Because I would love to see you paint a Tau army, I think you would take the blue men to new levels of awesomeness!!!
aaaaaaaand I'm back! I blame the combination of Borderlands 2 and a few good friends who have made career changes that allow them more free time . But wow that game is fun to play with a group of people ! On a related note, a few of you dear readers wondered if I would think about painting some Tau. Borderlands 2 has actually given me a bit of a urge to paint up some Tau in the bright yellow Hyperion color scheme from that game (led by Handsome Jack as an Ethereal ). The rumors of new Eldar models in June also raise interesting possibilities.
Anyway, before anything new I wanted to paint these guys up because I like the conversions so much that it seems a shame to let them sit unpainted.
Jon, have you been playing the expansions for borderlands 2? My wife and I have been really sucked into the newest True Vault hunter mode in combination with the downloadable stuff. It is a fantastic game. On top of that, its hilarious! Pretty soon they'll be releasing another class to play as, then we'll have to play it all again!
Still need to do the fur, the rust and some minor details. At first I thought the ratio of copper to turquoise parts on the liquifier grot was a bit high but it all turned out fine after I applied washes to everything.
@IceAngel: I haven't bought the Season Pass yet but definitely plan to!
Looking good, Jon. I really like the one on the bottom with the mechanical hand. It looks very sinister. Your DE really are a gem. Your new stuff never ceases to impress. Any chance of seeing a few more character models?
These two guys are complete! The fact that my Mechromancer is now level 61 did contribute significantly to the delay . I still really like how the fur looks in photos. I don't know if I've said this before in this thread but in my head these Grotesques are so furry because they were originally captured Space Wolves .
@CalasTyphon216: Thanks for the generous offer but I'm done with the Grots for now. I've got eight of them and am pretty much out of ideas on how to make them look unique! What I would appreciate is any spare Battlesuits if you've got any lying around since I'm thinking seriously about that Borderlands 2 Hyperion Tau army idea .
@Darth Bob: I've got a stock GW Haemonculus model but haven't painted him up because I like the way Sara (my Haemonculus conversion) looks so much more. But I may paint him up eventually since I often find myself having to using a Wrack model as a proxy second Haemy.
@Casey's Law: Thanks, I hope they look even better now!
This is definitely one of the best DE threads around. Great painting and great conversions.
Kudos for using old DE parts, I've never found any use for them.
And the wounds on the grotesques look properly angry. Brilliant.
Will this post title help this thread over 200k views ? Let's just leave Dakka's tastes aside and say that whatever's under that bodysuit probably requires a NSFL tag . On a different note, I am really grateful at all the continued support this thread has received. I know that 200k isn't in the neighborhood of a Gitsplitta thread , but it is an indication that several hundred people around the world are consistently following along. I still think that's pretty amazing given how niche our hobby is. Anyway here are the Haemonculus boobs you all came here for. As always, all comments and criticism welcome !
You can all credit/blame Darth Bob for this one since he commented on wanting to see another character. As I said in a previous post, I needed to paint up another Haemonculus for games so I was going to do a quick job on the stock GW model. So I chiseled it out of the sheet of "Finecast" flash it was encased in and started cleaning up the parts and test fitting them. But after a while it occurred to me that I really wasn't very keen on the stock pose and I wasn't very excited to paint it. The main problem being that the Haemonculus is just sort of holding stuff out like floating coat rack.
So, seeing that the "corset" on the model looked a lot like the one worn by my first female Haemonculus conversion I decided to try and make a sister for her. It was after I had hacked away the top half of the model and was whittling away at the upper torso of a Wych that the whole conversion started to seem a little ridiculous. I was trying to "dock" a set of miniature breasts into the upper torso of a male model and they weren't fitting very well ! I thought I'd gone and ruined a model on a whim and also realized that Finecast models are a bit too expensive to chop up without a plan.
But after several hours of careful fitting and rummaging through my bits box I think the result was worth the effort! The pose I settled on is the Haemonculus getting ready to casually jab a syringe into a Grotesque to regulate the chemical cocktail raging through its body.
Obviously, she's wearing something that "lifts and separates".
It's the continued awesomeness that's gotten your blog 200k views Jon. And it's not just your talent... your personality and the way you interact with your readers is a big part of it. Congratulations... well deserved!
In all seriousness though, an utterly fantastic conversion, I particularly like the syringe. I'd like to see some stitches connection the flesh-coat to her upper torso though; that'd be really cool, it'd make it like a continuos cloak.
I bow to the master. That haemonculus conversion is really quite amazing
Btw, would you be open to doing some commission work conversion wise? I have a nurgle daemon prince requiring a fair bit of greenstuff/plasticard work
So, it seems like Dakka really likes Haemonculus boobs . The thread gained over 2500 views on that post alone (or my closet full of Wracks hitting F5 over and over again has finally gotten up to speed)!
Squigsquasher raised an interesting question about painting some designs on the helmet. I've been considering glyph or eye designs as well as some more ambitious suggestions. For example, adding a cracked section with a small tentacle on tongue coming out. Any ideas?
@Gitsplitta: Thanks Gits! I've sometimes also thought that part of this thread's success is because I generally include a picture in almost every post. Although to be honest, the pictures are more of a beneficial side effect of me being a reluctant writer and trying to avoid writing by using pictures instead. I tend to try to do the same thing at work. Fortunately (but really unsurprisingly), clients also seem to like looking at pictures more than reading walls of text !
@walker90234: I thought about that but I kind of like the half cloak look. I just think of it as tucked into the corset. I'll get her undercoated and I might add some stitches if she looks like she needs it.
@CalasTyphon216: I generally don't do commissions because my hobby time is generally more valuable to me than what I could reasonably charge. However feel free to PM me with details. If you're going to be here in Hong Kong I'd ask around at Fun Atelier since there are a lot of extremely talented sculptors who might be interested.
Well, having just devoured the whole thread, I can say I really love your approached to it all. while elder, dark or otherwise, aren't my thing (I like minis with a bit of substance) I enjoyed this post. the hybrid nid wolves were interesting and a liked your approach to the wings.
where you at with it all now?
I'm going to get in trouble for these thread titles .
Here's a quick WIP of what I've gotten done over the past few days. I did a minor but very time consuming bit of greenstuff work to tidy up the join between the upper and lower chest area and add little "staples" to connect the cloak to her body.
Even a little paint does a lot to bring the conversion together. The part that took me the longest was the cloak. At first I had painted and shaded it in a dark leather color to match the rest of the Kabal. However, that made the model too dark overall and honestly made her look like a bit of a bum in a ragged coat. So back to the old horror standby of the bloody flayed garment which I think looks a lot better on her.
Boy, you're right Jon... the paint really does pull things together nicely. I had to go back to your build pic to really appreciate the difference. I think you made a good choice on the cloak. Besides... if she stands out from the kabal a bit, that's a good thing.
I played a great narrative game this weekend revolving around White Scars forming the rearguard in the evacuation of an Imperial World under attack by Tyranids lured there by the Dark Eldar. So two fast armies going right at each other while random Tyranids burst out of buildings!
The highlight on the White Scars side was Kahn killing three Grotesques (two through Instant Death) himself and his squad carving up the other five over two turns.
On the other hand, I found out that if you roll a six for a Talos’ D6 attacks three turns in a row (admittedly with the help of chain flails), things will be dead. In this case it was ten Bikers and two Attack Bikes.
The game ended with the White Scars having protected their Tyranid repelling beacon, giving the evacuees enough time to escape, while the Drowned Gardens held their portal open long enough for some Tyranid specimens to be captured. So a win-win situation for everyone involved! Well, except for everyone in the 75% of each army that got killed of course!
The Grotesques and Kahn about to get stuck in. This was the first game that I used all eight Grotesques together, I hadn't realized just how big an area of the table they take up!
The Talos about to have it's first Biker meal of the game.
That looks like a fun game; I wish I could finish painting an army and play a game like that. Is that the same White Scars army that was in the mall with your army before?
We interrupt this content for a important request to our loyal readers:
WANTED: Sweet ride for twin Haemonculi sisters and seven of their beefiest bioengineered BFFs!
Hallo Kabalites!
Do you know what the Kabal of the Drowned Gardens needs right now?
A Tantalus!
But your support is really needed for this to happen, and I’m not going to beg for money.
Ok, just kidding.
Yes I am.
What I'd like to find out is whether readers would be interested enough in reading about a Tantalus build to fund the purchase of one.
If you would be willing to make a contribution please drop a reply in this thread, PM, or email me with the amount you'd be willing to pledge. This is on the honor system .
The goal is US$130, the price of a Tantalus, and I'll try to get a big Forgeworld order together with other people to save shipping. If we hit the goal, I'll send out payment requests through Paypal.
As an extra incentive, anyone who pledges $10 or more will be emailed a battle report I will write of a game featuring the Tantalus (with lots of photos of course) !
Why aim for a Tantalus now and not before? Well, for the last several months I’ve found a few people who, like me, prefer playing narrative games over competitive ones. I’m not a fan of 6th edition as a competitive game, but I think it’s a good framework for narrative battles (once you bolt in a few indie-RPG storytelling elements). Because of this, I’m now confident that the model would get many more chances to be used on the tabletop and am excited to paint it up as a centerpiece!
And now back to your regularly scheduled P&M content:
Presenting Sue the Haemonculus fully painted and ready to melt some Marines!
I'm extremely happy with how she looks completed. I experimented with a lot of different faceplate designs but decided on a mottled green pattern, suggesting something unusual is going on inside the helmet.
Looks really good
also I'll be back in HK for 3 weeks in July, I'll make my contributions to the Tantalus fund then. Also, would you be up for a rematch? I finally finalised my guard list
Dude! She looks awesome! You did a brilliant job and I love how she is a little lighter in pallet than the others. Elegant conversion ftw.
I'm glad your trying out the pledging for a Tantalus idea! Was it like a year ago we discussed that? Longer maybe? I missed pledging to help you get those photos done so i'll be sure to do what I can this time. I'll drop you a pm about it bud.
Boringstuff: Well spotted! The White Scars army is the same one from the mall display. That's probably why the game ended in a tie. Both armies had had a lot of experience fighting each other!
CalasTyphon216: Sure I'm up for a game !
Casey's Law: I think it was more than a year ago, but we're in a whole new edition now! Looking forward to your support!
A Kvlt Ghost: Thanks! I actually did some more touch up work on the helmet face plate to make it look more iridescent. Like a green opal. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.
Presenting the Haemonculi Sisters of the Drowned Gardens! To go off on a tangent, I just noticed that Dakka's spell check function corrects "Haemonculi" to "Emasculation" . This leads me to wonder whether my Grotesques all have high pitched voices despite their burly builds .
Also, a friendly reminder that I'd like to know whether readers would be interested enough in reading about a Tantalus build to fund the purchase of one. If you would be willing to make a contribution please drop a reply in this thread, PM, or email me with the amount you'd be willing to pledge. Please see two posts ago for details since I don't plan on spamming my own thread too much !
Jon, that model is something else you've done! wow i am totally going to beg borrow and steal that faceplate design from you it looks simply stunning, so that'll be one sail technique stolen (check) and now one opal themed faceplate technique stolen (check) all I can say is for such a large force the fact you have still managed to inject such diversity and conversion to make it a joy to browse your thread after this long is something to be immensly proud of! :-)
Another brilliant addition to the force! For some reason, seeing the two "sisters" together makes me think you should add a third one, who is all twisted, bent and crone-like. So the three of them have a certain "Sisters of Fate" thing going on.
KrautScientist wrote: Another brilliant addition to the force! For some reason, seeing the two "sisters" together makes me think you should add a third one, who is all twisted, bent and crone-like. So the three of them have a certain "Sisters of Fate" thing going on.
Just a stupid idea, off the top of my head...
I don't think that's a stupid idea at all. I second this motion. You can never have too many Haemonculus boobs in one thread!
I've been spending some time on assorted tasks that generally improve the condition of the army. Sticking the Raider Crew I painted a while back onto their Raiders, pose adjustments, fixing chipped paint on bases and other minor repairs, that sort of thing. Basically all the things that I've been putting off because they're not an exciting new model!
However, one thing I did that I found pretty satisfying was some improvements I made to my troops tray. Even through the tray could have been custom cut to fit the models exactly, I chose not to go that route because I thought it would be a pain to have to put away all the models in their exact slots. The downside was that the models were free to move around a bit too much. The compromise I've come up with is to use pluck foam pieces to create two level slots for the models. Most of the spaces are general enough to hold most models and yet still stop them from moving around. Also, nothing needs to be glued down so I can always change the layout.
Finally, so far I've had a couple people say they'd be interested in contributing towards a Tantalus for the Haemonculi sisters and their Grots to ride in, putting us at $30 of the $130 goal. I'll keep this open until the end of June but would be grateful for any early indications of interest .
@KrautScientist: I really like that idea! Any thoughts on base models?
Mechanicum Jon wrote: @KrautScientist: I really like that idea! Any thoughts on base models?
Hmm, that depends upon the look you're trying to achieve, of course, but let me just shoot some ideas your way:
- possibly the easiest way would be to use Urien Rakarth as a base model and work from there, since the model already had a very twisted and deformed look
- there are several WFB plastic models that might also work as a base model: the plastic Necromancer that comes in a clamshell? or the Necromancer models from either the Coven Throne or Corpse cart?
- some of the vestigial arms from the Talos/Cronos kit look extremely withered and deformed. I'd use those as extra limbs.
- a rather crazy idea, perhaps, but the WFB plastic Banshee might be worth a look...
- and, finally, if you need twisted and creepy arms, hands and bodies, the Crypt Ghouls are always a safe bet.
Just a couple of initial ideas -- hope this helps!
There's always my Haem-favourite - which is the Wood Elf Dryad as a base: Little sculpting work to bring the coat / clothing more in line with the rest of your models aesthetic, and it could work nicely.
I posted this a while ago in a discussion forum but it didn't get much play. I still think it's an interesting question so I'd like to see if any of the regular readers out there have any thoughts. I decided that it wasn't wildly off topic for a P&M blog because it helps me think about what would look good together as an army on the table or in a display. Before I initiate the wall of text I'd like to thank KrautScientist and Ovion for their suggestions. I'll have a hunt around the surviving bitz sites.
So, I happened to do some navel-gazing about Dark Eldar fluff and would be interested in what people think about these questions:
What is the most out of character army list you can think of for a Dark Eldar army?
What about the most in character list?
Since the Dark Eldar tend to fight as raiding forces with extremely idiosyncratic leaders there might not actually be a what you could call a “archetypical” Dark Eldar army build.
Not at least in the way that an Ultramarine army made up mainly of 10 man Tactical Squads in Rhinos with a healthy sprinkle of Terminators, Assault Marines, Devastators, Land Speeders and Predators would probably pass inspection by even the most zealous fluff inquisitor without having to provide any extra background explanation.
That moved me onto wondering if I could come up with a completely out of character army list which would need a really awkward background story to explain. I assumed no allies and gave no thought to game-play performance other than it had to be a valid list at 2000pts, one force org chart. I also tried to mainly take wargear choices that would make a visible WYSWIG difference on the tabletop since I wasn't trying to build the worst possible army (that's another discussion):
After some noodling around I came up with the following three lists:
“Special Snowflakes”
Here I tried to make everything as different as possible and not have much that hung together in terms of background. However, strangely enough I think this list would have the best chance out of the three in a Best Army category because it could look pretty good on the tabletop.
“Homogeneity”
Surprisingly you can make a 2000 point Dark Eldar army using almost identical units. The Archon has invisible wargear so he's less noticeable.
Spoiler:
Archon (w/ Combat Drugs, Shadow Field)
10 Trueborn (2 w/ Dark Lance)
10 Trueborn (2 w/ Dark Lance)
10 Trueborn (2 w/ Dark Lance)
20 Warriors (2 w/ Dark Lance)
20 Warriors (2 w/ Dark Lance)
20 Warriors (2 w/ Dark Lance)
20 Warriors (2 w/ Dark Lance)
20 Warriors (2 w/ Dark Lance)
20 Warriors (2 w/ Dark Lance)
“Some of These Things Are Not Like The Others”
Finally I came up with a combination of the two lists above, a core of blandness with some really awkward looking additions. My vote would go to this one for being the hardest to explain.
One army you might be interested in is the list that won the Victorian Masters here last year
basically 9 venoms filled with trueborn and warriors, max blasters, triple ravagers
it was an 1850 points list methinks
it is kind of in character for dark eldar, being a MSU 'death by a thousand cuts' thing
also brutally powerful, point and click, no skill required list
Sadly, I can offer zero input when it comes to army lists, seeing how I violently suck at all the rules stuff, but I still want to give you some input regarding that first list, because it instantly sparked an idea for an army theme:
To me, it sounds like a sinister circus troupe: Think of what the rich and powerful of Comorragh would find entertaining and mesmerising, beyond the usual slaughter in the arenas (or, as it were, as little appetisers between main courses of slaughter and gladiatorial battles).
Bring in the clowns!
Spoiler:
I don't have ideas for all the selections. Here are the ones that instantly come to mind, though:
Drazhar: He could serve as some kind of lithe, acrobatic fighter Baron Sathonyx: Used as a ringmaster of sorts, witnessing the performance of his troupe from atop his skyboard. Trailing coattails are a must for this guy! 8 Grotesques: I see these in a clown role, for some reason. Huge and sinister and terrible clowns, mind you...
10 Mandrakes: Mimes. 'nuff said. 15 Wyches: Well, these are acrobats, obviously. 3 Scourges: Again, these could be either strange, winged acrobats. Or harpy-like, twisted carnival freaks...
1 Beastmaster (w/ Clawed Fiend): Well, no guessing here: Every good circus needs a routine involving an animal trainer and his wild beasts.
Anyway, the army could use the general circus/carnival metaphor as well as some elements from the Harlequins' design - only darker, more depraved etc. The added benefit would be that you could even use elements of the army as Harlequins at some point...
[spoiler]
I have absolutely no idea if this is any help. Just a spur of the moment idea. Make of it what you will (or simply ignore it)
In the first list, your Scourges are not a legal unit - you need 5 models to take the special weapons.
The second list is interesting, though incredibly static - an alternate would be giving the Trueborn + Archon Blasters (maybe a second Archon, for 2 squads of 5 blasters?, maybe in Venoms or Raiders, just for practicallities sake), then the Warriors with pairs of Splinter Cannons each.
The third list, seems massively lacking in anti-tank, with tons of base warriors.
Also, you can't take a Venom on a unit with more than 5 models, and a Raider on a unit with more than 10.
@Ovion
you can still take a venom on a 10 man unit and a raider on a 15 man
you just can't start in it/enter it until you are reduced to 5/10 respectively
you can ALWAYS buy dedicated transports even if your unit size won't fit
Page 91 of the Dark Eldar Codex:
Dedicated Transports:
"Note that units may not select a Dedicated Transport if the number of models in the unit is higher than the Transport Capacity of the Vehicle"
I'm having exactly the same problem as you, but everyone seems to have picked all the good blue colour schemes *cough* you *cough* so I don't know ah too do without ripping off someone's hard work, my Kabal is the Kabal of the blue sun, if you could help me, I'd greatly appreciate it
One of the reasons why I decided to go for a weathered look on my Dark Eldar was to avoid having to do so much edge highlighting. With my skills at the time it seem like it would be incredibly frustrating to highlight them neatly. However, now when I look at some of my older models up close they lack some of the visual pop of my newer stuff. They still look great on the tabletop but could use a bit of extra work so they fit in with the rest of my army. While I was at it I also painted some glyph patterns on the front.
I've been highlighting the Reavers as one big batch but decided to finish one first to see how it looks. It's not a dramatic difference but I'm happy with how it provides a bit more visual interest to the model.
Wow, you guys sure jumped on me for army list errors . I wrote those lists more an an exploration of the visual look and background of a Dark Eldar army rather than anything I would think of fielding in a game . I thought that KrautScientist came up with some rather brilliant fluff for the first list though. I wrote that one mainly to try to cram as much unrelated stuff together as possible but he made it actually sound pretty cool.
@Smiggle: Feel free to "borrow" any parts of or even the whole scheme ! I use sports teams colors all the time 'for references.
@Bengo2105: Glad you had a good read. Now get out there and paint up some new Kabalites!
A quick comparison shot to show the the extra detailing on the Reavers I'm doing. Keep in mind that the Jetbike on the right is a bit more weathered to begin with.
Thanks for the encouragement guys! But you all liked the original Jetbikes fine when I posted them a few years ago ! Actually I did too but it seems that I've raised the bar on myself!
Here we go! Three refurbished Reaver Jetbikes! The hardest part was coming up with designs to paint to the Jetbike "hoods." I tend to try and paint designs that somewhat ignore the sculpted details of the model because I think it makes the Jetbikes look more streamlined. What makes it tough is that you can't ignore the sculpt completely because then it just looks like you painted some random designs. I've been looking at a lot of runes and tribal masks for inspiration, as well as my own vehicles!
Oh yeah, the second half of this post's title isn't really relevant, I just went with the alliteration and ridiculous made up word from a video game title.
@Nivoglibina: If I were to do them from scratch, I'd paint everything including the runic designs and highlighting and then weather once that's done. You can take a look at some of the previous posts in this thread on how I paint my vehicles if you'd like some examples.
Just wanted to check in with everyone to let you know what's up! I've still been highlighting Reavers but the pace has fallen off a bit due to: 1. The Tiny Tina DLC for Borderlands 2, 2. The Steam sale which means I am catching up on a huge backlog of games and 3. I'm leaving for Tokyo today for a vacation and have been spending a lot of time reading up on what to do! So, basically the Kabal is on summer vacation playing video games and visiting exciting foreign destinations .
Of course I'll be visiting some hobby shops in Tokyo to see what interesting tools and paints they have. I bought my first MIG weathering powders on a trip to Tokyo 3 or so years ago and they've been used to weather my whole Kabal!
@Foolish_Hyena: The bases are made of Milliput putty rolled out into flat pancakes and then broken up into slabs once dried. You can find some step by step tutorials a ways back in this thread.
Feels great to be painting again after something of a hiatus! Not the most exciting comeback image perhaps, but I felt I needed to post some progress to help get back into the painting groove. I'm going to keep this short since I'm about to head off for a night of playing FFG's Relic and I've also got a game of 40k lined up for tomorrow for which I need to refresh myself on the rules (haven't played in a month or so) and come up with an armylist!
This is what happens when you deploy in a vehicle park against Dark Eldar and they manage to crack it. The Admech IG army looks small because two Vendettas with Special Weapon Squads on-board and a Hellhound decided not to turn up before Turn 4, by which point the ground forces were basically crippled. My opponent was also not helped by the fact that I seemed to be making about 90% of my cover saves while he was rolling more like 20%!
This was also the first game of 40k I've played at home in years since my junior high/high school gaming group mostly broke up and I shifted to playing at my FLGS. I was actually pleasantly surprised that I was able to dig up enough of my old terrain to put together a decent table layout without having to resort to tissue box buildings. Most of this terrain is more than 10 years old! Just look at those glorious 2nd Edition style flocked foam hills !
@Yggdrasil: Relic is a fun "beer and pretzels" style game, helped a lot by the 40k lore. I'm not sure I'd find a 3+ hour roll and move type game engaging enough without the 40k universe. But I'd definitely recommend the game to any fans of 40k.
@GiraffeX, Casey's Law, Gitsplitta and bofdar: It's good to be back !
Highlights are done ! If I'm honest the highlights were really a bit tedious to get done. But now having finished, I'm definitely glad to have gone back to these models to do the highlighting. They fit in much better with the rest of the army now. I still plan to paint various runic designs on the canopies but I might work on something else first. I've got a whole box of Reaper Bones mini's that just came in that I'm keen to try painting but also have this strange urge to paint a 2nd Edition Space Marine in the Drowned Gardens color scheme. I think it's because I've got lots of old Marines sitting around with questionable paint jobs and the thought of quickly refurbishing a small marine army for gaming is gaining traction with the new codex coming out. Using the Drowned Gardens scheme means I can be lazy and get some gaming quality models out with relatively little effort! I've also got a sneaking suspicion that years of looking at Gitsplitta's amazing Mantis Warriors army has had some part in this...
@KrautScientist: Hey, I remember being pretty impressed with GW's line or cardboard terrain when it came out, especially the Gorkamorka stuff !
Stunning, definitely worth your efforts. Marines sounds like a fun change of pace but it would be nice to see some slightly different colours. Have you considered just spinning the colour wheel a bit? You could probably copy all the same techniques with just a different palette.
This miniature cost me less than 50 cents USD. Yes the detail may not be 100% as crisp as other minis. Yes the plastic is a bit bendy. But neither of these criticisms are noticeable when you put the miniatures down on the tabletop. Not every miniature needs to be a display piece (although some of these could be). Sometimes you just want to enjoy having hundreds of characterful miniatures, from fishmen to giantesses, to paint and play with.
So for my first BONES mini I decided to stick with my Drowned Gardens scheme to get used to the new material. To be even more conservative, I picked a Dark Elf Priestess because I was fairly sure the scheme would look good on her. I'm happy to report that I haven't had to change my technique the slightest bit to paint this miniature so far. I've heard about primers not sticking but my usual Mr.Hobby Surfacer 1200 works just fine. As do Citadel and Vallejo paints. Readers will probably recognize the cloak and base colors which were painted exactly the same way as on my Dark Eldar minis and I think the results here look just as good! So overall a huge thumbs up from me on the Reaper BONES line so far , with my only regret being I didn't buy more during the Kickstarter (although realistically I can't see myself running out of things to paint anytime soon)!
@Casey's Law: I'm thinking about bright yellow like the Imperial Fists but it's not just the blue from the Drowned Gardens scheme I'm attached to. It's the whole combination of blue, rust, copper and red!
Looking really tight already Jon, you can't go wrong with this scheme, you've mastered it!
Yellow looks amazing on marines so I'd back that decision for sure. I wonder if you could use the same ratios of seperation on the colour wheel to match the other DG colours in a way that gives you the same feeling.
I tried it here: http://colorschemedesigner.com/ And it's not great becuase it falls between warm and cold. If you squidge the yellow to warm then the matches would be indigo and mid to dark blue to replace the redish colours. That means it'd be blue tinged steel and a blueish verdigris for the metal. That doesn't sound too appealing to me... If you go with a cold yellow then pink gets added to the mix for the metals which wounds even worse.
So yeh, maybe not. You could probably come up with something better without the wheel. How about just swapping the blue for yellow? Or a simple analogic scheme with green verdigris on copper and yellow armour. You could keep that lovely rich red for the cloth and icons. Actually I like the sound of that. All that changes is the blue swaps to yellow and the rust swaps to verdigris. I think a lot of your techniques could be directly transferable.
Tierdeleira's painting up quite nicely, but of course there's still a ways to go. The warmer brown areas are going to be painted bronze, the lighter brown areas will be done as leather, the armor will be weathered and they were be a bunch of highlights and washes done all over.
It also just occurred to me that she'd make a decent proxy as an Archon for the Drowned Gardens.
@Gitsplitta: I've always liked Reaper for the sheer variety of sculpts they have.
@Casey's Law: Thanks for the thoughtful reply and taking the time to test things out for me.
Great work as usual. I actually bought a few the the Bones Hellhounds to test out how they'd look as a Khymerae. With the Bones pricing, it was almost a must try. Yours is painting up quite nicely and great to see such nice detail in such an inexpensive model.
Presenting my first painted miniature from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter, Tierdeleira, Dark Elf Priestess. Let me know what you think of the cheapest miniature I've ever painted .
@Sarigar: Puppet's War also just released their Barghest Fiends which look like perfect proxies for Khymerae, although definitely not as cheap as the Bones Hellhounds.
Lovely job mate! I'm not sure I'm sold on the miniature itself oddly enough, I really thought I'd love it but it just feels a bit off in places to me.
No worries btw, I always enjoy looking at colour schemes, it's good practice. The last one I came up with in that post I'm actually rather fond of now, I might have to try it out myself!
I sprayed Tierdeleira with a few coats of matte varnish and found it makes a huge difference! I've realized that I really like the "softer" painted look over shiny metals. The problem with matte varnish though is that I'm always worried about it coating the mini in a white frost (you can see a bit of this on the mace handle). Sometimes the usual gloss varnish or future floor wax methods won't even fix things completely so I'll have to repaint parts. Do any of you have any tips on how to avoid this?
@Casey's Law: Post some pics if you try it out! I'm promise to shamelessly copy your successes .
Haha, will do, I might try and wind it into one of my current projects.
She softened down very nicely, I agree that I prefer that look myself. I'm not sure what you can really do to avoid the frosting mistakes. It seems to be a distance and climate issue. Maybe checking the temperature before spraying would be beneficial.
living in the tropics, which is the enemy for spray varnish, i have taken to using Vallejo's brush-on matte varnish...
it works great...
just use a slightly moist brush, and don't thin your varnish with water...
it fells like it will be going on thick, but i just come back to the first few brush strokes, after i have used up all the varnish on the brush and feather it outward...
Is the frosting happening at application or during drying? If the latter, take a hairdryer to it and dry it yourself. (Bonus, this is also a quick way to not to have to wait for paint to dry after basecoating, layering etc)
You guys are probably right about the temperature and humidity. I just checked the weather here and it's unusually dry (55% humidity), which is probably why Tierdeleira came out relatively well. The problem is, this unusual weather the result of a Super Typhoon (media are saying it's the world's strongest storm of 2013) that's due for a direct hit on Hong Kong tomorrow or Monday. I don't think I'm going to start wishing for Typhoons just so I can varnish my models !
As a side note, the Typhoon's been named Usagi which means "rabbit" in Japanese. I've always thought they should pick more intimidating names for storms so people take them more seriously. 40k lore would be a particularly good reference. You could have "Hurricane Bloodthirster," "Cyclone Warboss," "Typhoon Razorwing," etc.
@jah-joshua: That sounds like it might be exactly what I need, I'll grab a bottle next time I'm down at my FLGS.
@Arakasi: Thanks for the tip , but I already use a hairdryer because I found that if I don't there's almost guaranteed to be frosting!
I did the same to some tanks a few weeks back.
What worked for them is to wait until the humidity is lower, spray lightly with a satin or gloss varnish then when that has dried re-apply the matt.
The effect is caused from moisture in the air condensing on the colder sprayed varnish (notice how a can gets cold as you spray with it, first law of thermodynamics in action!), the varnish then sets with the condensation in contact creating a rough un-even surface that whitens as the water evaporates.
@Jon: just imagine that the Typhoon is actually named Usagi Yojimbo...
now it's a badass samurai rabbit!!!
it has always made me laugh, the names of hurricanes are so boring...
as i'm out surfing 20 foot waves that could be the death of me, i think, "wow, hurricane Jane is really kicking some ass today"...
meh...
I decided to keep going with Reaper's Dark Elves so here are two more. I've noticed that some of the Bones mini's are posed slightly differently from their metal counterparts. Probably due to casting constraints. In some cases, such as the assassin on the left, this results in a flatter and less interesting pose. So I decided to do a very minor conversion and pivot the right arm back around to the pose of the original metal mini.
I've also done a little painting on a second Dark Elf. Nothing too fancy, mainly sticking with what works .
@jah-joshua: I'm going to go see if I can dig up Usagi Yojimbo to read right now since you reminded me about it!
Here's my second painted Bones mini, a Dark Elf Warrior. I think the cloak came out particularly well since I've been trying to make my highlights slightly more dramatic. I've always had trouble with smooth highlights because of the blending involved. He pairs up nicely with Tierdeleira on the tabletop.
The reason for my relative lack of progress is Card Hunter. It's Final Fantasy Tactics meets Magic the Gathering meets Bloodbowl. It's the best turn based "tactics" type game I've played in years and that list includes games like the new X-COM and the various Disgaea games.
As to what's next, my friend is renovating his house decided to give me a bunch of Eldar models because he said he realized he was never going to paint them. We'll see that catches my fancy. I'm thinking a Vyper Jetbike would be fun since I've always liked the model.
Hey mate, did you paint a whole Tau army in your Drowned Gardens colours, perchance? Because such an army appeared in the Michigan Grand Tournament 2013, it seems. Check it out here
It seems far too similar to be a coincidence, so I thought you'd appreciate the info
KrautScientist wrote: Hey mate, did you paint a whole Tau army in your Drowned Gardens colours, perchance? Because such an army appeared in the Michigan Grand Tournament 2013, it seems. Check it out here
It seems far too similar to be a coincidence, so I thought you'd appreciate the info
Well they do say imitation is the highest form of flattery!
I've got some fluff in mind for this so hold back the nerd-rage for a bit . But here's a progress photo first while I work it out. I'm really happy with how the gunner conversion turned out. Although it looks simple, it took me a lot of trial and error to find two arms the fit correctly! This photo also shows how I magnetized the "turret" by fitting a magnetic plate into the original recess and gluing a magnet into the turret.
As for the Tau army, I'd agree with Gutsnagga. I've actually always wondered how a Tau army would look in the Drowned Gardens colors and now I don't have to try it out ! Although I think it might look better with some white accents, like some stripes.
Mechanicum Jon wrote: I've got some fluff in mind for this so hold back the nerd-rage for a bit . But here's a progress photo first while I work it out. I'm really happy with how the gunner conversion turned out. Although it looks simple, it took me a lot of trial and error to find two arms the fit correctly! This photo also shows how I magnetized the "turret" by fitting a magnetic plate into the original recess and gluing a magnet into the turret.
I love converting Vypers. Dont have a photo of my viper with a dark lance but I do remember the trouble getting arms that would fit. More trouble fitting any of the old style DE heads into the cockpit, they were all too tall.
right before the Venom came out I made a bunch of viper venom conversions, This one is my favorite. Sadly I cannot paint.
Whew! I've definitely had a Cardhunter addiction which has led to a bit of a lull over here ! But progress has finally been made!
The pilot's got a great expression. He looks really intense!
The Eldar pilot arms with the Dark Eldar torso also give a neat retro feel to this guy. Right now the Vyper has been chipped and highlighted but not rusted yet.
@Exergy: That's an amazing Venom conversion! Really like how you used the hanger's on.
It is perfectly fine to post into older painting and modeling threads, as good work always deserves to get more kudos.
In other words, thread necromancy is only an issue in threads with topical content (like news or tactics discussions, etc).
I know it can be a little disconcerting/annoying, but when its your blog thread, its always nice to get some more praise regardless of when your last update was.
2. If you’re painting glyphs on the model do that now since all the weathering will go on top.
3. Spray with flat matt varnish (Tamiya, Mr. Color or Mr. Hobby).
This step is important because it lets me wipe off the weathering easily with a bit of rubbing alcohol if I make a mistake. Typically the mistake is to overdo the weathering.
4. Mix up a dark gray color (I use Adeptus Battlegray + Chaos Black).
5. Use a piece of foam or sponge with “fine grain” to sponge on splotches of the dark gray to simulate paint chips. A detail brush is also useful for touching up and adding smaller chipped areas.
I use the foam from Sabol pluck and pick trays since I’ve got lots of it. It looks best if you can make it look semi-random. I concentrate a bit more on edges and places where I think more wear and tear will occur (like the handrails of the Ravager).
It’s surprisingly hard to get the semi-random look right. On my first Ravager I found I had lapsed into a regular pattern of “blotches” about 2 cm apart. That was when the coat of varnish helped since I could actually just wipe off the mistakes or even just scrape parts off with my fingernail.
6. Once all the chipping is done, paint all the other parts of the model as usual.
I do the chipping first since it’s a waste to get everything nicely painted and then find out you’ve put a gray blotch over your nicely painted white hair.
7. Highlight the edges of the model with skull white mixed with a tiny bit of blue.
8. Spray the model with flat matt varnish again.
I usually don’t do this for infantry since I don’t usually mess up the next step on them.
9. Mix up some weathering powders (I use MIG Old Rust and Rust) with odorless mineral spirits (found in most art stores).
I’ve tried all kinds of weathering powders but have found that the MIG ones work the best. Their depth of color just seems to be better than anything else I’ve tried. If anyone knows of a good online store that carries the MIG powders and ships worldwide please let me know. No one sells them here in Hong Kong.
I bought mine in the Yellow Submarine hobby shop at the top of the Radio Kaikan building in Akihabara, Tokyo. Those powders are probably the most useful souvenirs I’ve ever bought. This is in contrast to the box of Chessex dice I bought in Paris which seem to have an aversion to rolling hits for Dark Lances…
10. Dip a brush in the mixture and touch it to a join between armor plates. It’s like using a wash. The capillary action will naturally draw it along cracks. Also paint on some streaks parallel to the direction the vehicle travels in. Again, the varnish lets you wipe off any mistakes.
11. Apply a final coat(s) of varnish to seal everything in.
12. Enjoy one turn (or deployment phase at least) of glory on the tabletop before a stiff breeze (or two twin-linked psybolt autocannons) explode your open-topped paper airplane!
I once had two Raiders, a Ravager and a Venom exploded in Turn One even though they all had Flickerfields and/or cover in a 1250pt game. It was those French dice again…
Such an amazing army, hope he comes back to Dakka when he's ready.
. Turn 1 I exploded two chimera. Turn 2 I exploded two more. Which completely stalled the 
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! It took me a couple tries to get the right bone color, the first attempts were too light, but I think it the right shade now. Ditto for the flesh as I want the claw colors to stand out from my usual flesh tones.
keep up the good work
! There are also some step by step photos of models being painted with this method scattered throughout this thread.
. Amazingly the damage was limited to a bunch of miniatures coming off their bases!
. On a different note, I am really grateful at all the continued support this thread has received. I know that 200k isn't in the neighborhood of a Gitsplitta thread 
