All ahead full and damn the torpedoes!

Well, to (most likely) no-ones surprise, I didn't stick to the plan...

You see, Battlefleet Gothic happened...
Or rather Battlefleet Gothic Armada II. And my enduring love for BFG combined with the stockpile I still have for it.
So last weekend, I took advantage of my airbrush and quickly cranked out my Chaos Fleet.
I had these stood around assembled for a while now, so it was a matter of priming, then shading/basecoating, followed by drybrushing final highlights and detail painting.

I also discovered how easy starfield bases were to do with the airbrush:
Put in your favourite white, pump the trigger a few times to get a drop of paint in/on the tip and then push down on the trigger, causing that drop to come spattering out! I then added a few nebulae/dust clouds with the remainder of the white and some earth colour:

Anyway, here is the fleet itself:

The painting was very quick: primer black, preshade with Vallejo Air Golden Yellow, basecoat (lightly) with Vallejo Air Red Gore, then a topside highlight with Vallejo Air Scarlet. Then on to brush painting: drybrush with regular Vallejo Scarlet, followed by Vallejo Bloody Red. Paint all the bits that need to be metal black, then GW Ironbreaker. Wash the metal parts with GW Nuln Oil Gloss. Paint bridge windows and navigation lights with Vallejo Golden Yellow, as well as the occasional dotted in windows.  With the points added for a Chaos Lord and maybe a reroll this comes out at 1500 points. If I can find extra models, I may expand it in the future, perhaps some extra escorts and a Grand Cruiser, if available.

As you can see, this fleet serves the Word Bearers Legion. (the icon is a 3d printed shoulder pad icon from shapeways, glued onto the bridge.

Speaking of Word Bearers... While the game states that it was a Black Legion vessel that is trapped inside the Blackstone Fortress Warhammer 40,000 Quest game I decided mine would be Word Bearers. So while I had the airbrush out, I quickly painted their main colour (same recipe as for the chaos fleet):

I also basecoated the skin for the Negavolt Cultists and for the Kroot tracker, but neglected to take pics...

And while I originally bought Tooth and Claw for the Genestealer Cult content, the Space Wolves have forced their way, howling and panting, to the front of the queue. Here's a (gloomy) photo of the first Blood Claw pack and Smash-Jarl assembled and ready for basing and primer:

Yes, the special weapns marine is magnetized. ;)

With regards to the social part of the hobby my (ir)regular gaming buddies and I are discussing starting up a BFG campaign. As several have interest in an Ork fleet, but no ships, we're holding a scratchbuilding day in a few weeks time. I plan to take along my unassembled Ork ships, partly to assemble and partly for size reference. I'll also be bringing a handful of spare bits for them to use and for me to try and build a few drifting/burning wrecks out of.
I'm also resisting to start spending on BFG again, I feel a powerful craving to order sets of 3D ordnance and Voss/Armageddon style prows, but I have enough stockpile of BFG I feel I should attend to first.

Oh, and the Necromunda Sump Pools didn't end up completely as intended. Here they are, just after I finished doing the basic painting by airbrush:

 And just after I poured the resin:

Sadly the resin didn't behave exactly the way I had hoped it would. It lifted a bit from the edges in places, leaving a visible 1mm gap between the resin and the edge of the pool. The surface also remained tacky. I tried to solve the latter with gloss varnish, but it dried up too matt and killed the depth effect. 
I don't want to trash these pieces as they look too cool, but I'm still pondering how to fix it. Maybe use some acrylic water effect over the top? Or use a thick layer of gloss varnish from a spray can (and then matt varnish the ash edges of the pools and rusty stuff)? I'm still considering what will work best.

See you all next time!

New year! New.... well, nothing really... Just more of the same...

Another month, and another year have passed...
What have I been up to, and what do I intend to be up to?

Well, the past few weeks have been very busy, holidays, busiest time of year at work, and health worries about my mother, plus frustrations about not being able to get her the care she needs (and we need her to have) have kept my energy and time for the hobby low.

I've kept going on the Blackstone Fortress set, and have the first character and two sets of monsters done:

Espern Locarno and the Spindle Drones (Sounds like a band name...):

Ofcourse at this point I realise I forgot to paint the trim on the inside of his robe...
Bases will be done at a later point, all at once.

And the Ur-Ghuls

(In this foto I hadn't done the mottling on their backs, I'll do some glamour shots later, once more is finished).

The Multiverse Gaming terrain hasn't progressed since last time, I still need to get my feet wet with LEDs, before I dare continue...
Doesn't means I've been sitting still on the terrain front, though.
Last week this arrived:

So, I can get started on building some containers/container shanties for Necromunda.

As always, it'll work fine for 40K and Kill Team as well.

Additionally, I started a little conversion for the fun of it:

 Not the final head or shoulder pads. I may end up going with larger shoulder pads and a Ruststalker head instead. I just need to source the bits and see if I like it. It will most likely be an assault/labour servitor or a midget Ambot or some such.

As I got a pot of resin for Christmas, I needed something to try/practice it on. So I started making some toxic sump pools for Necromunda:

The sand-PVA mix on them is drying at the moment, hopefully paint and resin next week.

Past year's paints:
I've also taken the time to look back at what I painted last year, and I managed to get 47 figures painted, 2 scratch-built Necromunda terrain pieces, and one of my 4 sets of Multiverse Gaming Terrain. For me, that is a reasonably good year, these days.

Looking to the future:
So, what are my plans for the coming year?
Basically for the next few months I want to finish on two main projects:
-Blackstone Fortress: I want to get all the mini's painted and start playing it.
-Multiverse Gaming Terrain: I want to finish my set of Multiverse Gaming Terrain, so I have a decent set of Zone Mortalis (esque) terrain for Necromunda and Kill Team.

However, me being me, some secondary projects have popped up.
-LEDs: For the Multiverse Gaming Terrain, I want to incorporate LEDs, but I need to do some practice pieces to build confidence.  So, I will have to plan and build something that needs lighting up (any suggestions?)...
-Resin: I have a pot of resin now, and I intend to use it before it goes off. The Toxic Sump Pools above are just the trail project, to see how I should handle resin. After that there are various, still vague plans. I hope to incorporate the resin in the Multiverse Gaming Terrain project as well, to use as leaks and the toxic pools shown on some Necromunda terrain boards.

Both  the above projects tie back in to a main project and will teach me new hobby skills so I'm okay with that, and the side projects were more or less planned.
Less planned is the Space Wolf Army that seems to have spontaneously materialized... I bought the Stormclaw at the time for the Ork content, and to get Space Wolf Terminators for the Space Hulk project. Now I ordered the Tooth and Claw set, to use the Genestealer Cult models for the Space Hulk Project/Necromunda/Kill Team project.  But now I'll have a Primaris contingent of Space Wolves as well... Plus the remaining metal Wolf Guard, Wolf Scouts and Characters I kept from an aborted earlier edition Space Wolf army...  And an airbrush to paint all that grey quicker... And a clear idea for the colours to use from the Inquisitor scale Space Wolf I did last year. The snowball is rolling and growing, and I'm sure I can hear wolves in the distance... ;)  It's not like I have a Howling Griffons army to build, or a Word Bearer one hiding in boxes for assembly...  But on the other hands, it would mean some opposition for my Orks, so I could host games and maybe introduce my son to 40K.
Eh, I have a whole year ahead of me, we'll see how it goes.

See you all next time!

Part two: Colour Conundrum: Space Hulk (seeking advice!)

In attempt to settle matters for myself, I've painted a pair of test models for the alternate colour scheme today.
Here's a few shots of the old and new scheme to compare them:

The new scheme:

My version of the classic scheme:

And both side by side:

Of course, I'll have to stare at them a bit, to see which way the coin falls. On the one hand the classic scheme does have the weight of nostalgia behind it. On the other hand, the new scheme looks rather cool, and the speed at which I can knock them out.
I'd like to have your input, which colours scheme would you prefer?

See you next time!

Colour Conundrum: Space Hulk (seeking advice!)

I've been fiddling around with my Space Hulk miniatures again, and I'm struck with hesitation regarding the Genestealers, and by extension the Genesetealer Cult.

You see, I've a fair bit of Genestealers to paint:
-Two full Space Hulk sets (the 2009 and 2014 editions)
-A full first Edition Space Hulk set
-My own personal Space Hulk set (collected and converted from 40K miniatures for my Long term 3D Space Hulk plan)

And a good bit of Genestealers Cultists:
-The content of the Deathwatch Overkill set
-The Genestealer cult I'm building/converting for my own personal Space Hulk Set (Which, once/if ever completed, will include all the miniatures to play every edition of Space Hulk...)
The choice I make for my Genestealers, will also influence this Cult, as they will need to match visually.

Originally I always just assumed I'd be painting them in the Classic Genestealer colour scheme.
As evidenced by my test models here:

But now that I'm on the verge of actually painting the Genestealers from my Space Hulk 2009 set, I'm beset by doubt.
You see, I'm being tempted by a altogether more dark and sinister colour scheme, inspired by the PC game Space Hulk Deathwing... Something more like this:

These pics I found in my Inspirations folder, I have no idea whose these are, sorry. (Curse my digital magpie nature!) If anyone knows, please tell me, so I can give proper credit to an excellent painter!

This will also mean that my Genestealer Cult will follow the same darker and sinister colour palette.
Both the own conversions and the Deathwatch Overkill ones, as these will also be used in combination for Necromunda, Inq28, possibly even 40K.

For the classic 1st edition set, there is no choice, it's self-contained so will be in the classic colour scheme, as an homage to the "good old days".

Leaving me several options for the newer sets and my own collection:
-Everything gets painted in the classic scheme.
-The Space Hulk sets go in the "new" scheme, my own collection (plus Cult) in the classic scheme.
-The reverse: the Space Hulk Sets go in the classic scheme, my own set (plus Cult), go in the "new" scheme.
-Everything in the "new" scheme.
-One set goes in the classic scheme, one set in the "new" scheme (for me, preventing them being combined into a large mega-hulk, because my brain works that way...), my own collection goes in either the new or classic scheme.
And I can't decide...

Of course, the Genestealers and their Cult won't exist in isolation. They'll be inside my Space Hulk terrain (either the cardboard sections, which I assume everyone knows the look of by now) or my 3D terrain, which looks like this:

And they'll be facing my Terminators, consisting of the Blood Angels from the Space Hulk sets (in their traditional colours), a set of Deathwing Terminators, and of course, my own beloved Howling Griffons First Company. Pics for reference below:

My Deathwing squad

The Deathwing and Genestealers in their natural habitat

My Howling Griffons:  

As well as against my =I=Munda/Inq28 Salvage crew:

If you have an idea how I should proceed with the colour scheme, or any other suggestions, please let me know. I'd love to have your feedback in solving this conundrum!

Thanks, and see you next time!

Hive Sweet Hive, Part X: The Building Emerges

This weekend I pushed some acrylics around, I did some painting on the Goliaths, but the muse fled me. Luckily the muse of terrain took her place. Which means I managed to finish my first piece of Necromunda terrain. I present to you Silo # 7:

 Don't drink the fluid leaking from the pipes...

And the first batch of ancillary barricades/railings for on the platforms, a single loose barricade and a single walkway:

 Except for the free standing barricade on the bottom, all the railings have been magnetized to connect to the steel tape hidden under the hazard striping of the platforms. As has the bridge.

Here are a set of barricades in situ:

 And here is the bridge, securely mag-locked between the platform and a tin can:

Pretty nifty, right? The magnets under the bridge are mounted in such a way that there is some play to compensate for differences in height between various pieces of scenery.

As I had the airbrush out for the sprayed markings and the varnish over the terrain pieces, I also cranked out these: 

These are now all (almost) ready for the hand-painting stages. Maybe I'll experiment with chipping medium and some weathered paint on the barricades and doors, I just need to experiment on a sacrificial piece first, to get my chipping medium dilution just right. I've been having some trouble getting it to spray and work the way I want to. But that is what the luridly coloured Imperial ruins on the right are for. :)

See you next time!

Hive, sweet Hive

Well, it was to be expected with the announced return of Necromund, that I'd dive straight in again...
While my Escher gang is still distinctly less painted than I'd like them to be I decided to start building terrain. I've only  ever played on the basic Necromunda cardboard and bulkhead terrain and I felt that needed to change. (Seeing, over the past few years, all the beautiful Necromunda/Inq28 terrain being built by hobbyists online, most notably the Yggdrassiliume board  by Neil101 and the Sump Town/Curse of the Alabaster by Shibboleth, have made me covet a nicely modelled terrain set of my own. Who said envy can't be a positive emotion? ;P )

So, with the wife away for the weekend, I dragged all my raw materials out of storage and set to. 
Here are the results halfway through day one:

Since taking these pictures around noon, I've added texture to the platforms, added hoses and tubes to the silo, some scattered debris/garbage to the ground and textured the silo to give it a nice rusty, grungy and nasty appearance. Tomorrow will bring more detailing and texturing the floor, with maybe a start on building two.
I'm planning to store as much of this terrain inside a few Pappis boxes, and to that end I've marked the dimensions of the bottom of a Pappis box on my sheet of basing materials twice. Whenever I cut a base, I will try to stay within these lines.  Any gaps and leftovers can be used for basing scatter terrain.


Ofcourse this terrain can be used for more than just Necromunda. I could use it for regular 40K (just use a bit less of it, on a larger table), Kill Team or Shadow War: Armageddon. There's the option of Inquisimunda/Inq28 ont it.  Smaller terrain items and scatter pieces, I could also use for Space Hulk (and vice versa, the SH tunnel sections can also be used for Necromunda, I "just" need to finish those too...). And ofcourse it could also see use in other Post-Apocalyptic settings.


I'm stoked and plan to spend as much of my spare time (at least until a new job kicks in) building more terrain. Hopefully the hive will rise quickly! ( So my Genestealer Cult can infect it...) 

See you next time!

Stealin' Genes

The samurai project has been flagging a bit the last few weeks. Mojo has been low in general for hobby stuff.
But this week, I decided to give Space Hulk Deathwing another run, 40K had been bubbling in the brain a bit again, due to the recent exposure Shadow War Armageddon and the upcoming new edition 40K were getting online.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that a large part of the technical issues of the game were solved, and that there was more variety in gameplay to be found. Sadly, the servers are still rather depleted after the rocky start, hopefully this will improve once the Enhanced Edition becomes reality.

Anyway, one thing led to another, and I decided to build a couple of Genestealers, as a palate cleanser and hopefully something that would kickstart the Mojo-generator again.
Originally I wanted all my genestealers for the Space Hulk project to be just generic genestealers. But today I realised I rather like the variety of 'stealers in the Deathwing game. Plus it would be more interesting to paint and model than just 20+ identical creepy aliens... I could always make some house rules for them in SH, Kill Team or =I=Munda if I were so inclined, or I could use them as regular 'stealers and just keep the variation a cosmetic thing.

Here they are: two Stalker Strain Genestealers and two Scythe Strain Genestealers:

The parts in the rear of the picture are a start at an attempt to convert some Tyranid Warriors into a pair of Broodlords or similar heavy, large Genestealer variants.
Now, to figure out how to speed-paint Genestealers and still have them look decent.

See you next time.

I'm not dead yet!

Well, I'm not...

As you may have noticed from the absense of posts on this blog, my Muse has been absent again. And I've fallen off the Man O'War train (for now...). Focus and interest is all over the place, flitting from one idea/project to the next, often even before I could get the first project out of the cupboard. Dreadfully annoying...

What little dollops of Painting Mojo I did manage to scrounge up have been spent on an attempt to paint the next three members of my Void Crows salvage crew:

 From left to right you can see Sassy Girl, Old Savant and Big Brute (not the final names by a long stretch, but I need something with which to identify them to you). In the above pic, the undersuits are done and the hard shell of the void suit has been given its basecoat and wash. Highlighting will most like occur when next the Muse visits.

Today some bits arrived, which mean I can proceed with a few conversions that have been in the pipeline for a while.

First, two heavy weapons for my Genestealer Cult/1st Ed Space Hulk Hybrid blip list.

Unexpectedly current, I've been wanting to do these conversions ever since Deathwatch: Overkill hit the stores. And I've needed Genestealer Hybrid miniatures armed like this ever since I started my 3D Space Hulk Project, years ago...
Both minis are based on the Genestealer Hybrid with mining laser from the Deathwatch: Overkill box. The left one is toting an Autocannon, from the Imperial Guard Sentinel kit. The right is carrying a Conversion Beamer that came from a miscast I got in a trade. The Autocannoneer still needs a replacement backpack, preferably with some extra ammo. The Conversion Beamer Operator needs some fix-ups on the Conversion Beamer itself, but is otherwise good to go. Both still need bases, obviously.

The bits arrival also meant I can now proceed to build my own version of a certain Underhiver of Renown:

Yup, Bull Gorg, Pit Slave hero, the now classic Nurgle Lord conversion. Many have gone before me in this particular conversion, but I get to call this one all my own. :)

And, as it seems mandatory since the release of the September White Dwarf, my conversion of the freebie Slaughterpriest:

Around when the new White Dwarf hit, I was re-reading Dan Abnetts Pariah novel, which featured "Warblind": Heavily augmented and modified berserker soldiers, intimidating giants, relics of bygone wars that were left incapable of even contemplating peace or normal life, processing the world only in terms of combat and violence. In the novel these Warblind were segregated in closed-off streets where they formed violent, tribal gangs, with unaugmented, war-traumatised and feral soldiers unable to adapt to civilian life serving as their underlings and foottroops. Almost a feudal structure, if you look past the ultraviolence...
The whole terror and pathos of these figures inspired me to start this conversion. My plan is to make the left arm a combat augmetic, maybe that Ork Nob buzzsaw arm? The right arm will have the cleaver replaced with some sort of pistol. The leg armour will maybe get pistons and such added. Perhaps, if I like how he turns out, I might make a little Warblind gang for Inq28/=I=Munda? Ofcourse, he could also function perfectly as an extra-beefy Pit Slave chief.

I've also been ripping through my Oyumaru this week. I've been taking moulds of certain details from the one Cities of Death building I have, to use in making Necromunda and Space Hulk terrain (hopefully soon).
I've done the same with some resin bases, as I need bases with the same detail and style as my resin ones, but in a size the seller doesn't provide. The first batch of casts is curing as I type.

See you next time!

Edit: The 2016 Genestealer Cult has now been officially revealed. On a personal note I am absolutely stoked to see a 2 page art spread featuring Genestealer Cult battling Howling Griffons Space Marines in the preview of the hardback codex! Nice to see my beloved Battenberg Marines in action against my favorite xenos-worshipping scum.

The Cult rises again

No words and numbers today, just greenstuff and plastic. (Oh, and resin, for the bases... Sorta plastic too.)

I've been adding greenstuff to some of my little friends:

For some reason my Howling Griffons and Genestealer Cult just go together, can't work on the one, without giving the other some love as well. I guess it's because they're both offshoots of my long suffering Space Hulk project...
Same goes for the =I=Munda stuff, my Scavenger Crew, been eyeing them again as well lately.
For now, I'm content to pick up where the muse takes me. Today, that was gribbly alien bodysnatchers. :-)

Some of these Genestealer Hybrids (the two rightmost ones) have been finished somewhat longer, back when I had my previous bout of working on the Hulk/Cult. The three on the left are the most recent additions.
I'm thinking, five is about enough to set on a painting desk? So, they'll step up when I next take out the painting gear. (Which means clearing away the modelling kit, and for the time being, I'm having fun modelling, so I'm continuing that for now.)