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Very cool. Really digging the Inquisitor.

EDC

Very nice work on that =][=

Unique results.

Spectacular Paradigm. Your skill combined with your speed is truly remarkable!

Thats a really cool model. Ive always wanted to buy him but never had a reason. Great paintjob too.

The Deathwatch guys and the inquisitor look amazing Para, they really come together as a fighting force nicely.

Excellent work, everything is stunning and I'm hardly surprised. Nice consistent quality and at a fairly ridiculous rate!

Wow, lovely Inquisitor. I love the fabric look on him, it's subtly different to the black armour of the Deathwatch.

 WarbossDakka wrote:
Wow, lovely Inquisitor. I love the fabric look on him, it's subtly different to the black armour of the Deathwatch.

He's an inquisitor from Forge World, Solomon Lok.

Thanks guys! And page 75, woohoo!

Great stuff Paradigm. Loving the grimdark look of everything, especially that inquisitor.

It's AdMech time!

Yep, as most of you probably guessed from my less than subtle hints, my new 40k project is a small Adeptus Mechanicus force. The models wowed me when they first came out, pretty much perfect concept-to-mini transition, and the awesome saving in the Start Collecting set finally got me to pick them up... Assembled the infantry and Magos last night, and set to work painting up a couple of test minis.



Honestly, I didn't intend for them to come out looking quite so much like Januine's scheme, but I'd always known I wanted to avoid the garish red and go for something that was a little more muted; the effectiveness of these colours on my Inquisitor sealed the deal on this particular scheme. It's not exactly complex or technical, but it works, and I can probably bang out a Skitarii in about 35 minutes now I've got the scheme down (or work on a couple at a time). Very pleased with the look I've got.

The kit itself I'm in two minds about. On one hand, these models are very monopose, there aren't a great deal of options for posing or customisation (perhaps fittingly for a brainwashed cyborg army with a collective consciousness), on the other they're stunning sculpts, fit together nicely and the 'stock' poses do look good. The other great thing about the kit is the number of extras; being as cheap as I am, I quickly set about seeing how many extra models I could get out of the kit. A handful of Wargames Factory Shock Trooper bodies later and we have passable Skitarii Vanguard to bulk up the force a little, I managed to get 10 from the set, 2 squads of 5.


Not as fancy as the Rangers, but they look the part, and all mixed in together, they should do a decent enough job for the moment, and hey, can't say no to 'free' minis. Assorted other spares will go towards some Inquisition conversions when I get around to it, and maybe a couple more AdMech bits depending on what I can find.

That's all for now, any thoughts welcome, and last call for any techniques you want a tutorial for that I'll put together next week. Thanks for looking!

There are worse things to do in life then take inspiration from Januine. Like pretty much everything.

How big a force you going with those guys? Very nice start you have there.

Honestly I'm not sure how big this force will get, at the moment it's around 500 points WYSIWYG, so a nice plug-in allied force, but since I know I can get 20 Infantry from the Start Collecting set, I'm very tempted to add another one. Only trouble would be doubling up on the Magos, who'd be very hard to make look different. I also have plans for including a few counts-as units, but I'm still not sure about them yet.

My goal for 40k going forward is to consolidate what can be rescued from my various Imperial armies into one force, all painted and based to a good standard, that gives me plenty of options to play around with for gaming. Gone are the days where I need 5 different Space Marine armies, though multiple Chapters will still feature.

 Paradigm wrote:
Gone are the days where I need 5 different Space Marine armies!

Obviously. You need more then that. 4-5 different loyalists alone, plus 2-3 modern Chaos armies. Then you need to go back to 30k, and get 2-3 there!

Gone are the days of 5, here are the days for a dozen!

Now get painting.
<cracks whip>

Well, there will be at least 4 Chapters in this Grand Army of the Imperium, not including Grey Knights; Imperial Fists and Dark Angels First Companies will be present, Blood Angels or a successor of theirs (maybe Flesh Tearers), and a Codex Chapter of some description will also feature.

That's actually a great idea for using the leftover Skitarii bits. If I ever get back to mine, I'll have to "borrow" your idea.

But...but...these Skitarii are not purple.

Congrats on the Get Started set...great piece of value there. The scheme looks great, and I also found them quite quick to paint. The amount of detail on them can either be daunting or an aid to the faster painter. I do find the shock trooper bodies ( especially the back packs) a bit slight but it is a cost effective way to bulk out the army.

One has a purple visor, does that count?

The bodies are actually a perfect fit for the arms width-wise, but yeah, the packs are too small, they're actually from the WGF Survivors sprue, they were all I had handy.

Any purple is good purple. I think the WGF Skitarii will look fine when mixed in with the other Skitarii, I am just a big fan of the back packs. Any plans down the line for the Onager as I know you are not that fond of painting tanks, and it is basically a walking tank.

And if you want any more Skitarii bits just ask.

Oh, the Onager will get done for sure, it's such a cool model. I actually hated it when I first saw the pics, but one of my opponents regularly fields one and seeing it in the plastic really sold me on it. It is last in the queue (the plan is to get a bulk of the infantry done, treat myself to the Magos, rest of the infantry, then the Onager to cap it all off), but it will definitely get done. It's a fair bit smaller and much more interesting than most tanks, so I don't have a massive aversion to painting it, it's just Rhinos and Land Raiders and such that bore me to death!

I'll PM you about the bits later, I've got a load of bodies that can take the arms. Happy to cover the postage or whatever.

When I opened this blog, I honestly thought I opened Jan's blog. The blue skitarii and the same photoshopping...

...Wait, are you Paradigm or Jan in disguise?

In all seriousness, they look great. And at 35 mins / model, even better!

Haha, cheers! Just don't look too closely and realise that what Jan does with a million glazes, several hours and the skill of some kind of paint-themed ninja, I do in ten minutes with some hasty drybrushing! Still dead happy with how they've come out, I got another couple done this evening and in a small group, they really do look how I hoped they would. Plan is to blast through another 5 or so infantry tomorrow, then start on the Magos who I'll be taking a lot more time over!

See Para, that's the logic trap that gets me every time. I could at least *try* to get better, but when dips washes and drybrushes get me to a passable (and sometimes pretty nifty) place.. hard to push myself to go that extra mile, especially without having any innate art skill or formal training. Your hasty drybrush and quick techniques look quite awesome, may have to go back over some of your stuff and discern how your painting method ticks as I think I've gotten worse at drybrushing over the years

I do appreciate what people can do with the extra time though.


Your skitari look pretty awesome, and the converted greatcoats guys work very well. I didn't even realize they were conversions at first I managed to sneak 3 extra Firewarriors out of my Start Collecting Tau box by doing something similar, subbing in a couple of spare cadian chests. Give GW anything and it's gotta be all of the extra bits you get.

The trick to the drybrushes and washes I thrive on (and I'll go into more detail in the proper tutorial next week) is not to think of them as simple beginner techniques, but to think about why using that particular method is a good one. So it's not that I'm not pushing myself, I'm still doing that constantly, but if I can get minis to a standard where they look up to scratch and by chance that's a quick process, I'll take it!

Take the metallics for example. The initial drybrush of bright silver over black gives me very well defined edges, lots of contrast and natural highlighting; the washes then add the colour over what is essentially a pre-shaded surface so there's no need for painstaking re-highlighting or edging or anything. The 'patchy' washes of purple and green give a depth to the brassy finish once the final wash has gone on, which again looks more natural than using different methods for different areas.

Similarly, the drybrushing on the robes is used for the opposite reason; you get very soft and smooth highlights, Really, it's sort of a hybrid dry-brush-wet-blend, as you're still thinning the paint a lot and mixing/building up almost imperceptible layers (there's 3 layers, then a wash, then another 4 layers there), you're just applying it on the areas and in the way you would apply a drybrush. It's faster than layering, but more importantly. it also gives a slightly rugged, faded finish that resembled worn thick fabric like robes better than layering does.

So that's the thing, I'm using techniques that happen to be fast, but that's more because they work than because they're quick, that's just a happy side effect; I'm not under any time pressure, so if I could get better results spending a couple of hours per mini then I'd be doing that, and if the model needs it, I do (examples being the Deathwatch characters, the Salamanders Blacksmith ect, where the extra time is needed and does pay off). However, I don't think these guys suffer from the approach, the speed comes from the fact that they're essentially 2-colour minis, and with a hairdryer on hand I can have the metalwork done in about 5 minutes, the robes in 15, then just add some details and effects, clean up anything that needs cleaning and get them based up!

Sorry, bit rambley there!

So what you're saying is that you're really just as bad as Jaunine and simply using faster techniques.

My hero is dead!

But obviously you're doing more than simple techniques because what you do consistently looks good and you keep getting better at it. Just because it's fast doesn't mean you aren't one of those successful arty people I admire and despise . Back on yer pedestal.

Paradigm, can I just send you a whole army?? Really, it won't be a problem for you... probably have it done in a week!

Tidy. Smart moves managing to squeeze some extra skits out of the kit though I can see what Thraxas means by the backpacks looking a bit 'slight'. Mind you, just bang a few 'admechy' bitz on them though and they'll totally fit in with their brothers

beautiful I really love the admech forces

Yep. Great job on the AdMech.

It's fascinating to hear you discuss your painting style. It isn't multiple glaze layers and highlights and so on, but it does work. Ultimately across a table they must look awesome and on display they look fantastic too. That's because you have found a style that works for you and works well. If you are happy with the minis, it doesn't matter at the end of the day.

You're staying on my pedestal too btw

Sweet looking Ad Mech.

EDC