High on Plastic Glue

So the new BA miniatures came out last weekend. I picked up a box of Death Company yesterday, I'll get the Sanguinor, Dante, Codex and Sanguinary Guard in due time.

The Death Company box set is fantastic! I managed to get hold of a set of the old metal DC on eBay so with these combined I'm going to make 5 with jump packs and kitted out with close combat gear, and 5 with bolters.

Pics will follow!

Almost there... and stripping

So here's my (almost, finally) finished dreadnought for the Blood Angels, I've added some prayers or whatever in white to the panels, and a tiny bit more weathering.

So as I mentioned before, been attempting stripping paint off some old space marines with THICK enamel paint on them, in several layers, I'm pleased to say after 24hrs soaking in Green Dettol (smells like apples), they came out like this:

Not too bad at all! Just need to get a cocktail stick to get the tiny bits out of the crevices, but I could re-spray them now and never know.

After a recommendation I also tried Fairy Power Spray on some plastic space marines painted with such a thick layer of blood red that almost no detail was visible (what was I thinking?!). After about 3 hours after a light spray all over the models, the paint was literally falling off, and a little scrub from a toothbrush almost instantly stripped them down to the undercoat.

FAIRY POWER SPRAY RULES

I'm visiting home this weekend and plan on raiding the rest of my awful detail obscuringly thick painted marines, i'm pretty sure there's an attack bike and a land speeder I could salvage, and some metal scouts. Brilliant. I'll post some before and after shots too when i get back and get to them.

Keep on strippin'

Wash with similar colours

Whoops, no new posts in a while, but thanks for still visiting! My camera seems to absolutely devour batteries, so I may have to invest in some half decent ones if I ever want to add more pictures up on here!

My progress since last time:

• Another marine painted completely, 3 others Mechrite Red basecoated and washed.
• Dreadnought almost done, need to add something cool to the scrolls, and then whatever squad markings I eventually decide on (maybe decals), but I'm waiting until April codex time for this.
• Discovered glazes.
• Stripped an old Librarian in Terminator armour, Chaplain, and Standard Bearer left from my old Marine army ready to join the Blood Angels!

Yup, finally used a glaze for the first time, I bought Baal Red wash, thinned in immensely, to just red tinged water, and covered all the red in it. It dried nicely, with the faintest hint of a red colouring, enhancing the vibrancy of the red and making it seem less orangey-chalky overall, pretty impressive. I think to make it flow more like a wash you need to add a teeny drop of washing up liquid, will try this next time.

I also painted up a LoTR Moria Goblin for fun, and will put pics of him up asap!

Cheers then

Photoshop Boredom

So I was bored for five minutes waiting for a friend earlier, so made this, I'm just getting to grips with CS4, lots of potential in it for some cool (if cheesy) miniature snaps...

Big Red Dread'

So here's my Dreadnought from the AoBR box. I do hope I work out how to photograph the highlights on this red at some point, but still, red is the most unforgiving in this respect I suppose.

It's not technically finished yet, I want to put some very fine white writing (prayers and scripture) on certain panels, as well as choosing something cool sounding to write on the scrolls, maybe I'll wait for the new codex for inspiration... I'm not sure if it'd benefit from some more weathering, thoughts?

Cheers

Sanguinius and friends

So I'm going to paint my first 'new' army as Blood Angels space marines. I can hear the groans of "not another new Blood Angels army for April..." but I don't care, they were the army I was going to start next right before I stopped four years ago, so it seems pretty appropriate that I carry on as I was going to...

Now I'm only really starting to work out how to take pictures of my models, any tips would be greatly appreciated btw, so here's my first attempt at a marine from the AoBR box:

Gah, well it doesn't really show the highlights that well, but I suppose it is red... Here's how it was painted if you're interested:

RED:

1. Chaos Black spray
2. Mechrite Red basecoat, thinned down slightly to avoid obscuring detail
3. A heavy wash of Ogryn Flesh for the shading
4. Now here's the tedious(/fun?) bit, several coats of thinned Blood Red, it all depends on how well the coverage is as to how many you'll need to do, for example this marine took three, but the dreadnought I'm working on took five, and I'm still not sure if it'd benefit from a sixth.
5. A very fine slightly thinned highlight of Blazing Orange

METAL:

1. Overbrush Gunmetal Foundation Paint
2. Badab Black heavy wash
3. Light drybrush of Chainmail
4. Finest of fine highlights with Mithril Silver, not overdoing it.

DETAILS

• Chest Eagle = Lyanden Darksun, then Golden Yellow, then a light Ogryn Flesh wash
• Eyes = Knarloc Green with a Goblin Green highlight (same for and purity seals on the models)
• Bolter = Black with a Codex Grey fine highlight
• Base = Sanded, Devlan Mud wash, Bleached Bone drybrush, Bestial Brown rim, and a little bit of Static Grass.

Hope that's of some use to someone out there! I generally take a fair while to paint, with it being exclusively in my limited free time, the stages above took around 4-5 hours to paint, not bad I think. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better pics up soon, plus my Dreadnought which I've just finished. Lovely stuff.

Post virginity/Introduction

So here I am, my first foray into the blogosphere. Be gentle.

I first starting playing Games Workshop games way back in 2001 at the tender age of 14. Times were simpler back then, there was pocket money to be had, chores to be done, and as the years passed part time jobs and the such. At the time I mostly painted, and by mostly I mean exclusively, owing to the distinct lack of games clubs in the area. Eventually I stumbles across one a bus ride away, and frequented it each week, if only to bash out a quick (3rd Ed) WH40K game (usually about 750 points in the limited time I had before my last bus home was due), and a lot (too many?) Lord of the Rings games and scenarios.

Back then I had a nice sized Space Marine army, and a small Tau force, and started to amass a large amount of Imperial Guard towards the later stages of what I call 'Phase 1' of my hobby story. Times were indeed good, and it wasn't long before I'd reached university age.

As university life began, my hobby took a back seat to various hedonistic pleasures that most people discover during this time, and I officially announced to myself that I was going on indefinite hobby hiatus.

4 years later and I decided to go back to university to try and forge some sort of career in science (madness), so with a little free time, some more common sense, and a healing liver, I decided to venture to my local Games Workshop store to see what had changed since I last picked up a paint brush...

Needless to say it was a bit of a culture shock; "since 3rd Edition?!, sit down we've a lot to talk about.." said the ever enthusiastic employee that greeted me. He then filled me in on all the changes and such, and new products of course.

Well one thing led to another and I left with the Assault on Black Reach set, and a handful of paints and modelling equipment (I sold everything I owned during my hiatus to fund various other things), I set off back home and started gluing away.

Slightly high on fumes I realised how much I had missed this, and officially told myself, that my hobby hiatus was now well and truly over.

In this blog I'll be charting the progress of my "new" hobby, sharing insights, new things I've learned, and hopefully passing on a few tips. One of the main things I want out of the hobby this time is gaming, being predominantly a painter for years means I can probably count the total number of games of any kind I've ever played on a few hands. Not too good. However it does mean I can paint, albeit rather slowly. I'll wait and see what you think anyway.

If you've read this far then well done, and I hope you come back soon to check up on how it's going for me!