First Steps Into Weathering Powders

My 3000 point Blood Angels collection is nearing full-on completion, with almost everything fully painted. There is, however, one thing that I have been putting off for a few years now. Weathering. For some reason I've always been scared of dirtying up the minis I've lovingly spent hours painting. I took a baby step a few months ago with the 'chip' effect I've been applying, but now its time for the big leap: weathering powders. I'll be using Forge World Light Earth in this article.

So, I read a number of tutorials, checked out articles on sites like FTW, and settled on testing two methods. First rubbing alcohol, and second spray varnish. I was very dubious with the spray varnish methods as have been burned (well, ghosted) in the past. Lets make this quick and say the rubbing alcohol didn't turn out well... It was probably my fault: two higher purity of alcohol or too much sloshed on to the model, I don't know to be honest. It basically melted the paint off.

So I moved on to spray varnish, simple GW Purity Seal. Here is my original test piece:

Spray Varnish Test

As you can see some of the weathering powder blew off but most of it stuck. I was VERY happy that there was no ghosting present, although I did take extra care only blasting it with the short bursts at long range. The powder stuck well and good. A success! Now for the leap...

I wanted to go for a 'dust' like effect rather than caked on mud, so applied the powder fairly lightly to the model. Above you can see what the powder looked like straight after I applied it. And now for the spray varnish:

First Pass

Hmm, most of the powder blew off. Doesn't look bad though. I wonder what it would look like if I went over the model with some more powder? This time I proper caked it on. And here's the results:

Second Pass

Much better! Still not exactly the 'dusty' appearance I wanted, but good enough and WAY better than my previous attempts at painting it on (the reason I was worried about weathering in the first place). I also noted the powder tends to look a lot better in crevices rather than flat surfaces like rhino hulls (not as much blows away). Here is a blurry pic of the treads, which look a lot more weathered:

All in all, a fairly successful adventure into the world of weathering powders. Now I need to grab some Black Soot to do those exhausts....

Darth Meer

Lizardmen Progress: Skinks and Campaign Markers Painted

More Lizardmen progress today! 20 Skinks have now been painted. As 5 point models, they sure are a lot of work to paint. These two units of 10 will be used as cheap redirectors, and to surprise the enemy with quick-to-fire Javelins when they leave solo-wizards and war machines unprotected :-D.

20 Purple Lizardmen Skinks

First unit of Skinks

Second unit of Skinks

Skink backs

The shields were painted with the new GW paint Evil Sunz Scarlet, which I have to say is pretty damn close to Blood Red. Although it actually covers a little too well over white, I liked the slightly translucent effect of Blood Red, and the new red turns out a bit darker overall.

I also finally painted up my army markers for our Blood in the Badlands campaign. We're just entering the Summer season now, but better late than never I suppose! Will still get plenty of use out of them, and beats using skinks as place-holders. The markers are simply banner tops stuck into a greenstuff 'hill'. The names on the markers are the names of my army generals - anyone guess where these suitably Lizardmen sounding names come from?

Lizardmen Campaign Markers

On the 40k front, my Baal Predators have been highlighted! Just a quick phone photo for now, as I'm experimenting with weathering powders and am waiting for the sun to come out in sunny Nottingham so I can spray varnish. I've tried rubbing alcohol but it REALLY didn't end well... Expect a post on my adventures in weathering powders when the sun does eventually appear, and the wind dies down to lower than hurricane-esque speeds.

Blood Angels Baal Predators

Darth Meer

Lizardmen Progress: Temple Guard and Saurus Painted

Quick painting progress update for my purple Lizardmen today, along with some quick phone photos. Finished the first 10 of both my Temple Guard and Saurus units. I'm painting in multiples of 10 because I tend to get depressed when I see a unit of 40 saurus sitting on my desk ready to paint... Also, as with all my warhammer fantasy, no highlights on these bad boys! I just don't see the point when you have hundreds of models in an army... its all going to get lost in the sea of models anyway.

Lizardmen Temple Guard

Temple Guard are awesomely detailed models, although slightly annoying when you've spend ages painting the backs of shields when you can't actually see them! Took a bit more time with these than I would my core saurus troops, owing to their badass status. The colours on the saurus-type models work really well, I was a bit worried my skinks colour scheme wouldn't carry over well.

Lizardmen Saurus Warriors

Weirdly most of the detail is actually on the back of these models - and yes I am insane for painting each scale separately.

Lizardmen Temple Guard Rear

Lizardmen Saurus Warriors Rear

Darth Meer

Minotaurs Colour Scheme Part 2 (Plus Weathering)

Grabbed a pot of Sycorax Bronze this week and tried a different scheme for my minotaurs. The model on the left is the previous scheme with Hashut Copper, the model on the right is the latest scheme with Sycorax Bronze:

What do people think? Which one looks better? Its simply Screaming Bell over a black undercoat, followed by a couple of thin layers of Sycorax Bronze and a Reikland Fleshshade wash. Also had a go at highlighting it with Mithril Silver (haven't got the new version yet):

Im not sure about this. Highlighted it very quick with a big brush - which may have something to do with the starkness of the highlight, but I think Mithril Silver is a bit to much of a contrast. I would rather have an 'out-of-pot' highlight colour though, as I need the army to be consistent throughout. Hmm... any ideas what colour I should use to highlight? Maybe a gold rather than silver?

I want my new Minotaurs to look rugged and worn rather than spangly and fresh (like my BA). Especially being so shiny in the first place. So I had a go at the weathering/chip effect that was in last month White Dwarf Space Wolves painting section. I used Mithril Silver again to begin with, then Scorched Brown (the old version of Rhinox Hide that was in the tutorial):

Turned out OK, but I think the chips need to be thinner! Very rugged though. I also bought some FW weathering powder and some isopropyl to try some weathering on my BA tanks.... so expect a post on that soon!

Darth Meer

Minotaurs Colour Scheme With New GW Paints

Now my Blood Angels are finally nearing completion, and 6th edition is on the way, I'm thinking it's time to start thinking about a new 40k army! Now I cant actually afford to buy an army straight off (and don't want to - will need to get used to the new rules, etc. first before I commit), so another marine army is a logical extension. I can use my existing models to proxy armies, while slowly replacing squads as I get used to playing them.

The army I've chosen is based on modelling potential, ease of painting (I'm not touching line highlighting for a while!), and background coolness. I bring you the Minotaurs! Picked up a set of paints when I was at WW on Wednesday and had a go at a bronze colour scheme (found at this great blog). No comments on the thick paint, I was using it straight out the pot on a tester model (which already had a coat), and will be spraying the layers when I do it properly!

First, Screaming Bell over a black undercoat. The new base paints really are thinner than the foundation paints, and needed a good two coats for decent coverage, but they are a lot less gloopy than foundations, and thus produce a much smoother base.

Stage 1

Second, Hashut Copper. Again, the paint is pretty thin and needed two coats. Good coverage on the second coat though, although you can still see some of the base colour through - which I actually like. Nice and smooth again.

Stage 2

Third, a Reikland Fleshshade er.. shade. All over. Really sorry about the blurry photo, I forgot to check if the photos were decent before I drybrushed the model... fail. The shade is REALLY nice though, much better flowing than the washes and didn't pool at all. Really looking forward to experimenting more with these bad boys. Also, has a nice matt finish which dulls down the metallic nicely.

Stage 3

Lastly, a drybush of Golden Griffin. To be honest, I don't like the effect of drybrush highlighting man sized models (vehicle are fine), so not really too impressed with the result, I think I will be sticking to a quick line highlight. Good to see what the new Drys are like though. Here's the finished bronze:

Stage 4

There you have it, new paints seem pretty cool, especially the shades! Not too impressed by the Dry range, but then again I hardly drybrush anyway.

After the uber competitive weekend that was the GT, me and my mate went to Warhammer World on Wednesday and had a more friendly game. We basically took lists that contained units that we don't usually play with. I used the vanilla marines codex for a change and tried thunderfires, bikes, tactical squads and vanguard vets. Now, as a Blood Angels player I've never really used these option, so was a complete novice. But I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

My mate took a chaos list with his uber lord of doom, berserkers, raptors and possessed. The raptors died pretty quickly as expected (they really aren't very good), but the possessed were pretty badass as they rolled power weapons and butchered the vanguards! Note to self, take more storm shields. Or maybe shoot the bloody things first.

The bikes are the glass hammer they're famous for, killed plenty but were charged by the berserkers and munched. Really want to learn how to use them, as I want to paint up a small squad for my Minotaurs (as they're something I've never used and look badass). I think a small unit of them would be able to hide pretty well and provide some quick counter punch to the army in the same was a assault marines do, but look more badass when doing it.

What really surprised me was the thunderfire cannon, this thing is awesome! Seriously, why don't people use these? The tremor shot is great against jump infantry and vehicles, and you get a techmarine who bolsters its cover (so isn't really as fragile as people think).

Overall, I'm really looking forward to using a different army, even if it's still encased in power armour and rhinos. Expect more reports of me finding out how to use proper Marines in the future. Well, until Tau eventually arrive... in which case I'm selling a kidney.

Darth Meer

Shameless eBay Pimpage

Yes, I'm going to be one of those nobber guys and shamelessly pimp some stuff I'm selling on eBay. There's not much, just a few bits and bobs. I usually do a clear out every 6 months or so, but I havnt actually bought anything this year...:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/tom_meer/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25

Including the following guys:

Tau Stealth Team - Now On eBay!

I promise, I'll gets some actual models painted this week and post. I hate it when people spam useless articles in between actual content... 

Darth Meer

New Rules For Lizardmen Mordheim Warband

Spent most of yesterday after work writing some rules for a Lizardmen warband. There is currently an unofficial   warband on Mordheimer, but i felt that it was way to overpowered, and very old fluff wise (it used totem warriors...). So, I've come up with my own rules, using the new army book and stealing stuff from the official warbands for balancing reasons.

View Lizardman Mordheim Warband Here

I've tried to match the Mordheim rulebooks format as much as I can, so it looks semi-professional. Also, I've started using Google Docs for my file hosting now, so any problems with this please let me know.

Currently in the process of painting a Lizardmen army so thought it would be another warband to use in our campaign - which has been going for nearly 10 games now with 6 players/teams. 4 of which have restarted their warband already! Me included...

On the 40k side, I've finished highlighting my Death Company, but they were the first models I painted for the army way back, so look a bit rubbish and am refusing to post them on here! Half way through the drop pod though so will post some pics when that's done (probably with the honour guard it will be deploying, no one wants to see just a boring drop pod).

Darth Meer

40kUK GT 2012 Photos Are Up!

Another quick post. Just thought I'd let everyone know the photos (all 700+ of them) are up on the 40kUK Facebook page, which can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/40KUK

There are some great pics, take a look. Oh, and here's perhaps the cheesiest grin ever by your's truly:

Me!

Darth Meer

Blood Angels Assault Squad Painted

I love bank holidays, means I can get a few hours solid painting done - something I usually can't do over the weekend. Took a good few hours to get my Assault Squad highlighted, but here they are:

Blood Angels Assault Squad Corvinus

And some fluff:

Brother Corvinus is a young Sergeant who served with his Assault Squad in the Vardian campaign. He is armed with a thunder hammer, the field generator of which failed during a pivotal battle against traitor guard on Vardia IV. Corvinus received a battlefield commendation for fighting on, destroying enemy tanks though sheer physical strength alone. The thunder hammer, now named Traitors Bane, was later repaired with the blood of the traitor being preserved forever beneath the field.

Really geared to finish my Blood Angels now, only have a few squads and vehicles left to highlighted - the entire army is painted up to that stage at least. Looking forward to finishing them finally and moving on to other projects (i'm tossing around an idea for a small Minotaurs army... much easier to paint i reckon!).

Painted up some more Lizardmen as well last week, but don't want to do a proper post until whole units are complete (a while off yet...). Although no idea why I keep torturing myself with Fantasy, I can never bloody win a game...

Darth Meer

Quick 40kUK GT Update

Not a long post this one. Just wanted to say thank you for all the 40kUK guys who ran the GT over the weekend. Was a really fun, well run (if 'casually' run :-P), and definitely enjoyable tournament. I didn't manage to stay for the Saturday evening entertainment as had to drive back to Nottingham (and drop a multitude of friends of on the way), but heard it was eventful!

I had some great games (well, all but one! If you're reading this... damn you Deathwing... :P), against some great opponents and well painted armies. I won't bore you with my final position, as its within the lower-mid table obscurity, but all the games were very close (even the losses, except for Deathwing) and enjoyable. I don't really frequent the tournament scene outside of Warhammer World, so definitely learned a lot from this experience.

So to reiterate, thanks again for all the work the guys did at running the GT this year!

Tom
Darth Meer