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Hey folks,

I recently got back into the blogging side of things as evidenced by my Excoriators blog, and while it's a lot of fun sharing my space marines, I am a bit of a hobby butterfly, so things tend to get half painted, forgotten about, or willingly ignored for the newest kit or something that just scratches the right itch. In order to combat that, and keep myself motivated with a hobby blog, I present the Cutting Mat Chat, a blog where I (Tyranid Horde) will take you through my work bench and show off what I'm working on, what my plans are and what has been completed, wrapped up in a nice central place. I did think about bringing back Excavating eBay, as it had a fun ring to it, but that blog has been dead for so long and there are definitely projects in there that haven't been finished to date...

Bring forward this new blog, with what I hope is an original title, to show off anything from 40k (but not space marines), to Age of Sigmar, to scale military modelling. I'll go through my hobby plans down the line for some of these areas, and I also would like to address some hobby resolutions that I'm making and hopefully stick to them!

With that, I figured I'd list some of the goals I have set myself for the coming year. By no means are they set in stone, as I am liable to leave some of these incomplete, but here's a general list.

1) Paint more than I buy - This was a supremely unsuccessful pledge I made last year, culminating in the purchase of Nighthaunt, Indomitus and a second hand Tyranid army compared to 45 models painted.
2) Reduce the pile of shame - This goes hand in hand with number one, but worth making a separate resolution for!
3) Learn more airbrush techniques - I learned a lot in 2020 with my airbrush and I figured I'd continue the trend. I want to start learning to use metallic paint through the airbrush for a start, then I can focus on things like OSL and other fun effects like that
4) Attempt more scale modelling - Something I got a taste of in December, I want to get back to my hobby "roots" by clearing out the pile of scale model aircraft and tanks I haven't touched in years. This won't be to everyone's taste, but if you fancy some shoddy rivet counting, there'll be some of that!
5) Finish off at least one faction and shelve them for a bit - Prime candidate for this are my Excoriators, I don't have a massive number of them and I can round out a decent sized force by the end of the year I think. The other option is the Exodite project I've been tinkering with for the past year or so. I would like to finish that, but I feel I need a vehicle in there to round it out!
BONUS) Try some new painting styles and incorporate kitbashing into projects.

Now, moving on from this I thought I would do a quick breakdown of what I'm working on and what you'll expect to see as the blog progresses. I have a few WIPs ranging different themes so below you can find a summary:

Eldar & Exodites
Eldar have taken a bit of a back seat as I work through my collection of space marines but I have been steadily working on them in the background, both on my normal Craftworlds and on my Exodites. If you read my older blog, you'd have seen where I stopped painting my exodites... and then didn't continue. Since that I started work on a Wraithknight along with some older jetbikes in order to clear some space in the pile of shame. I managed to get quite far with them in tandem thanks to some airbrush work, but some personal life issues meant I was away from my hobby desk more often than not and when I managed to get back to a bit of painting, I'd forgotten them at my parents place! So below is where I got to and now I have them in my possession again after a house move so I'll be able to knock them out quickly enough. These guys ended up quite bright and follow the same scheme as a Falcon I'd painted up in 2020. I like the vibrancy I achieved although we'll see if they need to be toned down to match the rest of my force.

Wraithknight WIP


Jetbikes WIP


In addition to those, I kitbashed an Autarch which is tacked together in the photo below but I did glue and give him a quick airbrush. He's basically a stock Prince Yriel due to legends coming into effect and this was my answer to it. Managed to incorporate 3 different aspect shrines into the kitbash too so I'm pleased with his fluffy side. Another one on the list of projects for this year:


I do have some more things to upload that have been WIPs for a while, but I don't have recent or decent photos of them to show them off yet. They include some Warp Spiders and my Exodite kitbashes. All the more reason to stick around!

Experiments in Blanchitsu
January's painting challenge came around and with it a very cool theme for the month- "New Tricks" in which the entrants have to do something new, be it new minis, techniques or what not. I went for a new painting style, one which I'd wanted to try and never had an excuse to so this month I got my excuse. I went for Blanchitsu, aka John Blanche's grimdark/arty painting style which many people have adopted for their Inq28 or AoS28 games. It features a lot of browns, yellows and reds and converting is part of the gig. I don't have anyone to play either, so I pulled out some stormcast I was never painting and started building a mini for the month. That mini turned into two and I finished the first in a couple of evenings. Oil painting was a reductive process in this one so it was quite speedy once I had a basic zenithal prime done.

My goal with these is to now build a small (3-5 minis) Inquisitorial retinue in this style and have each member or henchman be converted and weird. So far I have what looks to be a Crusader and the other is something else? He's a bit lumpy so could be a psyker but I'm open to suggestions as to what role he could serve.









Scale Modelling
Scale modelling is something I always enjoy touching on but never manage to do a lot of. I am by no means a rivet counter, but I do like my historicals to be somewhat accurate and I do tend to spend time researching rather than doing the work on the model itself. I finished a Porsche 911 for the December Painting Challenge and it gave me the itch to try out scale modelling properly this time. I started an Airfix 1:72 MiG-15 (Korean War Soviet jet) in 2020 as a break from Warhammer and like all projects for me this year got shelved. The new year rolled around and I dug it out again, because painting aluminium on a historical model is incredibly easy. Right? Not really, as upon reading there are loads of metal paints you never see in Warhammer, like Alclad to name but one of many weird and wonderful paints. I decided to test out my workhorse brush with Vallejo's Metal Color range of paints as I had a pretty good colour match to the Soviet-era jets and may as well use the model as an experiment and motivation to completing some of my hobby goals. I thought I'd do a small photo by photo of the build and painting as it seems to be the done thing in the scale modelling world.

Assembly
Poor fitting fuselage meant clamps were needed!



Cockpit detail


Canopy masked off and preshading work done. Not very happy with the preshade as it was my first go but it didn't matter too much as the silver paint seemed to cover it up very quickly. Maybe under better lighting the effect of the preshade will be apparent, but I'm not noticing much and wondering if the paint was too thick or something through the airbrush. Next steps after this is to mask off the nose for painting red as I'm going for a classic Soviet MiG-15 and not another country's scheme (I'll find photos for comparisons) then varnish so I can apply decals.




Thanks for reading this disparate start to my newest hobby thread, I'll hopefully keep on track with this one as Covid doesn't have me playing many games or doing anything else but work on my PhD, binge on Netflix and cook!

Cheers!

-TH

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
So far I have what looks to be a Crusader and the other is something else? He's a bit lumpy so could be a psyker but I'm open to suggestions as to what role he could serve.

Oooh, cool to see that there's more Blanchitsu minis coming up apart from the monthly challenge Crusader! Hmm, the other could also be a low-tech Eversor Assassin? The chainaxe-flail looks useful for rampaging & who knows what all the combat drugs will do to one's cranium :p

Thanks for stopping by! Yeah that's not a bad idea actually, not all Inquisitors get to requisition the Eversors, so maybe some stimmed up Underhive urchin would fit the bill?

Combat drugs have some side effects!

Loving those Eldar, and the Blanche-=][= looking guys, too. The chain/axe is properly insane.

This is a really great thread, lots of different models and painting styles. Can't wait for updates!

youwashock wrote:Loving those Eldar, and the Blanche-=][= looking guys, too. The chain/axe is properly insane.

This guy was a bit of a joke with the chain axe being an axe on a chain but I'm glad you like it and the Eldar!

MegaDave wrote:This is a really great thread, lots of different models and painting styles. Can't wait for updates!

Cheers! You can thank my poor attention span for the range of stuff I'm up to. I can never really settle on individual projects for long.

Small update, masked off and sprayed the nose of the MiG-15 and then gave it a coat of gloss varnish. Made an essential journey to the shop this morning for some vinegar as that's what I use as a decal softener/setter, so decals will be sorted when I finish work this evening and then I'll be almost ready for some light weathering.

The Blanchitsu is strong with this one! Looks great TyranidHorde, Looking forward to seeing more of the warband.

Yorkright wrote:
The Blanchitsu is strong with this one! Looks great TyranidHorde, Looking forward to seeing more of the warband.

Thanks Yorkright!

Actually managed to finish off the second member of the retinue yesterday evening, adding some blood effects and pigment powders to round him out and stick him on the shelf beside the Crusader. Think I'll be giving him the back story of a captured human made to fight in the pits of Commorragh (hence the armour) and his waking moments have him pumped full of combat stims so he's having a few side effects with the lumpy head. Our yet unmet Inquisitor apparently has saved him, but is it really getting saved if you're just repurposed for effectively the same role? Definitely don't feel like this guy looks as good or is as detailed as the previous warband member, and the pigments may need to be dialled back, but always appreciate any input!







Added a few more decals to my MiG-15 in other news, what I thought was an evening's work has turned into a few, as the amount of decals is frustrating and they take ages to come off the backing paper. I have been using a water and vinegar solution, as it's a classic method of decal softening for better decal application and allows them to fall into panel lines more easily. No microsol or set here!



And finally, I spent ages deciding but I bit the bullet and decided I'd try to make my own magnetic figure cases. I watched a tutorial by Duncan Rhodes and thought I'd do the same as him but I reckon I bought weak magnetic sheets, as the models move a good bit if I'm really shaking the box. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears. I've been using 4x2mm magnets but I think I'll have to use 4x3mm or 5x3mm because the 2mm thickness ones aren't reaching the bottom of the base like I expected. I might have to buy some milliput or greenstuff to accommodate for the extra space needed, or use some plasticard to make the space up. Not looking forward to the task of adding magnets to all my dudes though, that feels like wasted hobby time. I hope it'll be worth it as I won't need any more cardboard boxes!




Thanks for reading!

-TH

Really cool to see all that mixed stuff here and so different from your marines. Your hobby butterflying is our gain

Regarding the magnetic boxes, I did some a while ago too and the important thing is the magnet itself is strong enough. I bought only some cheap magnetic sheets, but the magnets were strong enough and everything is holding without problems (only problem is, my Sororitas sometimes stick together or push each other away because of the strong magnets ).

Hello chap. I have been planning to embrace a similar storage solution - have a look at this link as it’s what I intend to use:

https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1228712/

Currently I have a series of KR multi cases, would they be any use to you? They’re very good but I feel like Really Usefuls will take up less space and accommodate more minis!

I enjoyed your previous thread, will be following this one

I do exactly the same with Really Useful boxes + neodymium magnet + magnetic sheet. I find the 'motorway graded' sheet you can buy on a roll and cut to size the best (not least because some models need boxes that are bigger than the standard 4 or 8L ones).
I got a large roll that will probably outlive me for £40 on either Amazon or eBay.

Viterbi wrote:Really cool to see all that mixed stuff here and so different from your marines. Your hobby butterflying is our gain

Regarding the magnetic boxes, I did some a while ago too and the important thing is the magnet itself is strong enough. I bought only some cheap magnetic sheets, but the magnets were strong enough and everything is holding without problems (only problem is, my Sororitas sometimes stick together or push each other away because of the strong magnets ).

Thanks Viterbi, I was thinking of adding one more magnet to each base in order to help them stick. The bigger bases might need some bigger magnets and I've no idea how to magnetise a tank yet!

Ragsta wrote:Hello chap. I have been planning to embrace a similar storage solution - have a look at this link as it’s what I intend to use:

https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1228712/

Currently I have a series of KR multi cases, would they be any use to you? They’re very good but I feel like Really Usefuls will take up less space and accommodate more minis!

I enjoyed your previous thread, will be following this one

That looks like a solid choice for sure, especially if you're going the whole hog with those ferro sheets. I think I'll test these magnetic sheets for now and see how I get on with them. If I struggle with them I might think about a commercial solution. I know a few guys who have the A-Case or similar and they swear by how sturdy those ones are. Thanks for stopping by, I won't be adding any more threads that I have to update!

feugan wrote:I do exactly the same with Really Useful boxes + neodymium magnet + magnetic sheet. I find the 'motorway graded' sheet you can buy on a roll and cut to size the best (not least because some models need boxes that are bigger than the standard 4 or 8L ones).
I got a large roll that will probably outlive me for £40 on either Amazon or eBay.

Thanks for stopping by feugan, I made the mistake of not checking what sheets I picked up so I have the "fridge magnet" level of magnetic sheet. The motorway grade stuff would probably be the best bet and I'll be thinking about that for an 8L box to carry my tanks and the like.

Another small update this afternoon, I didn't get a whole lot done this weekend, but I did get the final stages of the MiG completed and I'm pretty happy overall with the finish. If you have a look between the previous WIPs and the finished photos, you'll see the metallic is a lot duller due to the matte varnish. Not an effect I'm very pleased with as I liked how bright the aluminium was, but I've been told the Russian jets were never very polished anyway. Guess I'm not surprised, 12,000 of them were made and that's not including their licensed leases! This swept wing jet fighter entered the Korean War as a shock to the West, taking down the West's straight wing jet aircraft with relative ease and only really met it's match with the F-86 Sabre later in the war. Airfix's rendition of the jet isn't brilliant as it is too short in the fuselage and as a result makes it look chubby. I had this kit since it was released in 2009 so getting round to it now is some feat!

Airfix MiG-15 in Korean War Era Soviet colours.









More to come and thanks for reading!

-TH

MIG looks great Tyranid Horde all those little details, chipped paint and markings plus the cockpit really makes it seem like it’s flown a few missions. Good luck with the new storage units.

Oooh, love that Mig. Almost tempts me to expand my (admittedly much smaller scale) collection into the jet age. Very very nicely done T'Horde.

What if you glued a flat round steel disc under each base? Would the extra area of metal in contact with the magnetic strip help there be more friction and magnetic-ness? I imagine the more magnets you include the more the models want to repel or attract eachother.

There's a nice range of skills and styles on display already and by sounds of things much more to come. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you muchly Yorkright and theCrowe! You should give jet age aircraft a go, they have a marginally different set of techniques you can apply to them although next on the bench might be me going back to WWII aircraft.

Well all my planes are 1:300 WW2 and I try to throw a little research at them so if you need any inspiration for your much larger scale WW2 plane of choice you'll maybe find a story that spurs some enthusiasm in the link in my signature. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.

MiG looks very cool and it definitely looks like a trap to paint: "Hey, it's mostly silver..." Great weathering and the decals bring it alive.

theCrowe wrote:Well all my planes are 1:300 WW2 and I try to throw a little research at them so if you need any inspiration for your much larger scale WW2 plane of choice you'll maybe find a story that spurs some enthusiasm in the link in my signature. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do.

I'll have a look thanks! Any references are good to have, even if I don't need them now, I always have them for the future.

Viterbi wrote:MiG looks very cool and it definitely looks like a trap to paint: "Hey, it's mostly silver..." Great weathering and the decals bring it alive.

100% a trap! Real metal is hard to do at scale due to the pigment size in the paint. I don't fancy changing to lacquers though as I don't really have the best ventilation.

Hey all,

Been slow on the hobby front recently, had a few busy days with Uni work and distracted by long Civ 6 games but made an effort to do a few menial tasks like magnetise my space marines for their eventual trip to a games store for a game. I got some more magnets and doubled up on them so the models are particularly sturdy now at least. An interesting point to note for future basing of my minis is to not use metal pieces, as I've had a few occurrences of minis sticking to each other due to some of the wire I have used. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of.



I reflected on my Exodite project at the weekend and decided to have a think about what direction I'm taking them. I see a good few Exodite projects popping up now due to the age of the current Eldar line and a lot make use of the Sylvaneth and Idoneth ranges from AoS. I'm not against these personally, the eels for instance make gorgeous jetbikes as shining spears or similar and the Kurnouth Hunters and big tree dudes make for wonderful wraith constructs but I do feel that unless you undertake some serious sculpting, they end up looking too much like "AoS army but with Eldar bits", and that is something I would like to avoid. I was inspired by the older codices and Mike McVey's gorgeous duel diorama for Golden Demon and that's where I would like to stay, dinosaur riding, rustic, and a bit more down to earth with the types of creature that could exist in 40k. I find a man sized theropod more believable than a big flying turtle in my idea of the 40k galaxy. Should also add, seeing youwashock's Exodites after the encouragement in my previous blog made me think about picking the project up again!

And speaking of man sized dinos, I want to present my first completed unit for the force: Exodite Dragon Knights. These guys sat and sat in my "To Do" pile for the best part of two years. I rushed them out for a tournament in 2019 and got them to a tabletop level before stopping. They've actually seen a huge amount of game time and I felt it would be nice to do them justice and finish them. I never considered them finished before now, so if you will allow me, I will add them to this year's tally of finished minis as I didn't count them previously, and I put quite a few hours into getting them to their completed state. Let me know what you guys think, they're not totally WYSIWYG, but I feel they represent Shining Spears fairly well with the lances and the shuriken catapults. Glad they're done and happy with how the Knights and mounts turned out, I'm only sorry for not doing them sooner, Exodites are too cool to leave as an unfinished project. Bigger images in the gallery too btw, in case you wanted a closer inspection.













In addition, I took the plunge and decided to pick up Warhammer Underworlds, starting with Direchasm in order to get away from my PC when working from home and to convince the girlfriend to play with me. She said yes to that and I've been assembling the warbands today and yesterday. I'll be entering the Dread Pageant into the Painting Challenge this month, so I may be productive yet!

Overall, the minis are lovely, but the Lumineth aren't fun to clean or build. They're spindly which makes them fragile, and their join lines need filler as they aren't very well concealed compared to the Hedonites. Either way, I'm excited to play a new game and paint some AoS minis, and input on colour schemes would be appreciated!! This also means I need to keep painting, as my resolution of painting more than I buy may suddenly disappear and I'm only in February...



Thanks for reading/looking!

-TH

Love the finished riders. Where do the dinos originate from? I "need" to get a little unit of dino-riding marines together to accompany my new captain on his dracoline

Love those exodites! No one should give you a hard time about putting those on the table as Shining Spears, they definitely look the part.

Proper Exodite Dragon Knights! Very very cool.

Huzzah!

Awesome looking unit. Very much looking forward to what's next.

Thanks folks! Much appreciated and it's great seeing the love for Exodites. I have dug out my counts as Rangers as they require some work. I'll throw up a WIP at some point.

@Viterbi they're dark elf drakespawn knights, which I do believe are online only from GW. They oddly come in and out of stock fairly often so picking them up isn't too bad, my only concern is with AoS rumours of dark elves becoming a faction they may disappear! https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Dark-Elf-Cold-One-Knights

Yay, Exodites!! I still hope that GW will eventually make some minis for them (the concept's been around for what, 25-30 years now?) but then we'd miss such fun conversions!

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Overall, the minis are lovely, but the Lumineth aren't fun to clean or build. They're spindly which makes them fragile, and their join lines need filler as they aren't very well concealed compared to the Hedonites.

Ugh I just ordered the box for maybe entering the Luminelfs in the challenge but I kind of feared that they'll be horrible to build, I still have a half-assembled set of the Underworld Sylvanelfs where I don't even know where to start, with all the fiddly subassemblies :|

Thanks for the info Tyranid Horde! Looks like it should be possible to get Enforcers on those Dark Elf dinos. When the hobby budget is filled up again I may try this.

Nice work. Love the dinos. I keep thinking how I’d do up a unit of shining spears, but it always ends up looking like picking up 3-4 kits to make one unit for a secondary army that doesn’t see much table time. Still might be worth doing as a painting/hobby project, just for fun.

I’m thinking of going with magnets to move my Nids around rather then more KR trays. All the stabby spiky bits and the soft foam don’t strike me as a good match.

You mentioned not wanting to blow hobby time to do boring stuff, and mentioned Civ 6. I used that to help clean mold lines. Do one bit every time the computer is taking its turn.

MobileSuitRandom wrote:Yay, Exodites!! I still hope that GW will eventually make some minis for them (the concept's been around for what, 25-30 years now?) but then we'd miss such fun conversions!

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Overall, the minis are lovely, but the Lumineth aren't fun to clean or build. They're spindly which makes them fragile, and their join lines need filler as they aren't very well concealed compared to the Hedonites.

Ugh I just ordered the box for maybe entering the Luminelfs in the challenge but I kind of feared that they'll be horrible to build, I still have a half-assembled set of the Underworld Sylvanelfs where I don't even know where to start, with all the fiddly subassemblies :|

If they ever bring out Exodites before I'm finished with my little host, I'm not sure what way the project would go!

You should give the Lumineth a go, both warbands have a good theming for this month as their poses are quite flashy. They're a bit annoying to build and you may need to gap fill Bahannar, but they're pretty solid once assembled.

Viterbi wrote:Thanks for the info Tyranid Horde! Looks like it should be possible to get Enforcers on those Dark Elf dinos. When the hobby budget is filled up again I may try this.

Do it! Would be keen to see enforcers being used on these!

Nevelon wrote:Nice work. Love the dinos. I keep thinking how I’d do up a unit of shining spears, but it always ends up looking like picking up 3-4 kits to make one unit for a secondary army that doesn’t see much table time. Still might be worth doing as a painting/hobby project, just for fun.

I’m thinking of going with magnets to move my Nids around rather then more KR trays. All the stabby spiky bits and the soft foam don’t strike me as a good match.

You mentioned not wanting to blow hobby time to do boring stuff, and mentioned Civ 6. I used that to help clean mold lines. Do one bit every time the computer is taking its turn.

I think if you've got a decent enough bits box built up it wouldn't be too bad. This kitbash used three kits - Avenger bodies, DE Wych heads and the Cold Ones, two of which I had from eBay bargains. I still have spares for more. I actually haven't tallied the cost up versus the actual Shining Spears kit.

I was also considering doing the same with my Tyranids, the gribblies are fairly light so one magnet would probably do them nicely. Thus far I've been storing my Nids poorly in a battleforce box... Good idea about Civ too, the mid and late game takes a while when playing on big maps, the perfect time to do some tedious jobs!

Great job on the exodites! I’ve seen a few people make Dino-Space-Knights using DE Cold Ones, yours certainly look the part. My bits box has so little non-space marine bits that projects like Exodites would be a very expensive project.

Cheers gobert! You're right about it being expensive if you don't already collect the armies. I'm definitely finding as I branch into Imperials I'm short on bits that would fit in nicely to a warband and the like. Exodites definitely aren't cheap, which is why I'll be keeping the force relatively small. I haven't decided what kits I'll be using for something like a tank.

Love this guy, he's such a crazy character. Chain saw axe on a chain, left handed no less! You know that's how he lost his original right arm and now has a presumably chai axe proof bionic replacement. Not to mention his head, which I expect also must have had a run in with the flying flail propelled chain axe requiring a graft to be taken, it looks like from his butt. But the twisted dark Eldar grafter just used his whole butt and threw it all on top there. Gives a whole new meaning to the term Brain farts.

Seriously though, where did this guy come from? Or where did the parts of him come from? He's a particularly striking henchman, certainly in danger of outshinig his boss, if perhaps for all the wrong reasons.