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What lovely cyborks you have!

Thanks all for the comments, glad you liked the cybork.
And now for something completely different...
Here's my latest work, still footsloggin', but he's in my "non-orks" gallery. Finishes out my Skitarii Kill Team and will be my entry for the Absolute Unit-themed competition this month. He's not the torso (and legs? I don't remember) that you're supposed to use for the arquebus, so he had a slightly strange position and I had to do a bit of the ol' cut, file, and replace which is why his left wrist is made of brass tubing and he's bussin' it sideways (gangsta!)
I'm calling this one "snapshot", because sometimes the opportunity presents itself, and you don't have time to set up the little arquebus support stick, you stabilize on the terrain around you and take your shot.














I think the lesson learned on this one is that if I really wanted to push a mini to the best of my ability, I would take pictures, analyze what needed improvement, and then keep going. I'm super-stoked with the way this guy turned out (particularly the base), but I could still add some broken glass, maybe a bit more debris, blend in the rust a little better, whatever. Maybe one of these days I'll pick a mini and see how many hours I can put into improving all the little details before I go mad.

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, c&c are welcome!

Love the yellow and orange on this! it really stands out. And the pose is perfect. Great job!

OK I apologise in advance but I am stealing that idea. Brilliant.

Super cool skitarii, the angled pose on his gun works well as a snatched shot. Some lovely details on his base too

Thanks all for the comments. More of what's happening on Vigilus, except this time from the other side...

"Personally, I prefer the seismic cannon. It completely pulverizes the target so there's no rock to carry out."


"I suppose, but I prefer the precision of the mining laser; carves out exactly what you want to and nothing else."


"...besides, what happens if you accidentally open up a fissure right under your own feet? I've heard that can happen"


"Nah, you just have to read the rock you know? Then modulate the power at the input with the trigger."


"I suppose."


"Say, wanna trade? Just for today I mean."

Good looking working fellas! Loved the dialogue xD

Nice little chat those nice fellas were havin. Handy extra arms they have, makes carrying those guns easier I expect

I decided to document my process a little since I always appreciate getting insights into how other people go about painting their miniatures. My main goal is usually to pick out all the little details and minimize getting paint where it shouldn't be. Stylistically, it's admittedly not very exciting, but (I like to think) it at least looks "realistic" and squads look pretty good together on the tabletop. Every now and again I'll try to do something more "artistic" in nature and try to sketch out volumes of light and dark or what have you, but my OCD invariably kicks in and the end result almost always toes the line with my other works. The process is pretty basic; I do generally try to work from the inside out and start with large blocks of color.
At this stage, this mini is "basecoated" which for me means that everything is at least the final color that I want it to be:


Next, I tidy up any areas I see where a color has landed where it shouldn't, and do the first layers of washes. I sometimes will add a detail or two if I get an idea about how I want them to look and don't want to forget:


Last is more washes, some edge highlights, and any other details that still need to be resolved:


I'd be curious how other folks depart from this (e.g., highlights first then washes?) or if you more or less follow the same template. Also, I have to research how to do eyes. I got the right one on the first try, but his left one was a bear and still doesn't look as good as it's mate. Thanks for stopping by!

Neat little process. It matches how I do most of my minis too. I do sometimes get a colour finished before moving on to other things. Depends if I’m using a messy technique like sponging or not

Some more process steps, this time visuals of the procedure I was describing earlier about painting mini and base separately and then locating the one to the other where you want it.
So we start with the guy who has a pin running through his foot attached to one of my custom "painting handles". If the pin goes through the plastic of the base, then you get a really good bond with the superglue, but you don't want the pin to be so long that it touches the tabletop, so I hold the base up to the mini and mark w/ a sharpie:

Clip the pin at the sharpie mark, then dip just the very tip of the pin in some lucky blue paint:

Hover the mini over the base until you figure out right where you want it. If you want it centered, sight straight down from the top:

Push down and lift up, and you now have a blue mark right where you need to drill:

Drill a hole that is ever-so-slightly larger than the pin, and (important!) do a test fit; it's easy to re-drill elsewhere and cover up the original hole if anything about the position/angle/whatever isn't to your liking. Next, put a tiny dollop of superglue on the base of each foot, insert the pin and hold down for a minute or so until the glue is dry. At this stage, I like to look straight on at the mini and make sure it's angled such that both feet are flat on the ground (assuming that's the look I'm going for). Once the glue is dry, flip the mini over, and put a tiny dollop of glue right where the pin comes through the bottom of the base to really cement the two together forever. I added a bit of "broken glass" to this one before sealing him down. The end result:

Now I have an entry for November's competition!

Nice work, the broken glass is a neat addition

Happy New Year everyone!
For December's open-round painting challenge, I finished up a couple more GSC Neophyte Hybrids:






These are troops 9 and 10 of the squad that came with the Kill Team Vigilus box set I bought back in 2018, meaning that not only is the squad done, but (finally!) I've now painted everything from the box set. Here's the whole squad together:


In game, these guys were never enough points for a whole Kill Team, and they still aren't; looking at the current datasheets, I somehow need to add four more troops to actually play a game with them. The Kelermorph has been on my list for a while, but that's the only other model on the roster that I like the appearance of. Would love to add a magus, but for some reason, they don't count for this Kill Team. So maybe I'll have to scratchbuild some stuff (a sniper actually sounds like a fun challenge), or maybe they'll just sit on the shelf and brandish their weapons. Either way, completing a long-running project was a very nice way to end the hobby year.

Speaking of which, here's a little 2024 in review; this year I completed:
My squad of four tanks that I designed in CAD and had 3D printed
Four orks (2 kommandos and 2 boyz)
1 Admech Skitarii sniper (finishing that squad, also from the Kill Team box set)
5 GSC Neophyte Hybrids
Meaning that I maintained my minimum pace of 1 mini a month again this year which I plan to continue into next year.
I didn't get as many games of 40k in as I would like (only a couple I think), and got a few MTG nights in, but my friend that I play with moved out of state ( ). However, I did play a couple games of Dune War for Arrakis (highly recommend) as well as a few dungeon crawl type card games, and got thoroughly addicted to the Speed Freeks video game on Steam, so maybe the NY resolution is to carve out more in-person gaming time.
I hope all who celebrate had a great holiday season, and thanks for dropping in!
-GT

Thanks for the recap, it's cool that you designed those tanks in CAD.

Nice recap Gulgog! Those tanks were definitely a highlight I think. The GSC gang look great, hopefully you can find a way to finish a legal team as Kill team is great and doesn’t take as long as 40k once you get the hang of things

Great stuff, love the scheme on the cult; and nice review - I had to go back and find those tanks; they are really cool! it's great you were able to sculpt them yourself

Thanks all for the comments. Just for all of you, I have some more kommando-y goodness. Now that I'm on my 2nd box it was time to build out the breacha boy and dakka boy since I made the alternate builds for my Deathskullz kommandos. I had the plan to make this whole squad more freebooter-y but I wasn't inspired to change these sculpts any (no kitbash, head swaps, etc.) so I ended up painting my first actual Blood Axes. I was trying to get the breacha boy to look like he was covered in dust from breachin' and it half-worked; if I had it to do over again I would have dusted him with some flock on that side before painting but the idea didn't occur to me until I was half way finished. The dakka boy came out much more similar to the box art than I had intended, and if I had more time and motivation, I think it would be cool to base one of these guys buried up to his ankles in spent shells. Ultimately though, I'm happy with them both. The only downside is I started them last month with the intent to finish them for February's competition but didn't get far along enough in time to enter them. Now they're done and have joined their burgeoning squad on the shelf.










There's also this fella from January's competition (yeah, I'm a little behind on the bloggin') that got me my highest-ever placing of tied for fifth! I really enjoyed painting a bipedal water buffalo for some reason. I kept wanting him to be mostly dark gray, but then he had no contrast, so I would highlight him up a bunch, and then wash him back to darker over and over. The nice thing about the competition is that it forces you to call it good at a specific point in time or else you miss the deadline. Otherwise, you really could just keep working on a single mini forever.

There are more images of him in my finished non-orks gallery.
Thanks for stopping in!

Loving the Ravager, he looks superb, all those layers and washes paid off handsomely. I’d say I like the breacher boy and the dust on him looks cool… it’s just that he’s burst through too many a wall and smashed me up for me to like him

More kommandos for da Waaagh!, I finished a slasha boy last month and a rokkit boy this month. All that's left now from the second box is da boss nob, the comms boy (who I might paint up for next month's Mayday! challenge), and a couple of standard boyz. I did a little arm swap on the slasha just to make him unique:


These are starting to feel a little formulaic, but at the same time, that formula allows me to finish them in what is for me, record time so I will probably stick with it to round out the squad.
The rokkit boy is in the same basic scheme, but I went all out on his rokkits, it's becoming kind of an army theme since I've got a tank with rokkits from all the clans.
According to Patches, my new rokkit boy, "We Blood Axes is da best clan. 'Cause we trade wiv da uvver clans, so we gets all da best scrap orky know wotz has to offer. Take dese rokkits for example. If I wants ta hit somefin' dead 'ard wiv no mukkin' about, I use dis Goff rokkit. If da target is extra fast and might dodge my shot, I hit 'em wiv dis red one from da Sunz. If ya might miss, and ya gotsta get real lucky, use da blue rokkit from da Skullz. And if you want yer shot ta be real flash and show 'em who's boss, den dis 'ere Bad Moonz rokkit is da one fer da job."

A little decal on his shoulder patch:


I've got a formula for lenses that I'm happy with:


and I did a little chipping and rusting on the rokkits and the launcha:


The only thing I'm not super stoked on is the camera on my iPhone SE. For miniature photography, it was easier for me to get the clean white background effect I was after with my old iPhone 7. I realize that to get to that level, my photos were probably way overexposed, but I felt like I was just starting to find a balance with it and then I had to upgrade my phone. I was recently gifted a digital camera with a few lenses, so maybe I'll have to give that a go.

Thanks for stopping in!

Lovely work on the rokkit boy, the rockets and the skull mask are really nicely done! Good luck getting to grips with the digital camera

One More Kommando for the Waaagh!


This was supposed to be for July's "Sidekick" competition but it took me until the third week of August to actually finish him, so I missed out on that one and August's "Weathered" challenge. Here's the rest of the views:








The goal was to get all three done in one month, but clearly that didn't happen, so I've got the boss nob left, and a bit of "chaff" for this month:


Wish me luck!

Bit of a long post, partly because I've actually been steadily painting, and partly because I've been steadily slacking on posting here. Lots of pics to follow, because lots of pics of painted orks makes me happy.
I did get the distraction grot done in time for September's comp. I've named him Churchill after the blue and yellow Churchill fins I used to have for bodysurfing a looooong time ago. I figured he should have the classic blue and yellow "my first mask and snorkel set" to match:












Then there's da boss nob. As I was painting him, I got the notion that perhaps he had served as a Red Skull Kommando on Armageddon at one point under Boss Snikrot, so the skull on his facemask got painted red. Some other details of note: I was trying to make it look like there were flames reflected in the lenses of his gasmask, I don't normally lean into the gory aesthetic, but his axe was screaming for a bit o' blood (he was for the Halloween painting comp after all), and the "plant" on his base was a bit of cool lichen I found outside my house (one of the perks of living in the Pacific NW is an endless and varied supply of strange fungi):












I also used a black background for the photos instead of my usual white; curious what the commentariat thinks about that one.
With the boss done, that means the squad is done ( !!!):




If you're just joining us now, feel free to scroll back in this thread or visit my finished orks gallery here on Dakka for details of each individual.

Super stoked to have these guys 100% done, but that left me musing about what to do next. I pulled out the whole army and spread them out on my desk today (I'll post pics sooner or later, I swear!), musing about my hobby history, present, and future.
What's next? The whole Red Skull thing got me thinking about Boss Snikrot. I'm not a huge fan of the new sculpt, but that's certainly the easy way out. I did like the last sculpt, but would have to find one on eBay or something. ...Orrrr, I could scratchbuild one. If this is the route I go, it'll be a good long dig in the bits box before you hear from me again.

Alternately, I could start a new Kill Team project, buy some Sicarians to beef up my Hunter Clade Kill Team (they've gotten handily mopped up the two times I've tried to field just Skitarii), or venture into unknown territory.

I've got a Pious Vorne model that's been calling to me, and the free minis of the month have kept me supplied with henchmen. The idea of a Ministorum priest who is teaching tolerance of certain mutations (she would be accompanied by a ratling sniper, a Votan dude, and maybe even a Bestigor as crowd control for her fiery sermons) while purging other heresies is intriguing.

Then there's the whole looted Knight project...

Sorry for the long ramble, and thanks for stopping in. Questions, comments and (hopefully constructive) criticisms always welcome!

Hey Gulgog! Great work on the Kommandos. The classic colours on the grots mask are fantastic, as is the silvery sheen to the lenses. He’s such a cool operative in the game, really tricky to deal with if you pick the right Tac Ops. Keeping on the lense theme the Nob with his reflection of the flames looks amazing and works well with his red skull. As for what’s next; you can never have too many kill teams, but I vote for Pious and her henchmen… plus you could probably adapt the to be a Sanctifiers Kill Team with the right choices!