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 Captain Brown wrote:
They are really starting to look fine gobert
Cheers,
CB

Thanks Captain, their edging closer now!

Another F1 weekend where I retreat to the loft to watch Quali and the race whilst getting some hobby time in too. Tonight I got the Tacticals pretty much done too;

I tried a new recipe for the plasma (thanks Midwinter Minis), it’s turned out ok I think, not quite as bright as I’d hoped. All that’s left is a highlight on the Sgts helmet stripe and a few touch ups to their base ornaments. I’m quite liking the dead Eldar head the guy on the right is holding and the blood oozing down and pooling by his feet. Grim!

Thanks for looking, I reckon these guys will be done tomorrow night

 Olthannon wrote:
Excellent stuff Gobert, that poor Eldar looks brilliant very impressive highlighting.

Cheers, I’m glad you spotted the highlighting, it was mainly bone colours with mixes of Agrax and druchi, then plenty of blood from orifices. There were a couple of mixes of that too with purples and browns and near army painted blood effects. Aka fun messing about !

Whilst watching the race tonight I slapped on the last few bits of paint, mainly just bones on a couple of bases and highlighting the Sgts helmet stripe. And here they are;






And since they needed putting away, here’s a couple from their shelf with their squad mates;


Plus an army shot

And one of the guys poking this gun out

After I finished them I finished building a few more tactical marines for the 3rd squad

And tidied up the shoulder pads of the Assault Bike Marines

Finally a few days back I dragged some RTB01 marines out of their dettol bath and they slipped out of their old paint jobs

I also tried isopropyl alcohol on the terminators I bought last week. I was worried They were painted with enamels, but I think it was just a glossy acrylic varnish. They only soaked for an hour or two whilst I cleaned the RTB01 boys, but most of their paint came off pretty well. It requires a good bit more scrubbing than dettol but I was happy enough, especially as the smell is much less obnoxious than dettol! I set them back to soak to get the last bits from the deepest most thickly painted recesses and will give them a once over later this week. They could do with breaking down to their components as most were shoddily assembled with the sprue connectors still attached preventing parts joining. Still they were pretty cheap (£10 for a squad of 5).

Speaking of cheap I also splashed out on some reinforcements for the Demi company, adding a Chaplain, Librarian and a Rhino for about £33. All are assembled but unpainted, and look to have been better put together than the terminators.

I think that brings us up to date with gobert related hobbying

Thanks for looking!

 Ragsta wrote:
Hello Gobert

Cracking army shot, you’re really making me want to restart a metallic bling Marine force!

In your hobby area you have a white display unit for some of your oh so fun projects - May I ask what the unit is?

Nice to see you back at it! I am hoping to find my motivation around here at some point!!

Hey Ragsta,
it’d cool to see another bling marine force, hopefully the hobby motivation returns and we ge to see some awesomeness!
My shelf unit is a cheapo from Amazon but I modified it quite a bit. I added some hinged plastic sheet for the doors and extra mdf shelves to fit more stuff in.

Here’s its original sparse self

And mid way through upgrade

Then a more recent one showing the details of the hinges

It’s pretty shoddy and I could do better if I didn’t rush and spent a bit of money. That said, it fills the brief of enough space to store and display all of my minis whilst keeping the dust off them. I am already planning g the next expansion.

I’ve got 3 options; modify the current shelf to be triangular (least favourite), a long display along the back wall of the worktop, or a triangular display cabinet above the wooden bit behind the current shelves (favourite). I need to paint more minis first though!

Olthannon wrote:Absolutely supoib! Love to see all the army shots, your Panthers look fantastic. Really nice work on the lenses.

You have an excellent collection of minis, some lovely classics!

Thanks Olthannon! Sometimes being old has its benefits, like having bought classic minis!

Captain Brown wrote:Having the space to place a tray to move figures to as you remove them from the cabinet to play should not be written off.
My two cents,
CB

It’s a rare moment to be removing minis to play with, but I’ve made the shelves all removable too, so they are already on trays

A bit of hobby tonight, slapping some paint on a mini that’s a reimagining of a classic that I never owned;

So far just the 3 main colours (Mephiston Red, Eshin Grey and Zandri Dust) and then a druchi violet wash all over. Whilst I’m back underway with her, I’m not sure what colours I’m ultimately going to use. The main decision is on her belly glass, so any thoughts are welcome

Cheers for looking!

Just a minor update tonight. No progress on the Zoat, still can’t figure a colour scheme for her. As a result I went on a building spree. First I fixed up the second half of tactical squad 3,

Most of them even had pad emblems ready to go. I’m really pleased with the lad in the centre’s pose, I think it’s up there with the Space Marine Heroes. Some of their bases turned out pretty well, using cut up bits of 25mm bases that came with the the 40mm for the Terminators.

In the background there’s also the Rhino I got on eBay. It had a decent bit of work; filling gaps, filing panels, opening the back door & top hatch and removing lots of inquisition iconography. I still have a few bits I want to do with it, like add another front hatch and probably some 3d printed Void Panther iconography.

Next I gave the Chaplain and the Librarian new 32mm bases;


The librarian is from Kill Team Cassius, so had his Blood Raven and Inquisition iconography removed. I also put together the bits of the Techmarine that I kitbashed, he needs some mechadendrites creating when I can print a suitable cable roller.

I finished up the evening with the command squad

I think I’ll do some work on their bases, but they’re pretty decent otherwise. I might do the Devastator squad next so most of the army will be ready for priming.

Thanks for looking

 Syro_ wrote:
I personally like your modifications to your shelf. If building display space onto that wooden back section is your favorite, then it makes sense to pursue that one. And hopefully in the future you will need to make the one along the back wall too

Thanks syro, the shelving unit gets better with every mini that occupies it I think you’re right, though the wooden area will be a more challenging project… and yes, ultimately I’d like to do both!

My building spree carried on tonight with some work on my Terminators. I finished cleaning them this afternoon but, boy, do they need plenty of work! The person that built them used a strong glue, but put them together with the sprue tabs still on in places. That means as well as getting the legs off to try for a better pose I’m also having to split the torso, both of which are proving tricky! I’ve got a few torsos separated and rebuilt, but I decided to concentrate on some of my duplicate Space Marine Heroes;

The Thunder Hammer duplicate has become the regular Terminator squads Sergeant by getting the other duplicates’ Storm Bolter and the eBay rescue Terminator Sergeants Power Sword. I quite like the pose, it keeps some of the dynamism of the Heroes range but is a bit different. The other duplicate will be getting some Lightning Claws from the rescued Assault squad. I’ve also mocked up a running rescue Marine with the duplicates Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. I still have a duplicate Power Fist to throw in to the regular squad.

I’m then not sure what to do sight the remaining rescue Marines. I think I’ll do another Squad to go with the Cyclone Missile Launcher Hero, but need a couple more Storm Bolters and a Sergeants weapon. I’d also like to use the Sergeant legs hiding in the back of the pic, but I need to get his head out and find a helmet as I can’t seem to separate them from the torso.

I’m still struggling for Zoat motivation, so will probably carry on building for a while, and don’t be surprised to see something else getting paint first.

Thanks for looking

I’ve been continuing to fettle with the Terminators, adding a few bits to the Space Marine Heroes twins. I think they’re far enough away from their originals now, but will be getting some basing work done too. I also threw together a Sergeant for the extra squad I’ll be building too.



The new Sgt is using a sword I had got in a bunch of Dark Angels bits I got a while back. I also solved my Stormbolter shortage and found an extra pair of legs to mix things up some more.

I was hoping to have more to show, but the rescue of these eBay terminators is taking quite some effort. Thankfully I got them at a good price!

Not Online!!! wrote:
Rescues are always interesting.to witness.

What type of glue do you reckon the person used?

Thanks NotOnline, to be honest I’m not sure what glue they used. At first I thought it was poly cement, but it seems to be a layer on top of the plastic, not welding the pieces together. It also seems to leave a residue that my poly cement is not working on, so I guess some kind of super glue?

Carrying on the theme of terminator builds I have now finished off the build of the 3 squads;

First up is the Assault Terminators. Thanks to my bad photo composition you can’t see one of the Thunder Hammers, but I think he has a decent running pose, well, as much as a Terminator can run!

Second is the regular squad. These guys had a little more work, and I’m pleased how the regular marine came out. His legs had the sergeant crux on them, but I shaved it off and filed it down as he’s just a regular Terminator.

And finally here’s the squad to go with the Cyclone launcher dude. The guy at the back and the guy on the left have a few extras from the Dark Angels bits I got a while back. In fact the guy at the back has legs from that kit too, albeit with the DA icons shaved off. They’re not as dynamic as the SMH boys, but I’m happy enough with them.

Looking through my bits I think I’m 1 body and 8 arms from having enough bits for another squad… maybe when this lot is painted?

No pics as yet, but I’ve also started make the master mould for their shoulder pad icons. I’ll try to remember pics next time. That might be a while though as I’m away with work next week (Zoat will be travelling with me) and at the weekend I’m helping my brother in law destroy their kitchen and rip up their floor (if we don’t get it done, I’ll probably be back there the following weekend too!) ready for builders to arrive.

That’s it for now, thanks for looking!

 mcmattila wrote:
Always great to see new Panthers! I'm very impressed by that plasma glow on the sarge's pistol. Looking forward to seeing that command squad painted!

Thanks mcmatilla, the glow was just following the recent Midwinter Minis guide. It was pretty simple but gives a decent glow effect, particularly in the photos

I’m currently away with work, but have brought a few bits with me to get some progress on the Zoat.

Last night I decided to layer rather than dry brush her scales… because I’m crazy! That and ultimately I want different shades of red in different areas. To be honest, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting, and so far looks quite good. I’m thinking of oranges for the scales and bone highlights for the chitinous areas. Depending what time I get back from dinner I might throw some paint at her tonight too.

Thanks for looking


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I got back from dinner at a sensible time and managed to make some good progress on the Zoat.

First I took the mix of reds up from Mephiston, Adding Evil Sunz Scarlet, Blood Angels Orange and Fire Dragon Bright. I kept the same pool of paint and added lighter colours, with each layer being smaller and covering fewer scales each time.

Most from this view have had the lightest colours applied.


Next I start d a new mix, working from Mephiston, adding more and more Zandri Dust for the solid looking scales on her legs and the under belly chitin.

In this pic it’s easier to see that I applied a base layer over the armoured areas before calling it for the night. It needs another few layers, but im feeling the motivation the get her done now!

Thanks for looking

 Olthannon wrote:
Fupping excellent Gobert! Really nice contrast on the zoat skin. Terminators look great too, always love to see them. Such cool minis.

Thanks Olthannon, she’s turned out better than I had hoped. I’d stalled on ideas for quite a while, and I’m nearly at the limit of ideas I had. I’m edging towards turquoise as her 3rd colour now. I saw someone doing a Space Marine Heroes Terminator on instagram, and it’s got me keen to do something with mine.

A productive week away for work and hobby came to a grinding halt in the ridiculous queue at Köln/Bonn Airport yesterday. Arrived in plenty of time but the queue was longer than the time available and about half of the passengers missed the flight! So if you’re thinking of flying from CGN, check for other flights or arrive about 4 hours before your flight. On the plus side I always enjoy train journeys, it’s just a civilised way to travel even if I’m getting home 20 hours late!

Anyway, rant over, here’s some hobby… I got a good bit done on the Zoat, you saw my last post getting the skin done and on the last intended evening I highlighted the armour;



Next will be highlighting the black bits and then to tackle the tummy glass which I will do with a turquoise glow if nobody has better ideas. That’ll probably have to wait for next weekend as I’m knackered and not home yet!

Not Online!!! wrote:That is an awesome Red and scales.

Thanks Not Online, they were fun to do, if slower than drybrushing.

youwashock wrote:Great work, gobert! The armor is looking really good paired with that lovely red. I think going teal/turquoise is a good call for the belly plate.

Cheers youwashock, it was somewhat inspired by the red Zoat on warcom, and as you’ll see i swapped the OGs green with turquoise.

The Red Hobbit wrote:Ah a red Zoat, I'm so used to seeing the green one I never consider other colors.

Yeah, they’re a rare breed the red ones! Rumour has it they’re faster too…

Captain Brown wrote:Zoat is looking good gobert.
Cheers,
CB

Thanks cap!

Olthannon wrote:That cream armour looks spot on, lovely contrast.

Cheers Olthannon, I’m liking the tinting of everything with purple, it helps with the contrast a bit too I feel.

So it’s been a while. Last weekend was spent beasting myself by helping my Brother-in-law rip out their kitchen and lift what must’ve been a few tons of tiles. As a result no mid week painting happened and tonight was the first night I felt like it. I ended up getting the Zoat all but done too. I started with the greys, building them up to an off white, sticking with the mixing the lighter colour in to the previous colour and having a bit of druchi purple to keep the tones similar. I went quite pale for a high contrast, but didn’t stray to NMM. Then I had fun with the belly plates, vials and gems. Starting with a turquoise wash, then adding white in a squiggly pattern and repeating, before finishing with an even lighter turquoise wash. The final touch was to paint her toe nails, first brown then adding Zandri Dust;




Th belly glow isn’t what I’d originally envisaged, but I quite like it, so it’s staying. Hope you guys like her!

Thanks for looking

theCrowe wrote:I like the belly glow. It gives the impression that there’s lots of motion going on in there. Lots of little lights floating around in there as opposed to one big glowy glow. Great work.

Thanks theCrowe, I had originally intended to go for bigger gloss, but somehow ended up with smaller ones that looked a bit like they were moving and leaving a trail so stuck with them.

Viterbi wrote:Amazing work on the Zoat! Always fun to see all the different color schemes on such a great mini.

She’s a really cool mini, I really wasn’t convinced to begin with, but glad I pushed through

Olthannon wrote:Hot damn, love the glowy tum tum, it looks galactic!

I have to say I love the mini, it looks so alien, especially the gun. Your colour scheme is so impressive, I'm glad you went with this in the end instead of the green.

Thanks Olthannon, I like how she’s a throwback to being a Tyranid emissary in this colour scheme… maybe I should take a snap of her next to my gaunts?

Not Online!!! wrote:Great job on the belly indeed!

cheers Not Online

youwashock wrote:Love it. You really killed this one, gobert. The armor, the red, the belly plate, the back of the glove. All around awesome work.

Thanks youwashock, I hoped you would like her, given your Zoat affinity. She’s been fun and relatively quick (for me!)

The Red Hobbit wrote:Hopefully 3x faster

I like the belly glow on the Zoat. And I can comiserate with the tile work, nothing quite destroys the knees like replacing tile.

Definitely! . Amazingly the knees were just about ok, it’s been my right hand and elbow from all of the hammer blows. The concrete under floor went down on Thursday, so I imagine I’ll be heading back some time in November to help lay the tiles.

Mrs gobert is away this weekend, so I got stuck in with some hobby work and got the Zoat finished! I also rebased the Escalation explorers on 3d printed bases. It’s the Zoat we’re all here for though, so full fat pics incoming;






I’m really pleased with this colour for the base too, it’s probably my favourite colour I’ve done. It started with deadly nightshade, then ultramarine blue, enchanted blue and a final highlight with white mixed in. She’s been a great mini to paint, trying a few new things.

Here are the Escalation explorers now they have their new bases;






With those guys all done I only have the 2 guardian drones to paint for a complete Blackstone Fortress set including the expansions. That said I’ve just started printing the terrain for the expansions, so that’ll keep me on the BSF fix for some time to come.

Not sure what I’ll paint next, in the primed drawer I have the second half of my jump pack assault squad, Space Marine Heroes Series 3 plague marines, some khorne chaos warrior dudes and the Tiranoc Chariot to finish off my High Elves. I’m away again with work, so it might be good to have something easy to take with me.

Thanks for looking

As promised, I managed a little more hobby time tonight as well. I settled on the Void Panthers assault Squad;

So far it’s just been the purple and gunmetal over the airbrushed gold. I’ll hopefully get some more stuff done when they come away with me next week.

Thanks for looking

Not Online!!! wrote:Great job Gobert on the Zoat and the explorators.

And as always the void panthers look overly snazy

Thanks Not Online, I’m pleased how they came out. The Panthers in their current state are a bit less snazzy…

Olthannon wrote:Brilliant stuff Gobert. All of the Blackstone Fortress models are excellent.

Looking forward to more Panthers!

Thanks Olthannon, Blackstone Fortress has been a really enjoyable painting journey for me, it’s a shame that the official minis are nearing an end… just had a thought that I should look up the minis for the White Dwarf missions in the meantime, the void panthers are here!

I’m currently away with work again, this whole post covid thing is getting things almost back to normal. This time I’ve brought a bunch of assault marines with me and tonight i got them to the wash stage;

I do like their dirty look at this stage, maybe when I get to their mid corruption units I’ll do some in similar colours to this? I’ve also just realised that I hadn’t done the wash on the jump packs, so will do that before heading to bed

Thanks for looking

 Ragsta wrote:
That Zoat looks awesome, you really worked some magic with that colour scheme, mate. Nice basing effort too, I like the highlighting work on those floor ‘gems’.

Thanks Ragsta, I’m pleased you like the Zoat. I was dubious for a while, but really like how she’s turned out in the end. And yeah, the gems on the floor look better for a bit of extra highlighting work, thanks for noticing!

 Ezki wrote:
Really digging the colors on the Zoat!
And the Escalation Explorers look absolutely stunning with those bases
Keep up the good work!

Thanks Ezki, the scheme came out nicely in the Zoat in the end! What I love about the printed bases is how easy they are to paint; a few dry brushed shades and a bit of black and their mostly done, unless I add blood splatter!

So I’ve been absent for quite some time. Later the night of my first post I was taken out by a bout of food poisoning that floored me for nearly a week. Then I got smashed with a cold that got in to my sinuses and that took care of the next couple of weeks too. I’m still suffering, but had a day off yesterday so I decided to play with my airbrush and base coat the rest of my Necrons but what a faff I had!

I managed to get them done, but with lots of clogging and splattering I don’t think I saved any time compared to just brush painting. I think Ive got a decent routine to clean it now at least! I’ve watched quite a few videos, but it’s still quite frustrating. It could be that the paint didn’t help (Leadbelcher air), as I hear metallics are quite fussy with airbrushes. At first all I got was splatter, but when I thinned it 50:50 with thinner it would work for a while, but with a very tight arc so basecoating still took a while!

I was thinking of a zenithal of iron breaker or Mithril silver, but not sure I can handle the faff, so I might just go for good old fashioned dry brushing. Similarly I had though of applying the contrast by airbrush, but I might go with brush of that too. The Monster brush that came with my speed paint set is really great for that sort of thing.

As ever, thanks for looking!

It seems that I’m back on the wagon, and threw some drybrush highlights at the Necron. The iron breaker heavy dry brush added some shine to them;

As they’ll be getting a good contrasting, I added a more zenithal dry brush of Mithril Silver;

I’m pretty happy with their shine now, so they’re ready for the John Prins mix of contrast. I reckon I’ll split them into smaller groups for the next stages

Thanks for looking

Sherrypie wrote:Looking good with those BF explorers. The little glows on the zoat stand out nicely amidst the rest of the warm colours.

Thanks sherrypie, the Escalation minis are really cool. Yeah, I like how the glow contrast her skin tone so well.

Olthannon wrote:Wow that's quite the necron horde. Looking forward to your progress, good luck!

Yeah, I seem to be falling in to the batch painting on them too

A bit more painting was had tonight (penultimate painting with F1 on the computer of the year) and instead of going back to finish off the void panthers or even finish my Elves I cracked on with the Necrons!



It took a little while to get the mix of contrast:medium right, so the scarabs and a couple of the warriors are a bit on the dark side compared to the originals. I can live with that, and made some good progress getting the scarabs, warriors, deathmarks, immortals and Lychguard contrasted up. I’m looking forward to seeing the murder buckets in their spooky green next time out.

In other hobby news, I’ve finally rearranged my desk, so I now have a permanent hobby set up and permanent work set up. Hopefully that will mean more quick sessions of painting.

Thanks for looking!

 Olthannon wrote:
Nice little update, keep cracking on.

I've had zero motivation recently, I'm struggling to "batch"paint two models!

Thanks Olthannon, I think most of us feel the motivation pain from time to time. Hopefully you can get past the troublesome twosome.

I’m hoping to get some more progress on the Necrons tonight, but I’m trying to figure out what to do on the Doom Sycthe. Should I paint the central bit black and the arms green, or vice versa, or keep it green all over with just the weapons and trim in black? Any quick fire ideas welcome too!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I did get a bit of painting in tonight and got the green done on all of the Necrons;

As can be seen i went for green all over. I’m still not sold and the contrast looks quite blotchy over such large flat surfaces. I might need to redo at least some of it, I’ll see how it dries and then decide what to do. Maybe through the airbrush it will work better, but that would rely on me getting the hang of that!

Opportunity to paint will be slim for a while as I’m away with work next week and we have guests the next 2 weekends. I might take the panthers on tour and see if I manage to get anything done on them.

Thanks for looking

I’ve been plodding away with the Necrons, the other night I finished the black;

I also took some closer pics to show how they look individually;
Warriors

Deathmark and Immortal

Lychguard and Cryptothrall

Skorpekh Destroyers

Plasmancer and Royal Warden

Plasmancer again and Plasmacyte

Canoptek Reanimator & Overlords

And finally the Doom Scythe

I’m thinking the scythe is a little boring right now but I’m hoping some glow will bring it to life.

Thanks for looking

Syro_ wrote:I like how those Necrons are looking. It must take forever to paint that whole group together.

Thanks syro, it really does take a while, each stage takes a good few hours at my pace. I do feel it’s more efficient than painting in smaller groups though.

Olthannon wrote:The Necrons are really coming together. I'm sure the Doom Scythe will look awesome when it's done.

Thanks Olthannon. On the doom scythe I’m still wondering if I’d have been better doing a part of it black, but knowing me I’ll stick with it now

Theophony wrote:That Blued steel look is fantastic

Thanks Theo, John Prins was the recipe originator from one of his Christmas armies.

Sadly I’ve not made any progress on anything hobby related, despite finishing work early this year. Hopefully you’ve all had a good Christmas holiday and Santork got you something nice. I got a couple of paints from my kids, which I’ll be putting to good use soon hopefully! As I’m unlikely to do any painting I’ve the next couple of days I’ll be posting a year in review shortly, which will be quite a bit to get through this year!

Thanks for the encouragement through the year!

As promised here’s my year in Review

January
Started the year with a bang, getting the BSF Plague Marines and a bunch of BSF terrain done




February
Keeping up the rapid progress I finished a 5 man Assault Squad for my Void Panthers

Then Aradia Madellan from Blackstone Fortress Escalation

March
I then took a detour from GW and painted up the minis from Bill & Ted’s Riff In Time game using mainly the new Speed Paints from Army Painter

Neyam Shai Murad was the last of the Blackstone Fortress Escalation minis and one of my favourites of the year

I then elected to do a massive batch of High Elves, but I snook in a Blackstone Fortress themed dice tower first

April
Nothing finished, a few Panthers and Necrons built and the slog of the Elves carried on
May
The Archers were the first Elves to be finished

And the High Elves got a little display board

June
A quiet month mainly spent building Necrons
July
Not much direct hobby but I build some storage for my miniatures stuff and 3d Printer

August
I finally finished the High Elf Spearmen having sourced a few extra shields

These guys got a touch up too

September
The Void Panthers 2nd Tactical squad was finished, I really like how the Space Marine Heroes Sergeant conversion turned out.

I also built pretty much all of the remaining Void Panthers having splashed out on a bunch of Terminators, HQ selection and a Rhino
October
The Archivist Zoat was my penultimate Blackstone Fortress project (those Guardian drones will be a 2023 thing

The Escalation explorers got this proper bases too;

November
I did a bit of work on some Void Panther Assault Marines, but got distracted with some Necrons
December
Not much beyond a bit of progress on the Necrons thanks to DIY, family visits and pestilence

Overall I’m pleased with the quantity and quality of my outputs. The former was certainly helped by the simplicity of the Blackstone Fortress terrain, but it looks great too. I also think some of my best work to date was with Neyam and the Zoat.

As far as goals for 2023 go, I’d like to get my High Elves, Blackstone Fortress minis and Necrons finished. The Elves only have the Tiranoc Chariot to go, so should be quite fun. The Blackstone Fortress stuff only needs the Guardian Drones to complete the collection, which if I follow the scheme I used on the Spindle Drones won’t take long at all. After the current batch is done I’ll only have the Tomb Blades (I forgot about them ) to do for the Necrons. I’ll obviously also continue with my Void Panthers, maybe even doing some work on the display board too. As for other projects, it’d be nice to do some Blood Angels, start on my Empire Army or Indomitus Dark Angels… so plenty to be getting on with. If I can hit triple digits of finished minis again I’d be very happy too!

That’s probably it from me for 2022. Hope you all have a good New Year and 2023 brings you plenty of hobby success!

Olthannon wrote:Merry holidays and all that Gobert. Hope you've had an excellent time. An excellent showing for 2022. Looking forward to seeing how you get on in 2023. All the best!

Thanks Olthannon, it was pretty good festive break even if the hobby time was lacking!

Not Online!!! wrote:That certainly was a productive year on your behalf.

Yeah, 133 is a good number, I think it would see me keeping ahead of purchases for the year I think… checking eBay and emails I think I only bought 18 minis last year, so made a sizeable dent in the pile of shame.

youwashock wrote:Great work this year, gobert. All of your BSF stuff is stellar.

Thanks youwashock, good to see you about. Looking back, I think the BSF stuff is my favourite collection.

Stevefamine wrote:Gobert great work with the elves! Thats a few hundred hours of work across the board!

Thanks Steve, yeah, they did take quite some time, so probably in to 3 figures of hours. Pretty scary when you put it like that!

Syro_ wrote:A nice recap of 2022 and a good start to 2023

Thanks Syro, a recap is good for the motivation I think. Look where you’ve come from, not what’s left to go, or something like that is the saying I think.

ph34r wrote:I like the storage solution/table/cabinet, and the color on the necrons is great too.

Thanks ph34r, it’s pretty handy, keeping everything tucked away and neat…ish

Captain Brown wrote:Now that is a horde of models painted last year gobert. Always good to see lots of painted models against the armies of grey.
Cheers,
CB

Thanks CB, it’s always good to slay the grey as it were!

darkkt wrote:That is some sweet sweet work in 2022 mate, and so much of it! Nicely done

Thanks darkkt, it was good to get some things off the desk, particularly the horde of Elves! Hopefully this year will be similar.

DoctorDanny wrote:Can we get an update on the necrons?

Sure thing, coming right up!

2023 has started very slowly on the hobby front. Part of that has been me being busy at work and not wanting to sit and paint. The main reason though I that whilst re-insulating and boarding our loft storage space I aggravated a sore elbow, which also makes my forearm sore, particularly when typing on my phone and also painting. As a result I’ve not been making fast progress. Looking back at pics I hadn’t shown the start of the glow on the Necrons;

Scarabs

Warriors

Deathmark and Immortal

Lychguard

Cryptothrall and Plasmacyte

Plasmancer and Royal Warden

Canoptek Reanimator


Despite my arm, I did do a bit of painting tonight, getting the glow started on this lot;

Overlords

Skorpekh Destroyers

And the Skorpekh Lord


Next will be the Croissant before starting the second stage of the glow

Thanks for looking

I’ve just realised that I forgot to mention that I’m underway on extending my Blackstone Fortress project after I remembered there were a few White Dwarf articles. As a result I’ve splurged and bought all the minis needed for them;
Solo Characters
Harlequin Solitaire
Eversor Assassin
Deathwatch Watch Master
Retinue Characters
Gren ’Knuckles’ Broggan, Ogryn Bodyguard
Dorg ‘The Wall’ Broggan, Bullgryn Sentry
Penitent 707, Arco-flagellant
Skarburn Zapdakka, Flash Git
Enemies
Astroth Mythrak, Master of Possession
2 x Greater Possessed

I managed to get a good deal on the Watch Master who also came with a squad of Intercessors (they’ll eventually join my Indomitus Primaris force). For the Broggan twins and Skarburn I ended up just buying retail boxes, so have a few extra minis to build too! At some point they’ll all join the Blackstone Fortress gang. The Master of Possession and Greater Possessed were a bit steep, but in for a penny in for a pound!

I did a wee bit on the doom croissant tonight

Not Online!!! wrote:
eery croissant. Carries your sheme quite well i say.

Thanks not online, I’m liking it now it’s getting its glow on, particularly the black and glowy filling

Got started on the second stage of glows, using heavily thinned Gauss Blaster Green as a wash to get the recesses. I got the wash on the Scarabs, Warriors, Deathmarks, Immortals and I made a start on the Lychguard. The shields took the wash particularly well I think, with the symbols on the front looking cool.

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Coming along well!

Thanks Gwyn, with a large batch like this it feels like it’s taking ages, but little by little they get closer to completion

Tonight was another little step closer, getting the Lychguard done (nearly forgot 1 but spotted him later on), same for the;

Cryptothralls, plasmacyte,


Plasmancer, Royal Warden,


Canoptek Reanimator, Overlord,


Indomitus Overlord, Skorpekh Lord


and Deatroyers;


I also made a start on the Doom Scythe

I had to stop mid 1/5 of the step through the croissant as I overloaded the vents, so had to position if so they dried at the bottom. On the plus side the photo show the different that the Gauss Blaster wash does for the glow effect.

Thanks for looking

Maharg wrote:Just caught up on your blog, great summary of last year, I think the elves are my favourite, I'm especially impressed you fought through the huge batch painting on those spears! Looking like we're in for another bumper year with the progress on the Necrons, and looking forward to seeing you expand on the Blackstone Fortress

Thanks Maharg, I’m really happy with the Elves en masse, it was on bell of a slog, but totally worth it! Hopefully the Necrons give me a good leg up this year too.

Olthannon wrote:Bloody excellent Gobert. Your colour scheme is dead good. I really like the croissant model, interesting design.

Thanks Olthannon, it’s a really cool colour scheme, I wish I could take full credit, but John Prins is the OG on the colours. I just tweaked the arrangement! Yeah the croissant is a cool and odd design

darkkt wrote:Great necrons - the croissant is very nice, and the guass blaster wash is a really cool effect.

Thanks darkkt, the Gauss blaster wash is dead easy and looks really good to my eye.

Not Online!!! wrote:The HQ carry your sheme really well. As does the infantry.

Thining down paints to washes has often really interesting effects.

Thanks Not Online, I’ll have to get some close ups once they’re all done

A good session was had tonight, I think I’ve pretty much got the minis themselves done. Though I did spot a few orbs and random base scarabs that I might go back and touch up. One of the big slogs and huge consumer of paints is the base coat on sanded bases, but I smashed it out in a single sitting whilst vaguely watching a few painting videos and a formula e race on YouTube. Here’s where they stand right now;

 Captain Brown wrote:
That was pretty fast for a full army gobert.
Cheers,
CB

It’s especially fast for me Captain!

I’m edging ever closer to the end of this little project. Over the past couple of days the stone bits on the bases got a mid grey applied. Then tonight I slapped on a dawnstone stipple and drybrush followed by Administratum grey. Next will be white to give it a nice cold and frosty look before I redo the scarabs on bases, fix up some missed glowy orbs, paint up the dead marines on the leaders bases (I’m thinking they’re Void Panthers) then lastly throw down some Valhallan Blizzard

Thanks for looking

 Olthannon wrote:
Fast and fierce work, they look fantastic. Like the ideas you have planned for the bases, looking forward to it. You'll have to do some close up shots when all's done!

Thanks Olthannon, glad you like my base plans, as you’ll see they did turn out to be dead Void Panthers. I’ll be sure to take some nice pics when they’re all done, but the OG squad of warriors was pretty hard to photograph with all the reflective surfaces

Last night I powered through a fairly long painting session despite my arm giving me pain. Annoyingly it seems the problem with my arm is exacerbated by painting minis, more than anything else. I went to a physio who gave me some tiny exercises that should be easy but are actually quite painful. Hopefully they’ll do the trick and I’ll be back to full capability soon.

Anyways, enough about my ailments and on to painting progress. I completely ignored my previous post and skipped a few steps to mainly focus on the bases. I started with a drybrush of white to add a frosty look. Next was a subdued version of my Void Panthers on the dead marines; Retributor Gold, Liche Purple, Black & Leadbelcher. Instead of the usual Nuln Oil Wash I went with Agrax to dirty them up. Then I stippled black around any gouges before adding some Blood for the Blood God in the open wounds. The hidden base scarabs got a Leadbelcher coat before the ghostly green wash. The missed orbs on the Skorpekhs got their first glow stage too. All of the bases got at least one spot of Valhallan Blizzard.

As they were finished I threw some black on the rims of a few bases, making 3 Scarab bases my first finished minis of 2023:

The rest aren’t too far off, there’s a few skulls on bases, and the orbs that I missed. There’s also a couple of bits of Kastallan robot on the Canoptek Reanimators base. The cape on Doom Croissant could do with a highlight too.

That’s all for now, Thanks for looking!

Captain Brown wrote:Keep at it gobert.
Hope the arm feels better.
Cheers,
CB

Thanks CB, being my dominant arm I can’t seem let it recover, so I figured I may as well get on with painting minis!

DJJazzyJeff wrote:Good luck with the healing process and your arm. The Necron force looks good. Dead Void Panthers? That's heresy! Certainly the Emperor's gold and purple guys would never fall to this xenos scum!
Nice work.

Cheers DJ, I’m sad to report but the Panthers ultimate fate is to morph in to my Black Legion. There’ll be a it more loyalist VP painting to come before that happens though!

Last night I managed to sneak in a bit of hobby time as Mrs gobert was out for a work dinner and I managed to smash through the bits I needed to finish off! The missed mini scarabs got the lit glow and orbs, the cape a highlight, the skulls painted, the Kastallan bits highlighted and all of the rims painted black. Here they all are!

I even took some smaller group and individual shots, but they’ll take AGES to edit and upload. For now you’ll have to make do with pics of the Scarabs (again, sorry) and the squad of Warriors:

In this one you can see the Void Panther leg poking out

And it’s heel

I think the glow and black orb combo works pretty well on these

Next are the Warriors


These new warriors have a great shambling horde look

There’s a couple of near duplicate pics extra in the gallery if you want more pics. If not, I’ll be posting the more interesting units over the next few days

As ever, Thanks for looking!