Where I try to rediscover my enthusiasm for painting

[tcmainprize]

Evening all.

After pretty much a total break from painting for a couple of years or so due to an assortment of other commitments I've recently found myself with some spare time on my hands (mainly due to crap weather meaning cricket matches have been cancelled) and decided to pick up my brushes again. In a bid to get back in to it I've decided rather than start a big project like a new army, I would stick to small projects and have a bash at colouring in any odd models or small regiment that takes my fancy. I'm finding it hard to rediscover my old enthusiasm though and thought I'd start posting some pics here in the hope that with some encouragement and constructive comments from the good folks on Warseer i might actually get some stuff finished. And who knows maybe even get up the motivation to finish the Night Goblin army I've been painting since Skull Pass was released.


First thing I've started... well finished off really is some old plastic dark elf swordsmen. These have been sat on my desk for probably the last 3 years so only fair they got finished off first. I've only got the bases to do, and no doubt I'll spot some odd finishing touches that need doing



I've also made a start on an Empire Great Canon. I'm still undecided on which colour scheme to go for on the crew, leaning towards Ostermark.



The final thing I'm working on is a converted/scratch built Nurgle Chaos Snail. It's an idea I've had in mind for years and years and figured now was the time to have a go, especially having picked up a back of decorative shells from the closing down sale at my local garden centre.


Still needs a lot of work but I think you can get the general idea from what I've managed so far. Need to get some new Greenstuff before i can finish this one.

Thanks in advance for looking and i look forward to comments and suggestions.

Cheers

Tom

[HereBeDragons]

Ha! The snail monster is excellent!

[Little Joe]

Those are some old dark elves, nice paint job in an almost classic style as well. Same colours, better painting.

Small projects are nice to get things done, those same Night Goblins are giving me a paint block over and over again. Going with the flow works best for me. If it is a one off project with the cannon take sme colours you have not used before. Besides getting possibly more paint it will give you experience with choosing colours.

Nice conversion for the snail, was there ever a model/rule for it? Scibor Miniatures seems to have a lot of them as well.

[tcmainprize]

Well it's been a while since i posted anything on here hasn't it. In my defence I have moved house which cut in to my already limited painting time.

I've managed to finished the Dark Elves and do a bit more on the cannon. Poor old snail/hermit crab monster has been gathering dust though i'm afraid.

A few pic of the canon.





Decided on Nordland colours in the end. I've done some empire models in those colours before and I think they are my favourite colours for them. Pic of a war wagon I did about 10 years ago now by way of example. I've got 2 war wagons in a box somewhere that i'll get round to building and painting sometime, although having seen the price they're going for on a well known internet auction site i'm tempted to just sell.


Promise i will try to post again soon.

Happy painting.

Tom

[Daniel36]

Man, you were a great painter ten years ago already! Still going strong too, I see. If you are trying to rediscover your enthusiasm, let me just tell you I am enthusiastic for you. Your painting looks great. I don't see many Nordland armies either, so that's cool. Don't sell the war wagons, go war wagon spam!! How awesome would that army look?! But if there are any of those old sixth edition Spearmen you dislike, Talabecland welcomes them all. They will have a fine home down by the river Taal.

[tcmainprize]

Many thanks for the kind comments so far. I'm afraid i haven't got any 6th edition spearmen Daniel36. I've got several boxes of the original multipart plastic empire soldiers knocking around. I've got a few ideas about what i might do with them, mainly involving combining with parts from the militia kit to create some more rough and ready looking units. Like the idea of war wagon spam. My brother keeps telling me i should do an articulated war wagon pulled by a steam tank with them.

Anyway just for a sense of completeness, and to prove I have actually finished something, here's a pic of the completed Dark Elves.

[Shush]

I think your snail will look amazing when it's finished! Icky in the good way!

[blackcherry]

Very nice. The snail does look pretty cool and those dark elves are amazing .

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

The snail is awesome, definitely looking forward to seeing how that fellow comes out (and tempted to crank out a few myself for my Nurgle WoC!). It reminds me of an old dragon ogre conversion I saw once, which was the ogre torso, head, and arms placed in the opening of an upside-down snail shell which itself had numerous spikes serving as the legs.

[Daniel36]

No worries! Even if you had them, Talabecland would'nt have minded if they stayed in Nordland. We rather have our neighbours do all the fighting while we stay in relative peace. Them Beastmen and ghastly Ghouls are enough trouble as is.

I forgot to say, excellent snail! I've had that idea myself for ages as well, but I never got around to actually doing it. I think I saw it in a White Dwarf too one time. It looks great. Are you going to keep it at 1, or are you going for a small unit?

[tcmainprize]

A small update. Not much progress on the canon I'm afraid. One crewman finished and made a bit of a start on the shirts of the other two.


I have however managed to finish off some Dwarf Clansmen from the Skull Pass boxed set that I started many moons ago. Quite pleased with how they've come out. Not sure how I'm going to base them yet though.


I've got 2 weeks of leave from work to use up before the end of March so I might manage a few more substantial posts sometime soon.

As always thanks for looking and for all the encouragement I've received so far.

Cheers

Tom

[Shush]

The blue and yellow look very nice, I think they work really well together

[gwmainprize]

Articulated War Wagon?!? Pulled by a Steam Tank?!? Sounds like a splendid idea to me.

Do it. You know you want to.

[tcmainprize]

Hello again folks,

Bit of an update, pretty much finished the cannon at the weekend so thought I'd post a couple of pictures.



Overall I'm quite happy with how it's come out. Looking at the pics I've noticed a few small touch ups that are needed, and i think the blue might need an extra highlight. Not quite sure how to do the bases yet, might do a scenic base to mount it on.

Not sure what to do next. I've had a bit of a rummage through my draws and boxes of stuff and found a few possibilities:

Something for my night goblin army
More Dwarves
Goblin Spider Riders
Some ancient plastic space marines
Some Black Tree Designs models I was converting to chaos marauders
A converted Chaos Centaur Knight standard bearer
Moria Goblins
40k models from an Inquisitor retinue - I converted the Inquisitor into a Nurgle chaos champion
Fenrisian Wolves
More Empire (G if you buy me a steam tank I'll do the articulated war wagon)
And yes i know I've got Crabbo/Snailo monster to finish.

Open to the good folks of Warseer persuading me towards any of the above.

As always comments and constructive criticism is very welcome.

Cheers for now

Tom

[Shush]

I'd love to see the wolves please !

[Azendral]

Nice, I really like the Chaos Snail, looks extremely nasty, almost so you don't want to touch the model.

Cool to see some Nordland colours too, a friend of mine in our local gaming club also does Nordland.

[Sureshot05]

Night Goblins!

But that cannon crew is excellent. You really paint very neatly and your cannon reflects this (pun intended!). Also, well done on the dwarves, I find the models infuriating to paint so its nice to see that you've done really well with them.

[tcmainprize]

Afternoon all,

Brief update. Seems as I've actually managed to finish a few things, treated myself to these in the week care of Ken Bromley Art Supplies.



Expensive as far as brushes go but always worth the investment in my opinion, and i was due some new ones.

And in a shameless attempt to please all the people all the time, next 2 projects on the workbench are...






Cheers for now

Tom

P.S. If anyone can tell me how to get the pictures to appear "big" in the post rather than having to click on the little image I'd be much obliged.

[Sureshot05]

I use photobucket and then link them into my plog using [ i m g ] tags.

[tcmainprize]

Evening all,

Quick update. No progress on the Wolves but....



I Have finished my Skull Pass Night Goblin Boss. Will post a group shot of my Night Goblins so far sometime this week.

Thanks for looking.

Tom