Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Love that Chaplin mate, solid work on a great model.

Love the freehand on the “shield”.

The shield work is great.
Also looking forward to seeing more LotR figs.

Chaplin looks great! Love the addition of the shield. And I think red was a good choice in the end Pinning makes that model a whole lot more sturdy, would be a shame for it to just sit on the shelf!

Look forward to seeing some Lord of the Rings content, its a shame its kind of died out

Ingtaer - Cheers mate!
Arakasi - Thanks. I'm reasonably pleased with it too! My first attempt at freehanding both a skull.
Theo - Thanks, mate. LotR inbound!
Zahnib - Cheer. Every aspect of the paint job came together really well in the end. Regarding the pinning, two things stopped me pinning his arms. My pin vice is old and shity and the chuck doesn't grip the bit hard enough to effectively drill metal models..... I just haven't bought a new one yet. The other is I'd need to varnish him so the paint wouldn't rub off and i'm kinda apprehensive about varnishing him because i'd hate for it to alter the paint job any or do that horrid blooming it does sometimes.
Interestingly, my local GW has a reasonable LotR following. About a half dozen young fellas who i'm assuming are a bunch of school friends. So the game is still active in my area, which is nice.


Speaking of LotR. Before I start stripping my middle earth back log, I thought i'd do a minor retrospective.

This little goblin is the very first miniature I ever painted way back in the early 2000s. Followed the painting guide to the letter except for the fact I used a Humbrol enamel red. Don't know how well that's going to strip!

On one hand I kinda don't want to strip the paint off them. I get that lovely little nostalgia hit when I look at them. On the other hand, the need to paint must be satisfied, and I ain't made of money. So into the IPA you all go.

A then and now comparison.


And a group of various warriors.


What looking at these old paintjobs has shown me, is that, right from the start, i've been a reasonably neat painter. The skill has improved substanially though, I can say that. I know I never used to water down my paints at all. My style has also changed a bit too. I used to favour brighter colours where now I tend towards a more realistic style.
And now of course I know about blending and washes, etc, which I never used to. Dry brushing was the extent of my "advanced skills" repertoire.
I also rarely bothered about prep/clean up. Mould lines generally got left to their own devices and I often ddin't bother removing the chunks of sprue left over on the model after I clipped them off. I was so slack...



Moving on. I had an absolute corker of a ebay win the other day. I actually got out of my seat and did a merry jig before I contained myself and didn't squeal like a small girl (I squealed).

Nabbed myself a old games day captain, a 3rd ed chaplain, old flamey hands himself and some servitors



More excitingly though. I got some OOP FW etched brass. The DA frame and the numerals will be very useful and who doesn't need ~250 tiny brass eagles?!


But best of all, I got this guy for an utter steal. $20 for a completely intact Ironhand Iron Father. I've wanted this guy for ever.



Got 3 days off now, so with any luck I should get some Rohirrim smashed out. That is if I don't break down and buy Total Warhammer 1&2, first. Steam has them on sale and the call is intensely strong...
As always thanks for looking and sticking around.

Chaplain is awesome, you should try to get him on the table to purge heretics where he belongs. No resting back at base for the likes of him!

Nice drop of cool stuff. I’d not strip your first model if I were you. Nice to keep as a reminder of how far you have come.

Excellent finish on the Chaplain. Lots of fun classics from eBay and LotR means good things to come. Keep up the awesome work.

Nice one finishing the chaplain off. Can’t help but think his shoulder pad needs something above the angel skeleton. Maybe a sword or number 1? Perhaps some writing on his parchment on his top armour too?

Great win on the GW order too! Everyone loves a freebie!

Ah well, I imagine it won't be too hard to pop the arms off once you get a new pin vice And I can relate to being hesitant about using a spray varnish

Nev - Getting him on the table would mean getting to a table to begin with. Something i've been historically terrible at! It would be a shame though not to crack some heads though... I've actually put my first goblin aside. He's blu-tac'd to the computer monitor now. I think I might leave my first Rohirrim as well.
YWS - Thanks bud. Yeah looking forward to cracking on with the Iron-father.
Gobert - The freebie got me the glaring of a life time from my lovely, ever-so understanding girlfriend who answered the door for the postie and assumed i'd been buying MORE models. Que garbled explanation. You're not wrong about the shoulder pad though. That got somewhat neglected in lieu of the other frippery.
Zahnib - Shouldn't be too much drama. Now that we've got a run of decent weather I might do a bit of vanishing research and have a crack at it.


Ok, so some PROGRESS! has been made.

I was expecting to get some Rohirrim done on my days off, instead though, buoyed by my success with the Interrogator-Chaplain, I knocked out another chaplain instead!

Antieus, 10th Company Chaplain.


[url=https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/1032783-Angel%2C%20Chaplain%2C%20Dark%2C%20Space%2C%20Space%20Marines.html]
[/url]

This bloke was done a little different to the TDA chappy. Used Eshin grey instead of Dark Reaper for highlights and tried for more of a polished bone look for the helmet instead of the grittier look on the other one. The main thing though is I really tried to give this guy a sense of movement. The stock model is already in motion, but I tried to add to that with the long flowing purity seal on his shoulder and the a banner that curled in the right direction. Another thing I did, which im not sure is super obvious, but I think really helps, is I put a small wedge of greenstuff under his forward foot so as to tilt him ever-so slightly to his left. Gives him a little extra motion but also makes it look like he's about to bring his crozius around in a big sweeping arc.
Another thing that was unintentional, but I like so i'm going to run with, was the purple. This guy has a purple book, the others crozius haft is purple. Not only is it a nice spot colour, it also ties the two models together in an additional way. So I think that's a theme I might keep going with the chaplains. I'll also do it with other characters as well like techmarines and librarians too if I can find something that works for them.
I'm calling this guy done. Although I feel the banner is a little drab, so I may go back to him in the future and add some more colour to it. Maybe a campaign or deathwatch icon or some checkers. I'm leaving it for now though.
On a personal note though, a shout-out must be given to a bloke named Jonas Wideen on instagram. He's an absolute free-hand animal and he gave me some good advice on doing freehand skulls. So expect to see 100% more freehanded skulls on pretty much everything from now on...

I've started writing little blurbs for my doods as well. I've found that it helps me "get into the model" a bit more. I'll post them as I post squads/characters. Feel free to completely ignore them!

While being trained as a Chaplain, Antieus was called up to serve in the Deathwatch. During his tenure, Antieus took part in 84 combat missions and fought over 30 different Xenos species. Upon return to his parent Chapter, there was need of a 10th company Chaplain. Antieus' fifty years of experience fighting dozens of various xenoforms in the Deathwatch, as well as over eighty years as a battle brother before that, made him a natural candidate for the scout company where his knowledge and skill would be put to prime use.
Antieus carries two trophies from his time in the Deathwatch, two skulls, from his first and last missions. One is the skull of a corrupt planetary governor, who was in the process of handing control of his planet over to Xenos slavers. The other, the skull of an ork warlord, killed in personal combat during the closing battles of the Twohundred Stars campaign.

As always, comments and criticisms are welcome. Let me know what you think.
Thanks!

Look at that banner! That's gonna be the grimdarkiest thing I see all day. Really well done.

Work well done! Looks great

Cool chaplain, love the gem on his pendant it looks great! More good skull painting too. Are you practicing ready for some more Deathwing?

Saw the purple book and was going to call it out as awesome, then read you posting about the book being a happy accident . It really is a nice touch and varies what one normally sees done with models.

Overall a really nicely done model. I like that he is different from your TDA chaplain, but still close enough to clearly be in the same army.

Nice dude! That freehand skull is looking great, I look forward to seeing more in the future

YWS - Ooh thanks. That means a lot! I try to inject a little bit of grimness into all my minis (Warfare is a grim business after all). Funnily enough, it's so much easier with a mini like a chaplain!
Azalle - Hey, welcome back. Thanks! Are you gonna kick off your own Unforgiven again?
Gobert - Cheers buddy. Assuming you're referencing the bone skulls in relation to the deathwing, then not so much practicing for painting deathwing as just practicing. I do have a few squads worth of terminators waiting in the wings, though I'd be lying if i said I was raring to paint them up.
Theo - Thanks mate. I too like that he's different from the TDA chap. I think it's important for character models of the same sort to look different, even if only in subtle ways. Otherwise they all blend in and cease to be characters.
Zahnib - Thanks! I'm glad you're keen for more, as I have another TWO chaplains sitting on my desk! I'm gonna paint chaplains till you all get bored of them! (I'm not. I'm saving them for later )


Only a small update today.

Got my first batch of Rohirrim finished off.

There's a bit of variation with some of the colours on some of these blokes. Most of it was just finding the right colours/mixes for certain things. (Still haven't nailed down a green I like for the cloaks yet). But they are for the most part fairly unified looking.
10 down only 38 left to go.

Looking for some thoughts here though. Base rims. Tried out a few different colours.

Left to Right: Scorched Brown, Gorthor Brown, Chaos Black, Rakarth Flesh, Codex Grey.

Now normally i'd just leave them black and be done with it. But I think it's too stark a contrast here. Now I don't really like the two on the right, so I am currently leaning towards either the Sorched or the Gorthor brown. Or maybe something in between.
Thoughts? Opinions?

Scorched.

Also, "To ruin, and the red dawn!" All I can hear seeing them arrayed around big T like that. Dig 'em.

Nice Rohirrim! Black base colour doesn't look that bad to me. Still, the browns look good as well, particularly the Gorthor Brown. I think it reminds me of how bases looked some ten years ago (wasn't it called Snakebite Leather back then?).

YWS - Thanks! That's pretty much what I was going for.
Pomander Cask - Cheers buddy. That was the colour I was going for too. I believe you might be on the money with the Snakebite Leather.


Not a whole lot happening at the moment as I haven't had much time for painting recently. So here's some gak i've completed but never got around to uploading.

Did a tester Orc to see what I could do.


I'm happy enough with him. Kept the colour palette as minimal as possible. Browns, yellow, metal. A spot of red on the shield. Some washes. It's quick and dirty, probably spent about ~2 hours on him including drying times.

Here's something I did for a little friendly online comp.
The mini is Brother Vinnis "Hilda" which is (I believe) based off of Black Library's Ulrika character.


I had a lot of fun painting this wee lass. The orange hair was surprisingly successful and I managed to not completely balls up her eyes either which was nice. The cloak was a let down though. I realise in hindsight that I should have made it a lot whiter as the cream just blends in with her pants and shirt.
I wont post all the pics here, but if you click on the image it'll take you through to more.

While I haven't got much painting done last couple of weeks, I have done a bit of building and made some LotR terrain!


Again, wont post the full thing here, as I have a thread for that. So if you like terrain and feel so inclined check out my Terrain Thread! (You can ignore all the older stuff though, it's a bit naff. )

Right, so that actually knocks off another too 2019 objectives!
Paint something Random and Make some Terrain.


Getting there.

Anyway, as always, thanks for having a gander.

Nice freehand on that shield. Really works. Hilda looks quite good. A couple of understated and natural looking models. Good luck with those goals. Maybe I should look into some of that, myself.

So last post for the year.


My lovely girlfriend blindsided me completely by getting me a proper lightbox for my birthday! Absolute corker of a gift. (she also got me a ticket to see Opeth, but that's not so relevant here)
It's a good one too. Comes with all the trimmings. Coloured backdrops, USB light strips and a carry/storage case.



Which allows me to segue quite nicely into this...


Théoden King of Rohan.


Warriors of Rohan



Taken with my new lightbox. It's a little washed out looking, but I think that's a setting on my phone I can adjust in the future.
I still can't take a photo worth half a damn, but they're now presented nicely!


So my last project for the year is something i'm very excited about. So if you don't know Darren Latham is currently running a masterclass series on his youtube channel. The subject matter is the Lord of Blights.
Now I could only get my hand on a Lord of Plagues, since my store was out of LoBs. But they are very similar models, so it'll still work well enough. So far "miniature prep" and "skin" has been covered with part 3 coming soon.
Here's where i'm up to at the moment.



Some of the transitions aren't as smooth as i'd like them to be, but for the most part i'm very pleased with the results. Flesh is not something i've painted in this quantity before, so this was a bit of a learning experience for me. The boils and pustules aren't the flash either, so I might go over them again later on. But this has completely changed how I look at painting fleshy bits now. Not quite as daunting as it was before.
I highly recommend getting in on Darrens tutorials and especially the masterclass. There's a lot of good stuff to check out and learn.

~~~~~

Ok, so End of Year goal check.

1. Finish Dark Angels 5th company
Didn't happened. With 1 more Tactical Squad, and Assault Squad and both Devastator squads left to go.
2. Paint 1st, 2nd & 10th company Aux forces
Did much better with this one. Painted both my scout squads and the Black Knights as well as one of the deathwing squads (cataphractiis)
3. Assemble/paint 2 Imperial Knights /
Got one done.
4. Paint some LoTRs models.
Done! I left this one a bit open ended. But seeing as i've painted Theoden and 4 warriors, it's RAW done. Will definitely paint some more before years out for sure though.
5. Make head way with at least 2 other armies /
Actually made good progress with my Rohirrim. Theoden + 10 Warriors painted. Another 20 primed and ready to paint. So I'm counting that as half done.
6. Make some Terrain.
Made some Ruins!
7. Paint some Terrain.
Painted my Middle Earth Ruins!
8. Paint something not 40k/GW related.
Didn't get around to painting anything non-GW.
9. Paint something Random
Painted Hilda!
10. Play some games of 40k
No games played.

Four out of Ten. Five i'm generous to myself and count my two half completes as an extra one. Not a bad effort, but not stellar either.
I'll do better with next years goals.

~~~~~

So thank-you all for sticking with me throughout the year. I know my updates were sporadic at best, but I've really enjoyed interacting with everyone and I hope you've all enjoyed what I've presented. And I thank you all for the advice and feedback on my work, it's been great and means a lot.

4/10 ain’t bad! They were fairly ambitious too I’d say, maybe roll the remaining on to next year to be fairer? The Lord of Plagues looks good, I’d say his skin looks nice but those pustules... sick is maybe more appropriate! I might have to look up Darren Latham on YT. Congrats on the lightbox too, I might need to get one of those to improve my pics

Cool light box, I’ve considered ordering one myself....might have to get on it now that I see its results in action.

Rohirrim are looking great.

I talked to Darren Latham years ago when I ordered stuff over the phone with GW, he was helping the mail order trolls . I fanboy gushed over some of his models in white dwarf. He was fun to talk to.

Nice update Snrub. Your Nurgle lord is looking great, Darren Latham's tutorials have been awesome! And nice one on the lightbox, there'd be some handy photography apps out there to help with exposure and all the rest. Well done on your checklist, look forward to seeing more form you next year!

Woot! New lightbox. One of my first goals when I started my blog was to get better at photography. When I got my lightbox it helped that immensely. Of course, now we can see all the flaws in our work better, but that’s the nature of the camera. Helps us improve.

If you make all your goals, you are not setting them aggressively enough. You want to make progress, but always have to keep reaching forward. Looks like you have had a good year. Looking forward to what you do in 2020.

Gobert - I'm happy content with 4/10 goals. They were ambitious, especially given i'd never tried to push myself like before. I've rolled a few over for next years list. Thank you! The pustules are actually what i'm least happy with. They're too green and not as yellow as I wanted them, but I'm prepared to stick with them for now until the rest of the model is finished, then I can go back to them. Definitely check out Darren's YT channel. It's got some smashing content. And he's really good about replying to question and what not. He's really quite friendly. He's also really accessible on Instragram as well, if you have one.

Theo - Cheers! I've got tomorrow off, so my plan is to have a good play around with it and my phone camera and see what I can do. Ooof. Mail order trolls. That's going back a looooooooooooong way. I can't claim a voice to voice chat, but he has answered a couple of question I DM'd him. . He seems to be a very friendly man.

Zahnib - Thanks, mate. Good call on the photography apps. I hadn't thought about anything like that. Must give them a look.

Nev - You're not wrong about the lightbox showing up flaws. The shadows hid how rough and patchy some of the gold on Theodens armour is. It's a bit of a double edged sword in that regard. But the pros outweigh the cons in the end. And you're right about the goals too I feel. They need to be achievable, but not "easy". I think my goal list for 2020 will reflect that.

~~~~~

Something I meant to tack on the end of my previous post. Some statistics.
Going back through this blog I discovered that this year...
-My blog grew 5.5 pages, of which roughly 1.5 pages are my own posts.
-I painted 44 minis + terrain.

I also tallied up how much I spent throughout the year (because i'm anal about keeping my receipts) but once I got to *Hrummph* dollars I got a little embarrassed and stopped tallying.

~~~~~

Finally, my goals for 2020. I have ordered them in loose priority and given a brief explanation as to why it's a goal. I had a long hard look at the goals I set for 2019 and why they did or didn't get finished and set these ones based off that. Hopefully this set will be achievable.

1. Play 1 game of 40k a month.
I bought the Dark Angels codex at the start of Dec2018, in the hopes that if I spent money on the codex i'd feel compelled to use it. Well now with rumours of 9th circulating, i'm bloody well gonna get some value out of it before it goes obsolete.

2. Finish Dark Angels 5th Company.
I'm about 50% there. I need only 1 more tactical squad, 1 assault squad, 2 devastator squads as well as company chaplain and 3 dreadnoughts. I'm not counting troop transports in this regard. I'll get them eventually, but I don't really want to buying a gak load of rhinos. I've already got 2 sitting there ready to be built. It's a weighty goal, but I do love my green marines and the need to have a full company is strong. Plus i've been working on this for ages. Time to complete it.

3. Paint 15% of all Lord of the Rings miniatures I currently owned.
This was originally a far more ambitious 50%. But then I realised how many I actually have (close on 300) sitting around the place.
45 minis seems much more realistic. And I love painting these mins, so it's no hard ship for me to just sit down with half a dozen of them and throw some paint down. These will be what I paint when I get tired of marines. (And I have a lot of marines too)

4. Make headway with 2 other armies.
I've been collecting the Conquest partworks, and am currently about half way through it. So that has left me with a decent amount of Deathguard minis. These will be one of the armies I tackle in 2020. The other will likely be Lost and the Damned or some AoS skeletons.

5. Paint a Bust or 54mm Miniature.
Going to branch out and do something really different. Haven't done either of these things before, so either way it'll be a new experience.

6. Finish Dark Angels Auxillery forces.
Deathwing and Ravenwing. I learnt my lesson trying to smash out those Cataphractii. White is a witch to paint. No two ways about it. These will end up being a slow burn task. Painting one at a time here and there to break up everything else. I have 4 Deathwing squads and a Ravenwing attack squadron to paint.

7. Paint 3x Random things.
Pretty self explanatory. Spurred on by the massive enjoyment I got from painting Hilda. I have a bunch of singular minis laying around. So they can serve as palette cleansers if nothing else.

8. Finish Tablescape tiles and enough terrain for a 4x4 table.
Had my tablescapes languishing for long enough. Time to do something with them. As well as the box of unbuilt terrain sitting on my top shelf. This should be good for my terrain blog.

9. Enter a competition (gaming/painting/AoP/etc).
Pretty open to interpretation. Not going to be disappointed if I don't get around to doing this, as I have given myself lots of other stuff to do. But i'd like to challenge myself by entering something like this.

10. Hit 20 pages on Dakka Blog.
This is lowest rung on the ladder. Sort of a motivational goal more then anything else. I'd like to crack 20 pages on this blog by the end of 2020. I'm not going to just spam crap. But if I can drive myself to post here more often then it'll mean i'm painting more and it should hopefully end up being a self perpetuating thing.


So that's what i've got planned. The plan is to just work my through them slow and steady.
Anyone else have any goals for 2020?

A good set of objectives, ambitious but a still realistic. I’m particularly looking forward to 2, 6 and keeping up with them via 10! Maybe a state of the company photo at the start of the year and another when they’re all done is in order (though I doubt they’ll fit in your lightbox!)

As for my own targets; first up I’d like to keep my motivation up and keep the steady progress going, after that I want to finish my Blackstone Fortress minis and maybe play the game, paint some more Marines and maybe a few Orks for 40k, finish up my tiny BattleMasters Chaos Warband and some more High Elves for WHFB. As for numbers, if I get past this years tally of 100 I’ll be more than happy.

Gobert - An army shot sounds achievable. I'll see about that tomorrow. Your goals sound enticing. BSF minis (yum!), marines & orks (classic) as well as fantasy chaos and high elves (also classic). I'll be sure to hunt out your blog and follow along! And please remind me if I don't!


~~~~~

Right so, lets kick off the new year!

Started out by painting some soldiers of Minas Tirith. The work on these chaps is not nearly up to the standard of the Rohirrim. The silver just did not want to play nice. And I used the tail end of an old pot of black wash rather then use the new pot I have sitting there, which gave the wash some weird results. Seems a bit patchy in places.
I have to say though these guys suit my minimalist palette style. Black, silver, brown, and a touch of both brown and flesh.



So that's 5/45 done.

I also managed to snag the chaplain I want to use for my DA 5th company off of ebay for a tenner yesterday, which was nice. A step further towards the completion of goal 2.

And to round out the 1st week of the year (already!!), a supply drop (already!!).

Ugh, sideways pic, but you get the idea.


I've been absolutely hanging to get my hands on Amalia Novena, but she's been out of stock every time i've checked the GW site. I have her now though! As well as the space marine heroes and some generic walls/fences.

So with that purchase, i've now amassed...
7 chaplains (2 painted)
5 librarians (3 painted)
and (I think) 5 captains. (1 painted)

I might have some issues that need resolving...
No one tell my girlfriend please...

Next up on the painting block is the Lord of Blights again. I've fallen behind on him and need to catch up!

Thanks for looking!

Heh, the problem is that you need more captains! Although chaplains are my favorite HQ, frankly there are limits to how many you need to fill roles, equip options, etc.

Keep on painting, looking sharp!

Thanks Nev. Chaplains would also rate as my favourite HQ. Although I also have a massive soft spot for Techmarines. Which is another unit I have an unseemly amount of.
I treat my HQs a bit like Pokemon. Gotta have em all, even if strictly speaking I don't need them.


Caught up on my Lord of Blights Masterclass piece.

Stage 2 - Armour


Stage 3 - Cloth


Stage 4 - Wood


This has been a really fun learning experience. Couple of new techniques that I hadn't tired before. New ways of looking at things.
The armour was an interesting lesson in stippling and i'm keen to try it again and hopefully refine the technique so that it's a bit smoother and not as blotchy. But as it stands, i'm quite happy with it. Looks suitably run down and weather-worn.
Crosshatching on the cloth showed me that my brush control is nowhere near as steady as I thought it was. And I largely ended up just mushing the effect into a nondescript blur. But it bears further practice as I like the effect it gives once mastered.
Overall, the net gain from this project has been huge for me and we've still a way to go yet.


Back to the hobby goals.
I've been working on these guys slowly over the last few weeks.
The basic premise is just de-Nurgling the Death Guard range. Lopping off any of the tentacles, growths, maggots, fleshy protuberances and other general corruption. I'm leaving the corrosion, damage, censers, etc though as that fits with the theme i'm angling for.

(fething sideways picture. Uploaded it 4 times and still couldn't get it right way up)

I'm aiming for this army to be a Dark Souls inspired warband based around a foot slogging close combat Deathguard force.
If you know anything about Dark Souls then you might have some inkling of what you might see from a project like this. If not, well then expect stupidly oversized weapons, extravagant oversized armour, a crazy mix of brutal melee and nutty magic. And death. Lots and lots of death.

Painting and Modelling,
Colour wise, i'm considering a mix of silver, black and blue for the armour. There won't be much exposed flesh on these guys, but what little there might be will be a horrid lurid yellow. Weapons will likely match the armour, but with a good hit of brass and gold thrown in.
Modelling with involve heavy greenstuffing. Mostly over areas that i've cut down but need repairs. There will also be a bit used to embellish the armour here and there.
The plan is to have lots of big two-handed weapons on characters and terminators. Knives and flails of various sorts on plague marines.

Gaming,
On the tabletop (should they/I ever get that far) the plan is for lots of footslogging melee plague marine units, backed up by some surgeons and sorcerers/plague casters. Then melee blightlords can zap in and wreck face when needed.
This is, to my knowledge, not even remotely competitive and is in all likelihood a horrific army to play. But that's ok. By the time I get around to playing with them, we'll be well into 11th edition and it wont matter.

Anyway, time to get back too it.
As always, thanks for looking!