Just a quick one today, a Druid type (actually the old LotR Radagast!) that started out as the mini equivalent of a sketch, just me messing around with some ideas with no intention of finishing or showing off the model. He came together quite nicely though, so I finished it off with a few final touchups and took a couple of pics. Nothing too fancy, but I think the colours fit together rather well.


Currently trying to 'learn' how Primaris work... Having painted a few hundred regular Marines over the years, it's really weird to make the switch; they're the same general shape that I'd normally paint on autopilot, but everything is just 'wrong' enough to make my muscle memory useful... They certainly seem to lend themselves to a cleaner look with the larger amount of sharp lines/less flat panels, but I'll figure it out.... eventually!

Beautiful work Paradigm. As always!

I love that model, and you've done it justice! Very nice work indeed!

Brilliant as usual, but have to add, wonderful colour scheme, just so perfect.

Cheers chaps.

New stuff! A trio of Primaris Marines from the Easy-To-Build set as I wanted a nice cheap way to experiment with the new models. As such, I've taken a different stylistic approach on each one to see what works and what doesn't.

First up, a stock Intercessor in Ultramarine colours. The armour on this one is mainly worked up through drybrushes and glazes, which gives it quite a nice semi-sheen under the grime.


Next up, an Iron Hands lieutenant, in the metallic black look I tend to use on Deathwatch. I'm not convinced this works that well on Primaris Marines, something about it doesn't work quite as well on MkX armour, might be the larger, flatter panels don't take the wash as well.


Leaving what I think is the best til last, a Blood Ravens captain. Much more traditional method here, basically just basic layers and washes with weathering over the top of it all. I like the overall look though.


To be perfectly honest, these are probably going to be the only Primaris I paint any time soon, I don't really see that they offer much over the last couple of generations of regular Marine kits like the Deathwatch, Veterans, Space Wolves ect. as far as painting/converting opportunities go. This was a fun experiment, but probably won't amount to anything more than that, I'm not really a Primaris convert.

Speaking of Regularis Marines, here's a quick one I threw together from parts, a Lone Wolf done as a bit of a step back into my usual territory after the recent experiments with different types of stuff, while I think about what's up next. Nothing particularly special, though I do think the conversion has a nice amount of character.


Anyways, that's all for now, any thoughts welcome! Ta for looking!

As a fan of grungy models, I do like how you marry the sm aesthetic with muck. Putting the grim back in the grimdark

What paint did you use on that Iron Hand? Vallejo makes a good metallic paint called gunmetal that is so dark, it's nearly black. It still has the metallic shinyness to it though and even has a slightly bluish tint. Hit that stuff with a black wash and it looks like a metallic black. It's what I used on my Shadow Keeper Custodes. It might work well for your Iron Hands guy, too.

inmygravenimage wrote:As a fan of grungy models, I do like how you marry the sm aesthetic with muck. Putting the grim back in the grimdark

That's the plan!

Barzam wrote:What paint did you use on that Iron Hand? Vallejo makes a good metallic paint called gunmetal that is so dark, it's nearly black. It still has the metallic shinyness to it though and even has a slightly bluish tint. Hit that stuff with a black wash and it looks like a metallic black. It's what I used on my Shadow Keeper Custodes. It might work well for your Iron Hands guy, too.

It's my usual drybrush silver> splodge on colours> wash black method. To clarify, it's more the artistic side that's bugging me, I think the technique is fine (I love how it looks on regular marines and termies), I'm just not sure it translates well to Primaris armour which seems to play better with sharper highlights and smoother shades, the metal look loses something to my eye for whatever reason.

I enjoy your gritty style.I think the blood raven turned out best. Followed by the Ultra.

More Marine! It's been slow going on the painting front as I'm spending most of my hobby time running a weekly DnD game at the moment, but I have got something done. This month's challenge entry, Cato Sicarius.




Keen-eyed observers will notice a few differences between this and the stock model, mainly as a result of me getting a metal version dirt cheap second hand but missing the head, pistol hand and backpack. Being a) a good price and b) not Finecast, I figured it was worth it, and just patched it up with a few spare bits. On the whole, I think he still looks the part. Not entirely pleased with the end result paint-wise, as I've always really liked this mini/character and I'm not sure I've entirely done him justice. At this point though, I've spent so long tweaking and not making any actual improvements so I think I have to call it a day.

In any case, cheers for looking, and do let me know what you think! And stay tuned for something a little different coming up (probably) next week...

I, Cato Sicarius, am going to guess that you will paint a Bounty Hunter next because I, Cato Sicarius, am all-knowing.


He looks great. Unfortunately, the way you've highlighted his face makes him look like a genestealer.

This is a gargantuan hobby blog of pure glory!

Sicarius is ace, and good luck with the DnD stuff. I saw this awesome video the other day of this guy who's been running the same DnD game for thirty-five years. Pretty incredible stuff!

Cato is looking quite nice. I like your grim take on the Ultramarines.

You should use your D&D game to drive your hobby. Plenty of minis to put down for a fight. And at the rate you paint, you could get each weeks encounter painted and ready to TPK by game night. I know we used to heavily borrow from my WHFB armies for out games. It helped that I played undead and chaos, so villeins abound.

Cheers guys!

@Ember: Close, but no cigar on the guess, I'm afraid!

Point taken on the face, he is a bit ruddier than I intended. I painted the head separately and it looked fine, but once I stuck it on the body the red cloak and dark armour do darken it a lot. Not
much I can do about it now, it's hard to reach past the gorget and put some more highlights in.

 Nevelon wrote:

You should use your D&D game to drive your hobby. Plenty of minis to put down for a fight. And at the rate you paint, you could get each weeks encounter painted and ready to TPK by game night. I know we used to heavily borrow from my WHFB armies for out games. It helped that I played undead and chaos, so villeins abound.

As we play online mostly and I tend to DM with rather abstract combat rather than going for exact distances*, we don't really use minis, otherwise that would be a good excuse. I do intend to paint up a representation of the Party at some point, though we have a Tiefling Warlock I'm struggling to find a decent mini for (there's one in the WizKids 'Nolzur's Marvellous Minis' range but he doesn't quite have the right look, and I'm not sure about the quality of those models as it's hard to find decent pics online).


*Basically, as far as I'm concerned things are either in 'I can hit it' range, 'I can move and hit it' range or 'I can move, and will need to move again before I hit it' range. Much simpler than grids when we're playing over a video call.

Interesting that you are staying away from the Primaris side of things (and I totally get where you’re coming from there). Your Regularis (nice wordplay bye!) works are lovely jubbly anyway sir.

For me, I’m in the interesting place of having very few Marines in my collection, so a few Primaris will be fun as ‘real’ sized Marines for tiny skirmishes and random fluffery in general.

Great stuff. Like everyone else, loving the dark vibe

Loads of awesome stuff since I was last on Para. Especially like the raven guard survivor and the bust.

Your work is just so inspirational. Fantastic bud.

Would love to see your take on the 8th Legion Paradigm! Think your style would really suit their aesthetic.

A grizzled Heresy veteran in particular.

I, CATO SICARIUS APPROVE THIS POST!

Great work Para

Thanks all! Apologies for the lack of updates, I have been painting but haven't got round to taking many pics recently. I'll see about getting some of my recent minis photographed over the next few days, as there have been quite a few.

Pics of painted stuff!

First off, somewhat late but alluded to in my last update (which, blimey, was a month ago!), The Law. There's been a lot of Underhive scum running around recently, and someone has to step in and clean up the streets. Enter the Adeptus Arbites!



Built mostly from Anvil Industries Regiments range (I can do a full parts list if anyone wants one) with Skitarii heads and a couple of 40k weapons. Another testament to the amazing versatility of Anvil's output, any range that can do not-Vostroyans one month and not-Arbites the next has a lot going for it. They're also doing a KS for some not-Sisters at the moment which are looking superb, so I probably ought to give that a shoutout. Check their N&R thread for more on that.


And back to my old stomping grounds, a couple of different flavours of Space Marine, the products of some bits box raiding while I was back home over Easter.

First off, and definitely my favourite of the two, a Wolf Lord from various Grey Hunter/Thunderwolf Rider bits. I often struggle to make my preferred grey scheme for Wolves pop, but I think it does here thanks to having a bit more detail to work with than most.


And finally, a Dark Angels veteran that again just got put together from various bits and bobs (actually a lot of Anvil on this one as well now I think about it). Nothing too special, but I quite like the more beat-up dark green armour.



That's all for now, I've got the other half of the Arbites patrol in the works and I need to think of something to do for this month's challenge as well, so there should be another update relatively soon! In the mean time, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome.

Incidentally, since I'm at a bit of a dead end paint-wise at the moment, does anyone have anything they'd really like to see me tackle? I'm trying to push my horizons at the moment but with a fairly limited budget, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

All kinds of lovely. Paint some grimy Gotham now!

To be honest, there probably won't be any Batman for a while. I did go in for the Monolith KS so next year there'll be a ton of Gothamy goodness, but there was so much in there that nearly anything I could get from KM in the mean time would just be doubling up... I tended to paint my KM stuff as I got it, so there's not really any in the backlog at the moment either.

Nice work Para... love the Arbites squad.

That green armor on the Dark Angel is so dark it hardly looks green, at least to me. He does look like he's been through some serious combat, though. Love the Arbites squad, too. I wish they'd make some official models of them, maybe as a "gang" for Necromunda (with different type of objectives compared to the actual gangs).

I absolutely love the "Batter up!" pose the guy with the maul has. Great looking squad.

Thanks guys.

@Zerg: The armour definitely is green, though it is rather dark and there's a lot of weathering layered over the top. I believe Enforcers are coming to Necromunda at some point, but I'm impatient at the best of times, so I built these guys instead!

The Enforcers are absolutely top notch. Your style is so suited to the gritty nature of Necromunda and Inquisitors. I really like the Wold Lord too.

The use of the face paint is an interesting move. I would like to do red face paint on a Spacewolf army to represent Kjarl Grimbloods great companies habit of marking there helmets and faces with red if they have killed something with fire. But I am hesitant of obscuring the face. You have done well.

 Archer wrote:
Your style is so suited to the gritty nature of Necromunda.

Hmm... you might want to keep an eye on the blog over the next couple of weeks in that case..

The use of the face paint is an interesting move. I would like to do red face paint on a Spacewolf army to represent Kjarl Grimbloods great companies habit of marking there helmets and faces with red if they have killed something with fire. But I am hesitant of obscuring the face. You have done well.

Full disclosure, the face paint is at least in part a product of me screwing up part of the face itself, and needing something to obscure the mess! However, there is a bit more thought to it than that. The choice of blue was a deliberate one as while red might be thematically appropriate, I use a lot of reds/purples/browns while shading the faces, so the contrast would be a lot weaker. Using a cold, almost icy blue over the warm skin tones helps it stand out more, and as a bonus, ties the Frost Axe into the rest of the model (same with the blue plasma glow) and helps the whole thing look a bit more coherent.

So if you're wanting to use a red face paint, I'd suggest experimenting with a colder skin tone, not quite into Dark Elf territory but mixing in some blues/pinks rather than reds/purples into the skin tones. You need the contrast, otherwise it looks like you just splashed paint across the mini's face by accident.

This is awesome. Your painting style really drives home the brutal aspect of living in this universe. I am quite taken with the Arbites specifically.

Well, finally dipped my toe into the potential rabbit hole of Necromunda proper... No full gangs to speak of yet, but I bought a sprue each of Escher and Goliath to play around with, see how I got on ect. More thoughts on the kits below, but pics first, a test paint for House Escher.

I stuck fairly close to the studio scheme to be honest, even trying to replicate the more pastel colours that some of the GW ones have, I think it's come out fairly well for a first attempt. Strong colours work better here than on a lot of what I paint, and I don't think there's too much clashing going on between them.


Very fun to paint, so expect more soon.

As for the kits themselves, Escher win this one hands-down. Building them, I had a hard time deciding which of the many possible parts to use, building the Goliath I had an equally hard time actually finding parts that fitted. I appreciate the more muscular Gothiath are going to be restricted in their posing by what looks natural, but even then, it was hard to vary the poses much beyond the stock ones, whereas all the girls in the Escher set could have been put together completely differently if I'd wanted.

Ultimately, I'm waiting on those very nice Van Saar models, but in the mean time, I may well bring the Escher up to gang strength. Some of my DnD group also play Necro, so I might even be able to get some games in over the summer.

That's all for now! Thanks for looking, stay tuned for more Escher, more Arbites and some Goliath over the coming couple of weeks!

These look gorgeous. I think you’ve dove a great job of combining the bright, strong colours with an overall grim vibe

She looks very cool. Looking forward to more Necromunda.

Oooh doggy! that Escher is perfect! your gritty style which suits the underhive and the grim darkness of the 40K universe marries well with the Necromunda models and seeing the bright scheme of Escher dulled down 'n dirty looks great! i'll be keen to see more.

Man those Arbites look cool, and I can only concur with the others on how well the escher's colour scheme works in your style of painting.

Also, I'm just waiting for the day you do another eldar model. I've still got your Harlequin-corsair on my background rotation

Thanks all! Bit more Necromunda today, another Escher and the first Goliath.


Pretty much same as the last one here, same kinds of colours, textures and patterns. Putting the two together, they are already looking quite striking, so the full gang should have the desired effect.



I took a somewhat opposite (and more familiar) approach with the Goliath. Rough metalwork, dark armour plating, limited array of colours as I want the two gangs to look very distinct. Still vastly prefer the Escher models from both a modelling and painting perspective, but I'll soldier on with these guys at least for the time being.


@Ynneadwraith: No Eldar on the table for the time being, I'm afraid! And to be honest, your projects absolutely nail the style of Eldar I like seeing, and I'd definitely fall short of what your superb conversions have achieved!


More soon, thanks for looking, do let me know what you reckon!

Ooh, Grimsexydark. Love it, mate. The only thing I might niggle with is that the bases are a bit, I don't know, clean? But the gangers are the mutt's nuts.

That's fair, I must admit I wasn't quite sure to do with those sculpted bases beyond just painting the detail that was already there. I may well revising them once the gang is done, spice them up a bit.

Alternatively, hazard them up?

Great stuff Para love the Goliath

That Goliath ganger is awesome, I used to run a Juve with a giant spiked club that put the fear of the almighty in opponents, until they realized at weapon skill 2 and one attack he wasn't all that much of a threat. Poor guy died far too often to be worth it, but one day I had envisaged he would become what you painted above which unfortunately never happened.

It has been a while! I blame the last few incredibly hectic weeks of uni, but that's done now and hopefully I can get back into the swing of things a bit. I've painted a bit over the last couple of months, so here's a bit of a catch up.

First we have the whole Escher gang as submitted to the Monthly Challenge, these girls actually scored me my first win there which was awesome!


Next, the only model I actually got painted in May, and again my challenge entry (though it didn't do quite so well! ), a repaint of my Broodlord in a monochrome, insect-like scheme. Bit of a rush job, but he certainly looks better than he used to and I like the scheme even if the execution leaves a bit to be desired.


And finally, on to this month's entry, Predators from Prodos' doomed Kickstarter which are nonetheless really nice minis. Here's the first one of three:



That's all for now, hopefully regular updates will resume shortly. In the mean time, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

You've earned the accolades Paradigm... those Escher are most excellent indeed. Love the predator too. Nice work!

Cheers Gits!

First of all, congrats on your graduation! That's a good feeling, being done with school, huh? Those minis turned out really well too, especially the Eschers (a well-deserved win in the challenge). I look forward to seeing the Predators all done, as that is one of my favorite series of movies.

Last time I checked your blog was a couple of years ago and you were damn good then, but the progress is mindblowing. The gangers and broodlord look amazing. I especially like the colour contrasts on the Escher ladies.

Ta chaps. The remaining Preds are done, but frustratingly my camera is deciding to have issues (not reading the SD card properly, and its internal storage holds 2 pics at a time so that's a no-go... ), so pics will have to wait a bit. Hopefully not long though, as I think they've come out rather nicely. It really is a shame the AvP KS had so many issues, as in a vacuum these are actually very, very nice minis and I'd definitely be open to getting more from the range, but it seems it's dead in the water these days with very limited stock in the first place.

@Zerg: Not quite done with uni just yet, I'm going back in September to do a Masters in Intelligence and Security Studies (AKA Spy Stuff )... It is nice to draw a line under the degree itself though, the last year especially was fairly intensive! With any luck I can get back into the swing of painting over the summer though, I have missed it with the limited time I've had.

@Da Boss: Nice to see you drop in again! Thanks for the kind words. I do like the higher contrast on the Eschers, somewhat different to the usual way I do things and I might have a bit more of a play with it if I can find some suitable models.

I like the Broodlord. Solid work on a solid model. Love seeing a Predator, too. Prodos does make good models and it is too bad they sullied their rep so completely.

Honestly, I think Eschers are made for your painting style

Please tell me you'll be doing Cawdors when they come out. Can't wait to see some done in your style

Thanks guys!

@Ynneadwraith: To be honest, the Cawdor look like great models technically speaking but they don't really inspire me; aside from the new weapons (which are admittedly rather glorious, especially the giant crossbow thingy) there didn't seem to be much about them that we haven't seen before with things like Chaos Cultists. That may change once some more pics emerge and I see what some other painters can do with them, but for the moment they're not doing much for me. I do intend to get some Van Saar at some point, but I should probably finish my remaining Goliaths and Enforcers first...

In other news, the camera seems to have stopped playing silly buggers and is reading the SD card properly now (despite nothing having been done to it, it just started working again... praise be to the Omnissiah's mysteries) so stay tuned for more Predator action shortly.

As promised, the remaining Predators:






Not sure what's up next, I am a little tempted to grab some Prodos Aliens/Marines to go with these if I can find any in stock at a decent price!

Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Really outstanding work Paradigm. Love them!

Magnificent.

I would love to see your take on a Predalien or the Alien king or queen.

I do like those Predators.

Damn fine work on those preds chap, very nice.

Very nice, although when I saw the blog title I thought, "Ooh, I'd like to see how you do tanks."

Epic job on the predators brother!

Cheers all!

@Graven: The answer to that question is 'rarely'! Anything bigger than a Dreadnought I tend to baulk at. Never say never though, I've got a Leman Russ I occasionally think about doing something cool with.

Managed to track down a set of Aliens/Colonial Marines (think I got the last one of each in stock at that particular store!) so hopefully next week the AvP stuff should return.

Awesome work as usual Para

Ta Joe.

Today, some stuff from last week's supply drop.

First off, an Alien. I tried to get as close to the original Geiger look as possible here, possibly the head needs to be a bit shinier but other than that I think I did a decent job. Should be easy to replicate too, so expect the rest of these guys soon.


And for the main event, a pair of Chaos Lords. I picked up these guys at half price to get free shipping on the AvP stuff, as I've been meaning to try Avatars of War's offerings for a while. The second mini here was much better to paint than the first, it has to be said.

Undivided Lord in traditional chaos colours. You can see the somewhat muddy details on the chestplate here, it almost felt like a 90s-era mini at times. Still, I think I got there in the end.


Khorne Lord, a much crisper model and overall a better result, I think. I did swap the head for a Space Wolf one, the beard and hair better framed the face.


That's all for now. Hopefully there'll be some more soon, I think the Khorne Lord got me out of a rut I've been in (not pictured: half a dozen scrapped Space Marines that just didn't go right ). In the mean time, any thoughts welcome! Ta for looking

Looking great, perhaps yes, a bit more sheen on the alien head. Love the head swap on the khorne lord and the retro lord of chaos.

Cheers mate! I've added some old GW Green Ink to parts of the Alien, it does give a more glossy look so I'll do that on the rest when I get to them.

Love the Khorne Lord!
More Chaos warriors need ginger beards.

I like the more "viking" look on the Khornate chaos guy. I like it when you can see a little of the original culture of the chaos warrior, rather than just muscles and spikes. Well done!

Thanks chaps!

Kestral, I fully agree with you there, I think the Viking/northmen aspect of Chaos has been a bit under-served in recent releases so I wanted to put a touch of that back with this guy; take away the gods and the mutations and the magic and you've still got an 8-foot tall pissed-off viking in full armour with a hammer the size of your upper torso to contend with!

But all this chaos is getting out of hand, someone needs to come and kick it back from whence it came!

[insert bolt of Sigmar's lightning here!]


Yep, the first Stormcast I've painted in a while. I went for the split scheme to emphasise the duality of the Stormcast, not quite men, not quite gods because I couldn't pick between the Celestial Warbringers and the Celestial Vindicators colours, so why not do both? You don't see split schemes nearly as often on SC as on Marines and to be honest, I think it suits them better, especially as you don't have the Aquila symbol blocking up the chest where the contrast between the halves is most prominent.


My feelings regarding the Stormcast have always been mixed, but at the moment they're definitely swinging back towards a more positive stance. I definitely loved the idea of them from the start, but the initial models didn't quite live up to that for me, they felt a bit faceless and bland for a while even though lore-wise they had plenty of variation and personality. However, a lot of the recent changes, things like bare heads, the robes on the newest iterations, the addition of just a bit more personality to their presentation has done wonders to counteract the 'automaton' vibe. They're not yet at Marine levels of customisation or variety, but I imagine the day is not too far off where they will be.

And on account of all that, I've ordered one of the new Easy to Build kits (the mace guys, still not a fan of the bolter-crossbows) and will be experimenting with them a little soon, so stay tuned for that! As always, cheers for looking, and do let me know what you think!

Great stuff dude looking forward to more as always

If I'm being totally honest, I think it's well executed but the eye gets distracted a bit by the pool of blood (all the red feels like it's over one side), particularly on the reverse. Beautifully painted, I just find the balance a bit off overall.

Thanks guys!

Graven, I see what you mean, I hadn't really considered that the blood+dead Khorne guy+red Stormcast armour would be something of an overload, that bottom right shot is certainly not the most flattering angle as a result.

That'll teach me for not paying proper attention to the base composition, I guess! That is still something I tend to be quite lax over, though I do try and remember to make more of an effort these days. I think with this guy I got overexcited that the model turned out exactly how I'd hoped and thus overlooked how I was putting together the base.

The model itself is lovely, really excellent

crackin work on the stormcast. Love the red/blue split!

Cheers!

More Stormcast, and what I believe is actually the first Sequitor to show up on Dakka (certainly the only one that comes up in the site gallery), from the Easy to Build set. I exchanged the stock head for one from an old elf kit I had lying around, as the original wasn't the best (the details were a bit soft and it was hard to reach once assembled) and overall I'm pretty happy with it. The robes can be a pain as they require an additional colour on top of the 2 colours/1 metal I like to use on Stormcast, but I think keeping them a neutral off-white/beige helps keep it from being too busy.


Should have the others done soon, like the ETB Primaris set I'll be doing each in a different scheme/style, so the next one should be rather different to this one that's fairly typical of my style.

Ta for looking, as always any thoughts are welcome!

Are the Sequitors a new unit type from AoS 2.0? I haven't been following AoS at all, so I'm not sure what all is there in the new edition. I like your paintjob on it!

Yeah, they're part of the new Sacrosanct Chamber, the magic/antimagic guys. The main difference in the models is the robes and maces, rather than hammers/swords.

Sequitor Deux:



Much more of a Paradigm classic, this one, it was fun to revert to type and do an ultra-gritty take on the Stormcast after a couple of (relatively) cleaner ones.

With this guy, I wanted the opposite effect to the last one; where she was painted/modelled to show off the living, human (well, Elf) side of the Stormcast, I wanted this one to play up the ancient, immortal, inhuman side. With armour this beat up, robes this tattered, it's clear he's endured more conflict than any mortal could, an eternity on the front lines against the dark forces.

Not sure what style to approach the third one with, so I'm all ears if anyone wants to see one done in a specific way. In the mean time, thanks for looking, and as always, any feedback is welcome!

And the final part of the trio, a Stormcast whose soul, rather than being reforged, has fallen into the service of Nagash. He now exists as a spiteful reflection of Sigmar's mighty warriors. Not sure that's 'allowed' in the lore but AoS seems a wide enough setting to allow such things.



Also a regular old Liberator, as a practice piece for a new metallic method inspired by Modock's amazing entry into this month's challenge (seriously, go check that out if you haven't, it's stunning!). A fairly different approach to how I normally do metals, but I like the effect a lot, so I shall continue to experiment with it...




That's all for now! Thanks again for looking, and hopefully you're not getting too bored of Stormcast as I'm really enjoying working on them at the moment. Any thoughts welcome!

Your fallen stormcast is superb brother. Fantastic conversion and paint job.

Beautiful stuff dude, your style of painting really suits the stormcast awesomely (so much so I didn’t even call them sigmarines :p )

Both are great but the headsman just tickles my giblets!

Thanks folks!

Quick question for those of you who are into Shadespire, are there any teams that are considered to be more popular/desirable than others? I'm thinking of painting a couple of sets and just seeing what I can get for them on ebay/swap shop as (unlike, say, 40k squads or Necromunda gangs) they're nicely self-contained and I wouldn't need to worry about loadouts or anything.

Of course, it all depends on me being able to do a good job on them, but I figured it might be worth a go over the summer as I haven't really had any commission work for a while and my own backlog of minis is getting pretty diminished.

Very snazzy all round. Grimdark fantasy really works for you.

So much win coming here and seeing your wonderful work.

Thanks guys.

More Stormcast today, with this Knight-Incantor from the Soul Wars box. Compared to the last few SC, I've dialled back my style a bit here as I'm considering trying to sell this one just to see if that's a viable way to make some guilt-free hobby money before heading back to uni, so I wanted a wider appeal (I appreciate it's still fairly gritty, but not to the extent of the previous ones so should hopefully have a wider appeal). Likewise, I picked the iconic Hammers of Sigmar scheme for the same reason, and because I figured it was time I do one of the poster-boys (or in this case, girls) as part of this little Stormcast project.



Fairly happy with it, though the model is a tricky one to photograph from some angles. I do continue to greatly enjoy the newer SC models though, the robes just add that bit more room for some contrasting textures and tones. I kind of feel this sculpt could do without the ridiculous headpiece, but that's just a point of preference.

Got some more AoS coming soon, though I'm stepping away from the Stormcast for the next piece and returning to a side of fantasy GW have been knocking out of the park in recent years.... In the mean time, any thoughts on the Knight-Incantor (or anything else!) welcome! And not to come across as too mercenary (hopefully!) but as I say, I do plan to sell this model in the near future, so if anyone does want to make an offer before it goes up on ebay, do feel free to PM me.

Cheers for looking!

Awesome work. Love the way the standard colors are reflected in a number of other objects scattered about the model.

So many cool minis... I have no interest in AoS, but the Stormcast characters sure do paint up pretty.

Ta chaps!

@Gits: yeah, I tried to keep the spot colours fairly close to the main ones, helps keep quite a busy model more coherent than it might otherwise be.

@Insaniak: I do enjoy the fancier Stormcast. The larger than average size and plenty of smooth areas makes them a great canvas for texture work.

Very lovely. Though when I saw KNIGHT I thought 40k, and got very over-excited Ever thought of trying your hand at one?

Fantastic work on the incantor! Love the blues brother

inmygravenimage wrote:Very lovely. Though when I saw KNIGHT I thought 40k, and got very over-excited Ever thought of trying your hand at one?

Not really considered it, to be honest. I don't get on well with large models at all, and would probably just make a colossal mess of it. I'm consistently blown away by the quality of work you so often see on Knights, and they're great models, but not for me... As for today's post, it's another knight-not-Knight, so sorry about that!

Master Azalle wrote:Love the blues brother

Jake or Elwood? (sorry, had to be done! ) Cheers mate!


Today, the other of the Soul Wars characters I picked up, the Knight of Shrouds. I love this mini, but I felt like I was fighting it a lot during the painting process, mainly as I was certain I wasn't doing him justice until it all came together in the end. I'm pretty pleased with the final result, the stress was worth it!


That's all for now, cheers for looking! Any thoughts welcome!

The ribs being visible through the skin, A+ on that.

I think some of the freeblade knights could work well in your style. Dyros Kamata, "The Scorched Knight" in particular seems like it would be perfect for you.

Fate has a funny way about it... no more than a month after saying I was unlikely to ever paint a Knight, Adeptus Titanicus comes along, providing just such a thing but in a form that is a) affordable, b) within my ability to build, paint and store and c) shiny and new. As such, I picked up a set of Questoris Knights, I'm going to do each in a different style/scheme as I often do when I get a set of minis like this.

First up is one of the most famous Freeblades, Gerantius. I've been a big fan of the lore and look of this guy ever since he showed up in WD shortly after the Knights launched, so I decided to recreate him in miniature-miniature here, standing amidst the stormy seas of the ocean world he has guarded for centuries.



I enjoyed the model a lot as I was working on it; AT has found just the right scale that things are detailed without being cluttered, satisfyingly bulky without being impractical, simple enough that they make a nice canvas to work on. I'm not completely happy with the final result, so may well make some changes after a day or so, but it's come out well enough for a first try at a new scale/model type.

Any thoughts welcome! Thanks for looking, and stay tuned for the remaining two knights. Incidentally, is Knight: Renegade any good as a game? Might be cool to do up these other two as a pocket version of that if it's actually a worthwhile game.

Lovely! Been waiting to see some of these guys painted!

That's fantastic. Great idea, too. Mini Renegade sounds cool.

Huzzah! Told you you would rock a Knight! Yeah, he's cracking.

Well done brother, love the Titanicus model

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

@Graven: Yeah, you do get to say 'I told you so'...

@Gits: Me too! I remember being blown away with all the cool things people did with Knights when they first came out, I can't wait to see what people do with the Titanicus stuff.

Up next in the triumvirate of Knights, one for the bad guys. Possibly overdid it with the massive Chaos star spikes, but then again it is 40k so I think it works, impractical as it is!


I based the scheme loosely on the freeblade renegade Litany of Destruction, but put my own spin on it and tried to inject some more Blanchian tones to it.

Ta for looking, more soon. Thoughts welcome in the mean time!

Impossible to overdo it where chaos is concerned... Excellent work!

I like the Chaos one even better than the first one! I would get into the Titanicus stuff myself, but the pricing is extreme, and seeing one of the unpainted Warlord models in person last weekend, I was like, "You pay over $100 for this?" They are very cool models, but that is way too much money for something that's only the size of your average $60 Warhammer 40k model.

Ta chaps. Should have the third Knight photographed soon, just need to tidy him up a bit as the first round of pics revealed a few glaring flaws (as they often do).

@Zerg: I think there's certainly an element of sticker shock to the bigger sets and models, but the Knights and upcoming Reaver strike me as fairly well priced for what is essentially a niche game. Top quality kits from what I've seen as well.

In the mean time, I'm reverting to type with a Space Marine (although this is probably the longest I've gone without painting one since I started 40k... scary thought!). Like literally everyone else, I picked up a copy of issue 1 of Conquest on account of how silly an offer it really is... Once again, the aim with this set of easy-to-build minis was to approach them in a few different styles.

To that end, first up is a Deathwatch Sergeant of the Minotaurs chapter. Simply a kitbash, not too involved (just Deathwatch arms/pads and a Space Wolf head with the beard trimmed down). Paint-wise, I didn't go full metallic like I often do on Deathwatch, instead opting for a muted black to create stronger contrast with the silver and gold areas. Throw in some weathering and you get this:


Pretty pleased with him, though the power sword needs work (still never got good at them! )

The other two will be along shortly, the current (and possibly liable to change) plan is to do one up as a Crimson Fist and one as an Ultramarine (there was a thread in P&M the other day about how to Blanchitsu up an Ultra, and it's got me thinking...) In the mean time, any comments on this guy are most welcome! Thanks for stopping by!

That base is epic Paradigm!!! Nice work.

More Marines soon, but in the mean time, something I've been waiting on for a while that finally arrived yesterday. Earlier this year, the D&D show Critical Role partnered with Steamforged Games to produce a line of minis based on the characters therein. While the bulk of the line doesn't launch until next year, there's a few previews/Con-exclusives, the first of which I've finally got my hands on.

For those not in the know, Critical Role is a show charting the D&D campaigns of a number of voice actors/generally nerdy folks (if you've got any interest in animation or video games, you'll know at least half of them). It leans very much into the narrative side of the game, which is probably where my love of that comes from, and is pretty much one of the most entertaining things the internet has to offer... I could wax lyrical about how great it is (if I'm watching a 4-hour episode each week, it's got to be worthwhile! ) but instead I'll just leave the recommendation here for anyone who's not seen it already and get on with the miniature goodness.

The mini in question being Vax'Ildan, the Half-Elf Rogue/Paladin as played by Liam O'Brien in the first campaign. Vax is probably my favourite character of the original lineup, Vox Machina, and this mini captures him at his best; mischievous grin, a multitude of daggers ready to let fly, Boots of Haste carrying him along and the majestic raven's wings sprouting from his legendary armour to bear him aloft.


The original pose had him down on one knee, but I felt that obscured too much of the awesome detail on the front of the mini so I instead attached him at a more upright angle to show all that off. I think it still looks natural enough. Other than that, no modification to the mini, and while the paintjob isn't as all-black as much of the Vax art out there, I think it's suitably subdued and dark. The mini is fairly tiny, more akin to LotR size than 40k (sans wings, he could almost fit inside the torso of a Primaris Marine!) but the detail in the sculpt is fantastic, from the texture on the tunic to the feathers on the wings to the inlay on the boots.

That's all for today, I'll be back soon with some more Primaris and some Death Guard, as I picked up issue 2 of Conquest. In the mean time, any thoughts welcome! Thanks for looking (and go and watch some Critical Role if D&D is at all your thing! )

I personally can't recommend Critical Role enough, so much so most of the people I know groan and roll there eyes when I start talking about it.

Back on point, Vax is looking good!

Lovely work Para. Very nicely done. I think changing the pose was a good choice.

Fascinating stuff. I like how muted and monochrome it is. Delightfully low key.

Ta folks. People over on the monthly challenge thread have been telling me I need to do bigger pics for the last few months, so I've experimented with that a bit below. Still in two minds, as to me all it does is make the flaws bigger, but perhaps that's because I've taken about 30 pics of this mini so know where all the errors are anyway. So, looking for some honest feedback, is this an actual improvement over the pics above?




Painting is on hold for a while as I'm off to uni this weekend, but I have some cool stuff coming up soon. Death Guard, Primaris and a little (actually, fairly big) something for Graven's 'I am the Knight' 300 page competition.

Pics are stunning.., and colour me excited!

Good luck with the return to Uni and your Masters. Bigger pictures are always better IMO, as you say it points out the flaws but I always find it helps to photograph minis as it helps me find the errors and rectify them. But it also helps promote the better parts of the paintwork. With Vax'ildan the bigger pictures show off what a great job you have done with the face, clothing and wings. It also allowed me to notice the cool use of the Chaos Terminator Lord/Sorceror base.

Big pictures are they way to go (at least, if you ask me)! I certainly think the larger stills you've put up make for better viewing of the miniature and, as far as I can tell, whatever imperfections are there are no more distinct than in the smaller picture. I post my pictures at full size these days, in part because I really hate what the compression does to the clean look of the finishes I aspire towards. I think that getting a really good look into the overarching successes of the paint work is totally worth it, even if it runs the risk of making small mistakes more conspicuous. Again, I'll say that in this instance Para, there are none to be seen in my eyes and even if there were, we're all human. I really like the mini and think he'll do very well in the comp this month!