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...

New Day, New Project

Well, here we go again!  Something new to start.

While I'm still waiting for Games Workshop to solve the seemingly national Space Wolves Grey paint shortage, I've left my army on the back-burner and have started to paint a Human and an Orc Blood Bowl team:

Yes, you heard right.  Started to.

Why then, are they still on the sprues?

Well, let me explain...

I have recently wondered whether it would be more efficient to paint the Blood Bowl teams on their sprues, simply because it is much neater and less cluttered in my work area, and it should be easier to paint them underneath without a base getting in the way.  This will be the first time I've ever tried this, so I'll keep you all posted as to whether it's worth doing in the future.  I have, obviously left only the bottoms of their feet attached to the sprues lest I should end up spending months touching them up after clipping them off!

Again, I repeat, I've started them.

Although it's not very obvious from the pictures, I have already basecoated the many black areas of the miniatures with a 1:1 mix of Regal Blue and Chaos Black.  These will all be painted in a much darker pallette than my last set, and as I have always found black more tricky than most colours to paint well, I thought that I'd have to come out from under the bed and face my fears head-on.

With a bit of luck, disaster will not ensue.

Anyway, to help me in this up-hill task, I'm refering to part of the Daemon Prince 'Eavy Metal Masterclass in this month's White Dwarf magazine:

(Apologies for the blurred cover photo - must be emanations from the Warp...)

I'm not sure whether I'll make the etherial glow quite so pronounced, after all these are not Chaos teams I'm painting!  But I knew before I saw this article that I wanted a purple hue to the highlights, so it could well be ideal...

Tonight, I hope to start highlighting up with a Regal Blue layer, before adding a thinned wash of Badab Black to the same areas...

Wish me luck!!!

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!

Where's the Best Bit?

Very excited this morning to find a copy of White Dwarf on my door-mat, a few days before it hits the shops thanks to my recent subscription.

Having recently been flicking through the ForgeWorld catalogue, I'm very excited by the prospect of getting a few heretic-torching, xenos blasting tanks for my Space Wolves (still in their boxes, I might remind you), so I can't wait to read the new Spearhead rules.  And there's a sneak preview of the new Warhammer book (OVER 500 PAGES!!) to look forward to as well.

BUT WHERE IS THE 'EAVY METAL PAINTING GUIDE THIS MONTH?

Bit disappointed as that's what I mainly read WD for.  It doesn't bode well that my favourite article has vanished in the first issue with the new Editor...

Or, to look at it another way, 'Shut up, you Nancy!  New rules, Games Day details, new Warhammer and LOTS OF BIG TANKS.  BOOM!  BOOM!  DAKKA-DAKKA!!!!!'