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Looks like it could've been in one of the Mortal Kombat games or something. FINISH HIM!!!

Diorama is excellent. The models really go well together. You have managed a real grittiness that I imagine is hard on the clean lines of an Eldar model.

Very cool dual diorama, very dynamic. I also love how you've done the AoS Khorne dudes, the dark palette with loads of blood is perfect.

EDC

Love the Bloodsek...Bloodsecra...Khorne banner dude, as others have said the warpaint on him is especially effective.

Cool diorama as well, it seems like every man and his dog is buying the Death Masque set (will be getting mine tomorrow), I may have to put a cheeky offer in on your unwanted Eldar.

Congratulations on the 200 up as well. Mental that you have done so much, in such a short space of time, since you hit the 100 mark. Is there a fair bit of commission work/ products that you have not shown off yet or do bigger miniatures/vehicles count as more than one?

Very impressive. Truly, you are a paintasaurus Rex.

Cheers folks!

@Thraxas: In the words of Gimli, even the larger stuff 'still only counts as one!' I can't think when I actually hit 100, but off the top of my head I've shown most of my stuff since then. There are a few things that didn't make it to the blog that push the numbers up a bit, things like the second Crimson Fists Tactical Squad that looked just like the first, some more AdMech troops that likewise were nothing new, a handful of AoS minis I think I just forgot as I finished them just before coming home for the summer.

Had to get Death Masque as I figured I'd be paying as much for just the Deathwatch down the line, so I might as well grab it while it's there. Helps that the Eldrad model is beautiful and I've wanted a Death Jester and some Skyweavers for ages, which again would cost almost as much as I'm paying for the set! Loved painting the Overkill guys, so hopefully the new Deathwatch are as nice.

Totally agreed on Gimli's philosophy. It is an awesome set, and given the rrp of GW's single squad sized boxed sets a bargain. I remember we pinged quite a few private messages between each other during the Harlequin release but I never bit the bullet...until now.

Any ideas of your Eldrad scheme? I think I am going the purple route

I do rather like the high-contrast black and off-white look the studio one has, but I might change it up a bit, add some more colour somewhere. A handful of Harlies aside, I've not really painted many Eldar before so I shall have to do a fair bit of googling for inspiration, see if I can find something that grabs me. He's probably not going to hit the desk for a while, though, as it's the kind of mini I wouldn't mind saving for a competition entry somewhere down the line.

I also agree with Gimli on counting any miniature (including big ones like my Bloodthirster) as only one model. Still, compare your 200 models to my lowly 31 (so far, that number will go up, as will yours!), and I look like an amateur. Too much video games, I guess. I'm gonna give the Death Masque set a miss, at least for now, as I need TWO more armies like a hole in the head right now. Looking forward to what you do with the set, though!

Never seen a Harlie painted up without it being covered in a check or diamond pattern, looks really good.

Unfortunately, that removes the one excuse I've had for not picking up some Harlies of my own.

Your Khorne guys and stormcast are inspirational. I never liked the look of either, but with your gritty painting style, they look really great!

Love the face paint on the last Khorne guy

Really great stuff as always Para.

Congrats on hitting 200. looking forward to what you do with the death masque set ill pick up a set for christmas if its still around.

Since when did you hit 200!? That's going some Para. Nice work.

Thanks folks! AoS stuff is still coming along, pics will happen when I've got full units as there's only so many times I can post slightly different Blood Reavers on their own before it gets dull!

In the mean time, a big box labelled 'Death Masque' appeared this morning, so naturally with the AoS project still on the go I took the mature and sensible decision to stick DM in the cupboard until I'd finished everything else took up glue and clippers and dived head first into the pile of plastic... A few hours later, the Deathwatch are all built (save the Dread who's fated to join my Crimson Fists somewhere down the line). Rather than build just from the DW and just from the Vanguard sprues, I treated it all as one big kit, thus spreading round the Deathwatchy bling and getting some more unique combinations. To be honest I think this was to the benefit of the new DW stuff; lovely as those sprues are, they are more limited than they look, the legs and helmets all being pretty similar and lots of the arms working only with specific weapons. Great to see MkVIII armour in any quantity at last though, and there are a ton of cool parts to go round.

Anyway, enough rambling, here's the first two Deathwatch Marines.

A Veteran from the Sons of Medusa Chapter, going all 'Monty Python's Holy Grail' on the foul Xenos and one-handing his Heavy Bolter. The flesh Is weak, after all, so he's probably not that fussed about the severed arm!



And another from the Minotaurs Chapter, with one of those awesome new Shotguns.


That's all for today, but stay tuned for more, there's plenty on the way on both the 40k and AoS fronts! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Nice kit bashes, good use of the Mark IV heavy bolter as well. I love the shotgun design and definitely want a squad or two of them. Are you going to go carte blanche on load outs? I am finding mixed unit of vets/Termies/Vanguard and bikes a bit counter intuitive.

We need more Minotaurs!

Agreed on the sprue, once you have made a Kill Team of 5 members there is not a hell of a lot left bar chapter specific shoulder pads.

Nice work on the DW. Mildly tempted to grab that box myself, but I’m loath to start a new army. Love the action and character you have going on here.

As far as loadouts go, I have them built so that, combined with the Overkill lot, I can have 3 squads as 'Assault' (all JPs and power weapons/claws/hammers), 'Tactical' (Bolters or Shotguns, a couple of power weapons) and Devastator (2x Frag, 1 HB, 1 HB/F) setups, but more than likely I'll just build teams from that pool of models depending on what gaps in a list I need to plug or what I want the squad to achieve. Some options were just too cool not to use (by which I mean the Heavy Thunder Hammer) even if they're a bit costly. As far as mixing in Termies or Bikes or Vanguard via the formations, I think I'm going to steer clear of that for now and just run CAD or Allied Detachments. The 'free' bonuses from Formations have never really sat right with me, and to be honest it seems like more hassle than it's worth trying to manage mixed squads in-game. We'll see...

HERESY!!! The SoM logo has 8 points, not 12! That is a Novamarines logo.

Heavy weapon lost part of his arm to Xenos filth! How will he ever swap ammo bins?

Shotgun is also a nice touch, first to breach a ship

Thanks all.

@Whaley: That's what I get for not doing my homework thoroughly enough! Oh well, doubt anyone will notice on the tabletop, and if they do, then he's been seconded from the Sons of Nova Chapter!

@Shaso: Reloading implies he can't get the job done with one drum! Though I might have to see about putting together a Servo Skull on reload duty now...

Wow Para, I think they are some of my favourite stuff you've done. You've achieved the realistic effect flawlessly. Well done.

Cheers mate!

More done today, starting off with another pair of Deathwatch Marines.

One from the Black Templars, the forward leaning pose meant he wasn't easy to photograph but I wanted to avoid duplicating the Minotaur's shotgun pose and go for something more aggressive as suits the Templars.


And one from the Black Dragons. I've been wanting to do a BD marine with the bone blade mutations for ages, this seemed as good an opportunity as ever so here we are!



And onto the Eldar side of things, the Death Jester. Great mini, but he only really looks good from two angles, front and back. I'm pretty pleased with the effect I got on the base, and I think the mini looks suitably menacing.


And finally on the AoS front, another lot of Blood Reavers. I've managed to get these guys down to under 20 minutes a model, so I should be able to get through the rest in short order between other bits and bobs. Going back to the Stormcast for a bit now though, as they are pretty repetitive.



That's a wrap for today, any thoughts welcome! Cheers for looking!

Whoa. You've been busy! Mad props for doing a Black Dragon. People so rarely do them, and they're such a neat chapter. What shoulder pad did you use on him?
I'm really liking the Deathwatch models overall. It's nice to see Space Marines with a more military look to them.

20 minutes per model at that standard? Can you share some of your secrets?

@Barzam: I just used a plain pad of the Dragon and freehanded the symbol (which then got mostly obliterated between weathering and gore, but oh well! ). He is the only DW Marine I have not to have a sculpted pad, but that's not bothering me too much, especially since the rest of the model suits the Chapter well enough.

@Illumini: Wet Blending crossed with Dry Brushing! Sounds counter-intuitive, but if you can wet-blend (for smooth transitions) while drybrushing or stippling (to give the impression of texture, and because it's fast) then stuff like weathered NMM becomes dead quick. For example, all the armour on a Reaver can be done in 2-3 minutes by going stipple dark grey>drybrush 1:1 dark grey:pale grey>drybrush 2:1 dark:pale, another couple of minutes to do the brass/bronze trim, with brown rather than grey, and that's the 'hard' work done. The skin I take a bit more time on, but it's still wet blended as that's the fastest way to get nice transitions, the leather and stuff is just various brown/grey mixes drybrushed over black then washed with good old Agrax (I do cheat and use a hairdryer to speed up the drying times, it'd take twice as long drying naturally).

These minis basically use 8 paints (dark grey, brown, pale grey for lightening, red and ivory for the skin, black and brown washes, and BFTBG for the gore), so I just stick a blob of each on my palette to save time swapping.

There's also a certain amount of not caring about neatness on stuff like these guys. Some brown spilling onto the grey on the armour will come up looking like rust or grime, a dodgy blend on the skin can be covered up with some blood or bruising, and when there's 20 of them in one unit, no one is ever going to notice even if you do forget to cover up a mistake.

Ultimately, it's all about giving the impression of looking good without spending an hour plus on each mini, it's not for everyone and I'm sure there are plenty of folks who don't care for the approach, but when I need 40 of them for an army and I can get them looking 'good enough' like this, I'll go for it!

LOL! Even your harlequin looks blood-soaked to me (even though he isn't). I'm just so used to seeing gore I mentally put it on your models...

Great work Para... really fun to watch you work.

You're not going mad, Gits, there is a small amount of blood on the DJ, just a splatter on the bayonet and across the mask just to make him a bit more threatening. Didn't want to overdo it, but no matter how fancy your moves are, I don't see anyone staying clean on a 40k battlefield for long!

Nice progress Para.

Love love love that black dragon death watch marine!

I see you're cranking out the painted minis at an absurd rate again, Para .

Nice Deathwatch and Bloodreavers. The Black Dragon marine looks pretty cool! You should do another one with bigger arm blades and then fit a power weapon power supply to it. Apparently they like to do that.