The Slow meander to GoGX continues

Once upon a Snow Day.

You have to love the UK and our inability to deal with snow. There was a rush on milk and bread around where I live so much so that the Co-Op was actually out of stock until the replenishment lorry could back up the slope to their delivery door.

The Snowpocalypse has truly arrived and as at least one flake had managed to lay on the road I opted to "work from home". Ahem.

After 5 weeks without a full weekend thanks to a work project it was just nice to sit down, kick back and paint again. Here then are my latest additions to the SilverFox Challenge and no this is not the GoGX army yet...

First up we have a Khorgorath. This chap represents the Khorne Bloodbound faction and has been sat base-coated in red for a very, very long time.

He's part of the original starter set and stands 70mm tall. There is a huge amount of skulls and bones and I opted for a slightly muted highlight as otherwise it threatened to overpower the other colours!

I decided at the last minute to give his eyes a blue glow as I couldn't see his face in among the bones.

And I tried out some blending with the purple and red skintones. I'm quite pleased with the results. Thank you Duncan :-)

 

Next up is a Skaven contraption called a Warpfire Thrower. It's basically a flame thrower with more magic. It also has the ability to explode if I get too carried away when using it... good old Skaven. I opted for a nice yellow warpfire with green smoke because, well, because I could!

 

The Skaven themselves are painted with the usual Grey and Purple outfits. I like purple.

 

And finally I managed to get the Vulcharcs completed so they can join the Kairic Acolyte squad and cause pain to magic users.

I kept the feathers green so that they match the feathers in the bird handler's head (yes those feathers are in his head!).

You only need 1 in a squad but the boxset came with 2 so what the heck eh?

I've put them temporarily on flying stands held on by blu-tac whilst I come up with a more permanent solution.

 

So there we are then. More AoS goodness or Chaosiness...

What's the tally now then?

(The birds don't count as they are part of the already scored Kairic Acolytes)

b/fwd 810

Khorgorath 80

Warpfire Thrower 70

Total 960 / 3650 or 26% complete!

Days since the challenge began 93

Target points after 93 days = 930

Still on Target!!

I have a couple more models to finish before I begin GoGX. Back soon!

SilverFox

Hat in the Ring for GoGX

I was enjoying an evening in my hotel in Budapest. Work was over finally for the day. Room service had just delivered dinner and the Merlot was going down a treat.

Then my ipad pinged as a message came through: "GoGX is a Go"

I like to think that this code phrase sparked a sleeper cell in to action and off I went on a journey of discovery and intrigue... but that's not what happened. What actually happened was "WTF is GoGX?".

You see when I travel my personal mobile stays on airplane mode or as we like to call it "Don't call me Shirley" mode. Anyway Jabber is not available to me so I was oblivious.

Of course I signed up immediately and in an effort to finally paint all the stuff on my shelves I've opted to, er, well I've decided to, erm... look the simple matter is I want to do an army that isn't Chaos so yes I've gone for a completely new army... sigh...

The Daughters of Khaine.

And I can't even show you any models as I don't own any! The Battletome has just been released so I'll be getting to grips with that once I'm back from my next trip to Budapest. Lord knows what the GoGs will have signed up for by the time I get back...

Anyway I'm officially in and looking forward to getting to grips with the good guys who worship the God of Slaughter... um. Right.

Tzeentch comes to the SilverFox Challenge

Well hellooooo Bloggerland!

The SilverFox Challenge continues apace although that pace has slowed recently due to work travel. That said it looks like it's about to go a bit mad around here as someone mentioned GoGX...

But that's another post entirely...

Here then are the next entries in the 2018 Challenge! And today we're going all Tzeentch. Well except the last chap but more on him soon.

First up 20 bases of Brimstone Horrors. Love these little guys as they were so easy to paint. My aim was to try and present a carpet of flame rolling towards the enemy and I decided against trying to paint the teeth etc as they would distract from the overall effect. That and I wanted to get them done quickly!

 

And next up we have one of my favourite units so far to paint: Kairic Acolytes. These are foot soldiers of the Disciples of Tzeentch faction.

The skin was the piece I wanted to get sorted first. I opted for a base of Rakarth Flesh and then 2 washes: 1 with Sepia and 1 with Reikland Fleshshade. I'm pleased with the results.

 

Next came the armour and loincloths. Blue is the traditional colour for Tzeentch so was a natural choice. There are actually two different base blues involved although not easy to see to be honest...

The face masks went through a couple of colour choices before settling on Gold. I haven't washed them down at all as I wanted them to be shiny and standout.

 I'm pleased as well with the way the parchment came out on the scroll.

The weapon blades started pink and have toned down through the use of violet washes and white dry brushes. I opted for these colours as I get bored painting leadbelcher weaponry.

This is the command squad. You'll note the lack of banner. And no musical instrument. These boys can't take those staple members of the command squad and instead have a piece of parchment and a bird-handler. The bird is, er, not here yet. He's out somewhere...

The shields took a bit of working out colour wise. Again I didn't want to overpower the rest of the model so opted for black. I've used a couple of coats of Gloss Black Wash to make it a little more shiny. The leadbelcher rim and decoration has not been toned down either.

 "Do you have time to discuss our Lord and Saviour: Tzeentch?"

The big stick is a Glaive. No I don't know what it does either! I'll find out when everyone else does.

And now the one who isn't Tzeentch. In fact he's not even Games Workshop.

One of the bonus rounds in the Analogue Challenge was Childhood. My Dad introduced me to Spaghetti Westerns when I was a kid and I've loved them ever since.

The music of Ennio Morricone is second to none when it comes to film scores and my first LP was the soundtrack to the Dollars Trilogy. 

 So here is good old Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name. Il Buono.

I took a few liberties with the colours as I don't paint historical figures.

I don't have a game ready for him so he'll be a nice display model for now.

And yes he does have his cigar!

B/Fwd 520

Brimstone Horrors 80
Kairic Acolytes 200
Il Buono 10

Total so far 810 / 3650 or 22% complete!!

Still on Target...

The SilverFox 2018 Challenge

I've been quiet. So very quiet. In 2017 I hit 2,000 points for my AoS army, added a Predator to my World Eaters and stopped.

I could blame work or my other hobbies (mainly video gaming) but to be honest, once I analyse what makes me tick I realise I'm goal driven. I like a target. Something to work towards. I used to paint for tournaments but since I stopped attending those I've lost focus.

That's why the Analogue Painting Challenge is so good for me as it drives me to paint towards a target.

With that in mind I'm now introducing my Challenge to myself for Paint Year 2018. My target is to paint 3,650 points of models. The points for a unit are the in game points at the time the unit is finished. If a game doesn't use points or the unit doesn't have points then I'll settle on 10 points for a 28mm figure.

Is this achievable? Yes. Work will always throw in spanners and new video games will hog the limelight for a while but I'm determined to hit this target.

The Paint Year started on 20 December 2017 to coincide with the start of the Analogue Challenge and therefore it will end on 19 December 2018.

And here is my first 100 points! A Skaven Warlord for my AoS Chaos Army which lacks leaders...

I've built a lot of figures in advance of the Analogue Challenge so expect to see regular updates as the Challenges continue through this year.

My next unit is underway and fingers crossed it'll be done in time for the first Thursday in January which is my day for posting to the Analogue Challenge.

Wish me luck. I suspect I'm going to need it!!!

Vulpes Voice 1

Once Upon a Bi-Weekly Update

Well hello!

Silver Fox reporting for duty and from now on you'll see me on at least a bi-weekly basis. That at least is the plan. We'll see how it pans out!

This first post is very much a catch up on the last 3 months as I've been enjoying The Analogue Painting Challenge

Everything you see here has been painted since 20 December 2016. Proud of this lot as I haven't painted much in the last couple of years!

Age of Sigmar is the current flavour here in the Land of the Fox. Chaos is of course the chosen army and everything you see is part of my Cult of the Pentagram. This is my way of painting units from different factions and calling them an army to assuage my squirrel approach to distractions...

The Five Factions then are:
Skaven

Plague Monks

Packmaster

Giant Rats

I've always liked the rats but never liked Warhammer Fantasy enough as a game to paint a horde army. Age of Sigmar is a lovely simple game and is a breath of fresh air for me and fantasy. I'm really a sci-fi nut but am quite enjoying my stay in the fantasy world until 40K sorts itself out.

Daemons

Khorne Bloodletters

I already have a rather large Daemons army which started way back when this blog first came online. I'm therefore rather attached to it and it's going to be fun adding new units!

Obviously I started with a Khorne unit and the swords show some new techniques with regard washes and dry brushing. Really quite pleased with the results.

Beastmen

Gors

  

This is another faction/race that I've always liked so they are perfect for my Cult. The skin colour is again washes over a base paint and I was very pleased to not have to do highlights!

Khorne Bloodbound

Blood Warriors

Blood Reavers

 

Ah yes. Khorne. You knew these boys would be in here right? All the above come from the Age of Sigmar starter set and jolly nice models they are too.

Disciples of Tzeentch

Magister

 

Chaos Avengers Spawn

Iron Spawn

Wolverine

Hawkeye

Quicksilver

Hulk

Spider Spawn

Love the new Tzeentch models and many more will be coming to a blog near you soon. The Spawn above originally arrived at the Fox abode some 10 years ago when 40K Apocalypse first appeared and have finally seen paint!

And here's everything in handy group shots...

 

That's 105 models done. A huge number to do and once my two week hobby holiday is over I'll be straight back to it. Yes that's right I'm taking a short break to recharge the painting batteries after the intensity of the last week's of the challenge.

For the moment you'll either find me defending the Earth against robot dinosaurs (PS4) in Horizon Zero Dawn or trying to find humanity a new home (Xbox One) in Mass Effect Andromeda.

When I come back there are some Minotaurs demanding attention as it's the Beastmen's turn for some reinforcements!

See you in a couple of weeks.