first deadzone figure finished - marauder commando

This guy is from the "Marauder Extra 1" bag and is the only piece it contains. I think somehow I ended up with an extra of these guys, though it's hard to tell. I have another commando pose with most of the basecoats done and that should be my next completed deadzone fig. I chose a very "GW 40K Blood Axe Ork" scheme using grey's and a bit of camo. The battle gear these guys have along with all the packs and pouches reminded me very much of the blood axes.

base? what base?

Tested out a couple "tricks" on this figure. One is the manner in which I highlighted his flesh. Everyone knows yellow is a hard colour to get good coverage with, so for a test I tried highlighting his flesh with yellow straight from the pot (it was a P3 yellow, but quite bright) meaning a thin coat did a great job of lightening the goblin green colour and it was much quicker than having to mix a highlight tone. It may be hard to tell from these photos but I was very happy with the result. If anyone cares I can try to take some in progress pics.

on table

on scenery

Trick number two was attempting to use a dip/stain to handle shading.  I mixed up a tiny bit of wood stain with a bunch of water in a paint pot and tried applying it with a piece of foam. It ended up being way to dark and I'm not sure why.  I used the same stain as on my Pit Slaves and just dabbed it on. Perhaps the base colours just don't work as well or maybe I just did not use enough water in the mix. I will have to check out the army painter dips at some point but I managed to clean most of it off with water and a toothbrush. There are bits left which actually just look like dirt & grime so I will probably use a touch of it on every fig in opportune places.

on table

on scenery

The final trick is obviously the clear acrylic base from litko bases (picked up on boxing day sale from the FLGS meeplemart's online shop) It's an interesting concept to avoid the need to paint any bases and pretty much just match whatever scenery you are playing on. At first I was very "gung-ho" to put all the deadzone figures on these bases - but I think I may backtrack from that a bit. While cool when on the scenery it does detract a bit from the figure when just on the table. The plague faction will definitely get them since they have scenery bits as part of the figures and I intend to paint them the same as my terrain. Having second thoughts for the enforcer and rebs factions though. Might use them for a necromunda gang in the future and definitely will be using them for a blood bowl team. Hope everyone likes the "edited & effects" photo at the top of the post - I used some control points in google+ image editor to fade out the base as much as possible, then used some visual effects similar to the space hulk photos I posted earlier this year. It's a bit obvious from the fading but I thought it was fun.

Week 37: Tristan - Necromunda... Pit Slaves!

I've practically finished up my necromunda pit slave gang.  Gave them a light dip and left to dry.  Then I did the bases by gluing some techy bits down, painting them and adding a mixture of various sand/rock flock - the rest of the base was painting black. A spray of dullcote followed by a few touch ups to cover up some dipping accidents (some blood on a few arms and the barrels of guns) leaves just a thin layer of mud to finish up the base.  I left the mud until last because I'd like it to keep a bit of a gloss (impossible with dullcote)

I can't wait to get a game in with these guys.  I'm currently sealing my recently reacquired escher gang, so I hope to get some nice pictures from the next couple battles using completely painting gangs. I'm planning on using Anthony Cases updated rules.  I'm already collecting bits to make some more arms.  Since I've actually glued armour bits onto all of the plastic models, I'll probably use something like skill rings to represent actual armour plates in game terms.  

 For the amount of effort I put into these minis, they look great.  Dip + Dullcote = Win.  I got excited, built all the models, painted on a base coat, dipped and then some basing and touch ups.  I'm really happy with the "piece of crap" tone they have, obviously being cobbled together from spare junk.

Finally - I will also have no problem playing these guys as servitors in my Space Marine armies.  I've tried to make the bases very busy so they will kinda blend in with whichever marines I'm using.  Also why I've kept the rims black.  They should be right at home with my marines - guess I should get that thunderfire cannon built!

Undead Blood Bowl team.. 100% complete

I picked up a can of testors dullcote, and it's done an amazing job giving me a matt finish. 1 coat dulled the gloss down from the dip I used on the Torne Bane Flaming Ears completely. I painted numbers on front and back of base before sealing them. This is also the first pic of my Hack 'En Slash - gave him the number 1.