Monday 23 August 2010

Bring On The Rats!


I was very excited to find the new White Dwarf on my doorstep this morning - and even more excited after I had taken my first cursory flick through it.

Naturally, given the release of Island of Blood in a few weeks, the majority of the issue focuses on the new Skaven and High Elf miniatures, and very exciting they are too!  I've already picked the Skaven for my next army project once my Space Wolves are finished (not that they ever will be!) and I can't wait to get hold of them.  Still, that's a long time away yet.

Painting-wise, there's a large and varied 'Eavy Metal Masterclass which covers a variety of different subjects, from banners to Space Marine armour to Gretchen skin - far too much to mention here, but I can't wait to sink my painting teeth into what's on offer.

Of course, it's not all been about White Dwarf today.  This evening I've been busy picking away at my 'test' Wolf and the good news is that he's... well... getting there.  Slowly.

Hopefully, a couple more days should have him done!






Although I've got the formula for the Power Armour sorted, I'm still going to go back and neaten it up.  I'm not all that happy with the dry-brushing which I employed in order to save time painting up the huge amount of troops that I hope to field.  However, I'm getting quite quick with my painting now and hopefully, if I layer the highlights instead, it should only take me a day or so longer for each squad.  I hope you'll agree that that'll be well worth it to have a beautiful army on the field.

I decided to paint the accelerator on the plasma pistol green instead of the more common blue because it stands out from the grey of the armour more.  If anyone's interested (and for my own future reference!!), it was painted Dark Angels Green, then Snot Green, followed by Scorpion Green and then highlighted with a 3:1 mix of Skull White and Scorpion Green with an extreme highlight of Skull White.

Oh, and rest assured it was a lot less work than it sounds!

As for the wolf pelts, I painted them very simply with Bestial Brown and gradually built up the highlights to pure Bleached Bone.  I then washed them with Ogryn Flesh and added a Skull White highlight before another wash, this time Gryphonne Sepia.

The actual wolf flesh on the skins and the Marine's tongue were painted with Scab Red and built up to pure Bleached Bone before I added a wash of Leviathan Purple - a wash that I also applied to the golds, after looking at them and deciding that they were a bit too 'fresh from the forge'.  I think that it makes a subtle difference, ageing them up a bit.

I am very happy with things at the moment, but can't wait to get him finished so that I can begin my army in earnest...

4 comments:

  1. I agree the Green is a good spot colour to use, I think the blue would have faded to much into the model. Also my plasmas are green :D

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  2. I paint my plasmas green but your method seems very long. I just paint the accelerator boltgun metal and wash it with green ink, looks good to me.

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  3. I agree with you regarding this months White Dwarf, mine came through yesterday and the hobby articles are really good and plentiful. And there are so many "gurt lush" pictures of Skaven too, which is slowly but surely leading me down the purchase path for Island Of Blood just to get those gorgeous ratbags!! The standard of minis for a starter set is easily the best yet, and it makes me want them to do a new 40K starter box with terminators on equal par to the quality produced for Space Hulk...

    The Test-Wolf is looking really impressive!! Good that you did the inner mouth as well before starting the face, I always forget things like that. It will be nice to see him when he is finally finished.

    For the All Father!

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  4. Thanks, VENNgeance. I quickly learned from the very 'gummy' Orks that it's a good idea to do those bits before the rest of the face - and (a little lazily, I admit) as it was such a small area, I decided to use the same colour mix as the flesh on the wolf skins...

    Still, it's shortcuts like that that help to get an army painted quickly.

    I'm glad you like him so far - It's really tricky to strike the right balance at the moment because I'm trying to get them simply up to 'gaming standard' so that I can paint and play with them quickly, but I love painting so much, and I really want a beautiful army, so it's very hard not to pull out all the stops...

    I have to get them painted before I get too tempted by the new Skaven, although I fear it may be almost too late...!

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