Ok so reposting the original post after Cassandra had made a few suggestions to me (Thankyou!)

So basically I wanted to achieve with this post/topic/blog thingy was to motivate myself as i'm pants at it so figured getting together with other games and hobbists it would sper me on and not only that maybe make some buddies along the way.
I propose a tale of four gamers thingy. Now it looks like theres a few of us interested already so this is cool, not going to cap the total as I feel people should be aloud to join as and when (of course if everyone is happy at this).

so How i'm thinking this should work is, each month we set a goal ie I'll be working on my empire army to get it finished and ready for armies on parade so for my task one month I may want to paint a general and a unit of ten guys posting pictures up as i go and of the finished work.
no i understand some of you may want to start new armies or working on current ones so I shall leave buying models or using old ones to you guys but everything has to be newly painted for the purpose of the blog unless anyone is converting in which case converted for the blog.

so if we could open with a quick bio of what we want to achieve and who is taking part that would be ace's

So for myself My names DarkMoonlight or you can refer to me as Aar depending you like real life or no! I'll be wokring on my already exsisting Empire army and getting them complete in time for armies on parade next year. I'll be painting various units and at some stage creating a board to go with them.

Goal this month will be a small one as I'm waiting on bases to arrive so by the1st of november I will have five swordsmen painted along with my amber wizard on griffon assembled.

Any questions please ask or message me also one last thing do you want me to chuck this into the blog section of the site.

Heres the update for the fantasy gamers blog due to the crowding here!
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/560757.page#6204408

I want in. Can I join up for this? Is this where we post? Do we only discuss the painting and modelling bit here? My fluff is quite involved with my scheme...

My name is Colm and I'm just about to start an Imperial Guard army - the Ghost Tigers. So far I have bought some clip together Cadians (to try out colour scheme ideas), a wood elf spellcaster (for my astropath with some converting..) and Loads Of Heads! (which is the main thrust of my conversion plans...)

My first Ghost Tiger tester mini is up in my gallery. I've painted a couple to try out the scheme and started converting the spellcaster. Apart from that I haven't started the army so this will do nicely as a running log of the Ghost Tigers. So I want to paint my converted Astropath, design and test my basing scheme for the army and construct my first infantry unit or tank (depending on how long the last batch of heads takes together in from America!).

The theme for the army is simple - a tiger based colour scheme and they are from a planet where all the land mass sits around the equator so there aren't really any fair skinned humans there.

The Tigers are going to be quite a tech heavy army ultimately...

Aha! Found the new thread...


Hi guys, I'm PurpleSquig, and I'm going to be working on a feral ork army.

The reason being I wanted to play 40k orks, but didn't really like a lot of their models. Then I saw the savage orcs from fantasy and knew where I wanted to go with it.

In my minds eye its a very new tribe that hasn't yet begun the excessive looting of imperial weapons, so almost all weapons are going to be kept primitive. To balance this out I'm thinking lots of wierd boyz, half-ork / half-squigs and catapults and stuff.

So essentially, a fantasy army


My goal this month is to get 10 boyz and 5 gretchin painted up!

Hey all,

I'm alabamaheretic...bama for short.

I got an island of blood skaven set about a year and a half ago like the fluff of the little rat men so i thought i would fluff them out to a full 3,500 point army. I really like fantasy i don't play it near enough

This is the beginnings of Clan Fittzzle led by Warlord Shim Warpclaw, a very minor warlord with aspirations of conquering the under empire.

Goal for the month...Warlock Engineer, Warlord, Master Moulder and 20 Skaven with spears.

Hey dark if you want we can do games on vassal if you wanna...get a fantasy fix somewhere

Wow! Bama is gonna be busy!

well that is what happens when your unemployed. Mind you I am looking for work still just no bites i know when i get work my load will slow down

Hello!

I'm Grulgor, or Ignatius, I've been doing a thread on and off for my army in some form or another on the internet since early 2010 when I really started getting back into wargaming after a big hiatus.

I've got a terrible habit of starting a million different things at once and never quite finishing them, often stopping all together for a month or so at random. Then along comes Darkmoonlight with this thread, the plan will always be to keep expanding the army but that doesn't mean it can't start happening a unit at a time!

So with that in mind the plan is to finally finish the plague tower I started in mid 2010, everyone else seems to be setting goals of a month but being as it's a big piece I'll be aiming for before the end of the year to at least get the building stage finished. If things go well I'll move that up to fully finished before then, (slacking already)!

Got a couple of shots of the WIP from the gallery I'll have to pop up some more soon!

welcome to the party ignatius~! i have faith you will get some more done on it soon. well we can always break out the whip

you need discipline *crack* discipline!

looking forward to everyone's projects

Sign me up!

I'm eclipse, you can call me Rusty! My plan is a 1850 eldar/dark eldar Lugganath craft world army. I've started a bit on the jetbike seer council. The idea this time around is only to buy one unit or vehicle at a time instead of buying the whole army at once and getting scared away from painting it all! Plan is to get this unit finished first week of November. And here they are!

Ok this sounds fun and motivational so count me in !

I am Warp Angels

I will be working on my Pre-Heresy / Heresy era Emperor's Children army, which i have only just started.
i plan this army to be large, probably 4k+ points and maybe a board themed toward the dropsite massecare part of the heresy with some Iron Hands too

Goal for the remainder of October: Place my next order to Forge World ----- I know its boring but it takes about 1-2 weeks to ship to NZ so theres nothing i can do about it
For those that are interested the order will be: Book 2 - Massecare AND 5 MKIV marines + 5 MKIII marines with Umbra Ferrox bolters, EC shoulder guards and the MKIV Power weapon set ---- they will be used as a Legion Veteran Tactical Squad.

I can post images of the army so far if people would like to see it ?
and by army i mean 6 models

Eclipse those jet bikes are wonderful!

Found the link eventually:

My name is Melcavuk (Or Ricki) and about a month of so ago I moved a loooong way up north and sold the majority of the 40K I owned at the time to aid in the moving fees, it left with me a majorly blank slate in scopes of 40K and for the first time in a long while I didnt have an army to play with. I have decided to do a heavily nurgle themed Chaos Daemon force that will feature units from all the gods but converted/painted up into a more nurgly (and therefore better ) army going forward.

To start with I have gotten the basics down 2 squad minimum and HQ for the army going forward. Currently painted 20 plague bearers and 3 different heralds. On my work bench are 10 more Horrors and 10 CHaos Hounds to do up as Rot Hounds of Nurgle (Khorne). By the end of the month I intend to get atleast 5, hopefully all 10 of the rothounds sorted.

The aim is by january to have a decently diverse 1000 point army and to add atleast one FOC choice a month from then onwards. I'm excited to move past the "core" of the army of troops and heralds into the more diverse conversions that I can go onto.

My starting point is here:

Rotlord Herald the Pestilent


Carrion Herald the Scavenger


Flylord Herald the Cruel


And 10 of my 20 finished PLague Bearers


Next job up is the unboxing and assembling of my Rothounds

Inspiring Jetbikes! I'd love to see the army so far, Warp Angels.

Kholzerino wrote:
Inspiring Jetbikes! I'd love to see the army so far, Warp Angels.

Alrighty then

The Cataphractii Termies:



And The Primarch Himself - Fulgrim the Illuminator


More pics in my Gallery

Melkavuk! Your minting chaos guys are great. I'm dismayed by my lack of skills.

Wow! Everyone who's shared so far has done some really impressive stuff already!

I like how we've got a fairly diverse range of styles going on here. From some very clean looking eldar to rotting daemons with a super-sized plague tower and even some forgeworld nestling between them.

I'll get some pics up of the 5 or so boyz I had finished before the start of this project later today.

Now to get painting!

So I got started ons tuff kinda late last night abnd could not put up decent starting pics of what i did but i do have two pic of what i finished this morning and what i started as i remembered that i needed to take some wips...so with out further a due the beginnings of Clan Fittzzle

Warlord Shim Warpclaw





Warlock Engineer Batzle Redeye



Clan Rats


Master Moulder that is currently unnamed


any way thats what i have for now...

and everyones opening shots look great they are all fantastic everyone keep up the good work and cant wait to see what you all come up with next!

take care everybody!
Bama

Is it cool if I join up?

My Name is Master Azalle, I usually go by Azalle. I've been collecting my Angels of Vengeance since the 6th edition this spring but my army has hit a bit of a lully in the painting building collecting area. My goal is to collect the entire 3rd Company of the Angels of Vengance. I can lay out my plan and fluff for the army if people want to hear it, but my goal for the end of October is to finish up the tactical squad i put together and my 1st squad of devastators. So for October:

Full Tactical Squad - Sgt with Storm Bolter, Plasma Gunner and Plasma Cannoner - I run a rather fluffy army

Split Devastator Squad - Sgt with Signum, 4 Lascannons

sounds good man! looking forward to seeing what you can do.

Very nice Bama, I particularly like the MASSIVE cleaver on your warlord. Does that piece come as standard?

I don't know much about skaven so won't really know how much converting has gone in there...

Dont mind if i take part to?

My names Pyro Pete but get known more by Pyro and the army i have choosen to do in this tales is my Farsight Enclave. Had the army a couple of months now and not got round to finshing it all so by the end of October i wanna get Farsight himelf finshed, his 7 man bodyguard and 2 Broadsides





and the only model i have finshed for this army Riptide

Squig actually hes a bog standard lord that came fromt he island of blood set...everything im doing now is that. I do have a surprise on friday or sat that will make my side that much more interesting.

Waiting for the master moulder to dry and started on five of the spearmen squad pics later or when some one bumps the thread

Beautifully Painted Tau! Can't wait to see the rest of your army.

Alrighty Bama, let's see what you got.

the three completed models and the five goobers...all that is missing off the goobers is fur and skin and a wash so they are about done...then ill start another five guys to continue the adventure.

those tau are looking mighty fine.

still have know earthly idea how i want to base them i have sand and snow some where i have grass...thoughts on basing them would be greatly appreciative

pics:

I think we may have a few too many people here for one thread...

Hey all, I'm LadyCassandra, LC for short, and I'm working on a Shadow Daemons army. I'll go into my fluff behind them later in a post specifically for that at some point. I've been working on this army for going on more than five years with some on and off breaks, so as you can imagine I'm pretty slow at doing hobby stuff. What makes it slower is that 90% of the models are converted and there is a lot of green-stuff work, so my focus is going to be on sculpting. Don't expect to see much paint, if any for a while!

My goal this month is to finish off my Herald of Tzeentch and Shade Standard bearer conversions, and if I finish that, start finishing off converting one of my units of Shades.

And the requisite pretty pictures .

Aha, you see I told you I knew nothing about skaven Bama!

Still, a very nice start you've got off to there, quick work.

Hi LC, I know what you mean about numbers as after a quick count there are now... 10. That's quite a lot.

However I wouldn't be too surprised if a few drop out after say, a week or so. We can just run with it and see how it goes.

On a different note, those are some VERY nice conversions. I think those dryad heads work really well on the herald and shade. When you say "finish" are we talking paint job included or just the sculpting work?

PurpleSquid, just the conversions for now. And I hope so, ten is really way too many for people to follow very easily .

squig...well nothing wrong with not knowing whats going on with my my models this is after all building comrades and helping each other stay motivated. i think lc is gonna be working on getting at that gs work out of the way.

yea its quick but like i stated earlier is just cause im unemployed at the moment.

LC i follow your blog when it gets updates i dont say much i just like watching you work...i do like your keeper of secrets conversion. good start at any rate. Here's hoping for some paint maybe next month

I thnik PS has a point, it will either motivate the few,or dash the hopes of the others haha

Some great looking stuff coming through guys, its really great to see everyones starting point and where we're aiming to get to going forwards. I started on my hounds and found that my glue was completely dried up so I've been forced to go out and buy a new one and start in earnest tomorrow! (After work ofcourse)

Evening all, finally managed to get on to post an update!
we excellent start from everyone likeing it, yea think we will have to cap it with the amount of people we ahve now but you are probably right squig.

so anyway photos are crap but here is my start.
began them yesterday and been frantically painting today, not quite finished a few more highlights but not much more to go.

this was this morning before I began.


and these two are from around 10 mins ago

very nice dark. Where are your empire guys from any way?

well its great to see the community has enthused about this project. well here is hoping more awesome is posted.

Thanks bama they are the forge world mannans blades.
Loving the skaven although I don't envy you with all the painting! Millions of rat men!

So this is my tester dude:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/545841-Ghost%20Tiger.html

Not quite happy with the shade of the highlight on his skin, and obvs he's not based but this is the general approach. I got a first unit of shock troops and I have enough heads to work with those as a start.

So I'm off!

Loving the projects so far guys keep it up

Dark...those are some cool swordmen. Eh i don't mind painting all the rat men i also have an imperial guard army so lots of dudes and tanks everywhere!
at 3500 points i have 286 models to paint...so this is just the beginning

not too keen on the gun khol but the tiger colors are very affective...the green armor is ok too...like the tiger stripes but not the green...i'd go with a light brown or a dusty yellow maybe...i dunno skin came out well though just a few more highlights and gtg.

ill have some more to post up in the morning.

Wow Kholzerino, the tiger pattern hurts my eyes. But definitely in a good way!

I'm not sold on the green though, maybe try a grey/blue?

Dark, what are you going to be using for a spot colour on the swordsmen? I like the direction your going, but I feel they need something to really make them pop atm.

I like the swordsmen, I agree tho, the need something to make them Pop!

I didn't take a picture of the start so I apologize for that. Angels of Vengeance run Black armor, gold trim and red spot color.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry for the low quality of the picture, all I have is my Iphone at the moment. This is my first brush at them, C+C welcome!

I plan on adding squad markings using transfers on the shoulders and I'll be printing my own chapter icons

They Also need to be properly based, just a dry brush on them for now so you don't lose them on the black bases.

The spot colour is green, it's not showing very well in the photos in all honesty but I also haven't highlighted all the way up yet.
Those marine look awesome azalle

good looking marines azalle very subtle hioghtlighting of the black looks great...

I'm going to segue into unwarranted critique mode here if that's okay with folks . I hope you guys are just as helpful when I post up my efforts .

Darkmoonlight - looking very nice, loving the rich blue especially. However, the pictures are a little iffy, have you tried putting a piece of paper behind? Just get a bit of paper and blu-tac the back to a wall and let it rest, so it curves. Then put the miniature on the flat bit at the bottom and take pics. A lamp angled towards the mini, especially if its in the opposite direction from the main light, essentially lighting the main light's shadows, also helps to see details. Maybe crop the pics so they show up larger and I think they'll be improved 100% and we can get on with properly admiring your work . Only other thing is that the blue shield and the blue arm blend into each other. I couldn't even tell it was a shield at first, I thought it was a strangely shaped sleeve. Perhaps consider changing the colour of the shield to make it stand out? White, maybe? That could be your spot colour too if you want something to throw in with the brown, green and blue.

Oh, and I used the magic of photoshop to give you an idea of what the bottom picture with my suggestions used might look like, hope you don't mind. Unfortunately even photoshop can't do much about the backdrop, the blurriness on the base and the deep shadows on the front of the legs, but it had a good go .


Kholzerino - first of all, please, please, please post pics instead of links. When you're in the Gallery, look to the right beneath the picture and see there's a couple of boxes. The first one is a dropdown box with Recommended Sizes in it. Everything automatically defaults to Medium at first, but you can change the size by selecting from that list from a tiny thumbnail all the way up to the entire enormous image (please spoiler it if you go for that ). Some narrow pics need to be brought down a size category as it goes off width, not height. The box below it says "Forums:", just click on that and copy it (after selecting your size if you're changing it) and paste it into your post. That will show a picture which will be linked to that Gallery page.
Top Tip: You can change the two letters after the number on the image part of the link to change sizes while in the post. So "http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2013/10/17/548002_mb-.png" is Small (mb). Thumbnail is "th", Medium is "sm" and the maximum size doesn't have any, just the number and then a dash "-" (not an underscore "_"), so 548002-.png in this case.
So yours would be:


On the subject of the mini, I adore the tiger stripes and the orange. The green however, I think the problem is that you've gone from a dark green and edge-highlighted with a very bright green, too bright for that base colour. A paint-wash or a glaze of green might help to bring the two colours together, or just neatening and thinning the edge highlighting on the gun especially. The boots are excellent and definitely what you should be aiming for in my opinion. Also, what's with the white staring dots for eyes? They're certainly eye-catching, is this regiment possessed?

Master Azalle - perhaps it's the angle, but apart from the details I can't see any other colours apart from black on the marines. Are you going to be giving them coloured panels here and there to break it up a bit? They've been well painted, I can see the grey edge-highlighting and that certainly saves them from looking like they've only been primed, and the photograph is good, though I'd like a few pics on their own eye-level of the squad leader . However they seem to be somewhat all one colour, if you see what I mean. It's a bit unrelenting.

Ignatius-Grulgor - Iggy! Can I have all your metal Chaos Daemon models if you die? Go on! Your Plague Tower is insane, I like it. The sword arm sticking out made me laugh. The faces look a little childish though, I don't know if that was on purpose but they look like the "Scream" or extremely unhappy snowmen rather than actual faces.. it might be the lack of a nose or the lack of definition of a nose cavity or the jaw. It still works, as its Nurgle, but it may not look as grotesque as you'd be hoping for. It's a very big plague tower. Everyone and their dog is going to be able to shoot at that thing . You're a brave man.

Eclipseone - *jawdrop* Those are looking gorgeous. If I have any criticism it's that I'd stick to doing the "exhaust" fumes on the jetbikes with weathering powders rather than the airbrush, so it doesn't look like a shadow, which it does a bit here. Unless it was meant to be a shadow, in which case I'd say shade it with a deep red instead. Love the gems, though I think the white highlight is a little too big on the bike nearest to us, the ones with two highlights there instead are perfect . Maybe could do with more blending between the blue and the black on the gems, with more black and less top highlight colour on the bottom. On the closer picture also you've got some thin lines of cream that went a bit too far on the edges. Over all though, beautiful bases, great picture.

Melcavuk - More Chaos! So this seems to be the WFB plus Chaos and Dark Eldar Tale of Ten Gamers . I really, really love your Rotlord, looks like a conversion based off the famous Nurgle Lord? No idea where you got the head from though. Looks fantastic. If I had to split hairs, I'd go with that the eyes could do with a light wash around the "sockets" to help define them and let them stand out, as yellow against a pale green backdrop they sort of get lost in it. I can't really see with the Carrion Herald, could do with several larger pictures and more detail shots honestly. It's a busy model. But it looks great, really nice colour choices too. Nurgle-y but also light and bright. I think the Flylord could perhaps do with some more obviously rusty armour, the shiny steel just seems wrong in a Nurgle army . Plague Bearers pic, again, could do with being a bit bigger, or at least showing some of them off individually so we can get a good look, but look great from here .

alabamaheretic - You may want to use the paper background trick, even outside it'll help scatter the light back onto the model. Also may want to get as close to the light hitting the mini full on as you can get without your own shadow ruining the shot. A lot easier nearer to the middle of the day than later. Nice garden though! As for the mini, looking good so far, nice and grimy with plenty of definition. Is the "smoke/fire" finished in his censor, because it could really do with some further highlighting or drybrushing to get it to look suitably floaty/bright. Cropping if you can would also help . As for bases, someone recently put up a tutorial for meadow bases. Then you could stamp some down and paint it black for where your skaven have killed it.

Pyro Pete - Same suggestions for photos, but your mini's look great, even if the red looks a little overwashed. Perhaps try brown instead of black red time or just put the wash in the recesses? However, you seem to have a problem with your metallics? I'm not sure. On the last photo, there are things which look like giant screw heads which are dusty, looking like they've been drybrushed badly, and the colour has extended over onto the red in a few places. Is that due to problems with metallics, or is that a grey or blue that got out of hand? Either way, a glaze or very light paint-wash to try to minimise the texture and retouching the red back up will help if it was not intended. If I'm off base, please let me know, your painting is very good elsewhere.

If folks want to edit pics but don't have anything at home, try out http://www.pixlr.com. It's free and fast and there's nothing to download apart from your finished photo.

Soooo... did I miss anybody?

If it is not too late might I join in with some homebrew Marines I have just started?

It appears to be more the merrier type thing so I hope no one minds.

Aaahh, I found the green eventually Dark. I think the positioning in the photos isn't helping them either, all the green bits visible are in shadow to start with An extra run of highlighting should really bring them out you're right.

Well, here's my first contribution.

These are the 5 boyz I had completely finished before the start of this thread:













My only question would be, should I stick with the ice weapons or change to a sort of flinty grey stone? If I stick with the ice I will eventually come back and add snow effects the the bases etc.


Aaaand I just saw LC's post, after I put this up. Now I can see the green Photoshop does indeed do wonders. I agree on changing the shield color as well, maybe just a metal colour?

I'm going to have to try and take better photos, will be using the paper trick and having a go in GIMP too. Thanks for sharing your wisdom LC!

LadyCassandra Thanks for the such a great critique! I love it.

- Photos: I can definately work on a better angle and cant take one shortly and post it up.

- All Black Issue: To be honest, one of the reasons I went with this specific successor chapter was because I would not have to put too much time in to get them table top ready (Heresey! i know i know)
They will bet getting the Red Tactical transfers on their right shoulders and I'll be picking up transfer sheets to print the chapter symbol and those will be added as well to help keep them from looking like black statuary. The eyes will definately be given more attention to help make the eyes stand out and not get lost in the grim darkness.

I am open to suggestions for additional color - their fluff suggests that these guys are even more grim dark then than Dark Angels themselves. My knee jerk reaction would be to pick out some of the additional details in gold (chest icons for one) I also have several of the chapter upgrade kits with all the assorted bits, I could add more DA Iconography or more purity seals (As that was the other chapter qark, these guys and the Gardians of the Covenant (Silver armor, red robes).

PurpleSquig I like the ice effect and think that adding snow would be a great addition to the mini!

In painting news I finished (and with more colors!) my lascannon weilding devastatos. Their sgt lost a fight with gravity and then his one arm went to the furce as it flew through the vent into the warp... sooo once I prime and re-attack a new arm (Which should happen tonight) I will post up the devastators as.

Very nice squig.

Lady C...i tried your paper thing today and i do say they look better...i know it sucks particularly with my army as they are dark shadows and light colors.

any way completed the squad till i pick up my order. so i decided to add to my goal some since my first goal was achieved. So in addition tot he stuff i stated I will be adding a rat ogre, poisoned wind mortar and 5 guys from the hand weapon squad two dudes and the command.

interesting take on some bases...still tossing about ideas....like i said in my thread my main oppenants are high elves and vampire counts...was thinkng one of them....or i can base them off a notion of a board im attempting to build...thats in the planning stages. but it would be a swamp...it would do triple duty as it would serve for my lizard men, the skaven and my plague marine army that i have started...again im kinda drawn to the snow and dirt idea like they are in the mountains that would work well for my next project which will be a secret till the skaven are done...but if your smart and i know you guys are you might be able to figure it out. But the goal through this entire thread is to do four armies of fantasy. Starting with the skaven...then it will move either to lizards or my secret project(s). but untill the skaven are at 3,500 points i am not at liberty/won't say what the other projects are. any way have some pictures for my rambling.






till later yall
Bama

Nice work guys! This is going to be a great thread. Thanks for all the comments.

LadyCassandra - great critique! I'm a scale modeller struggling with these silly small details like gems! This was my first attempt at it and I totally agree with what you're saying. My hand is still not all that steady, I'll probably paint over the gems as try again. The exhaust effect looks a bit off here because of the lighting used, truth be told I ran out of pigment setter so I ha to go with the airbrush It's almost impossible to tell but the orange here is actually a pearlescent, so those cream lines that may look like a missed brush stroke are actually where I dinged the naked model with my knife during the clean up stage; and light is reflecting off them. So, all the deviations on color is just how the light is reflecting at those angles. Also, if you look close enough, there is a certain roughness to the hood of the jetbike to simulate metal. I was going to do a faded paint job from one color to another but I've seen that done too much on warhammer models that I decided to try a pearl/candy effect.

Keep up the good work guys and I appreciate any comments or criticisms as I'm new to this game.

Taking a leaf out of Lady Cass's book I've gone through the people thus far and listed my thoughts, briefer and less helpful but its been great looking at everyones progress:

Lady Cass: Those are some really nice conversions and what I assume to be classic models, they look like they're coming together really well and if its going to be an entirely converted army its going to be really interesting seeing the progression.

Warp Angels: Fantastic Start, and fantastic forgeworld models, cant lie I'm jealous that you've gotten them especially that fulgrim model. Are you looking to move onto the new Kakaphoni models that have come out cause they look fantastic

Darkmoonlight - I agree with Cass that the shield could do with some kind of edge highlighting or battle damage to help define its edge away from the rest of the blue on the model but otherwise a really eye catching scheme and definately going to stand out on the battlefield. I really enjoyed the detailing on Forgeworlds empire models when I dabbled with them for some of my imperial guard a while back and you seem to be doing well with them.


Kholzerino - Tiger stripes are fantastic, eye catching and bright and something that I wouldnt even attempt to do myself at this stage and they've come out really well. Gotta agree on the green however that it doesnt seem to blend with the scheme at this stage, I'm sure there are ways to make the contrast a little less stark and tie it in but with how awesome the tiger striping is the gun stands out that much more to me.

Master Azalle - Rather than neccessarily adding in another colour you could use weathering/battle damage/powders to give more definition to the model. I really like how grimdark they look right now and give off a kind of Reaperish appearance with the blackness. It'd tie in with being grimm and stubborn and possibly with ongoing warfare/sieges to tie them in with their bases too.

Ignatius-Grulgor - Huge fan of the plague tower, really big and eye catching modelling project and something I'd love to move onto doing when I've gotten through the core of my army, the cartoonish faces dont stand out too much to me currently but I've always found nurgle to have a kind of cartoony aspect especially in its nurglings which would tie in really well.

alabamaheretic - New pictures are alot nicer but you could do with some better lighting on them, at the moment some of them are still a little hard to see with the shadows but the pictures are alot easier to see model definition of. Always been a huge fan of skaven and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the horde grows with time.

Pyro Pete - Really great colour scheme and edge definition, they're eye catching and I've always been partial to red colour schemes (in that nearly every army I have is red). That riptide is looking awesome and despite hating crisis suit models your paint job is making them look nice. Just to echo what was already said a light box or backdrop would really help those photos to stand out more

Eclipseone - Really nice bikes there, great basing and really good combination between the two. Are you doing any conversions on the riders at all, I have always found them to be one of the parts of the jetbikes for eldar that held up the worst and can ruin otherwise great models.

For my own bits I have a few more select shots of plague bearers and some of my rotty horrors:

Bama - Nice progress, the new photos are also a big improvement.

I think swamp bases would be awesome, dabbling with water effects is always fun How are you going to base them after having them all down though? I tend to find it looks like the models are sinking, not walking. Although, I guess that works for a swamp...


Melcavuk - Those rotty horrors I really like, I think the scheme works so well. Oddly, it makes them look far more daemonic than the plague bearers in my opinion.

Have you done those four in just 2 days?!

Those 4 are my test scheme from before sorry, They were done as of an evening as the scheme is a very easily transferable one though I do have my box of unassembled horrors to work on after I have done my hounds. I will be picking up some more white primer this weekend to make a move on them. The hounds themselves are now primed black and will be airbrushed through their greys this evening and the work proper on them will commence this weekend when I'm on holiday from work.

Squig- Glad to hear the pics are improving.
Yea swamp bases make sense with the slightly sunk. so it would still give the illusion of walking in muck...i do have some water effects not sure how to actually pull this off will have to research it some more...

mel- really enjoying your daemons they pick horrors look great! actually curious about your flesh hounds now. enjoy your holiday off and get some good work in on them.

Elclispe- i never seen a candy effect and i have seen very few pearl effects so i look forward to your experiment.

The scary thing about close to three hundred models is burn out...but i think with you guys i should stay motivated. I always look forward to seeing the comments and critiques that are put up and trying to implement them.

In other news I think I might reach for the brass ring as to avoid skaven burn out...i am gonna add some lizard men into the mix too. after completing the five skaven with hand weapons

im gonna attempt to do a scar vet/old scar on foot along with 10 skink skirmishers

UPDATE on what needs to be completed:
20 skaven with hand weapons and shields
old scar/scar vet on foot
12 skink skirmishers

reason behind this is my skaven need some one else to fight besides the high elves and vampires.

Things Completed
20 Skaven with spears and shields
Master Moulder
Warlord
Warlock Engineer
poisoned wind mortar
rat ogre

Pictures:

The Skaven look great Bama. If I could, i would suggest throwing in some darker metallics to break the model up a bit. With the Rat Ogre in particular the details start to blend together so it becomes hard to distinguish individula items.

Ah I see, I thought that had been obscenely fast Melcavuk Which models are you using for the hounds? I'm having trouble imagining the base flesh hounds in nurgle colours, but you managed it with the horrors so who knows!

Bama, you work mind bogglingly fast! I think that these skaven may get finished quite a bit ahead of my orks, even considering you have about 3 times the model count... That's nuts.

I agree with Azalle about the rat ogre though, he seems too uniform at the moment. Darker metallics and picking out the stitches in his skin in some dark colour would go a long way to fixing this Finally, how come he's so shiny? Was he still wet in that picture?

 PurpleSquig wrote:
Ah I see, I thought that had been obscenely fast Melcavuk Which models are you using for the hounds? I'm having trouble imagining the base flesh hounds in nurgle colours, but you managed it with the horrors so who knows!

Chaos warhounds because from a model and price point I vastly prefer them to the flesh hounds, it would have been crippling to the later parts of my army to blow so much of my budgets on hounds at this stage.

In a Flurry of Hooby Madness I got my 1st three squads up to table top standard. Still open to ideas / suggestions for what to add to or additional details to pick out on these guys.

Might be a dumb question, but is it too late to join?
Got tons i need to paint but really dont have the kick i need to get started.
Shouldnt be soo bad once ive started though.

Yes the riders for the bikes will converted heavily. Going to use :

Legs from the reaver jetbike kit
Front toroso from the rider / high elf shadow warriors
Cape from the shadow warriors
Arms from shadow warriors
And weapons are undecided

For the farseers ill use most of the plastic farseer kit an the legs from the reavers

I can't wait to see what you put together for your minis eclipse! that sounds like a sqweet conversion job!

Photos redone so the flashdoesnt wash them out so much, unfortunately some of the focus was alittle wacky but I'm working on it.

Plague Bearer Squad 1:

Plague Bearer Squad 2:

Rot Horrors:

OKAY OKAY I'LL CHANGE THE GREEN ALREADY!

Joking. Appreciate the feedback. I like the green and highlight on the armour, but think I might go for brass guns with silver and black barrels and silver aguila. Or go for a dark grey with light grey highlight and gold aguila... Going to try the brass this eveing and see if it can work. I want kinda punchy and bold rather than subtle and deep.

I'm not totally happy with the skintone yet myself... Want it a bit darker...

That shot had some kinda hipstamatic grade on my phone also, so I shall do a better snap this time and post the pic rather than a link!

Thanks again for the feedback.

Very Nice Demons! Im impressed with how well the green translated onto the horrors! you'll have a very unifed looking army. What do you plan on working next?
The bases also really fit well with the units - well done.

Righty ho guys not been able to do painting today as ive been at work all day today so sadly no pics from me this time but to answer the question by LadyCassandra and Melcavuk

I know what you both mean with the photos they were only taken quickly and next time when i have better light will get some better pics with a white back ground

And to LadyCassandra the blue that has gone over is meant to be my first attempt at Glow Effect and all the red started off as Rhinox Hide base they will show better in better pics and the metalics on Farsights sword is the only Metalic i want in the army as i dont like painting it at all

Thanks for all the comments on how to improve my stuff guys more pics will come soon

Chaos warhounds because from a model and price point I vastly prefer them to the flesh hounds, it would have been crippling to the later parts of my army to blow so much of my budgets on hounds at this stage.

Ah, I feel your pain (or your wallet's at least). Good decision in both respects anyway, I think the nurgle look will go better with the warhounds. Any plans for sculpting to make them a bit more nurgly? I realize you didn't on the horrors but from the look of your heralds you've got the skills.


Master Azalle - How about going for some really spectacular OSL? I'm thinking going heavy duty on the plasma weapons and maybe something a little more subtle around the eyes of each marine. It should really emphasize how dark the rest of the squad is, making them seem either like they're fighting at night, or just looking more dark and sinister in general...

Well, its a thought anyway

Blimey there's some good stuff appearing already, now I feel like a proper slowcoach, which I suppose should be the motivator! Saying that though I completely forgot to do more tower shots while I was doing the blog ones.

@Eclipse - Bikes are very pretty, dark eldar players always seem to pull out the pretty paint effects!

@Melcav - More chaos players! We seem to be everywhere, everyone loves that nurgle champion don't they, it wouldn't be a P&M blog without at least one. Like the way you've got the skin on the nurglites some of the metals a bit clean for my tastes but then some people hate rust everywhere. Thanks for the comments on the tower too, that side was done mid 2010 when I was a little less good than now, bit torn on leaving it as it is or making it 'darker'.

@Alabama - Good start on the skaven, almost sold my gobbos to go for an army of filthy ratmen will be looking forward to seeing this one progress, as you certainly seem to be getting on with it.

@Pyro - Argh filthy Tau player (I kid honest). Looks like a solid start, riptide is especially pretty, little surprised at how many of their brethren they seem to be stomping but they are the resistance I suppose.

@Cass - No you can't cause you're mean (and smelly), what do you mean I can't take criticism! But yeah I know what you mean, I did them back in 2010 when I hadn't really used greenstuff before, now I'm torn between leaving them for nostalgias sake or bringing them up to my new and improved standard. I always felt the tower should be big I mean it does have 18 Hullpoints which is double the baneblade it's based on (if I'm remembering correctly). Can't really comment too much on the models there as I'm familiar with them from the blog and you know I'm a fan so I'd better not stroke the ego too much or you'll never paint them!

@Dark - Thanks for starting this first of all, those models certainly are pretty, only really looked at the O+G stuff on warhammer forge but those are a hell of a start point.

@Kholzerino - Well that's certainly different, the tiger stripe is excellent, really well done, as others have pointed out the green might need a bit of adjustment (don't shoot me), but what a start to something that's definitely different.

@Azalle - I'll be interested to see how you handle black power armour for ideas as I've got some red corsairs and black legion to do at some point. Also my word you're certainly moving at a pace!

@Purplesquig - Those orks are excellent, the tattoos especially, I can never seem to get the ruddy things to look right.

@Ignatius-Grulgor - its part of Farsights background where hes still being hunted by the Tau Empire

Maybe this should give me a good enough kick to get painting

Names Jackal, ive got a huge skaven army thats just sat there getting no attention at the moment so i need a way of getting myself painting again.
Im hoping this is the kick i need to keep a good pace going and get through it all

Out of my skaven army, this is currently the only stuff ive painted, and even this has taken me too long to get finished.





And for some amusement, even if it wont see the table, my version of a skaven vermin lord since i really dont like GW's one.
Currently being painted and washes drying while i type this.



So thats me for now.
Want to have the vermin lord finished 100% along with atleast 10 stormvermin by the end of the month.
Then hopefully i would have picked up enough steam to start on big blocks of rats.

Bama - I'm absolutely loving that skaven's torn up back! It's gnarly as all hell.

Working on gun/green revision tonight.

well thanks all for the kind complimnets...the reason he is shiny is cuase he was still wet when i took the photo was rather impatient ...the stiches will be picked out just thinking of some way to do them for the armor on the arm maybe a dry brush of boltgun is in order....

jackal!

MAOR RATMEN! great start...good luck with the stormvermin i pick up a box tomorrow, plus a battalion plus a lord that will become my battle standard bearer.

that vermin lord is sick!

Iggy do you need discipline? ill get the whip

yea the only reason i paint so fast is cause well i have really nothing to do with my time except paint so you know its what i do.

five ratmen are staring me in the face and i still have a lizard lord to do and 12 skinks....

like i said brass ring and doing two armies at once.

I think every rfantasy player either has hoardes of ratmen or lizardmen just hanging out that need to be painted.

so i slacked off some tonight instead of painting i went to go play some 40k and watch a movie over at my buddies hosue...i know now i need my own whip for discipline..but work will resume on them tomorrow...

All looking great guys. Thanks for the comments.
Yea I'll bare that in mind regarding the photos Cassandra thank you.
Meanwhile here are more rubbish shots of the army I'm adding too

jackal I feel an infestation coming on. Your rat lord looks awesome, definately something warped

alabamaheretic Ah makes far more senese now that it was wet. i still think that pick out some more detail, especially adding some metal to the model will really help - and yes the whip marks on the back are ace.

darkmoonlight the empire you have on display look execellent, truly. I really dig the base you have for your artillery piece there, looks stunning, can't wait to see your next post.

Ignatus-Grulgor Well... I did say i could use the motivation haha and the army has been half complete for.. well.. way to long. I had the inital combat squads of the tacs at lest with some edge highlighting, but no base paint or additional details highlights. The goal is to get the entire 3rd company table top ready. That and I really just want to deploy an entire company at the next Apoc game at my local LFGS - tired of the one dude with waaay to much money always showing up with titains that he had someone else paint

PurpleSquig I hadn't thought about OSL on the eyes. I like it though. They'd definately look a lot more alive then. Do you know of any good OSL tutorials or have any tips? I've never tried before.

As for My Update: Sorry no pictures, but I have assembled the 4th tactical squad and both devastator squads (Just 5 man not the full 10) each bringing lascannons. I'll be priming and painting later today before my Planetary Empire's campagin tonight, definately will have the next 20 marines up by tomorrow though!

Im thinking about green stictching and washing around those areas with a red wash to give it a raw looking feel...what do you guys think. the more i look at my rat ogre the more i realize taht he does look very incomplete.

Dark- those empire look awesome in the display case.

Iggy- man your aegis defense line on your blog are great! i think you should leave the cartoony faces as a reminder of how far you came since you started that project.

Azalle- your marines are comming along nicely cant wait to see what you have instore. and i agree about that guy that pays other folks to do his work kinda irratates me too, and whats crazy is the markings on his back come with the model so i didnt do any fancy converting or nothing. however i do need a razor saw and a rat ogre head if any one has one...rat ogre head not the saw

so far havent done any major painting yet just picked out the sword on the champ in the hand weapon squad. painting, will resume later this afternoon. waiting for the game store to open so i can pick up more ratmen...kinda excited by this prospect and very much.

Got a few more layers on the vermin lord, assembled 30/60 stormvermin and put more work into my Orc living idol.

Possibly the biggest model ive painted to date and its pretty good fun
Just weighs a ton and burns through a hell of alot of paint.

Master Azalle wrote:I hadn't thought about OSL on the eyes. I like it though. They'd definately look a lot more alive then. Do you know of any good OSL tutorials or have any tips? I've never tried before.

Try http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1288-glowing-eyes-by-cyril - it's one of the best glowing eyes tuts I've seen, it's how I did mine and I think it looks pretty awesome .

A bit of a non-progress day today, the hounds are all at primed and awaiting airbrushing unfortunately I got home from work late enough that the kids were already in bed and my compressor is not the quietest tool in the world so it's looking increasingly like a weekend job to get those colours sorted which has put the hounds on a halt for now. I did however have a chance to take a look at potential cool looking allies for my Nurgle daemons when they reach a decent points value. I wanted something suitably wacky but with a ranged element to make up for my daemons lack in that field and landed on perusing the Ork codex. However the grot models appeal to me so much more so I have taken up a theme of grots who, without orks to boss them around, have looked for a new boss lead them onto conquests, Papa nurgle has happily obliged.

Here is a test scheme Grot ally for the army:

Love the grot Mel I really like the back story thing for them!
And Cassandra thanks for the tutorial may have to use it on something at some point .

And thanks everyone for the comments on my current empire!

so the game store didnt get my complete order... :( however i did pick up two boxes of storm vermin and a warp lighting cannon so thats some good news...now the problem is the rest of the order comes in next week....on friday...hopefully i have a job or my disability comes in next month so i can purchase it. (not a lot of fantasy players out where i live so not too worried that it will disappear) heres hopin the us gov gets their act together so i can get my warfunds (literally and figuratively)

i sit and look at my clan rats and i look at my potential list of 3,500 points. its gonna be a siege. so far they are winning lol.

Model Count for list 286
Current Modle Count 86
Models Painted: 24

Only a lot more to go...(sighs)

Sounds like you have more than enough to keep yourself busy there Bama lol

Nice Bama
Ill have to get an overview pic of my skaven later, i know the feeling of the large horde of grey plastic lol.

Skaven are quick enough to paint, but when your looking at 5-6 block units of 50 models then all of a sudden things dont look that great.

I might get the vermin lord done and my Rogue Idol, then start working through lords and hero's in my army before i think about blocks of clanrats.
Atleast then i can alternate between a block and a war machine here and there.

Azalle yea lots to do...not enough money to have it all just yet.

jackal...yea in my 3,500 point list its three blocks of 40+
and my problem right now is i only have the one warmachine...
jackal since you seem to be the other rat bastard in this group do you have a spare rat ogre head i could acquire from you?

worked on some skinks today nothing too exciting just blocking colors right now...the 5 skaven have a copper trim now so thats a plus still more work to do.

Wish i could help, but ive only got 5 rat ogres.
3 normal ones i got from a trade plus 2 island of blood ones.
The didnt even have tails, let alone spare heads :(

Ill have a dig about though, im sure i should have some.

Okay, I had a go at resculpting the chests for the new Shades and decided to practice a bit on one of the normal Shades before I tried it out on the Herald of the flag-waver. I think it turned out pretty well, even if its feminine face on this one gives it a slightly odd androgynous feel. Decided to go for a very thin but muscular look. And look! Belly-button!



Don't know if I should remove the tentacle and resculpt around it, or leave it as it is. Also need some slight sanding on some parts to get things flush. And there's a mould-line on the arm. But apart from that, what do you guys think?

Looking pretty damn good.
Might be worth giving it a coat of grey though, it really does help all of it show up better.
GS and metal really are hard to see any detail on.

 Jackal wrote:
Looking pretty damn good.
Might be worth giving it a coat of grey though, it really does help all of it show up better.
GS and metal really are hard to see any detail on.

I've tried this before, but unfortunately you can't then greenstuff over it again, as it only adheres to the paint layer rather than the base material, making it very easy to snap off. Similar issues with primers coming off as they can't bind to the acrylic layer, and so on and so forth. Looking at it more closely, might need to go over it and fix a few lines so they're smoother, but you're right, it's very difficult to tell the angles properly.

Another little bit of progress on the Grot front, member number 2 of the Grot Artillery crew has been completed, small enough models that I can do one when I get home from work without feeling overly stretched.



LadyCass> That daemon is looking fantastic, the belly button is a nice touch and the progression from GS to the original model is pretty seamless, when painted it will look like they were made together.

Well, here we go again, going to try to respond to comments about my work and make my own on others since my last big post. Also, there are way too many people here for this early on the Sunday morning . Also, to all those that said thanks for the previous critique, you're very welcome. Now go critique my work .

PurpleSquig - I love your Boyz. I love the almost cell-shaded look you've got on them and the way all the shading and highlighting is crisp and colourful, the bones are especially wonderful. They really remind me of Warcraft in look, and the only things I think may need tweaking is that the bows look a bit too flat in comparison to all the other deep shadows, they need more contrast, and the grey you have there looks like unpainted plastic. Annoying, I know, but there is it. :\. Perhaps stick to browns? It's very unusual to see grey leather naturally as well.

I really like the ice look, if they were flint they'd look too similar to the rocks they're standing on in my opinion, and I love using the fur as a second place for that lovely colour. It, too, perhaps, could do with a slightly deeper contrast to go with the look of the rest of the model, but perhaps that would lose it its ethereal qualities. It's hard to say. Though with snow on the bases, brrr, good thing Orks don't really feel the cold! Proper Ice Barbarians there.

Master Azalle - Okay, if you're getting the red tactical transfers anyway, then my suggestion is to either painting some of the shoulder trims a different colour (red, or gold perhaps), or start painting some of the kneepads a solid shade. The chest eagles are also traditionally a metallic colour, but that's really down to you. The glowing eyes will help a lot I should imagine. Did you see the tutorial I linked for you? It starts about step 9. The real question is what colour to do it in. Also, highlighting the red and golds brighter will help them from getting lost, they're still pretty dark at the moment.

alabamaheretic - Good start on the pictures. Try curving the paper however, rather than having two pieces at an angle. The idea is to have the background get lost. And crop it if you can, it'll really help, especially on this forum where everything is resized automatically. Here's some more info on it. I'd just like to mention though that this is just advice. Obviously in-progress shots really don't need to have this sort of care taken with them. As long as you can see what's going on, the background isn't such an issue. The only thing I'd say is truly necessary to do every time is to crop the shot.

Swamp bases also sound pretty fun. Very suitable for Skaven, that's for sure. That's a pity about not getting your stuff through until next week. Having to rely on the government sucks. Good luck on looking for work!

Eclipseone - Oooh, it's iridescent huh? That must be a nightmare to photograph, metallics are bad enough. Looking good, are the Eldar going to have pearlescent armour as well?

Melcavuk - First up, on your comments about my models. Thanks very much. Yep, they are the previous edition's models, the ones all in metal. Horrors and Daemonettes (the famous Diaz Daemonettes) were designed very differently from before in this particular edition. They've gone back to the "classic" look now in the newer miniatures, but at least it means mine stand out. Unless I'm playing Ignatius of course, who has waaaay more than me. Your models are amazing as usual, look great as their squads. Where did you get the twisty pointy staff thing the Plaguebearer captain is holding, it looks awesome.

The Grot models have so much character, just like the Snotling models from the fantasy range. It's almost like painting Epic figures at that scale though! You should put up a scale photo so folks can see how tiny they are. And thanks for the comment on the chest greenstuffing. I'm very glad it looks like it's a whole thing . If I ever run these at a GW store and get told "You can't have third party models here", I'll be very happy, hehe. Also, it's a bit strange but I love sculpting belly-buttons. Makes absolutely no sense for daemons, but my Diaz Daemonettes have them so I modelled on one for my KoS and it seems to be extending into a theme. It's also really easy to do and makes a bit of detail on an otherwise blank area.

Pyro Pete - Ahh, its a glow effect? I suggest pulling it back off the red then and repainting it back to a standard, and then try following the glowing eyes tutorial I linked above. The main ideas you need though is that the light source should highlight up to white in the centre, and that the light coming off it should be pretty subtle. Glaze the area around it, don't paint or drybrush, the idea is to just tint the colours with the one you want. So in your case, rather than the pale blue sections, it would be a slightly paler purplish red, as if you got the main colour of the Riptide and then mixed in a spot of the light colour into it (also a valid way of doing it, if you're good at blending). I look forward to your better pics, but if you do change your mind on the OSL, I recommend painting them the same as the grey "buttons", as those looked excellent.

Ignatius-Grulgor - Hey, even I posted something up, where's your other shots? To be fair the faces work for Nurgle especially. If it was Tzeentch I'd be less forgiving but they sort of look like Nurgling faces so it works. Also, stroking my ego does not stop me from painting things, honest. If anything, it may work in reverse . I just have a fair amount of inertia on that point... At least with the Shades they have a dead simple colour scheme so it shouldn't worry me too much. Then again, so do the Shadow Hounds, and look how that turned out. Or you know, didn't.

Jackal - Welcome to the thread! Is that 11 people now? At least that's Obscuras' number so he should be happy at least . Looking at your Seer, it looks like you've higlighted him by hand all the way up than using washes or drybrushing? It gives him a real painted feel, and I quite like the bright edge-highlights on the robes. The tail and ropes need a little more love to get them up to the same level, but it's looking great. And a slight dot of orange-red in the centre of that eye will make it pop, if you want it to. Your attempt at NMM doesn't really seem to work I'm afraid. Same advice to you as everyone else vis-a-vis the photography stuff. Flash is especially to be avoided, it will kill any effort you put into painting highlights dead outright.

Very nice Vermin Lord conversion! Love the fur green-stuffing, it's a lot harder to get it looking natural and growing in the right direction than people give it credit for. Really like this conversion, can't wait to see it completed . Out of interest, what are the pieces?

Also, 11 days to go guys!

Cheers Lady Cass, on the topic of grot scale here is a marine vs WIP grot size comparison:


And alittle more focus on the WIP grot 3:


And now something of their "ride" midway through the Grot-tillery creation I have my WIP Lizard pre-cannon mounting:


And with an hour or so's more work, the Artillery Lizard and 2 crewmen on their new base, just awaiting the artillery piece to be painted and mounted on the lizard with the 3rd grot shown as a WIP controlling it.

Dubbed the Runt Squiggoth Booma:

LC - None of it is NMM, just poor camera i think distorting the colour on the silvers.
It is actually mithril silver lol.

I did miss a trick on the eyes though so ill have to go back to those and get them done.

I like my extreme highlights, weird style, but i find it really makes models stand out more

Ill get some more pics of him in better light after work tomorrow.
I bloody hate cameras, even more so when ive only got my works phone which is an old galaxy ace 2.

That's Bastilladon is amazing I absolutely love it god work Mel.

So here is my weekends worth of work, the pictures are a little better due to discovering the joys of iPhoto .














So that's four down one to go. Began prepping my amber wizard to stick together also so we'll on track.
Need to go back over the first two guys for the swordsman on the shields and dirty them up about with chips etc.
What do you guys think?

Darkmoonlight -> The faces on those models are really nice, the eyes in particular stand out well without going into the wide eyed staring that alot of people stray into when doing the pupils. The battle damage on the shields helps to distinguish them well from the blue of the armour. Not being a WFB player are those bases your own work or bought in? They're simple but really effective.

They are bought from dragon forge.com waiting on another batch to arrive actually to base up some flagellants.
And thank you for the comments on the faces, I quite enjoy painting them so it's all good. The guy pictured with the battle damage took me around a hour to get the eyes right lol it was madness.
Yea I didn't want to change the blue on the shield to be honest, this unit is meant to be a costal patrol and wanted the idea of the blues child's as almost like the enemy is crashing against a wave when attacking.

LadyCassandra - Cheers for the advice dude gonna try better OSL on my next army or little project but every help is welcomed

Not been able to do much as been workin alot recently and this is all ive been able to do enjoy

DARKMOONLLIGHT> Lovely stuff. love the lighting. I have so much to learn. Glad to hear your SWEET bases are from Dragon Forge. I'm awaiting heads from them. Its a one man operation and he's just taken a month off, but got a mail last week to say they have been dispatched. Exciting times. These are the heads I'm waiting for:

http://www.dragonforge.com/for%20sale%20images/dforge%20items%20for%20sale/supplies/acc/acc%20heads%20set%201%201.jpg

So close.

Bastildon thing is looking bloody amazing
Great stand in for a squiggoth.

Empire isnt usually my thing, but they stand out pretty well.
Might have to buy a unit since im not used to painting a uniformed unit.

Highlights on that suit are nice aswell, really makes it stand out and i rarely see people do that.
Usually they just hardline the edges and leave it.




How do people go about keeping to 1 painting project?
Converting isnt an issue since i bounce between projects anyway, but im struggling to stick to painting 1 thing.
Currently painting up a rogue idol, vermin lord and now ive started on a bloodthirster aswell.
Just cant seem to stick to painting 1 thing -_-

 Jackal wrote:
How do people go about keeping to 1 painting project?
Converting isnt an issue since i bounce between projects anyway, but im struggling to stick to painting 1 thing.
Currently painting up a rogue idol, vermin lord and now ive started on a bloodthirster aswell.
Just cant seem to stick to painting 1 thing -_-

I typically dont keep to one project, hence adding grot allies to my Nurgle daemons. However I am limiting my -purchases- to my daemons, the rest is just stuff I have to hand.

@kholzerino
Those heads are pretty bad ass dude, didnt actually really they did anything other than bases if im honest. Yea I saw the headliner on the site saying he had been away or something.

@jackal
Thanks dude, yea I was never into empire but I had an idea a while back about doing a town under attack and an idea for some units and it grew from there really.

@cassandra the sculting looks really good matr, is it one the metal.pink horrors as the base?

@Pyro - I definitely need to read the new Tau stuff, it's one of the factions I've just never read into as much as the rest. Missileside is looking good, and it looks like the hard copy for your enclaves just turned up on the GW site, might have to look at nabbing a copy.

@Jackal - More skaven eh, like what you're doing with the vermin lord, certainly a creative use of the daemon prince kit.

@Alabama - Clearly I do need discipline still haven't done the new photos (been painting daemonettes and playing carcassone all weekend). Thanks for the comments on the defense line, that is one option with the faces I guess, though at the same time it's had so much invested in it I'd hate for it not to be perfect! Oh and the joys of playing horde armies eh, the chap in the gamestore on saturday asked what I was doing at the minute told him about the daemonettes and he described it as 'punching yourself in the face repeatedly'.

@Darkmoonlight - Blimey a display case, and more pretty things. I see you've put a base on an artillery piece there, is that generally considered alright? Just that I've got a bit of a dilemma as to if I do the same with my orc war machines. The faces are really well done on the latest chaps, don't suppose you've got a recipe for that skintone?

@Azalle - Oh goody another apoc player too, how I wish I was the 'dude with the titans'. Still it's easy enough to deal with them now I guess, precise co-ordinates deepstriking melta 'roll on the explosion table please'.

@Melcav - Ooh grots, looking good, just sold off my orcs on eBay though the were never gonna get finished with me owning them. Gotta love em though, so full of character, even the tiny models. I love the bastiladon model, and that's a hell of a way to bring it into 40k.

@Cass - I'd leave the tentacle as is, but then I tend to add more tentacles to everything, looks good to me. I'll do photos honest, I just err need to keep painting things that totally don't relate to the tower!

Sooo I'll totally go find the camera and do more shots and maybe some work later, right?

Have had to revise my planned houndsdue to the models just not taking to my paint scheme as I had intended. Still intending to complete 5 counts as warhpounds by the end of the month but they will be done in a more squiglike fashion. For not the Runt Squiggoth is running as a Grot-Kannon of Nurgle.

Ahoy!

Everything is looking very awesome...so taking a small break from the skaven to update some of the lizards cause well they need love too. this is what has been completed so far as of today. sorry for the rushed pictures the sun was being very uncooperative today. stupid clouds.

still plugging away on the skaven kinda goofing off this morning so not accomplishing a lot but will get more motivated soon enough. prolly need to have breakfast or something to get more motivated hate painting on an empty stomach.

at any rate here is what has been accomplished this morning (getting up at 6 in the morning sucks but was very productive)

Iggy- yea dscipline is key in hoard armies...i agree with the metaphor of punching your self in the face repeatedly...that seems to happen to me too.
mel- the grot cannon is ace that looks very awesome really dig that lizard kit very creative use for it

ok guys and gals...here is my start of my lizardmen to go against my skaven.

This is the Spawning of Lualutec...(fluff for both armies forth coming have to think of some cool stuff first)

So hopefully this is posting the pic within the forum. This is my basing scheme. First time doing any real bases. My first army just had mettalic glitter mixed into the sand. This time I'm goin a bit further.

Also going to be adding some flock to this, but worried that the stuff I've got, whilst brown, doesn't look quite desert/post-apoc scrubby enough...

Still to paint my astropath, but otherwise I am on track.

I've also constructed my first Vet squad (though I think the ones I have now built will be shuffled through the squads when I paint.

@grulgar.
I've not actually played a game with them yet so haven't had any one frown on it but the way I see it is the war machine has three wounds due to the three crew you just aren't removing anything and it's easier for someone to hit with a cannon or something because you go from base contact, it just looks cooler in my opinion plus I was everything based so it's at the same level of height. So yea just go for it.

As for the skint tones I use tallern flesh for the base, then ogryn flesh wash then from just mix tallern with bleached bone/ushabti bone. Generally I'll mix blobs of ushabti three times before doing a tiny highlight of it pure.
Next guy I do ill do a step by step if you like.

@bama.
Loving the lizards dude, I started painting a steggadon a while, gotta finish the bugger.

dark do you need discipline too?

@Ignatius-Grulgor - The Tau have always facinated me since i started the hobby 13yrs ago because of the Battlesuits always wanted a army of them cause im a huge fan of Mechas and being brought up watching Gundam does help and yes i have ordered the Hardback book

And not much painting to report yet from me but i did get these in the post today

Those markers are pretty cool, where are they from?

Lol no bama normally I'm pretty good I just loved the new lizards, I used to collect them when they were in the boxed game so it was nostalgia for me lol.

Still waiting on my new Squigs since my Local GWdoesnt open on Mondays and Tuesdays :( It hashowever given me time to plan out the rest of my upcoming conversions and how to fit them into an army (without using the actual allies rules) with both Grots and Daemons counting as a since Daemon list.

So for this month (of which I have about 8 days) the aimis 5 of the 10 planned Squigs (Hounds of Khorne)

New months projects will be 5 more Squigs and 5 of 10 Squig Riders (Seekers of Slaneesh)

But by Christmas as a treat to myself I will be aiming to complete a Living Idol as a counts as Great Unclean One.

The justification for the Daemonic Instability rule is based on the sheer Cowardice (Or Cunnin) of the Grots, affectionately renamed as "We Ain't no 'Eroes" with the grots scattering in to various hiding holes if pressed.

So much awesome!


Melcavuk - that runt squiggoth boomer... Incredible. In particular, I like how ridiculously big the gun on top is. You are obviously one of those people I envy, (with good reason!) Not only can you paint really well, but really fast. At least in comparison to my glacial pace.

I'm looking forward to seeing some more grots and squigs. Also, I apologize in advance because I might have to adopt my own bastiladon much later as a battlewagon. Your fault . Seriously, awesome work.


Darkmoonlight - now I've seen a pic of whole units I have to admit, the colour scheme really works. For me the green makes them feel more gritty than a brighter spot colour perhaps would have. Nothing wrong with accentuating the "battle" side of warhammer.

My favorite unit of yours has to be the musketmen from forgeworld, killer job on those. I was wondering though, did the very convincing fence with the artillery piece come with it or did you make it somehow?

On a final note, your newest photos are leeeeeagues above the previous ones, something I'll have to try and emulate when I get some up later.


LadyCassandra - You make so many good points, its like you're making this hobby a science; I'm both impressed and grateful! Thanks for the kind words.

You're right on the grey leather for sure, I'm moving away from that with this next lot, a more red-brown color. As for the other grey bits, they're meant to be a sort of stone, but I'll try to work up from darker next time for more contrast there.

With the bows looking flat, I have to agree. Wood in general I'm struggling with painting right. My style of highlighting doesn't seem to gel with painting grain on to the wood so I'm a bit stuck for what to do. I'll have to google a wood tutorial and work on them.

Your insight is really helpful, now its my turn to try and repay the favor...

I really like the sculpting work on the new shade, you manage to get a really unearthly feel with your models. For me, the belly button is central point (or hole...) because it is firmly associated with humans, something quite at odds with the rest of the model. My only thought would be that the whole (not talking about the belly button now ) perhaps looks a little lopsided? I realize that this is daemons we're talking about so concessions are made to gravity and center of balance etc. Still, I was wondering if it was just the angle the photo is from, perhaps a shot from the back would set my mind at rest?


Pyro Pete - Those are some very nice tau, such a bold red. That's quite something coming from me as I'm really not a big fan on the battle suit aesthetic... Any fire warriors or kroot upcoming? Now those I could REALLY show some appreciation for


alabamaheretic - Good to see you're storming along as usual! Nice start on the lizardmen, with so many rats to come you deserve a bit of variation.

My favourite fella has to be the skink with blowpipe and hand weapon. The bases are so old school too, made me chuckle. The flock for some reason reminds me of that stuff you get on football pitch cakes when you're small, nom nom nom... Are you going to paint the base rims? I think they could do with a once over in an olive colour or something to really finish them.


Kholzerino - I like how the bases are coming along, cork board right? Personally I love cork, amazing stuff for basing. Although I cut up real corks from the wine my family drinks, gives the models a nice heady smell

As to the flock, I haven't used the stuff myself but I've heard you can just give it a dark wash if it's not looking grim enough. Have a quick look on google before you decide whether to buy new stuff.



Phew, now to get down to some serious painting or I'll be left in the dust. Thanks for the inspiration guys

purplesquig - i only have 30 warriors and thanks dude i loving battlesuit got some more coming in the post soon

Haha, yes! I only have to ask and Pyro supplies

As I said, even though these are incomplete I like these a lot more than the battle suits.

The subtle OSL on that one pulse rifle is so nice, the blue somehow sets off the mini. Ah, makes the model pop, that's the expression I was looking for... I'm assuming the signs on the shoulder pads will be going blue too?

A fan of the simple desert basing as well, it works with red. Got some red eldar based in exactly the same way.

 PurpleSquig wrote:



Melcavuk - that runt squiggoth boomer... Incredible. In particular, I like how ridiculously big the gun on top is. You are obviously one of those people I envy, (with good reason!) Not only can you paint really well, but really fast. At least in comparison to my glacial pace.

I'm looking forward to seeing some more grots and squigs. Also, I apologize in advance because I might have to adopt my own bastiladon much later as a battlewagon. Your fault . Seriously, awesome work.

Thanks very much, I really enjoy Ork/Grot painting just because it gives the option of occasionally doing something a little bit silly. As to the painting fast alot of the PlagueBearers/Bastiladon are done via washing up from a white base, it really adds speed and depth without being overly time/effort consuming. The gun itself was airbrushed silver and then washed/highlighted which fortunately worked around playing GTA.

 Melcavuk wrote:

Thanks very much, I really enjoy Ork/Grot painting just because it gives the option of occasionally doing something a little bit silly. As to the painting fast alot of the PlagueBearers/Bastiladon are done via washing up from a white base, it really adds speed and depth without being overly time/effort consuming. The gun itself was airbrushed silver and then washed/highlighted which fortunately worked around playing GTA.

I have to agree with you on the orks/grots, the opportunity to just break the rules a bit is really refreshing.

Could I ask while you have it fresh in your mind, how did you paint the grey armour plates on the bastiladon? A little more specifically, as I'm a bit of a nub with washes. I don't own one, not even devlan mud...

If it genuinely is just multiple washes over white, I need to go out and invest, fast!

The basilidon is a nice and simple recipe with just time and practice on it:

Prime model white
Basecoat shell black
Wash skin with Athonian Camo Shade
Dry brush German Grey (vallejo) over shell
Lighter drybrush Sea Grey (vallejo) over shell
Wash model Agrax Earthshade
Wash skin Athonian Camo Shade
Pick out Teeth/Spikes in bone and highlight upwards.
Blood to flavour.

So as promised here is the plague tower as it stands (above everything else)! The plague marine gunner was the only piece that got damaged when I moved house a few months ago, and even then it's just a helmet spike I'm sure that can be rectified. I'll have to have a look through everyone's updates later as I'm half asleep as it is, (so much so I didn't figure out why the guns image wasn't uploading properly till the third time, helps if you resize it below 22mb eh. Images are quite large if you want a peek at the gallery versions, loved how the camera lost focus on the final image







Just noticed, the rear ladder is missing as I've removed it till it's painted, same story with what's going to happen with most of the crew and nurglings.

Hey Pyro - Great Tau. Love this so much more than the bog standard beige/tan/sandy Tau!


I am in awe of the plague tower!

Wow, your recipe makes it sound so simple and easy! Whether it actually works out with your level of results remains to be seen....

Anyway, thanks a lot Melcavuk, I'll be sure to use that when I get mine.

Would you recommend washing over a white base-coat for most large monsters? I've got one of those ogre stonehorns but never really knew how best to approach it.


Ignatius-Grulgor - After a proper look over, that is brilliant. I definitely think you should keep all the work so far, the scream faces have a really old-school chaos vibe to them that I approve of.

After all, its a giant tower firing huge puss balls from its perch atop a super-heavy tank... I think a little taste of the ridiculous doesn't go amiss

Those tau are looking really nice, I think the smaller models really help bring outg the edge highlighting on the red which makes the scheme translate really well across. Nice and simple basing too but still a great result with how is contrasts with the rest of the scheme.

Purplesquig> This is really my first large Organic creature I've done, I did some conversion work on a Lizardman Dino a long time ago but lost myh nerve when it came to painting it. The amount of skin surface was a real putoff for me but the wash method I had been using on my Plague Bearers presented a way of getting skin depth, shading and colouration done really quickly and easily. Its definitely what I will be using on the future large models in my Grot Horde (and there will be more big models).


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OKay soooo... turns out the squigs are direct order only, which would of been great for me to realise on monday rather than waiting for my local GW to open today to be told that. Woring out when I would likely get them if I ordered them I would only have 1 or 2 days to get them done for an end of the month deadline which seemed highly unlikely.

So I had a last minute debate as to what to use as my hounds when my first and second choices were unavailable. I have settled on something I really enjoyed putting together, Grot Spider Cavalry. I have converted 2 up already and have finished painting the test model and here is what I have ended up with, I am really quite fond of how they are turning out.



And a shell close up:

im glad you guys are liking my tau so far really liking how there turning out myself and watching gundam and transformers whilst painting them is not good got lots of ideas now XD but less talk more pic update

That plague tower is amazing looking forward to seeing it painted!
And yes I can imagine watching transformers and gundam whilst painting tau will give you tones of ideas!!
so hopefully tonight ill have an update, been frantically converting the ilse of blood griffon. Pictures to come!!

If I google/YouTube Gundam am I going to lose a year of my life?

Melcavuk - Haha, I applaud your perseverance Melcavuk. "I can't do option A, lets try B. Ah... Can't do B. Lets try C!"

That sort of line of thinking takes some commitment

With some worthy results though, I'm really liking the grot cavalry, he can only be described as good fun! Not sure how much conversion work they required either as I've never seen the forest goblin spider rider kit. I of course recognize the cheeky grot on top, nice kit bash. His face reminds me of how I imagine Nobby Nobs face from discworld looks...

My only knit pick would be that perhaps his pistol looks a little too shiny? I really doubt he'd look after it that much


Well, I figured I'd put up some WIP pics of my goal for this month. Still quite a bit to go, lots of black and quite a lot of stuff needs a revisit for a final highlight of just a general clean up. Unfortunately the black dots came from enthusiastically undercoating too close to these models. So annoying! I'm kind of hoping to use the body paint to cover up the worst offenders as I have no specific skin recipe and find it really hard to get exact colour replicas...

Enjoy!














Oh, and Kholzerino, if you are at all susceptible to mecha anime, then yes, yes you will...

@squig. Loving the Orcs dude, really like the savage orc models actually. I want some!!
And on the subject of anime, I've lost entire evenings to watching bleach!!

That plague tower is fantastic, not only because of how awesome a creative piece it is but also due to the fact that pulled up along a bastion I'm guessing anyone stood ontop would be within spitting distance of the bastions garrison.

Purple Squig> Fantastic looking Orks, I've always been fond of that kit however the last of posability in the arms killed it for me last time I tried it (do WFB kits on the whole seem less posable than 40K?). Particularly like the Albino and Aqua Orks.

As for myself here is a little more progress, the remaining 4 Spider Cavalry for this month now have the mounts done, just needing the riders done. I have also completed one of my two test infantry for my grots who just needs basingand gun highlights.





The original cavalry model will be hit with some weathering pigments when I dig out some alcohol to seal them, soot and rust for the gun and possibly some mud.

Everyones made some bloody good progress on things
Im far too slow and ive not yet finished anything, just various stages of WIP.
Ill grab some pics later on to prove ive actually done something lol.

Finished Grot Infantry test model 1 of 2. Not sure what it is that isnt sitting right with me but I'll see how the second comes out:

Hey Guys! I've been a way but I have been busy and it looks like so has everyone else! Great work Bama on the lizard men.

ahhh that Plague tower is just epic... i can't wait to see that painted.

The rat man of course look to be improving as well!

After re-reading all of tghe comments and suggestions, I will be doing the OSL on the lens and heavy weapons. But I'm not gonna get to high details like that until i at least get the last tac squad and two 5 man's of Dev's up to speed. With Just about a week to go I feel confident I can knock out these last 20 marines to table top quality.

Time for some picture updates! I've got the 10 devs built - 8 lascannons and 2 sgts. The 1st 4 lascannons are just about table quality, the 2nd 4 i just started adding some paint to and the two Sgts are almost to table top level. tell me what you think!


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I plan on getting these 10 guys up to where the other 3 tac squads are tonight and Priming my last tac squad tonight as well

Then I get to build my Company Vets!

Warlock riders coming soon!

Super quick update before work guys





He's a little further on than this now. The reigns are gone and the rider is almost prepped to be stuck on. Gotta say the legs were a bugger to get off!

That elder just bike is awesome!

Thanks for the encouraging comments guys, I'll keep at it


Melcavuk - cheers dude, I've really been striving to achieve some interesting skin tones without going rainbow style

I would really recommend the savage orc kit, its probably my favorite from GW, even considering the arms. I find so long as you vary the weapons and keep in mind what you've done already you can still achieve quite a variety of different poses. That being said, I think if you were going all 1 weapon eg. spears + shield as required normally, the repeats would really begin to show. Then again, I consider the normal 40k orks kit to be lacking in posability too... Think you're right though that in general fantasy kits are less pose-able. Perhaps design constraints due to the models having to rank up?

I'm a big fan on the spiders you've done so far, especially the effect you achieved on the one with the broken up shell. Haha, just noticed the rider sniping sideways too, joookes! Neat idea putting the spiders down at different points on the bases too, helps break up their uniformity.

As to the test grot something looks a bit off to me too. I'm wondering if its just that the helmet grots have much bulkier heads? Try the second without a helmet and see if that works out.

BTW, are you using a light box for your photos? I was wondering about the lack of shadows that I get in mine with just daylight.


Jackal Come on, lets see this "progress" then, or we won't believe you


Master Azalle - glad you've decided to go the OSL route, should be awesome.

I'm a fan of the devs more than the tacs you showed previously. They have much more bronze/gold on them and I think it really helps to lighten up the dark a bit, but still retain the grim feeling.


Eclipseone - Ooooh, now this looks promising! How many kits did you have to scrounge to get all those bits? I'm seeing DE, maiden guard and possibly wood elf... I can't imagine it being too cheap, but from the incoming results, so worth it


Darkmoonlight - Nice work dude, thanks for getting that up. These sorts of picks always amuse me, I have no idea how much effort it took to get the rider off, but good job all the same Whose going to be riding this beasty? I'm just wondering why you could have just attached a new torso or something.

purple squig thanks brother! I wanted them to stand out a bit more, and heavy weapons almost always seem to be a little more ornate. Glad you like the added gribblies. I'm going to have to practice my osl a little before I try it on my Angels though. (I may be a little protectiveof them)

Thanks guys I haven't had much time to look through all the projects yet as I've been away! To say the least these riders have been a huge pain in the arse. Lots of cutting, and I need to get some green stuff to fix some spots and I have no experience with it.

Kits used are:

Reaver jetbike rider legs
Reaver jetbike lower torso cut
Reaver jetbike rider head
Wraithguard shoulder plates
High elf maiden chest
High elf maiden cloak
High elf shadow warrior swords

Hope to get these done by the end of the weekend

Grot 2 without helmet, the actual models will likely be done through a mix of night goblin and cadian bits to create a kind of hooded goblin militia (or Kult of Mork).



Prefer this one to the original.

I also got sidetracked today with a painting comp at my local GW, the theme was Heavy Support so I have an action posed Devastator marine nearly done.


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 PurpleSquig wrote:

Melcavuk - cheers dude, I've really been striving to achieve some interesting skin tones without going rainbow style

I would really recommend the savage orc kit, its probably my favorite from GW, even considering the arms. I find so long as you vary the weapons and keep in mind what you've done already you can still achieve quite a variety of different poses. That being said, I think if you were going all 1 weapon eg. spears + shield as required normally, the repeats would really begin to show. Then again, I consider the normal 40k orks kit to be lacking in posability too... Think you're right though that in general fantasy kits are less pose-able. Perhaps design constraints due to the models having to rank up?

I'm a big fan on the spiders you've done so far, especially the effect you achieved on the one with the broken up shell. Haha, just noticed the rider sniping sideways too, joookes! Neat idea putting the spiders down at different points on the bases too, helps break up their uniformity.

As to the test grot something looks a bit off to me too. I'm wondering if its just that the helmet grots have much bulkier heads? Try the second without a helmet and see if that works out.

BTW, are you using a light box for your photos? I was wondering about the lack of shadows that I get in mine with just daylight.

I do have a collapsable light box to hand but most of my WIP or test model photos are done on a piece of paper/plasticard backdrop due to the effort of clearing enough space on a table for the light box to be brought out. I prefer the way the photos come out in a light box but weighing up the time to do so is something that could eat into painting/modelling time and can be difficult when the kids are up.

Just drying now. Soon to be painted.

The Kit bash works beautifully! Get some paint on them!

The only critique is that they all seem to have to same pose :( which can be hard to vary based off the kits used.

Might jump in to later. I got lot's of stuff to finish and work futher on, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Space Marines, Orks, Chaos Space Marines. This might keep me up painting about 40 cultists.

@Alabama
The skaven look good, always good to see people painting skaven don't get to see much around here for some reason.
I Have a good way of painting the clanrats really quickly and I find you can paint 5-10 at a time and it takes no time at all. The technique makes the models a bit brighter than yours but you can always try it here it is:

Steps
1) Prime white
2) Watered down wash of Mournfang brown over the entire model
3) Skin with ratskin flesh
4) Metals with boltgun metal or whatever its called these days and also some bronze on the parts you want
5) Red, Green, Blue or whatever colour you want on the clothing
6) Any brown pieces you want in mournfang brown (drybrush on sheilds)
7) Fur with a dark grey of your choice
8) Wash of agrax earthshade over entire model
9) Highlights if you want to make it more detailed (Codex grey for fur, 50/50 ratskin flesh/eldar flesh for skin, 50/50 wazdaka red/ratskin flesh for boils)

Thats it you can add red for the eyes white for teeth (you might want to add karak stone on bandages and stuff before the wash tho)

I like this technique myself (I think using the watered down mournfang brown on the entire model before painting adds a good base because then the cracks and stuff you miss while painting will be brown instead of white)
You can see the rat ogre in my thread (link below) how this technique works. I did alot mre details and took my time on this model but the ame idea applied with the white base, mournfang brown wash then ratskin flesh just did alot more detail work on it.

I would join this but I actually have my own post going for my skaven if you wanna check it out its here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/559307.page

Bit more work done on the Broadside

Need some help guys..

I want to do a design on the cape and was going to do the same stripe as the bike they are riding but not sure. Maybe skinny X's or just a solid color cape but dunno what color. This is a test model.

Maybe the rider should be blue! Not sure here guys.



Suggestions please

Melcavuk - yes, I too much prefer this test grot to the first. I'm sure it must have been the head...

The night goblin heads should work in these conversions, their height helping to counteract the innate stockiness you get using the cadian torsos, looking forward to seeing more!

I do have a collapsable light box to hand but most of my WIP or test model photos are done on a piece of paper/plasticard backdrop due to the effort of clearing enough space on a table for the light box to be brought out. I prefer the way the photos come out in a light box but weighing up the time to do so is something that could eat into painting/modelling time and can be difficult when the kids are up.

Ah fair enough, I tend to take my photos when I can't bring myself to paint anything I'm curious though, if you're just using a paper/plasticard backdrop, how do you get no shadows? Just many many lights?


Eclipseone - Wow, with those shoulder pads on they look even better than I first thought, veeery nice.

I've been thinking about your cape color dilemna, here's my thoughts:

Many of your bikes have slightly different designs on the chassis(?) of the bikes themselves. This means that adopting a strong pattern on the capes is liable to looking OK on one, but just downright wrong on others due to the different bikes. In addition you're using the blue color as your spot color to contrast with the red, so I don't think going full-on blue on either the rider or the cape would look right.

My temptation would be to use those mean airbrush skills of yours and try a color fade on the cape; starting from black at the top and slowing fading to reach that bright blue only at the very bottom of the cape.

Another Idea would be to leave it largely black again, but do a fancy freehand border round the edges of the cape, again in blue.

Obviously these are just ideas to play around with, I'm looking forward to seeing what you go for


Pyro Pete - Ah, the grey really gives some with to your battle suits, looking good.

Just a thought, are you going to revisit the OSL on the back disc/jetpack/whatever? It looks a little messy in comparison to the cleanness of the rest of the model. That's all I can think to crit, keep them coming!

Ah fair enough, I tend to take my photos when I can't bring myself to paint anything I'm curious though, if you're just using a paper/plasticard backdrop, how do you get no shadows? Just many many lights?

I use a DSLR with a flashgun which tends to eliminate most of the shadows, if I need more light I also have a desk lamp,

Hey guys, I'm thinking I'm probably going to be dropping out of this. It's been pretty fun and thank you for the kind words and commentary on my models and criticisms , but I think eleven (or twelve, or thirteen, or fourteen, I've lost track and people keep joining) participants is too many for me to really feel like we're getting much decent support from each other.

It also makes the thread very difficult to parse and match up comments with armies and follow conversations. I only have time to do modelling work on the weekends so catching up has been a lot of work. Also, I've never much liked crowds, so I think I'm going to bow out.

Best of luck!

Sorry to see you go Cass.

Would it be worth considering splitting down into a number of less populated but more focused tale of X gamers threads to keep each more concentrated on a smaller number of peoples progress, critique, advice and and advancements? I'm not sure how many modellers we have now but we could likely populate 2 or 3 tales of X(4 or 5?) gamer threads, how it's sectionised would be something of the challenge (by army, type of work (conversions etc), game type (40K,WFB etc) or just by random allocation.

I'd be willing to start one if 3 others want to come. I'm doing 40k but doesn't matter what game system you play.

Let me know, drop a line here, first 3 well go make a new thread

Hey eclipse, I'm just starting my sob again after a 4 year break from them so I would be willing to partake, my monthly budget isn't great though so my updates would only be once every week or so, I don't know if that's good enough of not?

 Melcavuk wrote:
I use a DSLR with a flashgun which tends to eliminate most of the shadows, if I need more light I also have a desk lamp,

Ok, that explains it, cheers for the info dude. I may need to look into getting a camera with a proper flash then...

Would it be worth considering splitting down into a number of less populated but more focused tale of X gamers threads to keep each more concentrated on a smaller number of peoples progress, critique, advice and and advancements? I'm not sure how many modellers we have now but we could likely populate 2 or 3 tales of X(4 or 5?) gamer threads, how it's sectionised would be something of the challenge (by army, type of work (conversions etc), game type (40K,WFB etc) or just by random allocation.

I think this is probably a good idea, as it is tricky to keep up and get/give meaningful feedback. How about everybody sending one of us a PM with something like the following:

1. FB / 40k (eg. 40k, but lots of fantasy models... (not trying to make this confusing ))
2. mostly, painting / modelling (eg. painting)
3. army (eg. feral orks)
4. average frequency of posting (eg. my own updates 1-2 a week, comments more frequently)

Then someone decides some sensible groups based on the PMs they receive? I guess I'd be willing to do this if people are game, what do we think?

Okay PurpleSquig, I've sent you a PM with the stuff you asked for. Hope this works out. If I'm in one of the groups, I'm happy to do the post and keep it updated with the most recent stuff for my group. But it'll probably only update once a week.

It might be cool if we have links to the "other" Tales in our first posts as well though, like free advertising. And maybe have a linked title so people know we're.. err.. subsections?

And just to make it a little more work (I mean organised I swear) if those who "head" the groups (makes the new threads) maintain a first post with perhaps some of the details of who is in and doing what. i.e.:

Welcome to yadda yadda yadda

People involved:
Person A - Making (army) - Progress shot
Person B

and so on.

With a link to each other thread.


Sounds like alot of work but I'll happily make/maintain a new thread, will send my current stuffs details onto squig now and if needed start a new thread when instructed.

 Melcavuk wrote:
And just to make it a little more work (I mean organised I swear) if those who "head" the groups (makes the new threads) maintain a first post with perhaps some of the details of who is in and doing what. i.e.:

Welcome to yadda yadda yadda

People involved:
Person A - Making (army) - Progress shot
Person B

and so on.

With a link to each other thread.


Sounds like alot of work but I'll happily make/maintain a new thread, will send my current stuffs details onto squig now and if needed start a new thread when instructed.

Yeah that sounds great And I'd be happy to do it. I'm a lot more organised than I am productive .

so do we PM you with the details LadyCassandra ?

PM PurpleSquig so he can sort out the "teams", and I'll be happy to ..lead?.. whichever one I end up in.

aww that makes sense now

Right guys, I've had 3 PMs so far, but obviously not everyone is going to be on tonight.

Hopefully the others will catch up over the next day or so.

Just to reiterate to those guys, send ME a PM with your details in this format:

1. FB / 40k (eg. 40k, but lots of fantasy models... (not trying to make this confusing ))
2. mostly, painting / modelling (eg. painting)
3. army (eg. feral orks)
4. average frequency of posting (eg. my own updates 1-2 a week, comments more frequently)

(the examples in brackets are for me obviously...)

In addition to this, feel free to attach any other requests about how you might want to be grouped (eg. you love me, purplesquig, and couldn't bare to be apart... Or, sculpting scares me and I only want to eat the green stuff), if you're comfortable heading up a group (and hence a new thread) and whatever else you reckon could help me sort us into smaller groups of 4 to 5

Once I've put my astonishing secretarial skills to good use and got these groups I'll post them up in this thread and PM whoever said they'd be happy to be a group leader so they can get their own thread going.

The plan is then to link to these separate threads from the OP of this thread. Darkmoonlight will sort that out for us hopefully.

From there we can get going on all our intense hobbying, not sitting on dakka, honestly...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Figured I'd just post how things stand atm.

I've received 5 PMs so far, including myself that's 6 bloggers to be.

Hopefully I'll have everyone's in the next two days or so, then I can put up the groups!

As a warning, If I haven't replied to your PM, I haven't received it...

PM sent squig
Ill hold off on my update for now then until this sorts out a bit

Hmm purple power weapons?

Trial run with purple weapon blades..





What do you guys think? Was going to do blue but not sure. Doesn't take long to do them so feel free to suggest something else.

I'll be sending a pm as soon as I'm home or have a decent pc I can use.

Eclipseone - I really like the purple looks nice one them and think it suits them better than the blue

Eclipseone - Fantastic looking bikes, you've actually motivated me to make some of my own with the combination of the new DE riders and the DE Reaver bikes, though I may lean more toward the skull helms from some of the newer Dark Elf units.

The purple power weapons concept I was initially against given your purple capes but seeing the picture the difference in shade and brightness really works for you and definately makes them stand out.

And as an update I have now finished grot 2 on spider, 3 grots to do in 3 days!

Sorry for delay guys not been on for a few days.
I agree with Cassandra there are too many peeps to keep track of!
Squig good idea, I'll send you my pm in a mo,
So what is the plan because remember if we stop posting on here this post will go dead. Also there's more 40k than fantasy from what I can see!
So yea can we just iterate what's happening.

Hey guys,

I've had responses from 7 so far and there are 13 of us altogether who either were or are, interested in taking part in these projects. This means we're looking at 3 groups of 4-5 or less depending on actual responses.

I've sent PMs to all those who haven't replied yet and I think I'll wait till the 30th to put up groups.

My reasoning for this is that people will then have had 5 days to see the changes and get in touch. If they still haven't, I think its fair to assume they're not interested.

This also gives us a day for everyone to check out the groups and take photos of their fledgling armies as they stand, all ready and organized to start on the first of the month! It would probably be prudent for the group leaders to PM their group to make sure they all know.

The group leaders can then open up the new threads with an introductory post introducing the members and what they'll be working on, perhaps including a link to this thread to see where it came from. Remember to be explicit these threads are closed to new members joining, then you won't get the ballooning that occurred here. People can then post pictures of what they've got done currently and what they'll be working towards etc.

Hopefully, this will be nice and organized and be much easier to keep track of than this current thread.

Remember, you can still go comment on the other threads, just don't post your own stuff if you're not in that group This way we can still get nice support, without the problems of trying to follow 13 conversations and projects at once...


Darkmoonlight - I think leaving this thread to go dead seems the easiest course of action, but perhaps when the new threads are up you could edit the OP to explain the splitting up and include links to the new threads?

And don't worry about the 40k/FB spit, there are at least 3 FB players and tbh a few of the other armies are near the borderline


Automatically Appended Next Post:
11 of us now in, so definitely at least 3 groups

Let me know if I can help at all with the group breakdown, as for this months update with 3 days to go my goal is complete. 5 Grot Trappas on 'Untin Spidas (Count as Khorne Hounds).

Brilliant Melcavuk! My favorite two are the furthest right in the top. Now I can see the riders better as they are no longer black, I can see how precariously balanced they look. Those grots better hope spiders aren't a bouncy ride

Now I've had everyone's replies bar 2, it was easy to make up some provisional groups. Then I figured, why wait to post them up? Lets see what people think of these:

Group 1 (40k, painting + modelling):
LadyCassandra - demons
Melcavuk - grot rebs, eldar pirates
Eclipseone - eldar skimmers
Ignatius-Grulgor - demons
(PurpleSquig - feral orks)

Group 2 (WFB):
Darkmoonlight - Empire
Jackal - Skaven
The Grumpy Eldar - dark eldar, and FB fillers
alabamaheretic - Skaven
(PurpleSquig - feral orks)

Group 3 (40k, painting):
Pyro Pete - Tau
Master Azalle - SM
Kholzerino - Rebel IG
Spanking Ape - Sisters of Battle
Warp Angels - Heresy Emperors Children


Ignatius and alabama are the two I haven't heard from so I don't know if they're still up for this or what.

I'm in brackets as I could fit in either and I just don't know! Also, if alabama is out, I'm definitely in group 2 to make up numbers

Discuss!

Looks good to me Purplesquig i happy being in group 3

I also took delivery of these suits or a friend of mine

 PurpleSquig wrote:
Lets see what people think of these:

Group 1 (40k, painting + modelling):
LadyCassandra - demons
Melcavuk - grot rebs, eldar pirates
Eclipseone - eldar skimmers
Ignatius-Grulgor - demons
(PurpleSquig - feral orks)!

They look good to me, I was hoping Melcavuk would end up in my group, though his rate of output puts moi and Ignatius to absolute shame. Shame I tell you. I was going to do some work tonight, honest, but my computer broke so I had to spend it fixing it.

But as moi and Melcavuk are both in one group, only one of us can be the group leader. Swords at dawn?

 LadyCassandra wrote:

 PurpleSquig wrote:
Lets see what people think of these:

Group 1 (40k, painting + modelling):
LadyCassandra - demons
Melcavuk - grot rebs, eldar pirates
Eclipseone - eldar skimmers
Ignatius-Grulgor - demons
(PurpleSquig - feral orks)!

They look good to me, I was hoping Melcavuk would end up in my group, though his rate of output puts moi and Ignatius to absolute shame. Shame I tell you. I was going to do some work tonight, honest, but my computer broke so I had to spend it fixing it.

But as moi and Melcavuk are both in one group, only one of us can be the group leader. Swords at dawn?

Heh, Work holiday sadly ends tomorrow so my updates will slooooow down, I'll happily let you take the reigns on organizing the group given that I work off my phone/laptop most of the time if there is alot of organising to do it may be easier for you.

 PurpleSquig wrote:


Group 3 (40k, painting):
Pyro Pete - Tau
Master Azalle - SM
Kholzerino - Rebel IG
Spanking Ape - Sisters of Battle
Warp Angels - Heresy Emperors Children

Sounds good

ok so who is going to be leader for our group ?
if no one else is up for it i can do it

Wow, look at us all being responsible at once

ok so who is going to be leader for our group ?
if no one else is up for it i can do it

A volunteer!

So I guess we're now at this...

Group 1 (40k, painting + modelling):
GL - LadyCassandra - demons
Melcavuk - grot rebs, eldar pirates
Eclipseone - eldar skimmers
Ignatius-Grulgor - demons
(PurpleSquig - feral orks)

Group 2 (WFB):
Darkmoonlight - Empire
Jackal - Skaven
The Grumpy Eldar - dark eldar, and FB fillers
alabamaheretic - Skaven
(PurpleSquig - feral orks)

Group 3 (40k, painting):
GL - Warp Angels - Heresy Emperors Children
Pyro Pete - Tau
Master Azalle - SM
Kholzerino - Rebel IG
Spanking Ape - Sisters of Battle

Sign me up. The people in my group will put my work to shame!

 PurpleSquig wrote:
Wow, look at us all being responsible at once

ok so who is going to be leader for our group ?
if no one else is up for it i can do it

A volunteer!


Group 3 (40k, painting):
GL - Warp Angels - Heresy Emperors Children
Pyro Pete - Tau
Master Azalle - SM
Kholzerino - Rebel IG
Spanking Ape - Sisters of Battle

alrighty then, i guess its me haha

So when are we starting the new threads, and what shall we include in the initial post

Yup, haha.

I was thinking this earlier:

The group leaders can then open up the new threads with an introductory post introducing the members and what they'll be working on, perhaps including a link to this thread to show where it came from. Remember to be explicit these threads are closed to new members joining, then you won't get the ballooning that occurred here. People can then post pictures of what they've got done currently and what they'll be working towards etc.

Probably put something about the aim of the thread too. Eg. we'll each be working alongside expanding our armies, setting a goal to achieve each month etc.

Ok sweet
when shall we start the new threads ?

Well, whenever you like I suppose. Remember to PM the guys in your group to make sure they all know

I think that the first of the month would make most sense though.

Aren't my Dark Eldar a bit out of place in the WFB group. Just said I was going to use some small bits for basing purposes. No biggie though, just saying.

My sphess elves are like the wacky wavy inflatable arm tube guys in the group then.

Oh riiight, totally misunderstood what you meant by "fillers"

If you want feel free to go for group 1 then and I'll go group 2!

Problem, solved.

I don't really mind. Just asked as a 40K army between all the WFB armies would look a little out of place no? But sure.

 PurpleSquig wrote:
Well, whenever you like I suppose. Remember to PM the guys in your group to make sure they all know

I think that the first of the month would make most sense though.

ok sweet, yea, ive already messaged them

I don't really mind. Just asked as a 40K army between all the WFB armies would look a little out of place no? But sure.

Yeah that makes sense, I think we're all set at this then

Group 1 (40k, painting + modelling):
GL - LadyCassandra - demons
Melcavuk - grot rebs, eldar pirates
Eclipseone - eldar skimmers
The Grumpy Eldar - dark eldar
Ignatius-Grulgor - demons


Group 2 (WFB):
Darkmoonlight - Empire
Jackal - Skaven
PurpleSquig - feral orks
alabamaheretic - Skaven


Group 3 (40k, painting):
GL - Warp Angels - Heresy Emperors Children
Pyro Pete - Tau
Master Azalle - SM
Kholzerino - Rebel IG
Spanking Ape - Sisters of Battle

Let the carnage begin!

Darkmoonlight - do you want to be group leader for our group? If not I can make us a new thread

SO im int his i just had to go out of town for a bit...and had no access to models...but im gonna be in for sure.

in other good news i started work today so my speed daemon posts will go down to once a week... support through the week and pics on sunday like i do my reg blog.

Hey Warp - so what we going to call our group? Don't think "Group Three" has that special ring to it.

Spent ten minutes staring at my screen and trying to come up with a 40k pun. Fail. Going to bed. If you kick off the thread WA, I'll post something up in the next day or so to close Oct and challenge myself for Nov. Cool?

sounds good
i was thinking 'Tale of 4 Gamers the 3rd' or something like that haha
but there are 5 people in our group

Suggestions are welcome

Cool looks good to me and yea I don't mind being my groups leader.
I'll message everyone tonight as I can navigate the website faster on my PC than an iPad!

Melcavuk wrote:Heh, Work holiday sadly ends tomorrow so my updates will slooooow down, I'll happily let you take the reigns on organizing the group given that I work off my phone/laptop most of the time if there is alot of organising to do it may be easier for you.

Well, I have some time in the evenings, enough to catch up to a reasonably slow thread and update a post . I also have an evil plan on making the first post look pretty spectacular, using the power of Photoshop.

Regarding the content of the first post, there should definitely be a quick "what's this then" and then four (or five in our case) introductory sections. I'm going to go for a pretty cool largeish tile-image with the person's avatar on the top-left and cool sections of our work making up the other tiles. I'll post up an example using my work when I get home probably. See if you guys like it or it needs editing for the forum. Under that, there should be a spiel, written by each person I'd guess, introducing their work, what they want out of it, and anything particularly cool they want to underline, e.g. their fluff, particular colour schemes, tactics, etc. you want to really go for. Then, of course, the MONTHLY GOALS, and maybe whether they achieved them or horribly failed to do so.

Something like:

July 2013: Finish off converting my Shades with tentacles, chests and back of heads. Failed.
August 2013: Finish off last month's goal and undercoat the entire unit black. Success!

I am unsure if beneath that there should be a "Current" image with the person's last image posted for people to easily catch up - but perhaps that would discourage them to actually read the thread. What does the group think?

The first of the month sounds about right for me, though I'm sure I won't be able to make my initial monthly goal, so I guess I'm going to have to make a new and more ambitious one for a whole month.

So, folks in my group, could you PM me your introductory spiels before the start of the month? If you'd prefer, just gimme it in basic English and I can dress it up for show. Just let me know which option you're going for, I don't want to "fix" an intro by accident.

 Warp Angels wrote:
i was thinking 'Tale of 4 Gamers the 3rd' or something like that haha
but there are 5 people in our group

Suggestions are welcome

The Famous Five Fantasy Gamers? Teehehehehe.

EDIT: Here's an example of the tile image I was talking about, using my own pics from my gallery.

I would structure first post with:

Whats going on (tale of gamers, reference to this thrad and other groups, how things are run, etc)

Who's involved (names, stories, plans and maybe a picture of previous works) your tile work would go here well
This months targets

With the story so far (failures, successes, events of note.

For the who's involved section I'd like to be able to list as an example my 600 point planned list and then check off (highlight, mark etc) each section as I get it done to see it all go green at the end.

 Melcavuk wrote:
... For the who's involved section I'd like to be able to list as an example my 600 point planned list and then check off (highlight, mark etc) each section as I get it done to see it all go green at the end.

Sounds good!

Sounds good to me and a group is a group
Got an initial update im holding off for until the thread is made.


Edit: Seems like a good time for me to get some work done on my fantasy daemons.
My 2k list looks roughly like this:

Bloodthirster
Herald BSB

19 Bloodletters
20 Bloodletters

3 Bloodcrushers
3 Bloodcrushers

5 Flesh hounds
5 Flesh hounds

57 model total.
Not too bad i guess, but only 40 are normal sized models

When are we opening these?

My groups will be open tonight
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/560757.page#6204408

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Heres the fantasy guys post!! I'll chuck it in the original post too.

I'll have to do ours this Saturday morning, been working on stuff and will be sending more of the avatar pics out for approval tomorrow, but I really don't have all that much time in the evenings.

Don't worry, it'll be done, even if it's missing stuff. >.> <.<

looks good Darkmoonlight, ill be watching yours

ours groups one is up too http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/560804.page#6205120

My group is up, though the first post still needs work, its up! Whoo. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/561000.page Sleep tiem nao pls?