A Return to 40K, and Putting AoS on hold…

So the inevitable has happened, I have decided to put some of my AoS stuff on hold for a while. With the New Edition of 40k here and all the new goodies out for the new Primaris Space marines, I just really couldn’t resist putting them together and painting them. I had been kinda losing steam with my AoS stuff as I seemingly have a very short attention span when it comes to painting similar models in quick succession. So I foresee me going back to them in a few months or less. But I’m really excited to start my Dark Imperium Box Set today, so lets see how this goes.

Hopefully I’ll have some Pictures up on Instagram later.

Skuldrak, Khorgorath Of Khorne

Finally getting around to making a post on this guy. I had a very love/hate relationship with this model while painting it. It bothers me why I can’t figure out how this guys face works… is the skull his face? Or is the skull in his mouth? Are those horns or teeth on his head? So many questions… Anyway, even with all those unanswered questions I still like the model, it looks super menacing and is quite disturbing… Almost kingdom death-like, but yet very recognizable as Khorne. Technique wise It involved a ton of thin layers of different reds to get his skin tone to where I liked it, and I may Matte Varnish him at some point to dull down a few spots. All in all I think it came out the way I wanted. Really enjoying painting the bronze on these models, and I think I’m getting better at it, but still have some opportunities. As for the base I’m really enjoying using the darker flock and baking soda dirt. I think it gives a really nice look. And I’m content with my decision to paint the sides of the base black, I really like the almost outline like feature it gives to the whole model.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Korghos Khul: Mighty Lord of Khorne

So I’ll start this post off with saying that after painting this model I’ve decided that I’m going to Paint all the Bloodbound models from the set first. I’m so used to painting gold from painting my Ultramarines,  and the Stormcast are very gold…so it was a really nice feeling getting my hands dirty with some colors I’m not all that used to painting. I really like how the brass armor came out, I’m never a fan of using silver to highlight gold because I always seem to screw it up, but this looks pretty good. I love his skull helmet, very striking and I just can’t get over how cool it is that he has a chained flesh hound as an attack dog. I’m also very pleased with how his cape came out, I felt the highlights were very clean(I’m not always that good with those).

All in all I was itching to paint this guy, and as happy as I am to have finished him I’m sad that hes done…So I’ll definitely be painting a lot of red going forward to scratch that itch. Blood for the Blood God!

Lord Celestant Vandus Hammerhand

Well my first model from the Age of Sigmar starter box is finally complete. It was a really nice change of pace to paint something that wasn’t Space Marines. I have never really painted a mounted model, with the exception of some bretonians, so it was really cool to paint a cool Dracoth and a mighty Lord Celestant at the same time. I used mostly dry brushing techniques for the Dracoth and the gold armor, with a mix of washes and highlights.  I decided to go with a more verdant landscape as opposed to the thick black/grey gravel that I’ve been using for my Ultramarines. Not too thrilled by how the Stone the Dracoth is standing on came out, but I didn’t want the stone to be grey and blend in too much with the Dracoth.  I think it came out decent. There was a lot of white to paint on this and I used a few different techniques for it, the cape was just Uthuan grey then a highlight of Vallejo white, and the cloth on the Dracoth, and Vandus’ plume were done with a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade and then a layer of Ceramite white on the raised hairs. I like the contrast, I know some people would do a more suddle shadow, but I like the way the dark recesses look, and it makes the hairs pop. All in all I think it was a good start to my entry into Age of Sigmar, and I am super pumped to start on Korghos Khul, The Might Lord of Khorne next. Stay tuned for that. And please feel free to follow me on Instagram as I’ve decided to start posting WIP shot of the Minis I showcase on my Blog. If not you can still see all my completed work here.

 

Winter Assault.

This will be a short and to the point post seeing as how im away in Maryland for work this week. 

So this past weekend my wife and I took a trip to my cousins house down in jersey to see the family and play a bit of warhammer. Thought I’d share some pictures of the game.  It was between my ultramarines and my cousins tau.  It was a really fun game and I got to try out Guilliman for the first time.  He took a rediculous amount of fire and eventually was taken down, unfortunately before he was able to get into close combat.  Even he had a hard time weathering the “storm” of my cousins stormsurge.  Take a look!

Jumping in to something different

Ive been reading and watching and listening to alot about age of sigmar in the last few months and I’ve finally decided to take the plunge.  On this past Wednesday I had some money burning a hole in my pocket so of course I stopped by my local games workshop store looking to pick up the age of sigmar starter box.  I actually ended up staying there for over an hour talking to the manager?  Idk what his title would be considering hes the one and only guy who works there, ya know with the whole one man store thing. But anyway he played a demo game with me using the starter box stuff thats on display and used for demos… makes sense right? And I had a really good time.  It’s similar enough to 40k for it to not be something totally new but different enough to feel fresh and new.  I really like the static hit and wound characteristics.  That simplifies things alot. The whole warscroll thing is neat. All your info nice and consolidated right there for you.  And of course you can’t forget the awesome new “fantasy” models that not only come in the starter box but all the other new models they’ve come out with in the last year or so.  I love how you can play with points or without.  The games can be small skirmishes or full blown epic battles.  Now what army do I plan on choosing to start off this endeavor?  Well thats the hard part, sort of… the box set comes with stormcast eternals and the khorne bloodbound, so I will probably end up going with one of those for simplicitys sake, and because those would probably be the ones id choose anyway.  I’m leaning towards the bloodbound because I really like painting red and I dont get that many chances to do that.  Plus the models are awesome and there are a ton of choices.  There are for the Stormcast as well so thats not a great example.  Im still a bit torn.  So ill probably paint up both forces and see how it goes.  I love both armies so its going to be a tough choice… I’ll get it figured out.  But anyway just thought I’d put my thoughts out there, and you can look forward to some posts about some age of sigmar hobby progress.  I’ll probably start the mighty lord of khorne first just because as cool as Vandus Hammerhand is on his dracoth, there’s just something about that khorne lord holding back his pet flesh hound as its jumping up ready to rip someone’s face off. 

Talon of the Emperor

My first Stormtalon gunship is complete. From the second I saw this model I loved it. Its nothing special really, but its just a really cool design.  Very similar to the futuristic gunship style vehicles you see in current movies and such.  So im so happy to have finally picked one up. It was very strait forward to build and even more so to paint.  I’ve got a pretty nice system of painting my Ultramarines vehicles which is basically a ton of drybrushing and then the final details. I basecoated it in Kantor blue.  Then a heavy drybrush of altdorf guard blue, and then a lighter drybrush of calgar blue. Once that is done its just the silver bits and transfers and such. Gets things done fairly quick. You may have picked up on the fact that I said first storm talon.  I dont currently have another one but depending on how this one does in game id like to pick up another to make a storm wrong formation with my Stormraven. Nothing cooler than two gunships flanking a flying landraider tasty to train down fiery death upon my unsuspecting foes. But let’s just take it a step at a time and we’ll see if I end up picking up another one.  You’ll also notice I did a bit more flair on the base for this one.  Id like to go back and So the same to my Stormravens base as well to make them look like the go together, but its not a priority…So here it is in  all is glory.  Hope you like it.

Roboute Guilliman Lord Commander of the Imperium.

Quite the title, and quite the model. This guy is awesome. I loved this model more and more as I painted it. All the intricate details, the workings of his armor, the dead chaos space marine at his feet, everything about this model is cool.

And besides the fact I was totally going to get this model anyway, I really was not a fan of it when I saw him in the leaks online. I thought the pose was kinda goofy… But once I had it in my hands and had built it myself and seen it on the table I realized they took some super unflattering pictures of him. His pose fits his title, sword raised, gauntlet up, and knee bent. All I can picture is the masses of the armies of the Imperium behind him as he leads the charge against some horde of chaos. But that’s just me.

I think this model shows off some of my better skills and some of my worst. But overall, I couldn’t be happier. I know I say that a lot, and I think that’s because I never seem to take a step back. I seem to get better with every model I paint. Which totally makes sense, that’s just how that works… But anyway, I think the armor came out fantastic, and the head especially, I think the facial expression is very defined and human.  On the other hand I was disappointed with the sword. I actually used the short tutorial from games workshop on Warhammer TV and I don’t think it came out bad, just not all that great… This was a part of the model that was the victim of my insistent application of too thick paint… but oh well… I still think it came out pretty decent for a first attempt at a giant fiery sword. So I’m taking this as a win.

Sneaky Dudes

Completed my Scout squad the other day and I have to say I’m pretty impressed with myself. It’s really amazing how well you can progress in miniature painting. I couldn’t be happier with how my work has progressed over even just the past 3-4 years. I still don’t thin my paints as much as I should though… I have this intense compulsion to coat a model as quickly as humanly possible and thin coats are just really hard for me to do. It couldn’t be more important to thin them, and for whatever reason my default mind set is to try and coat it in one swipe. Its an uphill battle of getting myself to do it more regularly. I basically say “thin your paints” over and over again in my head while i paint. I’m getting there. Now these are a better example of me following that advice and trying really hard to break myself from one coat mentality. I think they came out great, I hope the photos do them justice, trying something new because the last ones came out really dull and dark. Think I need some better lighting. Oh well, we’ll see.

Some New Work, And some old….ish

These are some minis I’ve shown off in my last post in this one, but I’ve shot these in my light box and wanted to show them off. Still working out my photo setup to get it just right but I feel like these came out decently well. These are my models I’ve completed recently. I’ve also completed a Predator tank and I’m currently in the middle of painting a Sniper scout squad. I will have photos of those up soon.

As for what’s to come, I just got a Triumvirate of the Primarch box that my parents got me as a gift. I’m super excited to see those models painted up in person. Roboute Guilliman is an amazing model. I really didn’t dig his pose he had until I saw him in person. He’s very menacing and commanding looking, perfect for the lord commander of the Imperium. We can’t forget Grand Master Voldus and Cypher, they are going to be so fun to paint. AND, I  also got a land speeder storm for my scouts and a Stormtalon gunship. So I’ve got my work cut out for me for a while. Stay tuned for some oh so sweet hobby progress in the weeks and months to come.

A note on the above Techmarine: This model is from my original Imperial Fists army that I played in High school. He was painted terrible and his axe was broken in half. So what I did was strip this guy down and Give him a plasma pistol instead of his boltgun, and gave him a new hand holding a very impressive looking power axe, made out of a space wolves axe head and a grey knight Force staff handle. I was very happy with how he cam out, I really thought that it was a conversion that looked like it was meant to be.