My first Diorama - GK Competition 2020 Entry

It's been quiet here … too quiet. There's a good reason for it though; as at least for some of the time I was hard at work on a top secret entry for this year's GK Competition (run by E2046).

The competition entries are up, but voting won't start for another week or so. After that there's an official judging period, so results won't come out till September. Anyway, my entry this year was a bit spontaneous in the end. I bought a couple of 54mm miniatures from RN Estudio with the thought that maybe I'd make a tiny diorama - like both on something not much bigger than a small base. It just so happened that at the time, I started playing a little Valkyria Chronicles and it kind of inspired the colour scheme which went on to influence the rest of the piece and in the end I kept adding more bits influenced by the game - like the recruitment posters.

The other main parts of the kit are the building and bike. The bike is a plastic model Harley kit made by Italeri which came in a lot of parts for something so small. The building is a kit by MiniArt. It was like nothing on earth to build though - the building was vacuum formed and came in big sheets that you had to cut the walls out of. I'm really happy with it now that it's done, but it took a lot of work to get it looking good. The scale would probably be good for Inquisitor though if anyone was interested. 

Painting wise, I used my usual mix of airbrush and brush. I intentionally chose to try more non-metallic techniques as a way to match the sort of animation style that I was looking to create.

You can check out all the entries here (there are figure and robot categories too accessible at the top) 

For just my gallery with more photos: Click Here  

Emperor's Children Lord Discordant

Well, this is a model that has been sitting around ever since the release. Really happy to have finally finished it.

Due to the conversion work, painting was very difficult. In order to fit the lady on his lap, I had to do a lot of culling and shaping. By the time they were finished, the whole thing had to be glued together and then painted as one huge chunk, which really made it difficult to get to the riders! That and the 6 legs worth of gold filigree really made it feel like a challenge.

Style-wise, I always thought it would be fun to try adding a sort of love-interest semi romantic edge to a Slaanesh model. I think I was also inspired the original art for the cover of the first Vanpire Hunter D novel, which I've always really liked. As far as actual lore is concerned, I imagine perhaps he fell in love with a noble noblewoman he took as a slave - unfortunately she didn't survive the warp energy she was exposed to in the eye of terror, so he clones her again and again, enjoying the sensations of both love and heartbreak as only his gene enhanced physiology and twisted mind can. Something like that anyway.

As far as the actual paint work is concerned, this is my regular Emperor's Children scheme. I've also been working on a Leviathan dreadnought for them, which I should be able to start painting soon.

Wizkids Pathfinder Battles Bone Golem Complete (speed paint)

Just a quick post today. As an additional present at Christmas, I got this £4.99 Bone Golem from my local store. The miniature is quite large for the price (like a small Helbrute) and came prepped with undercoat. It's part of the Wizkids Deep Cuts range which is intended for Pathfinder or D&D. For my purposes, it will be headed for an early grave in Necromunda (if anyone can kill the thing!)

All in, it took maybe an hour or so. I basically coated it with Khorne Red with a massive brush and then quickly wet blended in a few other colours including some Rakarth Flesh for the skulls. Once it was all dry, I added some washes and a few basic highlights to the skulls with a little white.

That pretty much covers it. It's a great model for the price. The quality is decent for what it is, and the details are crisp enough. It isn't the best resin and has an almost rubbery feel to the finish which is a little disconcerting, but for £4.99 I'll buy that every day of the week.

Sisters of Battle - Squad Complete (new plastic models)

I finished my first squad of new battle sisters. These come from the army box set, and use a matching scheme with my Everchosen entry from a few months ago.

They're really nice models. I have to admit, that I was beginning to think that we would never see the mythical plastic sisters in this lifetime, but here they are! They were easy enough to build, but I painted them as a batch, and with a scheme this complex, it was a bit ambitious. It was just too many layers of paint coupled with a massive amount of detail that made it a bit of a slog to the finish in the end. I started painting them in December and made it about 3/4 of the way through, then ran out of steam and had to do some different projects for a bit to build up strength for the final push!

I'm happy with they came out, but a bit daunted to tackle the rest of the box. That said, Squaduary is coming up again soon and I have those small units of Repentia and Flagellants to work on, so that might help push through a little more of the force.

The paint scheme itself is started with an airbrushed coat of purple that is highlighted in purple and white before being given a coat of Vallejo Transparent Red. After I've set the basic blend on the armour up, it's all brush work till the end. I enjoy painting the yellow parts, but the robes are a bit of a pain. They just become very monotonous to paint given their size and the number of clean layers required. Overall, they're a nice looking squad, and a great start to the army. I also repainted my older converted Exorcist to match the scheme, so I'll do a post about that soon.

Ready to face the forces of Chaos?

Necromunda - Zombie Hoard, Complete

As part of my prep work for some upcoming Necromunda games, I painted these 18 zombies... in a single day. They're a basic sheme, and I did cut corners to make the whole process bearable. Despite obviously rushing through them, I'm quite happy with how they look, and I used a few basic tricks to get a bit of colour depth without spending too much time on each model.

If you're wondering about the models, the vast majority of these come from Mantic; either the Kings of War Zombie Hoard, or Deadzone's plague faction. There are a few other models thrown in, which I think are from Sedition Wars. I've had all of them for a long time, as I bought a load to use in gaames and then painted a dozen or so and shelved the rest. I figure at some point we were bound to need more, so I thought I'd get a jump on it. The campaign we're planning is a sort of cooperative zombie bash up, so should be great fun, and a variety of models can only help.

If you look closely, you'll see some zombies have guns. Two are from the Plague faction of Deadzone, the other two that look like riot cops are conversions using a mash-up of the Kings of War Zombies, some spare Maelstrom's Edge bits and some Anvil parts.

All in all, it made for a fun weekend project. I guess it's time to bring on the games! I'm planning to run a feature later on the actual games and how they go, so it should be good.

28mm Anime Miniature - Klukva "Sniper Waifu" (Yoko Littner) Complete

I've always wanted to see someone make an anime style figure in 28mm scale. A few manufacturers out there that get close, but none of them really seemed quite right or were really what I was looking for. I often check out what Klukva miniatures are up to (https://klukvaminiatures.com/goods - you can find them on Instagram and Facebook too), and I was delighted to see them branching out into some anime style miniatures. Some long term readers might remember my review for their vampires from a year or two ago (https://tabletopapocalypse.blogspot.com/2018/05/klukva-miniatures-review-little-resin.html). After that initial purchase, I knew I could rely on them for good quality. I'm not really writing a review this time, but I have to say that I think their casting quality is even better this time!

You can see the work I did on her eyes from this angle

Anyway, I picked up this "Sniper Waifu" miniature from them. She was a pre-order along with some other bits, so it was a bit of a wait till everything shipped out, but for a fun purchase and a painting project I don't mind waiting. If you know your anime, you might recognise the design as being based on Yoko Littner from Gurren Lagann. I basically followed through and tried to paint as closely to the original character as possible.

Speaking of painting, she made for quite a fun project. I finished her in a day over the weekend. She is incredibly tiny and fine though - see the picture below! I did wonder if I'd be able to paint her eyes and things how I wanted as although they're big for the scale of the miniature, they're still pretty tiny. In particular, I used some washes to get more defined shading and did a blue/black highlight for the gun which was something new that I haven't tried before (but I probably will again!)

I use that bit of sponge propping the penny up to weather tanks!

That about rounds it out. I've actually been doing quite a bit of hobby lately, so there should be more posts soon. Like a lot of people, I started working on some of the new Sisters of Battle over Christmas as well as other projects, so more soon. I've also got a few more Klukva miniatures in the pipeline...

Dark Eldar Grotesques WIP Conversions

A slightly different project today. As I've been working on my Dark Eldar (which have a Haemonculus Covens theme), I knew I wanted some grotesques. Like many who came before me,it didn't take long for me to realise that the options are limited as GW only makes one model that's both expensive and finecast. 

I had a look through the options for conversions, and Crypt Horrors to me seem to be by far the best kit to use as a base. All the mutant spines and stuff work in your favour, and they're half way there from the beginning. I picked up a set of them on eBay, and then combined them with spares from the Talos kit.

In terms of the conversion, I mostly just had to trim their heads down to fit the masks and replace some of their hands with weapons from the Talos. I added tails too, as they looked good with the poses. Handily, as I'd built legs for my Talos I had a lot of tanks left over, so I had plenty of them to add to the spines I'd cut off to look like it had a lot of chemical feed lines stuck in them. 

The only other part of the conversion was trimming off and shaving down the hairy bits on them, as it just isn't right on grotesques. I still need to finish adding some more bits and then greenstuff the gaps etc, but they're getting there. I'd like to add a bit more armour to them too - just so they'll blend in well with the rest of the army once they're painted, as the gloss red scheme is quite distinctive.