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@Gits: Thanks, bud! I'm really pleased with how that toxic sludge came out. Glad you like it.

@Chrono: Thanks man. He probably didn't turn out quite as bright as you were anticipating, but I'm glad you still like it. Hopefully with the black background you can see more of the darker detailing.

@BBL: Thanks! I certainly love hearing that!

I've already begun construction on my next mini. Cutting, removing, greenstuffing and kit bashing. It's going to be epic. Like 10 times more epic than this Nurgle Termi. Which should be saying a lot, but I promise it will blow your mind. If it doesn't, you're already dead.

Thanks for stopping by!

Holy Crap! It's beautiful. It cam together very will. The purple for the plasma cannon is perfect. The why you made the slime on the base glow. The whole thing is awesome. Great work Moltar.

Thanks, schank! I'm gald you dig it! Thanks for the compliments.
I saw that list of stuff you still have on your plate....shouldn't you be painting/modelling?

the final piece is epic. Great attention to detail

Fantastic. I never realised how perfectly suitable for Chaos the Cawdor heads were. Loving the attention to detail on the old metal Termi as well.

That terminator is looking pretty boss now!

I like your color choice for the plasma gun/cannon.

weetyskemian44 wrote:the final piece is epic. Great attention to detail

DarkStarSabre wrote:Fantastic. I never realised how perfectly suitable for Chaos the Cawdor heads were. Loving the attention to detail on the old metal Termi as well.

Begel Dverl wrote:That terminator is looking pretty boss now!

I like your color choice for the plasma gun/cannon.

Thanks, all! I appreciate the feedback. DarkStarSabre, I was looking at my old Cawdor gang yesterday and was noticing just how ripe they are for cultists conversions. Between House Cawdor and the Redemptionists from Necromunda you would have a lot of crazy chaos dudes.

Wow.

I shouldn't be stunned or amazed becasue this is the level of artistry I've seen in your other work, but still... all of it in one place, it's very powerful.

From the weathering on the base and the toxic glowing goo underneath to the "RRRRAAaagghh!!! Who's next!!!" look from the pose and posture of the model, you have outdone yourself.

And I don't hate the purple plasma

Moltar wrote: DarkStarSabre, I was looking at my old Cawdor gang yesterday and was noticing just how ripe they are for cultists conversions. Between House Cawdor and the Redemptionists from Necromunda you would have a lot of crazy chaos dudes.

Now that you mention it they are just asking for the whole Cultist approach. But with prices being what they are now I wouldn't want to do that to my poor gang.

Skalk, bud, I'm glad you like how it turned out. I'm quite happy with him.

DarkStarSabre, I wouldn't want you to do that to your gangers given the price hikes! Haha But yea they would make perfect cultists.

Wow, that terminator is really characterful. Great use of color (love that base!), and wonderful expression -- particularly in the face. Well done, man.

Hey, thanks for the comments, Tinfoil! It's good to have you back! I've been watching your progress on that Nurgle DP/corrupted sentinel you have. It looks awesome, man.

I love the final progress you made. It's truly fantastic. Thanks for the walk-through on the goo and thanks in general for keeping your blog with regular updates. I look forward to them!

Thanks, NakedBatBoy! Happy to share my painting process or "steps." No need for secrets, in my opinion. Glad you like them. I'm planning for a fun "Trip through time" post on here showing my works across the span of time I've been painting from my first painted miniature ever, which is terrible, to the modern or most recent stuff. I am still working on my current piece, which is rather involved for my modelling skills.

That terminator is very nice indeed and I love the toxic pool it really catches the eye but doesn't take away from the model.

Looking forward to seeing what you have planned next.

@GiraffeX: Thank you. I hope to not dissapoint!

So, I'm 5 pages in on this painting blog, I thought I would give a little more information on my painting background and who I am. (Especially, since my current WiP is being kept under wraps) I started wargaming way back in the early 90's with games like Heroquest. Fascinated by the little plastic men and monsters that came along with the game, my interest finally leaned towards GW. This was back when GW was a little bit more cartoony with 2nd edition 40k and 4th edition WFB. I'm not going to lie, from the first WD I bought, I was pretty much hooked. I think between my brothers and myself we've subscribed to WD since 1991. A long time. A lot of ups and downs with the magazine as well as the company and some of their less than optimal decisions. But, like I said I was fascinated by those little monsters. Despite that my first GW game was WFB and my first army was skaven, I was always drawn to chaos and the art that accompanied it. In fact, most of that classic GW art has constantly been inspirational to me. Namely, the works of Adrian Smith, Mark Gibbons and John Blanche.
Here is a brief guide to my painting history. Many a miniature is left out, because there is no need to see all of them. Especially, since so many of my early painting attempts are terrible.

Here is the first miniature I ever painted. It is an orc from what I believe to be Ral Partha's miniature line.


This was shortly followed by this "Space Marine" by Relm miniatures:


Shortly after some painting experiments on cheaper ($) minis, I moved to GW and this Swooping Hawk is the first GW or 40k mini I ever painted:


It's important to note, art has always been a big part of who I am. I draw and sketch a lot, so when it came to painting minis I was eager to learn new techniques, which I would quickly try to replicate (usually terribly) to try and achieve the 'Eavy Metal look. Around 1994 I started playing a WoC army instead of my skaven. Here is a Champion of Tzeentch, that was painted around that time:


As we got older and went into High School, it became apparent that we (my brothers and a few friends) would not have the kind of time we used to have to dedicate to painting or wargaming. But then, out of nowhere GW dropped Necromunda. A quick and easy game where you only needed about 10 minis to field a decent sized gang and the game could be played relatively quickly. My first Necro gang was from House Cawdor. Here is one of my heavies and probably the best paintjob I did on any of my Cawdor gangers. Notice his head, which was the same as the head I used on my most recent mini (the Terminator on page 4), but not taken from this painted mini:


So, time went on, we played necromunda to the point where most of us had two seperate gangs. My second being Scavvies, but time went on, we got older, my older brother went to college and I found that I had more time to paint than I did to play. So, for the first time, since before I really started playing WFB I could paint whatever I wanted without worrying about whether or not it fit for my army/gang. So I painted up some Dark Angels. Nothing Special, but fun for me since I didn't really have any experience with painting SMs.


But then, when I thought I had gotten away from my WoC army, GW put out some awesome chaos lords on mounts and on foot. I knew instantly that I needed one for each pantheon. My Nurgle mini has broken into pieces over time, so he's excluded from this but around 1999, I painted these fellas:



(I know, that base is absurd)

About to graduate from high school I decided that before I leave for college, there were still a few things I wanted to paint and one of them was this Imperial Assassin, which at this time, was already discontinued from GW:

Why bright yellow? I have no idea.

I went off to college and spent my first year there being social, partying, and studying. So, on my first summer back, I was itching to paint something. I had Karandras, the Shadow Hunter but for some reason had no desire to paint him like the GW striking scorpions. So I came up with this scheme and attempted a couple techniques I had only really read about:


At this point, I'm just around to paint whatever I feel like, so one of the next things I grabbed was Ungrim Ironfist, the Slayer King:


Back off to school I went, and really it was not until the following summer that I got another real chance to paint. At this time I had started to discover other new miniature companies like Rackham and Reaper. If you're not aware, Rackham, which was a french company, is now out of business, but Reaper has been bought up and produces literally thousands of crazy and cool minis for very cheap. Here are a couple reaper miniature I grabbed up and painted:
This guy, because he looks like Skeletor he had to be painted that way:

And this guy just reminded me too much of Ozzy Osbourne for some reason:


Back to GW, but during the same time frame (roughly 2002, at this point) I painted this undivided WoC dude:


Around 2004 I painted up this Lizardman for fun, here is Tehenhauin, Prophet of Sotek:


Around 2006 I painted this CSM converted Lord, with no particular chapter or legion in mind, just wanted to have some fun:


And that brings me to the hiatus I was stuck in, before starting this blog. I know that this was rather lengthy and I apologize for that, but praise you if you read through all of it. I am thoroughly impressed by the Dakka Community and the motivation and inspiration we all feed to one another. I am more than happy to be back in the swing of painting and have been having a blast. I'll post pics of my latest project as soon as they're ready.

Well, to be honest you can see the progression. From decent to good to your latest which is quite stunning. Quite a leap! I do a similar trick with the trims for my Extinction Angels - I just go back over the blue wash with more white

That was a fantastic tour Moltar... thank you! Really interesting to see your painting progress through the years.

I like the way that you can see how you have gone form being not so good to really good through all the minis you have done. kinda gives me some hope that one day i might be able to paint as well as you. really interesting and cant wait for the next thing

@DSS & Gits: Thanks, fellas! Some of those jumps between minis really show leaps forward in my painting ability.

@Bigfish: "not so good" = terrible. It's okay, you can say it. Just keep at it and your painting will def improve over time. Don't worry too much about trying new things or being intimidated by new techniques. You'll never learn if you don't try and you can always say it and start from scratch.

Looking back, I realize just how little I cared about the bases, especially compared to my more recent work. I also was quite content just painting up the stock minis with very little or no conversion work. This is something, for the most part, I never see myself doing again. It's too much fun adding my own flavor to them.

Glad you guys enjoyed the little tour.

I love the colour scheme on that CSM lord! i might stea.. loot that if possible
love the work^^

a lot of good mini! really nice!

LiveforFun666 wrote:I love the colour scheme on that CSM lord! i might stea.. loot that if possible
love the work^^

Thanks, LiveforFun666, feel free to use it! I think I came up with it in the Dawn of War army painter, but only applied it to that one mini. So, have at it.

FantasyBob wrote:a lot of good mini! really nice!

Thanks, FantasyBob, glad you like them!

That rund own of yours , was qiute literally stunning , i loved to read about how your painting and collecting minis progression took place. The minis are themselves very good, at all stages , and you attempted some advanced stuff , for the time. I myself stated reading white dwarf around 87 , but never gamed and so never really got into the painting thing. Its only now with dakka , that i fully apreciate the skillthat goes into creating these works of art , and your latest peice Moltar is right up their with the best , congrats and thanks for sharing your journey mate.

Awesome little bio there. No need at all to apologize for the length of your own posts on your blog. It's your blog after all! Anyway, I really enjoyed reading through your journey up the path of modeling/painting. Your progress is great. Our stories are pretty similar. I lost touch with the hobby for a while too - only ably to do it for short spurts in the summer when on break from college. It's such a great feeling to be able to have the space and time for this hobby again.

I'm excited to see progress on your next project!!

neil101 wrote:That rund own of yours , was qiute literally stunning , i loved to read about how your painting and collecting minis progression took place. The minis are themselves very good, at all stages , and you attempted some advanced stuff , for the time. I myself stated reading white dwarf around 87 , but never gamed and so never really got into the painting thing. Its only now with dakka , that i fully apreciate the skillthat goes into creating these works of art , and your latest peice Moltar is right up their with the best , congrats and thanks for sharing your journey mate.

Thanks for the kind words, Neil! I really appreciate the support. Your thread has really taken off. I love all the fluff you create to coincide with your work. Those latest images you created are quite something. I don't get to comment on other's works as much as I wish I could, since most my time on dakka is like 5 min spurts throughout my workday, but your latest mini on horseback is awesome. I really like the contrast between the green cloak/jacket and the horses color. Again, thanks!

NakedBatBoy wrote:Awesome little bio there. No need at all to apologize for the length of your own posts on your blog. It's your blog after all! Anyway, I really enjoyed reading through your journey up the path of modeling/painting. Your progress is great. Our stories are pretty similar. I lost touch with the hobby for a while too - only ably to do it for short spurts in the summer when on break from college. It's such a great feeling to be able to have the space and time for this hobby again.

I'm excited to see progress on your next project!!

I suppose you're right. I don't have to apologize for the length of my own posts on my own thread, that just seemed a little long-winded. I'm glad you enjoyed the little "journey." Yeah, it was really hard to find time to paint when I was at college. Just too many distractions, especially at my school. And it is a great feeling to have the time to get back into this hobby. Even if I don't have nearly as much time as other dakka users (of whom I'm fairly jealous). I'm excited to show my next project and hopefully won't keep anyone waiting too long. I'm trying to use my spare time to work on it, but I've run into several issues where I do a little bit here and then have to wait for GS to cure, once it does, then I realize I need more GS somewhere else and I have to wait for that to cure All in good time, though. Thanks, again, NNB!

Moltar wrote:@DSS & Gits: Thanks, fellas! Some of those jumps between minis really show leaps forward in my painting ability.

And they are quite impressive. The latest - that Terminator was quite jaw dropping. And progress is always good to see. Inspirational as it were.

In fact I think later tonight I'll have to upload one of my side-by-sides - the very first thing I painted (5th edition Lizardman Saurus) next to one of my newer Saurus for my current Lizardman army.

Cool beans. I wish I had any of my old models so I could do a callow youth to wise elder timeline, but everything I have has been painted in the last year so I cant.

I really like that tenzeetch disc rider - the base is fun and frolicsome - very chaosy and madcap. Second favourite is skeletor

That was one of the most fun things I've read in a long time. I can't express how much I enjoyed the story of Moltar, from bright-eyed neophyte to grizzled veteran. Man, somewhere along the line you really "got it" and your painting style changed dramatically for the better. I also think it is cool that we share so many of the same models. Ha.

I think it would be cool if each of us PM'd a few of the other old-timers in our circle and discussed doing a "then and now" thread, where we all contribute something we did back in the day and something really recent. What do you think?

Loving this thread, looking forward to seeing whatever you do next!

DarkStarSabre wrote:

Moltar wrote:@DSS & Gits: Thanks, fellas! Some of those jumps between minis really show leaps forward in my painting ability.

And they are quite impressive. The latest - that Terminator was quite jaw dropping. And progress is always good to see. Inspirational as it were.

In fact I think later tonight I'll have to upload one of my side-by-sides - the very first thing I painted (5th edition Lizardman Saurus) next to one of my newer Saurus for my current Lizardman army.

Thanks again, DSS! I'd like to see that comparison. It's almost reassuring to see your old stuff next to your recent stuff.

weetyskemian44 wrote:Cool beans. I wish I had any of my old models so I could do a callow youth to wise elder timeline, but everything I have has been painted in the last year so I cant.

I really like that tenzeetch disc rider - the base is fun and frolicsome - very chaosy and madcap. Second favourite is skeletor

Weety, if everything you have has been painted in the last year, then I'm even more impressed by the stuff in your blog. I love checking your stuff out, since you have such old school minis. Although, that being said, you can see your progress just as you read through your thread and your starting to bust out some really cool and inspiring stuff, yourself. I remember having a good time painting that tzeentch disc rider (I'm quite partial to Tzeentch). That base was fun and a good idea, but I still think it ended up looking a little goofy. Skeletor is awesome too. I'm glad you like them!

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:That was one of the most fun things I've read in a long time. I can't express how much I enjoyed the story of Moltar, from bright-eyed neophyte to grizzled veteran. Man, somewhere along the line you really "got it" and your painting style changed dramatically for the better. I also think it is cool that we share so many of the same models. Ha.

I think it would be cool if each of us PM'd a few of the other old-timers in our circle and discussed doing a "then and now" thread, where we all contribute something we did back in the day and something really recent. What do you think?

Loving this thread, looking forward to seeing whatever you do next!

Skalk, bud, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it. Needless to say, there are many more minis I own which I did not post just to save space and that there wasn't any advancement between them in terms of my painting prowess.
I think your idea for the "Then and Now" thread could be a lot of fun. Honestly, if we started one, I bet a bunch of dakka users would get in on it. I think it's important to people new to the hobby to know that very few of us started out as awesome painters and those that did, I'm sure started out painting in another medium.


Unfortunately, this week has been very hectic and will continue to be. I'm getting ready to head out of town this weekend for a wedding, so unless I manage to squeeze some small amounts of time out, I don't know if I'll get to paint at all
On the bright side, I've been informed of a store I was not aware of in town that sells way more minis and paints than the store I have been going to. Once I get some time to shoot over there, Lord knows what goodies I'll scoop up.