Test Mini: Harlequin Skyweaver

My first Skyweaver has come along enough to be photographed... Technically this is a WIP because I still need to do some work on it but it was worthy of being snapped for a blog post. I am not that happy with the two riders which could have ended up looking a bit nicer, but overall I am happy with this as a test piece. I have three more to do it this batch, and the next one will be reversed so that the main chassis is red and the detailing is green.

Harlequin Troupe: Complete

After the two test minis which I've done over the last couple of weeks, I've completed my first Harlequin Troupe... Actually this will probably end up being half a troupe, because I will most likely run them in 12s. There was more that I could have done on these, but overall I was happy with the look of the unit as a whole and it was time to move on.

I am now working on another test mini, this time a Skyweaver from what will eventually be a unit of four. After that it will be time to tackle some of the single minis from this release... I am particularly looking forward to doing the Shadowseer.

Harlequin Test Mini No.2

Just a quick post this week. I've completed my second Harlequin test mini so I thought I'd post a few pictures. I am not entirely pleased with this mini, but I am still road-testing the paint scheme so that's to be expected. I really enjoyed doing the checks and this is definitely my favourite thing about doing Harlequins.

My first troupe is well on its way to being finished, and the whole squad will be my next blog post. I'll also post a final picture of the Troupe Leader who is having a bit more work before going into a painting competition in our local GW. I prefer to blog on a variety of models, but I am afraid that for a while its going to be Harlequins, Harlequins and more Harlequins while I work on what will be my third gaming army. (To my shame my Tau army remains less than half finished, but that will have to be tackled another time.)

Test Mini: Harlequin Troupe Master

The new Harlequin releases have caught me off guard somewhat. I am a big fan of Rogue Trader style minis, and I am a big fan of GW's current range of plastics. The current range of new stuff is the best of both worlds and I am so impressed that I am thinking of painting and collecting a full army. I've painted up a troupe master as a test mini.

Originally I said that I wasn't brave enough to attempt diamond checks, but I have been practising my freehand for the last year and in the end I got the nerve together to give it a go. In the end I didn't find it anywhere near as difficult as I was expecting, although it is rather time consuming.

This mini isn't entirely finished. Our local GW is running a Harlequin painting competition at the end of the month, so I am going to add some more freehand to him before he goes in, but this is about the standard I am aiming for with the bulk of the stuff that I am planning to paint.

The purple  and white texture based was an experiment, and although it is growing on me I will trying something a lot more tradition out next before I make a decision about how the whole army will look.

I will probably add some free hand to the back of the cloak and do some highlighting work on the ribbons before he goes off to be judged. I will also be trying to improve the gems and metallics a lot which are rather basic at the moment.

Update:

Here's a quick snap showing the grid for the checks on another mini from this squad. It looks pretty awful at this stage, but that's fine because there's plenty of opportunity to tidy them up as you fill the checks in. I start the red checks off using GW Khorne Red which has a nice strong coverage and is great for smoothing out a shaky diamond or two!

Salamanders Chaplain

It is a long time since I painted something for my Salamanders army, but recently we've been running casual 1000pt games which I've been really been enjoying and I decided it was worth painting the jump pack chaplain that has been on my "5th edition shelf" for nearly three years.

Usually I can't raise much enthusiasm for power armour, but there's a lot of extra stuff on this mini that makes it a bit more fun, I had another go at Object Source Lighting from the green eye lenses onto the bone faceplate which was reasonably successful but difficult to see in this picture.

I set myself the challenge of doing a freehand Salamanders symbol which was well worth it in the end despite it looking like a happy crocodile for a while before I did some final tweaks!

I had toyed with the idea of a bone jump pack, but decided on a black one in the end so that I could get him ready for a game that I had coming up.

I've just taken delivery of a micro-pen which I will eventually try to use to do the traditional inscriptions on the scrolls. It didn't arrive quickly enough for this blog post so I may post an update when I have had time to play it properly.

As well as developing my freehand I've been working hard to improve my metallics recently. I was particularly pleased with the shoulder pad trim, although the crozius isn't looking that great.

Here he is leading his assault squad into battle.

Here he is in his blister. I love getting brand new metal minis out of old-fashioned blister packs because it reminds me of when I first got into the hobby. That said, the current range of GW plastics is absolutely top drawer and I am entirely convinced that plastic is the way forward. I took delivery of the new Harlequins on the first day of release and I cannot wait to get to grips with them.

WFB: Dwarf Dragonslayer

This is another of GW's (relatively) new plastic character models which I can't get enough of at the moment. Although I am trying to spend less time just doing scheme-matches, when I saw the Obelix-inspired scheme that the GW painters had used I had to give it a go.

The painting time on this mini was approx 8 hours 30 minutes,

The ginger beard was a particularly satisfying bit of painting. I used the GW recommended scheme for Space Wolf beards - Jokaero Orange with a brown wash followed by Trollslayer and Fire Dragon highlights. I do struggle a bit to get decent coverage with Jokaero but I got there in the end.

The Obelix trouser stripes where a great test of free hand which I really enjoyed, I only remembered after I had finished that the GW version also has a really nice free-hand tattoo which I had meant to have a go at. I may yet go back and add it to the mini, but for now its time to move on.

 I've been trying to improve my metallics and although they aren't as good as I want them to be yet, I am quite a lot happier. The gold detail on the axe is built up from GW Warplock, followed by Gehenna's Gold, Auric Armour Gold with some Runefang mixed in for the final highlight.

The stone dragon was surprisingly time-consuming but worth it overall I think as it is actually a big part of the mini. If I was going to be critical I would say GW are over-using the idea of having models vaulting off pieces of masonry just at the moment, but it is a fun look so I will let them off.

There's so much going in this sculpt that you can photograph it from pretty much any angle. It is one of my all-time favourites and I am very pleased to have a painted one in my collection.

Fittingly, I had a rare visit from Warhammer Fantasy Battlecat while I was working on this one.

100 Posts! 40k Cat's Greatest Hits

Today's post is the 100th that I've published here on Hand of Junk and I have decided that there's no better way to celebrate this than to go over some of 40k Cat's finest moments over the last couple of years.

Regular readers will know that 40k Cat - real name Molly - can't resist getting involved when I am taking pictures of my minis for this blog, or when we are playing 40k. I've managed to get some really fun pictures, and I am quite proud that she features several times in the top Google Image search results for "40k Cat"!

Here are my favourites:

This picture of 40k Cat biting my converted Stormtalon is far and away the most popular, and when I looked today was the top result on Google Images for "40k Cat". This picture was also picked up by some sort of Cat-forum in China or Hong Kong at one point too...

...this picture of 40k Cat inspecting the troops before a game is my personal favourite...

...this sort of behaviour during games is entertaining, but she needs careful policing to make sure that she doesn't bulldoze too many models out of the way...

...here she is towering over some vintage Space Marine Captains...

...another "in-play" shot, this time an Ork's eye view...

...another model getting bitten, this time my rather mediocre Orange and Red Stealth Suit...

...this is what I often have to put up with while I am typing up my posts...

...and here she is intently watching a game of Space Hulk.

Finally, here is a very rare picture of Warhammer Fantasy Battlecat - 40k Cat's sister, who is a great deal shyer about having her photograph taken, and much less interested in eating Citadal Miniatures! As it happens I am currently working on a fantasy mini - a Dwarf Troll Slayer - which should be ready for post number 101 next week.