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Hey All,

Been a while since I painted something, was thinking of doing a display model rather than my usual fair of "pump it out quick to get it table top ready". I do put together scale models of aircraft for my display shelf, but I don't think I've ever painted a miniature to put on permanent display, with the most time I've spent on an a single 28mm model being well under 10 hours.

Spent a bit of time looking through GW's range, and I think I'm gonna brave the failcast and grab Isabella von Carstein. (I'd post a pic but the GW site is down).

But it got me thinking, what's your favourite 28mm model for the purpose of looking awesome, but not just awesome looking, also something you'd be willing to sink 10's if not 100's of hours into showing off and something you'd put on your display shelf?

I know folk often go for larger scales for displays, and if you want to mention some of your favourite models there that's cool, but I'm more looking for what you like in the 28-32mm range, I was kinda surprised how few models in GW's current line up that I'd really be willing to sink real time into painting well.

So what say you, Dakkanaughts?

For me that would be every model ha. But i think it's safe to say I'm a collector of Horus heresy since I've acrued 7 primarchs and 10 of the other characters. From the gw range there are tons of options, Abaddon, ghaz, that new pixelated necron thing, alarielle... The new sigvald looks awesome too.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
For me that would be every model ha. But i think it's safe to say I'm a collector of Horus heresy since I've acrued 7 primarchs and 10 of the other characters. From the gw range there are tons of options, Abaddon, ghaz, that new pixelated necron thing, alarielle... The new sigvald looks awesome too.

I do like the new Sigvald, though not a fan of the general scheme GW use. Saw one painted up with deep red armour and it looked really cool.

I feel like Abaddon and Ghaz would be tough to show your skills, as they've got what I'd describe as a bit too much detail. But still, nice looking models.

And yeah, Forge World do some great work. I seem to prefer the simple models though, like the DKOK Officer...

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/catalog/product/920x950/99550105045_DKOKCommandSquadHQ02.jpg

Or the DKOK Commissars are also really nice. I should pick them up at some stage.

Yeah vincent venturellas deep pink one is nice.

Almost any of the characters from the old 2nd ed Eldar range. Baharoth in particular. Or maybe some of the classic Warhammer wizards. My tastes are somewhat Oldschool.

Like yourself, the only stuff that stays on my shelf for a given period of time are my scale models, but when I paint up minis I like to rotate what sits on my shelf. Newest thing painted gets the spotlight and the oldest thing goes into a carry case.

I like to keep my Eldar grav tanks out most of the time though, they're a classic design in my opinion and they look good floating on flying bases.

In terms of actual minis, the current minis I have planned to paint to a display level is 30k Ahriman, the old kneeling/observing Eldar Ranger and Lieutenant Amulius. The first two more so as I love the model and/or character and the last one is to test what my army scheme would look like done to a higher level.

You can't really go wrong with most Eldar.

The only model I've bought (for dirt cheap off ebay since it was long OOP) that wasn't related to the armies I played is the chaos lord with plasma pistol and axe. Loved it since I saw a painting competition about it on a 20+ years old White Dwarf.

This model, with the winning guy's paintjob:

The model I've had the absolute most fun painting -nothing even comes close- is Mortarion. But when it comes to small/normal models it's a bit harder... Admech sulfur hounds, Custode venetari, killa kan, the old Masters of the forge and Harlequin jester was very fun to sink some hours into.

I aim to paint the Lady of Anguish by Creature Caster at some point soon, they have some really nice looking models.

Yeah creature caster is definitely display level stuff.

Definitely Hasslefree mini's for me. It's not just that I like the minis and design, but they are an absolute joy to paint.
There are any number of minis I love the look of, but loathe painting. Hasslefree are best of both worlds

Shortly after deciding to go for an Isabella model I check the online store and she's out of stock, doh! Guess I need a new idea.

PossumCraft wrote:
Definitely Hasslefree mini's for me. It's not just that I like the minis and design, but they are an absolute joy to paint.
There are any number of minis I love the look of, but loathe painting. Hasslefree are best of both worlds

Any particular ranges or models within Hasslefree you like? They seem a bit of a mixed bag to me, a lot of them have odd looking proportions or facial details that aren't very sharp.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 theCrowe wrote:
Almost any of the characters from the old 2nd ed Eldar range. Baharoth in particular. Or maybe some of the classic Warhammer wizards. My tastes are somewhat Oldschool.

I like the simplicity of some of the older models. I have a 5th edition Bretonnian Sorceress that I should one day paint up. I just dug her out and she's a lot smaller than I remember, scale creep I guess, lol.

Mine would be conversions that I had planned, but never got around to doing, and no longer have the time or energy to make them happen...

The first was something I called 'The Codex Project'. I made this guy some years back as part of a commission project, based on some old artwork from one of the Marine codexes. It inspired the idea of working through all of the 40K books and choosing a piece of art from each, and building the focal model from that art.

The other was a 'less ridiculour Primarch project'. I dislike Primaris marines as actual marines. I also really dislike how huge GW went with the Primarchs. They just look silly and out of scale. So my idea was a circular diorama split up into twenty sections. In each section (well, 18 of them, anyway) would be two or three old-school marines painted in Heresy colours, and a Primaris marine converted into the appropriate Primarch. I got as far as buying a few Primaris marines to get started, and then it went into the 'maybe one day' pile.