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.

Sweet bike squad! I don’t think I spotted on the original pair, but I like how the Marine clearly looks after his armour more than his bike. As for the Melta, if you hadn’t said it was a conversion, I’d have thought it was one of he metal bodied bikers. I too have broken many a Marine helmet antennae, but hadn’t spotted that even GW clipped them off the official pics!

 gobert wrote:
Sweet bike squad! I don’t think I spotted on the original pair, but I like how the Marine clearly looks after his armour more than his bike. As for the Melta, if you hadn’t said it was a conversion, I’d have thought it was one of he metal bodied bikers. I too have broken many a Marine helmet antennae, but hadn’t spotted that even GW clipped them off the official pics!

Cheers! That's a successful conversion then! Yeah, my reasoning for the weathering only on the bikes was something along those lines - it's more important to keep the armor tip top. Of course, the reason was that there's no weathering on any of my other troops, and there is on the one other vehicle (Dreadnought), and I wanted to keep things consistent.

---

Appropriately for Orktober, I've painted the two Boyz I showed last spring.



Both of them have minor conversions, but since I've talked about them previously, I won't be repeating myself (too much). On to the painting then! Well, not much to say about that either, as I tried to follow my orange color scheme and make these two models look like the rest of the Boyz. As with my Space Marine Bikers, there's a bit of difference between old and new models. With the Orks it's mostly in weathering and skin, which comes from developments in my brush control or painting habits. In some ways I like the old models a tiny bit more, but recognize that this is nitpicking and the newcomers fit right in with the old Boyz.



Nitpicking aside, I found painting these two models a lot of fun! It felt quick and I really like the results. Painting the metallics was satisfying as they all started out as (drybrushed) silver, and then I just slapped on some Contrast paints for the brass (Nazdreg Yellow) and copper (Guilliman Flesh). The helmet with the visor came out really nicely, and I almost forgot it isn't a stock part. Likewise, I liked how the hat came out, and I got more practice on painting simple freehand.



Kinda want to build a few more now... And I'm only three Boyz short of a full "mob"! Realistically speaking though, as I most likely won't be spray priming any new models before next spring, there probably won't be new Orks from me before next Orktober

Lovely Orks!! I like a lot the bright orange over the desaturated scheme, and the textured leather looks awesome.

Congrats on winning with the Dark Angel (amazing paintjob) and happy your bike squad is done now. Now they can finally ride in splendor into the sunset

Orks look great too that vibrant orange against the green skin really does it.

Happy Orktober! The new pair look great, it’s a shame you won’t be able to prime a few more until next year. Hopefully we’ll get treated to a full mob pic next Orktober?

muette wrote:Lovely Orks!! I like a lot the bright orange over the desaturated scheme, and the textured leather looks awesome.

Cheers! Yeah, the orange really pops doesn't it?

Viterbi wrote:Congrats on winning with the Dark Angel (amazing paintjob) and happy your bike squad is done now. Now they can finally ride in splendor into the sunset
Orks look great too that vibrant orange against the green skin really does it.

Much appreciated! Heh, ironically the bikers rode straight into a storage box... A shame, really, but once I get some more display space they'll come out. Or maybe I'll rotate the models on my display case..

gobert wrote:Happy Orktober! The new pair look great, it’s a shame you won’t be able to prime a few more until next year. Hopefully we’ll get treated to a full mob pic next Orktober?

Thanks! To be honest, I'm pretty bummed about it myself! But, I always get excited about the faction when I paint/finish a model, and when I change to another project I get excited about that as well I'll definitely snap a group photo when I get to ten models, hopefully that's next year! It would be nice to have a Nob or something in there as well, the problem is that I don't really like the one in the box at all...

---

Started working on some more Necrons. Haven't gotten too far, but with most of the basecoats done, painting will be much more fun going forward!

Progress on the Necrons. Basically just the orange lighting effects to left do, and finishing the bases. I've high hopes of finishing these this week.

Good to see your steps on the Necrons, it’s such an effective scheme. Hope you manage to get them done soon

 gobert wrote:
Good to see your steps on the Necrons, it’s such an effective scheme. Hope you manage to get them done soon

Thanks man! Got them done!

---

After a couple weeks of leisurely painting, I've got four new models to put in my cabinet!



All were painted pretty much the same way; only the Royal Warden getting a bit of an additional accent. As he's some kind of a character, I wanted him to have something to set him apart from the Warriors, but not so much that it would get distracting. I decided to paint the stripe on his helmet and the "necklace" in gold. It's pretty subtle, but I think it kind of works. Speaking of subtle, I painted a few of the coffin-shaped tiles on his flappy bits cream to break up the metal. See if you can spot them! I also thought about painting one of his gun hoses orange, but in the end decided against it as I didn't feel like wrestling with the orange color any more than I already was. Maybe I'll go back to change the color some day, but for now it's good.





The Cryptothralls were pretty fun models to paint, up until the big power globes. Trying to avoid all the finished parts around the globe wasn't enjoyable, but it went surprisingly well. The globes ended up too orange (not light enough) to really read as glowing, but didn't really want to retry painting them. The eyes on the other hand I'm pretty happy with.



Finally, the cute little Plasmacyte. Paint scheme-wise, pretty much identical to the 'thralls, only the power globes are really visible here. Easier to paint but a shame that I didn't get the tone right... Both the Plasmacyte's and the Cryptothralls' paint sheme differ a bit from the basic Warriors in that the Warriors have their rib cages painted cream and the shoulder plates in silver. As these models don't really have rib cages, I painted the shoulder plates/carapaces in cream instead. To further break up the silver, I painted some bits with black Contrast paint.



I'll use the Cryptothralls to claim another square on the bingo card: "add scenic bases to a unit". Two models are not much of a unit, but it still counts. And of course, I've done this type of base for each of the models in the army, so it's about time for an "achievement"

Absolutely loving those necrons!
The color scheme fits them really well.

The weathering looks good too!

Superb work on the Necrons. Even the orbs you’re not happy with look smashing, the glows all look great to me. I too though am not looking forward to painting the central orbs on the murder buckets!

Once again, sorry for the even-longer-than-usual replies...

Ezki wrote:Absolutely loving those necrons!
The color scheme fits them really well.
The weathering looks good too!

Much appreciated Ezki, as always!

gobert wrote:Superb work on the Necrons. Even the orbs you’re not happy with look smashing, the glows all look great to me. I too though am not looking forward to painting the central orbs on the murder buckets!

Cheers! The orbs were a pain to paint, but doable. And if you mess up a bit, they're not too visible anyway! Looking forward to seeing yours.

---

Long time no post, but I'm still kicking! I've been quite busy with work and other 1:1 life stuff (more on that soon-ish), but when I've had time I've chipped away at another Primaris marine: an Ultramarine Intercessor!



When I started my Primaris First Founding chapters/legions project, one of the goals was to build each model with an upgrade sprue to give them some extra flavor. I decided to make one exception, and that was with the Ultramarines. Being the posterboys of marines and GW, he was built as generic as possible.

In addition to building each Primaris model as an individual, another goal was to try out different ways of painting marines. For my Dark Angel I tried a combination of volumetric and edge highlights, while for the Space Wolf it was subtle volumetric shadows and edge highlights. I've wanted to try the 'Eavy Metal approach for some time, and what better model for it than a box art Ultramarine! The color palette and process is also very well documented nowadays, perhaps best by Dave Perryman, an ex-'Eavy Metal painter. I followed his YouTube video for most of my model.



There's a whole lot of edge highlights going on, and while on the studio models all of the highlights are applied on every edge, I confess to applying the final highlight only on upward-facing edges. This is mostly because I couldn't make it thinner than the previous one (as far as I could see), at least consistently, so I thought I'd not cover all my previous work and save some time in the process. Still, I'm super happy with the result! While on closer inspection I can see that the box art is way sharper, the highlights thinner, from a bit further away it looks like I have my own 'Eavy Metal model! I also feel like I improved my brush control quite a bit, especially doing the knee and shoulder pads where you don't have an actual edge to highlight.

Probably the biggest departure from the studio version are the shoulder pad markings. I've always liked the idea that each marine can have slightly different heraldry. This is/was often shown in Codexes and White Dwarfs, but rarely shown on models. However, the Indomitus box came with very nice Ultramarine decals, many of them a bit different from the others. I chose an Ultima sign with "XIII" on it for the left pad. For the right one, I used some "vintage" decals from the Battle for Macragge boxed set. I quite like the big squad number and the small tactical arrow, and it satisfies my need to make every model, even a box art Ultramarine, my own in some way I had some issues applying the decals and had to do them twice, plus paint over the older ones as they were more transparent/not as white as the new ones. Got it looking nice in the end though!



The base also got the box art treatment. I found it interesting that the main brown color was done without washes, just drybrushing. Efficient! I tried static grass for the first time here, and while I'm not totally happy with the result, it's fine. I used Army Painter's Field grass which is not quite the same tone as on the 'Eavy Metal models (anyone know which product they use?). I washed and drybrushed the grass to integrate it more to the base, which is another deviation from the studio models, but I quite like the look. Also, this was my first base without a black rim. Back to black with my future models, I think.

So yeah, this was most likely my last finished mini for the year. Not a bad one to end on, I reckon! I don't know what I'll paint next, but it'll be something a bit quicker, a bit less precise Hopefully I can get back to painting right after New Year's!

That could be easily seen in any GW official promotion. Eavy Metal style dominated!

Wow, your paint schemes are very well put together, the colors on the orks and necrons particularly are great. That ork scheme, between the skin and the orange and the bluish grey, I like it a lot.

That’s one lovely Smurf! If I didn’t know better I’d say that you’d taken a pic out of white dwarf. The numeral transfers give him a unique addition, and the edge highlighting of the top only looks better imho, so good choice. Which chapter will be next? Fists, Scars, Angels, Hands, Sallies, Ravens? I might have a few Blood Angels bits (mainly sanguinary guard and old upgrade kit but I believe they’re compatible) knocking about if you’d like some?

muette wrote:That could be easily seen in any GW official promotion. Eavy Metal style dominated!

Hah! Dominated, eh? I like the sound of that!

ph34r wrote:Wow, your paint schemes are very well put together, the colors on the orks and necrons particularly are great. That ork scheme, between the skin and the orange and the bluish grey, I like it a lot.

Thank you very much ph34r, and welcome to the plog! Orange looks nice, doesn't it? ;D Though I can't take much credit for most of the schemes, they've been heavily inspired or straight up copied from other painters. The Necrons for example are an original scheme by Trovarion.

gobert wrote:That’s one lovely Smurf! If I didn’t know better I’d say that you’d taken a pic out of white dwarf. The numeral transfers give him a unique addition, and the edge highlighting of the top only looks better imho, so good choice. Which chapter will be next? Fists, Scars, Angels, Hands, Sallies, Ravens? I might have a few Blood Angels bits (mainly sanguinary guard and old upgrade kit but I believe they’re compatible) knocking about if you’d like some?

Many thanks gobert! I greatly appreciate your offer, but as it happens, I got the Primaris upgrade sprue from eBay and built a Blood Angel already! Well, mostly.. I think I'll modify him a bit before painting, as I've got a nagging feeling I'm not 100% happy with him as it is. But, as for the next chapter, the Angel would be a good bet, or perhaps a Raven. I got the base model built, but need to get the upgrades to finish him off. Which- or whoever the next model will be, the project will most likely continue next spring when I can spray prime again.

---

Sorry for the late replies, once again. I haven't had much time for hobbying in the last couple of months, and even less for plogging... I and the missus bought an apartment, did some renovation and finally moved in for New Year's. Things are still finding their place, but we're getting there. I'll post some painting progress soon-ish, when things settle down a bit. Of course, work starts on Monday again and there's some big changes coming up, so it might be a bit hectic for a while yet...

Apologies for the three-month radio silence... It's been a very slow start to the hobby year, as I've been busy with work and family life. I also got distracted by video games! And on top of that, some other real life stuff that I may or may not write about some other time... But without further ado, I think it's time to talk about my first models of 2023, the Chosen Axes!



I started this warband right after new year's with the aim of getting a quick and easy win to start the year. I've never been a big fan of these models, and thought that I'd use them for Contrast practice. Of course, I couldn't just leave it at that, and layered and highlighted pretty much everything. I basically tried to follow Juan Hidalgo's guide on applying Contrast paints, which was very helpful. There were some spots of nasty pooling, but for the most part I think I got the paints working nicely. The mistakes weren't a huge issue, either, as they got fixed with the next paint layer.



There's not a huge amount of hours on them, and I tried not to worry about small mistakes or obsess over every detail. I tried to be as neat as possible, and to fix mistakes with the next highlight/layer. There are some errant splotches around the models and I skipped painting the eyes, but I'm happy with how they look at a glance. (And the photos came up really nice as well!) One thing that I should've done that would've had a big impact is some glazing, for example red on the skin, black on the feet and blue on the steel, but frankly I just wanted to call them done. I suppose these models would be good candidates for touching up later, but with the amount of unpainted plastic in my closet that's probably not going to happen...



I debated a bit on whether to even start a hobby bingo card this year, as it has taken me the whole Q1 to just get the ball rolling, but lets do it! I also noticed that Rob had updated the card slightly. I hope I can pick up the pace a bit going forward, but to be honest, this year will most likely be a slow one. Still, I'm happy that I'm now only one warband short of finishing Shadespire! I've even got the last warband, Magore's Fiends, primed. Maybe one of my hobby goals for the year should be to finish them...

Woow, fantastic paintjob on those Dawi!

Nice work on their beards!

Loving the orange vibes on this page between the dingy crons (I think the glow on the orbs reads very nicely btw) and the clean dwarves. Some very nicely painted minis and clean HQ photos too.

The smurf wouldn't look out of place on the box art for the unit - suuuuuper tidy. Love the highlights on the leather pouches etc in particular.

Keep it up mate.

What a variety here great stuff!

muette wrote:Woow, fantastic paintjob on those Dawi!

Cheers, glad you like them!

aku-chan wrote:Nice work on their beards!

Thanks! They were my favorite bit as well!

tzurk wrote:Loving the orange vibes on this page between the dingy crons (I think the glow on the orbs reads very nicely btw) and the clean dwarves. Some very nicely painted minis and clean HQ photos too.
The smurf wouldn't look out of place on the box art for the unit - suuuuuper tidy. Love the highlights on the leather pouches etc in particular.
Keep it up mate.

Much appreciated! Looking at my minis now, I think orange might be my favorite spot color...

Adeptekon wrote:What a variety here great stuff!

Thank you very much Adeptekon, and thanks for taking a look!

---

So this post is way overdue, but better late than never! Here's a group photo of last year's models:


The class of '22. Missing from the pic is the Elf Cleric.

All together I managed to finish 39 models last year. A slight improvement over the previous two years, which surprised me a bit as I felt I hadn't gotten a lot done. But, as always, I'm very happy with each finished model, happily admiring them in my display cabinet even now.

-Necron Warriors (10 models)
-Shadow Piercer
-Blood Warriors (5 models)
-Black Templar Initiate
-Primaris Revelator
-Firstborn Space Marines (2 models)
-Zarbag's Gitz (9 models)
-Dark Angels Intercessor Sergeant
-Elf Cleric
-Revelators Biker
-Ork Boyz (2 models)
-Necron Royal Warden, Cryptothralls and Plasmacyte (4 models)
-Ultramarines Intercessor

The definite highlights of the year were the Gitz and the Primaris Marines. Each of the Gitz was a character in their own right, and I had a lot of fun discovering and painting all the little details, as well as coming up with the different colors and freehand patterns. And even though there were a lot of models, gobbos being small models made progress feel quick.

The Marines were pretty much polar opposites - big models that were mostly about edge highlighting. That's not to say to say I didn't enjoy painting them. They were actually my first Primaris Marines, and I got to say, they are a treat to paint. Can't really pick a favorite out of the five, though the Dark Angel is a pretty good candidate on the account of winning me my first painting competition!

Despite making good progress on the hobby bingo card, I failed again to finish a complete row of five. Oh well, with 12 squares claimed it was the most completed card I've managed in the four years I've attempted this! As I said in the last post, I don't have high hopes for this year's card, but I'll keep on painting and claiming squares where I can.

You're welcome, I subed! These are all fab too, and Praised be to that Black Templar. I'll be lurking

 Adeptekon wrote:
You're welcome, I subed! These are all fab too, and Praised be to that Black Templar. I'll be lurking

Cheers! I'm hoping to get a couple new Templars painted this year... I saw yours in the gallery, very cool!

---

I'm trying to get back to the habit of painting, and what better way is there than a quick, simple project. And this time, I actually managed to keep it so! This Knight-Questor was painted almost completely in a single weekend.



I don't have too much "me-time" these days: an hour or two after the boy goes to sleep, and during weekend maybe two hours extra each day while he's napping. And that's if I don't have work to do... But, in the week after finishing the Axes, I painted the metallic bits on this Questor and the "Getting Started with AoS" Knight-Incantor (to be continued later...) . The rest of the model was painted on the weekend, bar a couple finishing touches. And yeah, I know that "rest of the model" is basically just the cape, but still...



I've always loved this model, and think it's one of the coolest SCE models available, even with all the new designs around. The pose is just so perfect: a knight imposingly scanning the scene, ready to take on whatever's coming up, cape flapping in the wind. Rather than paint him exactly like the rest of my Silverlions, I treated him like a one-off project. The gold bits are the biggest departure, they are much simpler here and less saturated. More fun to paint and I guess it makes this guy a bit more silver! The reds got more love than usual - I took a more volumetric approach, blended the colors a bit more and added some extra highlights to improve contrast. I also continued practicing simple TMM on the sword blade. I actually had to paint it twice as the first attempt was awful. I'm not entirely happy with the scratching, but didn't want to start over for the third time, so I called it good.



My only slight regret with this model is not doing any freehand lining on the inside of the cape, like they have on the box art. I decided to leave it out, obviously, to get the model finished sooner. As the cape is so flowy and especially with the "magical toilet paper" on the way, I knew there would be a lot of back-and-forth fixing mistakes. Oh well, there's no reason I couldn't come back to this some day

I was struggling a bit with the bingo card on this model (can you believe that this model hasn't been in my backlog for even a year?). In the end I decided to claim the "finish a unit for your army before gaming with it". This being just a single model, it feels a bit cheap. But I suppose characters are considered units too and I don't see myself painting too many full squads anytime soon, especially for "armies". So I guess this is as good a time as any to claim the square.

 mcmattila wrote:

 Adeptekon wrote:
You're welcome, I subed! These are all fab too, and Praised be to that Black Templar. I'll be lurking

Cheers! I'm hoping to get a couple new Templars painted this year... I saw yours in the gallery, very cool!

I eagerly await... and thanks! I can't take credit for those

 mcmattila wrote:
I'm trying to get back to the habit of painting, and what better way is there than a quick, simple project. And this time, I actually managed to keep it so! This Knight-Questor was painted almost completely in a single weekend.

I'm just trying to manage an hour or two to get into painting... looking at the quality of the sword in this knight's hand makes me want to cry when I think of how I thought I was doing so good on my gnoll chieftain's scimitar, only to totally blow it trying to give it half the quality... I would love to be able to put in an hour or two here and there as you, and be as great!

 Adeptekon wrote:
I'm just trying to manage an hour or two to get into painting... looking at the quality of the sword in this knight's hand makes me want to cry when I think of how I thought I was doing so good on my gnoll chieftain's scimitar, only to totally blow it trying to give it half the quality... I would love to be able to put in an hour or two here and there as you, and be as great!

Just keep at it! I got back to/basically started painting six years ago, and if you go to the first page of the thread you'll see that it was pretty humble beginnings for me, as it is for everyone. But after that I've painted maybe 150 models or so, improving with each project. I started by watching and following the WHTV tutorials, but branched out to other Youtubers and tutorials from which I gradually tried out new tricks.

If you want to know how I painted the sword in more detail, just ask! It was relatively simple in the end.

I appreciate the encouragement! Time is always a factor, working on the patience part

During the Easter weekend I visited a city with a hobby shop, and thought that it would be a good opportunity to go for the "finish a mini in 48 hours" square on the bingo card. As such, I picked up this Bugbear:



The model is a WizKids Pathfinder Deep Cuts Bugbear. It comes in a blister with another bugbear, a female mage(?) who is arguably the more interesting model. However, she has some trasparent flame effects modeled on her and I didn't have a good way of doing those nicely, so I picked the more straightforward model to paint for the challenge. Quality-wise, they're alright. The details are a bit soft but not terrible (I think the models' larger size helps with that). The mold lines are unfortunate, but that's what you get. These were also pre-primed, so I could get to work straight away!

I did bend the rules a bit by starting the timer only after I got home to my paints, a couple of days after purchasing the model, but I think we can still count this. There's around three hours of actual painting time on this model; an hour spent basecoating the model with Contrast paints and metallics, and two hours or so for the detail work and the base. I knew that with the (to me) very limited painting time I couldn't go "full ballsack" on the model, so I decided to focus on the face and the blood effects, and only highlight the upward-facing parts of the model. The lower bits are just Contrast, and additionally shaded down with some Athonian Camoshade.



I'm very happy with the model as a whole, as I think I succeeded in my goals. I got a good expression on the face and some nice tonal variation with glazes of red and blue. (I don't know anything about bugbears or what color they should be, but I think the standard skintone works pretty well on the model.) The blood splatters are probably the best I've done so far. I've noticed that applying Blood for the Blood God convinsingly is really difficult if I try to paint it on with a brush, but flicking it on with the help of a paper clip gives you nice a splatter effect, and is surprisingly accurate as well. The model also worked as a test bed for different Contrast browns. I hadn't really tried Snakebite Leather (armor plates) or Aggaros Dunes (pants) before, and found both very pleasing. Snakebite Leather gave a very nice look for the turtle shell-like armor, especially with some quick highlights and scratches applied. A recipe for future, methinks...



The part about the paintjob I don't like is the hair/fur. The toes work, but otherwise it's pretty nasty... The sculpt probably doesn't help, but I'm sure it could look a bit better with better highlight placement. But in the end I'm not bothered as it's not the focus of the model and it's done. Another thing that came to mind after the model was finished was that I could've added some rust effects on the metals. It would've been very quick and simple, and added some further character to the model. Oh well, next time!

Finally, the current bingo card. I'm picking that speed up! As I said at the beginning of the post, I'll claim the 48 hour square with this model. Interestingly, this year there's a new, wholesome square: "paint a model for someone else". I don't think I've told you, but I gave the elf cleric I painted last summer to someone who actually plays D&D! If they have use for a bugbear, I'll probably give this one to a better home as well. Perhaps I'll paint the mage as well...

I like dwarf butts and I cannot lie! Sorry for being cheeky! seriously though, those guys were a great choice to get the year going, really great job

The year end pic looks like more than 39 to me, but I trust you’re counting more than my eyeballing . Either way, they look fantastic and even better that you’re happy with them.

Quick succession of minis now too, both look great and even more impressive for such a quick turnaround!

The haul of 2022 looks really good! So many different colors and amazing looking models.
And you achieved the most important goal: being happy with every model you have painted!

What kind of setup do you have for group pictures like that?

The Bugbear is also looking good!
The Wizkids models are alright and quite good bang for your buck. Been buying them from the local store (Fantasiapelit) to be used in D&D and so forth.
Due to their cheap price, I can sometimes justify painting them only using washes or contrast and call it a day haha.