HereBeDragons' Paintathon

[HereBeDragons]

Most recent work completed: WHQ: Barbarian


In 2012 I aimed to paint 4 models a week, and although it didn't go quite as smoothly as that, I actually managed to better that aim, getting 212 models complete over the course of the year. Now (2013), I have even more models to paint! The main projects will continue to be my Dark Eldar army and the models needed to play the Warhammer Quest core game, but also I am also aiming to collect (and paint!) the monsters needed to play the Lair of the Orc Lord WHQ expansion and the Level 1 roleplay table. I have already made significant progress on the collecting side of things! I also took an interest in Soda Pop miniatures' Super Dungeon Explore game last year, picking up the core game and the caverns of roxor expansion, and Malifaux from Wyrd miniatures. I only have a single crew so far but I anticipate picking up others as time goes on! That's a quick low down of what I will be painting in 2013, starting on page 28, but here is a full summary of my model collection as it stands:

• Dark Eldar ~4000pts (2736pts finished and counting)
• Imperial Guard ~4500pts (basically finished)
• Eldar (A squad of Dire Avengers half painted)
  
• Lizardmen ~6500pts (3/4 painted)
• Goblins ~1500pts (~1/2 of the models painted)
• Dark Elves ~3000pts (mostly gaming standard but want to improve)
  
• Warhammer Quest: Creating my own copy of the core game set from scratch (65/91 models, 8/34 tiles finished)
• WHQ Extra stuff: roleplay tables and expansions: (29/85 that I own painted)
  
• Blood Bowl: Talabheim Tossers. 15 man human team (Finished!)
  
• Dreadfleet (COMPLETE!)
  
• Whole load of LOTR models without much in the way of armies
  
• Malifaux - Lucius' crew so far (0/5 models finished)
  
• Super Dungeon Explore - core game (0/52 models finished)
  - Caverns of Roxor (0/37 models finished)

Last updated: 7th May 2013

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Hi! welcome to my first attempt at a plog! Im hoping that having this will help me keep painting and modelling, especially during the long weeks when I get back to university, as well as help me improve my skills. All comments and criticisms welcome!

I've been collecting GW miniatures for about 8 years, and unfortunatley have the habit of collecting far faster than I paint! As such I have large collections for all 3 main game systems which will probably feature here in time. So heres a rough guide to my collection when I started this plog:

Anywho! Enough talking already lets get some pictures! Im afraid these are my first attempts at photographing models so I apologise if they're not that great. Any hints and tips in that department would be greatly appreciated!

First of all my recently converted Dark Elf Dreadlord on Dragon (thought I'd better justify my name!)



And a pic of just the rider:



Also the Lord Commissar from my Imperial Guard army, the Halon 22nd:





Cheers for reading!

[eltanko]

pics could do with a little improvement! But the Commissar looks very good, I like the look of the breastplate.

ElTanko

[icecream boy]

Same ^^^ the gold details really make it stand out

[nedsta]

commissar looks awesome, can't wait to see what you can do with the dark elf and his pet,

[leonmallett]

The Commisar does look great.

[Fist of Crimson]

I have to agree. The Commissar looks terrific.
I'd love to see a better picture of him if you can manage it. Seems like the camera focused on his base rather than the rest of him

[HereBeDragons]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Apologies again for the photo quality I'll see what I can do about getting some better pictures of the commissar, though I expect its going to be a case of practice makes perfect! lol

Heres a couple of picks of what I've managed to get done over the last couple of days. Started assembling some Eldar Dire Avengers, 5 done so far. Man it takes a long time to get rid of all those mold lines!



The head and the arm holding the gun are seperate to ease painting. I've also only pined the model to the base, since I want to go to town a bit on those once I have the right materials.



Gonna get the last 5 of these assembled over the next couple of days hopefully, then I'll be able to start painting the dragon! It looks like I may need to do a bit of green stuffing of the shoulder pads to smooth them off properly... bit of a pain but oh well! Cheers for reading!

[HereBeDragons]

Well since pictures of grey plastic assembled stright from the box is pretty boring I thought I'd quickly "paint" up something a bit different: Invisible Frodo!



I've also managed to get some better pictures of the Lord Commissar so without further ado:







Sorry that its taken so damn long to sort these out, had intended getting them up a couple of days ago but life had to go get in the way lol. The Dire Avenger squad is now fully assembled and it has been sunny enough this morning to get everything undercoated so its on with the Dragon!

[juicytomatoes]

Wow the Commissar looks good even so close up. Impressive! Lookin' forward to more of your work.

[HereBeDragons]

Wow the Commissar looks good even so close up. Impressive! Lookin' forward to more of your work.

Cheers! Looks like I've set the standard for myself, I hope I can keep it up! lol

WIP photos of my dragon for people to comment on. I stress: COMMENT ON!!

Lol not trying to sound too crazy but I really need some feed back on this guy. Would attach suitable smilie but I think I need the picture space. The tail has been painted as I intend to paint the rest of the dragons body, to I think the full standard, so please please please let me know what you think, what I can do to improve it etc. Anyway heres some pics:







The base is also painted with the exception of the gem on the (I like to think) very recently knocked-off-its-rock high elf pillar:



I've also got a couple of pics of my assembled eldar dire avenger squad



including Exarch with two avenger shuriken catapults and bladestorm Lots of shooty death!



So yeah do please (dunno if ive mentioned this enough yet lol) comment on the dragon WIPs so I can get on and paint the rest of him. Probably gonna start on the rider while I wait for your opinions. Thanks everyone!

[Aenarion]

I really like what you've done with the 'boney' parts on the dragons tail, I've never thought to add the darker bits at the top. It looks good, and give it that nice menacing feeling, that im sure all dark elves need! You thought maybe just adding an extra highlight to the scales, I know it would be a chore but I think it could be worth it. Base is looking good, overall nice work! Can't fault.

Really liking the Commisar, Avengers in craftworld colours?

[HereBeDragons]

I really like what you've done with the 'boney' parts on the dragons tail, I've never thought to add the darker bits at the top. It looks good, and give it that nice menacing feeling, that im sure all dark elves need! You thought maybe just adding an extra highlight to the scales, I know it would be a chore but I think it could be worth it. Base is looking good, overall nice work! Can't fault.

Really liking the Commisar, Avengers in craftworld colours?

Thanks very much for the positive feedback! I was wondering whether an extra highlight on the scales was needed myself. They've already had two highlights so whats one more? lol. I was also thinking the fan on the tail could do with an extra highlight towards the top just to make it stand out that little bit more... I'm quite pleased with the spines, was VERY doubtful when I started but came out nicely in the end. The idea came from some of the painting articles in White Dwarf. They advise that if the skin area is dark then start with a light base for horns/spins to provide more contrast

I plan to paint the avengers in standard aspect colours when I managed to get round to it.


Finished the steel areas on the Dragon's rider so here are a couple of picks:







I decided to add a Devlan Mud wash directly into the recesses in order to remove any overly shiny and pristene looking armour effect. That would have been a bit too High Elf for my liking!

Thanks for reading everyone! Comments appreciated!

[juicytomatoes]

love the flaming bits on the tail. the scales on the armor are also beautifully done. Keep it up!

[Farseer Emrys]

I'm quite impressed with the look of the rocky outcrop the dragon is leaping from. I find it very dificult to paint realistic-looking rocks.

How dit you get it to look the way it does? nice job (Dragons is looking good aswel )

Merlyn

[Fist of Crimson]

Commissar still looks great in the better pictures. Nice work, particularly the gold on the sword's hilt.

Dragon looks fine as is to me. I don't think I would add more highlights if it was me but it surely wouldn't hurt if you have the time and motivation.

And congratulations on cleaning up the avengers mold lines. I've had to do that job before now and it isn't much fun.

[HereBeDragons]

Woohoo! Lots of comments!

love the flaming bits on the tail. the scales on the armor are also beautifully done. Keep it up!

Commissar still looks great in the better pictures. Nice work, particularly the gold on the sword's hilt.

Dragon looks fine as is to me. I don't think I would add more highlights if it was me but it surely wouldn't hurt if you have the time and motivation.

And congratulations on cleaning up the avengers mold lines. I've had to do that job before now and it isn't much fun.

Thanks guys! Those mold lines on the DAs are horrendous lol the rest of the Eldar plastics had better not be the same or this is gonna be one hell of an army build! lol

I'm quite impressed with the look of the rocky outcrop the dragon is leaping from. I find it very dificult to paint realistic-looking rocks.

How dit you get it to look the way it does? nice job (Dragons is looking good aswel )

Merlyn

When painting rocks I find that copious amounts of drybrushing is the best way forward. The ones in the pictures above were painted as follows:

1. Start with a black undercoat
2. paint watered down (not a wash but a bit runny) Dark Flesh into the recesses
3. Once dry hit it with a heavy drybrush of codex grey
4. Then, focusing on the edges/corners, I do two further, lighter drybrushes with Fortress Grey followed by Rotting Flesh

Hope that helps!

Managed to make a reasonable amount of progress, still a fair amount to do though. Im hoping to have the entire model done by the end of the weekend but we'll see how that works out! So anyway, new pics:





I've started work on the metal areas, so have them, the wings and the head to finish. At least most of the scales are done! Also a couple of pictures of all the bits blue tacked together:





Thanks very much for reading!

[eltanko]

That dragon looks great so far. I love the spikes on his back, the way you have blended them from beige to black looks awesome. And the purple fabric is very nice too. Look forward to more.

ElTanko

[HereBeDragons]

Woohoo! Finally the wait is over, the dragon and lord is complete! A little bit later than intended perhaps but no matter. Pics:







And some pictures of just the dreadlord:





Hope you like them! I now have until friday to paint up a test model for my Dire Avengers before I leave for uni so hopefully I'll have some updates for that before too long.

Comments appreciated and thanks for reading!

[bluewolf74727]

That is one awesome dragon looking forward to seeing more

[Goat of Yuggoth]

Good going there, I like the 'feel' of the lord now that it's been painted.
On a slight sidenote, I'd thought that you'd be painting the tongue slightly brighter, considering it already has so much purple. I like it nonetheless..
On to the next dragon or what?? Keep it going.

Cheers,
Goat