Thursday, January 7, 2010

No new pics but almost done

I've gone through a lot of tedious steps with my terminators. From black I coated them with Codex Grey. I then gave them Armor Wash cause I wanted to darken them up in the recesses. This left them mostly black again. Then I painted them Dark Angels Green and I really liked how they looked like that. However to shake things up I decided to give them a wash of Blue Ink... which left them mostly blue. >:X

I was feeling a little stupid at this point and didn't touch them for a day or two but once I did I saw that the blue had faded a bunch when they dried and looked a very cool green color with dark blue/black in the deepest parts. I then proceeded to dry brush/over brush/stipple all of the armor with Snot Green. This is where I'm at now and I like how they look. I just have another dry brush session of Scorpion Green, maybe another wash (watered down) of Blue Ink, and then on to the dangly bits which only need a dash of Bleached Bone and Dwarf Bronze.

Hopefully I'll get some time to paint tomorrow. :P

Coming next week: Dragon Mage!!!!!!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Evolution of style

My first army was Dwarves for Fantasy. My first paint job was green, orange, blue, yellow, brown... this was a lot of colors to be putting on each mini and I soon became bored. Nobody played. The pieces were packed away. Years later they were dug out as we all became interested again.

I'm all about story when it comes to my armies. The story for my dwarves for that previous scheme was that they were warriors of light (think Children of the Light from the Wheel of Time book series). I was even going to paint sunbursts on their shields and helmets. I'd gotten some new minis since then and I no longer felt that this story reflected their look. My dwarves were gritty, dirty mercenaries who weren't afraid of embracing a little chaos in order to get the job done. I abandoned my idea of a Lawful Good type army for one of Chaotic Neutral, not necessarily good or bad. Just surviving. Around this time I was big into the Firefly tv series so chose my main color to be brown. Quick and easy. A little brown, a little metal and my dwarves were soon on there way.

My passion for converting came out around this time and I was snipping plastic and metal in order to achieve a certain look that I wanted for my force. As game after game was played and my storyline grew bigger, the conversion projects grew bigger as well. My 8 barrel organ gun/tank. My boar giant. My half dragon half flame cannon combo. My tree dwarves that would represent Longbeards. My zombie dwarves. I even had plans to make an all Lustria themed Slayer force at some point.



All of these projects still remain unfinished, unpainted, and in pieces. I jumped from one project to the next so fast and was only concerned with putting things together so that they all became difficult/impossible for me to paint without getting frustrated or getting a new idea and moving on.

Which I think brings us to the present. The only army I am currently working on are the High Elves that I bought off of a friend (with the exception to the Space Hulk pieces. I don't consider them to be an actual army.). I played the dwarves for so long and absolutely long to finish them but for now I've traded my beard and cannons for pointy ears and magic.

Trial and error has led me to now paint my pieces before gluing them together. Hopefully I've learned to be patient, and not just run from one project to the next. I completed a Lion Chariot last week doing this method and enjoyed it. I could hit all those hard to reach places that just can't be accessed with the paint brush once the model is put together.

I now paint the places you can't see. :P :P :P

Week One: Space Hulk

I've been laboring to get my High Elf army painted and am working on 2 Dragon Mages right now but I'd realized I've had Space Hulk for a few months and have barely looked in the box let alone put together and painted the miniatures. I felt I'd start the year and the blog off by painting up 4 of the Terminators. I'll do a fifth if I have the time but they are very detailed and I'd like to spend a little bit of extra time with them.
Not being all that much of a Blood Angels fan (I lean more toward Dark Angels) I'm going to paint them in original colors. I've got a rough idea as to what these are but I'm not completely sure yet :P. To keep with the iconography I will title the Chapter Tears of the Emperor. They are a small elite force mainly used in boarding and special missions.
Here are some pics of the first 4 marines primed up black. I chose the Librarian, the two heavy weapons guys, and the one with the chainfist. Dynamic and fun!!!


Let's hope I can stick with it.



2010: a brave new year

I've been a gamer my whole life. From video game to table top I just can't seem to get enough and I've found that most of my friends enjoy the same passions (who wouldn't, tons of you gamers out there). My friends and I have destroyed each other on many a different battlefield throughout our lives. Strategy is in our blood. We move to a new game, master it, and then get caught up in the excitement of a new game. And the cycle continues... until Warhammer.
We've been playing Warhammer and Warhammer 40K for a few years now and although I have multiple armies for both games, none are anywhere near being fully painted. Which is the purpose of this blog: Motivation.
In the past I've made New Years resolutions about gaming more and I feel that I've achieved those goals. I try to get a game in weekly, though sometimes that doesn't work out. Life happens, we all know this. The point is I'm tired of playing with half painted armies. I'd like to start attending the Games Workshop tournaments and it would be nice to have a painted army :P. And so I propose for myself a painting resolution. Get something around unit strength 5 done each week, and post my results. Projects will be in fantasy, 40K, even Space Hulk. That's about the gist of it. I'd like to type more but let's face it, I have some painting to do.