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Whelp spent the last 3 weeks stripping the paint off of every mini I own(yes it took awhile). I plan to start fresh with new paint jobs(and two new armies via trades).

My goal is to paint one unit a week if possible after school starts. However I know trying to go army by army I will burn myself out. With this in mind I am going to mix it up. Here are my basic rules:
A unit consists of up to 10 models.
If the unit is more than 10 models big(termagaunts, fantasy etc) then I paint 10 models to completion and leave the rest of the unit for later.
For unique characters I will count 2-4 unique characters(depending on size) as one weeks work.

To help stay motivated I am going to start posting my progress up here as well as anything I used.
I am still a newb in painting but figured it might help some other people who are new as well and can't do all that fancy painting they post online.

So I started by writing up my planned list. It is going to be sternguard and bikers (with pedro of course). Once I got a model count on the number of bases needed for this part I did them in one go. They are not 100% complete, a few need touch ups as well as a dull coat varnish.
Going to try painting a gloss varnish on the snow to see how it looks. Here are the results




Did not take long time wise maybe 10 hours over the course of a few days

Day 1: Glued the small rocks to the base
Day 2:Glued the larger rocks to the base
Day 3: Put flock on the places where I planned to put snow and primed about 7 hours later(this was final layer)
Day 4: For the sternguard bases, added/cut up debris and glued to their bases and then primed the whole lot. After waiting for them to dry for at least a hour I painted them

For the large rocks I used 3 progressively lighter dry-brushes of Grey - final layer should have been skull white. Will know for next time.
for the little ones I used 3 progressively lighter dry-brushes of brown(will add the actual paints later)
For the snow I used, (http://scenearama.woodlandscenics.com/show/Item/SP4123/page/1). They are very cheap, come with good instructions. I am looking forward to trying the icicle add on. The white glue that they use is actually nice because I did not have to paint the areas white first. I liked how it gave the darker snow as the battle field theme would not have pure white snow.

Next Step is to start prepping the actual models. Finally got the trades done for all the bits I need so hopefully it will be interesting. Will be spending most of the day Friday building and converting the unit so they are ready for painting in the fall.

And yes there will be a bike ramp-ing off the pile of stones. "Man is only separated from heaven by that which he will not ramp"


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Started doing my tervigon conversion. All that I have done is some hacking of tyranid bits as well as gluing. Only about 3 hours in so far. So lots of work still to do.







Only parts I have used is extra carnifex parts from a friend, extra trygon parts from same friend and a screamer killer 2nd edition carnifex.

Lava Base was purchased from Base Contacts

I am going to start painting the base tomorrow. Let me know is there anything you think I could use? I have a casting kit so just need one and then I can replicate it.

PS: all the parts I used were already primed. It is no where near complete yet.

You are on to a great start. I will watch this thread.

Thank you for your kind words.



This is the start of the color scheme I plan on going for. What do you all think?








So I began painting my lava bases for my tyranids. I think they came out pretty well for first runs. In the future I will wait to paint the tops black, that will leave the sides a mirage of colors instead of looking kinda stiff. I will be painting more today, hopefully I will get a finalized process down that I will post later





Started work on my harpy as well. I think it is starting to come along nicely. Need green stuff and some more drilling for the flying hole, just to make it stay in place. I lucked out in that the pinvise is the same size as the brass rods I bought exactly(totally unintentional)


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So I built my tyranid primes the other day, or rather started too. I did not finish them in time to get some green stuff on this weekend(I am saving that for during the weekend since it needs to be during relaxing time, otherwise weekly stress gets in the way of quality work). So I didnt get that part done. For the lash whips I had some busted up wraiths and I just used the bottoms from them. I plan to green stuff where they connect, however I will leave the tops metallic. Kinda give it a cybernetic feel that I think will look very cool.







Completed my warriors with boneswords unit. I just switched the scything talons around and swapped the hands. Had to use a jewelers saw to keep the cuts clean.



for the one on the right I don't know what happened. I was thinking about final fantasy 7 and when I looked down that was how he was made.


What do ya guys think so far? I got my ravenors primed so I will probably paint them in the next few days. I have a tournament to go to on the 15th of august, so I need to get 1500 points assembled, based and painted. So far I have about 1300 with the last 200 going towards the second warrior unit. However I might have to change my list up.

Played my first 750 game against Tyranids wiped out everything but his doom of malanti, which proceeded to kill my remaining scoring units and survive 5 instant death wounds to make it so it was a draw. CURSES

Love your take on the Lava bases I am still messing around on mine for ideas. I will try your ripple effect lava bases as I am gonna call it.

I painted up my first Deathwatch Dark angel guy today. I believe he turned out very well. The sword was my first attempt ever at a semi lightning theme. I did not have ice blue so I tried to recreate it with two shades of grey. I think it looks good, especially for a first attempt. Also here you can see what the model looks like with the bases I made earlier. A lot is obscured by the robes but still overall bonus it adds is substantial.




Kudos to Saints Swords for his article on painting black armor. The effect is really nice

Let me know if you want a breakdown of how I painted it. I will write down the steps in my next post on this unit as well as pictures of each step.

Started using privateer press primer and I have to say the stuff is amazing. It gets good coverage, easy to apply, sticks on metals. I handled some ravenors when I was gluing them to their base and the primer did not chip off(they are next on the painting block). The only downside I have found so far is that the coat is so smooth that any pieces that were on the sprue have a noticeable mark where you clipped them. This is why I prefer armory for all plastic models.
Armory has a semi grit like appearance that gives everything a textured appearance. It is perfect if your main painting style is dry brushing, layering is very easy and it will give a great look.


This effect was achieved by using armory primer and 3 layers of dry brushing. My shadow grey was too watery however and that is why there are places where it is solid color. This is best done with the Citadel Foundation range(Seriously this stuff is great for dry brushing)

I like that dark angel.

Thank you

To keep my self interested I need to remember that variety will keep the interest alive. I remember I had to get 100 guardsmen painted in time for a tournament in a month or two. I was burned out on painting for an entire year. However now everyday I get home I can't wait to paint(having a dedicated workstation really makes it a lot easier). Because I am looking forward to the next painting project. I need to finish my raveners so I can work on my deathwatch marines. After them I will work on my harpy(harpy might jump the gun a little bit because it has done SO well in every game I have used it.) It keeps me excited.





Here is an example of my tyranids paint scheme(Very much WIP on these guys). The base on the zoanthrope is me trying a much faster style. I like it a lot more. It also takes less than 1/10th the time to paint. I found that I need to get that final layer of black on them and then get a purity seal otherwise they will start to rub off. Going to try and get the raveners and zoanthrope done tonight as the amount of moving I have done with them is causing the paint to come off. Need to get them finished and varnished.

Munch that biomass.. feed the hunger.. watching with pains in the belly to how the mother is fed....

Well I got a trygon kit over the weekend and so I challenged myself to make two of them out of one. Since this was the inspiration behind the lava bases(Thought of trygon rising out of the lava inspired the trade) So I figured I would give it a shot. Here they are so far.






For the Mawloc I am going to have the lava flowing around it like it is swimming. What do yall think so far?