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 gobert wrote:
Mate, awesome work on the Raven Guard, he looks spectacular! Love the inclusion of the beaky helmet, classic choice. He looks properly tacticool, which is perfect for the Emo legion . The whole gang looks amazing, I hope they take pride of place near your desk for inspiration. The earlier Black Templar conversions all turned out seamlessly too

Thank you very much gobert! Hah, I feel like emos and tacticool shouldn't go together, but that's 40k for you! I actually quite liked the bare emo heads on the upgrade frame, as in they were so silly, but the beakie was the obvious choice. And yeah, the marines are in my display cabinet right next to my painting desk. But when I get the two remaining loyalists done, my plan is to buy a small wall-mounted display case with space for 20 models. I'll then start working on the traitor legions!

That Raven Guard looks fresh out of a spy movie, mood pretty much achieved! Loved the result.

 muette wrote:
That Raven Guard looks fresh out of a spy movie, mood pretty much achieved! Loved the result.

Thanks muette, glad you like him!

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I’m making good progress on them hobby goals: I painted a loyalist Marine, have made progress on the Black Templars and now I’ve painted a “big” model. This is Blackpowder from Blackpowder’s Buccaneers.



I haven’t painted many of these bigger models, but I got to say, this was a lot of fun. I got to use a big brush for a lot of the initial work, and it didn’t matter that the tip was in a rough shape. The whole process somehow felt more stress-free.



I’ve once again followed the box art fairly closely, but did a couple of alterations: I just had to try and give him striped pants (I think it’s a requirement for a pirate?), and make the sword rusty (like they did back when Ogre Kingdoms were first released).

I’m really happy with how this one came out. If I had to pick a favorite bit, it would be the brown leather, followed by the rusty blade. The leather recipe was once again found from the ‘Eavy Archive, but applied in a way that gives a weathered look. For the rust, I basecoated the blade with AP Light Rust and Dark Rust, which have tiny grit in them. I then sponged some brown and orange to emphasize the texture further.



I tried something that I haven’t done before with this model, and that was painting reflection dots on his eyes. I don’t think I got them exactly symmetrical, but it’s close enough. I won’t be doing this with smaller minis, but might have another go with another ogre or such.

If I were to spend some more time painting, I’d fix some of the silver scratches on the sword that are a bit too big. I also should’ve used this model to practice painting tattoos, but I was once again too eager to call the model done.



I’ll use this model to claim the “unfinished for more than a year” square.

I’ll start working on his entourage next: two gnoblars, a parrot and a knife-wielding monkey.

Nice job on the Ogre!

The Raven Guard guy turned out good too, I don't know if it's the pose or the paint job, but it's giving me "Bad guy in a Cyberpunk setting" vibes.

 aku-chan wrote:
Nice job on the Ogre!
The Raven Guard guy turned out good too, I don't know if it's the pose or the paint job, but it's giving me "Bad guy in a Cyberpunk setting" vibes.

Thank you aku-chan! I think that vibe sounds about right.

Amazing work on the leather of his cape too - it absolutely gives the feel of weathered pirate.

The rusty blade and the leather bits are especially convincing. Nice work!
It was a good choice going with the striped pants!

Lovely work all around! I'll have to dig back through a few pages. Love the latest swashbuckler. That skin texture is killer.

Ugh. Bingo. I am not a fan of motivating tools that try to make me do stuff I'm not good at yet. But if it works for you, have at it. I just read some of the squares and recoiled at the idea of making a static terrain board. Of course all my projects are so enormous I might never finish them, so I guess I should just keep my opinions to myself...but I haven't. So please ignore me if this comment comes across dismissive. (Hey can you tell I am a socially awkward human?)

Stunning work on Blackpowder, he’s fantastic! The reflection on his eyes looks like effective on the pics and I can’t say as I see any scratches looking too big. Looks like a well used sword to me! Let’s all be honest though, it’s the parrot and the monkey that we really want to see

Obelix pants will never go out of style, great choice. The softer fabric texture helps the harder leather look the part, too.

blockade23 wrote:Amazing work on the leather of his cape too - it absolutely gives the feel of weathered pirate.

Cheers!

Ezki wrote:The rusty blade and the leather bits are especially convincing. Nice work!
It was a good choice going with the striped pants!

Thank you very much!

grey_death wrote:Lovely work all around! I'll have to dig back through a few pages. Love the latest swashbuckler. That skin texture is killer.

Glad you like it! Thanks for stopping by.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Ugh. Bingo. I am not a fan of motivating tools that try to make me do stuff I'm not good at yet. But if it works for you, have at it. I just read some of the squares and recoiled at the idea of making a static terrain board. Of course all my projects are so enormous I might never finish them, so I guess I should just keep my opinions to myself...but I haven't. So please ignore me if this comment comes across dismissive. (Hey can you tell I am a socially awkward human?)

No problem at all. At this time I don't go for the terrain squares either, as I don't really have the need or space for them. So I have to do a bit of planning if I want to get a full row, but it's not a priority for me, just something extra. It does sometimes influence my model choices, but more often I choose a model first and then see if I can claim a square after.

gobert wrote:Stunning work on Blackpowder, he’s fantastic! The reflection on his eyes looks like effective on the pics and I can’t say as I see any scratches looking too big. Looks like a well used sword to me! Let’s all be honest though, it’s the parrot and the monkey that we really want to see

Thanks a lot! Monkey and parrot are below!

Sherrypie wrote:Obelix pants will never go out of style, great choice. The softer fabric texture helps the harder leather look the part, too.

Exactly what I thought about the pants! Thanks!

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Sorry about the long silence! After my last post I had some really busy weeks at work and at home as well, and now that I'm on summer holiday, the kids and wife keep me almost as busy. Thankfully I've had some hobby time as well, but I've used it mostly on painting and video gaming, updating the blog has taken a lower priority. But, I have a couple of finished projects to share, and maybe a WIP as well (if I don't finish it before posting a WIP...).

So here are the Buccaneers to accompany Blackpowder!



I started with the gnoblars. Initially I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the skin tone. I kinda wanted to do something new, like a darker, tanned tone for these, but couldn't settle on the paints, so ended up with my tried-and-true recipe. Well, the gnoblars on the box art are also light-skinned, and I guess it contrasts nicely with the rather dark ogre figure. But in any case, there wasn't much to paint on these guys, so once I got started they were done in 3-4 sessions.



I quite enjoyed painting the skin, and my favorite part was the red jacket. And besides those elements and a bunch of brown there's not a whole lot more, so all in all they were nice and quick to paint. Hmm... Maybe I should get a box of Gretchin, or some Grots...



The spiky parrot was next. It seemed like a fun model to try painting bright, saturated colors. My first idea was to do the classic red parrot (a scarlet macaw, apparently), but then I remembered that I had a plush yellow-and-blue parrot (a blue-and-yellow macaw, upon googling...) as a kid, and thought that this could be a fitting reincarnation. I simplified the scheme a little: I left out the green on top of the head, and the blue butt(?).



I had primed the whole warband black, which was the right call for Blackpowder but a mistake for the Buccaneers. On the parrot, I brush-painted it Wraithbone so that I could use a Contrast paint for the yellow. This worked out well, and there's not much more done to the color. I applied a thinned orange wash and some subtle highlights. The blue was a bit more involved, but not by much. There's a slight gradient going on and more highlight passes than on the yellow.



I had left the monkey for last as I thought it looked a bit boring being just brown (and of course I just had to paint it like the box art), but when I got to it I found the little transitions fun to do. I also added some fur texture to make the model a bit more interesting to look at. Another small detail is that he's got the least-rusty blade in the warband.

The dirt on the bases was painted using an 'Eavy Metal recipe for AoS bases, and for the bones I used pretty much the same colors as I had done for the ropes and wood and such on the warband. Finally, I glazed some Seraphim Sepia and Athonian Camoshade on the bases to add some variety and to make them feel more organic.

I'll try to post the other finished project here tomorrow...

I've wanted to try a quartered paint scheme for quite some time, and reckon there's no better chapter than the Howling Griffons for that. I finally got one in my display cabinet!



The model was basecoated with Contrast paints, which made the yellow and red (Imperial Fist and Baal Red) pretty trivial. The quartering turned out to be fairly easy as well, as the amount of straight lines you needed to paint was actually very small (the top of the backpack was probably the longest continuous section). There were also many features on the model, such as rivets and the skull on the chest, that helped keep the lines in the middle. After the basecoats, I shaded the recesses, added some subtle layering and a single edge highlight, and finished the armor off by dotting the upward-facing corners.



In addition to the vibrant color scheme, the other distinct feature of the Griffons is their chapter symbol. There are no official decals, afaik, but I think a Marine needs his logo. I briefly considered freehanding it, but thankfully looked at eBay and found that The Mighty Brush offered a nice decal set for a reasonable cost and postage. They arrived swiftly, and turned out to be great quality products!



I tried another new product on the base: liquid pigments from GreenStuffWorld. I bought a set some months ago, and did some small tests on a couple of bases, but this was the first time I used them on a model. I'm not at all sure what the best way of using these is, but I gave the base a simple paint job and then slapped on a couple different liquid pigments. They seem to cover really well, and are definitely easier to control than dry pigments. They also dry with that nice matte, dusty finish I was looking for. I'll have to keep on experimenting with these.



There was a couple of options when choosing which square to claim on the bingo card, but I guess this one has to be the "scheme you don't normally use".