Love the Tau. Something about the Tau aesthetic has always struck a chord with me. A foot slogging firewarrior based army was always the plan back when I started my now abandoned tau force.
Yours look unsurprisingly fantastic though.

The Shas'ui's expression is great. He's seen something and he's not well pleased about it.

Agreed with Nev on the weathering. they look great nice and clean, but a little bit of battle damage would look killer.

 Nevelon wrote:
Some sucking chest wounds always look good on Tau.

Rofl!

But great painting, mate! Even those blue ones look very very good.
Blue... what an odd colour for a Space Marine, what else will they come up with these days..?

Lovely stuff LDP.

It's been a pleasure following your Ultras, but these recent Tau are really inspring (and Tau are my thing these days). Especially nice to see a XV15 in classic Y2K studio colours!

Hey everybody! This will be my final post for the year. I figured that I'd best go out with a bang I'm leaving the country next Tuesday for an Honours Classical Studies field trip to Greece for two months, which is super exciting, but I'll be away from the paint desk . I was glad to finish this battlesuit commander off, though. I gave myself the final two weeks (amongst which time also were 4 exams) to finish this guy off, and I'm glad I made it and could afford it the patience and time that I felt it deserved. I'm proud of the final product overall - the T'au Sept scheme is so iconic that I feel like the finished results keep on justifying the tedious painting process. It takes so many layers of tau sept ochre to get a smooth coat. Anyway, thanks as always for checking my stuff out. I've had a fantastic painting year and will have to return in mid-jan next year with a review of 2018! Here's to a great 2019 you guys













Best,
LDP

Sharp as always, and a great homage to classic Tau. I know I'll miss the inspiration from your work while you're away. Enjoy the trip!

Damn, that's cool. Super crisp, very faithful colours, great detail work. A top quality mini to round out the year.

 lipsdapips wrote:
I'm leaving the country next Tuesday for an Honours Classical Studies field trip to Greece for two months, which is super exciting, but I'll be away from the paint desk.

As reasons not to be at the desk go, that's one of the cooler ones! I'm on a massive ancient Greek kick at the minute (well, even moreso than usual, at any rate) on account of the new Assassin's Creed being set there, so I'm ever-so-slightly jealous of that trip!

How hard would it be to stash a brush and a few pots of paint in your luggage? Really, excuses excuses!

Your hard work on the tau paid off, he looks awesome.

Enjoy your trip, and see you next year!

Looks so good! I think they look awesome without weathering personally

Awesome suit! Good luck on your travels.

Best of luck on your trip to Greece!

Honestly blown away by that Battlesuit, amazing work!

Hey everyone! I am back from my holiday at last.

2019 is going to be a primaris year for me. And a heavily Ultramarine one! I have returned with a colossal yield of less expensive overseas boxes (add the interdiction force to the picture of the goodies and that's my total sum!). I'm going to aspire to paint up ~3000 points of Ultrasmurf primaris goodness, with the occasional captain in there to detox and keep myself sane (this far into a captain addiction, I'm realistic about what my needs are). I'm in between flats right now so I can't set up a full version of my paint desk, so I've just been doing some assemblies. I'll show you what I started with Looking forward to dusting off the blog and getting it up and running again!





oh, and P.S: there may be some non-descript heresy coming somewhere down the track

As always, looking foreword to what you end up working on. Those two guys are looking like a great start!

Welcome back. This is gonna be awesome!

Great to have you back, hope you had a good time in Greece!

Welcome back mate, look forward to seeing what you tackle in 2019

Ah back to normality, and that is some collection of beautiful kits.

(yes I said beautiful, GW kits are beautiful. I love this hobby, all of it.) (even smurfs)

Nice to see you will be returning to some serious smurf action.

Whilst your guard/tau excursions have been great, they have: a) made me jealous that you are so good not only at smurfs, and b) you are truly the spiritual liege of smurfs (if not all vanilla marines)

Wow. New year, new marines, new cool paintjobs in the offing. Looking forward to all of it.

Oh wow, you brought up large!

Can't wait man

Thanks for the warm welcome everybody. I love this forum and you guys are the key reason! Such a great, tight-knit community.

So! It's surprising how much painting you can do when you're in between flats (especially since nothing is set up except for a really rudimentary version of my painting desk ). Accordingly, I finished Calsius over more or less two sessions! I'm really pleased overall - the first ~1 hour or so session was quite rusty and felt odd, but I got back into the swing quick fast and am looking forward to new projects! I'm going to paint a single primaris intercessor, just to double down on returning to form, as well as having a partner to submit into Para's monthly comp that'll be easily painted up within the next few days. Anyway, enjoy the pics!

That's ace. Love the helmet markings and the checked kneepad.

This is you working in adverse conditions while rusty?

Sure, we believe you...

Amazing work. Where is that guy from, a/o what bits did you use to build him?

And we're off! Great stuff. The eyes...so good.

Super awesome stuff. I hope they release Conquest in germany soon.
I can admire your Lt. Calsius in the meantime!

That's some 'Eavy Metal level painting on that lieutenant! I like the old school checkers on his knee, and I think the orientation of the head looks way better than on the official model. I got to say though, I think that those tufts are letting your work down slightly. They're a bit too neon, and look flat being just one color.

Some excellent painting all over this thread!
Really liked your kill teams.
I especially just loved the wooden stock on that one guardsman. So simple yet effective. I might have to borrow that one!

Will browse through the earlier pages one by one when I get the chance!

Looking goooooood. So crisp! As others have said, I'm liking the markings on the helmet and the old school checks! Helps make them new-marines blend in a little

Thanks everybody for the feedback.
@Neve The miniature is Lt. Calsius from the warhammer conquest range. I had to get him on ebay. But yes - the Ultramarines do have a custom Lieutenant!

@mcmattila thanks for the feedback As far as the tufts go, they do the job I think. I agree that the single colour is a bit plain, but it conforms to the relatively simple basing style that my ultramarine army has (plus it'd be a lot of work to uniformly change my basing style now!) - The neon look is dramatised as well by my lightbox I think. It's a little more palatable irl.


Hey all,

Just finished an intercessor for the monthly comp/to trial a factory lining paint scheme that should help me finish mass infantry a little faster than usual, without sacrificing too much in the way of quality.

Calcius and his intercessor buddy are both looking stunning as per! I really like that their heads are inclined in the same direction and it gives a nice uniform feel!

Intercessor: Hey, Calsius. That heretic said something bad about your mom. And the Emperor.

Calsius: Sonnuvva...!

Fantastic work, as always.

My, my, doesn't that look nice!


"Him, lieutenant, that's the one that told me that my ass was too big to fit through a Rhino hatch."

Thanks for the feedback everyone

Hello!

Here's a little secret I've been harbouring. Some of you may recall that I had a small Iron Warriors P&M Blog a few years ago. They've always been my favourite traitor legion: stubborn, brooding, and and unwilling to accept offerings of mutation from chaos gods. I've been excitedly anticipating the Vigilus news and while I was overseas, I put in an order for a bunch of parts to try and synthesise an idea that I had in my mind. When it all arrived, I spent some time building him up and, the next day, I painted him up in one sitting! I lost my mind a bit because I finished my uni work until March and have no internet in my flat at the moment, so I went on a ~9 stint. There probably won't be much more Iron Warriors content, at least for the next while until Vigilus releases a new chaos range. I have the classic metal warsmith, one of my favourite models of all time (he's my iconic 3rd ed. chaos codex nostalgia mini - the first that super stimulated my warhammer passion 15 years ago). I'll probably (finally!) paint him up before the Vigilus release too.

Here are the pics!

Sonofa....

WHERE IS THE CHAPLAIN! First the xenos and now THIS! What in the Holy Emperor’s name is going on down there? Besides the amazing painting of awesome models.

Well, the paint is exquisite, but I can't get over how BOSS the model is. Really great mix of parts. So GW it hurts. No denying this guy is a LORD of Chaos.

Great conversion! Took me some time to figure out the base model, which is always a success.

Seriously beautiful kitbash, great paint job, stealing the hazard strips, I mean highlighting the yellow edges with the white, really makes a difference, so stealing that idea. Overall the model is fantastic, great pose, great atmosphere. Love it.

Hey folks! I'm back and loyal again.

I finished up my Lord Executioner. He'd sat for a while primed and ready, but I wasn't quite happy with the pose. So this guy had a head and weapon swap and I'm now happy with him. He's the first miniature compnent for my entry in Para's monthly comp. The other may again be heretical, but I swear he's only getting painted up in anticipation of being smoked by the Lord Executioner Let me know what you think!

Cheers,








LDP

It’s OK to paint up filthy traitors, heretics and xenos for use as victims in dioramas and basing materials.

Just as long as your faith is pure.

Courage and Honour!

Marine is amazing, but that goes without saying.

Tremendous looking Traitor and your Lord Executioner is sufficiently ready to cut down a few heretics! Great job!

Cheers Neve, Tyranid Horde.

Here is the evil to match the good, the Iron Warriors chosen who will be charging at the Lord Executioner, having just had his melta shot feinted by the agility of the captain of the 8th company. I will get some shots of them together tonight. In spite of all his heresy, you have to respect his belligerence to take him on in hand to hand with a combat knife









LDP

Lovely stuff here recently.

You thought about doing a diorama base for the Chosen and Executioner?

Chosen isn't long for this earth, but he will go out lookin' good. Just the right amount of blood on the knife. Lovely depth of color.

@Para yeah I totally have! It's more a question of whether I have the genuine means to build one. It would be a fun project. I have lots of time at the minute actually, so I may see what I can do.

@youwashock hahaha that's true enough! He had one really good opportunity but scuffed it by missing the melta shot. He knows he'll have no time for it to recharge. As for the knife, I'm glad you like it. I'm often hesitant with blood effects as they can be easily overdone, but I think the blade came out okay.


Here is an action shot!

That looks like a picture straight out of the codex. Amazing!

That action shot is amazing. Have you been published in WD yet? You should really look into what that takes. Everyone needs to see your work.

Simply amazing.

Crimson_ Thank you! I want to do more but my lightbox is really small and so it's hard to fit full picture compositions in there.

@Neve I've often thought about it! Someone on instagram confused someone else's IG killteam for mine and congratulated me for making white dwarf the other day and I have to say that, for the split second I thought I'd been featured, I was over the moon! I need to see what the process is. Thank you very much for the feedback Neve.


Here's my primaris intercessor sergeant:









I'm disappointed with the photos. I wanted to try deliver a really attentive, consistent paint job on this guy, and I feel like I did it! I just a little as though the pictures don't do the miniature justice. He stands out on a quality level from quite a few of my miniatures when looked at in person. Nevertheless, upset about photographs isn't the worst thing - I'm pleased with the paint job and that's what counts!

I also built Marneus (though it feels like not so long ago that I finished painting him in his non-primaris form) - I removed/adjusted most of the things I don't like about the new sculpt. There seems to be no dealing with the ridiculous gravis shoes but it's not the end of the world. I feel like the character of the original Marneus comes through better here and that's what matters to me:



LDP

Primarneus already looks loads better than the stock build. I much prefer the helmet too.

Stunning brushwork on the Sergeant. Photos never get across how well a mini is truely painted. I feel the image takes away the perception of how small the miniature is and shows every little mistake.

When I get Primarneus in the future, I will come back and look at your repose

Holy gak Balls LDP.

First of all, your Iron Warriors are CRISP. Hot damn those are slick. And the Melta build is just fantastic and dynamic

Second, FOR THE LOVE OF TERRA THAT EXECUTIONER IS THE SEX Love your kitbashing and the dynamic posing well done brother.

I love your primarneous repose. Im not a huge fan of the current sculpt. Would you mind sharing how you went about it?

8 years on the blog and nothing's changed. Here I present my most recent captain of the Ultramarines! He was intended for the command squad I finished midway through last year, but I got side tracked by lots of other projects. So, I finally brushed him off and am quite pleased. He fits the aesthetic and I feel like the miniature captures the iconic Ultramarines style.

Gorgeous pics.

Lookin' shmick as always LDP! How many suzerain shoulder pads do you have?!

A... A Captain? Of the Ultramarines? Here, in this blog? Well I never!

Nah, in all seriousness, this may be your eleventy-billionth one, but for the love of Guilliman keep doing them, they get better each time! This might be my favourite yet!

Hey all,

I've been playing a little bit of kill team lately and getting my flatmate into it. He enjoys painting Tau, and it gave me some vigour to do some more work on my half-finished kill team! I painted up a fire warrior and will do some more soon.

Hey all, in a bit of a rush today but tuning in nonetheless with a Kasrkin I finished recently to bolster my kill team a bit. Been having lots of fun playing!

LDP

He probably heard there were Tau about and came running. Looking good, as always.

You are constantly teaching me. I examine you pics and the minis, and pick up little bits I wish I could emulate.

Brilliant work as usual.

@youwashock he did recently just defeat the Tau in a game of killteam so you're probably right!

@Cam Wow! That means a lot. Leaving an impression like that I think is one of the most profound things. I'm really glad you're taking something like that away from this blog.

SO! I have lots to report. I got up to a bunch in the week. I made a Patreon first of all - this was done to afford me the time to do extra work on the hobby as well as to provide a consistent motivator to release tutorials as well as to offer a limited-commission service on my terms. It's been a lot of fun setting up and getting underway! I know that these can be pretty contentious enterprises sometimes but it isn't restricting any of my content behind a paywall, it's just creating new, optional stuff that's back there, so I don't mind too much. Secondly, I painted up this Iron Warriors Warsmith! This miniature is the classic that got me into the hobby in the first place. The pics of him in the 3rd ed Chaos dex were sooo cool that I couldn't resist, and its taken me all of 15 years to finally get around to doing the mini myself! Suffice to say it feels like a great retrospective piece for me.










I also painted a Primaris Reiver for my killteam:



The rest of his squad are at various stages of completion. I hope to get them all done within the month.

FINALLY, I painted the 3 storm guardians necessary to finish off my biel-tan kill team! This has been put off for far too long. I may have a game with them tonight, see how they do.




Thanks for looking,
LDP

Nice work on that Kill Team, a really dynamic bunch, especially considering the nature of those older Eldar sculpts! Cracking job on the Warsmith and Reiver as well.

Best of luck with the Patreon/commission enterprises, if you can make a bit of money doing what you love that's never a bad thing!

Good luck on Patreon!

That Warsmith is certainly a classic, and he looks fantastic. Good job on the Eldar, as well.

Great work getting your Eldar kill team completed. They look fantastic.

Congratulations on the Pateron. That's a big step.

Thanks for the kind and warm feedback everybody. It means a lot and I'm having a lot of fun with the Patreon so far!


Hey guys, I was feeling nostalgic for some converted miniatures of mine that have sat around without paint for a little too long, so I painted up this honour guard:



I have another that I'd like to do sometime soon, but I need to get onto working on my entry for Para's painting comp, and I have a different plan for that

LDP

Nice work! Love how ridiculously massive that shoulder pad is, brings back fond memories of decking out my Marine in the most ludicrously fancy armour in the Space Marine multiplayer mode...

Magnificent work all around, once again! The Honor Guard looks the part, as the rest of your Ultramarines, and while I'm not the biggest fan of the Eldar, I've always liked the Biel Tan green vehicle scheme, which you've executed flawlessly on the weapon platform.

@Para Thank you Yeah, I did exactly the same thing! That game was fantastic, I'm replaying the campaign with my friend at the moment.

@mcmattila thank you kindly! Yes, it's strange. Eldar are hit and miss for me. Sometimes I'm really into them and dig their aesthetic (enough, obviously, to make a kill team), but other times I'm quite apathetic. I'd be keen to see them get new models.


Hey all! Here's my most recent model:











I'm very pleased with the finish. I took my time all over the mini, and tried doing some subtle glazes to enhance contrast across the model. I have so much second company now (commanders especially), I figured its about time to expand a little.

LDP

Great work as usual, and nice to see you bring your talents to another Company as well.

The glazes are really nice as well, you can really see how the help the transition on places like the lower breastplate.

I was going to remark on the same thing. I don't know if it is just because you mentioned it, but there is a nice depth to the blue, especially around the chest.

Very nice! 3rd Company for a change. Impressive display of your painting skills as always

If you are branching out, why not do one in the trim of all the companies? You need more captains anyway.

Nice to see you finally join the cool kids over in the 3rd. It’s where it’s at!

You are brilliant, we know that, but it is the consistently brilliant that bugs me, you are too good all the time.

That latest one is superb!

Hey all, thanks for your awesome and kind feedback. Here's my latest update! I was getting sick of painting minis one at a time, so I busted out this squad for kill team games! A couple subs in there to give me choices with weapons and stuff. Painting Tau this way is pesky and needs patience, but the results are really rewarding!



LDP

So not only can you consistently crank out amazing paintjobs, but you can do whole squads all at once?

Witchcraft!

Break out the torches and pitchforks, I sense heresy! This is not right and/or natural.

Plus, filthy xenos.

The paint job on the primaris may be your best ultra yet. And the surprise tau are awesome, even if a total change of direction!

Tremendous work all round, took a couple of pages to catch up but it was well worth it!

That's some textbook Tau painting right there! Beautiful!

Hey all! Thank you as always for your lovely feedback. It's inspiring and really motivates me to keep on trucking as fast as possible!

Here's a test model for the Sons of Orar that I finished yesterday. I'm planning on doing (surprise surprise) a killteam for them, fit with a commander too. The next miniature I'm working on is my own take of Alavaan, chapter master of the Sons of Orar. He's a regular SM in power armour, but I feel like my friend and I can agree on some custom built rules for him in Kill Team Commanders - It winds me up to no end that all the SM character choices are primaris.



LDP

Nice chapter choice - I enjoy the Sons of Orar. Got a Vanguard sergeant in my Deathwatch from there. Very well painted too - I like the clean, deep red and the fine highlights.

One of these days you are going to paint a crappy looking mini. Going to fly too close to the sun doing something odd and fail.

Today is not that day. Tomorrow is not looking good either. You continually amaze by painting diferent models and diferent schemes, and makeing it all look crisp, clean, and effortless.

But some day, whatever fell pact you made for your skills will run it’s course, and you will rejoin the ranks of the mortals.

Some day, but not soon.

Hey all! One week later and I'm back with an update. It feels like longer, and I've painted an entire character in that time, but it's felt like I've been lagging a bit these past few days. In any event, I have stuff to show!

Some of you may remember this fellow, who I kitbashed about three years ago:



I have since reused the parts to make my interpretation of Alavaan, the Chapter Master of the Sons of Orar and a classic looking space marine at that:







While I'm a little sad that the original mini was disassembled (this happened a long time ago and all the parts have been used for various minis), I think Alavaan has made for a great use of the original kitbash's body parts. I've wanted to combine the emperor's champ legs with a sternguard torso for a long time, so I'm glad I finally realised that on a finished miniature. Mork knows it was enough hard work to cut those metal buggers apart in the first place

LDP

Top shelf, man.

Damn Son. Classic and Clean! Looks fantastic

Sons of Orar are looking great! I got to say that I like Alavaan more than your original model. The shoulder pads made the model look top-heavy, especially with the legs that weren't the default squat pose. Your Alavaan is more balanced.

@Azalle Thank you! They are very fun to paint. I'll definitely be eager to do a couple more when I'm rested from them a bit.

@mcmattila thank you. And yes, I agree! The mini looks a lot more like he's a clamshell monopose from GW, which is sort of what I aim for with my conversions (only that they are the only mini in existence that looks that way )

Finished a third son of Orar today. These three round off my entry for this month's dakka comp. I have some more built that I'll do soon, but for now I have some heretical matters to attend to











LDP

Hey all.

I made a post over in the P&M thread a while ago about GWs most artistic miniature, and have held the tidecaster up there for a long time as one of their best (in my opinion). I don't play AOS, however, and have not had an excuse to buy and paint her until now. My gaming group is about to embark on a new D&D campaign, so I wanted to use this miniature to represent my High Elf Battlemage. PRetty perfect if you ask me She was so fun to paint! A very satisfying miniature.









LDP

Lovely work. The armour looks especially good and I like the peaceful sea green palette

I don’t know, seems fishy...


I’ll agree that the color palette is very nice.

Now that you have a character model all painted up and pretty, expect a TPK in 3...2...1....

Lovely, indeed. I had not paid a whole lot of attention to the Idoneth beyond the big critters. This is a nice model. A lot of the sculpt, combined with the paintjob, is really giving me a romanticized 3 Kingdoms feel.

Hey guys,

It's been a slow month. Nevertheless, I did finish a model, and he is one that I am altogether pleased with. I have been pushing some contrast experiments further with this guy, trying to hybridise a zenithal highlighting style with my traditional 'eavy metal technique. I am quite pleased with the result considering it's my first try.





LDP

He's got a ton of character. Looking a bit closer at the style because you mention it, and there are some interesting things going on. The highlights especially have a painterly quality to them, and the shadows show some more of the glazing it seems. All in all a very nice model.

Everything is so epic! I love the Tau Killteam! I love everything! Fantastic stuff!

Great job on your latest piece, I feel like it's a good progression from your normal clean n crisp style of painting by having some gradients on the panels like you've done here. The right gauntlet is particularly nice!

Hey all, nothing crazy to report. I painted up a tactical marine for my kill team, alongside a vanguard alpha as a test model for my admech kill team. Suffice to say that I am a kill team addict at the moment
I'm very frustrated with my lightbox at the moment, though. It feels like the photos never quite come out right at the moment. I think it needs a little revision.





LDP

The face on that marine is great, superb work bringing out the expression!

Stunning work as usual, LDP. Your marines are a thing of beauty.

Great work as usual.

Is it just me/the angle, or does his head seem huge in that picture? I know marines are not the best proportioned minis out there, but that guy picked it out for me. Could be the incredible detail.

Kill team is a lot of fun. I like how it gives you the opportunities to add some personality via specialists to otherwise boring line troops. Marines especially. Every single tactical marine is suposed to be a hero with decades of combat experience. Nice to have a change to give them some flavor.

On an different note:

What do you do to get your cluttered army shots, like the one you use in your signature? The mass of marines, rushing to battle look? That kind of snapshot really captures the feel of the old artwork, where we see nothing but shoals of warriors, pushed up onto the margins, fighting in the center, or off panel.

Is it just camera angles over massed minis? Risers in the back? Tweaked exposure settings to get everyone in focus? I’d like to try to get that same kind of pic, but my photography skills are as mediocre as my painting...

Thanks Para and Snrub, your comments are always rejuvenating and keep me inspired to work on and share my stuff.

@Neve for the army shots, typically there are a few things I try to focus on. In terms of composition, I often tier the models as though they're standing on bleachers. It's very tedious, fidgety work but the results usually speak for themselves. This means that I stand successive rows on taller objects (the first row on the ground, second on crates, third on barrels, eventually they're stood on rhinos and the like ).

Camera angle depends on whether you want to capture a down-shot heroic horde, or get a greater picture from the top-down that more easily envelops all your models.

In terms of cropping and framing the shot, I try to ensure that miniatures get cut off by the edges of the picture. It's not a convincing horde if you can see the whole body of the man that is stood on the edge. The key is to invoke the idea that this horde is 10x larger outside of the shot - as such, your force looks a bit meager if they don't spill out of it

Here's a photo I took recently that employs all of these considerations:

OMG, that picture looks freaking cool, and they all are very amazingly painted. NICE!!!

Thanks for the tips. I’ll have to see what I can cobble together.

Great group shot of the Ultras there!

Sons of Orar are looking really nice! Your whites are so nice and smooth.

Have you experimented with image stacking for your photos? That might be the missing sauce you're looking for

Such a fantastic looking army. Each and every individual painted to such a high standard, magnificent.

Just read through this thread- brilliant! So much skill, both in terms of painting and kitbashing... well done, sir.

Matt,

After browsing thru your blog/gallery ( ), I am convinced that you either had some heavy duty Lasix surgery on your eyes, or you are painting with the aid of a stereo microscope.
Amazing work!