Lizardmen - Oxyotl the Chameleon Skink

 

A classic model I've been painting since last night. Finished him this morning and thought I'd post him on the blog as I've been neglecting to post much lately... again. 

Lizardmen were my first ever Warhammer army. Back then I couldn't afford the armies book at first and I remember leafing through it in my local games store and coming across the art for this guy and being blown away! Immediately I wanted one, but there was no model, so I set to work on a series of terrible conversions with old plastic skinks as the base - then dutifully painted them up in garish colours inspired by Buzizima the Chameleon from the PS1 classic fighting game Bloody Roar 2. Thankfully, some years later, the actual model came out and I bought him. 

As an old sculpt, he stands the test of time very well - I like him a lot more than the other iterations of chameleon skinks that came out later. Actually, I consider pretty much everything done to the Lizardman range after 5th edition to be pretty heinous to be honest, but that's probably a story for another time.

For a bit of fun, I used a coat of Vallejo transparent orange on his skin over a white undercoat which interestingly worked a bit like a contrast paint in terms of making a nice vibrant base. The little tree on his base was a bit of an experiment too, and is made of wire twisted together and coated with milliput. 

That about rounds it out on this guy. Interestingly, he seems to be worth about £40 at the moment on eBay - possibly attributable to Warhammer Total War, but as I've never played it I can't say. Either way, if you have a spare one, you're sitting on a small fortune!

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.

Inquisitor Greyfax - Non Metallic Metals Pt 1

fresh from my painting table, I'm bringing you the first WIP images of Greyfax in gloriously gold NMM (non metallic metal). This is still a fairly new technique to me, but I consulted with the divine angels themselves for a slice of godly wisdom (also known as reading Angel Giraldez's Painting Miniatures from A-Z Masterclass Part 2, and trawling the Internet for inspiration).

I started with a few layers of airbrushed Browns, yellows and finally white, before switching to the ordinary brush and using a series of glazes and highlights to try and push the contrast as much as possible. I'm not finished yet, and I've been using her left leg as a sort of proving ground for the technique, but I thought I'd bring you all the initial results of my hard labour.

Once I've finished the gold to a standard I'm happy with, I'll discuss the technique in more detail. For the minute though I'm just really enjoying building up the effect slowly. I think the telling thing was when someone saw it in progress and said "nice gold" not nice yellow, so I think it's working. I'm still trying to push the contrast further though, and will be darkening the Browns to amplify the effect as I go.

I've also started planning out the other colours with black for the corset type armour (which should make her waist look smaller and therefore extenuate the femininity of the armour) and a dark regal blue for the cloak. I'm still not sure what to so with the inside of the cloak (red maybe?). The smaller pipes/details will be silver, but again it will be NMM, so that'll be another stretch. Well, I guess I can only blame myself.

What you're looking at is probably the fruits of about 4-5 hours work.

Check back later for the next instalment, where I'll hopefully be talking about how to paint NMM gold with a finished example of the technique!

On a side note, am I the only one thinking Gray Fox every time I see Greyfax.

"Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon!"

"Snaaaaakeeeeee!"

Inquisitor Greyfax Underway

Ok, so I know I just started working on Celestine, but over the weekend I had a go at putting together a few more models from the same set; namely Inquisitor Greyfax.

Building this model, I was really surprised with how nice she is and the quality of the details. I think I'm probably not alone in saying that she was by far my least favourite character in the Triumvirate of the Imperium set, but looking at her now, I think she was more the victim of a dodgy choice of colours and a rushed paint job (that metal looks like it was blasted on with a dry brush straight over the undercoat or something). Looking at the mini, I really wanted to do her justice. She also gives me an opportunity to dry-run the scheme for Celestine that I was planning as I've never tried to do a Non Metallic Metal armour before.

I had a bit of fun building her base too. I've had a few Alabaster candlestick holders knocking about for a few years. They were originally destined for the dump, but I saved them thinking I'd use them as scenery, but I never did. A quick hack-saw later and a bit of scenic damage and the mini was ready for undercoat.

I've left her in 3 pieces for ease of painting. She has pins in both feet to attach her to the pillar and the piece of wood she's mounted on. I did her head separately to make things easier too.

At the time of writing this, I've actually started painting her. To say that it is going well would be an understatement, so tune in tomorrow and prepare to be dazzled! I'm seriously considering painting her as my Salute entry this year (I know it was going to be Celestine, but I'm a weak fickle man, easily tempted by Greyfax's plasticky charms)

Saint Celestine Underway

Always on the lookout for nice minis, I couldn't resist picking up the Triumvirate of the Imperium box. It helped that I actually have an army of Sororitas (Sisters of Battle) and that I could split the set with an avid Mechanicus fan, so I got Celesrine (plus guards) and the Inquisitor as a cool new project.

Rather than just another project in a long line of many, I'm planning to paint her up for the upcoming competition at Salute. I have some lofty ideas and we'll see how that works out as we go. For the moment, I've been trying to decide on a build. I'm keeping her in a few bits for ease of painting, but at the moment I'm mostly preoccupied by thinking about what to base her on. Given that it's a competition it should be something nice and impressive ... Hmmm, it's a bit of a conundrum....

Painting wise, I'm thinking non-metallic metal style gold for the armour. I've looked at a few tutorials and taken in a lot of info, so I think it'll be possible. Regardless it'll certainly keep me busy for quite some time! (And with any luck will be suitably impressive if I can pull it off).