Demon Prince

Below are some first stage and last stage pictures of my new plastic Demon Prince. It was a great miniature to work with. I think the finished mini looks great too.



The skin was really just an experiment. In the picture above, I have yet to complete the skin but you can see that it involves a mess of colors. Going from a dark red (Blood Red and Scorched Brown) to a bright orange. I would say that I put nearly eight shades of red into the skin. I also washed certain areas of the miniature with Badab Black and Devlan Mud to bring out the raised areas and to also meld the different shades together. Since it was an experiment there was really no way I could recreate it in text form. Basically, Start with an extremely dark red and continue to layer on brighter reds. Scab Red to Red Gore to Blood Red to line highlights of blazing orange. Do not hesitate to drop some Devlan Mud in areas that are too bright also. The skin should look alive so try to avoid displaying one single tone of color throughout.



This picture just shows another angel of the Prince after my first stage of painting. You can see there is still an enormous amount of work to be done.



So here is a top down view of the Demon Prince at completion. The sword was actually the most difficult part of the model to get right, and I fear it still does not look perfect. Basically, I layered several shades of red. Then I placed some Blazing Orange at the top of the sword moving into the center of the sword. Finally, I highlighted the tip of the sword with Sunburst Yellow. I used the same technique for the inverted areas of the Prince's shoulder pads.





Overall I think the miniature will look great on the table. I also feel like I learned some new techniques that will most certainly help me paint miniature's of this size in the future. Next up: Imperial Guard Manticore!

Im Back!

Been quite a while since I last posted. Summer was pretty busy, plus - my camera broke. I finally got a new camera and hopefully I will post some new pictures soon. I am currently working on the new Demon Prince model for my Chaos Space Marine army. I will hopefully post a picture of my progress sometime this week.

Over the last couple months I have really only been painting Empire. I have recently added, five outriders, three mortars, ten statesmen, ten gunners, and eight knights. (Mortars in 8th edition are really great.)

I also wanted to mention that I went to Games-day this year in Baltimore. Overall, it was a great convention. Much better than years past... I played a couple pick-up games on really awesome tables. Best of all, I won an Imperial Guard Emperor's tank company. If you do not know what that is, It is 10 Leman Russes, and I won it. FOR FREE! I also won a number of other smaller things. Free stuff is always fantastic!

In any event, I will be posting some of the work I have been doing over the last couple months within the week.

Sternguard

I decided to paint these Sternguard for a friend's Ultramarine army. (I guess I was fairly bored that week.) Check them out below, I think they turned out fairly nice.



To paint the armor, I use a very basic method (although time consuming). I start by painting all the armor areas in Ultramarine Blue. When this drys, I wash the armor with blue wash which should darken the color of the original coat immensely. When the wash drys, I highlight the armor with Ultramarine Blue again, making sure to leave dark lines at the joints, air vents and other areas to give the armor more depth. Finally, I line highlight the armor with a 1:1 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Skull White. The result is nice and easy to do.

Because I spray my miniatures with black primer, it is usually really difficult to get white to look right. The white on these models turned out okay, but could have been better. I started by painting all the areas of white with Dheneb Stone mixed with just a little black paint. Then, I applied a watered down Dheneb Stone mixed with Skulls White. Finally, I applied one last coat of pure Skull White.

The guns were painted with Chainmail, washed with black wash, and then highlighted with Mithril Silver. The black area of the gun was simply line highlighted with Codex Grey. The straps on the guns were painted with Scorched Brown and highlighted using Snakebite Leather. The scope was painted with Gore Red. Then the bottom half of the scope was highlighted with Blood Red. Finally, a very small dot of Skull white is applied in the upper corner of the scope. Using this method will get you really cool optic looks. Using more layers will really make the optic (or jewel depending on what you are painting) really stand out, however, make sure to always leave a dark version of the color surrounding the entire area.

The awards, decorations and ribbons on each Sternguard were also painted using a fairly simple yet time consuimg method. I started by painting the paper material with the Darksun foundation paint. After that drys, I apply a 1:1 mix of Darksun foundation and Bleached Bone/Skull White and apply it to raised areas of the ribbons. I then do a 1:2 mix of Darksun and Bleached Bone/Skull White to the more raised areas of the ribbon. Finally, I apply a pure Bleached Bone/Skull White. The result is usually pretty nice. If you'd like (and if you have an extremely small brush) you can even put some wording onto the paper to really make it stand out.

Keeper of Secrets

With 8th edition looming, I decided to paint all my Warhammer Fantasy Battle models left on my painting table. The Keeper of Secrets is not my favorite Greater Deamon, however, I bought this model several months ago and just never painted it. I decided to throw the model together and give it a really quick paint job. Look below for the results.



The skin of this model was painted identical to my Deamonettes. I started by painted the entire model Hormagaunt Purple (including the claws). After that dried I took a 1/1 mixture of Hormaguant Purple and Dheneb Stone and dry brushed the entire model. Finally, I dry brushed a pure Dheneb Stone over this. The skin tone was finished, however, I wanted the claws and breaks in the skin (the rigid areas) to stand out. I took purple wash and carefully placed it into those crevasses and covered the large claws. The result is a great highlighted purple look and helps those areas really stand out.



I decided to go with silver on this model as gold and purple do not compliment each other. I painted Chainmail onto all the emblems, chains and special designs on the miniature. I washed these areas with black wash and once dried I highlighted them with Mithril Silver.

Overall, the model took a very short time to finish (about 6 hours). The colors are very complimentary and this model will look great next to my other Slaanesh models. I do not plan to use the Keeper of Secrets much with "Rocket Hammer" on the way, but I still think it is a great looking model.

Starting Battlefleet Gothic

So I decided to begin playing Battlefleet Gothic with a friend of mine. I have always wanted to play a "naval" table top strategy game. They always seemed so much different than the classic land-based games. One reason I went for Battlefleet Gothic is because everything you need to play (except for the actual models) are free pdfs on the Games-Workshop website under "specialist games."

Below are some pictures of my fleet, my space board, and even some terrain I painted.




Here are the first two ships of my fleet. Standard cruisers. One is armed with Port and Starboard weapons batteries and Lance weapons. The other is armed with port and starboard lance weapons and launch bays. They also both have prow armaments.

painting these miniatures is fairly simple and quick process. I began by priming the miniature with black. Then I dry brushed the entire model with Codex Grey. After that dried, I dry brushed the entire model with a mixture of Codex Grey and Chainmail silver. Then, I dry brushed the undercarriage of the ship with a mixture of Codex Grey and Chainmail silver, but with much more Chainmail than Codex Grey mixed in. This gives the under side of the ship a little more brightness.

Once all that is finished, I dry brushed the grating on the front and back of the miniature with Dwarf Bronze. This gave the miniature the iconic "Black Crusade" look.




Time to add detail. Detail on model's like this hard to see but have fun and add some color. I added blue lights to the top of each antenna. Although it is difficult to see, I add a light grey to the window of the bridge, and I also highlighted each gun with chainmail.



Here is the board I will be playing Battlefleet Gothic on. It is not perfect but I think that is what makes it look so much like space. I started with a 4x4 piece and sanded the surface down with a sander. After that, make sure to wipe the board down with a damp cloth and get any dust off the board before painting. After sanding and cleaning the board, I painted it with black paint that I bought from the hardware store. After the paint dried, I grabbed some old spray cans and went to work. I started with a simple dark grey color. I just misted areas of the board to give a space cloud/dust look. Then I took some green spray and blue spray and painted over and around the grey areas. Just mist the color onto the board, do not blast it right onto the board or you will get less than desirable results.

The next step are the stars. This is can be interesting and the result could vary from great to terrible. I actually started with a spray can of white paint. From about three feet above the board I sprayed a blast of paint onto the colorful areas to represent dense star clusters. After a few shots of that, I switched to flicking white paint off of a tooth brush onto the board. Practice this method on scrap board before doing it on the board. You will get some large paint drops, and some very small drops. If done correctly it can really make the board look great. Do not flick paint at an angle however. Always make sure to be above the area you want to flick the paint onto. If you flick paint at an angle you will get oval stars or streaks which will not look good at all.



Here is the first piece of terrain I made for the Battlefleet Gothic board. I actually followed a great guide for painting these planets. Check it out, it gives a step by step guide to painting an Earth-like planet.

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2007/05/11/7587

Trygon and Mawloc

Hey, been awhile since my last post. I wanted to show some pictures of my latest additions to my Tyranid army. Below are pictures of one Trygon and one Mawloc.







The skin and carapace were painting exactly as I have detailed in prior posts. Take a look at some of my older posts to understand how I did that. The mouth for each miniature was painted by starting with Hormaguant Purple. I then applied a mix of Hormaguant Purple and Dheneb Stone (much more Dheneb Stone than Hormaguant) and highlighted the raised areas of the mouth, gum, and tongue. After that dried I simply washed the area with purple wash.

I also tried something new with the green membrane on the Mawloc's and Trygon's chest. As I painted the skin I made sure to paint over these membranes. Much later in the painting process, after I had painted the carapace red, I took green ink and painted over the membrane area which had previously been painted exactly as the skin had been. The result was great and turned.

The 1500 point Tyranid army is finished and my first game will be this weekend with them!

Tyranid Hive Tyrant

Been awhile since I've updated the blog. Since that last Bloodcrusher was painted, I painted a few more troop units and Zoanthropes for my growing Tyranid army. I am getting very close to that 1500 point mark I set for myself a couple months ago. I wanted to post some pictures of my finished Hive Tyrant, which turned out great. I also will post some pictures of my "in progress" Trygon. Take a look.





I am fairly pleased with this miniature. The modeling of the miniature went fairly well. Aside from some gaps on the back of the model, the pieces fit fairly well. I followed the same painting style and scheme as I did with the smaller bugs. (Read earlier posts for a step by step description on how to paint Tyranids in this color scheme.) I tried something slightly different with the green areas, however. I painted over these during the same time I painted the skin, so these areas were colored identical to the skin. I then applied green wash onto the areas I intended to be green, being careful not to let any wash fall or drip outside the area. The result was a great color that I am very pleased with.



I have assembled and began painting the first of two Trygons that will be in my Tyranid army. This is the Tyranid Trygron Prime model. It is a great kit and the miniature looks awesome. In this picture I have primed the miniature (if you can call it that) and painted on the base color. I can not wait until this is unit finished. It will be a great center piece for the army.

Finished Bloodcrusher

Here is the finished Bloodcrusher. I think it turned out fairly well. The free hand painted standard turned out nice for me. I still find freehand painting somewhat difficult, but nonetheless, I went for it and I am pleased with the result.

Here is the Bloodcrusher rider. The model was painted very similar to the Juggernaut, however, I highlighted the upper areas of the rider's skin with an orange/red mixture. The sword was actually done with a number of layers. First, Red Gore, then I highlighted that with a mixture of Red Gore/Blood Red. Finally I applied Blood Red to the outer edges of the sword and put a line down the middle of the sword.

Here is a good picture of the standard. I went with an original pattern because I plan on using this model as my Battle Standard Bearer. I thought I would throw the Khorne symbol in considering it is a Khorne miniature.

Overall, I am pleased with the final result. The miniature turned out pretty cool and should look great on the table!

Hormagants Finished

I finished my sixteen hormagants for my 1500 point Tyranid army. Check out the pictures below to see them all together. To see how I painted these miniatures, check earlier posts for detailed information. I think these models turned out fairly well and look great all gathered together.





Next Unit: Zoanthrope Brood!

Bloodcrusher Almost Finished

Here are some of the final steps of my third and final Bloodcrusher. When finished, I will post some pictures of the final model. Take a look at the pictures below.



In the above picture you can see that all the bronze areas have been painted in. I follow a basic method for painting bronze. I start by painting the area with a 50/50 mixture of Scorched Brown and Dwarf Bronze. I then paint over that with straight Dwarf Bronze. Then, to bring a shine to the bronze, I make a 70/30 mixture of Dwarf Bronze and Mithril Silver and just lightly brush this over the bronze areas. The result is usually fairly nice.



In this picture there is a good view of the standard. I freehand painted this standard and I think it turned out fairly well. I am not the best freehand painter, but I am satisfied with this turn out. My only suggestion for freehand painting is outline what you want to paint with a very light color or a color that can be easily painted over. Once the basic outline is satisfactory, basically color in the lines, and add details.




You can see here that the teeth and the eyes on the Juggernaut. Basically, I painted the eyes with a deep orange color and highlighted that with Sunburst Yellow. The teeth were painted with Deneb Stone foundation paint, highlighted with Skull White and then washed with Devlan Mud.

It is hard to see, but the standard pole was painted with a mixture of browns. I started with Scorched Brown, applied Bestial Brown, and then highlighted with Snakebite Leather.

My next post will show the finished miniature. I will try to get a nice picture of the rider and explain how I painted it. The rider was painted similar to the Juggernaut, except I highlighted the rider's skin with blazing orange/blood red mixture.

So I am posting some pictures of my latest Bloodcrusher. About six months ago I painted two Bloodcrushers and took a massive break before building and painting the last one. I added some bits to this model to make him stand out from the others. I cut off the miniature's left arm, shaved down the area with a file and then attached a spare arm holding a flag post. I also made sure to fill the gaps with some Greenstuff. This miniature will either serve as a Herald with a BSB or just another Bloodcrusher. Take a look at the pictures below.



I started the model by painting all the red areas with Mechrite Red foundation paint. I also painted the Bloodletter on top with the same color. Before washing the red areas with Devlan Mud, I painted over the Mechrite Red with Blood Red. I just used a quick, watered down coat. After the wash dried, I painted the areas with Blood Red again making sure to leave the edges the darker red color. The red areas are not finished. I need to clean up the red areas slightly.



The metallic areas are easy. I simply painted all the metallic areas with Chainmail, and when that dried I simply applied Badab Black Wash. This area is also not finished yet. I plan on painting over this area with Mithril Silver and then apply a watered down Devlan Mud over that.

I am also finishing up the last four Hormagants for my 1500 point Tyranid army. I have been painting these particular bugs for about 3 weeks now. I'll post a picture of all 16 when I am finished painting them.

My collection and Table

I just wanted to post a couple pictures of my collection and my gaming board. Half the collection is actually my friend's. Also, a huge portion of my Imperial Guard Army are in cases. But it is worth a look none-the-less. Enjoy.



This is my Imperial City Table. You can pull this table off and play on a normal grass type field underneath (which you can see at the bottom of the picture). This city took a couple months but turned out fantastic. You can also see my two Valkyrie models in the background.



The collection!!!!! Eleven years of collecting and painting has led to this crazy collection of miniatures. Again, half these models are not mine, but it looks very impressive. The top shelf is a mixture of my Imperial Guard Tanks, various elite troops, Ogryns, and other miniatures and my friend's Space Marine Tanks, and various other troop selections (including Calgar and eight of his Honor Guard). The next shelf down is another mixture of mine and my friend's miniatures. On the far left are some Hordes of Chaos models including a giant, some Dragon Ogres, Chaos Knights and some Warriors. In the middle you can see my growing Tyranid army and various Terrain pieces. On the far right are some Necron destroyers (also in my friends collection) and a Baneblade for my Imperial Guard and a Baneblade for my friend's Space Marines (for Apocalypse battles.) The next shelf down in my entire Chaos Space Marine Army for Warhammer 40k. The shelf below that is my Empire Army and my Demon's of Chaos Army. That shelf is getting very crowded. The lowest shelf is my friends entire Orcs and Goblins Army along with carious Necron tanks. It is a crazy collection which I am sure is worth more money then I'd like to think about!

First and Last

I thought of a neat idea for this post. Basically, I wanted to show some of my first miniatures ever painted in comparison to some of my last miniatures ever painted. So I grabbed the first model I ever painted in both Warhammer Fantasy Battle (which is an Empire Spearmen) and Warhammer 40k (which is a Platoon Commander) along with one of the last models I painted for Warhammer Fantasy Battle (which is a Flagellant) and Warhammer 40k (which was Marneus Calgar for the Space Marines) and took some pictures. Hopefully this will show all you new painters out there that with a little dedication and practice your skills will improve!!





Here it is. The first miniature I ever painted and the beginning of my 11 year table top wargame obsession (which has not ended.) I was 12 years old when I painted this model. It is obviously, very basic. With a Black undercoat, I painted the red areas with Blood Red, the White Areas with a coat or two of Skull White. The skin was painted bronze flesh, the pike was painted Bestial Brown, and the lion emblem on the shield was painted Sunburst yellow. I even tried to paint eyes on the model, which turned out horrendous. My Empire army is very interesting because it shows the entire evolution of my painting skill. Now, the army spans close to 4500 points (maybe more when I add some characters) but it also spans 11 years of painting skill. Its an awesome testament to the fact that practice makes perfect! (at least practice makes better.)





Above is the last model I painted for my Empire Army. In fact, this is just one of 25 flagellants that I painted, but this particular model is the LAST flagellant I painted. Obviously, my skill has increased. Instead of the skin simply being painted Bronze Flesh, I painted the skin areas with Dark Flesh, then painted the area with Bronze Flesh, washed it with Ogryn Flesh, Highlighted it with a mix of Dwarf and Elf Flesh, and Finally applied Elf Flesh. The result is a much more realistic skin color. The pike, was painted with Scorched Brown, then highlighted with Bestial Brown, then dry brushed with Snakebite Leather. The fire on the miniature's helmet was painted by starting with a Red Gore, washed with Devlon Mud, then highlighted from the base up using Blood Red, Firey Orange/Bloood Red mix, Firey Orange, Firey Orange/Badmoon Yellow mix, Badmoon Yellow, and finally a touch of Sunburst Yellow at the tips.





Above is one of the first models I ever painted for Warhammer 40k, and I still use this model in my Imperial Guard Army. I started Warhammer 40k three years after I started Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Imperial Guard were always my favorite looking army, and still are one of my favorite armies. My skill had improved in those three years. I learned to leave certain areas darker than others to show depth. I started drybrushing in order to bring out different colors and textures (as you can see with the Camo). I also started layering and mixing paints to get different, more interesting colors. For example, the shoulder pads are a mix of Chainmail and Goblin Green.





Here is one of the last models I painted for Warhammer 40k. This is Marneus Calgar I painted for commission. Lucky enough for me, the person I painted it for is a good friend and leaves most of his models in my house so I have easy access to this model! I love this model and I put a great amount of work into it. The attention to the detail of this model was tremendous, and the result is great. It would take me a very long time to explain the entire process of painting this model. I would be happy to explain to anyone interested. Just leave a comment on a particular area and I can explain what I did.





Well, that is it for now. The 11 year evolution of my painting skill.

Tyranid Warriors Finished

This week I finished painting my three Tyranid Warriors. It took about eight hours to paint the entire set of models from start to finish. Take a look below to see the final steps and end results.





In the pictures above, I simply applied the bubonic brown and bleached bone to the models. This lightened their skin up considerably. Check out previous entries for a more in-depth description on painting Tyranids.






In the above pictures, the red carapace had been painted and feathered. All that was left were the teeth, eyes, and various small areas that would be painted green.



The end result. These Tyranid Warriors turned out fairly well. I am a little disappointed by the way the teeth turned out, but, overall I am pleased with the outcome. Next up, 16 Tyranid Hormagants!

Tyranid Warriors (First Stage)

I have begun painting my Tyranid Warriors. These miniatures are awesome. I decided to go with scything talons and deathspitters. I also decided to throw adrenal glands and toxin sacs onto these guys as well. Overall, they should be fairly good ranged fighters and fairly good close combat fighters. Take a look at theses pictures of the first stage of painting on these Tyranid Warriors.





I used the same steps as I did with my Tyranid Termagants. Take a look at that entry to see what I did exactly. Basically, I used Iyanden Darksun to cover the entire model's skin. I tried to avoid painting over the claws and carapace - but it is inevitable that you will get paint onto areas where you don't want them to be. That is why the order in which you apply paint is really important. Start on areas that are large. Also, the Iyanden Darksun paint is thin on areas of the skin in these pictures. I have since touched them up to make sure that the Iyanden Darksun covers the model well.






In these pictures I simply applied the Ogryn Flesh over the Iyanden Darksun after it had dried. Next step is highlighting the skin.

Tyranid Termagants Finished

Just wanted to post my latest painting work. I finished my last 10 Termagants for my 1500 point Tyranid army I am working on. Check them out below. I think they turned out great. If you want to know how I painted them check out my earlier entry that explains the entire process.