E's Painted Minis

Long time no see...

2011-06-21T17:44:00.002+01:00

So... its been a while. A lot has changed since I was last here (I wont bore you with the details)and I shall start putting pics up again soon, hopefully.

Theres a 2.5k tournament this weekend that my templars are hoping to make an appearance at... got a good reception at a 2k escalation event, even if I was in the bottom quarter XD

Pics when the 2.5k is done (not till the tournys over)

Cheers for now
E

Not dead!

2010-09-23T16:25:00.002+01:00

Honest.

Or at least thats what the papers say.

I've been busy oddly enough; college, rl, painting. Sucks but such is life.

Just started painting my entries for this sundays GD, I swore last year that I'd leave myself plenty of time to do a good job this year, but I have no idea where the last three months went, so...

My entries this year: LotR dwarf banner this one, though not that scheme. and an ancient goblin netter that I managed to get my hands on recently. Neither has had any work done to them (except a sculpted base for the dwarf) and both are currently at the basecoat stage.

So yes plenty of time again, but at least the dwarf will be done even if the goblin isn't and you shall have pics in the near future, whether or not that will be before sunday I can't say.

Thought I'd just check in, oh and welcome kuffeh :D

Any thoughts/advice welcome.

Cheers
E

Finished dwarf miners

2010-08-24T21:15:00.002+01:00

They won me the comp before Lemartes (in which I did have some competition).

Less talk, more pics:

Pretty pleased with the way they came out, especially since the majority of the painting was done about 5 years ago. The candles and the lanterns came out well for my first try (at least, I think so), they were what stopped me from calling the models done back when I first put paint on them.

Any recommendations for painting candles/lanterns in the future?

On a side note, I ended up picking the Dreadlord on cold one for the competition this month ( this saturday), the store has sold out of them and I haven't got one yet, so it'll be another rush job and I happen to know that there are at least two people already entering, so it will close this month.

Test model for the Spider riders is almost done, but having attempted to learn the new addition with the wee green monsters, I can confidently say I'll be damned lucky if I get above the bottom quarter at the GT in October, hopefully I'll get a nomination for best painted army, but I may just be clutching at straws due to the tiny amount of time I have to paint this horde.

Ah well, I never did say I wanted an easy life!

All C&C welcome, thanks for the comments so far and the following and I hope I haven't bored you too much.

Cheers
E

Lemartes-done for the time being

2010-08-04T17:02:00.002+01:00

More as a chaplain than himself, if you know what I mean.

He did win the comp, but a somewhat hollow victory as I was the only entrant.
Painted in one night, so forgive the roughness, he'll be cleaned up once I bring him home.

As to the model for this months comp, several people have suggested I boycott it due to the ubnpopularity of the new manager and the restrictive rules of the comp, but I'm quite drawn to the bundle of free stuff, even if I don't know what it is yet.

So the model for this month, I had decided on the Empire Captain with Hammer and Pistol (This guy) but the full timer has asked me to find a mini that's available in store instead; slightly difficult due to most of the nice character minis being order only now!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Oh and the goblin test mini is currently in production.

Any questions/comments welcome.

Cheers
E

HELP!

2010-07-31T11:48:00.004+01:00

Help desperately needed and fast.

Firstly im in a rush,

secondly hello to the new follwers, nice to have you with me!

Right the reason for the rush, The last pics I posted were from a comp, between then and now there was another comp (which I won!) there's another comp today at 1pm (1 hour and 10 mins away), but (and it's a BIG but), I'm not sure whether to put eyes on the model or not (its the new angry Blood angles chaplain, keep forgetting his name), those of you who have him will know that there are no eyes sculpted on. Aha, Lemartes (I remembered!).

So, he has no eyes, do I either leave the holes blank or put a white dot in there?

Any responses within the next 20-30 mins would be most appreciated, unlikely, but what the hell.

Cheers
E

Edit a slightly distant pic

I'll put some better ones up after the comp, haven'ty time now.

Finished models

2010-07-05T20:01:00.003+01:00

I finally have pics of some of the stuff from the comp (that I'll stop harping on about soon, honest). I've only got time to put up some of the pics, but hopefully they'll tide you over for a little while.

Without further ado, Old Death Company Assault marines:

I understand and agree that the bases and weathering a little rough, but they were done to as trict time limit and whilst working on several other things as well; aside from that, I think they're a pretty reasonable army standard, anybody agree?

Balin:

Only thing that's changed since January is the base. I'll admit I'm starting to see why peole stress the importance of the base, it has set it off quite nicely, even if I do say so myself.

A question before I go, would you rather I update all of the stuff I do or should I stick to my best painted stuff?
I should warn you that the later would mean very few pics from me, as I've been on a speed painting bent since I did so dismally in terms of painting an army for the GT.

All C&C welcome.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers
E

Phaarphenootie

2010-07-01T22:26:00.002+01:00

As I saw an american kid on the tv once say.

Well I had pics of the painted dread, the marine squad I'm working on for the astro rumble or stumble 8 or 9 and one of the bikes that I'm working on, and most helpfully Kodak easyshare has eaten them, so my apologies but no pic updates tonight, I'm too tired.

I did however, meet the new store manager of my local GW today and got one of the last skull pass boxes. Now I'm not sure whether or not I mentioned it on here or not but I'm currently trying to do a goblin army on the cheap, to get me back into warhammer, what with the new ed and all (as I'm sure is fresh news to the internet community). Adding them to my first box (from when it was first released about 4-5 years ago) it makes about 2k with a few upgrades and conversions. How to do the fanatics cheaply is beyond me though, so I think I probably will have to get myself a box of them, though I might be able to stretch the usefulness of the box a bit.

I'm half way through a couple of conversions for them at the moment (pics were also eaten), I've cleaned 38 spearmen (2 others had already been used) and I got through 15 archers tonight, so not doing too badly but it's looking a little unlikely that I'll have a 2k army for the 10th.

Especially with the new manager planning monthly painting comps, which I am pretty my honour bound to compete in.

Good to get all that out of the system, well done for suffering through it (all 0 of you that read this far).

Oh and hello to the new members that've popped up since I last said it, hello! Welcome to the ramblings and infrequent pictorial updates :D

I think that's it, I will get the pics in the next couple of days.

Gnite
E

Finished marines

2010-06-29T19:31:00.005+01:00

Been longer than intended, sorry about that.

Anyway, the other half of the giant crusader squad, the Initiates:

The whole unit, impressive aint it? Atleast from a distance.

His eye is a bit off, but being as this is only a low-middle gaming standard I'm really not bothered enough to change it.

The other stuff I've been working on since I last updated, chaplain:

Second attempt at his leg, bionics and artificer style armour.

Another missile launcher armed marine for the two fire support squads, the second of which I am now painting.

The reason for my unreliable blogging:

Pulled this off the base of one of the dreads, proof that old Papa Nurgle had an eye on me.

So anybody got any suggestions or comments?

I'd like to keep up the stream of comments recently, it's been great, thank you.
(and I'm not being sarcastic either)

Cheers and thanks for reading
E

Edit Thought I'd add in that I've got my models back from the store now, so you'll be getting pics of the winning models in the next few days. I've also been cleaning goblins, masses of goblins. I will be able to do that army even if it's not to 2k.

Finished Neophytes

2010-06-16T02:44:00.004+01:00

These were an experiment in speed painting, so they're only done to an apoc army standard. Let me know what you think.

I know the bases are iffy, I was told as much within 2 mins of putting them on astronomicon. They will end up closer to the ECs, but I'm short on Badab and energy.

At least they are now legal, being as the base isn't bare.

C&C?

I have pics of other projects, but it's late and I'm tired so G'nite.

Cheers
E

PS Normal standard of painting will be resumed soon.

sorry about that

2010-06-14T04:30:00.003+01:00

Painted marines in my previous post.
I have no idea how to delete a post, so this is wasted space.

Cheers
E

Painted marines

2010-06-13T23:52:00.003+01:00

Part of a fire support squad, the chap with the lascannon is being painted differently just so I can try another different way of painting black.

My first plasma gun, second attempt though; I started to do it orange/yellow but the basecoat and the highlights didn't come out so well, so dropped that and ended up with this.

Only done to an army standard, so I'm pretty pleased with that little lot. The more observant of you will notice the missing iconography (bah humbug), I think I'll do them as Templars of Eraithia (my version of the B;ack Templars) but I haven't the energy for fiddling around with transfers at the moment, so that'll be left till the rest of this lot is at the same point then I'll just blitz the whole lot at the same time.

The black is adeptus, heavy wash of badab then fenris grey highlights.

C&C anyone? Go on, you know you want too.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers
E

Some people

2010-06-13T03:57:00.003+01:00

I was trawling the mini sites as I am sometimes want to do and saw this.

All I can reasonable saw to that is: egads girl, you're fantastically mad; I completely approve.

That, I have to say, is one of, if not the most inspring pieces of terrain I have ever seen.

I hope those of you that see this will give it a look, it is worth it.

As to what I've been doing, I'm still slogging away at the Templars, I almost have a unit completely finished; in fact it should be done by the time I go to sleep, so you should get pics fairly soon.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers
E

Finished Dwarf Lord

2010-06-10T09:11:00.003+01:00

This would be the guy that got second at the local comp that I believe I mentioned. Thought you might like a look.

The dull pics are taken without flash. He was originally goiung to have a white beard beard but I ran out of time

Painted in about 6 hours, a hell of a lot faster than I intended, but I was doing 7 assault marines, 5 bikes and a dread at the same time, all to the same deadline.

The more I look at him the rougher he gets tbh, but nevermind; I'll do another version in the future and spend a lot longer on him, really is a nice sculpt.

And yes I am aware he hasn't got any eyes, probably the reason he was beaten by a model dubbed "the gay elf" (by the owner, not me).

As for what I'm doing now, the Templars have progressed a reasonable amount and I'm trying to figure out a way to do a 1K goblin army on the cheap for the release of the new rules, being as I already have the Skull pass models ( about 500 pts) it shouldn't be dreadfully expensive.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers
E

Templars and another dread

2010-06-07T21:36:00.003+01:00

So I managed to find some pics of the dread before it was painted, wasn't sure I'd taken any, so enjoy and please someone leave a comment, I dare you!

You'll have to scroll down a bit to see the fully assembled and converted model.

I've also done another quick unit, this one for fire support:

The bolters haven't been done yet if you were wondering.

I quite like my way of doing eyes, admittedly it's a little odd compared to the GW version, but I'm not too keen on lenses with reflection, no inner light. Whereas with these it's space wolves grey then skull white so it does stand out but not to the extremity of those that are painted to be glowing, which are a bit much imho.

I've been playing around with skin colours and washes tonight, might get a pic up for you later.

Cheers
E

Finished Emperors Champion

2010-06-07T01:59:00.003+01:00

I said in my last post I was going to get him done for Sunday and surprisingly enough he was. The pics:

Only done to an army standard; fairly quick actually 6-10 hours, somewhere around there. I've definately got faster recently.

So, good people of the internet, your opinion please.

Cheers
E

PS Before I go, I found this earlier. Simple idea, but I'd not thought of it, looks good in my opinion.

Update

2010-06-04T00:50:00.003+01:00

Thought I'd let you know that I am still here and plugging away.

Since I was last here, I've half painted the army, finished painting the dread with the pointing finger and seven assault marines. I entered the Golden Demon warm up painting comp at my local GW last saturday and believe it or not both the dread and the assault marines came first! I also entered Balin from my LotR dwarf army (there are pics of him hiding in here somewhere), fantasy dwarf lord and my fantasy dwarf gyro. Balin got first, the Dwarf lord got second and the gyro didn't get a single vote, which I'm a little disappointed about; but overall, fantastic result.

I would give you pics but A) the assault marines, dread and Balin are in the store cabinet and B) it's 1 am and I haven't the energy to upload and sort the pics of the dwarf lord.

There will be pics of everything I've been working on in the near future, honest.

At the mo I'm painting my Emp Champ for the Astro Rumble of Stumble 8 comp ending on sunday, it's about a quarter done and considering I didn't start it till 7 pm, I think my painting is speeding up.

Gnite
E

Thanks to The 25mm Warrior

2010-05-03T06:09:00.006+01:00

Hello and thanks to the new followers.

I have to say thanks to this guy and his great idea
This and This

It's worth having a look on there, there're a few good blogs on there including his own.

It's upped my viewers and subscribers by a fair bit, you have my thanks 25mm Warrior.

As an aside, I've managed to make a pointing fingered dread, for which I'll be putting up a tut in the near future.

Cheers
E

Finished Black Reach Dread conversion and Blog Thoughts

2010-05-02T21:50:00.004+01:00

I read somewhere recently, on a blog I do believe, that blog rolls may not be the best thing for increasing the followers of the blogs that are on the roll and that they can replace subscription. All I can say to that is:

I am now a follower.

On another note, I finished my conversion of the Black Reach Dread last night, here're a few pics:

I've got the pics for a tutorial, so I'll do that soon, snooker final for the moment.

All comments most welcome.
Cheers
E

E's guide to Theming an Army

2010-05-02T20:26:00.002+01:00

The FTW collaborative post spurred me on to do this.

I think it’s worth putting a summary at the beginning so that you only have to get bogged down in detail if you want to, so:

1. Background, decide the outline of it before you do anything else.

2. Reference pictures, having something that you like the look of can be very useful when planning conversions and paint schemes.

3. Unit selection can be more useful for adding a theme than any other single element, pick them wisely.

4. Conversions should embody and enhance the flavour of the army.

5. Paint scheme should tie the army together but separate the individual units.

6. Basing should be a frame for the model and doesn’t need to be complex (if it is too complex it can overpower the model or can add too much time to production), it should also be cohesive throughout the army. But don’t put a very dark army on a very dark base, or vice versa, it really can spoil an otherwise brilliant paint job, as I’ve found in the past.

I have an old issue of WD that I like to refer back to whenever I'm thinking of starting a new army, I think it's either 290 or 91 (UK edition) and it has a lot of interesting points (and a sense of humour, something painfully lacking from the new ones if you ask me). But for those of you that haven't got it, I'll add my two-penneth.

I'm now on my third themed army so here's what I've done to theme it and the thought process behind it.

First of all I had a read of the codex and a think, and decided that I don't want to do a Black Templars army. I like the background and the aesthetics but not enough to do an army of them, I do however like some of the aspects and picked those ones to focus on.

So the first bit I like to start with is the background; instead of having an entirely fleet based army with no homeworld, I wanted my army to have one. Now the only difference that really makes is that all the models in the army will have been brought up in the same culture, so you can't put in the variation you could otherwise have. I also wanted to add in something more than a little heretical and have squat/demiurg made tech, now the only way I can think of representing that is having more archaic/unusual weaponry and armour and removing the Martian skull and cog symbol.

I like to look through the canon art (ie GWs own) when I’m trying to decide which way to take my army, which is one of the reasons I keep all my old WDs.
Looking through the BT codex there was one piece of art that really caught my eye and that showed the BT army in full regalia marching down a street, and the thing that really got me was that each and every marine was wearing a tabard!
In one of the WDs from around the time the BT codex was new, there was a piece of concept art which showed an Initiate (full marine) paired with his own Neophyte (scout) with the neophyte carrying the Initiates personal heraldry on a banner, an image I particularly liked.

So to represent that lot I’m having one full crusader squad of 10 Initiates and 10 Neophytes, and I’m sculpting a tabard on each marine and putting a longish banner on each scout, the reason for the longish banner is that I’m giving each of my terminators the square banners and wanted to keep some unit difference. I’m also arming each of the initiates in the same way and each of the neophytes in the same way, now being as I had the mad notion of trying to win a best painted award with the army I’m giving the scouts all chainswords and the marines all axes/swords; I wouldn’t recommend it unless you like a painful amount of work!

I’m keeping fairly closely to the Black Templars paint scheme but putting enough of a twist on it so that I don’t have to call them Black Templars. I’m using the same colour on one shoulder pad throughout the army and changing the other depending on what type of role they’ll be fulfilling, and to show differences between units I’ll paint one knee pad the same for each member of a squad.

The overall similarity of the colour scheme should tie the army together, whilst the different colours should tie specific units together.

I’m going for an abandoned city themed base, which basically is grey slate/gravel with pieces of weathered plasticard to represent buildings or parts of them, obviously the bigger the base the more detailed and same goes for characters.

Unit selection can actually go quite some way to giving an army a theme, for example Fantasy dwarf can be made a solely defensive gunline or they can be an aggressive close combat only army (however unlikely that might seem). For my Templars I’ve decided not to have any tanks, reasoning that the Guard and the Ships would have done the dirty work of cracking the fortifications and the Templars can then waltz in and annihilate the enemy troops in close combat.

So I’d say that covers it, I would put up some examples but I’ve only got test models and unpainted conversions at the moment. If you want to see them just ask.

Hope someone finds this useful.
Cheers
E

proof of inactivity

2010-04-29T18:36:00.004+01:00

You see, I said I hadn't done much.

The army as it now stands.

My sculpting/converting work space, including my two demon entries,.

A few more practice minis, because I'm still not used to power armour, they're not quite finished yet either. I tried a few different ways of painting pale cloth/ armour, those areas are finished so if you'd like to pass comment I'd be interested to read it.

Marine v1

I liked the freehand but not sure if you can see it properly.

Scout v1

Marine v2

The red is quite a bit brighter than in these pics (bad lighting), I'll take some with my daylight bulb later.

Scout v2

The skin isn't finished yet and I don't think I'll be putting Tallarn flesh on before the badab wash in future.

Any and all comments welcome.

Thanks for looking
E

PS Brighter and better cropped pics later.

E's GT Review

2010-04-28T23:22:00.005+01:00

Right, well, I did make it... just.

Es' Review of the UK 2010 LotR GT 24th of Feb

My First Tournament

(Warning: It’s pretty long)

On the Friday afternoon when I left on the train, I
a) hadn't finished assembling Gulavhar -no wings, (that's what I get for trying to give him balrog wings),
b)hadn't painted the evil army,
c) hadn't got over my cold (which turned out to be surprisingly nasty),
d) hadn't played any practice games,
e)and, worst of all, I'd forgotten the train tickets.

As you can see, a good start.

Having sorted the ticket problem (and lightening my wallet by £70 in the process) I got to the hotel to be told that one of the Nottingham electric transformers had blown and that there was no hot water in the hotel. Declining the offer to change hotels, I was given a free upgrade from a single to a double room and, being completely knackered from a months worth of far, far too much painting, I slept (the evil army still being bare metal at this point).

Saturday morning: woke at half seven, skipped breakfast and painted the evil army, bar Gulavhar whom I still had not managed to get the wings to stay on. Got all the stuff together and got there at 11am, two hours late.

I was half expecting to be kicked out of the tournament, but the event staff being exceedingly helpful and friendly blokes allowed me to still enter the tournament; despite there not being an opponent for me to play. According to one of the refs they normally get quite a few drop outs from the tournaments but this year there were only two and then only one once I'd turned up.

So, my game 1 (3rd of the 8): against one of the event staff, a guy called Matt if I remember correctly, who had never played a game of LotR before; a good combination for my not having played in four years. He hastily assembled 700pts of Khand versus my 700pts of Dwarfs, it proved a good reintroduction to the rules for me and I managed a minor win.

Game 2 (4th of 8): Wood Elves against my 500pts of Monsters. You cant help but feel sorry for someone when they've only got defence 3 elves against a defence 9 dragon, they bounce. The game ended with him charging the Dragon with Galadriel (his last model), which promptly got squished, he did take it well though and I tried not to gloat. Major victory to me and the end of the first day.

Sunday morning: overslept and only had time to get the wings to stay on Gulavhar before leaving and got there only 5 minutes late. But wasn't allowed to use him by the ref due to no paint; he was surprisingly decent about it though and wrangled some black spray paint and even sprayed it for me.

Game 3 (5th of 8): Dwarfs and Elves against my 500 pts of Monsters (Kill the King), a guy called Jamie I'd been talking to in the bar the previous night. He broke my army but couldn't kill the dragon, a draw seemed a good result for me, having only killed a couple of his models.

Game 4 (6 of 8): Evil versus my dwarfs, cant remember the details I'm afraid (the problem with leaving stuff for this long) the result was a draw though.

Lunchtime: didn't get chance to eat anything due to painting Gulavhar and got talking to one of the best painted army nominees.

Game 5 (7 of 8): My Dwarfs versus Uruks and Wargs. Dwarfs won an archery contest! It happened to be my opponents first tournament as well and he was enjoying it as much as I was, both of us saying it wouldn't be our last. He happened to mention that he was glad he wasn't playing my monsters army; surprising really the psychological effect of a dragon. I had control of three of the four objectives when the game ended and got a minor win.

Game 6 (8 of 8): My finally complete monsters army versus the Wood Elves of the best painted army nominee that I’d been talking to at lunch, a very friendly guy called James Braum. Shiny model syndrome is alive and well, with Gulavhar promptly dying having killed nothing. I got a major loss and the opinion of a nominee that my dwarfs would have got me nominated if the evil army had been done to the same standard, a fair trade off imho.

So the tournament was over and this is how I’d done:
one major victory,
two minor victories,
two draws,
one major loss.

I finished 53rd out of 90 entrants, I think I acquitted myself pretty well (if I do say so myself); I don’t half feel sorry for the guy that came 92 though, behind the two refs that had to stand in, poor guy.

So my conclusions on my first tournament:Remember the train tickets, the refs were a lot friendlier than I’d expected, as were the competitors with much less rules-mongery than I’d expected. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, it cost more than I thought it would, I found out that my self applied painting standards are way too high (for example: James Braums’ nominated armies were one layer of paint followed by a wash and a good base, apart from the heroes), what else, um... ah yes, must play more games before I go to another tourney. And finally, I will be going to another tourney when I can afford it.

Thanks for reading this, well done for getting to the end.

I will put some pics up of the armies I took, but right now I need to walk the dog.

Cheers
E

Not Dead

2010-04-28T17:54:00.002+01:00

Just thought you ought to know.

I did make it to the GT and will post a review in a little while.

I've not been busy, honest. Pictorial proof of laziness will follow as well.

Cheers for a bit
E

The dark before dawn

2010-01-20T14:48:00.002Z

I've gone and got myself a nice little cold, right when I need to paint like a mad man.

Moving on, burdhur is assembled and the conversion is almost finished, the dragon is clean and the conversion is underway, the spectres are clean and Gulavhar arrived this morning.

Not like I've got much left to do then is it? EEK.

I think I'll try and make the process into an article but there's no way I have the time to do it now.

I've only got to:
Convert the dragon and gulavhar,
Paint all five of the models.
Build the board.
Write out the army rosters neatly.
Finalise the travel details.
Pack.
Get over the cold.
And most probably something else aswell that I've forgotten.

The magnets haven't arrived yet either.

So bye for now, no pics just yet, but I have been taking plenty.

Cheers
E

Finished Grunts

2010-01-17T02:39:00.002Z

Warriors:

Kazad Guard:

Rangers:

Rangers without bows:

I have some close up pics aswell, but I am desperately in need of sleep.

So, till tomorrow,
Gnite.

Finished command

2010-01-17T01:20:00.002Z

Been longer than I intended but, thought I'd show em off now they're done:

They haven't had the stones, grass, base rim or varnish added yet. I've left off doing the stones, grass and base rim till the evil army is at that stage too.
The varnish I've left because there's a post I want to read on it on FtW.

Troops in a few mins.

Cheers
E

PS. Please someone give me some feedback, please.

Update

2010-01-13T15:33:00.003Z

Without pics unfortunately.

So, the army aint finished just yet. Had an appointment at connexions yesterday, got the models for the evil army and discovered to my horror that the wash had darkened the faces and beards too much.

So, last night and this morning I've been repainting them and re-washing them. Joy.

It should be dry, so time to do the highlights. Toodle-oo for the time being.

Cheers
E

Dwarfs

2010-01-11T14:32:00.003Z

Some of the promised pics, I want to get as much of the army finished before I go to bed tonight as possible so this'll be the last update for the time being.

Gimli and banner (neither finished):

Warriors:

Everything else:

All comments, suggestions and queries are most welcome.

Cheers
E

New followers

2010-01-11T13:37:00.002Z

Hello, welcome and thankyou :D

I will repay the favour and I'm glad you've seen something here you like.

I have been busy, and I have pics to prove it.

The other test minis for the LotR Dwarf army:
No.2

No.3

Happy New Year and plenty more pics to come a little bit later.
Cheers
E

Photo thoughts and Dwarfs

2009-11-30T14:18:00.003Z

I noticed something quite odd while taking then uploading these pics. The general concensus among articles online about taking pics (atleast the ones I've read) says "two daylight bulbs no flash" (internet wisdom distilled:D). But and it is a big but, I take almost all my pics with the flash on aswell as my daylight bulb and I've not yet had any complaints about pic quality.

I generally find that the colours are closer and the highlights show up better doing it my way.

So a quick demo of what I'm on about:

DAYLIGHT BULB ONLY (sorry about the blurriness, a little rushed)

DAYLIGHT BULB AND FLASH

I think the second pic is a better representation of the painting than the first, it also removes the shadow that kind of dominates the first pic.

Anyway just a thought that occurred to me as I was typing this, let me know if you agree or disagree or want clearer versions of either.

----------------------------------------
As you probably guessed from my previous post this is a model for my current project, this being the first of three test models.
So the pic update I mentioned:

Any questions just ask. Any comments please leave them.

Short on time so you'll have to wait for the overview of the army.

Cheers
E

I'm back

2009-11-30T13:31:00.002Z

Doesn't really feel like I've been gone from the net for more than a week or so, but apparently it's 2 months!

Several reasons for that, non GW problems (health and the like), but I have at least been working on mini's, of which you will see pics of the recent stuff if you check back soon.

As to the To do list that I had up on here: all points failed :D ahwell.

Games Day didn't go according to plan, the model wasn't finished despite spending the whole day (and night) before GD painting; I did however meet some people from astro, got the forgeworld show model and spoke to one of the fantasy single model finalists who gave me some advise on plinths (very nice empire model he'd done too). So the day wasn't wasted, just didn't turn out the way I wanted.

I haven't learnt to play 40k, reasons being: buggered car (so I couldn't get to my local GW) and being as I wouldn't be able to get to the Dutch GT (passport delay), there wasn't much incitement to either walk (10-14 mile round trip) or spend £3.30 on a buss ticket.

The army ceased production on the tenth of October half converted, because of a problem with the passport, there are pics if you want them or you could wait until feb when I continue with it.
There are some nice conversions in it, even if I do say so myself.

So what've I been working on since 10th of Oct?
Well I didn't do anything mini wise until the beginning of November when I started work on my LotR GT Dwarf army (which has progressed nicely). A model for my brother-in-law for Xmas and that's it (atleast as far as I can remember)!?

Cheers before it gets too long
E

Update, with pics!

2009-09-18T22:28:00.004+01:00

A few things have been done since my last update, namely painting (more of which in a bit) bought Dutch GT tickets, GDUK tickets and found out that I've never had a passport before so it's a possible 6 week wait! (tourny's in 5 weeks), oh dear.
We'll see what happens, shame the tickets had been bought first but never mind, I'll have an army done to a very decent standard whether I get to use it in Holland or not.

So that means lots of 40K models in the pipeline and no more fantasy ones (atleast after my GD entry is finished anyway), so the last of the Newly painted fantasy models for the time being.

An unconverted Dwarf Gyro:

Larger pics can be found
here http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=5XKZOVn5BrYWmz and
here http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=5XKZOVn5BrYWmzuWsPBIBw%3D%3D&page=1

Any comments are most welcome.

I'll put up some pics of my GD entry in the next couple of days.

Cheers
E

2009-08-16T18:02:00.001+01:00

I've set up this little pole to sort out a question that I've been thinking about.
So if you could spare a minute and just take a quick look and vote in the pole on the right, I would be very grateful.

So, which is the best size to go for?
I personally like 640 but it's been suggested that it might be a bit too In Your Face, as it were.

400 mp

640 mp

800 mp

So people, what thinks thee?

Cheers
E

Joined From the Warp

2009-08-16T15:41:00.002+01:00

I would like to say thanks Ron and I hope to be a usefull part of this excellent group.

I haven't done anything since the last update, but I can provide more pics of stuff I've already done.

Cheers
E

Dread pics

2009-08-15T16:45:00.002+01:00

They are here at last, the pics!

From a tabletop distance

A slight angle

Front

Left

Back

Right

To prove that he's not stuck together I moved the Las

His legs seemed to move from a few of the first pics, so here he is with his legs back the way they were intended

The dread is almost completely unstuck, this is deliberate, to help with the painting, in fact here's a pic to show what's stuck and what's not

There are no magnets it's just friction that holds all the bits in place, having taken the pics of it a few mins ago, I think it would probably be worth magnetizing it. Shouldn't be too difficult and would help the security/ safety of it.

I'm considering entering it for GDUK in a month and a half or so, but to do that I think it would probably need a bigger banner and a change of faceplate, thanks to leaving the white bit unstuck that is do-able, but the banner would be a problem. Any thoughts?

Big pic links in a few mins.

Cheers
E

New template!

2009-08-15T16:23:00.005+01:00

Ello, I've been playing around with it, to see if I could get anymore room for pics.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers
E

Edit 640 it is.

Cheers

Squats!

2009-08-15T14:32:00.002+01:00

As none of you know (obviously), I have quite the liking for dwarfs, and as a coincedence Space Dwarfs, better known as "Squats, Demiurg". Now saying that, I just found this: http://miksminis.blogspot.com/2008/03/long-live-space-dwarves.html and http://miksminis.blogspot.com/2009/08/squat-sighting.html

All I can say is, vive la stunty! Lets hope this isn't just a flash in the pan, and that some models come from it.

As an aside, just taken some more pics of the dreads missile weapon and with dread attached, just got to shrink them now, so shouldn't be too long.

Cheers
E

Templar pics updated

2009-08-12T23:43:00.000+01:00

With links to big pics and paint list.

Cheers
E

More pics!

2009-08-12T22:08:00.004+01:00

Not of painted minis this time though.

Last night didn't quite go to plan, had been up a lot longer than I thought and ended up dozing off whilst flattening the back, ahwell. So, the pics and a little info:

My dread; not heavily converted, just had a few bits added here and there, more has been done to the missile arm today and I'll put pics up of that in a bit.

http://i30.tinypic.com/15eadfn.jpg (Big Pic Link)

My fire support squad; first unit I'm happy with! Will be glad to see them finished and painted, the missile launcher isn't quite finished yet (have been using the dread for practise and I am finally happy with the technique). 1 scout (neophyte) needed to add to complete the squad.

http://i25.tinypic.com/s3iwm1.jpg (Big Pic Link)

My crusade squad; they are unworthy of the name, they were done as part of the Astro tale of x gamers at which I didn't do well, to say the least. Another 5 initiates and 10 Neophytes need to be added before this can properly be called a crusade squad and I've changed my mind about giving the melta gunner a robe, so need another version of that.

http://i31.tinypic.com/1040zgo.jpg (Big Pic Link)

Pics of them all from different angles in a few mins. I will also add in the links for bigger pics in this and the previous post containing them.

Any opinions?

Cheers
E

Update

2009-08-11T16:54:00.001+01:00

Will be doing the next test scheme once I've flattened my back out a bit.

Cheers
E

PS. Any Comments at all are welcome :D

Normal Service Resumed

2009-08-11T14:42:00.002+01:00

Apologies for this mornings technical deifficulties, (It's what happens when you don't have a clue what you're doing, apparently).

I shall have to set tinypic to 400mp instead of 800, so the pics are small and I don't know how to make it so that you can click on them for larger pics, so you'll have to make do with links underneath for the time being.

Cheers
E

Pics

2009-08-11T07:58:00.013+01:00

I suppose it's a little late, but it only seems like afternoon to me (yes I am still in the UK, just didn't get up till the afternoon on monday), so the pics, yes well, here you go:
My first ever 40k mini; ah, let me rephrase that, my first painted 40k mini, as you will see I have a fair few assembled and/or converted ones.

From a tabletop distance

http://i30.tinypic.com/2enyjvb.jpg (Big Pic Link)

From the front

http://i27.tinypic.com/2i9i0cp.jpg (Big Pic Link)

The right

http://i31.tinypic.com/hs511d.jpg (Big Pic Link)

The back

http://i30.tinypic.com/dwzwqa.jpg (Big Pic Link)

The left

http://i25.tinypic.com/1nzrjt.jpg (Big Pic Link)

All Citadel Colour Paints will be reffered to as "CC"
All Citadel Foundation Paints will be reffered to as "CF"
All Citadel Washes Will be reffered to as "CW"
All Vallejo Game Colour Paints will be reffered to as "VGC"
All Vallejo Model Colour Paints will be reffered to as "VMC"
All Vallejo Model Air Colour Paints will be reffered to as "VMAC"

ALL PAINTS ARE THINNED. SEVERAL THIN LAYERS INSTEAD OF ONE THICK ONE.

Colour list:

CC Chaos Black
VMC Grey Black
CC Codex Grey
CC Fortress Grey
CC Bleached Bone
CF Mechrite Red
CC Blood Red
CC Boltgun Metal
CC Scorched Brown
CC Vermin Brown
CW Devlan Mud
CW Badab Black

Think that's it, if not I'll add them as and when I remembr them.

The colours for the black are, in order:

CC chaos black (basecoat)

VMC grey black (cover all of the areas that are staying black)

CC codex grey (first highlight)

CC bleached bone (second highlight)

CW Devlan Mud (heavy coat)

CW badab black (heavy coat)

The red was:

CF Mechrite Red (Basecoat)
CC Blood Red (Highlight)
CW Devlan Mud (heavy coat, same time as the black)
CW Badab black (heavy coat)

The Grey/ white helmet was simply:

CC Codex Grey (cover the helmet apart from the eyes, vent's at the top and the bit below the nose)
CC Fortress Grey (everything apart from the reccesses)
CC Skull White (on the edge)

Just layered with averagely thinned paint (between 1-1 paint - water and 1-2 paint - water). Painted after the washes had been done.

This is one of 5/6 test schemes for my Templar army (Not Black Templar, my own offshoot, fluff will be posted when it's written).

Any questions, just ask.

Btw this is one contender for the army standard, just thought I'd mention that.

Cheers

2009-08-10T20:30:00.004+01:00

What I listen to most of the time when I'm painting http://www.kinkfm.com/player/?station=kinkaardschok

(Only click if you like metal)

I don't have a problem with the fact the main site is in dutch, I don't speak the language but looking at it I can understand enough to find what I'm after and besides the songs are in english.

If I'm not listening to this, I'm usually watching one of the documentary channels, a little odd but it works.

I will have pics tonight.

Cheers
E

2009-08-10T02:53:00.003+01:00

Well I've just learnt something, and it came at a high cost.

I've just spent the last 2-3 hours sorting pics into separate folders in Kodak easyshare, ready to put on here and astro. After spending all that time putting them into these separate folders I decided to delete the parent folder being as there was no longer any use for it.

And guess what, it drags it's offspring down into hell with it!

I am restraining the urge to shout at the comp with great difficulty. Three hours work wasted, damn you kodak, damn you.

E

There probably wont be anymore pics tonight due to this.

Intro

2009-08-09T20:03:00.002+01:00

Hello

This is my first attempt at using a blog, or anything like this (I usually fall into the category of technophobe) so bear with me, it may take me a while to get my head round it and get things up to speed.

Now, as you probably guessed from the title I paint figures, not as job but as a hobby, I've done well in a few competitions and have been told I'm a good painter, it does take me a long time though, so as a way to try and speed myself up I've started this blog, now failing any connection problems or any problems with my disabled mum, I should be able to manage an update a week, maybe more, I'll see how it goes.

So a pic to whet your appetite:

This won me the Astro Halloween comp last year, and yes it was me, if you don't believe me message me on Astro.

So, I think that will suffice for the time being. Any questions or comments just say.

Cheers
E