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!

Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Hunters

I've been working on my Stormcast Eternals off and on for a while. Over the last week or two, I finally managed to finish some of the units. Here's the first, a unit of Vanguard Hunters.

I really like the scheme, and as I bought them just to paint, it feels good to actually finish them. I've been working on the rest of the start collecting box too, so there should be more updates on the rest of the force coming over the next few days.

I've added a bit of blood spatter to some of the bases and models just to give them a bit more depth colour wise.

That about does it for today. If you like the scheme then stay tuned for more models from the force coming up soon.

Malcador Annihilator Tank Finished

I finished painting up this Malcador a few weeks ago, but I haven't been very diligent updating the blog, so I've only just had the chance to get some decent pitures of it.

Build wise, it was quite interesting, and the kit does show a little age in this regard. It reminded me a lot of building the original Chimera kit before the update where things like tracks just seem to be supplied in a big jumbled heap and you have to do a bit of detective work to get the thing together.


Armament wise, I did a bit of conversion work to swap out the lascannon sponsons for some of the autocannons from the Onager kit. It's one of the armaments that the tank I allowed and I've always been partial to autocannons. They also help offset the dodgy guard ballistic skill.

Once the build was finished, it was a joy to paint. I used my usual weathered scheme with airbrushed ammo and things. I've said it before, but the scheme I'm using for these tanks has been a joy to paint, and I'm really happy with the result that I've been getting for the time that I'm spending on them. Painting the crewman was a bit more of a challenge as I had glued him on in order to fit the heavy stubber properly, so I couldn't really use the airbrush for his yellow coat like I did with the rest of the infantry. I actually just made up his scheme on the spot using some of the same paints, but I'm pretty happy with how he came out in the end, and actually he matches the res of the force pretty perfectly.

Those of you looking at the pictures closely might have noticed that I named the tank the "Shagohod". The name brings back fond memories of Metal Gear Solid 3 for me, so I figured I'd go with it. I normally end up referencing metal gear at one point or another in battle anyway!


Finishing the Malcador also rounds out a fully painted 1000 points of Steel Legion. Always a great benchmark to reach. Due to some other good things going on in my life outside of the hobby, I decided to treat myself to a Shadowsword as well. I've built it and primed it, so hopefully I'll get that painted up at some point.

For the moment, I think finishing 1000 points has earned me a bit of a rest, so I'm hoping to switch gears for a bit and change projects for a little while to charge my reserves up a bit before I continue on with the Steel Legion.

Saint Celestine, Sisters of Battle Painted

Well, here's a project I started in January 2017. Nothing like finally blowing the dust off of a miniature and getting it off of the "to do" list.

I'm not sure what inspired me to work on my Sisters of Battle, I think it might be the news that GW are working on the plastic miniatures. That and all of the Inquisitor Martyr that I've been playing has left me with a hankering to work on something Inquisitorial.

Handily, I was also looking for a new project to experiment on with some paints that I picked up at Salute this year. One of the stands was selling old Vallejo paints really cheap (I think they were old stock or something that had been gathering dust in storage). I picked up a few, but I held back because I wasn't sure if they would have survived. I was a bit cavalier about what I got as well, as I just bought them because they were cheap. Anyway, one of the colours I got was Transparent Red, which as it turns out is rather vibrant and nice to use. I also used some Vallejo Emerald which is a really nice saturated green that I used as a base for the power weapons and things.

Overall, I think that they're some of my favourite models I've painted this year. There's something about them that really captures my own personal style; from the strong contrasting colours to the mix of both non-metallic and metallic techniques. Even the weathering on the robes and the bases are some of my trademark bits, but I don't usually get the chance to do it all on one place.



As far as the paint scheme is concerned, I wanted to try a few different things. For the red armour, I actually based the models in purple and then highlighted it in purple and white before adding a coat of the Transparent Red, which gave the armour a sort of plumb kind of look that I was going for. It was fun to add the high contrast shine to it too, and I mirrored that reflectiveness almost everywhere; from the yellow to the black and even a little bit on the hair.

Playing with that Emerald paint, I also had the opportunity to try to develop my wet blending skill a bit more. I used this to get the blend on the power weapons. In the past this has been something that I've struggled with a bit as it isn't exactly my forte. I think I finally get wet blending though, and I actually got good results with the technique. The thing seems to be - basecoat the whole area and let it dry. Basecoat again and then highlight in the direction you want; blending a bit as you go, but still adding a few mixes of more white or whatever. Then, this is the part I never got -  go back with a dry brush (too much water will just remove the paint you've added, and blur all the transitions; pulling towards the brightest point. You just have to clean and dry the brush between all of the transitions and work fast enough that it doesn't dry completely. A bit hard to explain, but that dry step really makes a lot of difference and allows you to smooth things without taking the paint off.

Anyway, that about does it for now. Check back later for more updates.