Szlachcic's Random Plog (WH40k, WHFB, WM...)

[szlachcic]

Hey everyone! I have been wanting to do a plog for a long time in order to keep myself motivated, but really haven't had a lot of time to paint until recently. I have been attempting to tackle various projects that need to be finished as well as some new ones.

The main project I am working on now is a Protectorate of Menoth force for Warmachine. I have just started the game and plan to expand my current force to around 500 points in the near future (or somewhere between 25 - 35 points when Mk. II comes out). Currently I just have the starter box and will actually be replacing the Redeemer with a Devout when I get around to ordering it.

The two other projects I am working on are my small Iyanden force for 40k and my Dark Elves. My Iyanden army is only around 1000 points and in various stages of completion. After completing my Menoth set I will probably try to finish the whole 1000 points. My Dark Elves will be around 2250 points and are currently in complete disarray. About a year before the new book came out I decided to go with a different style army list than what I had been playing as well as a new color scheme. I have fiddled with them after the new book came out, but they really need a lot of attention in order to be completed.

Other than that there may be a little bit of Crimson Fists, Empire, or Flames of War thrown in if I have the time.

Well, enough with the talking and on to the pics. Here are my first attempts at painting WarMachine figures. Personally, I didn't like how the golds came out on either (too much chestnut ink on Kreoss, not enough shade on the Revenger), but they will work just fine for playing. Sorry for the poor quality photos, in the future I will most likely be taking them outside in order to get better lighting. Any comments are welcome.

High Exemplar Kreoss:


Revenger:

[eltanko]

Very nice choice of colours, and painted very well. The purple looks real good and the White and gold really stand out. Top stuff.

ElTanko

[PaleRaven]

I agree with eltanko, I really like the colour combination and how cleanly they are presented, it will be interesting to see how other components of the army look.
Also, as being a potential beginner of the game myself, what are your first impressions of the game?

[szlachcic]

I agree with eltanko, I really like the colour combination and how cleanly they are presented, it will be interesting to see how other components of the army look.
Also, as being a potential beginner of the game myself, what are your first impressions of the game?

Thanks for the comments everyone. I know they aren't as amazing looking as a lot of the others on this board, but I like to think I can put out a decent tabletop standard.

Anyways, as far as WM goes it looks like a lot of fun. I wish I could give you an actual review on the game, but I have not had the time to play it yet. I have read through the rulebook though and it looks good. My brother is getting into it as well and I am hoping to have him over to play a game within the next few weeks, so maybe then I can give you an update.

As far as updates go, I have acquired my last 'Jack, a Devout, and I picked up the named Paladin as well since I love his model. They are being assembled still, but I have been painting the Crusader and some of my Iyanden. I might show some of my previously completed Iyanden stuff within a day or two if I get the time.

[The boyz]

Excellent work on those Menoth chaps. I like the colour scheme, the pruple and white go realy well together. The white looks nice and smooth and the highlighting and shading on the purple looks good as well.

Looking forward to seeing some more WM updates and some FoW.

[szlachcic]

Ok, time for an update (kind of...). I don't really have anything new done as I have been working on bits of models here and there. The purpose of this update is more to show some of my previous work. Please be gentle , a lot of this figures were painted at least 2 years ago and some (mainly the Blood Angels) were originally painted about 8 years ago probably. Hopefully this can give you an idea of my collecting (well, the painted parts) and give you something to look at while I continue work on new projects.

Just to give some background on myself. I got into the hobby through a friend when I was about 12 or 13. I started getting into 40k right before 3rd edition came out, so I didn't really start playing and collecting until 3rd. My first army was Dark Eldar, who I am still eagerly awaiting an update. Since then I expanded into Blood Angels and Eldar among other smaller projects.

I picked up WHFB in 5th edition, not too long after getting into 40k. I started Dark Elves, but didn't really play much until 6th edition came out. Since then I have mainly played Dark Elves, but now also have a 2300-ish point Empire army. As stated before, there will be very few DE pictures due to me redoing their paint scheme (and due to the fact that my original paint jobs look so horrible ).

The non-GW games are newer adventures for me and therefore you will see much less of them painted. I have never really put any time into my FoW force sadly, but as I stated in one of my previous threads, it should eventually be one of my projects. WarMachine is the newest game I have picked up and I am planning to only buy small amounts of models at a time and paint them before buying more. This should keep me on track as I have a bad habit of buying a lot of models at once and then never getting around to painting them as it seems so daunting.

Sorry for rambling, hope you enjoy the pictures!

First up are pictures of my Empire Ostermark Army. Most of these models were painted around 1-2 years ago. The funny thing about this army is periodically I tried new techniques so you can sometimes see certain guys looking different. For example, if you look at my Halberdiers up close you can actually see a progression of different techniques. I was just going to go the "dip" route as it is infantry heavy, but I settled on a mix of using dip to shade certain parts while working some colors, mainly yellow, by hand as I think it looks better. This is also the time I switched my primer preference from black to white primer, so you may notice some models using more inking or washing while others just have the paint "blocked" out with the black undercoat as shading.

Handgunners (first unit painted for army):



Flagellants (not finished):

These use a newer flesh technique that someone was kind enough to share with me on these forums. I can't do it as well as he does, but it looks good I think. Sorry it is so hard to see haha.

Empire General:


Warrior Priest using my old flesh technique that doesn't look very good IMO:


Continued in next post...

[szlachcic]

Metal Wizard:

If you look closely you will notice I tried to make it look like the robes flowing in front of him were turning into gold and then silver.

State Troops:

I will soon be replacing all of my movement trays with flush magnetic ones for ease of use and so I don't have to paint up movement trays lol.

Pistoliers:

These models are not wholly done and mainly need to be hit with some purple ink to give their purple cloth more depth (as do some of the state troops). Their flesh also needs to be picked out as it is only partially shaded right now.

Rocket Battery and Crew:




The only picture of a Dark Elf I will be showing before work is started on them again.

I like the green color, but unfortunately my varnish partially helped me achieve it by putting a minor haze over the model without ruining it. It actually gave it more of a chalky look that I think is attractive, but I don't think I could ever reproduce it. As a side note, I think it is funny that the model (or how I painted it) looks like it has a buck tooth.

Continued in next post...

[szlachcic]

Here are some pictures of my Blood Angels army in their display cabinet. This isn't the whole army, but it is most of the painted units. You will probably be able to spot some unfinished bases or chipped paint (*cough*power axe*cough*) as a lot of these models are still unvarnished for some reason.



The Baneblade looks much better IRL, but I had to get creative with lighting as it was dark in the corner.

Behold my Mid-War British Rifle Company in all of its glory!


Haha, just kidding, but seriously this is all i have done. I have some machine gun crews and some artillery in progress and am experimenting with doing washes instead of the dry brushing I used on these as I think it looks sloppy.

These are some of the models I painted for my Iyanden force. The Warlock, Farseer, and one Guardian were done a while ago. I actually have a lot of the army basecoated and inked, but I went crazy with the ink and now have to go back with white in order to get a smooth yellow coat.


Continued in next post...

[szlachcic]

Final part, I promise!

The Wraithguard is still very much PIP, but you can see where I am trying to smooth out the yellow and will just need to go back strategically with the ink to give it more depth afterward.


Guardian and Grav Platform. The Guardian was the first model I painted as part of this army as part of a test. The platform was recently completed, but needs a little more shading as I mentioned above.


This is a extremely early teaser of one of my Banshees. I wasn't sure how I would integrate the Iyanden scheme (if at all) on them and think this will look fine in a garish Eldar sort of way haha. Note, these are just basecoats so that is why it looks flat, especially the yellow.


Here is my last pick, my Crusader! I have had him primed with a few spots of paint on him for a while, but today I was able to knock out most of the basecoats. Now I just need to work up the colors and finish his base.


For those of you who didn't run away I hope you enjoyed looking at some of my previous work. I will be out of town this weekend for a wedding, but when I get back I will hopefully be able to get some work done on my WarMachine stuff. I may also take some pictures of my workstation and gaming area if I get bored.

[PaleRaven]

Your models really are impressive! You seem to have developed some great techniques over the years of painting. The metal wizard is particularly impressive as are the pistoler horses and the skin of those flagellants, may I ask the technique you used?
Keep up the inspiring work,
Raven

[BoyMilla]

Evereything looks really good! You've got a nice clean painting style there!

Empire stuff is impressive but I really like your eldar. Good, bright yellow!

Would like to see closer pics of your BA!

Looking forward to seeing more!

BM

[szlachcic]

Thanks for the comments guys! I just got back from my trip and am hoping to get some painting done tonight.

...as are the pistoler horses and the skin of those flagellants, may I ask the technique you used?
Keep up the inspiring work,
Raven

To be honest I cheated on the horses. As I mentioned in my post I was experimenting with dipping parts of my Empire army while doing more traditional techniques on other parts, the Pistolliers are an example of this. The purple and yellow are done by hand, but almost everything else had dip "painted" on. I find this works particularly well over browns, so I tried it on the horses and looked pretty good. A lot of people think that if you use dip your models will look very shiny, but if you just hit them with some matte varnish it takes the shine off and allows the highlights to pop more.

As for the skin technique, I saw the recipe in a log by Toschenko and decided to try and emulate it as it looked amazing. Like I said before, his stuff looks better, but I think it is simple enough that anyone can follow it and get good results. What I do is:

1) Base the skin with tanned flesh, then wash with 2 parts Tanned Flesh/1 part Liche Purple/~10 parts Water.

2) After that I do a first highlight of Dwarf Flesh which will actually cover quite a large area as you should only see the washed base color in the deepest recesses.

3) Next you do a second highlight of a 1:1 mix of Dwarf and Elf Flesh hitting the upper or raised areas of the skin.

4) Finally you do a straight highlight of Elf Flesh on the very edges or tips of the previous part.

What I like about this method is that you can easily change the ratios to make a more tanned or pale complexion. For my flagellants I followed this formula, but on my Elves I will probably move everything up a step. So it would be dwarf flesh, wash of dwarf + liche, 2:1 Elf and Dwarf flesh, 1:1 Elf and White or something like that. Just experiment with it and you should be able to find what works for you.

[szlachcic]

Sorry about the long break between updates! I have been busy with non-hobby related stuff and have not had as much time as I would like to paint or take pictures.

That being said I have worked on some of my FoW force and am close to completing the Crusader. Also, I now have my gaming room finished and will be including pictures of that.

First off, here are some of the FoW figures I have been working on. The camera washes out some of their shading so just keep in mind that they have more depth IRL and their skin is not done except for one of the machine gun crew. You may be wondering why a lot of my models don't have their skin done and it is due to two reasons. First, I usually do skin last as a preference, even though most say to do it first. Second, I need to get new paints for my skin tones as my current ones are drying out.

Random Vehicles:

The vehicles are not finished yet as they need detail work such as stowage, wheels, windshields, etc. picked out still.

Staff Team:


Company HQ, 2iC, and Observer team (not based):


MG Team w/o Transports:

You can see the highlighted skin on the loader in the team to the left of the command team. The rocks on two of the bases are not finished yet either.

[szlachcic]

Crusader (WIP):


Blood Angel Terminator (WIP):

In anticipation for Space Hulk I have been going back to my neglected BAs. I am attempting a blending technique that so far looks pretty good (it looks better IRL I swear haha), but I still have a lot to learn. It seems time consuming so I will probably only do it on characters, and will use faster techniques with the Space Hulk models as I doubt I can stomach painting 12 terminators this way.

Gaming Room:



Here is my gaming room which now has my recently finished Realm of Battle board, which was painted by Mike at Terranscapes. I have a painting station in the room as well as space to store all my minis and terrain. It is a little messy right now as I am still working out how I want to organize things, but there is actually plenty of room to game if you pull the chair out. The table is 8x4 feet in order to hold the gameboard and allow for reference material and models to be placed to the side. In the future, if GW offers single squares sometime, I might expand the board to be 8x4 as well.

Well, that is it for now. I hope to have more of my FoW force finished along with some 15mm terrain as well. Other than that I want to finish off the Crusader and move onto my last 'jack in my starter WM force. I actually played my first game of WM against my brother the other week. We had a good time and I was able to assassinate his caster by using Kreoss's feat to knock his force to the ground.

[Deusmex]

Yay ! Go team Ostermark!!

Im just starting an Ostermark army myself so I will be coming back to this for ideas to ste... errr I mean for inspiration.

All your stuff is very nicely done and an interesting mix of subjects too.

[PaleRaven]

That gaming work is super awesome, well done on getting it finished!
The crusader is looking really good to, nice clean colours, the paint scheme is thouroughly impressive!
Also, the terminator is awesome, you've done a really good attempt at blending, it's interesting that you decided to start from yellow/orrange, it gives the model a very unique "firery" glow.
Keep up the good work,
Raven

[szlachcic]

That gaming work is super awesome, well done on getting it finished!
The crusader is looking really good to, nice clean colours, the paint scheme is thouroughly impressive!
Also, the terminator is awesome, you've done a really good attempt at blending, it's interesting that you decided to start from yellow/orrange, it gives the model a very unique "firery" glow.
Keep up the good work,
Raven

Thanks for all the compliments! As for the Terminator, I am trying the "firery" look as my other BAs are mostly older paint jobs with just flat red paint and I wanted something different. I like the look, but I think I will give it one final red wash to bring down the brightness a bit.

[spetswalshe]

Whoah that Gold wizard is awesome. The metallification detail is spot on. I also really like the purple and yellow colourscheme but the fluff purist in me feels the need to mention that purple dye would be considered extremely rare, hence it being the colour of royalty. But details like that are why you are a good painter and I am just a fool with a history book

[szlachcic]

Whoah that Gold wizard is awesome. The metallification detail is spot on. I also really like the purple and yellow colourscheme but the fluff purist in me feels the need to mention that purple dye would be considered extremely rare, hence it being the colour of royalty. But details like that are why you are a good painter and I am just a fool with a history book

Haha, you are right about how purple dye would be very rare. I always thought it was strange that Ostermark, which I have always seen to be a a relatively poor province, has purple as one of their main colors. Its Warhammer, what can I say .

[Wintermute]

I'm moving this thread to the new Random Project Logs Forum.

Wintermute