The Hobby Desk and Back Again: A Log by Doi

[Doi]

Progress has been surprisingly quick so far since basecoat/wash/drybrush can all be done with a big brush . Now that I'm working on Cang himself I expect my pace to drop.


Doi

[silverstu]

Not got that finished yet?

Looking great- love the colour of the tower, nice contrast against the dragon. Are you going to do Cang as a straight back/white grey or are you going to add a colour like a green grey or blue grey?

[Doi]

Who do you think I am, Harry?

I'm not entirely sure on the final colour for Cang. I painted the rocks a blue-grey so I could go for the standard grey which the rest of my Dark Elves have (like in the first post of this thread) but make the wing membranes a lighter shade as opposed to the darker shade of my other DE dragons. I've been tempted to get purple into the mix somehow (since my Dark Elves are so original with the black/purple/silver theme ) but I'm not sure how. I don't want him to come out as just a really dark purple/green/blue dragon so I'm wary of just mixing in a tint colour, so maybe markings is the way to go? Maybe use a 50:50 Nuln Oil/Druchii Violet washes instead of straight Nuln Oil (and possibly over a slightly lighter grey?) for the chest, throat and cheeks? I've started base coating him with a 2:1 Mechanicus Standard Grey/Abbadon Black basecoat, but I didn't mix up enough . The parts I've done look pretty nice so far though.

I've been making up the painting process on the go for the rocks and tower, so why not do Cang on the fly too?


Doi

[EmperorNorton]

I'm not entirely sure on the final colour for Cang.

I'm thinking neon pink. You know, to make him really pop. He's a bit too subtle as he is.

[Doi]

Well sadly I had run out of my neon pink paints .

After another round of gladwrap and painter's tape to cover up the base and tower, it was time to tackle Cang. Despite the fact that I still have an airbrush NIB since I bought it nearly (two years ago!) I decided to tackle this with a paint brush...

But use a big enough brush and it works out ok!

After I undercoated him 2:1 Mechanicus Standard Grey/Abbadon Black, I thought I'd try something in between highlighting and the 'underlighting' I've seen people do before airbrushing on the base colour, and I somewhat heavy-handidly applied a layer of Mechanicus Standard Grey. I then decided to go for a two-tone skin colour so I painted his stomach/chest/neck flap thing Mechanicus Standard Grey and layered on Codex Grey.





Then hit the darker areas with Nuln Oil and the lighter areas with 50:50 Nuln Oil/Druchii Violet (and proceeded to take horrible photos):




Then I layered on Mechanicus Standard Grey and then Codex Grey to both areas:



And then washed them again. I decided the purple areas were too grey so I then applied a straight Druchii Violet wash over the top. Had to fiddle with the colour contrasts with this picture so the tower looks funny.




Next steps are going to be:
Nuln Oil into 'black' recesses
Druchii Violet into 'purple' recesses
Maybe another thin Druchii Violet wash depending on the outcome
Highlight the more bony-plate-ish scales (like the shoulder)
Wing membranes
Spikes
Mouth/teeth/eyes

EDIT: And so far I've used 3/4 a pot of Nuln Oil...


Doi

[Doi]

Between a Master's thesis, PhD application, and a heart attack in my immediate family I've been pretty short on hobby time lately, but 2/3 of those are now resolved and I'm back in business!

I haven't got pictures for an update on the progress of Cang, but I've now tried painting the wing membranes twice and I'm looking down the barrel of a second re-paint...

On a more positive note, while I've been pushed for time the past few weeks all of my parcels have been rocking up. First up, a forest:



Long story short: got sent the wrong stuff, and then not enough of the right stuff so I got to keep it all for free, got 21 extra trees, and I just have to paint on some snow. While I have four months off between degrees I'm hoping to get in some games of WFB since I haven't played in many a year (and have an entire two games of 8th under my belt). I built a snow table ~2 years back and haven't used it yet, so I've decided to christen it by playing ~3K points a side of fully painted armies of WFB, but I was lacking in terrain. So I bought a heap of trees and now I'm turning them into terrain-sized forests to start with. The plan is to set it all up in a similar fashion to these, but I haven't played in a long time so I'm not sure what sizes are suitable. I knocked up a few test sizes using the packing material, how do they look?

2 base



3 base



4 base



5 base




And since WFB cant have all the fun, I also received a parcel containing a heap of lasercut MDF buildings with LEDs and motors:



I dry-fitted the core structure of the Depot (one of the smallest ones) and assembly was a breeze:



I was a tad concerned that the LEDs weren't going to be all that bright since they are really tiny:



But in the end they are so bright the camera decided it couldn't hack it...




Also, the first two fulfillment waves of the Kingdom Death: Monster kickstarter rocked up (because me to do list for that range wasn't big enough already)!




Doi

[Loth]

I'm really looking forward to see what you do with those lights in your buildings. I'm holding off on building my Infinity table until I figure the lighting portion out. Great work.

Loth

[Doi]

Heeeeeeeeeeerrrre's Johnny Doi!

I really didn't think it had been this long since I updated this plog...

Long story short: Master's thesis due, Dad had a heart attack, Master's thesis submitted, Dad underwent open heart surgery, back to work effectively full time (and more) for past few months, PhD application submitted and approved. And somewhere in amongst all of that I managed to get some hobby work done...

First off, I finished the dragon in the room. I took pictures over Christmas but they were a bit pants, and it has taken a month for a day off to coincide with somewhat suitable days for taking new photos...






Even with the better lighting conditions I still couldn't get a decent picture of the two-tone skin tone I went with, so I had to fudge this one in GIMP.



Gimme a kiss. Bit hard to tell in the photo but Cang is covered in scars which I've painted with Tamiya Clear Red to look like fresh wounds.



I've also (almost) finished the unnamed Dreadlord to sit atop him. Just haven't done a shield.



And sitting in place (still not decided if I permanently attack him or not).



And when I set the table up over Christmas I couldn't resist an action shot of the (finished) big models from two of my WFB armies.




***************************************

I've been on an assembly kick lately. I've built 25 Blackguard, 10 Executioners, 10 Warlocks, 4 Harpies, 3 Assassins, and a Kharibdyss for for Dark Elves, and all of the monster models for Kingdom Death: Monster. And being the smart man I am, didn't take a single picture before packing everything away...

At the moment I am working on two units of 20 Corsairs for my Dark Elves. I'm using the previous metal versions but converting them with weapons from the new plastic kit to add a bit of variety. These are still in progress so I'll try to remember pictures before packing them away.

EDIT: Seems the new pictures are only slightly less pants. If only my light box was twice the size...


Doi

[Doi]

As nice as the new plastic kits are, I prefer the old metal versions of Dark Elf Black Guard, Executioners, and Corsairs. While I've left my Black Guard and Executioners stock standard as I'm only going to have a unit of each, I've got enough Corsairs for two units so I've been converting some with weapons out of the new plastic Corsair box. I never bought much of the metal Dark Elves when I first worked on this army (my first) as I was young and the ability to get more guys from plastic kits was appealing so I had to track these down off of eBay which ended up a mixed bag of undercoated and painted models (and a whole three models in bare metal ). Old Dark Elf metals have to be right up there with the worst models to strip ever between the abundance of deep crevices for paint to hide and sharp pointy bits making them a pain to hold...

Some of the converted models:







I also managed to end up with every champion model variant plus a spare of my all-time favourite GW model. The two on the left are going to be my unit champions, one of the duplicates will be converted into my Fleet Master, and the other will be left as is to paint up for show.




Doi

[EmperorNorton]

I love the table shot in front of the background of your weird, sunny, green Australian Christmas.

Good job on the Corsair conversions too. I vaguely recall somebody else doing something like that.

[Doi]

Christmas this last year was a nice 34 degrees Celsius . Now that you mention it, maybe I like doing snow bases on everything because I've never seen snow before...

And I knew someone here had done it before, but I just couldn't remember which 100+ page plog it was in to check .


Doi

[silverstu]

Hey Doi!! The dragon turned out brilliantly! Love the purple chest! Nice looking dark elves- time for an update??

[tcmainprize]

Great to see some photo's of Cang in action...really get a sense of just how mahoosive he is. A superb centrepiece!

Can I ask where the fir trees are from? They look better quality than many I've seen.

Cheers

Tom

[Doi]

Thanks, guys!

Can I ask where the fir trees are from? They look better quality than many I've seen.

I ordered them from a local Christmas specialist shop, but the brand is Lemax. It costs ~$30AUD for 21 trees from ~1.5-8" tall, but imagine you could pick it up for not much more than a tenner in the UK.

Hey Doi!! The dragon turned out brilliantly! Love the purple chest! Nice looking dark elves- time for an update??

For you, why not?

Sadly, I haven't had a great deal of time this year to work on hobby stuff and even less to paint. I'm doing ~50 hours a week for my PhD including travel and working another ~20 (and soon to start an internship for another ~7). It does mean that I've got a nice income though so the to-do pile is ever increasing...

First up, since I didn't have one yet I took a picture of my Ork HQ section as it stands. I want to add at least a KFF Big Mek, Mega-Armoured Warboss, and another Weirdboy.



Speaking of uni, my textbooks need a bookend so I'm working on two diorama pieces to go into boxes I'm building. I've finished painting Pan from Studio McVey to go in one of them. The Australian sun is sitting at 150% brightness today so you'll notice a recurring theme of washed out photos even after I've tried correcting them...




I've started on my Rotbringer's force for AoS. First up is my Gutrot Spume/Lord of Plagues. I've replaced the maw inside the tentacles with an eye from the Spawn kit, and the head and scythe from the Blight Kings kit.




Second Lord of Plagues. I need to do something with the base to make him stand out from the normal Blight Kings, but I couldn't pass up the idea of a Nurgle Champion wielding a giant bell-hammer.



Like so many other people I'm using one of the Glotkin brothers as a Rotbringers Sorcerer (other brother will become a standard bearer in a Blight Kings unit).



And the first of the Blight Kings. Standard Bearer conveniently covering the model whose head fell off when I dropped the model bringing it to the light box.



Current plan is 2 Lord of Plagues, 2 Rotbringer Sorcerers, 2x7 Blight Kings and a Soul Grinder (Giant + Arachnarok Spider). Might get bumped up to 3x7 Blight Kings and some trolls/ogres, and maybe a warshine...

More below!


Doi

[Doi]

I've built up a sizeable Traitor Guard force (~90 infantry and two tanks), but not painted any yet. I'm trying to avoid the usual Chaos mutation look (tentacles, extra limbs/heads etc) and go for a more subhuman/abhuman look. The dregs of society finding support in the arms of Chaos. I'm mixing a huge amount of kits in this army (Guardsmen, Ungors, Crypt Ghouls, Flagellants, Dark Vengence Cultists, Victoria Lamb upgrade kits, and Adeptus Mechanicus stuff in the more elite units) but the mix of plastic, metal, and resin didn't co-operate with the camera so most of these pictures will have to wait...

Of the ~80 pictures I took today I can show 7! First up one of the Ministorum Priests to lead a conscript squad. I'm looking for that religious zealot look to the "grunts" in the army, and to turn the Imperium's "Purify With Fire" creed on its head so there is a recurring motif of fire amongst a lot of this force. I'm really pleased with this guy, and with Confessor Kyrinov coming back into stock this week I'm going to pick him up to replace my second priest (made from the Dark Vengeance model with the metal claw thing).



Continuing with the fire theme, I've built my Veteran's as close quarter's squads (flamers and shotguns!). They are Militarum Tempestus bodies with legs, arms, guns, and backpacks from Victoria Lamb Miniatures and heads from IIRC PuppetsWar. The heads will be painted up as badly burnt with the face plates melded to the skin. Originally I planned on making each Veteran squad a different gang and visually distinct, but I liked these guys so much I built two squads and I think I'll have a different gang for each type of veteran (i.e. close-quarters, stealth etc) instead.





I saw a similar conversion to this online somewhere I had to do one myself. I'm thinking I'll use it as a close-quarters Lord Commisar (maybe send with the Veterans). The pose doesn't look so odd when I have an actual object under the foot instead of a ball of greenstuff...




And here is an example of my Ogryns. Using heads from Dragon Ogres.



More to come!


Doi

[Doi]

Finally, in the spirit of the season (Kingdom Death kickstarter season, that is), I have some Kingdom Death painting WIPs.

White Knight and White Knight Heavy. I didn't want a stark contrast in the white armour, and wanted a warm white instead of the usual cold white I paint, but now that other colours have been applied I think I need to go back and shade the armour somewhat (pictures are really washed out though).




I've also finished painting (except for the base) my second favourite KD mini (behind the Mountain Man) the Gold Smoke Knight. I am really happy with the gold but the pictures are terrible . My camera doesn't like metallics (didn't even use the flash!).





Doi

[tcmainprize]

I ordered them from a local Christmas specialist shop, but the brand is Lemax. It costs ~$30AUD for 21 trees from ~1.5-8" tall, but imagine you could pick it up for not much more than a tenner in the UK.

Doi

Nice one. Thanks Doi. Would never have occurred to me to search for this sort of thing amongst Christmas paraphernalia, your estimate of what they might cost here in Blighty was bang on too.

[silverstu]

So not done much, huh?
Like the Orks! They certainly look well fed!! I was going to ask you about AoS actually- not quite jumped in myself yet but its looking very attractive- bought a few sylvaneth. All the conversions look brilliant [and makes me feel incredibly lazy with my approach- must get back sculpting/bashing]- really looking forward to seeing them painted up. The traitor Guard and the Nurgle lads look fantastic. Despite the difficulty of the photo I think the Gold Smoke Knight looks fantastic- how are you going to base him? Not that familiar with Kingdoms of Death, but the models look amazing.

[Doi]

I had the Orks done a while back, but I needed a picture of them all together so you got to see it . Ogres models provide a nice base for big orks that aren't in mega armour (just have eaten a few too many squig pies).

And I wouldn't say I've done much since the forum has been gone for six months and I haven't posted here in nearly twelve .

I haven't read a single AoS book yet (although I own them all...). I'm working my way through all of the Warhammer rulebooks from 1st edition to the End Times (currently 6 books away from The End Times: Nagash) before I start reading up on AoS. I haven't played a game of WFB/40K in years (haven't had the time) but I always build my armies "legally" (bar some extra units for options etc), and AoS provides the ability to make forces I otherwise wouldn't have done in WFB. In this case, Rotbringers and Flesh Eater Courts. Round bases and skirmish formation also gives you a bit more freedom to convert things without massive ranking up difficulties. A small Sylvaneth army (1x treeman, 2x3 hunters, 2x10 revenants) would be a nice project. Especially if one goes to town with woodland scenics foliage...

Also, more conversions = better . If the army isn't heavily converted it isn't mine. Except my Dark Elves .

EDIT: The Kingdom Death board game is set in the Plain of Faces (see a close up of the board here), but some places have more sporadic stone faces broken up with earth/grass/etc. I'm going to give one of these fancy new GW paints that dry like cracked earth a go with some broken stone faces and dead grass.


Doi

[silverstu]

Yeah AoS is looking attractive since they added the Generals Handbook. Haven't played in years myself but same as yourself I like to build armies legally. Just finished the last of my Ghouls which was fun- thinking of getting some more Death forces for AoS and the Sylvaneth I think will be on the go, just have to get the scheme settled.I want to run it past my gaming mate first, but i think with the addition of points we may well play AoS in the future- haven't touched the books as of yet! Looking forward to seeing your Rotbringers painted up and the basing for the Kingdoms of Death sounds great.