Tuesday 29 June 2010

Funda-Birds are GO!


 
So, having left Njal to quietly weep in the corner for a couple of weeks (and hopefully no more than that!), I made a start last night on the Ork Deff Koptas.

They really are awesome miniatures - mainly for the fact that they look so cool, but are so simple, with very little detail.  That's not a criticism - it takes a real pro to sculpt a model so reservedly and yet have it look so nice.

Anyway, the starting grid:



(Please feel free to add your own chopper sound effects while reading this...)

I've broken the miniatures down into several stages.  Firstly, for ease of packaging and transport, I'm going to leave the rotor blades and the bases loose, as they are easy to take off and on without doing any damage to the paint job.

As for the colour schemes used, I'm going to paint the three pilots in the same palette that I've used for the rest of the Orks in the set, but I'm a big fan of the Deff Kopta Painting Guide on the Games Workshop website, so I'll be using their method to paint the actual flying machines.

The pilots' arms will be glued on just before I start the Ork skin, but while I paint the browns and blacks, I'm going to leave them seperate so that I can get into all of the hard-to-reach places on the main model.

Anyway, last night, I managed to get all of the blacks done on the pilots - basically, just their trousers and gloves.  The process was as follows:

Chaos Black.
1:1 Chaos Black / Codex Grey.
Drybrush Codex Grey.
Devlan Mud wash.
Badab Black wash.

Once they had dried, I basecoated all of the browns with Scorched Brown and then washed them with Devlan Mud.  I then left them to dry overnight.

Having a few minutes spare this morning, I painted Bestial Brown onto these bits as a mid-tone:



Hopefully tonight I will be able to apply a 1:1 highlight of Bestial Brown and Snakebite Leather and then an extreme highlight of pure Snakebite Leather.  After this, I'll wash over some thinned Devlan Mud before re-applying the Snakebite Leather when it's dry.

If I can finish that tonight, that'll leave me clear to start the Orky flesh before finishing off the finer details of the pilots later on this week.

And then the fun bit really begins...!

Monday 28 June 2010

Don't Leave Me This Waaaaaaaaaay-ay-ay-ay!


Well, despite being about to go back on what I said the other day, my hand has been forced.

Having finished the main body of Njal, excluding some much-needed repairs and touch-ups, I was going to have a bit of a break and start on the Ork Deff Koptas.  However, being very eager to finish the first miniature of my Space Wolf army, I spray undercoated the remaining parts of Njal, with the intention of gluing them on and making a start on them tonight.

There is only one problem with this - my superglue has turned into some sort of primordial goo and is now sitting at the bottom of my kitchen bin.

Given that it'll be a little while before I get chance to go out and get some more, Ork Deff Koptas are GO!

Anyway, here's the 'finished' Njal body:





Don't worry Njal, I won't forget you.  I promise!!

Saturday 26 June 2010

Just a Bit of a Break...

I've decided that I've started to become a bit impatient and rushed while painting Njal.

Not because I'm desperate to get him out of the way - on the contrary, I'm really enjoying painting him - but because I'm getting too complacent with the smaller details.

The black piping is a great example.  I have vowed to go back and repaint it properly, but I'm going to take the night off painting tonight so that I can come back to it tomorrow and concentrate a little bit better.

With this in mind, to stop me rushing when it comes to the arms and raven (yet to be attached), I am going to stop painting Njal once the main body is finished and then go on to paint the three Deff Koptas that come in the Black Reach box-set.

Once they are done, I'll come back to the rest of Njal before starting on the Ork Warboss - after all, Njal is standing on his base at the moment, so I can't start him until Njal is finished anyway!

Anyway, I'm off now to meditate on how much work is needed to become a Golden Demon winner...

That Is Not The Attitude!

Having slept on it (very well, I might add), I am very disappointed about my 'it'll do' attitude to the black piping on Njal.

My philisophy behind painting him was to make him the best miniature I have ever painted and with that in mind, I'll be retouching the black parts tonight, highlighting them properly instead of just slapping a wash over them!

Anja Wettergren didn't get where she is today by just slapping a wash over her miniatures... blah... blah...!

Back On Track.


It's been a tough couple of days with Njal, to be honest.

I had a great deal of difficulty getting the yellows to my satisfaction, and then found the face to be an absolute nightmare - having to paint it twice in the end, because the first version just didn't cut it.

I find it's a tricky balancing act, deciding whether or not to re-paint an area, especially faces, because although the original may not be great, you run the risk of blotting out a lot of the finer detail if you paint it a second time.  This, in fact, I did on Njal - but in the end I think it was worth it.

As always, I have to point out, when I say something I've painted looks good, I do mean in relation to my own painting skills.  So far, Njal is the best paint job I think I've ever done, but quite frankly he's not all that great when you compare him to 'Eavy Metal's Darren Latham's version:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpYMJh2KpfLStsy-tO4SZfPwBpIalzT6w0cTmsU4ISKcF5y2IEmg-yFkeiEugIi1Ko1eEAjwXc-5YUDd_hGPTwEg-lj2kOhLEWn8T5XYCox6YLkijIkPqbsjUcwVBis4QBbVYhp1wKUQ4/s1600-h/njal+comp.jpg

This is about as perfect a paint job as I think anyone could manage and a great inspiration to me, as well as being completely depressing at the same time!!

But anyway, enough of that, back to my Njal:



As you can see, all the major detail on the main body of the miniature has been finished.  When this picture was taken, the Badab Black wash on the black piping and the pistol grip was drying.  I painted the blacks very simply, just using Adeptus Battlegrey over the Chaos Black basecoat.  As I'm not (yet) skilled enough to make a great job of blending such thin lines of highlights, I always tend to cheat a bit and just pile on several coats of black wash, and this usually does an adequate job.

The face has turned out very different from how I imagined it originally - much more shaded and contrast-y - and in the end, I think it works really well, making Njal look like he's about to let loose with some arcane and etherial power.  Grrrr!

All I need to do once the blacks are finished (tomorrow, I would imagine...) is paint the teeth and claws on the cloak and armour, the metal studs and fastens, and the leather thong that they all hang off of.

You may notice from looking closely at the photos several areas where the paint has already worn down to the black undercoat - mainly on the edges of the armour.  I won't bother touching any of this up until the arms and raven have been attached and painted, or else it will have worn down again by the time I've finished him.

Finally, I'm starting to reconsider the base for Njal - having looked at some of the beautiful bases that can be seen on various miniature painting websites, I can't help but feel that my humble effort doesn't quite cut it.

Saying that though, these bases tend to be for competition or display miniatures.  I have to remember that I need mine to be practical for gaming purposes.  Much as I would love to see my Njal standing atop a ravaged cliff-face, black waves smashing the stone beneath his feet... well... it wouldn't be very easy to hide him behind cover, would it?

Anyway, off now (you'll be glad to know).  You can go and find something much more interesting and informative to look at!

Thursday 24 June 2010

Could Be Better. Could Be Worse.

A bit like the England team, really.  I've managed to rescue the gold-yellow holster and shoulder-pad, but they are still not perfect.  The highlights do look a little bit rough around the edges, but I think that might have something to do with them being the THIRD ATTEMPT!

To be honest, I'm amazed there's any detail left on the miniature!

Still, the plus-side is that I reckon once the miniature is varnished, the matte spray should smooth out some of the nastier bits - and also, I'll be doing a final touch-up of the miniature when everything else is painted and I can see it all in context.

But anyway, in the end, these are the colours I used:

Basecoat of Khemri Brown Foundation.
1:1:1 Wash of Badab Black, Chaos Black and Scorched Brown.
Khemri Brown Basecoat, re-applied.
I then added small amounts of Tausept Ochre Foundation to build up the highlights, until eventually...
Pure Tausept Ochre Foundation.
2:1 Skull White / Tausept Ochre highlights.
3:1 Skull White / Tausept Ochre.
Skull White extreme highlights on the very edges.
Finally, pure Devlan Mud Wash painted back into the runes.

The final extreme highlight is mainly why I am not completely happy - I should have been far more reserved with them, putting them in fewer places, and more subtly.

Saying that, you live (and more to the point, paint) and learn, so I'm still very happy.

Here is a photo of the progress so far (and you may also notice that the stone talismans have also been painted):




Tonight, I'm going to start the most important bits...

The face and hair.

Or the hair and face.

Not sure which order to do them in yet.

I shall think on...

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Oh Dear.

Well, I knew it was all going a bit too well with Njal...  We now seem to have hit our first hurdle.

I was painting the gun holster and right shoulder-pad last night, trying to get it to a similar browny-yellow that the 'Eavy Metal Njal is painted and had a couple of mishaps.

Well, the first was entirely intentional.  There was a huge blemish on the armour next to the holster which I originally thought was part of the model, but have since realised should not be there.  It was too big to simply file away, so I had to attack it with the clippers (yes, the clippers!).  Luckily, although I couldn't remove it completely, I managed to file it down so that it may pass as part of the holster, with only very minimal damage to the already-painted armour around it.

As there are several mistakes on some bits of the armour that I need to tidy up at the end of the paint, I'm just going to have to pretend that I can't see it at the moment and come back to it later.  It does however detract from Njal when you look at the progress so far.

Still, it could have been so much worse.

Anyway, after that, I made a start on the holster and blended it rather nicely up to a mix of Dheneb Stone and Golden Yellow.  Overall, it didn't look bad, but was far too bright and a bit too similar to the yellow on the shoulders of many 'normal' Space Wolves that you see.

I thought, 'I'll fix that.  I'm going to drown it in a wash.'

Bad move.

I've basically undone all of the work I did last night and now have to pretty much start those bits again - although thankfully, looking at it now, it doesn't seem as bad as it did last night...

But we'll see.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Some Notes On Colours.

While I wait for a wash to dry on Njal's stone talismans and Crux Terminatus, I thought I'd just make a note of some of the colours I've used, but not published yet:

Wolf Fur:

Exactly as the wolf's head, but with a final extreme highlight of Codex Grey at the edges, followed by a watered-down wash of Devlan Mud over the whole cloak.

Wolf Skin (Underside of Cloak):

Scab Red.
Gradually highlighted up with Codex Grey.
Devlan Mud Wash (Thinned).

Wolf Eyes:

Blazing Orange, highlighted with
Golden Yellow, then
Sunburst Yellow.
Chaos Black pupils.
Thinned Devlan Mud Wash to tone down yellows.

Gold:

1:1 Mix of Shining Gold and Scorched Brown.
1:1 Mix of Scorched Brown and Badab Black, applied as a wash.
Shining Gold, highlighted with
Burnished Gold, then
Mithril Silver.
Badab Black Wash in recesses.

Those are what I've used so far, if anyone is interested.  If you want details of the armour and wolf's head, you can go back and read about them in some of my earlier posts.

For now though, back to the (grind) stone...

Monday 21 June 2010

It's Just Like Falling In Love Again.



Despite, what I wrote late last week - something to do with blah, blah, blah, start the Deff Koptas on Monday, blah, blah - I've decided that I'm having so much fun painting Njal that I'm going to plough on with him for a while.

That's not to say that I'll get him finished before I start anything else though.  I need to get the Orks completed and there's still a good week or so left on Njal, if I carry on being as careful as I am at the moment.

As I write this, the wolf-skin is all but finished, with just the animal's claws and lips to be done - but I've stopped on those bits for now because the claws will be the same colour as the teeth that Njal has hanging all over his armour so I want to paint them all together.  However, they are very small, fiddly bits which should ideally be done after all of the main areas of colour have been completed.

With that in mind, I'm just waiting for a wash to dry on the gold decorations on the Terminator suit and will disappear very shortly to get those highlighted.

And then, finally, there'll be a more up-to-date picture of the Stormcaller...

[More than a couple of minutes later...]

I've done the gold - and so here are a couple of pictures:




Just after I took these, I decided to wash Badab Black into some of the sockets and recesses of the gold parts to define them a bit more.  As to whether it'll look any good (it's a little bit off-piste from the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass), remains to be seen tomorrow, when it's dry...

All-in-all, I'm very pleased with the way it's all going - which is a very good sign at this awkward stage, when there are lots of part-done bits.  I find that morale-wise, this is the hardest part to keep yourself going on because for all of the hard work put into the miniature so far, it still looks very scrappy, with lots of mistakes and bits that have been overlooked.

All I need to do though is to keep my head down and hopefully by the end of tomorrow, the Crux Terminatus and the rest of the stone parts will be done.  That will just leave... well, still quite a lot!

(And let's not even mention that he's still missing arms and a Psyber Raven!)

Best Post Ever!!

No.  Not this post.

The post I had waiting for me when I got home this morning...








The new White Dwarf, a Games Day 2010 ticket and the Games Day Chaos Sorcerer!  Hurrah!

As you can tell, I'm rather excited by all of this arriving at once - enough to take the edge off the fact that there is no 'Eavy Metal Masterclass AGAIN(!!!) this month.  Still, the back page promises a 40K Painting Masterclass next month, so at least they haven't forgotten about them altogether.

Anyway, Masterclass Schmasterclass!  This entire issue is full of the new Warhammer!  Yes, that's right, there is no mention of any other GW game.  It's all about the Old World, this one.

Not had chance to read about any of the new release, but it's all looking very exciting.

I got an email from GW yesterday announcing the September release (at Games Day, I'll warrant) of the new Warhammer boxed game - Island of Blood.

Island of Blood.  It couldn't sound more exciting than that unless they called it 'Island of Blood and Naked Sirens - In Heat!'

I can't wait.  I think I'll probably buy that instead of the £45 rulebook as 500-odd pages is a bit of a hefty old tome to lug around and flick through while you're playing.  I think the cut-down version that'll hopefully be in the box will suffice.

With any luck, one of the armies included (as yet, a big secret...) will be one that I want to collect, so I can paint one for myself and sell the other.  I'm so mercinary, me!

Anyway, enough of that - I'm off to check on Njal, whose cloak I've almost finished.

I'll post a report on how he's doing tonight, with some lovely pictures, hopefully!


Saturday 19 June 2010

Bring Out The Wolf's Head! Grond! Grond! Grond!


Well, after an even worse England performance that the last one (I should have called this post 'I Wish I'd Painted Now - Pt. II'), I've managed to drag myself up out of the pit of despair and get a little bit more done on Njal.

At least the weekend it looking up - I'm watching Green Day at Wembley tonight, then I'll watch the recording of Doctor Who tomorrow (very excited!) and it's also Father's Day tomorrow and I get a lie in... Hurrah!

Anyway, enough of my life, I hear you cry!  What about Njal?

Well, I've managed to finish the fur on the wolf's head and am now ready to start on the rest of the mane.

I did the wolf's head first as this is the focal point of the wolf, and the bit that really needed to be right, so I expected to have to have a couple of attempts at it.  I didn't see the point in spending a very long time working on the whole wolf if I had to start again because the face didn't look right...

So here it is in all it's glory:




At the moment, it's nice, but not really fantastic, but I didn't expect it to be yet.  When the rest of the fur is done, I can do the nose and eyes, which should really bring out the character in him.

I gradually, over about eight or nine stages, worked the face up from Chaos Black with Charadon Granite and Graveyard Earth, gradually adding more of the latter until it was virtually a pure coat.  After that, I mixed about a 1:1 blend of Graveyard Earth and Codex Grey to do the final, most extreme highlights.

I'm going to try and follow this method for the rest of the fur, but as I want the wolf to look natural, and not uniformly-coloured, it shouldn't be a terrible loss if I don't manage to get the mixes exactly the same.

I should hopefully get some more done in the couple of spare hours I have tomorrow night...


Friday 18 June 2010

(Almost) Nothing to Report.

Just a quick update for today really, as I've done all of the painting that I'm likely to be able to do until probably Sunday night - depending on how steady my hands feel after the England game tonight!

I've made a start on the dreaded wolf-skin cloak, and although I've come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to get Njal looking like the 'Eavy Metal example, I still want to get the colour scheme as similar as I can.

The problem with this is the fact that there is not tutorial for this particular colour of wolf - being older and wiser, the wolf itself is more grey than the usual browns of the rest of the army.  Because of this, I'm left to actually sit down and create my own colour scheme for it.  Aaargh!

To be honest, it's quite nice to be able to break away from the normal lists of paints cribbed from the pages of White Dwarf and actually have to be a bit more creative about the way I paint.

I'm kind of making it up as I go along - although I've chosen my pallette, their exact application remains on a suck-it-and-see basis!  So far, I have started by touching up the undercoat with Chaos Black and then applying a Charadon Granite Foundation, followed by a thinned down Badab Black wash.

This is now drying, but when I get a chance to get back to it, I'm going to gradually blend up the Charadon Granite from the Chaos Black before highlighting the tips of the fur with gradually lighter shades of grey, finally coming up to Skull White on a very few of the tips.

As per the advice of the 'Eavy Metal experts, I'm going to try and make the fur lighter towards the outsides (the underside of the animal) and the tip of the tail, leaving the creature's back fairly dark.

Hopefully, it should look good!

I haven't bothered taking a photo at this stage.  Just look at the previous post's photos and imagine the fur only very slightly lighter...

A Second Honeymoon...


The good news is that Njal and I are on speaking terms again.

In fact, I don't think we've ever been happier together.

We've put aside all our differences when it comes to Orks and have sat down and enjoyed a wonderful, candle-lit evening of painting together.

What makes life even more exciting now is that Njal's Terminator Armour is finished and, although not anywhere near as smooth or neat as the 'Eavy Metal example (let's face it, it was never going to be!), I'm still very pleased with the way it's gone.  What's more, I think that any slight imperfections in my painting technique will be papered over once all of the other details on him are finished - It's easy to focus on mistakes on a particular part of a paint job when that is the only part that's painted!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures, and then I'd better go and dig out some guides on how to paint wolf-skin cloaks...





So far, so good!


Wednesday 16 June 2010

TA-DAAAAAAA!


The Nobz (and heavy weapons Boyz) are finished!  Hurrah!  Break out the banners!  Let the flags unfurl!  Pour the champagne!

Alright, so it's not that exciting, but it does mean that I've only got four more miniatures to paint before completing the Black Reach box-set.

Okay, the 'four miniatures' happen to be three rather large Deff Koptas and a massively-detailed Ork Warboss, but the end is in sight!

And here they are:







A couple of points though - Obviously I was so eager to eat my celebratory bacon sandwich that I took the photographs before the Bestial Brown around the bases had dried (I promise it's dry now!).  Also, I liked the look of the power axes as they were (and don't ever recall seeing lightning on Orky ones) so I left them without any complex electrical decoration.

One final point about them - we're not out of the woods yet.  I still have to varnish them tomorrow and if last time's disaster is anything to go by, I may be back here tomorrow night, touching up the metals and the browns.

It'll definitely be a light spray in the morning.

I've decided to hold off on painting any more Orks until next Monday, giving me four days to concentrate on Njal (that might stop him moaning).  Mind you, there is an England game on Friday night, so there'll be no painting then, and I'm not around on Saturday night either, so I bet the Stormcaller still won't be happy.

I told him to shut up and do the ironing.  I don't think he's speaking to me now.

You Don't Bring Me Flowers Anymore.

Njal's got the right 'ump.  He says I've been neglecting him, and I suppose he's right.  I haven't come back to his armour now for a couple of days, but I think with good reason.

The truth is, I'm so close to finishing the Nobz (tomorrow night with a fair wind and a bit of luck), that I just want to get them out of the way so that I can spend a couple or three days concentrating on Njal before I start work on the Deff Koptas.

The Orks are doing tremendously well, with loads of work done on them today, and here are the pictures to prove it...






Firstly, I managed to complete the Goblin Green layer on their skin (above).





And then I finished the skin off with a 3:1 layer of Sunburst Yellow and Goblin Green (again, above).



After that, I painted the eyes (Blood Red, Sunburst Yellow dot, Baal Red wash) and the auspexes (at least I think that's what they're called - basically the lenses in the Orky bionic eyes).  I'm really proud of the way that these turned out.  I used a very basic method of Regal Blue followed by Enchanted Blue, with a final highlight of Ice Blue before adding the essential Skull White dot of reflection.

After that, I began work on the teeth / nails / hair / bandages (pretty much anything that was left, really...).  I ran out of time on these, but began with a coat of Bestial Brown and a highlight of Snakebite Leather.  Tomorrow these will all be finished off with highlights of 1:1 Snakebite Leather and Bleached Bone, Bleached Bone and Skull White.

So as not to waste a second, I also used PVA glue to stick the gravel to the bases, so that - left overnight - they'll be ready to blast with Bestial Brown and Bleached Bone tomorrow.

When all of these odds and ends are finished, I just need to paint the one or two skulls and the blades of the power axes.  For both of these, I'm going to try the formula for painting the stone on Njal's base.  I'll then decide whether to add any bolts of electricity to the power axe blades.  I probably will, maybe an etherial green....

Lots of bitty things left, but hopefully, like I said, finished by the end of tomorrow.

One final photo tonight, to show off one of the pretty lenses...



And then Njal, all my time will be devoted to you.

I can almost hear him now.  'I know you love me, but are you in love with me?'

Give me strength!

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Some Notes On Skin Colour.

I'm almost there now with the Orky skin after completing another two layers tonight.  I've just got the final layers of Goblin Green and then the Goblin Green / Sunburst Yellow mix to go.

The 'Eavy Metal team advise that for most Orks, you should stop at the Goblin Green highlight, saving the Sunburst Yellow mix for characters such as Warbosses, in order that they stand out from the crowd.

Although I definitely agree with this in principle, I've always enjoyed having really bright, almost cartoon-esque greens in my green-skin armies.  Because of this, I follow the same idea but paint the really important Orks with an even brighter highlight (but extremely subtly so).

Anyway, here are my Nobz after their 1:1 coat of Dark Angels Green and Goblin Green:



And then again after the 3:1 mix of Goblin Green and Dark Angels Green:





Still, doing all of that meant no time for Njal tonight, but hopefully more on his adventures tomorrow...

Monday 14 June 2010

Starting To Look A Bit More Orky Now...


It's been a bitty couple of days really, this weekend.  I've not had the opportunity to do any solid blocks of painting, more just the odd bit here and there.

That said, I'm still really happy with the way things are coming along.

I managed to get the second layer of paint onto the Ork Nobz's skin (which you may remember was a 3:1 mix of Dark Angels Green and Goblin Green).  From this coat onwards, they really start to take the shape and character of the Orks.  As promised, here are some more pictures:





And things are starting to look up for old Njal as well.  I have added the first highlight layer (a 2:1:1 mix of Space Wolves Grey, Shadow Grey and Kommando Khaki) which will be followed tonight (if there's time) with a much simpler mix of... well, just Space Wolves Grey... onto the very edges.

Rather annoyingly (although I'm sure there's a very good reason), this will then be followed by another shading wash of Devlan Mud into the recesses.  I'm not entirely sure why this has to be done half way through the highlighting stage (any pro painters out there, I would love it if you could tell me), but I'll have to be very careful around the runes in the armour, which will be edge-highlighted already.

After that, it'll just be a case of a very hard edge highlight of 1:1 Space Wolves Grey and Skull White before the real hard work, the wolf-skin cloak, begins.

I'm mixing all of these layers very thinly, probably using more water than paint, because I want the armour to look smoothly blended when it's done.  This is relatively easy to do (although it definitely wouldn't pass the first round of Golden Demon, I'm sure!) by just mixing the paints very thinly, because the edges then tend to dry relatively clear, giving the illusion - from a great distance - that you have spent ages on your blending.  The only essential thing for the trick to work though is a coat of matte varnish at the end - which you'd be mad not to do anyway - because this does a superb job of blurring the edges of the 'blends', making them look all-the-more smooth.

But anyway, here he is so far:





The closer I get to finishing the armour, the scarier the prospect of that magnificent cloak becomes...


Sunday 13 June 2010

Perhaps I Should Have Painted Instead...


Oh well, after a rather lacklustre, if not disastrous England game last night, I'm left feeling rather glad I didn't give myself a hangover today.  It really would not have been worth the effort.

At least I was cheered up somewhat this morning by getting a bit of time to do the much-needed tidying up on Njal's armour.  I'm still not one hundred percent convinced, but it does look much better now and I'm looking forward to hopefully getting some time to do the first highlight coat tonight:





And finally, here are some pictures of the Nobz so far...





This first step on the skin is a simple coat of Dark Angels Green.  After that, the remaining stages are:

3:1  Dark Angels Green / Goblin Green.
1:1  Dark Angels Green / Goblin Green.
3:1  Goblin Green / Dark Angels Green.
Goblin Green.
2:1 (Approx) Sunburst Yellow / Goblin Green.

I certainly won't get chance to do all that tonight - in fact, with working on Njal as well, I only expect to complete the 3:1 DAG / GG layer.

Either way, I hope to have the Nobz done before next Friday.

Njal is a different story...


Saturday 12 June 2010

It'll Look Good When It's Finished. Honestly.

Well, the beer is chilled and waiting, so it's a night off the painting tonight - I've tried painting after a few drinks before and it's a very, very bad thing...

I'm quite nervous about Njal at the moment.  I've added the shading layer, but he's not looking very neat.  Hopefully, tomorrow night after I've tidied him up a bit, it'll be a different story, but I have to remember that most of the miniatures I paint look shocking until the final painting stage, sometimes even until the varnish stage.  Well actually, they sometimes look shocking full-stop, but hopefully not this one.

As for the Ork Nobz, the Dark Angels Green basecoat is done, so just another five stages left...

And now for a beer...

Friday 11 June 2010

Deff Koptas and a Spot of Redecorating...

I had a few spare minutes this morning, so as well as finishing off the black on the Nobz with a final (thinned, this time) wash of Badab Black, I did a spot of redecorating on this blog - I think the background and colours are all suitably Fenrisian!

The Nobz are now quite happily drying in time for me to start on the Orky flesh tonight.  I think that I've built up quite a lot of momentum with them, and this may be why I have already clipped, cleaned and glued the main body of the three Ork Deff Koptas which are next on the Black Reach painting list.

Well, I say 'momentum', but it might be something to do with the fact that there's a certain low-key sporting event starting today and I am anticipating that I might not get quite as much time to paint over the next few weeks...