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Happy New Year everyone.

Hope you all ushered in the end of 2015 and the dawn of 2016 in some truly heroic and spectacular fashion. We hosted a small gathering where we discovered our home is not suitable for 18 month old twins who decided our books needed to be rearranged on the ground amongst many other things. But we did learn that our three year old German short haired pointer is truly the most amazing dog alive as we suspected as the little girl was pulling on our dogs tongue for a lot of the evening and there wasn't the slightest growl or issue. . The new puppy hopefully will learn a thing or two.

But enough real world and a brief review of how the painting went in 2015.

- grew the blog from 6 pages of rambling to 16 pages.
- painted an ork trukk and 6 killa kanz to finish the orks off
- painted from start to finish an Eldar army, Ogre Kingdoms army and Tomb Kings army
- painted a whirlwind to bring the Iron Hands in line with the new codex
- did large group of forests and paper mâché pipe terrain
- painted a Phoenix, 20 silverhelms and 14 dragon princes to almost finish a high elf army (just missed one and a half dragons)
- painted 2 Primarchs

So I have been a busy boy and I was surprised how much I had actually completed. So my goals for 2016 are:

- grow the blog another 10 pages (need to post more)
- finish the high elves off
- after them I would like to get 4 complete armies in a calendar year. Almost did it last year. So this year I will try again.
- play more games, fantasy, KoW, 40k, AoS, X-wing, not fussed what just more games
- complete either another blood bowl team OR marienburg warband for mordheim

So plenty of ambition which I think is healthy. And I like having a list that I can use as a check.

Thanks for reading and wish me luck.

EDIT: I take it as an amazing sign that this post rolled me onto the 17th page. I will interpret that the spirits are with me in my cause.

A productive year, and good luck for the next! Any idea which armies are on the list for this year?

Well after the High Elves it's already been decided to be Tyranids. My wife would like to see a really lurid colour scheme; I think she suggested pink and orange. Could be a really startling scheme. But could be hard to make work.

Beyond that I was going to put it to a vote. But after the Nids will be another fantasy army so that is the only limitation.

Great work Archer. The Red Knights look fantastic, and very cheeky of you squeaking them in before the end of 2015! Good luck with 2016's goals. Though completing 3 and 3/4 armies in a year is still a pretty amazing feat, you have to admit!

Just took a read through your blog. I absolutely love everything you've done! I adore High Elves and yours are so amazing. I haven't had anytime for modeling in the past 6+ months as I have an attachment aka newborn baby, and your blog is really lighting a fire under me. I'm really itching to pick up the brush again and start working on the massive pile of unopened boxes of models.

Super excited to see how you get along this year. Best of luck and happy painting! I will be following you like a creepy fan.

Happy New Year!

Lots of ambition, and lots to look forward to, this is going to be a great year.

Fantastic stuff lately, that Horus is awesome

I really like your blue dragon princes (the red ones are cool too, but I like blue more so..yeah), were those black with blue highlights or is their darker color a really dark blue? Whatever you did, it looks cool and I kind of want to steal it for my infinity Pan O

Thanks everyone. Welcome aboard bunnygurl. Hope you can get into the painting groove. We haven't any children yet, but have added a new puppy to our animal collection and she is keeping us on our toes and sleep deprived.

I to prefer the blue guys Grim, the red just didn't work as well as I hoped. They start as a very dark blue. Old GW paint called midnight blue. Then three successive highlights of blue.

Will be picking the brush back up today and hoping to get the first dragon (who was half done at the end of last year) finished soon.

Thanks for reading.

Howdy all,

I have been trying to get the first dragon finished off, but unfortunately I allowed myself to get distracted by assembling the second one. Below are a couple of comparison photos of the two dragons (and yes the one with paint is literally a rider and some snow on the base away from being finished).


So they are pretty shonky photos, but you get the idea that the second dragon is rearing up. Note that the rock it is standing on is the same height (roughly) as the plastic one supplied with the dragon. So it is a fair bit taller than the first one.


I have made modifications to the wings (bent them in several places and have them pitched at a higher angle), the head has had a couple of changes (its jaw was broken and closed a little and the neck twisted so its looking down and to the left) and obviously it is rearing up on the rock rather than leaping off. Oh and I have bent the tail around with 5 seperate cuts....

So hopefully they will look different from each other apart from the different paint jobs.

But.....

The main reason for this post is chasing some Tyranid models (as they will be the next army on the painting table). So if anyone has any of the following are willing to negotiate a deal (probably be easier if you are in Oz) let me know.......I would prefer no paint if possible, but I am happy to see whats out there.

Tervigon (this will be converted to have the Miasma Cannon)

3 Venomthropes
3 Pyrovores

1 Tyranid Warrior with Lash Whip and Bonesword (yep, one measly Tyranid Warrior, I have the other 11)

2 Tyrannofex's (one will have a Rupture Cannon and the other will have a Fleshborer Hive)

Thanks for reading and hope you like where the Dragons are at.

Happy New Years, mate! I hope the year treats you well. It has certainly been a treat to be able to follow this blog for the past year. It's pretty amazing the amount of work you can get done in 12 months.

 Archer wrote:
- play more games, fantasy, KoW, 40k, AoS, X-wing, not fussed what just more games

If you have any interest, I would recommend Dropzone Commander. I just started playing DZC this year, and I love it. It's a different scale, which mixes up your painting routine, and the rules are really solid. If you have a community near you, I would give it a try

As for the dragons, nice work on the conversion. They definitely look like different models and not just the same dragon copy-pasted. I'm looking forward to seeing what you role out for 2016. Especially the nids, as that is my main army! If you go with pink and orange, all I can say is that at least the paint scheme will be interesting

Agreed those dragons are real nice, the near finished one is superb, and the other definitely looks different enough.

Very much looking forward to seeing what you are upto in the next year.

The dragons are looking ace - particularly as two distinct models from the same kits!

Thanks all. I still have some green stuff to smooth out and add again as a top coat. But it is almost ready for me to start painting.

Need to get back into the rider and then I can show off the first dragon.

Hope to find some Tyranids really soon so I can get into them. Then again I have 80 odd termagants to get through already in stock.....

Forgive this post as it will be a little bit of a photo bomb, but let there be dragons.......or at least one at this stage:


I was a little concerned initially that the mage blended into the dragon (which my Wife pointed out to me). But I kind of like the fact they are integral to each other. They are both creatures of fire and from certain angles it looks like the wings are sprouting from the mage rather than the dragon.


I went for a sort of render look for the base rather than it being solid stone as it allowed me to get another colour onto the model.


I was going to do a similar blend that I did on the Phoenix, but thought better of it as I wanted the models to not look like they just copied each other which as large winged monsters i was afraid it would so I went with a semi glossed look to the membranes.


I chose blue to add a little difference to the model (and ties in with the Blue Dragon Princes slightly). I also experimented with a different way to do gems on this guy and I think it worked really well considering it only takes three paints to do.......


I stuck with the reds and golds of the Dragon Princes as I figure this is the leader of that particular group. Although I went with red gems rather than blue ones.


Not a very steady photo, but it shows I went with a green eye like the phoenix and glossed it up a little.


I am happy with the base and am really impressed with how dynamic this model is compared to some of the dragons of the past that were all exactly the same. Really keen to get the Dark Elf Dragon now......


In all its sweeping glory, I went with almost a complete copy of the Dragon Princes with a yellow underside and Red scaled armour. I chose to apply a gloss to the claws and horns to try and get them to look a little alien and stand out from the matt scales.


Here are the Red Dragon Princes and the Dragon.


I think they will look quite good charging across the table, until a cannon sorts out the Dragon.


This is the shot where it looks like the wings are sprouting from the Mage. I don't mind that too much at all.


So there you have my first of two Dragons for this army and I am now one Dragon away from finishing off the High Elves.

Which is important because it looks like Azazelx may be concoting some sort of painting motivation scheme that I want to get in on the ground floor for as I need a boost to motivation when I look at all those Termagants ahead of me.......

Thanks for looking and as always let me know your thoughts.

Beautiful work sir.

So I have finally finished the second Dragon for my High Elves and I have a lot to get through so won't bore you with idle chatter (this time....)


I am REALLY happy with the reposing and most of the paint. It has been a long time since I worked with greenstuff, but I enjoyed it a great deal so am planning to continue into the future armies.


I lost my way a little with the Lord's colours, but he is such a small part of the model I figure I can get away with him looking a little hodge podge. Plus he has a massive shield to hide behind.


I went for a more bronze rather than gold for the armour and I think it matches the scales and skin a lot better than pure, bright gold would have.


I figure that as Dragons age they get "cooler" hence his scales have darkened and underbelly has lost the youthful yellow of the previous dragon.


I had to put big slits into the wings to curl them like I have and I am happy to report between the green stuff and paint the joins are almost invisible.


Really happy with my new gem technique so for the bulk of models its going to become my go to formula. At least until I run out of the paint I am using.

So there he is, a different colour and a fairly different pose from the other dragon. Looks a bit more regal I think, surveying the field like a canny general unlike his hot blooded brother who is diving into the fray. But of course this means I have now finished this army and its time for the full army shot........


Its a truly tiny army and I would really like to give it a go, maybe not against a horde army, but then again, they tend to have poor leadership.......


I have played with the idea of combining the Dragon Princes into a single regiment, can always do that if I find they are too vulnerable in the smaller units I suppose. But I think the enemy has bigger things to worry about.


So the Lord of the army on his faithful steed.


Somewhat dubious magic support from the Dragon Mage, so I think I will just play him super aggressive, at least until I get sick of him catching cannon balls.


The faithful core of the army, my two units of Silverhelms, I figure each will be supported by a group of Dragon Princes for mutual protection.


The Special choices, I have high hopes for these guys, but at least they will do whatever it is they end up doing looking good. I mean isn't that what its all about?


And finally, which is ironic as he was the first painted, is the rare Flamespyre Phoenix. I can't even remember what his rules are, so good luck to him when I take him to battle.

So there you have it. The 8th army down and I am moving back into the future and as I have said it is going to be those that crawl (and scurry and jump and lope) the Tyranids........

Which brings me to this:


I knocked this test piece out in about 15 minutes. What is the general thoughts on the colour scheme (I only realized after that it is pretty close to my Eldar one. But I like those colours).


I want to give the weapon symbiotes a different scheme to make them really obvious as different creatures, especially as some of the creepy devils have eyes of their own.

Would really appreciate some thoughts on the scheme as I want to get cracking on Az's tale of gamers and I am already half a month behind. (my next post will include the army list as tradition dictates).

Thanks for reading.

What a fantastic army! Awesome work!

I like the nid scheme, the only thing I'm not sold on is the glossiness of the purple. I would say have either the carapace or the flesh glossy, but matt down the other one. That's just nitpicking, though, it still looks really cool!

I think your elf army may be my favorite Archer army to date. Great theme, super elite force of elven riders, dragons, and even a freaking phoenix. Great stuff. I really like the color choices too, striking and interesting for sure.

I think the gant looks fine. It's a good shade of green and the spots and purple make it look pretty cool. As long as it's not a pain to paint

The army shot looks really cool Archer, great to see all the models together.

That Dragon army looks fething amazing. Both dragons are really bloody impressive and I'm constantly amazed at how quickly you turn out such fantastic looking models and armies. Thoroughly impressed!

The 'nid on the other hand... if I'm honest, the scheme looks a little bit garish to me. It might be the super-bright green, or maybe it's the combination of green and purple... maybe both - too much brightness and contrast at once?

Yes it seems I have missed the mark on the Nid scheme. On another forum there isn't much support for it either. Therefore I am having to rethink.

I want to achieve a darker skin tone and bright armoured plates (which I didn't do so well with this scheme). I am thinking along the lines of: dark grey, almost black skin with bright orange armour. I think I have seen it done somewhere before. Thoughts?

Very cool dragons. I really like the test scheme for the kids too.

Keep posting cool stuff and I'll help you achieve your goal of getting 10 more pages on the plog!

EDC

 Archer wrote:
Yes it seems I have missed the mark on the Nid scheme. On another forum there isn't much support for it either. Therefore I am having to rethink.

I want to achieve a darker skin tone and bright armoured plates (which I didn't do so well with this scheme). I am thinking along the lines of: dark grey, almost black skin with bright orange armour. I think I have seen it done somewhere before. Thoughts?

Do you have Dawn of War 2 by any chance?

So I did a couple of quick and very dirty samples. I like both but will reserve my opinion so as to not influence people......

I have stuck with the gun being a different beast and therefore, painted it a different scheme.





Thoughts?

Thanks for reading.

Just be aware that this orange/black grey combo will make the tyranid underneath the carapace hard to see.

Of those two I prefer the black carapace/red underneath. If you like a darker underside to the orangey carapace you could go for like a burnt cadmium red/dark chestnut. You wouldn't have as much of a traditional complimentary colour issue causing it to be garish, and the deep red would probably look quite desaturated compred to the brighter orange. Go brown for the shading of the cadmium red/chestnut and to a yellowish orange for the carapace if you want to increase the contrast. That combo would also look reasonably organic/naturalistic to a degree as well.

Just thinking ideas out loud!

Oh I did once upon a time have Dawn of War 2 and I take it you are getting at the cool little army painter function?

yes, a cool easy way to try out a bunch of colour combos

I definitely prefer the black carapace. Was thinking orange as the base, brown as the shade and a lighter orange as a highlight. Then black shell with a very light grey highlight and MAYBE some spots, maybe.

That works. With the black you can go for the yellowish spots that you had earlier and have it look great. Hell, you could (bear with me here) fleck yellow/mustard/ochre spots on with a toothbrush from above and it would probably look awesome. You know how people do blood spatter? Like that. But with yellow on the black(ish) carapace.

Wow, that elf army looks so good when its all together. Small, elite, and hopefully deadly Great work on the armor especially. The bronze color looks very interesting.

I'm glad you changed the color scheme for your nids. I really disliked the purple and green scheme. But I think the orange and grey/black looks a lot better.

Looking forward to see how this army comes together