Painting Update

The clocks going forward has brought lighter evenings, and greatly expanded my painting window. I can now spend an hour winding down from work painting, rather than sitting in front of the computer!

Recent completions have been my Menoth Choir, and my test Shredders.

The Choir is looking good, despite 2 of the models being finished a while ago and the others half painted up till now. Unlike some of my other miniatures I’ve half started, I actually managed to maintain a similar process. They look good together, and I imagine I would be to only one to tell which ones where which. 

 

Shredders are done; I talked about them in a previous post so instead of repeating myself I’ll just post pictures.

Thanks to the wonders of Simple Green, I have my Beast Handlers stripped of their old paint, ready to start again. I’ve also got my Master Tormentor on the table, and about 60% done. I’ve managed to reproduce the look of the existing miniatures quite well, so hopefully the new ones won’t stand out too bad. Let this be a lesson for me; don’t leave things half way done! 

Last weekend, Games Workshop unveiled their new line of paints with much fanfare and propaganda. Hailing them as the next thing in paints, that will revolutionise the way we paint miniatures, GW once again misses the mark with their advertising. While a couple of the new lines introduced look interesting, the advertising feels like Finecast all over again. 

Looking just at what the product is, there may be something good in amongst all the propaganda. The line of paints has nearly doubled as they have introduced an increased number of shades into the line. They’ve also split the paints into a number of different categories, Base, Layer, Shade, Glaze and Dry. The idea is, and supported by a painting guide on their website, you simply buy a set of paints, apply them one at a time, and you have your miniature painted. 

While the idea of not mixing your own paints might not appeal to experienced painters, for those just getting started it’s a simplification that may see them produce better results, and have them gain more confidence.

Without testing the paints, I can’t really comment on how this system works. I haven’t bought GW paint in years, but I’ve been told that their Foundation paints and inks were quite good. I may pick up a few and give it a try, but I can’t see myself switching over. For a start, they are still more expensive than the likes of P3, and their bottle design hasn’t improved. They’ve also created all new colours, getting rid of the previous colours. While there is a conversion chart, GW doesn’t guarantee they will match, so people (like me) may find themselves with mismatched armies. However the Dry paint idea, specially formulated to dry brush well, looks interesting so I’ll give one of them a try.

Warmachine/Hordes Armies - Update

Over a month since I started my 15pt army challenge, and I'm well under way.

I don't get a lot of time to paint, especially due to the dark evenings, so some people may be surprised how much is still to do. However, I'm happy to be making progress!

I've also got a date for another Warmahordes Weekend, being the May Day Bank Holiday, so I have a deadline to at least get one force finished!

So, what have I done. Well I have 2 Shredder's almost finished in their new colour scheme. Its come out ok, but the challenge will be to get it onto the Carnivean. I've gone for quite dark armour plates, with the flesh tone very similar to the Warmonger's I did a while ago. I've also nearly finished the last Warmonger from my minimum unit, and have Llyth in the final stages of completion. Actually, if I can get Thragosh and the Carnivean painted, then that's a force complete.


On the Skorne front, my Beast Handlers are currently being stripped of their old paint to get a brand new one. I'm hoping I can match the one remaining that I felt worth saving. I've also ordered a Cyclops Brute as I've heard they are worth it, rather than field 2 Savages. Hopefully it'll arrive soon, but I'm not adversed to the twin Savage list. I've also got my Master Tormenter ready for undercoating.

I haven't gotten much further with the Menoth force. Harbinger is currently still defeating me, so has been boxed in frustration. I have, however, started finishing off my Choir. These are another unit I started a while back but had only finished 2 of the 6. Unlike other units, these I feel I can actually finish off in a similar way, so no need to strip them. They are now about 80% complete, with some highlights and shading to finish off.

As for my Cryx, well the bulk of the army is the 6 man strong Bane Thrall unit, which is currently pieced together and waiting for the last clean up before undercoating. I've got to get round to ordering the missing parts to my Cankerwurm, but otherwise I'm sitting pretty good.

Retribution Test Mini

On top of all this, I'm also helping my brother sort out his Retribution force. Despite being keen to paint, he's let down by health problems, so I've been experimenting with Quick Shade to try and create an effect, but simple colour scheme. His force is mainly made up of Mage Hunter's, so mainly greens and leather which work well with the Quick Shade. Rather than white armour, I tried out a bone colour, which I think worked quite well.

The mini I used to test on is an old Confrontation miniature I had in my box. However it had a nice amount of cloth and armour to experiment on. All I did was apply the base colour, use a brush to apply the Quick Shade and then once dried used the base colour to effectively add highlights.

I think it came out well, and I'm much more impressed with Quick Shade than I was before. I bought it originally to do my Skaven army with, but after seeing the effect a friend managed on his Celestine, I thought I'd give it a bash. While I'm not going to be doing everything with it, it certainly has its uses and can great a great effect easily.