Skellies

A couple of minis I had had half-finished in the tin-mountain for a time, a very long time for the foot-soldier…

The skeleton rider is mostly a Guardian on Horseback from Gamezone. That model is multipart and the skeleton guardian’s upper body, arms and weapons were a bit of a mess to get together. That effectively moved the model to the mountain for a long stay, until I had it out the other day and had a sprue of Mantic skeletons in front of me, too.

Some glue and green-stuff and I had married the upper body of a Mantic skeleton to the lower body of the rider. Really satisfied about that.

It was quickly painted and turned out rather well.

The foot soldier is an old GW skellie, from their Tomb Kings series. I have a couple already painted (10+ years ago) and this was mostly ready, just needed some details and a wash. Said and done. Half an hour's job and I had another mini ready for gaming.

A little end-note: If you're a Google+ follower then it is time to change the way you follow this (and other) blogs, as Google+ dies in early April. So it is time to either become an ordinary follower or follow by e-mail.

LotR goblins from Games Workshop

The second batch of the figures I got from Thomas. Another quick job, mostly using paints I was already using for something else and finished with one of the usual washes.

Good enough quality for horde-monsters.

Just ten left, and a lonely orc, then my part of the bag is finished.

Tomb Kings Ushabti from Games Workshop

Another one of those models that was half-finished for a long time, at least five years. It just didn’t want to be fully painted. Anyway, I had enough of that, and finally finished it.

Paints used:

Metal – Citadel Chainmail and Vallejo 59 Hammered Copper

Bones – Vallejo game Color Bone White

Skin – Vallejo 912 Tan Yellow

Cloth – 880 Khaki Grey

Handle – 983 Flat Brown

Rotten hand – Formula P3 Thrall Flesh

Leather – 843 Cork Brown, 876 Brown Sand, P3 Bootstrap Leather

Blue Scarabs – Citadel Foundation Necron Abyss highlighted with Mordian Blue

Hair for all those skulls: Coat d’arms Horse Tone Brown/Chestnut/Roan/Grey

Washed with Army Painter Strong Tone

Now I only have a couple of Infinity-figures left, and then I have removed all the half-finished 28mm-figures. 

Female Paladin from Hasslefree vs Ushabti. It's a big beast!

LotR orcs from Games Workshop

Thomas had bought a bag of assorted assembled but unpainted LotR figures to get hold of the Gondorians, if I remember correctly. He off-loaded the rest of the figures, orcs and goblins, on me (thank you!). They've been in the plastics mountain for far too long now.

All were already assembled (with far too much glue) but still had mould lines and needed some cleaning up. This batch, the orcs, were already spray-painted white, and unfortunately the paint was rather grainy. I coated them with another layer of primer after cleaning up. As usual I washed them with a black wash to get see the details clearly.

I opted for a quick job on these as they probably will be seen in a horde of similar figures, to be quickly slaughtered by the heroes J. Block painting with a limited number of paints, and then washed.

Paints used:

Skin – Citadel Foundation Tallarn Flesh

Leather – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather, Humbrol 62 Leather and Vallejo 984 Flat Brown

Metal – Vallejo 054 Gunmetal

Wood – Vallejo 843 Cork Brown

Cloth – Citadel Foundation Dheneb Stone, Vallejo 879 Green Brown, 923 Japan Uniform WWII.

Hair - Vallejo 987 Medium Grey, 912 Tan Yellow

Shield – Citadel Scab Red

Washed with Army Painter Strong Tone.

The grasses on the bases are Army Painter 6mm Waistland Tuft.

Minotaur, squig and a monkey

A small batch of fantasy figures this time.

First a Minotaur from Games Workshop. I like this one very much, and can’t really understand what took me so long to finish it. Probably the need to green-stuff all the joints. One of those minis that has spent an awful long time in the tin montain.

Paints used:

Skin – Citadel Foundation Tallarn Flesh

Nose – drybrushed Vallejo 955 Flat Flesh

Hair – P3 Gun Corps Brown

Fangs, nails and horns – Vallejo 034 Bone White

Loincloth – Vallejo 879 Green Brown

Furs – Coat d’arms 224 Horse Tone Bay and insides Vallejo 912 Tan Yellow

Wood – Vallejo 843 Cork Brown drybrushed with 912 Tan Yellow after the wash.

Leather armbands – 984 Vallejo Flat Brown

Metal dishes – Vallejo 053 Chainmail Silver

Weapons – Vallejo 863 Gunmetal Grey

Everything washed with Citadel Devlan Mud

Next up is another Games Workshop figure, a squig. Rather amusing, if you don’t have to fight one, that is.

Paints used:

Skin – Vallejo 879 Green Brown

Scales – Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform WWII

Horns and claws - Vallejo 034 Bone White

Mouth – Citadel Scab Red, Vallejo 944 Old Rose and 835 Salmon Rose

Eyes – Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red

Washed with Army Painter Strong Tone wash.

Finally a small monkey from Reaper’s Familiar Pack IV. Had a mis-cast tail, so I had to fix that with green-stuff.

Paints used:

Skin – Vallejo 929 Light Brown and 989 Sky Grey washed with Army Painter Strong Tone. Vallejo 883 Silvergrey washed with Soft Tone.

GW giant – finished at last

I bought the Games Workshop giant a long time ago. I guess it was before we had moved to this house, or maybe just when we had moved, so it is 8+ years ago.

I built it, and waited. Green stuffed it, and waited. Painted his head… and waited. Club and hands… and waited. Pieces of cloth… etc

It been on my painting table on and off for years, and I just couldn’t get the enthusiasm needed for it. Couldn’t love it, and couldn’t really sell it off.

I moved it from storage two weeks ago… and waited. But I finally decided to finish it once and for all. A couple of evenings work, and it’s finally, finally, finished!

Paints used… forget it! I have no idea.

The tree is a sprig of heather.

I’m sipping a small glass of single malt, Strathisla, 12 years old. Life is good. One foe is vanquished.
This is a day for celebration!

Dark elf priestess in 28mm

This is, I think, a dark elf from Games Workshop’s Warhammer line. But I’m not totally sure, and I don’t know the name of the miniature. (She's a Dark Elf Beastmaster - Thanks to Dave for the correct name)

It has a history like so many other figures… it’s been in the tin-mountain for a long time.

Anyway, it turned out very well, and I especially like the skin tone. I’m very happy about that!

Colours used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Skin – 822 German Camo Black Brown

Dress – Citadel Scab Red

Boots – 941 Burn Umber

Pouches – 871 Leather Brown

Cords – Formula P3 Boot Strap Leather

Handles – Formula P3 Gun Corps Brown

Wand – Citadel Foundation Hormagaunt Purple

Whip – 812 Violet Red

Hair – 883 Silver Grey

Everything above washed with Army Painter Dark Tone ink

Jewelry – Citadel Dwarf Bronze washed with Army Painter Soft Tone ink

Oh, and this is post number 200! 

Johann the Knife, Mordheim 28mm

First 28mm figure this year. This is Johann the Knife from Games Workshop’s Mordheim line. It’s been half painted in my tin-mountain for a long time. I started it probably some 8 years ago, and the colour scheme I began with just wasn’t it…

A total repaint solved it, and the result is a decent assassin or thief.

Paints used:

Cloak – Vallejo Panzer Aces 306 Dark Rubber

Clothes – Citadel Codex Grey

Boots and leather – Vallejo 984 Flat Brown

Hair – Coat d’Arms 233 Horse Tone Chestnut

Steel – 865 Oily Steel

Everything above got a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone ink

Welcome follower Legion Games with the blog with the same name. In Indonesian about mainly PC-games, but Google translate works fine.

Devlan Mud R.I.P. and Games Workshop – a rant

I had a very good relation with Games Workshop in the past. They had (and still have) a shop in Stockholm, nice crew there and I bought quite a lot of Warhammer and LotR figures, and even some Mordheim figs when they still stocked them. I bought into 40K, liked the space-orks, and converted a lot. Also read White Dwarf (as I had done when the magazine was young, my first issue was number seven or something one-digit) which was nice with god tips on painting and terrain-making.

But… a new version of 40K came, and an even newer version of 40K came, and the orks changed, and some of the vehicles I had were no good anymore. My interest for 40K waned. I still have my finished models, and a lot of un-built figs and vehicles, but I don’t think I will ever have another game of 40K, unless 40K transforms into something really good. (I like WWII, no-one will tell me that my Pz IV is no longer in the German codex!) I might use the models if I just find a descent rules-set to use them with.

White Dwarf became more and more concentrated on their merchandise. When they started to sell their own plastic terrain, then all do-it-yourself articles disappeared. So it was nothing left to read. The last issues of my subscription went mostly un-read.

How about the other figures then? I have a lot of GW figs, but as it is now I won’t buy another. Why? The answer is probably the same you have heard from so many other modellers and bloggers: Finecast. How on earth can you knowingly destroy your brand with shit like that? It is just not possible to comprehend. Why on earth would I pay more for faulty resin than I did for descent metal? I know for certain that it is possible to make excellent resin figures. I’ve bought them from Otherworld, Scibor, Spartan Games and others.

If it was just a short term problem, fixed after a short while, it would have been bad. But this… Oh, I forgot, there is liquid Green Stuff…

How about the way they treat their trade network then?

I buy a lot via internet. Really the only way to find most of the stuff I want, especially here in Sweden where we don’t have trade shows, and very few shops stocking anything interesting. But GW don’t seem to like to like their customers, as they seem despise anyone non-GW stocking their merchandise. Especially if that merchant sells over the net.

What are they thinking of? Don’t they want to sell? Don’t they know that they are not alone out there? Can’t they see all the other actors growing and greeting all the potential GW customers? I just can’t understand the GW business model. (Yeah, margins are better in their own shops…)

Ok, the paints. They are descent, but I do prefer drop-bottles. Anyway, I still have quite a few tins, but they do dry out uncomfortably fast.

But Citadel had one great product for me: Devlan Mud. The wash that changed my, and it seems a lot of other people’s, painting style. It was a product most companies would cherish and treat like a baby, a money-making baby. For me, I bought a tin now and then at the GW-shop, and while I did that I bought a couple of paints too, and even some figures (pre-‘Fine’cast).

Then they pulled all their old paints and washes and introduced a new line. They changed the formulation of their great product, and changed its name. I heard about the new line on a pod-cast, and after a couple of days I realised that a new line could spell trouble for Devlan Mud. As I work a couple of blocks from the GW store I popped by on my way home, and after some looking about, the shop-attendant found me the last two pots of Devlan Mud, and very enthusiastically told me everything about the new range of paints and washes. The new paints and washes that had nearly the same colours as the old, but not…

On my way home I decided to leave GW altogether. That was really it. A cheap ploy to get people to buy into a new range of products. A codex for paints, to be changed at a whim?

At home, fuming, I checked the market for washes. I had used the Army Painter dips, excellent but they are rather smelly. They sell washes with the same tones as their dips now. I had a choice, so I bought all three of the washes, and have started to try them out. There are more manufacturers making washes, I’ll probably check them out too. Congratulations GW, you just lost a long-time customer.

So I have cut my ties with GW. I really hope that they get their management philosophy back together, because then they can continue to evolve together with the rest of the industry. But that doesn’t seem to be happening now under the present management.

Until then I will spend my money with companies that appreciate me as a customer.

While I wrote this I read that GW pulled the plug for Warhammer Historical. It doesn’t really concern me directly, as I don’t play their games. But it irks me that they just drops the line with no chance of stocking up (at least not from GW) and a message that the IP will not be sold/transferred to any other company. Essentially – they don’t give a s**t about their customers. Case closed…

Mantic Orx vs Games Workshop Ork

I got some orx in the box from Mantic, and I’ve just painted the first, a figure from the orx command sprue.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Undercoated white with a black wash

Coat – 988 Khaki

Kilt – 882 Middle Stone

Trousers – 977 Desert Yellow

Skin – 971 Green Grey

Leather – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Metal – Citadel Chainmail

Face on breastplate – Citadel Blood Red

Washed with Army Painter’s new Quickshade Ink Strong Tone. A really nice water-based ink/wash, that is a worthy successor to Devlan Mud.

So how does it compare to GW orks, then?

Well, the orx is obviously somewhat different, as it must be to avoid infringing on GW:s IP. Anyway I like the orx, it feels more alive than the ork. Detailing is comparable, the body is a bit less beefy and it has a smaller head (not really seen on this fig). And it actually looks as if it walks/runs, and not as if it just had an...accident.

All in all, the orx is a much more price-worthy alternative, from a company that has great service, and seem to actually like their customers.

Recommended

Halflings from Reaper and GW

The first halfling/hobbit is “Pip Thistletoe”, no 2057 from Reapers’ Dark Heaven Legends series, and he is sculpted by Sandra Garrity. A lovely little figure I bought a couple of years ago. It’s got one weak spot, namely the sling, which broke off from the hand, so I had to pin it.

Paints used. Trousers: Vallejo 886 Green Grey, shirt: 971 Green grey, jerkin: 876 Brown Sand, belt: 875 Beige Brown, hair: 818 Red Leather. Coated with Army Painter Strong Tone and a final coat of Vallejo matte varnish.

Next in line is a halfling from, I think, Games Workshop’s Mordheim line. I bought it a long time ago, and it ended up half painted in the tin-mountain. As it is GW it is probably impossible to get now, outside the second hand market, that is.

It’s a neat little figure with full adventuring gear. Paints: Jacket: Formula P3 Traitor Green, helmet: Vallejo 054 Gunmetal Metal, belt/bag/quiver: 875 Beige Brown, hair: 981 Orange Brown, blanket: 991 Dark Sea Grey, trousers: 884 Stone Grey, fish: 052 Silver with a wash of 936 Transparent Green. Coated with Army Painter Strong Tone and a final coat of Vallejo matte varnish.

Orc-chief

An orc chief from GW that I found deep down in the tin-mountain. It’s been there for a long time. I had no real inspiration for this figure, and it has slowly gotten more and more paint. I think I started with it in December last year…

Painted ordinarily with the usual wash of GW Devlan Mud. After that I painted the eye and the blood, with a matte varnish over it all. The blue got a layer of blue wash instead of Devlan Mud.

Mouth, eye and blood got a final coating of gloss varnish.
Finished at last, and I’m half happy with the result.

Orc shaman

This evil oldster has moved from the painting table to the box of painted figures. Has lived a long life in the tin-mountain, and came originally from Games Workshop.

Space Ork

This space ork is, of course, from Games Workshop, GW. I got a gang of dark green ocs, and will try another colour-scheme on this one to see if I like it better.
Skin is Vallejo 971 Green Grey, and then Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone followed by matte varnish. I’m really pleased with the result. More will come.
I’ve long been rather uncertain about my 40K orks. Shall I paint what I have, or simply give up on them? The fun part with them is to orkify other stuff, such as WWII vehicles. There is a risk that they will survive, and slowly multiply. I do have, if not a mountain, at least a hill with ork plastics and tin.
Maybe I can find someone to play with, and I might get the Gorkamorka-box up from the dungeon.
By the way, this is what I got already painted: