Blood and bloody ashes - Matrim paints all things fantasy

[Bingo the Fun Monkey]

A well executed Nordland army using the old empire plastics. Yellow is a difficult color. Ballsy to do it with blue.

[Morten C]

Nice painting mate Really good looking empire army. I often go fore a more gritty and serious look, no matter what army I paint, but this type is really looking good as well

[Matrim_Cauthon]

A well executed Nordland army using the old empire plastics. Yellow is a difficult color. Ballsy to do it with blue.

Thanks man... I find the trick to painting yellow is undercoating white and then laying a very uniform basecoat (in my case Iyanden Darksun). The basecoat may require several passings as yellow indeed does not always cover as well as it should, even using foundation paints. I really like those old plastics by the way. So much easier to paint than those new state troopers, which are - if you ask me - a serious pain in the a$$.

Nice painting mate Really good looking empire army. I often go fore a more gritty and serious look, no matter what army I paint, but this type is really looking good as well

Thanks a lot! Yeah I think that gritty and serious are not really my style .

I thought I'd show you guys a WIP of what I'm working on at the moment.



The batch painting was so succesful I now plan to paint the entire Skaven side of one of my IoB sets. That's right... 47 rats in one batch! The only rats I did not include were the Rat Ogres because they will have a totally different colours scheme (skin wise). The WIP shows a conversion I am planning to make the Poisoned Wind Mortar look as if it just released a shot. Not quite sure if my greenstuff skills are up to it, but we will have to see. I think I might finish a test model first to see if the colour scheme works.

Cheers for looking. As always, leave a comment if you saw something that struck you as nice, interesting or just plain awful!

[Matrim_Cauthon]

Yes! The skaven are done. Now I only have to do 2 more sets and we're done... but I guess that's just how it goes with Skaven. I won't do those now though. So... as with my empire dudes I will post up how I painted them here for future reference (and perhaps one or two of you chaps who might find it useful):

Round 0: spray paint with Army Painter Vermin Fur (DON't DO THIS - THE SPRAY PAINT SUCKS) - I will get back to this
Round 1: Paint all cloth Dark Angels Green
Round 2: Paint the shields with Calthan Brown
Round 3: Paint the tufts of hair with Adaptus Battlegrey
Round 4: Paint the metal parts Boltgun Metal
Round 5: Paint some metal parts Dwarf Bronze
Round 6: Paint some cloth strips Dheneb Stone
Round 7: Empty a pot of Devlan Mud over the lot of them!
Round 8: Highlight the cloth with Dark Angels Green
Round 9: Further highlight the cloth with Snot Green
Round 10: Highlight the skaven skin with Vermin Brown
Round 11: Highlight the metal parts with Boltgun Metal
Round 12: Highlight the white cloth stripes with Dheneb Stone (in hindsight: too much work for what it looks like!!)
Round 13: Paint the eyes with Scab Red
Round 14: Dot the eyes with Fiery Orange
Round 15: Paint all leather strips Snakebite Leather (I find that if I do this before the wash they blend too much in with the skin)
Round 16: Paint the teeth with Bleached Bone (in hindsight they look Colgate rats now... maybe another wash will be better)
Round 17: Do the bases (in the same way I did my empire guys above - only change Vermin Brown with Snakebite Leather).

Picture time:





















The characters are for the next post (picture limit)...

[Matrim_Cauthon]

So here are the Island of Blood Skaven characters I painted up along the batch of clanrats:

The Standard Bearers of the clanrat regiments:


The Warpfire thrower:


The Warlord:


The Warlock Engineer:


This picture clearly shows why I would not ever recommend the army painter spray paints to anyone anymore. Very grainy outcome... although I did what it said on the tin. Aah well - maybe this is a sign of the paint gods that I have to buy a spray gun?

The Master Moulder (for the time being without his Rat Ogres):


And the Poisoned Wind Mortar:


I am particularly curious what you think of the Mortar... it is the first time I used Green Stuff for something other than filling gaps. I quite like the effect - but maybe it could use another highlight? Not sure though... let me know!

And a sneak peek at what I am working on at the moment:


An internet cookie for who knows who this shield (these shields ) belongs to!

[Cragum]

I am liking the skaven but the one thing I would give advice on the Mortar is that you probably want to make the swirling part a bit lighter, kinda of like a green smokey effects. At the moment it seems to blend in too much with the globe itself.

Really good work though!

[King Thor]

Amazing, simply amazing! I am in the same boat, with 2 small kids, so to see you do this and the high quality is inspirational! Keep up the awesome work...

[Boreas_NL]

Nice Skaven update, but I absolutely prefer your Halberdiers! What an amazing unit! A good mix between old and new plastic bits combined with nice painting makes for a stunning result! Also an interesting choice on the Warrior Priest. Is it an AoW model?

[Matrim_Cauthon]

I am liking the skaven but the one thing I would give advice on the Mortar is that you probably want to make the swirling part a bit lighter, kinda of like a green smokey effects. At the moment it seems to blend in too much with the globe itself. Really good work though!

You are absolutely right. Some people gave me the same advice when they saw it in real life too. I will get back to it. Thanks!

Amazing, simply amazing! I am in the same boat, with 2 small kids, so to see you do this and the high quality is inspirational! Keep up the awesome work...

Thanks a lot for the kind words mate. It is not easy indeed, but I try to get some painting done when they take a nap in the afternoon. But then there's work and diner and dishes and... you know how it goes!

Nice Skaven update, but I absolutely prefer your Halberdiers! What an amazing unit! A good mix between old and new plastic bits combined with nice painting makes for a stunning result! Also an interesting choice on the Warrior Priest. Is it an AoW model?

Thanks Boreas! I spent quite some time on them so it's good to see they are liked. The warrior priest is indeed an AOW model (linky). I think it matches the style perfectly.

So now on to some new models. These Chaos Knights took me ages to finish. The red took forever (base, wash, highlight, another wash, another two or three highlights...). And I still think it came out a bit flat. As a unit I think they look cool though. And it is nice to finish 10 cavalry models in one go. Bit strange they took longer then the 50-odd skaven .





As always, let me know what you think. It's your feedback that plays a big part in keeping me going!

Cheers,

Matrim.

[LocaLicious]

They look rly good!
Correct me if I'm wrong .. the light doesn't compliment them very well, does it? It seems there is a yellow-ish glow about them. I might be wrong
The red looks good. I think you could get even more depth by adding some scorched brow "wash" to the deepest areas .. something I'm struggling with my self on red stuff I paint :P

[Toshiro]

Stunning minis all around!

[Matrim_Cauthon]

Stunning minis all around!

Thanks!!

They look rly good!
Correct me if I'm wrong .. the light doesn't compliment them very well, does it? It seems there is a yellow-ish glow about them. I might be wrong
The red looks good. I think you could get even more depth by adding some scorched brow "wash" to the deepest areas .. something I'm struggling with my self on red stuff I paint :P

I got this comment before... can you - or someone else - try to explain why this could be the case? I have absolutely no idea why the colours come out yellowish. Thanks for the tip on the scorched brown wash - will have to try that next time!

[LocaLicious]

Some times when I use artificial light, like a standard lamp from my desk, my pics often turn out yellowish .. In my experience sunlight provides the best lighting for a photoshoot ... I dno if that is the reason .. but you can try it some time and see if theres a difference in the result :S my best guess ..

[Matrim_Cauthon]

Small update...

Been trying a new photography technique. Technique is too big a word I guess, I just mean I took pictures outside . You can compare the results with my previous post. I think the colours look more realistic now, albeit a bit on the dark side. Might try again when it's a little more sunny!





And a new mini too: a Skaven Doom Flayer. Really nice quality miniature to paint. Was lucky to purchase the metal version before the finecrappy one came out. Hope you like!



Now working on this fellow's bigger cousin: a Doomwheel. I am spending a lot of time on the base... hope the time will pay of!

Feel free to leave comments and perhaps even to rate my thread!

[LocaLicious]

In my opinion the out side pics looks better ,and yes mb try taking some when the sun is out too
gj on the Doom flayer .. I don't think I've even seen that model before tbh :O
Looking forward to see the Doomwheel

[Matrim_Cauthon]

Lots of work went into this next piece. The base especially took a lot of time, but I think it pays off. I used some Hirst Arts cast pieces to make it look as if it is trampling through a ruined temple of some sorts (to match with some Island of Blood scenery). The pics were taken outside and are a little better then my previous ones I think.

Let me know what you think!!

[LocaLicious]

The base is rly cool . I like it when theres something going on on the bases ... something I'm not good at my self.
Great colors and great paint job. Could be cool with some close ups of the machine it self as well. Good job!

[Toshiro]

Wow, those are some truly amazing Nordlanders, well done!

[Matrim_Cauthon]

The base is rly cool . I like it when theres something going on on the bases ... something I'm not good at my self.
Great colors and great paint job. Could be cool with some close ups of the machine it self as well. Good job!

Thanks a lot, man! More pics to follow, I promise.

Wow, those are some truly amazing Nordlanders, well done!

Well thank you good sir!

The reason I haven't posted a lot lately is that we have been forced to move house. This left little time for painting and even less for taking pictures. I did manage to get a unit of 3 Yhetees done though, so I will post them as soon as I find the time. Close ups of the Doomwheel are coming soon too!

Thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming.

[Matrim_Cauthon]

Had a little time so I took some pictures of the Yhetees I finished a couple of weeks ago:



I tried to go for a warm white contrasted by the ice weapons. A lot of people don't like these models but I think they look great, and they were a blast to paint.

Still working on Skulltaker, and also adding some finishing touches to a Wraith and Banshee I got for my (30th) birthday last month. All three are great models to work with, I hope I will be doing them justice

Comments are very welcome as always!