More Space Ork Raiders

Just a quick post this week. I've been clearing a couple of things from my painting queue including two more 1980s Space Ork Raiders which have been an ongoing project for some time now.

The painting time for these two was approximately 2 hours per model. I was a little bit disappointed with this as I was aiming for more like 90 minutes, and I have another  8 minis to go on this project. As usual I am painting these as closely as possible to the box art. It can be a bit tricky because the main picture on the box isn't actually of the models.

There is a picture of the minis on the back which is what I'm working from, but it is rather small. The two mins that I have completed today are on the back row, second from left and first from right.

The box also includes a very simple painting guide... Of course all these colours are long obsolete. I am quite pleased that with my effort to reproduce the scheme, although the 1980s Games Workshop scheme has a bit more neon green to it which I haven't quite nailed. If I was starting again I would try introducing something like Moot Green from the current range into the scheme.

Here is my collection of Rogue Trader Orks. Most of them are from this Space Ork Raiders box, except for the Warchief "Boglob" who is from my Combat Cards project.

Of course, 40k Cat came to join me when I took my photos.

Imperial Guard Commissar

This is another of GW's impressive plastic character minis which I've been really enjoying since they started releasing them. I've even been tempted into painting some fantasy minis. The official version of this mini has an amazing paint job, particularly the face which looks really grizzled and battle-worn. I was very impressed with this and set to recreate it as closely as I could, although for the rest of the mini I've deliberately done something different to the GW version, because as much as I enjoy doing scheme-matches there is more to life than just trying to recreate what someone else has already done better!

I'm trying to paint these singles to the very best standard I can. Here I've tried something new by using a bright green mixed with some metallic used sparingly for the glow of the plasma cell and a touch on the power sword too. I am told that this is called Object Source Lighting but I think that glow is a perfectly good word! 

Recently I have been really trying to improve the quality of the metallic areas on my minis. The back face of this sword and the hand-guard have come out particularly nicely. The idea of using the darking metallic from opposite ends of the two parts of the blades was nicked from the official scheme and I will definitely using that one again!

The coat was inspired by British Army WWII desert uniform, although when you see it on this mini it ends up looking like a fairly standard Cadian-type scheme. It's based around a 50:50 mix of Steel Legion Drab and Zandri Dust, moving up to to pure Zandri and then highlights of Kislev Flesh which I find works very well on top of a creamy brown like this. 

Readers who know this mini well will notice that there is a power cable that stops abruptly. It should be connected to the bionic arm but this piece is very fragile and broke when it was cut from the sprue. Unfortunately it couldn't be salvaged. I would recommend a very sharp knife and a very careful hand when assembling this one.

As usual 40k cat was on hand to oversee the photoshoot. Although I've photographed my last couple of minis on a white background, I couldn't get a shot of this mini that was anywhere near decent enough without reverting to the trust old green backdrop. I'm continuing to work on my photo set up and hope to back in action with the white background shots soon.

Painting Time: Approx 6 hours.

Hand of Junk 2014

This time last year I put all the minis I'd painted during 2013 on my table for a group shot. I decided that it was worth doing again for 2014 as I'd completed about 50 minis.  It is pretty much impossible to get a decent shot of everything at once so I've shot this from a couple of angles. Below each picture is a link to the blog posts about the minis in that shot.

• LE101 Renegade Warlord
• WFB Nurgle Lord
• Horus Heresy Navigator
• The Emperor's Champion
• Space Wolf Captain
• Blood Angel Captain
• Dark Angels Captain
• Ork Warchief and Rogue Trader Orks
• Mantic Games Deadzone Enforcer Captain
• Ogryn
• Tau Stealth Suit
• Vostroyan Firstborn
• Orlock Leader and Gangers
• Krootox, Shaper and Kroot
• Rifleman Dreadnought

• Limited Edition Space Marine Captain
• Crimson Fists Captain
• Space Wolf Terminator and Space Wolf Captain
• Rogue Trader Inquisitor
• Mentor Legion Veteran

Some of the models that I completed this year are missing from this group shot for various reasons:

The Ork Painboy and Grukk Facerippa are both on display in our local Games Workshop. I'd quite like to get Grukk back and photograph him properly, but I really enjoy having him on display so he's staying where he is for now.

This Flash Git was actually on the table when the group shot was taken but ended up being missed out of the shot!

Finally, the Brain of Morbius diorama which is on display at my brother's. Overall it was a fun year of painting, with my focus changing from army painting to single miniatures and trying to improve my technique as much as possible. Although I didn't get anywhere near the 100 minis that I finished last year, I did hit 50 which is about one a week. I think the same again is probably a good target for 2015. 

Happy New Year!

WFB: Nurgle Chaos Lord

A year on from painting my first fantasy Chaos Lord, I got around to painting to another fantasy mini that came out at about the same time.I really enjoyed painting the rotting flesh which is actually very simple to do. Similar to the Navigator I posted last week, this is based around a Rakarth Flesh base and a crimson wash, followed by some highlights.

The really rotten patches have been given a touch of flesh mixed with yellows and reds before the wash goes one. I've also used touches of blue and red glaze sparingly, particularly where stomach is torn open to show his innards.

This week I am experiment with a new version of my little photo setup. I know that serious bloggers take take all their pictures on a white background. Unfortunately my camera isn't up to much so I am still not that happy with these but I will continue to experiment.

Forgeworld: Horus Heresy Navigator

I am back after a planned hiatus that ended up being a lot longer than I was originally expecting... This is one of the models that GW has been selling as event-only models this year, and I am quite fond of its Rogue Trader style so I collected one at "Warhammerfest" a couple of months back.

I fancied trying out an alternative way of painting skin after seeing the Imperial Guard Comissar Model that came out earlier this year, and a painting guide from White Dwarf for a Vampire Counts model. These both use a much paler base colour - Rakarth Flesh - and then use a scarlet wash as well as the usual flesh shade. I had a go at this approach on this mini and it has worked well, so I am going to try to develop it a bit further with my next mini,

I used the same recipe for the fur collar as I use on my second edition Space Wolves. I did think about attempting an exotic red fur but I chickened out...

I used Nihilakh Oxide for cogs on the staff, as well as a couple of other washes, but I wan't particularly happy with the final results. I've not been that pleased with my metallics recently, so I am going to concentrate on getting them right on my next mini.

The robe is based on GW Caliban Green worked upwards through to Warboss Green and Moot Green. The base started life as Astrogranite which re-painted with a brown/red mix and then washed purple. I am rather pleased with the result...

The Emperor's Champion

After spending a long time on Grukk I wanted a nice, man-size single mini to do for a low intensity painting week with something reasonably nice to show off at the end of it.

This was picked out from what I call my "5th edition shelf". When I got back into 40k in late 5th edition, metal models in blisters were getting rarer and rarer and I spent far too much money trawling eBay for stuff that I didn't really need. Oh well, the deal I did with myself is that it will all be painted - eventually! The motto: "You bought it, you painted it!"

This mini is in what I call the "dull spot" - it's totally out of fashion, but not old enough to be thought of as "vintage" or a "classic". Anyway, I still think its a nice sculpt and I am very pleased to have one in my collection.

Grukk Again, Competition Results

After an utterly chaotic (but massively fun) weekend in real life I am not only a day late but I'm afraid I don't have any models finished. Instead, here is another picture of Grukk who finished second in our local store's painting competition.

In this picture he's on my desk at work waiting to go into the shop in my lunch break. Eagle-eyed readers will be able to work out my real first name...(!). I started this blog using a pseudonym because I was a bit embarrassed about getting back into 40k in my 30s but I don't care any more and regular post shots of minis on my personal Facebook.

Anyway, back to the competition. Although I did take the top spot, when I went back to the shop Grukk had been put on display next to my Painboy. It is great to have two minis on display at Games Workshop and I am far prouder of this than a grown man really should be!

This was my favourite entry in the competition, by James Whitney, which got third place. I think that the subtle conversion work to take this mini from fantasy to 40k is absolutely top drawer. I didn't even know this mini existed until I saw this, so I've added it to my "to paint" list. I am going leave it as fantasy model rather than trying to recreate what James has already nailed!