Star Wars Legion ATST

At last I have a finished model to show you all. The speed at which I paint and never finish anything has become a standard joke in these parts, so I feel super accomplished that I finished something – even moreso that it's this monster of a model.

Standing at 190mm (19.5") on a 100mm base, the Imperial AT-ST for Star Wars Legion is a beast. I was given it as a Christmas present by Bull, after our Legion exploits at Awdry Towers earlier that month, and it sat languishing in a box (as most of my models do alas) for several months. Something inspired me to dig it out a few weeks back and I became addicted to painting it, and also my wider Imperial snow-based army.

I glued it together and pinned it to the base, adding several 2p coins to ensure it didn't fall over! It got a basecoat of GW Mechanicus Standard Grey from a can, then I airbrushed some loose highlights with P3 Cryx Bane Highlight. I gave it a liberal wash of GW Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade. I then used more of the Bane Highlight with a sponge this time, experimenting as I went.

I lost track at this point of how the colour scheme evolved, although I remember applying GW Celestra Grey to the edges, and liberal amounts of GW Typhus Corrosion for the rust.

Whilst all this was ongoing, I came across talk of the 501st Legion from as far back as the Clone Wars (following Anakin Skywalker) through to being Imperial Troops (following Darth Vader). I loved the idea of this as a basis for my army so decided to add some markings to the AT-ST hull.

The black stripe down the front was easy enough – masking off the area and using a sponge to apply paint, touching up with a brush – the side markings were a little more tricky as it involved an Imperial symbol. My freehand painting is pretty rough these days, and I was not happy with the result (and didn't want to wait for a mail-order decal), so used the sponge to fade it back to obscurity. I like to think that they are always in some battle or other and things are getting worn out!

Once I got into the detail I got really addicted. More and more highlights and washes, till things were getting out of hand. I decided to call it a day and finish it all off.

My army is to be based on an ice planet (so I can build my Hoth table) so some resin rocks and liberal amount of snow was the order of the day for basing. I added patches of snow elsewhere on the vehicle, even going so far as adding icicles with Woodland Scenics Water Effects.

This one is now officially ticked off as complete. With so much else to paint I'm spoiled for choice, but this model has inspired me to crash on and paint an army and gaming table that would make Mr Awdry proud!

Crimson Fists Kill Team – Part 2

So as we head into the end of March, I thought I would sneak in an update on the Crimson Fists' progress.

I had raced ahead with my Comms marine, even getting so far as to test some red and black out the blue overspill. This did however leave the rest of the team lagging far behind. I got the bulk of them up to a basic blue coat, but it took a while for the Veteran Sergeant (with all his greenstuff additions) to catch up.

Last night I put in a shift to make sure they were all finished with the blue, with final highlights (I may got back with a touch of white at the end) and ready to see red! With the grinding bit over I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some details to bring their characters to life. Alas, with Easter fast approaching, my wife has decided that now is the time to tackle the redecorating of the living room – the second largest room in the house, and the one we've been putting off since we moved in five years ago.

With that in mind I expect progress to be slow, but I hit my self-induced deadline of the end of the month for the armour to be complete. OMG, I may actually painting some models here people – I may actually be able to tick something off the Hobby Bingo list (soon)!

Painting my Crimson Fists – Blue Armour

After the success of my terrain sponge painting, I pondered the prospect of using the same technique for painting space marine armour. The 7 members of my Crimson Fists Kill Team were the perfect opportunity to give it a try!

I picked out two extremes from my team – my Comms Intercessor and one of my Scouts. This should give me an idea of whether the sponge technique will work for models or not.

Step 1

As always, a spray undercoat was the first order of business. In this instance I chose Chaos Black as I wanted a dark feel to the armour.

Step 2

A solid base coat of Kantor Blue, applied as several thinner layers, came next. This should give me a sound starting point for my experiment.

Step 3

Next came a liberal coating in Drakenhof Nightshade – my new favourite wash! It gave the blue armour a boost in saturation as well as darkening the whole model and settling in the recesses.

Step 4

Now, this was the fun bit. Unlike my previous sponge experiments, I used a very small piece of sponge (which pretty much meant it went all over my fingers!). I started off by putting the smallest amount of raw Kantor Blue onto the palette and dabbing it around with my sponge. I then dabbed a large proportion onto a wipe, so the application on the model would be subtle. I then slowly build up the layers of Kantor Blue until I had a nice balance. I then mixed in some Alaitoc Blue in with the colour still on my palette and continued the process. Finally I used pure Alaitoc Blue in some key areas.

What I find interesting is that the sponge physically won't fit into spaces that would naturally be in shadow, so it's pretty hard to go wrong. The only mistake I made initially was too much paint on the sponge and it swamped the model. The effects look a little bit like dry brushing in these close-up photos, but from the tabletop it looks quite smooth.

Step 5

Finally I added some edge highlights with a fine brush. I started with Alaitoc Blue and moved on to Lothern Blue. I may go back a do a couple of tiny off-white highlights. I was also considering pushing the highlights back a bit with another wash before re-applying Lothern Blue to the most prominent edges. We will see. 

Again, the colours seem rather extreme close-up, but it looks quite smart on the table. My problem in the past has always been that I'm too subtle with the highlights – they look great up close but non-existent on the tabletop.

And that is it for the armour.

The whole process took about 15 minutes for these two models (excluding drying time for the wash). I just need to rinse and repeat for the other five members of the team and I can move onto some red, or rather crimson, fists!

Painting my Kill Team Terrain… with a Sponge!

Having acquired a rather large amount of GW's Sector Mechanicus terrain for my new Kill Team board, I had to face the task I normally fail at – painting it all!

I no longer have access to my airbrush, so I needed to find a quick way to get some colours down that would also satisfy my nitpicking attitude towards details and 'looking cool'. I decided to go down the route of the sponge technique I'd used on my board.

I spray undercoated everything with Leadbelcher (what an awesome spray can that is!). Immediately things looked better. I then painted the area I wanted to colour up un Rhinox Brown. A couple of thin coats later we were ready to rock and roll.

I started by mixing Rhinox Brown and Mephiston Red on my palette and began sponging the colour on, subtly at first but then I got bolder. I added more Mephiston Red and let the sponge do the mixing. The colour was beginning to focus around the central part of each segment, leaving wonderful dark shadows at the edges.

I gave the red areas a wash of Baal Red (now sadly no longer available) then, once thoroughly dry, applied more Mephiston Red, moving up gradually to Evil Sunz Scarlet and even a little Wild Rider Red.

I retired the sponges and tried out some edging colours with a fine brush, going through my cycle of reds, and things were starting to look good. However it was not dark or dirty enough.

Next I touched up the Leadbelcher where the sponge had contaminated the metal with red, and washed the metal areas in Nuln Oil then, once dry, the whole thing in Agrax Earthshade, concentrating on the recesses and clearing the glaze away from the central highlight areas almost completely. Understandably I had to leave it 24hrs to dry!

I was very happy now, but felt I needed to highlight the individual plates within each segment. Again, I cycled through my reds, but pushed on to a Fire Dragon Bright and even touches of a flesh tone (don't recall white one – Kislev?). I finished with some Agrax Earthshade in the recesses between the plates to add contrast to the highlights.

I'm calling these red sections done, except for maybe a huge stencilled number and sone distressing at a later date. The plan is to approach the metal parts in a similar fashion, getting the overall highlights to a mid-tone then some edge highlights quite bright.

I'm just happy that I'm close to my first piece of painted terrain in almost 15 years!!

How I Paint Stormtroopers

After last months game of Star Wars Legion, and the fact that my Stormtroopers looked rather pitiful, I decided to do a test model to see how I could effectively paint them. Stormtroopers should be very easy to paint but somehow have proved challenging, both for Imperial Assault and now Legion.

(Apologies for the shocking colour balance on the photos!)

Originally this leader model had been spray undercoated (poorly) with GW Corax White, which is actually more of an off-white. I found a similar paint pot and gave the model a good undercoat of Celestra Grey.

Then I got started on the White. Relatively thin consistency was applied to all the armour plates, leaving shadows and joints untouched. This continued for several layers, repainting over the armour, concentrating more and more on the highlighted areas to get a (sort of) gradual effect. I went back with a thicker white to the purest highlights to make sure it was a pure white.

Then came the tricky bit – painting all the black elements of the under armour, vents, etc. These we highlighted with sparing amounts of Mechanics Standard Grey then a tiny bit of Administratum Grey. Once dry it was washed back with some thinned Nuln Oil, which was also used on some of the deeper recesses in the armour.

The red shoulder pad was base coated in Khorne Red and highlighted with Mephiston Red.

Content that this was complete. I covered the base in Astrogranite Debris, highlighting with Dawnstone and Administratum Grey. I then daubed a mix of snow flock and PVA to a large proportion of the base (my Hoth theme) and left it for 24hrs to dry.

To finish, I gave the whole model a matt spray varnish then went back in and brushed on gloss varnish to the armour plates.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how he came out, although it took an age – an hour or so per evening over a large part of the working week. Not sure how practical that is for the remaining three squads, but I'm prepared to put more effort into the leaders, so I'll continue with those first.

Hobby Update: Space Marines and Darth Vader

The blog may have sat idle for a month but hobby things have actually been good overall during September and into October.

Whilst it's been nearly 2 months since my last game of 40k I made the decision mid-September to get as much purple paint on my Dark Templar Primaris marines as I could. Inevitably this has faltered a little since the arrival of Imperial Assault, but I did manage to get my 7-man Intercessor unit complete but for detailing (above). I'm very pleased with the way I stuck at it through the tedious process of painting space marine armour.

The belle of the ball, however, has been Imperial Assault. It became something of an addiction over the last month, finding new purchases arriving almost every day. We had a demo day at the end of September as part of my annual birthday gaming day, playing the Skirmish version exclusively. I had done my research, mostly watching YouTube videos of others playing the game, but it gave me a good idea of how the game played and even useful tactics and team construction.

With something so Star Wars orientated, containing such great character models, I had to start painting them. Of course it was the Imperials who found their way to the front of the paint queue first and I've had some fun painting models from the core box.

Gaming-wise I've had a total of 4 games now, against 2 different opponents, and the honours are even. My opening game saw a close match against Mr Awdry's Rebels – it came down to the wire and ended when Luke shot Darth Vader in the back (several times) in a very cowardly fashion. Game two saw a tweaked Imperial list face off against Mr Awdy's Scum bounty hunters. Another close game with Vader managing to carry the victory home. My third game on birthday game day saw a first game for Fugs who dropped by to see what the fuss was about. Vader again managed to dominate (and hang on to his last few wounds) for a solid victory.

Fugs bounced back this week however with a keenly fought game. My non-Vader Imperial list had fought back from a poor start and the game went down to the wire. Kayn Somos and an Imperial Guard trying to finish off Luke and Gideon Argus. With Argus hiding well away from the fight Fugs pulled off a genius move, playing the Son of Skywalker card at the perfect time, giving Luke 3 consecutive activations without the chance of a response. My Imperial boys couldn't weather that volume of shooting and Fugs got his revenge.

It's a brutal game, and it didn't take long for us to get into a flow. There are a lot of special rules, but a fraction of those in 40k or Malifaux, so a couple of games in and we're flying. Next we want to look at the Campaign version of the game, though that looks a might more complicated.

I've had a week's break from hobby things now, so looking to jump back in. Looking forward in particular to painting more of my Dark Templar Primaris marines, and maybe even some of my Nurgle!!

Stay tuned.

A 40k Project 10 Years In The Making…

A long time ago, when I first decided to reinvent my Dark Templar marines as Mk6 clad astartes, I decided I needed to make my vehicles a little more bespoke. I had already bodged my version of 'extra armour' by removing some of the hatches and replacing them with reinforced strips plasticard. This worked fine in the early tournament days but I wanted to take things to the next level to something more elaborate.

I cracked out the plasticard again and, using a razorback as a test piece, started my epic project. After sorting the extra armour and new hatches I also incorporated the top plate from one of the new Razorback models. This would give me access to a wider range of weaponry that didn't fit the metal Whirlwind top plates I had been using.

After completing the first vehicle, however, my enthusiasm waned and the project stalled, the models falling into the category of 'projects that were too big to be realistic for me to complete'. Over the next couple of years I dipped back in and things moved a little further forward, but the project was never going to see completion any time soon (an oh too familiar hobby occurrence in this household unfortunately).

After many years of sitting idle, my 40k miniatures are seeing the light of day again thanks to 8th Edition. No games being played as yet, but I am finding a desire to go through the old storage boxes and see what's there. With my decision to look once more at my Dark Templar space marine project, it was inevitable that these vehicles were dusted off for inspection.

For the first time, these Razorbacks and Rhinos are starting to see some paint, the first three undercoated earlier this week after a few minor repairs and tweaks. If I can take things to the point that at least one of them has a completed paint job, before going back into storage, I will be very happy that things have progressed. If they actually get to see some game time, well, I'll just be over the moon!

40k: Return Of The Dark Templar

Some of you may remember my original Dark Templar marines from seven years ago. They were a test to see if the theory of creating a Mk6 space marine army was viable. They were quite a success, but the project as a whole has not progressed much since. I have collected a lot of Mk6 bitz and have even prepped some for mold making – it would be prohibitively expensive to try such a project by buying everything, so some resin duplication will be necessary.

With the release of 8th Edition 40k my enthusiasm has been buoyed but a project of such magnitude  is daunting and not what I want to take on right now. My Plague Marines are on hold until we see some new kits and a codex, but what to do in the mean time? I decided that the best course of action was to revisit my old Mk7 Dark Templar marines and simply paint them up in the new purple and black colour scheme. That should be simple right? Er, no.

The purple paint I used for my original DT marines was Lich Purple, which has since been removed from the Citadel range. In the years since I have been collecting pots of Xereus Purple, which was it's natural successor. Only when I started to paint and ink my old marines this week did I realise that the results were not the same. The purple colour on the models had lost its life and vibrancy.

Upon closer inspection, nothing in the Citadel line would get close to what I wanted. Indeed I was struggling to find a match throughout other manufacturers' paint products too. It was made more difficult by the fact that colour accuracy online is not great – this would involve some purchases.

I bought a handful of purple paint, spanning multiple ranges, to try and find a match. It came down to a choice of three. Sunset Purple by Scale 75, plus Royal Purple and Violet by Vallejo Model Color. Upon closer inspection, the Violet was too blue and the Sunset Purple too red. The Royal Purple on the other hand was a virtual match. I had found my replacement colour purple!!

So, eventually, I got to put some paint on miniatures. I also discovered that I can recreate my old space marine tournament army from 2000 with the new Imperial index, so that seems like a good starting point – no more purchases necessary, just re-using old models!

Miniature Painting & Monty Python

It seems I have found my hobby haven in Zombicide: Black Plague at the moment. Our regular Tuesday Night Gaming has kept enthusiasm levels high thanks to Bull's random character approach, and we're working our way through all the characters we have.

Needless to say, despite a new Kickstart campaign on the doorstep, I have been on Ebay tracking down some of the models I wished I'd bought first time around.

One of the bonuses to the renewed hobby enthusiasm is that I've returned to the painting table after an 18 month hiatus. Inspired by the rate that Bull was painting his BP characters, and playing characters I'd dismissed as a waste of time, I now have a painting list that grows daily. Thing is, I'm really enjoying the painting!

Nothing pushes your painting than a deadline set in stone. I found tournaments great for this back in the 40k days, but this time we had arranged a BP game day at Awdry Towers for the Easter Saturday and time was flying by. I sat up till past midnight to get models finished in time.

On the day we decided to make it a Monty Python outing, and used Michael's non-Zombicide models that he had lovingly painted up some time ago to an exquisite level.

We managed to get a couple of games in – although it was actually the same game twice, as we died horribly first time around… how very Monty Python-esque!

Despite the quest only requiring one character to get to red level then exit the board, we toiled for hours to reach our goal. As the characters headed through the orange level of experience points, things started to hot up. At one point we had FOUR abominations on the board at the same time!

In the end we cruised, carefully and steadily, through to our goal – no rash decisions or over the top heroics (though I had to be reined in on a couple of occasions).

Fantastic game – my thanks to Mr Awdry for being a fantastic host as always, and to Bull for providing the leadership we needed to survive (second time around!).

More painting soon!

Black Plague Escalation

A new month dawns, and I thought I'd wait till I was well passed April Fool's Day before posting this latest bit of news – I've actually painted a model, and finished it!

That's right folks, it's been a good 18 months since I finished painting Ox for Guildball, which was my last completed model. This time my attention has been focused on Zombicide Black Plague. After three consecutive weeks of Tuesday Gaming Night (albeit they were mostly on a Wednesday), enthusiasm for the fantasy board game has hit new heights.

What has injected the new enthusiasm is using EVERYTHING from the Kickstarter rewards. All the monsters, all the cards, the lot. We've been working our way through the scenarios using a team that is picked entirely at random. What this has meant is that the usual suspects don't always get a look in, and you're forced to use models and skills you've never looked at before. There are at least two models that I had dismissed when creating my dream team last year, but was dealt in games this last month – and they proved to be pretty awesome.

Anyway, back to the painting. I got a few hours on Saturday morning to myself and decided to use the time to crack out the paints again. After watching Bull steadily paint the models we've used over the weeks (or the high performing ones at least!) I was inspired to start painting some of my own.

I plucked four out of the collection – Falstaff, Mizar, Morrigan and Grim – and began laying down the colour. It didn't take long for Falstaff to become the favourite for an early complete, so I concentrated on him.

Happy to say he is now complete. Very enthusiastic about the painting right now, so need to keep the momentum up. Morrigan probably the next in line so stay tuned.

Now, just need to get Falstaff in a game now.

More Painting

Another week's worth of illness comes to a close – this time tonsilitis – and I used a little time (now that I am coherent) to paint.

Ox got some more attention and is finished, aside from retouching on his base and some static grass. Taking the lead from Bull's Masons, I went a non-metallic route with the weapons. It's far more time consuming but looks a lot classier on the finished model. I did this with my Malifaux models way back and they're still some of my favourites in the huge collection of miniatures I have.

I also got to start on Brisket, but that wasn't going as well so I stopped and walked away.

We potentially have our first game of Guild Ball booked for New Year's Eve, so the clock is ticking and there's models to be painted.

Stay tuned folks.

Painting Eyes

Bit of fun today as I map out how I go about painting eyes.

To make things easier to follow I've quickly drawn up a set of "Mr Potato Head" diagrams, rather than spend hours painting up a model that's not always easy to see.

STEP 1.
To start with I'll paint the flesh basecoat colour over the model's face. I usually start with Burnt Umber.

STEP 2.
Next I will paint black all around the eye sockets. I don't worry about being too tidy at this stage.

STEP 3.
Once the black is completely dry I paint a horizontal white line, making sure it encompasses the whole of the eye.

STEP 4.
Again, making sure the white is completely dry I paint a vertical black line. I make sure that the line is in the same position on both eyes – wouldn't want the model to look cross-eyed!


Now comes the tidy up stages…

STEP 5.
I go back in with the black and define the eye shape by getting rid of excess white.

STEP 6.
I then do the same thing with the flesh base colour over the black, leaving a little bit of black around the eye to help define it and help it stand out.



And that's it. It's not dainty but it's always worked well historically for me (even more so with my failing eyesight, lol).

Let me know how you paint eyes – see if it's a technique I prefer ;)