The Coming Of The Night Trolls

Everyone knows I have a weakness for monsters of pretty much every kind - trolls in particular - so my monster radar when off the chart when I saw this Night Troll that's on the way from Privateer Press. Even more than before I'm dreaming of a troll army for WFB. If these are the new resin/plastic material and can therefore be posed, I might be tempted to make a unit of these gnarly critters to kick off my very own trollmageddon!  

The 'RazorMaw' (Beastmen Razorgor Substitute)

A break from all things genestealer today and a brief return to the depths of the forests of the Old World for the beginning of August. I call this fearsome beast the 'Razormaw' and I'll be using it as a Razorgor substitute with my beastie boys. The sharp eyed among you will recognise that this is a converted Dire Troll Blitzer from Hordes. I simply swapped the little goblin chap with his machine gun for a properly chaotic trophy rack. I based in blue and purple and have been building up flesh shades over the top - I'm really pleased with the effect this has produced and will have to find a place for this across a whole army at some point. I'm just started the process of characteristically stark white highlighting and more careful glazes and washes.

Were-Beasts And Other Cases Of Myxoma Corpus

Alright I admit it: I just made up 'myxoma corpus'. But no matter, it sounds pretty cool (even if myxoma is a form of tumour - yuck). This post is really just an excuse to show off another miniature that's jumped straight to the top of the WANT pile.

I love were-type-beasts and am interested in getting a few different half-human-half-something creatures to add to my bray herd. I'd say this Scarsell Griffon from Privateer Press fits the bill rather well. It's available in August according to Maelstrom Games.

Dire Troll Blitzer Kitbash And Stage One WIP

I find it hard to resist a cool looking model, wherever it comes from. That's why a few weeks ago I tumbled into the jaws of temptation while browsing in the brilliant Firestorm Games in Cardiff and picked up an old style Trollbloods Dire Troll Blitzer from the Hordes range. A bit of a kitbash later and this is where I've got to with it:

A couple of bits from the GW Daemon Prince kit have replaced the little goblin-thing with machine gun. I've also decided to use this rather ferocious chap to work on my techniques for painting blue on miniatures.

Shapeshifting And The Changing of The Ways

I believe it's widely held among stage magicians that the most shocking magic tricks involve turning one body into another, where a person undergoes a metamorphosis, becoming somebody else in full view of the audience. I'm thinking about this a lot today for no particular reason - so I started to collect some inspirational pictures of miniatures that are shapeshifting, either temporarily or permanently, through magic, possession, or grotesque genetic modification. Who knows what projects will spawn from this? All hail the Great Conspirator and the Architect of Fate... 

Hordes Incubi

Forge World Skin Wolf

An alternative Greater Daemon (Image from here)

The future of genetic modification

I would've made the feet smaller, personally

'Misdirection' about drybrushing

Over the weekend I worked with Diddy on the colour scheme for his nurgle chaos warriors. He bought the 'Cryx Colors' set of P3 paints from Privateer Press on my recommendation and because they were a very good deal for a small set that matched the scheme he's looking to achieve (they were about £12 for six colours). As I've said before, I've always been impressed with the P3 range, and these colours were no exception.

While we were thinking about the best approach to tackle the fur on the warriors' cloaks, we had a quick look in the old Storm of Chaos book and on the GW website to see what they recommended. In both places drybrushing highlights was suggested. However, as the following picture from SoC shows, the models that they use to illustrate this advice haven't actually been drybrushed:

Take a close look. I'd argue that the 'v' effect on the fur has not been achieved through drybrushing and that actually a careful application of successively lighter shades of brown has been used. Now, here's my problem with this. Although drybrushing is a legitimate time saving technique that can achieve a reasonable finish for tabletop miniatures, this (as far as I can tell) isn't what's represented in the picture, where a different and more time-demanding technique has been used.

Although I could be wrong about this [he says, inserting a caveat in case GW's lawyers see this and feel particularly litigious!], I would've thought that the professional GW painters would never use drybrushing. In fact, there seems to be a very distinct move towards bold and stark highlights that can't ever be achieved through this technique - take a look at the promotional shots of the new ogres for some clear examples on larger models.

I've got the healthy dose of scepticism of a man approaching middle age, so I'm able to see the discrepancy here. Also, although I'm returning to painting after a break of almost 20 years, I do have some previous experience - younger painters might not, and it's they who are most likely to fork out for White Dwarf and follow the advice they find there and on the GW website. Big deal? Maybe not. But I find this kind of subtle misdirection annoying, especially when it's most likely to influence and impact upon those younger gamers who can only afford a very limited number of models. 

Painting yellow often left me feeling blue, until now...

It's taken me a while, but I've found an excellent and speedy way to achieve a very pleasing yellow. Here's an example from one of the waiting-to-be-started-painting-jobs:

This sea elf pistolier is a conversion from the Island of Blood set (purchased from eBay). I cut back the original arms and added the spare arms from the outriders/pistoliers sprues after making outriders from that set. For the yellow here I've base coated in Army Painter Matt White, then used the Formula P3 Yellow Ink (pictured) from Privateer Press, with an Orgyn flesh wash in the recesses. This is the first time I've used one of the P3 range and I'm incredibly impressed - the pigment is strong, it's easy to apply and the coverage is smooth. I'll be trying some more of their range over the coming months, along with some of the other Army Painter primers, when I get started on my long-desired Vampire Counts army.

Painting human flesh

It's difficult to get flesh to look right, but I think I've found a good approach. I used to start with Citadel Tallarn Flesh on a white or black undercoat. However, while this provided good coverage, I found that the pigment of the Tallarn Flesh was a little heavy - probably because it's from Citadel's Foundation range. I still use it on my ogres, but for humans I now do the following: base coat Army Painter Matt White, then a thinned coat of Privateer Press Ryan Flesh, covered in a liberal wash of Citadel Ogryn Flesh. It looks a little like this:

This is very good for a quick first stage and it gets a reasonable contrast between the highlighted and shaded areas on the face and hands. Once the clothing is done, I'll return to do another wash in the deepest areas, then several layers of highlighting with the Ryan Flesh mixed with Skull White.