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Hello, and welcome to my latest, greatest attempt to get some of the grey avalanche that occupies far too much of my living space painted! I have a severe problem both with motivation to paint and satisfaction in my own work, and in the past I found keeping a project log really helped (it's how I managed to finish a Space Marine army back in 2014), but since I'm dreadful at sticking to a project these days, I've decided to make this one far more general and therefore allow myself to paint whatever I happen to feel like doing, in the hope that it'll stop burnout from setting in. It'll mostly be the huge stockpile of 40k miniatures I've gathered over the years, but other stuff (such as X-Wing ships) will inevitably appear here too.
Right, enough backstory, let's have some pictures, shall we? This is what is currently on my desk:

The Greater Daemons of my two preferred Chaos powers, as I have the workings of a Daemon army for each of them, and in both cases the original metal versions were what I wanted, assembly difficulty be damned! While the Keeper is assembled more or less stock, I've always found the Bloodthirster to be posed quite poorly for how great a model it is, so a little adjustment was needed to have him sweeping his axe rather than awkwardly holding it up like a lollipop man.
As well as rotating the forearm itself, the whole body has been angled to match, which meant a substantial gap was left between the head and body and had to be filled in with greenstuff, with new mane strands added to cover the top part.
There's also a Howling Banshee in there, a small part of an eBay-recovery Eldar army I spent an evening rebuilding parts of - her squadmates will be joining her once I nail down the paint recipe (since I already had one attempt at it I was not happy with).

That was yesterday - today I worked on the Bloodthirster exclusively, getting some washes down on him (it's amazing what a difference they make); namely a heavy green one on the skin and good old Army Painter Strong Tone on the armour, whip handle, and various horns (good *lord* there are a lot of them on the model...):

The axe, tabard and mane are all still basecoat only, as I'm not 100% sure how I'm tackling them yet.
Next painting session, I hope to start on the main colour layers on him, and get a bit further with the Keeper.
Thanks for reading!

I've got some more paint down on the Keeper:


As well as having gone over the purple sections with the base colour of Naggaroth Night (my favourite paint by far), I've added some Retributor Armour to the sword hilt, blocked in the main colour for the tabard (Mephiston Red), and given the tips of the horns some purple colouration (Naggaroth Night and Liche Purple), as I want them to be primarily black but 'tinged' with purple. This effect was also applied to the little spikes on the back of the claw arms and legs, and the fingernails.

I then made a start on one of three Daemonette units (the other two already having some base colours on them):


Just the Hormagaunt Purple foundation for the time being, as well as Knarloc Green for the hair on the unit leader. Luckily for me, all of my Daemonettes (36 in all!) are the fantastic Juan Diaz metals (I made a point of stockpiling them ever since the plastics were first revealed...), though conversion was required for a banner and musician for each of the three units. I've also added a little bit of variety to the sculpts by swapping in some different arms and weapons from the plastic Succubi from Mantic.

I know that the models all look a bit 'scrappy' at the moment, with specks of the white spray visible through the other colours and quite a few stray bits of purple on the white, but this is all stuff I'll tidy later - I havn't worked with a white undercoat for a long time so it's tricky to adjust!

I did a deceptive amount of work on the Bloodthirster as well, but he doesn't look much different (hence the lack of photo) since I had one of my patented 'Painting Panics' about the red skin and entirely redid it. This was because the green wash had left a *lot* of cloudy green in the recesses which was killing the effect it was supposed to create, so I used Druchii Violet instead the second time, since it's tonally closer to Khorne Red. It looks much better now, but took around two hours so I understandably put him to one side after that...

Thanks for reading!

After a bit of a gap, I've finally been able to recharge my camera and thus get some more progress photos! For the moment, I'm staying focused on the Slaanesh forces, putting the Eldar to one side for a while as I figure out some issues I'm having with the Banshees.

To that end, here's how the Keeper looks now:


I put down a Druchii Violet Wash over the whole model (sans the tabard and sword), then 'rebuilt' the skin with Ceramite White, which has fortunately left it shaded quite nicely (I've had a lot of issues with painting white in the past). The various jewellery pieces were then painted Screaming Bell, Retributor Gold, and Strong Tone wash, and the tabard has been painted with Mephiston Red and washed with Carroburg Crimson. I also picked out the eyes, teeth, and some bits on the forehead and belt with black, the latter two to be later done as gemstones.

The other two Daemonette units now have the first 'proper' purple layer of Naggaroth Night:



Progress is slow on those units, partly because it's a lot of models (and I'm generally quite slow anyway), but also partly because I'm very concerned about the wash/white stage on them - it worked alright on the larger Keeper, but delicate models like the 'nettes' come with a very real risk of having detail wrecked by careless paintwork...

I've decided that this Slaanesh force won't be exclusively Daemons - doing so seems very limiting both in terms of unit choices (since mixing gods does not seem right) and engagement in the actual game (since you all but give up an entire core phase i.e. shooting). And, since I'm firmly of the belief that Chaos Space Marines and Daemons should never have been seperated in the first place, I'm bringing in some Slaanesh Chaos Marine units too.

I actually started up some Slaaneshi Chaos Marines as a project quite a while back, but never got hugely far with it beyond some conversions (and conversion ideas, more on that later). One of those models was a Chaos Lord made from a leftover Emperors Champion I had, which was very easily corrupted to my evil needs, but only now have I managed to get some base paint on him:


My favourite part of the conversion is definitely the tongue, which was a leftover piece from a metal Bloodcrusher. I drilled a hole into the helmet to glue it in, so that it would appear to have broken through as the power of Chaos overcame him...

Til next time, thanks for reading!

Hello again! Been at work on a couple of things as of late, starting with some progress on the Slaaneshi Chaos Lord:


He's had a bunch of washes put on him now: the armour (AP Strong Tone), purple sections (Druchii Violet), metal sections (AP Dark Tone) and exposed arm (Ogryn Flesh). The sword hilt and wristband were painted with some Screaming Bell then also hit with the Strong Tone, and got some CDA Nauseous Blue layering on the claw and tabard done.
Even these simple steps have really helped him come together, and I'm excited to finish him.

Next up, I've been working on some buddies for him to lead in the Astartes contingent, namely some Noise Marines. I've debated over how to approach these a lot over the years, as while I like the GW versions of them (both new and old), finding them either in metal, for an acceptable cost, or both, was proving impossible. In the end, I decided instead to mix some plastic Chaos Space Marine models with some alternative 'upgrade' parts from non-GW sources. I eBay'd a handful of the older marines, since while the new ones are lovely they are not nearly poseable or affordable enough for the project, and I also wanted 12 of them rather than 10, because I have to stick to the Slaanesh sacred number (so either two units of 6 or one of 12), then picked up a selection of 'not-Noise-Marine' torsos, shoulder pads, and weapons from Kromlech and Spellcrow.
Here are the results!



I had a lot of fun putting these guys together and experimenting with my bitz box to help them stand out a bit more - such as the oldschool Chaos Warrior helmets, and converted melee weapons for the champions. The hardest parts were disassembling the original eBay finds (dear lord trying to seperate marine arms from glued on shoulder pads is no fun) and working with the resin pieces, which exist in only two states of being glued: completely loose and unstuck, and fixed in place as if welded.
That's not even mentioning the slight difference in scale between the Kromlech parts and the GW ones, making some of the fittings a lot more awkward than I might have liked. Ironically enough, part of the reason I chose the older marines rather than the new kit was that I assumed the Kromlech parts would have been designed with the old models in mind (since they predate the fancy new Chaos Marines by a fair margin), and yet I suspect they may have fit better, scale wise, with the new ones...

While they arn't glued on yet (for ease of painting, I'll be working on them seperately and attaching them at the end), these are the sonic guns I'm using:


The left gun is the Sonic Gun from Spellcrow, which will serve as my Sonic Blasters, whereas the monstrosity on the right is the Kromlech version, which is much more fitting as a Blastmaster.

Lastly, I did take another look at my Howling Banshees and started working out my paint method for their armour, with...differing success. Below is a comparison image between my latest two experiments:


Both models were basecoated with Dheneb Stone and washed with AP Strong Tone. The left Banshee was layered with Dheneb Stone again, then highlighted with Screaming Skull. The one on the right (which was actually done first) was layered straight to Screaming Skull. The left one feels cleaner and more 'professional' (for want of a better word) but feels like the shading is perhaps a little lacking, whereas the right one has better definition but feels more sloppily executed. I'd say the ideal result is probably somewhere in between the two, so I'll be attempting something to that effect on a third one before proceeding any further with either of these two.
Regardless, I've basecoated and washed the remaining members of the squad in the same way as the first two:


My priority now is finishing up the assembly of the Noise Marines (I need to create some Doom Sirens) and then to paint a test model to hammer out the colour scheme for them.

Til next time!

Here we go again!

Maintaining a project log is difficult...and maintaining painting and modelling enthusiasm is even moreso! The last couple of years have not been kind to my motivations - nevertheless I find them starting to return and so felt I should get to documenting while I can.

First off, I confess to having put all my existing projects (Daemons, Slaanesh Marines, and Eldar) on hold, some of which even boxed up and stored away, some time ago as part of a general clearing up of my living space and desire to avoid being further demotivated by unfinished projects being always visible! That's not to say I won't come back to them (far from it), but for now I have other things I'd like to focus on, and lord knows I'm a dreadful hobby butterfly at the best of times.

To whit - Kill Team 2021 happened, and while I havn't played the game yet several friends have, with positive assessments (shocking for a GW game these days). Since I was able to *ahem* "obtain" the rules, I figured the game was probably worth a try even if it turned out to be awful, since my financial investment would be precisely £0, given all the many models I have stashed away. It also meant I could more easily finish small projects, since a team is a handful of models (as few as 5 in the more elite cases), which helps with 'army fatigue'.

So here's the Grey Knights I painted up for that purpose!

Brother Amadeo


Brother Iohel


Justicar Aldaris


Brother Cainan


Brother Zavian


Not the best pictures (from my phone, but it was the only camera I had available at the time) as they really don't do the models justice - I am incredibly harsh on my own painting work but even my most cynical side is really pleased with them, and the complex painting recipe involved Vallejo Metal Colour Chrome is god-tier stuff. I'll endeavour to get better pictures soon.

Although I do have another Kill Team in the works, I have a different project lining up first - the board game Tiny Epic Mechs:


It's a tactical arena combat game where you buy weapons and beat the stuffing out of each other in robot suits (what's not to like?), and one of the main selling points is the 'Itemeeples' - awesome little plastic models to represent the weapons that can be physically equipped to the player pieces to represent them. They are, however, a little bland in the default white plastic; especially compared with the vibrant artwork of each that the game provides on the cards for them, so I thought 'why not paint up the set?'

The first thing on that score is the 'Mighty Mech' (aka the 'Megapants' in my game circle) - a huge robot suit that can equip four of the 'Advanced' weapons and that only one player can have at a time. I thought it would be neat to try and match the card art for that, which is this:


The model is a fair bit more basic than that, but the broad elements of the design are there, so it should be an interesting challenge. I've made a tentative start:


Just the white spray undercoat for now, as I try and hammer out what colours will be used and where to put them. Let's see how it goes!

There's progress on the Mighty Mech - namely, blocking in some colour:



The black parts are in preparation for metallics, while the blue (VMC Azure over GW Dawnstone) is the sort of 'under-armour' in the card art - there's a definite blue tinge to it but it was very hard to ascertain what paint colour would best match it. I nearly used a metallic blue paint I have (Neptunus Blue from Green Stuff World) but that was too stark a contrast. As it is, I think the Azure is a little bluer than the art (the blue sections could, after all, just be the same white lit differently) but screw it, it needs to be more than just a big block of white anyway. Though it does have the unfortunate side effect of making the Mech look like it's wearing a pair of jeans at the moment...

I'll probably edge highlight the blue with a light grey to take it closer to the white beside it; I'm also assuming (hoping?) that once the metallics go down it'll break up the jeans look a bit.

Til next time!

A little more work on the Mech - it took me this long to get a halfway decent photo of it sorted out!



I've got the metal down now - VMA Gunmetal, Nuln Oil wash, VMA Steel. I've also shaded some of the hard edges under the armour with Nuln Oil, and tidied up the azure since metal and wash splotches got onto it. Since the feet are a lot larger than in the artwork (for practicality reasons), they were in danger of looking like huge steel bricks so I painted in the blue squares of armour plate onto them, as close to the art as possible.
The next step will be to highlight the metal where needed (primarily the cockpit and front panel), the edges of the blue, and tidy up/relayer the white section.