You won't see these any more...

Here's something old timey!  Many moons ago, GW used to sell booster packs that had 8 miniatures inside.

There was a Space Marine set, an Undead/Vampire set, and 'Adventurers Set' that had mages and fighters... even a Chaos and a Skaven pack.

I believe this is the last of the Wizards that I have.  The Chaos set has been used to fill out Blood Bowl teams.

These were interesting to paint.  At the time, they were very unique compared to what was being offered.  The vast majority of all GW minis were metal when these came out, so they were even more unique.  The plastic made it easier to convert!

If I can find the pictures of the other members of these sets, I will try to gather them into one post for you :-)

He is also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321380015834?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

A bit of dust... in conclusion.

Ok!  Here are some images of the weathered Secret Weapon bases.

I used the Secret Weapon weathering powders to add some effects.  Nothing fancy, just down & dirty.

You can mix the pigments together, so I put a few out on the palette.  For this batch, I used them completely dry, forgoing the usual addition of the fixer and rubbing alcohol.

Finished!  A little reinforcement of the edges and some of the freehand.

I will probably add more things to these... such as the shell casings!!

Obviously, it will be very easy to base any kind of miniature on these... no issues with the 'footprints'!

Again, I could have gone way fancier, but went for simple.

Now for the other set.

Just like the Flight Deck series, the Deck Plating comes in a pack of ten unique bases.

Very fun!

Can't wait to have shell casings and miniatures on these!!!

A monster post for a monstrous unit!

OK folks, normally I break up a mass of images such as this into a few posts, but I have a ton of things going on all at once right now, and I figured I would simply carpet bomb your retinas with all the pics at once!

Here is the culmination of all the work on the Averland Swordmasters.

I recall the nickname of "Goldswords" being applied to these guys early on, so painting the yellow and black was a fun tease for me :-)

I really loved how they all meshed together, despite all of the challenges.

As I mentioned several times over the course of the project, there was even more sky earth non metallic than any other unit I have painted until this point.  Simplicity was the key.

I am pretty sure that I used no more than six unique colors to paint any of these guys.  Even the colors used on the bases and movement tray found their way onto the figures.

This also kept the flesh tones nice and muted, mixing in many of the colors used on the metals.

The really was a tremendous project.  I always learn new things with every figure that I paint, and it was certainly no different here.

I hope that you all enjoyed seeing the individual minis as they were painted one by one.  They were done assembly line style.  Lots of shaded basecoat in the beginning, and lots of glazing.

It is funny to think how much of these guys were painted with big filbert brushes and #8 round craft brushes that cost about 50 cents each!

I can't get enough of these unit shots!  Man.

It was neat to see them in smaller batches, but this really hits me with the realization of what went into completing this.

Now for a few closer shots.

I am taking some pictures of the command figures together as well for you!

Stop pushing me around

With the figures painted and based and everything else... it was time to make a movement tray!

This would be done in the usual method, starting out with a sheet of mat board covered in refrigerator magnets.  Ranking up and positioning the figures was the typical challenge, attempting to make them look interesting but not hit each other in the face with the stupid swords!

I had a few sheets of baked sculpey, which were cut into strips.  This would lock the figures in place in addition to the magnets.

I started to position the strips around the unit, making sure that it did not get too snug.  I have actually trapped minis inside a tray once of twice. :-)

Now for the side strips.  You have to be careful here to keep things at a 90 degree angle.  Things can get a little out of whack if you are pushing on the line of bases too much...

All four sides are in!

The excess is cut away, and texture is added to the sculpey.  I carved some lines and cracks that lined up with the bases around the edge as much as possible.

I also added some of the foliage and broken pillars that appeared on the bases.  I concentrated on the corners, so that it would not interfere with the figures.  Also, I could cover up the joints in this way.

Using the same colors as I did on the bases, the tray is painted to match...

You can see that it really starts to emerge now.  This called for a little more variety in the colors, since much more of the surface is exposed (no figures standing on it!).

Shading is added, and the cracks between the stones are more defined.

I am taking pictures of the completed unit now!

Let's run it up the flagpole...

No unit is complete without some poor guy who's toting a flag around (aka: arrow magnet).

I did a relatively simple Averland banner here, since all the rest of the force is in Altdorf color scheme.  Hence the KF in the shield.  Of course, every time I did that emblem over the course of the entire Empire army.  I have been tempted to make that "KFC".

Just like I did with a few of the 40 Imperial Fist banners, the back had a little design as well.  It just makes it look more interesting!

Positioning this flag was interesting.  The margin for error was a fraction of an inch in multiple locations.  It was either going to hit him in the head, or either of the guys next to him.  These bases were pretty complex, and I was not always able to place them where I wanted.

I even had to shave away some of the decorative elements here and there to make room for the stance.

Next up, a few quick images of the movement tray being made!  Stay tuned.

Play me a tune

The last figures I painted for the unit were the command minis.  Let's get to the Music Man himself... the Pied Piper of Averland.  Is it Chet Baker?

Of course, just as doing the SE-NMM becomes such a routine part of daily life... it is time to set all that aside.  Well, at least chrome.  The Sisters project has a gold/brass version of that technique, which has a whole different set of parameters!

Again, I must emphasize that I probably never used the same jars of paint on any two or three guys.  Kept it simple... sky blue, and off white, and some sort of brown color.

Keeping the essential colors so simple makes your life a lot easier when you are doing a mass project like this chock full of shiny metal!!!

Closer and closer...

Well, the command staff is painted (posts coming over the weekend) and all that remains is to paint the movement tray that I made today.  Then there will be some really fun pictures!!

One last parting shot, as I deal with a squiggly sword.

No more of these!  Yea!  Fortunately, getting everybody to rank up was not quite as hard as I anticipated.