Daemonette Squad Finished (Juan Diaz Metal Sculpts)

Another unit finally finished. I've been working on these for some time. I've got more units to get through too as I stocked up on 2 another 20 when they went back into production for a limited run. These are all the ones that I collected earlier, and I had gradually painted 6 of them to finished about a year ago. I finished the last 4 recently.

I really like these metal sculpts. I actually do like the plastic ones as well, but I particularly like the fine details these ones have; in particular I actually like how they scale with other models in the chaos range. They look small and delicate next to your marines, which seems fitting somehow.

They look great as a unit too, and I know that I'll get a lot of use out of them now that they're finished. They don't cost that many points, so are the kind of unit you can afford to take in a lot of lists. Obviously, their survivability isn't that good, but I tend to play a mostly shooting oriented force with my Emperor's Children, and they're more likely to be used for counter-assault than anything else.

I'm posting again tomorrow, but It'll be something different. I finished my piece for Dreadtober, so I figure I better put that on the blog. After that, more Chaos!

Slaanesh Female Raptors - Finished

I finally finished my all-female Chaos Raptor squad. I think it has been about a year since I last worked on my Chaos, but I'm back in the saddle again and trying to finish off some of those units that were nearly there.

I'll forgive you if you can't remember my last post about these models. They are made by Prodos Games for a game called Space Crusaders. I picked them up as a random purchase at Salute 2 years ago and it's nice to get them out of the cupboard of shame at last!

Style wise, they're a bit excessive and buxom; so basically perfect for Slaanesh. Sure, they won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I really like how they look. They're really well cast too; easy to build, clean and have great detail. In particular, their faces were a real highlight to me. They weren't hard to paint and I think they look awesome and very expressive.

On the other side of things, all of that gold filigree and baroque detail was rather time consuming to work on! It also took a while to paint the bases and thing that were more detailed than usual. I actually built the bases myself using some tyranid egg sacs that I got from my brother. I have no idea what sprue they are from though, or if they're even still in the kits.

I've also been working on more of my Chaos, and I'll be posting another unit I recently finished tomorrow, so check back soon! I've actually managed to get a post together for every day this week, so look forward to it!

Dreadtober - 40k Skaven Dragoon - The Build

I've done it again, and I'm rather proud of this one. As with all of my work, I wanted the Dragoon to still be recognisable for what it was whilst also being rather different (and with a rat-man riding it obviously).

I decided beforehand that I wanted to change the Dragoon to have an upright body, and that it would probably have arms and a rider. Other than that, nothing was set and I went into this one knife in hand and ready to carve out the model one piece at a time.

With only a rough idea of where things were going, I built the legs stock as I wouldn't be changing those. I then cut the torso to remove the hip section and added all of that together to make a base to work from. I cut off the servitor driver as I wouldn't want him in there and then I flipped the body section so that the saddle actually formed the stomach of the beast. It also gave a nice neck form and a bit of shape. Overall, it was way too skinny though, so I kept building and adding parts to bulk it out, and his chest plate is made from the gun shield in the kit.

Sorry the photos aren't better, I was in a bit of a rush after spending so much time building it!

Overall, the conversion uses about 70% original parts from the Dragoon/Ironstrider kit. The largest part borrowed from another source is the front of a dreadnought (well it is Dreadtober after all!), which I used to build his shoulder pads as well as the command throne. There are also a few Killa Kan parts in there to build the arms and for some of the additional details. Don't ask me what else though, as it's a bit of a blur and I'm not sure I could name everything I've used. It was also quite a lot of work trying to shape the rat-pilot up top, but I like the big lever now that it's done!

In the end, the model probably took about a day to build, but I actually worked on it over 2 days to spread out the work and to give it time to dry in the middle there.

Style-wise, I've tried to keep it true to the rest of the force with combined Mechanicus, Skaven and Ork parts. I always try to give the models a bit of an evil look or edge to them too, as Skaven should look pretty bad to the bone. I'm always wary of keeping it looking futuristic though, and not going too all-out Skaven on things, as I never want the army to look too much like their fantasy counterparts.

Originally, I had thought of mounting the pilot lower down on its back, but after I added the exhausts I knew he wouldn't fit. I quite like the face that having him "up top" sort of echoes the position of the rider on the Doom Wheel for fantasy, so it adds a little throwback too. It does make the whole thing quite tall though, and I'd be interested to see it side by side with a regular Ironstrider.

Anyway, that concludes the build, which should give me about a month to get it painted. Hopefully it shouldn't be a problem, but it is a rather detailed model (and quite large now!)

Entering Dreadtober 2018 - 40k Skaven Dragoon!

If there's one thing I love it's a community hobby challenge. Despite that, I've never entered Dreadtober (the annual dreadnought/large model painting event).

I started thinking about the challenge, and I realised that I had the perfect project all boxed up and ready to go. A few months ago, some of you may remember my really successful 40k Skaven project that I completed during Squaduary. For that challenge, I completed 15 infantry, my Dominus, and a converted Dune Crawler (the "Doom Crawler"). Around that time, I also picked up a Sydonian Dragoon kit, but I ended up shelving the project for a while as I didn't have a clear idea of what I was going to do with the kit and I also got a bit burned out and switched project.

Time to add some more models to the force!

Well, inspiration finally hit, and I've started hashing out some ideas of what I'm going to do. With any luck I should have a really cool and interesting.

For more on the event, it's all available at: https://dreadtober.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll enjoy following my progress, it should be great!

The doom crawler was a big success. Hopefully the next walker will be as nice when it's finished!

Lord Aquilor Complete

To finish up my work on the Stormcast Eternaals this week, here's my finished Lord Aquilor. This model is pretty big and took some time to complete, but it feels like it was worth the amount of work that I put in. I'm happy with his mount, and once again, I went for a white highlight on the flesh parts to make it look shiny and healthy. I also did some wet blending on his sword to get a bit of a blend going on, and to make it look nice and magical.

He is painted using the same scheme as the rest of the models; with the Verdigris and marble effects. If there's one thing I'm not sure about, it is the rider's face. It looks pretty good, and I'm happy enough with it, but I can't help but feel that it could be better. I might do a bit more work on it at some point, but it'll certainly do for now.

In particular, I really like the eagle-head. It's a lovely sculpt and has a sort of regal character to it that was a lot of fun to work on.

That about rounds out another post, and probably my work on the Stormcast Eternals for the minute. Check back again later to see what I'm working on next!

Stormcast Gryph Hounds Finished

Keeping this week's Stormcast theme going, today I've got the Gryph Hounds from the start collecting box.

These are the smallest thing in the set, but are still mounted on Terminator size bases. I have to admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of the models at first, but they've really grown on me. For one, I love the dynamism and anatomy of the sculpts. I don't know who worked on them, but they feel like they were crafted with a real love for animals. In particular, I like the pose of the one on the left of my pictures wit the leopard spots on its back. It really looks sort of like a playful dog (albeit with a bird head).

I continued the animal pattern theme through by adding stripes and spots to them. Handily, they didn't take that long to paint, and after the airbrush basecoats were done, it wasn't too much to finish off the other details. It's always an advantage when your models are mostly one colour. Like the Palladore I posted yesterday, I highlighted their flesh to white to get a sort of sheen. I'm happy with the results.

With that, another unit is complete. I have one more thing to post for my Stormcast Eternals this week that I've been working on, so check back later if you've been enjoying these posts!

Stormcast Vanguard Palladore Finished

Following on from yesterday's post, I've got the first finished Palladore. I really love these models; they're the reason I bought the set. So cool and interesting, and they gryphon/horse idea is brilliant and very well executed. For me personally, models like this exemplify what makes Age of Sigmar more exciting than the older editions of Warhammer Fantasy that came before it.

The colours for the Gryph-Charger were in part inspired by the colours of a male pheasant. I wanted to blend in some green hues that would match my eternals. I also worked some reds into their extremities and chests and finished this model with some zebra-esque stripes on the hindquarters.

I'm always working on my painting techniques. This model gave me a chance to try to make clear points of light. I've actually gone all the way to white on the brown flesh of the steed to try to get that glossy/healthy look  that you get on a well groomed horse. You can see the effect on the picture below on the highlights on its hindquarters and the neck. I'm really happy with the effect.

He did take a while to finish, but it feels like it was worth the effort. I need to finish off the other two from the unit, but I airbrushed the basecoats in a batch, so at least it won't take quite as long as the first!